correspond
roughly with those existing to-day; and from the Court of Appeals,
which was also his creation, came into existence tribunal after
tribunal in the future, including the "Star Chamber" and "Privy
Council."

{46}

But of all the blows aimed at the barons none told more effectually
than the restoration of a national militia, which freed the crown from
dependence upon feudal retainers for military service.

In a fierce quarrel between two Irish chieftains, Henry was called upon
to interfere; and when the quarrel was adjusted, Ireland found herself
annexed to the English crown, and ruled by a viceroy appointed by the
king. The drama of the Saxons defending the Britons from the Picts and
Scots, was repeated.

This first Plantagenet, with fiery face, bull-neck, bowed legs, keen,
rough, obstinate, passionate, left England greater and freer, and yet
with more of a personal despotism than he had found her. The trouble
with such triumphs is that they presuppose the wisdom and goodness of
succeeding tyrants.

Henry's heart broke when he learned that his favorite son, John, was
conspiring against him. He turned his face to the wall and died
(1189), the practical hard-headed old king leaving his throne to a
romantic {47} dreamer, who could not even speak the language of his
country.

Richard (Coeur de Lion) was a hero of romance, but not of history. The
practical concerns of his kingdom had no charm for him. His eye was
fixed upon Jerusalem, not England, and he spent almost the entire ten
years of his reign in the Holy Land.

The Crusades, had fired the old spirit of Norse adventure left by the
Danes, and England shared the general madness of the time. As a result
for the treasure spent and blood spilled in Palestine, she received a
few architectural devices and the science of Heraldry. But to Europe,
the benefits were incalculable. The barons were impoverished, their
great estates mortgaged to thrifty burghers, who extorted from their
poverty charters of freedom, which unlocked the fetters and broke the
spell of the dark ages.

Richard the Lion-Hearted died as he had lived, not as a king, but as a
romantic adventurer. He was shot by an arrow while trying to secure
fabulous hidden treasure in France, with which to continue his wars in
Palestine.

{48}

His brother John, in 1199, ascended the throne. His name has come down
as a type of baseness, cruelty, and treachery. His brother Geoffrey
had mar