[15]Trifels was an imperial fortress in the Rhine Palatinate, near Annweiler, which was the resort of mediæval emperors. Only its ruins remain.
[16]The Louvre, now one of the world’s famous art museums, was a castle of the kings of France from the thirteenth century, and the chief royal palace until Versailles was built by Louis the Fourteenth. Most of the interior has been occupied as a museum since 1793.
[17]Marie of France was the daughter of Philip Augustus.
[18]Montjoie is the name of a hill near Paris where Saint Denis was murdered. In tournaments “Montjoie” was the cry of the French heralds; and “Montjoie St. Denis” was the French battle-cry.
[19]Compiègne is a town in the Department of Oise, France, and is famous for the royal palace rebuilt by Louis the Fifteenth. Napoleon the First greatly enriched its interior.
[20]Blondel was a trouvère, or minstrel, who accompanied Richard the Lion-hearted, and is said to have discovered him when he was imprisoned by singing a song under the King’s tower, to which Richard responded.
[21]Hume accepts the following account of the murder as the most reliable: “John first removed him to the castle of Rouen; and coming in a boat, during the night time, to that place, commanded Arthur to be brought forth to him. The young prince, aware of his danger, and now more subdued by the continuance of his misfortunes and by the approach of death, threw himself on his knees before his uncle and begged for mercy; but the barbarous tyrant, making no reply, stabbed him with his own hands, and, fastening a stone to the dead body, threw it into the Seine.”
[22]Magna Charta, the charter of English liberties, signed by John and his barons at Runnymede, June 15, 1215.
[23]Hume says of John: “Cowardice, inactivity, folly, levity, licentiousness, ingratitude, treachery, tyranny, and cruelty,—all these qualities appear too evidently in the several incidents of his life to give us room to suspect that the disagreeable picture has been anywise overcharged by the prejudices of the ancient historians.”