Council of Basel. Pope Martin V succeeded by Eugenius IV.

1432. Prince Henry's navigators discover and take possession of the Azores for the Portuguese.

Opening of the trade of the north to the English and Dutch by the wars of the Hanse Towns, and Holstein, with Denmark.

1433. Treaty of the Council of Basel with the section of the Hussites called Calixtines; this satisfies them and they secede from the Hussite league.

1434. Cosmo de' Medici recalled to Florence; his party triumphant.

Organization of the national church (Utraquist) in Bohemia.

First exploration of the west coast of Africa by the Portuguese.

The Calixtines join the imperial army and defeat the Taborites at Bohmisch-Brod.

1435. Treaty of Arras between France and Burgundy; the latter withdraws from the English party.

Death of the Duke of Bedford.

1436. A settlement effected between Emperor Sigismund and the Hussites by the treaty of Iglau; he is recognized as king of Bohemia.

Charles VII, the French King, recovers Paris from the English.

Eric, by a treaty of peace, relinquishes the greater part of Schleswig to the Duke of Holstein and makes concessions at Stockholm which restore tranquillity in Sweden.

1437. Death of Emperor Sigismund; election of Albert of Austria to the throne of Hungary.

Murder of James I; his son, James II, succeeds him on the throne of Scotland.

Pope Eugenius IV is summoned to appear before the Council of Basel to answer various charges brought against him; he issues a bull dissolving the council; he calls another at Ferrara, whither he invites the Greek Emperor to attend and arrange for the union of the two churches.

1438. Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VII; it secures the liberty of the Gallican Church. See "CHARLES VII ISSUES HIS PRAGMATIC SANCTION," vii, 370.

Coronation of Albert II, King of Hungary; recognized by the Diet of Frankfort.

[1] See Dante Composes the Divina Commedia, page 1.

[2] See Extinction of the Order of Knights Templars, page 51.

[3] See The Third Estate Joins in the Government of France, page 17.

[4] See War of the Flemings with Philip the Fair, page 23.

[5] See First Swiss Struggle for Liberty, page 28.

[6] See The Swiss Win Their Independence, page 238.

[7] See Battle of Bannockburn, page 41.

[8] See Beginning and Progress of the Renaissance, page 110.

[9] See Crowning of Petrarch at Rome, page 93.

[10] See Rienzi's Revolution in Rome, page 104.

[11] See Conspiracy and Death of Marino Falieri at Venice, page 154.

[12] See Genoese Surrender to Venetians, page 213.

[13] See Rise of the Hanseatic League, vol. vi, page 214.

[14] See Union of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, page 243.

[15] See Charles IV of Germany Publishes His Golden Bull, page 160.

[16] See The Black Death Ravages Europe, page 130.

[17] See Dancing Mania of the Middle Ages, page 187.

[18] See James van Artevelde Leads a Flemish Revolt, page 68.

[19] See Edward III of England Assumes the Title of King of France, page 68.

[20] See Battles of Sluys and Crecy, page 78.

[21] See Insurrection of the Jacquerie in France, page 164.

[22] See Rebellion of Wat Tyler, page 217.

[23] See Turks Seize Gallipoli, page 147.

[24] See Conquests of Timur the Tartar, page 169.

[25] See Wycliffe Translates the Bible into English, page 227.

[26] See Election of Antipope Clement VII, page 201.

[27] See Trial and Burning of John Huss, page 294.

[28] See Council of Constance, page 284.

[29] See The Hussite Wars, page 294.

[30] See The House of Hohenzollern Established in Brandenburg, page 305.

[31] See Deposition of Richard II, page 251.

[32] See Battle of Agincourt, page 320.

[33] See English Conquest of France, page 320.

[34] See Jeanne d'Arc's Victory at Orleans, page 333.

[35] See Trial and Execution of Jeanne d'Arc, page 350.

[36] See Charles VII Issues his Pragmatic Sanction, page 370.

[37] See Discovery of the Canary Islands: Beginning of Negro Slave Trade, page 266.

[38] "I am not going to lose the men for the old women."

[39] "The coward who the great refusal made."

[40] "The beams on the low shores now lost and dead."

[41] "A death-like shade—Like that beneath black boughs and foliage green O'er the cold stream in Alpine glens display'd."

