ried Constance of Brittany, and their son Arthur, named after
the Keltic hero, had been urged as a rival claimant for the English
throne. Shakespeare has not exaggerated the cruel fate of this boy,
whose monstrous uncle really purposed having his eyes burnt out, being
sure that if he were blind he would no longer be eligible for king.
But death is surer even than blindness, and Hubert, his merciful
protector from one fate, was powerless to avert the other. Some one
was found with "heart as hard as hammered iron," who put an end to the
young life (1203) at the Castle of Rouen.

But the King of England, was vassal to the King of France, and Philip
summoned John to account to him for this deed. When John refused to
appear, the French provinces were torn from him. In 1204 he saw an
Empire stretching from the English Channel to the Pyrenees vanish from
his grasp, and was at one blow reduced to the realm of England.

{49}

When we see on the map, England as she was in that day, sprawling in
unwieldy fashion over the western half of France, we realize how much
stronger she has been on "that snug little island, that right little,
tight little island," and we can see that John's wickedness helped her
to be invincible.

The destinies of England in fact rested with her worst king. His
tyranny, brutality, and disregard of his subjects' rights, induced a
crisis which laid the corner-stone of England's future, and buttressed
her liberties for all time.

At a similar crisis in France, two centuries later, the king (Charles
VII.) made common cause with the people against the barons or dukes.
In England, in the 13th Century, the barons and people were drawn
together against the King. They framed a Charter, its provisions
securing protection and justice to every freeman in England. On Easter
Day, 1215, the barons, attended by two thousand armed knights, met the
King near Oxford, and demanded his signature to the paper. John was
awed, and asked them to {50} name a day and place. "Let the day be the
15th of June, and the place Runnymede," was the reply.

A brown, shrivelled piece of parchment in the British Museum to-day,
attests to the keeping of this appointment. That old Oak at Runnymede,
under whose spreading branches the name of John was affixed to the
Magna Charta, was for centuries held the most sacred spot in England.

It is an impressive picture we get of John, "the Lord's Anointed," when
this scene was over, in