Chapter I: Front Matter

[Cover Illustration]

=“_History is a pageant,_=
=_and not a philosophy._”=

=AUGUSTINE BIRRELL.=

=THE PAGEANT OF=
=BRITISH HISTORY=

=DESCRIBED BY=
=J. EDWARD PARROTT, M.A., LL.D.,=

=AND DEPICTED BY=
=THE FOLLOWING GREAT ARTISTS=
=_J. M. W. Turner_, _G. F. Watts_, _Benjamin West_, _Lord Leighton_,=
=_Sir John Gilbert_, _Daniel Maclise_, _C. W. Cope_, _John Opie_,=
=_William Dyce_, _Sir L. Alma-Tadema_, _Sir John Millais_,=
=_Paul Delaroche_, _W. Q. Orchardson_, _E. M. Ward_,=
=_Stanhope Forbes_, _F. Goodall_, _Seymour Lucas_,=
=_Ford Madox Brown_, _W. F. Yeames_,=
=_Clarkson Stanfield_,=
=_etc._, _etc._=

==

=T H O M A S N E L S O N A N D S O N S=
=London, Edinburgh, Dublin, and New York=
=1908=

F O R E W O R D .

_The Master of the Pageant spurs into the arena; he waves his baton, and the trumpets sound. In the distance you see a long procession begin to wind its way across the greensward, and as it draws nearer and nearer you recognize the form and fashion of men and women whose names are writ large in the annals of our land. Here they come—king and queen, statesman and priest, warrior and merchant, poet and man of law, shipman and craftsman, yeoman and peasant—a motley throng, all sorts and conditions of men and women, high and low, rich and poor, gentle and simple, noble and base, hero and craven; yet each in his or her several degree a maker of history. These are the “counterfeit presentments” of the men and women who through twice a thousand years have made us what we are, and our glorious land what it is._

_As they troop by, let a humble chronicler—who prays that he may not be considered intrusive—recall the story of their heroisms, their trials, their sufferings, their glories, or, it may be, their failures, their treacheries, and their shames. Perchance ’twill be a twice-told tale, “familiar as household words” yet it is a recital that can never lack hearers while men love the land that bore them, and would fain find example and warning, inspiration and guidance, from the story of the past. The chronicler pretends to no philosophy save this—that since we have, under Providence, been created a “noble and puissant nation” and entrusted with a heritage without peer in the history of the world, we should be false to our sires, false to ourselves, and false to our destiny were we, by selfishness, sloth, or ignorance, to neglect to be great through “craven fears of being great.” And since the best and only true foundation of patriotism is knowledge, he would fain hope that these sketches may stimulate in some who are growing towards manhood and womanhood a humble pride in the greatness of their land and a fervent desire so to play their part that Britain may be what she was meant to be—the Vicegerent of the Almighty in the uplifting and ennoblement of the world. In this belief he echoes the prayer of the poet:_—

“_Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free,_
_How shall we extol thee, who are born of thee?_
_Wider still, and wider, shall thy bounds be set;_
_God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet._”

