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Title: The History of England, Volume I

Author: David Hume

Release Date: January 2, 2004  [eBook #10574]

Language: English

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THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND, VOLUME I

From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688

by

DAVID HUME, ESQ.

With the Author's Last Corrections and Improvements, to which is
prefixed a Short Account of His Life Written by Himself



COMPLETE IN SIX VOLUMES







MY OWN LIFE.

It is difficult for a man to speak long of himself without vanity;
therefore I shall be short.  It may be thought an instance of vanity
that I pretend at all to write my life; but this narrative shall
contain little more than the history of my writings; as, indeed,
almost all my life has been spent in literary pursuits and
occupations.  The first success of most of my writings was not such as
to be an object of vanity.

I was born the 26th of April, 1711, old style, at Edinburgh.  I was of
a good family, both by father and mother: my father's family is a
branch of the Earl of Home's, or Hume's; and my ancestors had been
proprietors of the estate which my brother possesses, for several
generations.  My mother was daughter of Sir David Falconer, President
of the College of Justice: the title of Lord Halkerton came by
succession to her brother.

My family, however, was not rich; and being myself a younger brother,
my patrimony, according to the mode of my country, was of course very
slender.  My father, who passed for a man of parts, died when I was an
infant, leaving me, with an elder brother and a sister, under the care
of our mother, a woman of singular merit, who, though young and
handsome, devoted herself entirely to the rearing and educating of her
children.  I passed through the ordinary course of education with
success, and was seized very early with a passion for literature,
which has been the ruling passion of my life, and the great source of
my enjoyments.  My studious disposition, my sobriety, and my industry,
gave my family a notion that the law was a proper profession for me;
but I found an unsurmountable aversion to every thing but the pursuits
of philosophy and general learning; and while they fancied I was
poring upon Voet and Vinnius, Cicero and Virgil were the authors which
I was secretly devouring.

My very slender fortune, however, being unsuitable to this plan of
life, and my health being a little broken by my ardent application, I
was tempted, or rather forced, to make a very feeble trial for
entering into a more active scene of life.  In 1734 I went to Bristol,
with some recommendations to several merchants; but in a few months
found that scene totally unsuitable to me.  I went over to France with
a view of prosecuting my studies in a country retreat; and I there
laid that plan of life which I have steadily and successfully pursued.
I resolved to make a very rigid frugality supply my deficiency of
fortune, to maintain unimpaired my independency, and to regard every
object as contemptible, except the improvement of my talents in
literature.

During my retreat in France, first at Rheims but chiefly at La Fleche,
in Anjou, I composed my Treatise of Human Nature.  After passing three
years very agreeably in that country, I came over to London in  1737.
In the end of 1738 I published my Treatise, and immediately went down
to my mother and my brother, who lived at his country-house, and
employed himself very judiciously and successfully in the improvement
of his fortune.

Never literary attempt was more unfortunate than my Treatise of Human
Nature.  It fell DEAD-BORN FROM THE PRESS, without reaching such
distinction as even to excite a murmur among the zealots.  But being
naturally of a cheerful and sanguine temper, I very soon recovered the
blow, and prosecuted with great ardour my studies in the country.  In
1742 I printed at Edinburgh the first part of my Essays: the work was
favourably received, and soon made me entirely forget my former
disappointment.  I continued with my mother and brother in the
country, and in that time recovered the knowledge of the Greek
language, which I had too much neglected in my early youth.

In 1745 I received a letter from the Marquis of Annandale, inviting me
to come and live with him in England; I found, also, that the friends
and family of that young nobleman were desirous of putting him under
my care and direction, for the state of his mind and health required
it.--I lived with him a twelve-month.  My appointments during that
time made a considerable accession to my small fortune.  I then
received an invitation from General St. Clair to attend him as a
secretary to his expedition, which was at first meant against Canada,
but ended in an incursion on the coast of France.  Next year, to wit,
1747, I received an invitation from the general to attend him in the
same station in his military embassy to the courts of Vienna and
Turin.  I then wore the uniform of an  officer, and was introduced at
these courts as aide-de-camp to the general, along with Sir Harry
Erskine and Captain Grant, now General Grant.  These two years were
almost the only interruptions which my studies have received during
the course of my life: I passed them agreeably and in good company;
and my appointments, with my frugality, had made me reach a fortune
which I called independent, though most of my friends were inclined to
smile when I said so: in short, I was now master of near a thousand
pounds.

I had always entertained a notion, that my want of success in
publishing the Treatise of Human Nature, had proceeded more from the
manner than the matter, and that I had been guilty of a very usual
indiscretion, in going to the press too early.  I therefore cast the
first part of that work anew in the Enquiry concerning Human
Understanding, which was published while I was at Turin.  But this
piece was at first little more successful than the Treatise of Human
Nature.  On my return from Italy, I had the mortification to find all
England in a ferment, on account of Dr. Middleton's Free Enquiry,
while my performance was entirely over-looked and neglected.  A new
edition which had been published in London, of my Essays, moral and
political, met not with a much better reception.

Such is the force of natural temper, that these disappointments made
little or no impression on me.  I went down in 1749, and lived two
years with my brother at his country-house, for my mother was now
dead.  I there composed the second part of my Essay, which I called
Political Discourses, and also my Enquiry concerning the Principles of
Morals, which is another part of my treatise that I cast anew.
Meanwhile my bookseller, A. Miller, informed me that my former
publications (all but the unfortunate Treatise) were beginning to be
the subject of conversation; that the sale of them was gradually
increasing; and that new editions were demanded.  Answers by Reverends
and Right Reverends came out two or three in a year; and I found, by
Dr. Warburton's railing, that the books were beginning to be esteemed
in good company.  However, I had a fixed resolution, which I
inflexibly maintained, never to reply to any body; and not being very
irascible in my temper, I have easily kept myself clear of all
literary squabbles.  These symptoms of a rising reputation gave me
encouragement, as I was ever more disposed to see the favourable than
the unfavourable side of things; a turn of mind which it is more happy
to possess, than to be born to an estate of ten thousand a year.

In 1751 I removed from the country to the town, the true scene for a
man of letters.  In 1752 were published at Edinburgh, where I then
lived, my Political Discourses, the only work of mine that was
successful on the first publication.  It was well received at home and
abroad.  In the same year was published, in London, my Enquiry
concerning the Principles of Morals; which, in my own opinion, (who
ought not to judge on that subject,) is of all my writings,
historical, philosophical, or literary, incomparably the best.  It
came unnoticed and unobserved into the world.

In 1752 the Faculty of Advocates chose me their librarian; an office
from which I received little or no emolument, but which gave me the
command of a large library.  I then formed the plan of writing the
History of England; but being frightened with the notion of continuing
a narrative through a period of one thousand seven hundred years, I
commenced with the accession of the house of Stuart, an epoch when, I
thought, the misrepresentations of faction began chiefly to take
place.  I was, I own, sanguine in my expectations of the success of
this work.  I thought that I was the only historian that had at once
neglected present power, interest, and authority, and the cry of
popular prejudices; and as the subject was suited to every capacity,
I expected proportional applause.  But miserable was my
disappointment: I was assailed by one cry of reproach, disapprobation,
and even detestation; English, Scotch, and Irish, whig and tory,
churchman and sectary, freethinker and religionist, patriot and
courtier, united in their rage against the man who had presumed to
shed a generous tear for the fate of Charles I. and the Earl of
Strafford; and after the first ebullitions of their fury were over,
what was still more mortifying, the book seemed to sink into oblivion.
Mr. Miller told me, that in a twelvemonth he sold only forty-five
copies of it.  I scarcely, indeed, heard of one man in the three
kingdoms, considerable for rank or letters, that could endure the
book.  I must only except the primate of England, Dr. Herring, and the
primate of Ireland, Dr. Stone, which seem two odd exceptions.  These
dignified prelates separately sent me a message not to be discouraged.

I was, however, I confess, discouraged; and had not the war at that
time been breaking out between France and England, I had certainly
retired to some provincial town of the former kingdom, have changed my
name, and never more have returned to my native country. But as this
scheme was not now practicable, and the  subsequent volume was
considerably advanced, I resolved to pick up courage and to persevere.

In this interval I published at London my Natural History of Religion,
along with some other small pieces: its public entry was rather
obscure, except only that Dr. Hurd wrote a pamphlet against it, with
all the illiberal petulance, arrogance, and scurrility, which
distinguish the Warburtonian school.  This pamphlet gave me some
consolation for the otherwise indifferent reception of my performance.

In 1756, two years after the fall of the first volume, was published
the second volume of my History, containing the period from the death
of Charles I. till the Revolution.  This performance happened to give
less displeasure to the whigs, and was better received.  It not only
rose itself, but helped to buoy up its unfortunate brother.

But though I had been taught by experience, that the whig party were
in possession of bestowing all places, both in the state and in
literature, I was so little inclined to yield to their senseless
clamour, that in above a hundred alterations, which farther study,
reading, or reflection, engaged me to make in the reigns of the two
first Stuarts, I have made all of them invariably to the tory side.
It is ridiculous to consider the English constitution before that
period as a regular plan of liberty.

In 1759 I published my History of the House of Tudor.  The clamour
against this performance was almost equal to that against the History
of the two first Stuarts.  The reign of Elizabeth was particularly
obnoxious.  But I was now callous against the impressions of public
folly, and continued very peaceably and contentedly in my retreat in
Edinburgh, to finish, in two volumes, the more early part of the
English History, which I gave to the public in 1761, with tolerable,
and but tolerable, success.

But notwithstanding this variety of winds and seasons to which my
writings have been exposed, they had still been making such advances,
that the copy-money given me by the booksellers much exceeded any
thing formerly known in England: I retired to my native country of
Scotland, determined never more to set my foot out of it; and
retaining the satisfaction of never having preferred a request to one
great man, or even making advances of friendship to any of them.  As I
was now turned of fifty, I thought of passing all the rest of my life
in this philosophical manner, when I received, in 1763, an invitation
from the Earl of Hertford, with whom I was not in the least
acquainted, to attend him on his embassy to Paris, with a near
prospect of being appointed secretary to the embassy; and, in the
meanwhile, of performing the functions of that office.  This offer,
however inviting, I at first declined, both because I was reluctant to
begin connexions with the great, and because I was afraid that the
civilities and gay company of Paris would prove disagreeable to a
person of my age and humour: but on his lordship's repeating the
invitation, I accepted of it.  I have every reason, both of pleasure
and interest, to think myself happy in my connexions with that
nobleman, as well as afterwards with his brother General Conway.

Those who have not seen the strange effects of modes will never
imagine the reception I met with at Paris, from men and women of all
ranks and stations.  The more I resiled from their excessive
civilities, the more I was loaded with them.  There is, however, a
real satisfaction in living at Paris, from the great number of
sensible, knowing, and polite company with which that city abounds
above all places in the universe.  I thought once of settling there
for life.

I was appointed secretary to the embassy; and in summer, 1765, Lord
Hertford left me, being appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.  I was
chargé d'affaires till the arrival of the Duke of Richmond, towards
the end of the year.  In the beginning of 1766 I left Paris, and next
summer went to Edinburgh, with the same view as formerly of burying
myself in a philosophical retreat. I returned to that place, not
richer, but with much more money, and a much larger income, by means
of Lord Hertford's friendship, than I left it; and I was desirous of
trying what superfluity could produce, as I had formerly made an
experiment of a competency.  But in 1767 I received from Mr. Conway an
invitation to be under-secretary; and this invitation, both the
character of the person, and my connexions with Lord Hertford,
prevented me from declining.  I returned to Edinburgh in 1769, very
opulent, (for I possessed a revenue of 1000L. a year,) healthy, and,
though somewhat stricken in years, with the prospect of enjoying long
my ease, and of seeing the increase of my reputation.

In spring, 1775, I was struck with a disorder in my bowels, which at
first gave me no alarm, but has since, as I apprehend it, become
mortal and incurable.  I now reckon upon a speedy dissolution.  I have
suffered very little pain from my disorder; and what is more strange
have, notwithstanding the great decline of my person, never suffered a
moment's abatement of my spirits, inasmuch that were I to name a
period of my life which I should most choose to pass over again, I
might be tempted to point to this later period.  I possess the same
ardour as ever in study, and the same gaiety in company.  I consider,
besides, that a man of sixty-five, by dying, cuts off only a few years
of infirmities; and though I see many symptoms of my literary
reputation's breaking out at last with additional lustre, I know that
I could have but few years to enjoy it.  It is difficult to be more
detached from life than I am at present.

To conclude historically with my own character.  I am, or rather was,
(for that is the style I must now use in speaking of myself, which
emboldens me the more to speak my sentiments)--I was, I say, a man of
mild disposition, of command of temper, of an open, social, and
cheerful humour, capable of attachment, but little susceptible of
enmity, and of great moderation in all my passions.  Even my love of
literary fame, my ruling passion, never soured my temper,
notwithstanding my frequent disappointments.  My company was not
unacceptable to the young and careless, as well as to the studious and
literary; and as I took a particular pleasure in the company of modest
women, I had no reason to be displeased with the reception I met with
from them.  In a word, though most men, anywise eminent, have found
reason to complain of calumny, I never was touched, or even attacked
by her baleful tooth; and though I wantonly exposed myself to the rage
of both civil and religious factions, they seemed to be disarmed in my
behalf of their wonted fury.  My friends never had occasion to
vindicate any one circumstance of my  character and conduct: not but
that the zealots, we may well suppose, would have been glad to invent
and propagate any story to my disadvantage, but they could never find
any which they thought would wear the face of probability.  I cannot
say there is no vanity in making this funeral oration of myself; but I
hope it is not a misplaced one; and this is a matter of fact which is
easily cleared and ascertained.


April 18, 1776.




LETTER

FROM

ADAM SMITH. LL. D.

To

WILLIAM STRAHAN, ESQ.


Kirkaldy, Fifeshire, Nov. 9, 1776

DEAR SIR,

It is with a real, though a very melancholy pleasure, that I sit down
to give you some account of the behaviour of our late excellent
friend, Mr. Hume, during his last illness.

Though in his own judgment his disease was mortal and incurable, yet
he allowed himself to be prevailed upon, by the entreaty of his
friends, to try what might be the effects of a long journey.  A few
days before he set out, he wrote that account of his own life, which,
together with his other papers, he has left to your care. My account,
therefore, shall begin where his ends.

He set out for London towards the end of April, and at Morpeth met
with Mr. John Home, and myself, who had both come down from London on
purpose to see him, expecting to have found him at Edinburgh.  Mr.
Home returned with him, and attended him, during the whole of his stay
in England, with that care and attention which might be expected from
a temper so perfectly friendly and affectionate.  As I had written to
my mother that she might expect me in Scotland, I was under the
necessity of continuing my journey.  His disease seemed to yield to
exercise and change of air, and when he arrived in London, he was
apparently in much better health  than when he left Edinburgh.  He was
advised to go to Bath to drink the waters, which appeared for some
time to have so good an effect upon him, that even he himself began to
entertain, what he was not apt to do, a better opinion of his own
health.  His symptoms, however, soon returned with their usual
violence, and from that moment he gave up all thoughts of recovery,
but submitted with the utmost cheerfulness, and the most perfect
complacency and resignation.  Upon his return to Edinburgh, though he
found himself much weaker, yet his cheerfulness never abated, and he
continued to divert himself, as usual, with correcting his own works
for a new edition, with reading books of amusement, with the
conversation of his friends, and sometimes in the evening with a party
at his favourite game of whist.  His cheerfulness was so great, and
his conversation and amusements ran so much in their usual strain,
that, notwithstanding all bad symptoms, many people could not believe
he was dying.  "I shall tell your friend, Colonel Edmonstone," said
Doctor Dundas to him one day, "that I left you much better, and in a
fair way of recovery." "Doctor," said he, "as I believe you would not
choose to tell any thing but the truth, you had better tell him, that
I am dying as fast as my enemies, if I have any, could wish, and as
easily and cheerfully as my best friends could desire."  Colonel
Edmonstone soon afterwards came to see him, and take leave of him; and
on his way home he could not forbear writing him a letter, bidding him
once more an eternal adieu, and applying to him, as to a dying man,
the beautiful French verses in which the Abbé Chaulieu, in expectation
of his own death, laments his approaching separation from his friend
the Marquis de la Fare.  Mr. Hume's magnanimity and firmness were
such, that his most affectionate friends knew that they hazarded
nothing in talking or writing to him as to a dying man, and that, so
far from being hurt by this frankness, he was rather pleased and
flattered by it.  I happened to come into his room while he was
reading this letter, which he had just received, and which he
immediately showed me.  I told him, that though I was sensible how
very much he was weakened, and that appearances were in many respects
very bad, yet his cheerfulness was still so great, the spirit of life
seemed still to be so very strong in him,  that I could not help
entertaining some faint hopes.  He answered, "Your hopes are
groundless.  An habitual diarrhoea of more than a year's standing
would be a very bad disease at any age: at my age it is a mortal one.
When I lie down in the evening I feel myself weaker than when I rose
in the morning, and when I rise in the morning weaker than when I lay
down in the evening.  I am sensible, besides, that some of my vital
parts are affected, so that I must soon die." "Well," said I, "if it
must be so, you have at least the satisfaction of leaving all your
friends, your brother's family in particular, in great prosperity."
He said that he felt that satisfaction so sensibly, that when he was
reading, a few days before, Lucian's Dialogues of the Dead, among all
the excuses which are alleged to Charon for not entering readily into
his boat, he could not find one that fitted him; he had no house to
finish, he had no daughter to provide for, he had no enemies upon whom
he wished to revenge himself.  "I could not well imagine," said he,
"what excuse I could make to Charon in order to  obtain a little
delay.  I have done every thing of consequence which I ever meant to
do, and I could at no time expect to leave my relations and friends in
a better situation than that in which I am now likely to leave them: I
therefore have all reason to die contented."  He then diverted himself
with inventing several jocular excuses, which he supposed he might
make to Charon, and with imagining the very surly answers which it
might suit the character of Charon to return to them.  "Upon further
consideration," said he, "I thought I might say to him, 'Good Charon,
I have been correcting my works for a new edition.  Allow me a little
time, that I may see how the public receives the alterations.'  But
Charon would answer, 'When you have seen the effect of these, you will
be for making other alterations.  There will be no end of such
excuses; so, honest friend, please step into the boat.'  But I might
still urge, 'Have a little patience, good Charon, I have been
endeavouring to open the eyes of the public.  If I live a few years
longer, I may have the satisfaction of seeing the downfall of some of
the prevailing systems of superstition.'  But Charon would then lose
all temper and decency--'You loitering rogue, that will not happen
these many hundred years.  Do you fancy I will grant you a lease for
so long a term?  Get into the boat this instant, you lazy, loitering
rogue.'"

But though Mr. Hume always talked of his approaching dissolution with
great cheerfulness, he never affected to make any parade of his
magnanimity.  He never mentioned the subject, but when the
conversation naturally led to it, and never dwelt longer upon it than
the course of the conversation happened to require.  It was a subject,
indeed, which occurred pretty frequently, in consequence of the
inquiries which his friends, who came to see him, naturally made
concerning the state of his health.  The conversation which I
mentioned above, and which passed on Thursday the 8th of August, was
the last, except one, that I ever had with him.  He had now become so
very weak, that the company of his most intimate friends fatigued him;
for his cheerfulness was still so great, his complaisance and social
disposition were still so entire, that when any friend was with him,
he could not help talking more, and with greater exertion, than suited
the weakness of his body.  At his own desire, therefore, I agreed to
leave Edinburgh, where I was staying partly upon his account, and
returned to my mother's house here, at Kirkaldy, upon condition that
he would send for me whenever he wished to see me; the physician who
saw him most frequently, Dr. Black, undertaking in the mean time to
write me occasionally an account of the state of his health.

On the 22d of August, the doctor wrote me the following letter:

"Since my last, Mr. Hume has passed his time pretty easily, but is
much weaker.  He sits up, goes down stairs once a day, and amuses
himself with reading, but seldom sees any body.  He finds, that the
conversation of his most intimate friends fatigues and oppresses him;
and it is happy that he does not need it, for he is quite free from
anxiety, impatience, or low spirits, and passes his time very well
with the assistance of amusing books."

I received the day after a letter from Mr. Hume himself, of which the
following is an extract:

"Edinburgh, Aug. 23, 1776

"MY DEAREST FRIEND,

"I am obliged to make use of my nephew's hand in writing to you, as I
do not rise to-day. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"I go very fast to decline, and last night had a small fever, which I
hoped might put a quicker period to this tedious illness; but,
unluckily, it has in a great measure gone off.  I cannot submit to
your coming over here on my account, as it is possible for me to see
you so small a part of the day; but Dr. Black can better inform you
concerning the degree of strength which may from time to time remain
with me.

"Adieu, &c."

Three days after, I received the following letter from Dr. Black:

"Edinburgh, Monday, Aug. 26, 1776.

"DEAR SIR,

"Yesterday, about four o'clock, afternoon, Mr. Hume expired.  The near
approach of his death became evident in the night between Thursday and
Friday, when his disease became excessive, and soon weakened him so
much, that he could no longer rise out of his bed.  He continued to
the last perfectly sensible, and free from much pain or feelings of
distress.  He never dropped the smallest expression of impatience; but
when he had occasion to speak to the people about him, always did it
with affection and tenderness.  I thought it improper to write to
bring you over, especially as I heard that he had dictated a letter to
you, desiring you not to come.  When he became very weak, it cost him
an effort to speak, and he died in such a happy composure of mind that
nothing could exceed it."

Thus died our most excellent and never to be forgotten friend;
concerning whose philosophical opinions men will no doubt judge
variously, every one approving or condemning them, according as they
happen to coincide or disagree with his own; but concerning whose
character and conduct there can scarce be a difference of opinion.
His temper, indeed, seemed to be more happily balanced, if I may be
allowed such an expression, than that perhaps of any other man I have
ever known.  Even in the lowest state of his fortune, his great and
necessary frugality never hindered him from exercising, upon proper
occasions, acts both of charity and generosity.  It was a frugality
founded not upon avarice, but upon the love of independency.  The
extreme gentleness of his nature never weakened either the firmness of
his mind, or the steadiness of his resolutions.  His constant
pleasantry was the genuine effusion of good-nature and good-humour,
tempered with delicacy and modesty, and without even the slightest
tincture of malignity, so frequently the disagreeable source of what
is called wit in other men.  It never was the meaning of his raillery
to mortify; and therefore, far from offending, it seldom failed to
please and delight even those who were the objects of it.  To his
friends, who were frequently the objects of it, there was not perhaps
one of all his great and amiable qualities which contributed more to
endear his conversation.  And that gaiety of temper, so agreeable in
society, but which is so often accompanied with frivolous and
superficial qualities, was in him certainly attended with the most
severe application, the most extensive learning, the greatest depth of
thought, and a capacity in every respect the most comprehensive.  Upon
the whole, I have always considered him, both in his lifetime and
since his death, as approaching as nearly to the idea of a perfectly
wise and virtuous man as perhaps the nature of human frailty will
permit.

I ever am, dear Sir,

Most affectionately yours,

ADAM SMITH.




CONTENTS OF VOLUME I



CHAPTER I.

The Britons.--Romans.--Saxons.--The Heptarchy.--The Kingdom of Kent--
of Northumberland--of East Anglia--of Mercia--of Essex--of Sussex--of
Wessex


CHAPTER II.

Egbert.--Ethelwolf.--Ethelbald and Ethelbert.--Ethered.--Alfred the
Great.--Edward the Elder.--Athelstan.--Edmund.-Edred.--Edwy.--Edgar.--
Edward the Martyr


CHAPTER III.

Ethelred.--Settlement of the Normans.--Edmund Ironside.--Canute.--
Harold Harefoot.--Hardicanute.--Edward the Confessor.--Harold


APPENDIX I.

THE ANGLO-SAXON GOVERNMENT AND MANNERS.

First Saxon Government.--Succession of the Kings.--The Wittenagemot.--
The Aristocracy.--The several Orders of Men.--Courts of Justice.--
Criminal Law.--Rules of Proof.-Military Force.--Public Revenue.--Value
of Money.--Manners


CHAPTER IV.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR

Consequences of the Battle of Hastings.--Submission of the English.--
Settlement of the Government.--King's Return to Normandy.--Discontents
of the English.--Their Insurrections.--Rigours of the Norman
Government.--New Insurrections.-New Rigours of the Government.--
Introduction of the Feudal Law.--Innovation in Ecclesiastical
Government.--Insurrection of the Norman Barons.--Dispute about
Investitures.--Revolt of Prince Robert.--Domesday-Book.--The New
Forest.--War with France.--Death and Character of William the
Conqueror


CHAPTER V

WILLIAM RUFUS

Accession of William Rufus.--Conspiracy against the King.--Invasion of
Normandy.--The Crusades.--Acquisition of Normandy.--Quarrel with
Anselm, the Primate.--Death and Character of William Rufus


CHAPTER VI.

HENRY I.

The Crusades.--Accession of Henry.--Marriage of the King.--Invasion by
Duke Robert.--Accommodation with Robert.--Attack of Normandy.--
Conquest of Normandy.--Continuation of the Quarrel with Anselm, the
Primate.--Compromise with him.--Wars abroad.--Death of Prince
William.--King's second Marriage.--Death and Character of Henry


CHAPTER VII.

STEPHEN

Accession of Stephen.--War with Scotland.--Insurrection in favour of
Matilda.--Stephen taken Prisoner.--Matilda crowned.--Stephen
released.--Restored to the Crown.--Continuation of the Civil Wars.--
Compromise between the King and Prince Henry.--Death of the King


CHAPTER VIII.

HENRY II.

State of Europe--of France.--First Acts of Henry's Government.--
Disputes between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Powers.-Thomas à Becket,
Archbishop of Canterbury.--Quarrel between the King and Becket.--
Constitutions of Clarendon.--Banishment of Becket.--Compromise with
him.--His return from Banishment.-His Murder.--Grief and Submission of
the King


CHAPTER IX.

State of Ireland.--Conquest of that Island.--The King's Accommodation
with the Court of Rome.--Revolt of young Henry and  his brothers.--
Wars and Insurrections.--War with Scotland.--Penance of Henry for
Becket's Murder.--William, King of Scotland, defeated and taken
Prisoner.--The King's Accommodation with his Sons.--The King's
equitable Administration.--Crusades.--Revolt of Prince Richard.--Death
and Character of Henry.--Miscellaneous Transactions of his Reign


CHAPTER X.

RICHARD I.

The King's Preparations for the Crusade.--Sets out on the Crusade.--
Transactions in Sicily.--King's Arrival in Palestine.--State of
Palestine.--Disorders in England.--The King's Heroic Actions in
Palestine.--His Return from Palestine.--Captivity in Germany.--War
with France.--The King's Delivery.--Return to England.--War with
France.--Death and Character of the King.--Miscellaneous Transactions
of this Reign


CHAPTER XI.

JOHN

Accession of the King.--His Marriage.--War with France.--Murder of
Arthur, Duke of Britany.--The King expelled the French Provinces.--The
King's Quarrel with the Court of Rome.--Cardinal Langton appointed
Archbishop of Canterbury.--Interdict of the Kingdom.--Excommunication
of the King.-The King's Submission to the Pope.--Discontents of the
Barons.--Insurrection of the Barons.--Magna Carta.--Renewal of the
Civil Wars.--Prince Lewis called over.--Death and Character of the
King


APPENDIX II.

THE FEUDAL AND ANGLO-NORMAN GOVERNMENT AND MANNERS.

Origin of the Feudal Law.--Its Progress.--Feudal Government of
England.--The Feudal Parliament.--The Commons.-Judicial Power.--
Revenue of the Crown.--Commerce.--The Church.--Civil Laws.--Manners


CHAPTER XII.

HENRY III.

Settlement of the Government.--General Pacification.--Death of the
Protector.--Some Commotions.--Hubert de Burgh displaced.--The Bishop
of Winchester Minister.--King's Partiality to Foreigners.--
Grievances.--Ecclesiastical Grievances.--Earl of Cornwall elected King
of the Romans.--Discontent of the Barons--Simon de Mountfort, Earl of
Leicester.--Provisions of Oxford.--Usurpation of the Barons.--Prince
Edward.--Civil Wars of the Barons.--Reference to the King of France.--
Renewal of the Civil Wars.--Battle of Lewes.--House of Commons.--
Battle of Evesham and death of Leicester.--Settlement of the
Government.--Death and Character of the King.--Miscellaneous
Transactions of this Reign








CHAPTER I.

THE BRITONS.--ROMANS.--SAXONS.--THE HEPTARCHY.--THE KINGDOM OF KENT--
OF NORTHUMBERLAND--OF EAST ANGLIA--OF MERCIA--OF ESSEX--OF SUSSEX--OF
WESSEX



[MN The Britons.]
The curiosity, entertained by all civilized nations, of inquiring into
the exploits and adventures of their ancestors, commonly excites a
regret that the history of remote ages should always be so much
involved in obscurity, uncertainty, and contradiction.  Ingenious men,
possessed of leisure, are apt to push their researches beyond the
period in which literary monuments are framed or preserved; without
reflecting that the history of past events is immediately lost or
disfigured when intrusted to memory or oral tradition; and that the
adventures of barbarous nations, even if they were recorded, could
afford little or no entertainment to men born in a more cultivated
age.  The convulsions of a civilized state usually compose the most
instructive and most interesting part of its history; but the sudden,
violent, and unprepared revolutions incident to barbarians are so much
guided by caprice, and terminate so often in cruelty, that they
disgust us by the uniformity of their appearance; and it is rather
fortunate for letters that they are buried in silence and oblivion.
The only certain means by which nations can indulge their curiosity in
researches concerning their  remote origin, is to consider the
language, manners, and customs of their ancestors, and to compare them
with those of the neighbouring nations.  The fables which are commonly
employed to supply the place of true history ought entirely to be
disregarded; or if any exception be admitted to this general rule, it
can only be in favour of the ancient Grecian fictions, which are so
celebrated and so agreeable, that they will ever be the objects of the
attention of mankind.  Neglecting, therefore, all traditions, or
rather tales, concerning the more early history of Britain, we shall
only consider the state of the inhabitants as it appeared to the
Romans on their invasion of this country: we shall briefly run over
the events which attended the conquest made by that empire, as
belonging more to Roman than British story: we shall hasten through
the obscure and uninteresting period of Saxon annals: and shall
reserve a more full narration for those times when the truth is both
so well ascertained and so complete as to promise entertainment and
instruction to the reader.

All ancient writers agree in representing the first inhabitants of
Britain as a tribe of the Gauls or Celtae, who peopled that island
from the neighbouring continent.  Their language was the same; their
manners, their government, their superstition, varied only by those
small differences which time or communication with the bordering
nations must necessarily introduce.  The inhabitants of Gaul,
especially in those parts which lie contiguous to Italy, had acquired,
from a commerce with their southern neighbours, some refinement in the
arts, which gradually diffused themselves northwards, and spread but a
very faint light over this island.  The Greek and Roman navigators or
merchants (for there were scarcely any other travellers in those ages)
brought back the most shocking accounts of the ferocity of the people,
which they magnified, as usual, in order to excite the admiration of
their countrymen.  The south-east parts, however, of Britain had
already, before the age of Caesar, made the first, and most requisite
step towards a civil settlement; and the Britons, by tillage and
agriculture, had there increased to a great multitude [a].  The other
inhabitants of the island still maintained themselves by pasture:
they were clothed with skins of beasts. They dwelt in huts, which they
reared in the forests and marshes, with which the country was covered:
they shifted easily their habitation, when actuated either by the
hopes of plunder, or the fear of an enemy: the convenience of feeding
their cattle was even a sufficient motive for removing their seats:
and as they were ignorant of all the refinements of life, their wants
and their possessions were equally scanty and limited.
[FN [a] Caesar. lib. 4.]

The Britons were divided into many small nations or tribes; and being
a military people, whose sole property was their arms and their
cattle, it was impossible, after they had acquired a relish for
liberty, for their princes or chieftains to establish any despotic
authority over them.  Their governments, though monarchical [b], were
free, as well as those of all the Celtic nations; and the common
people seem even to have enjoyed more liberty among them [c] than
among the nations of Gaul [d], from which they were descended.  Each
state was divided into factions within itself [e]: it was agitated
with jealousy or animosity against the neighbouring states: and while
the arts of peace were yet unknown, wars were the chief occupation,
and formed the chief object of ambition among the people.
[FN [b] Diod. Sic. lib. 4.  Mela, lib. 3. cap. 6.  Strabo, lib. 4.
[c] Dion. Cassius, lib. 75  [d] Caesar. lib. 6.  [e] Tacit. Agr.]

The religion of the Britons was one of the most considerable parts of
their government; and the Druids, who were their priests, possessed
great authority among them.  Besides ministering at the altar, and
directing all religious duties, they presided over the education of
youth; they enjoyed an immunity from wars and taxes; they possessed
both the civil and criminal jurisdiction; they decided all
controversies among states as well as among private persons, and
whoever refused to submit to their decree was exposed to the most
severe penalties.  The sentence of excommunication was pronounced
against him: he was forbidden access to the sacrifices or public
worship: he was debarred all intercourse with his fellow-citizens,
even in the common affairs of life: his company was universally
shunned, as profane and dangerous.  He was refused the protection of
law [f]; and death itself became an acceptable relief from the misery
and infamy to which he was exposed.  Thus, the bands of government,
which were naturally loose among that rude and turbulent people, were
happily corroborated by the terrors of their superstition.
[FN [f] Caesar, lib. 6.  Strabo, lib. 4.]

No species of superstition was ever more terrible than that of the
Druids.  Besides the severe penalties, which it was in the power of
the ecclesiastics to inflict in this world, they inculcated the
eternal transmigration of souls; and thereby extended their authority
as far as the fears of their timorous votaries.  They practised their
rites in dark groves or other secret recesses [g]; and in order to
throw a greater mystery over their religion, they communicated their
doctrines only to the initiated, and strictly forbad the committing of
them to writing, lest they should at any time be exposed to the
examination of the profane vulgar.  Human sacrifices were practised
among them: the spoils of war were often devoted to their divinities;
and they punished with the severest tortures whoever dared to secrete
any part of the consecrated offering; these treasures they kept in
woods and forests, secured by no other guard than the terrors of their
religion [h]; and this steady conquest over human avidity may be
regarded as more signal than their prompting men to the most
extraordinary and most violent efforts.  No idolatrous worship ever
attained such an ascendant over mankind as that of the ancient Gauls
and Britons; and the Romans, after their conquest, finding it
impossible to reconcile those nations to the law and institutions of
their masters, while it maintained its authority, were at last obliged
to abolish it by penal statutes; a violence which had never, in any
other instance, been practised by those tolerating conquerors [i].
[FN [g] Plin. lib. 12. cap. 1.  [h] Caesar, lib. 6.  [i] Sueton. in
vita Claudii.]

[MN The Romans.]
The Britons had long remained in this rude but independent state, when
Caesar, having overrun all Gaul by his victories, first cast his eye
on their island.  He was not allured either by its riches or its
renown; but being ambitious of carrying the Roman arms into a new
world, then mostly unknown, he took advantage of a short interval in
his Gaulic wars, and made an invasion on Britain.  The natives,
informed of his intention, were sensible of the unequal contest, and
endeavoured to appease him by submissions, which, however, retarded
not the execution of his design.  After some resistance, he landed, as
is supposed, at Deal; [MN Anno Ante C. 55.] and having obtained
several advantages over the Britons, and obliged them to promise
hostages for their future obedience, he was constrained, by the
necessity of his affairs, and the approach of winter, to withdraw his
forces into Gaul.  The Britons, relieved from the terror of his arms,
neglected the performance of their stipulations; and that haughty
conqueror resolved next summer to chastise them for this breach of
treaty.  He landed with a greater force; and though he found a more
regular resistance from the Britons, who had united under
Cassivelaunus, one of their petty princes, he discomfited them in
every action.  He advanced into the country; passed the Thames in the
face of the enemy; took and burned the capital of Cassivelaunus;
established his ally, Mandubratius, in the sovereignty of the
Trinobantes; and having obliged the inhabitants to make him new
submissions, he again returned with his army into Gaul, and left the
authority of the Romans more nominal than real in this island.

The civil wars which ensued, and which prepared the way for the
establishment of monarchy in Rome, saved the Britons from that yoke
which was ready to be imposed upon them.  Augustus, the successor of
Caesar, content with the victory obtained over the liberties of his
own country, was little ambitious of acquiring fame by foreign wars;
and being apprehensive lest the same unlimited extent of dominion,
which had subverted the republic, might also overwhelm the empire, he
recommended it to his successors never to enlarge the territories of
the Romans.  Tiberius, jealous of the fame which might be acquired by
his generals, made this advice of Augustus a pretence for his
inactivity [k].  The mad sallies of Caligula, in which he menaced
Britain with an invasion, served only to expose himself and the empire
to ridicule: and the Britons had now, during almost a century, enjoyed
their liberty unmolested; when the Romans, in the reign of Claudius
began to think seriously of reducing them under their dominion.
Without seeking any more justifiable reasons of hostility than were
employed by the late Europeans in subjugating the Africans and
Americans, [MN A.D. 43.] they sent over an army under the command of
Plautius, an able general, who gained some victories, and made a
considerable progress in subduing the inhabitants.  Claudius himself,
finding matters sufficiently prepared for his reception, made a
journey into Britain, and received the submission of several British
states, the Cantii, Atrebates, Regni, and Trinobantes, who inhabited
the south-east part of the island, and whom their possessions and more
cultivated manner of life rendered willing to purchase peace at the
expense of their liberty.  The other Britons, under the command of
Caractacus, still maintained an obstinate resistance, and the Romans
made little progress against them, till Ostorius Scapula was sent over
to command their armies.  This general advanced the Roman conquests
over the Britons; [MN A.D. 50.] pierced into the country of the
Silures, a warlike nation who inhabited the banks of the Severn;
defeated Caractacus in a great battle; took him prisoner, and sent him
to Rome, where his magnanimous behaviour procured him better treatment
than those conquerors usually bestowed on captive princes [l].
[FN [k] Tacit. Agr.  [l] Tacit. Ann. lib. 12.]

Notwithstanding these misfortunes, the Britons were not subdued; and
this island was regarded by the ambitious Romans as a field in which
military honour might still be acquired.  [MN A.D. 59.]  Under the
reign of Nero, Suetonius Paulinus was invested with the command, and
prepared to signalize his name by victories over those barbarians.
Finding that the island of Mona, now Anglesey, was the chief seat of
the Druids, he resolved to attack it, and to subject a place which was
the centre of their superstition, and which afforded protection to all
their baffled forces.  The Britons endeavoured to obstruct his landing
on this sacred island, both by the force of their arms and the terrors
of their religion.  The women and priests were intermingled with the
soldiers upon the shore; and running about with flaming torches in
their hands, and tossing their dishevelled hair, they struck greater
terror into the astonished Romans by their howlings, cries, and
execrations, than the real danger from the armed forces was able to
inspire.  But Suetonius, exhorting his troops to despise the menaces
of a superstition which they despised, impelled them to the attack,
drove the Britons off the field, burned the Druids in the same fires
which those priests had prepared for their captive enemies, destroyed
all the consecrated groves and altars; and, having thus triumphed over
the religion of the Britons, he thought his future progress would be
easy in reducing the people to subjection.  But he was disappointed in
his expectations.  The Britons, taking advantage of his absence, were
all in arms; and headed by Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni, who had been
treated in the most ignominious manner by the Roman tribunes, had
already attacked with success several settlements of their insulting
conquerors.  Suetonius hastened to the protection of London, which was
already a flourishing Roman colony; but he found, on his arrival, that
it would be requisite for the general safety to abandon that place to
the merciless fury of the enemy.  London was reduced to ashes; such of
the inhabitants as remained in it were cruelly massacred; the Romans
and all strangers, to the number of 70,000, were every where put to
the sword without distinction; and the Britons, by rendering the war
thus bloody, seemed determined to cut off all hopes of peace or com-
position with the enemy.  But this cruelty was revenged by Suetonius
in a great and decisive battle, where 80,000 of the Britons are said
to have .perished; and Boadicea herself; rather than fall into the
hands of the enraged victor, put an end to her own life by poison [m].
Nero soon after recalled Suetonius from a government, where, by
suffering and inflicting so many severities, he was judged improper
for composing the angry and alarmed minds of the inhabitants.  After
some interval, Cerealis received the command from Vespasian, and by
his bravery propagated the terror of the Roman arms.  Julius Frontinus
succeeded Cerealis both in authority and in reputation: but the
general who finally established the dominion of the Romans in this
island was Julius Agricola, who governed it in the reigns of
Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian, and distinguished himself in that
scene of action.
[FN [m] Tacit. Ann. lib. 14]

This great commander formed a regular plan for subduing Britain, and
rendering the acquisition useful to the conquerors.  He carried his
victorious arms northwards, defeated the Britons in every encounter,
pierced into the inaccessible forests and mountains of Caledonia,
reduced every state to subjection in the southern part of the island,
and chased before him all the men of fiercer and more intractable
spirits, who deemed war and death itself less intolerable than
servitude under the victors.  He even defeated them in a decisive
action, which they fought under Galgacus, their leader; and having
fixed a chain of garrisons between the firths of Clyde and Forth, he
thereby cut off the ruder and more barren parts of the island, and
secured the Roman province from the incursions of the barbarous
inhabitants [n].
[FN [n] Tacit Agr.]

During these military enterprises, he neglected not the arts of peace.
He introduced laws and civility among the Britons, taught them to
desire and raise all the conveniences of life, reconciled them to the
Roman language and manners, instructed them in letters and science,
and employed every expedient to render those chains which he had
forged both easy and agreeable to them [o].  The inhabitants, having
experienced how unequal their own force was to resist that of the
Romans, acquiesced in the dominion of their masters, and were
gradually incorporated as a part of that mighty empire.
[FN [o] Ibid.]

This was the last durable conquest made by the Romans; and Britain,
once subdued, gave no farther inquietude to the victor.  Caledonia
alone, defended by its barren mountains, and by the contempt which the
Romans entertained for it, sometimes infested the more cultivated
parts of the island by the incursions of its inhabitants.  The better
to secure the frontiers of the empire, Adrian, who visited this
island, built a rampart between the river Tyne and the firth of
Solway: Lollius Urbicus, under Antoninus Pius, erected one in the
place where Agricola had formerly established his garrisons: Severus,
who made an expedition into Britain, and carried his arms to the more
northern extremity of it, added new fortifications to the walls of
Adrian; and, during the reigns of all the Roman emperors, such a
profound tranquillity prevailed in Britain, that little mention is
made of the affairs of that island by any historian.  The only
incidents which occur are some seditions or rebellions of the Roman
legions quartered there, and some usurpations of the Imperial dignity
by the Roman governors.  The natives, disarmed, dispirited, and
submissive, had lost all desire, and even idea of their former liberty
and independence.

But the period was now come when that enormous fabric of the Roman
empire, which had diffused slavery and oppression, together with peace
and civility, over so considerable a part of the globe, was
approaching towards it final dissolution.  Italy and the centre of the
empire, removed, during so many ages, from all concern in the wars,
had entirely lost the military spirit, and were peopled by an
enervated race, equally disposed to submit to a foreign yoke, or to
the tyranny of their own rulers.  The emperors found themselves
obliged to recruit their legions from the frontier provinces, where
the genius of war, though languishing, was not totally extinct; and
these mercenary forces, careless of laws, and civil institutions,
established a military government, no less dangerous to the sovereign
than to the people.  The further progress of the same disorders
introduced the bordering barbarians into the service of the Romans;
and those fierce nations, having now added discipline to their native
bravery, could no longer be restrained by the impotent policy of the
emperors, who were accustomed to employ one in the destruction of the
others.  Sensible of their own force, and allured by the prospect of
so rich a prize, the northern barbarians, in the reign of Arcadius and
Honorius, assailed at once all the frontiers of the Roman empire; and
having first satiated their avidity by plunder, began to think of
fixing a settlement in the wasted provinces.  The more distant
barbarians, who occupied the deserted habitations of the former,
advanced in their acquisitions, and pressed with their incumbent
weight the Roman state, already unequal to the load which it
sustained.  Instead of arming the people in their own defence, the
emperors recalled all the distant legions, in whom alone they could
repose confidence; and collected the whole military force for the
defence of the capital and centre of the empire.  The necessity of
self-preservation had superseded the ambition of power; and the
ancient point of honour never to contract the limits of the empire
could no longer be attended to in this desperate extremity.

Britain by its situation was removed from the fury of these barbarous
incursions; and being also a remote province, not much valued by the
Romans, the legions which defended it were carried over to the
protection of Italy and Gaul.  But that province, though secured by
the sea against the inroads of the greater tribes of barbarians, found
enemies on its frontiers, who took advantage of its present
defenceless situation.  The Picts and Scots, who dwelt in the northern
parts, beyond the wall of Antoninus, made incursions upon their
peaceable and effeminate neighbours; and besides the temporary
depredations which they committed, these combined nations threatened
the whole province with subjection, or what the inhabitants more
dreaded, with plunder and devastation.  The Picts seem to have been a
tribe of the native British race, who, having been chased into the
northern parts by the conquest of Agricola, had there intermingled
with the ancient inhabitants: the Scots were derived from the same
Celtic origin, had first been established in Ireland, had migrated to
the north-west coasts of this island, and had long been accustomed, as
well from their old as their new seats, to infest the Roman province
by piracy and rapine [p].  These tribes, finding their more opulent
neighbours exposed to invasion, soon broke over the Roman wall, no
longer defended by the Roman arms; and, though a contemptible enemy in
themselves, met with no resistance from the unwarlike inhabitants.
The Britons, accustomed to have recourse to the emperors for defence
as well as government, made supplications to Rome; and one legion was
sent over for their protection.  This force was an overmatch for the
barbarians, repelled their invasion, routed them in every engagement,
and having chased them into their ancient limits, returned in triumph
to the defence of the southern provinces of the empire [q].  Their
retreat brought on a new invasion of the enemy.  The Britons made
again an application to Rome, and again obtained the assistance of a
legion, which proved effectual for their relief: but the Romans,
reduced to extremities at home, and fatigued with those distant
expeditions, informed the Britons that they must no longer look to
them for succour, exhorted them to arm in their own defence, and urged
that, as they were now their own masters, it became them to protect by
their valour that independence which their ancient lords had conferred
upon them [r].  That they might leave the island with the better
grace, the Romans assisted them in erecting anew the wall of Severus,
which was built entirely of stone, and which the Britons had not at
that time artificers skilful enough to repair [s].  And having done
this last good office to the inhabitants, they bid a final adieu to
Britain, about the year 448; after being masters of the more
considerable part of it during the course of near four centuries.
[FN [p] See note [A] at the end of the volume.  [q] Gildas.  Bede,
lib. 1. cap. 12.  Paul. Diacon.  [r] Bede, lib. 1. cap. 12  [s] Ibid.]

[MN The Britons.]
The abject Britons. regarded this present of liberty as  fatal to
them; and were in no condition to put in practice the prudent counsel
given them by the Romans to arm in their own defence.  Unaccustomed
both to the perils of war and to the cares of civil government, they
found themselves incapable of forming or executing any measures for
resisting the incursions of the barbarians.  Gratian also and
Constantine, two Romans who had a little before assumed the purple in
Britain, had carried over to the continent the flower of the British
youth; and having perished in their unsuccessful attempts on the
imperial throne, had despoiled the island of those who, in this
desperate extremity, were best able to defend it.  The Picts and
Scots, finding that the Romans had finally relinquished Britain, now
regarded the whole as their prey, and attacked the northern wall with
redoubled forces.  The Britons already subdued by their own fears,
found the ramparts but a weak defence for them; and deserting their
station, left the country entirely open to the inroads of the
barbarous enemy.  The invaders carried devastation and ruin along with
them; and exerted to the utmost their native ferocity, which was not
mitigated by the helpless condition and submissive behaviour of the
inhabitants [t].  The unhappy Britons had a third time recourse to
Rome, which had declared its resolution for ever to abandon them.
Aëtius, the patrician, sustained at that time, by his valour and
magnanimity, the tottering ruins of the empire, and revived for a
moment, among the degenerate Romans, the spirit as well as discipline
of their ancestors.  The British ambassador carried to him the letter
of their countrymen, which was inscribed, THE GROANS OF THE BRITONS.
The tenor of the epistle was suitable to its superscription.  THE
BARBARIANS, say they, ON THE ONE HAND, CHASE US INTO THE SEA; THE SEA,
ON THE OTHER, THROWS US BACK UPON THE BARBARIANS; AND WE HAVE ONLY THE
HARD CHOICE LEFT US, OF PERISHING BY THE SWORD OR BY THE WAVES [u].
But Aëtius, pressed by the arms of Attila, the most terrible enemy
that ever assailed the empire, had no leisure to attend to the
complaints of allies, whom generosity alone could induce him to assist
[v].  The Britons thus rejected were reduced to despair, deserted
their habitations, abandoned tillage, and flying for protection to the
forests and mountains, suffered equally from hunger and from the
enemy.  The barbarians themselves began to feel the pressure of famine
in a country which they had ravaged; and being harassed by the
dispersed Britons, who had not dared to resist them in a body, they
retreated with their spoils into their own country [w].
[FN [t] Gildas.  Bede, lib. 1.  Ann. Beverl. p. 45.  [u] Gildas.
Bede, lib. 1. cap. 13.  Malmesbury, lib. 1. cap. 1.  Ann. Beverl. p.
45.  [v] Chron. Sax. p. 11 edit. 1692.  [w] Ann. Beverl. p. 45.]

The Britons, taking advantage of this interval, returned to their
usual occupations; and the favourable seasons which succeeded seconded
their industry, made them soon forget their past miseries, and
restored to them great plenty of all the necessaries of life.  No more
can be imagined to have been possessed by a people so rude, who had
not, without the assistance of the Romans, art of masonry sufficient
to raise a stone rampart for their own defence; yet the Monkish
historians [x], who treat of those events, complain of the luxury of
the Britons during this period, and ascribe to that vice, not to their
cowardice or improvident counsels, all their subsequent calamities.
[FN [x] Gildas.  Bede, lib. 1. cap. 14.]

The Britons, entirely occupied in the enjoyment of the present
interval of peace, made no provision for resisting the enemy, who,
invited by their former timid behaviour, soon threatened them with a
new invasion.  We are not exactly informed what species of civil
government the Romans on their departure had left among the Britons;
but it appears probable, that the great men in, the different
districts assumed a kind of regal though precarious authority; and
lived in a great measure independent of each other [y].  To this
disunion of counsels were also added the disputes of theology; and the
disciples of Pelagius, who was himself a native of Britain, having
increased to a great multitude, gave alarm to the clergy, who seem to
have been more intent on suppressing them, than on opposing the public
enemy [z].  Labouring under these domestic evils, and menaced with a
foreign invasion, the Britons attended only to the suggestions of
their present fears; and following the counsels of Vortigern, Prince
of Dumnonium, who, though stained with every vice, possessed the chief
authority among them [a], they sent into Germany a deputation to
invite over the Saxons for their protection and assistance.
[FN [y] Gildas.  Usher, Ant. Brit. p. 248, 347.  [z] Gildas.  Bede,
lib. 1. cap. 17.  Constant. in vita Germ.  [a] Gildas.  Gul. Malm. p
8.]

[MN The Saxons.]
Of all the barbarous nations, known either in ancient or modern times,
the Germans seem to have been the most distinguished both by their
manners and political institutions, and to have carried to the highest
pitch the virtues of valour and love of liberty; the only virtues
which can have place among an uncivilized people, where justice and
humanity are commonly neglected.  Kingly government, even when
established among the Germans, (for it was not universal,) possessed a
very limited authority; and though the sovereign was usually chosen
from among the royal family, he was directed in every measure by the
common consent of the nation over whom he presided.  When any
important affairs were transacted, all the warriors met in arms; the
men of greatest authority employed persuasion to engage their consent;
the people expressed their approbation by rattling their armour, or
their dissent by murmurs; there was no necessity for a nice scrutiny
of votes among a multitude, who were usually carried with a strong
current to one side or the other; and the measure thus suddenly chosen
by general agreement, was executed with alacrity and prosecuted with
vigour.  Even in war, the princes governed more by example than by
authority; but in peace the civil union was in a great measure
dissolved, and the inferior leaders administered justice after an
independent manner, each in his particular district.  These were
elected by the votes of the people in their great councils; and though
regard was paid to nobility in the choice, their personal qualities,
chiefly their valour, procured them, from the suffrages of their
fellow-citizens, that honourable but dangerous distinction.  The
warriors of each tribe attached themselves to their leader with the
most devoted affection and most unshaken constancy.  They attended him
as his ornament in peace, as his defence in war, as his council in the
administration of justice.  Their constant emulation in military
renown dissolved not that inviolable friendship which they professed
to their chieftain and to each other: to die for the honour of their
band was their chief ambition: to survive its disgrace, or the death
of their leader, was infamous.  They even carried into the field their
women and children, who adopted all the martial sentiments of the men:
and being thus impelled by every human motive, they were invincible;
where they were not opposed either by the similar manners and
institutions of the neighbouring Germans, or by the superior
discipline, arms, and numbers of the Romans [b].
[FN [b] Caesar, lib. 6.  Tacit. de Mor. Germ.]

The leaders and their military companions were maintained by the
labour of their slaves, or by that of the weaker and less warlike part
of the community, whom they defended.  The contributions which they
levied went not beyond a bare subsistence; and the honours, acquired
by a superior rank, were the only reward of their superior dangers and
fatigues.  All the refined arts of life were unknown among the
Germans: tillage itself was almost wholly neglected: they even seem to
have been anxious to prevent any improvements of that nature; and the
leaders, by annually distributing anew all the land among the
inhabitants of each village, kept them from attaching themselves to
particular possessions, or making such progress in agriculture as
might divert their attention from military expeditions, the chief
occupation of the community [c].
[FN [c] Caesar, lib. 6.  Tacit. de Mor. Germ.]

The Saxons had been for some time regarded as one of the most warlike
tribes of this fierce people, and had become the terror of the
neighbouring nations [d].  They had diffused themselves from the
northern parts of Germany and the Cimbrian Chersonesus, and had taken
possession of all the sea-coast from the mouth of the Rhine to
Jutland; whence they had long infested by their piracies all the
eastern and southern parts of Britain, and the northern of Gaul [e].
In order to oppose their inroads, the Romans had established an
officer, whom they called COUNT OF THE SAXON SHORE; and as the naval
arts can flourish among a civilized people alone, they seem to have
been more successful in repelling the Saxons, than any of the other
barbarians by whom they were invaded.  The dissolution of the Roman
power invited them to renew their inroads; and it was an acceptable
circumstance, that the deputies of the Britons appeared among them,
and prompted them to undertake an enterprise, to which they were of
themselves sufficiently inclined [f].
[FN d Amm. Marcell. lib. 28.  Orosius.  [e] Marcell. lib. 27. cap. 7.
lib. 28. cap. 7.  [f] Will. Malm. p. 8.]

Hengist and Horsa, two brothers, possessed great credit among the
Saxons, and were much celebrated both for their valour and nobility.
They were reputed, as most of the Saxon princes, to be sprung from
Woden, who was worshipped as a god among those nations, and they are
said to be his great grandsons [g]; a circumstance which added much to
their authority.  We shall not attempt to trace any higher the origin
of those princes and nations.  It is evident what fruitless labour it
must be to search, in those barbarous and illiterate ages, for the
annals of a people, when their first leaders, known in any true
history, were believed by them to be the fourth in descent from a
fabulous deity, or from a man exalted by ignorance into that
character.  The dark industry of antiquaries, led by imaginary
analogies of names, or by uncertain traditions, would in vain attempt
to pierce into that deep obscurity which covers the remote history of
those nations.
[FN [g] Bede, lib. 1. cap. 15.  Saxon Chron. p. 13.  Nennius, cap.
28.]

These two brothers, observing the other provinces of Germany to be
occupied by a warlike and necessitous people, and the rich provinces
of Gaul already conquered or overrun by other German tribes, found it
easy to persuade their countrymen to embrace the sole enterprise which
promised a favourable opportunity of displaying their valour and
gratifying their avidity.  They embarked their troops in three
vessels, and about the year 449 or 450 [h], carried over 1600 men, who
landed in the Isle of Thanet, and immediately marched to the defence
of the Britons against the northern invaders.  The Scots and Picts
were unable to resist the valour of these auxiliaries; and the
Britons, applauding their own wisdom in calling over the Saxons, hoped
thenceforth to enjoy peace and security under the powerful protection
of that warlike people.
[FN [h] Saxon Chronicle, p. 12.  Gul. Malm. p. 11.  Huntington, lib.
2. p. 309.  Ethelwerd.  Brompton, p. 728.]

But Hengist and Horsa perceiving, from their easy victory over the
Scots and Picts, with what facility they might subdue the Britons
themselves, who had not been able to resist those feeble invaders,
were determined to conquer and fight for their own grandeur, not for
the defence of their degenerate allies.  They sent intelligence to
Saxony of the fertility and riches of Britain; and represented as
certain the subjection of a people so long disused to arms, who, being
now cut off from the Roman empire, of which they had been a province
during so many ages, had not yet acquired any union among themselves,
and were destitute of all affection to their new liberties and of all
national attachments and regards [i].  The vices and pusillanimity of
Vortigern, the British leader, were a new ground of hope; and the
Saxons in Germany, following such agreeable prospects, soon reinforced
Hengist and Horsa with 5000 men, who came over in seventeen vessels.
The Britons now began to entertain apprehensions of their allies,
whose numbers they found continually augmenting; but thought of no
remedy, except a passive submission and connivance.  This weak
expedient soon  failed them.  The Saxons sought a quarrel, by
complaining that their subsidies were ill paid, and their provisions
withdrawn [k]; and immediately taking off the mask, they formed an
alliance with the Picts and Scots, and proceeded to open hostility
against the Britons.
[FN [i] Chron. Sax. p. 12.  Ann. Beverl. p. 42.  [k] Bede, lib. 1.
cap. 15.  Nennius, cap. 35.  Gildas, Sec. 23.]

The Britons, impelled by these violent extremities, and roused to
indignation against their treacherous auxiliaries, were necessitated
to take arms; and having deposed Vortigern, who had become odious from
his vices, and from the bad event of his rash counsels, they put
themselves under the command of his son, Vortimer.  They fought many
battles with their enemies; and though the victories in these actions
be disputed between the British and Saxon annalists, the progress
still made by the Saxons proves that the advantage was commonly on
their side.  In one battle, however, fought at Eaglesford, now
Ailsford, Horsa, the Saxon general, was slain, and left the sole
command over his countrymen in the hands of Hengist.  This active
general, continually reinforced by fresh numbers from Germany, carried
devastation into the most remote corners of Britain; and being chiefly
anxious to spread the terror of his arms, he spared neither age, nor
sex, nor condition, wherever he marched with his victorious forces.
The private and public edifices of the Britons were reduced to ashes:
the priests were slaughtered on the altars by those idolatrous
ravagers: the bishops and nobility shared the fate of the vulgar: the
people, flying to the mountains and deserts, were intercepted and
butchered in heaps: some were glad to accept of life and servitude
under their victors: others, deserting their native country, took
shelter in the province of Armorica; where, being charitably received
by a people of the same language and manners, they settled in great
numbers, and gave the country the name of Britany [l].
[FN [l] Bede, lib. 1. cap. 15.  Usher, p.226.  Gildas, Sec. 24.]

The British writers assign one cause which facilitated the entrance of
the Saxons into this island; the love with which Vortigern was at
first seized for Rovena, the daughter of Hengist, and which that
artful warrior made use of to blind the eyes of the imprudent monarch
[m].  The same historians add, that Vortimer died; and that Vortigern,
being restored to the throne, accepted of a banquet from Hengist, at
Stonehenge, where 300 of his nobility were treacherously slaughtered,
and himself detained captive [n].  But these stories seem to have been
invented by the Welsh authors, in order to palliate the weak
resistance made at first by their countrymen, anal to account for the
rapid progress and licentious devastations of the Saxons [o].
[FN [m] Nennius, Galfr. lib. 6. cap. 12.  [n] Nennius, cap. 47.
Galfr.  [o] Stillingfleet's Orig. Brit. p. 324, 325.]

After the death of Vortimer, Ambrosius, a Briton, though of Roman
descent, invested with the command over his countrymen, and
endeavoured, not without success, to unite them in their resistance
against the Saxons. Those contests increased the animosity between the
two nations, and roused the military spirit of the ancient
inhabitants, which had before been sunk into a fatal lethargy.
Hengist, however, notwithstanding their opposition, still maintained
his ground in Britain; and in order to divide the forces and attention
of the natives, he called over a new tribe of Saxons, under the
command of his brother Octa, and of Ebissa, the son of Octa; and he
settled them in Northumberland.  He himself remained in the southern
parts of the island, and laid the foundation of the kingdom of Kent,
comprehending the county of that name, Middlesex, Essex, and part of
Surrey.  He fixed his royal seat at Canterbury; where he governed
about forty years, and he died in or near the year 488; leaving his
new-acquired dominions to his posterity.

The success of Hengist excited the avidity of the other northern
Germans; and at different times, and under different leaders, they
flocked over in multitudes to the invasion of this island.  These
conquerors were chiefly composed of three tribes, the Saxons, Angles,
and Jutes [p], who all passed under the common appellation, sometimes
of Saxons, sometimes of Angles; and speaking the same language, and
being governed by the same institutions, they were naturally led, from
these causes, as well as from their common interest, to unite
themselves against the ancient inhabitants.  The resistance, however,
though unequal, was still maintained by the Britons; but became every
day more feeble; and their calamities admitted of few intervals, till
they were driven into Cornwall and Wales, and received protection from
the remote situation or inaccessible mountains of those countries.
[FN [p] Bede, lib. 1. cap. 15.  Ethelwerd, p. 833. edit. Camdeni.
Chron. Sax. p. 12.  Ann. Beverl. p. 78.  The inhabitants of Kent, and
the Isle of Wight were Jutes.  Essex, Middlesex, Surrey, Sussex, and
all the southern counties to Cornwall, were peopled by Saxons: Mercia,
and other parts of the kingdom, were inhabited by Angles.]

The first Saxon state, after that of Kent, which was established in
Britain, was the kingdom of South Saxony.  In the year 477 [q], Aella,
a Saxon chief, brought over an army from Germany; and landing on the
southern coast, proceeded to take possession of the neighbouring
territory.  The Britons, now armed, did not tamely abandon their
possessions; nor were they expelled, till defeated in many battles by
their warlike invaders.  The most memorable action, mentioned by
historians, is that of Meacredes Burn [r]; where, though the Saxons
seem to have obtained the victory, they suffered so considerable a
loss, as somewhat retarded the progress of their conquests.  But
Aella, reinforced by fresh numbers of his countrymen, again took the
field against the Britons, and laid siege to Andred-Ceaster, which was
defended by the garrison and inhabitants with desperate valour [s].
The Saxons, enraged by this resistance, and by the fatigues and
dangers which they had sustained, redoubled their efforts against the
place, and when masters of it, put all their enemies to the sword
without distinction.  This decisive advantage secured the conquests of
Aella, who assumed the name of king, and extended his dominion over
Sussex and a great part of Surrey.  He was stopped in his progress to
the east by the kingdom of Kent: in that to the west by another tribe
of Saxons, who had taken possession of that territory.
[FN [q] Chron. Sax. p.14.  Ann. Beverl. p. 81.  [r] Saxon Chron. A.D.
485.  Flor. Wigorn.  [s] Hen. Hunting. lib. 2.]

These Saxons, from the situation of the country in which they settled,
were called the West Saxons, and landed in the year 495, under the
command of Cerdic, and of his son Kenric [t].  The Britons were, by
past experience, so much on their guard, and so well prepared to
receive the enemy, that they gave battle to Cerdic the very day of his
landing; and though vanquished, still defended, for some time, their
liberties against the invaders.  None of the other tribes of Saxons
met with such vigorous resistance, or exerted such valour and
perseverance in pushing their conquests.  Cerdic was even obliged to
call for the assistance of his countrymen from the kingdoms of Kent
and Sussex, as well as from Germany, and he was thence joined by a
fresh army under the command of Porte, and of his sons Bleda, and
Megla [u].  Strengthened by these succours, he fought in the year 508,
a desperate battle with the Britons, commanded by Nazan-Leod, who was
victorious in the beginning of the action, and routed the wing in
which Cerdic himself commanded; but Kenric, who had prevailed in the
other wing, brought timely assistance to his father, and restored the
battle, which ended in a complete victory gained by the Saxons [w].
Nazan-Leod perished with 5000 of his army; but left the Britons more
weakened than discouraged by his death.  The war still continued,
though the success was commonly on the side of the Saxons, whose short
swords, and close manner of fighting, gave them great advantage over
the missile weapons of the Britons.  Cerdic was not wanting to his
good fortune; and in order to extend his conquests, he laid siege to
Mount Badon or Banesdowne, near Bath, whither the most obstinate of
the discomfited Britons had retired.  The southern Britons, in this
extremity, applied for assistance to Arthur, Prince of the Silures,
whose heroic valour now sustained the declining fate of his country
[x].  This is that Arthur so much celebrated in the songs of
Thaliessin, and the other British bards, and whose military
achievements have been blended with so many fables, as even to give
occasion for entertaining a doubt of his real existence. But poets,
though they disfigure the most certain history by their fictions, and
use strange liberties with truth where they are the sole historians,
as among the Britons, have commonly some foundation for their wildest
exaggerations.  Certain it is, that the siege of Badon was raised by
the Britons in the year 520; and the Saxons were there discomfited in
a great battle [y].  This misfortune stopped the progress of Cerdic;
but was not sufficient to wrest from him the conquests which he had
already made.  He and his son Kenric, who succeeded him, established
the kingdom of the West Saxons, or of Wessex, over the counties of
Hants, Dorset, Wilts, Berks, and the Isle of Wight, and left their
new-acquired dominions to their posterity.  Cerdic died in 534, Kenric
in 560.
[FN [t] Will. Malm. lib. 1. cap. 1. p.12.  Chron. Sax. p. 15.  [u]
Chron. Sax. p. 17.  [w] H. Hunting. lib. 2.  Ethelwerd, lib. 1. Chron.
Sax. p. 17.  [x] Hunting. lib. 2.  [y] Gildas, Saxon Chron.  H.
Hunting. lib. 2]

While the Saxons made this progress in the south, their countrymen
were not less active in other quarters.  In the year 527, a great
tribe of adventurers, under several leaders, landed on the east coast
of Britain; and after fighting many battles, of which history has
preserved no particular account, they established three new kingdoms
in this island.  Uffa assumed the title of King of the East Angles in
575; Crida that of Mercia in 585 [z] and Erkenwin that of East Saxony,
or Essex, nearly about the same time, but the year is uncertain.  This
latter kingdom was dismembered from that of Kent, and comprehended
Essex, Middlesex, and part of Hertfordshire.  That of the East Angles,
the counties of Cambridge, Suffolk, and Norfolk; Mercia was extended
over all the middle counties, from the banks of the Severn to the
frontiers of these two kingdoms.
[FN [z] Math. West. Huntington, lib. 2.]

The Saxons, soon after the landing of Hengist, had been planted in
Northumberland; but, as they met with an obstinate resistance, and
made but small progress in subduing the inhabitants, their affairs
were in so unsettled a condition, that none of their princes for a
long time assumed the appellation of king.  At last, in 547 [a], Ida,
a Saxon prince of great valour [b], who claimed a descent, as did the
other princes of that nation, from Woden, brought over a reinforcement
from Germany, and enabled the Northumbrians to carry on their
conquests over the Britons.  He entirely subdued the county now called
Northumberland, the bishopric of Durham, as well as some of the south-
east counties of Scotland; and he assumed the crown under the title of
King of Bernicia.  Nearly about the same time, Aella, another Saxon
prince, having conquered Lancashire, and the greater part of
Yorkshire, received the appellation of  King of Deiri [c].  These two
kingdoms were united in the person of Ethilfrid, grandson of Ida, who
married Acca, the daughter of Aella; and expelling her brother Edwin,
established one of the most powerful of the Saxon kingdoms, by the
title of Northumberland.  How far his dominions extended into the
country now called Scotland, is uncertain; but it cannot be doubted,
that all the lowlands, especially the east coast of that country, were
peopled in a great measure from Germany; though the expeditions made
by the several Saxon adventurers have escaped the records of history.
The language spoken in those countries, which is purely Saxon, is a
stronger proof of this event than can be opposed by the imperfect, or
rather fabulous, annals which are obtruded on us by the Scottish
historians.
[FN [a] Chron. Sax. p 19.  [b] Will. Malmes. p. 19.  [c] Ann. Beverl.
p. 78.]

[MN The Heptarcy.]
Thus was established, after a violent contest of near a hundred and
fifty years, the Heptarchy, or seven Saxon kingdoms in Britain; and
the whole southern part of the island, except Wales and Cornwall, had
totally changed its inhabitants, language, customs, and political
institutions.  The Britons, under the Roman dominion, had made such
advances towards arts and civil manners, that they had built twenty-
eight considerable cities within their province, besides a great
number of villages and country seats [d].  But the fierce conquerors,
by whom they were now subdued, threw every thing back into ancient
barbarity, and those few natives who were not either massacred or
expelled their habitations, were reduced to the most abject slavery.
None of the other northern conquerors, the Franks, Goths, Vandals, or
Burgundians, though they overran the southern provinces of the empire
like a mighty torrent, made such devastations in the conquered
territories, or were inflamed into so violent an animosity against the
ancient inhabitants.  As the Saxons came over at intervals in separate
bodies, the Britons, however at first unwarlike, were tempted to make
resistance; and hostilities being thereby prolonged, proved more
destructive to both parties, especially to the vanquished.  The first
invaders from Germany, instead of excluding other adventurers  who
must share with them the spoils of the ancient inhabitants, were
obliged to solicit fresh supplies from their own country; and a total
extermination of the Britons became the sole expedient for providing a
settlement and subsistence to the new planters.  Hence there have been
found in history few conquests more ruinous than that of the Saxons;
and few revolutions more violent than that which they introduced.
[FN  [d] Gildas. Bede. lib. 1.]

So long as the contest was maintained with the natives, the several
Saxon princes preserved a union of counsels and interests; but after
the Britons were shut up in the barren counties of Cornwall and Wales,
and gave no farther disturbance to the conquerors, the band of
alliance was in a great measure dissolved among the princes of the
Heptarchy.  Though one prince seems still to have been allowed, or to
have assumed, an ascendant over the whole, his authority, if it ought
ever to be deemed regular or legal, was extremely limited; and each
state acted as if it had been independent, and wholly separate from
the rest.  Wars therefore, and revolutions and dissensions, were
unavoidable among a turbulent and military people; and these events,
however intricate or confused, ought now to become the objects of our
attention.  But, added to the difficulty of carrying on at once the
history of seven independent kingdoms, there is great discouragement
to a writer, arising from the uncertainty, at least barrenness, of the
accounts transmitted to us.  The monks, who were the only annalists
during those ages, lived remote from public affairs, considered the
civil transactions as entirely subordinate to the ecclesiastical, and,
besides partaking of the ignorance and barbarity which were then
universal, were strongly infected with credulity, with the love of
wonder, and with a propensity to imposture; vices almost inseparable
from their profession and manner of life.  The history of that period
abounds in names, but is extremely barren of events; or the events are
related so much without circumstances and causes, that the most
profound or most eloquent writer must despair of rendering them either
instructive or entertaining to the reader.  Even the great learning
and vigorous imagination of Milton sunk under the weight; and this
author scruples not to declare, that the skirmishes of kites or crows
as much merited a particular narrative, as the confused transactions
and battles of the Saxon Heptarchy [e].  In order, however, to connect
the events in some tolerable measure, we shall give a succinct account
of the succession of kings, and of the more remarkable revolutions in
each particular kingdom; beginning with that of Kent, which was the
first established.
[FN [e] Milton in Kennet, p. 50.]

[MN The Kingdom of Kent.]
Escus succeeded his father Hengist in the kingdom of Kent; but seems
not to have possessed the military genius of that conqueror, who first
made way for the entrance of the Saxon arms into Britain.  All the
Saxons who sought either the fame of valour, or new establishments by
arms, flocked to the standard of Aella, King of Sussex, who was
carrying on successful war against the Britons, and laying the
foundations of a new kingdom.  Escus was content to possess in
tranquillity the kingdom of Kent, which he left in 512 to his son
Octa, in whose time the East Saxons established their monarchy, and
dismembered the provinces of Essex and Middlesex from that of Kent.
His death, after a reign of twenty-two years, made room for his son
Hermenric in 534, who performed nothing memorable during a reign of
thirty-two years, except associating with him his son Ethelbert in the
government, that he might secure the succession in his family, and
prevent such revolutions as are incident to a turbulent and barbarous
monarchy.

Ethelbert revived the reputation of his family, which had languished
for some generations.  The inactivity of his predecessors, and the
situation of his country, secured from all hostility with the Britons,
seem to have much enfeebled the warlike genius of the Kentish Saxons;
and Ethelbert, in his first attempt to aggrandize his country, and
distinguish his own name, was unsuccessful [f].  He was twice
discomfited in battle by Ceaulin, King of Wessex; and obliged to yield
the superiority in the Heptarchy to that ambitious monarch, who
preserved no moderation in his victory, and by reducing the kingdom of
Sussex to subjection, excited jealousy in all the other princes.  An
association was formed against him; and Ethelbert, intrusted with the
command of the allies  gave him battle, and obtained a decisive
victory [g ].  Ceaulin died soon after; and Ethelbert succeeded as
well to his ascendant among the Saxon states, as to his other
ambitious projects.  He reduced all the princes, except the King of
Northumberland, to a strict dependence upon him; and even established
himself by force on the throne of Mercia, the most extensive of the
Saxon kingdoms.  Apprehensive, however, of a dangerous league against
him, like that by which he himself had been enabled to overthrow
Ceaulin, he had the prudence to resign the kingdom of Mercia to Webba,
the rightful heir, the son of Crida, who had first founded that
monarchy.  But governed still by ambition more than by justice, he
gave Webba possession of the crown on such conditions as rendered him
little better than a tributary prince under his artful benefactor.
[FN [f] Chron. Sax. p. 21.  [g] H. Hunting. lib. 2.]

But the most memorable event which distinguished the reign of this
great prince, was the introduction of the Christian religion among the
English Saxons.  The superstition of the Germans, particularly that of
the Saxons, was of the grossest and most barbarous kind; and being
founded on traditional tales received from their ancestors, not
reduced to any system, nor supported by political institutions, like
that of the Druids, it seems to have made little impression on its
votaries, and to have easily resigned its place to the new doctrine
promulgated to them.  Woden, whom they deemed the ancestor of all
their princes, was regarded as the god of war, and, by a natural
consequence, became their supreme deity, and the chief object of their
religious worship.  They believed that, if they obtained the favour of
this divinity by their valour, (for they made less account of the
other virtues,) they should be admitted after their death into his
hall; and, reposing on couches, should satiate themselves with ale
from the skulls of their enemies whom they had slain in battle.
Incited by this idea of paradise, which gratified at once the passion
of revenge and that of intemperance, the ruling inclinations of
barbarians, they despised the dangers of war, and increased their
native ferocity against the vanquished by their religious prejudices.
We know little of the other theological tenets of the Saxons: we only
learn that they were polytheists; that they worshipped the sun and
moon; that they adored the god of thunder under the name of Thor; that
they had images in their temples; that they practised sacrifices;
believed firmly in spells and enchantments; and admitted in general a
system of doctrines which they held as sacred, but which, like all
other superstitions, must carry the air of the wildest extravagance,
if propounded to those who are not familiarized to it from their
earliest infancy.

The constant hostilities which the Saxons maintained against the
Britons, would naturally indispose them for receiving the Christian
faith, when preached to them by such inveterate enemies; and perhaps
the Britons, as is objected to them by Gildas and Bede, were not over
fond of communicating to their cruel invaders the doctrine of eternal
life and salvation.  But as a civilized people, however subdued by
arms, still maintain a sensible superiority over barbarous and
ignorant nations, all the other northern conquerors of Europe had been
already induced to embrace the Christian faith, which they found
established in the empire; and it was impossible but the Saxons,
informed of this event, must have regarded with some degree of
veneration a doctrine which had acquired the ascendant over all their
brethren.  However limited in their views, they could not but have
perceived a degree of cultivation in the southern countries beyond
what they themselves possessed; and it was natural for them to yield
to that superior knowledge as well as zeal, by which the inhabitants
of the Christian kingdoms were even at that time distinguished.

But these causes might long have failed of producing any considerable
effect, had not a favourable incident prepared the means of
introducing Christianity into Kent.  Ethelbert, in his father's
lifetime, had married Bertha, the only daughter of Caribert, King of
Paris [h], one of the descendants of Clovis, the conqueror of Gaul;
but before he was admitted to this alliance, he was obliged to
stipulate, that the princess should enjoy the free exercise of her
religion; a concession not difficult to be obtained from the
idolatrous Saxons [i].  Bertha brought over a  French bishop to the
court of Canterbury; and being zealous for the propagation of her
religion, she had been very assiduous in her devotional exercises, had
supported the credit of her faith by an irreproachable conduct, and
had employed every art of insinuation and address to reconcile her
husband to her religious principles.  Her popularity in the court, and
her influence over Ethelbert, had so well paved the way for the
reception of the Christian doctrine, that Gregory, surnamed the Great,
then Roman pontiff, began to entertain hopes of effecting a project,
which he himself, before he mounted the papal throne, had once
embraced, of converting the British Saxons.
[FN [h] Greg. of Tours, lib. 9. cap. 26.  H. Hunting. lib. 2.  [i]
Bede, lib. 1. cap. 25.  Brompton, p. 729.]

It happened that this prelate, at that time in a private station, had
observed in the market-place of Rome some Saxon youth exposed to sale,
whom the Roman merchants, in their trading voyages to Britain, had
bought of their mercenary parents.  Struck with the beauty of their
fair complexions and blooming countenances, Gregory asked to what
country they belonged; and being told they were ANGLES, he replied
that they ought more properly to be denominated ANGELS: it were a pity
that the prince of darkness should enjoy so fair a prey, and that so
beautiful a frontispiece should cover a mind destitute of internal
grace and righteousness.  Inquiring farther concerning the name of
their province, he was informed that it was Deiri, a district of
Northumberland: DEIRI, replied he, THAT IS GOOD!  THEY ARE CALLED TO
THE MERCY OF GOD FROM HIS ANGER, De ira.  BUT WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE
KING OF THAT PROVINCE?  He was told it was Aella or Alla: ALLELUIAH,
cried he: WE MUST ENDEAVOUR THAT THE PRAISES OF GOD BE SUNG IN THAT
COUNTRY.  Moved by these allusions, which appeared to him so happy, he
determined to undertake himself a mission into Britain; and having
obtained the pope's approbation, he prepared for that perilous
journey: but his popularity at home was so great, that the Romans,
unwilling to expose him to such dangers, opposed his design; and he
was obliged, for the present, to lay aside all farther thoughts of
executing that pious purpose [k].
[FN [k] Bede, lib. 2. cap. 1.  Spell. Conc. p. 91.]

The controversy between the Pagans and the Christians was not entirely
cooled in that age; and no pontiff before Gregory, had ever carried to
greater excess an intemperate zeal against the former religion.  He
had waged war with all the precious monuments of the ancients, and
even with their writings, which, as appears from the strain of his own
wit, as well as from the style of his compositions, he had not taste
or genius sufficient to comprehend.  Ambitious to distinguish his
pontificate by the conversion of the British Saxons, he pitched on
Augustine, a Roman monk, and sent him with forty associates to preach
the gospel in this island.  These missionaries, terrified with the
dangers which might attend their proposing a new doctrine to so fierce
a people, of whose language they were ignorant, stopped some time in
France, and sent back Augustine to lay the hazards and difficulties
before the pope, and crave his permission to desist from the
undertaking.  But Gregory exhorted them to persevere in their purpose,
advised them to choose some interpreters from among the Franks, who
still spoke the same language with the Saxons [l]; and recommended
them to the good offices of Queen Brunehaut, who had at this time
usurped the sovereign power in France.  This princess, though stained
with every vice of treachery and cruelty, either possessed or
pretended great zeal for the cause; and Gregory acknowledged that to
her friendly assistance was, in a great measure, owing the success of
that undertaking [m].
[FN [1] Bede, lib. 1. cap. 23.  [m] Greg. Epist. lib. 9. epist. 56.
Spell. Conc. p. 82]

Augustine, on his arrival in Kent, in the year 597 [n] found the
danger much less than he had apprehended.  Ethelbert, already well
disposed towards the Christian faith, assigned him a habitation in the
Isle of Thanet, and soon after admitted him to a conference.
Apprehensive, however, lest spells or enchantments might be employed
against him by priests, who brought an unknown worship from a distant
country, he had the precaution to receive them in the open air, where
he believed the force of their magic would be more easily dissipated
[o].  Here Augustine, by means of his interpreters, delivered to him
the tenets of the Christian faith, and promised him eternal joys
above, and a kingdom in  heaven, without end, if he would be persuaded
to receive that salutary doctrine [p].  "Your words and promises,"
replied Ethelbert, "are fair; but because they are new and uncertain,
I cannot entirely yield to them, and relinquish the principles which I
and my ancestors have so long maintained.  You are welcome, however,
to remain here in peace; and as you have undertaken so long a journey,
solely, as it appears, for what you believe to be for our advantage, I
will supply you with all necessaries, and permit you to deliver your
doctrine to my subjects [q]"
[FN [n] Higden. Polychron. lib. 5.  Chron. Sax. p. 23.  [o] Bede, lib.
I. cap. 2  Hunting. lib. 3.  Brompton, p. 729  Parker Antiq. Brit.
Eccl. p. 61. [p] Bede, lib. 1. cap 25.  Chron. W. Thorn. p. 1759.  [q]
Bede, lib. 1. cap 25.  H. Hunting. lib. 3.  Brompton, p. 729]

Augustine, encouraged by this favourable reception, and seeing now a
prospect of success, proceeded with redoubled zeal to preach the
gospel to the Kentish Saxons.  He attracted their attention by the
austerity of his manners, by the severe penances to which he subjected
himself, by the abstinence and self-denial which he practised: and
having excited their wonder by a course of life which appeared so
contrary to nature, he procured more easily their belief of miracles,
which, it was pretended, he wrought for their conversion [r].
Influenced by these motives, and by the declared favour of the court,
numbers of the Kentish men were baptized; and the king himself was
persuaded to submit to that rite of Christianity.  His example had
great influence with his subjects; but he employed no force to bring
them over to the new doctrine.  Augustine thought proper, in the
commencement of his mission, to assume the appearance of the greatest
lenity.  He told Ethelbert that the service of Christ must be entirely
voluntary, and that no violence ought ever to be used in propagating
so salutary a doctrine [s].
[FN [r] Bede, lib. 1. cap 26.  [s] Ibid. lib. 1. cap 26.  H. Hunting.
lib. 3.]

The intelligence received of these spiritual conquests afforded great
joy to the Romans; who now exulted as much in those peaceful trophies,
as their ancestors had ever done in their most sanguinary triumphs,
and most splendid victories.  Gregory wrote a letter to Ethelbert, in
which, after informing him that the end of the world was approaching,
he exhorted him to display his zeal in the conversion of his subjects,
to exert rigour against the worship of idols, and to build up the good
work of holiness by every expedient of exhortation, terror,
blandishment, or correction [t]: a doctrine more suitable to that age,
and to the usual papal maxims, than the tolerating principles which
Augustine had thought it prudent to inculcate.  The pontiff also
answered some questions which the missionary had put concerning the
government of the new church of Kent.  Besides other queries which it
is not material here to relate, Augustine asked, WHETHER COUSIN-
GERMANS MIGHT BE ALLOWED TO MARRY? Gregory answered, that that liberty
had indeed been formerly granted by the Roman law; but that experience
had shown, that no issue could ever come from such marriages; and he
therefore prohibited them.  Augustine, WHETHER A WOMAN PREGNANT MIGHT
BE BAPTIZED?  Gregory answered that he saw no objection.  HOW SOON
AFTER THE BIRTH THE CHILD MIGHT RECEIVE BAPTISM?  It was answered,
Immediately, if necessary.  HOW SOON A HUSBAND MIGHT HAVE COMMERCE
WITH HIS WIFE AFTER HER DELIVERY?  Not till she had given suck to her
child: a practice to which Gregory exhorts all women.  HOW SOON A MAN
MIGHT ENTER THE CHURCH, OR RECEIVE THE SACRAMENT, AFTER HAVING HAD
COMMERCE WITH HIS WIFE?  It was replied, that unless he had approached
her without desire, merely for the sake of propagating his species, he
was not without sin: but in all cases it was requisite for him, before
he entered the church, or communicated, to purge himself by prayer and
ablution; and he ought not, even after using these precautions, to
participate immediately of the sacred duties [u].  There are some
other questions and replies still more indecent and more ridiculous
[w].  And on the whole, it appears that Gregory and his missionary, if
sympathy of manners have any influence, were better calculated than
men of more refined understanding for making a progress with the
ignorant and barbarous Saxons.
[FN [t] Bede, lib. 1. cap. 32.  Brompton, p. 732.  Spell. Conc. p. 86.
[u] Bede, lib. 1. cap. 27.  Spell. Conc. p. 97, 98, 99, &c.  [w]
Augustine asks, Si mulier menstrua consuetudine tenetur, an ecclesiam
intrare ei licet, aut sacrae communionis sacramenta percipere?
Gregory answers, Sanctae communionis mysterium in eisdem diebus
percipere non debit prohiberi.  Si autem ex veneratione magna
precipere non praesumitur, laudanda est.  Augustine asks, Si post
illusionem, quae per somnum solet accidere, vel corpus Domine quilibet
accipere valeat; vel, si sacerdos sit, sacra mysteria celebrare.
Gregory answers this learned question by many learned distinctions.]

The more to facilitate the reception of Christianity Gregory enjoined
Augustine to remove the idols from the heathen altars, but not to
destroy the altars themselves; because the people, he said, would be
allured to frequent the Christian worship, when they found it
celebrated in a place which they were accustomed to revere.  And as
the Pagans practised sacrifices, and feasted with the priests on their
offerings, he also exhorted the missionary to persuade them, on
Christian festivals, to kill their cattle in the neighbourhood of the
church, and to indulge themselves in those cheerful entertainments, to
which they had been habituated [x].  These political compliances show,
that notwithstanding his ignorance and prejudices, he was not
unacquainted with the arts of governing mankind.  Augustine was
consecrated archbishop of Canterbury, was endowed by Gregory with
authority over all the British churches, and received the pall, a
badge of ecclesiastical honour, from Rome [y].  Gregory also advised
him not to be too much elated with his gift of working miracles [z];
and as Augustine, proud of the success of his mission, seemed to think
himself entitled to extend his authority over the bishops of Gaul, the
pope informed him, that they lay entirely without the bounds of his
jurisdiction [a].
[FN [x] Bede, lib. 1. cap. 30.  Spell. Conc. p.89.  Greg. Epist. lib.
9. Epist. 71.  [y] Chron. Sax. p. 23, 24.  [z] H. Hunting. lib. 3.
Spell. Conc. p. 83.  Bede, lib. 1.  Greg. Epist. lib. 9. Epist. 60.
[a] Bede, lib. 1. cap. 27.]

The marriage of Ethelbert with Bertha, and much more his embracing
Christianity, begat a connexion of his subjects with the French,
Italians, and other nations on the continent, and tended to reclaim
them from that gross ignorance and barbarity in which all the Saxon
tribes had been hitherto involved [b].  Ethelbert also enacted [c],
with the consent of the states of his kingdom, a body of laws, the
first written laws promulgated by any of the northern conquerors; and
his reign was in every respect glorious to himself, and beneficial to
his people.  He governed the kingdom of Kent fifty years, and dying in
616, left the succession to his son, Eadbald.  This prince, seduced by
a passion for his mother-in-law, deserted for some time the Christian
faith, which permitted not these incestuous marriages: his whole
people immediately returned with him to idolatry.  Laurentius, the
successor of Augustine, found the Christian worship wholly abandoned,
and was prepared to return to France, in order to escape the
mortification of preaching the gospel without fruit to the infidels.
Melitus and Justus, who had been consecrated Bishops of London and
Rochester, had already departed the kingdom [d], when, Laurentius,
before he should entirely abandon his dignity, made one effort to
reclaim the king.  He appeared before that prince, and, throwing off
his vestments, showed his body all torn with bruises and stripes,
which he had received.  Eadbald, wondering that any man should have
dared to treat in that manner a person of his rank, was told by
Laurentius, that he had received this chastisement from St. Peter, the
prince of the Apostles, who had appeared to him in a vision, and,
severely reproving him for his intention to desert his charge, had
inflicted on him these visible marks of his displeasure [e].  Whether
Eadbald was struck with the miracle, or influenced by some other
motive, he divorced himself from his mother-in-law, and returned to
the profession of Christianity [f]: his whole people returned with
him.  Eadbald reached not the fame or authority of his father, and
died in 640, after a reign of twenty-five years, leaving two sons,
Erminfred and Ercombert.
[FN [b] Will. Malm. p.10.  [c] Wilkins Leges Sax. p. 13.  [d] Bede,
lib. 2. cap. 5.  [e] Ibid. lib. 2. cap. 6.  Chron. Sax. p. 26.
Higden, lib. 5.  [f] Brompton, p. 739.]

Ercombert, though the younger son, by Emma, a French princess, found
means to mount the throne.  He is celebrated by Bede for two exploits;
for establishing the fast of Lent in his kingdom, and for utterly
extirpating idolatry, which, notwithstanding the prevalence of
Christianity, had hitherto been tolerated by the two preceding
monarchs.  He reigned twenty-four years, and left the crown to Egbert,
his son, who reigned nine years.  This prince is renowned for his
encouragement of learning, but infamous for putting to death his two
cousin germans, sons of Erminfred, his uncle.  The ecclesiastical
writers praise him for bestowing on his sister, Domnona, some lands in
the Isle of Thanet, where she founded a monastery.

The bloody precaution of Egbert could not fix the crown on the head of
his son, Edric.  Lothaire, brother  of the deceased prince, took
possession of the kingdom, and, in order to secure the power in his
family, he associated with him Richard, his son, in the administration
of the government.  Edric, the dispossessed prince, had recourse to
Edilwach, King of Sussex, for assistance, and being supported by that
prince, fought a battle with his uncle, who was defeated and slain.
Richard fled into Germany, and afterwards died in Lucca, a city of
Tuscany.  William of Malmesbury ascribes Lothaire's bad fortune to two
crimes; his concurrence in the murder of his cousins, and his contempt
for relics [g].
[FN [g] Will. Malm. p. 11.]

Lothaire reigned eleven years; Edric, his successor, only two.  Upon
the death of the latter, which happened in 686, Widred, his brother,
obtained possession of the crown.  But as the succession had been of
late so much disjointed by revolutions and usurpations, faction began
to prevail among the nobility, which invited Ceodwalla, King of
Wessex, with his brother, Mollo, to attack the kingdom.  These
invaders committed great devastations in Kent; but the death of Mollo,
who was slain in a skirmish [h], gave a short breathing-time to that
kingdom.  Widred restored the affairs of Kent, and, after a reign of
thirty-two years [i], left the crown to his posterity.  Eadbert,
Ethelbert, and Alric, his descendants, successively mounted the
throne.  After the death of the last, which happened in 794, the royal
family of Kent was extinguished, and every factious leader who could
entertain hopes of ascending the throne, threw the state into
confusion [k].  Egbert, who first succeeded, reigned but two years;
Cuthred, brother to the King of Mercia, six years; Baldred, an
illegitimate branch of the royal family, eighteen; and, after a
troublesome and precarious reign, he was, in the year 827, expelled by
Egbert, King of Wessex, who dissolved the Saxon Heptarchy, and united
the several kingdoms under his dominion.
[FN [h] Higden, lib. 5.  [i] Chron. Sax. p. 52  [k] Will. Malmes. lib.
1. cap. 1. p. 11.]

[MN The kingdom of Northumberland.]
Adelfrid, King of Bernicia, having married Acca, the daughter of
Aella, King of Deiri, and expelled her infant brother, Edwin, had
united all the countries north of Humber into one monarchy, and
acquired a great ascendant in the Heptarchy.  He also spread the
terror of the Saxon arms to the neighbouring people, and by his
victories over the Scots and Picts, as well as Welsh, extended on all
sides the bounds of his dominions.  Having laid siege to Chester, the
Britons marched out with all their forces to engage him, and they were
attended by a body of 1250 monks from the monastery of Bangor, who
stood at a small distance from the field of battle, in order to
encourage the combatants by their presence and exhortations.
Adelfrid, inquiring the purpose of this unusual appearance, was told,
that these priests had come to pray against him: THEN ARE THEY AS MUCH
OUR ENEMIES, said he, AS THOSE WHO INTEND TO FIGHT AGAINST US [l]: and
he immediately sent a detachment, who fell upon them, and did such
execution, that only fifty escaped with their lives [m].  The Britons,
astonished at this event, received a total defeat; Chester was obliged
to surrender; and Adelfrid, pursuing his victory, made himself master
of Bangor, and entirely demolished the monastery, a building so
extensive that there was a mile's distance from one gate of it to
another, and it contained two thousand one hundred monks, who are said
to have been there maintained by their own labour [n].
[FN [l] Brompton, p. 779.  [m] Trivet, apud Spell. Conc. p. 111.  [n]
Bede, lib. 2. cap. 2.  W. Malmes. lib. 1. cap. 3.]

