t

he claimed dominion over the British seas, and commanded that all foreign vessels should strike their topsails to his flag, under penalty of capture and confiscation.* It is to John also that the Cinque Ports owe their charter of privileges, which awards to their inhabitants the right of providing vessels for the royal voyages; of taking precedence of every sea-port in the kingdom, except London; and that their chief burgesses should, as barons, support the canopy over the king at his coronation, and dine at a table on his right hand. The attention paid by John to maritime affairs seems to have been most praiseworthy; and the Close Rolls of his reign abound with precepts relative to ship-building. William, archdeacon of Taunton, seems to have been the chief superintendant of the royal dock-yards; and, from an entry toward the close of this reign, it would appear that Portsmouth was even then the chief place for the royal shipping. From the same source we learn that the wages of ordinary seamen were 3d. per day, 3s. 9d. present money; and those of the steersman, 7d., or 8s. 9d. per day; a rate of remuneration which shews the high value in which the seaman was held. From a memorandum, on the back of one of these rolls, the number of ves

*Lingard, who quotes Selden.

+ The following precept shews that the seamen were obliged to hold themselves in instant readiness for the king's service; it is addressed “to all mariners on the coast of Wales." "We forbid you on peril of your lives and goods, to make any voyage to Ireland, or elsewhere; and command you to give credence to Robert Fitz Richard, in what he shall tell you respecting your coming to our service at Ilfracombe, to transport our men to Ireland; and know for certain, that if ye act contrary to this, we will cause you and the masters of your vessels to be hanged.”—Vide Patent Rolls, p. 79.

sels belonging to the king seems very small-only fifty-one. From the numerous precepts, however, to various messengers of the king, to provide at the various ports "good and sound ships," to convey his warlike stores, and "ships fit to carry sixteen horses," it is probable that the fifty-one vessels were armed galleys, and that whatever more were needful, were pressed with as little ceremony as the carts and wains of the farmer.

In the close of the year 1204, we meet with the first specific enumeration of the royal apparel worn on high festivals; and it is curious, from the minuteness of its description. "On the first day of the moon, before Christmas-day," Alan, preceptor of the new temple, is directed to bring "our golden crown, made at London;" a red satin mantle adorned with sapphires and pearls; a robe of the same; a tunic of white damask; buskins, and slippers of red satin "edged with goldsmiths' work;" a baldrick set with gems; two girdles enamelled and set with garnets and sapphires; white gloves, one with a sapphire and one with an amethyst; and a splendid collection of clasps, adorned with emeralds, turquoise, pearls, and topaz, one of which is designated as "of London work ;" and sceptres, most gorgeously set with jewels, among which we find one with twenty-eight diamonds, the first instance in which the name of this stone is found. It would be very amusing to read as minute a description of the Christmas apparel of the fair Isabel; but although the Patent and Close Rolls abound with precepts respecting the king's dress and jewels, the only ones relating to the queen are, for "sixty ells

of fine linen cloth," "forty ells of dark green cloth," and a "skin of miniver," for her robe; and "one fur of miniver, one small brass pan, and eight towels, for the lady queen's use," a most housewife-like entry.

But little reason had John to invest himself with the symbols of royalty; for the crown, even at that moment, glittered an empty bauble on his brow, and the sceptre was a mere broken reed. Of all the vast possessions in northern and southern France, bequeathed to him (both by father and mother,) Poictou, Anjou, and Maine, willingly owned the sway of Philip, who had pushed his conquests to the utmost bounds of Normandy; and the lion banner of Plantagenet, waved alone from the towers and castle-keeps of the small province of Guienne. Nor in England could John exult in a more prosperous aspect of affairs;-here, every heart was yearning after freedom, and every mind nursing its stern determination of resistance. The sword, indeed, was not as yet unsheathed, the banner was not as yet unfurled; but the hand was upon the hilt, the standard bearer stood with uplifted arm; and soon, ere the profligate monarch expected, did the summons

come.

With the death of Hubert, the archbishop of Canterbury, and the king's most ill-advised rejection of his successor, the celebrated Stephen Langton, those hostilities-first on the part of the church, and subsequently on that of his indignant barons, commenced-which ceased not until, on the plain of Runymede, the proud charter of our liberties was wrested from the reluctant hand of John. At the

commencement of John's contest with the Roman church, Innocent, unwilling, it would seem, immediately to adopt severe measures against the refractory monarch, sent him a very conciliatory letter, with an accompanying present of four gold rings. This letter seems greatly to have puzzled some of our historians, who appear to think that a volume of mysterious and important meaning must be folded up both in the gift, and in the hints which are given of the qualities typified by each stone inserted in the rings. There seems no necessity for this waste of ingenious conjecture; - jewellery formed, during the middle ages, the most common present from one monarch to another, and from the dignitaries of the church to their equals or superiors; and rings were the form chiefly used, probably from being so commonly considered to symbolize union. The exhortation respecting each stone is unquestionably fanciful, and may be taken as a specimen of that spiritualizing of common objects, which in some ages has been so much approved; and which (in a letter addressed by him who was considered head of the Christian world to a son of the church) formed an ingenious and not ungrateful mode of conveying both reproof and counsel. After informing John that the circular forms of the rings typify eternity, and the number, four, stedfastness of mind, the pontiff proceeds to shew, that the

*

* Not only were rings used in betrothings, but the king at his coronation received a ring. Bishops, abbots, abbesses, and the superiors of priories, each at their induction received a ring; and this was considered so symbolical of union, that the sending back the ring was the form of resigning the office.

"fresh green of the emerald signifies faith; the repose of the sapphire, hope; the ruddiness of the garnet, charity; and the lustre of the topaz, good works." "Have thou, therefore," he concludes, "in the emerald, what thou shalt believe; in the sapphire, what thou shalt hope; in the garnet, what thou shalt love; and in the topaz, what thou shalt do; that, thus pressing onward from strength to strength, thou shalt finally appear before the Lord in Zion."

During the period we have just reviewed, we find no notice taken by any of the chroniclers of Isabel, except a record of the birth of her first and second sons, Henry and Richard. She appears to have resided in England; and as, in the Patent Rolls, we find a precept in 1207 granting safe conduct to Petre de Joigny, her half brother on the mother's side, to come into England to visit her, " as she is very desirous of seeing you, and to which we much entreat you,”—John and his queen, up to this period at least, seem to have lived in harmony.

The events which marked the following years belong to the political historian; and in the pages of Lingard * and Turner, the important struggles of that band of patriot nobles, who obtained the great charter, are detailed at full length. It is sufficient for our object merely to trace the leading points.

Irritated at the determined refusal of John to confirm the election of Stephen Langton by the monks of Canterbury, Innocent at length placed the

* Dr. Lingard's remarks, respecting John's resignation of his crown to the papal see, are curious and important.-(Vide vol. iii.)