ILL-FATED ROYAL FAMILIES.
The Line of Charlemagne.
The successors of Charlemagne in his French dominions, were examples of a melancholy destiny.
His son, Louis le Debonnaire, died for want of food, in consequence of a superstitious panic.
His successor, Charles the Bald, was poisoned by his physician.
The son of Charles, Louis the Stutterer, fell also by poison.
Charles, king of Aquitaine, brother to Louis, was fatally wounded in the head by a lord, named Albuin, whom he was endeavouring, by way of frolic, to terrify, in disguise.
Louis III., successor to Louis the Stutterer, riding through the streets of Tours, pursued the handsome daughter of a citizen named Germond, till the terrified girl took refuge in a house; and the king, thinking more of her charms than of the size of the gateway, attempting to force his horse after her, broke his back, and died.
His successor, Carloman, fell by an ill-directed spear, thrown, by his own servant, at a wild boar.
Charles the Fat perished of want, grief, and poison, all together.
His successor, Charles the Simple, died in prison of penury and despair.
Louis the Stranger, who succeeded him, was bruised to death as he was hunting.
Lotharius and Louis V., the two last kings of the race of Charlemagne, were both poisoned by their wives.
After a revolution of two hundred and thirty years, there remained of the whole line of Charlemagne, only Charles, duke of Lorrain; and he, after ineffectually struggling in defence of his rights against Hugh Capet, sunk beneath the fortune of his antagonist, and ended his life and race in solitary confinement.
The French historians observe, that the epithets given to the princes of the line of Charlemagne, were, almost all, expressive of the contemptuous light in which that family was held by the people over whom it reigned.
The Stuarts.
The royal line of Stuart was as steadily unfortunate as any ever recorded in history. Their misfortunes continued with unabated succession, during three hundred and ninety years.
Robert III. broke his heart, because his eldest son Robert was starved to death, and his youngest, James, was made a captive.
James I., after having beheaded three of his nearest kindred, was assassinated by his own uncle, who was tortured to death for it.
James II. was slain by the bursting of a piece of ordnance.
James III., when flying from the field of battle, was thrown from his horse, and murdered in a cottage, into which he had been carried for assistance.
James IV. fell in Flodden field.
James V. died of grief for the wilful ruin of his army at Solway Moss.
Henry Stuart, lord Darnley, was assassinated, and then blown up in his palace.
Mary Stuart was beheaded in England.
James I. (and VI. of Scotland) died, not without suspicion of being poisoned by lord Buckingham.
Charles I. was beheaded at Whitehall.
Charles II. was exiled for many years; and when he ascended the throne became a slave to his pleasures: he lived a sensualist, and died miserably.
James II. abdicated the crown, and died in banishment.
Anne, after a reign, which though glorious, was rendered unhappy by party disputes, died of a broken heart, occasioned by the quarrels of her favoured servants.
The posterity of James II. remain proscribed and exiled.