EUROPEAN. 22$ 



but the Danes were finally expelled, in 1041, by Edward the Con- 

 fessor, of the Anglo-Saxon line. 



On the death of Edward, William I., the Conqueror, invaded 

 England; and defeating Harold of Wessex, at Hastings, in 1066, he 

 seized the crown, and established the Norman dynasty, in the same 

 year. On the death of William II. (Rufus), his brother Henry I. 

 (Beauclerc) usurped the throne in 1100: but having no sons, he was 

 succeeded by his nephew, Stephen of Blois, in 1135. Henry II., 

 son of Geoffrey Plantagenet, and grandson of Henry I., next 

 obtained the throne, in 1154; and with him began the line of the 

 Plantagenets. Richard I., (Cceur de Lion), engaging in the third 

 Crusade, was detained prisoner in Austria, till ransomed in 1194; 

 and his weak brother John, succeeding him, was compelled by the 

 Barons to grant the Magna Charta, or great charter against royal 

 oppression, in 1215, at Runnymede. Under Henry III. the House 

 of Commons was first constituted, in 1265. Edward I. (Long- 

 shanks) subdued Wales, in 1283, and gained a foothold in Scotland : 

 but Edward II. was defeated by Robert Bruce, at Bannockburn, in 

 1314. Edward III., claiming the crown of France, in right of his 

 mother, engaged, with his son, Edward the Black Prince, in a suc- 

 cessful war with France, already referred to. (p. 223). 



In the reign of Richard II., commenced the rivalry between his 

 uncles, the dukes of Lancaster and York. Henry IV. (Bolingbroke), 

 son of the former, seized the crown in 1399, and thus the house 

 of Lancaster occupied the throne. This led to the wars of the 

 Roses; the white rose being the badge of York, and the red, that of 

 Lancaster. Henry V. invaded France, and was victorious at Agin- 

 court, in 1415; but his conquests were lost by Henry VI.; from 

 whom the crown also was wrested by Edward IV. of York, who 

 thus superseded the house of Lancaster, in 1461. Richard III., the 

 Cruel, was slain in the battle of Bosworth, in 1485, and succeeded 

 by Henry VII., son of Edmund Tudor, who by his marriage united 

 the rival interests, in the house of Tudor. The quarrels of Henry 

 VIII. with the pope, led to the abolition of papacy, in 1533, and the 

 Reformation, or introduction of the Protestant religion. The short 

 reigns of Edward VI. and the bigoted Mary, were followed, in 1558, 

 by that of Elizabeth; who supported the Protestants, and triumphed 

 over the Jlrmada, or fleet, sent against her by Spain, in 1588. On 

 her death, James VI. of Scotland, (James I. of England), son of 

 Queen Mary Stuart, inherited the crown, and thus permanently united 

 Scotland with England and Ireland, under the house of Stuart, in 1603. 



His son, Charles I., usurping extreme powers, was beheaded in 

 1649, in a Revolution ; by which Oliver Cromwell became Protector 

 of the Commonwealth. Charles II., son of Charles I., regained 

 the royal power in 1661 ; but his brother and successor, James II., 

 aiming to reestablish papacy, was driven from the kingdom by the 

 Revolution of 1689, (1688 o. s.), which placed William III. of 

 Orange, and Mary, the daughter of James, upon the throne. France 

 thereupon made war against Great Britain ; but concluded the peace 

 of Ryswick, in 1697. Queen Jlnne, took part in the war of the 

 Spanish succession, against France and the Bourbons ; and her gene- 

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