THE SEVEN EDWARDS.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 25 March 1901, Page 4

THE SEVEN EDWARDS.

Kings of England. Edward I. was tiie son of Henry HI. He delivered his father from the Earl of Leicester by the victory of Evesham, 1205, and took part in the first Crusade in 1270. He it was who ordered the death of Sir William Wallace, taken prisoner by treachery; but he was subsequently defeated by Robert Bruce, and died in 1307 on (he borders of Scotland, which he was threatening for the third lime with the direst slavery. Edward 11. was the son and successor of Edward I. He married Isabelle, sister of Charles Le Bel, King of France; was a weak and indolent monarch, neglecting business for pleasure, so much so that Isabelle had him deposed by Parliament. The Silencers and his unworthy favorite, Gaveston, were hanged, and Edward was horribly murdered at Berkeley Castle. Two years after his death the victory of Bannockburn gave independence to Scotland, and tiie crown of that country to Robert Bruce (1314). Edward 111. was the son of Edward 11. and of Isabelle of Franco- He signed a treaty of peace with Charles Le Bel, King of France, bis uncle, who died without prosterity in 1328. He disputed the Crown of France against Philip VI., of the House of Valois, cousin of the late King. Persuaded by Arteville, ha took the title of King of France invaded Normandy, advanced on Paris, and, with the aid of oannons, won tho battle of Orecy, in which 30,000 French were killed. Following his success, lie took Calais, after a siege of eleven months. He and his son the Black Prince were soon after beaten back by Bertrand Be Guesclin and Clisson. Edward lost all his conquests except Calais and Bordeaux, the former of which remained in possession of the English to the reign of Mary. Edward and his son, tho Prince of Wales, known as the Black Prince, from the color of his armour, died during a truce with the French (1375-1377). It was this monarch who founded tho Order of the Garter.

Edward IY. was the eldest son of Henry YL, of the House of York, and of Marguerite D’Anjou. He was proclaimed King under the title of Edward IV. by Warwick at the beginning of the war of the two Eoses, which lasted thirty years, and destroyed more than one mi l Hon of men, and nearly the whole English nobility. The reign of Edward IV. was also troubled by the revolt of the Duke of Clarence, whom Edward, at the instigation of the Duke of Gloucester (Clarence’s brother), ordered to be drowned in a hogshead of Malvoisy wine. Gloucester, from crimes to crimes, marched to his end. Edward IV. delivered him from Clarence ; a few years later poison delivered him from Edward (1483). Edward IV. left two young sons —Edward V. and Eichard —under the guardianship of Gloucester, who made them perish in the London Tower by one Jaeque Tyrrell. Gloucester then usurped the Throne, and reigned under the title of Eichard 111.

Edward Y. was the son of Edward IV. He did not reign, having perished in the Tower. Owing to his Crimea he was known as the Negro of England. Ho did not enjoy the throne very long, however, having been defeated and killed at the battle of Bosworth (1485) by Henry Tudor of Richmond. Henry Tudor belonged, by his mother Marguerite, to the House of Lancaster. The death of Eichard 111. put an end to the Plantagenet dynasty. Henry Tudor, by his marriage with Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward IV., gathered, under the name of Henry VII., the rights of both Houses of York and Lancaster, and by this means ended the sanguinary quarrel of the two Eoses.

Edward yi. Edward VI. was the son of Henry VIII. and of Jane Seymour. Ho was still a child when he succeeded his father. The Duke of Sommertet took the title of Eegont or Protector. Lord Seymour, his brother, who disputed him that title, perished on the scaffold (1549). The Duke of Somerset himself soon afterwards mounted the scaffold (1552), through the influence of the Duke of Northumberland.

The young King, Edward VI., died in 1553, and the Duke of Northumberland caused to be proclaimed Queen of England Jane Grey, great-grandaughter of Henry VIII., to the exclusion of Mary and Elizabeth, the former daughter of Catherine of Arragon, the latter daughter of Annie Boleyn (1553). Mary Tudor claimed the Throne and appealed to arms; Northumberland and Jane Grey were executed. Mary then reigned from 1553 to 1558.

Edward YII. It is hardly necessary to say that Edward VII., who has just ascended the Throne, is the eldest son of the great Queen Victoria. His life has been so fully narrated of late and is so familiar to all of us that any additional details are superfluous.