[42] "O'er all the sandy desert falling slow, Were shower'd dilated flakes of fire, like snow On Alpine summits, when the wind is low."

[43] "So will a greater fame redound to thee, To have formed a party by thyself alone."

[44] Translated by Charles Leonard-Stuart.

[45] This Emperor was Albert I, son of Rudolph I.

[46] James van Artevelde was called "the Brewer of Ghent," because, although born an aristocrat, he was enrolled in the Guild of Brewers.

[47] Translated from the French by Thomas Johnes.

[48] Lord Berners' account of the advance of the Genoese is somewhat different from this; he describes them as leaping forward with a fell cry. The whole passage is so spirited and graphic that we give it entire:

"Whan the genowayes were assembled toguyder and beganne to aproche, they made a great leape and crye to abasshe thenglysshmen, but they stode styll and styredde nat for all that. Than the genowayes agayne the seconde tyme made another leape and a fell crye and stepped forwarde a lytell, and thenglysshmen remeued nat one fote; thirdly agayne they leapt and cryed, and went forthe tyll they came within shotte; than they shotte feersly with their crosbowes. Than thenglysshe archers stept forthe one pase and lette fly their arowes so hotly and so thycke that it semed snowe. Whan the genowayes felte the arowes persynge through heedes, armes, and brestes, many of them cast downe their crosbowes and did cutte their strynges and retourned dysconfited. Whan the frenche kynge sawe them flye away, he said, Slee these rascals, for they shall lette and trouble us without reason; than you shoulde haue sene the men of armes dasshe in among them and kylled a great nombre of them; and euerstyll the englysshmen shot where as they sawe thyckest preace, the sharpe arowes ranne into the men of armes and into their horses, and many fell horse and men amonge the genowayes, and whan they were downe they coude nat relyne agayne; the preace was so thycke that one ouerthrewe a nother. And also amonge the englysshemen there were certayne rascalles that went a fote with great knyues, and they went in among the men of armes and slewe and murdredde many as they lay on the grounde, both erles, barownes, knyghts, and squyers, whereof the kyng of Englande was after dyspleased, for he had rather they had been taken prisoners."

[49] His blindness was supposed to be caused by poison, which was given to him when engaged in the wars of Italy.

[50] The following is Lord Berners' version of this narration: "In the mornyng the day of the batayle certayne frenchemen and almaygnes perforce opyned the archers of the princes batayle, and came and fought with the men at armes hande to hande. Than the second batayle of thenglyshe men came to socour the prince's batayle, the whiche was tyme, for they had as than moche ado, and they with the prince sent a messangar to the kynge who was on a lytell wyndmill hill. Than the knyght sayd to the kyng, Sir therle of Warwyke and therle of Cafort [Stafford] Sir Reynolde Cobham and other such as be about the prince your sonne are feersly fought with all, and are sore handled, wherefore they desire you that you and your batayle woll come and ayde them, for if the frenchemen encrease as they dout they woll your sonne and they shall have moche a do. Than the kynge sayde, is my sonne deed or hurt or on the yerthe felled? No, sir, quoth the knight, but he is hardely matched wherfore he hath nede of your ayde. Well sayde the kyng, retourne to hym and to them that sent you hyther, and say to them that they sende no more to me for any adventure that falleth as long as my sonne is alyve; and also say to them that they suffer hym this day to wynne his spurres, for if God be pleased, I woll this iourney be his and the honoure therof and to them that be aboute hym. Than the knyght retourned agayn to them and shewed the kynges wordes, the which greatly encouraged them, and repoyned in that they had sende to the kynge as they dyd."

[51] Translated from the German by B. G. Babington.

[52] Thucydides, in his account of the earlier plague in Athens, B.C. 430, says, "It was supposed that the Peloponnesians had poisoned the cisterns."

[53] Translated from the French by Charles Leonard-Stuart.

[54] Osman is the real Turkish name, which has been corrupted into Othman. The descendants of his subjects style themselves Osmanlis—corrupted into Ottoman.

[55] Edebali, a Mussulman prophet and saint, whose daughter Osman married.

[56] A criminal tribunal, of which Steno himself was president.