Notwithstanding Adelfrid's success in war, he lived in inquietude on
account of young Edwin, whom he had unjustly dispossessed of the crown
of Deiri.  This prince, now grown to man's estate, wandered from place
to place in continual danger from the attempts of Adelfrid, and
received at last protection in the court of Redwald, King of the East
Angles, where his engaging and gallant deportment procured him general
esteem and affection.  Redwald, however, was strongly solicited by the
King of Northumberland to kill or deliver up his guest; rich presents
were promised him if he would comply, and war denounced against him in
case of his refusal.  After rejecting several messages of this kind,
his generosity began to yield to the motives of interest; and he
retained the last ambassador till he should come to a resolution in a
case of such importance.  Edwin, informed of his friend's perplexity,
was yet determined at all hazards to remain in East Anglia, and
thought that if the protection of that  court failed him, it were
better to die, than prolong a life so much exposed to the persecutions
of his powerful rival.  This confidence in Redwald's honour and
friendship, with his other accomplishments, engaged the queen on his
side, and she effectually represented to her husband the infamy of
delivering up to certain destruction their royal guest, who had fled
to them for protection against his cruel and jealous enemies [o].
Redwald, embracing more generous resolutions, thought it safest to
prevent Adelfrid, before that prince was aware of his intention, and
to attack him while he was yet unprepared for defence.  He marched
suddenly with an army into the kingdom of Northumberland, and fought a
battle with Adelfrid, in which that monarch was defeated and killed,
after avenging himself by the death of Regner, son of Redwald [p]: his
own sons, Eanfrid, Oswald, and Oswy, yet infants, were carried into
Scotland, and Edwin obtained possession of the crown of
Northumberland.
[FN [o] W.. Malmes. lib. 1. cap. 3.  H. Hunting. lib. 3  Bede  [p]
Bede, lib. 2. cap. 12.  Brompton, p. 781.]

Edwin was the greatest prince of the Heptarchy in that age, and
distinguished himself, both by his influence over the other kingdoms
[q], and by the strict execution of justice in his own dominions.  He
reclaimed his subjects from the licentious life to which they had been
accustomed; and it was a common saying, that during his reign a woman
or child might openly carry every where a purse of gold, without any
danger of violence or robbery.  There is a remarkable instance,
transmitted to us, of the affection borne him by his servants.
Cuichelme, King of Wessex, was his enemy, but finding himself unable
to maintain open war against so gallant and powerful a prince, he
determined to use treachery against him, and he employed one Eumer for
that criminal purpose.  The assassin, having obtained admittance by
pretending to deliver a message from Cuichelme, drew his dagger and
rushed upon the king.  Lilla, an officer of his army, seeing his
master's danger, and having no other means of defence, interposed with
his own body between the king and Eumer's dagger, which was pushed
with such violence, that after piercing Lilla, it even wounded Edwin;
but before the assassin  could renew his blow, he was despatched by
the king's attendants.
[FN [q] Chron. Sax. p. 27.]

The East Angles conspired against Redwald, their king, and having put
him to death, they offered their crown to Edwin, of whose valour and
capacity they had had experience, while he resided among them.  But
Edwin, from a sense of gratitude towards his benefactor, obliged them
to submit to Earpwold, the son of Redwald; and that prince preserved
his authority, though on a precarious footing, under the protection of
the Northumbrian monarch [r].
[FN [r] Gul. Malmes. lib. 1. cap. 3.]

Edwin, after his accession to the crown, married Ethelburga, the
daughter of Ethelbert, King of Kent.  This princess, emulating the
glory of her mother, Bertha, who had been the instrument for
converting her husband and his people to Christianity, carried
Paullinus, a learned bishop, along with her [s]; and besides
stipulating a toleration for the exercise of her own religion, which
was readily granted her, she used every reason to persuade the king to
embrace it.  Edwin, like a prudent prince, hesitated on the proposal,
but promised to examine the foundations of that doctrine, and declared
that, if he found them satisfactory, he was willing to be converted
[t].  Accordingly, he held several conferences with Paullinus;
canvassed the arguments propounded with the wisest of his counsellors;
retired frequently from company, in order to revolve alone that
important question; and after a serious and long inquiry, declared in
favour of the Christian religion [u]: the people soon after imitated
his example.  Besides the authority and influence of the king, they
were moved by another striking example.  Coifi, the high priest, being
converted after a public conference with Paullinus, led the way in
destroying the images which he had so long worshipped, and was forward
in making this atonement for his past idolatry [w].
[FN [s] H. Hunting. lib. 3.  [t] Bede, lib. 2. cap. 9.  [u] Ibid.  W.
Malmes. lib 1. cap. 3.  [w] Bede, lib. 2. cap. 13.  Brompton, Higden,
lib. 5.]

This able prince perished with his son, Osfrid, in a great battle
which he fought against Penda, King of Mercia, and Caedwalla, King of
the Britons [x].  That event, which happened in the forty-eighth year
of Edwin's age, and seventeenth of his reign [y], divided the monarchy
of Northumberland, which that prince had united in his person.
Eanfrid, the son of Adelfrid, returned with his brothers, Oswald and
Oswy, from Scotland, and took possession of Bernicia, his paternal
kingdom: Osric, Edwin's cousin-german, established himself at Deiri,
the inheritance of his family, but to which the sons of Edwin had a
preferable title.  Eanfrid, the elder surviving son, fled to Penda, by
whom he was treacherously slain.  The younger son, Vuscfraea, with
Yffi, the grandson of Edwin, by Osfrid, sought protection in Kent, and
not finding themselves in safety there, retired into France to King
Dagobert, where they died [z].
[FN [x] Matth. West. p. 114  Chron. Sax. p. 29.  [y] W. Malmes. lib 1.
cap. 3.  [z] Bede, lib. 2. cap. 20.]

Osric, King of Deiri, and Eanfrid, of Bernicia, returned to paganism,
and the whole people seem to have returned with them; since Paullinus,
who was the first Archbishop of York, and who had converted them,
thought proper to retire with Ethelburga, the queen dowager, into
Kent.  Both these Northumbrian kings perished soon after, the first in
battle against Caedwalla, the Briton; the second by the treachery of
that prince.  Oswald, the brother of Eanfrid, of the race of Bernicia,
united again the kingdom of Northumberland in the year 634, and
restored the Christian religion in his dominions.  He gained a bloody
and well-disputed battle against Caedwalla; the last vigorous effort
which the Britons made against the Saxons.  Oswald is much celebrated
for his sanctity and charity by the monkish historians, and they
pretend that his relics wrought miracles, particularly the curing of a
sick horse, which had approached the place of his interment [a].
[FN [a] Ibid. lib. 3. cap. 9.]

He died in battle against Penda, King of Mercia, and was succeeded by
his brother Oswy, who established himself in the government of the
whole Northumbrian kingdom, by putting to death Oswin, the son of
Osric, the last king of the race of Deiri.  His son Egfrid succeeded
him; who perishing in battle against the Picts, without leaving any
children, because Adelthrid, his wife, refused to violate her vow of
chastity, Alfred, his natural brother, acquired possession of the
kingdom, which he governed for nineteen years, and he left it to
Osred, his son, a boy of eight years of age.  This prince, after a
reign of eleven years, was murdered by Kenred, his kinsman, who, after
enjoying the crown only a year, perished by a like fate.  Osric, and
after him Celwulph, the son of Kenred, next mounted the throne, which
the latter relinquished in the year 735, in favour of Eadbert, his
cousin-german, who, imitating his predecessor, abdicated the crown,
and retired into a monastery.  Oswolf, son of Eadbert, was slain in a
sedition, a year after his accession to the crown; and Mollo, who was
not of the royal family, seized the crown.  He perished by the
treachery of Ailred, a prince of the blood; and Ailred, having
succeeded in his design upon the throne, was soon after expelled by
his subjects.  Ethelred, his successor, the son of Mollo, underwent a
like fate.  Celwold, the next king, the brother of Ailred, was deposed
and slain by the people, and his place was filled by Osred, his
nephew, who, after a short reign of a year, made way for Ethelbert,
another son of Mollo, whose death was equally tragical with that of
almost all his predecessors.  After Ethelbert's death an universal
anarchy prevailed in Northumberland, and the people having, by so many
fatal revolutions, lost all attachment to their government and
princes, were well prepared for subjection to a foreign yoke, which
Egbert, King of Wessex, finally imposed upon them.

[MN The kingdom of East Anglia.]
The history of this kingdom contains nothing memorable except the
conversion of Earpwold, the fourth king, and great-grandson of Uffa,
the founder of the monarchy.  The authority of Edwin, King of
Northumberland, on whom that prince entirely depended, engaged him to
take this step; but soon after, his wife, who was an idolatress,
brought him back to her religion, and he was found unable to resist
those allurements which had seduced the wisest of mankind.  After his
death, which was violent, like that of most of the Saxon princes that
did not early retire into monasteries, Sigebert, his successor and
half brother, who had been educated in France, restored Christianity,
and introduced learning among the East Angles.  Some pretend that he
founded the university of Cambridge, or rather some schools in that
place.  It is almost impossible,  and quite needless, to be more
particular in relating the transactions of the East Angles.  What
instruction or entertainment can it give the reader, to hear a long
bead-roll of barbarous names, Egric, Annas, Ethelbert, Ethelwald,
Aldulf; Elfwald, Beorne, Ethelred, Ethelbert, who successively
murdered, expelled, or inherited from each other, and obscurely filled
the throne of that kingdom?  Ethelbert, the last of these princes, was
treacherously murdered by Offa, King of Mercia, in the year 792, and
his state was thenceforth united with that of Offa, as we shall relate
presently.

[MN The kingdom of Mercia.]
Mercia, the largest if not the most powerful kingdom of the Heptarchy,
comprehended all the middle counties of England, and as its frontiers
extended to those of all the other six kingdoms, as well as to Wales,
it received its name from that circumstance.  Wibba, the son of Crida,
founder of the monarchy, being placed on the throne, by Ethelbert,
King of Kent, governed his paternal dominions by a precarious
authority, and after his death, Ceorl, his kinsman, was, by the
influence of the Kentish monarch, preferred to his son Penda, whose
turbulent character appeared dangerous to that prince.  Penda was thus
fifty years of age before he mounted the throne, and his temerity and
restless disposition were found nowise abated by time, experience, or
reflection.  He engaged in continual hostilities against all the
neighbouring states, and by his injustice and violence rendered
himself equally odious to his own subjects and to strangers.
Sigebert, Egric, and Annas, three kings of East Anglia, perished
successively in battle against him, as did also Edwin and Oswald, the
two greatest princes that had reigned over Northumberland.  At last
Oswy, brother to Oswald, having defeated and slain him in a decisive
battle, freed the world from this sanguinary tyrant.  Peada, his son,
mounted the throne of Mercia in 655, and lived under the protection of
Oswy, whose daughter he had espoused.  This princess was educated in
the Christian faith, and she employed her influence with success, in
converting her husband and his subjects to that religion.  Thus the
fair sex have had the merit of introducing the Christian doctrine into
all the most considerable  kingdoms of the Saxon Heptarchy.  Peada
died a violent death [b].  His son, Wolfhere, succeeded to the
government, and, after having reduced to dependence the kingdoms of
Essex and East Anglia, he, left the crown to his brother Ethelred,
who, though a lover of peace, showed himself not unfit for military
enterprises.  Besides making a successful expedition into Kent, he
repulsed Egfrid, King of Northumberland, who had invaded his
dominions; and he slew in battle Elfwin, the brother of that prince.
Desirous, however, of composing all animosities with Egfrid, he paid
him a sum of money as a compensation for the loss of his brother.
After a prosperous reign of thirty years, he resigned the crown to
Kendred, son of Wolfhere, and retired into the monastery of Bardney
[c].  Kendred returned the present of the crown to Ceolred, the son of
Ethelred, and making a pilgrimage to Rome, passed his life there in
penance and devotion.  The place of Ceolred was supplied by Ethelbald,
great-grand-nephew to Penda, by Alwy, his brother; and this prince,
being slain in a mutiny, was succeeded by Offa, who was a degree more
remote from Penda, by Eawa, another brother.
[FN [b] Hugo Candidus, p. 4, says, that he was treacherously murdered
by his queen, by whose persuasion he had embraced Christianity; but
this account of the matter is found in that historian alone.  [c]
Bede, lib. 5.]

This prince, who mounted the throne in 775 [d], had some great
qualities, and was successful in his warlike enterprises against
Lothaire, King of Kent, and Kenwulph, King of Wessex.  He defeated the
former in a bloody battle at Otford upon the Darent, and reduced his
kingdom to a state of dependence: he gained a victory over the latter
at Bensington in Oxfordshire; and conquering that county, together
with that of Gloucester, annexed both to his dominions.  But all these
successes were stained by his treacherous murder of Ethelbert, King of
the East Angles, and his violent seizing of that kingdom.  This young
prince, who is said to have possessed great merit, had paid his
addresses to Elfrida, the daughter of Offa, and was invited with all
his retinue to Hereford, in order to solemnize the nuptials.  Amidst
the joy and festivity of these entertainments, he was seized by Offa,
and secretly beheaded; and though Elfrida, who abhorred her father's
treachery, had time to give warning to the East Anglian nobility, who
escaped into their own country, Offa, having extinguished the royal
family, succeeded in his design of subduing that kingdom [e].  The
perfidious prince, desirous of re-establishing his character in the
world, and perhaps of appeasing the remorses of his own conscience,
paid great court to the clergy, and practised all the monkish devotion
so much esteemed in that ignorant and superstitious age.  He gave the
tenth of his goods to the church [f]; bestowed rich donations on the
cathedral of Hereford, and even made a pilgrimage to Rome, where his
great power and riches could not fail of procuring him the papal
absolution.  The better to ingratiate himself with the sovereign
pontiff, he engaged to pay him a yearly donation for the support of an
English college at Rome [g]; and, in order to raise the sum, he
imposed the tax of a penny on each house possessed of thirty pence a
year.  This imposition being afterwards levied on all England, was
commonly denominated Peter's Pence [h]: and though conferred at first
as a gift, was afterwards claimed as a tribute by the Roman pontiff.
Carrying his hypocrisy still farther, Offa, feigning to be directed by
a vision from heaven, discovered at Verulam the relics of St. Alban,
the martyr, and endowed a magnificent monastery in that place [i].
Moved by all these acts of piety, Malmesbury, one of the best of the
old English historians, declares himself at a loss to determine [k]
whether the merits or crimes of this prince preponderated.  Offa died
after a reign of thirty-nine years, in 794 [l].
[FN [d] Chron. Sax. p. 59.  [e] Brompton, p. 750, 751, 752.  [f] Spell.
Conc. p. 308.  Brompton, p. 776.  [g] Spell. Conc. p. 230, 310, 312.
[h] Higden, lib. 5.  [i] Ingulph. p. 5.  W. Malmes. lib. 1. cap. 4.
[k] Lib. 1. cap. 4.]

This prince was become so considerable in the Heptarchy, that the
Emperor Charlemagne entered into an alliance and friendship with him;
a circumstance which did honour to Offa, as distant princes at that
time had usually little communication with each other.  That emperor
being a great lover of learning and learned men, in an age very barren
of that ornament, Offa, at his desire, sent him over Alcuin, a
clergyman, much celebrated for his knowledge, who received great
honours from Charlemagne, and even became his preceptor in the
sciences.  The chief reason why he had at first desired the company of
Alcuin, was, that he might oppose his learning to the heresy of Felix,
Bishop of Urgel, in Catalonia, who maintained that Jesus Christ,
considered in his human nature, could more properly be denominated the
adoptive, than the natural son of God [m].  This heresy was condemned
in the council of Francfort, held in 794, and consisting of 300
bishops.  Such were the questions which were agitated in that age, and
which employed the attention not only of cloistered scholars, but of
the wisest and greatest princes [n].
[FN [l] Chron. Sax. p. 65  [m] Dupin, cent. 8. chap. 4.  [n] Offa, in
order to protect his country from Wales; drew a rampart or ditch of a
hundred miles in length, from Basinwerke in Flintshire, to the south-
sea near Bristol.  See SPEED'S DESCRIPTION OF WALES.]

Egfrith succeeded to his father Offa, but survived him only five
months [o], when he made way for Kenulph, a descendant of the royal
family.  This prince waged war against Kent, and taking Egbert the
king prisoner, he cut off his hands, and put out his eyes, leaving
Cuthred, his own brother, in possession of the crown of that kingdom.
Kenulph was killed in an insurrection of the East Anglians, whose
crown his predecessor, Offa, had usurped.  He left his son, Kenelm, a
minor, who was murdered the same year by his sister, Quendrade, who
had entertained the ambitious views of assuming the government [p].
But she was supplanted by her uncle Ceolulf; who, two years after, was
dethroned by Beornulf.  The reign of this usurper, who was not of the
royal family, was short and unfortunate: he was defeated by the West
Saxons, and killed by his own subjects, the East Angles [q].  Ludican,
his successor, underwent the same fate [r]; and Wiglaff, who mounted
this unstable throne, and found every thing in the utmost confusion,
could not withstand the fortune of Egbert, who united all the Saxon
kingdoms into one great monarchy.
[FN [o] Ingulph. p. 6.  [p] Ibid. p. 7.  Brompton, p. 776  [q]
Ingulph. p. 7.  [r] Ann. Beverl. p. 87.]

[MN The kingdom of Essex.]
This kingdom made no great figure in the Heptarchy, and the history of
it is very imperfect.  Sleda succeeded to his father, Erkinwin, the
founder of' the monarchy, and made way for his son, Sebert, who, being
nephew to Ethelbert, King of Kent, was persuaded by that prince to
embrace the Christian faith [s].  His sons and conjunct successors,
Sexted and Seward, relapsed into idolatry, and were soon after slain
in a battle against the West Saxons.  To show the rude manner of
living in that age, Bede tells us [t], that these two kings expressed
great desire to eat the white bread, distributed by Mellitus, the
bishop, at the [u] communion.  But on his refusing them, unless they
would submit to be baptized, they expelled him their dominions.  The
names of the other princes who reigned successively in Essex, are
Sigebert the Little, Sigebert the Good who restored Christianity,
Swithelm, Sigheri, Offa.  This last prince, having made a vow of
chastity, notwithstanding his marriage with Keneswitha, a Mercian
princess, daughter to Penda, went in pilgrimage to Rome, and shut
himself up during the rest of his life in a cloister.  Selred, his
successor, reigned thirty-eight years, and was the last of the royal
line; the failure of which threw the kingdom into great confusion, and
reduced it to dependence under Mercia [w].  Switherd first acquired
the crown, by the concession of the Mercian princes, and his death
made way for Sigeric, who ended his life in a pilgrimage to Rome.  His
successor, Sigered, unable to defend his kingdom, submitted to the
victorious arms of Egbert.
[FN [s] Chron. Sax. p. 24.  [t] Lib. 2. cap. 5.  [u] H. Hunting. lib.
3.  Brompton, p. 738, 743.  Bede.  [w] Malmes lib. 1. cap. 6.]

[MN The kingdom of Sussex.]
The history of this kingdom, the smallest in the Heptarchy, is still
more imperfect than that of Essex.  Aella, the founder of the
monarchy, left the crown to his son Cissa, who is chiefly remarkable
for his long reign of seventy-six years.  During his time, the South
Saxons fell almost into a total dependence on the kingdom of Wessex,
and we scarcely know the names of the princes who were possessed of
this titular sovereignty.  Adelwalch, the last of them, was subdued in
battle by Ceodwalla, King of Wessex, and was slain in the action,
leaving two infant sons, who, falling into the hand of the conqueror,
were murdered by him.  The Abbot of Retford opposed the order for this
execution, but could only prevail on Ceodwalla to suspend it till they
should be baptized.  Bercthun and Audhun, two noblemen of character,
resisted some time the violence of the West Saxons, but their
opposition served only to prolong the miseries of their country, and
the subduing of this kingdom was the first step which the West Saxons
made towards acquiring the sole monarchy of England [x].
[FN [x] Brompton, p. 800.]

[MN The Kingdom of Wessex.]
The kingdom of Wessex, which finally swallowed up all the other Saxon
states, met with great resistance on its first establishment: and the
Britons, who were now inured to arms, yielded not tamely their
possessions to those invaders.  Cerdic, the founder of the monarchy,
and his son, Kenric, fought many successful, and some unsuccessful,
battles against the natives; and the martial spirit, common to all the
Saxons, was, by means of these hostilities, carried to the greatest
height, among this tribe.  Ceaulin, who was the son and successor of
Kenric, and who began his reign in 560, was still more ambitious and
enterprising than his predecessors, and by waging continual war
against the Britons, he added a great part of the counties of Devon
and Somerset to his other dominions.  Carried along by the tide of
success, he invaded the other Saxon states in his neighbourhood, and
becoming terrible to all, he provoked a general confederacy against
him.  This alliance proved successful under the conduct of Ethelbert,
King of Kent; and Ceaulin, who had lost the affections of his own
subjects by his violent disposition, and had now fallen into contempt
from his misfortunes, was expelled the throne [y], and died in exile
and misery.  Cuichelme and Cuthwin, his sons, governed jointly the
kingdom, till the expulsion of the latter in 591, and the death of the
former in 593, made way for Cealric, to whom succeeded Ceobald in 593,
by whose death, which happened in 611, Kynegils inherited the crown.
This prince embraced Christianity [z], through the persuasion of
Oswald, King of Northumberland, who had married his daughter, and who
had attained a great ascendant in the Heptarchy.  Kenwalch next
succeeded to the monarchy, and dying in 672, left the succession so
much disputed, that Sexburga, his widow, a woman of spirit [a], kept
possession of the government till her death, which happened two years
after.  Escwin then peaceably acquired the crown, and after a short
reign of two years made way for Kentwin, who governed nine years.
Ceodwalla, his successor, mounted not the throne without opposition,
but proved a great prince according to the ideas of those times; that
is, he was enterprising, warlike, and successful.  He entirely subdued
the kingdom of Sussex, and annexed it to his own dominions.  He made
inroads into Kent, but met with resistance from Widred, the king, who
proved successful against Mollo, brother to Ceodwalla, and slew him in
a skirmish.  Ceodwalla, at last, tired with wars and bloodshed, was
seized with a fit of devotion; bestowed several endowments on the
church; and made a pilgrimage to Rome, where he received baptism, and
died in 689.  Ina, his successor, inherited the military virtues of
Ceodwalla, and added to them the more valuable ones of justice,
policy, and prudence.  He made war upon the Britons in Somerset, and
having finally subdued that province, he treated the vanquished with a
humanity hitherto unknown to the Saxon conquerors.  He allowed the
proprietors to retain possession of their lands, encouraged marriages
and alliances between them and his ancient subjects, and gave them the
privilege of being governed by the same laws.  These laws he augmented
and ascertained, and though he was disturbed by some insurrections at
home, his long reign of thirty-seven years may be regarded as one of
the most glorious and most prosperous of the Heptarchy.  In the
decline of his age he made a pilgrimage to Rome, and after his return,
shut himself up in a cloister, where he died.
[FN [y] Chron. Sax. p. 22.  [z] Higden, lib. 5.  Chron. Sax. p. 15.
Ann. Beverl. p. 93.  [a] Bede, lib 4 cap 12.  Chron. Sax. p. 41.]

Though the kings of Wessex had always been princes of the blood,
descended from Cerdic, the founder of the monarchy, the order of
succession had been far from exact, and a more remote prince had often
found means to mount the throne in preference to one descended from a
nearer branch of the royal family.  Ina, therefore, having no children
of his own, and lying much under the influence of Ethelburga, his
queen, left by will the succession to Adelard, her brother, who was
his remote kinsman; but this destination did not take place without
some difficulty.  Oswald, a prince more nearly allied to the crown,
took arms against Adelard; but he being suppressed, and dying soon
after, the title of Adelard was not any farther disputed, and, in the
year 741, he was succeeded by his cousin, Cudred.  The reign of this
prince was distinguished by a great victory, which he obtained by
means of Edelhun, his general, over Ethelbald, King of Mercia.  His
death made way for Sigebert, his kinsman, who governed so ill, that
his people rose in an insurrection and dethroned him, crowning Cenulph
in his stead.  The exiled prince found a refuge with Duke Cumbran,
governor of Hampshire, who, that he might add new obligations to
Sigebert, gave him many salutary counsels for his future conduct,
accompanied with some reprehensions for the past.  But these were so
much resented by the ungrateful prince, that he conspired against the
life of his protector, and treacherously murdered him.  After this
infamous action, he was forsaken by all the world, and skulking about
in the wilds and forests, was at last discovered by a servant of
Cumbran's, who instantly took revenge upon him for the murder of his
master [b].
[FN [b] Higden, lib. 5.  W. Malmes. lib. 1. cap. 2.]

Cenulph, who had obtained the crown on the expulsion of Sigebert, was
fortunate in many expeditions against the Britons of Cornwall, but
afterwards lost some reputation by his ill success against Offa, King
of Mercia [c].  Kynehard also, brother to the deposed Sigebert, gave
him disturbance, and though expelled the kingdom, he hovered on the
frontiers, and watched an opportunity for attacking his rival.  The
king had an intrigue with a young woman who lived at Merton in Surrey,
whither having secretly retired, he was on a sudden environed, in the
night time, by Kynehard and his followers, and, after making a
vigorous resistance, was murdered with all his attendants.  The
nobility and people of the neighbourhood, rising next day in arms,
took revenge on Kynehard for the slaughter of their king, and put
every one to the sword who had been engaged in that criminal
enterprise.  This event happened in 784.
[FN [c] W. Malmes. lib. 1. cap 3.]

Brithric next obtained possession of the government, though remotely
descended from the royal family, but he enjoyed not that dignity
without inquietude.  Eoppa, nephew to King Ina, by his brother Ingild,
who died before that prince, had begot Eta, father to Alchmond, from
whom sprung Egbert [d], a young man of the most promising hopes, who
gave great jealousy to Brithric, the reigning prince, both because he
seemed by his birth better entitled to the crown, and because he had
acquired, to an eminent degree, the affections of the people.  Egbert,
sensible of his danger from the suspicions of Brithric, secretly
withdrew into France [e], where he was well received by Charlemagne.
By living in the court, and serving in the armies of that prince, the
most able and most generous that had appeared in Europe during several
ages, he acquired those accomplishments which afterwards enabled him
to make such a shining figure on the throne; and familiarizing himself
to the manners of the French, who, as Malmesbury observes [f], were
eminent both for valour and civility above all the western nations, he
learned to polish the rudeness and barbarity of the Saxon character:
his early misfortunes thus proved of singular advantage to him.
[FN [d] Chron. Sax. p. 16.  [e] H. Hunting. lib. 4.  [f] Lib. 2 cap.
11.]

It was not long ere Egbert had opportunities of displaying his natural
and acquired talents.  Brithric, King of Wessex, had married Eadburga,
natural daughter of Offa, King of Mercia, a profligate woman, equally
infamous for cruelty and for incontinence.  Having great influence
over her husband, she often instigated him to destroy such of the
nobility as were obnoxious to her; and where this expedient failed,
she scrupled not being herself active in traitorous attempts against
them.  She had mixed a cup of poison for a young nobleman who had
acquired her husband's friendship, and had on that account become the
object of her jealousy; but, unfortunately, the king drank of the
fatal cup along with his favourite, and soon after expired [g].  This
tragical incident, joined to her other crimes, rendered Eadburga so
odious, that she was obliged to fly into France, whence Egbert was at
the same time recalled by the nobility, in order to ascent the throne
of his ancestors [h].  He attained that dignity in the last year of
the eighth century.
[FN [g] Higden, lib. 5.  M. West. p. 152.  Asser. in vita Alfredi, p.
3. ex edit. Camdeni.  [h] Chron. Sax. A. D. 800.  Brompton, p. 801.]

In the kingdoms of the Heptarchy, an exact rule of succession was
either unknown or not strictly observed, and thence the reigning
prince was continually agitated with jealousy against all the princes
of the blood, whom  he still considered as rivals, and whose death
alone could give him entire security in his possession of the throne.
From this fatal cause, together with the admiration of the monastic
life, and the opinion of merit attending the preservation of chastity
even in a married state, the royal families had been entirely
extinguished in all the kingdoms except that of Wessex, and the
emulations, suspicions, and conspiracies, which had formerly been
confined to the princes of the blood alone, were now diffused among
all the nobility in the several Saxon states.  Egbert was the sole
descendant of those first conquerors who subdued Britain, and who
enhanced their authority by claiming a pedigree from Woden, the
supreme divinity of their ancestors.  But that prince, though invited
by this favourable circumstance to make attempts on the neighbouring
Saxons, gave them for some time no disturbance, and rather chose to
turn his arms against the Britons in Cornwall, whom he defeated in
several [i] battles.  He was recalled from the conquest of that
country by an invasion made upon his dominions by Bernulf, King of
Mercia.
[FN [i] Chron. Sax. p. 69.]

The Mercians, before the accession of Egbert, had very nearly attained
the absolute sovereignty in the Heptarchy; they had reduced the East
Angles under subjection, and established tributary princes in the
kingdoms of Kent and Essex.  Northumberland was involved in anarchy;
and no state of any consequence remained but that of Wessex, which,
much inferior in extent to Mercia, was supported solely by the great
qualities of its sovereign.  Egbert led his army against the invaders,
and encountering them at Ellandun, in Wiltshire, obtained a complete
victory, and by the great slaughter which he made of them in their
flight, gave a mortal blow to the power of the Mercians.  Whilst he
himself, in prosecution of his victory, entered their country on the
side of Oxfordshire, and threatened the heart of their dominions, he
sent an army into Kent, commanded by Ethelwolf, his eldest son [k],
and expelling Baldred, the tributary king, soon made himself master of
that country.  The kingdom of Essex was conquered with equal facility,
and the East Angles, from their hatred to the Mercian government,
which had been established over them by treachery and violence, and
probably exercised with tyranny, immediately rose in arms, and craved
the protection of Egbert [l].  Bernulf, the Mercian king, who marched
against them, was defeated and slain; and two years after, Ludican,
his successor, met with the same fate.  These insurrections and
calamities facilitated the enterprises of Egbert, who advanced into
the centre of the Mercian territories, and made easy conquests over a
dispirited and divided people.  In order to engage them more easily to
submission, he allowed Wiglef, their countryman, to retain the title
of king, while he himself exercised the real powers of sovereignty
[m].  The anarchy which prevailed in Northumberland, tempted him to
carry still farther his victorious arms; and the inhabitants, unable
to resist his power, and desirous of possessing some established form
of government, were forward, on his first appearance, to send
deputies, who submitted to his authority, and swore allegiance to him
as their sovereign.  Egbert, however, still allowed to Northumberland,
as he had done to Mercia and East Anglia, the power of electing a
king, who paid him tribute, and was dependent on him.
[FN [k] Ethelward, lib. 3. cap. 2.  [1] Ethelward, lib. 3. cap. 3.
[m] Ingulph. p. 7, 8, 10]

Thus were united all the kingdoms of the Heptarchy in one great state,
near four hundred years after the first arrival of the Saxons in
Britain, and the fortunate arms and prudent policy of Egbert at last
effected what had been so often attempted in vain by so many princes
[n].  Kent, Northumberland, and Mercia, which had successively aspired
to general dominion, were now incorporated in his empire, and the
other subordinate kingdoms seemed willingly to share the same fate.
His territories were nearly of the same extent with what is now
properly called England; and a favourable prospect was afforded to the
Anglo-Saxons, of establishing a civilized monarchy, possessed of
tranquillity within itself, and secure against foreign invasion.  This
great event happened in the year 827 [o].
[FN [n] Chron. Sax. p. 71.  [o] Ibid.]

The Saxons, though they had been so long settled in the island, seem
not as yet to have been much improved beyond their German ancestors,
either in arts, civility, knowledge, humanity, justice, or obedience
to the laws.  Even Christianity, though it opened the way to
connexions between them and the more polished states of Europe, had
not hitherto been very effectual in banishing their ignorance, or
softening their barbarous manners.  As they received that doctrine
through the corrupted channels of Rome, it carried along with it a
great mixture of credulity and superstition, equally destructive to
the understanding and to morals.  The reverence towards saints and
relics seems to have almost supplanted the adoration of the Supreme
Being.  Monastic observances were esteemed more meritorious than the
active virtues; the knowledge of natural causes were neglected from
the universal belief of miraculous interpositions and judgments;
bounty to the church atoned for every violence against society; and
the remorses for cruelty, murder, treachery, assassination, and the
more robust vices, were appeased, not by amendment of life, but by
penances, servility to the monks, and an abject and illiberal devotion
[p].  The reverence for the clergy had been carried to such a height,
that, wherever a person appeared in a sacerdotal habit, though on the
high way, the people flocked around him, and, showing him all marks of
profound respect, received every word he uttered as the most sacred
oracle [q].  Even the military virtues, so inherent in all the Saxon
tribes, began to be neglected; and the nobility, preferring the
security and sloth of the cloister to the tumults and glory of war,
valued themselves chiefly on endowing monasteries, of which they
assumed the government [r].  The several kings, too, being extremely
impoverished by continual benefactions to the church to which the
states of their kingdoms had weakly assented, could bestow no rewards
on valour or military services, and retained not even sufficient
influence to support their government [s].
[FN [p] These abuses were common to all the European churches, but the
priests in Italy, Spain, and Gaul made some atonement for them, by
other advantages which they rendered society.  For several ages, they
were almost all Romans, or, in other words, the ancient natives, and
they preserved the Roman language and laws, with some remains of the
former civility.  But the priests in the Heptarchy, after the first
missionaries, were wholly Saxons, and almost as ignorant and barbarous
as the laity.  They contributed, therefore, little to the improvement
of society in knowledge or the arts.  [q] Bede, lib 3. cap. 26.  [r]
Ibid. lib. 5. cap. 23.  Epistola Bedae ad Egbert.  [s] Bedae Epist. ad
Egbert.]

Another inconvenience which attended this corrupt species of
Christianity, was the superstitious attachment to Rome, and the
gradual subjection of the kingdom to a foreign jurisdiction.  The
Britons, having never acknowledged any subordination to the Roman
pontiff, had conducted all ecclesiastical government by their domestic
synods and councils [t]; but the Saxons, receiving their religion from
Roman monks, were taught at the same time a profound reverence for
that see, and were naturally led to regard it as the capital of their
religion.  Pilgrimages to Rome were represented as the most
meritorious acts of devotion.  Not only noblemen and ladies of rank
undertook this tedious journey [u], but kings themselves, abdicating
their crowns, sought for a secure passport to heaven at the feet of
the Roman pontiff; new relics, perpetually sent from that endless mint
of superstition, and magnified by lying miracles, invented in
convents, operated on the astonished minds of the multitude; and every
prince has attained the eulogies of the monks, the only historians of
those ages, not in proportion to his civil and military virtues, but
to his devoted attachment towards their order, and his superstitious
reverence for Rome.
[FN [t] Append. to Bede, numb. 10. ex edit, 1722.  Spellm. Conc. p.
108, 109.  [u] Bede, lib. 5. c. 7.]

The sovereign pontiff, encouraged by this blindness and submissive
disposition of the people, advanced every day in his encroachments on
the independence of the English churches.  Wilfrid, Bishop of
Lindisferne, the sole prelate of the Northumbrian kingdom, increased
this subjection in the eighth century, by his making an appeal to Rome
against the decisions of an English synod, which had abridged his
diocese by the erection of some new bishoprics [w].  Agatho, the pope,
readily embraced this precedent of an appeal to his court; and
Wilfrid, though the haughtiest and most luxurious prelate of his age
[x], having obtained with the people the character of sanctity, was
thus able to lay the foundation of this papal pretension.
[FN [w] See Appendix to Bede, numb. 19.  Higden, lib. 5.  [x] Eddius,
vita Vilfr. § 24, 60]

The great topic by which Wilfrid confounded the imaginations of men
was, that St. Peter, to whose custody the keys of heaven were
intrusted, would certainly refuse admittance to every one who should
be wanting in respect to his successor.  This conceit, well suited to
vulgar conceptions, made great impression on the people during several
ages, and has not even at present lost all influence in the catholic
countries.

Had this abject superstition produced general peace and tranquillity,
it had made some atonement for the ill attending it; but besides the
usual avidity of men for power and riches, frivolous controversies in
theology were engendered by it, which were so much the more fatal, as
they admitted not, like the others, of any final determination from
established possession.  The disputes excited in Britain were of the
most ridiculous kind, and entirely worthy of those ignorant and
barbarous ages.  There were some intricacies, observed by all the
Christian churches, in adjusting the day of keeping Easter, which
depended on a complicated consideration of the course of the sun and
moon: and it happened that the missionaries, who had converted the
Scots and Britons, had followed a different calendar from that which
was observed at Rome in the age when Augustine converted the Saxons.
The priests also of all the Christian churches were accustomed to
shave part of their head; but the form given to this tonsure was
different in the former from what was practised in the latter.  The
Scots and Britons pleaded the antiquity of THEIR usages; the Romans,
and their disciples, the Saxons, insisted on the universality of
THEIRS.  That Easter must necessarily be kept by a rule, which
comprehended both the day of the year and age of the moon, was agreed
by all; that the tonsure of a priest could not be omitted without the
utmost impiety, was a point undisputed; but the Romans and Saxons
called their antagonists schismatics, because they celebrated Easter
on the very day of the full moon in March, if that day fell on a
Sunday, instead of waiting till the Sunday following; and because they
shaved the forepart of their head from ear to ear, instead of making
that tonsure on the crown of the head, and in a circular form.  In
order to render their antagonists odious, they affirmed, that once in
seven years, they concurred with the Jews in the time of celebrating
that festival [y]; and that they might recommend their own form of
tonsure, they maintained that it imitated symbolically the crown of
thorns worn by Christ in his passion, whereas the other form was
invented by Simon Magus, without any regard to that representation
[z].  These controversies had, from the beginning, excited such
animosity between the British and Romish priests, that, instead of
concurring in their endeavours to convert the idolatrous Saxons, they
refused all communion together, and each regarded his opponent as no
better than a pagan [a].  The dispute lasted more than a century, and
was at last finished, not by men’s discovering the folly of it, which
would have been too great an effort for human reason to accomplish,
but by the entire prevalence of the Romish ritual over the Scotch and
British [b].  Wilfrid, Bishop of Lindisferne, acquired great merit,
both with the court of Rome and with all the Southern Saxons, by
expelling the quartodeciman schism, as it was called, from the
Northumbrian kingdom, into which the neighbourhood of the Scots had
formerly introduced it [c].
[FN [y] Bede, lib. 2. cap. 19.  [z] Ibid. lib. 5. cap. 21.  Eddius,
Sec. 24.  [a] Bede, lib. 2. cap. 2. 4. 20.  Eddius, Sec. 12.  [b]
Bede, lib. 5. cap. 16, 22.  [c] Bede, lib. 3. cap. 25.  Eddius, Sec.
12]

Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, called, in the year 680, a synod
at Hatfield, consisting of all the bishops in Britain [d], where was
accepted and ratified the decree of the Lateran council, summoned by
Martin, against the heresy of the Monothelites.  The council and synod
maintained, in opposition to these heretics, that though the divine
and human nature in Christ made but one person, yet they had different
inclinations, wills, acts, and sentiments, and that the unity of the
person implied not unity in the consciousness [e].  This opinion it
seems somewhat difficult to comprehend; and no one, unacquainted with
the ecclesiastical history of those ages, could imagine the height of
zeal and violence with which it was then inculcated.  The decree of
the Lateran council calls the Monothelites impious, execrable, wicked,
abominable, and even diabolical; and curses and anathematizes them to
all eternity [f].
[FN [d] Spell. Conc. vol. 1. p. 168.  [e] Spell. Conc. vol. 1. p. 171.
[f] Ibid. p. 172, 173, 174.]

The Saxons, from the first introduction of Christianity among them,
had admitted the use of images; and perhaps, that religion, without
some of those exterior ornaments, had not made so quick a progress
with these idolaters: but they had not paid any species of worship or
address to images; and this abuse never prevailed among Christians,
till it received the sanction of the second council of Nice.




CHAPTER II.

EGBERT.--ETHELWOLF.--ETHELBALD AND ETHELBERT.--ETHERED.—ALFRED THE
GREAT.--EDWARD THE ELDER.--ATHELSTAN.--EDMUND.—-EDRED--EDWY.--EDGAR.--
EDWARD THE MARTYR.



[MN Egbert 827.]
The kingdoms of the Heptarchy, though united by so recent a conquest,
seemed to be firmly cemented into one state under Egbert; and the
inhabitants of the several provinces had lost all desire of revolting
from that monarch, or of restoring their former independent
governments.  Their language was every where nearly the same, their
customs, laws, institutions, civil and religious; and as the race of
the ancient kings was totally extinct in all the subjected states, the
people readily transferred their allegiance to a prince who seemed to
merit it by the splendour of his victories, the vigour of his
administration, and the superior nobility of his birth.  A union also
in government opened to them the agreeable prospect of future
tranquillity; and it appeared more probable that they would henceforth
become formidable to their neighbours, than be exposed to their
inroads and devastations.  But these flattering views were soon
overcast by the appearance of the Danes, who, during some centuries,
kept the Anglo-Saxons in perpetual inquietude, committed the most
barbarous ravages upon them, and at last reduced them to grievous
servitude.

The Emperor Charlemagne, though naturally generous and humane, had
been induced by bigotry to exercise great severities upon the pagan
Saxons in Germany, whom he subdued; and besides often ravaging their
country with fire and sword, he had in cool blood decimated all the
inhabitants for their revolts, and had obliged them, by the most
rigorous edicts, to make a seeming compliance with the Christian
doctrine.  That religion, which had easily made its way among the
British Saxons by insinuation and address, appeared shocking to their
German brethren, when imposed on them by the violence of Charlemagne,
and the more generous and warlike of these pagans had fled northward
into Jutland, in order to escape the fury of his persecutions.
Meeting there with a people of similar manners, they were readily
received among them; and they soon stimulated the natives to concur in
enterprises, which both promised revenge on the haughty conqueror, and
afforded subsistence to those numerous inhabitants with which the
northern countries were now overburdened [g].  They invaded the
provinces of France, which were exposed by the degeneracy and
dissensions of Charlemagne’s posterity; and being there known under
the general name of Normans, which they received from their northern
situation, they became the terror of all the maritime and even of the
inland countries.  They were also tempted to visit England in their
frequent excursions; and being able, by sudden inroads, to make great
progress over a people who were not defended by any naval force, who
had relaxed their military institutions, and who were sunk into a
superstition which had become odious to the Danes and ancient Saxons,
they made no distinction in their hostilities between the French and
English kingdoms.  Their first appearance in this island was in the
year 787 [h], when Brithric reigned in Wessex.  A small body of them
landed in that kingdom, with a view of learning the state of the
country; and when the magistrate of the place questioned them
concerning their enterprise, and summoned them to appear before the
king, and account for their intentions, they killed him, and, flying
to their ships, escaped into their own country.  The next alarm was
given to Northumberland in the year 794 [i], when a body of these
pirates pillaged a monastery: but their ships being much damaged by a
storm, and their leader slain in a skirmish, they were at last
defeated by the inhabitants, and the remainder of them put to the
sword.  Five years after Egbert had established his monarchy over
England, the Danes landed in the Isle of Shepey, and having pillaged
it, escaped with impunity [k].  They were not so fortunate in their
next year’s enterprise, when they disembarked from thirty-five ships,
and were encountered by Egbert, at Charmouth, in Dorsetshire.  The
battle was bloody; but though the Danes lost great numbers, they
maintained the post they had taken, and thence made good their retreat
to their ships [l].  Having learned by experience, that they must
expect a vigorous resistance from this warlike prince, they entered
into an alliance with the Britons of Cornwall, and landing two years
after in that country, made an inroad with their confederates into the
county of Devon, but were met at Hengesdown by Egbert, and totally
defeated [m].  While England remained in this state of anxiety, and
defended itself more by temporary expedients than by any regular plan
of administration, Egbert, who alone was able to provide effectually
against this new evil, unfortunately died [MN 838.], and left the
government to his son Ethelwolf.
[FN [g] Ypod. Neustria, p. 414.  [h] Chron. Sax. p. 64.  [i] Chron.
Sax. p 64.  Alur. Beverl. p. 108.  [k] Chron. Sax. p. 72.  [l] Chron.
Sax. p. 72.  Ethelward, lib. 3. cap. 2.  [m] Chron. Sax. p. 72.]

[MN Ethelwolf.]
This prince had neither the abilities nor the vigour of his father;
and was better qualified for governing a convent than a kingdom [n].
He began his reign with making a partition of his dominions, and
delivering over to his eldest son, Athelstan, the new-conquered
provinces of Essex, Kent, and Sussex.  But no inconveniences seem to
have risen from this partition, as the continual terror of the Danish
invasions prevented all domestic dissension.  A fleet of these
ravagers, consisting of thirty-three sail, appeared at Southampton,
but were repulsed with loss by Wolfhere, governor of the neighbouring
county [o].  The same year, Aethelhelm, governor of Dorsetshire,
routed another band which had disembarked at Portsmouth, but he
obtained the victory after a furious engagement, and he bought it with
the loss of his life [p].  Next year the Danes made several inroads
into England, and fought battles, or rather skirmishes, in East Anglia
and Lindesey and Kent, where, though they were sometimes repulsed and
defeated, they always obtained their end of committing spoil upon the
country, and carrying off their booty.  They avoided coming to a
general engagement, which was not suited to their plan of operations.
Their vessels were small, and ran easily up the creeks and rivers,
where they drew them ashore, and having formed an entrenchment round
them, which they guarded with part of their number, the remainder
scattered themselves every where, and carrying off the inhabitants and
cattle and goods, they hastened to their ships and quickly
disappeared.  If the military force of the county were assembled, (for
there was no time for troops to march from a distance,) the Danes
either were able to repulse them, and to continue their ravages with
impunity, or they betook themselves to their vessels, and setting
sail, suddenly invaded some distant quarter, which was not prepared
for their reception.  Every part of England was held in continual
alarm, and the inhabitants of one county durst not give assistance to
those of another, lest their own families and property should in the
mean time be exposed by their absence to the fury of these barbarous
ravagers [q].  All orders of men were involved in this calamity, and
the priests and monks, who had been commonly spared in the domestic
quarrels of the Heptarchy, were the chief objects on which the Danish
idolators exercised their rage and animosity.  Every season of the
year was dangerous, and the absence of the enemy was no reason why any
man could esteem himself a moment in safety.
[FN [n] Wm. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 2.  [o] Chron. Sax. p. 73.
Ethelward, lib. 3.  [p] Chron. Sax. p. 73.  H. Hunting. lib. 5.  [q]
Alured. Beverl. p. 108.]

[MN 851.]
These incursions had now become almost annual, when the Danes,
encouraged by their successes against France as well as England, (for
both kingdoms were alike exposed to this dreadful calamity,) invaded
the last in so numerous a body, as seemed to threaten it with
universal subjection.  But the English, more military than the
Britons, whom a few centuries before they had treated with like
violence, roused themselves with a vigour proportioned to the
exigency.  Ceorle, governor of Devonshire, fought a battle with one
body of the Danes at Wiganburgh [r], and put them to rout with great
slaughter.  King Athelstan attacked another at sea near Sandwich, sunk
nine of their ships, and put the rest to flight [s].  A body of them,
however, ventured, for the first time, to take up winter quarters in
England; and receiving in the spring a strong reinforcement of their
countrymen in 350 vessels, they advanced from the Isle of Thanet,
where they had stationed themselves, burnt the cities of London and
Canterbury, and having put to flight Brichtric, who now governed
Mercia under the title of king, they marched into the heart of Surrey,
and laid every place waste around them.  Ethelwolf, impelled by the
urgency of the danger, marched against them at the head of the West
Saxons, and carrying with him his second son, Ethelbald, gave them
battle at Okely, and gained a bloody victory over them.  This
advantage procured but a short respite to the English.  The Danes
still maintained their settlement in the Isle of Thanet, and being
attacked by Ealher and Huda, governors of Kent and Surrey, though
defeated in the beginning of the action, they finally repulsed the
assailants [MN 853.], and killed both the governors.  They removed
thence to the Isle of Shepey; where they took up their winter
quarters, that they might farther extend their devastation and
ravages.
[FN [r] H. Hunt. lib. 5  Ethelward, lib. 3. cap. 3.  Simeon Dunelm. p.
120.  [s] Chron. Sax. p. 74.  Asserius, p. 2.]

This unsettled state of England hindered not Ethelwolf from making a
pilgrimage to Rome, whither he carried his fourth and favourite son,
Alfred, then only six years of age [t].  He passed there a twelvemonth
in exercises of devotion, and failed not in that most essential part
of devotion, liberality to the church of Rome.  Besides giving
presents to the more distinguished ecclesiastics, he made a perpetual
grant of three hundred mancuses [u] a year to that see; one-third to
support the lamps of St. Peter’s, another those of St. Paul’s, a third
to the pope himself [w].  In his return home he married Judith,
daughter of the emperor, Charles the Bald, but on his landing in
England, he met with an opposition which he little looked for.
[FN [t] Asserius, p. 2.  Chron. Sax. 76.  Hunt. lib. 5.  [u] A mancus
was about the weight of our present half-crown: see Spellman’s
Glossary, IN VERBO Mancus.  [w] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap 2.]

His eldest son, Athelstan, being dead, Ethelbald, his second, who had
assumed the government, formed, in concert with many of the nobles,
the project of excluding his father from a throne, which his weakness
and superstition seemed to have rendered him so ill-qualified to fill.
The people were divided between the two princes, and a bloody civil
war, joined to all the other calamities under which the English
laboured, appeared inevitable, when Ethelwolf had the facility to
yield to the greater part of his son’s pretensions.  He made with him
a partition of the kingdom, and taking to himself the eastern part,
which was always at that time esteemed the least considerable, as well
as the most exposed [x], he delivered over to Ethelbald the
sovereignty of the western.  Immediately after, he summoned the states
of the whole kingdom, and with the same facility conferred a perpetual
and important donation on the church.
[FN [x] Asserius, p. 3.  W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 2.  Matth. West. p.
1, 8.]

The ecclesiastics, in those days of ignorance, made rapid advances in
the acquisition of power and grandeur; and inculcating the most absurd
and most interested doctrines, though they sometimes met, from the
contrary interests of the laity, with an opposition which it required
time and address to overcome, they found no obstacle in their reason
or understanding.  Not content with the donations of land made them by
the Saxon princes and nobles, and with temporary oblations, from the
devotion of the people, they had cast a wishful eye on a vast revenue,
which they claimed as belonging to them by a sacred and indefeasible
title.  However little versed in the Scriptures, they had been able to
discover that, under the Jewish law, a tenth of all the produce of
land was conferred on the priesthood; and forgetting, what they
themselves taught, that the moral part only of that law was obligatory
on Christians, they insisted that this donation conveyed a perpetual
property, inherent by divine right in those who officiated at the
altar.  During some centuries, the whole scope of sermons and homilies
was directed to this purpose, and one would have imagined, from the
general tenor of these discourses, that all the practical parts of
Christianity were comprised in the exact and faithful payment of
tithes to the clergy [y].  Encouraged by their success in inculcating
these doctrines, they ventured farther than they were warranted even
by the Levitical law, and pretended to draw the tenth of all industry,
merchandise, wages of labourers, and pay of soldiers [z]; nay, some
canonists went so far as to affirm, that the clergy were entitled to
the tithe of the profits made by courtesans in the exercise of their
profession [a].  Though parishes had been instituted in England by
Honorius, Archbishop of Canterbury, near two centuries before [b], the
ecclesiastics had never yet been able to get possession of the tithes;
they therefore seized the present favourable opportunity of making
that acquisition, when a weak, superstitious prince filled the throne,
and when the people, discouraged by their losses from the Danes, and
terrified with the fear of future invasions, were susceptible of any
impression which bore the appearance of religion [c].  So meritorious
was this concession deemed by the English, that trusting entirely to
supernatural assistance, they neglected the ordinary means of safety,
and agreed, even in the present desperate extremity, that the revenues
of the church should be exempted from all burthens, though imposed for
national defence and security [d].
[FN [y] Padre Paolo, sopra beneficii ecclesiastici, p. 51, 52. edit.
Colon. 1675  [z] Spell. Conc. vol. i. p. 268.  [a] Padre Paolo, p.
132.  [b] Parker, p. 77.  [c] lngulph. p. 862.  Selden’s Hist. of
Tithes, c. 8.  [d] Asserius, p. 2.  Chron. Sax. p. 76.  W. Malmes.
lib. 2. cap. 2.  Ethelward, lib. 3. cap. 3.  M. West. p. 158.
Ingulph. p. 17.  Alur. Beverl. p. 95]

[MN Ethelbald and Ethelbert. 857.]
Ethelwolf lived only two years after making this grant, and by his
will he shared England between his two eldest sons, Ethelbald and
Ethelbert; the west being assigned to the former, the east to the
latter.  Ethelbald was a profligate prince, and marrying Judith, his
mother-in-law, gave great offence to the people; but, moved by the
remonstrances of Swithin, Bishop of Winchester, he was at last
prevailed on to divorce her.  His reign was short; and Ethelbert, his
brother, succeeding to the government [MN 860.], behaved himself,
during a reign of five years, in a manner more worthy of his birth and
station.  The kingdom, however, was still infested by the Danes, who
made an inroad and sacked Winchester, but were there defeated.  A body
also of these pirates, who were quartered in the Isle of Thanet,
having deceived the English by a treaty, unexpectedly broke into Kent,
and committed great outrages.

[MN Ethered 866.]
Ethelbert was succeeded by his brother Ethered, who, though he
defended himself with bravery, enjoyed, during his whole reign, no
tranquillity from those Danish irruptions.  His younger brother,
Alfred, seconded him in all his enterprises, and generously sacrificed
to the public good all resentment which he might entertain on account
of his being excluded by Ethered from a large patrimony which had been
left him by his father.

The first landing of the Danes in the reign of Ethered was among the
East Angles, who, more anxious for their present safety than for the
common interest, entered into a separate treaty with the enemy, and
furnished them with horses, which enabled them to make an irruption by
land into the kingdom of Northumberland.  They there seized the city
of York, and defended it against Osbricht and Aella, two Northumbrian
princes, who perished in the assault [f].  Encouraged by these
successes, and by the superiority which they had acquired in arms,
they now ventured, under the command of Hinguar and Hubba, to leave
the sea-coast, and penetrating into Mercia, they took up their winter
quarters at Nottingham, where they threatened the kingdom with a final
subjection.  The Mercians, in this extremity, applied to Ethered for
succour, and that prince, with his brother Alfred, conducting a great
army to Nottingham, obliged the enemy to dislodge [MN 870.], and to
retreat into Northumberland.  Their restless disposition, and their
avidity for plunder, allowed them not to remain long in those
quarters; they broke into East Anglia, defeated and took prisoner
Edmund, the king of that country, whom they afterwards murdered in
cool blood, and committing the most barbarous ravages on the people,
particularly on the monasteries, they gave the East Angles cause to
regret the temporary relief which they had obtained by assisting the
common enemy.
[FN [f] Asser. p. 6.  Chron Sax. p. 79.]

[MN 871.] The next station of the Danes was at Reading, whence they
infested the neighbouring country by their incursions.  The Mercians,
desirous of shaking off their dependence on Ethered, refused to join
him with their forces; and that prince, attended by Alfred, was
obliged to march against the enemy with the West Saxons alone, his
hereditary subjects.  The Danes, being defeated in an action, shut
themselves up in their garrison; but quickly making thence an
irruption, they routed the West Saxons, and obliged them to raise the
siege.  An action soon after ensued at Aston, in Berkshire, where the
English, in the beginning of the day, were in danger of a total
defeat.  Alfred, advancing with one division of the army, was
surrounded by the enemy in disadvantageous ground; and Ethered, who
was at that time hearing mass, refused to march to his assistance till
prayers should be finished [g]: but as he afterwards obtained the
victory, this success, not the danger of Alfred, was ascribed by the
monks to the piety of that monarch.  This battle of Aston did not
terminate the war: another battle was a little after fought at Basing,
where the Danes were more successful; and being reinforced by a new
army from their own country, they became every day more terrible to
the English.  Amidst these confusions, Ethered died of a wound which
he had received in an action with the Danes; and left the inheritance
of his cares and misfortunes, rather than of his grandeur, to his
brother, Alfred, who was now twenty-two years of age.
[FN [g] Asser. p. 7.  W. Malm. lib. 2. cap. 3.  Simeon Dunelm. p. 125.
Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p. 205.]

[MN Alfred 871.]
This prince gave very early marks of those great virtues and shining
talents, by which, during the most difficult times, he saved his
country from utter ruin and subversion.  Ethelwolf, his father, the
year after his return with Alfred from Rome, had again sent the young
prince thither with a numerous retinue; and a report being spread of
the king’s death, the pope, Leo III., gave Alfred the royal unction
[h]; whether prognosticating his future greatness from the appearances
of his pregnant genius, or willing to pretend, even in that age, to
the right of conferring kingdoms.  Alfred, on his return home, became
every day more the object of his father’s affections; but being
indulged in all youthful pleasures, he was much neglected in his
education; and he had already reached his twelfth year, when he was
yet totally ignorant of the lowest elements of literature.  His genius
was first roused by the recital of Saxon poems, in which the queen
took delight; and this species of erudition, which is sometimes able
to make a considerable progress even among barbarians, expanded those
noble and elevated sentiments which he had received from nature [i].
Encouraged by the queen, and stimulated by his own ardent inclination,
he soon learned to read those compositions; and proceeded thence to
acquire the knowledge of the Latin tongue, in which he met with
authors that better prompted his heroic spirit, and directed his
generous views.  Absorbed in these elegant pursuits, he regarded his
accession to royalty rather as an object of regret than of triumph
[k]; but being called to the throne, in preference to his brother’s
children, as well by the will of his father, a circumstance which had
great authority with the Anglo-Saxons [l], as by the vows of the whole
nation, and the urgency of public affairs, he shook off his literary
indolence, and exerted himself in the defence of his people.  He had
scarcely buried his brother, when he was obliged to take the field in
order to oppose the Danes, who had seized Wilton, and were exercising
their usual ravages on the countries around.  He marched against them
with the few troops which he could assemble on a sudden; and giving
them battle, gained at first an advantage, but by his pursuing the
victory too far, the superiority of the enemy’s numbers prevailed, and
recovered them the day.  Their loss, however, in the action, was so
considerable, that, fearing Alfred would receive daily reinforcement
from his subjects, they were content to stipulate for a safe retreat,
and promised to depart the kingdom.  For that purpose they were
conducted to London, and allowed to take up winter quarters there;
but, careless of their engagements, they immediately set themselves to
the committing of spoil on the neighbouring country.  Burrhed, King of
Mercia, in whose territories London was situated, made a new
stipulation with them, and engaged them, by presents of money, to
remove to Lindesey, in Lincolnshire, a country which they had already
reduced to ruin and desolation.  Finding therefore no object in that
place, either for their rapine or violence, they suddenly turned back
upon Mercia, in a quarter where they expected to find it without
defence; and fixing their station at Repton in Derbyshire, they laid
the whole country desolate with fire and sword.  Burrhed, despairing
of success against an enemy whom no force could resist, and no
treaties bind, abandoned his kingdom, and flying to Rome, took shelter
in a cloister [m].  He was brother-in-law to Alfred, and the last who
bore the title of king in Mercia.
[FN [h] Asser. p. 2.  W. Malm. lib. 2. cap. 2.  Ingulph. p. 869.
Simeon Dunelm. p. 120, 139.  [i] Asser. p. 5.  M. West. p. 167.  [k]
Asser. p. 7.  [1] Ibid. p. 22.  Simeon Dunelm. p. 121.  [m] Asser. p.
8.  Chron. Sax. p. 82.  Ethelward, lib. 4. cap. 4.]

The West Saxons were now the only remaining power in England; and
though supported by the vigour and abilities of Alfred, they were
unable to sustain the efforts of those ravagers, who from all quarters
invaded them. A new swarm of Danes came over this year under three
princes, Guthrum, Oscitel, and Amund; and having first joined their
countrymen at Repton, they soon found the necessity of separating, in
order to provide for their subsistence.  Part of them, under the
command of Haldene, their chieftain [n], marched into Northumberland,
where they fixed their quarters; part of them took quarters at
Cambridge, whence they dislodged in the ensuing summer, and seized
Wereham, in the county of Dorset, the very centre of Alfred’s
dominions.  That prince so straitened them in these quarters, that
they were content to come to a treaty with him, and stipulated to
depart his country.  Alfred, well acquainted with their usual perfidy,
obliged them to swear upon the holy relics to the observance of the
treaty [o]; not that he expected they would pay any veneration to the
relics; but he hoped, that, if they now violated this oath, their
impiety would infallibly draw down upon them the vengeance of Heaven.
But the Danes, little apprehensive of the danger, suddenly, without
seeking any pretence, fell upon Alfred’s army; and having put it to
rout, marched westward, and took possession of Exeter.  The prince
collected new forces, and exerted such vigour, that he fought in one
year eight battles with the enemy [p], and reduced them to the utmost
extremity.  He hearkened however to new proposals of peace; and was
satisfied to stipulate with them, that they would settle somewhere in
England [q], and would not permit the entrance of more ravagers into
the kingdom. But while he was expecting the execution of this treaty,
which it seemed the interest of the Danes themselves to fulfil, he
heard that another body had landed, and having collected all the
scattered troops of their countrymen, had surprised Chippenham, then a
considerable town, and were exercising their usual ravages all around
them.
[FN [n] Chron. Sax. p. 83.  [o] Asser. p. 8.  [p] Ibid.  The Saxon
Chronicle. p. 82, says nine battles.  [q] Asser. p. 9.  Alur. Beverl.
p. 104.]

This last incident quite broke the spirit of the Saxons, and reduced
them to despair.  Finding that, after all the miserable havoc which
they had undergone in their persons and in their property; after all
the vigorous actions which they had exerted in their own defence; a
new band, equally greedy of spoil and slaughter, had disembarked among
them; they believed themselves abandoned by Heaven to destruction, and
delivered over to those swarms of robbers, which the fertile north
thus incessantly poured forth against them.  Some left their country
and retired into Wales, or fled beyond sea: others submitted to the
conquerors, in hopes of appeasing their fury by a servile obedience
[r].  And every man’s attention being now engrossed in concern for his
own preservation, no one would hearken to the exhortations of the
king, who summoned them to make, under his conduct, one effort more in
defence of their prince, their country, and their liberties.  Alfred
himself was obliged to relinquish the ensigns of his dignity, to
dismiss his servants, and to seek shelter, in the meanest disguises,
from the pursuit and fury of his enemies.  He concealed himself under
a peasant’s habit, and lived some time in the house of a neat-herd,
who had been intrusted with the care of some of his cows [s].  There
passed here an incident, which has been recorded by all the
historians, and was long preserved by popular tradition; though it
contains nothing memorable in itself, except so far as every
circumstance is interesting which attends so much virtue and dignity
reduced to such distress.  The wife of the neat-herd was ignorant of
the condition of her royal guest; and observing him one day busy by
the fire-side in trimming his bows and arrows, she desired him to take
care of some cakes which were toasting, while she was employed
elsewhere in other domestic affairs.  But Alfred, whose thoughts were
otherwise engaged, neglected this injunction; and the good woman, on
her return, finding her cakes all burnt, rated the king very severely,
and upbraided him, that he always seemed very well pleased to eat her
warm cakes, though he was thus negligent in toasting them [t].
[FN [r] Chron. Sax. p. 84.  Alured Bever. p. 105.  [s] Asser. p. 9.
[t] Ibid  M. West, p. 170.]

By degrees, Alfred, as he found the search of the enemy become more
remiss, collected some of his retainers, and retired into the centre
of a bog, formed by the stagnating waters of the Thone and Parret, in
Somersetshire.  He here found two acres of firm ground; and building a
habitation on them, rendered himself secure by its fortifications, and
still more by the unknown and inaccessible roads which led to it, and
by the forests and morasses with which it was every way environed.
This place he called Aethelingay, or the Isle of Nobles [u]; and it
now bears the name of Athelney.  He thence made frequent and
unexpected sallies upon the Danes, who often felt the vigour of his
arm, but knew not from what quarter the blow came.  He subsisted
himself and his followers by the plunder which he acquired; he
procured them consolation by revenge; and from small successes he
opened their minds to hope, that, notwithstanding his present low
condition, more important victories might at length attend his valour.
[FN [u] Chron. Sax. p. 65.  W. Malm. lib. 2. cap. 4  Ethelward, lib.
4. cap. 4.  Ingulph. p. 26.]

Alfred lay here concealed, but not inactive, during a twelvemonth,
when the news of a prosperous event reached his ears, and called him
to the field.  Hubba, the Dane, having spread devastation, fire, and
slaughter over Wales, had landed in Devonshire from twenty-three
vessels, and laid siege to the castle of Kenwith, a place situated
near the mouth of the small river Tau.  Oddune, Earl of Devonshire,
with his followers, had taken shelter there; and being ill supplied
with provisions, and even with water, he determined, by some vigorous
blow, to prevent the necessity of submitting to the barbarous enemy.
He made a sudden sally on the Danes before sun-rising; and taking them
unprepared, he put them to rout, pursued them with great slaughter,
killed Hubba himself; and got possession of the famous REAFEN, or
enchanted standard, in which the Danes put great confidence [w].  It
contained the figure of a raven, which had been inwoven by the three
sisters of Hinguar and Hubba, with many magical incantations, and
which, by its different movements, prognosticated, as the Danes
believed, the good or bad success of any enterprise [x].
[FN [w] Asser. p. 10.  Chron. Sax. p. 84.  Abbas Rieval, p. 395
Alured Beverl. p. 105.  [x] Asser. p. 10.]

When Alfred observed this symptom of successful resistance in his
subjects, he left his retreat; but before he would assemble them in
arms, or urge them to any attempt, which, if unfortunate, might, in
their present despondency, prove fatal, he resolved to inspect himself
the situation of the enemy, and to judge of the probability of
success.  For this purpose he entered their camp under the disguise of
a harper, and passed unsuspected through every quarter.  He so
entertained them with his music and facetious humours, that he met
with a welcome reception; and was even introduced to the tent of
Guthrum, their prince, where he remained some days [y].  He remarked
the supine security of the Danes, their contempt of the English, their
negligence in foraging and plundering, and their dissolute wasting of
what they gained by rapine and violence.  Encouraged by these
favourable appearances, he secretly sent emissaries to the most
considerable of his subjects, and summoned them to a rendezvous,
attended by their warlike followers, at Brixton, on the borders of
Selwood forest [z].  The English, who had hoped to put an end to their
calamities by servile submission, now found the insolence and rapine
of the conqueror more intolerable than all past fatigues and dangers;
and, at the appointed day, they joyfully resorted to their prince.  On
his appearance, they received him with shouts of applause [a]; and
could not satiate their eyes with the sight of this beloved monarch,
whom they had long regarded as dead, and who now, with voice and looks
expressing his confidence of success, called them to liberty and to
vengeance.  He instantly conducted them to Eddington, where the Danes
were encamped; and taking advantage of his previous knowledge of the
place, he directed his attack against the most unguarded quarter of
the enemy.  The Danes, surprised to see an army of English, whom they
considered as totally subdued, and still more astonished to hear that
Alfred was at their head, made but a faint resistance, notwithstanding
their superiority of number, and were soon put to flight with great
slaughter.  The remainder of the routed army, with their prince, was
besieged by Alfred in a fortified camp to which they fled; but being
reduced to extremity by want and hunger, they had recourse to the
clemency of the victor, and offered to submit on any conditions.  The
king, no less generous than brave, gave them their lives; and even
formed a scheme for converting them from mortal enemies into faithful
subjects and confederates.  He knew that the kingdoms of East Anglia
and Northumberland were totally desolated by the frequent inroads of
the Danes, and he now proposed to repeople them, by settling there
Guthrum and his followers.  He hoped that the new planters would at
last betake themselves to industry, when, by reason of his resistance,
and the exhausted condition of the country, they could no longer
subsist by plunder; and that they might serve him as a rampart against
any future incursions of their countrymen.  But before he ratified
these mild conditions with the Danes, he required that they should
give him one pledge of their submission, and of their inclination to
incorporate with the English, by declaring their conversion to
Christianity [b].  Guthrum and his army had no aversion to the
proposal; and without much instruction, or argument, or conference,
they were all admitted to baptism.  The king answered for Guthrum at
the font, gave him the name of Athelstan, and received him as his
adopted son [c].
[FN [y] W. Malm. lib. 2. cap. 4.  [z] Chron. Sax. p. 85.  [a] Asser.
p. 10.  Chron. Sax. p. 85.  Simeon Dunelm. p. 128.  Alured Beverl. p.
105.  Abbas Rieval, p. 354.  [b] Chron. Sax. p. 85.  [c] Asser. p. 10.
Chron. Sax. p. 90.]

[MN 880.] The success of the expedient seemed to correspond to
Alfred’s hopes: the greater part of the Danes settled peaceably in
their new quarters: some smaller bodies of the same nation, which were
dispersed in Mercia, were distributed into the five cities of Derby,
Leicester, Stamford, Lincoln, and Nottingham, and were thence called
the Fif or Five-burghers.  The more turbulent and unquiet made an
expedition into France, under the command of Hastings [d]; and, except
by a short incursion of Danes, who sailed up the Thames, and landed at
Fulham, but suddenly retreated to their ships on finding the country
in a posture of defence, Alfred was not for some years infested by the
inroads of those barbarians [e].
[FN [d] W. Malm. lib. 2. c. 4.  Ingulph. p. 26.  [e] Asser. p. 11.]

The king employed this interval of tranquillity in restoring order to
the state, which had been shaken by so many violent convulsions; in
establishing civil and military institutions; in composing the minds
of men to industry and justice; and in providing against the return of
like calamities.  He was, more properly than his grandfather, Egbert,
the sole monarch of the English, (for so the Saxons were now
universally called,) because the kingdom of Mercia was at last
incorporated in his state, and was governed by Ethelbert, his brother-
in-law, who bore the title of Earl: and though the Danes, who peopled
East Anglia and Northumberland, were for some time ruled immediately
by their own princes, they all acknowledged a subordination to Alfred,
and submitted to his superior authority.  As equality among subjects
is the great source of concord, Alfred gave the same laws to the Danes
and English, and put them entirely on a like footing in the
administration both of civil and criminal justice.  The fine for the
murder of a Dane was the same with that for the murder of an
Englishman; the great symbol of equality in those ages.

The king, after rebuilding the ruined cities, particularly London [f],
which had been destroyed by the Danes in the reign of Ethelwolf,
established a regular militia for the defence of the kingdom.  He
ordained that all his people should be armed and registered; he
assigned them a regular rotation of duty; he distributed part into the
castles and fortresses which he built at proper places [g]; he
required another part to take the field on any alarm, and to assemble
at stated places of rendezvous; and he left a sufficient number at
home, who were employed in the cultivation of the land, and who
afterwards took their turn in military service [h].  The whole kingdom
was like one great garrison; and the Danes could no sooner appear in
one place, than a sufficient number was assembled to oppose them,
without leaving the other quarters defenceless or disarmed [i].
[FN [f] Asser. p. 15.  Chron. Sax. p. 88.  M. West. p. 171.  Simeon
Dunelm. p. 131.  Brompton, p. 812.  Alured Beverl. ex edit. Hearne, p.
106.  [g] Asser. p. 18.  Ingulph. p. 27.  [h] Chron. Sax. p. 92, 93.
[i] Spellman’s Life of Alfred, p. 147. edit. 1709.]

But Alfred, sensible that the proper method of opposing an enemy who
made incursions by sea, was to meet them on their own element, took
care to provide himself with a naval force [k], which though the most
natural defence of an island, had hitherto been totally neglected by
the English.  He increased the shipping of his kingdom both in number
and strength, and trained his subjects in the practice, as well of
sailing as of naval action.  He distributed his armed vessels in
proper stations around the island, and was sure to meet the Danish
ships either before or after they had landed their troops, and to
pursue them in all their incursions.  Though the Danes might suddenly,
by surprise, disembark on the coast, which was generally become
desolate by their frequent ravages, they were encountered by the
English fleet in their retreat; and escaped not, as formerly, by
abandoning their booty, but paid, by their total destruction, the
penalty of the disorders which they had committed.
[FN [k] Asser. p. 9.  M. West. p. 179.]

In this manner Alfred repelled several inroads of these piratical
Danes, and maintained his kingdom, during some years, in safety and
tranquillity.  A fleet of a hundred and twenty ships of war was
stationed upon the coast; and being provided with warlike engines, as
well as with expert seamen, both Frisians and English, (for Alfred
supplied the defects of his own subjects by engaging able foreigners
in his service,) maintained a superiority over these smaller bands
with which England had so often been infested [l].  [MN 893.]  But at
last Hastings, the famous Danish chief, having ravaged all the
provinces of France, both along the seacoast and the Loire and Seine,
and being obliged to quit that country, more by the desolation which
he himself had occasioned, than by the resistance of the inhabitants,
appeared off the coast of Kent with a fleet of 330 sail.  The greater
part of the enemy disembarked in the Rother, and seized the fort of
Apuldore.  Hastings himself, commanding a fleet of eighty sail,
entered the Thames, and fortifying Milton in Kent, began to spread his
forces over the country, and to commit the most destructive ravages.
But Alfred, on the first alarm of this descent, flew to the defence of
his people, at the head of a select band of soldiers, whom he always
kept about his person [m]; and gathering to him the armed militia from
all quarters, appeared in the field with a force superior to the
enemy.  All straggling parties whom necessity, or love of plunder, had
drawn to a distance from their chief encampment, were cut off by the
English [n]; and these pirates, instead of increasing their spoil,
found themselves cooped up in their fortifications, and obliged to
subsist by the plunder which they had brought from France.  Tired of
this situation, which must in the end prove ruinous to them, the Danes
at Apuldore rose suddenly from their encampment, with an intention of
marching towards the Thames, and passing over into Essex: but they
escaped not the vigilance of Alfred, who encountered then at Farnham,
put them to rout [o], seized all their horses and baggage, and chased
the runaways on board their ships, which carried them up the Colne to
Mersey, in Essex, where they intrenched themselves.  Hastings, at the
same time, and probably by concert, made a like movement; and
deserting Milton, took possession of Bamflete, near the Isle of
Canvey, in the same county [p], where he hastily threw up
fortifications for his defence against the power of Alfred.
[FN [1] Asser. p. 11.  Chron. Sax. p. 86, 87.  M. West. p. 176.  [m]
Asser. p.19.  [n] Chron. Sax. p. 92.  [o] Ibid. p. 93. Flor. Wigorn,
p. 595.  [p] Chron. Sax. p. 93.]

Unfortunately for the English, Guthrum, prince of the East Anglian
Danes, was now dead; as was also Guthred, whom the king had appointed
governor of the Northumbrians; and those restless tribes, being no
longer restrained by the authority of their princes, and being
encouraged by the appearance of so great a body of their countrymen,
broke into rebellion, shook off the authority of Alfred, and yielding
to their inveterate habits of war and depredation [q], embarked on
board two hundred and forty vessels, and appeared before Exeter in the
west of England.  Alfred lost not a moment in opposing this new enemy.
Having left some forces at London to make head against Hastings and
the other Danes, he marched suddenly to the west [r]; and falling on
the rebels before they were aware, pursued them to their ships with
great slaughter.  These ravagers, sailing next to Sussex, began to
plunder the country near Chichester; but the order which Alfred had
every where established, sufficed here, without his presence, for the
defence of the place; and the rebels, meeting with a new repulse, in
which many of them were killed, and some of their ships taken [s],
were obliged to put again to sea, and were discouraged from attempting
any other enterprise.
[FN [q] Ibid. p. 92.  [r] Ibid. p. 93.  [s] Chron. Sax. p. 96.  Flor.
Wigorn. p. 596.]

Meanwhile, the Danish invaders in Essex, having united their force
under the command of Hastings, advanced into the inland country, and
made spoil of all around them; but soon had reason to repent of their
temerity.  The English army left in London, assisted by a body of the
citizens, attacked the enemy's intrenchments at Bamflete, overpowered
the garrison, and having done great execution upon them, carried off
the wife and two sons of Hastings [t].  Alfred generously spared these
captives; and even restored them to Hastings [u], on condition that be
should depart the kingdom.
[FN [t] Chron. Sax. p. 94.  M. West. p. 178.  [u] M. West. p. 179.]

But though the king had thus honourably rid himself of this dangerous
enemy, he had not entirely subdued or expelled the invaders.  The
piratical Danes willingly followed in an excursion any prosperous
leader who gave them hopes of booty; but were not so easily induced to
relinquish their enterprise, or submit to return, baffled and without
plunder, into their native country.  Great numbers of them, after the
departure of Hastings, seized and fortified Shobury, at the mouth of
the Thames; and having left a garrison there, they marched along the
River, till they came to Boddington, in the county of Gloucester;
where, being reinforced by some Welsh, they threw up intrenchments,
and prepared for their defence.  The king here surrounded them with
the whole force of his dominions [w]; and as he had now a certain
prospect of victory, he resolved to trust nothing to chance, but
rather to master his enemies by famine than assault.  They were
reduced to such extremities, that, having eaten their own horses, and
having many of them perished with hunger [x], they made a desperate
sally upon the English; and though the greater number fell in the
action, a considerable body made their escape [y].  These roved about
for some time in England, still pursued by the vigilance of Alfred;
they attacked Leicester with success, defended themselves in Hartford,
and then fled to Quatford, where they were finally broken and subdued.
The small remains of them either dispersed themselves among their
countrymen in Northumberland and East Anglia [z], or had recourse
again to the sea, where they exercised piracy, under the command of
Sigefert, a Northumbrian.  This freebooter, well acquainted with
Alfred’s naval preparations, had framed vessels of a new construction,
higher, and longer, and swifter than those of the English; but the
king soon discovered his superior skill, by building vessels still
higher, and longer, and swifter than those of the Northumbrians; and
falling upon them while they were exercising their ravages in the
west, he took twenty of their ships, and having tried all the
prisoners at Winchester, he hanged them as pirates, the common enemies
of mankind.
[FN [w] Chron. Sax. p. 94.  [x] Ibid.  M. West. p. 179.  Flor. Wigorn.
p. 596.  [y] Chron. Sax. p. 95.  [z] Chron. Sax. p. 97.]

The well-timed severity of this execution, together with the excellent
posture of defence established every where, restored full tranquillity
to England, and provided for the future security of the government.
The East Anglian and Northumbrian Danes, on the first appearance of
Alfred upon their frontiers, made anew the most humble submissions to
him; and he thought it prudent to take them under his immediate
government, without establishing over them a viceroy of their own
nation [a].  The Welsh also acknowledged his authority; and this great
prince had now, by prudence, and justice, and valour, established his
sovereignty over all the southern parts of the island, from the
English channel to the  frontiers of Scotland; when he died [MN 901.],
in the vigour of his age and the full strength of his faculties,
after a glorious reign of twenty-nine years and a half [b]; in which
he deservedly attained the appellation of Alfred the Great, and the
title of Founder of the English Monarchy.
[FN [a] Flor. Wigorn. p. 598.  [b] Asser. p. 21.  Chron. Sax. p. 99.]

The merit of this prince, both in private and public life, may with
advantage be set in opposition to that of any monarch or citizen which
the annals of any age or any nation can present to us.  He seems
indeed to be the model of that perfect character, which, under the
denomination of a sage or wise man, philosophers have been fond of
delineating, rather as a fiction of their imagination, than in hopes
of ever seeing it really existing: so happily were all his virtues
tempered together; so justly were they blended; and so powerfully did
each prevent the other from exceeding its proper boundaries.  He knew
how to reconcile the most enterprising spirit with the coolest
moderation; the most obstinate perseverance with the easiest
flexibility; the most severe justice with the gentlest lenity; the
greatest vigour in commanding with the most perfect affability of
deportment [c]; the highest capacity and inclination for science, with
the most shining talents for action.  His civil and his military
virtues are almost equally the objects of our admiration; excepting
only, that the former, being more rare among princes, as well as more
useful, seem chiefly to challenge our applause.  Nature also, as if
desirous that so bright a production of her skill should be set in the
fairest light, had bestowed on him every bodily accomplishment, vigour
of limbs, dignity of shape and air, with a pleasing, engaging, and
open countenance [d].  Fortune alone, by throwing him into that
barbarous age, deprived him of historians worthy to transmit his fame
to posterity; and we wish to see him delineated in more lively
colours, and with more particular strokes, that we may at least
perceive some of those small specks and blemishes, from which, as a
man, it is impossible he could be entirely exempted.
[FN [c] Asser. p. 13.  [d] Ibid. p. 5.]

But we should give but an imperfect idea of Alfred’s merit, were we to
confine our narration to his military exploits, and were not more
particular in our account of his institutions for the execution of
justice, and of his zeal for the encouragement of arts and sciences.

After Alfred had subdued, and had settled or expelled the Danes, he
found the kingdom in the most wretched condition; desolated by the
ravages of those barbarians, and thrown into disorders, which were
calculated to perpetuate its misery.  Though the great armies of the
Danes were broken, the country was full of straggling troops of that
nation, who, being accustomed to live by plunder, were become
incapable of industry, and who, from the natural ferocity of their
manners, indulged themselves in committing violence, even beyond what
was requisite to supply their necessities.  The English themselves,
reduced to the most extreme indigence by these continued depredations,
had shaken off all bands of government; and those who had been
plundered today, betook themselves next day to a like disorderly life,
and, from despair, joined the robbers in pillaging and ruining their
fellow-citizens.  These were the evils for which it was necessary that
the vigilance and activity of Alfred should provide a remedy.

That he might render the execution of justice strict and regular; he
divided all England into counties; these counties he subdivided into
hundreds; and, the hundreds into tithings.  Every householder was
answerable for the behaviour of his family and slaves, and even of his
guests, if they lived above three days in his house.  Ten neighbouring
householders were formed into one corporation, who, under the name of
a tithing, decennary, or fribourg, were answerable for each other’s
conduct, and over whom one person, called a tithingman, headbourg, or
borsholder, was appointed to preside.  Every man was punished as an
outlaw who did not register himself in some tithing.  And no man could
change his habitation, without a warrant or certificate from the
borsholder of the tithing to which he formerly belonged.

When any person in any tithing or decennary was guilty of a crime, the
borsholder was summoned to answer for him; and if he were not willing
to be surety for his appearance, and his clearing himself, the
criminal was committed to prison, and there detained till his trial.
If he fled, either before or after finding sureties, the borsholder
and decennary became liable to inquiry, and were exposed to the
penalties of law.  Thirty-one days were allowed them for producing the
criminal; and if that time elapsed without their being able to find
him, the borsholder, with two other members of the decennary, was
obliged to appear, and, together with three chief members of the three
neighbouring decennaries, (making twelve in all,) to swear that his
decennary was free from all privity both of the crime committed, and
of the escape of the criminal.  If the borsholder could not find such
a number to answer for their innocence, the decennary was compelled by
fine to make satisfaction to the king, according to the degree of the
offence [f].  By this institution, every man was obliged from his own
interest to keep a watchful eye over the conduct of his neighbours;
and was in a manner surety for the behaviour of those who were placed
under the division to which he belonged: whence these decennaries
received the name of frank-pledges.
[FN [f] Leges St. Edw. cap. 20. apud Wilkins, p. 202.]

Such a regular distribution of the people, with such a strict
confinement in their habitation, may not be necessary in times when
men are more inured to obedience and justice; and it might perhaps be
regarded as destructive of liberty and commerce in a polished state;
but it was well calculated to reduce that fierce and licentious people
under the salutary restraint of law and government.  But Alfred took
care to temper these rigours by other institutions favourable to the
freedom of the citizens; and nothing could be more popular and liberal
than his plan for the administration of justice.  The borsholder
summoned together his whole decennary to assist him in deciding any
lesser difference which occurred among the members of this small
community.  In affairs of greater moment, in appeals from the
decennary, or in controversies arising between members of different
decennaries, the cause was brought before the hundred, which consisted
of ten decennaries, or a hundred families of freemen, and which was
regularly assembled once in four weeks for the deciding of causes [g].
Their method of decision deserves to be noted, as being the origin of
juries; an institution admirable in itself, and the best calculated
for the preservation of liberty and the administration of justice that
ever was devised by the wit of man.  Twelve freeholders were chosen,
who, having sworn, together with the hundreder, or presiding
magistrate of that division, to administer impartial justice [h],
proceeded to the examination of that cause which was submitted to
their jurisdiction.  And beside these monthly meetings of the hundred,
there was an annual meeting, appointed for a more general inspection
of the police of the district; for the inquiry into crimes, the
correction of abuses in magistrates, and the obliging of every person
to show the decennary in which he was registered.  The people, in
imitation of their ancestors, the ancient Germans, assembled there in
arms; whence a hundred was sometimes called a wapentake, and its court
served both for the support of military discipline, and for the
administration of civil justice [i].
[FN [g] Leg. Edw. cap. 2.  [h] Foedus Alfred. and Gothurn. apud
Wilkins, cap. 3. p. 47.  Leg. Ethelstani, cap. 2. apud Wilkins, p. 58.
LL. Ethelr. § 4.  Wilkins, p. 117.  [i] Spellman, IN VOCE Wapentake.]

The next superior court to that of the hundred was the county-court,
which met twice a year, after Michaelmas and Easter, and consisted of
the freeholders of the county, who possessed an equal vote in the
decision of causes.  The bishop presided in this court, together with
the alderman; and the proper object of the court was the receiving of
appeals from the hundreds and decennaries, and the deciding of such
controversies as arose between men of different hundreds.  Formerly,
the alderman possessed both the civil and military authority; but
Alfred, sensible that this conjunction of powers rendered the nobility
dangerous and independent, appointed also a sheriff in each county,
who enjoyed a co-ordinate authority with the former in the judicial
function [k].  His office also empowered him to guard the rights of
the crown in the county, and to levy the fines imposed; which in that
age formed no contemptible part of the public revenue.
[FN [k] Ingulph. p. 870.]

There lay an appeal, in default of justice, from all these courts to
the king himself in council; and as the people, sensible of the equity
and great talents of Alfred, placed their chief confidence in him, he
was soon overwhelmed with appeals from all parts of England.  He was
indefatigable in the despatch of these causes [l]; but finding that
his time must be entirely engrossed by this branch of duty, he
resolved to obviate the inconvenience, by correcting the ignorance or
corruption of the inferior magistrates, from which it arose [m].  He
took care to have his nobility instructed in letters and the laws [n].
He chose the earls and sheriffs from among the men most celebrated for
probity and knowledge: he punished severely all malversation in office
[o]: and he removed all the earls, whom he found unequal to the trust
[p]; allowing only some of the more elderly to serve by a deputy, till
their death should make room for more worthy successors.
[FN [1] Asser. p. 20.  [m] Ibid. p. 18, 21.  Flor. Wigorn p. 594.
Abbas Rieval, p. 355.  [n] Flor. Wigorn. p. 594.  Brompton. p. 811.
[o] Le Miroir de Justice, chap. 2.  [p] Asser. p. 20.]

The better to guide the magistrates in the administration of justice,
Alfred framed a body of laws; which, though now lost, served long as
the basis of English jurisprudence, and is generally deemed the origin
of what is denominated the COMMON LAW.  He appointed regular meetings
of the states of England twice a year in London [q]; a city which he
himself had repaired and beautified, and which he thus rendered the
capital of the kingdom.  The similarity of these institutions to the
customs of the ancient Germans, to the practice of the other northern
conquerors, and to the Saxon laws during the Heptarchy, prevents us
from regarding Alfred as the sole author of this plan of government;
and leads us rather to think, that, like a wise man, he contented
himself with reforming, extending, and executing the institutions
which he found previously established.  But, on the whole, such
success attended his legislation, that every thing bore suddenly a new
face in England: robberies and iniquities of all kinds were repressed
by the punishment or reformation of the criminals [r]: and so exact
was the general police, that Alfred, it is said, hung up, by way of
bravado, golden bracelets near the highways; and no man dared to touch
them [s].  Yet, amidst these rigours of justice, this great prince
preserved the most sacred regard to the liberty of his people; and it
is a memorable sentiment preserved in his will, That it was just the
English should for ever remain as free as their own thoughts [t].
[FN [q] Le Miroir de Justice.  [r] Ingulph. p. 27.  [s] W Malmes. lib.
2. cap. 4.  [t] Asser. p. 24.]

As good morals and knowledge are almost inseparable in every age,
though not in every individual; the care of Alfred for the
encouragement of learning among his subjects was another useful branch
of his legislation, and tended to reclaim the English from their
former dissolute and ferocious manners: but the king was guided in
this pursuit, less by political views, than by his natural bent and
propensity towards letters.  When he came to the throne, he found the
nation sunk into the grossest ignorance and barbarism, proceeding from
the continued disorders in the government, and from the ravages of the
Danes: the monasteries were destroyed, the monks butchered or
dispersed, their libraries burnt; and thus the only seats of erudition
in those ages were totally subverted.  Alfred himself complains, that
on his accession he knew not one person, south of the Thames, who
could so much as interpret the Latin service; and very few in the
northern parts, who had reached even that pitch of erudition.  But
this prince invited over the most celebrated scholars from all parts
of Europe; he established schools every where for the instruction of
his people; he founded, at least repaired, the university of Oxford,
and endowed it with many privileges, revenues, and immunities; he
enjoined by law all freeholders possessed of two hides [u] of land or
more, to send their children to school for their instruction; he gave
preferment both in church and state to such only as had made some
proficiency in knowledge: and by all these expedients he had the
satisfaction, before his death, to see a great change in the face of
affairs; and in a work of his, which is still extant, he congratulates
himself on the progress which learning, under his patronage, had
already made in England.
[FN [u] A hide contained land sufficient to employ one plough.  See H.
Hunt. lib. 6. in A. D. 1008.  Annal. Waverl. in A.D. 1083.  Gervase of
Tilbury says, it commonly contained about 100 acres.]

But the most effectual expedient, employed by Alfred, for the
encouragement of learning, was his own example, and the constant
assiduity with which, notwithstanding the multiplicity and urgency of
his affairs, he employed himself in the pursuits of knowledge.  He
usually divided his time into three equal portions: one was employed
in sleep, and the refection of his body by diet and exercise; another
in the despatch of business; a third in study and devotion; and that
he might more exactly measure the hours, he made use of burning tapers
of equal length, which he fixed in lanterns [w]; an expedient suited
to that rude age, when the geometry of dialling, and the mechanism of
clocks and watches, were totally unknown.  And by such a regular
distribution of his time, though he often laboured under great bodily
infirmities [x], this martial hero, who fought in person fifty-six
battles by sea and land [y], was able, during a life of no
extraordinary length, to acquire more knowledge, and even to compose
more books, than most studious men, though blessed with the greatest
leisure and application, have, in more fortunate ages, made the object
of their uninterrupted industry.
[FN [w] Asser. p. 20.  W. Malm. lib. 2. cap. 4.  Ingulph. p. 870.  [x]
Asser. p. 4, 12, 13, 17.  [y] W. Malm. lib. 4. cap. 4.]

Sensible that the people, at all times, especially when their
understandings are obstructed by ignorance and bad education, are not
much susceptible of speculative instruction, Alfred endeavoured to
convey his morality by apologues, parables, stories, apophthegms,
couched in poetry; and besides propagating among his subjects former
compositions of that kind, which he found in the Saxon tongue [z], he
exercised his genius in inventing works of a like nature [a], as well
as in translating from the Greek the elegant fables of Aesop.  He also
gave Saxon translations of Orosius’s and Bede’s histories; and of
Boethius concerning the consolation of philosophy [b].  And he deemed
it nowise derogatory from his other great characters of sovereign,
legislator, warrior, and politician, thus to lead the way to his
people in the pursuits of literature.
[FN [z] Asser. p. 13.  [a] Spellman, p. 124.  Abbas Rieval, p. 355.
[b] W. Malm. lib. 2. cap. 4.  Brompton, p. 814.]

