of a new archbishop. The monks at Canterbury chose one man, John chose another. Both these men hurried to the Pope at Rome with their claims. The Pope at that time, Innocent III., was perhaps the greatest and wisest Pope there has ever been. John thought he would get his own way by bribing the men who were to lay the case before the Pope. But Innocent was not a man against whom cunning was of any use. He put aside both the men who claimed to be archbishop and caused the monks of Canterbury to elect a third, Cardinał Stephen Langton. His choice was a wise one. Stephen Langton was an Englishman, and one of the first scholars of his day. 2. John's anger knew no bounds when he heard what the Pope had done. He said that he would never receive Langton as archbishop. Innocent used a ter The Inter rible means to force him to submit. He laid dict, 1208. the kingdom of England under an Interdict, which means that he forbade the clergy all through the land to do any of the services of the Church. Only the baptism of children was allowed, and that in private. The dead might not be buried in consecrated ground. The people suddenly lost all the help and comfort which they got from the clergy, and were left as sheep without shepherds. John was filled with fury. He answered by seizing the lands of the clergy who obeyed the interdict. He treated the clergy as his enemies, and allowed those who robbed or murdered them to go unpunished. He did all he could to show men that the Pope might do his worst-he would not care; and all the while the people suffered for his obstinacy. At last five of the bishops fled out of the country, and loud murmurs of discontent were heard amongst the people. To make sure of the barons John took the children of many of them and kept them as hostages, so that if their fathers rebelled he could punish them by making their children suffer. John's excommunication, 1209. 3. After two years the Pope went farther and excommunicated John; that is, he put him out of the communion of the Church, so that no Christian should henceforth have anything to do with him. Even for this John did not care. At last, in 1212, when the interdict had lain on the land for four years, the Pope bade Philip of France lead a crusade against John, the enemy of the Church. He also caused it to be publicly declared that John was no longer king, and that the English owed him no obedience. 4. In the end John seemed to grow afraid; he could not trust his people, and he knew that Philip was very strong. He was very superstitious too, and was much frightened by hearing that it had been prophesied that on the next John's sub mission, 1213. Feast of the Ascen- sion he would no longer be king. have been quite abject. He gave up at once every point for which he had been struggling. He accepted Stephen Langton as archbishop, and promised to give back the money which he had plundered from the churches. To humble himself utterly he gave up his crown to the Pope . and took it back again, doing homage for it as if he were the Pope's vassal. He also promised to pay a fixed sum of money as tribute to Rome every year. This act filled the people with disgust. They did not like to see their country so humbled before Rome, and the general dislike and distrust of John grew greater every day. CHAPTER II. JOHN'S QUARREL WITH HIS BARONS. Several John and the barons. I. THE barons were beginning to complain very much of the way in which John treated them. All through his reign they had been most heavily taxed. times he had bidden them bring together their forces to follow him to war, and then had made no use of them. The northern barons took the lead in complaining. They were not the men who had sprung from the great Norman families of the Conquest, and who had so often fought against the king for power. They were humbler men, who had grown into importance later, and who till now had been always faithful to the king. In 1213 John's faithful minister, Geoffrey FitzPeter, who had long been Justiciar, died. He had done his best to keep peace between his master and the barons, and to provoke the barons as little as possible, whilst he did John's bidding. With him John quite lost his hold upon the barons; but the king felt no sorrow for the death of his faithful servant. He was glad to have lost him, because it left him free to oppress the people as he liked. When he heard of Geoffrey's death he exclaimed, 'When he arrives in hell he may go and salute Hubert Walter, for by the feet of God now for the first time am Į King and Lord of England.' The new Justiciar was Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, a native of Poitou, and the barons did not like the choice of a foreigner. 2. John had for long planned a great attack upon Philip of France. He had allied himself with the Em peror and the Count of Flanders, and hoped that together they would be able to crush Philip. When his Opposition quarrel with the Pope was settled, he called to John. upon the barons to follow him to France and help him to win back the lands he had lost there. The northern barons refused. They said they were not bound to follow the king out of England. At a great council held at St. Albans for the sake of settling Church matters, the barons and the clergy spent much time in talking about the state of the country and the abuses of the government. The same talk went on in another council held in London soon after. In this the lead was taken by Stephen Langton. He was a true lover of his country, and tried in every way to help the people and bring back order and good government. He had tried speaking to John about the abuses of his rule, but found that it did no good. He was now willing to help the barons to force the king to reform. War with 3. John was enraged when the barons refused to follow him in his French war, and when he saw how they and the clergy were banded together against him. But he felt that it was no good doing anything to punish them then. He made up his mind to go abroad first and make war upon Philip. He trusted that he would gain a great victory and easily win back Normandy. Afterwards, crowned with success, he would come back to England and punish the barons for their disobedience. Meanwhile, too, he hoped to get time to part his enemies, either by threats or bribes, so that there might not be so strong a party against him in the country. 4. Philip of France was attacked by many enemies at once, and was in great danger, but this danger roused his subjects to defend their king. At the battle of Bouvines, on the northern frontier Battle of 1214. of France, he defeated a great army made up of Germans, Flemish, and English. John was in Anjou at the time. When he heard of the battle of Bouvines he saw that all was lost, and that he should be able to do nothing against Philip. CHAPTER III. STRUGGLE FOR THE GREAT CHARTER. 1. WHILST John was away the barons and clergy had met together again. Stephen Langton had brought to their notice the charter which Henry I. had given Opposition the people. It promised just the good goto John. vernment which they wanted, and made their cause stronger by giving them something clear to ask and fight for. The barons swore that unless John would give them a sealed charter, granting them their laws and liberties, they would make war on him till they made him do so. They agreed at once to begin to get a force together to help them in their struggle with the king. They had little hope that they should be able to get anything from him except by force. In all this the clergy, with Langton at their head, were quite at one with the barons. John hoped to be able to part the Church and the barons. To do this he granted the Church the privileges which it had long asked for. But it was of no use. Langton was too true a lover of liberty to be bribed to forsake the people's cause. 2. John went on trying to put off the struggle. He took the vow of the Crusade, that none might dare to take up arms against him. But the barons were not Success of frightened. They got their army together the barons. and met at a place called Brackley, in Northampton |