and characteristics disclose the bias of his thoughts. It is evident that he considered Henry II. a great king, and he manifests a probably sincere sympathy for him in the numerous afflictions, caused to him by the unprincipled conduct of bis sons, Henry, Bichard, and Geoffrey. After the accession of Kichard, Hoveden seems to hint that boundless sensuality was his great failing, and, though in -words he does not say so, he affords sufficient grounds for the conclusion that treachery, meanness, and avarice, were in his opinion the striking features of the character of king John. His history does not come down to the time of the death, or " disappearance," as Eoger of Wendover thinks proper to call it, of Arthur, duke of Brittany. He evidently dislikes the crafty and unprincipled Philip Augustus, king of Prance ; and the zest with which he relates, on numerous occasions, how that monarch turned his back in flight before the prowess of Bichard is highly amusing. We may remark, in conclusion, that among the most interesting portions of the work, may be reckoned the following; the account of the contests between king Henry and Thomas à Becket ; the first persecution of the Albigenses ; the Assizes of Clarendon and Northampton ; the Laws* of William the Conqueror, as re-enacted by Henry II. ; the Coronation of Bichard I. ; the Journal of that king's voyage to the Holy Land, and of his adventures during his stay in Sicily ; the contest •between Hugh, bishop of Coventry, supported by the other prelates, and the chancellor, William, bishop of Ely ; and the lengthened disputes between Geoffrey, archbishop of York, and his dean and chapter ; which latter are not yet brought to a conclusion, when the work somewhat abruptly ends. * Here the text is in such a corrupt and mutilated state that it entirely defies successful management. The Translation has therefore been made from the more correct text of the same Laws, which is found in the " Leges Anglo-Saxonicae" of Dr.Wilkins. London, 1721. PREFACE. ix