Little Arthur's history of England

I think that Henry of Hereford did not act rightly in taking the kingdom from his cousin Richard, but he became a good king for England. He was the first king of the family of Lancaster, and is sometimes called Henry of Lancaster.

During the fourteen years Henry was king he was chiefly busy in making or improving laws for the people.

He had little foreign war to disturb him; but the Welsh and Scotch several times made war upon the English who lived nearest to them. There was in Henry’s days a very famous Scotch earl called James of Douglas, and he came into the north of England and began to burn the villages, and rob the people, until the Earl of Northumberland, whose name was Percy, and his son, Henry Hotspur, gathered their soldiers together, and went to fight Douglas, at a place called Holmedon, and they beat him, and took a great many prisoners.

In those days it was the custom for everybody to do as they pleased with the prisoners they took. A cruel man might kill them, another might make slaves of them; one, a little kinder, might say, “If your friends will send me some money, I will let you go;” but the kindest of all would let them go home again without paying for it.

Now King Henry had a dispute with Earl Percy about those Scotch prisoners, and Percy and his son were so affronted, that they determined to make a civil war, and they were joined by several English lords; but the person who helped them most was a Welsh gentleman, named Owen Glendower, who was related to the old princes of Wales.

He was very angry with King Henry the Fourth, because he thought he behaved ill to Wales, which was his own country; besides, he had been a friend of poor Richard the Second; and though he might have thought it right to keep him in prison, he could not bear to think of his having been put to death.

These reasons made him join the Percys, and they collected a very large army to fight against King Henry. The Earl Percy’s son was called Harry Hotspur, because he was very impatient, as well as very brave. Indeed, he and the young Prince of Wales, who was called Henry of Monmouth, were the two bravest young men in England. The king’s army met the army that Percy and Owen Glendower had raised against him near Shrewsbury, and then everybody thought a great deal about the two young Harrys, who were both so brave and handsome. The battle was fought, and the king gained the victory. Henry of Monmouth behaved as bravely as the Black Prince used to do, and he was not hurt in the battle. Harry Hotspur was equally brave, but he was killed. Oh! civil war is a sad thing. There was one of the finest young noblemen in England killed among Englishmen, who ought to have agreed, and helped, and loved one another, instead of fighting.

Perhaps you will wonder why I mention the young noblemen particularly, when so many other Englishmen were killed; and you will wonder if it is of any use that there should be noblemen.

I think it is, and I will tell you why. The first noblemen were those men who had been either very good in all things, or who had found out something useful for everybody, or who had been very brave in battle, or very wise in giving good advice.

These their companions called Nobles, and paid them great respect, and gave them more lands, and goods, and money, than other people. And in the Bible you read that the names of those men who do rightly shall be remembered. Now when a man has been made a noble, and his name is remembered because he is good, or manly, or clever, or brave, or wise, his sons will say to themselves, “Our dear father has been made a noble, because he was good or brave; we must be good or brave, or useful too, that people may see that he taught us well, and that we know how to love and honour him, by following his good example.” Then their children will think of how good both their father and grandfather were, and that they will not do anything that they would not have liked, and so they will try to keep the good and noble name one after another, as it was given to the first of their grandfathers. If the young nobles do this properly, you know they will always be ready to do good to their country, by helping to make good laws, and to do justice in time of peace, and to fight for the safety and glory of their own land in time of war, as their fathers did. Then they will say to themselves, “I am noble and rich, and other people will look up to me; I must, therefore, try to be better than others, that I may set a good example to the young, and that those who are old enough to remember my father and grandfather may think I have done as well as they did.”

The nobles of England are useful to the country. As they are rich enough to live without working for themselves and their families, they have time to be always ready when the king wants advice; or when there is a parliament to make laws; or when the king wishes to send messages to other kings. And as their forefathers were made noble because of their goodness, wisdom, or bravery, they have in general followed their example; and they have always, next after the king, been the people we have loved best, and who have done us the most good.

The noblemen made King John do justice to the people, and give them the good laws written in the Great Charter. The noblemen prevented the foolish Kings Henry the Third and Richard the Second from doing a great deal of mischief, and they helped our good Kings Henry the Second, Edward the First, and Edward the Third to do all the good and useful things I have told you of. So you see that noblemen have been of great use in England.

When you are older you will understand this better, and you will find out many more reasons to be glad that we have noblemen in our own dear country.

Henry the Fourth died at Westminster, when he had been king only fourteen years. He was wise and just, except in one thing; and that was, that he punished persons who did not agree with the bishops about the proper way to worship God. Some good men, called Lollards, who loved to read the Bible in English, were put in prison, and otherwise ill-used, on that account.