believed that the Saint was come to assist them in person, and under this impression were excited to a degree of enthusiasm which made them irresistible. The Count himself, rushing upon the Emir of Palermo, unhorsed and slew him, in spite of the chain armor in which he thought himself safe. The Saracens fled in confusion, and the Normans remained masters of the field. At length, when the important town of Bari had submitted, the Duke felt himself at liberty to leave Calabria, and in the spring of 1072 the two brothers proceeded to invest the Saracenic capital, Palermo. Robert posted himself on the west of the city, the Count was encamped on the east, and a Norman fleet blockaded the port. The siege lasted five months, in the course of which various gallant exploits were performed on both sides, as well by sea as by land. At length some of the Sicilian Christians who were in the service of the Saracens secretly informed the Duke that they could facilitate his entrance into the citadel. The assault was then resolved upon. The Count advanced upon the eastern side, the fleet menaced the harbor, whilst the Duke, under cover of some gardens, applied his scaling ladders to the western walls. After a severe struggle, the Normans were in possession of the upper town and citadel. The Saracens retreated within the walls of one of the suburbs, but aware that any prolonged defence was now hopeless, they offered, the next morning, to lay down their arms, if they might remain in possession of their property, adhere to their own religion, and be governed by their own laws. The Duke at once accepted their proposal; and this example, which was followed on subsequent occasions, greatly facilitated the conquest of the remainder of the island. When this important point was arranged, the two brothers made their triumphal entry into Palermo at the head of their troops, and sending for Nicodemus, the Greek Archbishop, who during the sway of the Saracens had been restricted to a miserable chapel, they reinstated him in his own cathedral, which had been turned into a mosque. The Duke remained one year at Palermo, and then returned to Calabria, conceding to his brother the entire dominion of Sicily, save and except Palermo, with the beauty and magnificence of which he was so much captivated that he could never bring himself to give up the jurisdiction of the capital. From this time Roger assumed the title of Count of Sicily. Over the various population by which Sicily was inhabited Roger presided with strict impartiality. All were governed by their own laws: the Greeks by the Code of Justinian; the Normans by the Coutoumier de Normandie; and the Saracens by the Koran. In consequence, during the reign of the Count, all were contented, and all lived harmoniously together. It was not till afterwards that the Saracens discovered they were a conquered people. At this time four languages were commonly used in Sicily, the Greek, the Latin, the Arabic, and the Norman. All laws and deeds were published in three tongues, and Arabic inscriptions were seen on the reverse of the coins. To what may be attributed the astonishing triumphs of the Normans, as well over victorious Saracens as over degenerate Greeks? It was partly the armor in which they were encased, partly the character of their antagonists, partly local jealousies in Calabria the enmity of the Lombards to the Greeks; in Sicily the enmity of the Greeks to the Saracens. But the causes of their uniform success are chiefly to be found in the manly and martial exercises to which the Normans were accustomed from their earliest years; in the chivalrous and adventurous spirit of the age, which excited their minds; and, above all, in that confidence in self which makes the soldier invincible. Each individual Norman was, in effect, a legion.-H. G. KNIGHT. HENRY III. HENRY III., King of England, was born at Pembroke was appointed Regent, and the first act of the new reign was to confirm Magna Charta, its sixty-one chapters having been reduced to forty-two. Parliament began to consider it as the fundamental law of the nation, and its observance as the condition of their grants. Pembroke having died in the third year of his regency, the power was divided between Hubert de Burgh and Peter de Roches, a Poitevin, who was Bishop of Winchester. They did not agree, and Pandulph, the Pope's legate, had much trouble in preventing an open quarrel. However, when Henry was declared of age at seventeen, De Burgh became chief favorite and De Roches retired from the kingdom. Meanwhile, on the 17th of May, 1220, Henry, in consequence of some doubts being entertained about the efficacy of the former ceremony, had been crowned a second time at Westminster, by Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury. A war broke out with France in 1225, which, however, was carried on with little spirit on either side, and produced no events of note, although Henry, in May, 1230, conducted in person an expedition to the Continent, from which great things were expected by himself and his subjects. He incurred the charge of having wasted his own time and the people's money in idle revelry, but he cast the blame on De Burgh, who speedily fell into disgrace. An account of money received during his time of office was demanded; he could not give it, and fled to the altar of Boisars Church, whence he was carried, half naked and tied on a horse, to London. The king, fearing that the violation of a sanctuary would rouse the anger of the priests, sent him back, but ordered the sheriff to blockade the building. A moat was dug, palisades were raised round the church, and in forty days hunger forced Hubert to yield. Transferred from prison to prison, he at length escaped to Wales, and after some time made his peace with the king. One of the first false steps taken by Henry III. was in thus discarding his ablest and most faithful minister. His marriage, in 1236, with Eleanor, daughter of the Count of Provence, contributed to subject him to foreign influence. She was accompanied to England by a large train of aliens, among whom were many Italians. To these rapacious and unprincipled aliens Henry gave free scope, and he also received De Roches back again to favor. This minister's administration was a steady course of insulting preference for his countrymen and other foreigners, and of open hostility to the Great Charter and the whole body of the national liberties. It speedily proved unbearable to both barons and commons, and a confederacy of the laity and the clergy, with Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, at its head, compelled the dismissal of De Roches within little more than a year after his restoration to power. The archbishop now became chief minister. Henry, at the urgent request of his mother, who had married her old lover, the Count of Marche, engaged in a second war with Louis; but this expedition was still more unfortunate and disgraceful than the former. After being beaten by Louis in a succession of actions, he was glad to get home again, with the loss of army, money, baggage, and everything. A new truce for five years was then agreed to between the two countries. These events of course did not tend to put the nation in better humor with the king, or to dispose the Parliament to greater liberality. In 1253 he, however, succeeded in obtaining a grant of money by consenting to a solemn ratification of Magna Charta. Sir Edward Coke states that this document has been ratified in all thirtytwo times. Grievances accumulated and excited continual efforts on the part of the nobles and people to enforce redress. Henry's unadvised acceptance of the crown of Sicily, offered him by the Pope, involved him in vast debts, which he in vain applied to the Parliament to discharge. In consequence of this continued misgovernment, the Barons at length revolted under Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, the king's brother-in-law. His desertion of Henry, together with the departure for Germany of Richard, the king's younger brother, who had greatly distinguished himself in the Fourth Crusade, and had just been created King of the Romans, shook the throne, and raised the hopes of those who desired its overthrow. At Westminster the Barons came to the council in full armor; and, when they again assembled at Oxford, June 11, 1258, in what is called the "Mad Parliament," they placed the whole authority of the State in the hands of a committee of government, consisting of twelve persons appointed by the barons and as many by the king. This committee enacted-1. That four knights should come to Parliament to represent the freeholders of every county; 2. That sheriffs should be chosen annually by vote; 3. That accounts of the public money should be given every year; 4. That Parliament should meet three times a year-in February, June, and October. But reform was delayed by disunion among the Barons; and St. Louis, King of France, being chosen umpire, decided in Henry's favor. This kindled the civil war. Leicester held London, and when the great bell of St. Paul's rang out, the citizens flocked round his banner with riot, and revelled in the pillage of foreign merchants and the murder of unhappy |