80 HISTORY AND ETHNOLOGY. 



the aid which he received from the l^etherlands, he was enabled to conduct 

 a splendid campaign. 



In 1480, three years after her marriage, Mary died. Louis once more took 

 up arms, and secured the provinces of Franche Comte and Artois as 

 the dowry for the young Margaret, daughter of Maximilian, destined for the 

 dauphin of France. Maximilian had only the name of emperor, and it was 

 not till after a serious war that his right to the administration was recognised. 

 In 1483 died Louis XL of France, one of the most subtle despots of his age. 



In England the Norman dynasty terminated in 1154, and that of the Plan- 

 tagenets, under Henry IL, began. Henry governed as vassal in France, 

 [N^ormandy, Aquitaine, and Poitou, as w-ell as the counties of Anjou, 

 Touraine, and Maine. Ireland and Bretagne he acquired by conquest. He 

 met with great opposition from his sons, and did not live long enough to 

 redeem his vow of making a crusade. He died in 1184. 



Hichard the Lion-hearted accomplished the vow made by his father. 

 While distinguishing ,himself by his prowess in the East, the perfidy 

 of his brother John, and of Philip of France, compelled him to return. The 

 latter was lending his aid to John in his efforts to wrest the crown from 

 Richard. 



After the death of Richard, 1199, his brother John (Lackland), disre- 

 garding the rights of his nephew Arthur, succeeded to the throne. Philip 

 of France despoiled him of the fairest part of his dominions, and Pope Inno- 

 cent HI. placed England under an interdict, and John under anathema. 

 The king fought his enemies with great disadvantage, and at length yielded 

 to the demands of the church. His nobles also wrested from him the 

 Magna Charta, 1215, an ever memorable transaction in British history. It 

 secured the liberty of all ranks and of every individual against the tyranny 

 of the monarch. He died in his war with Philip. One of his contemporaries 

 says of him, that even hell must have been polluted by his presence. 



Henry III., John's son (1216-72), oppressed the people, and a civil war was 

 the consequence. He became involved in a contest with his barons, and in 

 his reign for the first time deputies appeared in parliament from the cities 

 and boroughs. 



Under his son, Edward I. (1273-1307), Wales was completely con- 

 quered. His successors renewed the bitter contests between England and 

 France in regard to the succession, and in fact Henry Y. and YI. assumed 

 to themselves the title of kings of France. 



To these wars succeeded civil broils. The families of Y^ork and Lan- 

 caster (whose respective emblems were the red and the white rose) had 

 been disputing one with another the right to the throne since 1453, when 

 at last Henry YIL, by a marriage, put an end to the serious quarrel in 

 1485. The new dynasty was that of the Tudors, which reigned from 

 1485 to 1603. The house of Stuart governed in Scotland from 1371. 



In the latter period of the Middle Ages Italy appeared torn and 



weakened, l^aples and Sicily, the patrimony of the Hohenstaufen, were 



groaning under the yoke of Charles of Anjou. In the year 1282 Sicily rid 



herself of the French rule. The Sicilian Yespers, on the second day of 



252 