Meanwhile, this prince was not negligent in encouraging the vulgar and
mechanical arts, which have a more sensible, though not a closer,
connexion with the interests of society.  He invited, from all
quarters, industrious foreigners to repeople his country, which had
been desolated by the ravages of the Danes [c].  He introduced and
encouraged manufactures of all kinds; and no inventor or improver of
any ingenious art did he suffer to go unrewarded [d].  He prompted men
of activity to betake themselves to navigation, to push commerce into
the most remote countries, and to acquire riches by propagating
industry among their fellow-citizens.  He set apart a seventh portion
of his own revenue for maintaining a number of workmen, whom he
constantly employed in rebuilding the ruined cities, castles, palaces,
and monasteries [e].  Even the elegancies of life were brought to him
from the Mediterranean and the Indies [f]; and his subjects, by seeing
those productions of the peaceful arts, were taught to respect the
virtues of justice and industry, from which alone they could arise.
Both living and dead, Alfred was regarded by foreigners, no less than
by his own subjects, as the greatest prince after Charlemagne that had
appeared in Europe during several ages, and as one of the wisest and
best that had ever adorned the annals of any nation.
[FN [c] Asser. p. 13.  Flor. Wigorn. p. 588.  [d] Asser. p. 20.  [e]
Asser. p. 20.  W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 4.  [f] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap.
4.]

Alfred had, by his wife, Ethelswitha, daughter of a Mercian earl,
three sons and three daughters.  The eldest son, Edmund, died without
issue, in his father’s lifetime.  The third, Ethelward, inherited his
father’s passion for letters, and lived a private life.  The second,
Edward, succeeded to his power; and passes by the appellation of
Edward the Elder, being the first of that name who sat on the English
throne.

[MN Edward the Elder.  901.]
This prince, who equalled his father in military talents, though
inferior to him in knowledge and erudition [g], found, immediately on
his accession, a specimen of that turbulent life to which all princes
and even all individuals were exposed, in an age when men, less
restrained by law or justice, and less occupied by industry, had no
aliment for their inquietude, but wars, insurrections, convulsions,
rapine, and depredation.  Ethelwald, his cousin-german, son of King
Ethelbert, the elder brother of Alfred, insisted on his preferable
title [h]; and arming his partisans, took possession of Winburne,
where he seemed determined to defend himself to the last extremity,
and to await the issue of his pretensions [i].  But when the king
approached the town with a great army, Ethelwald, having the prospect
of certain destruction, made his escape, and fled first into Normandy,
thence into Northumberland; where he hoped that the people, who had
been recently subdued by Alfred, and who were impatient of peace,
would, on the intelligence of that great prince’s death, seize the
first pretence or opportunity of rebellion.  The event did not
disappoint his expectations: the Northumbrians declared for him [k];
and Ethelwald having thus connected his interests with the Danish
tribes, went beyond sea, and collecting a body of these freebooters,
he excited the hopes of all those who had been accustomed to subsist
by rapine and violence [l].  The East Anglian Danes joined his party:
the Five-burgers, who were seated in the heart of Mercia, began to put
themselves in motion; and the English found that they were again
menaced with those convulsions, from which the valour and policy of
Alfred had so lately rescued them.  The rebels, headed by Ethelwald,
made an incursion into the Counties of Gloucester, Oxford, and Wilts;
and having exercised their ravages in these places, they retired with
their booty, before the king, who had assembled an army, was able to
approach them.  Edward, however, who was determined that his
preparations should not be fruitless, conducted his forces into East
Anglia, and retaliated the injuries which the inhabitants had
committed, by spreading the like devastation among them.  Satiated
with revenge, and loaded with booty, he gave orders to retire: but the
authority of those ancient kings, which was feeble in peace, was not
much better established in the field; and the Kentish men, greedy of
more spoil, ventured, contrary to repeated orders, to stay behind him,
and to take up their quarters in Bury. This disobedience proved in the
issue fortunate to Edward.  The Danes assaulted the Kentish men; but
met with so vigorous a resistance, that, though they gained the field
of battle, they bought that advantage by the loss of their bravest
leaders, and among the rest, by that of Ethelwald, who perished in the
action [m]. The king, freed from the fear of so dangerous a
competitor, made peace on advantageous terms with the East Angles [n].
[FN [g] W. Malmes lib. 2. cap. 5  Hoveden, p. 421.  [h] Chron. Sax. p.
99, 100.  [i] Ibid. p. 100.  H. Hunting. lib. 5. p. 352.  [k] Chron.
Sax. p. 100.  H. Hunting. lib. 5. p. 352.  [l] Chron. Sax. p. 100.
Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 24.  [m] Chron. Sax. p. 101.
Brompton, p. 832.  [n] Chron. Sax. p. 102.  Brompton, p. 832.  Matth.
West. p. 181.]

In order to restore England to such a state of tranquillity as it was
then capable of attaining, nought was wanting but the subjection of
the Northumbrians, who, assisted by the scattered Danes in Mercia,
continually infested the bowels of the kingdom.  Edward, in order to
divert the force of these enemies, prepared a fleet to attack them by
sea; hoping that, when his ships appeared on their coast, they must at
least remain at home, and provide for their defence.  But the
Northumbrians were less anxious to secure their own property, than
greedy to commit spoil on their enemy; and concluding, that the chief
strength of the English was embarked on board the fleet, they thought
the opportunity favourable, and entered Edward’s territories with all
their forces.  The king, who was prepared against this event, attacked
them on their return at Tetenhall, in the county of Stafford, put them
to rout, recovered all the booty, and pursued them with great
slaughter into their own country.

All the rest of Edward’s reign was a scene of continued and successful
action against the Northumbrians, the East Angles, the Five-burgers,
and the foreign Danes who invaded him from Normandy and Britany.  Nor
was he less provident in putting his kingdom in a posture of defence,
than vigorous in assaulting the enemy.  He fortified the towns of
Chester, Eddesbury, Warwick, Cherbury, Buckingham, Towcester, Maldon,
Huntingdon, and Colchester.  He fought two signal battles at Temsford
and Maldon [o].  He vanquished Thurketill, a great Danish chief, and
obliged him to retire with his followers into France, in quest of
spoil and adventures.  He subdued the East Angles, and forced them to
swear allegiance to him; he expelled the two rival princes of
Northumberland, Reginald and Sidroc, and acquired, for the present,
the dominion of that province: several tribes of the Britons were
subjected by him; and even the Scots, who, during the reign of Egbert,
had, under the conduct of Kenneth their king, increased their power by
the final subjection of the Picts, were nevertheless obliged to give
him marks of submission [p].  In all these fortunate achievements he
was assisted by the activity and prudence of his sister, Ethelfleda,
who was widow of Ethelbert, Earl of Mercia, and who, after her
husband’s death, retained the government of that province.  This
princess, who had been reduced to extremity in childbed, refused
afterwards all commerce with her husband; not from any weak
superstition, as was common in that age, but because she deemed all
domestic occupations unworthy of her masculine and ambitious spirit
[q].  She died before her brother; and Edward, during the remainder of
his reign, took upon himself the immediate government of Mercia, which
before had been entrusted to the authority of a governor [r].  The
Saxon Chronicle fixes the death of this prince in 925 [s]: his kingdom
devolved to Athelstan, his natural son.
[FN [o] Chron. Sax. p. 108.  Flor. Wigorn. p. 601.  [p] Chron. Sax. p.
110.  Hoveden, p. 421.  [q] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 5.  M. West. p.
182.  Ingulph. p. 28.  Higden, p. 261.  [r] Chron. Sax. p. 110.
Brompton, p. 831.  [s] Page 110.]

[MN Athelstan 925.]
The stain in this prince’s birth was not, in those times, deemed so
considerable as to exclude him from the throne; and Athelstan, being
of an age, as well as of a capacity fitted for government, obtained
the preference to Edward’s younger children, who, though legitimate,
were of too tender years to rule a nation so much exposed both to
foreign invasion and to domestic convulsions.  Some discontents,
however, prevailed on his accession; and Alfred, a nobleman of
considerable power, was thence encouraged to enter into a conspiracy
against him.  This incident is related by historians with
circumstances, which the reader, according to the degree of credit he
is disposed to give them, may impute either to the invention of monks,
who forged them, or to their artifice, who found means of making them
real.  Alfred, it is said, being seized upon strong suspicions, but
without any certain proof, firmly denied the .conspiracy imputed to
him; and in order to justify himself, he offered to swear to his
innocence before the pope, whose person, it was supposed, contained
such superior sanctity, that no one could presume to give a false oath
in his presence, and yet hope to escape the immediate vengeance of
heaven.  The king accepted of the condition, and Alfred was conducted
to Rome; where, either conscious of his innocence, or neglecting the
superstition to which he appealed, he ventured to make the oath
required of him before John, who then filled the papal chair.  But no
sooner had he pronounced the fatal words, than he fell into
convulsions, of which three days after he expired.  The king, as if
the guilt of the conspirator were now fully ascertained, confiscated
his estate, and made a present of it to the monastery of Malmesbury
[t]; secure that no doubts would ever thenceforth be entertained
concerning the justice of his proceedings.
[FN [t] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 6.  Spell. Conc. p. 407.]

The dominion of Athelstan was no sooner established over his English
subjects, than he endeavoured to give security to the government, by
providing against the insurrections of the Danes, which had created so
much disturbance to his predecessors.  He marched into Northumberland;
and finding that the inhabitants bore with impatience the English
yoke, he thought it prudent to confer on Sithric, a Danish nobleman,
the title of king, and to attach him to his interests, by giving him
his sister, Editha, in marriage.  But this policy proved by accident
the source of dangerous consequences.  Sithric died in a twelvemonth
after; and his two sons by a former marriage, Anlaf and Godfrid,
founding pretensions on their father’s elevation, assumed the
sovereignty without waiting for Athelstan’s consent.  They were soon
expelled by the power of that monarch; and the former took shelter in
Ireland, as the latter did in Scotland; where he received, during some
time, protection from Constantine, who then enjoyed the crown of that.
kingdom.  The Scottish prince, however, continually solicited, and
even menaced by Athelstan, at last promised to deliver up his guest;
but secretly detesting this treachery, he gave Godfrid warning to make
his escape [u]; and that fugitive, after subsisting by piracy for some
years, freed the king by his death from any farther anxiety.
Athelstan, resenting Constantine’s behaviour, entered Scotland with an
army; and ravaging the country with impunity [w], he reduced the Scots
to such distress, that their king was content to preserve his crown,
by making submissions to the enemy.  The English historians assert
[x], that Constantine did homage to Athelstan for his kingdom; and
they add, that the latter prince, being urged by his courtiers to push
the present favourable opportunity, and entirely subdue Scotland,
replied, that it was more glorious to confer than conquer kingdoms
[y].  But those annals, so uncertain and imperfect in themselves, lose
all credit when national prepossessions and animosities have place:
and on that account, the Scotch historians, who, without having any
more knowledge of the matter, strenuously deny the fact, seem more
worthy of belief.
[FN [u] W. Malm. lib. 2. cap. 6.  [w] Chron. Sax. p. 111.  Hoveden, p.
422.  H. Hunting. lib. 5. p. 354.  [x] Hoveden, p. 422.  [y] Wm.
Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 6.  Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p. 212.]

Constantine, whether he owed the retaining of his crown to the
moderation of Athelstan, who was unwilling to employ all his
advantages against him, or to the policy of that prince, who esteemed
the humiliation of an enemy a greater acquisition than the subjection
of a discontented and mutinous people, thought the behaviour of the
English monarch more an object of resentment than of gratitude.  He
entered into a confederacy with Anlaf, who had collected a great body
of Danish pirates, whom he found hovering in the Irish seas; and with
some Welsh princes, who were terrified at the growing power of
Athelstan: and all these allies made by concert an irruption with a
great army into England.  Athelstan, collecting his forces, met the
enemy near Brunsbury, in Northumberland, and defeated them in a
general engagement.  This victory was chiefly ascribed to the valour
of Turketul, the English chancellor: for in those turbulent ages no
one was so much occupied in civil employments, as wholly to lay aside
the military character [z].
[FN [z] The office of chancellor among the Anglo-Saxons resembled more
that of a secretary of state, than that of our present chancellor.
See Spellman, in voce CHANCELLARIUS.]

There is a circumstance not unworthy of notice, which historians
relate, with regard to the transactions of this war.  Anlaf, on the
approach of the English army, thought that he could not venture too
much to ensure a fortunate event; and, employing the artifice formerly
practised by Alfred against the Danes, he entered the enemy’s camp in
the habit of a minstrel.  The stratagem was for the present attended
with like success.  He gave such satisfaction to the soldiers who
flocked about him, that they introduced him to the king’s tent; and
Anlaf, having played before that prince and his nobles during their
repast, was dismissed with a handsome reward.  His prudence kept him
from refusing the present; but his pride determined him, on his
departure, to bury it, while he fancied that he was unespied by all
the world.  But a soldier in Athelstan’s camp, who had formerly served
under Anlaf, had been struck with some suspicion on the first
appearance of the minstrel; and was engaged by curiosity to observe
all his motions.  He regarded this last action as a full proof of
Anlaf’s disguise; and he immediately carried the intelligence to
Athelstan, who blamed him for not sooner giving him information, that
he might have seized his enemy.  But the soldier told him, that, as he
had formerly sworn fealty to Anlaf, he could never have pardoned
himself the treachery of betraying and ruining his ancient master; and
that Athelstan himself, after such an instance of his criminal
conduct, would have had equal reason to distrust his allegiance.
Athelstan, having praised the generosity of the soldier’s principles,
reflected on the incident, which he foresaw might be attended with
important consequences.  He removed his station in the camp; and as a
bishop arrived that evening with a reinforcement of troops, (for the
ecclesiastics were then no less warlike than the civil magistrates,)
he occupied with his train that very place which had been left vacant
by the king’s removal.  The precaution of Athelstan was found prudent:
for no sooner had darkness fallen, than Anlaf broke into the camp, and
hastening directly to the place where he had left the king’s tent, put
the bishop to death before he had time to prepare for his defence [a].
[FN [a] W. Malmes. lib. 2 cap. 6.  Higden, p. 263]

There fell several Danish and Welsh princes in the action of Brunsbury
[b]; and Constantine and Anlaf made their escape with difficulty,
leaving the greater part of their army on the field of battle.  After
this success, Athelstan enjoyed his crown in tranquillity; and he is
regarded as one of the ablest and most active of those ancient
princes.  He passed a remarkable law, which was calculated for the
encouragement of commerce, and which it required some liberality of
mind in that age to have devised: that a merchant, who had made three
long sea-voyages on his own account, should be admitted to the rank of
a Thane or Gentleman.  This prince died at Gloucester in the year 941
[c], after a reign of sixteen years, and was succeeded by Edmund, his
legitimate brother.
[FN [b] Brompton, p. 839  Ingulph. p. 29  [c] Chron. Sax. p. 114.]

[MN Edmund 941.]
Edmund, on his accession, met with disturbance from the restless
Northumbrians, who lay in wait for every opportunity of breaking into
rebellion.  But marching suddenly with his forces into their country,
he so overawed the rebels, that they endeavoured to appease him by the
most humble submissions [d].  In order to give him a surer pledge of
their obedience, they offered to embrace Christianity; a religion
which the English Danes had frequently professed, when reduced to
difficulties, but which, for that very reason, they regarded as a
badge of servitude, and shook off as soon as a favourable opportunity
offered.  Edmund, trusting little to their sincerity in this forced
submission, used the precaution of removing the Five-burgers from the
towns of Mercia, in which they had been allowed to settle; because it
was always found, that they took advantage of every commotion, and
introduced the rebellious, or foreign Danes, into the heart of the
kingdom.  He also conquered Cumberland from the Britons; and conferred
that territory on Malcolm, King of Scotland, on condition that he
should do him homage for it, and protect the north from all future
incursions of the Danes.
[FN [d] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 7.  Brompton, p. 857]

Edmund was young when he came to the crown; yet was his reign short,
as his death was violent.  One day as he was solemnizing a festival in
the county of Gloucester, he remarked, that Leolf, a notorious robber,
whom he had sentenced to banishment, had yet the boldness to enter the
hall where he himself dined, and to sit at table with his attendants.
Enraged at this insolence, he ordered him to leave the room; but on
his refusing to obey, the king, whose temper, naturally choleric, was
inflamed by this additional insult, leaped on him himself, and seized
him by the hair: but the ruffian, pushed to extremity, drew his
dagger, and gave Edmund a wound, of which he immediately expired.
This event happened in the year 946, and in the sixth year of the
king’s reign.  Edmund left male issue, but so young, that they were
incapable of governing the kingdom; and his brother, Edred, was
promoted to the throne.

[MN Edred 946.]
The reign of this prince, as those of his predecessors, was disturbed
by the rebellions and incursions of the Northumbrian Danes, who,
though frequently quelled, were never entirely subdued, nor had ever
paid a sincere allegiance to the crown of England.  The accession of a
new king seemed to them a favourable opportunity for shaking off the
yoke; but on Edred’s appearance with an army, they made him their
wonted submissions; and the king having wasted the country with fire
and sword, as a punishment for their rebellion, obliged them to renew
their oaths of allegiance; and he straight retired with his forces.
The obedience of the Danes lasted no longer than the present terror.
Provoked at the devastations of Edred, and even reduced by necessity
to subsist on plunder, they broke into a new rebellion, and were again
subdued; but the king, now instructed by experience, took greater
precautions against their future revolt.  He fixed English garrisons
in their most considerable towns; and placed over them an English
governor, who might watch all their motions, and suppress any
insurrection on its first appearance.  He obliged also Malcolm, King
of Scotland, to renew his homage for the lands which he held in
England.

Edred, though not unwarlike, nor unfit for active life, lay under the
influence of the lowest superstition, and had blindly delivered over
his conscience to the guidance of Dunstan, commonly called St.
Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury, whom he advanced to the highest
offices, and who covered, under the appearance of sanctity, the most
violent and most insolent ambition.  Taking advantage of the implicit
confidence reposed in him by the king, this churchman imported into
England a new order of monks, who much changed the state of
ecclesiastical affairs, and excited, on their first establishment, the
most violent commotions.

From the introduction of Christianity among the Saxons, there had been
monasteries in England; and these establishments had extremely
multiplied, by the donations of the princes and nobles; whose
superstition, derived from their ignorance and precarious life, and
increased by remorse for the crimes into which they were so frequently
betrayed, knew no other expedient for appeasing the Deity than a
profuse liberality towards the ecclesiastics.  But the monks had
hitherto been a species of secular priests, who lived after the manner
of the present canons or prebendaries, and were both intermingled, in
some degree, with the world, and endeavoured to render themselves
useful to it.  They were employed in the education of youth [e]: they
had the disposal of their own time and industry: they were not
subjected to the rigid rules of an order: they had made no vows of
implicit obedience to their superiors [f]: and they still retained the
choice, without quitting the convent, either of a married or a single
life [g].  But a mistaken piety had produced in Italy a new species of
monks called Benedictines; who, carrying farther the plausible
principles of mortification, secluded themselves entirely from the
world, renounced all claim to liberty, and made a merit of the most
inviolable chastity.  These practices and principles, which
superstition at first engendered, were greedily embraced and promoted
by the policy of the court of Rome.  The Roman pontiff, who was making
every day great advances towards an absolute sovereignty over the
ecclesiastics, perceived that the celibacy of the clergy alone could
break off entirely their connexion with the civil power, and depriving
them of every other object of ambition, engage them to promote, with
unceasing industry, the grandeur of their own order.  He was sensible,
that so long as the monks were indulged in marriage, and were
permitted to rear families, they never could be subjected to strict
discipline, or reduced to that slavery under their superiors, which
was requisite to procure to the mandates issued from Rome, a ready and
zealous obedience.  Celibacy, therefore, began to be extolled, as the
indispensable duty of priests; and the pope undertook to make all the
clergy throughout the western world renounce at once the privilege of
marriage: a fortunate policy; but at the same time an undertaking the
most difficult of any, since he had the strongest propensities of
human nature to encounter, and found, that the same connexions with
the female sex, which generally encourage devotion, were here
unfavourable to the success of his project.  It is no wonder
therefore, that this master-stroke of art should have met with violent
contradiction, and that the interests of the hierarchy, and the
inclinations of the priests, being now placed in this singular
opposition, should, notwithstanding the continued efforts of Rome,
have retarded the execution of that bold scheme, during the course of
near three centuries.
[FN [e] Osberne in Anglia Sacra, tom. 2. p. 92.  [f] Osberne, p. 91.
[g] See Wharton’s notes to Anglia Sacra, tom. 2. p. 91.  Gervase, p.
1645.  Chron Wint. MS. apud Spell. Conc. p. 434.]

As the bishops and parochial clergy lived apart with their families,
and were more connected with the world, the hopes of success with them
were fainter; and the pretence for making them renounce marriage was
much less plausible.  But the pope, having cast his eye on the monks
as the basis of his authority, was determined to reduce them under
strict rules of obedience, to procure them the credit of sanctity by
an appearance of the most rigid mortification, and to break off all
their other ties which might interfere with his spiritual policy.
Under pretence, therefore, of reforming abuses, which were, in some
degree, unavoidable in the ancient establishments, he had already
spread over the southern countries of Europe the severe laws of the
monastic life, and began to form attempts towards a like innovation in
England.  The favourable opportunity offered itself, (and it was
greedily seized,) arising from the weak, superstition of Edred, and
the violent impetuous character of Dunstan.

Dunstan was born of noble parents in the west of England; and being
educated under his uncle Aldhelm, then Archbishop of Canterbury, had
betaken himself to the ecclesiastical life, and had acquired some
character in the court of Edmund.  He was, however, represented to
that prince as a man of licentious manners [h]: and finding his
fortune blasted by these suspicions, his ardent ambition prompted him
to repair his indiscretions by running into an opposite extreme.  He
secluded himself entirely from the world; he framed a cell so small,
that he could neither stand erect in it nor stretch out his limbs
during his repose; and he here employed himself perpetually either in
devotion or in manual labour [i].  It is probable, that his brain
became gradually crazed by these solitary occupations, and that his
head was filled with chimeras, which, being believed by himself and
his stupid votaries, procured him the general character of sanctity
among the people.  He fancied that the devil, among the frequent
visits which he paid him, was one day more earnest than usual in his
temptations; till Dunstan, provoked at his importunity, seized him by
the nose with a pair of red-hot pincers, as he put his head into the
cell; and he held him there till that malignant spirit made the whole
neighbourhood resound with his bellowings.  This notable exploit was
seriously credited and extolled by the public: it is transmitted to
posterity by one who, considering the age in which he lived, may pass
for a writer of some eloquence [k]; and it ensured to Dunstan a
reputation which no real piety, much less virtue, could, even in the
most enlightened period, have ever procured him with the people.
[FN [h] Osberne, p. 95  Matth West, p. 187.  [i] Osberne, p. 96.  [k]
Osberne, p. 97.]

Supported by the character obtained in his retreat, Dunstan appeared
again in the world; and gained such an ascendant over Edred, who had
succeeded to the crown, as made him not only the director of that
prince’s conscience, but his counsellor in the most momentous affairs
of government.  He was placed at the head of the treasury [l], and
being thus possessed both of power at court, and of credit with the
populace, he was enabled to attempt with success the most arduous
enterprises.  Finding that his advancement had been owing to the
opinion of his austerity, he professed himself a partisan of the rigid
monastic rules; and after introducing that reformation into the
convents of Glastonbury and Abingdon, he endeavoured to render it
universal in the kingdom.
[FN [1] Ibid. p. 102.  Wallingford, p. 541.]

The minds of men were already well prepared for this innovation.  The
praises of an inviolable chastity had been carried to the highest
extravagance by some of the first preachers of Christianity among the
Saxons: the pleasures of love had been represented as incompatible
with Christian perfection; and a total abstinence from all commerce
with the sex was deemed such a meritorious penance, as was sufficient
to atone for the greatest enormities.  The consequence seemed natural,
that those, at least, who officiated at the altar should be clear of
this pollution; and when the doctrine of transubstantiation, which was
now creeping in [m], was once fully established, the reverence to the
real body of Christ in the eucharist bestowed on this argument an
additional force and influence.  The monks knew how to avail
themselves of all these popular topics, and to set off their own
character to the best advantage.  They affected the greatest austerity
of life and manners: they indulged themselves in the highest strains
of devotion: they inveighed bitterly against the vices and pretended
luxury of the age: they were particularly vehement against the
dissolute lives of the secular clergy, their rivals: every instance of
libertinism in any individual of that order was represented as a
general corruption: and where other topics of defamation were wanting,
their marriage became a sure subject of invective, and their wives
received the name of CONCUBINE, or other more opprobrious appellation.
The secular clergy, on the other hand, who were numerous and rich, and
possessed of the ecclesiastical dignities, defended themselves with
vigour, and endeavoured to retaliate upon their adversaries.  The
people were thrown into agitation; and few instances occur of more
violent dissensions, excited by the most material differences in
religion, or rather by the most frivolous: since it is a just remark,
that the more affinity there is between theological parties, the
greater commonly is their animosity.
[FN [m] Spell. Conc. v. i. p. 452.]

The progress of the monks, which was become considerable, was somewhat
retarded by the death of Edred, their partisan, who expired after a
reign of nine years [n].  He left children; but as they were infants,
his nephew, Edwy, son of Edmund, was placed on the throne.
[FN [n] Chron. Sax. p. 115.]

[MN Edwy. 955.]
Edwy, at the time of his accession, was not above sixteen or seventeen
years of age, was possessed of the most amiable figure, and was even
endowed, according to authentic accounts, with the most promising
virtues [o].  He would have been the favourite of his people, had he
not unhappily, at the commencement of his reign, been engaged in a
controversy with the monks, whose rage, neither the graces of the body
nor virtues of the mind could mitigate, and who have pursued his
memory with the same unrelenting vengeance which they exercised
against his person and dignity during his short and unfortunate reign.
There was a beautiful princess of the royal blood, called Elgiva, who
had made impression on the tender heart of Edwy; and as he was of an
age when the force of the passions first begins to be felt, he had
ventured, contrary to the advice of his gravest counsellors, and the
remonstrances of the more dignified ecclesiastics [p], to espouse her;
though she was within the degrees of affinity prohibited by the canon
law [q].  As the austerity affected by the monks made them
particularly violent on this occasion, Edwy entertained a strong
prepossession against them; and seemed, on that account, determined
not to second their project of expelling the seculars from all the
convents, and of possessing themselves of those rich establishments.
War was therefore declared between the king and the monks; and the
former soon found reason to repent his provoking such dangerous
enemies.  On the day of his coronation, his nobility were assembled in
a great hall, and were indulging themselves in that riot and disorder,
which, from the example of their German ancestors, had become habitual
to the English [r]; when Edwy, attracted by softer pleasures, retired
into the queen’s apartment, and in that privacy gave reins to his
fondness towards his wife, which was only moderately checked by the
presence of her mother.  Dunstan conjectured the reason of the king’s
retreat; and carrying along with him Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury,
over whom he had gained an absolute ascendant, he burst into the
apartment, upbraided Edwy with his lasciviousness, probably bestowed
on the queen the most opprobrious epithet that can be applied to her
sex, and tearing him from her arms, pushed him back, in a disgraceful
manner, into the banquet of the nobles [s].  Edwy, though young, and
opposed by the prejudices of the people, found an opportunity of
taking revenge for this public insult.  He questioned Dunstan
concerning the administration of the treasury during the reign of his
predecessor [t]; and when that minister refused to give any account of
money expended, as he affirmed, by orders of the late king, he accused
him of malversation in his office and banished him the kingdom.  But
Dunstan’s cabal was not inactive during his absence; they filled the
public with high panegyrics on his sanctity; they exclaimed against
the impiety of the king and queen; and having poisoned the minds of
the people by these declamations, they proceeded to still more
outrageous acts of violence against the royal authority.  Archbishop
Odo sent into the palace a party of soldiers, who seized the queen,
and, having burned her face with a red-hot iron, in order to destroy
that fatal beauty which had seduced Edwy, they carried her by force
into Ireland, there to remain in perpetual exile [u].  Edwy, finding
it in vain to resist, was obliged to consent to his divorce, which was
pronounced by Odo [w]; and catastrophe, still more dismal, awaited the
unhappy Elgiva.  That amiable princess, being cured of her wounds, and
having even obliterated the scars with which Odo had hoped to deface
her beauty, returned into England, and was flying to the embraces of
the king, whom she still regarded as her husband; when she fell into
the hands of a party, whom the primate had sent to intercept her.
Nothing but her death could now give security to Odo and the monks;
and the most cruel death was requisite to satiate their vengeance.
She was hamstringed; and expired a few days after at Gloucester, in
the most acute torments [x].
[FN [o] H. Hunting. lib. 5. p. 356.  [p] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 7.
[q] Ibid.  [r] Wallingford, p. 542.  [s] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 7.
Osberne, p. 83, 105.  M. West. p. 195, 196.  [t] Wallingford, p. 542.
Alur. Beverl. p. 112.  [u] Osberne, p. 84.  Gervase, p. 1644.  [w]
Hoveden, p. 425.  [x] Osberne, p. 84.  Gervase, p. 1645, 1646.]

The English, blinded with superstition, instead of being shocked with
this inhumanity, exclaimed that the misfortunes of Edwy and his
consort were a just judgment for their dissolute contempt of the
ecclesiastical statutes.  They even proceeded to rebellion against
their sovereign; and having placed Edgar at their head, the younger
brother of Edwy, a boy of thirteen years of age, they soon put him in
possession of Mercia, Northumberland, East Anglia; and chased Edwy
into the southern counties.  That it might not be doubtful at whose
instigation this revolt was undertaken, Dunstan returned into England,
and took upon him the government of Edgar and his party.  He was first
installed in the see of Worcester, then in that of London [y], and on
Odo’s death, and the violent expulsion of Brithelm, his successor, in
that of Canterbury [z]; of all which he long kept possession.  Odo is
transmitted to us by the monks under the character of a man of piety;
Dunstan was even canonized: and is one of those numerous saints of the
same stamp who disgrace the Romish calendar.  Meanwhile the unhappy
Edwy was excommunicated [a], and pursued with unrelenting vengeance;
but his death, which happened soon after, freed his enemies from all
further inquietude, and gave Edgar peaceable possession of the
government [b].
[FN [y] Chron. Sax. p. 117.  Flor Wigorn. p. 605.  Wallingford, p. 544
[z] Hoveden p. 425.  Osberne, p. 109.  [a] Brompton, p. 863.  [b] See
note [B] at the end of the volume.]

[MN Edgar.]
This prince, who mounted the throne in such early youth, soon
discovered an excellent capacity in the administration of affairs; and
his reign is one of the most fortunate that we meet with in the
ancient English history.  He showed no aversion to war, he made the
wisest preparations against invaders; and by his vigour and foresight
he was enabled, without any danger of suffering insults, to indulge
his inclination towards peace, and to employ himself in supporting and
improving the internal government of his kingdom.  He maintained a
body of disciplined troops; which he quartered in the north, in order
to keep the mutinous Northumbrians in subjection, and to repel the
inroads of the Scots.  He built and supported a powerful navy [c]; and
that he might retain the seamen in the practice of their duty, and
always present a formidable armament to his enemies, he stationed
three squadrons off the coast, and ordered them to make, from time to
time, the circuit of his dominions [d].  The foreign Danes dared not
to approach a country which appeared in such a posture of defence: the
domestic Danes saw inevitable destruction to be the consequence of
their tumults and insurrections: the neighbouring sovereigns, the King
of Scotland, the Princes of Wales, of the Isle of Man, of the Orkneys,
and even of Ireland [e], were reduced to pay submission to so
formidable a monarch.  He carried his superiority to a great height,
and might have excited an universal combination against him, had not
his power been so well established as to deprive his enemies of all
hope of shaking it.  It is said, that residing once at Chester, and
having purposed to go by water to the abbey of St. John the Baptist,
he obliged eight of his tributary princes to row him in a barge upon
the Dee [f].  The English historians are fond of mentioning the name
of Kenneth III, King of Scots, among the number: the Scottish
historians either deny the fact, or assert that their king, if ever he
acknowledged himself a vassal to Edgar, did him homage not for his
crown, but for the dominions which he held in England.
[FN [c] Higden, p. 265.  [d] See note [C] at the end of the volume.
[e] Spell. Conc. p. 32.  [f] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 8.  Hoveden, p.
406.  H. Hunting. lib. 5. p. 356.]

But the chief means by which Edgar maintained his authority, and
preserved public peace, was the paying of court to Dunstan and the
monks, who had at first placed him on the throne, and who, by their
pretensions to superior sanctity and purity of manners, had acquired
an ascendant over the people.  He favoured their scheme for
dispossessing the secular canons of all the monasteries [g]; he
bestowed preferment on none but their partisans; he allowed Dunstan to
resign the see of Worcester into the hands of Oswald, one of his
creatures [h]; and to place Ethelwold, another of them, in that of
Winchester [i]; he consulted these prelates in the administration of
all ecclesiastical, and even in that of many civil affairs; and though
the vigour of his own genius prevented him from being implicitly
guided by them, the king and the bishops found such advantages in
their mutual agreement, that they always acted in concert, and united
their influence in preserving the peace and tranquillity of the
kingdom.
[FN [g] Chron. Sax. p. 117, 118.  W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 8.  Hoveden,
p. 425, 426  Osberne, p. 112.  [h] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 8.
Hoveden, p. 425.]

In order to complete the great work of placing the new order of monks
in all the convents, Edgar summoned a general council of the prelates
and the heads of the religious orders.  He here inveighed against the
dissolute lives of the secular clergy; the smallness of their tonsure,
which, it is probable, maintained no longer any resemblance to the
crown of thorns; their negligence in attending the exercise of their
function; their mixing with the laity in the pleasures of gaming,
hunting, dancing, and singing; and their openly living with
concubines, by which it is commonly supposed he meant their wives.  He
then turned himself to Dunstan, the primate; and in the name of King
Edred, whom he supposed to look down from heaven with indignation
against all those enormities, he thus addressed him: "It is you,
Dunstan, by whose advice I founded monasteries, built churches, and
expended my treasure in the support of religion and religious houses.
You were my counsellor and assistant in all my schemes: you were the
director of my conscience: to you I was obedient in all things.  When
did you call for supplies which I refused you?  Was my assistance ever
wanting to the poor?  Did I deny support and establishments to the
clergy and the convents?  Did I not hearken to your instructions, who
told me that these charities were, of all others, the most grateful to
my Maker, and fixed a perpetual fund for the support of religion?  And
are all our pious endeavours now frustrated by the dissolute lives of
the priests?  Not that I throw any blame on you; you have reasoned,
besought, inculcated, inveighed; but it now behoves you to use sharper
and more vigorous remedies; and conjoining your spiritual authority
with the civil power, to purge effectually the temple of God from
thieves and intruders [k]."  It is easy to imagine that this harangue
had the desired effect; and that, when the king and prelates thus
concurred with the popular prejudices, it was not long before the
monks prevailed, and established their new discipline in almost all
the convents.
[FN [i] Gervase, p. 1646.  Brompton, p. 864.  Flor. Wigorn. p. 606.
Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p 27, 28.  [k] Abbas Rieval. p. 360,
361.  Spell. Conc. p. 476, 477, 478]

We may remark, that the declamations against the secular clergy are,
both here and in all the historians, conveyed in general terms; and as
that order of men are commonly restrained by the decency of their
character, it is difficult to believe that the complaints against
their dissolute manners could be so universally just as is pretended.
It is more probable that the monks paid court to the populace by an
affected austerity of life; and representing the most innocent
liberties, taken by the other clergy, as great and unpardonable
enormities, thereby prepared the way for the increase of their own
power and influence.  Edgar, however, like a true politician,
concurred with the prevailing party; and he even indulged them in
pretensions, which, though they might, when complied with, engage the
monks to support royal authority during his own reign, proved
afterwards dangerous to his successors, and gave disturbance to the
whole civil power.  He seconded the policy of the court of Rome, in
granting to some monasteries an exemption from episcopal jurisdiction;
he allowed the convents, even those of royal foundation, to usurp the
election of their own abbot: and he admitted their forgeries of
ancient charters, by which, from the pretended grant of former kings,
they assumed many privileges and immunities [l]
[FN [l] Chron. Sax. p. 118.  W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 8.  Seldeni
Spicileg. ad Eadm. p. 149, 157.]

These merits of Edgar have procured him the highest panegyrics from
the monks, and he is transmitted to us, not only under the character
of a consummate statesman and an active prince, praises to which he
seems to have been justly entitled, but under that of a of a great
saint and a man of virtue.  But nothing could more betray both his
hypocrisy in inveighing against the licentiousness of the secular
clergy, and the interested spirit of his partisans, in bestowing such
eulogies on his piety, than the usual tenour of his conduct, which was
licentious to the highest degree, and violated every law, human and
divine.  Yet those very monks who, as we are told by Ingulf, a very
ancient historian, had no idea of any moral or religious merit, except
chastity and obedience, not only connived at his enormities, but
loaded him with the greatest praises.  History, however, has preserved
some instances of his amours, from which, as from a specimen, we may
form a conjecture of the rest.

Edgar broke into a convent, carried off Editha, a nun, by force, and
even committed violence on her person [m].  For this act of sacrilege
he was reprimanded by Dunstan; and that he might reconcile himself to
the church, he was obliged not to separate from his mistress, but to
abstain from wearing his crown during seven years, and to deprive
himself so long of that vain ornament [n]; punishment very unequal to
that which had been inflicted on the unfortunate Edwy, who, for a
marriage which, in the strictest sense, could only deserve the  name
of irregular, was expelled his kingdom, saw his queen treated with
singular barbarity, was loaded with calumnies, and has been
represented to us under the most odious colours.  Such is the
ascendant which may be attained, by hypocrisy and cabal, over mankind.
[FN [m] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 8.  Osberne, p. 3.  Diceto p. 457.
Higden, p. 265, 267, 266.  Spell. Conc. p. 481.  [n] Osberne, p. 111.]

There was another mistress of Edgar, with whom he first formed a
connexion by a kind of accident.  Passing one day by Andover, he
lodged in the house of a nobleman, whose daughter, being endowed with
all the graces of person and behaviour, inflamed him at first sight
with the highest desire; and he resolved by any expedient to gratify
it.  As he had not leisure to employ courtship or address for
attaining his purpose, he went directly to her mother, declared the
violence of his passion, and desired that the young lady might be
allowed to pass that very night with him.  The mother was a woman of
virtue, and determined not to dishonour her daughter and her family by
compliance; but being well acquainted with the impetuosity of the
king’s temper, she thought it would be easier, as well as safer, to
deceive than refuse him.  She feigned therefore a submission to his
will; but secretly ordered a waiting maid, of no disagreeable figure,
to steal into the king’s bed, after all the company should be retired
to rest.  In the morning before daybreak, the damsel, agreeably to the
injunctions of her mistress, offered to retire; but Edgar, who had no
reserve in his pleasures, and whose love to his bedfellow was rather
inflamed by enjoyment, refused his consent, and employed force and
entreaties to detain her.  Elfleda, (for that was the name of the
maid,) trusting to her own charms, and to the love with which, she
hoped, she had now inspired the king, made probably but a faint
resistance; and the return of light discovered the deceit to Edgar.
He had passed a night so much to his satisfaction, that he expressed
no displeasure with the old lady on account of her fraud; his love was
transferred to Elfleda; she became his favourite mistress; and
maintained her ascendant over him till his marriage with Elfrida [o].
[FN [o] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 8.  Higden, p. 268.]

The circumstances of his marriage with this lady were more singular
and more criminal.  Elfrida was daughter and heir of Olgar, Earl of
Devonshire; and though she had been educated in the country, and had
never appeared at court, she had filled all England with the
reputation of her beauty.  Edgar himself, who was indifferent to no
accounts of this nature, found his curiosity excited by the frequent
panegyrics which he heard of Elfrida; and reflecting on her noble
birth, he resolved, if he found her charms answerable to their fame,
to obtain possession of her on honourable terms.  He communicated his
intention to Earl Athelwold, his favourite; but used the precaution,
before he made any advances to her parents, to order that nobleman, on
some pretence, to pay them a visit, and to bring him a certain account
of the beauty of their daughter.  Athelwold, when introduced to the
young lady, found general report to have fallen short of the truth;
and being actuated by the most vehement love, he determined to
sacrifice to this new passion his fidelity to his master, and to the
trust reposed in him.  He returned to Edgar and told him, that the
riches alone, and high quality of Elfrida, had been the ground of the
admiration paid her; and that her charms, far from being anywise
extraordinary, would have been overlooked in a woman of inferior
station.  When he had, by this deceit, diverted the king from his
purpose, he took an opportunity, after some interval, of turning again
the conversation on Elfrida; he remarked, that though the parentage
and fortune of the lady had not produced on him, as on others, any
illusion with regard to her beauty, he could not forbear reflecting,
that she would, on the whole, be an advantageous match for him, and
might, by her birth and riches, make him sufficient compensation for
the homeliness of her person.  If the king, therefore, gave his
approbation, he was determined to make proposals in his own behalf to
the Earl of Devonshire, and doubted not to obtain his, as well as the
young lady’s consent to the marriage.  Edgar, pleased with an
expedient for establishing his favourite’s fortune, not only exhorted
him to execute his purpose, but forwarded his success by his
recommendations to the parents of Elfrida; and Athelwold was soon made
happy in the possession of his mistress.  Dreading, however, the
detection of the artifice, he employed every pretence for detaining
Elfrida in the country, and for keeping her at a distance from Edgar.

The violent passion of Athelwold had rendered him blind to the
necessary consequences which must attend his conduct, and the
advantages which the numerous enemies that always pursue a royal
favourite would, by its means, be able to make against him.  Edgar was
soon informed of the truth; but before he would execute vengeance on
Athelwold’s treachery, he resolved to satisfy himself with his own
eyes of the certainty and full extent of his guilt.  He told him that
he intended to pay him a visit in his castle, and be introduced to the
acquaintance of his new married wife; and Athelwold, as he could not
refuse the honour, only craved leave to go before him a few hours,
that he might the better prepare every thing for his reception.  He
then discovered the whole matter to Elfrida; and begged her, if she
had any regard either to her own honour or his life, to conceal from
Edgar, by every circumstance of dress and behaviour, that fatal
beauty, which had seduced him from fidelity to his friend, and had
betrayed him into so many falsehoods.  Elfrida promised compliance,
though nothing was farther from her intentions.  She deemed herself
little beholden to Athelwold for a passion which had deprived her of a
crown; and knowing the force of her own charms, she did not despair
even yet of reaching that dignity, of which her husband’s artifice had
bereaved her.  She appeared before the king with all the advantages
which the richest attire and the most engaging airs could bestow upon
her, and she excited at once in his bosom the highest love towards
herself, and the most furious desire of revenge against her husband.
He knew, however, how to dissemble these passions; and seducing
Athelwold into a wood, on pretence of hunting, he stabbed him with his
own hand, and soon after publicly espoused Elfrida [p].
[FN [p] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 8.  Hoveden, p. 426.  Brompton, p.
865, 866.  Flor. Wigorn. p. 606.  Higd. p. 268.]

Before we conclude our account of this reign, we must mention two
circumstances which are remarked  by historians.  The reputation of
Edgar allured a great number of foreigners to visit his court; and he
gave them encouragement to settle in England [q].  We are told that
they imported all the vices of their respective countries, and
contributed to corrupt the simple manners of the natives [r].  But as
this simplicity of manners, so highly and often so injudiciously
extolled, did not preserve them from barbarity and treachery, the
greatest of all vices, and the most incident to a rude uncultivated
people, we ought perhaps to deem their acquaintance with foreigners
rather an advantage; as it tended to enlarge their views, and to cure
them of those illiberal prejudices and rustic manners to which
islanders are often subject.
[FN [q] Chron. Sax. p. 116.  H. Hunting. lib 5. p. 356.  Brompton, p.
865.  [r] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 8.]

Another remarkable incident of this reign was the extirpation of
wolves from England.  This advantage was attained by the industrious
policy of Edgar.  He took great pains in hunting and pursuing those
ravenous animals; and when he found that all that escaped him had
taken shelter in the mountains and forests of Wales, he changed the
tribute of money imposed on the Welsh princes by Athelstan, his
predecessor [s], into an annual tribute of three hundred heads of
wolves; which produced such diligence in hunting them, that the animal
has been no more seen in this island.
[FN [s] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 6.  Brompton, p. 838.]

Edgar died after a reign of sixteen years, and in the thirty-third of
his age.  He was succeeded by Edward, whom he had by his first
marriage with the daughter of Earl Ordmer.

[MN Edward the Martyr. 957.]
The succession of this prince, who was only fifteen years of age at
his father’s death, did not take place without much difficulty and
opposition.  Elfrida, his stepmother, had a son, Ethelred, seven years
old, whom she attempted to raise to the throne: she affirmed that
Edgar’s marriage with the mother of Edward was exposed to insuperable
objections; and as she had possessed great credit with her husband,
she had found means to acquire partisans, who seconded all her
pretensions.  But the title of Edward was supported by many
advantages.  He was appointed successor by the will of his father [t]:
he was approaching to man’s estate, and might soon be able to take
into his own hands the reins of government: the principal nobility,
dreading the imperious temper of Elfrida, were averse to her son’s
government, which must enlarge her authority, and probably put her in
possession of the regency: above all, Dunstan, whose character of
sanctity had given him the highest credit with the people, had
espoused the cause of Edward, over whom he had already acquired a
great ascendant [u]; and he was determined to execute the will of
Edgar in his favour.  To cut off all opposite pretensions, Dunstan
resolutely anointed and crowned the young prince at Kingston; and the
whole kingdom, without farther dispute, submitted to him [w].
[FN [t] Hoveden, p. 427.  Eadmer, p. 3.  [u] Eadmer, ex. edit.
Seldeni, p. 3.  [w] W. Malm. lib. 2. cap. 9.  Hoveden, p. 427.
Osberne, p. 113.]

It was of great importance to Dunstan and the monks, to place on the
throne a king favourable to their cause: the secular clergy had still
partisans in England, who wished to support them in the possession of
the convents, and of the ecclesiastical authority.  On the first
intelligence of Edgar’s death, Alfere, Duke of Mercia, expelled the
new orders of monks from all the monasteries which lay within his
jurisdiction [x]; but Elfwin, Duke of East Anglia, and Brithnot, Duke
of the East Saxons, protected them within their territories, and
insisted upon the execution of the late laws enacted in their favour.
In order to settle this controversy, there were summoned several
synods, which, according to the practice of those times, consisted
partly of ecclesiastical members, partly of the lay nobility.  The
monks were able to prevail in these assemblies; though, as it appears,
contrary to the secret wishes, if not the declared inclination, of the
leading men in the nation [y]: they had more invention in forging
miracles to support their cause; or having been so fortunate as to
obtain, by their pretended austerities, the character of piety, their
miracles were more credited by the populace.
[FN [x] Chron. Sax. p. 123.  W. Malmes. lib. 2, cap. 9.  Hoveden, p.
427.  Brompton, p. 870.  Flor. Wigorn. p. 607.  [y] W. Malmes. lib. 2.
cap. 9.]

In one synod, Dunstan, finding the majority of votes against him, rose
up and informed the audience, that he had that instant received an
immediate revelation in  behalf of the monks: the assembly was so
astonished at this intelligence, or probably so overawed by the
populace, that they proceeded no farther in their deliberations.  In
another synod, a voice issued from the crucifix, and informed the
members that the establishment of the monks was founded on the will of
Heaven, and could not be opposed without impiety [z].  But the miracle
performed in the third synod was still more alarming: the floor of the
hall in which the assembly met sunk of a sudden and a great number of
the members were either bruised or killed by the fall.  It was
remarked, that Dunstan had that day prevented the king from attending
the synod, and that the beam, on which his own chair stood, was the
only one that did not sink under the weight of the assembly [a].  But
these circumstances, instead of begetting any suspicion of
contrivance, were regarded as the surest proof of the immediate
interposition of Providence in behalf of those favourites of Heaven.
[FN [z] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 9.  Osberne, p. 112.  Gervase, p.
1647.  Brompton, p. 870.  Higden, p. 269.  [a] Chron. Sax. p. 124.  W.
Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 9.  Hoveden, p. 427.  H. Hunting. lib. 5. p. 357.
Gervase, p. 1647.  Brompton, p. 870.  Flor. Wigorn. p. 607.  Higden,
p. 269.  Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 29.]

Edward lived four years after his accession, and there passed nothing
memorable during his reign.  His death alone was memorable and
tragical [b]: this young prince was endowed with the most amiable
innocence of manners; and as his own intentions were always pure, he
was incapable of entertaining any suspicion against others.  Though
his step-mother had opposed his succession, and had raised a party in
favour of her own son, he always showed her marks of regard, and even
expressed, on all occasions, the most tender affection towards his
brother.  He was hunting one day in Dorsetshire; and being led by the
chase near Corfe-castle, where Elfrida resided, he took the
opportunity of paying her a visit, unattended by any of his retinue,
and he thereby presented her with the opportunity which she had long
wished for.  After he had mounted his horse, he desired some liquor to
be brought him: while he was holding the cup to his head, a servant of
Elfrida approached him, and gave him a stab behind.  The prince,
finding himself wounded, put spurs to his horse; but becoming faint by
loss of blood, he fell from the saddle, his foot stuck in the stirrup,
and he was dragged along by his unruly horse till he expired.  Being
tracked by the blood, his body was found, and was privately interred
at Wareham by his servants.
[FN [b] Chron. Sax. p. 124.]

The youth and innocence of this prince, with his tragical death, begat
such compassion among the people, that they believed miracles to be
wrought at his tomb; and they give him the appellation of Martyr,
though his murder had no connexion with any religious principle or
opinion.  Elfrida built monasteries, and performed many penances, in
order to atone for her guilt; but could never, by all her hypocrisy or
remorses, recover the good opinion of the public, though so easily
deluded in those ignorant ages.




CHAPTER III.

ETHELRED.--SETTLEMENT OF THE NORMANS.--EDMUND IRONSIDE.—CANUTE.--
HAROLD HAREFOOT.--HARDICANUTE.--EDWARD THE CONFESSOR.--HAROLD.



[MN Ethelred. 978.]
The freedom which England had so long enjoyed from the depredations of
the Danes seems to have proceeded, partly from the establishments
which that piratical nation had obtained in the north of France, and
which employed all their superfluous hands to people and maintain
them; partly from the vigour and warlike spirit of a long race of
English princes, who preserved the kingdom in a posture of defence by
sea and land, and either prevented or repelled every attempt of the
invaders.  But a new generation of men being now sprung up in the
northern regions who could no longer disburthen themselves on
Normandy; the English had reason to dread that the Danes would again
visit an island to which they were invited, both by the memory of
their past successes, and by the expectation of assistance from their
countrymen, who, though long established in the kingdom, were not yet
thoroughly incorporated with the natives, nor had entirely forgotten
their inveterate habits of war and depredation.  And as the reigning
prince was a minor, and even when he attained to man’s estate never
discovered either courage or capacity sufficient to govern his own
subjects, much less to repel a formidable enemy, the people might
justly apprehend the worst calamities from so dangerous a crisis.

The Danes, before they durst attempt any important enterprise against
England, made an inconsiderable descent by way of trial; and having
landed from seven vessels near Southampton, they ravaged the country,
enriched themselves by spoil, and departed with impunity.  Six years
after, they made a like attempt in the west, and met with like
success.  The invaders having now found affairs in a very different
situation from that in which they formerly appeared, encouraged their
countrymen to assemble a greater force, and to hope for more
considerable advantages.  [MN 991.]  They landed in Essex, under the
command of two leaders; and having defeated and slain at Maldon,
Brithnot, duke of that county, who ventured, with a small body, to
attack them, they spread their devastations over all the neighbouring
provinces.  In this extremity, Ethelred, to whom historians give the
epithet of the UNREADY, instead of rousing his people to defend with
courage their honour and their property, hearkened to the advice of
Siricius, Archbishop of Canterbury, which was seconded by many of the
degenerate nobility; and paying the enemy the sum of ten thousand
pounds, he bribed them to depart the kingdom.  This shameful expedient
was attended with the success which might be expected.  The Danes next
year appeared off the eastern coast, in hopes of subduing a people who
defended themselves by their money, which invited assailants, instead
of their arms, which repelled them.  But the English, sensible of
their folly, had, in the interval, assembled in a great council, and
had determined to collect at London a fleet able to give battle to the
enemy [a]; though that judicious measure failed of success, from the
treachery of Alfric, Duke of Mercia, whose name is infamous in the
annals of that age, by the calamities which his repeated perfidy
brought upon his country.  This nobleman had, in 983, succeeded to his
father Alfere in that extensive command; but being deprived of it two
years after, and banished the kingdom, he was obliged to employ all
his intrigue, and all his power, which was too great for a subject, to
be restored to his country, and reinstated in his authority.  Having
had experience of the credit and malevolence of his enemies, he
thenceforth trusted for security, not to his services, or to the
affections of his fellow-citizens, but to the influence which he had
obtained over his vassals, and to the public calamities, which he
thought must, in every revolution, render his assistance necessary.
Having fixed this resolution, he determined to prevent all such
successes as might establish the royal authority, or render his own
situation dependent or precarious.  As the English had formed the plan
of surrounding and destroying the Danish fleet in harbour, he
privately informed the enemy of their danger; and when they put to
sea, in consequence of this intelligence, he deserted to them, with
the squadron under his command, the night before the engagement, and
thereby disappointed all the efforts of his countrymen [b].  Ethelred,
enraged at his perfidy, seized his son Alfgar, and ordered his eyes to
be put out [c].  But such was the power of Alfric, that he again
forced himself into authority; and though he had given this specimen
of his character, and received this grievous provocation, it was found
necessary to intrust him anew with the government of Mercia.  This
conduct of the court, which in all its circumstances is so barbarous,
weak, and imprudent, both merited and prognosticated the most grievous
calamities.
[FN [a] Chron. Sax. p. 126.  [b] Chron.. Sax. p. 127.  W. Malm. p. 62.
Higden, p. 270.  [c] Chron. Sax. p.128.  W. Malm. p. 62.]

[MN 993.]  The northern invaders, now well acquainted with the
defenceless condition of England, made a powerful descent under the
command of Sweyn, King of Denmark, and Olave, King of Norway; and
sailing up the Humber, spread on all sides their destructive ravages.
Lindesey was laid waste; Banbury was destroyed; and all the
Northumbrians, though mostly of Danish descent, were constrained
either to join the invaders, or to suffer under their depredations.  A
powerful army was assembled to oppose the Danes, and a general action
ensued; but the English were deserted in the battle, from the
cowardice or treachery of their three leaders, all of them men of
Danish race, Frena, Frithegist, and Godwin, who gave the example of a
shameful flight to the troops under their command.

Encouraged by this success, and still more by the contempt which it
inspired for their enemy, the pirates ventured to attack the centre of
the kingdom; and entering the Thames in ninety-four vessels, laid
siege to London, and threatened it with total destruction.  But the
citizens, alarmed at the danger, and firmly united among themselves,
made a bolder defence than the cowardice of the nobility and gentry
gave the invaders reason to apprehend; and the besiegers, after
suffering the greatest hardships, were finally frustrated in their
attempt.  In order to revenge themselves, they laid waste Essex,
Sussex, and Hampshire; and having there procured horses, they were
thereby enabled to spread through the more inland counties the fury of
their depredations.  In this extremity, Ethelred and his nobles had
recourse to the former expedient; and sending ambassadors to the two
northern kings, they promised them subsistence and tribute, on
condition they would, for the present, put an end to their ravages,
and soon after depart the kingdom.  Sweyn and Olave agreed to the
terms, and peaceably took up their quarters at Southampton, where the
sum of sixteen thousand pounds was paid to them.  Olave even made a
journey to Andover, where Ethelred resided, and he received the rite
of confirmation from the English bishops, as well as many rich
presents from the king.  He here promised that he would never more
infest the English territories; and he faithfully fulfilled the
engagement.  This prince receives the appellation of St. Olave from
the church of Rome; and notwithstanding the general presumption which
lies either against the understanding or morals of every one who in
those ignorant ages was dignified with that title, he seems to have
been a man of merit and of virtue.  Sweyn, though less scrupulous than
Olave, was constrained, upon the departure of the Norwegian prince, to
evacuate also the kingdom with all his followers.

[MN 996.]  This composition brought only a short interval to the
miseries of the English.  The Danish pirates appeared soon after in
the Severn; and having committed spoil in Wales, as well as in
Cornwall and Devonshire, they sailed round to the south coast, and
entering the Tamar, completed the devastation of these two counties.
They then returned to the Bristol Channel; and penetrating into the
country by the Avon, spread themselves over all that neighbourhood,
and carried fire and sword even into Dorsetshire.  [MN 998.]  They
next changed the seat of war; and after ravaging the Isle of Wight,
they entered the Thames and Medway, and laid siege to Rochester, where
they defeated the Kentish men in a pitched battle.  After this
victory, the whole province of Kent was made a scene of slaughter,
fire, and devastation.  The extremity of these miseries forced the
English into councils for common defence both by sea and land; but the
weakness of the king, the divisions among the nobility, the treachery
of some, the cowardice of others, the want of concert in all,
frustrated every endeavour; their fleets and armies either came too
late to attack the enemy, or were repulsed with dishonour; and the
people were thus equally ruined by resistance or by submission.  The
English, therefore, destitute both of prudence and unanimity in
council, of courage and conduct in the field, had recourse to the same
weak expedient which by experience they had already found so
ineffectual: they offered the Danes to buy peace, by paying them a
large sum of money.  These ravagers rose continually in their demands;
and now required the payment of twenty-four thousand pounds, to which
the English were so mean and imprudent as to submit [d].  The
departure of the Danes procured them another short interval of repose,
which they enjoyed as if it were to be perpetual, without making any
effectual preparations for a more vigorous resistance upon the next
return of the enemy.
[FN [d] Hoveden, p. 429.  Chron. Mailr. p. 150.]

Besides receiving this sum, the Danes were engaged by another motive
to depart a kingdom which appeared so little in a situation to resist
their efforts: they were invited over by their countrymen in Normandy,
who at this time were hard pressed by the arms of Robert, King of
France, and who found it difficult to defend the settlement, which,
with so much advantage to themselves and glory to their nation, they
had made in that country.  It is probable, also, that Ethelred,
observing the close connexions thus maintained among all the Danes,
however divided in government or situation, was desirous of forming an
alliance with that formidable people: for this purpose, being now a
widower, he made his addresses to Emma, sister to Richard II., Duke of
Normandy, and he soon succeeded in his negotiation.  [MN 1001.]  The
princess came over this year to England, and was married to Ethelred
[e].
[FN [e] H. Hunt. p. 359.  Higden, p. 271.]

[MN Settlement of the Normans.]
In the end of the ninth and beginning of the tenth century, when the
north, not yet exhausted by that multitude of people, or rather
nations, which she had successively emitted, sent forth a new race,
not of conquerors, as before, but of pirates and ravagers, who
infested the countries possessed by her once warlike sons, lived
Rollo, a petty prince or chieftain of Denmark, whose valour and
abilities soon engaged the attention of his countrymen.  He was
exposed in his youth to the jealousy of the King of Denmark, who
attacked his small but independent principality; and who, being foiled
in every assault, had recourse at last to perfidy for effecting his
purpose, which he had often attempted in vain by force of arms [f]: he
lulled Rollo into security by an insidious peace; and falling suddenly
upon him, murdered his brother and his bravest officers, and forced
him to fly for safety into Scandinavia.  Here many of his ancient
subjects, induced partly by affection to their prince, partly by the
oppressions of the Danish monarch, ranged themselves under his
standard, and offered to follow him in every enterprise.  Rollo,
instead of attempting to recover his paternal dominions, where he must
expect a vigorous resistance from the Danes, determined to pursue an
easier, but more important undertaking, and to make his fortune, in
imitation of his countrymen, by pillaging the richer and more southern
coasts of Europe.  He collected a body of troops, which, like that of
all those ravagers, was composed of Norwegians, Swedes, Frisians,
Danes, and adventurers of all nations, who, being accustomed to a
roving unsettled life, took delight in nothing but war and plunder.
His reputation brought him associates from all quarters; and a vision,
which he pretended to have appeared to him in his sleep, and which,
according to his interpretation of it, prognosticated the greatest
successes, proved also a powerful incentive with those ignorant and
superstitious people [g].
[FN [f] Dudo, ex edit. Duchesne, p. 70, 71.  Gul. Gemeticencis, lib.
2. cap. 2, 3.  [g] Dudo, p.71.  Gul. Gem. in Epist. ad Gul. Conq.]

The first attempt made by Rollo was on England, near the end of
Alfred's reign; when that great monarch, having settled Gothrum and
his followers in East Anglia, and others of those freebooters in
Northumberland, and having restored peace to his harassed country, had
established the most excellent military as well as civil institutions
among the English.  The prudent Dane, finding that no advantages could
be gained over such a people, governed by such a prince, soon turned
his enterprises against France, which he found more exposed to his
inroads [h]; and during the reigns of Eudes, an usurper, and of
Charles the Simple, a weak prince, he committed the most destructive
ravages both on the inland and maritime provinces of that kingdom.
The French, having no means of defence against a leader who united all
the valour of his countrymen with the policy of more civilized
nations, were obliged to submit to the expedient practised by Alfred,
and to offer the invaders a settlement in some of those provinces
which they had depopulated by their
arms [i].
[FN [h] Gul. Gemet. lib. 2. cap. 6.  [i] Dudo, p. 82.]

The reason why the Danes for many years pursued measures so different
from those which had been embraced by the Goths, Vandals, Franks,
Burgundians, Lombards, and other northern conquerors, was the great
difference in the method of attack which was practised by these
several nations, and to which the nature of their respective
situations necessarily confined them.  The latter tribes, living in an
inland country, made incursions by land upon the Roman empire; and
when they entered far into the frontiers, they were obliged to carry
along with them their wives and families, whom they had no hopes of
soon revisiting, and who could not otherwise participate of their
plunder.  This circumstance quickly made them think of forcing a
settlement in the provinces which they had overrun; and these
barbarians, spreading themselves over the country, found an interest
in protecting the property and industry of the people whom they had
subdued.  But the Danes and Norwegians, invited by their maritime
situation, and obliged to maintain themselves in their uncultivated
country by fishing, had acquired some experience of navigation, and in
their military excursions pursued the method practised against the
Roman empire by the more early Saxons: they made descents in small
bodies from their ships, or rather boats, and ravaging the coasts,
returned with their booty to their families, whom they could not
conveniently carry along with them in those hazardous enterprises.
But when they increased their armaments, made incursions into the
inland countries, and found it safe to remain longer in the midst of
the enfeebled enemy, they had been accustomed to crowd their vessels
with their wives and children; and having no longer any temptation to
return to their own country, they willingly embraced an opportunity of
settling in the warm climates and cultivated fields of the south.

Affairs were in this situation with Rollo and his followers, when
Charles proposed to relinquish to them part of the province formerly
called Neustria, and to purchase peace on these hard conditions.
After all the terms were fully settled, there appeared only one
circumstance shocking to the haughty Dane: he was required to do
homage to Charles for this province, and to put himself in that
humiliating posture imposed on vassals by the rites of the feudal law.
He long refused to submit to this indignity; but being unwilling to
lose such important advantages for a mere ceremony, he made a
sacrifice of his pride to his interest, and acknowledged himself, in
form, the vassal of the French monarch [k].  Charles gave him his
daughter, Gisla, in marriage; and that he might bind him faster to his
interests, made him a donation of a considerable territory, besides
that which he was obliged to surrender to him by his stipulations.
When some of the French nobles informed him, that in return for so
generous a present it was expected that he should throw himself at the
king's feet and make suitable acknowledgments for his bounty, Rollo
replied, that he would rather decline the present; and it was with
some difficulty they could persuade him to make that compliment by one
of his captains.  The Dane commissioned for this purpose, full of
indignation at the order, and despising so unwarlike a prince, caught
Charles by the foot, and pretending to carry it to his mouth, that he
might kiss it, overthrew him before all his courtiers.  The French,
sensible of their present weakness, found it prudent to overlook this
insult [l].
[FN [k] Ypod. Neust. p. 417.  [1] Gul Gemet. lib. 2. cap. 17.]

Rollo, who was now in the decline of life, and was tired of wars and
depredations, applied himself, with mature counsels, to the settlement
of his newly-acquired territory, which was thenceforth called
Normandy; and he parcelled it out among his captains and followers.
He followed, in this partition, the customs of the feudal law, which
was then universally established in the southern countries of Europe,
and which suited the peculiar circumstances of that age.  He treated
the French subjects, who submitted to him, with mildness and justice;
he reclaimed his ancient followers from their ferocious violence; he
established law and order throughout his state; and after a life spent
in tumult and ravages, he died peaceably in a good old age, and left
his dominions to his posterity [m].
[FN [m] Ibid. cap. 19, 20, 21.]

William I. who succeeded him, governed the duchy twenty-five years;
and, during that time, the Normans were thoroughly intermingled with
the French, had acquired their language, had imitated their manners,
and had made such progress towards cultivation, that on the death of
William, his son Richard, though a minor [n], inherited his dominions:
a sure proof that the Normans were already somewhat advanced in
civility, and that their government could now rest secure on its laws
and civil institutions, and was not wholly sustained by the abilities
of the sovereign.  Richard, after a long reign of fifty-four years,
was succeeded by his son of the same name in the year 996 [o]; which
was eighty-five years after the first establishment of the Normans in
France.  This was the duke who gave his sister Emma in marriage to
Ethelred, King of England, and who thereby formed connexions with a
country which his posterity was so soon after destined to subdue.
[FN [n] Order. Vitalis, p. 459.  Gul. Gemet. lib. 4. cap. 1.  [o]
Order. Vitalis, p. 459.]

The Danes had been established during a longer period in England than
in France; and though the similarity of their original language to
that of the Saxons invited them to a more early coalition with the
natives, they had hitherto found so little example of civilized
manners among the English, that they retained all their ancient
ferocity, and valued themselves only on their national character of
military bravery.  The recent as well as more ancient achievements of
their countrymen tended to support this idea; and the English princes,
particularly Athelstan and Edgar, sensible of that superiority, had
been accustomed to keep in pay bodies of Danish troops, who were
quartered about the country, and committed many violences upon the
inhabitants.  These mercenaries had attained to such a height of
luxury, according to the old English writers [p], that they combed
their hair once a day, bathed themselves once a week, changed their
clothes frequently; and by all these arts of effeminacy, as well as by
their military character, had rendered themselves so agreeable to the
fair sex, that they debauched the wives and daughters of the English,
and dishonoured many families.  But what most provoked the
inhabitants, was, that instead of defending them against invaders,
they were ever ready to betray them to the foreign Danes, and to
associate themselves with all straggling parties of that nation.  The
animosity between the inhabitants of English and Danish race had from
these repeated injuries risen to a great height; when Ethelred, from a
policy incident to weak princes, embraced the cruel resolution of
massacring the latter throughout all his dominions [q].  [MN 1002.]
Secret orders were despatched to commence the execution everywhere on
the same day; and the festival of St. Brice [MN Nov. 13.], which fell
on a Sunday, the day on which the Danes usually bathed themselves, was
chosen for that purpose.  It is needless to repeat the accounts
transmitted concerning the barbarity of this massacre: the rage of the
populace, excited by so many injuries, sanctioned by authority, and
stimulated by example, distinguished not between innocence and guilt,
spared neither sex nor age, and was not satiated without the tortures
as well as death of the unhappy victims.  Even Gunilda, sister to the
King of Denmark, who had married Earl Paling, and had embraced
Christianity, was, by the advice of Edric, Earl of Wilts, seized and
condemned to death by Ethelred, after seeing her husband and children
butchered before her face.  This unhappy princess foretold, in the
agonies of despair, that her murder would soon be avenged by the total
ruin of the English nation.
[FN [p] Wallingford, p. 547.  [q] See note [D] at the end of the
volume.]

[MN 1003.]
Never was prophecy better fulfilled; and never did barbarous policy
prove more fatal to the authors.  Sweyn and his Danes, who wanted but
a pretence for invading the English, appeared off the western coast,
and threatened to take full revenge for the slaughter of their
countrymen.  Exeter fell first into their hands, from the negligence
or treachery of Earl Hugh, a Norman, who had been made governor by the
interest of Queen Emma.  They began to spread their devastations over
the country; when the English, sensible what outrages they must now
expect from their barbarous and offended enemy, assembled more early,
and in greater numbers than usual, and made an appearance of vigorous
resistance.  But all these preparations were frustrated by the
treachery of Duke Alfric, who was intrusted with the command, and who,
feigning sickness, refused to lead the army against the Danes, till it
was dispirited, and at last dissipated, by his fatal misconduct.
Alfric soon after died; and Edric, a greater traitor than he, who had
married the king's daughter, and had acquired a total ascendant over
him, succeeded Alfric in the government of Mercia, and in the command
of the English armies.  A great famine, proceeding partly from the bad
seasons, partly from the decay of agriculture, added to all the other
miseries of the inhabitants.  The country, wasted by the Danes,
harassed by the fruitless expeditions of its own forces, was reduced
to the utmost desolation; and at last [MN 1007.] submitted to the
infamy of purchasing a precarious peace from the enemy, by the payment
of thirty thousand pounds.

The English endeavoured to employ this interval in making preparations
against the return of the Danes, which they had reason soon to expect.
A law was made, ordering the proprietors of eight hides of land to
provide each a horseman and a complete suit of armour; and those of
three hundred and ten hides to equip a ship for the defence of the
coast.  When this navy was assembled, which must have consisted of
near eight  hundred vessels [r], all hopes of its success were
disappointed by the factions, animosities, and dissensions of the
nobility  Edric had impelled his brother Brightric to prefer an
accusation of treason against Wolfnoth, Governor of Sussex, the father
of the famous Earl Godwin; and that nobleman, well acquainted with the
malevolence, as well as power of his enemy, found no means of safety
but in deserting with twenty ships to the Danes.  Brightric pursued
him with a fleet of eighty sail; but his ships being shattered in a
tempest, and stranded on the coast, he was suddenly attacked by
Wolfnoth, and all his vessels were burnt or destroyed.  The imbecility
of the king was little capable of repairing this misfortune: the
treachery of Edric frustrated every plan for future defence; and the
English navy, disconcerted, discouraged, and divided, was at last
scattered into its several harbours.
[FN [r] There were 243,600 hides in England.  Consequently the ships
equipped must be 785.  The cavalry was 30,450 men.]

It is almost impossible, or would be tedious, to relate particularly
all the miseries to which the English were thenceforth exposed.  We
hear of nothing but the sacking and burning of towns; the devastation
of the open country; the appearance of the enemy in every quarter of
the kingdom; their cruel diligence in discovering any corner which had
not been ransacked by their former violence.  The broken and
disjointed narration of the ancient historians is here well adapted to
the nature of the war, which was conducted by such sudden inroads as
would have been dangerous even to an united and well-governed kingdom,
but proved fatal, where nothing but a general consternation and mutual
diffidence and dissension prevailed.  The governors of one province
refused to march to the assistance of another, and were at last
terrified from assembling their forces for the defence of their own
province.  General councils were summoned; but either no resolution
was taken, or none was carried into execution.  And the only expedient
in which the English agreed, was the base and imprudent one of buying
a new peace from the Danes, by the payment of forty-eight thousand
pounds.

[MN 1011.]  This measure did not bring them even that short interval
of repose which they had expected from it.  The Danes, disregarding
all engagements, continued their devastations and hostilities; levied
a new contribution of eight thousand pounds upon the county of Kent
alone; murdered the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had refused to
countenance this exaction; and the English nobility found no other
resource than that of submitting every where to the Danish monarch,
swearing allegiance to him [MN 1013.], and delivering him hostages for
their fidelity.  Ethelred, equally afraid of the violence of the enemy
and the treachery of his own subjects, fled into Normandy, whither he
had sent before him Queen Emma and her two sons, Alfred and Edward.
Richard received his unhappy guests with a generosity that does honour
to his memory.

[MN 1014.]  The king had not been above six weeks in Normandy when he
heard of the death of Sweyn, who expired at Gainsborough, before he
had time to establish himself in his newly acquired dominions.  The
English prelates and nobility, taking advantage of this event, sent
over a deputation to Normandy, inviting Ethelred to return to them,
expressing a desire of being again governed by their native prince,
and intimating their hopes, that being now tutored by experience, he
would avoid all those errors which had been attended with such
misfortunes to himself and to his people.  But the misconduct of
Ethelred was incurable; and on his resuming the government, he
discovered the same incapacity, indolence, cowardice, and credulity,
which had so often exposed him to the insults of his enemies.  His
son-in-law, Edric, notwithstanding his repeated treasons, retained
such influence at court as to instil into the king jealousies of
Sigefert and Morcar, two of the chief nobles of Mercia: Edric allured
them into his house, where he murdered them; while Ethelred
participated in the infamy of the action, by confiscating their
estates and thrusting into a convent the widow of Sigefert.  She was a
woman of singular beauty and merit; and in a visit which was paid her,
during her confinement, by Prince Edmond, the king’s eldest son, she
inspired him  with so violent an affection, that he released her from
the convent, and soon after married her, without the consent of his
father.

Meanwhile the English found in Canute, the son and successor of Sweyn,
an enemy no less terrible than the prince from whom death had so
lately delivered them.  He ravaged the eastern coast with merciless
fury, and put ashore all the English hostages at Sandwich, after
having cut off their hands and noses.  He was obliged, by the
necessity of his affairs, to make a voyage to Denmark; but returning
soon after, he continued his depredations along the southern coast: he
even broke into the counties of Dorset, Wilts, and Somerset; where an
army was assembled against him, under the command of Prince Edmond and
Duke Edric.  The latter still continued his perfidious machinations;
and after endeavouring in vain to get the prince into his power, he
found means to disperse the army; and he then openly deserted to
Canute with forty vessels. [MN 1015.]

Notwithstanding this misfortune, Edmond was not disconcerted; but,
assembling all the force of England, was in a condition to give battle
to the enemy.  The king had had such frequent experience of perfidy
among his subjects, that he had lost all confidence in them: he
remained at London, pretending sickness, but really from apprehensions
that they intended to buy their peace, by delivering him into the
hands of his enemies.  The army called aloud for their sovereign to
march at their head against the Danes; and, on his refusal to take the
field, they were so discouraged, that those vast preparations became
ineffectual for the defence of the kingdom.  Edmond, deprived of all
regular supplies to maintain his soldiers, was obliged to commit equal
ravages with those which were practised by the Danes; and after making
some fruitless expeditions into the north, which had submitted
entirely to Canute’s power, he retired to London, determined there to
maintain, to the last extremity, the small remains of English liberty.
[MN 1016.]  He here found every thing in confusion by the death of the
king, who expired after an unhappy and inglorious reign of thirty-five
years.  He left two sons by his first marriage, Edmond, who succeeded
him, and Edwy, whom Canute afterwards murdered.  His two sons by the
second marriage, Alfred and Edward, were immediately, upon Ethelred’s
death, conveyed into Normandy by Queen Emma.

[MN Edmond Ironside.]
This prince, who received the name of Ironside from his hardy valour,
possessed courage and abilities sufficient to have prevented his
country from sinking into those calamities, but not to raise it from
that abyss of misery into which it had already fallen.  Among the
other misfortunes of the English, treachery and disaffection had crept
in among the nobility and prelates; and Edmond found no better
expedient for stopping the farther progress of these fatal evils, than
to lead his army instantly into the field, and to employ them against
the common enemy.  After meeting with some success at Gillingham, he
prepared himself to decide, in one general engagement, the fate of his
crown; and at Scoerston, in the county of Gloucester, he offered
battle to the enemy, who were commanded by Canute and Edric.  Fortune,
in the beginning of the day, declared for him; but Edric, having cut
off the head of one Osmer, whose countenance resembled that of Edmond,
fixed it on a spear, carried it through the ranks in triumph, and
called aloud to the English, that it was time to fly; for, behold! the
head of their sovereign.  And though Edmond, observing the
consternation of the troops, took off his helmet and showed himself to
them, the utmost he could gain by his activity and valour was to leave
the victory undecided.  Edric now took a surer method to ruin him, by
pretending to desert to him, and as Edmond was well acquainted with
his power, and probably knew no other of the chief nobility in whom he
could repose more confidence, he was obliged, notwithstanding the
repeated perfidy of the man, to give him a considerable command in the
army.  A battle soon after ensued at Assington in Essex, where Edric,
flying in the beginning of the day, occasioned the total defeat of the
English, followed by a great slaughter of the nobility.  The
indefatigable Edmond, however, had still resources; assembling a new
army at Gloucester, he was again in a condition to dispute the field;
when the Danish and English nobility, equally harassed  with those
convulsions, obliged their kings to come to a compromise, and to
divide the kingdom between them by treaty.  Canute reserved to himself
the northern division, consisting of Mercia, East Anglia, and
Northumberland, which he had entirely subdued; the southern parts were
left to Edmond.  This prince survived the treaty about a month.  He
was murdered at Oxford by two of his chamberlains, accomplices of
Edric, who thereby made way for the succession of Canute the Dane to
the crown of England.

[MN Canute 1017.]
The English, who had been unable to defend their country, and maintain
their independency, under so active and brave a prince as Edmond,
could, after his death, expect nothing but total subjection from
Canute, who, active and brave himself, and at the head of a great
force, was ready to take advantage of the minority of Edwin and
Edward, the two sons of Edmond.  Yet this conqueror, who was commonly
so little scrupulous, showed himself anxious to cover his injustice
under plausible pretences; before he seized the dominions of the
English princes, he summoned a general assembly of the states, in
order to fix the succession of the kingdom.  He here suborned some
nobles to depose that, in the treaty of Gloucester, it had been
verbally agreed either to name Canute, in case of Edmond’s death,
successor to his dominions, or tutor to his children (for historians
vary in this particular); and that evidence, supported by the great
power of Canute, determined the states immediately to put the Danish
monarch in possession of the government.  Canute, jealous of the two
princes, but sensible that he should render himself extremely odious
if he ordered them to be despatched in England, sent them abroad to
his ally, the King of Sweden, whom he desired, as soon as they arrived
at his court, to free him by their death from all farther anxiety.
The Swedish monarch was too generous to comply with the request, but
being afraid of drawing on himself a quarrel with Canute, by
protecting the young princes, he sent them to Solomon, King of
Hungary, to be educated in his court.  The elder, Edwin, was
afterwards married to the sister of the King of Hungary, but the
English prince dying without issue, Solomon gave his sister-in-law,
Agatha, daughter of the Emperor Henry II., in marriage to Edward, the
younger brother; and she bore him Edgar Atheling, Margaret, afterwards
queen of Scotland, and Christiana, who retired into a convent.

Canute, though he had reached the great point of his ambition, in
obtaining possession of the English crown, was obliged at first to
make great sacrifices to it; and to gratify the chief of the nobility,
by bestowing on them the most extensive governments and jurisdictions.
He created Thurkill Earl or Duke of East Anglia, (for these titles
were then nearly of the same import,) Yric of Northumberland, and
Edric of Mercia, reserving only to himself the administration of
Wessex.  But seizing afterwards a favourable opportunity, he expelled
Thurkill and Yric from their governments, and banished them the
kingdom; he put to death many of the English nobility, on whose
fidelity he could not rely, and whom he hated on account of their
disloyalty to their native prince.  And even the traitor Edric, having
had the assurance to reproach him with his services, was condemned to
be executed, and his body to be thrown into the Thames; a suitable
reward for his multiplied acts of perfidy and rebellion.

Canute also found himself obliged, in the beginning of his reign, to
load the people with heavy taxes, in order to reward his Danish
followers: he exacted from them at one time the sum of seventy-two
thousand pounds; besides eleven thousand pounds, which he levied on
London alone.  He was probably willing, from political motives, to
mulct severely that city, on account of the affection which it had
borne to Edmond, and the resistance which it had made to the Danish
power in two obstinate sieges [s].  But these rigours were imputed to
necessity; and Canute, like a wise prince, was determined that the
English, now deprived of all their dangerous leaders, should be
reconciled to the Danish yoke by the justice and impartiality of his
administration.  He sent back to Denmark as many of his followers as
he could safely spare; he restored the Saxon customs in a general
assembly of the states; he made no distinction between Danes and
English in the distribution of justice; and he took care, by a strict
execution of law, to protect the lives and properties of all his
people.  The Danes were gradually incorporated with his new subjects;
and both were glad to obtain a little respite from those multiplied
calamities from which the one, no less than the other, had, in their
fierce contest for power, experienced such fatal consequences.
[FN [s] W. Malm. p. 72.  In one of these sieges, Canute diverted the
course of the Thames, and by that means brought his ships above London
bridge.]

The removal of Edmond’s children into so distant a country as Hungary,
was, next to their death, regarded by Canute as the greatest security
to his government: he had no farther anxiety, except with regard to
Alfred and Edward, who were protected and supported by their uncle,
Richard Duke of Normandy.  Richard even fitted out a great armament,
in order to restore the English princes to the throne of their
ancestors; and, though the navy was dispersed by a storm, Canute saw
the danger to which he was exposed from the enmity of so warlike a
people as the Normans.  In order to acquire the friendship of the
duke, he paid his addresses to Queen Emma, sister of that prince; and
promised that he would leave the children whom he should have by that
marriage in possession of the crown of England.  Richard complied with
his demand, and sent over Emma to England, where she was soon after
married to Canute [t].  The English, though they disapproved of her
espousing the mortal enemy of her former husband and his family, were
pleased to find at court a sovereign to whom they were accustomed, and
who had already formed connexions with them; and thus Canute, besides
securing by this marriage the alliance of Normandy, gradually
acquired, by the same means, the confidence of his own subjects [u].
The Norman prince did not long survive the marriage of Emma; and he
left the inheritance of the duchy to his eldest son of the same name;
who dying a year after him without children, was succeeded by his
brother Robert, a man of valour and abilities.
[FN [t] Chron Sax. p. 151.  W. Malmes. p. 73.  [u] W. Malmes. p. 73.
Higden, p. 275.]

Canute, having settled his power in England beyond all danger of a
revolution, made a voyage to Denmark, in order to resist the attacks
of the King of Sweden; and he carried along with him a great body of
the English, under the command of Earl Godwin.  This nobleman had here
an opportunity of performing a service by which he both reconciled the
king’s mind to the English nation, and, gaining to himself the
friendship of his sovereign, laid the foundation of that immense
fortune which he acquired to his family.  He was stationed next the
Swedish camp, and observing a favourable opportunity which he was
obliged suddenly to seize, he attacked the enemy in the night, drove
them from their trenches, threw them into disorder, pursued his
advantage, and obtained a decisive victory over them.  Next morning,
Canute seeing the English camp entirely abandoned, imagined that those
disaffected troops had deserted to the enemy: he was agreeably
surprised to find that they were at that time engaged in pursuit of
the discomfited Swedes.  He was so pleased with this success, and with
the manner of obtaining it, that he bestowed his daughter in marriage
upon Godwin, and treated him ever after with entire confidence and
regard.

[MN 1028.]  In another voyage, which he made afterwards to Denmark,
Canute attacked Norway, and expelling the just but unwarlike Olaus,
kept possession of his kingdom till the death of that prince.  He had
now, by his conquests and valour, attained the utmost height of
grandeur; having leisure from wars and intrigues, he felt the
unsatisfactory nature of all human enjoyments; and, equally weary of
the glories and turmoils of this life, he began to cast his view
towards that future existence, which it is so natural for the human
mind, whether satiated by prosperity, or disgusted with adversity, to
make the object of its attention.  Unfortunately, the spirit which
prevailed in that age gave a wrong direction to his devotion; instead
of making compensation to those whom he had injured by his former acts
of violence, he employed himself entirely in those exercises of piety
which the monks represented as the most meritorious.  He built
churches, he endowed monasteries, he enriched the ecclesiastics, and
he bestowed revenues for the support of chantries at Assington and
other places, where he appointed prayers to be said for the souls of
those who had there fallen in battle against him.  He even undertook a
pilgrimage to Rome, where he resided a considerable time; besides
obtaining from the pope some privileges for the English school erected
there, he engaged all the princes through whose dominions he was
obliged to pass to desist from those heavy impositions and tolls which
they were accustomed to exact from the English pilgrims.  By this
spirit of devotion, no less than by his equitable and politic
administration, he gained, in a good measure, the affections of his
subjects.

Canute, the greatest and most powerful monarch of his time, sovereign
of Denmark and Norway, as well as of England, could not fail of
meeting with adulation from his courtiers; a tribute which is
liberally paid even to the meanest and weakest princes.  Some of his
flatterers, breaking out one day in admiration of his grandeur,
exclaimed, that every thing was possible for him; upon which the
monarch, it is said, ordered his chair to be set on the sea-shore,
while the tide was rising; and as the waters approached he commanded
them to retire, and to obey the voice of him who was lord of the
ocean.  He feigned to sit some time in expectation of their
submission; but when the sea still advanced towards him, and began to
wash him with its billows, he turned to his courtiers, and remarked to
them, that every creature in the universe was feeble and impotent, and
that power resided with one Being alone, in whose hands were all the
elements of nature, who could say to the ocean, THUS FAR SHALT THOU
GO, AND NO FARTHER; and who could level with his nod the most towering
piles of human pride and ambition.

[MN 1031.]  The only memorable action which Canute performed after his
return from Rome was an expedition against Malcolm, King of Scotland.
During the reign of Ethelred, a tax of a shilling a hide had been
imposed on all the lands of England.  It was commonly called DANEGELT;
because the revenue had been employed either in buying peace with the
Danes, or in making preparations against the inroads of that hostile
nation.  That monarch had required that the same tax should be paid by
Cumberland, which was held by the Scots; but Malcolm, a warlike
prince, told him, that, as he was always able to repulse the Danes by
his own power, he would neither submit to buy peace of his enemies,
nor pay others for resisting them.  Ethelred, offended  at this reply,
which contained a secret reproach on his own conduct, undertook an
expedition against Cumberland; but though he committed ravages upon
the country, he could never bring Malcolm to a temper more humble or
submissive.  Canute, after his accession, summoned the Scottish king
to acknowledge himself a vassal for Cumberland to the crown of
England; but Malcolm refused compliance, on pretence that he owed
homage to those princes only who inherited that kingdom by right of
blood.  Canute was not of a temper to bear this insult; and the King
of Scotland soon found that the sceptre was in very different hands
from those of the feeble and irresolute Ethelred.  Upon Canute’s
appearing on the frontiers with a formidable army, Malcolm agreed that
his grandson and heir, Duncan, whom he put in possession of
Cumberland, should make the submissions required, and that the heirs
of Scotland should always acknowledge themselves vassals to England
for that province [w].
[FN [w] W. Malmes p. 74.]

Canute passed four years in peace after this enterprise, and he died
at Shaftesbury [x]; leaving three sons, Sweyn, Harold, and
Hardicanute.  Sweyn, whom he had by his first marriage with Alfwen,
daughter of the Earl of Hampshire, was crowned in Norway: Hardicanute,
whom Emma had borne him, was in possession of Denmark: Harold, who was
of the same marriage with Sweyn, was at that time in England.
[FN [x] Chron. Sax. p. 154.  W. Malmes. p. 76.]

[MN Harold Harefoot. 1035.]
Though Canute, in his treaty with Richard, Duke of Normandy, had
stipulated that his children by Emma should succeed to the crown of
England, he had either considered himself as released from that
engagement by the death of Richard, or esteemed it dangerous to leave
an unsettled and newly-conquered kingdom in the hands of so young a
prince as Hardicanute; he therefore appointed by his will Harold
successor to the crown.  This prince was, besides, present to maintain
his claim; he was favoured by all the Danes, and he got immediately
possession of his father’s treasures, which might be equally useful,
whether he found it necessary to proceed by force or intrigue in
insuring his succession.  On the other hand, Hardicanute had the
suffrages of the English, who, on account of his being born among them
of Queen Emma, regarded him as their countryman; he was favoured by
the articles of treaty with the Duke of Normandy; and, above all, his
party was espoused by Earl Godwin, the most powerful nobleman in the
kingdom, especially in the province of Wessex, the chief seat of the
ancient English.  Affairs were likely to terminate in a civil war;
when, by the interposition of the nobility of both parties, a
compromise was made, and it was agreed that Harold should enjoy,
together with London, all the provinces north of the Thames, while the
possession of the south should remain to Hardicanute; and till that
prince should appear and take possession of his dominions, Emma fixed
her residence at Winchester, and established her authority over her
son’s share of the partition.

Meanwhile, Robert, Duke of Normandy, died in a pilgrimage to the Holy
Land, and being succeeded by a son, yet a minor, the two English
princes, Alfred and Edward, who found no longer any countenance or
protection in that country, gladly embraced the opportunity of paying
a visit, with a numerous retinue, to their mother Emma, who seemed to
be placed in a state of so much power and splendour at Winchester.
But the face of affairs soon wore a melancholy aspect.  Earl Godwin
had been gained by the arts of Harold, who promised to espouse the
daughter of that nobleman, and while the treaty was yet a secret,
these two tyrants laid a plan for the destruction of the English
princes.  Alfred was invited to London by Harold with many professions
of friendship; but when he had reached Guilford, he was set upon by
Godwin’s vassals, about six hundred of his train were murdered in the
most cruel manner, he himself was taken prisoner, his eyes were put
out, and he was conducted to the monastery of Ely, where he died soon
after [y].  Edward and Emma, apprized of the fate which was awaiting
them, fled beyond sea, the former into Normandy, the latter into
Flanders.  While Harold, triumphing in his bloody  policy, took
possession, without resistance, of all the dominions assigned to his
brother.
[FN [y] H. Hunt. p. 365.  Ypod. Neustr. p. 434.  Hoveden, p. 438.
Chron. Mailr. p. 156.  Higden, p. 277.  Chron. St. Petri de Burgo, p.
39.  Sim. Dun. p. 179.  Abbas Rieval. p. 366, 374.  Brompton, p. 935.
Gul. Gem. lib. 7, cap. 11.  Matth. West. p. 209.  Flor. Wigorn. p.
622.  Alur. Beverl. p. 118.]

This is the only memorable action performed during a reign of four
years, by this prince, who gave so bad a specimen of his character,
and whose bodily accomplishments alone are known to us by his
appellation of HAREFOOT, which he acquired from his agility in running
and walking.  He died on the 14th of April, 1039; little regretted or
esteemed by his subjects, and left the succession open to his brother,
Hardicanute.

[MN Hardicanute. 1039.]
Hardicanute, or Canute the Hardy, that is, the robust, (for he too is
chiefly known by his bodily accomplishments,) though, by remaining so
long in Denmark, he had been deprived of his share in the partition of
the kingdom, had not abandoned his pretensions; and he had determined,
before Harold’s death, to recover by arms what he had lost, either by
his own negligence, or by the necessity of his affairs.  On pretence
of paying a visit to the queen-dowager in Flanders, he had assembled a
fleet of sixty sail, and was preparing to make a descent on England,
when intelligence of his brother’s death induced him to sail
immediately to London, where he was received in triumph, and
acknowledged king without opposition.

The first act of Hardicanute’s government afforded his subjects a bad
prognostic of his future conduct.  He was so enraged at Harold for
depriving him of his share of the kingdom, and for the cruel treatment
of his brother Alfred, that, in an impotent desire of revenge against
the dead, he ordered his body to be dug up, and to be thrown into the
Thames; and, when it was found by some fishermen, and buried in
London, he ordered it again to be dug up, and to be thrown again into
the river; but it was fished up a second time, and then interred with
great secrecy.  Godwin, equally servile and insolent, submitted to be
his instrument in this unnatural and brutal action.

That nobleman knew that he was universally believed to have been an
accomplice in the barbarity exercised on Alfred, and that he was on
that account obnoxious to Hardicanute; and perhaps he hoped, by
displaying this rage against Harold’s memory, to justify  himself from
having had any participation in his counsels.  But Prince Edward,
being invited over by the king, immediately on his appearance
preferred an accusation against Godwin for the murder of Alfred, and
demanded justice for that crime.  Godwin, in order to appease the
king, made him a magnificent present of a galley with a gilt stern,
rowed by fourscore men, who bore each of them a gold bracelet on his
arm, weighing sixteen ounces, and were armed and clothed in the most
sumptuous manner.  Hardicanute, pleased with the splendour of this
spectacle, quickly forgot his brother’s murder; and on Godwin’s
swearing that he was innocent of the crime, he allowed him to be
acquitted.

Though Hardicanute, before his accession, had been called over by the
vows of the English, he soon lost the affections of the nation by his
misconduct; but nothing appeared more grievous to them, than his
renewing the imposition of Danegelt, and obliging the nation to pay a
great sum of money to the fleet which brought him from Denmark.  The
discontents ran high in many places; in Worcester the populace rose,
and put to death two of the collectors.  The king, enraged at this
opposition, swore vengeance against the city, and ordered three
noblemen, Godwin, Duke of Wessex, Siward, Duke of Northumberland, and
Leofric, Duke of Mercia, to execute his menaces with the utmost
rigour.  They were obliged to set fire to the city, and deliver it up
to be plundered by their soldiers; but they saved the lives of the
inhabitants, whom they confined in a small island of the Severn,
called Bevery, till, by their intercession, they were able to appease
the king, and obtain the pardon of the supplicants.

This violent government was of short duration.  Hardicanute died in
two years after his accession, at the nuptials of a Danish lord, which
he had honoured with his presence.  His usual habits of intemperance
were so well known, that, notwithstanding his robust constitution, his
sudden death gave as little surprise as it did sorrow to his subjects.

