moderation, and displayed great valour | its centre, and of the birkets, or tanks, against the Bulgarians, Russians, and that adorn its outskirts, I expected, if Saracens. At the command of the pa- not an earthly, at least an aquatic, triarch he banished the empress,and was paradise. On first reaching this vaunthimself poisoned by his cupbearer, 976, ed city, I saw nothing but filth and at the instigation of the eunuch Basil, ruins on the outside, and filth and who ascended the throne as Basil II. misery within. So much, I exclaimed, Building of Grand Cairo. This for travellers' tales!' celebrated city, the Masr of the Arabians, was built by Moez, the Fatimite kaliph, 972; and he made it the capital of Egypt. From the brilliant descriptions (says Mr. Hope) given me of the celebrated Masr, of the kalish, or canal, that runs through Italy added to Germany, 964, by Otho the Great, who put an end to the internal dissensions of the Italian nobles, by depriving Berenger II. of his usurped authority. Italy remained, for 300 years from this period, subject to the German empire. EMINENT PERSONS. St. Dunstan. The monks who have which, by law, the kaliph could do, as written of this ambitious personage, the liege lord of all his subjects. The represent him as the most learned and cadi, however, or chief judge of the accomplished prelate, and most emi-city, Ebn Bekir, when he heard of the nent statesman of the period in which woman's loss, went to the palace, he lived; while popular tradition paints mounted on an ass, and carrying an him as a master of magic arts, sub-enormous empty sack. Prostrating jecting demons to his power, and using them as the unwilling ministers of his designs. Otho the Great, a warlike prince, was crowned emperor of the west in Aix-la-Chapelle, 936, and throughout a reign of thirty-seven years, was constantly engaged in adding to his dominions, and putting down the encroachments of the Bohemians, Italians, and other foes. El Hakkam, kaliph of Cordova, is celebrated for his embellishment of the capital, in which he completed the splendid palace commenced by his father, Abdalrahman III., and erected numerous fine buildings, of which very interesting portions remain. A fair instance is recorded (as connected with El Hakkam) of that strict regard for justice which characterized the early Mahometan rulers. El Hakkam had taken into the palace-ground a small piece of land belonging to a poor woman, who could ill spare it: a thing himself before the kaliph, who was seated in a pavilion on the very ground that had been taken from the woman, the cadi entreated to be permitted to fill the sack with earth from the spot; and on the sack being loaded, El Hakkam was astonished to be asked by the judge to aid him in lifting it upon the ass. Ile, however, complied; but desisted on finding it too heavy. Oh, prince!' replied Ebn Bekir, this sack contains but a small portion of the earth you have unjustly taken from a poor woman; how then, at the day of judgment, shall you bear the weight of the whole?' This allusion to the vengeance threatened by the Koran against extortioners, who were to be punished after death in a way similar to the mode in which they had committed the offence, instantly caused the kaliph to restore the land, and to give all the buildings which he had erected thereon to the woman. SECTION XIII. EDWARD II., OR THE MARTYR, KING OF ENGLAND. 975 TO 979-4 YEARS. Edward was the son of Edgar by his first wife, the daughter of earl Ordmer. Elfrida, his step-mother, had a son, Ethelred, now seven years old, whom she attempted to raise to the throne; but Dunstan, in compliance with the will of Edgar, preferred Edward. The few years of this prince's reign were occupied by the dissensions of the nobles concerning the Benedictine monks; some wishing their expulsion, now their patron Edgar was no more, while others espoused the side of Dunstan, and favoured them. An accidental circum stance operated more powerfully in support of their cause than all the arguments of their friends. During the assembly of a synod, which had been called to settle the dispute, the floor of the chamber wherein it was held suddenly gave way, and all were precipitated to the ground below but the primate, whose chair firmly rested on a cross-beam. This being regarded as an interposition of Providence in favour of the Benedictines, matters were determined in their favour. The death of Edward has obtained for him the title of martyr. Hunting one day in Dorsetshire, he was led by the chase near Corfe Castle, where Elfrida resided; and, unattended by his retinue, he called at her residence, and was received with every appearance of kindness. On mounting his horse, however, to depart, a servant stabbed him in the back; and the affrighted king, putting spurs to his horse, soon became faint, and, falling from his seat, was dragged along by the animal until he expired. His attendants found his body by the traces of blood, and interred it at Wareham with every mark of regret and respect; and miracles were believed afterwards to be wrought at his tomb. In three years after, his remains were removed to Shaftesbury. : Ethelred succeeded quietly to the throne, though his mother's wicked policy was never forgotten by the people in vain she built monasteries, and performed penances, with a view to evince her remorse: she was regarded as a hypocrite, and treated as such. Ethelred, deservedly called the