Victoria broke the rule in this as well as in the
breadth and splendor of the jubilee display and rejoicings. To show this
a few lines must be devoted to these earlier occasions.
The reign of Henry III. was memorable as being that in which trial by
jury was introduced and the first real English Parliament, that summoned
by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, was held. It was this that
gives eclat to the jubilee year, 1265, for it was in that year that the
first Parliament convened. Yet sorrow rather than rejoicing marked the
year, for the horrors of civil war rent the land and the bloody battle
of Evesham saddened all loyal souls.
The jubilee of Edward III. came in 1376, when that monarch entered the
fiftieth year of his reign. This was a year fitted for rejoicing, for
the age was one of glory and prosperity. The horrors of the "black
death," which had swept the land some twenty years before, were
forgotten and men were in a happy mood. We read of tournaments,
processions, feasts and pageantry in which all the people participated.
Yet sorrow came before the year ended, for the death of the "Black
Prince," the most brilliant hero of chivalry, was sorely mourned by his
father, the king, and by the subjects of the realm, while the rising
clouds of civil war threw a gloom on the end of the jubilee year, as
they had on that of Henry.
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