[MN Edward the Confessor. 1041.]
The English, on the death of Hardicanute, saw a favourable opportunity
for recovering their liberty, and for shaking off the Danish yoke,
under which they  had so long laboured.  Sweyn, King of Norway, the
eldest son of Canute, was absent; and as the two last kings had died
without issue, none of that race presented himself, nor any whom the
Danes could support as successor to the throne.  Prince Edward was
fortunately at court on his brother’s demise; and though the
descendants of Edmund Ironside were the true heirs of the Saxon
family, yet their absence in so remote a country as Hungary, appeared
a sufficient reason for their exclusion, to a people like the English,
so little accustomed to observe a regular order in the succession of
their monarchs.  All delays might be dangerous; and the present
occasion must hastily be embraced; while the Danes, without concert,
without a leader, astonished at the present incident, and anxious only
for their personal safety, durst not oppose the united voice of the
nation.

But this concurrence of circumstances in favour of Edward might have
failed of its effect, had his succession been opposed by Godwin, whose
power, alliances, and abilities gave him a great influence at all
times, especially amidst those sudden opportunities which always
attend a revolution of government, and which, either seized or
neglected, commonly prove decisive.  There were opposite reasons which
divided men’s hopes and fears with regard to Godwin’s conduct.  On the
one hand, the credit of that nobleman lay chiefly in Wessex, which was
almost entirely inhabited by English: it was therefore presumed that
he would second the wishes of that people, in restoring the Saxon line
and in humbling the Danes, from whom he, as well as they, had reason
to dread, as they had already felt the most grievous oppressions.  On
the other hand, there subsisted a declared animosity between Edward
and Godwin, on account of Alfred’s murder, of which the latter had
publicly been accused by the prince, and which he might believe so
deep an offence, as could never, on account of any subsequent merits,
be sincerely pardoned.  But their common friends here interposed; and,
representing the necessity of their good correspondence, obliged them
to lay aside all jealousy and rancour, and concur in restoring liberty
to their  native country.  Godwin only stipulated, that Edward, as a
pledge of his sincere reconciliation, should promise to marry his
daughter Editha; and having fortified himself by this alliance, he
summoned a general council at Gillingham, and prepared every measure
for securing the succession to Edward.  The English were unanimous and
zealous in their resolutions; the Danes were divided and dispirited:
any small opposition which appeared in the assembly was browbeaten and
suppressed; and Edward was crowned king, with every demonstration of
duty and affection.

The triumph of the English, upon this signal and decisive advantage,
was at first attended with some assault and violence against the
Danes; but the king, by the mildness of his character, soon reconciled
the latter to his administration, and the distinction between the two
nations gradually disappeared.  The Danes were interspersed with the
English in most of the provinces; they spoke nearly the same language;
they differed little in their manners and laws; domestic dissensions
in Denmark prevented, for some years, any powerful invasion from
thence, which might awaken past animosities; and as the Norman
Conquest, which ensued soon after, reduced both nations to equal
subjection, there is no further mention in history of any difference
between them.  The joy, however, of their present deliverance made
such impression on the minds of the English, that they instituted an
annual festival for celebrating that great event; and it was observed
in some counties even to the time of Spellman [z].
[FN [z] Spellm. Glossary, in verbo HOCDAY.]

The popularity which Edward enjoyed on his accession was not destroyed
by the first act of his administration, his resuming all the grants of
his immediate predecessors; an attempt which is commonly attended with
the most dangerous consequences.  The poverty of the crown convinced
the nation that this act of violence was become absolutely necessary;
and as the loss fell chiefly on the Danes, who had obtained large
grants from the late kings, their countrymen, on account of their
services in subduing the kingdom, the English were rather pleased to
see them reduced to their primitive poverty.  The king’s severity also
towards his mother, the queen-dowager, though exposed to some more
censure, met not with very general disapprobation.  He had hitherto
lived on indifferent terms with the princess; he accused her of
neglecting him and his brother during their adverse fortune [a]; he
remarked that as the superior qualities of Canute, and his better
treatment of her, had made her entirely indifferent to the memory of
Ethelred, she also gave the preference to her children of the second
bed, and always regarded Hardicanute as her favourite.  The same
reasons had probably made her unpopular in England; and though her
benefactions to the monks obtained her the favour of that order, the
nation was not, in general, displeased to see her stripped by Edward
of immense treasure which she had amassed.  He confined her, during
the remainder of her life, in a monastery at Winchester, but carried
his rigour against her no farther.  The stories of his accusing her of
a participation in her son Alfred’s murder, and of a criminal
correspondence with the Bishop of Winchester, and also of her
justifying herself by treading barefoot, without receiving any hurt,
over nine burning ploughshares, were the inventions of the monkish
historians, and were propagated and believed from the silly wonder of
posterity [b].
[FN [a] Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p. 237.  [b] Higden, p. 277.]

The English flattered themselves that, by the accession of Edward,
they were delivered for ever from the dominion of foreigners; but they
soon found that this evil was not yet entirely removed.  The king had
been educated in Normandy; and had contracted many intimacies with the
natives of that country, as well as an affection for their manners
[c].  The court of England was soon filled with Normans, who, being
distinguished both by the favour of Edward, and by a degree of
cultivation superior to that which was attained by the English in
those ages, soon rendered their language, customs, and laws,
fashionable in the kingdom.  The study of the French tongue became
general among the people.  The courtiers affected to imitate that
nation in their dress, equipage, and entertainments: even the lawyers
employed a foreign language in their deeds and papers [d].  But, above
all, the church felt the influence and dominion of those strangers:
Ulf and William, two Normans, who had formerly been the king’s
chaplains, were created Bishops of Dorchester and London.  Robert, a
Norman also, was promoted to the see of Canterbury [e], and always
enjoyed the highest favour of his master, of which his abilities
rendered him not unworthy.  And though the king’s prudence, or his
want of authority, made him confer almost all the civil and military
employments on the natives, the ecclesiastical preferments fell often
to the share of the Normans; and as the latter possessed Edward’s
confidence, they had secretly a great influence on public affairs, and
excited the jealousy of the English, particularly of Earl Godwin [f].
[FN [c] Ingulph. p. 62.  [d] Ingulph. p. 62.  [e] Chron. Sax. p. 161.
[f] W. Malm. p. 80.]

This powerful nobleman, besides being Duke or Earl of Wessex, had the
counties of Kent and Sussex annexed to his government.  His eldest
son, Sweyn, possessed the same authority in the counties of Oxford,
Berks, Gloucester, and Hereford; and Harold, his second son, was Duke
of East Anglia, and at the same time governor of Essex.  The great
authority of this family was supported by immense possessions and
powerful alliances; and the abilities, as well as ambition of Godwin
himself, contributed to render it still more dangerous.  A prince of
greater capacity and vigour than Edward would have found it difficult
to support the dignity of the crown under such circumstances; and as
the haughty temper of Godwin made him often forget the respect due to
his prince, Edward’s animosity against him was grounded on personal as
well as political considerations, on recent as well as more ancient
injuries.  The king, in pursuance of his engagements, had indeed
married Editha, the daughter of Godwin [g]; but this alliance became a
fresh source of enmity between them.  Edward’s hatred of the father
was transferred to that princess; and Editha, though possessed of many
amiable accomplishments, could never acquire the confidence and
affection of her husband.  It is even pretended that, during the whole
course of her life, he abstained from all commerce of love with her;
and such was the absurd admiration paid to an inviolable chastity
during those ages, that his conduct in this particular is highly
celebrated by the monkish historians, and greatly contributed to his
acquiring the title of Saint and Confessor [h].  [MN 1048]
[FN [g] Chron. Sax. p. 157.  [h] Wm. Malm. p. 80  Higden, p. 277.
Abbas Rieval. p. 366, 377.  Matth. West. p. 221.  Chron. Thom. Wykes,
p. 21.  Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p. 241.]

The most popular pretence on which Godwin could ground his
disaffection to the king and his administration was to complain of the
influence of the Normans in the government; and a declared opposition
had thence arisen between him and these favourites.  It was not long
before this animosity broke into action.  Eustace, Count of Boulogne,
having paid a visit to the king, passed by Dover in his return; one of
his train, being refused entrance to a lodging which had been assigned
him, attempted to make his way by force, and in the contest he wounded
the master of the house.  The inhabitants revenged this insult by the
death of the stranger; the count and his train took arms, and murdered
the wounded townsman; a tumult ensued; near twenty persons were killed
on each side; and Eustace, being overpowered by numbers, was obliged
to save his life by flight from the fury of the populace.  He hurried
immediately to court and complained of the usage he had met with: the
king entered zealously into the quarrel, and was highly displeased
that a stranger of such distinction, whom he had invited over to his
court, should, without any just cause, as he believed, have felt so
sensibly the insolence and animosity of his people.  He gave orders to
Godwin, in whose government Dover lay, to repair immediately to the
place, and to punish the inhabitants for the crime: but Godwin, who
desired rather to encourage than repress the popular discontents
against foreigners, refused obedience, and endeavoured to throw the
whole blame of the riot on the Count of Boulogne and his retinue [i].
Edward, touched in so sensible a point, saw the necessity of exerting
the royal authority; and he threatened Godwin, if he persisted in his
disobedience, to make him feel the utmost effects of his resentment.
[FN [i] Chron. Sax. p. 163.  W. Malm. p. 81.  Higden, p. 279.]

The earl, perceiving a rupture to be unavoidable, and pleased to
embark in a cause where it was likely he should be supported by his
countrymen, made preparations for his own defence, or rather for an
attack on Edward.  Under pretence of repressing some disorders on the
Welsh frontier, he secretly assembled a great army, and was
approaching the king, who resided, without any military force, and
without suspicion, at Gloucester [k].  Edward applied for protection
to Siward, Duke of Northumberland, and Leofric, Duke of Mercia, two
powerful noblemen, whose jealousy of Godwin’s greatness, as well as
their duty to the crown, engaged them to defend the king in this
extremity.  They hastened to him with such of their followers as they
could assemble on a sudden; and finding the danger much greater than
they had at first apprehended, they issued orders for mustering all
the forces within their respective governments, and for marching them
without delay to the defence of the king’s person and authority.
Edward, meanwhile, endeavoured to gain time by negotiation; while
Godwin, who thought the king entirely in his power, and who was
willing to save appearances, fell into the snare; and, not sensible
that he ought to have no farther reserve after he had proceeded so
far, he lost the favourable opportunity of rendering himself master of
the government.
[FN [k] Chron. Sax. p. 163.  W. Malm. p. 81.]

The English, though they had no high idea of Edward’s vigour and
capacity, bore him great affection, on account of his humanity,
justice, and piety, as well as the long race of their native kings
from whom he was descended; and they hastened from all quarters to
defend him from the present danger.  His army was now so considerable,
that he ventured to take the field, and marching to London, he
summoned a great council to judge of the rebellion of Godwin and his
sons.  These noblemen pretended at first that they were willing to
stand their trial; but having in vain endeavoured to make their
adherents persist in rebellion, they offered to come to London,
provided they might receive hostages for their safety: this proposal
being rejected, they were obliged to disband the remains of their
forces, and have recourse to flight.  Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, gave
protection to Godwin and his three sons, Gurth, Sweyn, and Tosti; the
latter of whom had married the daughter of that prince.  Harold and
Leofwin, two other of his sons, took shelter in Ireland.  The estates
of the father and sons were confiscated: their governments were given
to others: Queen Editha was confined in a monastery at Warewel: and
the greatness of this family, once so formidable, seemed now to be
totally supplanted and overthrown.

But Godwin had fixed his authority on too firm a basis, and he was too
strongly supported by alliances, both foreign and domestic, not to
occasion farther disturbances and make new efforts for his
re-establishment.  [MN 1052.]  The Earl of Flanders permitted him to
purchase and hire ships within his harbours; and Godwin, having manned
them with his followers, and with freebooters of all nations, put to
sea, and attempted to make a descent at Sandwich.  The king, informed
of his preparations, had equipped a considerable fleet, much superior
to that of the enemy; and the earl, hastily, before their appearance,
made his retreat into the Flemish harbours [l].  The English court,
allured by the present security, and destitute of all vigorous
counsels, allowed the seamen to disband, and the fleet to go to decay
[m], while Godwin, expecting the event, kept his men in readiness for
action.  He put to sea immediately, and sailed to the Isle of Wight,
where he was joined by Harold, with a squadron which the nobleman had
collected in Ireland.  He was now master of the sea; and entering
every harbour in the southern coast, he seized all the ships [n], and
summoned his followers in those counties, which had so long been
subject to his government, to assist him in procuring justice to
himself, his family, and his country, against the tyranny of
foreigners.  Reinforced by great numbers from all quarters, he entered
the Thames; and appearing before London, threw every thing into
confusion.  The king alone seemed resolute to defend himself to the
last extremity; but the interposition of the English nobility, many of
whom favoured Godwin’s pretensions, made Edward hearken to terms of
accommodation; and the feigned humility of the earl, who disclaimed
all intentions of offering violence to his sovereign, and desired only
to justify himself by a fair and open trial, paved the way  for his
more easy admission.  It was stipulated that he should give hostages
for his good behaviour, and that the primate and all the foreigners
should be banished: by this treaty, the present danger of a civil war
was obviated, but the authority of the crown was considerably
impaired, or rather entirely annihilated.  Edward, sensible that he
had not power sufficient to secure Godwin’s hostages in England, sent
them over to his kinsman, the young Duke of Normandy.
[FN [1] Sim. Dun. p. 186.  [m] Chron. Sax. p. 166.  [n] Ibid.]

Godwin’s death, which happened soon after, while he was sitting at
table with the king, prevented him from farther establishing the
authority which he had acquired, and from reducing Edward to still
greater subjection [o].  He was succeeded in the government of Wessex,
Sussex, Kent, and Essex, and in the office of steward of the
household, a place of great power, by his son Harold, who was actuated
by an ambition equal to that of his father, and was superior to him in
address, in insinuation, and in virtue.  By a modest and gentle
demeanour, he acquired the good-will of Edward; at least softened that
hatred which the prince had so long borne his family [p]; and gaining
every day new partisans by his bounty and affability, he proceeded in
a more silent and therefore a more dangerous manner, to the increase
of his authority.  The king, who had not sufficient vigour directly to
oppose his progress, knew of no other expedient than that hazardous
one, of raising him a rival in the family of Leofric, Duke of Mercia,
whose son Algar was invested with the government of East Anglia,
which, before the banishment of Harold, had belonged to the latter
nobleman.  But this policy, of balancing opposite parties, required a
more steady hand to manage it than that of Edward, and naturally
produced faction, and even civil broils, among nobles of such mighty
and independent authority.  Algar was soon after expelled his
government by the intrigues and power of Harold; but being protected
by Griffith, Prince of Wales, who had married his daughter, as well as
by the power of his father, Leofric, he obliged Harold to submit to an
accommodation, and was reinstated in the government of East Anglia.
This peace was not of long duration: Harold, taking advantage of
Leofric’s death, which happened soon after, expelled Algar anew, and
banished him the kingdom; and though that nobleman made a fresh
irruption into East Anglia with an army of Norwegians, and overran the
country, his death soon freed Harold from the pretensions of so
dangerous a rival.  Edward, the eldest son of Algar, was indeed
advanced to the government of Mercia; but the balance which the king
desired to establish between those potent families was wholly lost,
and the influence of Harold greatly preponderated.
[FN [o] See note [D] at the end of the volume.  [p] Brompton, p. 948.]

[MN 1055.]  The death of Siward, Duke of Northumberland, made the way
still more open to the ambition of that nobleman.  Siward, besides his
other merits, had acquired honour to England by his successful conduct
in the only foreign enterprise undertaken during the reign of Edward.
Duncan, King of Scotland, was a prince of a gentle disposition, but
possessed not the genius requisite for governing a country so
turbulent, and so much infested by the intrigues and animosities of
the great Macbeth, a powerful nobleman, and nearly allied to the
crown, not content with curbing the king’s authority, carried still
farther his pestilent ambition; he put his sovereign to death; chased
Malcolm Kenmore, his son and heir, into England; and usurped the
crown.  Siward, whose daughter was married to Duncan, embraced, by
Edward’s orders, the protection of this distressed family: he marched
an army into Scotland; and having defeated and killed Macbeth in
battle, he restored Malcolm to the throne of his ancestors [q].  This
service, added to his former connexions with the royal family of
Scotland, brought a great accession to the authority of Siward in the
north; but as he had lost his eldest son, Osberne, in the action with
Macbeth, it proved in the issue fatal to his family.  His second son,
Walthoef, appeared, on his father’s death, too young to be intrusted
with the government of Northumberland; and Harold’s influence obtained
that dukedom for his own brother Tosti.
[FN [q] W. Malm. p. 79.  Hoveden, p. 443.  Chron. Mailr. p. 158.
Buchanan, p. 115. edit. 1715.]

There are two circumstances related of Siward, which discover his high
sense of honour, and his martial disposition.  When intelligence was
brought him of his son Osberne’s death, he was inconsolable till he
heard that the wound was received in the breast, and that he had
behaved with great gallantry in the action.  When he found his own
death approaching, he ordered his servants to clothe him in a complete
suit of armour; and sitting erect on the couch, with a spear in his
hand, declared that in that posture, the only one worthy of a warrior,
he would patiently await the fatal moment.

The king, now worn out with cares and infirmities, felt himself far
advanced in the decline of life; and having no issue himself, began to
think of appointing a successor to the kingdom.  He sent a deputation
to Hungary, to invite over his nephew, Edward, son of his elder
brother, and the only remaining heir of the Saxon line.  That prince,
whose succession to the crown would have been easy and undisputed,
came to England with his children, Edgar, surnamed Atheling, Margaret,
and Christina; but his death, which happened a few days after his
arrival, threw the king into new difficulties.  He saw, that the great
power and ambition of Harold had tempted him to think of obtaining
possession of the throne on the first vacancy, and that Edgar, on
account of his youth and inexperience, was very unfit to oppose the
pretensions of so popular and enterprising a rival.  The animosity
which he had long borne to Earl Godwin, made him averse to the
succession of his son, and he could not, without extreme reluctance,
think of an increase of grandeur to a family which had risen on the
ruins of royal authority, and which, by the murder of Alfred his
brother, had contributed so much to the weakening of the Saxon line.
In this uncertainty, he secretly cast his eye towards his kinsman,
William, Duke of Normandy, as the only person whose power, and
reputation, and capacity, could support any destination which he might
make in his favour, to the exclusion of Harold and his family [r].
[FN [r] Ingulph. p. 68.]

This famous prince was natural son of Robert, Duke of Normandy, by
Harlotta, daughter of a tanner in Falaise [s], and was very early
established in that grandeur from which his birth seemed to have set
him at so  great a distance.  While he was but nine years of age, his
father had resolved to undertake a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; a
fashionable act of devotion, which had taken the place of pilgrimages
to Rome, and which, as it was attended with more difficulty and
danger, and carried those religious adventurers to the first sources
of Christianity, appeared to them more meritorious.  Before his
departure, he assembled the states of the duchy; and informing them of
his design, he engaged them to swear allegiance to his natural son,
William, whom, as he had no legitimate issue, he intended, in case he
should die in the pilgrimage, to leave successor to his dominions [t].
As he was a prudent prince, he could not but foresee the great
inconveniences which must attend this journey, and this settlement of
his succession, arising from the turbulency of the great, the claims
of other branches of the ducal family, and the power of the French
monarch; but all these considerations were surmounted by the
prevailing zeal for pilgrimages [u]; and probably the more important
they were, the more would Robert exult in sacrificing them to what he
imagined to be his religious duty.
[FN [s] Brompton, p. 910.  [t] W. Malm. p. 95.  [u] Ypod. Neust. p.
452.]

This prince, as he had apprehended, died in his pilgrimage; and the
minority of his son was attended with all those disorders which were
almost unavoidable in that situation.  The licentious nobles, freed
from the awe of sovereign authority, broke out into personal
animosities against each other, and made the whole country a scene of
war and devastation [w].  Roger, Count of Toni, and Alain, Count of
Britany, advanced claims to the dominion of the state; and Henry I.,
King of France, thought the opportunity favourable for reducing the
power of a vassal, who had originally acquired his settlement in so
violent and invidious a manner, and who had long appeared formidable
to his sovereign [x].  The regency established by Robert encountered
great difficulties in supporting the government under this
complication of dangers; and the young prince, when he came to
maturity, found himself reduced to a very low condition.  But the
great qualities which he soon displayed in the field and in the
cabinet gave encouragement to his friends, and struck a terror into
his enemies.  He opposed himself on all sides against his rebellious
subjects, and against foreign invaders; and by his valour and conduct
prevailed in every action.  He obliged the French king to grant him
peace on reasonable terms; he expelled all pretenders to the
sovereignty; and he reduced his turbulent barons to pay submission to
his authority, and to suspend their mutual animosities.  The natural
severity of his temper appeared in a rigorous administration of
justice; and having found the happy effects of this plan of
government, without which the laws in those ages became totally
impotent, he regarded it as a fixed maxim, that an inflexible conduct
was the first duty of a sovereign.
[FN [w] W. Malm. p. 95.  Gul. Gemet. lib. 7. cap. 1.  [x] W. Malm. p.
97.]

The tranquillity which he had established in his dominions had given
William leisure to pay a visit to the King of England during the time
of Godwin’s banishment; and he was received in a manner suitable to
the great reputation which he had acquired, to the relation by which
he was connected with Edward, and to the obligations which that prince
owed to his family [y].  On the return of Godwin, and the expulsion of
the Norman favourites, Robert, Archbishop of Canterbury, had, before
his departure, persuaded Edward to think of adopting William as his
successor; a counsel which was favoured by the king’s aversion to
Godwin, his prepossessions for the Normans, and his esteem of the
duke.  That prelate, therefore, received a commission to inform
William of the king’s intentions in his favour; and he was the first
person that opened the mind of the prince to entertain those ambitious
hopes [z].  But Edward, irresolute and feeble in his purpose, finding
that the English would more easily acquiesce in the restoration of the
Saxon line, had, in the mean time, invited his brother’s descendants
from Hungary, with a view of having them recognised heirs to the
crown.  The death of his nephew, and the inexperience and unpromising
qualities of young Edgar, made him resume his former intentions in
favour of the Duke of Normandy; though his aversion to hazardous
enterprises engaged him to postpone the execution, and even to keep
his purpose secret from all his ministers.
[FN [y] Hoveden, p. 442.  Ingulph. p. 65.  Chron. Mailr. p. 157.
Higden, p. 279.  [z] Ingulph. p. 68.  Gul. Gemet lib. 7. cap. 31.
Order. Vitalis, p. 492.]

Harold, meanwhile, proceeded after a more open manner in increasing
his popularity, in establishing his power, and in preparing the way
for his advancement on the first vacancy; an event which, from the age
and infirmities of the king, appeared not very distant.  But there was
still an obstacle, which it was requisite for him previously to
overcome.  Earl Godwin, when restored to his power and fortune, had
given hostages for his good behaviour, and, among the rest, one son
and one grandson, whom Edward, for greater security, as has been
related, had consigned to the custody of the Duke of Normandy.
Harold, though not aware of the duke’s being his competitor, was
uneasy that such near relations should be detained prisoners in a
foreign country; and he was afraid lest William should, in favour of
Edgar, retain those pledges as a check on the ambition of any other
pretender.  He represented, therefore, to the king, his unfeigned
submission to royal authority, his steady duty to his prince, and the
little necessity there was, after such a uniform trial of his
obedience, to detain any longer those hostages who had been required
on the first composing of civil discords.  By these topics, enforced
by his great power, he extorted the king’s consent to release them;
and in order to effect his purpose, he immediately proceeded, with a
numerous retinue, on his journey to Normandy.  A tempest drove him on
the territory of Guy, Count of Ponthieu, who, being informed of his
quality, immediately detained him prisoner, and demanded an exorbitant
sum for his ransom.  Harold found means to convey intelligence of his
situation to the Duke of Normandy; and represented, that while he was
proceeding to HIS court, in execution of a commission from the King of
England, he had met with this harsh treatment from the mercenary
disposition of the Count of Ponthieu.

William was immediately sensible of the importance of the incident.
He foresaw, that if he could once gain Harold, either by favours or
menaces, his way to the throne of England would be open, and Edward
would meet with no farther obstacle in executing the favourable
intentions which he had entertained in his behalf.  He sent,
therefore, a messenger to Guy, in order to demand the liberty of his
prisoner; and that nobleman, not daring to refuse so great a prince,
put Harold into the hands of the Norman, who conducted him to Rouen.
William received him with every demonstration of respect and
friendship; and after showing himself disposed to comply with his
desire, in delivering up the hostages, he took an opportunity of
disclosing to him the great secret of his pretensions to the crown of
England, and of the will which Edward intended to make in his favour.
He desired the assistance of Harold in perfecting that design; he made
professions of the utmost gratitude in return for so great an
obligation; he promised that the present grandeur of Harold’s family,
which supported itself with difficulty under the jealousy and hatred
of Edward, should receive new increase from a successor, who would be
so greatly beholden to him for his advancement.  Harold was surprised
at this declaration of the duke; but being sensible that he should
never recover his own liberty, much less that of his brother and
nephew, if he refused the demand, he feigned a compliance with
William, renounced all hopes of the crown for himself, and professed
his sincere intention of supporting the will of Edward, and seconding
the pretensions of the Duke of Normandy.  William, to bind him faster
to his interests, besides offering him one of his daughters in
marriage, required him to take an oath that he would fulfil his
promises; and in order to render the oath more obligatory, he employed
an artifice well suited to the ignorance and superstition of the age.
He secretly conveyed under the altar, on which Harold agreed to swear,
the relics of some of the most revered martyrs; and when Harold had
taken the oath, he showed him the relics, and admonished him to
observe religiously an engagement which had been ratified by so
tremendous a sanction [a].  The English nobleman was astonished; but
dissembling his concern, he renewed the same professions, and was
dismissed with all the marks of mutual confidence by the Duke of
Normandy.
[FN [a] Wace, p. 459, 460.  MS. penes Carte, p. 354.  W. Malm. p. 93.
H. Hunt p. 366.  Hoveden, p. 449.  Brompton, p. 947.]

When Harold found himself at liberty, his ambition suggested casuistry
sufficient to justify to him the violation of an oath, which had been
extorted from him by fear, and which, if fulfilled, might be attended
with the subjection of his native country to a foreign power.  He
continued still to practise every art of popularity; to increase the
number of his partisans; to reconcile the minds of the English to the
idea of his succession; to revive their hatred of the Normans; and by
an ostentation of his power and influence, to deter the timorous
Edward from executing his intended destination in favour of William.
Fortune, about this time, threw two incidents in his way, by which he
was enabled to acquire general favour, and to increase the character,
which he had already attained, of virtue and abilities.

The Welsh, though a less formidable enemy than the Danes, had long
been accustomed to infest the western borders; and after committing
spoil on the low countries, they usually made a hasty retreat into
their mountains, where they were sheltered from the pursuit of their
enemies, and were ready to seize the first favourable opportunity of
renewing their depredations.  Griffith, the reigning prince, had
greatly distinguished himself in those incursions; and his name had
become so terrible to the English, that Harold found he could do
nothing more acceptable to the public, and more honourable for
himself, than the suppressing of so dangerous an enemy.  He formed the
plan of an expedition against Wales; and having prepared some light-
armed foot to pursue the natives into their fastnesses, some cavalry
to scour the open country, and a squadron of ships to attack the
seacoast, he employed at once all these forces against the Welsh,
prosecuted his advantages with vigour, made no intermission in his
assaults, and at last reduced the enemy to such distress, that, in
order to prevent their total destruction, they made a sacrifice of
their prince, whose head they cut off and sent to Harold; and they
were content to receive as their sovereigns two Welsh noblemen
appointed by Edward to rule over them.  The other incident was no less
honourable to Harold.

Tosti, brother of this nobleman, who had been created Duke of
Northumberland, being of a violent tyrannical temper, had acted with
such cruelty and injustice, that the inhabitants rose in rebellion,
and chased him from his government.  Morcar and Edwin, two brothers,
who possessed great power in those parts, and who were grandsons of
the great Duke Leofric, concurred in the insurrection; and the former,
being elected duke, advanced with an army to oppose Harold, who was
commissioned by the king to reduce and chastise the Northumbrians.
Before the armies came to action, Morcar, well acquainted with the
generous disposition of the English commander, endeavoured to justify
his own conduct.  He represented to Harold, that Tosti had behaved in
a manner unworthy of the station to which he was advanced, and no one,
not even a brother, could support such tyranny without participating,
in some degree, of the infamy attending it; that the Northumbrians,
accustomed to a legal administration, and regarding it as their birth-
right, were willing to submit to the king, but required a governor who
would pay regard to their rights and privileges; that they had been
taught by their ancestors, that death was preferable to servitude, and
had taken the field, determined to perish rather than suffer a renewal
of those indignities to which they had so long been exposed; and they
trusted that Harold, on reflection, would not defend in another that
violent conduct, from which he himself, in his own government, had
always kept at so great a distance.  This vigorous remonstrance was
accompanied with such a detail of facts, so well supported, that
Harold found it prudent to abandon his brother’s cause; and returning
to Edward, he persuaded him to pardon the Northumbrians, and to
confirm Morcar in the government.  He even married the sister of that
nobleman [b]; and by his interest procured Edwin, the younger brother,
to be elected into the government of Mercia.  Tosti in rage departed
the kingdom, and took shelter in Flanders with Earl Baldwin, his
father-in-law.
[FN [b] Order Vitalis, p. 492.]

By this marriage Harold broke all measures with the Duke of Normandy;
and William clearly perceived that he could no longer rely on the
oaths and promises which he had extorted from him.  But the English
nobleman was now in such a situation, that he deemed it no longer
necessary to dissemble.  He had in his conduct towards the
Northumbrians, given such a specimen of his moderation as had gained
him the affections of his countrymen.  He saw that almost all England
was engaged in his interests; while he himself possessed the
government of Wessex, Morcar that of Northumberland, and Edward that
of Mercia.  He now openly aspired to the succession; and insisted,
that since it was necessary, by the confession of all, to set aside
the royal family, on account of the imbecility of Edgar, the sole
surviving heir, there was no one as capable of filling the throne as a
nobleman of great power, of mature age, of long experience, of
approved courage and abilities, who, being a native of the kingdom,
would effectually secure it against the dominion and tyranny of
foreigners.  Edward, broken with age and infirmities, saw the
difficulties too great for him to encounter; and though his inveterate
prepossession kept him from seconding the pretensions of Harold, he
took but feeble and irresolute steps for securing the succession to
the Duke of Normandy [c].  While he continued in this uncertainty he
was surprised by sickness, which brought him to his grave, on the
fifth of January 1066, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and twenty-
fifth of his reign.
[FN [c] See note [F] at the end of the volume.]

This prince, to whom the monks gave the title of Saint and Confessor,
was the last of the Saxon line that ruled in England.  Though his
reign was peaceable and fortunate, he owed his prosperity less to his
own abilities than to the conjunctures of the times.  The Danes,
employed in other enterprises, attempted not those incursions which
had been so troublesome to all his predecessors, and fatal to some of
them.  The facility of his disposition made him acquiesce under the
government of Godwin and his son Harold; and the abilities, as well as
the power, of these noblemen enabled them, while they were entrusted
with authority, to preserve domestic peace and tranquillity.  The most
commendable circumstance of Edward’s government was his attention to
the administration of justice, and his compiling, for that purpose, a
body of laws, which he collected from the laws of Ethelbert, Ina, and
Alfred.  This compilation, though now lost, (for the laws that pass
under Edward’s name were composed afterwards [d],) was long the object
of affection to the English nation.
[FN [d] Spellm. in verbo BELLIVA.]

Edward the Confessor was the first that touched for the king’s evil:
the opinion of his sanctity procured belief to this cure among the
people: his successors regarded it as a part of their state and
grandeur to uphold the same opinion.  It has been continued down to
our time; and the practice was first dropped by the present royal
family, who observed that it could no longer give amazement even to
the populace, and was attended with ridicule in the eyes of all men of
understanding.

[MN Harold. 1066. January.]
Harold had so well prepared matters before the death of Edward, that
he immediately stepped into the vacant throne; and his accession was
attended with as little opposition and disturbance, as if he had
succeeded by the most undoubted hereditary title.  The citizens of
London were his zealous partisans: the bishops and clergy had adopted
his cause; and all the powerful nobility, connected with him by
alliance or friendship, willingly seconded his pretensions.  The title
of Edgar Atheling was scarcely mentioned; much less the claim of the
Duke of Normandy: and Harold, assembling his partisans, received the
crown from their hands, without waiting for the free deliberation of
the states, or regularly submitting the question to their
determination [e].  If any were averse to this measure, they were
obliged to conceal their sentiments; and the new prince, taking a
general silence for consent, and founding his title on the supposed
suffrages of the people, which appeared unanimous, was, on the day
immediately succeeding Edward’s death, crowned and anointed king, by
Aldred, Archbishop of York.  The whole nation seemed joyful to
acquiesce in his elevation.
[FN [e] G. Pict. p. 196.  Ypod. Neust. p. 436.  Order. Vitalis, p.
492.  M. West. p. 221  W. Malm. p. 93.  Ingulph. p. 68.  Brompton, p.
957.  Knyghton, p. 2339.  H. Hunt. p. 210.  Many of the historians
say, that Harold was regularly elected by the states: some, that
Edward left him his successor by will.]

The first symptoms of danger which the king discovered came from
abroad, and from his own brother Tosti, who had submitted to a
voluntary banishment in Flanders.  Enraged at the successful ambition
of Harold, to which he himself had fallen a victim, he filled the
court of Baldwin with complaints of the injustice which he had
suffered; he engaged the interest of that family against his brother:
he endeavoured to form intrigues with some of the discontented nobles
in England: he sent his emissaries to Norway, in order to rouse to
arms the freebooters of that kingdom, and to excite the hopes of
reaping advantage from the unsettled state of affairs on the
usurpation of the new king: and that he might render the combination
more formidable, he made a journey to Normandy, in expectation that
the duke, who had married Matilda, another daughter of Baldwin, would,
in revenge of his own wrongs, as well as those of Tosti, second, by
his counsels and forces, the projected invasion of England [f].
[FN [f] Order. Vitalis, p. 492.]

The Duke of Normandy, when he first received intelligence of Harold’s
intrigues and accession, had been moved to the highest pitch of
indignation; but that he might give the better colour to his
pretensions, he sent an embassy to England, upbraiding that prince
with his breach of faith, and summoning him to resign immediately
possession of the kingdom.  Harold replied to the Norman ambassadors,
that the oath with which he was reproached had been extorted by the
well-grounded fear of violence, and could never, for that reason, be
regarded as obligatory: that he had had no commission either from the
late king, or the states of England, who alone could dispose of the
crown, to make any tender of the succession to the Duke of Normandy;
and if he, a private person, had assumed so much authority, and had
even voluntarily sworn to support the duke’s pretensions, the oath was
unlawful, and it was his duty to  seize the first opportunity of
breaking it: that he had obtained the crown by the unanimous suffrages
of the people; and should prove himself totally unworthy of their
favour, did he not strenuously maintain those national liberties, with
whose protection they had entrusted him: and that the duke, if he made
any attempt by force of arms, should experience the power of an united
nation, conducted by a prince, who, sensible of the obligations
imposed on him by his royal dignity, was determined that the same
moment should put a period to his life and to his government [g].
[FN [g] W. Malm. p. 99.  Higden, p. 285.  Matth. West. p. 222.  De
Gest. Angl. ancento auctore, p. 331.]

This answer was no other than William expected; and he had previously
fixed his resolution of making an attempt upon England.  Consulting
only his courage, his resentment, and his ambition, he overlooked all
the difficulties inseparable from an attack on a great kingdom by such
inferior force, and he saw only the circumstances which would
facilitate his enterprise.  He considered that England, ever since the
accession of Canute, had enjoyed profound tranquillity during a period
of over fifty years; and it would require time for its soldiers,
enervated by long peace, to learn discipline, and its generals
experience.  He knew that it was entirely unprovided with fortified
towns, by which it could prolong the war; but must venture its whole
fortune in one decisive action against a veteran enemy, who, being
once master of the field, would be in a condition to overrun the
kingdom.  He saw that Harold, though he had given proofs of vigour and
bravery, had newly mounted a throne, which he had acquired by faction,
from which he had excluded a very ancient royal family, and which was
likely to totter under him by its own instability, much more if shaken
by any violent external impulse; and he hoped, that the very
circumstance of his crossing the sea, quitting his own country, and
leaving himself no hopes of retreat, as it would astonish the enemy by
the boldness of the enterprise, would inspirit his soldiers by
despair, and rouse them to sustain the reputation of the Norman arms.

The Normans, as they had long been distinguished by valour among all
the European nations, had at this time attained to the highest pitch
of military glory.  Besides acquiring by arms such a noble territory
in France, besides defending it against continual attempts of the
French monarch and all his neighbours, besides exerting many acts of
vigour under their present sovereign; they had, about this very time,
revived their ancient fame, by the most hazardous exploits, and the
most wonderful successes in the other extremity of Europe.  A few
Norman adventurers in Italy had acquired such an ascendant, not only
over the Italians and Greeks, but the Germans and Saracens, that
they expelled those foreigners, procured to themselves ample
establishments, and laid the foundation of the opulent kingdom of
Naples and Sicily [h].  These enterprises of men, who were all of them
vassals in Normandy, many of them banished for faction and rebellion,
excited the ambition of the haughty William, who disdained, after such
examples of fortune and valour, to be deterred from making an attack
on a neighbouring country, where he could be supported by the whole
force of his principality.
[FN [h] Gul. Gemet. lib. 7. cap. 30.]

The situation also of Europe inspired William with hopes that, besides
his brave Normans he might employ against England the flower of the
military force which was dispersed in all the neighbouring states.
France, Germany, and the Low Countries, by the progress of the feudal
institutions, were divided and subdivided into many principalities and
baronies; and the possessors, enjoying the civil jurisdiction within
themselves, as well as the right of arms, acted, in many respects, as
independent sovereigns, and maintained their properties and
privileges, less by the authority of laws than by their own force and
valour.  A military spirit had universally diffused itself throughout
Europe; and the several leaders, whose minds were elevated by their
princely situation, greedily embraced the most hazardous enterprises;
and being accustomed to nothing from their infancy but recitals of the
success attending wars and battles, they were prompted by a natural
ambition to imitate those adventurers, which they heard so much
celebrated, and which were so much exaggerated by the credulity of the
age.  United, however loosely, by their duty to one superior lord, and
by their connexions with the great body of the community to which they
belonged, they desired to spread their fame each beyond his own
district; and in all assemblies, whether instituted for civil
deliberations, for military expeditions, or merely for show and
entertainment, to outshine each other by the reputation of strength
and prowess.  Hence their genius for chivalry; hence their impatience
of peace and tranquillity; and hence their readiness to embark in any
dangerous enterprise, how little soever interested in its failure or
success.

William, by his power, his courage, and his abilities, had long
maintained a pre-eminence among those haughty chieftains; and every
one who desired to signalize himself by his address in military
exercises, or in valour in action, had been ambitious of acquiring a
reputation in the court and in the armies of Normandy.  Entertained
with that hospitality and courtesy which distinguished the age, they
had formed attachments with the prince, and greedily attended to the
prospects of the signal glory and elevation which he promised them in
return for their concurrence in an expedition against England.  The
more grandeur there appeared in the attempt, the more it suited their
romantic spirit; the fame of the intended invasion was already
diffused every where; multitudes crowded to tender to the Duke their
service, with that of their vassals and retainers [i]; and William
found less difficulty in completing his levies than in choosing the
most veteran forces, and in rejecting the offers of those who were
impatient to acquire fame under so renowned a leader.
[FN [i] Gul. Pictavensis, p. 198.]

Besides these advantages, which William owed to his personal valour
and good conduct, he was indebted to fortune for procuring him some
assistance, and also for removing many obstacles which it was natural
for him to expect in an undertaking, in which all his neighbours were
so deeply interested.  Conan, Count of Britany, was his mortal enemy;
in order to throw a damp upon the duke’s enterprise, he chose this
conjuncture for reviving his claim to Normandy itself; and he required
that, in case of William’s success against England the possession of
that duchy should devolve to him [k].  But Conan died suddenly after
making this demand; and Hoel, his successor, instead of adopting the
malignity, or, more properly speaking, the prudence of his
predecessor, zealously seconded the duke’s views and sent his eldest
son, Alain Fergant, to serve under him with a body of five thousand
Bretons.  The counts of Anjou and of Flanders encouraged their
subjects to engage in the expedition; and even the court of France,
though it might justly fear the aggrandizement of so dangerous a
vassal, pursued not its interests on this occasion with sufficient
vigour and resolution.  Philip I., the reigning monarch, was a minor;
and William, having communicated his project to the council, having
desired assistance, and offered to do homage, in case of his success,
for the crown of England, was indeed openly ordered to lay aside all
thoughts of the enterprise; but the Earl of Flanders, his father-in-
law, being at the head of the regency, favoured underhand his levies,
and secretly encouraged the adventurous nobility to enlist under the
standard of the Duke of Normandy.
[FN [k] Gul Gemet. lib. 7. cap. 33.]

The Emperor, Henry IV., besides openly giving all his vassals
permission to embark in this expedition, which so much engaged the
attention of Europe, promised his protection to the duchy of Normandy
during the absence of the prince, and thereby enabled him to employ
his whole force in the invasion of England [l].  But the most
important ally whom William gained by his negotiations was the pope,
who had a mighty influence over the ancient barons, no less devout in
their religious principles, than valorous in their military
enterprises.  The Roman pontiff, after an insensible progress, during
several ages of darkness and ignorance, began now to lift his head
openly above all the princes of Europe; to assume the office of a
mediator, or even an arbiter, in the quarrels of the greatest
monarchs; to interpose in all secular affairs; and to obtrude his
dictates as sovereign laws on his obsequious disciples. It was a
sufficient motive to Alexander II., the reigning pope, for embracing
William’s quarrel, that he alone had made an appeal to his tribunal,
and rendered him umpire of the dispute between him and Harold; but
there were other advantages which that pontiff foresaw must result
from the conquest of England by the Norman arms.  That kingdom, though
at first converted by Romish missionaries, though it had afterwards
advanced some farther steps towards subjection to Rome, maintained
still a considerable independence in its ecclesiastical
administration; and forming a world within itself, entirely separated
from the rest of Europe, it had hitherto proved inaccessible to those
exorbitant claims which supported the grandeur of the papacy.
Alexander therefore hoped, that the French and Norman barons, if
successful in their enterprise, might import into that country a more
devoted reverence to the holy see, and bring the English churches to a
nearer conformity with those of the continent.  He declared
immediately in favour of William’s claim; pronounced Harold a perjured
usurper; denounced excommunication against him and his adherents; and
the more to encourage the Duke of Normandy in his enterprise, he sent
him a consecrated banner, and a ring with one of St. Peter’s hairs in
it [m].  Thus were al1 the ambition and violence of that invasion
covered over safely with the broad mantle of religion.
[FN [l] Gul. Pict. p. 198.  [m] Baker, p. 22. edit. 1684.]

The greatest difficulty which William had to encounter in his
preparations, arose from his own subjects in Normandy.  The states of
the duchy were assembled at Lislebonne; and supplies being demanded
for the intended enterprise, which promised so much glory and
advantage to their country, there appeared a reluctance in many
members, both to grant sums so much beyond the common measure of taxes
in that age, and to set a precedent of performing their military
service at a distance from their own country.  The duke, finding it
dangerous to solicit them in a body, conferred separately with the
richest individuals in the province; and beginning with those on whose
affections he most relied, he gradually engaged all of them to advance
the sums demanded.  The Count of Longueville seconded him in his
negotiation; as did the Count of Mortaigne, Odo, Bishop of Baieux, and
especially William Fitz-Osborne, Count of Breteuil, and constable of
the duchy.  Every person, when he himself was once engaged,
endeavoured to bring over others; and at last the states themselves,
after stipulating that this concession should be no precedent, voted
that they would assist their prince to the utmost in his intended
enterprise [n].
[FN [n] Camden. Introd. ad Britan. p. 212. 2nd edit.  Gibs. Verstegan,
p. 173.]

William had now assembled a fleet of three thousand vessels, great and
small [o], and had selected an army of sixty thousand men from among
those numerous supplies which from every quarter solicited to be
received into his service.  The camp bore a splendid yet a martial
appearance, from the discipline of the men, the beauty and vigour of
the horse, the lustre of the arms, and the accoutrements of both; but
above all, from the high names of nobility who engaged under the
banners of the Duke of Normandy.  The most celebrated were Eustace,
Count of Boulogne, Aimeri de Thouars, Hugh d’Estaples, William
d’Evreux, Geoffrey de Routrou, Roger de Beaumont, William de Warenne,
Roger de Montgomery, Hugh de Grantmesnil, Charles Martel, and Geoffrey
Giffard [p].  To these bold chieftains William held up the spoils of
England as the prize of their valour; and pointing to the opposite
shore, called to them, that THERE was the field on which they must
erect trophies to their name, and fix their establishments.
[FN [o] Gul. Gemet. lib. 7. cap. 34.  [p] Order. Vitalis, p. 501.]

While he was making these mighty preparations, the  duke, that he
might increase the number of Harold's enemies, excited the inveterate
rancour of Tosti, and encouraged him, in concert with Harold Halfagar,
King of Norway, to infest the coasts of England.  Tosti, having
collected about sixty vessels in the ports of Flanders, put to sea;
and after committing some depredations on the south and east coasts,
he sailed to Northumberland, and was there joined by Halfagar, who
came over with a great armament of three hundred sail.  The combined
fleets entered the Humber, and disembarked the troops, who began to
extend their depredations on all sides; when Morcar, Earl of
Northumberland, and Edwin, Earl of Mercia, the king’s brother-in-law,
having hastily collected some forces, ventured to give them battle.
The action ended in the defeat and flight of these two noble men.

Harold, informed of this defeat, hastened with an army to the
protection of his people; and expressed the utmost ardour to show
himself worthy of the crown which had been conferred upon him.  This
prince, though he was not sensible of the full extent of his danger,
from the great combination against him, had employed every art of
popularity to acquire the affections of the public; and he gave so
many proofs of an equitable and prudent administration that the
English found no reason to repent the choice which they had made of a
sovereign.  They flocked from all quarters to join his standard; and
as soon as he reached the enemy at Standford, he found himself in a
condition to give them battle.  [MN Sept. 25.]  The action was bloody;
but the victory was decisive on the side of Harold, and ended in the
total rout of the Norwegians, together with the death of Tosti and
Halfagar.  Even the Norwegian fleet fell into the hands of Harold; who
had the generosity to give Prince Olave, the son of Halfagar, his
liberty, and allow him to depart with twenty vessels.  But he had
scarcely time to rejoice for his victory, when he received
intelligence that the Duke of Normandy was landed with a great army in
the south of England.

The Norman fleet and army had been assembled early in the summer, at
the mouth of the small river Dive, and all the troops had been
instantly embarked; but the winds proved long contrary, and detained
them in that harbour.  The authority, however, of the duke, the good
discipline maintained among the seamen and soldiers, and the great
care in supplying them with provisions, had prevented any disorder;
when at last the wind became favourable, and enabled them to sail
along the coast, till they reached St. Valori.  There were, however,
several vessels lost in this short passage; and as the wind again
proved contrary, the army began to imagine that heaven had declared
against them, and that, notwithstanding the pope's benediction, they
were destined to certain destruction.  These bold warriors, who
despised real dangers, were very subject to the dread of imaginary
ones; and many of them began to mutiny, some of them even to desert
their colours; when the duke, in order to support their drooping
hopes, ordered a procession to be made with the relics of St. Valori
[q], and prayers to be said for more favourable weather.  The wind
instantly changed; and as this incident happened on the eve of the
feast of St. Michael, the tutelar saint of Normandy, the soldiers,
fancying they saw the hand of Heaven in all these concurring
circumstances, set out with the greatest alacrity: they met with no
opposition on their passage: a great fleet, which Harold has
assembled, and which had cruized all summer off the Isle of Wight, had
been dismissed, on his receiving false intelligence that William,
discouraged by contrary winds and other accidents, had laid aside his
preparations.  The Norman armament, proceeding in great order, arrived
without any material loss, at Pevensey, in Sussex; and the army
quietly disembarked.  The duke himself, as he leaped on shore,
happened to stumble and fall; but had the presence of mind, it is
said, to turn the omen to his advantage, by calling aloud that he had
taken possession of the country.  And a soldier, running to a
neighbouring cottage, plucked some thatch, which, as if giving seisin
of the kingdom, he presented to his general.  The joy and alacrity of
William and his whole army were so great, that they were nowise
discouraged, even when they heard of Harold’s great victory over the
Norwegians; they seemed rather to wait with impatience for the arrival
of the enemy.
[FN [q] Higden, p. 285.  Order. Vitalis, p. 500.  Matth. Paris, edit.
Paris., anno 1644, p. 2.]

The victory of Harold, though great and honourable, had proved in the
main prejudicial to his interests, and may be regarded as the
immediate cause of his ruin.  He lost many of his bravest officers and
soldiers in the action: and he disgusted the rest by refusing to
distribute the Norwegian spoils among them: a conduct which was little
agreeable to his usual generosity of temper; but which his desire of
sparing the people, in the war that impended over him from the Duke of
Normandy, had probably occasioned.  He hastened, by quick marches, to
reach this new invader; but though he was reinforced at London and
other places with fresh troops, he found  himself also weakened by the
desertion of his old soldiers, who, from fatigue and discontent,
secretly withdrew from their colours.  His brother Gurth, a man of
bravery and conduct, began to entertain apprehensions of the event;
and remonstrated with the king, that it would be better policy to
prolong the war; at least, to spare his own person in the action.  He
urged to him, that the desperate situation of the Duke of Normandy
made it requisite for that prince to bring matters to a speedy
decision, and put his whole fortune on the issue of a battle; but that
the King of England, in his own country, beloved by his subjects,
provided with every supply, had more certain and less dangerous means
of ensuring to himself the victory; that the Norman troops, elated on
the one hand with the highest hopes, and seeing, on the other, no
resource in case of a discomfiture, would fight to the last extremity;
and being the flower of all the warriors of the continent, must be
regarded as formidable to the English: that if their first fire, which
is always the most dangerous, were allowed to languish for want of
action; if they were harassed with small skirmishes, straitened in
provisions, and fatigued with the bad weather and deep roads during
the winter season which was approaching, they must fall an easy and a
bloodless prey to their enemy: that if a general action were delayed,
the English, sensible of the imminent danger to which their
properties, as well as liberties, were exposed from those rapacious
invaders, would hasten from all quarters to his assistance, and would
render his army invincible: that at least, if he thought it necessary
to hazard a battle, he ought not to expose his own person, but
reserve, in case of disastrous accidents, some resource to the liberty
and independence of the kingdom: and that having once been so
unfortunate as to be constrained to swear, and that upon the holy
relics, to support the pretensions of the Duke of Normandy, it were
better that the command of the army should be intrusted to another,
who not being bound by those sacred ties, might give the soldiers more
assured hopes of a prosperous issue to the combat.

Harold was deaf to all these remonstrances: elated with his past
prosperity, as well as stimulated by his native courage, he resolved
to give battle in person; and  for that purpose he drew near to the
Normans, who had removed their camp and fleet to Hastings, where they
fixed their quarters.  He was so confident of success, that he sent a
message to the duke, promising him a sum of money if he would depart
the kingdom without effusion of blood: but his offer was rejected with
disdain; and William, not to be behind with his enemy in vaunting,
sent him a message by some monks, requiring him either to resign the
kingdom, or to hold it of him in fealty, or to submit their cause to
the arbitration of the pope, or to fight him in single combat.  Harold
replied, that the God of battles would soon be the arbiter of all
their .differences [r].
[FN [r] Higden, p. 286.]

[MN 14th October.]  The English and Normans now prepared themselves
for this important decision; but the aspect of things on the night
before the battle was very different in the two camps.  The English
spent the night in riot, and jollity, and disorder; the Normans in
silence, and in prayer, and in the other functions of their religion
[s].  On the morning, the duke called together the most considerable
of his commanders, and made them a speech suitable to the occasion.
He represented to them, that the event which they and he had long
wished for was approaching; the whole fortune of the war now depended
on their swords, and would be decided in a single action: that never
army had greater motives for exerting a vigorous courage, whether they
considered the prize which would attend their victory, or the
inevitable destruction which must ensue upon their discomfiture: that
if their martial and veteran bands could once break those raw
soldiers, who had rashly dared to approach them, they conquered a
kingdom at one blow, and were justly entitled to all its possessions
as the reward of their prosperous valour: that, on the contrary, if
they remitted in the least their wonted prowess, an enraged enemy hung
upon their rear, the sea met them in their retreat, and an ignominious
death was the certain punishment of their imprudent cowardice: that by
collecting so numerous and brave a host, he had ensured every human
means of conquest; and the commander of the enemy, by his criminal
conduct, had given him just cause to hope for the favour of the
Almighty, in whose hands alone lay the event of wars and battles: and
that a perjured usurper, anathematized by the sovereign pontiff, and
conscious of his own breach of faith, would be struck with terror on
their appearance, and would prognosticate to himself that fate which
his multiplied crimes had so justly merited [t].  The duke next
divided his army into three lines: the first, led by Montgomery,
consisted of archers and light-armed infantry: the second, commanded
by Martel, was composed of his bravest battalions, heavy armed, and
ranged in close order: his cavalry, at whose head he placed himself,
formed the third line; and were so disposed, that they stretched
beyond the infantry, and flanked each wing of the army [u].  He
ordered the signal of battle to be given; and the whole army, moving
at once, and singing the hymn or song of Roland, the famous peer of
Charlemagne [w], advanced, in order, and with alacrity, towards the
enemy.
[FN [s] W. Malm. p. 101.  De Gest. Angl. p. 332.  [t] H. Hunt. p. 368.
Brompton p. 959.  Gul. Pict. p. 201.  [u] Gul. Pict. p. 201.  Order.
Vital. p. 501.  [w] W. Malm. p. 101.  Higden, p. 286.  Matth. West. p.
223.  Du Cange’s Glossary, in verbo CANTILENA ROLANDI.]

Harold had seized the advantage of a rising ground, and having
likewise drawn some trenches to secure his flanks, he resolved to
stand upon the defensive, and to avoid all action with the cavalry, in
which he was inferior.  The Kentish men were placed in the van, a post
which they had always claimed as their due: the Londoners guarded the
standard: and the king himself, accompanied by his two valiant
brothers, Gurth and Leofwin, dismounting, placed himself at the head
of his infantry, and expressed his resolution to conquer or to perish
in the action.  The first attack of the Normans was desperate, but was
received with equal valour by the English; and after a furious combat,
which remained long undecided, the former, overcome by the difficulty
of the ground, and hard pressed by the enemy, began first to relax
their vigour, then to retreat; and confusion was spreading among the
ranks, when William, who found himself on the brink of destruction,
hastened with a select band to the relief of his dismayed forces.  His
presence restored the action; the English were obliged to retire with
loss; and the duke, ordering his second line to advance, renewed the
attack with fresh forces, and with redoubled courage.  Finding that
the enemy, aided by the advantage of ground, and animated by the
example of their prince, still made a vigorous resistance, he tried a
stratagem, which was very delicate in its management, but which seemed
advisable in his desperate situation, where, if he gained not a
decisive victory, he was totally undone: he commanded his troops to
make a hasty retreat, and to allure the enemy from their ground by the
appearance of flight.  The artifice succeeded against those
inexperienced soldiers, who, heated by the action, and sanguine in
their hopes, precipitately followed the Normans into the plain.
William gave orders, that at once the infantry should face about upon
their pursuers, and the cavalry make an assault upon their wings, and
both of them pursue the advantage which the surprise and terror of the
enemy must give them in that critical and decisive moment.  The
English were repulsed with great slaughter, and driven back to the
hill; where, being rallied by the bravery of Harold, they were able,
notwithstanding their loss, to maintain their post, and continue the
combat.  The duke tried the same stratagem a second time with the same
success; but even after this double advantage, he still found a great
body of the English, who, maintaining themselves in firm array, seemed
determined to dispute the victory to the last extremity.  He ordered
his heavy-armed infantry to make an assault upon them; while his
archers placed behind, should gall the enemy, who were exposed by the
situation of the ground, and who were intent on defending themselves
against the swords and spears of the assailants.  By this disposition
he at last prevailed: Harold was slain by an arrow while he was
combating with great bravery at the head of his men: his two brothers
shared the same fate: and the English, discouraged by the fall of
those princes, gave ground on all sides, and were pursued with great
slaughter by the victorious Normans.  A few troops, however, of the
vanquished had still the courage to turn upon their pursuers; and
attacking them in deep and miry ground, obtained some revenge for the
slaughter and dishonour of the day.  But the appearance of the duke
obliged them to seek their safety by flight; and darkness saved them
from any farther pursuit by the enemy.

Thus was gained by William, Duke of Normandy, the great and decisive
victory of Hastings, after a battle which was fought from morning till
sunset, and which seemed worthy, by the heroic valour displayed by
both armies, and by both commanders, to decide the fate of a mighty
kingdom.  William had three horses killed under him; and there fell
near fifteen thousand men on the side of the Normans: the loss was
still more considerable on that of the vanquished; besides the death
of the king and his two brothers.  The dead body of Harold was brought
to William, and was generously restored without ransom to his mother.
The Norman army left not the field of battle without giving thanks to
Heaven in the most solemn manner for their victory; and the prince,
having refreshed his troops, prepared to push to the utmost his
advantage against the divided, dismayed, and discomfited English.




APPENDIX I.

THE ANGLO-SAXON GOVERNMENT AND MANNERS.

FIRST SAXON GOVERNMENT.--SUCCESSION OF THE KINGS.--THE WITTENAGEMOT.--
THE ARISTOCRACY.--THE SEVERAL ORDERS OF MEN.—COURTS OF JUSTICE.--
CRIMINAL LAW.--RULES OF PROOF.--MILITARY FORCE.--PUBLIC REVENUE.--
VALUE OF MONEY.--MANNERS.



The government of the Germans, and that of all the northern nations,
who established themselves on the ruins of Rome, was always extremely
free; and those fierce people, accustomed to independence and inured
to arms, were more guided by persuasion than authority, in the
submission which they paid to their princes.  The military despotism,
which had taken place in the Roman empire, and which, previously to
the irruption of those conquerors, had sunk the genius of men, and
destroyed every noble principle of science and virtue, was unable to
resist the vigorous efforts of a free people; and Europe, as from a
new epoch, rekindled her ancient spirit, and shook off the base
servitude to arbitrary will and authority under which she had so long
laboured.  The free constitutions then established, however impaired
by the encroachments of succeeding princes, still preserve an air of
independence and legal administration, which distinguish the European
nations; and if that part of the globe maintain sentiments of liberty,
honour, equity and valour, superior to the rest of mankind, it owes
these advantages chiefly to the seeds implanted by those generous
barbarians.

[MN First Saxon government.]
The Saxons, who subdued Britain, as they enjoyed great liberty in
their own country, obstinately retained that invaluable possession in
their new settlement; and they imported into this island the same
principles of independence which they had inherited from their
ancestors.  The chieftains (for such they were, more properly than
kings or princes) who commanded them in those military expeditions,
still possessed a very limited authority; and as the Saxons
exterminated, rather than subdued, the ancient inhabitants, they were
indeed transplanted into a new territory, but preserved unaltered all
their civil and military institutions.  The language was pure Saxon;
even the names of places, which often remain while the tongue entirely
changes, were almost all affixed by the conquerors; the manners and
customs were wholly German; and the same picture of a fierce and bold
liberty, which is drawn by the masterly pencil of Tacitus, will suit
those founders of the English government.  The king, so far from being
invested with arbitrary power, was only considered as the first among
the citizens; his authority depended more on his personal qualities
than on his station; he was even so far on a level with the people,
that a stated price was fixed for his head, and a legal fine was
levied upon his murderer, which, though proportionate to his station,
and superior to that paid for the life of a subject, was a sensible
mark of his subordination to the community.

[MN Succession of the kings.]
It is easy to imagine, that an independent people, so little
restrained by law and cultivated by science, would not be very strict
in maintaining a regular succession of their princes.  Though they
paid great regard to the royal family, and ascribed to it an
undisputed superiority, they either had no rule, or none that was
steadily observed, in filling the vacant throne; and present
convenience, in that emergency, was more attended to than general
principles.  We are not, however, to suppose that the crown was
considered as altogether elective; and that a regular plan was traced
by the constitution for supplying, by the suffrages of the people,
every vacancy made by the demise of the first magistrate.  If any king
left a son of an age and capacity fit for government, the young prince
naturally stepped into the throne: if he was a minor, his uncle, or
the next prince of the blood, was promoted to the government, and left
the sceptre to his posterity: any sovereign, by taking previous
measures with the leading men, had it greatly in his power to appoint
his successor: all these changes, and indeed the ordinary
administration of government, required the express concurrence, or at
least the tacit acquiescence, of the people; but possession, however
obtained, was extremely apt to secure their obedience, and the idea of
any right, which was once excluded, was but feeble and imperfect.
This is so much the case in all barbarous monarchies, and occurs so
often in the history of the Anglo-Saxons, that we cannot consistently
entertain any other notion of their government.  The idea of an
hereditary succession in authority is so natural to men, and is so
much fortified by the usual rule in transmitting private possessions,
that it must retain a great influence on every society, which does not
exclude it by the refinements of a republican constitution.  But as
there is a material difference between government and private
possessions, and every man is not as much qualified for exercising the
one, as for enjoying the other, a people, who are not sensible of the
general advantages attending a fixed rule, and apt to make great leaps
in the succession, and frequently to pass over the person, who, had he
possessed the requisite years and abilities, would have been thought
entitled to the sovereignty.  Thus, these monarchies are not, strictly
speaking, either elective or hereditary; and though the destination of
a prince may often be followed in appointing his successor, they can
as little be regarded as wholly testamentary.  The states by their
suffrage may sometimes establish a sovereign; but they more frequently
recognize the person whom they find established: a few great men take
the lead; the people, overawed and influenced, acquiesce in the
government; and the reigning prince, provided he be of the royal
family, passes undisputedly for the legal sovereign.

[MN The Wittenagemot.]
It is confessed, that our knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon history and
antiquities is too imperfect to afford us means of determining, with
certainty, all the prerogatives of the crown and privileges of the
people, or of giving an exact delineation of that government.  It is
probable, also, that the constitution might be somewhat different in
the different kingdoms of the Heptarchy, and that it changed
considerably during the course of six centuries, which elapsed from
the first invasion of the Saxons till the Norman conquest [a].  But
most of these differences and changes, with their causes and effects,
are unknown to us.  It only appears, that at all times, and in all the
kingdoms, there was a national council, called a Wittenagemot, or
assembly of the wise men, (for that is the import of the term,) whose
consent was requisite for enacting laws, and for ratifying the chief
acts of public administration.  The preambles to all the laws of
Ethelbert, Ina, Alfred, Edward the Elder, Athelstan, Edmond, Edgar,
Ethelred, and Edward the Confessor; even those to the laws of Canute,
though a kind of conqueror, put this matter beyond controversy, and
carry proofs everywhere of a limited and legal government.  But who
were the constituent members of this Wittenagemot has not been
determined with certainty by antiquaries.  It is agreed, that the
bishops and abbots [b] were an essential part; and it is also evident,
from the tenour of those ancient laws, that the Wittenagemot enacted
statutes which regulated the ecclesiastical as well as civil
government, and that those dangerous principles, by which the church
is totally severed from the state, were hitherto unknown to the
Anglo-Saxons [c].  It also appears, that the aldermen, or governors of
counties, who, after the Danish times, were often called earls [d],
were admitted into this council, and gave their consent to the public
statutes.  But besides the prelates and aldermen, there is also
mention of the Wites, or Wise-men, as a component part of the
Wittenagemot; but who THESE were, is not so clearly ascertained by the
laws or the history of that period.  The matter would probably be of
difficult discussion, even were it examined impartially; but as our
modern parties have chosen to divide on this point, the question has
been disputed with the greater obstinacy, and the arguments on both
sides have become, on that account, the more captious and deceitful.
Our monarchical faction maintain, that these WITES, or SAPIENTES, were
the judges, or men learned in the law; the popular faction assert them
to be representatives of the boroughs, or what we now call the
Commons.
[FN [a] We know of one change, not inconsiderable, in the Saxon
constitution.  The Saxon Annals, p. 49, inform us, that it was in
early times the prerogative of the king to name the dukes, earls,
aldermen, and sheriffs of the counties.  Asser, a contemporary writer,
informs us, that Alfred deposed all the ignorant aldermen, and
appointed men of more capacity in their place.  Yet the laws of Edward
the Confessor, Sec. 35, say expressly, that the Heretoghs or dukes,
and the sheriffs, were chosen by the freeholders in the folkmote, a
county court, which was assembled once a year, and where all the
freeholders swore allegiance to the king.  [b] Sometimes abbesses were
admitted; at least, they often sign the king’s charters or grants.
Spellm. Gloss. in verbo PARLIAMENTUM.  [c] Wilkins, passim.  [d] See
note [G] at the end of the volume.]

The expressions employed by all ancient historians, in mentioning the
Wittenagemot, seem to contradict the latter supposition.  The members
are almost always called the PRINCIPES, SATRAPAE, OPTIMATES, MAGNATES,
PROCERES; terms which seem to suppose an aristocracy, and to exclude
the Commons.  The boroughs also, from the low state of commerce, were
so small and so poor, and the inhabitants lived in such dependence on
the great men [e], that it seemed nowise probable they would be
admitted as a part of the national councils.  The Commons are well
known to have had no share in the governments established by the
Franks, Burgundians, and other northern nations; and we may conclude
that the Saxons, who remained longer barbarous and uncivilized than
those tribes, would never think of conferring such an extraordinary
privilege on trade and industry.  The military profession alone was
honourable among all those conquerors; the warriors subsisted by their
possessions in land; they became considerable by their influence over
their vassals, retainers, tenants, and slaves; and it requires strong
proof to convince us that they would admit any of a rank so much
inferior as the burgesses, to share with them in the legislative
authority.  Tacitus indeed affirms, that among the ancient Germans,
the consent of all the members of the community was required in every
important deliberation; but he speaks not of representatives; and this
ancient practice, mentioned by the Roman historian, could only have
place in small tribes, where every citizen might, without
inconvenience, be assembled upon any extraordinary emergency.  After
principalities became extensive; after the difference of property had
formed distinctions more important than those which arose from
personal strength and valour, we may conclude, that the national
assemblies must have been more limited in their number, and composed
only of the more considerable citizens.
[FN [e] Brady’s Treatise of English Boroughs, p. 3, 4, 5, &c.]

But though we must exclude the burgesses, or Commons from the Saxon
Wittenagemot, there is some necessity for supposing that this assembly
consisted of other members than the prelates, abbots, aldermen, and
the judges or privy council.  For as all these, excepting some of the
ecclesiastics [f], were anciently appointed by the king, had there
been no other legislative authority, the royal power had been in a
great measure absolute, contrary to the tenour of all the historians,
and to the practice of all the northern nations.  We may therefore
conclude, that the more considerable proprietors of land were, without
any election, constituent members of the national assembly; there is
reason to think that forty hides, or between four and five thousand
acres, was the estate requisite for entitling the possessor to this
honourable privilege.  We find a passage in an ancient author [g], by
which it appears, that a person of very noble birth, even one allied
to the crown, was not esteemed a PRINCEPS (the term usually employed
by ancient historians, when the Wittenagemot is mentioned) till he had
acquired a fortune of that amount.  Nor need we imagine that the
public council would become disorderly or confused by admitting so
great a multitude.  The landed property of England was probably in few
hands during the Saxon times; at least during the latter part of that
period; and as men had hardly any ambition to attend those public
councils, there was no danger of the assembly’s becoming too numerous
for the despatch of the little business which was brought before them.
[FN [f] There is some reason to think, that the bishops were sometimes
chosen by the Wittenagemot, and confirmed by the king.  Eddius, cap.
2.  The abbots in the monasteries of royal foundation were anciently
named by the king; though Edgar gave the monks the election, and only
reserved to himself the ratification.  This destination was afterwards
frequently violated; and the abbots, as well as bishops were
afterwards all appointed by the king; as we learn from Ingulph, a
writer contemporary with the conquest.  [g] Hist. Eliensis, lib. 2
cap. 40.]

It is certain, that, whatever we may determine concerning the
constituent members of the Wittenagemot, in whom, with the king, the
legislature resided, the Anglo-Saxon government, in the period
preceding the Norman conquest, was become extremely aristocratical;
the royal authority was very limited; the people, even if admitted to
that assembly, were of little or no weight and consideration.  We have
hints given us in historians, of the great power and riches of
particular noblemen: and it could not but happen, after the abolition
of the Heptarchy, when the king lived at a distance from the
provinces, that those great proprietors, who resided on their estates,
would much augment their authority over their vassals and retainers,
and over all the inhabitants of the neighbourhood.  Hence the
immeasurable power assumed by Harold, Godwin, Leofric, Siward, Morcar,
Edwin, Edric, and Alfric, who controlled the authority of the kings,
and rendered themselves quite necessary in the government.  The two
latter, though detested by the people, on account of their joining a
foreign enemy, still preserved their power and influence; and we may
therefore conclude, that their authority was founded, not on
popularity, but on family rights and possessions.  There is one
Athelstan, mentioned in the reign of the king of that name, who is
called Alderman of all England, and is said to be half-king; though
the monarch himself was a prince of valour and abilities [h].  And we
find, that in the latter Saxon times, and in these alone, the great
office went from father to son, and became in a manner hereditary in
the families [i].
[FN [h] Hist. Rames. Sec. 3, p. 387.  [i] Roger Hoveden, giving the
reason why William the Conqueror made Cospatric Earl of
Northumberland, says, NAM EX MATERNO SANGUINE ATTINEBAT AD EUM HONOR
ILLIUS COMITATUS.  ERAT ENIM EX MATRE ALGITHA, FILIA UTHREDI COMITIS.
See also Sim. Dun. p. 205.  We see in those instances the same
tendency towards rendering offices hereditary, which took place,
during a more early period, on the continent, and which had already
produced there its full effect.]

The circumstances attending the invasions of the Danes would also
serve much to increase the power of the principal nobility.  Those
freebooters made unexpected inroads on all quarters; and there was a
necessity that each county should resist them by its own force, and
under the conduct of its own nobility and its own magistrates.  For
the same reason that a general war, managed by the united efforts of
the state, commonly augments the power of the crown; those private
wars and inroads turned to the advantage of the aldermen and nobles.

Among that military and turbulent people, so averse to commerce and
the arts, and so little inured to industry, justice was commonly very
ill administered, and great oppression and violence seem to have
prevailed.  These disorders would be increased by the exorbitant power
of the aristocracy; and would, in their turn, contribute to increase
it.  Men, not daring to rely on the guardianship of the laws, were
obliged to devote themselves to the service of some chieftain, whose
orders they followed, even to the disturbance of the government, or
the injury of their fellow-citizens, and who afforded them, in return,
protection from any insult or injustice by strangers.  Hence, we find
by the extracts which Dr. Brady has given us from Domesday, that
almost all the inhabitants, even of towns, had placed themselves under
the clientship of some particular nobleman, whose patronage they
purchased by annual payments, and whom they were obliged to consider
as their sovereign, more than the king himself, or even the
legislature [k].  A client, though a freeman, was supposed so much to
belong to his patron, that his murderer was obliged by law to pay a
fine to the latter, as a compensation for his loss; in like manner as
he paid a fine to the master for the murder of his slave [l].  Men who
were of a more considerable rank, but not powerful enough each to
support himself by his own independent authority, entered into formal
confederacies with each other, and composed a kind of separate
community, which rendered itself formidable to all aggressors.  Dr.
Hickes has preserved a curious Saxon bond of this kind, which he calls
a SODALITIUM, and which contains many particulars characteristical of
the manners and customs of the times [m].  All the associates are
there said to be gentlemen of Cambridgeshire, and they swear before
the holy relics to observe their confederacy, and to be faithful to
each other: they promise to bury any of the associates who dies, in
whatever place he had appointed; to contribute to his funeral charges,
and to attend at his interment; and whoever is wanting in this last
duty, binds himself to pay a measure of honey.  When any of the
associates is in danger, and calls for the assistance of his fellows,
they promise, besides flying to his succour, to give information to
the sheriff; and if he be negligent in protecting the person exposed
to danger, they engage to levy a fine of one pound upon him: if the
president of the society himself be wanting in this particular, he
binds himself to pay one pound; unless he has the reasonable excuse of
sickness, or of duty to his superior.  When any of the associates is
murdered, they are to exact eight pounds from the murderer; and if he
refuse to pay it, they are to prosecute him for the sum at their joint
expense.  If any of the associates who happens to be poor kill a man,
the society are to contribute, by a certain proportion, to pay his
fine: a mark a-piece if the fine be seven hundred shillings; less if
the person killed be a clown or ceorle; the half of that sum, again,
if he be a Welshman.  But where any of the associates kills a man,
wilfully and without provocation, he must himself pay the fine.  If
any of the associates kill any of his fellows in a like criminal
manner, besides paying the usual fine to the relations of the
deceased, he must pay eight pounds to the society, or renounce the
benefit of it; in which case, they bind themselves, under the penalty
of one pound, never to eat or drink with him, except in the presence
of the king, bishop, or alderman.  There are other regulations to
protect themselves and their servants from all injuries, to revenge
such as are committed, and to prevent their giving abusive language to
each other; and the fine, which they engage to pay for this last
offence, is a measure of honey.
[FN [k] Brady’s Treatise of Boroughs, p. 3, 4, 5, &c.  The case was
the same with the freemen in the country.  See Pref. to his Hist. p.
8, 9, 10, &c.  [1] LL. Edw. Conf. Sec. 8. apud Ingulph.  [m] Dissert.
Epist. p. 21.]

It is not to be doubted but a confederacy of this kind must have been
a great source of friendship and attachment; when men lived in
perpetual danger from enemies, robbers, and oppressors, and received
protection chiefly from their personal valour, and from the assistance
of their friends or patrons.  As animosities were then more violent,
connexions were also more intimate, whether voluntary or derived from
blood: the most remote degree of propinquity was regarded: an
indelible memory of benefits was preserved: severe vengeance was taken
for injuries, both from a point of honour, and as the best means of
future security: and the civil union being weak, many private
engagements were contracted in order to supply its place, and to
procure men that safety which the laws and their own innocence were
not alone able to insure to them.

On the whole, notwithstanding the seeming liberty, or rather
licentiousness, of the Anglo-Saxons, the great body even of the free
citizens, in those ages, really enjoyed much less true liberty, than
where the execution of the laws is the most severe, and where subjects
are reduced to the strictest subordination and dependence on the civil
magistrate.  The reason is derived from the excess itself of that
liberty.  Men must guard themselves at any price against insults and
injuries; and where they receive not protection from the laws and
magistrate, they will seek it by submission to superiors, and by
herding in some private confederacy which acts under the direction of
a powerful leader.  And thus all anarchy is the immediate cause of
tyranny, if not over the state, at least over many of the individuals.
Security was provided by the Saxon laws to all members of the
Wittenagemot, both in going and returning, EXCEPT THEY WERE NOTORIOUS
THIEVES AND ROBBERS.

[MN The several orders of men.]
The German Saxons, as the other nations of that continent, were
divided into three ranks of men, the noble, the free, and the slaves
[n].  This distinction they brought over with them into Britain.
[FN [n] Nithard. Hist. lib. 4.]

The nobles were called thanes; and were of two kinds, the king’s
thanes and lesser thanes.  The latter seem to have been dependent on
the former; and to have received lands, for which they paid rent,
services, or attendance in peace and war [o].  We know of no title
which raised any one to the rank of thane, except noble birth and the
possession of land.  The former was always much regarded by all the
German nations, even in their most barbarous state; and as the Saxon
nobility, having little credit, could scarcely burthen their estates
with much debt, and as the Commons had little trade or industry by
which they could accumulate riches, these two ranks of men, even
though they were not separated by positive laws, might remain long
distinct, and the noble families continue many ages in opulence and
splendour.  There were no middle ranks of men that could gradually mix
with their superiors, and insensibly procure to themselves honour and
distinction.  If by any extraordinary accident a mean person acquired
riches, a circumstance so singular made him be known and remarked; he
became the object of envy, as well as of indignation, to all the
nobles; he would have great difficulty to defend what he had acquired;
and he would find it impossible to protect himself from oppression,
except by courting the patronage of some great chieftain, and paying a
large price for his safety.
[FN [o] Spellm. Feuds and Tenures, p. 40.]

There are two statutes among the Saxon laws which seem calculated to
confound those different ranks of men; that of Athelstan, by which a
merchant, who had made three long sea voyages on his own account, was
entitled to the quality of thane [p]; and that of the same prince, by
which a ceorle or husbandman, who had been able to purchase five hides
of land, and had a chapel, a kitchen, a hall, and a bell, was raised
to the same distinction [q].  But the opportunities were so few, by
which a merchant or ceorle could thus exalt himself above his rank,
that the law could never overcome the reigning prejudices; the
distinction between noble and base blood would still be indelible; and
the well-born thanes would entertain the highest contempt for those
legal and factitious ones.  Though we are not informed of any of these
circumstances by ancient historians, they are so much founded on the
nature of things, that we may admit them as a necessary and infallible
consequence of the situation of the kingdom during those ages.
[FN [p] Wilkins, p. 71.  [q] Selden, Titles of Honour, p. 515.
Wilkins, p. 70.]

The cities appear by Domesday-book to have been at the Conquest little
better than villages [r].  York itself, though it was always the
second, at least the third [s], city in England, and was the capital
of a great province, which never was thoroughly united with the rest,
contained but one thousand four hundred and eighteen families [t].
Malmsbury tells us [u], that the great distinction between the
Anglo-Saxon nobility, and the French or Norman was, that the latter
built magnificent and stately castles; whereas the former consumed
their immense fortunes in riot and, hospitality, and in mean houses.
We may thence infer, that the arts in general were much less advanced
in England than in France; a greater number of idle servants and
retainers lived about the great families; and as these, even in
France, were powerful enough to disturb the execution of the laws, we
may judge of the authority acquired by the aristocracy in England.
When Earl Godwin besieged the Confessor in London, he summoned from
all parts his huscarles or houseceorles and retainers, and thereby
constrained his sovereign to accept of the conditions which he was
pleased to impose upon him.
[FN [r] Winchester, being the capital of the West Saxon monarchy, was
anciently a considerable city.  Gul. Pict. p. 210.  [s] Norwich
contained 738 houses, Exeter 315, Ipswich 538, Northampton 60,
Hereford 146, Canterbury 262, Bath 64, Southampton 84, Warwick 225.
See Brady of Boroughs, p. 3, 4, 5, 6, &c.  These are the most
considerable he mentions.  The account of them is extracted from
Domesday-book.  [t] Brady’s Treatise of Boroughs, p. 10.  There were
six wards, besides the archbishop’s palace; and five of these wards
contained the number of families here mentioned, which, at the rate of
five persons to a family, makes about 7000 souls.  The sixth ward was
laid waste.  [u] p. 102.  See also, De Gest. Angl. p. 333.]

The lower rank of freemen were denominated ceorles among the
Anglo-Saxons; and, where they were industrious, they were chiefly
employed in husbandry: whence a ceorle and a husbandman became in a
manner synonymous terms.  They cultivated the farms of the nobility or
thanes, for which they paid rent; and they seem to have been
removeable at pleasure.  For there is little mention of leases among
the Anglo-Saxons; the pride of the nobility, together with the general
ignorance of writing, must have rendered these contracts very rare,
and must have kept the husbandmen in a dependent condition.  The rents
of farms were then chiefly paid in kind [w].
[FN [w] LL. Inae, Sec. 70.  These laws fixed the rents for a hide; but
it is difficult to convert it into modern measures.]

But the most numerous rank by far in the community seems to have been
the slaves or villains, who were the property of their lords, and were
consequently incapable themselves of possessing any property.  Dr.
Brady assures us, from a survey of Domesday-book [x], that in all the
counties of England, the far greater part of the land was occupied by
them, and that the husbandmen, and still more the socmen, who were
tenants that could not be removed at pleasure, were very few in
comparison.  This was not the case with the German nations, as far as
we can collect from the account given us by Tacitus.  The perpetual
wars in the Heptarchy, and the depredations of the Danes, seem to have
been the cause of this great alteration with the Anglo-Saxons.
Prisoners taken in battle, or carried off in the frequent inroads,
were then reduced to slavery; and became, by right of war [y],
entirely at the disposal of their lords.  Great property in the
nobles, especially if joined to an irregular administration of
justice, naturally favours the power of the aristocracy; but still
more so if the practice of slavery be admitted, and has become very
common.  The nobility not only possess the influence which always
attends riches, but also the power which the laws give them over their
slaves and villains.  It then becomes difficult, and almost
impossible, for a private man to remain altogether free and
independent.
[FN [x] General Preface to his Hist. p. 7, 8, 9 &c.  [y] LL. Edg. Sec.
14 apud Spellm. Conc. vol. 1. p. 471.]

There were two kinds of slaves among the Anglo-Saxons; household
slaves, after the manner of the ancients, and praedial, or rustic,
after the manner of’ the Germans [z].  These latter resembled the
serfs, which are at present to be met with in Poland, Denmark, and
some parts of Germany.  The power of a master over his slaves was not
unlimited among the Anglo-Saxons, as it was among their ancestors.  If
a man beat out his slave’s eye or teeth, the slave recovered his
liberty [a]: if he killed him, he paid a fine to the king, provided
the slave died within a day after the wound or blow; otherwise it
passed unpunished [b].  The selling of themselves or children to
slavery was always the practice among the German nations [c], and was
continued by the Anglo-Saxons [d].
[FN [z] Spellm. Gloss. in verb. SERRUS  [a] LL. Aelf. Sec. 20.  [b]
Ibid 17.  [c] Tacit. de Morib. Germ.  [d] LL. Inae, Sec. 11  LL. Aelf.
Sec. 12.]

The great lords and abbots among the Anglo-Saxons possessed a criminal
jurisdiction within their territories, and could punish without
appeal, any thieves or robbers  whom they caught there [e].  This
institution must have had a very contrary effect to that which was
intended, and must have procured robbers a sure protection on the
lands of such noblemen as did not sincerely mean to discourage crimes
and violence.
[FN [e] Higden, lib. 1. cap. 50.  LL. Edw. Conf. Sec. 26.  Spellm.
Conc. vol. i. p. 415.  Gloss. in verb. HALIGEMOT ET INFANGENTHEFE.]

[MN Courts of justice.]
But though the general strain of the Anglo-Saxon government seems to
have become aristocratical, there were still considerable remains of
the ancient democracy, which were not indeed sufficient to protect the
lowest of the people, without the patronage of some great lord, but
might give security, and even some degree of dignity, to the gentry,
or inferior nobility.  The administration of justice, in particular,
by the courts of the decennary, the hundred, and the county, was well
calculated to defend general liberty, and to restrain the power of the
nobles.  In the county courts, or shiremotes, all the freeholders were
assembled twice a year, and received appeals from the inferior courts.
They there decided all causes, ecclesiastical as well as civil; and
the bishop, together with the alderman or earl, presided over them
[f].  The affair was determined in a summary manner, without much
pleading, formality, or delay, by a majority of voices; and the bishop
and alderman had no farther authority than to keep order among the
freeholders, and interpose with their opinion [g].  Where justice was
denied during three sessions by the hundred, and then by the county
court, there lay an appeal to the king’s court [h]; but this was not
practised on slight occasions.  The alderman received a third of the
fines levied in those courts [i]; and as most of the punishments were
then pecuniary, this perquisite formed a considerable part of the
profits belonging to his office.  The two-thirds also which went to
the king, made no contemptible part of the public revenue.  Any
freeholder was fined who absented himself thrice from these courts
[k].
[FN [f] LL. Edg. Sec. 5.  Wilkins, p. 78.  LL. Canut. Sec. 17.
Wilkins, p. 136.  [g] Hickes, Dissert. Epist. p. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
[h] LL. Edg Sec. 2.  Wilkins, p. 77.  LL. Canut. Sec. 18. apud
Wilkins, p. 136.  [i] LL. Edw. Conf. Sec. 31.  [k] LL. Ethelst. Sec.
20.]

As the extreme ignorance of the age made deeds and writings very rare,
the county or hundred court was the place where the most remarkable
civil transactions were finished, in order to preserve the memory of
them, and prevent all future disputes.  Here testaments were
promulgated, slaves manumitted, bargains of sale concluded; and
sometimes, for greater security, the most considerable of these deeds
were inserted in the blank leaves of the parish bible, which thus
became a kind of register too sacred to be falsified.  It was not
unusual to add to the deed an imprecation on all such as should be
guilty of that crime [l].
[FN [1] Hickes, Dissert. Epist.]

Among a people, who lived in so simple a manner as the Anglo-Saxons,
the judicial power is always of greater importance than the
legislative.  There were few or no taxes imposed by the states; there
were few statutes enacted; and the nation was less governed by laws
than by customs, which admitted a great latitude of interpretation.
Though it should therefore be allowed that the Wittenagemot was
altogether composed of the principal nobility, the county courts,
where all the freeholders were admitted, and which regulated all the
daily occurrences of life, formed a wide basis for the government, and
were no contemptible checks on the aristocracy.  But there is another
power still more important than either the judicial or legislative; to
wit, the power of injuring or serving by immediate force and violence,
for which it is difficult to obtain redress in courts of justice.  In
all extensive governments, where the execution of the laws is feeble,
this power naturally falls into the hands of the principal nobility;
and the degree of it which prevails cannot be determined so much by
the public statutes, as by small incidents in history, by particular
customs, and sometimes by the reason and nature of things.  The
Highlands of Scotland have long been entitled by law to every
privilege of British subjects; but it was not till very lately that
the common people could in fact enjoy these privileges.

The powers of all the members of the Anglo-Saxon government are
disputed among historians and antiquaries; the extreme obscurity of
the subject, even though faction had never entered into the question,
would naturally have begotten those controversies.  But the great
influence of the lords over their slaves and tenants, the clientship
of the burghers, the total want of a middling rank of men, the extent
of the monarchy, the loose execution of the laws, the continued
disorders and convulsions of the state; all these circumstances evince
that the Anglo-Saxon government became at last extremely
aristocratical; and the events, during the period immediately
preceding the conquest, confirm this inference or conjecture.

[MN Criminal law.]
Both the punishments inflicted by the Anglo-Saxon courts of
judicature, and the methods of proof employed in all causes, appear
somewhat singular, and are very different from those which prevail at
present among all civilized nations.

We must conceive that the ancient Germans were little removed from the
original state of nature: the social confederacy among them was more
martial than civil: they had chiefly in view the means of attack or
defence against public enemies, not those of protection against their
fellow-citizens: their possessions were so slender and so equal, that
they were not exposed to great danger; and the natural bravery of the
people made every man trust to himself, and to his particular friends,
for his defence or vengeance.  This defect in the political union drew
much closer the knot of particular confederacies; an insult upon any
man was regarded by all his relations and associates as a common
injury; they were bound by honour, as well as by a sense of common
interest, to revenge his death, or any violence which he had suffered:
they retaliated on the aggressor by like acts of violence; and if he
were protected, as was natural and usual, by his own clan, the quarrel
was spread still wider, and bred endless disorders in the nation.

The Frisians, a tribe of the Germans, had never advanced beyond this
wild and imperfect state of society; and the right of private revenge
still remained among them unlimited and uncontrolled [m].  But the
other German nations, in the age of Tacitus, had made one step farther
towards completing the political or civil union.  Though it still
continued to be an indispensable point of honour for every clan to
revenge the death or injury of a member, the magistrate had acquired a
right of interposing in the quarrel, and of accommodating the
difference.  He obliged the person maimed or injured, and the
relations of one killed, to accept of a present from the aggressor and
his relations [n], as a compensation for the injury [o], and to drop
all farther prosecution of revenge.  That the accommodation of one
quarrel might not be the source of more, this present was fixed and
certain, according to the rank of the person killed, or injured, and
was commonly paid in cattle, the chief property of those rude and
uncultivated nations.  A present of this kind gratified the revenge of
the injured family, by the loss which the aggressor suffered; it
satisfied their pride, by the submission which it expressed; it
diminished their regret for the loss or injury of a kinsman, by their
acquisition of new property; and thus general peace was for a moment
restored to the society [p].
[FN [m] LL. Fris. tit. 2. apud. Lindenbrog. p. 491.  [n] LL. Aethelb.
Sec. 23. LL. Aelf. Sec. 27.  [o] Called by the Saxons MOEGBOTA.  [p]
Tacit. de Morib. Germ.  The author says, that the price of the
composition was fixed; which must have been by the laws and the
interposition of the magistrates.]

But when the German nations had been settled some time in the
provinces of the Roman empire, they made still another step towards a
more cultivated life, and their criminal justice gradually improved
and refined itself.  The magistrate, whose office it was to guard
public peace, and to suppress private animosities, conceived himself
to be injured by every injury done to any of his people; and besides
the compensation to the person who suffered, or to his family, he
thought himself entitled to exact a fine called the Fridwit as an
atonement for the breach of peace, and as a reward for the pains which
he had taken in accommodating the quarrel.  When this idea, which is
so natural, was once suggested, it was willingly received both by
sovereign and people.  The numerous fines which were levied augmented
the revenue of the king; and the people were sensible that he would be
more vigilant in interposing with his good offices, when he reaped
such immediate advantage from them; and that injuries would be less
frequent, when, besides compensation to the person injured, they were
exposed to this additional penalty [q].
[FN [q] Besides paying money to the relations of the deceased, and to
the king, the murderer was also obliged to pay the master of a slave
or vassal a sum as a compensation for his loss.  This was called the
MANBOTE.  See Spell. Gloss. in verb. FREDUM, MANBOT.]

This short abstract contains the history of the criminal jurisprudence
of the northern nations for several centuries.  The state of England
in this particular, during the period of the Anglo-Saxons, may be
judged of by the collection of ancient laws, published by Lambard and
Wilkins.  The chief purport of these laws is not to prevent or
entirely suppress private quarrels, which the legislature knew to be
impossible, but only to regulate and moderate them.  The laws of
Alfred enjoin, that if any one know that his enemy or aggressor, after
doing him an injury, resolves to keep within his own house, AND HIS
OWN LANDS [r], he shall not fight him till he require compensation for
the injury.  If he be strong enough to besiege him in his house, he
may do it for seven days without attacking him; and if the aggressor
be willing, during that time, to surrender himself and his arms, his
adversary may detain him thirty days; but is afterwards obliged to
restore him safe to his kindred, AND BE CONTENT WITH THE COMPENSATION.
If the criminal fly to the temple, that sanctuary must not be
violated.  Where the assailant has not force sufficient to besiege the
criminal in his house, he must apply to the alderman for assistance;
and if the alderman refuse aid, the assailant must have recourse to
the king; and he is not allowed to assault the house till after this
supreme magistrate has refused assistance.  If any one meet with his
enemy, and be ignorant that he was resolved to keep within his own
lands, he must, before he attack him, require him to surrender himself
prisoner, and deliver up his arms; in which case he may detain him
thirty days: but if he refuse to deliver up his arms, it is then
lawful to fight him.  A slave may fight in his master's quarrel: a
father may fight in his son's with any one, except with his master
[s].
[FN [r] The addition of these last words in Italics appears necessary
from what follows in the same law.  [s] LL. Aelfr. Sec. 28  Wilkins,
p. 43.]

It was enacted by King Ina, that no man should take revenge for an
injury till he had first demanded compensation, and had been refused
it [t].
[FN [t] LL. Inae, Sec. 9.]

King Edmond, in the preamble to his laws, mentions the general misery
occasioned by the multiplicity of private feuds and battles; and he
establishes several expedients for remedying this grievance.  He
ordained that if any one commit murder, be may, with the assistance of
his kindred, pay within a twelvemonth the fine of his crime; and if
they abandon him, he shall alone sustain the deadly feud or quarrel
with the kindred of the murdered person: his own kindred are free from
the feud, but on condition that they neither converse with the
criminal, nor supply him with meat or OTHER NECESSARIES: if any of
them, after renouncing him, receive him into their house, OR GIVE HIM
ASSISTANCE, they are finable to the king, and are involved in the
feud.  If the kindred of the murdered person take revenge on any but
the criminal himself, AFTER HE IS ABANDONED BY HIS KINDRED, all their
property is forfeited, and they are declared to be enemies to the king
and all his friends [u].  It is also ordained, that the fine for
murder shall never be remitted by the king [w]; and that no criminal
shall be killed who flies to the church, or any of the king’s towns
[x]; and the king himself declares, that his house shall give no
protection to murderers, till they have satisfied the church by their
penance, and the kindred of the deceased, by making compensation [y].
The method appointed for transacting this composition is found in the
same law [z].
[FN [u] LL. Edm. Sec. 1.  Wilkins, p. 73.  [w] LL. Edm. Sec. 3.  [x]
Ibid. Sec. 2.  [y] Ibid. Sec. 4.  [z] Ibid Sec. 7.]

