THE NORMANS AND ENGLISH INSTITUTIONS 295 bis. This scholar, who died in 1292, was unfortunately born too late. Had he lived earlier, he would have been appreciated by the keen-witted, knowledge-loving Normans. Now their influence was on the wane, and after forty years of incessant study he could say, like his great namesake, who came too early, that he found himself "unheard, forgotten, buried." Ruined and baffled in his hopes, he became a mendicant friar, and is said to have been imprisoned by his fraternity for writing his scientific works. On the other hand, Robert of Lorraine, two centuries before, was made Bishop of Hereford by William the Conqueror in consequence of his astronomical knowledge.* Returning now to the Normans, we find that England's permanent debt to these foreigners is not confined to the building of cathedrals and the establishment of schools and universities. The cathedrals and universities still stand as their monuments, but others remain not less striking. Ranke has well said that "nowhere have more of the institutions of the Middle Ages been retained than in England." This is due to the firm. imprint which the conquerors made upon the country. They brought in, or at least firmly established, the feudal system, which took such deep root that its principles have never been eradicated from English law. Thence is derived the doctrine of primogeniture, by some regarded as a blessing, by others as the blight of modern England. It was also under their rule that Ireland was first conquered, and as an English province became the plague spot of future generations. These are questionable legacies, but, on the other hand, *Whewell's "History of the Inductive Sciences." Henry II., the conqueror of Ireland, established the judicial system of England, much as it exists to-day.* The same reign witnessed the regular establishment of the system of "recognition by sworn inquest," from which institution, probably a Norman importation, our modern trial by jury is lineally descended. It was also under the foreign kings that the towns received their charters, which, borrowed from the Continent, gave them, in theory, almost an independent existence.+ Finally came Magna Charta, wrung from the last of the foreign kings by the united efforts of the English and the Normans, which, however, did little more than to embody in written form an enumeration of rights and privileges claimed by Norman retainers under Norman dukes. Taking it all together, this forms a very brilliant chapter in the annals of the world; but it is not strictly English history-certainly the Anglo-Saxons have but a slight connection with it, except in helping to wrest Magna Charta from a king whose successors regularly violated its provisions. § As Macaulay has well pointed out, the Normans who accomplished such wonderful results were Frenchmen transplanted into England, and Englishmen have little lot or share in the glory of their achievements. For four generations their kings were * Ranke, i. 38. + Taswell-Langmead's “Engl. Const. Hist.,” pp. 160, 161. The towns like London, Norwich, etc., were filled with French and Flemish traders who followed in the wake of the Conqueror. Green. § Before the close of the Middle Ages the confirmation of Magna Charta was demanded and conceded no less than thirty-eight times. Gneist, i. 311. "Hist. of England," i. 13, 14, 15. BIRTH OF THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT 297 mostly born in France, and passed the larger portion of their time upon the Continent. It was only when King John was driven out of Normandy that English history can be said to begin again. Still, it should be borne in mind that even in this latter period the Norman influence continued long after the death of John and the separation of England from the Continent. John died in 1216, but it was not until a century and a half later that the French language gave way to the returning English, showing that the Normans had been substantially absorbed. About 1350, boys at school began to translate Latin into English. In 1356, the earliest English book of mark was written, the Travels of Sir John Mandeville. In 1362, the statute was passed which required law proceedings to be conducted in English instead of French; and about 1383, Wyclif made his translation of the Bible.* During the continuance of the Norman or Continental influence, after the separation from France, we are traversing a lofty table-land stretching out beyond the mountain-top which we ascended under Norman rule. One or two landmarks on this table-land are deserving of attention before we descend into the valley of real English history, when the races had become amalgamated. The thirteenth century saw the first organization of the English Parliament. There had been previously * Hallam, "Literature of Europe," i. 37. Morley calls Mandeville 66 our first prose writer in formed English."—" English Writers from the Conquest to Chaucer," by Henry Morley, i. 750. The Parlia ment of 1365 opened with a speech in English, and was probably also dismissed by Edward III. in English. Stubbs, iii. 478; Gneist, ii. 20. a Great Council, composed of the leading nobles and ecclesiastics, but nothing was known of any assemblage of representatives from the commons until 1265.* In that year, Earl Simon de Montfort, a Frenchman, summoned two citizens from every borough to attend the Parliament which he called while fighting Henry III.+ This assembly amounted to nothing except as a sugges tion for the future. But Edward I. called a Parliament in 1295, where, for the first time in English history, burgesses from every city, borough, and leading town within the kingdom came to sit with the bishops, knights, nobles, and barons of the Great Council. + * About 1164 we learn of the first assemblage of the important nobles and prelates to consider public questions, but these were of an ecclesiastical nature. Gneist, i. 287. They met, however, only to advise the sovereign, and not as a legislative body. Idem, p. 292. "In scarcely any other European country did the parliamentary constitution have such a slow and difficult birth as in England," p. 312. See as to the ancient and now exploded fictions about the Saxon Witenagemôte as the parent of the English Parliament, p. 103. Gneist, i. 330. Guizot calls him "the founder of representative government in England." The system of borough representation was no invention of the English. Edward had very intimate relations with the Netherlands. In 1281, as I have shown in a former chapter, p. 152, he made a treaty of peace with the Count of Holland, which was guaranteed by the towns. Davies's "Holland," i. 83; Motley's "Dutch Republic," i. 37. In Holland, deputies from the towns met with the nobles and clergy to vote supplies. This was all that Edward desired from his Parliament, and for a long time the representatives from the English boroughs came very reluctantly when summoned. Green's "Short History," p. 199. The date of the division of Parliament into two houses is uncertain; it took place some time before the middle of the fourteenth century. Taswell-Langmead's "Const. Hist. of England," p. 262; Gneist, ii. 27. The system of borough representation did not originate, however, in the Netherlands. We find it ARRIVAL OF FLEMISH WEAVERS 299 In 1282, Edward I. conquers Wales, and makes it a permanent part of the British Empire. In 1296, he thought that he had done the same with Scotland, but there England met a different foe. The battle of Bannockburn, twenty years later, gave Scotland her independence forever. The same reign witnessed the death of Roger Bacon (who passed away forgotten and unknown), the culmination of Christian architecture,* and the expulsion of the Jews from England. † If England suffered from the expulsion of her Jews, their place was, in part at least, taken by another race, who had also been encouraged by the Norman rulers. William the Conqueror brought over a number of weav ers from Flanders, who founded the prosperity of Norwich. Nearly three hundred years later Edward III. embraced the scheme of colonization with greater vigor, and invited over a number of skilled Flemish artisans, who settled principally in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex counties. Their direct influence was not great, for Eng in Spain, where from the earliest day the towns of Aragon and Castile sent deputies to the Cortes. Robertson's "Charles V." (Am. ed. 1770), i. 120-123. This was at a date long before the Norman Conquest. The very name "Parliamentum" had been used in France for over a century before its appearance in England. Gneist, i. 319. * Green's "Short History," p. 221. The Norman kings had earnestly and successfully protected the Jews; but by the time of Edward, the hatred of them by the people had gained the upper-hand. Year after year their privileges as human beings had been curtailed, till, nothing remaining but life, at length, in 1290, the whole race was banished from the kingdom, and no member of it permitted to return until the time of Cromwell. Sixteen thousand, despoiled of their property, left England; but only a few reached the shores of France, almost all of the refugees being wrecked or murdered by the English sailors. Green. |