vantage nor pride in forgiving, his nature difcovering itfelf to be utterly void of all fenfe of compaffion; and fome barbarities, which he committed, exceeded the bounds that even tyrants and conquerors prefcribe to them felves.

Moft of our ancient hiftorians give him the character of a very religious prince; but his religion was, after the fashion of thofe times, belief without examination, and devotion without piety. It was a religion that prompted him to endow monafteries, and at the fame time allowed him to pillage kingdoms; that threw him on his knees before a relic or crofs, but fuffered him unrestrained to trample upon the liberties and rights of mankind.

As to his wifdom in government, of which fome modern writers have spoken very highly, he was indeed fo far wife, that, through a long, unquiet reign, he knew how to fupport oppreffion by terror, and employ the propereft means for the carrying on a very iniquitous and violent adminiftration. But that which a. lone deferves the name of wisdom in the character of a king, the maintaining of authority by the exercife of thofe virtues which make the happiness of his people, was what, with all his abilites, he does not appear to have poffeft. Nor did he excel in thofe foothing and popular arts, which fome. times change the complexion of a tyranny, and give it a fallacious appearance of freedom. His government was harsh and defpotic, violating even the principles of that conftitution which he himfelf had established. Yet fo far he

But

performed the duty of a fovereign, that he took care to maintain a good police in his realm; curbing licentioufnefs with a ftrong hand, which, in the tumultuous ftate of his government, was a great and difficult work. How well he performed it we may learn even from the teftimony of a contemporary Saxon hiftorian, who fays, that during his reign a man might have travelled in perfect fecurity all over the kingdom with his bofom full of gold, nor durft any kill another in revenge of the greatest offences, nor offer violence to the chaftity of a woman. it was a poor compenfation, that the highways were fafe, when the courts of juftice were dens of thieves, and when almoft every man in authority, or in office, ufed his power to opprefs and pillage the people. The king himfelf did not only tolerate, but encourage, fupport, and even fhare thefe extortions. Though the greatnefs of the ancient landed eftate of the crown, and the feudal profits to which he legally was entitled, rendered him one of the richeft monarchs in Europe, he was not content with all that opulence but by authorifing the theriffs, who collected his revenues in the feveral counties, to practife the moft grievous vexations and abuses, for the raifing of them higher by a perpetual auction of the crown lands; fo that none of his tenants could be fecure of poffeffion, if any other would come and offer more; by various iniquities in the court of exchequer, which was entirely Norman; by forfeitures wrongfully taken; and laftly, by arbitrary and illegal taxations, he

drew into his treafury much too great a proportion of the wealth of his kingdom.

It must however be owned, that if his avarice was infatiably and unjustly rapacious, it was not meanly parfimonious, nor of that fordid kind, which brings on a prince difhonour and contempt. He fupported the dignity of his crown with a decent magnificence; and though he never was lavish, he fometimes was liberal, more efpecially to his foldiers and to the church. But looking on money as a neceffary means of maintaining and increafing power, he defired to accumulate as much as he could, rather, perhaps, from an ambitious than a covetous nature at leaft his avarice was fubfervient to his ambition, and he laid up wealth in his coffers, as he did arms in his magazines, to be drawn out, when any proper occafion required it, for the defence and enlargement of his dominions.

Upon the whole, he had many great qualities, but few virtues; and, if thofe actions that most particularly diftinguish the man or the king are impartially confidered, we fhall find, that in his character there is much to admire, but still more to abhor.

equalled. For proof of this I fhall here relate fome particular facts, which I could not fo properly mention in giving a general view of this reign. While he was befieging Mont St. Michel, a fortrefs in Normandy, which was held against him by Henry, his younger brother, a fmall party of horfe belonging to the garrifon approached near his camp; at the fight of which, being tranfported by the ardour of his courage, he furiously advanced before his own troops, and charged into the mida of them. His horfe was killed under him, and the foldier, who had difmounted him, not knowing who he was, dragged him by the foot on the ground, and was going to flay him, if he had not topt the blow, by faying to him, with a tone of command, not fupplication, "Rafcal, lift me up: I am the king of England." At these words, all the foldiers of prince Henry, his brother, were truck with awe, and reverently raising him up from the earth, brought him another horfe. By this time his own forces were come to his fuccour in fuch numbers, that the little band of the enemy could make no refiftance, much lefs carry off the king as their prifoner. That prince, feeing this, vaulted into the faddle, and cafting his

the fame.