These attempts of Edmond, to contract and diminish the feuds, were
contrary to the ancient spirit of the northern barbarians, and were a
step towards a more regular administration of justice.  By the Salic
law, any man might, by a public declaration, exempt himself from his
family quarrels: but then he was considered by the law as no longer
belonging to the family; and he was deprived of all right of
succession, as the punishment of his cowardice [a].
[FN [a] Tit. 63.]

The price of the king's head, or his weregild, as it was then called,
was by law thirty thousand thrimsas, near thirteen hundred pounds of
present money.  The price of the prince's head was fifteen thousand
thrimsas; that of a bishop's or alderman's, eight thousand; a
sheriff’s four thousand; a thane's or clergyman's, two thousand; a
ceorle's, two hundred and sixty-six.  These prices were fixed by the
laws of the Angles.  By the Mercian law, the price of a ceorle's head
was two hundred shillings; that of a thane's six times as much; that
of a king's six times more [b].  By the laws of Kent, the price of the
archbishop's head was higher than that of the king’s [c].  Such
respect was then paid to the ecclesiastics!  It must be understood,
that where a person was unable or unwilling to pay the fine, he was
put out of the protection of law, and the kindred of the deceased had
liberty to punish him as they thought proper.
[FN [b] Wilkins, p. 71, 72.  [c] LL. Elthredi, apud Wilkins, p. 110.]

Some antiquarians [d] have thought, that these compensations were only
given for manslaughter, not for wilful murder: but no such distinction
appears in the laws; and it is contradicted by the practice of all the
other barbarous nations [e], by that of the ancient Germans [f], and
by that curious monument above mentioned, a Saxon antiquity, preserved
by Hickes.  There is indeed a law of Alfred's, which makes wilful
murder capital [g]; but this seems only to have been an attempt of
that great legislator towards establishing a better police in the
kingdom, and it probably remained without execution.  By the laws of
the same prince, a conspiracy against the life of the king might be
redeemed by a fine [h].
[FN [d] Tyrrel, Introduction, vol. i. p.126.  Carte, vol. i. p. 366.
[e] Lindenbrogius, passim.  [f] Tac. de Mor. Germ.  [g] LL. Aelf. Sec.
12.  Wilkins, p. 29.  It is probable that by wilful murder Alfred
means a treacherous murder, committed by one who had no declared feud
with another.  [h] LL. Aelf. Sec. 4  Wilkins, p. 35.]

The price of all kinds of wounds was likewise fixed by the Saxon laws:
a wound of an inch long under the hair, was paid with one shilling;
one of a like size in the face, two shillings: thirty shillings for
the loss of an ear, and so forth [i].  There seems not to have been
any difference made, according to the dignity of the person.  By the
laws of Ethelbert, any one who committed adultery with his neighbour's
wife, was obliged to pay him a fine, and buy him another wife [k].
[FN [i] LL. Elf. Sec. 40.  See also, LL. Ethelb. Sec. 34, &c.  [k] LL.
Ethelb. Sec. 32.]

These institutions are not peculiar to the ancient Germans.  They seem
to be the necessary progress of criminal jurisprudence among every
free people, where the will of the sovereign is not implicitly obeyed.
We find them among the ancient Greeks during the time of the Trojan
war.  Compositions for murder are mentioned in Nestor's speech to
Achilles in the ninth Iliad and are called APOINAI.  The Irish, who
never had any connexions with the German nations, adopted the same
practice till very lately; and the price of a man's head was called
among them his ERIC; as we learn from Sir John Davis.  The same custom
seems also to have prevailed among the Jews [l].
[FN [l] Exod. cap. xxi. 29, 30.]

Theft and robbery were frequent among the Anglo-Saxons.  In order to
impose some check upon these crimes, it was ordained, that no man
should sell or buy any thing above twenty-pence value, except in open
market [m]; and every bargain of sale must be executed before
witnesses [n].  Gangs of robbers much disturbed the peace of the
country; and the law determined, that a tribe of banditti, consisting
of between seven and thirty-five persons, was to be called a TURMA, or
troop: any greater company was denominated an army [o].  The
punishments for this crime were various, but none of them capital [p].
If any man could track his stolen cattle into another's ground, the
latter was obliged to show the tracks out of it, or pay their value
[q].
[FN [m] LL. Aethelst. Sec. 12.  [n] Ibid. Sec. 10, 12.  LL. Edg. apud
Wilkins, p. 80.  LL. Ethelredi, Sec. 4 apud Wilkins, p. 103.  Hloth.
and Eadm. Sec. 16.  LL. Canut. Sec. 22.  [o] LL. Inae, Sec. 12.  [p]
LL. Inae, Sec. 37.  [q] LL. Aethelst. Sec. 2. Wilkins, p. 63.]

Rebellion, to whatever excess it was carried, was not capital, but
might be redeemed by a sum of money [r].  The legislators, knowing it
impossible to prevent all disorders, only imposed a higher fine on
breaches of the peace committed in the king's court, or before an
alderman or bishop.  An alehouse too seems to have been considered as
a privileged place; and any quarrels that arose there were more
severely punished than elsewhere [s].
[FN [r] LL. Ethelredi, apud Wilkins, p. 110.  LL. Aelf. Sec. 4.
Wilkins, p. 35.  [s] LL. Hloth. and Eadm. Sec. 12, 13.  LL. Ethelr.
apud Wilkins, p. 117.]

[MN Rules of proof.]
If the manner of punishing crimes among the Anglo-Saxons appear
singular, the proofs were not less so; and were also the natural
result of the situation of the people.  Whatever we may imagine
concerning the usual truth and sincerity of men who live in a rude and
barbarous state, there is much more falsehood, and even perjury among
them, than among civilized nations; virtue which is nothing but a more
enlarged and more cultivated reason, never flourishes to any degree,
nor is founded on steady principles of honour, except where a good
education becomes general; and where men are taught the pernicious
consequences of vice, treachery, and immorality.  Even superstition,
though more prevalent among ignorant nations, is but a poor supply for
the defects in knowledge and education: our European ancestors, who
employed every moment the expedient of swearing on extraordinary
crosses and relics, were less honourable in all engagements than their
posterity, who, from experience, have omitted those ineffectual
securities.  This general proneness to perjury was much increased by
the usual want of discernment in judges, who could not discuss an
intricate evidence, and were obliged to number, not weigh, the
testimony of the witnesses [t].  Hence the ridiculous practice of
obliging men to bring compurgators, who, as they did not pretend to
know any thing of the fact, expressed upon oath, that they believed
the person spoke true; and these compurgators were in some cases
multiplied to the number of three hundred [u].  The practice also of
single combat was employed by most nations on the continent as a
remedy against false evidence [w]; and though it was frequently
dropped, from the opposition of the clergy, it was continually revived
from experience of the falsehood attending the testimony of witnesses
[x].  It became at last a species of jurisprudence: the cases were
determined by law, in which the party might challenge his adversary,
or the witnesses, or the judge himself [y]: and though these customs
were absurd, they were rather an improvement on the methods of trial
which had formerly been practised among those barbarous nations, and
which still prevailed among the Anglo-Saxons.
[FN [t] Sometimes the laws fixed easy general rules for weighing the
credibility of witnesses.  A man whose life was estimated at 120
shillings, counterbalanced six ceorles, each of whose lives was only
valued at 20 shillings, and his oath was deemed equivalent to that of
all the six.  See Wilkins, p. 72.  [u] Praef. Nicol. ad Wilkins, p 11.
[w] LL. Burgund. cap. 45.  LL. Lomb. lib. 2. tit. 55, cap. 34.  [x]
LL. Longob. lib. 2. tit. 55. cap. 23. apud Landenb. p. 661.  [y] See
Desfontaines and Beaumanoir.]

When any controversy about a fact became too intricate for those
ignorant judges to unravel, they had recourse to what they called the
judgment of God; that is, to fortune: their methods of consulting this
oracle were various.  One of them was the decision of the CROSS: it
was practised in this manner: when a person was accused of any crime,
he first cleared himself by oath, and he was attended by eleven
compurgators.  He next took two pieces of wood, one of which was
marked with the sign of the cross, and wrapping both up in wool, he
placed them on the altar, or on some celebrated relic.  After solemn
prayers for the success of the experiment, a priest, or, in his stead,
some unexperienced youth, took up one of the pieces of wood, and if he
happened upon that which was marked with the figure of the cross, the
person was pronounced innocent; if otherwise, guilty [z].  This
practice, as it arose from superstition, was abolished by it in
France.  The emperor, Lewis the Debonnaire, prohibited that method of
trial, not because it was uncertain, but lest that sacred figure, says
he, of the cross should be prostituted in common disputes and
controversies [a].
[FN [z] LL. Frison. tit. 14. apud Lindenbrogium, p. 496.  [a] Du
Cange, in verb. CRUX.]

The ordeal was another established method of trial among the Anglo-
Saxons.  It was practised either by boiling water or red-hot iron.
The former was appropriated to the common people; the latter to the
nobility.  The water or iron was consecrated by many prayers, masses,
fastings, and exorcisms [b]; after which the person accused either
took up a stone sunk in the water [c] to a certain depth, or carried
the iron to a certain distance; and his hand being wrapped up, and the
covering sealed for three days, if there appeared, on examining it, no
marks of burning, he was pronounced innocent; if otherwise, guilty
[d].  The trial by cold water was different: the person was thrown
into consecrated water; if he swam, he was guilty; if he sunk,
innocent [e].  It is difficult for us to conceive how any innocent
person could ever escape by the one trial, or any criminal be
convicted by the other.  But there was another usage admirably
calculated for allowing every criminal to escape who had confidence
enough to try it.  A consecrated cake, called a corsned, was produced;
which if the person could swallow and digest he was pronounced
innocent [f].
[FN [b] Spellm. in verb. ORDEAL.  Parker, p. 155.  Lindenbrog. p 1299.
[c] LL. Inae, Sec. 77.  [d] Sometimes the person accused walked
barefoot over red-hot iron.  [e] Spellm. in verb. ORDEALIUM.  [f]
Spellm. in verb. CORSNED  Parker, p. 156.  Text. Roffens. p. 33.]

[MN Military force.]
The feudal law, if it had place at all among the Anglo-Saxons, which
is doubtful, was not certainly extended over all the landed property,
and was not attended with those consequences of homage, reliefs [g],
wardship, marriage, and other burdens, which were inseparable from it
in the kingdoms of the continent.  As the Saxons expelled, or almost
entirely destroyed, the ancient Britons, they planted themselves in
this island on the same footing with their ancestors in Germany, and
found no occasion for the feudal institutions [h], which were
calculated to maintain a kind of standing army, always in readiness to
suppress any insurrection among the conquered people.  The trouble and
expense of defending the state in England lay equally upon all the
land; and it was usual for every five hides to equip a man for the
service.  The TRINODA NECESSITAS, as it was called, or the burden of
military expeditions, of repairing highways, and of building and
supporting bridges, was inseparable from landed property, even though
it belonged to the church or monasteries, unless exempted by a
particular charter [i].  The ceorles or husbandmen were provided with
arms, and were obliged to take their turn in military duty [k].  There
were computed to be two hundred and forty-three thousand six hundred
hides in England [l]; consequently, the ordinary military force of the
kingdom consisted of forty-eight thousand seven hundred and twenty
men; though, no doubt, on extraordinary occasions, a greater number
might be assembled.  The king and nobility had some military tenants,
who were called Sithcun-men [m].  And there were some lands annexed to
the office of alderman, and to other offices; but these probably were
not of great extent, and were possessed only during pleasure, as in
the commencement of the feudal law in other countries of Europe.
[FN [g] On the death of an alderman, a greater or lesser thane, there
was a payment made to the king of his best arms; and this was called
his heriot: but this was not of the nature of a relief.  See Spellm.
of Tenures, p. 2.  The value of this heriot fixed by Canute's laws,
Sec. 69.  [h] Bracton de Acqu. rer. domin. lib. 2. cap. 16.  See more
fully Spellman of Feuds and Tenures, and Craigius de jure feud. lib.
1. dieg. 7.  [i] Spellm. Conc. vol. i. p. 256.  [k] Inae, Sec. 51.
[l] Spellm. of Feuds and Tenures, p. 17.  [m] Spellm. Conc. vol. i. p.
195.]

[MN Public revenue.]
The revenue of the king seems to have consisted chiefly in his
demesnes, which were large; and in the tolls and imposts which he
probably levied at discretion on the boroughs and seaports that lay
within his demesnes.  He could not alienate any part of the crown
lands, even to religious uses, without the consent of the states [n].
Danegelt was a land-tax of a shilling a hide, imposed by the states
[o], either for payment of the sums exacted by the Danes, or for
putting the kingdom in a posture of defence against those invaders
[p].
[FN [n] Spellm. Conc. vol. i. p. 340.  [o] Chron. Sax p. 128.  [p] LL.
Edw. Con. Sec. 12.]

[MN Value of money.]
The Saxon pound, as likewise that which was coined for some centuries
after the Conquest, was near three times the weight of our present
money: there were forty-eight shillings in the pound, and five pence
in a shilling [q]; consequently, a Saxon shilling was near a fifth
heavier than ours, and a Saxon penny near three times as heavy [r].
As to the value of money in those times, compared to commodities,
there are some, though not very certain, means of computation.  A
sheep, by the laws of Athelstan, was estimated at a shilling; that is,
fifteen pence of our money.  The fleece was two fifths of the value of
the whole sheep [s]; much above its present estimation; and the reason
probably was, that the Saxons, like the ancients, were little
acquainted with any clothing but what was made of wool.  Silk and
cotton were quite unknown: linen was not much used.  An ox was
computed at six times the value of a sheep; a cow at four [t].  If we
suppose that the cattle in that age, from the defects in husbandry,
were not so large as they are at present in England, we may compute
that money was then near ten times of greater value.  A horse was
valued at about thirty-six shillings of our money, or thirty Saxon
shillings [u]; a mare a third less  A man at three pounds [w].  The
board wages of a child the first year was eight shillings, together
with a cow's pasture in summer, and an ox's in winter [x].  William of
Malmesbury mentions it as a remarkably high price, that William Rufus
gave fifteen marks for a horse, or about thirty pounds of our present
money [y].  Between the years 900 and 1000, Ednoth bought a hide of
land for about a hundred and eighteen shillings of our present money
[z].  This was little more than a shilling an acre, which indeed
appears to have been the usual price, as we may learn from other
accounts [a].  A palfrey was sold for twelve shillings about the year
966 [b].  The value of an ox in King Ethelred's time was between seven
and eight shillings; a cow about six shillings [c].  Gervas of Tilbury
says, that in Henry I.'s time, bread which would suffice a hundred men
for a day was rated at three shillings, or a shilling of that age; for
it is thought that, soon after the Conquest, a pound sterling was
divided into twenty shillings: a sheep was rated at a shilling; and so
of other things in proportion.  In Athelstan's time a ram was valued
at a shilling, or four pence Saxon [d].  The tenants of Shireburn were
obliged, at their choice, to pay either sixpence or four hens [e].
About 1232, the Abbot of St. Alban's going on a journey, hired seven
handsome stout horses; and agreed, if any of them died on the road, to
pay the owner thirty shillings a-piece of our present money [f].  It
is to be remarked, that in all ancient times the raising of corn,
especially wheat, being a species of manufactory, that commodity
always bore a higher price, compared to cattle, than it does in our
times [g].  The Saxon Chronicle tells us [h], that in the reign of
Edward the Confessor, there was the most terrible famine ever known;
insomuch that a quarter of wheat rose to sixty pennies, or fifteen
shillings of our present money.  Consequently it was as dear as if it
now cost seven pounds ten shillings.  This much exceeds the great
famine in the end of Queen Elizabeth, when a quarter of wheat was sold
for four pounds.  Money in this last period was nearly of the same
value as in our time.  These severe famines are a certain proof of bad
husbandry.
[FN [q] LL. Aelf. Sec. 40.  [r] Fleetwood’s Chron. Pretiosum, p. 27,
28, &c.  [s] LL. Inae, Sec. 69.  [t] Wilkins, p 66.  [u] Ibid. p. 126.
[w] Ibid.  [x] LL. Inae, Sec. 38.  [y] p. 121.  [z] Hist. Rames, p.
415.  [a] Hist. Eliens. p. 473.  [b] Ibid. p. 471.  [c] Wilkins, p.
126.  [d] Ibid. p. 56.  [e] Monast. Anglic. vol. ii. p. 528.  [f] Mat.
Paris.  [g] Fleetwood, p. 83, 94, 96, 98.  [h] p. 157.]

On the whole, there are three things to be considered, wherever a sum
of money is mentioned in ancient times.  First, the change of
denomination, by which a pound has been reduced to the third part of
its ancient weight in silver.  Secondly, the change in value by the
greater plenty of money, which has reduced the same weight of silver
to ten times less value compared to commodities; and consequently a
pound sterling to the thirtieth part of the ancient value.  Thirdly,
the fewer people and less industry, which were then to be found in
every European kingdom.  This circumstance made even the thirtieth
part of the sum more difficult to levy, and caused any sum to have
more than thirty times greater weight and influence, both abroad and
at home, than in our times; in the same manner that a sum, a hundred
thousand pounds, for instance, is at present more difficult to levy in
a small state, such as Bavaria, and can produce greater effects on
such a small community, than on England.  This last difference is not
easy to be calculated: but allowing that England has now six times
more industry, and three times more people than it had at the
Conquest, and for some reigns after that period, we are upon that
supposition to conceive, taking all circumstances together, every sum
of money mentioned by historians, as if it were multiplied more than a
hundredfold above a sum of the same denomination at present.

In the Saxon times, land was divided equally among all the male
children of the deceased, according to the custom of Gavelkind.  The
practice of entails is to be found in those times [i].  Land was
chiefly of two kinds, bockland, or land held by book or charter, which
was regarded as full property, and descended to the heirs of the
possessor; and folkland, or the land held by the ceorles and common
people, who were removable at pleasure, and were indeed only tenants
during the will of their lords.
[FN [i] LL Aelf. Sec. 37, apud Wilkins, p. 43.]

The first attempt which we find in England to separate the
ecclesiastical from the civil jurisdiction, was that law of Edgar, by
which all disputes among the clergy were ordered to be carried before
the bishop [k].  The penances were then very severe; but as a man
could buy them off with money, or might substitute others to perform
them, they lay easy upon the rich [l].
[FN [k] Wilkins, p. 83.  [l] Wilkins, p. 96, 97.  Spellm. Conc. p.
473.]

[MN Manners.]
With regard to the manners of the Anglo-Saxons we can say little, but
that they were in general a rude uncultivated people, ignorant of
letters, unskilled in the mechanical arts, untamed to submission under
law and government, addicted to intemperance, riot, and disorder.
Their best quality was their military courage, which yet was not
supported by discipline or conduct.  Their want of fidelity to the
prince, or to any trust reposed in them, appears strongly in the
history of their later period; and their want of humanity in all their
history.  Even the Norman historians, notwithstanding the low state of
the arts in their own country, speak of them as barbarians, when they
mention the invasion made upon them by the Duke of Normandy [m].  The
Conquest put the people in a situation of receiving slowly, from
abroad, the rudiments of science and cultivation, and of correcting
their rough and licentious manners.
[FN [m] Gul. Pict. p. 202.]




CHAPTER IV.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS.--SUBMISSION OF THE ENGLISH.--
SETTLEMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT.--KING'S RETURN TO NORMANDY.--DISCONTENTS
OF THE ENGLISH.--THEIR INSURRECTIONS.--RIGOURS OF THE NORMAN
GOVERNMENT.--NEW INSURRECTIONS.--NEW RIGOURS OF THE GOVERNMENT.--
INTRODUCTION OF THE FEUDAL LAW.--INNOVATION IN ECCLESIASTICAL
GOVERNMENT.--INSURRECTION OF THE NORMAN BARONS.--DISPUTE ABOUT
INVESTITURES.--REVOLT OF PRINCE ROBERT.--DOMESDAY-BOOK.--THE NEW
FOREST.--WAR WITH FRANCE.--DEATH AND CHARACTER OF WILLIAM THE
CONQUEROR.



[MN 1066.  Consequences of the battle of Hastings.]
Nothing could exceed the consternation which seized the English, when
they received intelligence of the unfortunate battle of Hastings, the
death of their king, the slaughter of their principal nobility and of
their bravest warriors, and the rout and dispersion of the remainder.
But though the loss which they had sustained in that fatal action was
considerable, it might have been repaired by a great nation; where the
people were generally armed, and where there resided so many powerful
noblemen in every province, who could have assembled their retainers,
and have obliged the Duke of Normandy to divide his army, and probably
to waste it in a variety of actions and rencounters.  It was thus that
the kingdom had formerly resisted, for many years, its invaders, and
had been gradually subdued, by the continued efforts of the Romans,
Saxons, and Danes; and equal difficulties might have been apprehended
by William in this bold and hazardous enterprise.  But there were
several vices in the Anglo-Saxon constitution, which rendered it
difficult for the English to defend their liberties in so critical an
emergency.  The people had in a great measure lost all national pride
and spirit, by their recent and long subjection to the Danes; and as
Canute had, in the course of his administration, much abated the
rigours of conquest, and had governed them equitably by their own
laws, they regarded with the less terror the ignominy of a foreign
yoke, and deemed the inconveniences of submission less formidable than
those of bloodshed, war, and resistance.  Their attachment also to the
ancient royal family had been much weakened by their habits of
submission to the Danish princes, and by their late election of
Harold, or their acquiescence in his usurpation.  And as they had long
been accustomed to regard Edgar Atheling, the only heir of the Saxon
line, as unfit to govern them even in times of order and tranquillity,
they could entertain small hopes of his being able to repair such
great losses as they had sustained, or to withstand the victorious
arms of the Duke of Normandy.

That they might not, however, be altogether wanting to themselves in
this extreme necessity, the English took some steps towards adjusting
their disjointed government, and uniting themselves against the common
enemy.  The two potent earls, Edwin and Morcar, who had fled to London
with the remains of the broken army, took the lead on this occasion:
in concert with Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, a man possessed of
great authority and of ample revenues, they proclaimed Edgar, and
endeavoured to put the people in a posture of defence, and encouraged
them to resist the Normans [a].  But the terror of the late defeat,
and the near neighbourhood of the invaders, increased the confusion
inseparable from great revolutions: and every resolution proposed was
hasty, fluctuating, tumultuary; disconcerted by fear or faction,
ill-planned, and worse executed.
[FN [a] Gul. Pictav. p. 205.  Order. Vitalis, p. 502.  Hoveden, p.
449.  Knyghton, p. 2343.]

William, that his enemies might have no leisure to recover from their
consternation, or unite their councils, immediately put himself in
motion after his victory, and resolved to prosecute an enterprise
which nothing but celerity and vigour could render finally successful.
His first attempt was against Romney, whose inhabitants he severely
punished, on account of their cruel treatment of some Norman seamen
and soldiers, who had been carried thither by stress of weather, or by
a mistake in their course [b]; and foreseeing that his conquest of
England might still be attended with many difficulties and with much
opposition, he deemed it necessary, before he should advance farther
into the country, to make himself master of Dover, which would both
secure him a retreat in case of adverse fortune, and afford him a safe
landing-place for such supplies as might be requisite for pushing his
advantages.  The terror diffused by his victory at Hastings was so
great, that the garrison of Dover, though numerous and well provided,
immediately capitulated; and as the Normans, rushing in to take
possession of the town, hastily set fire to some of the houses,
William, desirous to conciliate the minds of the English by an
appearance of lenity and justice, made compensation to the inhabitants
for their losses [c].
[FN [b] Gul. Pictav. p. 204.  [c] Gul. Pictav. p. 204.]

The Norman army, being much distressed with a dysentery, was obliged
to remain here eight days, but the duke, on their recovery, advanced
with quick marches towards London, and by his approach increased the
confusions which were already so prevalent in the English councils.
The ecclesiastics in particular, whose influence was great over the
people, began to declare in his favour; and as most of the bishops and
dignified clergymen were even then Frenchmen or Normans, the pope’s
bull, by which his enterprise was avowed and hallowed, was now openly
insisted on as a reason for general submission.  The superior learning
of those prelates, which, during the Confessor's reign, had raised
them above the ignorant Saxons, made their opinions be received with
implicit faith; and a young prince, like Edgar, whose capacity was
deemed so mean, was but ill qualified to resist the impression which
they made on the minds of the people.  A repulse which a body of
Londoners received from five hundred Norman horse, renewed in the city
the terror of the great defeat at Hastings; the easy submission of all
the inhabitants of Kent was an additional discouragement to them; the
burning of Southwark before their eyes made them dread a like fate to
their own city; and no man any longer entertained thoughts but of
immediate safety and of self-preservation.  Even the Earls Edwin and
Morcar, in despair of making effectual resistance, retired with their
troops to their own provinces; and the people thenceforth disposed
themselves unanimously to yield to the  victor.  As soon as he passed
the Thames at Wallingford, and reached Berkhamstead, Stigand, the
primate, made submissions to him: before he came within sight of the
city, all the chief nobility, and Edgar Atheling himself, the new-
elected king, came into his camp, and declared their intention of
yielding to his authority [d].  They requested him to mount their
throne, which they now considered as vacant; and declared to him, that
as they had always been ruled by regal power, they desired to follow,
in this particular, the example of their ancestors, and knew of no one
more worthy than himself to hold the reins of government [e].
[FN [d] Hoveden, p. 450.  Flor. Wigorn. p. 634.  [e] Gul. Pict. p.
205.  Ord. Vital. p. 503.]

Though this was the great object to which the duke's enterprise
tended, he feigned to deliberate on the offer; and being desirous at
first of preserving the appearance of a legal administration, he
wished to obtain a more explicit and formal consent of the English
nation [f]: but Almar, of Aquitain, a man equally respected for valour
in the field and for prudence in council, remonstrating with him on
the danger of delay in so critical a conjuncture, he laid aside all
farther scruples, and accepted of the crown which was tendered him.
Orders were immediately issued to prepare every thing for the ceremony
of his coronation; but as he was yet afraid to place entire confidence
in the Londoners, who were numerous and warlike, he meanwhile
commanded fortresses to be erected, in order to curb the inhabitants,
and to secure his person and government [g].
[FN [f] Gul. Pictav. p. 205.  [g] Ibid.]

Stigand was not much in the duke’s favour, both because he had
intruded into the see on the expulsion of Robert the Norman, and
because he possessed such influence and authority over the English
[h], as might be dangerous to a new-established monarch.  William,
therefore, pretending that the primate had obtained his pall in an
irregular manner from Pope Benedict IX., who was himself an usurper,
refused to be consecrated by him, and conferred this honour on Aldred,
Archbishop of York.  Westminster Abbey was the place appointed for
that magnificent ceremony; the most considerable of the nobility, both
English and Norman, attended the duke on this occasion: [MN 1066.
Dec.] Aldred, in a short speech, asked the former whether they agreed
to accept of William as their king: the Bishop of Coutance put the
same question to the latter; and both being answered with acclamations
[i], Aldred administered to the duke the usual coronation oath, by
which he bound himself to protect the church, to administer justice,
and to repress violence: he then anointed him, and put the crown upon
his head [k].  There appeared nothing but joy in the countenances of
the spectators: but in that very moment there burst forth the
strongest symptoms of the jealousy and animosity which prevailed
between the nations, and which continually increased during the reign
of this prince.  The Norman soldiers, who were placed without, in
order to guard the church, hearing the shouts within, fancied that the
English were offering violence to their duke; and they immediately
assaulted the populace, and set fire to the neighbouring houses.  The
alarm was conveyed to the nobility who surrounded the prince; both
English and Normans, full of apprehensions, rushed out to secure
themselves from the present danger; and it was with difficulty that
William himself was able to appease the tumult [l].
[FN [h] Eadmer, p. 6.  [i] Order. Vital. p. 503.  [k] Malmesbury, p.
271, says, that he also promised to govern the Normans and English by
equal laws; and this addition to the usual oath seems not improbable,
considering the circumstances of the times.  [l] Gul. Pict. p. 206.
Order. Vitalis, p. 503.]

[MN 1067.  Settlement of the government.]
The king, thus possessed of the throne by a pretended destination of
King Edward, and by an irregular election of the people, but still
more by force of arms, retired from London to Berking, in Essex, and
there received the submissions of all the nobility who had not
attended his coronation.  Edric, surnamed the Forester, grand-nephew
to that Edric, so noted for his repeated acts of perfidy during the
reigns of Ethelred and Edmond; Earl Coxo, a man famous for bravery;
even Edwin and Morcar, Earls of Mercia and Northumberland, with the
other principal noblemen of England, came and swore fealty to him;
were received into favour, and were confirmed in the possession of
their estates and dignities [m].  Every thing bore the appearance of
peace and tranquillity; and William had no other occupation than to
give contentment to the foreigners who had assisted him to mount the
throne, and to his new subjects, who had so readily submitted to him.
[FN [m] Gul. Pict. p. 208.  Order. Vitalis, p. 506.]

He had got possession of the treasure of Harold, which was
considerable; and being also supplied with rich presents from the
opulent men in all parts of England, who were solicitous to gain the
favour of their new sovereign, he distributed great sums among his
troops, and by this liberality gave them hopes of obtaining at length
those more durable establishments which they had expected from his
enterprise [n].  The ecclesiastics, both at home and abroad, had much
forwarded his success, and he failed not, in return, to express his
gratitude and devotion in the manner which was most acceptable to
them: he sent Harold's standard to the pope, accompanied with many
valuable presents: all the considerable monasteries and churches in
France, where prayers had been put up for his success, now tasted of
his bounty [o]: the English monks found him well disposed to favour
their order; and be built a new convent near Hastings, which he called
BATTLE ABBEY, and which, on pretence of supporting monks to pray for
his own soul, and for that of Harold, served as a lasting memorial of
his victory [p].
[FN [n] Gul. Pict. p. 206.  [o] Ibid.  [p] Gul. Gemet. p. 288.  Chron.
Sax. p. 189.  M. West. p. 226.  M. Paris p. 9.  Diceto, p. 482.  This
convent was freed by him from all episcopal jurisdiction.  Monast.
Ang. tom. i. p. 311, 312.]

He introduced into England that strict execution of justice for which
his administration had been much celebrated in Normandy; and even
during this violent revolution, every disorder or oppression met with
rigorous punishment [q].  His army, in particular, was governed with
severe discipline; and, notwithstanding the insolence of victory, care
was taken to give as little offence as possible to the jealousy of the
vanquished.  The king appeared solicitous to unite, in an amicable
manner, the Normans and the English, by intermarriages and alliances,
and all his new subjects who approached his person were received with
affability and regard.  No signs of suspicion appeared, not even
towards Edgar Atheling, the heir of the ancient royal family, whom
William confirmed in the honours of Earl of Oxford, conferred on him
by Harold, and whom he affected to treat with the highest kindness, as
nephew to the Confessor, his great friend and benefactor.  Though he
confiscated the estates of Harold, and of those who had fought in the
battle of Hastings on the side of that prince, whom he represented as
an usurper, he seemed willing to admit of every plausible excuse for
past opposition to his pretensions, and he received many into favour
who had carried arms against him.  He confirmed the liberties and
immunities of London and the other cities of England, and appeared
desirous of replacing every thing on ancient establishments.  In his
whole administration he bore the semblance of the lawful prince, not
of the conqueror; and the English began to flatter themselves that
they had changed, not the form of their government, but the succession
only of their sovereigns, a matter which gave them small concern.  The
better to reconcile his new subjects to his authority, William made a
progress through some parts of England; and besides a splendid court
and majestic presence, which overawed the people, already struck with
his military fame, the appearance of his clemency and justice gained
the approbation of the wise, attentive to the first steps of their new
sovereign.
[FN [q] Gul. Pict. p. 208.  Order. Vital. p. 506.]

But amidst this confidence and friendship which he expressed for the
English, the king took care to place all real power in the hands of
his Normans, and still to keep possession of the sword, to which he
was sensible he had owed his advancement to sovereign authority.  He
disarmed the city of London and other places, which appeared most
warlike and populous; and building citadels in that capital, as well
as in Winchester, Hereford, and the cities best situated for
commanding the kingdom, he quartered Norman soldiers in all of them,
and left no where any power able to resist or oppose him.  He bestowed
the forfeited estates on the most eminent of his captains, and
established funds for the payment of his soldiers.  And thus, while
his civil administration carried the face of a legal magistrate, his
military institutions were those of a master and tyrant; at least of
one who reserved to himself; whenever he pleased, the power of
assuming that character.

[MN 1067.  King’s return to Normandy.]
By this mixture, however, of vigour and lenity, he had so soothed the
minds of the English, that he thought he might safely revisit his
native country, and enjoy the triumph and congratulation of his
ancient subjects.  He left the administration in the hands of his
uterine brother, Odo, Bishop of Baieux, and of William Fitz-Osberne.
[MN March.]  That their authority might be exposed to less danger, he
carried over with him all the most considerable nobility of England,
who, while they served to grace his court by their presence and
magnificent retinues, were in reality hostages for the fidelity of the
nation.  Among these were Edgar Atheling, Stigand the Primate, the
Earls Edwin and Morcar, Waltheof, the son of the brave Earl Siward,
with others eminent for the greatness of their fortunes and families,
or for their ecclesiastical and civil dignities.  He was visited at
the abbey of Fescamp, where he resided, during some time, by Rodulph,
uncle to the King of France, and by many powerful princes and nobles,
who, having contributed to his enterprise, were desirous of
participating in the joy and advantages of its success.  His English
courtiers, willing to ingratiate themselves with their new sovereign,
outvied each other in equipages and entertainments; and made a display
of riches which struck the foreigners with astonishment.  William of
Poictiers, a Norman historian [r], who was present, speaks with
admiration of the beauty of their persons, the size and workmanship of
their silver plate, the costliness of their embroideries, an art in
which the English then excelled; and he expresses himself in such
terms as tend much to exalt our idea of the opulence and cultivation
of the people [s].  But though every thing bore the face of joy and
festivity, and William himself treated his new courtiers with great
appearance of kindness, it was impossible altogether to prevent the
insolence of the Normans; and the English nobles derived little
satisfaction from those entertainments, where they considered
themselves as led in triumph by their ostentatious conqueror.
[FN [r] P. 211, 212.  [s] As the historian chiefly insists on the
silver plate, his panegyric on the English magnificence shows only how
incompetent a judge he was of the matter.  Silver was then of ten
times the value, and was more than twenty times more rare than at
present; and consequently, of all species of luxury, plate must have
been the rarest.]

[MN 1067.  Discontents of the English.]
In England affairs took still a worse turn during the absence of the
sovereign.  Discontents and complaints multiplied every where; secret
conspiracies were entered into against the government; hostilities
were already begun in many places; and every thing seemed to menace a
revolution, as rapid as that which had placed William on the throne.
The historian above-mentioned, who is a panegyrist of his master,
throws the blame entirely on the fickle and mutinous disposition of
the English, and highly celebrates the justice and lenity of Odo's and
Fitz-Osberne's administration [t].  But other historians, with more
probability, impute the cause chiefly to the Normans, who, despising a
people that had so easily submitted to the yoke, envying their riches,
and grudging the restraints imposed upon their own rapine, were
desirous of provoking them to a rebellion, by which they expected to
acquire new confiscations and forfeitures, and to gratify those
unbounded hopes which they had formed in entering on this enterprise
[u].
[FN [t] P. 212.  [u] Order. Vital. p. 507.]

It is evident that the chief reason of this alteration in the
sentiments of the English must be ascribed to the departure of
William, who was alone able to curb the violence of his captains and
to overawe the mutinies of the people.  Nothing indeed appears more
strange, than that this prince, in less than three months after the
conquest of a great, warlike, and turbulent nation, should absent
himself in order to revisit his own country, which remained in
profound tranquillity, and was not menaced by any of its neighbours;
and should so long leave his jealous subjects at the mercy of an
insolent and licentious army.  Were we not assured of the solidity of
his genius, and the good sense displayed in all other circumstances of
his conduct, we might ascribe this measure to a vain ostentation,
which rendered him impatient to display his pomp and magnificence
among his ancient subjects.  It is therefore more natural to believe,
that in so extraordinary a step he was guided by a concealed policy,
and that, though he had thought proper at first to allure the people
to submission by the semblance of a legal administration, he found
that he could neither satisfy his rapacious captains, nor secure his
unstable government without farther exerting the rights of conquest,
and seizing the possessions of the English.  In order to have a
pretext for this violence, he endeavoured, without discovering his
intentions, to provoke and allure them into insurrections, which, he
thought, could never prove dangerous, while he detained all the
principal nobility in Normandy, while a great and victorious army was
quartered in England, and while he himself was so near to suppress any
tumult or rebellion.  But as no ancient writer has ascribed this
tyrannical purpose to William, it scarcely seems allowable, from
conjecture alone, to throw such an imputation upon him.

[MN Their insurrections.]
But whether we are to account for that measure from the king's vanity
or from his policy, it was the immediate cause of all the calamities
which the English endured during this and the subsequent reigns, and
gave rise to those mutual jealousies and animosities between them and
the Normans, which were never appeased till a long tract of time had
gradually united the two nations, and made them one people.  The
inhabitants of Kent, who had first submitted to the conqueror, were
the first that attempted to throw off the yoke; and in confederacy
with Eustace, Count of Boulogne, who had also been disgusted by the
Normans, they made an attempt, though without success, on the garrison
of Dover [w].  Edric the Forester, whose possessions lay on the banks
of the Severn, being provoked at the depredations of some Norman
captains in his neighbourhood, formed an alliance with Blethyn and
Rowallan, two Welsh princes; and endeavoured, with their assistance,
to repel force by force [x].  But though these open hostilities were
not very considerable, the disaffection was general among the English,
who had become sensible, though too late, of their defenceless
condition, and began already to experience those insults and injuries
which a nation must always expect, that allows itself to be reduced to
that abject situation.  A secret conspiracy was entered into to
perpetrate, in one day, a general massacre of the Normans, like that
which had formerly been executed upon the Danes; and the quarrel was
become so general and national, that the vassals of Earl Coxo, having
desired him to head them in an insurrection, and finding him resolute
in maintaining his fidelity to William, put him to death as a traitor
to his country.
[FN [w] Gul. Gemet. p. 289.  Order. Vital. p. 508.  Anglia Sacra, vol.
i. p. 245.  [x] Hoveden, p. 450.  M. West. p. 226.  Sim. Dunelm. p.
197.]

[MN Dec. 6.]
The king, informed of these dangerous discontents, hastened over to
England; and by his presence, and the vigorous measures which he
pursued, disconcerted all the schemes of the conspirators.  Such of
them as had been more violent in their mutiny, betrayed their guilt by
flying or concealing themselves; and the confiscation of their
estates, while it increased the number of malecontents, both enabled
William to gratify farther the rapacity of his Norman captains, and
gave them the prospect of new forfeitures and attainders.  The king
began to regard all his English subjects as inveterate and
irreclaimable enemies; and thenceforth either embraced, or was more
fully confirmed in the resolution of seizing their possessions, and of
reducing them to the most abject slavery.  Though the natural violence
and severity of his temper made him incapable of feeling any remorse
in the execution of this tyrannical purpose, he had art enough to
conceal his intention, and to preserve still some appearance of
justice in his oppressions.  He ordered all the English, who had been
arbitrarily expelled by the Normans during his absence, to be restored
to their estates [y]: but at the same time he imposed a general tax on
the people, that of Danegelt, which had been abolished by the
Confessor, and which had always been extremely odious to the nation
[z].
[FN [y] Chron. Sax. p. 173.  This fact is a full proof that the
Normans had committed great injustice, and were the real cause of the
insurrections of the English.  [z] Hoveden, p. 450.  Sim. Dunelm. p
197.  Alur. Beverl. p. 127.]

[MN 1068.]  As the vigilance of William overawed the malecontents,
their insurrections were more the result of an impatient humour in the
people, than of any regular conspiracy which could give them a
rational hope of success against the established power of the Normans.
The inhabitants of Exeter, instigated by Githa, mother to King Harold,
refused to admit a Norman garrison, and betaking themselves to arms,
were strengthened by the accession of the neighbouring inhabitants of
Devonshire and Cornwall [a].  The king hastened with his forces to
chastise this revolt; and on his approach, the wiser and more
considerable citizens, sensible of the unequal contest, persuaded the
people to submit, and to deliver hostages for their obedience.  A
sudden mutiny of the populace broke this agreement; and William,
appearing before the walls, ordered the eyes of one of the hostages to
be put out, as an earnest of that severity which the rebels must
expect if they persevered in their revolt [b].  The inhabitants were
anew seized with terror, and surrendering at discretion, threw
themselves at the king's feet, and supplicated his clemency and
forgiveness.  William was not destitute of generosity, when his temper
was not hardened either by policy or passion: he was prevailed on to
pardon the rebels, and he set guards on all the gates, in order to
prevent the rapacity and insolence of his soldiery [c].  Githa escaped
with her treasures to Flanders.  The malecontents of Cornwall imitated
the example of Exeter, and met with like treatment: and the king,
having built a citadel in that city, which he put under the command of
Baldwin, son of Earl Gilbert, returned to Winchester, and dispersed
his army into their quarters.  He was here joined by his wife Matilda,
who had not before visited England, and whom he now ordered to be
crowned by Archbishop Aldred.  Soon after she brought him an accession
to his family by the birth of a fourth son, whom he named Henry.  His
three elder sons, Robert, Richard, and William, still resided in
Normandy.
[FN [a] Order. Vital. p. 510.  [b] Ibid.  [c] Ibid.]

But though the king appeared thus fortunate, both in public and
domestic life, the discontents of his English subjects augmented
daily; and the injuries committed and suffered on both sides rendered
the quarrel between them and the Normans absolutely incurable.  The
insolence of victorious masters, dispersed throughout the kingdom,
seemed intolerable to the natives; and wherever they found the
Normans, separate or assembled in small bodies, they secretly set upon
them, and gratified their vengeance by the slaughter of their enemies.
But an insurrection in the north drew thither the general attention,
and seemed to threaten more important consequences.  Edwin and Morcar
appeared at the head of this rebellion; and these potent noblemen,
before they took arms, stipulated for foreign succours from their
nephew Blethyn, Prince of North Wales, from Malcolm, King of Scotland,
and from Sweyn, King of Denmark.  Besides the general discontent which
had seized the English, the two earls were incited to this revolt by
private injuries.  William, in order to ensure them to his interests,
had, on his accession, promised his daughter in marriage to Edwin; but
either he had never seriously intended to perform this engagement, or,
having changed his plan of administration in England from clemency to
rigour, he thought it was to little purpose, if he gained one family,
while he enraged the whole nation.  When Edwin, therefore, renewed his
applications, be gave him an absolute denial [d]; and this
disappointment, added to so many other reasons of disgust, induced
that nobleman and his brother to concur with their incensed
countrymen, and to make one general effort for the recovery of their
ancient liberties.  William knew the importance of celerity in
quelling an insurrection, supported by such powerful leaders, and so
agreeable to the wishes of the people, and having his troops always in
readiness, he advanced by great journeys to the north.  On his march
he gave orders to fortify the castle of Warwick, of which he left
Henry de Beaumont governor, and that of Nottingham, which he committed
to the custody of William Peverell, another Norman captain [e].  He
reached York before the rebels were in any condition for resistance,
or were joined by any of the foreign succours which they expected,
except a small reinforcement from Wales [f]; and the two earls found
no means of safety, but having recourse to the clemency of the victor.
Archil, a potent nobleman in those parts, imitated their example and
delivered his son as a hostage for his fidelity [g]; nor were the
people, thus deserted by their leaders, able to make any farther
resistance.  But the treatment which William gave the chiefs was very
different from that which fell to the share of their followers.  He
observed religiously the terms which he had granted to the former, and
allowed them for the present to keep possession of their estates; but
he extended the rigours of his confiscations over the latter, and gave
away their lands to his foreign adventurers.  These, planted
throughout the whole country, and in possession of the military power,
left Edwin and Morcar, whom he pretended to spare, destitute of all
support, and ready to fall, whenever he should think proper to command
their ruin.  A peace which he made with Malcolm, who did him homage
for Cumberland, seemed at the same time to deprive them of all
prospect of foreign assistance [h].
[FN [d] Order. Vital. p. 511.  [e] Ibid.  [f] Ibid.  [g] Ibid.  [h]
Order. Vital. p. 511.]

[MN Rigours of the Norman government.]
The English were now sensible that their final destruction was
intended; and that instead of a sovereign, whom they had hoped to gain
by their submission, they had tamely surrendered themselves, without
resistance, to a tyrant and a conqueror.  Though the early
confiscation of Harold's followers might seem iniquitous, being
inflicted on men who had never sworn fealty to the Duke of Normandy,
who were ignorant of his pretensions, and who only fought in defence
of the government which they themselves had established in their own
country; yet were these rigours, however contrary to the ancient Saxon
laws, excused on account of the urgent necessities of the prince; and
those who were not involved in the present ruin hoped that they should
thenceforth enjoy, without molestation, their possessions and their
dignities.  But the successive destruction of so many other families
convinced them that the king intended to rely entirely on the support
and affections of foreigners; and they foresaw new forfeitures,
attainders, and acts of violence as the necessary result of this
destructive plan of administration.  They observed that no Englishman
possessed his confidence, or was intrusted with any command or
authority; and that the strangers, whom a rigorous discipline could
have but ill restrained, were encouraged in their insolence and
tyranny against them.  The easy submission of the kingdom on its first
invasion had exposed the natives to contempt; the subsequent proofs of
their animosity and resentment had made them the object of hatred; and
they were now deprived of every expedient by which they could hope to
make themselves either regarded or beloved by their sovereign.
Impressed with the sense of this dismal situation, many Englishmen
fled into foreign countries with an intention of passing their lives
abroad free from oppression, or of returning on a favourable
opportunity to assist their friends in the recovery of their native
liberties [i].  Edgar Atheling himself, dreading the insidious
caresses of William, was persuaded by Cospatric, a powerful
Northumbrian, to escape with him into Scotland; and he carried thither
his two sisters, Margaret and Christina.  They were well received by
Malcolm, who soon after espoused Margaret, the elder sister; and
partly with a view of strengthening his kingdom by the accession of so
many strangers, partly in hopes of employing them against the growing
power of William, he gave great countenance to all the English exiles.
Many of them settled there; and laid the foundation of families which
afterwards made a figure in that country.
[FN [i] Order. Vital. p. 508.  M. West. p. 225.  M. Paris, p. 4.  Sim.
Dun. p. 197.]

While the English suffered under these oppressions, even the
foreigners were not much at their ease; but finding themselves
surrounded on all hands by enraged enemies, who took every advantage
against them, and menaced them with still more bloody effects of the
public resentment, they began to wish again for the tranquillity and
security of their native country.  Hugh de Grentmesnil, and Humphry de
Teliol, though intrusted with great commands, desired to be dismissed
the service; and some others imitated their example: a desertion which
was highly resented by the king, and which he punished by the
confiscation of all their possessions in England [k].  But William's
bounty to his followers could not fail of alluring many new
adventurers into his service; and the rage of the vanquished English
served only to excite the attention of the king and those warlike
chiefs, and keep them in readiness to suppress every commencement of
domestic rebellion or foreign invasion.
[FN [k] Order. Vitalis, p. 512.]

[MN 1069.  New insurrections.]
It was not long before they found occupation for their prowess and
military conduct.  Godwin, Edmond, and Magnus, three sons of Harold,
had, immediately after the defeat at Hastings, sought a retreat in
Ireland; where, having met with a kind reception from Dermot and other
princes of that country, they projected an invasion on England, and
they hoped that all the exiles from Denmark, Scotland, and Wales,
assisted by forces from these several countries, would at once
commence hostilities, and rouse the indignation of the English against
their haughty conquerors.  They landed in Devonshire; but found Brian,
son of the Count of Britany, at the head of some foreign troops, ready
to oppose them; and being defeated in several actions, they were
obliged to retreat to their ships, and to return with great loss to
Ireland [l].  The efforts of the Normans were now directed to the
north, where affairs had fallen into the utmost confusion.  The more
impatient of the Northumbrians had attacked Robert de Comyn, who was
appointed governor of Durham; and gaining the advantage over him from
his negligence, they put him to death in that city, with seven hundred
of his followers [m].  This success animated the inhabitants of York,
who, rising in arms, slew Robert Fitz-Richard, their governor [n]; and
besieged in the castle William Mallet, on whom the command now
devolved.  A little after, the Danish troops landed from three hundred
vessels; Osberne, brother to King Sweyn, was intrusted with the
command of these forces, and he was accompanied by Harold and Canute,
two sons of that monarch.  Edgar Atheling appeared from Scotland, and
brought along with him Cospatric, Waltheof, Siward, Bearne,
Merleswain, Adelin, and other leaders, who, partly from the hopes
which they gave of Scottish succours, partly from their authority in
those parts, easily persuaded the warlike and discontented
Northumbrians to join the insurrection.  Mallet, that he might better
provide for the defence of the citadel of York, set fire to some
houses which lay contiguous; but this expedient proved the immediate
cause of his destruction.  The flames, spreading into the neighbouring
streets, reduced the whole city to ashes: the enraged inhabitants,
aided by the Danes, took advantage of the confusion to attack the
castle, which they carried by assault; and the garrison, to the number
of three thousand men, was put to the sword without mercy [o].
[FN [l] Gul. Gemet. p. 290.  Order. Vital. p. 513.  Anglia Sacra, vol.
i. p. 246.  [m] Order. Vital. p. 512.  Chron. de Mailr. p. 116.
Hoveden, p. 450.  M. Paris, p. 5.  Sim. Dun. p. 198.  [n] Order.
Vital. p. 512.  [o] Order. Vital. p. 513.  Hoveden, p. 451.]

This success proved a signal to many other parts of England, and gave
the people an opportunity of showing their malevolence to the Normans.
Hereward, a nobleman in East Anglia celebrated for valour, assembled
his followers, and taking shelter in the Isle of Ely, made inroads on
all the neighbouring country [p].  The English in the counties of
Somerset and Dorset rose in arms, and assaulted Montacute, the Norman
governor; while the inhabitants of Cornwall and Devon invested Exeter,
which, from the memory of William's clemency, still remained faithful
to him.  Edric the Forester, calling in the assistance of the Welsh,
laid siege to Shrewsbury, and made head against Earl Brient and
Fitz-Osberne, who commanded in those quarters [q].  The English, every
where, repenting their former easy submission, seemed determined to
make by concert one great effort for the recovery of their liberties,
and for the expulsion of their oppressors.
[FN [p] Ingulph. p. 71.  Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 47.  [q]
Order. Vital. p. 514.]

William, undismayed amidst this scene of confusion, assembled his
forces, and animating them with the prospect of new confiscations and
forfeitures, he marched against the rebels in the north, whom he
regarded as the most formidable, and whose defeat he knew would strike
a terror into all the other malecontents.  Joining policy to force, he
tried before his approach to weaken the enemy, by detaching the Danes
from them; and he engaged Osberne, by large presents, and by offering
him the liberty of plundering the sea-coast, to retire, without
committing farther hostilities, into Denmark [r].  Cospatric, also, in
despair of success, made his peace with the king, and paying a sum of
money as an atonement for his insurrection, was received into favour,
and even invested with the earldom of Northumberland.  Waltheof, who
long defended York with great courage, was allured with this
appearance of clemency; and as William knew how to esteem valour, even
in an enemy, that nobleman had no reason to repent of his confidences
[s].  Even Edric, compelled by necessity, submitted to the conqueror,
and received forgiveness, which was soon after followed by some degree
of trust and favour.  Malcolm, coming too late to support his
confederates, was constrained to retire; and all the English rebels in
other parts, except Hereward, who still kept in his fastnesses,
dispersed themselves, and left the Normans undisputed masters of the
kingdom.  Edgar Atheling, with his followers, sought again a retreat
in Scotland from the pursuit of his enemies.
[FN [r] Hoveden, p. 451.  Chron Abb. St Petri de Burgo, p. 47.  Sim.
Dun. p. 199.  [s] Malmes. p. 104.  H. Hunt. p. 369.]

[MN 1070.  New rigours of the government.]
But the seeming clemency of William towards the English leaders
proceeded only from artifice, or from his esteem of individuals: his
heart was hardened against all compassion towards the people; and he
scrupled no measure, however violent or severe, which seemed requisite
to support his plan of tyrannical administration.  Sensible of the
restless disposition of the Northumbrians, he determined to
incapacitate them ever after from giving him disturbance, and he
issued orders for laying entirely waste that fertile country which,
for the extent of sixty miles, lies between the Humber and the Tees
[t].  The houses were reduced to ashes by the merciless Normans; the
cattle seized and driven away; the instruments of husbandry destroyed;
and the inhabitants compelled either to seek for a subsistence in the
southern parts of Scotland, or if they lingered in England, from a
reluctance to abandon their ancient habitations, they perished
miserably in the woods from cold and hunger.  The lives of a hundred
thousand persons are computed to have been sacrificed to this stroke
of barbarous policy [u], which, by seeking a remedy for a temporary
evil, thus inflicted a lasting wound on the power and populousness of
the nation.
[FN [t] Chron. Sax. p. 174.  Ingulph. p. 79.  Malmes. p. 103.
Hoveden, p. 451.  Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 47.  M. Paris, p.
5.  Sim. Dun. p. 199.  Brompton, p. 966.  Knyghton, p. 2344.  Anglia
Sacra, vol. i. p. 702.  [u] Order. Vital. p. 515.]

But William finding himself entirely master of a people who had given
him such sensible proofs of their impotent rage and animosity, now
resolved to proceed to extremities against all the natives of England,
and to reduce them to a condition in which they should no longer be
formidable to his government.  The insurrections and conspiracies in
so many parts of the kingdom had involved the bulk of the landed
proprietors, more or less, in the guilt of treason; and the king took
advantage of executing against them, with the utmost rigour, the laws
of forfeiture and attainder.  Their lives were indeed commonly spared;
but their estates were confiscated, and either annexed to the royal
demesnes, or conferred with the most profuse bounty on the Normans and
other foreigners [w].  While the king's declared intention was to
depress, or rather entirely extirpate the English gentry [x], it is
easy to believe that scarcely the form of justice would be observed in
those violent proceedings [y]; and that any suspicions served as the
most undoubted proofs of guilt against a people thus devoted to
destruction.  It was crime sufficient in an Englishman to be opulent,
or noble, or powerful; and the policy of the king, concurring with the
rapacity of foreign adventurers, produced almost a total revolution in
the landed property of the kingdom.  Ancient and honourable families
were reduced to beggary; the nobles themselves were every where
treated with ignominy and contempt; they had the mortification of
seeing their castles and manors possessed by Normans of the meanest
birth and lowest stations [z]; and they found themselves carefully
excluded from every road which led either to riches or preferment [a].
[FN [w] W. Malmes. p. 104.  [x] H. Hunt p. 370.  [y] See note [H], at
the end of the volume.  [z] Order. Vitalis, p. 521.  M. West. p. 229.
[a] See note [I], at the end of the volume.]

[MN Introduction of the feudal law.]
As power naturally follows property, this revolution alone gave great
security to the foreigners; but William, by the new institutions which
he established, took also care to retain for ever the military
authority in those hands which had enabled him to subdue the kingdom.
He introduced into England the feudal law, which he found established
in France and Normandy, and which, during that age, was the foundation
both of the stability and of the disorders in most of the monarchical
governments of Europe.  He divided all the lands of England, with very
few exceptions, beside the royal demesnes, into baronies, and he
conferred these, with the reservation of stated services and payments,
on the most considerable of his adventurers.  These great barons, who
held immediately of the crown, shared out a great part of their lands
to other foreigners, who were denominated knights or vassals, and who
paid their lord the same duty and submission in peace and war, which
he himself owed to his sovereign.  The whole kingdom contained about
seven hundred chief tenants, and sixty thousand two hundred and
fifteen knights-fees [b]; and as none of the native English were
admitted into the first rank, the few who retained their landed
property were glad to be received into the second, and under the
protection of some powerful Norman, to load themselves and their
posterity with this grievous burden, for estates which they had
received free from their ancestors [c].  The small mixture of English
which entered into this civil or military fabric (for it partook of
both species) was so restrained by subordination under the foreigners,
that the Norman dominion seemed now to be fixed on the most durable
basis, and to defy all the efforts of its enemies.
[FN [b] Order. Vital. p. 523.  Secretum Abbatis, apud Selden, Titles
of Honour, p. 573.  Spellm. Gloss. in verbo FEODUM.  Sir Robert
Cotton.  [c] M. West. p. 225.  M. Paris, p. 4.  Bracton, lib. 1. cap.
II. num. 1.  Fleta, lib i. cap. 8. n. 2.]

The better to unite the parts of the government, and to bind them into
one system, which might serve both for defence against foreigners, and
for the support of domestic tranquillity, William reduced the
ecclesiastical revenues under the same feudal law; and though he had
courted the church on his invasion and accession, he now subjected it
to services which the clergy regarded as a grievous slavery, and as
totally unbefitting their profession.  The bishops and abbots were
obliged, when required, to furnish to the king, during war, a number
of knights, or military tenants, proportioned to the extent of
property possessed by each see or abbey; and they were liable, in case
of failure, to the same penalties which were exacted from the laity
[d]  The pope and the ecclesiastics exclaimed against this tyranny, as
they called it; but the king's authority was so well established over
the army, who held every thing from his bounty, that superstition
itself, even in that age, when it was most prevalent, was constrained
to bend under his superior influence.
[FN [d] M. Paris, p. 5.  Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p. 248.]

But as the great body of the clergy were still natives, the king had
much reason to dread the effects of their resentment; he therefore
used the precaution of expelling the English from all the considerable
dignities, and of advancing foreigners in their place.  The partiality
of the Confessor towards the Normans had been so great, that, aided by
their superior learning, it had promoted them to many of the sees in
England; and even before the period of the Conquest, scarcely more
than six or seven of the prelates were natives of the country.  But
among these was Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury; a man who, by his
address and vigour, by the greatness of his family and alliances, by
the extent of his possessions, as well as by the dignity of his
office, and his authority among the English, gave jealousy to the king
[e].  Though William had, on his accession, affronted this prelate by
employing the Archbishop of York to officiate at his consecration, he
was careful on other occasions to load hint with honours and caresses,
and to avoid giving him farther offence till the opportunity should
offer of effecting his final destruction [f].  The suppression of the
late rebellions, and the total subjection of the English, made him
hope that an attempt against Stigand, however violent, would be
covered by his great successes, and be overlooked amidst the other
important revolutions which affected so deeply the property and
liberty of the kingdom.  Yet, notwithstanding these great advantages,
he did not think it safe to violate the reverence usually paid to the
primate; but under cover of a new superstition, which he was the great
instrument of introducing into England.
[FN [e] Parker, p. 161.  [f] Ibid. p. 164.]

[MN Innovation in ecclesiastical government.]
The doctrine which exalted the papacy above all human power had
gradually diffused itself from the city and court of Rome; and was,
during that age, much more prevalent in the southern than in the
northern kingdoms of Europe.  Pope Alexander, who had assisted William
in his conquests, naturally expected that the French and Normans would
import into England the same reverence for his sacred character with
which they were impressed in their own country; and would break the
spiritual as well as civil independency of the Saxons, who had
hitherto conducted their ecclesiastical government, with an
acknowledgment indeed of primacy in the see of Rome, but without much
idea of its title to dominion or authority.  As soon, therefore, as
the Norman prince seemed fully established on the throne, the pope
despatched Ermenfroy, Bishop of Sion, as his legate into England; and
this prelate was the first that had ever appeared with that character
in any part of the British islands.  The king, though he was probably
led by principle to pay this submission to Rome, determined, as is
usual, to employ the incident as a means of serving his political
purposes, and of degrading those English prelates who were become
obnoxious to him.  The legate submitted to become the instrument of
his tyranny; and thought, that the more violent the exertion of power,
the more certainly did it confirm the authority of that court from
which he derived his commission.  He summoned, therefore, a council of
the prelates and abbots at Winchester; and being assisted by two
cardinals, Peter and John, he cited before him Stigand, Archbishop of
Canterbury, to answer for his conduct.  The primate was accused of
three crimes: the holding of the see of Winchester, together with that
of Canterbury; the officiating in the pall of Robert his predecessor;
and the having received his own pall from Benedict IX., who was
afterwards deposed for simony, and for intrusion into the papacy [g].
These crimes of Stigand were mere pretences; since the first had been
a practice not unusual in England, and was never any where subjected
to a higher penalty than a resignation of one of the sees; the second
was a pure ceremonial; and as Benedict was the only pope who then
officiated, and his acts were never repealed, all the prelates of the
church, especially those who lay at a distance, were excusable for
making their applications to him.  Stigand's ruin, however, was
resolved on, and was prosecuted with great severity.  The legate
degraded him from  his dignity: the king confiscated his estate, and
cast him into prison, where he continued, in poverty and want, during
the remainder of his life.  Like rigour was exercised against the
other English prelates: Agelric, Bishop of Selesey and Agelmare, of
Elmham, were deposed by the legate, and imprisoned by the king.  Many
considerable abbots shared the same fate: Egelwin, Bishop of Durham,
fled the kingdom: Wulstan, of Worcester, a man of an inoffensive
character, was the only English prelate that escaped this general
proscription [h], and remained in possession of his dignity.  Aldred,
Archbishop of York, who had set the crown on William's head, had died
a little before of grief and vexation, and had left his malediction to
that prince on account of the breach of his coronation oath, and of
the extreme tyranny with which he saw he was determined to treat his
English subjects [i].
[FN [g] Hoveden, p. 453.  Diceto, p. 482.  Knyghton, p. 2345.  Anglia
Sacra, vol. i. p. 5, 6.  Ypod. Neust. p. 438.  [h] Brompton relates,
that Wulstan was also deprived by the synod; but refusing to deliver
his pastoral staff and ring to any but the person from whom he first
received it, he went immediately to King Edward's tomb, and struck the
staff so deeply into the stone, that none but himself was able to pull
it out: upon which he was allowed to keep his bishopric.  This
instance may serve, instead of many, as a specimen of the monkish
miracles.  See also the annals of Burton, p. 284.  [i] Malmes. de
Gest. Pont. p. 154.]

It was a fixed maxim in this reign, as well as in some of the
subsequent, that no native of the island should ever be advanced to
any dignity, ecclesiastical, civil, or military [k]  The king,
therefore, upon Stigand's deposition, promoted Lanfranc, a Milanese
monk, celebrated for his learning and piety, to the vacant see.  This
prelate was rigid in defending the prerogatives of his station; and
after a long process before the pope, he obliged Thomas, a Norman
monk, who had been appointed to the see of York, to acknowledge the
primacy of the Archbishop of Canterbury.  Where ambition can be so
happy as to cover its enterprises, even to the person himself, under
the appearance of principle, it is the most incurable and inflexible
of all human passions.  Hence Lanfranc's zeal in promoting the
interests of the papacy, by which he himself augmented his own
authority, was indefatigable; and met with proportionable success.
The devoted attachment to Rome continually increased in England; and
being favoured by the sentiments of the conquerors, as well as by the
monastic establishments formerly introduced by Edred and by Edgar, it
soon reached the same height at which it had, during some time, stood
in France and Italy [l].  [MN 1070.]  It afterwards went much farther;
being favoured by that very remote situation which had at first
obstructed its progress; and being less checked by knowledge and a
liberal education, which were still somewhat more common in the
southern countries.
[FN [k] Ingulph. p. 70, 71.  [l] M. West. p. 228.  Lanfranc wrote in
defence of the real presence against Berengarius; and in those ages of
stupidity and ignorance, he was greatly applauded for that
performance.]

The prevalence of this superstitious spirit became dangerous to some
of William's successors, and incommodious to most of them; but the
arbitrary sway of this king over the English, and his extensive
authority over the foreigners, kept him from feeling any immediate
inconveniences from it.  He retained the church in great subjection,
as well as his lay subjects; and would allow none, of whatever
character, to dispute his sovereign will and pleasure.  He prohibited
his subjects from acknowledging any one for pope whom he himself had
not previously received: he required that all the ecclesiastical
canons, voted in any synod, should first be laid before him, and be
ratified by his authority: even bulls or letters from Rome could not
legally be produced, till they received the same sanction: and none of
his ministers or barons, whatever offences they were guilty of, could
be subjected to spiritual censures till he himself had given his
consent to their excommunication [m].  These regulations were worthy
of a sovereign, and kept united the civil and ecclesiastical powers,
which the principles introduced by this prince himself had an
immediate tendency to separate.
[FN [m] Eadmer, p. 6.]

But the English had the cruel mortification to find that their king's
authority, however acquired or however extended, was all employed in
their oppression; and that the scheme of their subjection, attended
with every circumstance of insult and indignity [n], was deliberately
formed by the prince, and wantonly prosecuted by his followers [o].
William had even entertained the difficult project of totally
abolishing the English language; and, for that purpose, he ordered,
that in  all schools throughout the kingdom, the youth should be
instructed in the French tongue; a practice which was continued from
custom till after the reign of Edward III., and was never indeed
totally discontinued in England.  The pleadings in the supreme courts
of judicature were in French [p]: the deeds were often drawn in the
same language: the laws were composed in that idiom [q]: no other
tongue was used at court: it became the language of all fashionable
company; and the English themselves, ashamed of their own country,
affected to excel in that foreign dialect.  From this attention of
William, and from the extensive foreign dominions long annexed to the
crown of England, proceeded that mixture of French which is at present
to be found in the English tongue, and which composes the greatest and
best part of our language.  But amidst those endeavours to depress the
English nation, the king, moved by the remonstrances of some of his
prelates, and by the earnest desires of the people, restored a few of
the laws of King Edward [r]; which, though seemingly of no great
importance towards the protection of general liberty, gave them
extreme satisfaction, as a memorial of their ancient government, and
an unusual mark of complaisance in their imperious conquerors [s].
[FN [n] Order. Vital. p. 523.  H. Hunt. p. 370.  [o] Ingulph. p. 71.
[p] 36 Edw. III. cap. 15.  Selden Spicileg. ad Eadmer, p. 189.
Fortescue de laud leg. Angl. cap. 48.  [q] Chron. Rothom. A. D. 1066.
[r] Ingulph. p. 88.  Brompton, p. 982.  Knyghton, p. 2355.  Hoveden,
p. 600.  [s] See note [K], at the end of the volume.]

[MN 1071.]  The situation of the two great earls, Morcar and Edwin,
became now very disagreeable.  Though they had retained their
allegiance during this general insurrection of their countrymen, they
had not gained the king's confidence, and they found themselves
exposed to the malignity of the courtiers, who envied them on account
of their opulence and greatness, and at the same time involved them in
that general contempt which they entertained for the English.
Sensible that they had entirely lost their dignity, and could not even
hope to remain long in safety; they determined, though too late, to
share the same fate with their countrymen.  While Edwin retired to his
estate in the north, with a view of commencing an insurrection, Morcar
took shelter in the Isle of Ely with the brave Hereward, who, secured
by the inaccessible situation of the place, still defended himself
against the Normans.  But this attempt served only to accelerate the
ruin of the few English who had hitherto been able to preserve their
rank or fortune during the past convulsions.  William employed all his
endeavours to subdue the Isle of Ely; and having surrounded it with
flat-bottomed boats, and made a causeway through the morasses to the
extent of two miles, he obliged the rebels to surrender at discretion.
Hereward alone forced his way, sword in hand, through the enemy; and
still continued his hostilities by sea against the Normans, till at
last William, charmed with his bravery, received him into favour, and
restored him to his estate.  Earl Morcar, and Egelwin, Bishop of
Durham, who had joined the malecontents, were thrown into prison, and
the latter soon after died in confinement.  Edwin, attempting to make
his escape into Scotland, was betrayed by some of his followers, and
was killed by a party of Normans, to the great affliction of the
English, and even to that of William, who paid a tribute of generous
tears to the memory of this gallant and beautiful youth.  The King of
Scotland, in hopes of profiting by these convulsions, had fallen upon
the northern counties; but on the approach of William, he retired; and
when the king entered his country, he was glad to make peace, and to
pay the usual homage to the English crown.  To complete the king's
prosperity, Edgar Atheling himself, despairing of success, and weary
of a fugitive life, submitted to his enemy; and receiving a decent
pension for his subsistence, was permitted to live in England
unmolested.  But these acts of generosity towards the leaders were
disgraced, as usual, by William's rigour against the inferior
malecontents.  He ordered the hands to be lopt off; and the eyes to be
put out, of many of the prisoners whom he had taken in the Isle of
Ely; and he dispersed them in that miserable condition throughout the
country, as monuments of his severity.

[MN 1073.]  The province of Maine, in France, had, by the will of
Herbert, the last count, fallen under the dominion of William some
years before his conquest of England; but the inhabitants,
dissatisfied with the Norman government, and instigated by Fulk, Count
of Anjou, who had some pretensions to the succession, now rose in
rebellion, and expelled the magistrates whom the king had placed over
them.  The full settlement of England afforded him leisure to punish
this insult on his authority; but being unwilling to remove his Norman
forces from this island, he carried over a considerable army, composed
almost entirely of English; and joining them to some troops levied in
Normandy, he entered the revolted province.  The English appeared
ambitious of distinguishing themselves on this occasion, and of
retrieving that character of valour which had long been national among
them; but which their late easy subjection under the Normans had
somewhat degraded and obscured.  Perhaps too they hoped that, by their
zeal and activity, they might recover the confidence of their
sovereign, as their ancestors had formerly, by like means, gained the
affections of Canute; and might conquer his inveterate prejudices in
favour of his own countrymen.  The king's military conduct, seconded
by these brave troops, soon overcame all opposition in Maine: the
inhabitants were obliged to submit, and the Count of Anjou
relinquished his pretensions.

[MN 1074.  Insurrection of the Norman barons.]
But during these transactions the government of England was greatly
disturbed; and that too by those very foreigners who owed every thing
to the king’s bounty, and who were the sole object of his friendship
and regard.  The Norman barons, who had engaged with their duke in the
conquest of England, were men of the most independent spirit; and
though they obeyed their leader in the field, they would have regarded
with disdain the richest acquisitions, had they been required in
return to submit, in their civil government, to the arbitrary will of
one man.  But the imperious character of William, encouraged by his
absolute dominion over the English, and often impelled by the
necessity of his affairs, had prompted him to stretch his authority
over the Normans themselves beyond what the free genius of that
victorious people could easily bear.  The discontents were become
general among those haughty nobles; and even Roger, Earl of Hereford,
son and heir of Fitz-Osberne, the king's chief favourite, was strongly
infected with them.  This nobleman, intending to marry his sister to
Ralph de Guader, Earl of Norfolk, had thought it his duty to inform
the king of his purpose, and to desire the royal consent; but meeting
with a refusal, he proceeded nevertheless to complete the nuptials,
and assembled all his friends, and those of Guader, to attend the
solemnity.  The two earls, disgusted by the denial of their request,
and dreading William's resentment for their disobedience, here
prepared measures for a revolt; and during the gaiety of the festival,
while the company was heated with wine, they opened the design to
their guests.  They inveighed against the arbitrary conduct of the
king; his tyranny over the English, whom they affected on this
occasion to commiserate; his imperious behaviour to his barons of the
noblest birth; and his apparent intention of reducing the victors and
the vanquished to a like ignominious servitude.  Amidst their
complaints, the indignity of submitting to a bastard [t] was not
forgotten; the certain prospect of success in a revolt, by the
assistance of the Danes and the discontented English, was insisted on;
and the whole company, inflamed with the same sentiments, and warmed
by the jollity of the entertainment, entered, by a solemn engagement,
into the design of shaking off the royal authority.  Even Earl
Waltheof; who was present, inconsiderately expressed his approbation
of the conspiracy, and promised his concurrence towards its success.
[FN [t] William was so little ashamed of his birth, that be assumed
the appellation of bastard in some of his letters and charters.
Spellm. Gloss. in verb. BASTARDUS.  Camden in RICHMONDSHIRE.]

This nobleman, the last of the English who, for some generations,
possessed any power or authority, had, after his capitulation at York,
been received into favour by the Conqueror; had even married Judith,
niece to that prince; and had been promoted to the earldoms of
Huntingdon and Northampton [u].  Cospatric, Earl of Northumberland,
having, on some new disgust from William, retired into Scotland, where
he received the earldom of Dunbar from the bounty of Malcolm; Waltheof
was appointed his successor in that important command, and seemed
still to possess the confidence and friendship of his sovereign [w].
But as he was a man of generous principles, and loved his country, it
is probable that the tyranny exercised over the English lay heavy upon
his mind, and destroyed all the satisfaction which he could reap from
his own grandeur and advancement.  When a prospect, therefore, was
opened of retrieving their liberty, he hastily embraced it; while the
fumes of the liquor, and the ardour of the company, prevented him from
reflecting on the consequences of that rash attempt.  But after his
cool judgment returned, he foresaw that the conspiracy of those
discontented barons was not likely to prove successful against the
established power of William; or if it did, that the slavery of the
English, instead of being alleviated by that event, would become more
grievous, under a multitude of foreign leaders, factious and
ambitious, whose union and whose discord would be equally oppressive
to the people.  Tormented with these reflections, he opened his mind
to his wife Judith, of whose fidelity he entertained no suspicion, but
who, having secretly fixed her affections on another, took this
opportunity of ruining her easy and credulous husband.  She conveyed
intelligence of the conspiracy to the king, and aggravated every
circumstance, which, she believed, would tend to incense him against
Waltheof, and render him absolutely implacable [x].  Meanwhile the
earl, still dubious with regard to the part which he should act,
discovered the secret in confession to Lanfranc, on whose probity and
judgment he had a great reliance: he was persuaded by the prelate,
that he owed no fidelity to those rebellious barons, who had by
surprise gained his consent to a crime; that his first duty was to his
sovereign and benefactor; his next to himself and his family; and
that, if he seized not the opportunity of making atonement for his
guilt by revealing it, the temerity of the conspirators was so great,
that they would give some other person the means of acquiring the
merit of the discovery.  Waltheof, convinced by these arguments, went
over to Normandy; but though he was well received by the king, and
thanked for his fidelity, the account previously transmitted by Judith
had sunk deep into William's mind, and had destroyed all the merit of
her husband's repentance.
[FN [u] Order. Vital. p. 522.  Hoveden, p. 454.  [w] Sim. Dun. p. 205.
[x] Order. Vital. p. 536.]

The conspirators, hearing of Waltheof's departure, immediately
concluded their design to be betrayed; and they flew to arms before
their schemes were ripe for execution, and before the arrival of the
Danes, in whose aid they placed their chief confidence.  The Earl of
Hereford was checked by Walter de Lacy, a great baron in those parts,
who, supported by the Bishop of Worcester and the Abbot of Evesham,
raised some forces, and prevented the earl from passing the Severn, or
advancing into the heart of the kingdom.  The Earl of Norfolk was
defeated at Fagadun, near Cambridge, by Odo, the regent, assisted by
Richard de Bienfaite and William de Warenne, the two justiciaries.
The prisoners taken in this action had their right foot cut off, as a
punishment of their treason: the earl himself escaped to Norwich,
thence to Denmark; where the Danish fleet, which had made an
unsuccessful attempt upon the coast of England [y], soon after
arrived, and brought him intelligence, that all his confederates were
suppressed, and were either killed, banished, or taken prisoners [z].
Ralph retired in despair to Britany, where he possessed a large estate
and extensive jurisdictions.
[FN [y] Chron. Sax. p. 183.  M. Paris, p. 7.  [z] Many of the
fugitive Normans are supposed to have fled into Scotland; where they
were protected, as well as the fugitive English, by Malcolm.  Whence
come the many French and Norman families, which are found at present
in that country.]

The king, who hastened over to England in order to suppress the
insurrection, found that nothing remained but the punishment of the
criminals, which he executed with great severity.  Many of the rebels
were hanged; some had their eyes put out; others their hands cut off.
But William, agreeably to his usual maxims, showed more lenity to
their leader, the Earl of Hereford, who was only condemned to a
forfeiture of his estate, and to imprisonment during pleasure.  The
king seemed even disposed to remit this last part of the punishment,
had not Roger, by a fresh insolence, provoked him to render his
confinement perpetual.  [MN 1075.]  But Waltheof, being an Englishman,
was not treated with so much humanity; though his guilt, always much
inferior to that of the other  conspirators, was atoned for by an
early repentance and return to his duty.  William, instigated by his
niece, as well as by his rapacious courtiers, who longed for so rich a
forfeiture, ordered him to be tried, condemned, and executed.  [MN
29th April 1075.]  The English, who considered this nobleman as the
last resource of their nation, grievously lamented his fate, and
fancied that miracles were wrought by his relics, as a testimony of
his innocence and sanctity.  The infamous Judith, falling soon after
under the king's displeasure, was abandoned by all the world, and
passed the rest of her life in contempt, remorse, and misery.

Nothing remained to complete William's satisfaction but the punishment
of Ralph de Guader; and he hastened over to Normandy in order to
gratify his vengeance on that criminal.  But though the contest seemed
very unequal between a private nobleman and the King of England, Ralph
was so well supported both by the Earl of Britany and the King of
France, that William, after besieging him for some time in Dol, was
obliged to abandon the enterprise, and make with those powerful
princes a peace, in which Ralph himself was included.  England, during
his absence, remained in tranquillity, and nothing remarkable
occurred, except two ecclesiastical synods which were summoned, one at
London, another at Winchester.  In the former the precedency among the
episcopal sees was settled, and the seat of some of them was removed
from small villages to the most considerable town within the diocese.
In the second was transacted a business of more importance.

[MN 1076.  Dispute about investitures]
The industry and perseverance are surprising, with which the popes had
been treasuring up powers and pretensions during so many ages of
ignorance; while each pontiff employed every fraud for advancing
purposes of imaginary piety, and cherished all claims which might turn
to the advantage of his successors, though he himself could not expect
ever to reap any benefit from them.  All this immense store of
spiritual and civil authority was now devolved on Gregory VII. of the
name of Hildebrand, the most enterprising pontiff that had ever filled
that chair, and the least restrained by fear, decency, or moderation.
Not content with shaking off the yoke of the emperors, who had
hitherto exercised the power of appointing the pope on every vacancy,
or at least of ratifying his election; he undertook the arduous task
of entirely disjoining the ecclesiastical from the civil power, and of
excluding profane laymen from the right which they had assumed of
filling the vacancies of bishoprics, abbeys, and other spiritual
dignities [a].  The sovereigns who had long exercised this power, and
who had acquired it not by encroachments on the church, but on the
people, to whom it originally belonged [b], made great opposition to
this claim of the court of Rome; and Henry IV., the reigning emperor,
defended this prerogative of his crown with a vigour and resolution
suitable to its importance.  The few offices, either civil or
military, which the feudal institutions left the sovereign the power
of bestowing, made the prerogative of conferring the pastoral ring and
staff the most valuable jewel of the royal diadem; especially as the
general ignorance of the age bestowed a consequence on the
ecclesiastical offices, even beyond the great extent of power and
property which belonged to them.  Superstition, the child of
ignorance, invested the clergy with an authority almost sacred; and as
they engrossed the little learning of the age, their interposition
became requisite in all civil business, and a real usefulness in
common life was thus superadded to the spiritual sanctity of their
character.
[FN [a] L'Abbé Conc. tom. x. p. 371, 372. com. 2.  [b] Padre Paolo
sopra benef. eccles. p. 30.]

When the usurpations, therefore, of the church had come to such
maturity as to embolden her to attempt extorting the right of
investitures from the temporal power, Europe, especially Italy and
Germany, was thrown into the most violent convulsions, and the pope
and the emperor waged implacable war on each other.  Gregory dared to
fulminate the sentence of excommunication against Henry and his
adherents, to pronounce him rightfully deposed, to free his subjects
from their oaths of allegiance; and instead of shocking mankind by
this gross encroachment on the civil authority, he found the stupid
people ready to second his most exorbitant pretensions.  Every
minister, servant, or vassal of the emperor, who received any disgust,
covered his rebellion under the pretence of principle; and even the
mother of this  monarch, forgetting all the ties of nature, was
seduced to countenance the insolence of his enemies.  Princes
themselves, not attentive to the pernicious consequences of those
papal claims, employed them for their present purposes; and the
controversy, spreading into every city of Italy, engendered the
parties of Guelf and Ghibbelin; the most durable and most inveterate
factions that ever arose from the mixture of ambition and religious
zeal.  Besides numberless assassinations, tumults, and convulsions to
which they gave rise, it is computed that the quarrel occasioned no
less than sixty battles in the reign of Henry IV., and eighteen in
that of his successor, Henry V., when the claims of the sovereign
pontiff finally prevailed [c].
[FN [c] Padre Paolo sopra benef. eccles. p. 113.]

But the bold spirit of Gregory, not dismayed with the vigorous
opposition which he met with from the emperor, extended his
usurpations all over Europe; and well knowing the nature of mankind,
whose blind astonishment ever inclines them to yield to the most
impudent pretensions, he seemed determined to set no bounds to the
spiritual, or rather temporal monarchy, which he had undertaken to
erect.  He pronounced the sentence of excommunication against
Nicephorus, Emperor of the East: Robert Guiscard, the adventurous
Norman, who had acquired the dominion of Naples, was attacked by the
same dangerous weapon: he degraded Boleslas, King of Poland, from the
rank of king; and even deprived Poland of the title of a kingdom: he
attempted to treat Philip, King of France, with the same rigour which
he had employed against the emperor [d]: he pretended to the entire
property and dominion of Spain; and he parcelled it out amongst
adventurers, who undertook to conquer it from the Saracens, and to
hold it in vassalage under the see of Rome [e]: even the Christian
bishops, on whose aid he relied for subduing the temporal princes, saw
that he was determined to reduce them to servitude; and by assuming
the whole legislative and judicial power of the church, to centre all
authority in the sovereign pontiff [f].
[FN [d] Epist. Greg. VII. epist. 32, 35. lib. 2. epist. 5.  [e] Epist.
Greg. VII. lib. 1. epist. 7.  [f] Greg. epist. lib. 2. epist. 55.]

William the Conqueror, the most potent, the most haughty, and the most
vigorous prince in Europe, was not, amidst all his splendid successes,
secure from the attacks of this enterprising pontiff.  Gregory wrote
him a letter, requiring him to fulfil his promise in doing homage for
the kingdom of England to the see of Rome, and to send him over that
tribute, which all his predecessors had been accustomed to pay to the
vicar of Christ.  By the tribute he meant Peter's pence; which, though
at first a charitable donation of the Saxon princes, was interpreted,
according to the usual practice of the Romish court, to be a badge of
subjection acknowledged by the kingdom.  William replied, that the
money should be remitted as usual; but that neither had he promised to
do homage to Rome, nor was it in the least his purpose to impose that
servitude on his state [g].  And the better to show Gregory his
independence, he ventured, notwithstanding the frequent complaints of
the pope, to refuse to the English bishops the liberty of attending a
general council which that pontiff had summoned against his enemies.
[FN [g] Spicileg. Seldeni ad Eadmer, p. 4.]

But though the king displayed this vigour in supporting the royal
dignity, he was infected with the general superstition of the age, and
he did not perceive the ambitious scope of those institutions, which,
under colour of strictness in religion, were introduced or promoted by
the court of Rome.  Gregory, while he was throwing all Europe into
combustion by his violence and impostures, affected an anxious care
for the purity of manners; and even the chaste pleasures of the
marriage-bed were inconsistent, in his opinion, with the sanctity of
the sacerdotal character.  He had issued a decree prohibiting the
marriage of priests, excommunicating all clergymen who retained their
wives, declaring such unlawful commerce to be fornication, and
rendering it criminal in the laity to attend divine worship, when such
profane priests officiated at the altar [h].  This point was a great
object in the politics of the Roman pontiffs; and it cost them
infinitely more pains to establish it, than the propagation of any
speculative absurdity which they had ever attempted to introduce.
Many synods were summoned in different parts of Europe before it was
finally settled; and it was there constantly remarked, that the
younger clergymen complied cheerfully with the pope's decrees in this
particular, and that the chief reluctance appeared in those who were
more advanced in years: an event so little consonant to men's natural
expectations, that it could not fail to be glossed on, even in that
blind and superstitious age.  William allowed the pope's legate to
assemble, in his absence, a synod at Winchester, in order to establish
the celibacy of the clergy; but the church of England could not yet be
carried the whole length expected.  The synod was content with
decreeing, that the bishops should not thenceforth ordain any priests
or deacons without exacting from them a promise of celibacy; but they
enacted, that none, except those who belonged to collegiate or
cathedral churches, should be obliged to separate from their wives.
[FN [h] Hoveden, p. 455, 457.  Flor. Wigorn. p. 638.  Spellm. Concil.
fol. 13 A. D. 1076.]

[MN Revolt of Prince Robert.]
The king passed some years in Normandy; but his long residence there
was not entirely owing to his declared preference of that duchy: his
presence was also necessary for composing those disturbances which had
arisen in that favourite territory, and which had even originally
proceeded from his own family.  Robert, his eldest son, surnamed
Gambaron or Curthose, from his short legs, was a prince who inherited
all the bravery of his family and nation; but without that policy and
dissimulation, by which his father was so much distinguished, and
which, no less than his military valour, had contributed to his great
successes.  Greedy of fame, impatient of contradiction, without
reserve in his friendships, declared in his enmities, this prince
could endure no control even from his imperious father, and openly
aspired to that independence, to which his temper, as well as some
circumstances in his situation, strongly invited him [i].  When
William first received the submissions of the province of Maine, he
had promised the inhabitants that Robert should be their prince; and
before he undertook the expedition against England, he had, on the
application of the French court, declared him his successor in
Normandy, and had obliged the barons of that duchy to do him homage as
their future sovereign.  By this artifice, he had endeavoured to
appease the jealousy of his neighbours, as affording them a prospect
of separating England from his dominions on the continent; but when
Robert demanded of him the execution of those engagements, he gave him
an absolute refusal, and told him, according to the homely saying,
that he never intended to throw off his clothes till he went to bed
[k].  Robert openly declared his discontent; and was suspected of
secretly instigating the King of France and the Earl of Britany to the
opposition which they made to William, and which had formerly
frustrated his attempts upon the town of Dol.  And as the quarrel
still augmented, Robert proceeded to entertain a strong jealousy of
his two surviving brothers, William and Henry, (for Richard was killed
in hunting by a stag,) who, by greater submission and complaisance,
had acquired the affections of their father.  In this disposition on
both sides, the greatest trifle sufficed to produce a rupture between
them.
[FN [i] Order. Vital. p. 545.  Hoveden, p. 457.  Flor. Wigorn. p. 639.
[k] Chron. de Mailr. p. 160.]

The three princes, residing with their father in the castle of L'Aigle
in Normandy, were one day engaged in sport together; and after some
mirth and jollity, the two younger took a fancy of throwing over some
water on Robert as he passed through the court on leaving their
apartment [l]; a frolic, which he would naturally have regarded as
innocent, had it not been for the suggestions of Alberic de
Grentmesnil, son of that Hugh de Grentmesnil whom William had formerly
deprived of his fortunes, when that baron deserted him during his
greatest difficulties in England.  The young man, mindful of the
injury, persuaded the prince that this action was meant as a public
affront, which it behoved him in honour to resent; and the choleric
Robert, drawing his sword, ran upstairs, with an intention of taking
revenge on his brothers [m].  The whole castle was filled with tumult,
which the king himself, who hastened from his apartment, found some
difficulty to appease.  But he could by no means appease the
resentment of his eldest son, who, complaining of his partiality, and
fancying that no proper atonement had been made him for the insult,
left the court that very evening, and hastened to Rouen, with an
intention of seizing the citadel of that place [n].  But being
disappointed in this view by the precaution and vigilance of Roger de
Ivery, the governor, he fled to Hugh de Neufchatel, a powerful Norman
baron, who gave him protection in his castles; and he openly levied
war against his father [o].  The popular character of the prince, and
a similarity of manners, engaged all the young nobility of Normandy
and Maine, as well as of Anjou and Britany, to take part with him; and
it was suspected, that Matilda, his mother, whose favourite he was,
supported him in his rebellion by secret remittances of money, and by
the encouragement which she gave his partisans.
[FN [l] Order. Vital. p. 545.  [m] Ibid.  [n] Order. Vital. p. 545.
[o] Ibid.  Hoveden, p. 457.  Sim. Dun. p. 210.  Diceto, p. 487.]

[MN 1079.]  All the hereditary provinces of William, as well as his
family, were, during several years, thrown into convulsions by this
war; and he was at last obliged to have recourse to England, where
that species of military government which he had established gave him
greater authority than the ancient feudal institutions permitted him
to exercise in Normandy.  He called over an army of English under his
ancient captains, who soon expelled Robert and his adherents from
their retreats, and restored the authority of the sovereign in all his
dominions.  The young prince was obliged to take shelter in the castle
of Gerberoy in the Beauvoisis, which the King of France, who secretly
fomented all these dissensions, had provided for him.  In this
fortress he was closely besieged by his father, against whom, having a
strong garrison, he made an obstinate defence.  There passed under the
walls of this place many rencounters, which resembled more the single
combats of chivalry than the military actions of armies; but one of
them was remarkable for its circumstances and its event.  Robert
happened to engage the king, who was concealed by his helmet; and both
of them being valiant, a fierce combat ensued, till at last the young
prince wounded his father in the arm, and unhorsed him.  On his
calling out for assistance, his voice discovered him to his son, who,
struck with remorse for his past guilt, and astonished with the
apprehensions of one much greater, which he had so nearly incurred,
instantly threw himself at his father's feet, craved pardon for his
offences, and offered to purchase forgiveness by any atonement [p].
The resentment harboured by William was so implacable, that he did not
immediately correspond to this dutiful submission of his son with like
tenderness; but giving him his malediction, departed for his own camp,
on Robert's horse, which that prince had assisted him to mount.  He
soon after raised the siege, and marched with his army to Normandy;
where the interposition of the queen, and other common friends,
brought about a reconcilement, which was probably not a little
forwarded by the generosity of the son's behaviour in this action, and
by the returning sense of his past misconduct.  The king seemed so
fully appeased, that he even took Robert with him into England; where
he intrusted him with the command of an army, in order to repel an
inroad of Malcolm, King of Scotland, and to retaliate by a like inroad
into that country.  The Welsh, unable to resist William's power, were,
about the same time, necessitated to pay a compensation for their
incursions; and every thing was reduced to full tranquillity in this
island.
[FN [p] Malmes. p. 106.  H. Hunt. p. 369.  Hoveden, p. 457.  Flor.
Wig. p. 639.  Sim. Dun. p. 210.  Diceto, p. 287.  Knyghton, p. 2351.
Alur. Beverl. p. 135.]

[MN 1081.  Doomsday-book.]
The state of affairs gave William leisure to begin and finish an
undertaking, which proves his extensive genius, and does honour to his
memory: it was a general survey of all the lands in the kingdom, their
extent in each district, their proprietors, tenures, value; the
quantity of meadow, pasture, wood, and arable land, which they
contained; and in some counties the number of tenants, cottagers, and
slaves of all denominations, who lived upon them.  He appointed
commissioners for this purpose, who entered every particular in their
register by the verdict of juries; and after a labour of six years
(for the work was so long in finishing) brought him an exact account
of all the landed property of his kingdom [q].  This monument, called
Doomsday-book, the most valuable piece of antiquity possessed by any
nation, is still preserved in the Exchequer; and though only some
extracts of it have hitherto been published, it serves to illustrate
to us, in many particulars, the ancient state of England.  The great
Alfred had finished a like survey of the kingdom in his time, which
was long kept at Winchester, and which probably served as a model to
William in this undertaking [r].
[FN [q] Chron. Sax. p. 190.  Ingulph, p. 79.  Chron. T. Wykes, p. 23.
H. Hunt. p. 370.  Hoveden, p. 460.  M. West. p. 229.  Flor. Wigorn. p.
641.  Chron. Abb. de Petri de Burgo, p. 51.  M. Paris, p. 8.  The more
northern counties were not comprehended in this survey; I suppose
because of their wild, uncultivated state.  [r] Ingulph, p. 8.]

The king was naturally a great economist; and though no prince had
ever been more bountiful to his officers and servants, it was merely
because he had rendered himself universal proprietor of England, and
had a whole kingdom to bestow.  He reserved an ample revenue for the
crown; and in the general distribution of land among his followers, he
kept possession of no less than one thousand four hundred and twenty-
two manors in different parts of England [s], which paid him rent,
either in money, or in corn, cattle, and the usual produce of the
soil.  An ancient historian computes, that his annual fixed income,
besides escheats, fines, reliefs, and other casual profits to a great
value, amounted to near four hundred thousand pounds a year [t]; a sum
which, if all circumstances be attended to, will appear wholly
incredible.  A pound in that age, as we have already observed,
contained three times the weight of silver that it does at present;
and the same weight of silver, by the most probable computation, would
purchase near ten times more of the necessaries of life, though not in
the same proportion of the finer manufactures.  This revenue,
therefore, of William, would be equal to at least nine or ten millions
at present; and as that prince had neither fleet nor army to support,
the former being only an occasional expense, and the latter being
maintained without any charge to him by his military vassals, we must
thence conclude, that no emperor or prince, in any age or nation, can
be compared to the Conqueror for opulence and riches.  This leads us
to suspect a great mistake in the computation of the historian:
though, if we consider that avarice is always imputed to William, as
one of his vices, and that having by the sword rendered himself master
of all the lands in the kingdom, he would certainly in the partition
retain a great proportion for his own share; we can scarcely be guilty
of any error in asserting, that perhaps no king of England was ever
more opulent, was more able to support by his revenue the splendour
and magnificence of a court, or could bestow more on his pleasures, or
in liberalities to his servants and favourites [u].
[FN [s] West's inquiry into the manner of creating peers, p. 24.  [t]
Order. Vital. p. 523.  He says one thousand and sixty pounds and some
odd shillings and pence a day.  [u] Fortescue, de Dom. reg. et
politic. cap. 111.]

