xcept that there is nothing
so incredible but may be believed to proceed from the folly and
wickedness of John.
[FN [f] P. 169.]

The monks throw great reproaches on this prince for his impiety and
even infidelity; and as an instance of it, they tell us, that having
one day caught a very fat stag, he exclaimed, HOW PLUMP AND WELL FED
IS THIS ANIMAL! AND YET, I DARE SWEAR, HE NEVER HEARD MASS [g]. This
sally of wit upon the usual corpulency of the priests, more than all
his enormous crimes and iniquities, made him pass with them for an
atheist.

John left two legitimate sons behind him; Henry, born on the first of
October, 1207, and now nine years of age; and Richard, born on the
sixth of January, 1209; and three daughters; Jane, afterwards married
to Alexander King of Scots; Eleanor, married first to William
Mareschal the younger, Earl of Pembroke, and then to Simon Mountfort,
Earl of Leicester; and Isabella, married to the Emperor Frederic II.
All these children were born to him by Isabella of Angoulesme, his
second wife. His illegitimate children were numerous, but none of
them were anywise distinguished.

It was this king who, in the ninth year of his reign, first gave by
charter, to the city of London, the right of electing, annually, a
mayor out of its own body, an office which was till now held for life.
He gave the city also power to elect and remove its sheriffs at
pleasure, and its common-councilmen annually. London-bridge was
finished in this reign. The former bridge was of wood. Maud, the
empress, was the first that built a stone bridge in England.
[FN [g] M. Paris, p. 170.]

APPENDIX II.

THE FEUDAL AND ANGLO-NORMAN GOVERNMENT AND MANNERS.

ORIGIN OF THE FEUDAL LAW.--ITS PROGRESS.--FEUDAL GOVERNMENT OF
ENGLAND.--THE FEUDAL PARLIAMENT.--THE COMMONS.--JUDICAL POWER.--
REVENUE OF THE CROWN.--COMMERCE.--THE CHURCH.--CIVIL LAWS.--MANNERS.

The feudal law is the chief foundation, both of the political
government and of the jurisprudence established by the Normans in
England. Our subject therefore requires, that we should form a just
idea of this law, in order to explain the state, as well of that
kingdom, as of all other kingdoms of Europe, which, during those ages,
were governed by similar institutions. And though I am sensible, that
I must here repeat many observations and reflections which have been
communicated by others [a]; yet, as every book, agreeably to the
observation of a gre