Stories from English History

Yon are very fond of stories; and so, I think, are all the other little boys and girls that I have ever known, and most of the grown-up people too. When you grow older, if you still like them--and I think you will--you will find that there are stories everywhere if only you are able to see them.

In this little book they are not quite the same kind as those that your Auntie used to tell you. I think they are nicer, for they are about things that have really happened; and the boys and girls and grown-up people that you read about in them were real people.

Some of those stories were so interesting, and some of them so beautiful, that they were written down for other people to read; and that is how history-books came to be made.

I hope that you will like to read about the people who lived long ago, and that these little tales may show you that history is made up of stories about people just like ourselves.

HILDA T. SKAE.

LIST OF STORIES

Chap.

I. A Hero of Ancient Britain II. The Boy Captives III. English and Norman IV. The Boy who would be a King V. The Black Prince VI. Singeing the King of Spain's Beard

LIST OF PICTURES

Caradoc betrayed to the Romans . . . . . . Frontispiece

The children carried off by the Bernician Raiders

Harold taking the Oath

The Death of Harold

Arthur in prison visited by King John

Warwick's messenger asking for aid to be sent to the Black Prince

The French King brought prisoner to the Black Prince after Poitiers

Drake making his request of the Queen

CHAPTER I

A HERO OF ANCIENT BRITAIN

There was a time, many years ago, when this England of ours was a savage country.

The oldest stories that we read about our island happened so long ago, that the English had not yet come to the land where we live. In those days, the country was not called England but Britain; and the people were the ancient Britons.

In the time of the Britons, the greater part of the country was covered with moors and swamps, and with great forests, where dangerous wild animals lived: wolves and bears and wild cats; where herds of deer wandered, and droves of wild cattle.

The ancient Britons lived in huts built of branches of trees plastered with mud, very low in the roof, and dark, having no windows; and there were no chimneys to let out the smoke. Their villages were only collections of huts surrounded by a fence or stockade, and a ditch to keep out the wild animals, as well as other Britons who were enemies of the tribe, for these wild people were always fighting among themselves.

The Britons had blue eyes, and yellow or reddish hair, which both men and women wore long, and hanging over their shoulders. In summer they went about with their chests and shoulders almost bare, and in winter they clothed themselves in the skins of animals killed in the chase.

They were a wild people, but so brave that we like to hear stories about them.

About two thousand years ago, when the Britons were living their savage life, there lived in the country which is now Italy another people called the Romans. These Romans were one of the greatest and wisest nations that have ever lived.

It seems strange that they should have left their own beautiful country to come to Britain, with its cold climate and savage inhabitants, but they were a very ambitious people, who would not be content until they had subdued every other nation of the earth.

The Romans had already conquered all the nations round about their own country when the Emperor Claudius became their chief; but Claudius wished to win glory by making fresh conquests, and he determined to subdue the wild northern island of Britain.