[MN The new forest.]
There was one pleasure to which William, as well as all the Normans
and ancient Saxons, was extremely addicted, and that was hunting; but
this pleasure he indulged more at the expense of his unhappy subjects,
whose interests he always disregarded, than to the loss or diminution
of his own revenue.  Not content with those large forests which former
kings possessed in all parts of England, he resolved to make a new
forest near Winchester, the usual place of his residence; and for that
purpose he laid waste the country in Hampshire for an extent of thirty
miles, expelled the inhabitants from their houses, seized their
property, even demolished churches and convents, and made the
sufferers no compensation for the injury [w].  At the same time, he
enacted new laws, by which he prohibited all his subjects from hunting
in any of his forests, and rendered the penalties more severe than
ever had been inflicted for such offences.  The killing of a deer or
boar, or even a hare, was punished with the loss of the delinquent's
eyes; and that at a time, when the killing of a man could be atoned
for by paying a moderate fine or composition.
[FN [w] Malmes. p. 3.  H. Hunt. p. 731.  Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p.
258.]

The transactions recorded during the remainder of this reign may be
considered more as domestic occurrences which concern the prince, than
as national events which regard England.  Odo, Bishop of Baieux, the
king's uterine brother, whom he had created Earl of Kent, and
intrusted with a great share of power during his whole reign, had
amassed immense riches; and agreeably to the usual progress of human
wishes, he began to regard his present acquisitions but as a step to
farther grandeur.  He had formed the chimerical project of buying the
papacy; and though Gregory, the reigning pope, was not of advanced
years, the prelate had confided so much in the predictions of an
astrologer, that he reckoned upon the pontiff’s death, and upon
attaining, by his own intrigues and money, that envied state of
greatness.  Resolving, therefore, to remit all his riches to Italy, he
had persuaded many considerable barons, and among the rest, Hugh, Earl
of Chester, to take the same course; in hopes that, when he should
mount the papal throne, he would bestow on them more considerable
establishments in that country.  [MN 1082.]  The king, from whom all
these projects had been carefully concealed, at last got intelligence
of the design, and ordered Odo to be arrested.  His officers, from
respect to the immunities which the ecclesiastics now assumed,
scrupled to execute the command, till the king himself was obliged in
person to seize him; and when Odo insisted that he was a prelate, and
exempt from all temporal jurisdiction, William replied, that he
arrested him not as Bishop of Baieux, but as Earl of Kent.  He was
sent prisoner to Normandy; and, notwithstanding the remonstrances and
menaces of Gregory, was detained in custody during the remainder of
this reign.

[MN 1083.]  Another domestic event gave the king much more concern: it
was the death of Matilda, his consort, whom he tenderly loved, and for
whom he had ever preserved the most sincere friendship.  Three years
afterwards he passed into Normandy, and carried with him Edgar
Atheling, to whom he willingly granted permission to make a pilgrimage
to the Holy Land.  [MN 1087.  War with France.]  He was detained on
the continent by a misunderstanding, which broke out between him and
the King of France, and which was occasioned by inroads made into
Normandy by some French barons on the frontiers.  It was little in the
power of princes at that time to restrain their licentious nobility;
but William suspected, that these barons durst not have provoked his
indignation, had they not been assured of the countenance and
protection of Philip.  His displeasure was increased by the account he
received of some railleries which that monarch had thrown out against
him.  William, who was become corpulent, had been detained in bed some
time by sickness; upon which Philip expressed his surprise that his
brother of England should be so long in being delivered of his big
belly.  The king sent him word, that, as soon as he was up, he would
present so many lights at Notre-dame, as would perhaps give little
pleasure to the King of France; alluding to the usual practice at that
time of women after childbirth.  Immediately on his recovery, he led
an army into L'Isle de France, and laid every thing waste with fire
and sword.  He took the town of Mante, which he reduced to ashes.  But
the progress of these hostilities was stopped by an accident which
soon after put an end to William's life.  His horse starting aside of
a sudden, he bruised his belly on the pommel of the saddle; and being
in a bad habit of body, as well as somewhat advanced in years, he
began to apprehend the consequences, and ordered himself to be carried
in a litter to the monastery of St. Gervas.  Finding his illness
increase, and being sensible of the approach of death, he discovered
at last the vanity of all human grandeur, and was struck with remorse
for those horrible cruelties and acts of violence, which, in the
attainment and defence of it, he had committed during the course of
his reign over England.  He endeavoured to make atonement by presents
to churches and monasteries; and he issued orders, that Earl Morcar,
Siward, Bearne, and other English prisoners, should be set at liberty.
He was even prevailed on, though not without reluctance, to consent,
with his dying breath, to release his brother Odo, against whom he was
extremely incensed.  He left Normandy and Maine to his eldest son
Robert: he wrote to Lanfranc, desiring him to crown William King of
England: he bequeathed to Henry nothing but the possessions of his
mother Matilda; but foretold that he would one day surpass both his
brothers in power and opulence.  He expired in the sixty-third year of
his age, in the twenty-first year of his reign over England, and in
the fifty-fourth of that over Normandy.

[MN 9th Sept.  Death and character of William the Conqueror.]
Few princes have been more fortunate than this great monarch, or were
better entitled to grandeur and prosperity, from the abilities and the
vigour of mind which he displayed in all his conduct.  His spirit was
bold and enterprising, yet guided by prudence: his ambition, which was
exorbitant, and lay little under the restraints of justice, still less
under those of humanity, ever submitted to the dictates of sound
policy.  Born in an age when the minds of men were intractable and
unacquainted with submission, he was yet able to direct them to his
purposes; and partly from the ascendant of his vehement character,
partly from art and dissimulation, to establish an unlimited
authority.  Though not insensible to generosity, he was hardened
against compassion; and he seemed equally ostentatious and equally
ambitious of show and parade in his clemency and in his severity.  The
maxims of his administration were austere; but might have been useful,
had they been solely employed to preserve order in an established
government [x]; they were ill calculated for softening the rigours
which, under the most gentle management, are inseparable from
conquest.  His attempt against England was the last great enterprise
of the kind which, during the course of seven hundred years, has fully
succeeded in Europe; and the force of his genius broke through those
limits, which first the feudal institutions, then the refined policy
of princes, have fixed to the several states of Christendom.  Though
he rendered himself infinitely odious to his English subjects, he
transmitted his power to his posterity, and the throne is still filled
by his descendants: a proof, that the foundations which he laid were
firm and solid, and that, amidst all his violence, while he seemed
only to gratify the present passion, he had still an eye towards
futurity.
[FN [x] M. West. p. 230.  Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p. 258.]

Some writers have been desirous of refusing to this prince the title
of Conqueror, in the sense which that term commonly bears; and, on
pretence that the word is sometimes in old books applied to such as
make an acquisition of territory by any means, they are willing to
reject William's title, by right of war, to the crown of England.  It
is needless to enter into a controversy, which, by the terms of it,
must necessarily degenerate into a dispute of words.  It suffices to
say, that the Duke of Normandy's first invasion of the island was
hostile; that his subsequent administration was entirely supported by
arms; that in the very frame of his laws, he made a distinction
between the Normans and English, to the advantage of the former [y];
that he acted in every thing as absolute master over the natives,
whose interest and affections he totally disregarded; and that if
there was an interval when he assumed the appearance of a legal
sovereign, the period was very short, and was nothing but a temporary
sacrifice, which he, as has been the case with most conquerors, was
obliged to make of his inclination to his present policy.  Scarce any
of those revolutions, which both in history and in common language,
have always been denominated conquests, appear equally violent, or
were attended with so sudden an alteration both of power and property.
The Roman state, which spread its dominion over Europe, left the
rights of individuals in a great measure untouched; and those
civilized conquerors, while they made their own country the seat of
empire, found that they could draw most advantage from the subjected
provinces, by securing to the natives the free enjoyment of their own
laws and of their private possessions.  The barbarians who subdued the
Roman empire, though they settled in the conquered countries, yet
being accustomed to a rude uncultivated life, found a part only of the
land sufficient to supply all their wants; and they were not tempted
to seize extensive possessions, which they knew neither how to
cultivate nor enjoy.  But the Normans and other foreigners, who
followed the standard of William, while they made the vanquished
kingdom the seat of government, were yet so far advanced in arts as to
be acquainted with the advantages of a large property; and having
totally subdued the natives, they pushed the rights of conquest (very
extensive in the eyes of avarice and ambition, however narrow in those
of reason) to the utmost extremity against them.  Except the former
conquest of England by the Saxons themselves, who were induced, by
peculiar circumstances, to proceed even to the extermination of the
natives, it would be difficult to find in all history a revolution
more destructive, or attended with a more complete subjection of the
ancient inhabitants.  Contumely seems even to have been wantonly added
to oppression [z]; and the natives were universally reduced to such a
state of meanness and poverty, that the English name became a term of
reproach; and several generations elapsed before one family of Saxon
pedigree was raised to any considerable honours; or could so much as
attain the rank of baron of the realm [a].  These facts are so
apparent from the whole tenour of the English history, that none would
have been tempted to deny or elude them, were they not heated by the
controversies of faction; while one party was ABSURDLY afraid of those
ABSURD consequences, which they saw the other party inclined to draw
from this event.  But it is evident that the present rights and
privileges of the people, who are a mixture of English and Normans,
can never be affected by a transaction, which passed seven hundred
years ago; and as all ancient authors [b] who lived nearest the time,
and best knew the state of the country, unanimously speak of the
Norman dominion as a conquest by war and arms, no reasonable man, from
the fear of imaginary consequences, will ever be tempted to reject
their concurring and undoubted testimony.
[FN [y] Hoveden, p. 600.  [z] H. Hunt. p. 370.  Brompton, p. 980.  [a]
So late as the reign of King Stephen, the Earl of Albemarle, before
the battle of the Standard, addressed the officers of his army in
these terms, PROCERES ANGLIAE CLARISSIMI ET GENERE NORMANNI, &c.
Brompton, p. 1026.  See farther Abbas Rieval, p. 339, &c.  All the
barons and military men of England still called themselves Normans.
[b] See note [L], at the end of the volume.]

King William had issue, besides his three sons who survived him, five
daughters, to wit, (1.) Cicely, a nun in the monastery of Feschamp,
afterwards abbess in the Holy Trinity at Caen, where she died in 1127.
(2.) Constantia, married to Alan Fergent, Earl of Britany.  She died
without issue.  (3.) Alice, contracted to Harold.  (4.) Adela, married
to Stephen, Earl of Blois, by whom she had four sons, William,
Theobald, Henry, and Stephen; of whom the elder was neglected on
account of the imbecility of his understanding.  (5.) Agatha, who died
a virgin, but was betrothed to the King of Gallicia.  She died on her
journey thither, before she joined her bridegroom.




CHAPTER V.

WILLIAM RUFUS.

ACCESSION OF WILLIAM RUFUS.--CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE KING.—INVASION OF
NORMANDY.--THE CRUSADES.--ACQUISITION OF NORMANDY.—QUARREL WITH
ANSELM, THE PRIMATE.--DEATH AND CHARACTER OF WILLIAM RUFUS



[MN 1087.  Accession of William Rufus.]
William, surnamed RUFUS, or the RED, from the colour of his hair, had
no sooner procured his father's recommendatory letter to Lanfranc, the
primate, than he hastened to take measures for securing to himself the
government of England.  Sensible that a deed so unformal, and so
little prepared, which violated Robert's right of primogeniture, might
meet with great opposition, he trusted entirely for success to his own
celerity; and having left St. Gervas, while William was breathing his
last, he arrived in England before intelligence of his father's death
had reached that kingdom [a].  Pretending orders from the king, he
secured the fortresses of Dover, Pevensey, and Hastings, whose
situation rendered them of the greatest importance; and he got
possession of the royal treasure at Winchester, amounting to the sum
of sixty thousand pounds, by which he hoped to encourage and increase
his partisans [b].  The primate, whose rank and reputation in the
kingdom gave him great authority, had been intrusted with the care of
his education, and had conferred on him the honour of knighthood [c];
and being connected with him by these ties, and probably deeming his
pretensions just, declared that he would pay a willing obedience to
the last will of the Conqueror, his friend and benefactor.  Having
assembled some bishops, and some of the principal nobility, he
instantly proceeded to the ceremony of crowning the new king [d]; and
by this despatch endeavoured to prevent all faction and resistance.
At the same time Robert, who had been already  acknowledged successor
to Normandy, took peaceable possession of that duchy.
[FN [a] W. Malmes, p. 120.  M. Paris, p. 10.  [b] Chron. Sax. p. 192.
Brompton, p. 983.  [c] W. Malmes. p. 120.  M. Paris, p. 10. Thom.
Rudborne, p. 263.  [d] Hoveden, p. 461.]

[MN 1087.  Conspiracy against the king.]
But though this partition appeared to have been made without any
violence or opposition, there remained in England many causes of
discontent, which seemed to menace that kingdom with a sudden
revolution.  The barons, who generally possessed large estates both in
England and in Normandy, were uneasy at the separation of those
territories; and foresaw, that as it would be impossible for them to
preserve long their allegiance to two masters, they must necessarily
resign either their ancient patrimony or their new acquisitions [e].
Robert’s title to the duchy they esteemed incontestable; his claim to
the kingdom plausible; and they all desired that this prince, who
alone had any pretensions to unite these states, should be put in
possession of both.  A comparison also of the personal qualities of
the two brothers led them to give the preference to the elder.  The
duke was brave, open, sincere, generous: even his predominant faults,
his extreme indolence and facility, were not disagreeable to those
haughty barons, who affected independence, and submitted with
reluctance to a vigorous administration in their sovereign.  The king,
though equally brave, was violent, haughty, tyrannical, and seemed
disposed to govern more by the fear than by the love of his subjects.
Odo, Bishop of Baieux, and Robert, Earl of Mortaigne, maternal
brothers of the Conqueror, envying the great credit of Lanfranc, which
was increased by his late services, enforced all these motives with
their partisans, and engaged them in a formal conspiracy to dethrone
the king.  They communicated their design to Eustace, Count of
Boulogne; Roger, Earl of Shrewsbury and Arundel; Robert de Belesme,
his eldest son; William, Bishop of Durham; Robert de Moubray; Roger
Bigod; Hugh de Grentmesnil; and they easily procured the assent of
these potent noblemen.  The conspirators, retiring to their castles,
hastened to put themselves in a military posture; and expecting to be
soon supported by a powerful army from Normandy, they had already
begun hostilities in many places.
[FN [e] Order. Vital. p. 666.]

The king, sensible of his perilous situation, endeavoured to engage
the affections of the native English.  As that people were now so
thoroughly subdued that they no longer aspired to the recovery of
their ancient liberties, and were content with the prospect of some
mitigation in the tyranny of the Norman princes, they zealously
embraced William's cause, upon receiving general promises of good
treatment, and of enjoying the license of hunting in the royal
forests.  The king was soon in a situation to take the field; and as
he knew the danger of delay, he suddenly marched into Kent; where his
uncles had already seized the fortresses of Pevensey and Rochester.
These places he successively reduced by famine; and though he was
prevailed on by the Earl of Chester, William de Warenne, and Robert
Fitz-Hammon, who had embraced his cause, to spare the lives of the
rebels, he confiscated all their estates, and banished them the
kingdom [f].  This success gave authority to his negotiations with
Roger, Earl of Shrewsbury, whom he detached from the confederates; and
as his powerful fleet, joined to the indolent conduct of Robert,
prevented the arrival of the Norman succours, all the other rebels
found no resource but in flight or submission.  Some of them received
a pardon; but the greater part were attainted; and the king bestowed
their estates on the Norman barons, who had remained faithful to him.
[FN [f] Chron. Sax. p. 195.  Order. Vital. p. 668.]

[MN 1089.]  William, freed from the danger of these insurrections,
took little care of fulfilling his promises to the English, who still
found themselves exposed to the same oppresions which they had
undergone during the reign of the Conqueror, and which were rather
augmented by the insolent impetuous temper of the present monarch.
The death of Lanfranc, who retained great influence over him, gave
soon after a full career to his tyranny; and all orders of men found
reason to complain of an arbitrary and illegal administration.  Even
the privileges of the church, held sacred in those days, were a feeble
rampart against his usurpations.  He seized the temporalities of all
the vacant bishoprics and abbeys; he delayed the appointment of
successors to those dignities, that he might the longer enjoy the
profits of their revenue; he bestowed some of the church lands in
property on his captains and favourites; and he openly set to sale
such sees and abbeys as he thought proper to dispose of.  Though the
murmurs of the ecclesiastics; which were quickly propagated to the
nation, rose high against this grievance, the terror of William's
authority, confirmed by the suppression of the late insurrections,
retained every one in subjection, and preserved general tranquillity
in England.

[MN 1090.  Invasion of Normandy.]
The king even thought himself enabled to disturb his brother in the
possession of Normandy.  The loose and negligent administration of
that prince had emboldened the Norman barons to affect a great
independency; and their mutual quarrels and devastations had rendered
the whole territory a scene of violence and outrage.  Two of them,
Walter and Odo, were bribed by William to deliver the fortresses of
St. Valori and Albemarle into his hands: others soon after imitated
the example of revolt; while Philip, King of France who ought to have
protected his vassal in the possession of his fief, was, after making
some efforts in his favour, engaged by large presents to remain
neuter.  The duke had also reason to apprehend danger from the
intrigues of his brother Henry.  This young prince, who had inherited
nothing of his father's great possessions, but some of his money, had
furnished Robert, while he was making his preparations against
England, with the sum of three thousand marks; and in return for so
slender a supply, had been put in possession of the Cotentin, which
comprehended near a third of the duchy of Normandy.  Robert
afterwards, upon some suspicion, threw him into prison; but finding
himself exposed to invasion from the King of England, and dreading the
conjunction of the two brothers against him, he now gave Henry his
liberty, and even made use of his assistance in suppressing the
insurrections of his rebellious subjects.  Conan, a rich burgess of
Rouen, had entered into a conspiracy to deliver that city to William;
but Henry, on the detection of his guilt, carried the traitor up to a
high tower, and with his own hands flung him from the battlements.

The king appeared in Normandy at the head of an army; and affairs
seemed to have come to extremity between the brothers; when the
nobility on both sides, strongly connected by interest and alliances,
interposed and mediated an accommodation.  The chief advantage of this
treaty accrued to William, who obtained possession of the territory of
Eu, the towns of Aumale, Fescamp, and other places; but in return, he
promised that he would assist his brother in subduing Maine, which had
rebelled; and that the Norman barons, attainted in Robert's cause,
should be restored to their estates in England.  The two brothers also
stipulated, that on the demise of either without issue, the survivor
should inherit all his dominions; and twelve of the most powerful
barons on each side swore, that they would employ their power to
ensure the effectual execution of the whole treaty [g]: a strong proof
of the great independence and authority of the nobles in those ages!
[FN [g] Chron. Sax. p. 197.  W. Malmes. p. 121.  Hoveden, p. 462.  M.
Paris, p. 11.  Annal. Waverl. p. 137.  W. Heming. p. 463.  Sim.
Dunelm. p. 216.  Brompton, p. 986.]

Prince Henry, disgusted that so little care had been taken of his
interests in this accommodation, retired to St. Michael's Mount, a
strong fortress on the coast of Normandy, and infested the
neighbourhood with his incursions.  Robert and William, with their
joint forces, besieged him in this place, and had nearly reduced him
by the scarcity of water; when the elder, hearing of his distress,
granted him permission to supply himself, and also sent him some pipes
of wine for his own table.  Being reproved by William for this
ill-timed generosity, he replied, WHAT, SHALL I SUFFER MY BROTHER TO
DIE OF THIRST?  WHERE SHALL WE FIND ANOTHER WHEN HE IS GONE?  The king
also, during this siege, performed an act of generosity which was less
suitable to his character.  Riding out one day alone, to take a survey
of the fortress, he was attacked by two soldiers and dismounted.  One
of them drew his sword in order to despatch him; when the king
exclaimed, HOLD, KNAVE!  I AM THE KING OF ENGLAND.  The soldier
suspended his blow; and raising the king from the ground, with
expressions of respect, received a handsome reward, and was taken into
his service.  Prince Henry was soon  after obliged to capitulate; and
being despoiled of all his patrimony, wandered about for some time
with very few attendants, and often in great poverty.

[MN 1091.]  The continued intestine discord among the barons was alone
in that age destructive; the public wars were commonly short and
feeble, produced little bloodshed, and were attended with no memorable
event.  To this Norman war, which was so soon concluded, there
succeeded hostilities with Scotland, which were not of longer
duration.  Robert here commanded his brother's army, and obliged
Malcolm to accept of peace, and do homage to the crown of England.
This peace was not more durable.  [MN 1093.]  Malcolm, two years
after, levying an army, invaded England; and after ravaging
Northumberland, he laid siege to Alnwick, where a party of Earl
Moubray's troops falling upon him by surprise, a sharp action ensued,
in which Malcolm was slain.  This incident interrupted for some years
the regular succession to the Scottish crown.  Though Malcolm left
legitimate sons, his brother, Donald, on account of the youth of these
princes, was advanced to the throne; but kept not long possession of
it.  Duncan, natural son of Malcolm, formed a conspiracy against him;
and being assisted by William with a small force, made himself master
of the kingdom.  New broils ensued with Normandy.  The frank, open,
remiss temper of Robert was ill fitted to withstand the interested,
rapacious character of William, who, supported by greater power, was
still encroaching on his brother's possessions, and instigating his
turbulent barons to rebellion against him.  [MN 1094.]  The king,
having gone over to Normandy to support his partisans, ordered an army
of twenty thousand men to be levied in England and to be conducted to
the sea-coast, as if they were instantly to be embarked.  Here Ralph
Flambard, the king's minister, and the chief instrument of his
extortions, exacted ten shillings a-piece from them, in lieu of their
service, and then dismissed them into their several counties.  This
money was so skilfully employed by William that it rendered him better
service than he could have expected from the army.  He engaged the
French king by new presents to depart from the protection of Robert,
and he daily bribed the Norman barons to desert his service; but was
prevented from pushing his advantages by an incursion of the Welsh,
which obliged him to return to England.  He found no difficulty in
repelling the enemy; but was not able to make any considerable
impression on a country guarded by its mountainous situation.  [MN
1095.]  A conspiracy of his own barons, which was detected at this
time, appeared a more serious concern, and engrossed all his
attention.   Robert Moubray, Earl of Northumberland, was at the head
of this combination; and he engaged in it the Count d'Eu, Richard de
Tunbridge, Roger de Lacy, and many others.  The purpose of the
conspirators was to dethrone the king, and to advance in his stead
Stephen, Count of Aumale, nephew to the Conqueror.  William's despatch
prevented the design from taking effect, and disconcerted the
conspirators.  Moubray made some resistance, but being taken prisoner,
was attainted, and thrown into confinement, where he died about thirty
years after.  [MN 1096.]  The Count d'Eu denied his concurrence in the
plot; and to justify himself, fought, in the presence of the court at
Windsor, a duel with Geoffrey Bainard, who accused him.  But being
worsted in the combat, he was condemned to be castrated, and to have
his eyes put out.  William de Alderi, another conspirator, was
supposed to be treated with more rigour, when he was sentenced to be
hanged.

[MN The Crusades.]
But the noise of these petty wars and commotions was quite sunk in the
tumult of the crusades, which now engrossed the attention of Europe,
and have ever since engaged the curiosity of mankind, as the most
signal and most durable monument of human folly that has yet appeared
in any age or nation.  After Mahomet had, by means of his pretended
revelations, united the dispersed Arabians under one head, they issued
forth from their deserts in great multitudes; and being animated with
zeal for their new religion, and supported by the vigour of their new
government, they made deep impression on the eastern empire, which was
far in the decline, with regard both to military discipline and to
civil policy.  Jerusalem, by its situation, became one of their most
early conquests; and the Christians had the mortification to see the
holy sepulchre, and the other places, consecrated by the presence of
their religious founder, fallen into the possession of infidels.  But
the Arabians or Saracens were so employed in military enterprises, by
which they spread their empire, in a few years, from the banks of the
Ganges to the Straits of Gibraltar, that they had no leisure for
theological controversy; and though the Alcoran, the original monument
of their faith, seems to contain some violent precepts, they were much
less infected with the spirit of bigotry and persecution than the
indolent and speculative Greeks, who were continually refining on the
several articles of their religious system.  They gave little
disturbance to those zealous pilgrims who daily flocked to Jerusalem;
and they allowed every man, after paying a moderate tribute, to visit
the holy sepulchre, to perform his religious duties, and to return in
peace.  But the Turcomans or Turks, a tribe of Tartars, who had
embraced Mahometanism, having wrested Syria from the Saracens, and
having, in the year 1065, made themselves masters of Jerusalem,
rendered the pilgrimage much more difficult and dangerous to the
Christians.  The barbarity of their manners, and the confusions
attending their unsettled government, exposed the pilgrims to many
insults, robberies, and extortions; and these zealots, returning from
their meritorious fatigues and sufferings, filled all Christendom with
indignation against the infidels, who profaned the holy city by their
presence, and derided the sacred mysteries in the very place of their
completion.  Gregory VII., among the other vast ideas which he
entertained, had formed the design of uniting all the western
Christians against the Mahometans; but the egregious and violent
invasions of that pontiff on the civil power of princes had created
him so many enemies, and had rendered his schemes so suspicious, that
he was not able to make great progress in this undertaking.  The work
was reserved for a meaner instrument, whose low condition in life
exposed him to no jealousy, and whose folly was well calculated to
coincide with the prevailing principles of the times.

Peter, commonly called the Hermit, a native of Amiens in Picardy, had
made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  Being deeply affected with the
dangers to which that act of piety now exposed the pilgrims, as well
as with the instances of oppression under which the eastern Christians
laboured, he entertained the bold, and in all appearance
impracticable, project of leading into Asia, from the farthest
extremities of the West, armies sufficient to subdue those potent and
warlike nations which now held the holy city in subjection [h].  He
proposed his views to Martin II., who filled the papal chair, and who,
though sensible of the advantages which the head of the Christian
religion must reap from a religious war, and though he esteemed the
blind zeal of Peter a proper means for effecting the purpose [i],
resolved not to interpose his authority, till he saw a greater
probability of success.  He summoned a council at Placentia, which
consisted of four thousand ecclesiastics, and thirty thousand
seculars; and which was so numerous that no hall could contain the
multitude, and it was necessary to hold the assembly in a plain.  The
harangues of the pope, and of Peter himself, representing the dismal
situation of their brethren in the East, and the indignity suffered by
the Christian name, in allowing the holy city to remain in the hands
of infidels, here found the minds of men so well prepared, that the
whole multitude, suddenly and violently, declared for the war, and
solemnly devoted themselves to perform this service, so meritorious,
as they believed it, to God and religion.
[FN [h] Gul. Tyrius, lib. 1. cap. 11.  M. Paris, p. 17.  [i] Gul.
Tyrius, lib. 1. cap. 13.]

But though Italy seemed thus to have zealously embraced the
enterprise, Martin knew that, in order to ensure success, it was
necessary to enlist the greater and more warlike nations in the same
engagement; and having previously exhorted Peter to visit the chief
cities and sovereigns of Christendom, he summoned another council at
Clermont in Auvergne [k].  The fame of this great and pious design
being now universally diffused, procured the attendance of the
greatest prelates, nobles, and princes; and when the pope and the
Hermit renewed their pathetic exhortations, the whole assembly, as if
impelled by an immediate inspiration, not moved by their preceding
impressions, exclaimed with one voice, IT IS THE WILL OF GOD!  IT IS
THE WILL OF GOD!  Words deemed so memorable, and so much the result of
a divine influence, that they were employed as the signal of
rendezvous and battle in all the future exploits of those adventurers
[l].  Men of all ranks flew to arms with the utmost ardour; and an
exterior symbol too, a circumstance of chief moment, was here chosen
by the devoted combatants.  The sign of the cross, which had been
hitherto so much revered among Christians, and which, the more it was
an object of reproach among the pagan world, was the more passionately
cherished by them, became the badge of union, and was affixed to the
right shoulder, by all who enlisted themselves in this sacred warfare
[m].
[FN [k] Concil. tom. x.  Concil. Clarom.  Matth. Paris, p. 16.  M.
West. p. 233.  [l] Historia Bell. Sacri, tom. i.  Musaei Ital.  [m]
Hist. Bell. Sacri, tom. i.  Mus. Ital.  Order. Vital. p. 721.]

Europe was at this time sunk into profound ignorance and superstition:
the ecclesiastics had acquired the greatest ascendant over the human
mind: the people, who, being little restrained by honour, and less by
law, abandoned themselves to the worst crimes and disorders, knew of
no other expiation than the observances imposed on them by their
spiritual pastors; and it was easy to represent the holy war as an
equivalent for all penances [n], and an atonement for every violation
of justice and humanity.  But, amidst the abject superstition which
now prevailed, the military spirit also had universally diffused
itself; and though not supported by art or discipline, was become the
general passion of the nations governed by the feudal law.  All the
great lords possessed the right of peace and war: they were engaged in
perpetual hostilities with each other: the open country was become a
scene of outrage and disorder: the cities, still mean and poor, were
neither guarded by walls, nor protected by privileges, and were
exposed to every insult: individuals were obliged to depend for safety
on their own force, or their private alliances: and valour was the
only excellence which was held in esteem, or gave one man the
pre-eminence above another.  When all the particular superstitions,
therefore, were here united in one great object, the ardour for
military enterprises took the same direction; and Europe, impelled by
its two ruling passions, was loosened, as it  were, from its
foundations, and seemed to precipitate itself in one united body upon
the East.
[FN [n] Order. Vital. p. 720.]

All orders of men, deeming the crusades the only road to Heaven,
enlisted themselves under these sacred banners, and were impatient to
open the way with their sword to the holy city.  Nobles, artisans,
peasants, even priests [o], enrolled their names; and to decline this
meritorious service, was branded with the reproach of impiety, or what
perhaps was esteemed still more disgraceful, of cowardice and
pusillanimity [p].  The infirm and aged contributed to the expedition
by presents and money; and many of them, not satisfied with the merit
of this atonement, attended it in person, and were determined, if
possible, to breathe their last in sight of that city where their
Saviour had died for them.  Women themselves, concealing their sex
under the disguise of armour, attended the camp; and commonly forgot
still more the duty of their sex, by prostituting themselves, without
reserve, to the army [q].  The greatest criminals were forward in a
service which they regarded as a propitiation for all crimes; and the
most enormous disorders were, during the course of those expeditions,
committed by men inured to wickedness, encouraged by example, and
impelled by necessity.  The multitude of the adventurers soon became
so great, that their more sagacious leaders, Hugh, Count of
Vermandois, brother to the French king, Raymond, Count of Toulouse,
Godfrey of Bouillon, Prince of Brabant, and Stephen, Count of Blois,
became apprehensive lest the greatness itself of the armament should
disappoint its purpose; and they permitted an undisciplined multitude,
computed at three hundred thousand men, to go before them, under the
command of Peter the Hermit, and Walter the Moneyless [s].  These men
took the road towards Constantinople through Hungary and Bulgaria; and
trusting that Heaven, by supernatural assistance, would supply all
their necessities, they made no provision for subsistence on their
march.  They soon found themselves obliged to obtain by plunder what
they had vainly expected from miracles; and the enraged inhabitants of
the countries through which they passed, gathering together in arms,
attacked the disorderly multitude, and put them to slaughter without
resistance.  The more disciplined armies followed after; and passing
the straits at Constantinople, they were mustered in the plains of
Asia, and amounted in the whole to the number of seven hundred
thousand combatants [t].
[FN [o] Order. Vital. p. 720.  [p] W. Malm. p. 133.  [q] Vertot, Hist.
de Chev. de Malte, vol. i. p. 46.  [r] Sim. Dunelm. p. 222.  [s]
Matth. Paris, p. 17.  [t] Matth. Paris, p. 20, 21.]

Amidst this universal frenzy, which spread itself by contagion
throughout Europe, especially in France and Germany, men were not
entirely forgetful of their present interests; and both those who went
on this expedition, and those who stayed behind, entertained schemes
of gratifying, by its means, their avarice or their ambition.  The
nobles who enlisted themselves were moved, from the romantic spirit of
the age, to hope for opulent establishments in the East, the chief
seat of arts and commerce during those ages; and in pursuit of these
chimerical projects, they sold at the lowest price their ancient
castles and inheritances, which had now lost all value in their eyes.
The greater princes, who remained at home, besides establishing peace
in their dominions by giving occupation abroad to the inquietude and
martial disposition of their subjects, took the opportunity of
annexing to their crown many considerable fiefs, either by purchase,
or by the extinction of heirs.  The pope frequently turned the zeal of
the crusaders from the infidels against his own enemies, whom he
represented as equally criminal with the enemies of Christ.  The
convents and other religious societies bought the possessions of the
adventurers, and as the contributions of the faithful were commonly
intrusted to their management, they often diverted to this purpose
what was intended to be employed against the infidels [u].  But no one
was a more immediate gainer by this epidemic fury than the King of
England, who kept aloof from all connexions with those fanatical and
romantic warriors.
[FN [u] Padre Paolo Hist. delle benef. ecclesiast. p. 128.]

[MN Acquisition of Normandy.]
Robert, Duke of Normandy, impelled by the bravery and mistaken
generosity of his spirit, had early enlisted himself in the crusade;
but being always unprovided with money, he found that it would be
impracticable for him to appear in a manner suitable to his rank and
station, at the head of his numerous vassals and subjects, who,
transported with the general rage, were determined to follow him into
Asia.  He resolved, therefore, to mortgage, or rather to sell his
dominion; which he had not talents to govern; and he offered them to
his brother William for the very unequal sum of ten thousand marks
[w].  The bargain was soon concluded: the king raised the money by
violent extortions on his subjects of all ranks, even on the convents,
who were obliged to melt their plate in order to furnish the quota
demanded of them [x]: he was put in possession of Normandy and Maine,
and Robert, providing himself with a magnificent train, set out for
the Holy Land, in pursuit of glory, and in full confidence of securing
his eternal salvation.
[FN [w] W. Malm. p. 123.  Chron. T. Wykes. p. 24.  Annal. Waverl. p.
139.  W. Heming. p. 467.  Flor. Wig. p. 648.  Sim. Dunelm. p. 222.
Knyghton, p. 2564.  [x] Eadmer, p. 35.  W. Malm. p. 123.  W. Heming.
p. 467.]

The smallness of this sum, with the difficulties which William found
in raising it, suffices alone to refute the account which is
heedlessly adopted by historians, of the enormous revenue of the
Conqueror.  Is it credible that Robert would consign to the rapacious
hands of his brother such considerable dominion, for a sum, which,
according to that account, made not a week's income of his father's
English revenue alone?  Or that the King of England could not on
demand, without oppressing his subjects, have been able to pay him the
money?  The Conqueror, it is agreed, was frugal as well as rapacious;
yet his treasure, at his death, exceeded not sixty thousand pounds,
which hardly amounted to his income for two months: another certain
refutation of that exaggerated account.

The fury of the crusades, during this age, less infected England than
the neighbouring kingdoms; probably because the Norman conquerors,
finding their settlement in that kingdom still somewhat precarious,
durst not abandon their homes in quest of distant adventures.  The
selfish interested spirit also of the king, which kept him from
kindling in the general flame, checked its progress among his
subjects: and as he is accused of open profaneness [y], and was endued
with a sharp wit [z], it is likely that he made the romantic chivalry
of the crusaders the object of his perpetual raillery.  As an instance
of his irreligion, we are told, that he once accepted of sixty marks
from a Jew, whose son had been converted to Christianity, and who
engaged him by that present to assist him in bringing back the youth
to Judaism.  William employed both menaces and persuasion for that
purpose; but finding the convert obstinate in his new faith, he sent
for the father and told him, that as he had not succeeded, it was not
just that he should keep the present; but as he had done his utmost,
it was but equitable that he should be paid for his pains; and he
would therefore retain only thirty marks of the money [a].  At another
time, it is said, he sent for some learned Christian theologians and
some rabbies, and bade them fairly dispute the question of their
religion in his presence: he was perfectly indifferent between them;
had his ears open to reason and conviction; and would embrace that
doctrine which upon comparison should be found supported by the most
solid arguments [b].  If this story be true, it is probable that he
meant only to amuse himself by turning both into ridicule: but we must
be cautious of admitting every thing related by the monkish historians
to the disadvantage of this prince: he had the misfortune to be
engaged in quarrels with the ecclesiastics, particularly with Anselm,
commonly called St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury; and it is no
wonder his memory should be blackened by the historians of that order.
[FN [y] G. Newbr. p. 358.  W. Gemet. p. 292.  [z] W. Malm. p. 122.
[a] Eadmer, p. 47.  [b] W. Malm. p. 123.]

[MN Quarrel the Anselm, the primate.]
After the death of Lanfranc, the king, for several years, retained in
his own hands the revenues of Canterbury, as he did those of many
other vacant bishoprics; but falling into a dangerous sickness, he was
seized with remorse, and the clergy represented to him, that he was in
danger of eternal perdition, if before his death he did not make
atonement for those multiplied impieties and sacrileges of which he
had been guilty [c].  He resolved therefore to supply instantly the
vacancy of Canterbury; and for that purpose he sent for Anselm, a
Piedmontese by birth, Abbot of Bec in Normandy, who was much
celebrated for his learning and piety.  The abbot earnestly refused
the dignity, fell on his knees, wept, and entreated the king to change
his purpose [d]; and when he found the prince obstinate in forcing the
pastoral staff upon him, he kept his fist so fast clenched, that it
required the utmost violence of the bystanders to open it, and force
him to receive that ensign of spiritual dignity [e].  William soon
after recovered; and his passions regaining their wonted vigour, he
returned to his former violence and rapine.  He detained in prison
several persons whom he had ordered to be freed during the time of his
penitence; he still preyed upon the ecclesiastical benefices; the sale
of spiritual dignities continued as open as ever; and he kept
possession of a considerable part of the revenues belonging to the see
of Canterbury [f].  But he found in Anselm that persevering opposition
which he had reason to expect from the ostentatious humility which
that prelate had displayed in refusing his promotion.
[FN [c] Eadmer, p. 16.  Chron. Sax. p. 198.  [d] Eadmer, p. 17.
Diceto, p. 494.  [e] Eadmer, p. 18.  [f] Eadmer, p. 19, 43.  Chron.
Sax. p. 119.]

The opposition made by Anselm was the more dangerous on account of the
character of piety which he soon acquired in England by his great zeal
against all abuses, particularly those in dress and ornament.  There
was a mode, which, in that age, prevailed throughout Europe, both
among men and women, to give an enormous length to their shoes, to
draw the toe to a sharp point, and to affix to it the figure of a
bird's bill, or some such ornament, which was turned upwards, and
which was often sustained by gold or silver chains tied to the knee
[g].  The ecclesiastics took exception at this ornament, which they
said was an attempt to belie the scripture, where it is affirmed, that
no man can add a cubit to his stature; and they declaimed against it
with great vehemence, nay, assembled some synods, who absolutely
condemned it.  But, such are the strange contradictions in human
nature! though the clergy, at that time, could overturn thrones, and
had authority sufficient to send above a million of men on THEIR
errand to the deserts of Asia, they could never prevail against these
long pointed shoes: on the contrary, that caprice, contrary to all
other modes, maintained its ground during several centuries; and if
the clergy had not at last desisted from their persecution of it, it
might still have been the prevailing fashion in Europe.
[FN [g] Order. Vital. p. 682.  W. Malmes. p. 123.  Knyghton, p. 2369.]

But Anselm was more fortunate in decrying the particular mode which
was the object of his aversion, and which probably had not taken such
fast hold of the affections of the people.  He preached zealously
against the long hair and curled locks which were then fashionable
among the courtiers; he refused the ashes on Ash-Wednesday to those
who were so accoutred; and his authority and eloquence had such
influence, that the young men universally abandoned that ornament, and
appeared in the cropped hair, which was recommended to them by the
sermons of the primate.  The noted historian of Anselm, who was also
his companion and secretary, celebrates highly this effort of his zeal
and piety [h].
[FN [h] Eadmer, p. 23.]

When William's profaneness therefore returned to him with his health,
he was soon engaged in controversies with this austere prelate.  There
was at that time a schism in the church between Urban and Clement, who
both pretended to the papacy [i]; and Anselm, who, as Abbot of Bec,
had already acknowledged the former, was determined, without the
king's consent, to introduce his authority into England [k].  William,
who, imitating his father's example, had prohibited his subjects from
recognizing any pope whom he had not previously received, was enraged
at this attempt; and summoned a synod at Rockingham, with an intention
of deposing Anselm: but the prelate's suffragans declared, that
without the papal authority, they knew of no expedient for inflicting
that punishment on their primate [l].  The king was at last engaged by
other motives to give the preference to Urban's title: Anselm received
the pall from that pontiff; and matters seemed to be accommodated
between the king and the primate [m], when the quarrel broke out
afresh from a new cause.  William had undertaken an expedition against
Wales, and required the archbishop to furnish his quota of soldiers
for that service; but Anselm, who regarded the demand as an oppression
on the church, and yet durst not refuse compliance, sent them so
miserably accoutred, that the king was extremely displeased, and
threatened him with a prosecution [n].  Anselm, on the other hand,
demanded positively that all the revenues of his see should be
restored to him; appealed to Rome against the king's injustice [o];
and affairs came to such extremities, that the primate, finding it
dangerous to remain in the kingdom, desired and obtained the king's
permission to retire beyond sea.  All his temporalities were seized
[p]; but he was received with great respect by Urban, who considered
him as a martyr in the cause of religion, and even menaced the king on
account of his proceedings against the primate and the church, with
the sentence of excommunication.  Anselm assisted at the council of
Bari, where, besides fixing the controversy between the Greek and
Latin churches, concerning the procession of the Holy Ghost [q], the
right of election to church preferments was declared to belong to the
clergy alone, and spiritual censures were denounced against all
ecclesiastics, who did homage to laymen for their sees or benefices,
and against all laymen who exacted it [r].  The right of homage, by
the feudal customs, was, that the vassal should throw himself on his
knees, should put his joined hands between those of his superior, and
should in that posture swear fealty to him [s].  But the council
declared it execrable, that pure hands, which could create God, and
could offer him up as a sacrifice for the salvation of mankind, should
be put, after this humiliating manner, between profane hands, which,
besides being inured to rapine and bloodshed, were employed day and
night in impure purposes, and obscene contacts [t].  Such were the
reasonings prevalent in that age; reasonings which, though they cannot
be passed over in silence, without omitting the most curious, and
perhaps not the least instructive part of history, can scarcely be
delivered with the requisite decency and gravity.
[FN [i] Hoveden, p. 463.  [k] Eadmer, p. 25.  M. Paris, p. 13.
Diceto, p. 494.  Spellm. Conc. vol ii. p. 16.  [l] Eadmer, p. 30.  [m]
Diceto, p. 495.  [n] Eadmer, p. 37, 43.  [o] Ibid. p. 40.  [p] M.
Paris, p. 13.  Parker, p. 178.  [q] Eadmer, p. 49.  M. Paris, p. 13.
Sim. Dun. p. 224.  [r] M. Paris, p. 14.  [s] Spellman, Du Cange, in
verb. HOMINIUM.  [t] W. Heming. p. 467.  Flor. Wigorn. p. 649.  Sim.
Dunelm. p. 224.  Brompton, p. 994.]

[MN 1097.]  The cession of Normandy and Maine by Duke Robert increased
the king's territories; but brought him no great increase of power,
because of the unsettled state of those countries, the mutinous
disposition of the barons, and the vicinity of the French king, who
supported them in all their insurrections.  Even Helie, Lord of La
Fleche, a small town in Anjou, was able to give him inquietude; and
this great monarch was obliged to make several expeditions abroad,
without being able to prevail over so petty a baron, who had acquired
the confidence and affections of the inhabitants of Maine.  He was,
however, so fortunate as at last to take him prisoner in a rencounter;
but having released him at the intercession of the French king and the
Count of Anjou, he found the province of Maine still exposed to his
intrigues and incursions.  Helie, being introduced by the citizens
into the town of Mans, besieged the garrison in the citadel: [MN
1099.] William, who was hunting in the new forest when he received
intelligence of this hostile attempt, was so provoked, that he
immediately turned his horse, and galloped to the sea-shore at
Dartmouth; declaring, that he would not stop a moment till he had
taken vengeance for the offence.  He found the weather so cloudy and
tempestuous, that the mariners thought it dangerous to put to sea: but
the king hurried on board, and ordered them to set sail instantly;
telling them, that they never yet heard of a king that was drowned
[u].  By this vigour and celerity, he delivered the citadel of Mans
from its present danger: and pursuing Helie into his own territories,
he laid siege to Majol, a small castle in those parts: [MN 1100.] but
a wound, which he received before this place, obliged him to raise the
siege; and he returned to England.
[FN [u] W. Malm. p. 124.  H. Hunt. p. 378.  M. Paris, p. 36.  Ypod.
Neust p. 442.]

The weakness of the greatest monarchs, during this age, in their
military expeditions against their nearest neighbours, appears the
more surprising, when we consider the prodigious numbers which even
petty princes, seconding the enthusiastic rage of the people, were
able to assemble, and to conduct in dangerous enterprises to the
remote provinces of Asia.  William, Earl of Poitiers and Duke of
Guienne, inflamed with the glory, and not discouraged by the
misfortunes, which had attended the former adventurers in the
crusades, had put himself at the head of an immense multitude,
computed by some historians to amount to sixty thousand horse, and a
much greater number of foot [w], and he purposed to lead them into the
Holy Land against the infidels.  He wanted money to forward the
preparations requisite for this expedition, and he offered to mortgage
all his dominions to William, without entertaining any scruple on
account of that rapacious and iniquitous hand to which he resolved to
consign them [x].  The king accepted the offer, and had prepared a
fleet and an army, in order to escort the money, and take possession
of the rich provinces of Guienne and Poictou; [MN 2d August.] when an
accident put an end to his life, and to all his ambitious projects.
He was engaged in hunting, the sole amusement, and indeed the chief
occupation of princes in those rude times, when society was little
cultivated, and the arts afforded few objects worthy of attention.
Walter Tyrrel, a French gentleman, remarkable for his address in
archery, attended him in this recreation, of which the new forest was
the scene; and as William had dismounted after a chase, Tyrrel,
impatient to show his dexterity, let fly an arrow at a stag, which
suddenly started before him.  The arrow, glancing from a tree, struck
the king in the breast, and instantly slew him [y]; while Tyrrel,
without informing any one of the accident, put spurs to his horse,
hastened to the sea-shore, embarked for France, and joined the crusade
in an expedition to Jerusalem; a penance which he imposed on himself
for this involuntary crime.  The body of William was found in the
forest by the country people, and was buried without any pomp or
ceremony at Winchester.  His courtiers were negligent in performing
the last duties to a master who was so little beloved; and every one
was too much occupied in the interesting object of fixing his
successor, to attend the funeral of a dead sovereign.
[FN [w] W. Malm. p. 149.  The whole is said by Order. Vital., p. 789,
to amount to three hundred thousand men.  [x] W. Malmes. p. 127.  [y]
Ibid. p. 126.  H. Hunt. p. 378.  M. Paris, p. 37.  Petr. Blois, p.
110.]

[MN Death and character of William Rufus.]
The memory of this monarch is transmitted to us with little advantage
by the churchmen, whom he had offended; and though we may suspect, in
general, that their account of his vices is somewhat exaggerated, his
conduct affords little reason for contradicting the character which
they have assigned him, or for attributing to him any very estimable
qualities.  He seems to have been a violent and tyrannical prince; a
perfidious, encroaching, and dangerous neighbour; an unkind and
ungenerous relation.  He was equally prodigal and rapacious in the
management of his treasury; and if he possessed abilities, he lay so
much under the government of impetuous passions, that he made little
use of them in his administration; and he indulged, without reserve,
that domineering policy, which suited his temper, and which, if
supported, as it was in him, with courage and vigour, proves often
more successful in disorderly times, than the deepest foresight and
most refined artifice.

The monuments which remain of this prince in England, are the Tower,
Westminster-hall, and London-bridge, which he built.  The most
laudable foreign enterprise which he undertook, was the sending of
Edgar Atheling, three years before his death, into Scotland with a
small army, to restore Prince Edgar, the true heir of that kingdom,
son of Malcolm, and of Margaret, sister of Edgar Atheling; and the
enterprise proved successful.  It was remarked in that age, that
Richard, an elder brother of William's, perished by an accident in the
new forest; Richard, his nephew, natural son of Duke Robert, lost his
life in the same place, after the same manner; and all men, upon the
king's fate, exclaimed, that, as the Conqueror had been guilty of
extreme violence, in expelling all the inhabitants of that large
district to make room for his game, the just vengeance of Heaven was
signalized, in the same place, by the slaughter of his posterity.
William was killed in the thirteenth year of his reign, and about the
fortieth of his age.  As he was never married, he left no legitimate
issue.

In the eleventh year of this reign, Magnus, King of Norway, made a
descent on the Isle of Anglesea, but was repulsed by Hugh, Earl of
Shrewsbury.  This is the last attempt made by the northern nations
upon England.  That restless people seem about this time to have
learnt the practice of tillage, which thenceforth kept them at home,
and freed the other nations of Europe from the devastations spread
over them by those piratical invaders.  This proved one great cause of
the subsequent settlement and improvement of the southern nations.




CHAPTER VI.

HENRY I.

THE CRUSADES.--ACCESSION OF HENRY.--MARRIAGE OF THE KING.--INVASION BY
DUKE ROBERT.--ACCOMMODATION WITH ROBERT.—ATTACK OF NORMANDY.--CONQUEST
OF NORMANDY.--CONTINUATION OF THE QUARREL WITH ANSELM, THE PRIMATE.--
COMPROMISE WITH HIM.—WARS ABROAD.--DEATH OF PRINCE WILLIAM.--KING'S
SECOND MARRIAGE.--DEATH AND CHARACTER OF HENRY



[MN 1100.  The Crusades.]
After the adventurers in the holy war were assembled on the banks of
the Bosphorus, opposite to Constantinople, they proceeded on their
enterprise; but immediately experienced those difficulties which their
zeal had hitherto concealed from them, and for which, even if they had
foreseen them, it would have been almost impossible to provide a
remedy.  The Greek emperor, Alexius Comnenus, who had applied to the
western Christians for succour against the Turks, entertained hopes,
and those but feeble ones, of obtaining such a moderate supply, as,
acting under his command, might enable him to repulse the enemy: but
he was extremely astonished to see his dominions overwhelmed, on a
sudden, by such an inundation of licentious barbarians, who, though
they pretended friendship, despised his subjects as unwarlike, and
detested them as heretical.  By all the arts of policy, in which he
excelled, he endeavoured to divert the torrent; but while he employed
professions, caresses, civilities, and seeming services towards the
leaders of the crusade, he secretly regarded those imperious allies as
more dangerous than the open enemies by whom his empire had been
formerly invaded.  Having effected that difficult point of
disembarking them safely in Asia, he entered into a private
correspondence with Soliman, Emperor of the Turks; and practised every
insidious art, which his genius, his power, or his situation enabled
him to employ, for disappointing the enterprise, and discouraging the
Latins from making thenceforward any such prodigious migrations.  His
dangerous policy was seconded by the disorders inseparable from so
vast a multitude, who were not united under one head, and were
conducted by leaders of the most independent, intractable spirit,
unacquainted with military discipline, and determined enemies to civil
authority and submission.  The scarcity of provisions, the excess of
fatigue, the influence of unknown climates, joined to the want of
concert in their operations, and to the sword of a warlike enemy,
destroyed the adventurers by thousands, and would have abated the
ardour of men impelled to war by less powerful motives.  Their zeal,
however, their bravery, and their irresistible force, still carried
them forward, and continually advanced them to the great end of their
enterprise.  After an obstinate siege they took Nice, the seat of the
Turkish empire; they defeated Soliman in two great battles; they made
themselves masters of Antioch; and entirely broke the force of the
Turks, who had so long retained those countries in subjection: the
Soldan of Egypt, whose alliance they had hitherto courted, recovered,
on the fall of the Turkish power, his former authority in Jerusalem;
and he informed them by his ambassadors, that if they came disarmed to
that city, they might now perform their religious vows, and that all
Christian pilgrims, who should thenceforth visit the holy sepulchre,
might expect the same good treatment which they had ever received from
his predecessors.  The offer was rejected; the soldan was required to
yield up the city to the Christians; and on his refusal, the champions
of the Cross advanced to the siege of Jerusalem, which they regarded
as the consummation of their labours.  By the detachments which they
had made, and the disasters which they had undergone, they were
diminished to the number of twenty thousand foot and fifteen hundred
horse; but these were still formidable, from their valour, their
experience, and the obedience which, from past calamities, they had
learned to pay to their leaders.  After a siege of five weeks, they
took Jerusalem by assault; and, impelled by a mixture of military and
religious rage, they put the numerous garrison and inhabitants to the
sword without distinction.  Neither arms defended the valiant, nor
submission the timorous: no age or sex was spared: infants on the
breast were pierced by the same blow with their mothers, who implored
for mercy: even a multitude, to the number of ten thousand persons,
who had surrendered themselves prisoners, and were promised quarter,
were butchered in cool blood by those ferocious conquerors [a].  The
streets of Jerusalem were covered with dead bodies [b]; and the
triumphant warriors, after every enemy was subdued and slaughtered,
immediately turned themselves, with the sentiments of humiliation and
contrition, towards the holy sepulchre.  They threw aside their arms,
still streaming with blood: they advanced with reclined bodies, and
naked feet and heads, to the sacred monument: they sung anthems to
their Saviour who had there purchased their salvation by his death and
agony: and their devotion, enlivened by the presence of the place
where he had suffered, so overcame their fury, that they dissolved in
tears, and bore the appearance of every soft and tender sentiment.  So
inconsistent is human nature with itself! and so easily does the most
effeminate superstition ally, both with the most heroic courage and
with the fiercest barbarity!
[FN [a] Vertot, vol. i. p. 57.  [b] M. Paris, p. 34.  Order. Vital. p.
756.  Diceto, p. 498.]

This great event happened on the 5th of July, in the last year of the
eleventh century.  The Christian princes and nobles, after choosing
Godfrey of Bouillon King of Jerusalem, began to settle themselves in
their new conquests; while some of them returned to Europe, in order
to enjoy at home that glory which their valour had acquired them in
this popular and meritorious enterprise.  Among these was Robert, Duke
of Normandy, who, as he had relinquished the greatest dominions of any
prince that attended the crusade, had all along distinguished himself
by the most intrepid courage, as well as by that affable disposition
and unbounded generosity which gain the hearts of soldiers, and
qualify a prince to shine in a military life.  In passing through
Italy, he became acquainted with Sibylla, daughter of the Count of
Conversana, a young lady of great beauty and merit, whom he espoused:
indulging himself in this new passion, as well as fond of enjoying
ease and pleasure after the fatigues of so many rough campaigns, he
lingered a twelvemonth in that delicious climate; and though his
friends in the north looked every moment for his arrival, none of them
knew when they could with certainty expect it.  By this delay he lost
the kingdom of England, which the great fame he had acquired during
the crusades, as well as his undoubted title, both by birth, and by
the preceding agreement with his deceased brother, would, had he been
present, have infallibly secured to him.

[MN Accession of Henry.]
Prince Henry was hunting with Rufus in the new forest, when
intelligence of that monarch's death was brought him; and being
sensible of the advantage attending the conjuncture, he hurried to
Winchester, in order to secure the royal treasure, which he knew to be
a necessary implement for facilitating his designs on the crown.  He
had scarcely reached the place when William of Breteuil, keeper of the
treasure, arrived, and opposed himself to Henry's pretensions.  This
nobleman, who had been engaged in the same party of hunting, had no
sooner heard of his master's death, than he hastened to take care of
his charge; and he told the prince that this treasure, as well as the
crown, belonged to his elder brother, who was now his sovereign; and
that he himself, for his part, was determined, in spite of all other
pretensions, to maintain his allegiance to him.  But Henry, drawing
his sword, threatened him with instant death if he dared to disobey
him; and as others of the late king's retinue, who came every moment
to Winchester, joined the prince's party, Breteuil was obliged to
withdraw his opposition, and to acquiesce in this insolence [c].
[FN [c] Order. Vital. p. 782.]

Henry, without losing a moment, hastened with the money to London; and
having assembled some noblemen and prelates, whom his address, or
abilities, or presents, gained to his side, he was suddenly elected,
or rather saluted, king, and immediately proceeded to the exercise of
royal authority.  In less than three days after his brother's death,
the ceremony of his coronation was performed by Maurice, Bishop of
London, who was persuaded to officiate on that occasion [d]; and thus
by his courage and celerity, he intruded himself into the vacant
throne.  No one had sufficient spirit or sense of duty to appear in
defence of the absent prince: all men were seduced or intimidated:
present possession supplied the apparent defects in Henry's title,
which was indeed founded on plain usurpation: and the barons, as well
as the people, acquiesced in a claim which, though it could neither be
justified nor comprehended, could now, they found, be opposed through
the perils alone of civil war and rebellion.
[FN [d] Chron. Sax. p. 208.  Order. Vital. p. 783.]

But as Henry foresaw that a crown, usurped against all rules of
justice, would sit unsteady on his head, he resolved, by fair
professions at least, to gain the affections of all his subjects.
Besides taking the usual coronation oath to maintain the laws and
execute justice, he passed a charter, which was calculated to remedy
many of the grievous oppressions which had been complained of during
the reigns of his father and brother [e].  He there promised, that, at
the death of any bishop or abbot, he never would seize the revenues of
the see or abbey during the vacancy, but would leave the whole to be
reaped by the successor; and that he would never let to farm any
ecclesiastical benefice, nor dispose of it for money.  After this
concession to the church, whose favour was of so great importance, he
proceeded to enumerate the civil grievances which he purposed to
redress.  He promised, that, upon the death of any earl, baron, or
military tenant, his heir should be admitted to the possession of his
estate, on paying a just and lawful relief; without being exposed to
such violent exactions as had been usual during the late reigns: he
remitted the wardship of minors, and allowed guardians to be
appointed, who should be answerable for the trust: he promised not to
dispose of any heiress in marriage but by the advice of all the
barons; and if any baron intended to give his daughter, sister, niece,
or kinswoman in marriage, it should only be necessary for him to
consult the king, who promised to take no money for his consent, nor
ever to refuse permission, unless the  person to whom it was purposed
to many her should happen to be his enemy: he granted his barons and
military tenants the power of bequeathing, by will, their money or
personal estates; and if they neglected to make a will, he promised
that their heirs should succeed to them: he renounced the right of
imposing money-age, and of levying taxes at pleasure on the farms
which the barons retained in their own hands [f]: he made some general
professions of moderating fines: he offered a pardon for all offences;
and he remitted all debts due to the crown: he required that the
vassals of the barons should enjoy the same privileges which he
granted to his own barons: and he promised a general confirmation and
observance of the laws of King Edward.  This is the substance of the
chief articles contained in that famous charter [g].
[FN [e] Chron. Sax. p. 208.  Sim. Dunelm. p. 225.  [f] See Appendix
II.  [g] M. Paris, p. 38.  Hoveden, p. 468.  Brompton, p. 1021.
Hagulstadt, p. 310.]

To give greater authenticity to these concessions, Henry lodged a copy
of his charter in some abbey of each county, as if desirous that it
should be exposed to the view of all his subjects, and remain a
perpetual rule for the limitation and direction of his government: yet
it is certain, that, after the present purpose was served, he never
once thought, during his reign, of observing one single article of it;
and the whole fell so much into neglect and oblivion, that in the
following century, when the barons, who had heard an obscure tradition
of it, desired to make it the model of the great charter which they
exacted from King John, they could with difficulty find a copy of it
in the kingdom.  But as to the grievances here meant to be redressed,
they were still continued in their full extent; and the royal
authority, in all those particulars, lay under no manner of
restriction.  Reliefs of heirs, so capital an article, were never
effectually fixed till the time of Magna Charta [h]; and it is evident
that the general promise here given, of accepting a just and lawful
relief, ought to have been reduced to more precision, in order to give
security to the subject.  The oppression of wardship and marriage was
perpetuated even till the reign of Charles II.  And it appears from
Glanville [i], the famous justiciary of Henry II., that in his time,
where any man died intestate, an accident which must have been very
frequent when the art of writing was so little known, the king, or the
lord of the fief, pretended to seize all the movables, and to exclude
every heir, even the children of the deceased: a sure mark of a
tyrannical and arbitrary government.
[FN [h] Glanv. lib. 2. cap. 36.  What is called a relief in the
Conqueror's laws, preserved by Ingulph, seems to have been the heriot;
since reliefs, as well as the other burdens of the feudal law, were
unknown in the age of the Confessor, whose laws these originally were.
[i] Lib. 7. cap. 16.  This practice was contrary to the laws of King
Edward ratified by the Conqueror, as we learn from Ingulph, p. 91.
But laws had at this time very little influence: power and violence
governed every thing.]

The Normans, indeed, who domineered in England, were, during this age,
so licentious a people, that they may be pronounced incapable of any
true or regular liberty; which requires such improvement in knowledge
and morals as can only be the result of reflection and experience, and
must grow to perfection during several ages of settled and established
government.  A people so insensible to the rights of their sovereign
as to disjoint, without necessity, the hereditary succession, and
permit a younger brother to intrude himself into the place of the
elder, whom they esteemed, and who was guilty of no crime, but being
absent, could not expect that that prince would pay any greater regard
to their privileges, or allow his engagements to fetter his power and
debar him from any considerable interest or convenience.  They had,
indeed, arms in their hands, which prevented the establishment of a
total despotism, and left their posterity sufficient power, whenever
they should attain a sufficient degree of reason, to assure true
liberty: but their turbulent disposition frequently prompted them to
make such use of their arms, that they were more fitted to obstruct
the execution of justice, than to stop the career of violence and
oppresion.  The prince, finding that greater opposition was often made
to him when he enforced the laws than when he violated them, was apt
to render his own will and pleasure the sole rule of government; and,
at every emergence, to consider more the power of the persons whom he
might offend, than the rights of those whom he might injure.  The very
form of this charter of Henry proves that the Norman barons (for they,
rather than the people of England, were chiefly concerned in it) were
totally ignorant of the nature of united monarchy, and were ill
qualified to conduct, in conjunction with their sovereign, the machine
of government.  It is an act of his sole power, is the result of his
free grace, contains some articles which bind others as well as
himself, and is therefore unfit to be the deed of any one who
possesses not the whole legislative power, and who may not at pleasure
revoke all his concessions.

Henry, farther to increase his popularity, degraded and committed to
prison Ralph Flambard, Bishop of Durham, who had been the chief
instrument of oppresion under his brother [k]: but this act was
followed by another, which was a direct violation of his own charter,
and was a bad prognostic of his sincere intentions to observe it: he
kept the see of Durham vacant for five years, and during that time
retained possession of all its revenues.  Sensible of the great
authority which Anselm had acquired by his character of piety, and by
the persecutions which he had undergone from William, he sent repeated
messages to him at Lyons, where he resided, and invited him to return
and take possession of his dignities [l].  On the arrival of the
prelate, he proposed to him the renewal of that homage which he had
done his brother, and which he had never been refused by any English
bishop: but Anslem  had acquired other sentiments by his journey to
Rome, and gave the king an absolute refusal.  He objected to the
decrees of the council of Bari, at which he himself had assisted; and
he declared, that so far from doing homage for his spiritual dignity,
he would not so much as communicate with any ecclesiastic who paid
that submission, or who accepted of investitures from laymen.  Henry;
who expected, in his present delicate situation, to reap great
advantages from the authority and popularity of Anselm, durst not
insist on his demand [m]: he only desired that the controversy might
be suspended: and that messengers might be sent to Rome, in order to
accommodate matters with the pope, and obtain his confirmation of the
laws and customs of England.
[FN [k] Chron. Sax. p. 208.  W. Malm. p. 156.  Matth. Paris, p. 39.
Alur. Beverl. p. 144.  [l] Chron. Sax. p. 208.  Order. Vital. p. 783.
Matth. Paris, p. 39.  T. Rudborne, p. 273.  [m] W. Malm. p. 225.]

[MN 1100.  Marriage of the king.]
There immediately occurred an important affair, in which the king was
obliged to have recourse to the authority of Anselm.  Matilda,
daughter of Malcolm III., King of Scotland, and niece to Edgar
Atheling, had, on her father's death, and the subsequent revolutions
in the Scottish government, been brought to England, and educated
under her aunt Christina, in the nunnery of Rumsey.  This princess
Henry purposed to marry; but as she had worn the veil, though never
taken the vows, doubts might arise concerning the lawfulness of the
act; and it behoved him to be very careful not to shock, in any
particular, the religious prejudices of his subjects.  The affair was
examined by Anselm in a council of the prelates and nobles, which was
summoned at Lambeth; Matilda there proved that she had put on the
veil, not with the view of entering into a religious life, but merely
in consequence of a custom familiar to the English ladies, who
protected their chastity from the brutal violence of the Normans by
taking shelter under that habit [n], which, amidst the horrible
licentiousness of the times, was yet generally revered.  The council,
sensible that even a princess had otherwise no security for her
honour, admitted this reason as valid; they pronounced that Matilda
was still free to marry [o] and her espousals with Henry were
celebrated by Anselm with great pomp and solemnity [p].  No act of the
king's reign rendered him equally popular with his English subjects,
and tended more to establish him on the throne.  Though Matilda,
during the life of her uncle and brothers, was not heir of the Saxon
line, she was become very dear to the English on account of her
connexions with it: and that people, who, before the Conquest, had
fallen into a kind of indifference towards their ancient royal family,
had felt so severely the tyranny of the Normans, that they reflected
with extreme regret on their former liberty, and hoped for more equal
and mild administration, when the blood of their native princes should
be mingled with that of their new sovereigns [q].
[FN [n] Eadmer, p. 57.  [o] Ibid.  [p] Hoveden, p. 468.  [q] M. Paris,
p. 40.]

[MN 1100.  Invasion by Duke Robert.]
But the policy and prudence of Henry, which, if time had been allowed
for these virtues to produce their full effect, would have secured him
possession of the crown, ran great hazard of being frustrated by the
sudden appearance of Robert, who returned to Normandy about a month
after the death of his brother William.  [MN 1101.]  He took
possession, without opposition, of that duchy; and immediately made
preparations for recovering England, of which, during his absence, he
had, by Henry's intrigues, been so unjustly defrauded.  The great fame
which he had acquired in the East forwarded his pretensions; and the
Norman barons, sensible of the consequences, expressed the same
discontent at the separation of the duchy and kingdom, which had
appeared on the accession of William.  Robert de Belesme, Earl of
Shrewsbury and Arundel, William de la Warenne, Earl of Surrey, Arnulf
de Montgomery, Walter Giffard, Robert de Pontefract, Robert de Mallet,
Yvo de Grentmesnil, and many others of the principal nobility [r],
invited Robert to make an attempt upon England, and promised, on his
landing, to join him with all their forces.  Even the seamen were
affected with the general popularity of his name, and they carried
over to him the greater part of a fleet which had been equipped to
oppose his passage.  Henry, in this extremity, began to be
apprehensive for his life, as well as for his crown, and had recourse
to the superstition of the people, in order to oppose their sentiment
of justice.  He paid diligent court to Anselm, whose sanctity and
wisdom he pretended to revere.  He consulted him in all difficult
emergencies; seemed to be governed by him in every measure; promised a
strict regard to ecclesiastical privileges; professed a great
attachment to Rome, and a resolution of persevering in an implicit
obedience to the decrees of councils, and to the will of the sovereign
pontiff.  By these caresses and declarations, he entirely gained the
confidence of the primate, whose influence over the people, and
authority with the barons, were of the utmost service to him in his
present situation.  Anselm scrupled not to assure the nobles of the
king's sincerity in those professions which he made of avoiding the
tyrannical and oppressive government of his father and brother: he
even rode through the ranks of the army, recommended to the soldiers
the defence of their prince, represented the duty of keeping their
oaths of allegiance, and prognosticated to them the greatest happiness
from the government of so wise and just a sovereign.  By this
expedient, joined to the influence of the Earls of Warwick and
Mellent, of Roger Bigod, Richard de Redvers, and Robert Fitz-Hamon,
powerful barons, who still adhered to the present government, the army
was retained in the king's interest, and marched, with seeming union
and firmness, to oppose Robert, who had landed with his forces at
Portsmouth.
[FN [r] Order. Vital. p. 785.]

[MN Accommodation with Robert.]
The two armies lay in sight of each other for some days without coming
to action; and both princes, being apprehensive of the event, which
would probably be decisive, hearkened the more willingly to the
counsels of Anselm and the other great men, who mediated an
accommodation between them.  After employing some negotiation, it was
agreed that Robert should resign his pretensions to England, and
receive in lieu of them an annual pension of three thousand marks;
that, if either of the princes died without issue, the other should
succeed to his dominions; that the adherents of each should be
pardoned and restored to all their possessions either in Normandy or
England; and that neither Robert nor Henry should thenceforth
encourage, receive, or protect the enemies of the other [s].
[FN [s] Chron. Sax. p. 209.  W. Malmes. p. 156.]

[MN 1102.]  This treaty, though calculated so much for Henry’s
advantage, he was the first to violate.  He restored, indeed, the
estates of all Robert's adherents; but was secretly determined, that
noblemen so powerful and so ill-affected, who had both inclination and
ability to disturb his government, should not long remain unmolested
in their present opulence and grandeur.  He began with the Earl of
Shrewsbury, who was watched for some time by spies, and then indicted
on a charge, consisting of forty-five articles.  This turbulent
nobleman, knowing his own guilt, as well as the prejudices of his
judges and the power of his prosecutor, had recourse to arms for
defence; but, being soon suppressed by the activity and address of
Henry, he was banished the kingdom, and his great estate was
confiscated.  His ruin involved that of his two brothers, Arnulf de
Montgomery, and Roger Earl of Lancaster.  Soon after followed the
prosecution and condemnation of Robert de Pontefract, and Robert de
Mallet, who had distinguished themselves among Robert's adherents.
[MN 1103.]  William de Warenne was the next victim: even William Earl
of Cornwall, son of the Earl of Mortaigne, the king's uncle, having
given matter of suspicion against him, lost all the vast acquisitions
of his family in England.  Though the usual violence and tyranny of
the Norman barons afforded a plausible pretence for those
prosecutions, and it is probable that none of the sentences pronounced
against these noblemen was wholly iniquitous, men easily saw or
conjectured, that the chief part of their guilt was not the injustice
or illegality of their conduct.  Robert, enraged at the fate of his
friends, imprudently ventured to come into England; and he
remonstrated with his brother, in severe terms, against this breach of
treaty; but met with so bad a reception, that he began to apprehend
danger to his own liberty, and was glad to purchase an escape by
resigning his pension.

The indiscretion of Robert soon exposed him to more fatal injuries.
This prince, whose bravery and candour procured him respect while at a
distance, had no sooner attained the possession of power and enjoyment
of peace, than all the vigour of his mind relaxed, and he fell into
contempt among those who approached his person, or were subjected to
his authority.  Alternately abandoned to dissolute pleasures and to
womanish superstition, he was so remiss, both in the care of his
treasure and the exercise of his government, that his servants
pillaged his money with impunity, stole from him his very clothes, and
proceeded thence to practise every species of extortion on his
defenceless subjects.  The barons, whom a severe administration alone
could have restrained, gave reins to their unbounded rapine upon their
vassals, and inveterate animosities against each other; and all
Normandy, during the reign of this benign prince, was become a scene
of violence and depredation.  [MN 1103.  Attack of Normandy.]  The
Normans, at last, observing the regular government which Henry,
notwithstanding his usurped title, had been able to establish in
England, applied to him, that he might use his authority for the
suppression of these disorders, and they thereby afforded him a
pretence for interposing in the affairs of Normandy.  Instead of
employing his mediation to render his brother's government
respectable, or to redress the grievances of the Normans, he was only
attentive to support his own partisans, and to increase their number
by every art of bribery, intrigue, and insinuation.  Having found, in
a visit which he made to that duchy, that the nobility were more
disposed to pay submission to him than to their legal sovereign, he
collected, by arbitrary extortions on England, a great army and
treasure [MN 1105.], and returned next year to Normandy, in a
situation to obtain, either by violence or corruption, the dominion of
that province.  He took Bayeux by storm, after an obstinate siege: he
made himself master of Caen by the voluntary submission of the
inhabitants; but, being repulsed at Falaise, and obliged by the winter
season to raise the siege, he returned into England, after giving
assurance to his adherents, that he would persevere in supporting and
protecting them.

[MN 1106.  Conquest of Normandy.]
Next year he opened the campaign with the siege of Tenchebray; and it
became evident, from his preparations and progress, that he intended
to usurp the entire possession of Normandy.  Robert was at last roused
from his lethargy; and being supported by the Earl of Mortaigne and
Robert de Bellesme, the king's inveterate enemies, he raised a
considerable army, and approached his brother's camp, with a view of
finishing, in one decisive battle, the quarrel between them.  He was
now entered on that scene of action in which alone he was qualified to
excel; and he so animated his troops by his example, that they threw
the English into disorder, and had nearly obtained the victory [t];
when the flight of Bellesme spread a panic among the Normans, and
occasioned their total defeat.  Henry, besides doing great execution
on the enemy, made near ten thousand prisoners, among whom was Duke
Robert himself, and all the most considerable barons who adhered to
his interests [u].  This victory was followed by the final reduction
of Normandy: Rouen immediately submitted to the conqueror: Falaise,
after some negotiation, opened its gates; and by this acquisition,
besides rendering himself master of an important fortress, he got into
his hands Prince William, the only son of Robert: he assembled the
states of Normandy; and having received the homage of all the vassals
of the duchy, having settled the government, revoked his brother's
donations, and dismantled the castles lately built, he returned into
England, and carried along with him the duke as prisoner.  That
unfortunate prince was detained in custody during the remainder of his
life, which was no less than twenty-eight years, and he died in the
castle of Cardiff, in Glamorganshire, happy if, without losing his
liberty, he could have relinquished that power which he was not
qualified either to hold or exercise.  Prince William was committed to
the care of Helie de St. Saen, who had married Robert's natural
daughter, and who, being a man of probity and honour beyond what was
usual in those ages, executed the trust with great affection and
fidelity.  Edgar Atheling, who had followed Robert in the expedition
to Jerusalem, and who had lived with him ever since in Normandy, was
another illustrious prisoner taken in the battle of Tenchebray [w].
Henry gave him his liberty, and settled a small pension on him, with
which he retired; and he lived to a good old age in England, totally
neglected and forgotten.  This prince was distinguished by personal
bravery: but nothing can be a stronger proof of his mean talents in
every other respect, than that, notwithstanding he possessed the
affections of the English, and enjoyed the only legal title to the
throne, he was allowed, during the reigns of so many violent and
jealous usurpers, to live unmolested, and go to his grave in peace.
[FN [t] H. Hunt. p. 379.  M. Paris, p .43.  Brompton, p. 1002.  [u]
Eadmer, p. 90.  Chron. Sax. p. 214.  Order. Vital. p. 821.  [w] Chron.
Sax. p. 214.  Ann. Waverl. n. 144.]

[MN 1107.  Continuation of the quarrel with Anselm, the primate.]
A little after Henry had completed the conquest of Normandy, and
settled the government of that province, he finished a controversy,
which had been long depending between him and the pope, with regard to
the investitures in ecclesiastical benefices; and though he was here
obliged to relinquish sonic of the ancient rights of the crown, he
extricated himself from the difficulty on easier terms than most
princes who, in that age, were so unhappy as to be engaged in disputes
with the apostolic see.  The king's situation, in the beginning of his
reign, obliged him to pay great court to Anselm: the advantages which
he had reaped from the zealous friendship of that prelate had made him
sensible how prone the minds of his people were to superstition, and
what an ascendant the ecclesiastics had been able to assume over them.
He had seen, on the accession of his brother Rufus, that, though the
rights of primogeniture were then violated, and the inclinations of
almost all the barons thwarted, yet the authority of Lanfranc, the
primate, had prevailed over all other considerations: his own case,
which was still more unfavourable, afforded an instance in which the
clergy had more evidently shown their influence and authority.  These
recent examples, while they made him cautious not to offend that
powerful body, convinced him, at the same time, that it was extremely
his interest to retain the former prerogative of the crown in filling
offices of such vast importance, and to check the ecclesiastics in
that independence to which they visibly aspired.  The choice, which
his brother, in a fit of penitence, had made of Anselm, was so far
unfortunate to the king's pretensions, that this prelate was
celebrated for his piety and zeal, and austerity of manners; and
though his monkish devotion and narrow principles prognosticated no
great knowledge of the world or depth of policy, he was, on that very
account, a more dangerous instrument in the hands of politicians, and
retained a greater ascendant over the bigoted populace.  The prudence
and temper of the king appeared in nothing more conspicuous than in
the management of this delicate affair; where he was always sensible
that it had become necessary for him to risk his whole crown in order
to preserve the most invaluable jewel of it [x].
[FN [x] Eadmer, p. 56.]

Anselm had no sooner returned from banishment, than his refusal to do
homage to the king raised a dispute, which Henry evaded at that
critical juncture, by promising to send a messenger, in order to
compound the matter with Pascal II., who then filled the papal throne.
The messenger, as was probably foreseen, returned with an absolute
refusal of the king's demands [y]; and that fortified by many reasons,
which were well qualified to operate on the understandings of men in
those ages.  Pascal quoted the Scriptures to prove that Christ was the
door; and he thence inferred, that all ecclesiastics must enter into
the church through Christ alone, not through the civil magistrate, or
any profane laymen [z].  "It is monstrous," added the pontiff, "that a
son should pretend to beget his father, or a man to create his God:
priests are called gods in Scripture, as being the vicars of God: and
will you, by your abominable pretensions to grant them their
investiture, assume the right of creating them [a]?"
[FN [y] W. Malm. p. 225.  [z] Eadmer, p. 60.  This topic is farther
enforced in p. 73, 74.  See also W. Malm. p. 163.  [a] Eadmer, p. 61.
I much suspect that this text of Scripture is a forgery of his
holiness; for I have not been able to find it.  Yet it passed current
in those ages, and was often quoted by the clergy as the foundation of
their power.  See St. Thom. p. 169.]

But how convincing soever these arguments, they could not persuade
Henry to resign so important a prerogative; and perhaps, as he was
possessed of great reflection and learning, he thought that the
absurdity of a man's creating his God, even allowing priests to be
gods, was not urged with the best grace by the Roman pontiff.  But as
he desired still to avoid, at least to delay, the coming to any
dangerous extremity with the church, he persuaded Anselm, that he
should be able, by farther negotiation, to obtain some composition
with Pascal; and for that purpose he despatched three bishops to Rome,
while Anselm sent two messengers of his own to be more fully assured
of the pope's intentions [b].  Pascal wrote back letters equally
positive and arrogant, both to the king and primate; urging to the
former, that, by assuming the right of investitures, he committed a
kind of spiritual adultery with the church, who was the spouse of
Christ, and who must not admit of such a commerce with any other
person [c]; and insisting with the latter, that the pretension of
kings to confer benefices was the source of all simony: a topic which
had but too much foundation in those ages [d].
[FN [b] Eadmer, p. 62.  W. Malm. p. 225.  [c] Eadmer, p. 63.  [d]
Eadmer, p. 64, 66.]

Henry had now no other expedient than to suppress the letter addressed
to himself, and to persuade the three bishops to prevaricate, and
assert, upon their episcopal faith, that Pascal had assured them in
private of his good intentions towards Henry, and of his resolution
not to resent any future exertion of his prerogative in granting
investitures; though he himself scrupled to give this assurance under
his hand, lest other princes should copy the example, and assume a
like privilege [e].  Anselm's two messengers, who were monks, affirmed
to him that it was impossible this story could have any foundation:
but their word was not deemed equal to that of three bishops; and the
king, as if he had finally gained his cause, proceeded to fill the
sees of Hereford and Salisbury, and to invest the new bishops in the
usual manner [f].  But Anselm, who, as he had good reason, gave no
credit to the asseveration of the king's messengers, refused not only
to consecrate them, but even to communicate with them, and the bishops
themselves, finding how odious they were become, returned to Henry the
ensigns of their dignity.  The quarrel every day increased between the
king and the primate: the former, notwithstanding the prudence and
moderation of his temper, threw out menaces against such as should
pretend to oppose him in exerting the ancient prerogatives of his
crown; and Anselm, sensible of his own dangerous situation, desired
leave to make a journey to Rome, in order to lay the case before the
sovereign pontiff.  Henry, well pleased to rid himself, without
violence, of so inflexible an antagonist, readily granted him
permission.  The prelate was attended to the shore by infinite
multitudes, not only of monks and clergymen, but people of all ranks,
who scrupled not in this manner to declare for their primate against
their sovereign, and who regarded his departure as the final abolition
of religion and true piety in the kingdom [g].  The king, however,
seized all the revenues of his see; and sent William de Warelwast to
negotiate with Pascal, and to find some means of accommodation in this
delicate affair.
[FN [e] Ibid. p. 65.  W. Malm. p. 225.  [f] Eadmer, p. 66.  W. Malm.
p. 225.  Hoveden, p. 469.  Sim. Dunelm. p. 228.  [f] Eadmer, p. 71.]

The English minister told Pascal, that his master would rather lose
his crown than part with the right of granting investitures.  "And I,"
replied Pascal, "would rather lose my head than allow him to retain it
[h]."  Henry secretly prohibited Anselm from returning, unless he
resolved to conform himself to the laws and usages of the kingdom; and
the primate took up his residence at Lyons, in expectation that the
king would at last be obliged to yield the point which was the present
object of controversy between them.  Soon after he was permitted to
return to his monastery at Bec in Normandy; and Henry, besides
restoring to him the revenues of his see, treated him with the
greatest respect, and held several conferences with him, in order to
soften his opposition, and bend him to submission [i].  The people of
England, who thought all differences now accommodated, were inclined
to blame their primate for absenting himself so long from his charge;
and he daily received letters from his partizans, representing the
necessity of his speedy return.  The total extinction, they told him,
of religion and Christianity were likely to ensue from the want of his
fatherly care: the most shocking customs prevail in England; and the
dread of his severity being now removed, sodomy, and the practice of
wearing long hair, gain ground among all ranks of men, and these
enormities openly appear every where without sense of shame or fear of
punishment [k].
[FN [h] Eadmer, p. 73.  W. Malm. p. 226.  M. Paris, p. 40.  [i]
Hoveden, p. 471.  [k] Eadmer, p. 81.]

The policy of the court of Rome has commonly been much admired; and
men, judging by success, have bestowed the highest eulogies on that
prudence by which a power from such slender beginnings, could advance,
without force of arms, to establish an universal and almost absolute
monarchy in Europe.  But the wisdom of so long a succession of men who
filled the papal throne, and who were of such different ages, tempers,
and interests, is not intelligible, and could never have place in
nature.  The instrument, indeed, with which they wrought, the
ignorance and superstition of the people, is so gross an engine, of
such universal prevalence, and so little liable to accident or
disorder, that it may be successful even in the most unskilful hands;
and scarce any indiscretion can frustrate its operations.  While the
court of Rome was openly abandoned to the most flagrant disorders,
even while it was torn with schisms and factions, the power of the
church daily made a sensible progress in Europe; and the temerity of
Gregory and caution of Pascal were equally fortunate in promoting it.
The clergy, feeling the necessity which they lay under of being
protected against the violence of princes or rigour of the laws, were
well pleased to adhere to a foreign head, who, being removed from the
fear of the civil authority, could freely employ the power of the
whole church, in defending her ancient or usurped properties and
privileges, when invaded in any particular country: the monks,
desirous of an independence of their diocesans, professed a still more
devoted attachment to the triple crown; and the stupid people
possessed no science or reason, which they could oppose to the most
exorbitant pretensions.  Nonsense passed for demonstration: the most
criminal means were sanctified by the piety of the end: treaties were
not supposed to be binding, where the interests of God were concerned:
the ancient laws and customs of states had no authority against a
divine right: impudent forgeries were received as authentic monuments
of antiquity: and the champions of holy church, if successful, were
celebrated as heroes; if unfortunate, were worshipped as martyrs; and
all events thus turned out equally to the advantage of clerical
usurpations.  Pascal himself, the reigning pope, was, in the course of
this very controversy concerning investitures, involved in
circumstances and necessitated to follow a conduct, which would have
drawn disgrace and ruin on any temporal prince that had been so
unfortunate as to fall into a like situation.  His person was seized
by the Emperor, Henry V., and he was obliged, by a formal treaty, to
resign to that monarch the right of granting investitures, for which
they had so long contended [l].  In order to add greater solemnity to
this agreement, the emperor and pope communicated together on the same
host, one half of which was given to the prince, the other taken by
the pontiff: the most tremendous imprecations were publicly denounced
on either of them who should violate the treaty: yet no sooner did
Pascal recover his liberty, than he revoked all his concessions, and
pronounced the sentence of excommunication against the emperor, who,
in the end, was obliged to submit to the terms required of him, and to
yield up all his pretensions, which he never could resume [m].
[FN [l] W. Malm. p. 167.  [m] Padre Paolo sopra benef. eccles. p. 112.
W. Malmes. p. 170.  Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 63.  Sim.
Dunelm. p. 233.]

The King of England had very nearly fallen into the same dangerous
situation: Pascal had already excommunicated the Earl of Mellent, and
the other ministers of Henry, who were instrumental in supporting his
pretensions [n]: he daily menaced the king himself with a like
sentence; and he suspended the blow only to give him leisure to
prevent it by a timely submission.  The malecontents waited
impatiently for the opportunity of disturbing his government by
conspiracies and insurrections [o]: the king's best friends were
anxious at the prospect of an incident which would set their religious
and civil duties at variance; and the Countess of Blois, his sister, a
princess of piety, who had great influence over him, was affrightened
with the danger of her brother's eternal damnation [p].  Henry, on the
other hand, seemed determined to run all hazards, rather than resign a
prerogative of such importance, which had been enjoyed by all his
predecessors; and it seemed probable, from his great prudence and
abilities, that he might be able to sustain his rights, and finally
prevail in the contest.  While Pascal and Henry thus stood mutually in
awe of each other, it was the more easy to bring about an
accommodation between them, and to find a medium in which they might
agree.
[FN [n] Eadmer, p. 79.  [o] Ibid. p. 80.  [p] Ibid. p. 79.]

[MN Compromise with Anselm.]
Before bishops took possession of their dignities, they had formerly
been accustomed to pass through two ceremonies: they received from the
hands of the sovereign a ring and crosier, as symbols of their office;
and this was called their INVESTITURE: they also made those
submissions to the prince which were required of vassals by the rights
of the feudal law, and which received the name of HOMAGE.  And as the
king might refuse both to grant the INVESTITURE and to receive the
HOMAGE, though the chapter had, by some canons of the middle age, been
endowed with the right of election, the sovereign had in reality the
sole power of appointing prelates.  Urban II. had equally deprived
laymen of the rights of granting investiture and of receiving homage
[q]: the emperors never were able, by all their wars and negotiations,
to make any distinction be admitted between them: the interposition of
profane laymen, in any particular, was still represented as impious
and abominable; and the church openly aspired to a total independence
on the state.  But Henry had put England as well as Normandy in such a
situation as gave greater weight to his negotiations; and Pascal was
for the present satisfied with his resigning the right of granting
investitures, by which the spiritual dignity was supposed to be
conferred; and he allowed the bishops to do homage for their temporal
properties and privileges [r].  The pontiff was well pleased to have
made this acquisition, which, he hoped, would in time involve the
whole; and the king, anxious to procure an escape from a very
dangerous situation, was content to retain some, though a more
precarious authority, in the election of prelates.
[FN [q] Eadmer, p. 91.  W. Malm. p. 163.  Sim. Dunelm. p. 230.  [r]
Eadmer, p. 91.  W. Malm. p. 164, 227.  Hoveden, p. 471.  M. Paris, p.
43.  T. Rudb. p. 274.  Brompton, p. 1000.  Wilkins, p. 303.  Chron.
Dunst. p. 21.]

After the principal controversy was accommodated, it was not difficult
to adjust the other differences.  The pope allowed Anselm to
communicate with the prelates who had already received investitures
from the crown; and he only required of them some submissions for
their past misconduct [s].  He also granted Anselm a plenary power of
remedying every other disorder, which, he said, might arise from the
barbarousness of the country [t].  Such was the idea which the popes
then entertained of the English; and nothing can be a stronger proof
of the miserable ignorance in which that people were then plunged,
than that a man who sat on the papal throne, and who subsisted by
absurdities and nonsense, should think himself entitled to treat them
as barbarians.
[FN [s] Eadmer p. 87.  [t] Ibid. p. 91.]

During the course of these controversies, a synod was held at
Westminster, where the king, intent only on the main dispute, allowed
some canons of less importance to be enacted, which tended to promote
the usurpations of the clergy.  The celibacy of priests was enjoined,
a point which it was still found very difficult to carry into
execution; and even laymen were not allowed to marry within the
seventh degree of affinity [u].  By this contrivance the pope
augmented the profits which he reaped from granting dispensations, and
likewise those from divorces.  For as the art of writing was then
rare, and parish registers were not regularly kept, it was not easy to
ascertain the degrees of affinity even among people of rank; and any
man who had money sufficient to pay for it, might obtain a divorce, on
pretence that his wife was more nearly related to him than was
permitted by the canons.  The synod also passed a vote, prohibiting
the laity from wearing long hair [w].  The aversion of the clergy to
this mode was not confined to England.  When the king went to
Normandy, before he had conquered that province, the Bishop of Seez,
in a formal harangue, earnestly exhorted him to redress the manifold
disorders under which the government laboured, and to oblige the
people to poll their hair in a decent form.  Henry, though he would
not resign his prerogatives to the church, willingly parted with his
hair: he cut it in the form which they required of him, and obliged
all the courtiers to imitate his example [x].
[FN [u] Eadmer, p. 67, 68.  Spellm. Conc. vol. ii. p. 22.  [w] Eadmer,
p. 68.  [x] Order. Vital. p. 816.]

[MN Wars abroad.]
The acquisition of Normandy was a great point of Henry's ambition;
being the ancient patrimony of his family, and the only territory,
which, while in his possession, gave him any weight or consideration
on the continent: but the injustice of his usurpation was the source
of great inquietude, involved him in frequent wars, and obliged him to
impose on his English subjects those many heavy and arbitrary taxes,
of which all the historians of  that age unanimously complain [y].
His nephew, William, was but six years of age when he committed him to
the care of Helie de St. Saen; and it is probable, that his reason for
intrusting that important charge to a man of so unblemished a
character was to prevent all malignant suspicions, in case any
accident should befall the life of the young prince.  [MN 1110.]  He
soon repented of his choice, but when he desired to recover possession
of William’s person, Helie withdrew his pupil, and carried him to the
court of Fulk, Count of Anjou, who gave him protection [z].  In
proportion as the prince grew up to man's estate, he discovered
virtues becoming his birth; and wandering through different courts of
Europe, he excited the friendly compassion of many princes, and raised
a general indignation against his uncle, who had so unjustly bereaved
him of his inheritance.  Lewis the Gross, son of Philip, was at this
time King of France, a brave and generous prince, who having been
obliged, during the lifetime of his father, to fly into England, in
order to escape the persecutions of his step-mother, Bertrude, had
been protected by Henry, and had thence conceived a personal
friendship for him.  But these ties were soon dissolved after the
accession of Lewis, who found his interests to be in so many
particulars opposite to those of the English monarch, and who became
sensible of the danger attending the annexation of Normandy to
England.  He joined, therefore, the Counts of Anjou and Flanders in
giving disquiet to Henry's government; and this monarch, in order to
defend his foreign dominions, found himself obliged to go over to
Normandy, where he resided two years.  The war which ensued amongst
those princes was attended with no memorable event, and produced only
slight skirmishes on the frontiers, agreeable to the weak condition of
the sovereigns in that age whenever their subjects were not roused by
some great and urgent occasion.  Henry, by contracting his eldest son,
William, to the daughter of Fulk, detached the prince from the
alliance, and obliged the others to come to an accommodation with him.
This peace was not of  long duration.  His nephew, William, retired to
the court of Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, who espoused his cause; and
the King of France having soon after, for other reasons, joined the
party, a new war was kindled in Normandy, which produced no event more
memorable than had attended the former.  [MN 1113.]  At last the death
of Baldwin, who was slain in an action near Eu, gave some respite to
Henry, and enabled him to carry on war with more advantage against his
enemies.
[FN [y] Eadmer, p. 83.  Chron. Sax. p. 211, 212, 213, 219, 220, 228.
H. Hunt p. 380.  Hoveden, p. 470.  Ann. Waverl. p. 143.  [z] Order
Vital. p. 837.]

