with his son Eustace, when he and Henry Plantagenet sought to restore peace to England, and nothing but Eustace’s death made a settlement possible.  William Rufus, the Red King, who was the second of the Norman sovereigns of England, had no legitimate children, for he was never married.  He was a jolly bachelor, and as such he has had the honor of having his history written by one of the ablest literary ladies of our time, Miss Agnes Strickland.  He was the only king of England, who arrived at years of indiscretion, who did not marry.  The other bachelor kings were Edward V. and Edward VI., whose united ages were short of thirty years.  His character does not tend to make the single state of man respected.  “Never did a ruler die less regretted than William Rufus,” says Dr. Lappenberg, “although still young, being little above forty, not a usurper, and successful in his undertakings.  He was never married, and, besides the crafty and officious tools of his power, was surrounded only by a few Normans of quality, and harlots.  In his last struggle with the clergy, the most shameless rapacity is especially prominent, and so glaring, that, notwithstanding some exaggerations and errors that may be pointed out in the Chronicles, he still appears in the same light.  Effeminacy, drunkenness, gluttony, dissoluteness, and unnatural crimes were the distinguishing characteristics of his court.  He was himself an example of incontinence.”  This is a nice character to travel with down the page of history.  He quarrelled with his brothers, and with his uncle, and kept up the family character in an exceedingly satisfactory manner, considering that he was unmarried.  The statement that he was slain by Walter Tirel, accidentally, in the New Forest, is now disregarded.  Our theory of his death is, that he fell a victim to the ambition of his brother, Henry I., who succeeded him, and who certainly had good information as to his fall, and made good use of it, like a sensible fellow.

Of all the royal races of the Middle Ages, no one stands out more boldly on the historic page than the Plantagenets, who ruled over England from 1154 to 1485, the line of descent being frequently broken, and family quarrels constantly occurring.  They were a bold and an able race, and if they had possessed a closer resemblance to the Hapsburgs, they would have become masters of Western Europe; but their quarrelsome disposition more than undid all that they could effect through the exercise of their talents.  On the female side they were descended from the Conqueror; and, as we have seen, the Conqueror’s family was one in which sons rebelled against the fathers, and brother fought with brother.  Matilda, daughter of Henry I., became the wife of Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, and from their union came Henry II., first of the royal Plantagenets.  Now the Angevine Plantagenets were “a hard set,” as we should say in these days.  Dissensions were common enough in the family, and they descended to the offspring of