their freedom. In all these
respects the two characters were alike; but Richard fell as much short
of the Swedish hero in temperance, chastity, and equality of mind as he
exceeded him in wit and eloquence. Some of his sayings are the most
spirited that we find in that time; and some of his verses remain, which
is a barbarous age might have passed for poetry.

CHAPTER VIII.

REIGN OF JOHN.

[Sidenote: A.D. 1199]

We are now arrived at one of the most memorable periods in the English
story, whether we consider the astonishing revolutions which were then
wrought, the calamities in which both the prince and people were
involved, or the happy consequences which, arising from the midst of
those calamities, have constituted the glory and prosperity of England
for so many years. We shall see a throne founded in arms, and augmented
by the successive policy of five able princes, at once shaken to its
foundations: first made tributary by the arts of a foreign power; then
limited, and almost overturned, by the violence of its subjects. We
shall see a king, to reduce his people to obedience, draw into his
territories a tumultuary foreign army, and destroy his country instead
of establishing his government. We shall behold the people, grown
desperate, call in another foreign army, with a foreign prince at its
head, and throw away that liberty which they had sacrificed everything
to preserve. We shall see the arms of this prince successful against an
established king in the vigor of his years, ebbing in the full tide of
their prosperity, and yielding to an infant: after this, peace and order
and liberty restored, the foreign force and foreign title purged off,
and all things settled as happily as beyond all hope.

Richard dying without lawful issue, the succession to his dominions
again became dubious. They consisted of various territories, governed by
various rules of descent, and all of them uncertain. There were two
competitors: the first was Prince John, youngest son of Henry the
Second; the other was Arthur, son of Constance of Bretagne, by Geoffrey,
the third son of that monarch. If the right of consanguinity were only
considered, the title of John to the whole succession had been
indubitable. If the right of representation had then prevailed, which
now universally prevails, Arthur, as standing in the place of his
father, Geoffrey, had a solid claim. About Brittany there was no
dispute. Anjou, Poitou, Touraine, a