Lewis, finding himself unable to wrest Normandy from the king by force
of arms, had recourse to the dangerous expedient of applying to the
spiritual power, and of affording the ecclesiastics a pretence to
interpose in the temporal concerns of princes.  He carried young
William to a general council, which was assembled at Rheims by Pope
Calixtus II., presented the Norman prince to them, complained of the
manifest usurpation and injustice of Henry, craved the assistance of
the church for reinstating the true heir in his dominions, and
represented the enormity of detaining in captivity so brave a prince
as Robert, one of the most eminent champions of the cross, and who, by
that very quality, was placed under the immediate protection of the
holy see.  Henry knew how to defend the rights of his crown with
vigour, and yet with dexterity.  He had sent over the English bishops
to this synod; but at the same time had warned them, that if any
farther claims were started by the pope or the ecclesiastics, he was
determined to adhere to the laws and customs of England, and maintain
the prerogatives transmitted to him by his predecessors.  "Go," said
he to them, "salute the pope in my name; hear his apostolical
precepts; but take care to bring none of his new inventions into my
kingdom."  Finding, however, that it would be easier for him to elude
than oppose the efforts of Calixtus, he gave his ambassadors orders to
gain the pope and his favourites by liberal presents and promises.
[MN 1119.]  The complaints of the Norman prince were thenceforth heard
with great coldness by the council; and Calixtus confessed, after a
conference which he had the same summer with Henry, and when that
prince probably renewed his presents, that, of all men whom he had
ever yet been acquainted with, he was, beyond comparison, the most
eloquent and persuasive.

The warlike measures of Lewis proved as ineffectual as his intrigues.
He had laid a scheme for surprising Noyon; but Henry having received
intelligence of the design, marched to the relief of the place, and
suddenly attacked the French at Brenneville, as they were advancing
towards it.  A sharp conflict ensued, where Prince William behaved
with great bravery, and the king himself was in the most imminent
danger.  He was wounded in the head by Crispin, a gallant Norman
officer, who had followed the fortunes of William [a]; but, being
rather animated than terrified by the blow, he immediately beat his
antagonist to the ground, and so encouraged his troops by the example,
that they put the French to total rout, and had very nearly taken
their king prisoner.  The dignity of the persons engaged in this
skirmish rendered it the most memorable action of the war; for, in
other respects, it was not of great importance.  There were nine
hundred horsemen, who fought on both sides; yet were there only two
persons slain.  The rest were defended by that heavy armour worn by
the cavalry in those times [b].  An accommodation soon after ensued
between the Kings of France and England; and the interests of young
William were entirely neglected in it.
[FN [a] H. Hunt. p. 381.  M. Paris, p. 47.  Diceto, p. 503.  [b]
Order. Vital. p. 854.]

[MN 1120.  Death of Prince William.]
But this public prosperity of Henry was much overbalanced by a
domestic calamity which befel him.  His only son, William, had now
reached his eighteenth year, and the king, from the facility with
which he himself had usurped the crown, dreading that a like
revolution might subvert his family, had taken care to have him
recognized successor by the states of the kingdom, and had carried him
over to Normandy, that he might receive the homage of the barons of
that duchy.  The king, on his return, set sail from Barfleur, and was
soon carried by a fair wind out of sight of land.  The prince was
detained by some accident; and his sailors, as well as their captain,
Thomas Fitz-Stephens, having spent the interval in drinking, were so
flustered, that being in  a hurry to follow the king, they heedlessly
carried the ship on a rock, where she immediately foundered.  William
was put into the long boat, and had got clear of the ship, when,
hearing the cries of his natural sister, the Countess of Perche, he
ordered the seamen to row back in hopes of saving her; but the numbers
who then crowded in soon sunk the boat; and the prince, with all his
retinue, perished.  Above a hundred and forty young noblemen, of the
principal families of England and Normandy, were lost on this
occasion.  A butcher of Rouen was the only person on board who escaped
[c].  He clung to the mast, and was taken up next morning by
fishermen.  Fitz-Stephens also took hold of the mast, but being
informed by the butcher that Prince William had perished, he said that
he would not survive the disaster; and he threw himself headlong into
the sea [d].  Henry entertained hopes for three days, that his son had
put into some distant port of England; but when certain intelligence
of the calamity was brought him, he fainted away; and it was remarked,
that he never after was seen to smile, nor ever recovered his wonted
cheerfulness [e].
[FN [c] Sim. Dunelm. p. 242.  Alured Beverl. p. 148.  [d] Order.
Vital. p. 868.  [e] Hoveden, p. 476.  Order. Vital. p. 869.]

The death of William may be regarded, in one respect, as a misfortune
to the English; because it was the immediate source of those civil
wars, which, after the demise of the king, caused such confusion in
the kingdom; but it is remarkable, that the young prince had
entertained a violent aversion to the natives; and had been heard to
threaten, that when he should be king, he would make them draw the
plough, and would turn them into beasts of burden.  These
prepossessions he inherited from his father, who, though he was wont,
when it might serve his purpose, to value himself on his birth, as a
native of England [f], showed, in the course of his government, an
extreme prejudice against that people.  All hopes of preferment, to
ecclesiastical as well as civil dignities, were denied them during
this whole reign; and any foreigner, however ignorant or worthless,
was sure to have the preference in every competition [g].  As the
English had given no disturbance to the government during the course
of fifty years, this inveterate antipathy in a prince of so much
temper as well as penetration, forms a presumption that the English of
that age were still a rude and barbarous people, even compared to the
Normans, and impresses us with no very favourable idea of the Anglo-
Saxon manners.
[FN [f] Gu1. Neub. lib. 1. cap. 3.  [g] Eadmer, p. 110.]

Prince William left no children; and the king had not now any
legitimate issue, except one daughter, Matilda, whom, in 1110, he had
betrothed, though only eight years of age [h], to the Emperor Henry
V., and whom he had then sent over to be educated in Germany [i].  But
as her absence from the kingdom, and her marriage into a foreign
family, might endanger the succession, Henry, who was now a widower,
was induced to marry, in hopes of having male heirs; [MN King’s second
marriage.  1121.] and he made his addresses to Adelais, daughter of
Godfrey, Duke of Lovaine, and niece of Pope Calixtus, a young princess
of an amiable person [k].  But Adelais brought him no children; and
the prince who was most likely to dispute the succession, and even the
immediate possession of the crown, recovered hopes of subverting his
rival, who had successively seized all his patrimonial dominions.
William, the son of Duke Robert, was still protected in the French
court; and as Henry's connexions with the Count of Anjou were broken
off by the death of his son, Fulk joined the party of the unfortunate
prince, gave him his daughter in marriage, and aided him in raising
disturbances in Normandy.  But Henry found the means of drawing off
the Count of Anjou, by forming anew with him a nearer connexion than
the former, and one more material to the interests of that count's
family.  [MN 1127.]  The emperor, his son-in-law, dying without issue,
he bestowed his daughter on Geoffrey, the eldest son of Fulk, and
endeavoured to ensure her succession by having her recognized heir to
all his dominions, and obliging the barons, both of Normandy and
England to swear fealty to her.  [MN 1128.]  He hoped that the choice
of this husband would be more agreeable to all his subjects than that
of the emperor; as securing them from the danger of falling under the
dominion of a great and distant potentate, who might bring them into
subjection, and reduce their country to the rank of a province: but
the barons were displeased that a step so material to national
interests had been taken without consulting them [l]; and Henry had
too sensibly experienced the turbulence of their disposition, not to
dread the effects of their resentment.  It seemed probable, that his
nephew's party might gain force from the increase of the malecontents:
an accession of power which that prince acquired a little after,
tended to render his pretensions still more dangerous.  Charles, Earl
of Flanders, being assassinated during the celebration of divine
service, King Lewis immediately put the young prince in possession of
that country, to which he had pretensions in the right of his
grandmother Matilda, wife to the Conqueror.  But William survived a
very little time this piece of good fortune, which seemed to open the
way to still farther prosperity.  He was killed in a skirmish with the
Landgrave of Alsace, his competitor for Flanders; and his death put an
end, for the present, to the jealousy and inquietude of Henry.
[FN [h] Chron. Sax. p. 215.  W. Malm. p. 166.  Order. Vital. p. 83.
[i] See note [M], at the end of the volume.  [k] Chron. Sax. p. 223.
W. Malm. p. 165.  [l] W. Malm. p. 175.  The annals of Waverly, p. 150,
say, that the king asked and obtained the consent of all the barons.]

The chief merit of this monarch's government consists in the profound
tranquillity which he established and maintained throughout all his
dominions during the greater part of his reign.  The mutinous barons
were retained in subjection; and his neighbours, in every attempt
which they made upon him, found him so well prepared, that they were
discouraged from continung or renewing their enterprises.  In order to
repress the incursions of the Welsh, he brought over some Flemings, in
the year 1111, and settled them in Pembrokeshire, where they long
maintained a different language, and customs, and manners, from their
neighbours.  Though his government seems to have been arbitrary in
England, it was judicious and prudent; and was as little oppressive as
the necessity of his affairs would permit.  He wanted not attention to
the redress of grievances; and historians mention in particular the
levying of purveyance, which he endeavoured to moderate and restrain.
The tenants in the king's demesne lands were at that time obliged to
supply, GRATIS, the court with provisions, and to furnish carriages on
the same hard terms, when the king made a progress, as he did
frequently, into any of the counties.  These exactions were so
grievous, and levied in so licentious a manner, that the farmers, when
they heard of the approach of the court, often deserted their houses
as if an enemy had invaded the country [m], and sheltered their
persons and families in the woods from the insults of the king's
retinue.  Henry prohibited those enormities, and punished the persons
guilty of them by cutting off their hands, legs, or other members [n].
But the prerogative was perpetual; the remedy applied by Henry was
temporary; and the violence itself of this remedy, so far from giving
security to the people, was only a proof of the ferocity of the
government, and threatened a quick return of like abuses.
[FN [m] Eadmer, p. 94.  Chron. Sax. p. 212.  [n] Eadmer, p. 94.]

One great and difficult object of the king's prudence was, the
guarding against the encroachments of the court of Rome, and
protecting the liberties of the church of England.  The pope, in the
year 1101, had sent Guy, Archbishop of Vienne, as legate into Britain;
and though he was the first that for many years had appeared there in
that character, and his commission gave general surprise [o], the
king, who was then in the commencement of his reign, and was involved
in many difficulties, was obliged to submit to this encroachment on
his authority.  But in the year 1116, Anselm, Abbot of St. Sabas, who
was coming over with a like legatine commission, was prohibited from
entering the kingdom [p]; and Pope Calixtus who, in his turn, was then
labouring under many difficulties, by reason of the pretensions of
Gregory, an anti-pope, was obliged to promise that he never would for
the future, except when solicited by the king himself, send any legate
into England [q].  Notwithstanding this engagement, the pope, as soon
as he had suppressed his antagonist, granted the Cardinal de Crema a
legatine commission over that kingdom; and the king, who, by reason of
his nephew's intrigues and invasions, found himself at that time in a
dangerous situation, was obliged  to submit to the exercise of this
commission [r].  A synod was called by the legate at London; where,
among other canons, a vote passed, enacting severe penalties on the
marriages of the clergy [s].  The cardinal, in a public harangue,
declared it to be an unpardonable enormity, that a priest should dare
to consecrate and touch the body of Christ immediately after he had
risen from the side of a strumpet; for that was the decent appellation
which he gave to the wives of the clergy.  But it happened that, the
very next night, the officers of justice, breaking into a disorderly
house, found the cardinal in bed with a courtezan [t]; an incident
which threw such ridicule upon him, that he immediately stole out of
the kingdom: the synod broke up; and the canons against the marriage
of clergymen were worse executed than ever [u].
[FN [o] Ibid. p. 58.  [p] Hoveden, p. 474.  [q] Eadmer, p. 125, 137,
138.  [r] Chron. Sax. p. 229.  [s] Spellm. Conc. vol. ii. p. 34.  [t]
Hoveden, p. 478.  M. Paris, p. 48.  Matth. West. ad. ann. 1125.  H.
Huntingdon, p. 382.  It is remarkable that this last writer, who was a
clergyman as well as the others, makes an apology for using such
freedom with the fathers of the church; but says, that the fact was
notorious, and ought not to be concealed.  [u] Chron. Sax. p. 234.]

Henry, in order to prevent this alternate revolution of concessions
and encroachments, sent William, then Archbishop of Canterbury, to
remonstrate with the court of Rome against those abuses, and to assert
the liberties of the English church.  It was a usual maxim with every
pope, when he found that he could not prevail in any pretension, to
grant princes or states a power which they had always exercised, to
resume, at a proper juncture, the claim which seemed to be resigned,
and to pretend that the civil magistrate had possessed the authority
only from a special indulgence of the Roman pontiff.  After this
manner, the pope, finding that the French nation would not admit his
claim of granting investitures, had passed a bull, giving the king
that authority; and he now practised a like invention to elude the
complaints of the King of England.  He made the Archbishop of
Canterbury his legate, renewed his commission from time to time, and
still pretended that the rights which that prelate had ever exercised
as metropolitan were entirely derived from the indulgence of the
apostolic see.  The English princes, and Henry in particular, who were
glad to avoid any immediate contest of so dangerous a nature, commonly
acquiesced by their silence in these pretensions of the court of Rome
[w].
[FN [w] See note [N], at the end of the volume.]

As every thing in England remained in tranquillity, Henry took the
opportunity of paying a visit to Normandy, to which he was invited, as
well by his affection for that country, as by his tenderness for his
daughter, the Empress Matilda, who was always his favourite.  [MN
1132.]  Some time after, that princess was delivered of a son, who
received the name of Henry; and the king, farther to ensure her
succession, made all the nobility of England and Normandy renew the
oath of fealty, which they had already sworn to her [x].  The joy of
this event, and the satisfaction which he reaped from his daughter's
company, who bore successively two other sons, made his residence in
Normandy very agreeable to him [y]; [MN 1135.] and he seemed
determined to pass the remainder of his days in that country; when an
incursion of the Welsh obliged him to think of returning into England.
He was preparing for the journey, but was seized with a sudden illness
at St. Dennis le Forment [MN 1st. Dec.], from eating too plentifully
of lampreys, a food which always agreed better with his palate than
his constitution [z].  [MN Death, and character of Henry.]  He died in
the sixty-seventh year of his age, and the thirty-fifth of his reign;
leaving by will his daughter, Matilda, heir of all his dominions,
without making any mention of her husband Geoffrey, who had given him
several causes of displeasure [a].
[FN [x] W. Malm. p. 177.  [y] H. Hunt. p. 385.  [z] Ibid. p. 385.  M.
Paris, p. 50.  [a] W. Malm. p. 178.]

This prince was one of the most accomplished that has filled the
English throne, and possessed all the great qualities both of body and
mind, natural and acquired which could fit him for the high station to
which he attained.  His person was manly, his countenance engaging,
his eyes clear, serene, and penetrating.  The affability of his
address encouraged those who might be overawed by the sense of his
dignity or of his wisdom; and though he often indulged his facetious
humour, he knew how to temper it with discretion, and ever kept at a
distance from all indecent familiarities with his courtiers.  His
superior eloquence and judgment would have given him an ascendant,
even had he been born in a private station; and his personal bravery
would have procured him respect, though it had been less supported by
art and policy.  By his great progress in literature, he acquired the
name of BEAUCLERK, or the Scholar: but his application to those
sedentary pursuits abated nothing of the activity and vigilance of his
government; and though the learning of that age was better fitted to
corrupt than improve the understanding, his natural good sense
preserved itself untainted both from the pedantry and superstition
which were then so prevalent among men of letters.  His temper was
susceptible of the sentiments as well of friendship as of resentment
[b]; and his ambition though high, might be deemed moderate and
reasonable, had not his conduct towards his brother and nephew showed
that he was too much disposed to sacrifice to it all the maxims of
justice and equity.  But the total incapacity of Robert for government
afforded his younger brother a reason or pretence for seizing the
sceptre both of England and Normandy; and when violence and usurpation
are once begun, necessity obliges a prince to continue in the same
criminal course, and engages him in measures which his better judgment
and sounder principles would otherwise have induced him to reject with
warmth and indignation.
[FN [b] Order. Vital. p. 805.]

King Henry was much addicted to women; and historians mention no less
than seven illegitimate sons and six daughters born to him [c].
Hunting was also one of his favourite amusements; and he exercised
great rigour against those who encroached on the royal forests, which
were augmented during his reign [d], though their number and extent
were already too great.  To kill a stag was as criminal as to murder a
man: he made all the dogs be mutilated which were kept on the borders
of his forests; and he sometimes deprived his subjects of the liberty
of hunting on their own lands, or even cutting their own woods.  In
other respects, he executed justice, and that with rigour; the best
maxim which a prince in that age could follow.  Stealing was first
made capital in this reign [e]; false coining, which was then a very
common crime, and by which the money had been extremely debased, was
severely punished by Henry [f].  Near fifty criminals of this kind
were at one time hanged or mutilated; and though these punishments
seem to have been exercised in a manner somewhat arbitrary, they were
grateful to the people, more attentive to present advantages than
jealous of general laws.  There is a code which passes under the name
of Henry I., but the best antiquaries have agreed to think it
spurious.  It is however a very ancient compilation, and may be useful
to instruct us in the manners and customs of the times.  We learn from
it, that a great distinction was then made between the English and
Normans, much to the advantage of the latter [g].  The deadly feuds,
and the liberty of private revenge, which had been avowed by the Saxon
laws, were still continued, and were not yet wholly illegal [h].
[FN [c] Gul. Gemet. lib. 8. cap. 29.  [d] W. Malm. p. 179.  [e] Sim.
Dunelm p. 231.  Brompton, p. 1000.  Flor. Wigorn. p. 653.  Hoveden, p.
471.  [f] Sim. Dunelm. p. 231.  Brompton, p. 1000.  Hoveden, p. 471.
Annal. Waverl. p. 149.  [g] LL. Hen. I. Sec, 18, 75.  [h] Ibid. Sec.
82.]

Among the laws granted on the king's accession, it is remarkable that
the reunion of the civil and ecclesiastical courts, as in the Saxon
times, was enacted [i].  But this law, like the articles of his
charter, remained without effect, probably from the opposition of
Archbishop Anselm.
[FN [i] Spellm. p. 305.  Blackstone, vol. iii. p. 63.  Coke, 2 Inst.
70.]

Henry, on his accession, granted a charter to London, which seems to
have been the first step towards rendering that city a corporation.
By this charter, the city was empowered to keep the farm of Middlesex
at three hundred pounds a year, to elect its own sheriff and
justiciary, and to hold pleas of the crown: and it was exempted from
scot, Danegelt, trials by combat, and lodging the king's retinue.
These, with a confirmation of the privileges of their court of
hustings, wardmotes, and common halls, and their liberty of hunting in
Middlesex and Surrey, are the chief articles of this charter [k].
[FN [k] Lambardi Archaionomia ex edit. Twisden.  Wilkins, p. 235.]

It is said [l], that this prince, from indulgence to his tenants,
changed the rents of his demesnes, which were formerly paid in kind,
into money, which was more easily  remitted to the exchequer.  But the
great scarcity of coin would render that commutation difficult to be
executed, while at the same time provisions could not be sent to a
distant quarter of the kingdom.  This affords a probable reason why
the ancient kings of England so frequently changed their place of
abode: they carried their court from one place to another, that they
might consume upon the spot the revenue of their several demesnes.
[FN [l] Dial. de Scaccario, lib. 1. cap. 7.]




CHAPTER VII.

STEPHEN.

ACCESSION OF STEPHEN--WAR WITH SCOTLAND.--INSURRECTION IN FAVOUR OF
MATILDA.--STEPHEN TAKEN PRISONER.--MATILDA CROWNED.—STEPHEN RELEASED.
--RESTORED TO THE CROWN.--CONTINUATION OF THE CIVIL WARS.--COMPROMISE
BETWEEN THE KING AND PRINCE HENRY.—DEATH OF THE KING.



[MN 1135.]  In the progress and settlement of the feudal law, the male
succession to fiefs had taken place some time before the female was
admitted; and estates being considered as military benefices, not as
property, were transmitted to such only as could serve in the armies,
and perform in person the conditions upon which they were originally
granted.  But when the continuance of rights, during some generations,
in the same family, had in a great measure, obliterated the primitive
idea, the females were gradually admitted to the possession of feudal
property; and the same revolution of principles which procured them
the inheritance of private estates naturally introduced their
succession to government and authority.  The failure, therefore, of
male heirs to the kingdom of England and duchy of Normandy seemed to
leave the succession open, without a rival, to the Empress Matilda;
and as Henry had made all his vassals, in both states, swear fealty to
her, he presumed that they would not easily be induced to depart at
once from her hereditary right, and from their own reiterated oaths
and engagements.  But the irregular manner in which he himself had
acquired the crown might have instructed him, that neither his Norman
nor English subjects were as yet capable of adhering to a strict rule
of government; and as every precedent of this kind seems to give
authority to new usurpations, he had reason to dread, even from his
own family, some invasion of his daughter's title which he had taken
such pains to establish.

Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror, had been married to Stephen,
Count of Blois, and had brought him several sons, among whom Stephen
and Henry, the two youngest, had been invited over to England by the
late king, and had received great honours, riches, and preferment,
from the zealous friendship which that prince bore to every one that
had been so fortunate as to acquire his favour and good opinion.
Henry, who had betaken himself to the ecclesiastical profession, was
created Abbot of Glastonbury and Bishop of Winchester; and though
these dignities were considerable, Stephen had, from his uncle's
liberality, attained establishments still more solid and durable [a].
The king had married him to Matilda, who was daughter and heir of
Eustace Count of Boulogne, and who brought him, besides that feudal
sovereignty in France, an immense property in England, which, in the
distribution of lands, had been conferred by the Conqueror on the
family of Boulogne.  Stephen also by this marriage acquired a new
connexion with the royal family of England; as Mary, his wife's
mother, was sister to David the reigning King of Scotland, and to
Matilda, the first wife of Henry, and mother of the empress.  The
king, still imagining that he strengthened the interests of his family
by the aggrandizement of Stephen, took pleasure in enriching him by
the grant of new possessions; and he conferred on him the great estate
forfeited by Robert Mallet in England, and that forfeited by the Earl
of Mortaigne in Normandy.  Stephen, in return, professed great
attachment to his uncle; and appeared so zealous for the succession of
Matilda, that when the barons swore fealty to that princess, he
contended with Robert, Earl of Gloucester, the king's natural son, who
should first be admitted to give her this testimony of devoted zeal
and fidelity [b].  Meanwhile he continued to cultivate, by every art
of popularity, the friendship of the English nation; and many virtues,
with which he seemed to be endowed, favoured the success of his
intentions.  By his bravery, activity, and vigour, he acquired the
esteem of the barons: by his generosity, and by an affable and
familiar address, unusual in that age among men of his high quality,
he obtained the affections of the people, particularly of the
Londoners [c].  And though he dared not to take any steps towards his
farther grandeur, lest he should expose himself to the jealousy of so
penetrating a prince as Henry; he still hoped that, by accumulating
riches and power, and by acquiring popularity, he might in time be
able to open his way to the throne.
[FN [a] Gul. Neubr. p. 360.  Brompton, p. 1023.  [b] W. Malm. p. 192.]

No sooner had Henry breathed his last, than Stephen, insensible to all
the ties of gratitude and fidelity, and blind to danger, gave full
reins to his criminal ambition, and trusted that, even without any
previous intrigue, the celerity of his enterprise, and the boldness of
his attempt, might overcome the weak attachment which the English and
Normans in that age bore to the law and to the rights of their
sovereign.  He hastened over to England; and though the citizens of
Dover, and those of Canterbury, apprized of his purpose, shut their
gates against him, he stopped not till he arrived at London, where
some of the lower rank, instigated by his emissaries, as well as moved
by his general popularity, immediately saluted him king.  His next
point was to acquire the good will of the clergy; and by performing
the ceremony of his coronation, to put himself in possession of the
throne, from which he was confident it would not be easy afterwards to
expel him.  His brother, the Bishop of Winchester, was useful to him
in these capital articles: having gained Roger, Bishop of Salisbury,
who, though he owed a great fortune and advancement to the favour of
the late king, preserved no sense of gratitude to that prince's
family, he applied, in conjunction with that prelate, to William,
Archbishop of Canterbury, and required him, in virtue of his office,
to give the royal unction to Stephen.  The primate, who, as all the
others, had shown fealty to Matilda, refused to perform this ceremony;
but his opposition was overcome by an expedient equally dishonourable
with the other steps by which this revolution was effected.  Hugh
Bigod, steward of the household, made oath before the primate, that
the late king, on his deathbed, had shown a dissatisfaction with his
daughter Matilda, and had expressed his intention of leaving the Count
of Boulogne heir to all his dominions [d].  [MN 1135. 22d. Dec.]
William, either believing, of feigning to believe, Bigod's testimony,
anointed Stephen, and put the crown upon his head; and from this
religious ceremony that prince, without any shadow either of
hereditary title, or consent of the nobility or people, was allowed to
proceed to the exercise of sovereign authority.  Very few barons
attended his coronation [e]; but none opposed his usurpation, however
unjust or flagrant.  The sentiment of religion, which, if corrupted
into superstition, has often little efficacy in fortifying the duties
of civil society, was not affected by the multiplied oaths taken in
favour of Matilda, and only rendered the people obedient to a prince,
who was countenanced by the clergy, and who had received from the
primate the rite of royal unction and consecration [f].
[FN [c] W. Malm. p. 179.  Gest. Steph. p. 928.  [d] Matt. Paris, p.
51.  Diceto, p. 505.  Chron. Dunst. p. 23.  [e] Brompton, p. 1023.
[f] Such stress was formerly laid on the rite of coronation, that the
monkish writers never give any prince the title of king till he is
crowned; though he had for some time been in possession of the crown,
and exercised all the powers of sovereignty.]

Stephen, that he might farther secure his tottering throne, passed a
charter, in which he made liberal promises to all orders of men: to
the clergy, that he would speedily fill all vacant benefices, and
would never levy the rents of any of them during the vacancy; to the
nobility, that he would reduce the royal forests to their ancient
boundaries, and correct all encroachments; and to the people, that he
would remit the tax of Danegelt, and restore the laws of King Edward
[g].  The late king had a great treasure at Winchester, amounting to a
hundred thousand pounds; and Stephen, by seizing this money,
immediately turned against Henry's family the precaution, which that
prince had employed for their grandeur and security: an event which
naturally attends the policy of amassing treasures.  By means of this
money, the usurper ensured the compliance, though not the attachment,
of the principal clergy and nobility; but not trusting to this frail
security, he invited over from the continent, particularly from
Britany and Flanders, great numbers of these bravoes or disorderly
soldiers, with whom every country in Europe, by reason of the general
ill police and turbulent government, extremely abounded [h].  These
mercenary troops guarded his throne by the terrors of the sword; and
Stephen, that he might also overawe all malecontents by new and
additional terrors of religion, procured a bull from Rome, which
ratified his title, and which the pope, seeing this prince in
possession of the throne, and pleased with an appeal to his authority
in secular controversies, very readily granted him [i].
[FN [g] W. Malmes. p. 179.  Hoveden, p. 482.  [h] W. Malm. p. 179.
[i] Hagulstadt, p. 259, 313.]

[MN 1136.]  Matilda, and her husband Geoffrey, were as unfortunate in
Normandy as they had been in England.  The Norman nobility, moved by
an hereditary animosity against the Angevins, first applied to
Theobald, Count of Blois, Stephen's elder brother, for protection and
assistance; but hearing afterwards that Stephen had got possession of
the English crown, and having many of them the same reasons as
formerly for desiring a continuance of their union with that kingdom,
they transferred their allegiance to Stephen, and put him in
possession of their government.  Lewis the younger, the reigning King
of France, accepted the homage of Eustace, Stephen's eldest son, for
the duchy; and the more to corroborate his connexions with that
family, he betrothed his sister, Constantia, to the young prince.  The
Count of Blois resigned all his pretensions, and received, in lieu of
them, an annual pension of two thousand marks; and Geoffrey himself
was obliged to conclude a truce for two years with Stephen, on
condition of the king's paying him, during that time, a pension of
five thousand [k].  Stephen, who had taken a journey to Normandy,
finished all these transactions in person, and soon after returned to
England.
[FN [k] M. Paris, p. 52.]

Robert, Earl of Gloucester, natural son of the late king, was a man of
honour and abilities; and as he was much attached to the interests of
his sister, Matilda, and zealous for the lineal succession, it was
chiefly from his intrigues and resistance that the king had reason to
dread a new revolution of government.  This nobleman, who was in
Normandy when he received intelligence of Stephen's accession, found
himself much embarrassed concerning the measures which he should
pursue in that difficult emergency.  To swear allegiance to the
usurper appeared to him dishonourable, and a breach of his oath to
Matilda: to refuse giving this pledge of his fidelity, was to banish
himself from England, and be totally incapacitated from serving the
royal family, or contributing to their restoration [l].  He offered
Stephen to do him homage, and to take the oath of fealty; but with an
express condition, that the king should maintain all his stipulations,
and should never invade any of Robert's rights or dignities: and
Stephen, though sensible that this reserve, so unusual in itself, and
so unbefitting the duty of a subject, was meant only to afford Robert
a pretence for a revolt on the first favourable opportunity, was
obliged, by the numerous friends and retainers of that nobleman, to
receive him on those terms [m].  The clergy, who could scarcely, at
this time, be deemed subjects to the crown, imitated that dangerous
example: they annexed to their oaths of allegiance this condition,
that they were only bound so long as the king defended the
ecclesiastical liberties, and supported the discipline of the church
[n].  The barons, in return for their submission, exacted terms still
more destructive of public peace, as well as of royal authority: many
of them required the right of fortifying their castles, and of putting
themselves in a posture of defence; and the king found himself totally
unable to refuse his consent to this exorbitant demand [o].  All
England was immediately filled with those fortresses, which the
noblemen garrisoned either with their vassals, or with licentious
soldiers, who flocked to them from all quarters.  Unbounded rapine was
exercised upon the people for the maintenance of these troops; and
private animosities, which had with difficulty been restrained by law,
now breaking out without control, rendered England a scene of
uninterrupted violence and devastation.  Wars between the nobles were
carried on with the utmost fury in every quarter; the barons even
assumed the right of coining money, and of exercising, without appeal,
every act of jurisdiction [p]; and the inferior gentry, as well as the
people, finding no defence from the laws during this total dissolution
of sovereign authority, were obliged for their immediate safety, to
pay court to some neighbouring chieftain, and to purchase his
protection, both by submitting to his exactions, and by assisting him
in his rapine upon others.  The erection of one castle proved the
immediate cause of building many others; and even those who obtained
not the king's permission, thought that they were entitled, by the
great principle of self-preservation, to put themselves on an equal
footing with their neighbours, who commonly were also their enemies
and rivals.  The aristocratical power, which is usually so oppressive
in the feudal governments, had now risen to its utmost height, during
the reign of a prince, who, though endowed with vigour and abilities,
had usurped the throne without the pretence of a title, and who was
necessitated to tolerate in others the same violence, to which he
himself had been beholden for his sovereignty.
[FN [l] W Malmes. p. 179.  [m] Ibid.  M. Paris, p. 51.  [n] W. Malm,
p. 179.  [o] Ibid. p. 180.  [p] Trivet, p. 19  Gill. Neub. p. 372.
Chron. Heming. p. 487.  Brompton, p. 1035.]

But Stephen was not of a disposition to submit long to these
usurpations, without making some effort for the recovery of royal
authority.  Finding that the legal prerogatives of the crown were
resisted and abridged, he was also tempted to make his power the sole
measure of his conduct; and to violate all those concessions which he
himself had made on his accession [q], as well as the ancient
privileges of his subjects.  The mercenary soldiers, who chiefly
supported his authority, having exhausted the royal treasure,
subsisted by depredations; and every place was filled with the best
grounded complaints against the government.  [MN 1137.]  The Earl of
Gloucester, having now settled with his friends the plan of an
insurrection, retired beyond sea, sent the king a defiance, solemnly
renounced his allegiance, and upbraided him with the breach of those
conditions which had been annexed to the oath of fealty sworn by that
nobleman [r]. [MN 1138.  War with Scotland.]  David, King of Scotland,
appeared at the head of an army in defence of his niece's title, and
penetrating into Yorkshire, committed the most barbarous devastations
on that country.  The fury of his massacres and ravages enraged the
northern nobility, who might otherwise  have been inclined to join
him; and William, Earl of Albemarle, Robert de Ferrers, William
Piercy, Robert de Brus, Roger Moubray, Ilbert Lacey, Walter l'Espec,
powerful barons in those parts, assembled an army with which they
encamped at North-Allerton, and awaited the arrival of the enemy.  [MN
22d. Aug.]  A great battle was here fought, called the battle of the
STANDARD, from a high crucifix, erected by the English on a waggon,
and carried along with the army as a military ensign.  The King of
Scots was defeated, and he himself, as well as his son Henry, narrowly
escaped falling into the hands of the English.  This success overawed
the malecontents in England, and might have given some stability to
Stephen's throne, had he not been so elated with prosperity as to
engage in a controversy with the clergy, who were at that time an
overmatch for any monarch.
[FN [q] W. Malm. p. 180.  M. Paris, p. 51.  [r] W. Malm. p. 180.]

Though the great power of the church, in ancient times, weakened the
authority of the crown, and interrupted the course of the laws, it may
be doubted, whether, in ages of such violence and outrage, it was not
rather advantageous that some limits were set to the power of the
sword, both in the hands of the prince and nobles, and that men were
taught to pay regard to some principles and privileges.  The chief
misfortune was, that the prelates on some occasions acted entirely as
barons, employed military power against their sovereign or their
neighbours, and thereby often increased those disorders which it was
their duty to repress.  The Bishop of Salisbury, in imitation of the
nobility, had built two strong castles, one at Sherborne, another at
Devizes, and had laid the foundations of a third at Malmesbury: his
nephew, Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, had erected a fortress at
Newark: and Stephen, who was now sensible from experience of the
mischiefs attending these multiplied citadels, resolved to begin with
destroying those of the clergy, who, by their function, seemed less
entitled than the barons to such military securities [s].  [MN 1139.]
Making pretence of a fray which had arisen in court between the
retinue of the Bishop of Salisbury and that of the Earl of Britany, he
seized both that prelate and the Bishop of Lincoln, threw them into
prison, and obliged them by menaces to deliver up those places of
strength which they had lately erected [t].
[FN [s] Gul. Neubr. p. 362.  [t] Chron. Sax. p. 238.  W. Malmes. p.
181.]

Henry, Bishop of Winchester, the king's brother, being armed with a
legatine commission, now conceived himself to be an ecclesiastical
sovereign, no less powerful than the civil; and, forgetting the ties
of blood which connected him with the king, he resolved to vindicate
the clerical privileges, which, he pretended, were here openly
violated.  [MN 30th Aug.]  He assembled a synod at Westminster, and
there complained of the impiety of Stephen's measures, who had
employed violence against the dignitaries of the church, and had not
awaited the sentence of a spiritual court, by which alone, he
affirmed, they could lawfully be tried and condemned, if their conduct
had anywise merited censure or punishment. [u].  The synod ventured to
send a summons to the king charging him to appear before them, and to
justify his measures [w]; and Stephen, instead of resenting this
indignity, sent Aubrey de Vere to plead his cause before that
assembly.  De Vere accused the two prelates of treason and sedition;
but the synod refused to try the cause, or examine their conduct, till
those castles, of which they had been dispossessed, were previously
restored to them [x].  The Bishop of Salisbury declared that he would
appeal to the pope; and had not Stephen and his partisans employed
menaces, and even shown a disposition of executing violence by the
hands of the soldiery, affairs had instantly come to extremity between
the crown and the mitre [y].
[FN [u] W. Malm. p. 182.  [w] Ibid.  M Paris, p. 53.  [x] W. Malm. p.
183.  [y] Ibid.]

While this quarrel, joined to so many other grievances, increased the
discontents among the people, the empress, invited by the opportunity,
and secretly encouraged by the legate himself, landed in England with
Robert Earl of Gloucester, and a retinue of a hundred and forty
knights.  She fixed her residence at Arundel Castle, whose gates were
opened to her by Adelais, the queen-dowager, now married to William de
Albini, Earl of Sussex; and she excited, by messengers, her partisans
to take arms in every county of England.  [MN 1139.  22d Sept.
Insurrection in favour of Matilda.]  Adelais, who had expected that
her daughter-in-law would have invaded the kingdom with a much greater
force, became apprehensive of danger; and Matilda, to ease her of her
fears, removed, first to Bristol, which belonged to her brother
Robert, thence to Gloucester, where she remained under the protection
of Milo, a gallant nobleman in those parts, who had embraced her
cause.  Soon after Geoffrey Talbot, William Mohun, Ralph Lovel,
William Fitz-John, William Fitz-Alan, Paganell, and many other barons,
declared for her; and her party, which was generally favoured in the
kingdom, seemed every day to gain ground upon that of her antagonist.

Were we to relate all the military events transmitted to us by
contemporary and authentic historians, it would be easy to swell our
accounts of this reign into a large volume: but those incidents, so
little memorable in themselves, and so confused both in time and
place, could afford neither instruction nor entertainment to the
reader.  It suffices to say, that the war was spread into every
quarter, and that those turbulent barons, who had already shaken off,
in a great measure, the restraint of government, having now obtained
the pretence of a public cause, carried on their devastations with
redoubled fury, exercised implacable vengeance on each other, and set
no bounds to their oppressions over the people.  The castles of the
nobility were become receptacles of licensed robbers; who, sallying
forth day and night, committed spoil on the open country, on the
villages, and even on the cities, put the captives to torture, in
order to make them reveal their treasures; sold their persons to
slavery; and set fire to their houses, after they had pillaged them of
every thing valuable.  The fierceness of their disposition, leading
them to commit wanton destruction, frustrated their rapacity of its
purpose; and the property and persons even of the ecclesiastics,
generally so much revered, were at last, from necessity, exposed to
the same outrage which had laid waste the rest of the kingdom.  The
land was left untilled; the instruments of husbandry were destroyed or
abandoned; and a grievous famine, the natural result of those
disorders, affected equally both parties, and reduced the spoilers as
well as the defenceless people to the most extreme want and indigence
[z].
[FN [z] Chron. Sax. p. 238.  W. Malmes. p. 185.  Gest. Steph p. 961.]

[MN 1140.]  After several fruitless negotiations and treaties of
peace, which never interrupted these destructive hostilities, there
happened at last an event, which seemed to promise some end of the
public calamities.  Ralph, Earl of Chester, and his half-brother,
William de Roumara, partisans of Matilda, had surprised the castle of
Lincoln; but the citizens, who were better affected to Stephen, having
invited him to their aid, that prince laid close siege to the castle,
in hopes of soon rendering himself master of the place, either by
assault or by famine.  The Earl of Gloucester hastened with an army to
the relief of his friends; and Stephen, informed of his approach, took
the field with a resolution of giving him battle.  [MN 1141.  2d Feb.]
After a violent shock, the two wings of the royalists were put to
flight; and Stephen himself, surrounded by the enemy, was at last,
after exerting great efforts of valour, borne down by numbers, and
taken prisoner.  [MN Stephen taken prisoner.]  He was conducted to
Gloucester; and though at first treated with humanity was soon after,
on some suspicion, thrown into prison and loaded with irons.

Stephen's party was entirely broken by the captivity of their leader,
and the barons came in daily from all quarters, and did homage to
Matilda.  The princess, however, amidst all her prosperity, knew that
she was not secure of success unless she could gain the confidence of
the clergy; and as the conduct of the legate had been of late very
ambiguous, and shown his intentions to have rather aimed at humbling
his brother than totally ruining him, she employed every endeavour to
fix him in her interests.  [MN 2d March.]  She held a conference with
him in an open plain near Winchester, where she promised, upon oath,
that if he would acknowledge her for sovereign, would recognize her
title as the sole descendant of the late king, and would again submit
to the allegiance which he, as well as the rest of the kingdom, had
sworn to her, he should in return be entire master of the
administration, and, in particular, should, at his pleasure, dispose
of all vacant bishoprics and abbeys.  Earl Robert, her brother, Brian
Fitz-Count, Milo of Gloucester, and other great men, became guarantees
for her observing these engagements [a]; and the prelate was at last
induced to promise her allegiance, but that still burdened with the
express condition, that she should, on her part, fulfil her promises.
He then conducted her to Winchester, led her in procession to the
cathedral, and with great solemnity, in the presence of many bishops
and abbots, denounced curses against all those who cursed her, poured
out blessings on those who blessed her, granted absolution to such as
were obedient to her, and excommunicated such as were rebellious [b].
Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, soon after came also to court, and
swore allegiance to the empress [c].
[FN [a] W. Malm. p. 187.  [b] Chron. Sax. p. 242.  Contin. Flor. Wig.
p. 676.  [c] W. Malmes p. 187.]

[MN Matilda crowned.]  Matilda, that she might farther ensure the
attachment of the clergy, was willing to receive the crown from their
hands; and instead of assembling the states of the kingdom, the
measure which the constitution, had it been either fixed or regarded,
seemed necessarily to require, she was content that the legate should
assemble an ecclesiastical synod, and that her title to the throne
should there be acknowledged.  The legate, addressing himself to the
assembly, told them, that in the absence of the empress, Stephen, his
brother, had been permitted to reign, and, previously to his ascending
the throne, had induced them by many fair promises, of honouring and
exalting the church, of maintaining the laws, and of reforming all
abuses: that it grieved him to observe how much that prince had, in
every particular, been wanting to his engagements; public peace was
interrupted, crimes were daily committed with impunity, bishops were
thrown into prison and forced to surrender their possessions, abbeys
were put to sale, churches were pillaged, and the most enormous
disorders prevailed in the administration: that he himself, in order
to procure a redress of these grievances, had formerly summoned the
king before a council of bishops; but, instead of inducing him to
amend his conduct, had rather offended him by that expedient: that,
how much soever misguided, that prince was still his brother, and the
object of his aflections; but his interests, however, must be regarded
as subordinate to those of their heavenly Father, who had now rejected
him, and thrown him into the hands of his enemies: that it principally
belonged to the clergy to elect and ordain kings; he had summoned them
together for that purpose and having invoked the divine assistance; he
now pronounced Matilda, the only descendant of Henry, the late
sovereign, Queen of England.  The whole assembly by their acclamations
or silence, gave, or seemed to give, their assent to this declaration
[d].
[FN [d] W. Malmes. p. 188.  This author, a judicious man, was present,
and says, that he was very attentive to what passed.  This speech,
therefore, may he regarded as entirely genuine.]

The only laymen summoned to this council, which decided the fate of
the crown, were the Londoners; and even these were required not to
give their opinion but to submit to the decrees of the synod.  The
deputies of London, however, were not so passive: they insisted that
their king should be delivered from prison; but were told by the
legate, that it became not the Londoners, who were regarded as
noblemen in England, to take part with those barons, who had basely
forsaken their lord in battle, and who had treated the holy church
with contumely [e]: it is with reason that the citizens of London
assumed so much authority, if it be true, what is related by
Fitz-Stephen, a contemporary author, that that city could at this time
bring into the field no less than eighty thousand combatants [f].
[FN [e] W. Malmes. p. 188.  [f] P. 4. Were this account to be depended
on, London must at that time have contained near four hundred thousand
inhabitants, which is above double the number it contained at the
death of Queen Elizabeth.  But these loose calculations, or rather
guesses, deserve very little credit.  Peter of Blois, a contemporary
writer, and a man of sense, says there were then only forty thousand
inhabitants in London, which is much more likely.  See Epist. 151.
What Fitz-Stephen says of the prodigious riches, splendour, and
commerce of London, proves only the great poverty of the other towns
of the kingdom, and indeed of all the northern parts of Europe.]

London, notwithstanding its great power, and its attachment to
Stephen, was at length obliged to submit to Matilda; and her
authority, by the prudent conduct of Earl Robert, seemed to be
established over the whole kingdom: but affairs remained not long in
this situation.  That princess, besides the disadvantages of her sex,
which weakened her influence over a turbulent and martial people, was
of a passionate, imperious spirit, and knew not how to temper with
affability the harshness of a refusal.  Stephen's queen, seconded by
many of the nobility, petitioned for the liberty of her husband; and
offered that, on this condition, he should renounce the crown and
retire into a convent.  The legate desired that Prince Eustace, his
nephew, might inherit Boulogne and the other patrimonial estates of
his father [g]: the Londoners applied for the establishment of King
Edward's laws, instead of those of King Henry, which, they said, were
grievous and oppressive [h].  All these petitions were rejected in the
most haughty and peremptory manner.
[FN [g] Brompton, p. 1031.  [h] Contin. Flor. Wig. p. 577.  Gervase,
p. 1355.]

The legate, who had probably never been sincere in his compliance with
Matilda's government, availed himself of the ill-humour excited by
this imperious conduct, and secretly instigated the Londoners to a
revolt.  A conspiracy was entered into to seize the person of the
empress; and she saved herself from the danger by a precipitate
retreat.  She fled to Oxford: soon after she went to Winchester;
whither the legate, desirous to save appearances, and watching the
opportunity to ruin her cause, had retired.  But having assembled all
his retainers, he openly joined his force to that of the Londoners,
and to Stephen's mercenary troops, who had not yet evacuated the
kingdom; and he besieged Matilda in Winchester.  The princess, being
hard pressed by famine, made her escape; but in the flight, Earl
Robert, her brother, fell into the hands of the enemy.  This nobleman,
though a subject, was as much the life and soul of his own party, as
Stephen was of the other; [MN Stephen released.] and the empress,
sensible of his merit and importance, consented to exchange the
prisoners on equal terms.  The civil war was again kindled with
greater fury than ever.

[MN 1142.]  Earl Robert, finding the successes on both sides nearly
balanced, went over to Normandy, which, during Stephen's captivity,
had submitted to the Earl of Anjou; and he persuaded Geoffrey to allow
his eldest son, Henry, a young prince of great hopes, to take a
journey into England, and appear at the head of his partisans.  This
expedient, however, produced nothing decisive.  Stephen took Oxford
after a long siege [MN 1143.]: he was defeated by Earl Robert at
Wilton: and the empress, though of a masculine spirit, yet being
harassed with a variety of good and bad fortune, and alarmed with
continual dangers to her person and family, at last retired into
Normandy, whither she had sent her son some time before.  [MN 1146.
Continuation of the civil wars.]  The death of her brother, which
happened nearly about the same time, would have proved fatal to her
interests, had not some incidents occurred which checked the course of
Stephen's prosperity.  This prince, finding that the castles built by
the noblemen of his own party encouraged the spirit of independence,
and were little less dangerous than those which remained in the hands
of the enemy, endeavoured to extort from them a surrender of those
fortresses; and he alienated the affections of many of them by this
equitable demand.  The artillery also of the church, which his brother
had brought over to his side, had, after some interval, joined the
other party.  Eugenius III. had mounted the papal throne; the Bishop
of Winchester was deprived of the legatine commission, which was
conferred on Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, the enemy and rival
of the former legate.  That pontiff also, having summoned a general
council at Rheims, in Champaigne, instead of allowing the church of
England, as had been usual, to elect its own deputies, nominated five
English bishops to represent that church, and required their
attendance in the council.  Stephen, who, notwithstanding his present
difficulties, was jealous of the rights of his crown, refused them
permission to attend [i]; and the pope, sensible of his advantage in
contending with a prince who reigned by a disputed title, took revenge
by laying all Stephen's party under an interdict [k].  [MN 1147.]  The
discontents of the royalists, at being thrown into this situation,
were augmented by a comparison with Matilda's party, who enjoyed all
the benefits of the sacred ordinances; and Stephen was at last
obliged, by making proper submissions to the see of Rome, to remove
the reproach from his party [l].
[FN [i] Epist. St. Thom. p. 225.  [k] Chron. W. Thorn. p. 1807.  [l]
Epist St. Thom. p. 226.]

[MN 1148.]  The weakness of both sides, rather than any decrease of
mutual animosity, having produced a tacit cessation of arms in
England, many of the nobility, Roger de Moubray, William de Warenne,
and others, finding no opportunity to exert their military ardour at
home, enlisted themselves in a new crusade, which, with surprising
success, after former disappointments and misfortunes, was now
preached by St. Bernard [m].  But an event soon after happened which
threatened a revival of hostilities in England.  Prince Henry, who had
reached his sixteenth year, was desirous of receiving the honour of
knighthood; a ceremony which every gentleman in that age passed
through before he was admitted to the use of arms, and which was even
deemed requisite for the greatest princes.  He intended to receive his
admission from his great-uncle, David, King of Scotland; and for that
purpose he passed through England with a great retinue, and was
attended by the most considerable of his partisans.  He remained some
time with the King of Scotland; made incursions into England; and by
his dexterity and vigour in all manly exercises, by his valour in war,
and his prudent conduct in every occurrence, he roused the hopes of
his party, and gave symptoms of those great qualities which he
afterwards displayed when he mounted the throne of England.  [MN
1150.]  Soon after his return to Normandy, he was, by Matilda's
consent, invested in that duchy; and upon the death of his father,
Geoffrey, which happened in the subsequent year, he took possession
both of Anjou and Maine, and concluded a marriage, which brought him a
great accession of power, and rendered him extremely formidable to his
rival.  Eleanor, the daughter and heir of William, Duke of Guienne and
Earl of Poictou, had been married sixteen years to Lewis VII. King of
France, [MN 1152.] and had attended him in a crusade, which that
monarch conducted against the infidels; but having there lost the
affections of her husband, and even fallen under some suspicion of
gallantry with a handsome Saracen, Lewis, more delicate than politic,
procured a divorce from her, and restored her those rich provinces,
which by her marriage she had annexed to the crown of France.  Young
Henry, neither discouraged by the inequality of years, nor by the
reports of Eleanor's gallantries, made successful courtship to that
princess, and, espousing her six weeks after her divorce, got
possession of all her dominions as her dowry.  The lustre which he
received from this acquisition, and the prospect of his rising
fortune, had such an effect in England, that, when Stephen, desirous
to ensure the crown to his son Eustace, required the Archbishop of
Canterbury to anoint that prince as his successor, the primate refused
compliance, and made his escape beyond sea, to avoid the violence and
resentment of Stephen.
[FN [m] Hagulst. p. 275, 276.]

[MN 1153.]  Henry, informed of these dispositions in the people, made
an invasion on England.  Having gained some advantage over Stephen at
Malmesbury, and having taken that place, he proceeded thence to throw
succours into Wallingford, which the king had advanced with a superior
army to besiege.  A decisive action was every day expected; when the
great men of both sides, terrified at the prospect of farther
bloodshed and confusion, interposed with their good offices, and set
on foot a negotiation between the rival princes.  The death of
Eustace, during the course of the treaty, facilitated its conclusion;
[MN Compromise between the king and Prince Henry.] an accommodation
was settled, by which it was agreed, that Stephen should possess the
crown during his lifetime, that justice should be administered in his
name, even in the provinces which had submitted to Henry, and that
this latter prince should, on Stephen's demise, succeed to the
kingdom, and William, Stephen's son, to Boulogne and his patrimonial
estate.  After all the barons had sworn to the observance of this
treaty, and done homage to Henry, as to the heir of the crown, that
prince evacuated the kingdom; [MN Death of the king, Oct. 25, 1154.]
and the death of Stephen, which happened the next year, after a short
illness, prevented all those quarrels and jealousies which were likely
to have ensued in so delicate a situation.

England suffered great miseries during the reign of this prince: but
his personal character, allowing for the temerity and injustice of his
usurpation, appears not liable to any great exception; and he seems to
have been well qualified, had he succeeded by a just title, to have
promoted the happiness and prosperity of his subjects [n].  He was
possessed of industry, activity, and courage, to a great degree;
though not endowed with a sound judgment, he was not deficient in
abilities; he had the talent of gaining men's affections; and
notwithstanding his precarious situation, he never indulged himself in
the exercise of any cruelty or revenge [o].  His advancement to the
throne procured him neither tranquillity nor happiness; and though the
situation of England prevented the neighbouring states from taking any
durable advantage of her confusions, her intestine disorders were to
the last degree ruinous and destructive.  The court of Rome was also
permitted, during those civil wars, to make farther advances in her
usurpations; and appeals to the pope, which had always been strictly
prohibited by the English laws, became now common in every
ecclesiastical controversy [p].
[FN [n] W. Malm. p. 180.  [o] M. Paris, p. 51.  Hagul. p. 312.  [p] H.
Hunt. p. 395.]




CHAPTER VIII.

HENRY II.

STATE OF EUROPE--OF FRANCE.--FIRST ACTS OF HENRY'S GOVERNMENT--
DISPUTES BETWEEN THE CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL POWERS.—THOMAS À BECKET,
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.--QUARREL BETWEEN THE KING AND BECKET.--
CONSTITUTIONS OF CLARENDON.--BANISHMENT OF BECKET.--COMPROMISE WITH
HIM.--HIS RETURN FROM BANISHMENT.--HIS MURDER--GRIEF AND SUBMISSION OF
THE KING.



[MN 1154.  State of Europe]
The extensive confederacies by which the European potentates are now
at once united and set in opposition to each other, and which, though
they are apt to diffuse the least spark of dissension throughout the
whole, are at least attended with this advantage, that they prevent
any violent revolutions or conquests in particular states, were
totally unknown in ancient ages; and the theory of foreign politics,
in each kingdom, formed a speculation much less complicated and
involved than at present.  Commerce had not yet bound together the
most distant nations in so close a chain: wars, finished in one
campaign, and often in one battle, were little affected by the
movements of remote states: the imperfect communication among the
kingdoms, and their ignorance of each other's situation, made it
impracticable for a great number of them to combine in one project or
effort: and above all, the turbulent spirit and independent situation
of the barons or great vassals in each state gave so much occupation
to the sovereign, that he was obliged to confine his attention chiefly
to his own state and his own system of government, and was more
indifferent about what passed among his neighbours.  Religion alone,
not politics, carried abroad the views of princes; while it either
fixed their thoughts on the Holy Land, whose conquest and defence was
deemed a point of common honour and interest, or engaged them in
intrigues with the Roman pontiff, to whom they had yielded the
direction of ecclesiastical affairs, and who was every day assuming
more authority than they were willing to allow him.

Before the conquest of England by the Duke of Normandy, this island
was as much separated from the rest of the world in politics as in
situation; and except from the inroads of the Danish pirates, the
English, happily confined at home, had neither enemies nor allies on
the continent.  The foreign dominions of William connected them with
the king and great vassals of France; and while the opposite
pretensions of the pope and emperor in Italy produced a continual
intercourse between Germany and that country, the two great monarchs
of France and England formed, in another part of Europe, a separate
system; and carried on their wars and negotiations, without meeting
either with opposition or support from the others.

[MN State of France.]
On the decline of the Carlovingian race, the nobles in every province
of France, taking advantage of the weakness of the sovereign, and
obliged to provide, each for his own defence, against the ravages of
the Norman freebooters, had assumed, both in civil and military
affairs, an authority almost independent, and had reduced within very
narrow limits the prerogative of their princes.  The accession of Hugh
Capet, by annexing a great fief to the crown, had brought some
addition to the royal dignity; but this fief, though considerable for
a subject, appeared a narrow basis of power for a prince who was
placed at the head of so great a community.  The royal demesnes
consisted only of Paris, Orleans, Estampes, Compeigne, and a few
places scattered over the northern provinces: in the rest of the
kingdom, the prince's authority was rather nominal than real: the
vassals were accustomed, nay entitled, to make war, without his
permission, on each other: they were even entitled, if they conceived
themselves injured, to turn their arms against their sovereign: they
exercised all civil jurisdiction, without appeal, over their tenants
and inferior vassals: their common jealousy of the crown easily united
them against any attempt on their exorbitant privileges; and as some
of them had attained the power and authority of great princes, even
the smallest baron was sure of immediate and effectual protection.
Besides six ecclesiastical peerages, which, with the other immunities
of the church, cramped extremely the general execution of justice,
there were six lay peerages, Burgundy, Normandy, Guienne, Flanders,
Toulouse, and Champaigne, which formed very extensive and puissant
sovereignties.  And though the combination all those princes and
barons could, on urgent occasions, muster a mighty power; yet it was
very difficult to set that great machine in movement; it was almost
impossible to preserve harmony in its parts; a sense of common
interest alone could, for a time, unite them under their sovereign
against a common enemy; but if the king attempted to turn the force of
the community against any mutinous vassal, the same sense of common
interest made the others oppose themselves to the success of his
pretensions.  Lewis the Gross, the last sovereign, marched at one time
to his frontiers against the Germans at the head of an army of two
hundred thousand men; but a petty lord of Corbeil, of Puiset, of
Couci, was able, at another period, to set that prince at defiance,
and to maintain open war against him.

The authority of the English monarch was much more extensive within
his kingdom, and the disproportion much greater between him and the
most powerful of his vassals.  His demesnes and revenue were large,
compared to the greatness of his state: he was accustomed to levy
arbitrary exactions on his subjects; his courts of judicature extended
their jurisdiction into every part of the kingdom: he could crush by
his power, or by a judicial sentence, well or ill founded, any
obnoxious baron: and though the feudal institutions which prevailed in
his kingdom had the same tendency as in other states to exalt the
aristocracy and depress the monarchy, it required, in England,
according to its present constitution, a great combination of the
vassals to oppose their sovereign lord, and there had not hitherto
arisen any baron so powerful, as of himself to levy war against the
prince, and to afford protection to the inferior barons.

While such were the different situations of France and England, and
the latter enjoyed so many advantages above the former, the accession
of Henry II., a prince of great abilities, possessed of so many rich
provinces on the continent, might appear an event dangerous, if not
fatal, to the French monarchy, and sufficient to break entirely the
balance between the states.  He was master, in the right of his
father, of Anjou and Touraine; in that of his mother, of Normandy and
Maine; in that of his wife, of Guienne, Poictou, Xaintogne, Auvergne,
Perigord, Angoumois, the Limousin.  He soon after annexed Britany to
his other states, and was already possessed of the superiority over
that province, which, on the first cession of Normandy to Rollo, the
Dane, had been granted by Charles the Simple, in vassalage to that
formidable ravager.  These provinces composed above a third of the
whole French monarchy, and were much superior, in extent and opulence,
to those territories which were subjected to the immediate
jurisdiction and government of the king.  The vassal was here more
powerful than his liege lord: the situation which had enabled Hugh
Capet to depose the Carlovingian princes seemed to be renewed, and
that with much greater advantages on the side of the vassal; and when
England was added to so many provinces, the French king had reason to
apprehend, from this conjuncture, some great disaster to himself and
to his family: but in reality, it was this circumstance, which
appeared so formidable, that saved the Capetian race, and, by its
consequences, exalted them to that pitch of grandeur which they at
present enjoy.

The limited authority of the prince in the feudal constitutions
prevented the King of England from employing with advantage the force
of so many states, which were subjected to his government; and these
different members, disjoined in situation, and disagreeing in laws,
language, and manners, were never thoroughly cemented into one
monarchy.  He soon became, both from his distant place of residence,
and from the incompatibility of interests, a kind of foreigner to his
French dominions; and his subjects on the continent considered their
allegiance as more naturally due to their superior lord, who lived in
their neighbourhood, and who was acknowledged to be the supreme head
of their nation.  He was always at hand to invade them; their
immediate lord was often at too great a distance to protect them; and
any disorder in any part of his dispersed dominions gave advantages
against him.  The other powerful vassals of the French crown were
rather pleased to see the expulsion of the English, and were not
affected with that jealousy, which  would have arisen from the
oppression of a co-vassal, who was of the same rank with themselves.
By this means, the King of France found it more easy to conquer those
numerous provinces from England, than to subdue a Duke of Normandy or
Guienne, a Count of Anjou, Maine, or Poictou.  And after reducing such
extensive territories, which immediately incorporated with the body of
the monarchy, he found greater facility in uniting to the crown the
other great fiefs which still remained separate and independent.

But as these important consequences could not be foreseen by human
wisdom, the King of France remarked with terror the rising grandeur of
the house of Anjou, or Plantagenet; and, in order to retard its
progress, he had ever maintained a strict union with Stephen, and had
endeavoured to support the tottering fortunes of that bold usurper.
But after this prince's death it was too late to think of opposing the
succession of Henry, or preventing the performance of those
stipulations which, with the unanimous consent of the nation, he had
made with his predecessor.  The English, harassed with civil wars, and
disgusted with the bloodshed and depredations which, during the course
of so many years, had attended them, were little disposed to violate
their oaths, by excluding the lawful heir from the succession of their
monarchy [a].  Many of the most considerable fortresses were in the
hands of his partisans; the whole nation had had occasion to see the
noble qualities with which he was endowed [b], and to compare them
with the mean talents of William the son of Stephen; and as they were
acquainted with his great power, and were rather pleased to see the
accession of so many foreign dominions to the crown of England, they
never entertained the least thoughts of resisting them.  Henry
himself, sensible of the advantages attending his present situation,
was in no hurry to arrive in England; and being engaged in the siege
of a castle on the frontiers of Normandy, when he received
intelligence of Stephen's death, [MN Dec.] he made it a point of
honour not to depart from his enterprise till he had brought it to an
issue.  He then set out on his journey and was received in England
with the acclamations of all orders of men, who swore with pleasure
the oath of fealty and allegiance to him.
[FN [a] Matt. Paris, p. 65.  [b] Gul. Neubr. p. 381.]

[MN 1155.  First acts of Henry’s government.]
The first acts of Henry's government corresponded to the high idea
entertained of his abilities, and prognosticated the re-establishment
of justice and tranquillity, of which the kingdom had so long been
bereaved.  He immediately dismissed all those mercenary soldiers who
had committed great disorders in the nation; and he sent them abroad,
together with William of Ypres, their leader, the friend and confidant
of Stephen [c].  He revoked all the grants made by his predecessor
[d], even those which necessity had extorted from the Empress Matilda;
and that princess, who had resigned her rights in favour of Henry,
made no opposition to a measure so necessary for supporting the
dignity of the crown.  He repaired the coin, which had been extremely
debased during the reign of his predecessor; and he took proper
measures against the return of a like abuse [e].  He was vigorous in
the execution of justice, and in the suppression of robbery and
violence; and that he might restore authority to the laws, he caused
all the new erected castles to be demolished, which had proved so many
sanctuaries to freebooters and rebels [f].  The Earl of Albemarle,
Hugh Mortimer, and Roger the son of Milo of Gloucester, were inclined
to make some resistance to this salutary measure; but the approach of
the king with his forces soon obliged them to submit.
[FN [c] Fitz-Steph. p. 13.  M. Paris, p. 65.  Neubr. p. 381.  Chron.
T. Wykes, p. 30.  [d] Neub. p. 382.  [e] Hoveden, p. 491.  [f]
Hoveden, p. 491.  Fitz-Steph. p. 13.  M. Paris, p. 65.  Neubr. p. 381.
Brompton, p. 1043.]

[MN 1156.]  Every thing being restored to full tranquillity in
England, Henry went abroad in order to oppose the attempts of his
brother Geoffrey, who, during his absence, had made an incursion into
Anjou and Maine, had advanced some pretensions to those provinces, and
had got possession of a considerable part of them [g].  On the king’s
appearance, the people returned to their allegiance; and Geoffrey,
resigning his claim for an annual pension of a thousand pounds,
departed and took possession of the county of Nantz, which the
inhabitants, who had expelled Count Hoel, their prince, had put into
his hands.  [MN 1157.]  Henry returned to England the following year:
the incursions of the Welsh then provoked him to make an invasion upon
them; where the natural fastnesses of the country occasioned him great
difficulties, and even brought him into danger.  His vanguard, being
engaged in a narrow pass, was put to rout.  Henry de Essex, the
hereditary standard-bearer, seized with a panic, threw down the
standard, took to flight and exclaimed, that the king. was slain: and
had not the prince immediately appeared in person, and led on his
troops with great gallantry, the consequences might have proved fatal
to the whole army [h].  For this misbehaviour, Essex was afterwards
accused of felony by Robert de Montfort; was vanquished in single
combat; his estate was confiscated; and he himself was thrust into a
convent [i].  The submissions of the Welsh procured them an
accommodation with England.
[FN [g] See note [O], at the end of the volume.  [h] Neubr. p. 383.
Chron. W. Heming. p. 492.  [i] M. Paris, p. 70  Neubr. p. 383.]

[MN 1158.]  The martial disposition of the princes in that age engaged
them to head their own armies in every enterprise, even the most
frivolous; and their feeble authority made it commonly impracticable
for them to delegate, on occasion, the command to their generals.
Geoffrey, the king's brother, died soon after he had acquired
possession of Nantz: though he had no other title to that county than
the voluntary submission or election of the inhabitants two years
before, Henry laid claim to the territory as devolved to him by
hereditary right, and he went over to support his pretensions by force
of arms.  Conan, Duke or Earl of Britany, (for these titles are given
indifferently by historians to those princes,) pretended that Nantz
had been lately separated by rebellion from his principality, to which
of right it belonged; and immediately on Geoffrey's death he took
possession of the disputed territory.  Lest Lewis, the French king,
should interpose in the controversy, Henry paid him a visit; and so
allured him by caresses and civilities, that an alliance was
contracted between them; and they agreed that young Henry, heir to the
English monarchy, should be affianced to Margaret of France though the
former was only five years of age, and the latter was still in her
cradle.  Henry, now secure of meeting with no interruption on this
side, advanced with his army into Britany; and Conan, in despair of
being able to make resistance, delivered up the county of Nantz to
him.  The able conduct of the king procured him farther and more
important advantages from this incident.  Conan, harassed with the
turbulent disposition of his subjects, was desirous of procuring to
himself the support of so great a monarch; and he betrothed his
daughter and only child, yet an infant, to Geoffrey, the king's third
son, who was of the same tender years.  The Duke of Britany died about
seven years after; and Henry being MESNE lord, and also natural
guardian to his son and daughter-in-law, put himself in possession of
that principality, and annexed it for the present to his other great
dominions.

[MN 1159.]  The king had a prospect of making still farther
acquisitions; and the activity of his temper suffered no opportunity
of that kind to escape him.  Philippa, Duchess of Guienne, mother of
Queen Eleanor, was the only issue of William IV., Count of Toulouse;
and would have inherited his dominions, had not that prince, desirous
of preserving the succession in the male line, conveyed the
principality to his brother, Raymond de St. Gilles, by a contract of
sale which was in that age regarded as fictitious and illusory.  By
this means the title to the county of Toulouse came to be disputed
between the male and female heirs; and the one or the other, as
opportunities favoured them, had obtained possession.  Raymond,
grandson of Raymond de St. Gilles, was the reigning sovereign; and on
Henry’s reviving his wife’s claim, this prince had recourse for
protection to the King of France, who was so much concerned in policy
to prevent the farther aggrandizement of the English monarch.  Lewis
himself, when married to Eleanor, had asserted the justice of her
claim, and had demanded possession of Toulouse [k]; but his sentiments
changing with his interest, he now determined to defend, by his power
and authority, the title of Raymond.  Henry found that it would be
requisite to support his pretensions against potent antagonists; and
that nothing but a formidable army could maintain a claim which he had
in vain asserted by arguments and manifestoes.
[FN [k] Neubr. p. 387.  Chron. W. Heming. p. 494.]

An army, composed of feudal vassals, was commonly very intractable and
undisciplined, both because of the independent spirit of the persons
who served in it, and because the commands were not given, either by
the choice of the sovereign, or from the military capacity and
experience of the officers.  Each baron conducted his own vassals: his
rank was greater or less, proportioned to the extent of his property:
even the supreme command under the prince was often attached to birth;
and as the military vassals were obliged to serve only forty days at
their own charge; though if the expedition were distant, they were put
to great expense; the prince reaped little benefit from their
attendance.  Henry, sensible of these inconveniences, levied upon his
vassals in Normandy, and other provinces which were remote from
Toulouse, a sum of money in lieu of their service; and this
commutation, by reason of the great distance, was still more
advantageous to his English vassals.  He imposed, therefore, a scutage
of one hundred and eighty thousand pounds on the knight’s fees, a
commutation to which, though it was unusual, and the first perhaps to
be met with in history [l], the military tenants willingly submitted;
and with this money he levied an army which was more under his
command, and whose service was more durable and constant.  Assisted by
Berenger, Count of Barcelona, and Trincaval, Count of Nismes, whom he
had gained to his party, he invaded the county of Toulouse; and after
taking Verdun, Castlenau, and other places, he besieged the capital of
the province, and was likely to prevail in the enterprise: when Lewis,
advancing before the arrival of his main body, threw himself into the
place with a small reinforcement.  [MN 1160.]  Henry was urged by some
of his ministers to prosecute the siege, to take Lewis prisoner, and
to impose his own terms in the pacification; but he either thought it
so much his interest to maintain the feudal principles, by which his
foreign dominions were secured, or bore so much respect to his
superior lord, that he declared he would  not attack a place defended
by him in person; and he immediately raised the siege [m].  He marched
into Normandy, to protect that province against an incursion which the
Count of Dreux, instigated by King Lewis, his brother, had made upon
it.  War was now openly carried on between the two monarchs, but
produced no memorable event: it soon ended in a cessation of arms, and
that followed by a peace, which was not, however, attended with any
confidence or good correspondence between those rival princes.  The
fortress of Gisors, being part of the dowry stipulated to Margaret of
France, had been consigned by agreement to the Knights Templars, on
condition that it should be delivered into Henry's hands after the
celebration of the nuptials.  The king, that he might have a pretence
for immediately demanding the place, ordered the marriage to be
solemnized between the prince and princess, though both infants [n];
and he engaged the Grand Master of the Templars, by large presents, as
was generally suspected, to put him in possession of Gisors [o].  [MN
1161.]  Lewis, resenting this fraudulent conduct, banished the
Templars, and would have made war upon the King of England, had it not
been for the mediation and authority of Pope Alexander III., who had
been chased from Rome by the anti-pope, Victor IV., and resided at
that time in France.  That we may form an idea of the authority
possessed by the Roman pontiff during those ages, it may be proper to
observe, that the two kings had, the year before, met the pope at the
castle of Torci, on the Loire; and they gave him such marks of
respect, that both dismounted to receive him, and holding each of them
one of the reins of his bridle, walked on foot by his side, and
conducted him in that submissive manner into the castle [p].  A
SPECTACLE, cries Baronius in an ecstasy, TO GOD, ANGELS AND MEN; AND
SUCH AS HAD NEVER BEFORE BEEN EXHIBITED TO THE WORLD!
[FN [l] Madox, p. 435.  Gervase, p. 1381.  See Note [P], at the end of
the volume.  [m] Fitz-Steph. p. 22.  Diceto, p. 531.  [n] Hoveden, p.
492.  Neubr. p. 400.  Diceto, p. 532.  Brompton, p. 1450.  [o] Since
the first publication of this history, Lord Lyttelton has published a
copy of the treaty between Henry and Lewis, by which it appears, if
there was no secret article, that Henry was not guilty of any fraud in
this transaction.  [p] Trivet, p. 48.]

[MN 1162.]  Henry, soon after he had accommodated his differences with
Lewis, by the pope's mediation, returned to England; where he
commenced an enterprise which, though required by sound policy, and
even conducted in the main with prudence, bred him great disquietude,
involved him in danger, and was not concluded without some loss and
dishonour.

[MN Disputes between the civil and ecclesiastical powers.]
The usurpations of the clergy, which had at first been gradual, were
now become so rapid, and had mounted to such a height, that the
contest between the regale and pontificale was really arrived at a
crisis in England, and it became necessary to determine whether the
king or the priests, particularly the Archbishop of Canterbury, should
be sovereign of the kingdom [q].  The aspiring spirit of Henry, which
gave inquietude to all his neighbours, was not likely long to pay a
tame submission to the encroachments of subjects; and as nothing
opened the eyes of men so readily as their interests, he was in no
danger of falling, in this respect, into that abject superstition
which retained his people in subjection.  From the commencement of his
reign, in the government of his foreign dominions, as well as of
England, he had shown a fixed purpose to repress clerical usurpations,
and to maintain those prerogatives which had been transmitted to him
by his predecessors.  During the schism of the papacy between
Alexander and Victor, he had determined, for some time, to remain
neuter: and when informed that the Archbishop of Rouen and the Bishop
of Mans had, from their own authority, acknowledged Alexander as
legitimate pope, he was so enraged, that, though he spared the
archbishop on account of his great age, he immediately issued orders
for overthrowing the houses of the Bishop of Mans and Archdeacon of
Rouen [r]; and it was not till he had deliberately examined the
matter, by those views which usually enter into the councils of
princes, that he allowed that pontiff to exercise authority over any
of his dominions.  In England, the mild character and advanced years
of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, together with his merits in
refusing to put the crown on the head of Eustace, son of Stephen,
prevented Henry, during the lifetime of that primate, from taking  any
measures against the multiplied encroachments of the clergy; but after
his death, the king resolved to exert himself with more activity, and
that he might be secure against any opposition, he advanced to that
dignity Becket, his chancellor, on whose compliance he thought he
could entirely depend.
[FN [q] Fitz-Stephen, p. 27.  [r] See note [Q], at the end of the
volume.]

[MN June 3.  Thomas à Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury.]
Thomas à Becket, the first man of English descent who, since the
Norman conquest, had, during the course of a whole century, risen to
any considerable station, was born of reputable parents in the city of
London; and being endowed both with industry and capacity, he early
insinuated himself into the favour of Archbishop Theobald, and
obtained from that prelate some preferments and offices.  By their
means he was enabled to travel for improvement to Italy, where he
studied the civil and canon law at Bologna; and on his return, he
appeared to have made such proficiency in knowledge, that he was
prompted by his patron to the Archdeaconry of Canterbury, an office of
considerable trust and profit.  He was afterwards employed with
success by Theobald, in transacting business at Rome; and, on Henry's
accession, he was recommended to that monarch as worthy of farther
preferment.  Henry. who knew that Becket had been instrumental in
supporting that resolution of the archbishop, which had tended so much
to facilitate his own advancement to the throne, was already pre-
possessed in his favour; and finding, on farther acquaintance, that
his spirit and abilities entitled him to any trust, he soon promoted
him to the dignity of chancellor, one of the first civil offices in
the kingdom.  The chancellor, in that age, besides the custody of the
great seal, had possession of all vacant prelacies and abbeys; he was
the guardian of all such minors and pupils as were the king's tenants;
all baronies which escheated to the crown were under his
administration; he was entitled to a place in council, even though he
were not particularly summoned; and as he exercised also the office of
secretary of state, and it belonged to him to countersign all
commissions, writs, and letters patent, he was a kind of prime
minister, and was concerned in the despatch of every business of
importance [s].  Besides exercising this high office, Becket, by the
favour of the king or archbishop, was made Provost of Beverley, Dean
of Hastings, and Constable of the Tower: he was put in possession of
the honours of Eye and Berkham, large baronies that had escheated to
the crown: and, to complete his grandeur, he was intrusted with the
education of Prince Henry, the king’s eldest son, and heir of the
monarchy [t].  The pomp of his retinue, the sumptuousness of his
furniture, the luxury of his table, the munificence of his presents,
corresponded to these great preferments; or rather exceeded any thing
that England had ever before seen in any subject.  His historian and
secretary, Fitz-Stephens [u], mentions, among other particulars, that
his apartments were every day in winter covered with clean straw or
hay, and in summer with green rushes or boughs; lest the gentlemen who
paid court to him, and who could not, by reason of their great number,
find a place at table, should soil their fine clothes by sitting on a
dirty floor [w].  A great number of knights were retained in his
service; the greatest barons were proud of being received at his
table; his house was a place of education for the sons of the chief
nobility; and the king himself frequently vouchsafed to partake of his
entertainments.  As his way of life was splendid and opulent, his
amusements and occupations were gay, and partook of the cavalier
spirit, which, as he had only taken deacon's orders, he did not think
unbefitting his character.  He employed himself at leisure hours in
hunting, hawking, gaming, and horsemanship; he exposed his person in
several military actions [x]; he carried over, at his own charge,
seven hundred knights to attend the king in his wars at Toulouse; in
the subsequent wars on the frontiers of Normandy he maintained, during
forty days, twelve hundred knights, and four thousand of their train
[y]; and in an embassy to France, with which he was intrusted, he
astonished that court with the number and magnificence of his retinue.
[FN [s] Fitz-Steph. p. 13.  [t] Fitz-Steph. p. 15.  Hist. Quad. p. 9,
14.  [u] P. 15.  [w] John Baldwin held the manor of Oterarsfee, in
Aylesbury, of the king by soccage, by the service of finding litter
for the king's bed, viz. in summer, grass or herbs, and two grey
geese; and in winter, straw, and three eels, thrice in the year if the
king should come thrice in the year to Aylesbury.  Madox, Bar.
Anglica, p. 247.  [x] Fitz-Steph. p. 23.  Hist. Quad. p. 9.  [y] Fitz-
Steph. p. 19, 20, 22, 23.]

Henry, besides committing all his more important business to Becket's
management, honoured him with his friendship and intimacy; and
whenever he was disposed to relax himself by sports of any kind, he
admitted his chancellor to the party [z]  An instance of their
familiarity is mentioned by Fitz-Stephens, which, as it shows the
manners of the age, it may not be improper to relate.  One day, as the
king and the chancellor were riding together in the streets of London,
they observed a beggar, who was shivering with cold.  Would it not be
very praiseworthy, said the king, to give that poor man a warm coat in
this severe season?  It would, surely, replied the chancellor; and you
do well, sir, in thinking of such good actions.  Then he shall have
one presently, cried the king; and seizing the skirt of the
chancellor's coat, which was scarlet, and lined with ermine, began to
pull it violently.  The chancellor defended himself for some time; and
they had both of them liked to have tumbled off their horses in the
street, when Becket, after a vehement struggle, let go his coat; which
the king bestowed on the beggar, who, being ignorant of the quality of
the persons, was not a little surprised at the present [a].
[FN [z] Fitz-Steph. p. 16.  Hist. Quad. p. 8.  [a] Fitz-Steph. p. 16.]

Becket, who, by his complaisance and good humour, had rendered himself
agreeable, and by his industry and abilities useful, to his master,
appeared to him the fittest person for supplying the vacancy made by
the death of Theobald.  As he was well acquainted with the king's
intentions [b] of retrenching, or rather confining within the ancient
bounds, all ecclesiastical privileges, and always showed a ready
disposition to comply with them [c], Henry, who never expected any
resistance from that quarter, immediately issued orders for electing
him Archbishop of Canterbury.  But this resolution, which was taken
contrary to the opinion of Matilda, and many of the ministers [d],
drew after it very unhappy consequences; and never prince of so great
penetration appeared, in the issue, to have so little understood the
genius and character of his minister.
[FN [b] Ibid. p. 17.  [c] Ibid p. 23.  Epist. St. Thom. p. 232.  [d]
Epist. St. Thom. p. 167.]

No sooner was Becket installed in this high dignity, which rendered
him for life the second person in the kingdom, with some pretensions
of aspiring to be the first, than he totally altered his demeanour and
conduct, and endeavoured to acquire the character of sanctity, of
which his former busy and ostentatious course of life might, in the
eyes of the people, have naturally bereaved him.  Without consulting
the king, he immediately returned into his hands the commission of
chancellor; pretending that he must thenceforth detach himself from
secular affairs, and be solely employed in the exercise of his
spiritual function; but in reality, that he might break off all
connexions with Henry, and apprize him, that Becket, as Primate of
England, was now become entirely a new personage.  He maintained in
his retinue and attendants alone his ancient pomp and lustre, which
was useful to strike the vulgar: in his own person he affected the
greatest austerity and most rigid mortification, which, he was
sensible, would have an equal or a greater tendency to the same end.
He wore sackcloth next his skin, which, by his affected care to
conceal it, was necessarily the more remarked by all the world: he
changed it so seldom, that it was filled with dirt and vermin: his
usual diet was bread; his drink water, which he even rendered farther
unpalatable by the mixture of unsavoury herbs: he tore his back with
the frequent discipline which he inflicted on it: he daily on his
knees washed, in imitation of Christ, the feet of thirteen beggars,
whom he afterwards dismissed with presents [e]: he gained the
affections of the monks by his frequent charities to the convents and
hospitals: every one who made profession of sanctity was admitted to
his conversation, and returned full of panegyrics on the humility as
well as on the piety and mortification of the holy primate: he seemed
to be perpetually employed in reciting prayers and pious lectures, or
in perusing religious discourses: his aspect wore the appearance of
seriousness and  mental recollection, and secret devotion: and all men
of penetration plainly saw that he was meditating some great design
and that the ambition and ostentation of his character had turned
itself towards a new and more dangerous object.
[FN [e] Fitz-Steph. p. 25.  Hist. Quad. p. 19.]

[MN 1163.  Quarrel between the king and Becket.]
Becket waited not till Henry should commence those projects against
the ecclesiastical power, which, he knew, had been formed by that
prince: he was himself the aggressor; and endeavoured to overawe the
king by the intrepidity and boldness of his enterprises.  He summoned
the Earl of Clare to surrender the barony of Tunbridge, which, ever
since the Conquest, had remained in the family of that nobleman, but
which, as it had formerly belonged to the see of Canterbury, Becket
pretended his predecessors were prohibited by the canons to alienate.
The Earl of Clare, besides the lustre which he derived from the
greatness of his own birth, and the extent of his possessions, was
allied to all the principal families in the kingdom; his sister, who
was a celebrated beauty, had farther extended his credit among the
nobility, and was even supposed to have gained the king's affections;
and Becket could not better discover, than by attacking so powerful an
interest, his resolution of maintaining with vigour the rights, real
or pretended, of his see [f].
[FN [f] Fitz-Steph. p. 28  Gervase, p. 1384.]

William de Eynsford, a military tenant of the crown, was patron of a
living which belonged to a manor that held of the Archbishop of
Canterbury: but Becket, without regard to William's right, presented,
on a new and illegal pretext, one Laurence to that living, who was
violently expelled by Eynsford.  The primate, making himself, as was
usual in spiritual courts, both judge and party, issued, in a summary
manner, the sentence of excommunication against Eynsford, who
complained to the king, that he who held IN CAPITE of the crown
should, contrary to the practice established by the Conqueror, and
maintained ever since by his successors, be subjected to that terrible
sentence, without the previous consent of the sovereign [g].  Henry,
who had now broken off all personal intercourse with Becket, sent him,
by a messenger, his orders to absolve Eynsford; but received for
answer, that it belonged not to the king to inform him whom he should
absolve and whom excommunicate [h]: and it was not till after many
remonstrances and menaces, that Becket, though with the worst grace
imaginable, was induced to comply with the royal mandate.
[FN [g] M. Paris, p. 7.  Diceto, p. 536.  [h] Fitz-Steph. p. 28.]

Henry, though he found himself thus grievously mistaken in the
character of the person whom he had promoted to the primacy,
determined not to desist from his former intention of retrenching
clerical usurpations.  He was entirely master of his extensive
dominions: the prudence and vigour of his administration, attended
with perpetual success, had raised his character above that of any of
his predecessors [i]: the papacy seemed to be weakened by a schism
which divided all Europe: and he rightly judged, that if the present
favourable opportunity were neglected, the crown must, from the
prevalent superstition of the people, be in danger of falling into an
entire subordination under the mitre.
[FN [i] Epist. St. Thom. p. 130.]

The union of the civil and ecclesiastic power serves extremely, in
every civilized government, to the maintenance of peace and order; and
prevents those mutual encroachments which, as there can be no ultimate
judge between them, are often attended with the most dangerous
consequences.  Whether the supreme magistrate, who unites these
powers, receives the appellation of prince or prelate, is not
material: the superior weight which temporal interests commonly bear
in the apprehensions of men above spiritual, renders the civil part of
his character most prevalent; and in time prevents those gross
impostures and bigoted persecutions, which, in all false religions,
are the chief foundation of clerical authority.  But during the
progress of ecclesiastical usurpations, the state, by the resistance
of the civil magistrate, is naturally thrown into convulsions; and it
behoves the prince, both for his own interest and for that of the
public, to provide, in time, sufficient barriers against so dangerous
and insidious a rival.  This precaution had hitherto been much
neglected in England, as well as in other Catholic countries; and
affairs at last seemed to have come to a dangerous crisis: a sovereign
of the greatest abilities was now on the throne: a prelate of the most
inflexible and intrepid character was possessed of the primacy: the
contending powers appeared to be armed with their full force, and it
was natural to expect some extraordinary event to result from their
conflict.

Among their other inventions to obtain money, the clergy had
inculcated the necessity of penance as an atonement for sin; and
having again introduced the practice of paying them large sums as a
commutation, or species of atonement, for the remission of those
penances, the sins of the people, by these means, had become a revenue
to the priests; and the king computed that, by this invention alone,
they levied more money upon his subjects than flowed, by all the funds
and taxes, into the royal exchequer [k]  That he might ease the people
of so heavy and arbitrary an imposition, Henry required that a civil
officer of his appointment should be present in all ecclesiastical
courts, and should, for the future, give his consent to every
composition which was made with sinners for their spiritual offences.
[FN [k] Fitz-Steph. p. 32.]

The ecclesiastics, in that age, had renounced all immediate
subordination to the magistrate: they openly pretended to an
exemption, in criminal accusations, from a trial before courts of
justice; and were gradually introducing a like exemption in civil
causes: spiritual penalties alone could be inflicted on their
offences; and as the clergy had extremely multiplied in England, and
many of them were consequently of very low characters, crimes of the
deepest dye, murders, robberies, adulteries, rapes, were daily
committed with impunity by the ecclesiastics.  It had been found, for
instance, on inquiry, that no less than a hundred murders had, since
the king's accession, been perpetrated by men of that profession, who
had never been called to account for these offences [l]; and holy
orders were become a full protection for all enormities.  A clerk in
Worcestershire, having debauched a gentleman's daughter, had, at this
time, proceeded to murder the father: and the general indignation
against this crime moved the king to attempt the remedy of an abuse
which was become so palpable, and to require that the clerk should be
delivered up, and receive condign punishment from the magistrate [m].
Becket insisted on the privileges of the church; confined the criminal
in the bishop's prison, lest he should be seized by the king's
officers; maintained that no greater punishment could be inflicted on
him than degradation; and when the king demanded, that, immediately
after he was degraded, he should be tried by the civil power, the
primate asserted, that it was iniquitous to try a man twice upon the
same accusation, and for the same offence [n].
[FN [l] Neubr. p. 394.  [m] Fitz-Steph. p. 33.  Hist. Quad. p. 32.
[n] Fitz-Steph. p. 29.  Hist. Quad. p. 33, 45.  Hoveden, p. 492.  M.
Paris, p. 72.  Diceto, p. 536, 537.  Brompton, p. 1058.  Gervase, p.
1384.  Epist. St. Thom. p. 208, 209.]

Henry, laying hold of so plausible a pretence, resolved to push the
clergy with regard to all their privileges, which they had raised to
an enormous height, and to determine at once those controversies,
which daily multiplied between the civil and the ecclesiastical
jurisdictions.  He summoned an assembly of all the prelates of
England; and he put to them this concise and decisive question,
Whether or not they were willing to submit to the ancient laws and
customs of the kingdom?  The bishops unanimously replied, that they
were willing, SAVING THEIR OWN ORDER [o]: a device by which they
thought to elude the present urgency of the king's demand, yet reserve
to themselves, on a favourable opportunity, the power of resuming all
their pretensions.  The king was sensible of the artifice, and was
provoked to the highest indignation.  He left the assembly, with
visible marks of his displeasure: he required the primate instantly to
surrender the honours and castles of Eye and Berkham: the bishops were
terrified, and expected still farther effects of his resentment.
Becket alone was inflexible; and nothing but the interposition of the
pope's legate and almoner, Philip, who dreaded a breach with so
powerful a prince at so unseasonable a juncture, could have prevailed
on him to retract the saving clause, and give a general and absolute
promise of observing the ancient customs [p].
[FN [o] Fitz-Steph. p. 31.  Hist. Quad. p. 34.  Hoveden, p. 492.  [p]
Hist. Quad. p. 37.  Hoveden, p. 493.  Gervase, p. 1385.]

But Henry was not content with a declaration in these general terms:
he resolved, ere it was too late, to define expressly those customs
with which he required compliance, and to put a stop to clerical
usurpations before they were fully consolidated, and could plead
antiquity, as they already did a sacred authority, in their favour.
The claims of the church were open and visible.  After a gradual and
insensible progress during many centuries, the mask had at last been
taken off; and several ecclesiastical councils, by their canons which
were pretended to be irrevocable and infallible, had positively
defined those privileges and immunities which gave such general
offence, and appeared so dangerous to the civil magistrate.  Henry,
therefore, deemed it necessary to define with the same precision the
limits of the civil power; to oppose his legal customs to their divine
ordinances; to determine the exact boundaries of the rival
jurisdictions; and for this purpose he summoned a general council of
the nobility and prelates at Clarendon, to whom he submitted this
great and important question.

[MN 1164.  15th Jan.  Constitutions of Clarendon.]
The barons were all gained to the king's party, either by the reasons
which he urged, or by his superior authority: the bishops were
overawed by the general combination against them: and the following
laws, commonly called the CONSTITUTIONS OF CLARENDON, were voted
without opposition by this assembly [q].  It was enacted, that all
suits concerning the advowson and presentation of churches should be
determined in the civil courts: that the churches belonging to the
king's see should not be granted in perpetuity without his consent:
that clerks, accused of any crime, should be tried in the civil
courts: that no person, particularly no clergyman of any rank, should
depart the kingdom without the king's licence: that excommunicated
persons should not be bound to give security for continuing in their
present place of abode: that laics should not be accused in spiritual
courts, except by legal and reputable promoters and witnesses: that no
chief tenant of the crown should be excommunicated, nor his lands be
put under an interdict, except with the king's consent: that all
appeals in spiritual causes should be carried from the archdeacon to
the bishop, from the bishop to the primate, from him to the king; and
should be carried no farther without the king's consent: that if any
lawsuit arose between a layman and a clergyman concerning a tenant,
and it be disputed whether the land be a lay or an ecclesiastical fee,
it should first be determined by the verdict of twelve lawful men to
what class it belonged; and if it be found to be a lay-fee, the cause
should finally be determined in the civil courts: that no inhabitant
in demesne should be excommunicated for non-appearance in a spiritual
court, till the chief officer of the place where he resides be
consulted, that he may compel him by the civil authority to give
satisfaction to the church: that the archbishops, bishops, and other
spiritual dignitaries, should be regarded as barons of the realm;
should possess the privileges and be subjected to the burdens
belonging to that rank; and should be bound to attend the king in his
great councils, and assist at all trials, till the sentence, either of
death or loss of members, be given against the criminal: that the
revenue of vacant sees should belong to the king; the chapter, or such
of them as he pleases to summon, should sit in the king's chapel till
they made the new election with his consent, and that the bishop-elect
should do homage to the crown: that if any baron or tenant IN CAPITE
should refuse to submit to the spiritual courts, the king should
employ his authority in obliging him to make such submissions; if any
of them throw off his allegiance to the king, the prelates should
assist the king with their censures in reducing him: that goods
forfeited to the king should not be protected in churches or
churchyards: that the clergy should no longer pretend to the right of
enforcing payment of debts contracted by oath or promise; but should
leave these lawsuits, equally with others, to the determination of the
civil courts: and that the sons of villains should not be ordained
clerks, without the consent of their lord [r].
[FN [q] Fitz-Steph. p. 33.  [r] Hist. Quad. p. 163.  M. Paris, p. 70,
71.  Spellm. Conc. vol. ii. p. 63.  Gervase, p. 1386, 1387.  Wilkins,
p. 321.]

