A Child's History of England, by Charles Dickens (World classics): Great Britain-History Juvenile literature, genealogy - Paperback

by Charles Dickens (Author)

A Child's History of England is a book by Charles Dickens which appeared first in serial form in Household Words, running from January 25, 1851 to December 10, 1853.The history covered the period between 50 BC and 1689, ending with a chapter summarising events from then until the accession of Queen Victoria. When the people found that they were none the better for the blessings of the Druids, and none the worse for the curses of the Druids, but, that the sun shone and the rain fell without consulting the Druids at all, they just began to think that the Druids were mere men, and that it signified very little whether they cursed or blessed. After which, the pupils of the Druids fell greatly off in numbers, and the Druids took to other trades. Ch. I: Ancient England and the Romans Some became Crusaders for the love of change; some, in the hope of plunder; some, because they had nothing to do at home; some, because they did what the priests told them; some, because they liked to see foreign countries; some, because they were fond of knocking men about, and would as soon knock a Turk about as a Christian. Ch. IX: England under William the Second, Called Rufus Courtiers are not only eager to laugh when the King laughs, but they really do enjoy a laugh against a Favourite. Ch. XII: England under Henry the Second: Part the First In the year of our Lord one thousand one hundred and eighty-nine, Richard of the Lion Heart succeeded to the throne of King Henry the Second, whose paternal heart he had done so much to break. He had been, as we have seen, a rebel from his boyhood; but, the moment he became a king against whom others might rebel, he found out that rebellion was a great wickedness. In the heat of this pious discovery, he punished all the leading people who had befriended him against his father. He could scarcely have done anything that would have been a better instance of his real nature, or a better warning to fawners and parasites not to trust in lion-hearted princes. Ch. XIII: England under Richard the First, Called the Lion-Heart King Richard... was a strong, restless, burly man, with one idea always in his head, and that the very troublesome idea of breaking the heads of other men. Ch. XIII: England under Richard the First, Called the Lion-Heart So fell Wat Tyler. Fawners and flatterers made a mighty triumph of it, and set up a cry which will occasionally find an echo to this day. But Wat was a hard-working man, who had suffered much, and had been foully outraged; and it is probable that he was a man of a much higher nature and a much braver spirit than any of the parasites who exulted then, or have exulted since, over his defeat. Ch. XIX: England under Richard the Second There were two Popes at this time (as if one were not enough ), and their quarrels involved Europe in a great deal of trouble. Ch. XIX: England under Richard the Second It is much easier to burn men than to burn their opinions. Ch. XXI: England under Henry the Fifth: First Part War is a dreadful thing; and it is appalling to know how the English were obliged, next morning, to kill those prisoners mortally wounded, who yet writhed in agony upon the ground; how the dead upon the French side were stripped by their own countrymen and countrywomen, and afterwards buried in great pits; how the dead upon the English side were piled up in a great barn, and how their bodies and the barn were all burned together. It is in such things, and in many more much too horrible to relate, that the real desolation and wickedness of war consist. Nothing can make war otherwise than horrible. But the dark side of it was little thought of and soon forgotten; and it cast no shade of trouble on the English people, except on those who had lost friends or relations in the fight. They welcomed their King home with shouts of rejoicing, and plunged into the ..