THE HE character of this king has been too much depreciated by many hiftorians. It was, no doubt, very faulty; yet, not withstanding all his faults, he was a great man. In magnanity, the art of royal virtues, no prince ever excelled him, and few have

round about him, asked, who sit was that unhorfed him? For fome time all were filent: but, at last, he who did it anfwered, "It was I, who did not fuppofe you to be a king, but an ordinary knight" "By the face of our Lord, replied William, with a fmile, thou halt henceforth be my foldier, and receive from me the recom

penfe

penfe thy valour deferves." But the anfwer he made to a bravado of the earl of la Flefche is a fill nobler inftance of his magnanimity. That lord, his competitor for the earldom of Maine, being taken prifoner by him, and received with an infult, faid, with a fpirit fuperior to fortune," An accident has made me your cap tive; but could I recover my liberty, I know what I fhould do."— "You know what you should do! replied the king! Begone; I give you leave to do your utmoft; and I fwear to you, that if you overcome me hereafter, I will afk no return from you for having thus fet you free." With thefe words he difmiffed him: an action of heroism that would have done honour to Cæfar, whofe foul (fays one of the best of our ancient historians) feems to have tranfmigrated into this monarch. He likewife acted and fpoke in the fpirit of that Roman, when, from his ardour to relieve the city of Mans, befieged by the, earl of la Flefche, he paffed the fea in a violent tempeft, faying to the failors, who warned him of the danger, that he never had heard of any king having been drowned.” Nor did he lefs refemble Cæfar in liberality, than in courage, and greatnefs of mind. He gave without measure, but never with out choice; diftinguishing merit, and fixing it in his fervice by means of his bounty; that merit especially which was the mott neceffary, to fupport his ambition, eminent valour, and military talents. In the magnificence of his court and buildings he greatly exceeded any king of that age. But, though his profufenefs arofe from

a noble and generous nature, it must be accounted rather a vice than a virtue; as, in order to fupply the unbounded extent of it, he was very rapacious. If he had lived long, his expences would have undone him: for he had not, as Cæfar had, the treasures of the world to fupport his extravagance; and it had brought him fome years before his death into fuch difficulties, that even if his temper had not been defpotic, his neceffities would have made him a tyrant.

His foul was all fire, perpe tually in action, undaunted with danger, unwearied with application, purfuing pleafare with as much ardour as bufinefs, but never facrificing bufinefs to pleasure; addicted to women, yet without any tenderness or fixed attachment, rather from a fpirit of debauchery than from the paffion of love. He had many concubines, but no miftrefs; and never would marry, for fear of fubjecting himself to any restraint.

Nevertheless, the vivacity of his temper and the quickness of his parts were ballanced by the folidity and the ftrength of his judgment: fo that, although he was very eager in all his purfuits, he directed them with great prudence, excelling ftill more in policy than in arms. He had not indeed any tincture of learning; but he had ftudied mankind, and knew them well, under all difguifes; covering himfelf with a deep diffimulation, where it was neceffary, and the more dangerous in it from an appearance of opennefs, heat, and paffion; imperious and abfolute, fo as to endure no contradiction or top to his will, when he had

power

power enough to enforce obe. dience, but pliant and foothing, when he wanted that power: in public maintaining his majesty, not only with ftate, but with pride; yet in private, among his friends, and those whom he admitted to a familiarity with him, eafy, good-humoured, and often more witty than is proper for a king.

His perfon was difagreeable, and his elocution ungraceful: notwithstanding which imperfections he carried all points he had at heart, more by the arts of infinuation and addrefs than by force.