unready, in stead of opposing the Danes, adopted the pusillanimous expedient of bribing them to retire, by a payment of 10,000l. As might be expected, they returned in far greater force; but would have been repulsed by the now wiser English, had it not been for the treachery of Alfred, duke of Mercia, who deserted to the enemy with the squadron under his command, and invited Sweyn, king of Denmark, and Olave, king of Norway, to come in person to the island. Those pirates accordingly entered the Thames, and laid siege to London. To prevent the destruction of that city, Ethelred again offered the invaders money to depart; and Olave making a journey to Andover, where Ethelred resided, was presented with the sum of 16,000l. To convince the king that he would never more infest the country, he received the rite of confirmation from an English bishop, and retired with Sweyn; but his followers appeared next year in the south, and ravaged Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Wales, and Kent. A yet larger amount was then paid to ensure a brief respite; and though Ethelred, to prevent their return, formed an alliance with duke Richard II., of Normandy, by marrying his sister, the Danes came back; and he adopted the resolution of assassinating all the settlers of that nation in the kingdom. Secret orders were accordingly despatched for a general massacre, which took place on St. Brice's day, 1002. Sweyn, infuriated by so atrocious a conduct, immediately reappeared on the coast, and was again bribed to retreat; but, regardless of his oath, he levied a new contribution upon the Kentish people, and after murdering Elphege, archbishop of Canterbury, compelled vast numbers to swear allegiance to him, as sovereign of Britain. Ethelred, who had already sent his queen Emma and her two sons, Alfred and Edward, to Normandy for protection, instantly upon the receipt of this intelligence fled thither himself; but had not been there six weeks, before the death of Sweyn at Thetford, Norfolk, and a warm invitation from his prelates and nobility, induced him to return. His indolence, however, coupled with the ill-conduct of his son-in-law, Edric, who, besides showing much cruelty during the Danish massacre, had lately assassinated two very popular noblemen, Sigefert and Morcar, induced the leading men of the country to wish Canute, the son of Sweyn, who had the character of an enterprising and talented prince, might become their sovereign. Secretly invited by the malcontents, Canute appeared on the southern coast; and though opposed on his landing by the troops of Ethelred, the Dane overcame all obstacles. Ethelred, while fortifying London, with the hope of giving him a repulse, was seized with a mortal illness, on hearing that Edric, his perfidious kinsman, had gone over to the enemy; and he expired, just as the soldiers under his son Edmund were entering the city, after an ineffectual effort to stay the progress of the invaders. The king was buried somewhere in London. CHIEF DOMESTIC EVENTS. The Tax of Danegelt was imposed to raise money for the disgraceful bribes offered to the Danes. It consisted of, first one shilling and then two shillings for every hide of land; and no less than 150,000l. were raised at various times in this manner by Ethelred; a vast sum, if we consider the value of money in those times. Paper made of cotton rags was commonly used in England, 1000. Massacre of the Danes. Neither sex nor age was spared in the dreadful massacre of 1002; and even Gunilda, sister of the king of Denmark, and wife of Earl Paling, was put to death by Edric, after seeing her husband and children butchered before her face. Norman Architecture. Churches in England, and on the continent, were rebuilt, between 1000 and 1010, both in England and on the continent, in what is now called, by an anachronism, the Norman style of architecture. Sale of Children was forbidden in England by law, 1015. A dreadful Plague ravaged Europe from 1006 to 1008. CHIEF FOREIGN EVENTS. The Dynasty of Capet commenced in France 987, by the elevation of Hugh Capet, son of Hugh the great; Charles of Lorraine, the rightful heir, being rejected, on the plea of holding Lorraine by allegiance to Germany. Hugh had acted for the late king, Louis the sluggard, throughout his reign; and the people, disgusted with the imbecility of the Carlovingian kings, joyfully acknowledged one so likely to carry on the government with ability. Charles of Lorraine, however, did not relinquish his inheritance without a struggle; and succeeded so far as to seize on Laon and Rheims. But Ancelm, bishop of Rheims, under the mask of friendship, betrayed him to Hugh, who kept him prisoner at Orleans until his death. Hugh, though he displayed no extraordinary talents, ruled the country with steadiness, and died 996. been deposed by the same, and another, named John XVI., placed in his stead, marched thither, 998, and took the city by assault. Seizing Cincius, he beheaded him, and ordered the pope he had set up to have his eyes pulled out, and his nose cut off, and then to be thrown headlong from the castle of St. Angelo. Hindostan conquered by Mahmoud of Gazna. Gazna, a city of Sablestan, on the confines of India, became the capital of a very powerful empire of the same name, after the fall of the Saracen kingdom, of which it had formed a portion. In 998 its sovereign, Mahmoud, raised it to fame by his conquest of Hindostan, over which his