e Parliament declared its right to make or unmake kings, and ordered
that Edward should not be king any more. Some members went to Edward at
Kenilworth to tell him what they had decided, and Edward clad in a
plain black gown, received them and quietly promised to be king no more.
Then he was taken to Berkeley Castle, and a few months after the people
learned that he was dead.

[Illustration]

There has always been much doubt whether he died a natural death or was
murdered. The Bishop of Hereford, who had always been on the queen's
side, is said to have sent to two wicked men the following message
written in Latin--"Edwardum occidere nolite timere bonum est." Now this
message had two meanings according to the way the stops were put in. The
first was--"Be unwilling to fear to kill Edward--it is good." The other
was--"Be unwilling to kill Edward--it is good to fear."

So you see that, if this message fell into anyone's hands for whom it
was not intended, the bishop would have been able to say he meant to
warn people not to kill the king, while Gurney and Maltravers, who
received the message, could say that the paper was an order to kill him.
The story goes, that they came to the castle and there found the poor
king in a dungeon. He was standing in mire and puddle, and, although he
was a king, they gave him only bread and water. Then he thought of his
former greatness and how brave and gallant a show he had made as a
knight, and he cried out--

"Tell Isabel, the queen, I looked not thus
When for her sake I ran at tilt in France
And there unhorsed the Duke of Cleremont."

[Sidenote: A.D. 1327.]

He was too weak to resist these wicked men, and they had no mercy in
their hearts, but murdered him.

[Illustration: HENRY VI., THE BABY KING. (_See page 47._)]

[Illustration: Edward the Black Prince.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1340.]

THE name of Edward the Black Prince will always be remembered with love
and admiration by all young Englishmen, because he was by all accounts a
very brave, gallant, and courteous prince, feared by his foes and by his
friends beloved. His father, Edward the Third, had not given up his
hopes of regaining his lost possessions in France, so he spent two long
years in getting together money and ships and an army. He fought the
French fleet near Sluys. Both sides fought fiercely, and at last the
English won. The French had thought that they were quite sure to ge