[159] Harleian MS. No. 7334, lines 2412-2418.  Printed for the
        Early English Text Society.

Selim I was the first Turkish sultan who shaved his beard after his accession to the throne; and when his muftis remonstrated with him for this dangerous innovation, he facetiously replied that he had removed his beard in order that his vazirs should not have wherewith to lead him.  The beards of modern Persian soldiers were abolished in consequence of a singular accident, which Morier thus relates in his Second Journey:  When European discipline was introduced into the Persian army, Lieutenant Lindsay raised a corps of artillery.  His zeal was only equalled by the encouragement of the king, who liberally adopted every method proposed.  It was only upon the article of shaving off the beards of the Persian soldiers that the king was inexorable; nor would the sacrifice have ever taken place had it not happened that, in discharging the guns before the prince, a powder-horn exploded in the hand of a gunner who had been gifted with a very long beard, which in an instant was blown away from his chin.  Lieutenant Lindsay, availing himself of this lucky opportunity to prove his argument on the inconvenience of beards to soldiers, immediately produced the scorched gunner before the prince, who was so much struck with his woeful appearance that the abolition of military beards was at once decided upon.

It was customary for the early French monarchs to place three hairs of their beard under the seal attached to important documents; and there is still extant a charter of the year 1121, which concludes with these words:  “Quod ut ratum et stabile perseveret in posterum, praesentis scripto sigilli mei robur apposui cum tribus pilis barbae meae.”—­In obedience to his spiritual advisers, Louis VII of France had his hair cut close and his beard shaved off.  But his consort Eleanor was so disgusted with his smooth face and cropped head that she took her own measures to be revenged, and the poor king was compelled to obtain a divorce from her.  She subsequently gave her hand to the Count of Anjou, afterwards Henry II of England, and the rich provinces of Poitou and Guienne were her dowry.  From this sprang those terrible wars which continued for three centuries, and cost France untold treasure and three millions of men—­and all because Louis did not consult his consort before shaving off his beard!

Charles the Fifth of Spain ascending the throne while yet a mere boy, his courtiers shaved their beards in compliment to the king’s smooth face.  But some of the shaven Dons were wont to say bitterly, “Since we have lost our beards, we have lost our souls!” Sully, the eminent statesman and soldier, scorned, however, to follow the fashion, and, being one day summoned to Court on urgent business of State, his beard was made the subject of ridicule by the foppish courtiers.  The veteran thus gravely addressed the king:  “Sire, when your father, of glorious memory, did me the honour to consult me in grave State matters, he first dismissed the buffoons and stage-dancers from the presence-chamber.”  It may be readily supposed that after this well-merited rebuke the grinning courtiers at once disappeared.