themselves arbitrators, judged the question of the three crowns between

the Duke of York and Margaret of Anjou, and at need levied armies, and

fought their battles of Shrewsbury, Tewkesbury, and St. Albans,

sometimes winning, sometimes losing. Before this, in the thirteenth

century, they had gained the battle of Lewes, and had driven from the

kingdom the four brothers of the king, bastards of Queen Isabella by

the Count de la Marche; all four usurers, who extorted money from

Christians by means of the Jews; half princes, half sharpers--a thing

common enough in more recent times, but not held in good odour in those

days. Up to the fifteenth century the Norman Duke peeped out in the King

of England, and the acts of Parliament were written in French. From the

reign of Henry VII., by the will of the Lords, these were written in

English. England, British under Uther Pendragon; Roman under Cæsar;

Saxon under the Heptarchy; Danish under Harold; Norman after William;

then became, thanks to the Lords, English. After that she became

Anglican. To have one's religion at home is a great power. A foreign

pope drags down the national life. A Mecca is an octopus, and devours

it. In 1534, London bowed out Rome. The peerage adopted the reformed

religion, and the Lords accepted Luther. Here we have the answer to the

excommunication of 1215. It was agreeable to Henry VIII.; but, in other

respects, the Lords were a trouble to him. As a bulldog to a bear, so

was the House of Lords to Henry VIII. When Wolsey robbed the nation of

Whitehall, and when Henry robbed Wolsey of it, who complained? Four

lords--Darcie, of Chichester; Saint John of Bletsho; and (two Norman

names) Mountjoie and Mounteagle. The king usurped. The peerage

encroached. There is something in hereditary power which is

incorruptible. Hence the insubordination of the Lords. Even in

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The Man Who Laughs