Star.
London, England, 1830-07-16 00:00:00

DR.4TII OF A BRITISH SOVIIRRIGN, AND CON-
DUCT OF A ROYAL PAYOURITR, IN 1377.

Alter many splendid victories obtained by the English over the
Preach during the reign of Edward 111. a truce was concluded be-
tween the two countries, under the thief direction of a noble duke—
the Duke of Lancaster. The French king, John, had died when
Lia British captivity, and English valour was u pre-eminent at
Poictien at the latter et d of the 14th, as it was at Waterloo in
the.beginning of the 19th, century. Edward 111. was courteous,
affable, and eloquent ; of a free deportment and agreeable converse.
dims, and had the art of commanding the affection of his people,
:without seeming to solicit popularity; but in his latter years he re.
tired to Sheen, in Surrey, where he lived in the most retired indo-
*nee, abandoning himself to the blandishments of Alice Palen.
" He had outlived," says Smeller, vol. iv. 41, " all his spirit and
!magnanimity, and become the contemptible slave of an infamous
•womnn, called Alice Perrers, the wife of William de Windsor.
Edsard was so infatuated by the personal charms of this new idol,
that he resigned himself wholly to her direction, and in order to
gratify her avarice, (selling places ?) encouraged certain corrupt
practices, which, in the vigour of his intellects, he would have dis-
dained to countenance."
Concerning Alice Paters, much may be gathered from an old
chronicle preserved in the British Museum—.Harleian Collection,
No. 6217; and as many have not the entree into the pessetralia
•of our national institution, the following extracts may be in.
terming, and serve to elucidate the system of blinding monarchs,
and of "packing up" and packing off in the 14th century.
41 Alice Perren was the wife of Sir William de Windsor, and was
lin favour with the King during the lifetime of his Queen Phi-
i The knight "bore his blushing honours thick upon him,"
fond
prudently abstained from interference. " This woman," says
'the Chronicle, " after she was in the Kyng's friendshipp, she so
• bewitched hym that be permytted the wanes and greatest matters
of the realme to be defyned by her councell, whoe began to putt
all things unjuatlie from the Kynge, to defende .false causes
every where by unlawful meanes, to get possessions for her own
use, and yf in any place she was resisted, then she went unto the
Kynge, by whose power beyng presently helped, whether yt were
ryght or wrong., she had her desyre. Thys woman had En laude
suffered now many yearn, for that they haretly loved the Kynge,
and were lothe to offends hym, for there ye a speciall grace in them,
that they love their Kynge mere than any other nation, and whom
they once have admyttal to the kyngly state they alwaies honour,
although he greatly offende."
She is accused in the above curious chronicle, of "having unjustly
disinherited certen Englishmen, and almost disteined the whoole
realme by her shameless wantones." •
The nation, shocked at the immorality of Edward 111. "gave the
Kynge knowledge how they had proved her to be another man's
wyfe, and how he had lyval a long tyme in adulterye." She was
accused of contriving, through the means of a priest, whom she
patronized, of alluring " the Kynge to her unlawful love, or els,
as I may trulyer say, into madness, for a young man riotous
sinneth, but an old man lecherous dootethe." She was made,
owing to the honest remonstrances of the nobles, to swear in
the presence of the High Prelates that she would absent herself from
the King; but his Majesty, who " had hinge been oppressed with
the discommodity, of ould age" (he was in his 64th, year,) " fell
into syckness for desire of that hsrlott Ales Perrers," and she re-
turned to him. The King, however, found himself getting worse,
and " the phisitians began to dispaire of hys recovery, although
the forenamed harlots, together with Isabell, her daughter did lye
by him every. night. She appears to have interfered among
the Bishops, as in the case of William of Wickham, wbo,
though he had incurred the displeasure of the grad Duke (the Duke
of Lancaster,) was restored to his tempualldes through the in-
trigues of Aka Penns.
Edward 111. during his last illness, indulged a hopeof speedy re-
covery, and conversed about various amusement of the court, such
as hawking, horses, &e. But the faithful chronicle will best
speak and explain the last moments of the King, who appears to
have been ministered unto, in his last moments, by a bishop and a
concubine, the one to prepare him for heaven, the other to render
earth dear to the last. Then came his Majesty's demise, and the
abrupt departure of Ales Petters. " The Xl. kalends of JOH, the
vygell of our first martyr, St. Albon, the renowned Kynge Edwards,
sodden. as it were, with desease, which tyme, we belev-, was gyven
him of GOD to the use of the penitence, and to redone his syans,
had almoste eodaynly dyed, trusting still to the fond fables of the
often-named harlot, when she affirmed he should well recover, and
not dye ; so that at the tyme he talked rather of hawkyne, and hun-
tynge, and such trifles, then of any thynge that purteyned to his
salvation, only he graunted a certaye pardon of deathe and
offences throughout hp kyngdome, to the inhabitants of the
same. Therefore, as have sayd, beinge sodeynly taken with
the day of deathe, contrarye to the opynion of hymselfe, and
others about hym, besydes his voice fayling, he began to have
manifest sygnes of death., by which. bothe he and others
that stood by knewe well he ahuld dye. What Ales Per.
refs did then any man may judge that knoweth the con.
ditions of a harlot, although no man set them down in writings;
for so sone as she saw the kynge had set fote within deaths dooms
she bethought her of flight ; yet before she went, that all men myths
percesve that she loved not the Kynge for hymselfe, but for thatwhich was hys, she Cooke the rings from his finger!, which foe his
Royal Majesty he was wont to weare, lest any should doubts of the
ttucthe of the old proverb, which saythe, No harlot wanteth any
scruple of thefte ; thus yelding hym such thanks for his benefits,
she bad hym adwe, and so withdrew haul& from hym. But
whylst the Kynge had yet the use of his tongue, the often named
harlot was still sytting by hym, much like a dog that walteth gree-
dily to take or els to snatch whatsoever his muter would throw un-
der the board ; so shee, with greedy chaps wide gaping and un-
comely grinning, still waited if any commodity by chance fell to the
Kyng, not content with the multitude of possessions and great wealth
wherewith the doyting Kyng had dayly enriched her. By these and
such like occasions, she took from the Kyng what so ever she could
snatch or catch out of his hands, and hindered him lest he should
recompense such poore servants as had long served hym (as then it
became a kyng to do.) But what thanks she gave hym for his de-
sertes towards her is already written, for she did nothinge that be.
cowed a woman of her condition, but wrought still accordyng to her
own nature and disposytion."
These were the last moments of a British sovereign, in the year
of our Lord 1377; and such was the conduct of a royal concubine
in those ages.
The above extracts are purely historical ; the reader will make his
comments.

