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“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.
London, Edinburgh, Dublin, and New York
1908
FOREWORD.
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.”
| CONTENTS. | |||
| ——••—— | |||
| 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 | |