f her
children; and, though the offspring was, in the eye of the law, deemed
illegitimate, this commerce was really a kind of inferior marriage, such
as is still practised in Germany among the nobles; and may be regarded
by the candid, as an appeal from the tyranny of civil and ecclesiastical
institutions, to the more virtuous and more unerring laws of nature.

[* M. Paris, p. 158. Ann. Waverl. p. 170.]

[** Padre Paolo, Hist. Cone. Prid. lib. i.]

The quarrel between the king and the see of Rome continued for some
years; and though many of the clergy, from the fear of punishment,
obeyed the orders of John, and celebrated divine service, they complied
with the utmost reluctance, and were regarded, both by themselves and
the people, as men who betrayed their principles, and sacrificed their
conscience to temporal regards and interests. During this violent
situation, the king, in order to give a lustre to his government,
attempted military expeditions against Scotland, against Ireland,
against the Welsh:[*] and he commonly prevailed, more from the weakness
of his enemies than from his own vigor or abilities. Meanwhile, the
danger to which hia government stood continually exposed from the
discontents of the ecclesiastics, increased his natural propension to
tyranny; and he seems to have even wantonly disgusted all orders of
men, especially his nobles, from whom alone he could reasonably expect
support and assistance. He dishonored their families by his licentious
amours; he published edicts, prohibiting them from hunting feathered
game, and thereby restrained them from their favorite occupation and
amusement;[**] he ordered all the hedges and fences near his forests to
be levelled, that his deer might have more ready access into the
fields for pasture; and he continually loaded the nation with arbitrary
impositions.

[* W. Heming. p. 556. Ypod. Neust p. 450.
Knyghton, p. 2420 M. West p. 268.]

{1208.} Conscious of the general hatred which he had incurred, he
required his nobility to give him hostages for security of their
allegiance; and they were obliged to put in his hands their sons,
nephews, or near relations. When his messengers came with like orders
to the castle of William de Braouse, a baron of great note, the lady
of that nobleman replied, that she would never intrust her son into the
hands of one who had murdered his own nephew, while in his custody. Her
husband reproved her for the seve