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Show 1 Historic Blackguards l I By ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE Copyright, by the Press Publishing Co. (The New York World). King John, Who Did a Great Deed in Spite of Himself . LEAN man, t .ys-, i clad in royal ! J- robes a n d rfLs walking with WjilM .with a shambling fex HilS 4&t gait, entered his r jpalace on the af- CPm9lffW ternoon of June ,15, 1215, followed f iby a crowd of -tS,- jlaughing court- ('s jlers. ' He and his K ( N G JOHN attendants seemed vastly nmused over Something that bad just happened and which they professed to regard as a fine joke. . Rut the moment the regally clad man reached his private apartments In the palace, away from the eyes of the public, his mask of false gayety was cast aside. He hurled himself upon the floor, screaming, raving and bowling fearful blasphemies, foaming at the mouth and biting like a mad dog at the rushes (hat strewed the floor. Nor was this burst of insane fury without an excuse. For the man was p. tyrant; and that day had been forced to sign the death-warrant of 'tyranny. He was John, king of England. More than a century and a half had passed since William the Conqueror had won England, beginning the blend of Norman Nor-man and Saxon races and giving the pnglish a new line of kings and nobility. no-bility. Henry II., king of England, had several sons, all of whom hated their father and at various times conspired con-spired against him. John was the youngest. During Richard's absence from England Eng-land John had tried to seize the crown for himself. On Richard's return he had to fly for his own life before the wrath of the brother he had striven to Bupplant. Richard, however, forgave him, and named him as heir to the throne. On "Lion Heart's" death John became king of England in 1199. Some of the nobles tried to make his nephew, young Prince Arthur, king in John's place. Civil war broke out. John was victorious. Arthur was captured cap-tured and thrown into prison. John is said to have had the sixteen-year-old boy's eyes put out and then to have murdered him. The king of France made war on John to avenge this alleged al-leged murder, and seized nearly all ..England's French possessions. John, forced thus to confine his tyr anny to his own country, proceeded to make his people's lives miserable. He seized at will the few possessions of the poor and laid heavy taxes on the rich. He insulted and ill-treated the clergy, defying the pope himself. The church thereupon placed an "interdict" "inter-dict" on the blackguard and his realm. His holiness also called upon the Christian rulers to unite against John. This last danger scared the cowardly tyrant Into submission. But he refused re-fused to make his people's hardships lighter. Then it was that the powerful barons, bar-ons, led by Stephen Langton, archbishop arch-bishop of Canterbury, presented a code of laws for the betterment of the people and for the curbing of oppression. oppres-sion. They called this document the Magna Charta (Great Charter) Among other reforms, the charter provided pro-vided fair trial for every prisoner, authorized the nation to resist unjust royal demands and put the will of the people ahead of a mere king's wishes The church's liberty was to be respected re-spected -and no man's possessions were to be wrongfully seized by the crown. John was asked to sign the Magna Charta. lie refused. The barons and the common people combined to force him to sign it. Frightened by theii power and his own weakness. John at last consented. Thus was English lib erty born and the rights of man were established. John met the barons at a meadow, near Runnymede, on June 15, 1215, salved his vanity by pretend ing to make a jest of the matter, signed the charter and safe in his palace gave way to a fit of maniacal rage. Though he had been coerced into performing an act of. splendid justice by signing the Magna Charta, John had not the faintest idea of keeping his promises to the barons. He called on foreign hired soldiers to help him crush his rebellious subjects. The English retaliated by asking a French prince to come over and be their king. The land was once more rent by civil civ-il war. John showed no mercy to his own country, but desolated and wrecked it wherever his armies could find a foothold. At the climax of the struggle his mind gave way. He sickened sick-ened and, on October 19. 1216. died. Some historians believe he was poisoned. Pizarro, Licensed "Hold-up Mem" A Y O U N O i5ssg ' n, s w i neherd j38 born in sJ?TZWsB! E stramado- V?-5s'.tj ro, Spain, in 1 476 Ss, beard vague ru- fj Z-mors Z-mors of the New jjtSS .jj'-o World across the Atlantic which i$$&$ Columbus had s'(:f2. lately discovered. iy,S' He heard or p z A R R O boundless wealth, mountains of gold ; and silver, rivers and caverns flashing with priceless gems all of which were .supposed to be found for the search--Ing, everywhere in America. The swineherd Francesco Pizarro :by name bad perhaps never in his short life seen a single gold piece or eaten a hearty meal. The tales or riches made him suddenly discontented discontent-ed with his own humble routine. He was ignorant. To his latest day he could never manage to learn how to read or write. Leaving bis swine Pizarro sailed with a company of seedy adventurers to the West Indies. There was much work and small reward at first. Hut he kept on. Through trade and robbery rob-bery he had picked up enough money by 1515 to settle near the new city ot Panama as a farmer. It was a laughable laugh-able anti-climax to his visions or wealth. But Pizarro was not the sort of man to be laughed at. As soon as he could scrape together a little capital he formed a partnership partner-ship with another adventurer, Aniai-gro, Aniai-gro, and a priest named Luque, and went in search of fortune. The expedition expe-dition was a failure. But in the course of It Pizarro heard or a southern country Peru where gold was said to be as cheap as iron. He raided the Peruvian coasts, but gathered scanty epoils. Nevertheless, he believed he was at last on the right track. He went to Spain to get money and royal authority author-ity for further explorations. In Seville be was thrown in prison for debt. His career seemed to be at an end. But he managed to interest the king cl Spain in his schemes. The king released re-leased him and gave him a royal com mission to conquer Peru. He set forth and, in 1531, began his Invasion of the gold land. Using a civil war In Peru to help on his adventure, he at length found his way to the palace of the Inca (emperor!. (emper-or!. Entering the palace as a trusted guest. Pizarro made the lnca a prisoner, pris-oner, and under threat of death by torture forced tne luckless prisoner to pay for freedom by a strange ransom. This ransom was no less than a huge roomful of gold. To gain this sum it was necessary to strip the sacred Peruvian temples of their golden ornaments. orna-ments. The full amount, when It was at last turned over to Pizarro. was worth more than $17,000,000. Having secured this, he calmly murdered the Inca. The vile act set all Peru buzzing about the Spaniard's ears like a nest-ful nest-ful of enraged hornets. But Pizarro paid little heed to the danger. Wealth wrung by torture and treachery flowed fast Into his coffers. cof-fers. He had found no literal mountains moun-tains of gold and caverns of gems. But he had discovered how just as great riches could be annexed through cruelty. His partner, Amalgro, shared to some extent in the prosperity and new-found power. This did not suit Pizarro. There were quarrels, and Amalgro was induced to lead an expedition expe-dition against Chili. This was in July, 1535. The Indians took advantage of Amalgro's absence to attack Pizarro, Pi-zarro, but were unable, In spite of their vast numbers, to overcome him. When Amalgro came back new quarrels broke out. And the two former for-mer comrades at last came to open war. Amalgro was captured by Pl-zarro's Pl-zarro's troops and was put to death. But his followers kept up the strife. On Sunday morning, June 26, 1541, a band of these men burst into Pizar-ro's Pizar-ro's palace at Lima. Pizarro sprang up from his breakfast table, hair armed, and flew at his assailants like a wild beast. He was of gigantic stature, sta-ture, and despite his sixty-five years he was still a dangerous toe. A tierce battle waged. Three or the conspirators were slain by Pizarro before he fell, mortally wounded, under a score ol sword thrusts. |