[57] "Jacques Bonhomme." Froissart takes this for the name of an individual, but it is the common nickname—like "Hodge" or "Giles"—of the French peasantry. It is said that the term was applied by the lords of the manor to their villeins or serfs, in derision of their awkwardness and patient endurance of their lot. The "King who came from Clermont"—the leader of the Jacquerie—was William Karl or Callet.

[58] A most wonderful scene. The B'hagiratha or Ganges issues from under a very low arch at the foot of the grand snow-bed. The illiterate mountaineers compare the pendent icicles to Mahodeva's hair. Hindoos of research may formerly have been here; and if so, one cannot think of any place to which they might more aptly give the name of a cow's mouth than to this extraordinary debouche.

[59] Translated from the German by B. G. Babington.

[60] "Chorus Sancti Viti, or St. Vitus' dance; the lascivious dance, Paracelsus calls it, because they that are taken with it can do nothing but dance till they be dead or cured. It is so called for that the parties so troubled were wont to go to St. Vitus for help; and, after they had danced there awhile, they were certainly freed. 'Tis strange to hear how long they will dance, and in what manner, over stools, forms, and tables. One in red clothes they cannot abide. Musick above all things they love; and therefore magistrates in Germany will hire musicians to play to them, and some lusty, sturdy companions to dance with them. This disease hath been very common in Germany, as appears by those relations of Schenkius, and Paracelsus in his book of madness, who brags how many several persons he hath cured of it. Felix Platerus (de Mentis Alienat. cap. 3) reports of a woman in Basel whom he saw, that danced a whole month together. The Arabians call it a kind of palsie. Bodine, in his fifth book, speaks of this infirmity; Monavius, in his last epistle to Scoltizius, and in another to Dudithus, where you may read more of it."—Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy.

[61] The Bishop Theodoret of Cyrus in Syria states that, at the festival of St. John, large fires were annually kindled in several towns, through which men, women, and children jumped; and that young children were carried through by their mothers. He considered this custom as an ancient Asiatic ceremony of purification, similar to that recorded of Ahaz, in II Kings, xvi. 3. Zonaras, Balsamon, and Photius speak of the St. John's fires in Constantinople, and the first looks upon them as the remains of an old Grecian custom. Even in modern times fires are still lighted on St. John's Day in Brittany and other remote parts of Continental Europe, through the smoke of which the cattle are driven in the belief that they will thus be protected from contagious and other diseases, and in these practices protective fumigation originated. That such different nations should have had the same idea of fixing the purification by fire on St. John's Day is a remarkable coincidence, which perhaps can be accounted for only by its analogy to baptism.

[62] Beckmann makes many other observations on this well-known circumstance. The priest named is the same who is still known in the nursery tales of children as the Knecht Ruprecht.

[63] Dass dir Sanct Veitstanz ankomme ("May you be seized with St. Vitus' dance").

[64] "This proceeding was, however, no invention of his, but an imitation of a usual mode of enchantment by means of wax figures (peri cunculas). The witches made a wax image of the person who was to be bewitched; and in order to torment him, they stuck it full of pins, or melted it before the fire. The books on magic, of the Middle Ages, are full of such things; though the reader who may wish to obtain information on this subject need not go so far back. Only eighty years since, the learned and celebrated Storch, of the school of Stahl, published a treatise on witchcraft, worthy of the fourteenth century."—Treatise on the Diseases of Children.

[65] Some authorities give twenty-nine.

[66] Selden, in his Table Talk, says: "There was once, I am sure, a parliamentary pope. Pope Urban was made pope in England by act of parliament, against Pope Clement: the act is not in the Book of Statutes, either because he that compiled the book would not have the name of the Pope there, or else he would not let it appear that they meddled with any such thing; but it is upon the rolls."

[67] A groat equalled fourpence, or eight cents.

[68] In Walsingham may be seen a long account of the death of the Archbishop, page 250. His head was carried in triumph through the streets on the point of a lance, and fixed on London bridge. That it might be the better known, the hat or bonnet worn by him was nailed to the skull.

