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An Abridgment of the History of England, to the Death of George Ii, and Continued to the Present Time by an Eminent Historian
An Abridgment of the History of England to the Death of George Ii and Continued to the Present Time by an Eminent Historian Author:Oliver Goldsmith General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1805 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: 49 CHAPTER X. JO TIN. JOHN, who was readily put in possession of the English throne, lost no time to second his interest on the continent; and his first care was to recover the revolted provinces from young Arthur, his nephew. But from the pride and cruelty of his temper, he soon became hateful to his subjects ; and his putting his nephew, Arthur, who had a right to the crown, to death, with his own hands, in prison, served to render him completely odious. Hitherto John was rather hateful to his subjects than contemptible; they rather dreaded than despised him. But he soon showed that he might be offended, if not without resentment, at least with impunity. It was the fate of this vicious prince to make those the enemies of himself whom he wanted abilities to make the enemies of each other. The clergy had for some time acted as a community independent of the crown, and had the elections of each other generally confirmed by the pope, to whom alone they owed subjection. However, the election of archbishops had for some time been a continual subject of dispute between the suffragan bishops and the Augustine monks, and both had precedents to confirm their pretensions. John sided with the bishops, and sent two knights of his train, who were fit instruments for such a prince, to expel the monks from their convent, and to take possession of their revenues. The pope was not displeased at these divisions, and instead of electing either of the persons appointed by the contending parties, he nominated Stephen Langton, as archbishop of Canterbury. John, however, refusing to admit the man of the pope's choosing, ...« less