On Saturday a great deal of hay was got together in
good order, though all;bas been very much injured, and some quite
spoiled. Many of the farmers at Twineham and its neighbourhood,
have been obliged to take the grass out of the water in the low
lands, and carry it to higher ground to make it ; there is a! good
deal of grass yet to cut, and although it is now too late, even with
fine weather, to make real good hay, yet if carried together in good
order, it will be very useful fodder. The weather has been As un-
kind as possible for; all farming operations ; yet we are told the
wheat has improved very much within the last fortnight ; and
though the rough winds are prejudicial to it whilst in bloom, yet
there is every appearance of quite an average crop. The turnips
that are come up do not appear to be hurt by the ily, but many
farmers have not been able to prepare the quantity of land they in.
tended to sow. The wheat fellows in the iVeald have the appal..
ance of pasture fields, and scarcely any manure is yet got hoM of
them.—Briyhton Gazette.

CLERICAL CELIBACY.—The imposition of celibacy
on the western Clergy, which was scarcely completed before the
ninth century, requires some attention on account of hs Influence in
England, and affords general instruction as an example of the ex-
tent to which the effect of regulations disappoints human expects.
•tion. The writings of the earliest Christians contain generally
panegyrics of celibacy, which cannotibacy, be reconciled to reason, though
they may be excused in an age when the moral relations of the
sores, of which the principle is at this day little understood by many
of those who most feel the obligation, were so unsettled, as conti-
nually to vibrate between the most extreme points of extravagant
austerity and gross licentiousness. The apostles naturally and sea-
sonably advised their brother missionaries, and even their defence.
less followers, to forbear from giving such hostages as wives and
children to their merciless persecutors. In more secure situations it
was not without apparent reason hoped, that an unmarried clergy
would have more means of succouring their brethren, more lei-
sure for their studies and their duties, a Inert less diverted from re-
ligious feeling by worldly cares,and by holding out a signal example
of a constant victory over their passions, might add force andweight
to all their exhortations. Tee peculiar repugnancy of the Christian
torah to sensuality, promoted the observance of celibacy, and gave
else to dangerous exaggerations. Some were so misguided as to in-
terpret language intended only to lift the soul from wallowing
amidst the senses, as a discouragement of those unions which are
" a discipline of humanity." Celibacy was first celebrated as a
virtue • It was afterwards enjoined on priests as a moral duty. Be-
fore the end of the fourth century, some churches enforced it as a
rule of ecclesiastical discipline. Some councils had forbidden the
ordination of men who were married ;• and marriage after orders
seems to have been generally blamed from the middle of the fifth
century. The general practice of the west then resembled the pre-
sent practice of the Greeks, among whom bishops were interdicted
' from wedlock, and priests were allowed only to keep the wives whom
they had espoused before ordination. A virtue prised so highly by,
the fathers of the church—a duty of which the observance seemed to
add to the dignity and authority of religious instruction, came to be
emertned one of the most sacred sod venerable of ecclesiastical,
usages, long before it was raised to the character of an universal
Isi of the Ledo churels.—Bir James Jidiskiniosh's History
Miglesett.