se to the same measures to bring his
kingdom to obedience which his predecessor, William, had used to conquer
it. He promised to the adventurers in his quarrel the lands of the
rebellious barons, and it is said even empowered his agents to make
charters of the estates of several particulars. The utmost success
attended these negotiations in an age when Europe abounded with a
warlike and poor nobility, with younger brothers, for whom there was no
provision in regular armies, who seldom entered into the Church, and
never applied themselves to commerce, and when every considerable family
was surrounded by an innumerable multitude of retainers and dependants,
idle, and greedy of war and pillage. The Crusade had universally
diffused a spirit of adventure; and if any adventure had the Pope's
approbation, it was sure to have a number of followers.

John waited the effect of his measures. He kept up no longer the solemn
mockery of a court, in which a degraded long must always have been the
lowest object. He retired to the Isle of Wight: his only companions were
sailors and fishermen, among whom he became extremely popular. Never was
he more to be dreaded than in this sullen retreat, whilst the barons
amused themselves by idle jests and vain conjectures on his conduct.
Such was the strange want of foresight in that barbarous age, and such
the total neglect of design in their affairs, that the barons, when,
they had got the charter, which was weakened even by the force by which
it was obtained and the great power which it granted, set no watch upon
the king, seemed to have no intelligence of the great and open
machinations which were carrying on against them, and had made no sort
of dispositions for their defence. They spent their time in tournaments
and bear-baitings, and other diversions suited to the fierce rusticity
of their manners. At length the storm broke forth, and found them
utterly unprovided. The Papal excommunication, the indignation of their
prince, and a vast army of lawless and bold adventurers were poured
down at once upon their heads. Such numbers were engaged in this
enterprise that forty thousand are said to have perished at sea. Yet a
number still remained sufficient to compose two great armies, one of
which, with the enraged king at its head, ravaged without mercy the
North of England, whilst the other turned all the West to a like scene
of blood and desolation. The memory of Stephen's wars was renewed, with