ENGLAND. 579 
the affiftance of Philip Auguftus, who received their ap¬ 
plication with pleafure; fununoned John to a trial under 
the feudal law ; and, on his non-appearance, declared 
him to have forfeited to his fuperior lord all his fiefs in 
France. Nor was this a vain threat. Philip extended 
his conquefts along the banks of the Loire, while John 
confirmed his hours in lafcivious pleafures at Rouen. 
“ Let the French go on, (faid he,) I will retake in a day 
what it has colt them years to acquire.” Yet, inftead of 
fulfilling' this vain boaft, he meanly claimed the protec¬ 
tion and interpofition of the Roman pontiff; but Philip, 
inftead of retiring at the command of the pope’s legates, 
laid (iege to Chateau Gaillnrd, A. D. 1204, which.was 
tlte moft: confiderable fortrefs on the frontiers of Nor¬ 
mandy; and which* being taken in a night aflault, Rouen 
alone maintained fome refi(hmce, and the citizens de- 
.manded thirty days to ad.vertife their prince of their 
danger. Upon the expiration of that term they opened 
their gates ; and Philip, not fatisfied witii this acquifi- 
tion, carried his victorious arms into the weftern pro¬ 
vinces, and foon reduced Anjou, Maine, Touraine, and 
part of PoiCtou. To recover thefe foreign dominions, 
Jolm landed with a confiderable army at Rochelle, in 
1206; but, on the approach of Philip, lie defected his 
troops in a moft cowardly manner, and returned to Eng¬ 
land covered with fhame ; and, though he obtained a 
ftiort refpite from war, by a truce for two years with the 
French monarch, that interval was ftill more difgraceful 
to him, by the alternate weaknefs and defpotifm of his 
government, and by the encroachments and arrogance of 
the pope. 
Innocent the Third, a lofty and enterprifing genius, 
availing himfelf of a difpute which had arifen from an 
irregular election for the fee of Canterbury, now claimed 
the right of nominating the primate of England, he 
commanded the monks or canons of Chriftchurch, who 
had hitherto polfelfed that important privilege, to choofe, 
on pain of excommunication, cardinal Langton, an Eng- 
lifliman by birth, but warmly attached to the lee of 
Rome. In vain the monks reprefentcd, that an election, 
without a previous writ from the king, would be highly 
irregular: one only had the courage to perfevere in his 
oppofition; the reft, overcome by the menaces of the 
pope, complied with his mandate. John, inflamed with 
the utm.oft rage at this interference of the court of Rome, 
expelled from the monaftery the prior and the monks of 
Chriftchurch ; and, when threatened with the refentment 
of Innocent, he burft out into violent inveCtives, and 
fwore if the pope prefumed to lay his kingdom under the 
cenfures of the church, that he would expel all the bi- 
ftiops and clergy in England, and confifcate all their 
eftates. Thefe fallies of paftion, however, were far from 
(baking the refolution of the Roman pontiff, who, fenfi- 
ble that the king had loft the confidence of his people, 
fulminated againft him the fentence of interdict. The 
execution of this .fentence was calculated to ftrike a fu- 
perftitious people with the deepeft awe. The nation was 
of a fudden deprived of all the exterior forms of its reli¬ 
gion ; the altars were defpoiled of their ornaments; the 
dead, inftead of being interred in confecrated ground, 
were thrown into ditches, or buried in the common fields; 
marriage was folemnized in the church-yards; and every 
circumftunce carried fymptoms of the moft immediate a-p- 
prehenfion of divine vengeance. 
John now confifcated the eftates of all the clergy who 
obeyed the interdict ; and treated with the utmoft rigour 
the adherents of the church of Rome. Though fome of 
the clergy yielded to his threats, and celebrated divine 
fervice, they complied with reluctance, and were regard¬ 
ed both by themfelves and the people, as men who lacri- 
ficed their confciences to their fears or their intereft. 
