from a wider knowledge, the England of a Westminster Abbey, and
gunpowder, and cloth-weaving, is the England we all know to-day.
Vicious kings and greed of territory, and lust of power, will keep the
road from being a smooth one. but it leads direct to the England of
Victoria; and 1895 was roughly outlined in 1327, when Edward III.
grasped the helm with the decision of a master.

[Sidenote: Battle of Crecy, 1346]

After completing the subjection of Scotland he invaded France,--the
pretext of resisting her designs upon the Netherlands, being merely a
cover for his own thirst for territory and conquest. The victory over
the French at Crecy, 1346, (and later of Poitiers,) covered the warlike
king and his son, Edward the "Black Prince," with imperishable renown.
Small cannon were first used at that battle. The knights and the
archers laughed at the little toy, but found it useful in frightening
the enemies' horses.

Edward III. covered England with a mantle of military glory, for which
she had to pay dearly later. He elevated the kingship to a more
dazzling height, for which there have also been some expensive
reckonings since. He introduced a new and higher dignity into nobility
by the title of Duke, which he bestowed upon his sons; the great
landholders or barons, having until that time constituted a body in
which all were peers. He has been the idol of heroic England. But he
awoke the dream of French conquest, and bequeathed to his successors a
fatal war, which lasted for 100 years.

The "Black Prince" died, and the "Black Death," a fearful pestilence,
desolated a land already decimated by protracted wars. The valiant old