e King
of France to help them to fight John, and to turn him out.

[Illustration: ROBIN HOOD]

John ran away when he heard that the French were coming. He left his
friends to fight his battles, and went off, wrecking the castles of the
barons who had asked the French Prince to come over, and who were now
with him. Then someone told the barons that the French Prince was
determined to cut off all their heads as soon as he had got England for
his own. So they saw how foolish they had been to ask him to come and
help them. John was in Lincolnshire, and was coming across the sands at
the Wash, but the tide suddenly came in and swept away his crown, his
treasure, his food, and everything was lost in the sea. King John was
very miserable at losing all his treasures, and he tried to drown his
sorrows by drinking a lot of beer and eating much more than was good for
him. This brought on a fever, and he died miserably, with no one at all
to be sorry for him.

[Sidenote: A.D. 1216.]

He was and is the best-hated of all our English kings.

There was much danger in travelling in those days, for robbers used to
hide in the woods and lonely places, and to attack and rob travellers.
Many of the nobles themselves who were in attendance on the King, being
often unable to get their proper pay, either belonged to these robber
bands or secretly helped them, and shared with them the plunder they
took from those they robbed. The best known of these robbers was the
famous Robin Hood, who lived in the time of King Richard and King John.
He is supposed to have been a nobleman, and to have had his hiding place
in Sherwood Forest, and he is said to have been kind and merciful to
the poor, and to have helped them out of the money and good things he
stole from the rich. Many songs about him have come down to us. The poor
suffered in those old days many and great hardships at the hands of the
nobles of England, who indeed robbed and oppressed them very cruelly. So
they were ready enough to sing the praises of one who stole only from
the rich and who gave to the poor.

[Illustration]

[Illustration: HENRY THE THIRD.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1216.]

HENRY THE THIRD was crowned at Gloucester when he was only nine years
old. You remember that King John's crown had been lost in the Wash with
his other treasures, so they crowned Henry with a gold bracelet of his
mother's. The lords who attended the coronation banquet wore white
ribbons round th