[69] When Tresilian, one of the judges, tried the insurgents at St. Alban's, he impanelled three juries of twelve men each. The first was ordered to present all whom they knew to be the chiefs of the tumult, the second gave their opinion on the presentation of the first, and the third pronounced the verdict of guilty or not guilty. It does not appear that witnesses were examined. The juries spoke from their personal knowledge. Thus each convict was condemned on the oaths of thirty-six men. At first, on account of the multitude of executions, the condemned were beheaded: afterward they were hanged and left on the gibbet as objects of terror; but as their bodies were removed by their friends, the King ordered them to be hanged in chains, the first instance in which express mention of the practice is made. According to Holinshed the executions amounted to fifteen hundred.

[70] The readers, as might be expected, often surreptitiously copied portions of special interest. One is reminded of the story in ancient Irish history of a curious decision arising out of an incident of this kind nearly a thousand years before, which seems to have influenced the history of Christianity in Britain. St. Columb, on a visit to the aged St. Finian in Ulster, had permission to read in the Psalter belonging to his host. But every night while the good old saint was sleeping, the young one was busy in the chapel writing by a miraculous light till he had completed a copy of the whole Psalter. The owner of the Psalter, discovering this, demanded that it should be given up, as it had been copied unlawfully from his book; while the copyist insisted that, the materials of labor being his, he was entitled to what he had written. The dispute was referred to Diarmad, the King at Tara, and his decision (genuinely Irish) was given in St. Finian's favor. "To every book," said he, "belongs its son-book [copy], as to every cow belongs her calf." Columb complained of the decision as unjust, and the dispute is said to have been one of the causes of his leaving Ireland for Iona.

[71] Oliver Wendell Holmes: Autocrat of the Breakfast-table.

[72] A town in Schwyz. The name means a "hermitage." St. Meinrad, according to legend, lived there (ninth century) as a hermit. It is a celebrated pilgrim resort.—ED.

[73] He descended from Henry III both by father and mother. But he could not claim by the father's side, because the young Earl of March was sprung from the Duke of Clarence, the elder brother of John of Gaunt; nor by the mother's side, because she was sprung from Edmund of Lancaster, a younger brother of Edward I. It was pretended that Edmund was the elder brother, but deformed in body, and therefore set aside with his own consent. If we may believe Hardyng, Henry on September 21st produced in council a document to prove the seniority of Edmund over Edward, but that the contrary was shown by a number of unanswerable authorities.

[74] Charles IV.

[75] Allusion to John Ziska, leader of the Hussites, who waged a fierce war against Wenzel and the empire.

[76] Head of the House of Hohenzollern, Burggraves of Nuremberg.

[77] This was the Dauphin, afterward Charles VII, whose brother Jean, Duke of Burgundy, had, in 1407, procured the murder of the Duke of Orleans.

[78] To houspiller is to maul, pull about, abuse, "worry like a dog"; hence the name houspilleur.

[79] The English cardinal, most powerful ecclesiastic of the time.

[80] Assistant judges.

[81] Tipstaffs, constables.

[82] The Duke of Bedford (John of Lancaster), third son of Henry IV of England, was regent of England and France, which office he assumed on the death of Henry V, in 1422.

[83] The memory of Jeanne d'Arc was long and shamefully traduced by descendants of those enemies of France whom she baffled. Even Shakespeare (Henry VI) is so unjust to her—refining upon the brutal calumnies of the historians—as to grieve his most loving critics. It remained for the opening years of the twentieth century to see the Maid canonized by the Church which, as the agent of her country's foes, was instrumental in her destruction.—ED.

[84] Translated by Chauncey C. Starkweather, M.A., LL.B.

[85] The Catalan Grand Company was a formidable body of mercenary soldiers; it arose in Sicily during the wars that followed the Sicilian Vespers.

[86] See 1291.

[87] Date uncertain.

[88] Date uncertain.

[89] A specimen of an early speaking-tube exists, connecting the room said to have been occupied by Isabella with the old brewhouse, now a tavern, by means of which Mortimer was wont to communicate with his mistress. The castle stands upon a mount of 280 feet, sheer rock, and the brewhouse is at its base. A peculiarity of the tube, bored through the live rock, is an elbow-joint, which is a puzzle to scientists.

[90] Date uncertain.

[91] Often erroneously given as 1370, neglecting the fact that, by the old manner of reckoning, the year began on March 25th.

[92] Date uncertain.

[93] By the French it is claimed that Jean Charlier de Gerson was the author of de Imitatione Christi, usually attributed to Thomas a Kempis.

END OF VOLUME VII