Confidering how much he owed to the clergy in obtaining his crown, it is no little proof of uncommon abilities, that he wore it without any dependance upon them, and entirely fubjected their power to his own. But not content to govern the church, he ty. rannized over it, as he did over the ftate. Nor would he conftrain himself to that outward fhew of reverence for ecclefiaftics, which his father had always paid to them, even while he oppreffed them: and this was certainly one prin. cipal caufe why the monks, who have tranfmitted his character to us, accufe him fo heavily of being irreligious. That all the ftrange ftories, related by thofe hiftorians, of his open impiety, are ftrictly true, it is hard to believe; becaufe one would imagine that his good fenfe alone must have taught him fome refpect for the forms of religion, in an age, which demanded that, and demanded no more. Yet though the charge may have been aggravated, it was not wholly groundlefs. His mind

was too penetrating not to fee the depravity of what was then called religion, and his heart was too corrupt to feek for a better. We are told, indeed, that, in a dangerous fit of ficknefs, he expreft remorse for the offences of his paft life, and promifed amendment; which fhews at least that he had in him no fettled principle of abfolute infidelity: but he had not any fuch steady fentiments of faith or piety, as could be a reftraint on his paflions. So that the impreffions made in his illness were foon effaced by the return of his health. There was alfo a levity and petulance in his wit, which often gave his conversation an air of profanenefs beyond what he feriously thought or meant. He paid fo little refpect to the oaths he had taken, that he feemed to confider them as mere forms of ftate, or arts which policy might employ and difpenfe with at pleafure. All his vices were public, and he did infinitely more harm by the ba example he gave, and the, indulgence he fhewed to the enormities of others, than by his own. He not only tolerated, but encouraged in his court, and (what was yet worfe) in his army, the moit unbridled profligacy of manners; relaxing all difcipline, civil or military; and hardly punishing any crimes, but rebellions and treafons against himself, or the breach of the foreft laws, which had been made by his father, and of which he had folemnly promifed a remiffion to his fubjects. Thefe he enforced with a cruel rigour; but other offences were either winked at, or the offender bought off the punishment. So, that the mifery of England was

com

complete in this reign; for the nation was now a prey to licentioufnefs, as much as to tyranny, fuffering at once the diforders of anar. chy, and the oppreffions of arbitrary power. The army of William the first had been under the curb of a strict difcipline; but that of William Rufus, like a wild beaft unchained, was let loofe to infeft his peaceful fubjects. The young nobility were bred up in debauch ery; luxurious, effeminate, and guilty even of lufts which naturé abhors; defpifers of order, law, morality, and no lefs proud of their vices than of their birth. But happily the life of this prince was too fhort to extend the corruption to the body of the people; and therefore the commonwealth recovered again, when the fucceeding monarch applied to it fuch remedies of wholesome severity, as the diftempers contracted by it required.

much refembled our Henry the firft: but in policy he was not always a match for that king.. Yet he deferves no lefs efteem: for in goodnefs of heart he was greatly his fuperior, and had fcarce any equal among the princes who reigned in his days. He loft his health, and at laft his life, by the fatigues he fuftained, in be fieging caftle after castle, where any flagitious or turbulent perfon had broken or endangered the peace of his realm. Abbot Suger, his principal minifter, tells us, that he would often lament the unhappy condition of human life, in which to know much and at much is feldom or never, in our power together; adding, that if he had known in his youth, what he knew in his age, or could að in his age with the fame vigour as he did in his youth, he should have been able to conquer many kingdoms. Yet that hiftorian affirms, that, even in the latter years

Ο

the fame.

N the first of Auguft, in the year eleven hundred and thirty-feven, died, at Paris, Louis the fixth, furnamed le Gros, from the largenefs and corpulence of his perfon. A much nobler firname might have been properly given to him from the qualities of his mind: He deferved to have been called the Good, or the Juft. His whole reign was paffed in conftant ftruggles with the infolence, the licentioufnefs, and the tyranny of his nobles, againft whofe oppreffi. ons he royally defended his people, maintaining his laws by his arms, and permitting no crimes to efcape his juftice. Thus far he

of

with inceffant toils, and heavy from a too corpulent habit of body, if any thing happened in any part his kingdom, by which the royal majesty was hurt or offended, he never fuffered it to go unchaftifed. His dying words to his fon were admirable. "Remember, said he, and have it always before your eyes, that the royal authority is a public charge, of which you must render, after your death, a ftrict account." In the year eleven hundred and thirty-one he had the misfortune to lofe his eldest son Philip, a very hopeful youth; who, while he was riding in the fuburbs of Paris, was thrown down and killed, by a hog running fuddenly under the feet of his horfe.

The