E-text prepared by Al Haines Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original lovely illustrations. See 24725-h.htm or 24725-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/7/2/24725/24725-h/24725-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/7/2/24725/24725-h.zip) STORIES FROM ENGLISH HISTORY by HILDA T. SKAE With Pictures by Frank Dadd [Illustration: Cover art] [Frontispiece: Caradoc betrayed to the Romans] London: T. C. & E. C. Jack New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. 1907 TO MY DEAR NEPHEW CHARLES VAUGHAN TO CHARLIE AND ALL THE OTHER LITTLE BOYS AND GIRLS My dear Charlie,-- Yon are very fond of stories; and so, I think, are all the other little boys and girls that I have ever known, and most of the grown-up people too. When you grow older, if you still like them--and I think you will--you will find that there are stories everywhere if only you are able to see them. In this little book they are not quite the same kind as those that your Auntie used to tell you. I think they are nicer, for they are about things that have really happened; and the boys and girls and grown-up people that you read about in them were real people. Some of those stories were so interesting, and some of them so beautiful, that they were written down for other people to read; and that is how history-books came to be made. I hope that you will like to read about the people who lived long ago, and that these little tales may show you that history is made up of stories about people just like ourselves. HILDA T. SKAE. LIST OF STORIES Chap. I. A Hero of Ancient Britain II. The Boy Captives III. English and Norman IV. The Boy who would be a King V. The Black Prince VI. Singeing the King of Spain's Beard LIST OF PICTURES Caradoc betrayed to the Romans . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ The children carried off by the Bernician Raiders Harold taking the Oath The Death of Harold Arthur in prison visited by King John Warwick's messenger asking for aid to be sent to the Black Prince The French King brought prisoner to the Black Prince after Poitiers Drake making his request of the Queen CHAPTER I A HERO OF ANCIENT BRITAIN There was a time, many years ago, when this England of ours was a savage country. The oldest stories that we read about our island happened so long ago, that the English had not yet come to the land where we live. In those days, the country was not called England but Britain; and the people were the ancient Britons. In the time of the Britons, the greater part of the country was covered with moors and swamps, and with great forests, where dangerous wild animals lived: wolves and bears and wild cats; where herds of deer wandered, and droves of wild cattle.