A.C. another ruled in Castille, and the third over Avignon. In the course of the twelfth century, the male line of the three branches became extinct, and three heiresses, each springing from the three kingdoms, married three French princes.

The heiress of Navarre, espoused the count of Champagne. The heiress of Castille, married Raymond, issue of the Counts of Burgundy; and

The heiress of Arragon, was united to the count of Barcelona, descended from French parents.

910

936

940

941

942

948

950

960

It is requisite to remark that during the present century not a single new heresy crept into the church; in lieu of which, however, it proved the most corrupt æra that had charac terized the Romish church. In the monasteries there were lay abbots, with their wives, children, soldiers, and hounds; such being the account as handed down from the fathers of the council of Troslé, convened in 909. In this century monks still inherited from their parents; but it was otherwise with the laity, as they could not inherit from their parents who were monks, on which account all the wealth of families necessarily devolved to the religious institutions, and this accounts for the enormous revenues they subsequently enjoyed.

IN THIS CENTURY FLOURISHED,

Rhazes, a famous Arabian physician, astronomer, and che

mist.

Azophi, an Arabian astronomer.

Eutychius, patriarch of Alexandria.

He produced, in the Arabic tongue, annals from the creation to the year 940, the period of his death.

Cameniatus, John, of Thessalonica. He wrote a history of the taking of that city by the Saracens, in 904.

Genesius, of Constantinople; who wrote a history of Greece, from 813 to 886.

Eudes, of Cluny, a French writer.

Luitprand, bishop of Cremona; author of a history of his own time.

Alfragan, a native of Fargana, in Persia; who wrote upon astronomy.

Alfarabi, a celebrated Arabian; who wrote on the Aristotelian philosophy.

Geber, the Arabian, a celebrated physician and chemist;

of whose labours Boerhaave asserts that many things are found A.C. in his writings concerning chemical experiments, which have since been produced to the world as new.

Leoncius, of Byzantium; author of a chronography.

966

Suidas, a Greek writer; author of an historical dictionary. 979 Dudo, dean of St. Quentin, in Vermandois; who penned 993 a history of the first dukes of Normandy.

ELEVENTH CENTURY,

FROM 1000 TO 1100.

Paper, made of cotton rags, was at this period in use; 1000 that formed from linen rags was introduced in 1170; and the manufacture established in England, at Dartford, in 1588.

Ethelred, king of England, observing the close connexion 1001 that subsisted among the Danes, considered an alliance with. that formidable people the best means of ensuring tranquillity to his realm. He consequently solicited in marriage Emma, sister to Richard, second duke of Normandy, who accepted his proposals, and repairing to England, was married to Ethelred. After this politic step, the king, desirous of securing himself against any treachery on the part of those Danes who were settled in Northumberland and East Anglia, determined to have recourse to the basest treachery. A plot was, in consequence, laid, and so secretly carried on that it was every where executed on the 13th of November, 1002, on which occasion even Gunilda, sister of the Danish king, and wife of Earl Paling, who had embraced Christianity, was condemned to be slaughtered by Ethelred, after seeing her husband and progeny butchered before her eyes.

The emperor Otho the Third died at the fortress of Pa- 1002 terno, near Verona, after governing the Western Empire for 18 years. Henry, duke of Bavaria, surnamed the Saint, was elected in his place by the German princes, and crowned at Mayence, by the archbishop of that city, on the 17th of June, and a few days after at Aix-la-Chapelle, by Heribert, archbishop of Cologne; his wife Cunigund being also anointed at Paderborn.

Several German nobles were desirous of annulling the election, but Henry rendered their efforts abortive. Ardouin, marquis of Ivree, assumed the title of king of Italy, but two

A.C. years after the emperor Henry proceeded to that country at the head of a powerful army, when he subjected all the par

1004

1005

1007

1009

1012

1013

tisans of Ardouin.

Robert, king of France, married Bertha, widow of Eudes, count of Chartres, and daughter of the king of Burgundy : as she was related to Robert, in the fourth degree, pope Silvester menaced him with excommunication, in case he did not immediately separate from her. King Robert, however, determined to resist, when the pope placed the kingdom of France under an interdict, and pronounced his anathema against the monarch.

John the Sixteenth was elected pope.

John the Seventeenth mounted the papal chair.
John the Eighteenth was raised to the papacy.

At this period cathedrals and churches were first erected in the Gothic style of architecture.

Swein, the Danish king, being informed of the massacre of his countrymen in England, by order of Ethelbert, landed on the western coast, meditating slaughter and the bitterest vengeance. A dreadful famine at that period raged throughout the island, so that the English dispirited, heard nothing but accounts of sacking and burning their towns, &c., which took place in every quarter, without experiencing the least resistance. Thus, overwhelmed with calamities, the English submitted until the present year, (1007,) when by the payment of 30,000 pounds, levied by way of a tax, called Danegelt, and which was the first land-tax raised in England, they obtained a precarious peace.

Sergius the Fourth succeeded to the papal dignity.
Benedict the Eighth was advanced to the papacy.