descendants ruled for 150 years. Geysa prince of Hungary, simultaneously became converts, together with their respective nations. Poland erected into a Kingdom by the emperor Otho III., who declared it independent of Germany, and raised its duke, Boleslaus, to the rank of king, 999. Spread of Christianity. So rapid of late years had been the progress of our benign religion throughout Europe, The Empire of Germany declared that every state possessed a portion of elective. The progress of government Christians; and in 1000 Olaf king of in Germany was greatly different from Sweden, Harold king of Denmark, that of the other states of Europe. Miezyslow sovereign of Poland, WlaWhile in France and England the dig-dimir grand duke of Muscovy, and nity of the great lords was hourly giving way to kingly prerogative, in Germany the peers who, from being originally stewards and officers about the emperor's person, had obtained independence, estates, and titles, declared the election of the sovereign to be their right; a claim which was formally acknowledged by the emperor Otho III., and pope Gregory V., 996. This elective faculty remained unimpaired till 1440, when Frederick, duke of Austria, was chosen emperor; and the imperial diguity was then made hereditary in his family. The title of king of the Romans was fixed for that of the acknowledged heir to the empire of Germany by Otho, and so it remained for ages. Insurrection of Cincius. Otho III., on hearing that a strong party, headed by one Cincius, prevailed in Rome, resolved on restoring the ancient republic, and that pope Gregory V. had Battle of Clontarf. The Danes had long harassed Ireland in the same manner as England, but were kept down by the petty kings of the island, until Maelmorha, who usurped the crown of Leinster, called in a vast force of them, and attacked Brian Barumha, sovereign of Munster and Connaught. Brian defeated them on Good Friday, 1014, with vast slaughter, though he was himself killed, after performing prodigies of valour. Malachy, who succeeded Brian, describes the battle in the true style of his country: 'It is impossible for human language to paint it; an angel from heaven only could give a correct idea of the terrors off by the swords, and blown towards of that day. We retired to the dis- us by the wind; so that we were all tance of a fallow-field from the com- the time engaged in disentangling our batants, the high wind of the Spring arms. And they fought from sunrise, blowing from them towards us. And until the dusk of the evening, when we were no longer than half an hour the full tide carried the ships away. there, when neither of the two armies It appears that the victory was sufficould discern each other, nor could ciently decisive to keep the Danes one know his father or brother, even henceforward from the island; and though he were the next to him, unless those days of happiness returned which he could recognise his voice, or know had blessed the reign of Brian, when, the spot on which he stood; and we so strictly were the laws obeyed, that were covered all over, both faces, arms, a lady might travel unattended from heads, hair, and clothes, with red Tonn Chliodna to Tonn Tuaithe (that drops of blood, borne from them on is, from one end of Ireland to the the wings of the wind! And should other), with a gold ring on the top of we attempt to assist them we could her wand, without being robbed or not, for our arms were entangled with molested.' the locks of their hair, which were cut EMINENT PERSONS. Basil II., Emperor of the East, noted for his barbarity to the Bulgarians. Having defeated them 1014, he cruelly put out the eyes of 15,000 prisoners, and compelled them to go, ninety-nine in a party, led by one who was not thus deprived, into the presence of their king, Samuel; who survived only two days so horrible a spectacle. Pope Silvester II., the most learned man of his time, succeeded Gregory V., 999. He maintained the church's power with a high hand, was a great promoter of learning, and devoted much of his leisure to physics. He constructed a clock, globe, and astrolabe, and has left some highly interesting letters on various subjects. Abbo of Fleury, a Benedictine, who was slain in his attempt to reform a monastery, and who wrote the lives of the Popes, and of Edward the Martyr, still extant; Abbo of Paris, who has given in rough verse an account of the sack of Paris by the Normans, which he witnessed; Elfric, archbishop of Canterbury, known by his canons for the regular clergy; menius, a bishop of Thessaly, author of excellent annotations in Greek on the Acts and St. Paul's epistles. cu SECTION XV. EDMUND II. (IRONSIDE), KING OF ENGLAND. Edmund, on finding himself by the demise of his father in possession of the disturbed kingdom, was crowned at Kingston, and instantly attacked Canute, and the traitor Edric, at Scoerston in Gloucestershire. The royal forces, deceived by a stratagem of Edric (who ordered to be hoisted on a pole the head of a slain soldier, whose features resembled those of the king), began to give way; and many hours elapsed before they could be convinced of their monarch's safety. They, however, rallied again; and Edric, pretending to desert from Canute, offered his services to Edmund, whom he advised to retreat towards Essex. Edmund accordingly retreated; and at Assington thought to decide the fate of his kingdom. The fight had scarcely commenced, when Edric again K |