support, from the fact that a similar custom prevailed in some parts of France; for we have still extant a precept of Edward the First, commanding his receiver of the duchy of Aquitaine to pay to his consort "those sums which had been accustomed to be paid out of all bailwicks, or lands sold or let to farm, in as ample proportion as had Joan countess of Poictou." The term queen's-gold, it may be added, probably took its rise from the form of paying the fine in gold marks, as above stated, rather than in the more common mode in silver.

The first entry relating to this very rich and important source of revenue to our queens, is dated the 1st of John. The next entry dates not until his tenth year; and we there find the abbot of Reading paying £4, and others paying various sums, of which the largest is eleven gold marks. There are several entries during the succeeding years; but the net amount is never very large; the highest annual payment not exceeding £100; a small sum when compared with the revenue derived from this source alone, by Isabel's successor. It would be difficult to find a reason for this deficiency. John, it is well known, never remitted a fine which he could obtain, nor ever yielded a right which it was possible he could demand either, therefore, eagerly employed in increasing his own revenue, he neglected that of his queen, or irritated at her conduct during the latter years of his reign, he made no endeavour to secure for her those privileges, which were considered the inalienable right of each queen consort.

Returning to the period of Isabel's first arrival in

England, we find that the marriage of John was not more popular than his other actions had been; but the public mind was at this period in a state of anxiety and alarm, that rendered the unpopular measures of this monarch a subject of comparatively little moment. "In that same year," says Hoveden, (the year 1201), "our doctors foretold that the old dragon, which is the devil and Sathanas, was about to be loosed; therefore, said they 'woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth, because he, that old dragon, which is the devil,' (concerning whom the blessed John, who reclined on his Lord's breast during the supper, and from that self-same fount drank the streams of evangelical truth,) said, 'I, John, saw an angel with a great chain to bind the devil for a thousand years.' Now our doctors said that these thousand years were passed away, and that the devil was about to be loosed. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth therefore! for if the captive devil hath brought so much and so great evil into the world, what and how much may he not do when he shall be unbound?" The worthy chronicler therefore, in a strain of simple and earnest piety, exhorts his contemporaries to keep a watchful guard over their tongues and actions, to abstain from all appearance of evil, to beware of every species of excess, "that when Christ the judge shall come at the end of the age, we may be partakers together of his eternal felicity."

Actuated probably by a wish to warn men of these coming judgments, Eustace, abbot of Flay, came over to England about this time, and preached

with great success. From the accounts transmitted to us by Hoveden and Matthew Paris, he seems to have aroused a spirit of devotion, and not improbably of sincere piety, in the breast of many a hearer; and it is gratifying to find that the principal theme of his discourses was not the miracles of any lately canonized saint, nor the efficacy of any superstitious ceremonial, but the duty of almsgiving, of abstaining from usurious contracts, and above all, of a reverential observance of the Sabbath day. "He preached the word of the Lord," says Hoveden, "from city to city, and from place to place; he went also to York, where being well received by the archbishop, he preached and gave absolution to the people, forbidding markets to be held on the Sundays, and teaching that henceforth they should keep the Sabbath day, and the due feast days, not doing any servile work on the Sabbath, but devoting their time wholly to prayer, and to good works." Nor, according to the general belief of the age, did abbot Eustace want miraculous corroborations of the authority of his mission. "Signs and wonders followed; and thus did the omnipotent God call the people to the keeping of the Sabbath." These miracles are duly recorded both in Hoveden, and in Matthew Paris; and in their character they far more resemble the stories that we meet with in the lives of the earlier reformers, than those which are usually related by the chroniclers of this early day. But marvels were presenting themselves on every side; for men, harassed by oppression and misgovernment, and alarmed with vague and mysterious

apprehensions of approaching ill, were precisely in that state of feverish excitement, which is sure to invest the commonest and most matter-of-fact events with a character of supernatural agency. Supernumerary moons appeared; the beautiful Aurora displayed her war-portending corruscations, and a horrible tempest, attended by a shower of hail-stones so large that they resembled eggs, desolated wide districts of the land.*

None of these alarming portents had any beneficial influence on the king; and while the whole nation stood breathless with awe, awaiting, as they believed, a coming judgment,-how to exact money in the greatest measure from his subjects, that he might lavish it on his profligate enjoyments, was the sole idea that occupied the mind of John.

In the employment of "ways and means," for re-filling his often emptied exchequer, John certainly deserves the praise of considerable ingenuity. One of the first measures of his reign was to force his good citizens of London to pay £3000 for taking out a confirmation of their privileges. This mode of raising supplies worked so well, that the worthy monarch forthwith proceeded to compel his other cities and towns to do the same. He also cast a longing eye on the wealth of the Jews ;-with them, however, he at first proceeded cautiously, merely exacting large sums from the most opulent, on vari.

*The most appalling, and certainly the most surprising, feature of this fearful storm was, that "fowls were seen flying in the air, and bearing fiery coals in their bills, wherewith they set houses on fire !! "-Vide Matthew Paris.

ous right royal pretexts. The deteriorated state of the coinage next claimed his attention; and he issued a proclamation directing that if any man or woman, inhabitant of a borough, should have clipped money in their possession, they should be held to bail, and their chattels attached to the king's pleasure; while, with admirable attention to his own private interest, he farther enacted that the clipped money should be "seized, bored, and put in a chest for the king's own use." Doubtless the servants of the crown, who were commissioned to make this search, found no lack of clipped monies; the reblanching of the old pennies* was also forbidden, under pain of heavy amerciament.

Still, in despite of rapacious extortion, trade and commerce advanced with steady progress; and in the entry of the quinzieme dues (a tax of a fifteenth paid to the king by every one engaged in trade, whether natives or foreigners,) we find, in 1205, Newcastle paying £158. 5s. 11d.; Boston, £780.15s. 3d.; Lynn, £651. 11s. 11d.; Southampton, £712. 3s. 7d.; London, £836. 12s. 10d.† Singular as it may appear, it is to John that the nation owes the first assertion of her sovereignty over the seas; for in the year 1200 he published a law at Hastings, by which

*The reader will bear in mind that the whole English coinage was silver, and consisted almost entirely of pennies. Indeed, in the rolls of this period, the word denarii is always used to designate money. The great inconvenience of a silver coinage, when large sums were required, must have been greatly felt. In the Patent Rolls there is frequent mention of horse-loads of money on one account sixty-six bags, and on another, two barrels of pennies, are directed to be sent to the king.

+ Vide Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. i.