=_C O N T E N T S ._=

——••——

_I._ _Britain before the Roman Conquest._
_The Phœnicians_ 9
_The Ancient Britons_ 12
_The Druids_ 17
_The Coming of Cæsar_ 20
_II._ _The Shadow of Rome._
_Caractacus_ 27
_A Warrior Queen_ 30
_The Iron Hand_ 33
_III._ _The Coming of the English._
_King Arthur and the Knights of the Round
Table_ 41
_Hengist and Horsa_ 46
_Ethelbert and Bertha_ 50
_The Singer of the First English Song_ 55
_IV._ _The Viking Invasions._
_The Coming of the Sea-Kings_ 57
_Alfred the Great_ 60
_King Canute_ 69
_V._ _The Coming of the Normans._
_Harold of England and William of Normandy_ 74
_The Eve of the Invasion_ 79
_The Battle of Hastings_ 83
_Hereward the Wake_ 91
_VI._ _England under the Normans._
_William the Red_ 96
_Matilda, “Lady” of England_ 100
_The Great Archbishop_ 106
_Strongbow_ 113
_Richard of the Lion Heart_ 118
_King John and Magna Charta_ 127
_VII._ _The Three Edwards._
_The First Prince of Wales_ 135
_William Wallace_ 140
_Robert the Bruce_ 149
_Merciful Queen_ 157
_The Black Prince_ 163
_VIII._ _On French Fields._
_King Harry the Fifth_ 169
_Joan, the Maid_ 176
_IX._ _The Wars of the Roses._
_The King-Maker_ 184
_The Little Princes in the Tower_ 191
_X._ _Tudor Times._
_John and Sebastian Cabot_ 195
_King and Cardinal_ 200
_The New Worship_ 207
_XI._ _A Tragic Story._
_Mary Queen of Scots_ 210
_XII._ _In the Spacious Days._
_The Spanish Armada_ 224
_Sir Walter Raleigh_ 232
_XIII._ _The Great Rebellion._
_Charles the First_ 242
_Oliver Cromwell_ 252
_Robert Blake_ 258
_XIV._ _From the Restoration to the Revolution._
_The Restoration of Charles the Second_ 268
_James, Duke of Monmouth_ 278
_XV._ _After the Revolution._
_William the Third_ 292
_The Great Duke of Marlborough_ 297
_XVI._ _Bonnie Prince Charlie._ 310
_XVII._ _Makers of Empire._
_Robert Clive, the Daring in War_ 323
_James Wolfe, Conqueror of Canada_ 335
_XVIII._ _Nelson of the Nile._ 347
_XIX._ _Wellington._ 363
_XX._ _Victoria the Good._ 376
_XXI._ _Edward the Peacemaker._ 383

=L I S T O F I L L U S T R A T I O N S=

———••———

IN COLOUR.

Henry the Eighth and Cardinal Wolsey,
Hunters and Traders,
Caractacus in Rome,
Sir Tristram at the Court of Arthur,
Augustine preaching to Ethelbert and Bertha,
Alfred in the Camp of the Danes,
Coronation of William the Conqueror,
Death of Becket,
Crusaders on the March,
King Richard and the Young Archer,
Hubert and Arthur,
The Trial of Wallace,
Edward the Third at the Siege of Calais,
The Black Prince being made a Knight of the Garter,
The Little Princes in the Tower,
The Departure of John and Sebastian Cabot on their First Voyage of
Discovery, 1497,
Cardinal Wolsey on his Way to Westminster Hall,
The Murder of Rizzio,
The Armada in Sight,
Charles the First leaving Westminster Hall after his Trial,
Cromwell dictating Dispatches to Milton,
The Fall of Clarendon,
The Last Sleep of Argyll,
The Prince of Orange landing at Torbay,
The British Assault on the Village of Blenheim,
A Royal Fugitive,
The Battle of Trafalgar, and the Victory of Lord Nelson over the
French and Spanish Fleets, October 21, 1805,
The Death of Nelson,
Napoleon on Board the _Bellerophon_,
The Meeting of Wellington and Blücher after the Battle of Waterloo,
Saving the Colours: An Incident of the Battle of Inkermann,
Jessie’s Dream,

* * * * *

IN BLACK AND WHITE.

The First Invasion of Britain by Julius Cæsar,
The Invasion of the Emperor Claudius,
The Emperor Hadrian visiting a Pottery in Britain,
Columba preaching,
A Great Viking,
The Death of Harold,
Hereward yielding to William,
“God Wills It!”
The First Prince of Wales,
The Battle of Bannockburn,
The Morning of Agincourt,
The Coronation of Charles the Seventh at Rheims,
Joan of Arc storming the “Bulwark” (Orleans),
Death of Warwick,
Richard the Third at the Battle of Bosworth,
Trial of Queen Catherine,
Henry the Eighth,
At Sea. “Farewell, France!”
Escape of Mary Queen of Scots from Loch Leven Castle,
Queen Elizabeth at Tilbury Fort,
The Boyhood of Sir Walter Raleigh,
Cromwell at Marston Moor,
Jane Lane helping Prince Charles to escape,
Rescued from the Plague, London, 1665,
The Arrest of Alice Lisle,
Bonnie Prince Charlie,
After Culloden: Royalist Soldiers searching for Jacobite Fugitives,
Clive at Bay,
Death of Wolfe,
Queen Victoria in her Coronation Robes,
Queen Victoria at St. Paul’s,
Edward the Seventh,