Boleslas, king of Poland, made an irruption into Pomeranian Saxony, when the emperor Henry, having ratified a truce with that monarch, marched to Italy, defeated Ardouin, who had re-assumed the title of king of Lombardy, and penetrated into Calabria.

Ethelred, king of England, after purchasing peace of Swein, the Dane, in 1007, had collected a fleet to oppose

This excommunication, being the first thundered against France, struck terror into the French people. The nobles absented themselves from their sovereign as from one assailed by the plague; even his attendants fled his person; so that he was abandoned by all but two domestics, who did not dare touch any vessel that had passed through his hands; every article left at his table being, therefore, consigned to the flames. Having resisted the papal ordinance during three years, Robert ultimately repudiated Bertha, and espoused Constance, daughter of Wil. liam Taillefer, count of Toulouse.

any fresh attempts at invasion; when the Danes, considering A.C. such armament sufficient motive for a fresh incursion, again landed, when a new peace was purchased by the English for the sum of 48,000 pounds. This did not, however, tend to bind the Danes, who, disregarding all engagements, renewed their depredations, and murdered the archbishop of Canterbury, who had refused to tolerate the levy of 8000 pounds more. Harassed and driven to despair, the English nobility at length found that there remained no other resource but submitting to the Danish monarch, to whom they in conse quence swore allegiance, giving him hostages for their fidelity. Ethelred equally intimidated, fled to Normandy, whither he had previously sent his queen and two sons, Alfred and Edward; when Richard, duke of Normandy, welcomed them with a generosity that confers honour to his memory.

Basilius, emperor of the East, marched into Bulgaria, attacked the barbarians, whom he completely overthrew, and then caused the eyes to be put out of 15,000 prisoners, leaving only a man in every hundred the use of one eye, for the purpose of serving his unfortunate brethren as captain and conductor.

During this year a law was enacted in England forbidding 1015 the sale of children by their parents, which had been previously tolerated.

The Normans began to make incursions in Italy, where 1016 they formed establishments which ultimately gave rise to the kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

On the demise of Swein, the Danish prince, king Ethelred seized that favourable opportunity, and repaired from Normandy to England, for the purpose of re-mounting his throne; but his misconduct, indolence, credulity, and cowardice obstructed all success. Thus, after beholding the major part of his kingdom invaded, and having refused to head his troops against the enemy, he retired to London, where he died, after an inglorious reign of 35 years; when his eldest son Edmund, alike succeeded to his throne and his misfortunes; being surnamed Ironside, fifteenth monarch from the heptarchy.

Edmund Ironside, so called from his bold opposition to the enemies of his country, had to contend with one of the most vigilant and powerful monarchs of Europe, as Canute, subsequently surnamed the Great, had succeeded Swein, as king of Denmark and generalissimo of the Danish forces in England. In the first conflict, Edmund obtained some indecisive advantages; in the second, the Danes were victors; yet the persevering Edmund had still resources; and assem

A.C. bling a fresh army at Gloucester, was again able to dispute the field, when the Danish and English nobility, equally harassed with intestine convulsions, compelled their respective monarchs to divide the kingdom between them. It was, in consequence, agreed at Gloucester, that Canute should possess the northern division, comprising Mercia, East Anglia, and Northumberland; the southern districts being left to Edmund, who being murdered a month after by his two chamberlains, at Oxford, Canute became peaceable possessor of the whole realm, being sixteenth monarch from the heptarchy.

1022

The following year, Olaus, king of Norway, took advantage of the absence of Canute, king of Denmark, to ravage his territory; upon which the latter returned from England to avenge the outrage, when he penetrated into Norway, drove out Olaus, and took possession of his dominions, by which means Canute became the monarch over three kingdoms.

Canute, anxious to cover his usurpation of the throne of England, bought over many of the nobles, and bestowed titles upon others; but as their power increased, he resumed such grants, banished the nobles who had accepted them, and condemned others to death, fully sensible that those who had betrayed their legitimate monarch, would never be true to him. Edmund's two eldest sons being removed to Hungary, Canute considered that as a security to his government, and his only anxiety, therefore, was respecting Alfred and Edward, who were protected and supported by their uncle Richard, duke of Normandy. Canute, fully conscious of what was to be apprehended from such a competitor, offered to espouse the duke's sister, Queen Emma, widow of Ethelred, binding himself to leave the English crown to the children he should have by such marriage; when Richard complied, and Emma became the wife of Canute the Dane.

While the court of France remained at Orleans, it was discovered that many persons of both sexes had become the followers of Manes, and embraced the heresy from him denominated Manicheeism; the queen's confessor being at their head. King Robert, in consequence, assembled a council, by which all favourers of that doctrine were condemned to the flames.

Henry, emperor of the West, and Robert, king of France, had an interview at Yvoy, (Ardennes, also called Carignan,) respecting their several pretensions to Burgundy and Lower Lorraine; when they terminated their differences, and fixed certain limits to their respective possessions.