New-York tribune., 1901-01-23

private life sanity and his love for his
people so evident that he was canonized by the
popular voice long before the Roman See added
its authoritative decision. He II who
founded the abbey in honor of ST. Peter upon
the island of Thorney, known as West
minister. The legend goes that in the night
before the day appointed for the conservation of
the new abbey church a poor fisherman who
was watching his nets in the Thorney marshes
saw light streaming through the church win
dows and heard a mysterious sound Of voices
chanting the liturgy. Going nearer he saw a
strange procession moving around the newly fin
ished walls, and in il was a venerable white
bearded figure vested like bishop. but wearing
the papal tiara. In the morning the fisherman
went and told the King what he had seen and
when they looked at the walls the marks OF
sacred oil were found on the stones So King
Edward saw that st. Peter himself had come
down from heaven to bless the abbey. and no
ceremony was performed by earthly clergy
The first of the foreign line of kings to take
the Saxon name was the fifth PIantagenet son
of Henry III who in his lifetime had initiated
as closely as he could the devout virtues as we'll
as the unstatesmanlike conduct of Edward the
ConfessOr. even to the rebuilding of the abbey
with added magnihcence. Edward l. as he was
entitled, ignoring the Saxon King either from
reasons Of policy of reverence to his
sanctity. ascended the throne in 1874 He il
was who, Prince Edward. fought stubbornly
against Simon de Montfort and the barons of
ENGLAND. who were in arms for something which
would nowadays be called constitutional reform
1t was he, nevertheless who, once the throne
did more than any previous English King 10 pro-
mote the development of parliamentary govern
ment The first perfect English Parliament may
be said to have assembled in the twenty-first
year Of this reign He also conquered Wales
and Scotland as far the Moray Firth or there
aDOutS. HIS WOrk a legislator
him the name in history of the English Justin
IAN
Edward II. fourth surviving son of Edward T
and the first Prince of Wales to ascend the Eng
lish throne, succeeded in 1907 He was born AT
Carnarvon Castle, where his father had some
lIne pefore promised the Welsh chieftains soon
TO provide them with prince of their own and
within an hour of his birth the baby Prince was
presented to the throng outside the castle walls
as he who had been promised to them by the
King. The title of Prince of Wales however
was not formally conferred upon him until he
had completed his seventeenth year After his
accession to the throne this Edward met with
nothing but disaster, chiefly through his own
weakness 1t was in the seventh year of his
reign that the battle of Bannockburn put an
end, to all practical purposes, to English doroi-
nation in Scotland. In 1897 he was deposed by
Parliament, and in the same year was atrocious
ly murdered in Berkeley Keen Gloucestershire
Edward III, eldest son of Edward II is dis
tinguished In history, first. the 'MaIeus
Scctorum" Hammer of the Scots). having by
dint of great perseverance. succeeded in recon
quering the northern kingdom for at least a
lIIles SeCoHu, DIS the Crecy and POitierS.
third, as the father of Edward the Black Prince
and of John of Gaunt. In the minds of the
English people, however, he was even more af-
fectionately remembered as the devoted bus-
band Of Philippa who set up the great stone
cross between London and Westminster C'Chere
Refine Croixe'O afterward known as Cbaring
Cross. to mark the last spot OF earth where his
wife's dead body had rested in its stately nrog
ress TO the grave. His was one of the longest
reigns in English history and marked the
climacteric period of chivalry in Western Eu-
rope.
From 1877 to 1861 King in England bore
the time honored and sanctif1ed Saxon name.
In the latter year Edward Plantagenet son of
Richard of York, succeeded in deposing the
feeble Henry VI whose successor he had AL
ready been named by Parliament This Ed
ward was the "RO Soleil'' of his age and coun-
try. his personal badge being the golden sum- to
which Richard makes allusiOr in
Now is the winter of discomfort
Made glorious summer by this sun Of York"
He was in RIGHTEOUSNESS and also in personal
popularity a prototype of Charles IL His profit
gate relations with Jane Shore have formed the
hand il must be remembered that il was Ed
ward " who first encouraged the new art of
printing in his kingdom. When the printers
Of these days assemble in their "chapeIs'' they
unconsciously commemorate the opening by Ed
ward " Of the first composing room. which
happened to be one Of the chapels at the east
end OF Westminster Abbey.
His elder son, Edward V, was one Of the two
boy princes for whose murder in the Tower their
uncle Richard Crouchback, is commonly held
responsible
Edward vi, only son of Henry VIII and Jane
His government practically that of his ma
ternaI uncle. the Protector Somerset 1t was
i'm his reign that the Church of England first
began TO approach Professionalism in its forms.