During this conteft, the king attempted military expedi¬ 
tions againft Scotland, againft Ireland, and againft the 
Wei lit ; and commonly prevailed more from the weak- 
r.efs of his enemies, than his own vigour or abilities; 
and fo great was his want of juftice and generofity, that 
the luftre of thefe enterprifes was obfcured by the tyran¬ 
ny of his government, and the licentioufnefs of his pri¬ 
vate conduCf. 
The court of Rome, in 1213, finding that the interdict 
had not produced the defired effeCt, determined to pro¬ 
ceed to fentence of excommunication. John, alarmed at 
this ftep, now offered to acknowledge Langton as primate, 
and to reftore the exiled clergy ; but Langton infilling on 
full reparation for the rents of their confifcated eftates, 
the king broke off the conference. The haughty pope, 
without temporizing any longer, abfolved John’s futy- 
jeCts from their oaths of fidelity and allegiance; but de¬ 
clared him to have forfeited, by his contumacy, his crown 
and kingdom; and he offered it to the king of France. 
Philip could no how withftand this tempting prize. He 
levied a powerful army, and collected in the ports of Nor¬ 
mandy and Picardy one thoufand feven hundred veffels. 
To oppofe him, John affembled at Dover iixty thoufand 
men ; a force fufficient, had they been animated with 
zeal; but the minds of the common people were impreffed 
by fuperftition ; and alienated from their duty by the ar¬ 
rogance of the tyrant. The difficulties of John were alfo 
augmented by his cowardice and incapacity. Inftead of 
braving, he refolved to yield to the tempeft ; and, in a 
conference with Pandulf, the pope’s legate, he acquiefced 
in all the exorbitant demands of his infallible mailer; 
and even puffed a charter, in which he declared he had, 
for the remiffion of his own fins, refigned England and 
Ireland to God, to St. Peter and St. Paul, and to pope 
Innocent, and his fucceffors in the apoftolic chair for 
ever; agreeing to hold thofe dominions as feudatories of 
the church of Rome, by the annual payment of a thou¬ 
fand marks. He did homage to Pandulf in the moft ab- 
jeft manner; and paid part of the tribute, which he owed 
for his kingdom as the patrimony of St. Peter; while the 
legate, elated by the triumph of focerdotal power, tram¬ 
pled on the money that was laid at his feet, as an earneft 
of the fubjeCtion of the kingdom. 
Philip foon heard, that England was placed under the 
protection of the fee of Rome, and perceived with indig¬ 
nation, that the pope had over-reached him in politics. 
He therefore complained of being fruftrated in an expedi¬ 
tion which had coft him fo much money ; and declared 
his intentions to perfevere, notwithftanding the inhibi¬ 
tions of the legate. But the vigour and activity of the 
earl of Salifbury, John’s natural brother, who command¬ 
ed the Engliffi fleet, was more effectual than the me¬ 
naces of Pandulf; he furprifed the French Ihips in their 
harbours; and, by the deltruCtion of the greater part of 
them, compelled Philip to abandon the enterprife, with¬ 
out the remuneration he expected. In the mean while 
John, to retaliate fome of the injuries he had received, 
attempted to penetrate with a large army into France; 
but the intelligence of a decifive victory which Philip 
obtained at Bovines over one hundred and fifty thoufand 
Germans, led by the emperor Otho, infpired him with 
humbler thoughts; his hopes were confined to ruling 
peaceably over England : but even this was denied him; 
and a much more humiliating fcene of calamity ftill await¬ 
ed him. 
The feudal fyftem, which had long been eftabliflied in 
England, gave Inch influence to the ariftocracy, that the 
royal authority was in a great meafure borne down by 
that of the nobles. When the conqueft of England was 
achieved by William, the neceflity of entrufting great 
power in the hands of a prince who was to maintain a 
military dominion over a vanquilhed nation, had engaged 
the Norman barons to fubmit to a more fevere and abfo- 
lute prerogative, than that to which men of fimilar rank 
were commonly fubjected ; and England, during a courfe 
Of an hundred and fifty years, was governed by an authority 
unknown in the fame degree, to all the other kingdoms 
founded by the northern conquerors. Henry the Firft, 
that he might allure the people to exclude his elder bro¬ 
ther 