These articles, to the number of sixteen, were calculated to prevent
the chief abuses which had prevailed in ecclesiastical affairs, and to
put an effectual stop to the usurpations of the church, which,
gradually stealing on, had threatened the total destruction of the
civil power.  Henry, therefore, by reducing those ancient customs of
the realm to writing, and by collecting them in a body, endeavoured to
prevent all future dispute with regard to them; and by passing so many
ecclesiastical ordinances in a national and civil assembly, he fully
established the superiority of the legislature above all papal decrees
or spiritual canons, and gained a signal victory over the
ecclesiastics.  But as he knew that the bishops, though overawed by
the present combination of the crown and the barons, would take the
first favourable opportunity of denying the authority which had
enacted these constitutions, he resolved that they should all set
their seal to them, and give a promise to observe them.  None of the
prelates dared to oppose his will, except Becket, who, though urged by
the Earls of Cornwall and Leicester, the barons of principal authority
in the kingdom, obstinately withheld his assent.  At last, Richard de
Hastings, Grand Prior of the Templars in England, threw himself on his
knees before him; and with many tears entreated him, if he paid any
regard, either to his own safety or that of the church, not to
provoke, by a fruitless opposition, the indignation of a great
monarch, who was resolutely bent on his purpose, and who was
determined to take full revenge on every one that should dare to
oppose him [s].  Becket, finding himself deserted by all the world,
even by his own brethren, was at last obliged to comply; and he
promised, LEGALLY, WITH GOOD FAITH, AND WITHOUT FRAUD OR RESERVE [t],
to observe the constitutions; and he took an oath to that purpose [u].
The king, thinking that he had now finally prevailed in this great
enterprise, sent the constitutions to Pope Alexander, who then resided
in France; and he required that pontiff's ratification of them: but
Alexander, who, though he had owed the most important obligations to
the king, plainly saw that these laws were calculated to establish the
independency of England on the papacy, and of the royal power on the
clergy, condemned them in the strongest terms; abrogated, annulled,
and rejected them.  There were only six articles, the least important,
which, for the sake of peace, he was willing to ratify.
[FN [s] Hist. Quad. p. 38.  Hoveden, p. 493.  [t] Fitz-Steph. p. 35.
Epist. St. Thom. p. 25.  [u] Fitz-Steph. p. 45.  Hist. Quad. p. 39.
Gervase, p. 1386.]

Becket, when he observed that he might hope for support in an
opposition, expressed the deepest sorrow for his compliance; and
endeavoured to engage all the other bishops in a confederacy to adhere
to their common rights, and to the ecclesiastical privileges, in which
he represented the interest and honour of God to be so deeply
concerned.  He redoubled his austerities, in order to punish himself
for his criminal assent to the constitutions of Clarendon: he
proportioned his discipline to the enormity of his supposed offence;
and he refused to exercise any part of his archiepiscopal function,
till he should receive absolution from the pope; which was readily
granted him.  Henry, informed of his present dispositions, resolved to
take vengeance for this refractory behaviour; and he attempted to
crush him, by means of that very power which Becket made such merit in
supporting.  He applied to the pope, that he should grant the
commission of legate in his dominions to the Archbishop of York; but
Alexander, as politic as he, though he granted the commission, annexed
a clause, that it should not empower the legate to execute any act of
prejudice of the Archbishop of Canterbury [w]; and the king, finding
how fruitless such an authority would prove, sent back the commission
by the same messenger that brought it [x].
[FN [w] Epist. St. Thom. p. 13, 14.  [x] Hoveden, p.493.  Gervase, p.
1388.]

The primate, however, who found himself still exposed to the king's
indignation, endeavoured twice to escape secretly from the kingdom,
but was as often detained by contrary winds; and Henry hastened to
make him feel the effects of an obstinacy which he deemed so criminal.
He instigated John, mareschal of the exchequer, to sue Becket in the
archiepiscopal court for some lands, part of the manor of Pageham; and
to appeal thence to the king's court for justice [y].  On the day
appointed for trying the cause, the primate sent four knights to
represent certain irregularities in John's appeal; and at the same
time to excuse himself, on account of sickness, for not appearing
personally that day in the court.  This slight offence (if it even
deserve the name) was represented as a grievous contempt; the four
knights were menaced and with difficulty escaped being sent to prison,
as offering falsehoods to the court [z].  And Henry, being determined
to prosecute Becket to the utmost, summoned, at Northampton, a great
council, which he purposed to make the instrument of his vengeance
against the inflexible prelate.
[FN [y] Hoveden, p. 494.  M. Paris, p. 72.  Diceto, p. 537.  [z] See
note [R], at the end of the volume.]

The king had raised Becket from a low station to the highest offices,
had honoured him with his countenance and friendship, had trusted to
his assistance in forwarding his favourite project against the clergy;
and when he found him become of a sudden his most rigid opponent,
while every one beside complied with his will, rage at the
disappointment, and indignation against such signal ingratitude,
transported him beyond all bounds of moderation; and there seems to
have entered more of passion than of justice, or even of policy, in
this violent prosecution [a].  The barons, notwithstanding, in the
great council, voted whatever sentence he was pleased to dictate to
them; and the bishops themselves, who undoubtedly bore a secret favour
to Becket, and regarded him as the champion of their privileges,
concurred with the rest in the design of oppressing their primate.  In
vain did Becket urge that his court was proceeding with the utmost
regularity and justice in trying the maresehal's cause; which,
however, he said, would appear, from the sheriff's testimony, to be
entirely unjust and iniquitous: that he himself had discovered no
contempt of the king's court; but, on the contrary, by sending four
knights to excuse his absence, had virtually acknowledged its
authority: that he also, in consequence of the king's summons,
personally appeared at present in the great council, ready to justify
his cause against the mareschal, and to submit his conduct to their
inquiry and jurisdiction: that even should it be found that he had
been guilty of non-appearance, the laws had affixed a very slight
penalty to that offence: and that, as he was an inhabitant of Kent,
where his archiepiscopal palace was seated, he was by law entitled to
some greater indulgence than usual in the rate of his fine [b].
Notwithstanding these pleas, he was condemned as guilty of a contempt
of the king's court, and as wanting in the fealty which he had sworn
to his sovereign; all his goods and chattels were confiscated [c]; and
that this triumph over the church might be carried to the utmost,
Henry, Bishop of Winchester, the prelate who had been so powerful in
the former reign, was, in spite of his remonstrances, obliged, by
order of the court, to pronounce the sentence against him [d].  The
primate submitted to the decree; and all the prelates, except Folliot,
Bishop of London, who paid court to the king by this singularity,
became sureties for him [e].  It is remarkable that seven Norman
barons voted in this council; and we may conclude, with some
probability, that a like practice had prevailed in many of the great
councils summoned since the Conquest.  For the contemporary historian,
who has given us a full account of these transactions, does not
mention this circumstance as anywise singular [f]; and Becket, in all
his subsequent remonstrances with regard to the severe treatment which
he had met with, never founds any objection on an irregularity which
to us appears very palpable and flagrant.  So little precision was
there at that time in the government and constitution!
[FN [a] Neubr. p. 394.  [b] Fitz-Steph. p. 37, 42.  [c] Hist. Quad. p.
47  Hoveden, p. 494.  Gervase, p. 1389.  [d] Fitz-Steph. p. 37.  [e]
Ibid.  [f] Ibid. p. 36.]

The king was not content with this sentence, however violent and
oppressive.  Next day, he demanded of Becket the sum of three hundred
pounds, which the primate had levied upon the honours of Eye and
Berkham, while in his possession.  Becket, after premising that he was
not obliged to answer to this suit, because it was not contained in
his summons; after remarking that he had expended more than that sum
in the repair of those castles, and of the royal palace at London;
expressed however his resolution, that money should not be any ground
of quarrel between him and his sovereign; he agreed to pay the sum;
and immediately gave surety for it [g].  In the subsequent meeting,
the king demanded five hundred marks, which, he affirmed, he had lent
Becket during the war at Toulouse [h]; and another sum in the same
amount for which that prince had been surety for him to a Jew.
Immediately after these two claims, he preferred a third of still
greater importance: he required him to give in the accounts of his
administration while chancellor, and to pay the balance due from the
revenues of all the prelacies, abbeys, and baronies, which had, during
that time, been subjected to his management [i].  Becket observed,
that, as this demand was totally unexpected, he had not come prepared
to answer it; but he required a delay, and promised in that case to
give satisfaction.  The king insisted upon sureties; and Becket
desired leave to consult his suffragans in a case of such importance
[k].
[FN [g] Ibid. p. 38.  [h] Hist. Quad. p. 47.  [i] Hoveden, p. 494.
Diceto, p. 537.  [k] Fitz-Steph. p. 38.]

It is apparent, from the known character of Henry, and from the usual
vigilance of his government, that, when he promoted Becket to the see
of Canterbury, he was on good grounds, well pleased with his
administration in the former high office with which he had entrusted
him; and that, even if that prelate had dissipated money beyond the
income of his place, the king was satisfied that his expenses were not
blameable, and had in the main been calculated for his service [l].
Two years had since elapsed; no demand had, during that time, been
made upon him; it was not till the quarrel arose concerning
ecclesiastical privileges that the claim was started, and the primate
was, of a sudden, required to produce accounts of such intricacy and
extent before a tribunal which had showed a determined resolution to
ruin and oppress him.  To find sureties that he should answer so
boundless and uncertain a claim, which in the king's estimation
amounted to forty-four thousand marks [m], was impracticable; and
Becket's suffragans were extremely at a loss what counsel to give him
in such a critical emergency.  By the advice of the Bishop of
Winchester, he offered two thousand marks as a general satisfaction
for all demands: but this offer was rejected by the king [n].  Some
prelates exhorted him to resign his see, on condition of receiving an
acquittal: others were of opinion that he ought to submit himself
entirely to the king’s mercy [o]: but the primate, thus pushed to the
utmost, had too much courage to sink under oppression: he determined
to brave all his enemies, to trust to the sacredness of his character
for protection, to involve his cause with that of God and religion,
and to stand the utmost efforts of royal indignation.
[FN [l] Hoveden, p. 495.  [m] Epist. St. Thom. p. 315.
[n] Fitz-Steph. p. 38.  [o] Ibid. p. 39.  Gervase, p. 1390.]

After a few days spent in deliberation, Becket went to church and said
mass, where he had previously ordered that the introit to the
communion service should begin with these words, PRINCES SAT, AND
SPAKE AGAINST ME; the passage appointed for the martyrdom of St.
Stephen, whom the primate thereby tacitly pretended to resemble, in
his sufferings for the sake of righteousness.  He went thence to
court, arrayed in his sacred vestments: as soon as he arrived within
the palace gate, he took the cross into his own hands, bore it aloft
as his protection, and marched, in that posture, into the royal
apartments [p].  The king, who was in an inner room, was astonished at
this parade, by which the primate seemed to menace him and his court
with the sentence of excommunication; and he sent some of the prelates
to remonstrate with him on account of such audacious behaviour.  These
prelates complained to Becket, that, by subscribing himself to the
constitutions of Clarendon, he had seduced them to imitate his
example; and that now, when it was too late, he pretended to shake off
all subordination to the civil power, and appeared desirous of
involving them in the guilt which must attend any violation of those
laws, established by their consent, and ratified by their
subscriptions [q].  Becket replied, that he had indeed subscribed the
constitutions of Clarendon, LEGALLY, WITH GOOD FAITH, AND WITHOUT
FRAUD OR RESERVE; but in these words was virtually implied a salvo for
the rights of their order, which, being connected with the cause of
God and his church, could never be relinquished by their oaths and
engagements: that if he and they had erred in resigning the
ecclesiastical privileges, the best atonement they could now make was
to retract their consent, which, in such a case, could never be
obligatory, and to follow the pope's authority, who had solemnly
annulled the constitutions of Clarendon, and had absolved them from
all oaths which they had taken to observe them: that a  determined
resolution was evidently embraced to oppress the church; the storm had
first broken upon him; for a slight offence, and which too was falsely
imputed to him, he had been tyrannically condemned to a grievous
penalty; a new and unheard-of claim was since started, in which he
could expect no justice; and he plainly saw, that he was the destined
victim, who, by his ruin, must prepare the way for the abrogation of
all spiritual immunities; that he strictly inhibited them who were his
suffragans from assisting at any such trial, or giving their sanction
to any sentence against him; he put himself and his see under the
protection of the supreme pontiff; and appealed to him against any
penalty which his iniquitous judges might think proper to inflict upon
him: and that, however terrible the indignation of so great a monarch
as Henry, his sword could only kill the body; while that of the
church, intrusted into the hands of the primate, could kill the soul,
and throw the disobedient into infinite and eternal perdition [r].
[FN [p] Fitz-Steph. p. 40.  Hist. Quad. p. 53.  Hoveden, p. 404.
Neubr. p. 394.  Epist. St. Thom. p. 43.  [q] Fitz-Steph. p. 35.  [r]
Fitz-Steph. p. 42, 44, 45, 46.  Hist. Quad. p. 57.  Hoveden, p. 495.
M. Paris, p. 72.  Epist. St. Thom. p. 45, 195.]

Appeals to the pope, even in ecclesiastical causes, had been abolished
by the constitutions of Clarendon, and were become criminal by law;
but an appeal in a civil cause, such as the king's demand upon Becket,
was a practice altogether new and unprecedented; it tended directly to
the subversion of the government, and could receive no colour of
excuse, except from the determined resolution, which was but too
apparent, in Henry and the great council, to effectuate, without
justice, but under colour of law, the total ruin of the inflexible
primate.  The king, having now obtained a pretext so much more
plausible for his violence, would probably have pushed the affair to
the utmost extremity against him; but Becket gave him no leisure to
conduct the prosecution.  He refused so much as to hear the sentence,
which the barons, sitting apart from the bishops, and joined to some
sheriffs and barons of the second rank [s], had given upon the king's
claim: he departed from the palace; [MN Banishment of Becket.] asked
Henry's immediate permission to leave Northampton, and upon meeting
with a refusal, he withdrew secretly, wandered about in disguise for
some time; and at last took shipping, and arrived safely at
Gravelines.
[FN [s] Fitz-Steph. p. 46.  This historian is supposed to mean the
more considerable vassals of the chief barons: these had no title to
sit in the great council, and the giving them a place there was a
palpable irregularity; which, however, is not insisted on in any of
Becket's remonstrances.  A farther proof how little fixed the
constitution was at that time.]

The violent and unjust prosecution of Becket had a natural tendency to
turn the public favour on his side and to make men overlook his former
ingratitude toward the king, and his departure from all oaths and
engagements, as well as the enormity of those ecclesiastical
privileges, of which he affected to be the champion.  There were many
other reasons which procured his countenance and protection in foreign
countries.  Philip, Earl of Flanders [t], and Lewis, King of France
[u], jealous of the rising greatness of Henry, were well pleased to
give him disturbance in his government; and, forgetting that this was
the common cause of princes, they affected to pity extremely the
condition of the exiled primate; and the latter even honoured him with
a visit at Soissons, in which city he had invited him to fix his
residence [w].  The pope, whose interests were more immediately
concerned in supporting him, gave a cold reception to a magnificent
embassy which Henry sent to accuse him; while Becket himself, who had
come to Sens in order to justify his cause before the sovereign
pontiff, was received with the greatest marks of distinction.  The
king, in revenge, sequestered the revenues of Canterbury; and, by a
conduct which might be esteemed arbitrary, had there been at that time
any regular check on royal authority, he banished all the primate's
relations and domestics, to the number of four hundred, whom he
obliged to swear, before their departure, that they would instantly
join their patron.  But this policy, by which Henry endeavoured to
reduce Becket sooner to necessity, lost its effect: the pope, when
they arrived beyond sea, absolved them from their oath, and
distributed them among the convents in France and Flanders: a
residence was assigned to Becket himself in the convent of Pontigny,
where he lived for some years in great magnificence, partly from a
pension granted him on the revenues of the abbey, partly from
remittances made him by the French monarch.
[FN [t] Epist. St. Thom. p. 35.  [u] Ibid. p. 36, 37.  [w] Hist. Quad.
p. 76.]

[MN 1165.]  The more to ingratiate himself with the pope, Becket
resigned into his hands the see of Canterbury, to which, he affirmed,
he had been uncanonically elected by the authority of the royal
mandate; and Alexander, in his turn, besides investing him anew with
that dignity, pretended to abrogate, by a bull, the sentence which the
great council of England had passed against him.  Henry, after
attempting in vain to procure a conference with the pope, who departed
soon after for Rome, whither the prosperous state of his affairs now
invited him, made provisions against the consequences of that breach
which impended between his kingdom and the apostolic see.  He issued
orders to his justiciaries, inhibiting, under severe penalties, all
appeals to the pope or archbishop; forbidding any one to receive any
mandates from them, or apply in any case to their authority; declaring
it treasonable to bring from either of them an interdict upon the
kingdom, and punishable in secular clergymen by the loss of their eyes
and by castration, in regulars by amputation of their feet, and in
laics with death; and menacing, with sequestration and banishment, the
persons themselves, as well as their kindred, who should pay obedience
to any such interdict: and he farther obliged all his subjects to
swear to the observance of those orders [x].  These were edicts of the
utmost importance, affected the lives and properties of all the
subjects, and even changed, for the time, the national religion, by
breaking off all communication with Rome: yet were they enacted by the
sole authority of the king, and were derived entirely from his will
and pleasure.
[FN [x] Hist. Quad. p. 88, 167.  Hoveden, p. 496.  M. Paris, p. 73.]

The spiritual powers, which, in the primitive church, were, in a great
measure, dependent on the civil, had, by a gradual progress, reached
an equality and independence; and though the limits of the two
jurisdictions were difficult to ascertain or define, it was not
impossible, but, by moderation on both sides, government might still
have been conducted in that imperfect and irregular manner which
attends all human  institutions.  But as the ignorance of the age
encouraged the ecclesiastics daily to extend their privileges, and
even to advance maxims totally incompatible with civil government [y],
Henry had thought it high time to put an end to their pretensions, and
formally, in a public council, to fix those powers which belonged to
the magistrate, and which he was for the future determined to
maintain.  In this attempt, he was led to re-establish customs, which,
though ancient, were beginning to be abolished by a contrary practice,
and which were still more strongly opposed by the prevailing opinions
and sentiments of the age.  Principle, therefore, stood on the one
side; power on the other; and if the English had been actuated by
conscience more than by present interest, the controversy must soon,
by the general defection of Henry's subjects, have been decided
against him.  Becket, in order to forward this event, filled all
places with exclamations against the violence which he had suffered.
He compared himself to Christ, who had been condemned by a lay
tribunal [z], and who was crucified anew in the present oppressions
under which his church laboured: he took it for granted, as a point
incontestable, that his cause was the cause of God [a]: he assumed the
character of champion for the patrimony of the Divinity: he pretended
to be the spiritual father of the king and all the people of England
[b]: he even told Henry that kings reigned solely by the authority of
the church [c]: and though he had thus torn off the veil more openly
on the one side than that prince had on the other, he seemed still,
from the general favour borne him by the ecclesiastics, to have all
the advantage in the argument.  The king, that he might employ the
weapons of temporal power remaining in his hands, suspended the
payment of Peter's pence; he made advances towards an alliance with
the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, who was at that time engaged in
violent wars with Pope Alexander; he discovered some intentions of
acknowledging Pascal III., the present anti-pope, who was protected by
that emperor; and by these expedients he endeavoured to terrify the
enterprising though prudent pontiff from proceeding to extremities
against him.
[FN [y] QUIS DUBITET, says Becket to the king, SACERDOTES CHRISTI
REGUM ET PRINCIPUM OMNIUMQUE FIDELIIUM PATRES ET MAGISTROS CENSERI,
Epist St. Thom. p. 97, 148.  [z] Epist. St. Thom. p. 63, 105, 194.
[a] Ibid. p. 29, 30, 31, 226.  [b] Fitz-Steph. p. 46.  Epist. St Thom.
p. 52, 148.  [c] Brady's Append. No. 36.  Epist. St. Thom. p. 94, 95,
97, 99, 197.  Hoveden, p. 497.]

[MN 1166.]  But the violence of Becket, still more than the nature of
the controversy, kept affairs from remaining long in suspense between
the parties.  That prelate, instigated by revenge, and animated by the
present glory attending his situation, pushed matters to a decision,
and issued a censure, excommunicating the king's chief ministers by
name, and comprehending in general all those who favoured or obeyed
the constitutions of Clarendon: these constitutions he abrogated and
annulled; he absolved all men from the oaths which they had taken to
observe them; and he suspended the spiritual thunder over Henry
himself, only that the prince might avoid the blow by a timely
repentance [d].
[FN [d] Fitz-Steph. p. 56.  Hist. Quad. p. 93.  M. Paris, p. 74.
Beaulieu, Vie de St. Thom. p. 213.  Epist. St. Thom. p 149, 229.
Hoveden, p. 499.]

The situation of Henry was so unhappy, that he could employ no
expedient for saving his ministers from this terrible censure, but by
appealing to the pope himself, and having recourse to a tribunal whose
authority he had himself attempted to abridge in this very article of
appeals, and which, he knew, was so deeply engaged on the side of his
adversary.  But even this expedient was not likely to be long
effectual.  Becket had obtained from the pope a legatine commission
over England; and in virtue of that authority, which admitted of no
appeal, he summoned the Bishops of London, Salisbury, and others, to
attend him, and ordered, under pain of excommunication, the
ecclesiastics, sequestered on his account, to be restored in two
months to all their benefices.  But John of Oxford, the king's agent
with the pope, had the address to procure orders for suspending this
sentence: and he gave the pontiff such hopes of a speedy reconcilement
between the king and Becket, that two legates, William of Pavia and
Otho, were sent to Normandy, where the king then resided, and they
endeavoured to find expedients for that purpose.  But the pretensions
of the parties were, as yet, too opposite to admit of an
accommodation: the king required, that all the constitutions of
Clarendon should be ratified: Becket, that previously to any
agreement, he and his adherents should be restored to their
possessions: and as the legates had no power to pronounce a definitive
sentence on either side, the negotiation soon after came to nothing.
The Cardinal of Pavia also, being much attached to Henry, took care to
protract the negotiation; to mitigate the pope, by the accounts which
he sent of that prince's conduct; and to procure him every possible
indulgence from the see of Rome.  About this time, the king had also
the address to obtain a dispensation for the marriage of his third
son, Geoffrey, with the heiress of Britany; a concession which,
considering Henry's demerits towards the church, gave great scandal
both to Becket, and to his zealous patron, the King of France.

[MN 1167.]  The intricacies of the feudal law had, in that age,
rendered the boundaries of power between the prince and his vassals,
and between one prince and another, as uncertain as those between the
crown and the mitre; and all wars took their origin from disputes,
which, had there been any tribunal possessed of power to enforce their
decrees, ought to have been decided only before a court of judicature.
Henry, in prosecution of some controversies, in which he was involved
with the Count of Auvergne, a vassal of the duchy of Guienne, had
invaded the territories of that nobleman, who had recourse to the King
of France, his superior lord, for protection, and thereby kindled a
war between the two monarchs.  But this war was, as usual, no less
feeble in its operations than it was frivolous in its cause and
object; and after occasioning some mutual depredations [e], and some
insurrections among the barons of Poictou and Guienne, was terminated
by a peace.  The terms of this peace were rather disadvantageous to
Henry, and prove that that prince had, by reason of his contest with
the church, lost the  superiority which he had hitherto maintained
over the crown of France: an additional motive to him for
accommodating those differences.
[FN [e] Hoveden, p. 517.  M. Paris, p. 75.  Diceto, p. 547.  Gervase,
p. 1402, 1403.  Robert de Monte.]

The pope and the king began at last to perceive, that, in the present
situation of affairs, neither of them could expect a final and
decisive victory over the other, and that they had more to fear than
to hope from the duration of the controversy.  Though the vigour of
Henry's government had confirmed his authority in all his dominions,
his throne might be shaken by a sentence of excommunication; and if
England itself could, by its situation, be more easily guarded against
the contagion of superstitious prejudices, his French provinces at
least, whose communication was open with the neighbouring states,
would be much exposed, on that account, to some great revolution or
convulsion [f].  He could not, therefore, reasonably imagine that the
pope, while he retained such a check upon him, would formally
recognize the constitutions of Clarendon, which both put an end to
papal pretensions in England, and would give an example to other
states of asserting a like independency [g].  [MN 1168.]  Pope
Alexander, on the other hand, being still engaged in dangerous wars
with the Emperor Frederic, might justly apprehend that Henry, rather
than relinquish claims of such importance, would join the party of his
enemy; and as the trials hitherto made of the spiritual weapons by
Becket had not succeeded to his expectation, and every thing had
remained quiet in all the king's dominions, nothing seemed impossible
to the capacity and vigilance of so great a monarch. The disposition
of minds on both sides, resulting from these circumstances, produced
frequent attempts towards an accommodation; but as both parties knew
that the essential articles of the dispute could not then be
terminated, they entertained a perpetual jealousy of each other, and
were anxious not to lose the least advantage in the negotiation.  The
nuncios, Gratian and Vivian, having received a commission to endeavour
a reconciliation, met with the king in Normandy; and after all
differences seemed to be adjusted, Henry offered to sign the treaty,
with a salvo to his royal dignity; which gave such umbrage to Becket,
that the negotiation, in the end, became fruitless, and the
excommuications were renewed against the king's ministers.  Another
negotiation was conducted at Montmirail, in presence of the King of
France, and the French prelates; where Becket also offered to make his
submissions, with a salvo to the honour of God and the liberties of
the church; which, for the like reason, was extremely offensive to the
king, and rendered the treaty abortive.  [MN 1169.]  A third
conference, under the same mediation, was broken off, by Becket's
insisting on a like reserve in his submissions; and even in a fourth
treaty, when all the terms were adjusted, and when the primate
expected to be introduced to the king, and to receive the kiss of
peace, which it was usual for princes to grant in those times, and
which was regarded as a sure pledge of forgiveness, Henry refused him
that honour; under pretence that, during his anger, he had made a rash
vow to that purpose.  This formality served, among such jealous
spirits, to prevent the conclusion of the treaty; and though the
difficulty was attempted to be overcome by a dispensation which the
pope granted to Henry from his vow, that prince could not be prevailed
on to depart from the resolution which he had taken.
[FN [f] Epist. St. Thom. p. 230.  [g] Ibid. p. 276.]

In one of these conferences, at which the French king was present,
Henry said to that monarch: "There have been many kings of England,
some of greater, some of less authority than myself; there have also
been many Archbishops of Canterbury, holy and good men, and entitled
to every kind of respect: let Becket but act towards me with the same
submission which the greatest of his predecessors have paid to the
least of mine, and there shall be no controversy between us."  Lewis
was so struck with this state of the case, and with an offer which
Henry made to submit his cause to the French clergy, that he could not
forbear condemning the primate, and withdrawing his friendship from
him during some time: but the bigotry of that prince, and their common
animosity against Henry, soon produced a renewal of their former good
correspondence.

[MN 1170.  22d July.]  All difficulties were at last adjusted between
the parties; and the king allowed Becket to return, on conditions
which may be esteemed both honourable and advantageous to that
prelate.  [MN Compromise with Becket.]  He was not required to give up
any rights of the church, or resign any of those pretensions which had
been the original ground of the controversy.  It was agreed that all
these questions should be buried in oblivion; but that Becket and his
adherents should, without making farther submission, be restored to
all their livings, and that even the possessors of such benefices as
depended on the see of Canterbury, and had been filled during the
primate's absence, should be expelled, and Becket have liberty to
supply the vacancies [h].  In return for concessions which intrenched
so deeply on the honour and dignity of the crown, Henry reaped only
the advantage of seeing his ministers absolved from the sentence of
excommunication pronounced against them, and of preventing the
interdict, which, if these hard conditions had not been complied with,
was ready to be laid on all his dominions [i].  It was easy to see how
much he dreaded that event, when a prince of so high a spirit could
submit to terms so dishonourable in order to prevent it.  So anxious
was Henry to accommodate all differences, and to reconcile himself
fully with Becket, that he took the most extraordinary steps to
flatter his vanity, and even, on one occasion, humiliated himself so
far as to hold the stirrup of that haughty prelate while he mounted
[k].
[FN [h] Fitz-Steph. p. 68, 69.  Hoveden, p. 520.  [i] Hist. Quad. p.
104.  Brompton, p. 1062.  Gervase, p. 1408.  Epist. St. Thom. p. 704,
705, 706, 707, 792, 793, 794.  Benedict. Abbas, p. 70.  [k] Epist. 45.
lib. 5.]

But the king attained not even that temporary tranquillity which he
had hoped to reap from these expedients.  During the heat of his
quarrel with Becket, while he was every day expecting an interdict to
be laid on his kingdom, and a sentence of excommunication to be
fulminated against his person, he had thought it prudent to have his
son, Prince Henry, associated with him in the royalty, and to make him
be crowned king by the hands of Roger, Archbishop of York.  By this
precaution he both insured the succession of that prince, which,
considering the many past irregularities in that point, could not but
be esteemed somewhat precarious; and he preserved at least his family
on the throne, if the sentence of excommunication should have the
effect which he dreaded, and should make his subjects renounce their
allegiance to him.  Though this design was conducted with expedition
and secrecy, Becket, before it was carried into execution, had got
intelligence of it; and being desirous of obstructing all Henry's
measures, as well as anxious to prevent this affront to himself, who
pretended to the sole right, as Archbishop of Canterbury, to officiate
in the coronation, he had inhibited all the prelates of England from
assisting at this ceremony, had procured from the pope a mandate to
the same purpose [l], and had incited the King of France to protest
against the coronation of young Henry, unless the princess, daughter
of that monarch, should at the same time receive the royal unction.
There prevailed in that age an opinion, which was akin to its other
superstitions, that the royal unction was essential to the exercise of
royal power [m]: it was therefore natural both for the King of France,
careful of his daughter's establishment, and for Becket, jealous of
his own dignity, to demand, in the treaty with Henry, some
satisfaction in this essential point.  Henry, after apologizing to
Lewis for the omission with regard to Margaret, and excusing it on
account of the secrecy and despatch requisite for conducting that
measure, promised that the ceremony should be renewed in the persons
both of the prince and princess: and he assured Becket that, besides
receiving the acknowledgments of Roger and the other bishops for the
seeming affront put on the see of Canterbury, the primate should, as a
farther satisfaction, recover his rights by officiating in this
coronation.  But the violent spirit of Becket, elated by the power of
the church, and by the victory which he had already obtained over his
sovereign, was not content with this voluntary compensation, but
resolved to make the injury which he pretended to have suffered a
handle for taking revenge on all his enemies.  [MN Becket’s return
from banishment.]  On his arrival in England, he met the Archbishop of
York, and the Bishops of London and Salisbury, who were on their
journey to the king in Normandy: he notified to the archbishop the
sentence of suspension, and to the two bishops that of
excommunication, which, at his solicitation, the pope had pronounced
against them.  Reginald de Warenne, and Gervase de Cornhill, two of
the king's ministers who were employed on their duty in Kent, asked
him, on hearing of this bold attempt, whether he meant to bring fire
and sword into the kingdom?  But the primate, heedless of the reproof,
proceeded, in the most ostentatious manner, to take possession of his
diocese.  In Rochester, and all the towns through which he passed, he
was received with the shouts and acclamations of the populace.  As he
approached Southwark, the clergy, the laity, men of all ranks and
ages, came forth to meet him, and celebrated with hymns of joy his
triumphant entrance.  And though he was obliged, by order of the young
prince, who resided at Woodstoke, to return to his diocese, he found
that he was not mistaken when he reckoned upon the highest veneration
of the public towards his person and his dignity.  He proceeded,
therefore, with the more courage, to dart his spiritual thunders: he
issued the sentence of excommunication against Robert de Brock, and
Nigel de Sackville, with many others, who either had assisted at the
coronation of the prince, or been active in the late persecution of
the exiled clergy.  This violent measure, by which he in effect
denounced war against the king himself, is commonly ascribed to the
vindictive disposition and imperious character of Becket; but as this
prelate was also a man of acknowledged abilities, we are not, in his
passions alone, to look for the cause of his conduct, when he
proceeded to these extremities against his enemies.  His sagacity had
led him to discover all Henry's intentions; and he proposed, by this
bold and unexpected assault, to prevent the execution of them.
[FN [l] Hist. Quad. p. 103.  Epist. St. Thom. p. 682.  Gervase, p.
1412.  [m] Epist. St. Thom. p. 708.]

The king, from his experience of the dispositions of the people, was
become sensible that his enterprise had been too bold in establishing
the constitutions of Clarendon, in defining all the branches of royal
power, and in endeavouring to extort from the Church of England, as
well as from the pope, an express avowal of these disputed
prerogatives.  Conscious also of his own violence in attempting to
break or subdue the inflexible primate, he was not displeased to undo
that measure which had given his enemies such advantage against him;
and he was contented that the controversy should terminate in that
ambiguous manner, which was the utmost that princes, in those ages,
could hope to attain in their disputes with the see of Rome.  Though
he dropped, for the present, the prosecution of Becket, he still
reserved to himself the right of maintaining that the constitutions of
Clarendon, the original ground of the quarrel, were both the ancient
customs and the present law of the realm: and though he knew that the
papal clergy asserted them to be impious in themselves, as well as
abrogated by the sentence of the sovereign pontiff, he intended, in
spite of their clamours, steadily to put those laws in execution [n],
and to trust to his own abilities, and to the course of events, for
success in that perilous enterprise.  He hoped that Becket's
experience of a six years' exile would, after his pride was fully
gratified by his restoration, be sufficient to teach him more reserve
in his opposition; or, if any controversy arose, he expected
thenceforth to engage in a more favourable cause, and to maintain with
advantage, while the primate was now in his power [o], the ancient and
undoubted customs of the kingdom against the usurpations of the
clergy.  But Becket determined not to betray the ecclesiastical
privileges by his connivance [p], and apprehensive lest a prince of
such profound policy, if allowed to proceed in his own way, might
probably in the end prevail, he resolved to take all the advantage
which his present victory gave him, and to disconcert the cautious
measures of the king, by the vehemence and vigour of his own conduct
[q].  Assured of support from Rome, he was little intimidated by
dangers which his courage taught him to despise, and which, even if
attended with the most fatal consequences, would serve only to gratify
his ambition and thirst of glory [r].
[FN [n]  Epist. St. Thom. p. 837, 839.  [o] Fitz-Steph. p. 65.  [p]
Epist. St. Thom. p. 345.  [q] Fitz-Steph. p. 74.  [r] Epist. St. Thom.
p. 818, 848.]

When the suspended and excommunicated prelates arrived at Baieux,
where the king then resided, and complained to him of the violent
proceedings of Becket, he instantly perceived the consequences; was
sensible that his whole plan of operations was overthrown; foresaw
that the dangerous contest between the civil and spiritual powers, a
contest which he himself had first aroused, but which he had
endeavoured, by all his late negotiations and concessions, to appease,
must come to an immediate and decisive issue; and he was thence thrown
into the most violent commotion.  The Archbishop of York remarked to
him, that, so long as Becket lived, he could never expect to enjoy
peace or tranquillity: the king himself being vehemently agitated,
burst forth into an exclamation against his servants, whose want of
zeal, he said, had so long left him exposed to the enterprises of that
ungrateful and imperious prelate [s].  Four gentlemen of his
household, Reginald Fitz-Urse, William de Traci, Hugh de Moreville,
and Richard Brito, taking these passionate expressions to be a hint
for Becket's death, immediately communicated their thoughts to each
other; and swearing to revenge their prince's quarrel, secretly
withdrew from court [t].  Some menacing expressions which they had
dropped gave a suspicion of their design; and the king despatched a
messenger after them, charging them to attempt nothing against the
person of the primate [u]: but these orders arrived too late to
prevent their fatal purpose.  The four assassins, though they took
different roads to England, arrived nearly about the same time at
Saltwoode, near Canterbury; and being there joined by some assistants,
they proceeded in great haste to the archiepiscopal palace.  They
found the primate, who trusted entirely to the sacredness of his
character, very slenderly attended; and though they threw out many
menaces and reproaches against him, he was so incapable of fear, that,
without using any precautions against their violence, he immediately
went to St. Benedict’s church to hear vespers.  They followed him
thither, attacked him before the altar, and having cloven his head
with many blows, retired without meeting any opposition.  [MN 1170.
Dec. 29.  Murder of Thomas à Becket.]  This was the tragical end of
Thomas à Becket, a prelate of the most lofty, intrepid, and inflexible
spirit, who was able to cover to the world, and probably to himself,
the enterprises of pride and ambition under the disguise of sanctity
and of zeal for the interests of religion: an extraordinary personage,
surely had he been allowed to remain in his first station, and had
directed the vehemence of his character to the support of law and
justice; instead of being engaged, by the prejudices of the times, to
sacrifice all private duties and public connexions to ties which he
imagined or represented as superior to every civil and political
consideration.  But no man who enters into the genius of that age can
reasonably doubt of this prelate's sincerity.  The spirit of
superstition was so prevalent, that it infallibly caught every
careless reasoner, much more every one whose interest, and honour, and
ambition were engaged to support it.  All the wretched literature of
the times was enlisted on that side: some faint glimmerings of common
sense might sometimes pierce through the thick cloud of ignorance, or
what was worse, the illusions of perverted science, which had blotted
out the sun, and enveloped the face of nature: but those who preserved
themselves untainted by the general contagion proceeded on no
principles which they could pretend to justify: they were more
indebted to their total want of instruction than to their knowledge,
if they still retained some share of understanding: folly was
possessed of all the schools as well as all the churches; and her
votaries assumed the garb of philosophers, together with the ensigns
of spiritual dignities.  Throughout that large collection of letters,
which bears the name of St. Thomas, we find, in all the retainers of
the aspiring prelate, no less than in himself, a most entire and
absolute conviction of the reason and piety of their own party, and a
disdain of their antagonists: nor is there less cant and grimace in
their style, when they address each other, than when they compose
manifestos for the perusal of the public.  The spirit of revenge,
violence, and ambition, which accompanied their conduct, instead of
forming a presumption of hypocrisy, are the surest pledges of their
sincere attachment to a cause, which so much flattered these
domineering passions.
[FN [s] Gervase, p. 1414.  Parker, p. 207.  [t] M. Paris, p. 86.
Brompton, p. 1065.  Benedict. Abbas, p. 10.  [u] Hist. Quad. p. 144.
Trivet, p. 55.]

[MN Grief,]  Henry, on the first report of Becket's violent measures,
had purposed to have him arrested, and had already taken some steps
towards the execution of that design: but the intelligence of his
murder threw the prince into great consternation; and he was
immediately sensible of the dangerous consequences which he had reason
to apprehend from so unexpected an event.  An archbishop of reputed
sanctity, assassinated before the altar, in the exercise of his
functions, and on account of his zeal in maintaining ecclesiastical
privileges, must attain the highest honours of martyrdom; while his
murderer would be ranked among the most bloody tyrants that ever were
exposed to the hatred and detestation of mankind.  Interdicts and
excommunications, weapons in themselves so terrible, would, he
foresaw, be armed with double force when employed in a cause so much
calculated to work on the human passions, and so peculiarly adapted to
the eloquence of popular preachers and declaimers.  In vain would he
plead his own innocence, and even his total ignorance of the fact: he
was sufficiently guilty, if the church thought proper to esteem him
such; and his concurrence in Becket's martyrdom, becoming a religious
opinion, would be received with all the implicit credit which belonged
to the most established articles of faith.  These considerations gave
the king the most unaffected concern; and as it was extremely his
interest to clear himself from all suspicion, he took no care to
conceal the depth of his affliction [w].  He shut himself up from the
light of day, and from all commerce with his servants: he even
refused, during three days, all food and sustenance [x]: the
courtiers, apprehending dangerous effects from his despair, were at
last obliged to break in upon his solitude; and they employed every
topic of consolation, induced him to accept of nourishment, and
occupied his leisure in taking precautions against the consequences
which he so justly apprehended from the murder of the primate.
[FN [w] Ypod. Neust. p. 447.  M. Paris, p. 87.  Diceto, p. 556.
Gervase, p. 1419.  [x] Hist. Quad. p. 143.]

[MN 1171.  and submission of the king.]  The point of chief importance
to Henry was to convince the pope of his innocence; or rather, to
persuade him that he would reap greater advantages from the
submissions of England, than from proceeding to extremities against
that kingdom.  The Archbishop of Rouen, the Bishops of Worcester and
Evreux, with five persons of inferior quality, were immediately
despatched to Rome [y], and orders were given them to perform their
journey with the utmost expedition.  Though the name and authority of
the court of Rome were so terrible in the remote countries of Europe,
which were sunk in profound ignorance, and were entirely unacquainted
with its character and conduct; the pope was so little revered at
home, that his inveterate enemies surrounded the gates of Rome itself,
and even controlled his government in that city; and the ambassadors,
who, from a distant extremity of Europe, carried to him the humble or
rather abject submissions of the greatest potentate of the age, found
the utmost difficulty to make their way to him, and to throw
themselves at his feet.  It was at length agreed, that Richard Barre,
one of their number, should leave the rest behind, and run all the
hazards of the passage [z]; in order to prevent the fatal consequences
which might ensue from any delay in giving satisfaction to his
holiness.  He found, on his arrival, that Alexander was already
wrought up to the greatest rage against the king; that Becket's
partisans were daily stimulating him to revenge; that the king of
France had exhorted him to fulminate the most dreadful sentence
against England; and that the very mention of Henry's name before the
sacred college was received with every expression of horror and
execration.  The Thursday before Easter was now approaching, when it
is customary for the pope to denounce annual curses against all his
enemies; and it was expected that Henry should, with all the
preparations peculiar to the discharge of that sacred artillery, be
solemnly comprehended in the number.  But Barre found means to appease
the pontiff, and to deter him from a measure, which, if it failed of
success, could not afterwards be easily recalled: the anathemas were
only levelled in general against all the actors, accomplices, and
abettors of Becket's murder.  The Abbot of Valasse, and the
Archdeacons of Salisbury and Lisieux, with others of Henry's
ministers, who soon after arrived, besides asserting their prince's
innocence, made oath before the whole consistory that he would stand
to the pope's judgment in the affair, and make every submission that
should be required of him.  The terrible blow was thus artfully
eluded; the Cardinals Albert and Theodin were appointed legates to
examine the cause, and were ordered to proceed to Normandy for that
purpose; and though Henry's foreign dominions were already laid under
an interdict by the Archbishop of Sens, Becket's great partisan, and
the pope's legate in France, the general expectation that the monarch
would easily exculpate himself from any concurrence in the guilt, kept
every one in suspense, and prevented all the bad consequences which
might be dreaded from that sentence.
[FN [y] Hoveden, p. 526.  M. Paris, p. 87.  [z] Hoveden, p. 26.
Epist. St. Thom. p. 863.]

The clergy, meanwhile, though their rage was happily diverted from
falling on the king, were not idle in magnifying the sanctity of
Becket; in extolling the merits of his martyrdom; and in exalting him
above all that devoted tribe, who in several ages had, by their blood,
cemented the fabric of the temple.  Other saints had only borne
testimony by their sufferings to the general doctrines of
Christianity; but Becket had sacrificed his life to the power and
privileges of the clergy; and this peculiar merit challenged, and not
in vain, a suitable acknowledgment to his memory.  Endless were the
panegyrics on his virtues; and the miracles wrought by his relics were
more numerous, more nonsensical, and more impudently attested, than
those which ever filled the legend of any confessor or martyr.  Two
years after his death he was canonized by Pope Alexander; a solemn
jubilee was established for celebrating his merits; his body was
removed to a magnificent shrine, enriched with presents from all parts
of Christendom; pilgrimages were performed to obtain his intercession
with Heaven; and it was computed, that in one year above a hundred
thousand  pilgrims arrived in Canterbury, and paid their devotions at
his tomb.  It is indeed a mortifying reflection to those who are
actuated by the love of fame, so justly denominated the last infirmity
of noble minds, that the wisest legislator, and most exalted genius
that ever reformed or enlightened the world, can never expect such
tributes of praise as are lavished on the memory of pretended saints,
whose whole conduct was probably to the last degree odious or
contemptible, and whose industry was entirely directed to the pursuit
of objects pernicious to mankind.  It is only a conqueror, a personage
no less entitled to our hatred, who can pretend to the attainment of
equal renown and glory.

It may not be amiss to remark, before we conclude the subject of
Thomas à Becket, that the king, during his controversy with that
prelate, was on every occasion more anxious than usual to express his
zeal for religion, and to avoid all appearance of a profane negligence
on that head.  He gave his consent to the imposing of a tax on all his
dominions for the delivery of the Holy Land, now threatened by the
famous Saladine: this tax amounted to two-pence a pound for one year,
and a penny a pound for the four subsequent [a].  Almost all the
princes of Europe laid a like imposition on their subjects, which
received the name of Saladine's tax.  During this period, there came
over from Germany about thirty heretics of both sexes, under the
direction of one Gerard; simple ignorant people, who could give no
account of their faith, but declared themselves ready to suffer for
the tenets of their master.  They made only one convert in England, a
woman as ignorant as themselves; yet they gave such umbrage to the
clergy, that they were delivered over to the secular arm, and were
punished by being burned on the forehead, and then whipped through the
streets.  They seemed to exult in their sufferings, and, as they went
along, sung the beatitude, BLESSED ARE YE, WHEN MEN HATE YOU AND
PERSECUTE YOU [b].  After they were whipped, they were thrust out
almost naked in the midst of winter and perished through cold and
hunger; no one daring or being willing, to give them the least relief.
We are ignorant of the particular tenets of these people; for it would
be imprudent to rely on the representations left of them by the
clergy, who affirmed that they denied the efficacy of the sacraments,
and the unity of the church.  It is probable that their departure from
the standard of orthodoxy was still more subtle and minute.  They seem
to have been the first that ever suffered for heresy in England.
[FN [a] Chron. Gervase, p. 1399.  M. Paris, p. 74.  [b] Neubr. p. 391.
M. Paris, p. 74.  Heming. p. 494.]

As soon as Henry found that he was in no immediate danger from the
thunders of the Vatican, he undertook an expedition against Ireland; a
design which he had long projected, and by which he hoped to recover
his credit, somewhat impaired by his late transactions with the
hierarchy.




CHAPTER IX.

STATE OF IRELAND.--CONQUEST OF THAT ISLAND.--THE KING’S ACCOMMODATION
WITH THE COURT OF ROME.--REVOLT OF YOUNG HENRY AND HIS BROTHERS.--WARS
AND INSURRECTIONS.--WAR WITH SCOTLAND.--PENANCE OF HENRY FOR BECKET'S
MURDER.--WILLIAM, KING OF SCOTLAND, DEFEATED AND TAKEN PRISONER.--THE
KING'S ACCOMMODATION WITH HIS SONS.--THE KING'S EQUITABLE
ADMINISTRATION.--CRUSADES.--REVOLT OF PRINCE RICHARD.--DEATH AND
CHARACTER OF HENRY.--MISCELLANEOUS TRANSACTIONS OF HIS REIGN.



[MN 1172.  State of Ireland.]
As Britain was first peopled from Gaul, so was Ireland probably from
Britain; and the inhabitants of all these countries seem to have been
so many tribes of the Celtae, who derive their origin from an
antiquity that lies far beyond the records of any history or
tradition.  The Irish, from the beginning of time, had been buried in
the most profound barbarism and ignorance; and as they were never
conquered, or even invaded by the Romans, from whom all the western
world derived its civility, they continued still in the most rude
state of society, and were distinguished by those vices alone, to
which human nature, not tamed by education, or restrained by laws, is
for ever subject.  The small principalities into which they were
divided exercised perpetual rapine and violence against each other;
the uncertain succession of their princes was a continual source of
domestic convulsions; the usual title of each petty sovereign was the
murder of his predecessor; courage and force, though exercised in the
commission of crimes, were more honoured than any pacific virtues; and
the most simple arts of life, even tillage and agriculture, were
almost wholly unknown among them.  They had felt the invasions of the
Danes and the other northern tribes; but these inroads, which had
spread barbarism in other parts of Europe, tended rather to improve
the Irish; and the only towns which were to be found in the island had
been planted along the coast by the freebooters of Norway and Denmark.
The other inhabitants exercised pasturage in the open country; sought
protection from any danger in their forests and morasses; and being
divided by the fiercest animosities against each other, were still
more intent on the means of mutual injury, than on the expedients for
common or even for private interest.

Besides many small tribes, there were in the age of Henry II. five
principal sovereignties in the island, Munster, Leinster, Meath,
Ulster, and Connaught; and as it had been usual for the one or the
other of these to take the lead in their wars, there was commonly some
prince, who seemed, for the time, to act as monarch of Ireland.
Roderic O'Connor, King of Connaught, was then advanced to this dignity
[a]; but his government, ill obeyed even within his own territory,
could not unite the people in any measures either for the
establishment of order, or for defence against foreigners.  The
ambition of Henry had, very early in his reign, been moved by the
prospect of these advantages to attempt the subjecting of Ireland; and
a pretence was only wanting to invade a people who, being always
confined to their own island, had never given any reason of complaint
to any of their neighbours.  For this purpose, he had recourse to
Rome, which assumed a right to dispose of kingdoms and empires; and,
not foreseeing the dangerous disputes which he was one day to maintain
with that see, he helped, for present, or rather for an imaginary,
convenience, to give sanction to claims which were now become
dangerous to all sovereigns.  Adrian III., who then filled the papal
chair, was by birth an Englishman; and being, on that account, the
more disposed to oblige Henry, he was easily persuaded to act as
master of the world, and to make, without any hazard or expense, the
acquisition of a great island to his spiritual jurisdiction. The Irish
had, by precedent missions from the Britons, been imperfectly
converted to Christianity; and, what the pope regarded as the surest
mark of their imperfect conversion, they followed the doctrines of
their first teachers, and had never acknowledged any subjection to the
see of Rome.  Adrian, therefore, in the year 1156, issued a bull in
favour of Henry; in which, after premising that this prince had ever
shown an anxious care to enlarge the church of God on earth, and to
increase the number of his saints and elect in heaven; he represents
his design of subduing Ireland as derived from the same pious motives:
he considers his care of previously applying for the apostolic
sanction as a sure earnest of success and victory; and having
established it as a point incontestable, that all Christian kingdoms
belong to the patrimony of St. Peter, he acknowledges it to be his own
duty to sow among them the seeds of the gospel, which might in the
last day fructify to their eternal salvation: he exhorts the king to
invade Ireland, in order to extirpate the vice and wickedness of the
natives, and oblige them to pay yearly, from every house, a penny to
the see of Rome: he gives him entire right and authority over the
island, commands all the inhabitants to obey him as their sovereign,
and invests with full power all such godly instruments as he should
think proper to employ in an enterprise thus calculated for the glory
of God and the salvation of the souls of men [b].  Henry, though armed
with this authority, did not immediately put his design in execution;
but being detained by more interesting business on the continent,
waited for a favourable opportunity of invading Ireland.
[FN [a] Hoveden, p. 527.  [b] M. Paris, p. 67.  Girald. Cambr. Spellm.
Concil. vol. ii. p. 51.  Rymer, vol. i. p. 15.]

Dermot Macmorrogh, King of Leinster, had, by his licentious tyranny,
rendered himself odious to his subjects, who seized with alacrity the
first occasion that offered of throwing off the yoke, which was become
grievous and oppressive to them.  This prince had formed a design on
Dovergilda, wife of Ororic, Prince of Breffny; and taking advantage of
her husband's absence, who, being obliged to visit a distant part of
his territory, had left his wife secure, as he thought, in an island
surrounded by a bog, he suddenly invaded the place and carried off the
princess [c].  This exploit, though usual among the Irish, and rather
deemed a proof of gallantry and spirit [d], provoked the resentment of
the husband; who, having collected forces, and being strengthened by
the alliance of Roderic, King of Connaught, invaded the dominions  of
Dermot, and expelled him his kingdom.  The exiled prince had recourse
to Henry, who was at this time in Guienne, craved his assistance in
restoring him to his sovereignty, and offered, on that event, to hold
his kingdom in vassalage under the crown of England.  Henry, whose
views were already turned towards making acquisitions in Ireland,
readily accepted the offer; but being at that time embarrassed by the
rebellions of his French subjects, as well as by his disputes with the
see of Rome, he declined for the present embarking in the enterprise,
and gave Dermot no farther assistance than letters patent, by which he
empowered all his subjects to aid the Irish prince in the recovery of
his dominions [e].  Dermot, supported by this authority, came to
Bristol; and after endeavouring, though for some time in vain, to
engage adventurers in the enterprise, he at last formed a treaty with
Richard, surnamed Strongbow, Earl of Strigul.  This nobleman, who was
of the illustrious house of Clare, had impaired his fortune by
expensive pleasures; and being ready for any desperate undertaking, he
promised assistance to Dermot, on condition that he should espouse
Eva, daughter of that prince, and be declared heir to all his
dominions [f].  While Richard was assembling his succours, Dermot went
into Wales; and meeting with Robert Fitz-Stephens, Constable of
Abertivi, and Maurice Fitz-Gerald, he also engaged them in his
service, and obtained their promise of invading Ireland.  Being now
assured of succour, he returned privately to his own state; and
lurking in the monastery of Fernes, which he had founded, (for this
ruffian was also a founder of monasteries,) he prepared every thing
for the reception of his English allies [g].
[FN [c] Girald. Cambr. p. 760.  [d] Spencer, vol. vi.  [e] Girald.
Cambr. p. 760.  [f] Ibid. p. 761.  [g] Ibid.]

[MN Conquest of that island.]
The troops of Fitz-Stephens were first ready.  That gentleman landed
in Ireland with thirty knights, sixty esquires, and three hundred
archers; but this small body, being brave men, not unacquainted with
discipline, and completely armed, a thing almost unknown in Ireland,
struck a great terror into the barbarous inhabitants, and seemed to
menace them with some signal revolution.  The conjunction of Maurice
de Pendergast, who, about the same time, brought over ten knights and
sixty archers, enabled Fitz-Stephens to attempt the siege of Wexford,
a town inhabited by the Danes; and after gaining an advantage, he made
himself master of the place [h].  Soon after, Fitz-Gerald arrived with
ten knights, thirty esquires, and a hundred archers [i]; and being
joined by the former adventurers, composed a force which nothing in
Ireland was able to withstand.  Roderic, the chief monarch of the
island, was foiled in different actions; the Prince of Ossory was
obliged to submit, and give hostages for his peaceable behaviour; and
Dermot, not content with being restored to his kingdom of Leinster,
projected the dethroning of Roderic, and aspired to the sole dominion
over the Irish.
[FN [h] Girald. Cambr. p. 761, 762.  [i] Ibid. p. 766.]

In prosecution of these views, he sent over a messenger to the Earl of
Strigul, challenging the performance of his promise, and displaying
the mighty advantages which might now be reaped by a reinforcement of
warlike troops from England.  Richard, not satisfied with the general
allowance given by Henry to all his subjects, went to that prince,
then in Normandy; and having obtained a cold or ambiguous permission,
prepared himself for the execution of his designs.  He first sent over
Raymond, one of his retinue, with ten knights and seventy archers,
who, landing near Waterford, defeated a body of three thousand Irish,
that had ventured to attack him [k]; and as Richard himself, who
brought over two hundred horse, and a body of archers, joined, a few
days after, the victorious English, they made themselves masters of
Waterford, and proceeded to Dublin, which was taken by assault.
Roderic, in revenge, cut off the head of Dermot's natural son, who had
been left as a hostage in his hands; and Richard, marrying Eva, became
soon after, by the death of Dermot, master of the kingdom of Leinster,
and prepared to extend his authority over all Ireland.  Roderic, and
the other Irish princes, were alarmed at the danger; and, combining
together, besieged Dublin with an army of thirty thousand men; but
Earl Richard making a sudden sally at the head of ninety knights, with
their followers, put this numerous army to rout, chased them off the
field, and pursued  them with great slaughter.  None in Ireland now
dared to oppose themselves to the English [l].
[FN [k] Ibid. p. 767.  [l] Girald. Cambr. p. 773.]

Henry, jealous of the progress made by his own subjects, sent orders
to recall all the English, and he made preparations to attack Ireland
in person [m]: but Richard, and the other adventurers, found means to
appease him by making him the most humble submissions, and offering to
hold all their acquisitions in vassalage to his crown [n].  That
monarch landed in Ireland at the head of five hundred knights, besides
other soldiers: he found the Irish so dispirited by their late
misfortunes, that, in a progress which he made through the island, he
had no other occupation than to receive the homage of his new
subjects.  He left most of the Irish chieftains or princes in
possession of their ancient territories; bestowed some lands on the
English adventurers; gave Earl Richard the commission of Seneschal of
Ireland; and after a stay of a few months, returned in triumph to
England.  By these trivial exploits, scarcely worth relating, except
for the importance of the consequences, was Ireland subdued, and
annexed to the English crown.
[FN [m] Ibid. p. 770.  [n] Ibid. p. 775.]

The low state of commerce and industry, during those ages, made it
impracticable for princes to support regular armies, which might
retain a conquered country in subjection; and the extreme barbarism
and poverty of Ireland could still less afford means of bearing the
expense.  The only expedient, by which a durable conquest could then
be made or maintained, was by pouring in a multitude of new
inhabitants, dividing among them the lands of the vanquished,
establishing them in all offices of trust and authority, and thereby
transforming the ancient inhabitants into a new people.  By this
policy, the northern invaders of old, and of late the Duke of
Normandy, had been able to fix their dominions, and to erect kingdoms,
which remained stable on their foundations, and were transmitted to
the posterity of the first conquerors.  But the state of Ireland
rendered that island so little inviting to the English, that only a
few of desperate fortunes could be persuaded, from time to time, to
transport themselves thither [o]; and instead of reclaiming the
natives from their uncultivated manners, they were gradually
assimilated to the ancient inhabitants, and degenerated from the
customs of their own nation.  It was also found requisite to bestow
great military and arbitrary powers on the leaders, who commanded a
handful of men amidst such hostile multitudes; and law and equity, in
a little time, became as much unknown in the English settlements as
they had ever been among the Irish tribes.  Palatinates were erected
in favour of the new adventurers; independent authority conferred; the
natives, never fully subdued, still retained their animosity against
the conquerors; their hatred was retaliated by like injuries; and from
these causes, the Irish, during the course of four centuries, remained
still savage and untractable: it was not till the latter end of
Elizabeth’s reign that the island was fully subdued; nor till that of
her successor that it gave hopes of becoming a useful conquest to the
English nation.
[FN [o] Brompton, p. 1069.  Neubrig. p. 403.]

Besides that the easy and peaceable submission of the Irish left Henry
no farther occupation in that island, he was recalled from it by
another incident, which was of the last importance to his interest and
safety.  The two legates, Albert and Theodin, to whom was committed
the trial of his conduct in the murder of Archbishop Becket, were
arrived in Normandy; and being impatient of delay, sent him frequent
letters, full of menaces, if he protracted any longer making his
appearance before them [p].  He hastened therefore to Normandy, and
had a conference with them at Savigny, where their demands were so
exorbitant, that he broke off the negotiation, threatened to return to
Ireland, and bade them do their worst against him.  They perceived
that the season was now past for taking advantage of that tragical
incident; which, had it been hotly pursued by interdicts and
excommunications, was capable of throwing the whole kingdom into
combustion.  But the time which Henry had happily gained had
contributed to appease the minds of men: the event could not now have
the same influence as when it was recent; and as the clergy every day
looked for an accommodation with the king, they had not opposed the
pretensions of his partisans, who had been very industrious in
representing to the people his entire innocence in the murder of the
primate, and his ignorance of the designs formed by the assassins.
The legates, therefore, found themselves obliged to lower their terms;
and Henry was so fortunate as to conclude an accommodation with them.
He declared upon oath, before the relics of the saints, that, so far
from commanding or desiring the death of the archbishop, he was
extremely grieved when he received intelligence of it: but as the
passion which he had expressed on account of that prelate's conduct
had probably been the occasion of his murder, he stipulated the
following conditions, as an atonement for the offence.  [MN The king’s
accommodation with the court of Rome.]  He promised, that he should
pardon all such as had been banished for adhering to Becket, and
should restore them to their livings; that the see of Canterbury
should be reinstated in all its ancient possessions; that he should
pay the Templars a sum of money for the subsistence of two hundred
knights during a year in the Holy Land; that he should himself take
the cross at the Christmas following, and, if the pope required it,
serve three years against the infidels either in Spain or Palestine;
that he should not insist on the observance of such customs,
derogatory to ecclesiastical privileges, as had been introduced in his
own time; and that he should not obstruct appeals to the pope in
ecclesiastical causes, but should content himself with exacting
sufficient security from such clergymen as left his dominions to
prosecute an appeal, that they should attempt nothing against the
rights of his crown [q].  Upon signing these concessions, Henry
received absolution from the legates, and was confirmed in the grant
of Ireland made by Pope Adrian [r]; and nothing proves more strongly
the great abilities of this monarch, than his extricating himself on
such easy terms from so difficult a situation.  He had always insisted
that the laws established at Clarendon contained not any new claims,
but the ancient customs of the kingdom; and he was still at liberty,
notwithstanding the articles of this agreement, to maintain his
pretensions.  Appeals to the pope were indeed permitted by that
treaty; but as the king was also permitted to exact reasonable
securities from the parties, and might stretch his demands on this
head as far as he pleased, he had it virtually in his power to prevent
the pope from reaping any advantage by this seeming concession.  And
on the whole, the constitutions of Clarendon remained still the law of
the realm; though the pope and his legates seem so little to have
conceived the king's power to lie under any legal limitations, that
they were satisfied with his departing, by treaty, from one of the
most momentous articles of these constitutions, without requiring any
repeal by the states of the kingdom.
[FN [p] Girald. Cambr. p. 778.  [q] M. Paris, p. 88.  Benedict. Abb.
p. 34.  Hoveden, p. 529.  Diceto, p 560.  Chron. Gerv. p. 1422.  [r]
Brompton, p. 1071  Liber Nig. Scac. p. 47.]

Henry, freed from this dangerous controversy with the ecclesiastics
and with the see of Rome, seemed now to have reached the pinnacle of
human grandeur and felicity, and to be equally happy in his domestic
situation and in his political government.  A numerous progeny of sons
and daughters gave both lustre and authority to his crown, prevented
the dangers of a disputed succession, and repressed all pretensions of
the ambitious barons.  The king's precaution, also, in establishing
the several branches of his family, seemed well calculated to prevent
all jealousy among the brothers, and to perpetuate the greatness of
his family.  He had appointed Henry, his eldest son, to be his
successor in the kingdom of England, the duchy of Normandy, and the
counties of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine; territories which lay
contiguous, and which, by that means, might easily lend to each other
mutual assistance, both against intestine commotions and foreign
invasions.  Richard, his second son, was invested in the duchy of
Guienne and county of Poictou; Geoffrey, his third son, inherited, in
right of his wife, the duchy of Britany; and the new conquest of
Ireland was destined for the appanage of John, his fourth son.  He had
also negotiated, in favour of this last prince, a marriage with
Adelais, the only daughter of Humbert, Count of Savoy and Maurienne;
and was to receive as her dowry considerable demesnes in Piedmont,
Savoy, Bresse, and  Dauphiny [s].  But this exaltation of his family
excited the jealousy of all his neighbours, who made those very sons,
whose fortunes he had so anxiously established, the means of
embittering his future life, and disturbing his government.
[FN [s] Ypod. Neust. p. 448.  Bened. Abb. p. 38.  Hoveden, p. 532.
Diceto, p. 562.  Brompton, p. 1081.  Rymer, vol. i. p. 33.]

Young Henry, who was rising to man's estate, began to display his
character, and aspire to independence: brave, ambitious, liberal,
munificent, affable; he discovered qualities which give great lustre
to youth; prognosticate a shining fortune; but unless tempered in
mature age with discretion, are the forerunners of the greatest
calamities [t].  It is said, that at the time when this prince
received the royal unction, his father, in order to give greater
dignity to the ceremony, officiated at table as one of the retinue;
and observed to his son, that never king was more royally served.  IT
IS NOTHING EXTRAORDINARY, said young Henry to one of his courtiers, IF
THE SON OF A COUNT SHOULD SERVE THE SON OF A KING.  This saying, which
might pass only for an innocent pleasantry, or even for an oblique
compliment to his father, was however regarded as a symptom of his
aspiring temper; and his conduct soon after justified the conjecture.
[FN [t] Chron. Gerv. p. 1463.]

Henry, agreeably to the promise which he had given both to the pope
and French king, permitted his son to be crowned anew by the hands of
the Archbishop of Rouen, and associated the Princess Margaret, spouse
to young Henry, in the ceremony [u]  [MN 1173.]  He afterwards allowed
him to pay a visit to his father-in-law at Paris, who took the
opportunity of instilling into the young prince those ambitious
sentiments, to which he was naturally but too much inclined [w].  [MN
Revolt of young Henry and his brothers.]  Though it had been the
constant practice of France, ever since the accession of the Capetian
line, to crown the son during the lifetime of the father, without
conferring on him any present participation of royalty, Lewis
persuaded his son-in-law, that, by this ceremony, which in those ages
was deemed so important, he had acquired a title to sovereignty, and
that the king could not, without injustice, exclude him from immediate
possession of the whole or at least a part of his dominions.  In
consequence of these extravagant ideas, young Henry, on his return,
desired the king to resign to him either the crown of England, or the
duchy of Normandy; discovered great discontent on the refusal; spake
in the most undutiful terms of his father; and soon after, in concert
with Lewis, made his escape to Paris, where he was protected and
supported by that monarch.
[FN [u] Hoveden, p. 529.  Diceto, p. 560.  Brompton, p. 1080.  Chron.
Gerv. p. 1421.  Trivet, p. 58.  It appears from Madox's History of the
Exchequer, that silk garments were then known in England, and that the
coronation robes of the young king and queen cost eighty-seven pounds
ten shillings and four pence, money of that age.  [w] Girald. Camb. p.
782.]

While Henry was alarmed at this incident, and had the prospect of
dangerous intrigues, or even of a war, which, whether successful or
not, must be extremely calamitous and disagreeable to him, he received
intelligence of new misfortunes, which must have affected him in the
most sensible manner.  Queen Eleanor, who had disgusted her first
husband by her gallantries, was no less offensive to her second by her
jealousy; and after this manner carried to extremity, in the different
periods of her life, every circumstance of female weakness.  She
communicated her discontents against Henry to her two younger sons,
Geoffrey and Richard; persuaded them that they were also entitled to
present possession of the territories assigned to them; engaged them
to fly secretly to the court of France; and was meditating, herself,
an escape to the same court, and had even put on man's apparel for
that purpose; when she was seized by orders from her husband, and
thrown into confinement.  Thus, Europe saw with astonishment the best
and most indulgent of parents at war with his whole family; three
boys, scarcely arrived at the age of puberty, required a great
monarch, in the full vigour of his age and height of his reputation,
to dethrone himself in their favour; and several princes not ashamed
to support them in these unnatural and absurd pretensions.

Henry, reduced to this perilous and disagreeable situation, had
recourse to the court of Rome: though sensible of the danger attending
the interposition of ecclesiastical authority in temporal disputes, he
applied to the pope, as his superior lord, to excommunicate his
enemies, and by these censures to reduce to obedience his undutiful
children, whom he found such reluctance to punish by the sword of the
magistrate [x].  Alexander, well pleased to exert his power in so
justifiable a cause, issued the bulls required of him; but it was soon
found that these spiritual weapons had not the same force as when
employed in a spiritual controversy; and that the clergy were very
negligent in supporting a sentence which was nowise calculated to
promote the immediate interests of their order.  The king, after
taking in vain this humiliating step, was obliged to have recourse to
arms, and to enlist such auxiliaries as are the usual resource of
tyrants, and have seldom been employed by so wise and just a monarch.
[FN [x] Epist. Petri Bles. epist. 136. in Biblioth. Patr. tom. xxiv.
p. 1048.  His words are, VESTRAE JURISDICTIONIS EST REGNUM ANGLIAE, ET
QUANTUM AD FEUDATORII JURIS OBLIGATIONEM, VOBIS DUNTAXAT OBNOXIUS
TENEOR.  The same strange paper is in Rymer, vol. i. p. 35, and
Trivet, vol. i. p. 62.]

The loose government which prevailed in all the states of Europe, the
many private wars carried on among the neighbouring nobles, and the
impossibility of enforcing any general execution of the laws, had
encouraged a tribe of banditti to disturb every where the public
peace, to infest the highways, to pillage the open country, and to
brave all the efforts of the civil magistrate, and even the
excommunications of the church, which were fulminated against them
[y].  Troops of them were sometimes enlisted in the service of one
prince or baron, sometimes in that of another: they often acted in an
independent manner, under leaders of their own: the peaceable and
industrious inhabitants, reduced to poverty by their ravages, were
frequently obliged, for subsistence, to betake themselves to a like
disorderly course of life; and a continual intestine war, pernicious
to industry, as well as to the execution of justice, was thus carried
on in the bowels of every kingdom [z].  Those desperate ruffians
received the name sometimes of Brabancons, sometimes of Routiers or
Cottereaux; but for what reason is not agreed by historians; and they
formed a kind of society or government among themselves, which set at
defiance the rest of mankind.  The greatest monarchs were not ashamed,
on occasion, to have recourse to their assistance; and as their habits
of war and depredation had given them experience, hardiness, and
courage, they generally composed the most formidable part of those
armies which decided the political quarrels of princes.  Several of
them were enlisted among the forces levied by Henry's enemies [a]; but
the great treasures amassed by that prince enabled him to engage more
numerous troops of them in his service; and the situation of his
affairs rendered even such banditti the only forces on whose fidelity
he could repose any confidence.  His licentious barons, disgusted with
a vigilant government, were more desirous of being ruled by young
princes, ignorant of public affairs, remiss in their conduct, and
profuse in their grants [b]; and as the king had ensured to his sons
the succession to every particular province of his dominions, the
nobles dreaded no danger in adhering to those who, they knew, must
some time become their sovereigns.  Prompted by these motives, many of
the Norman nobility had deserted to his son Henry; the Breton and
Gascon barons seemed equally disposed to embrace the quarrel of
Geoffrey and Richard.  Disaffection had crept in among the English;
and the Earls of Leicester and Chester in particular had openly
declared against the king.  Twenty thousand Brabancons, therefore,
joined to some troops which he brought over from Ireland, and a few
barons of approved fidelity, formed the sole force with which he
intended to resist his enemies.
[FN [y] Neubrig. p 413.  [z] Chron. Gerv. p. 1461.  [a] Petr. Bles.
epist. 47.  [b] Diceto, p. 570.]

Lewis, in order to bind the confederates in a close union, summoned at
Paris an assembly of the chief vassals of the crown, received their
approbation of his measures, and engaged them by oath to adhere to the
cause of young Henry.  This prince, in return, bound himself by a like
tie never to desert his French allies; and having made a new great
seal, he lavishly distributed among them many considerable parts of
those territories which he purposed to conquer from his father.  The
Counts of Flanders, Boulogne, Blois, and Eu, partly moved by the
general jealousy arising from Henry's power and ambition, partly
allured by the prospect of reaping advantage from the inconsiderate
temper and the necessities of the young prince, declared openly in
favour of the latter.  William, King of Scotland, had also entered
into this great confederacy; and a plan was concerted for a general
invasion on different parts of the king's extensive and factious
dominions.

Hostilities were first commenced by the Counts of Flanders and
Boulogne on the frontiers of Normandy.  Those princes laid siege to
Aumale, which was delivered into their hands by the treachery of the
count of that name: this nobleman surrendered himself prisoner; and,
on pretence of thereby paying his ransom, opened the gates of all his
other fortresses.  The two counts next besieged and made themselves
masters of Drincourt; but the Count of Boulogne was here mortally
wounded in the assault; and this incident put some stop to the
progress of the Flemish arms.

[MN Wars and insurrections.]
In another quarter, the King of France, being strongly assisted by his
vassals, assembled a great army of seven thousand knights and their
followers on horseback, and a proportionable number of infantry:
carrying young Henry along with him, he laid siege to Verneuil, which
was vigorously defended by Hugh de Lacy and Hugh de Beauchamp, the
governors.  After he had lain a month before the place, the garrison,
being straitened for provisions, were obliged to capitulate; and they
engaged, if not relieved within three days, to surrender the town, and
to retire into the citadel.  On the last of these days, Henry appeared
with his army upon the heights above Verneuil.  Lewis, dreading an
attack, sent the Archbiship of Sens and the Count of Blois to the
English camp, and desired that next day should be appointed for a
conference, in order to establish a general peace, and terminate the
difference between Henry and his sons.  The king, who passionately
desired this accommodation, and suspected no fraud, gave his consent;
but Lewis, that morning, obliging the garrison to surrender, according
to the capitulation, set fire to the place, and began to retire with
his army.  Henry, provoked at this artifice, attacked the rear with
vigour, put them to rout, did some execution, and took  several
prisoners.  The French army, as their time of service was now expired,
immediately dispersed themselves into their several provinces; and
left Henry free to prosecute his advantages against his other enemies.

The nobles of Britany, instigated by the Earl of Chester and Ralph de
Fougeres, were all in arms; but their progress was checked by a body
of Brabancons which the king, after Lewis's retreat, had sent against
them.  The two armies came to an action near Dol, where the rebels
were defeated, fifteen hundred killed on the spot, and the leaders,
the Earls of Chester and Fougeres, obliged to take shelter in the town
of Dol.  Henry hastened to form the siege of that place, and carried
on the attack with such ardour, that he obliged the governor and
garrison to surrender themselves prisoners.  By these vigorous
measures and happy successes the insurrections were entirely quelled
in Britany; and the king, thus fortunate in all quarters, willingly
agreed to a conference with Lewis, in hopes that his enemies, finding
all their mighty efforts entirely frustrated, would terminate
hostilities on some moderate and reasonable conditions.

The two monarchs met between Trie and Gisors; and Henry had here the
mortification to see his three sons in the retinue of his mortal
enemy.  As Lewis had no other pretence for war than supporting the
claims of the young princes, the king made them such offers as
children might be ashamed to insist on, and could be extorted from him
by nothing but his parental affection, or by the present necessity of
his affairs [c].  He insisted only on retaining the sovereign
authority in all his dominions; but offered young Henry half the
revenues of England, with some places of surety in that kingdom; or,
if he rather chose to reside in Normandy, half the revenues of that
duchy, with all those of Anjou.  He made a like offer to Richard in
Guienne: he promised to resign Britany to Geoffrey; and if these
concessions were not deemed sufficient, he agreed to add to them
whatever the pope's legates, who were present, should require of him
[d].  The Earl of Leicester was also present at the negotiation; and
either from the impetuosity of his temper, or from a view of abruptly
breaking off a conference which must cover the allies with confusion,
he gave vent to the most violent reproaches against Henry, and he even
put his hand to his sword, as if he meant to attempt some violence
against him.  This furious action threw the whole company into
confusion, and put an end to the treaty [e].
[FN [c] Hoveden, p. 538.  [d] Ibid. p. 536.  Brompton, p. 1088.  [e]
Hoveden, p. 536.]

The chief hopes of Henry's enemies seemed now to depend on the state
of affairs in England, where his authority was exposed to the most
imminent danger.  One article of Prince Henry's agreement with his
foreign confederates was, that he should resign Kent, with Dover, and
all its other fortresses, into the hands of the Earl of Flanders [f]:
yet so little national or public spirit prevailed among the
independent English nobility, so wholly bent were they on the
aggrandizement each of himself and his own family, that
notwithstanding this pernicious concession, which must have produced
the ruin of the kingdom, the greater part of them had conspired to
make an insurrection, and to support the prince's pretensions.  The
king's principal resource lay in the church and the bishops, with whom
he was now in perfect agreement; whether that the decency of their
character made them ashamed of supporting so unnatural a rebellion, or
that they were entirely satisfied with Henry's atonement for the
murder of Becket, and for his former invasion of ecclesiastical
immunities.  That prince, however, had resigned none of the essential
rights of his crown in the accommodation; he maintained still the same
prudent jealousy of the court of Rome; admitted no legate into
England, without his swearing to attempt nothing against the royal
prerogatives; and he had even obliged the monks of Canterbury, who
pretended to a free election on the vacancy made by the death of
Becket, to choose Roger, prior of Dover, in the place of that
turbulent prelate [g].
[FN [f] Ibid. p. 533.  Brompton, p. 1084.  Neubr. p. 508.  [g]
Hoveden, p. 537.]

[MN War with Scotland.]
The King of Scotland made an irruption into Northumberland, and
committed great devastations; but being opposed by Richard de Lucy,
whom Henry had left guardian of the realm, he retreated into his own
country, and agreed to a cessation of arms.  This truce enabled the
guardian to march southward with his army, in order to oppose an
invasion, which the Earl of Leicester, at the head of a great body of
Flemings, had made upon Suffolk.  The Flemings had been joined by Hugh
Bigod, who made them masters of his castle of Framlingham; and
marching into the heart of the kingdom, where they hoped to be
supported by Leicester's vassals, they were met by Lucy, who, assisted
by Humphrey Bohun, the constable, and the Earls of Arundel,
Gloucester, and Cornwall, had advanced to Farnham, with a less
numerous but braver army to oppose them.  The Flemings, who were
mostly weavers and artificers, (for manufactures were now beginning to
be established in Flanders,) were broken in an instant, ten thousand
of them were put to the sword, the Earl of Leicester was taken
prisoner, and the remains of the invaders were glad to compound for a
safe retreat into their own country.

[MN 1174.]  This great defeat did not dishearten the malecontents;
who, being supported by the alliance of so many foreign princes, and
encouraged by the king's own sons, determined to persevere in their
enterprise.  The Earl of Ferrars, Roger de Mowbray, Architel de
Mallory, Richard de Morreville, Hamo de Mascie, together with many
friends of the Earls of Leicester and Chester, rose in arms: the
fidelity of the Earls of Clare and Gloucester was suspected; and the
guardian, though vigorously supported by Geoffrey, Bishop of Lincoln,
the king's natural son by the fair Rosamond, found it difficult to
defend himself on all quarters from so many open and concealed
enemies.  The more to augment the confusion, the King of Scotland, on
the expiration of the truce, broke into the northern provinces with a
great army [h] of eighty thousand men; which, though undisciplined and
disorderly, and better fitted for committing devastation than for
executing any military enterprise, was become dangerous from the
present factious and turbulent spirit of the kingdom.  Henry, who had
baffled all his enemies in France, and had put his frontiers in a
posture of defence, now found England the seat of danger; and he
determined by his presence to overawe the malecontents, or by his
conduct and courage to subdue them. [MN 8th July.  Penance of Henry
for Becket’s murder.]  He landed at Southampton; and knowing the
influence of superstition over the minds of the people, he hastened to
Canterbury, in order to make atonement to the ashes of Thomas à
Becket, and tender his submissions to a dead enemy.  As soon as he
came within sight of the church of Canterbury, he dismounted, walked
barefoot towards it, prostrated himself before the shrine of the
saint, remained in fasting and prayer during a whole day, and watched
all night the holy relics.  Not content with this hypocritical
devotion towards a man whose violence and ingratitude had so long
disquieted his government, and had been the object of his most
inveterate animosity, he submitted to a penance still more singular
and humiliating.  He assembled a chapter of the monks, disrobed
himself before them, put a scourge of discipline into the hands of
each, and presented his bare shoulders to the lashes which these
ecclesiastics successively inflicted upon him.  Next day he received
absolution; and departing for London, got soon after the agreeable
intelligence of a great victory which his generals had obtained over
the Scots, and which being gained, as was reported, on the very day of
his absolution, was regarded as the earnest of his final
reconciliation with Heaven and with Thomas à Becket.
[FN [h] Heming, p. 501.]

William, King of Scots, though repulsed before the castle of Prudhow,
and other fortified places, had committed the most horrible
depredations upon the northern provinces: but on the approach of Ralph
de Glanville, the famous justiciary, seconded by Bernard de Baliol,
Robert de Stuteville, Odonel de Umfreville, William de Vesci, and
other northern barons, together with the gallant Bishop of Lincoln, he
thought proper to retreat nearer his own country, and he fixed his
camp at Alnwick.  He had here weakened his army extremely, by sending
out numerous detachments in order to extend his ravages; and he lay
absolutely safe, as he imagined, from any attack of the enemy.  But
Glanville, informed of his situation, made a hasty and fatiguing march
to Newcastle; and, allowing his soldiers only a small interval for
refreshment, he immediately set out towards evening for Alnwick.  [MN
13th July.]  He marched that night above thirty miles; arrived in the
morning, under cover of a mist, near the Scottish camp; and regardless
of the great numbers of the enemy, he began the attack with his small
but determined body of cavalry.  William was living in such supine
security that he took the English, at first, for a body of his own
ravagers, who were returning to the camp; but the sight of their
banners convincing him of his mistake, he entered on the action with
no greater body than a hundred horse in confidence that the numerous
army which surrounded him would soon hasten to his relief.  [MN
William, King of Scotlamd, defeated and taken prisoner.]  He was
dismounted on the first shock, and taken prisoner; while his troops,
hearing of this disaster, fled on all sides with the utmost
precipitation.  The dispersed ravagers made the best of their way to
their own country; and discord arising among them, they proceeded even
to mutual hostilities, and suffered more from each other's sword than
from that of the enemy.

This great and important victory proved at last decisive in favour of
Henry, and entirely broke the spirit of the English rebels.  The
Bishop of Durham, who was preparing to revolt, made his submissions;
Hugh Bigod, though he had received a strong reinforcement of Flemings,
was obliged to surrender all his castles, and throw himself on the
king's mercy; no better resource was left to the Earl of Ferrars and
Roger de Mowbray; the inferior rebels imitating the example, all
England was restored to tranquillity in a few weeks; and as the king
appeared to lie under the immediate protection of Heaven, it was
deemed impious any longer to resist him.  The clergy exalted anew the
merits and powerful intercession of Becket; and Henry, instead of
opposing this superstition, plumed himself on the new friendship of
the saint, and propagated an opinion which was so favourable to his
interests [i].
[FN [i] Hoveden, p. 539.]

Prince Henry, who was ready to embark at Gravelines, with the Earl of
Flanders and a great army, hearing that his partisans in England were
suppressed, abandoned all thoughts of the enterprise, and joined the
camp of Lewis, who, during the absence of the king, had made an
irruption into Normandy, and had laid siege to Rouen [k].  The place
was defended with great vigour by the inhabitants [l]; and Lewis,
despairing of success by open force, tried to gain the town by a
stratagem, which, in that superstitious age, was deemed not very
honourable.  He proclaimed in his own camp a cessation of arms, on
pretence of celebrating the festival of St. Laurence; and when the
citizens, supposing themselves in safety, were so imprudent as to
remit their guard, he proposed to take advantage of their security.
Happily, some priests had, from mere curiosity, mounted a steeple
where the alarm-bell hung; and, observing the French camp in motion,
they immediately rang the bell, and gave warning to the inhabitants,
who ran to their several stations.  The French who, on hearing the
alarm, hurried to the assault, had already mounted the walls in
several places; but being repulsed by the enraged citizens, were
obliged to retreat with considerable loss [m].  Next day, Henry, who
had hastened to the defence of his Norman dominions, passed over the
bridge in triumph, and entered Rouen in sight of the French army.  The
city was now in absolute safety; and the king, in order to brave the
French monarch, commanded the gates, which had been walled up, to be
opened; and he prepared to push his advantages against the enemy.
Lewis saved himself from this perilous situation by a new piece of
deceit, not so justifiable.  He proposed a conference for adjusting
the terms of a general peace, which he knew would be greedily embraced
by Henry; and while the king of England trusted to the execution of
his promise, he made a retreat with his army into France.
[FN [k] Brompton, p. 1096.  [l] Diceto, p. 578.  [m] Brompton, p.
1096.  Neubrig. p. 411.  Heming, p. 503.]

There was, however, a necessity on both sides for an accommodation.
Henry could no longer bear to see his three sons in the hands of his
enemy; and Lewis dreaded lest this great monarch, victorious in all
quarters, crowned with glory, and absolute master of his dominions
might take revenge for the many dangers and disquietudes which the
arms, and still more the intrigues of France had, in his disputes both
with Becket and his sons, found means to raise him.  After making a
cessation of arms, a conference was agreed on near Tours; where Henry
granted his sons much less advantageous terms than he had formerly
offered, and he received their submissions.  [MN The king's
accommodation with his sons.]  The most material of his concessions
were some pensions which he stipulated to pay them, and some castles
which he granted them for the place of their residence; together with
an indemnity for all their adherents, who were restored to their
estates and honours [n].
[FN [n] Rymer, vol. i. p. 35.  Bened. Abb. p. 88.  Hoveden, p. 540.
Diceto, p. 584.  Brompton, p. 1098.  Heming. p. 505.  Chron. Dunst. p.
36.]

Of all those who had embraced the cause of the young princes, William,
King of Scotland, was the only considerable loser by that invidious
and unjust enterprise.  Henry delivered from confinement, without
exacting any ransom, about nine hundred knights whom he had taken
prisoners; but it cost William the ancient independency of his crown
as the price of his liberty.  He stipulated to do homage to Henry for
Scotland, and all his other possessions; he engaged that all the
barons and nobility of his kingdom should also do homage; that the
bishops should take an oath of fealty; that both should swear to
adhere to the King of England against their native prince, if the
latter should break his engagements; and that the fortresses of
Edinburgh, Stirling, Berwick, Roxburgh, and Jedburgh, should be
delivered into Henry's hands, till the performance of articles [o].
[MN 1175.  10th Aug.]  This severe and humiliating treaty was excuted
in its full rigour.  William, being released, brought up all his
barons, prelates, and abbots; and they did homage to Henry in the
cathedral of York, and acknowledged him and his successors for their
superior lord [p].  The English monarch stretched still farther the
rigour of the conditions which he exacted.  He engaged the king and
states of Scotland to make a perpetual cession of the fortresses of
Berwick and Roxburgh, and to allow the castle of Edinburgh to remain
in his hands for a limited time.  This was the first great ascendancy
which England obtained over Scotland; and indeed the first important
transaction which had passed between the kingdoms.  Few princes have
been so fortunate as to gain considerable advantages over their weaker
neighbours with less violence and injustice than was practised by
Henry against the King of Scots, whom he had taken prisoner in battle,
and who had wantonly engaged in a war, in which all the neighbours of
that prince, and even his own family, were, without provocation,
combined against him [q].
[FN [o] M. Paris, p. 91.  Chron. Dunst. p. 36.  Hoveden, p. 545.  M.
West. p. 251.  Diceto, p. 584.  Brompton, p. 1103.  Rymer, vol. i. p.
39.  Liber Niger Scaccarii, p. 36.  [p] Bened. Abb. p. 113.  [q] Some
Scotch historians pretend that William paid, besides, 100,000 pounds
of ransom, which is quite incredible.  The ransom of Richard I., who,
besides England, possessed so many rich territories in France, was
only 150,000 marks, and yet was levied with great difficulty.  Indeed,
two-thirds of it only could he paid before his deliverance.]

[MN 1175.  King’s equitable administration.]
Henry having thus, contrary to expectation, extricated himself with
honour from a situation in which his throne was exposed to great
danger, was employed for several years in the administration of
justice, in the execution of the laws, and in guarding against those
inconveniences, which either the past convulsions of his state, or the
political institutions of that age, unavoidably occasioned.  The
provisions which he made show such largeness of thought as qualified
him for being a legislator; and they were commonly calculated as well
for the future as the present happiness of his kingdom.

[MN 1176.]  He enacted severe penalties against robbery, murder, false
coining, arson; and ordained that these crimes should be punished by
the amputation of the right hand and right foot [r].  The pecuniary
commutation for crimes which has a false appearance of lenity, had
been gradually disused, and seems to have been entirely abolished by
the rigour of these statutes.  The superstitious trial by water
ordeal, though condemned by the church [s], still subsisted; but Henry
ordained, that any man accused of murder, or any heinous felony, by
the oath of the legal knights of the county, should, even though
acquitted by the ordeal, be obliged to abjure the realm [t].
[FN [r] Bened. Abb. p. 132.  Hoveden, p. 549.  [s] Seld. Spicileg. ad
Eadm. p. 204.  [t] Bened. Abb. p. 132.]

All advances towards reason and good sense are slow and gradual.
Henry, though sensible of the great absurdity attending the trial by
duel or battle, did not venture to abolish it: he only admitted either
of the parties to challenge a trial by an assize or jury of twelve
freeholders [u].  This latter method of trial seems to have been very
ancient in England, and was fixed by the laws of King Alfred: but the
barbarous and violent genius of the age had of late given more credit
to the trial by battle, which had become the general method of
deciding all important controversies.  It was never abolished by law
in England; and there is an instance of it so late as the reign of
Elizabeth; but the institution revived by this king, being found more
reasonable and more suitable to a civilized people, gradually
prevailed over it.
[FN [u] Glanv. lib. 2. cap. 7.]

The partition of England into four divisions, and the appointment of
itinerant justices to go the circuit in each division, and to decide
the causes in the counties, was another important ordinance of this
prince, which had a direct tendency to curb the oppressive barons, and
to protect the inferior gentry and common people in their property
[w].  Those justices were either prelates or considerable noblemen;
who, besides carrying the authority of the king's commission, were
able, by the dignity of their own character, to give weight and credit
to the laws.
[FN [w] Hoveden, p. 590.]

That there might be fewer obstacles to the execution of justice, the
king was vigilant in demolishing all the new-erected castles of the
nobility, in England as well as in his foreign dominions; and he
permitted no fortress to remain in the custody of those whom he found
reason to suspect [x].
[FN [x] Benedict. Abbas, p. 202.  Diceto, p. 585.]

But lest the kingdom should be weakened by this demolition of the
fortresses, the king fixed an assize of arms, by which all his
subjects were obliged to put themselves in a situation for defending
themselves and the realm.  Every man possessed of a knight's fee was
ordained to have for each fee a coat of mail, a helmet, a shield, and
a lance; every free layman, possessed of goods to the value of sixteen
marks, was to be armed in like manner; every one that possessed ten
marks was obliged to have an iron gorget, a cap of iron, and a lance;
all burgesses were to have a cap of iron, a lance, and a wambais; that
is, a coat quilted with wool, tow, or such like materials [y].  It
appears that archery, for which the English were afterwards so
renowned, had not, at this time, become very common among them.  The
spear was the chief weapon employed in battle.
[FN [y] Bened. Abb. p. 305  Annal. Waverl. p. 161.]

The clergy and the laity were, during that age, in a strange situation
with regard to each other, and such as may seem totally incompatible
with a civilized, and, indeed, with any species of government.  If a
clergyman were guilty of murder, he could be punished by degradation
only: if he were murdered, the murderer was exposed to nothing but
excommunication and ecclesiastical censures; and the crime was atoned
for by penances and submission [z].  Hence the assassins of Thomas à
Becket himself, though guilty of the most atrocious wickedness, and
the most repugnant to the sentiments of that age, lived securely in
their own houses, without being called to account by Henry himself,
who was so much concerned, both in honour and interest, to punish that
crime, and who professed, or affected on all occasions, the most
extreme abhorrence of it.  It was not till they found their presence
shunned by every one as excommunicated persons that they were induced
to take a journey to Rome, to throw themselves at the feet of the
pontiff, and to submit to the penances imposed upon them: after which
they continued to possess, without molestation, their honours and
fortunes, and seemed even to have recovered the countenance and good
opinion of the public.  But as the king, by the constitutions of
Clarendon, which he endeavoured still to maintain [a], had subjected
the clergy to a trial by the civil magistrate, it seemed but just to
give them the protection of that power to which they owed obedience;
it was enacted, that the murderers of clergymen should be tried before
the justiciary, in the presence of the bishop or his official; and
besides the usual punishment for murder, should be subjected to a
forfeiture of their estates, and a confiscation of their goods and
chattels [b].
[FN [z] Petri Blessen. epist. 73. apud Bibl. Patr. tom. xxiv. p. 992.
[a] Chron. Gervase, p. 1433.  [b] Diceto, p. 592.  Chron. Gervase,
1433.]

The king passed an equitable law, that the goods of a vassal should
not be seized for the debt of his lord, unless the vassal be surety
for the debt; and that the rents of vassals should be paid to the
creditors of the lord, not to the lord himself.  It is remarkable that
this law was enacted by the king in a council which he held at
Verneuil, and which consisted of some prelates and barons of England,
as well as some of Normandy, Poictou, Anjou, Maine, Touraine, and
Britany; and the statute took place in all these last-mentioned
territories [c], though totally unconnected with each other [d]; a
certain proof how irregular the ancient feudal government was, and how
near the sovereigns, in some instances, approached to despotism,
though in others they seemed scarcely to possess any authority.  If a
prince, much dreaded and revered, like Henry, obtained but the
appearance of general consent to an ordinance which was equitable and
just, it became immediately an established law, and all his subjects
acquiesced in it.  If the prince was hated or despised; if the nobles
who supported him had small influence; if the humours of the times
disposed the people to question the justice of his ordinance; the
fullest and most authentic assembly had no authority.  Thus all was
confusion and disorder; no regular idea of a constitution; force and
violence decided every thing.
[FN [c] Bened. Abb. p. 248. It was usual for the kings of England,
after the conquest of Ireland, to summon barons and members of that
country to the English Parliament.  Mollineux's case of Ireland, p.
64, 65, 66.  [d] Spellman even doubts whether the law were not also
extended to England.  If it were not, it could only be because Henry
did not choose it; for his authority was greater in that kingdom than
in his transmarine dominions.]

The success which had attended Henry in his wars did not much
encourage his neighbours to form any attempt against him; and his
transactions with them during several years, contain little memorable.
Scotland remained in that state of feudal subjection to which he had
reduced it, and gave him no farther inquietude.  He sent over his
fourth son, John, into Ireland, with a view of making a more complete
conquest of the island; but the petulance and incapacity of this
prince, by which he enraged the Irish chieftains, obliged the king
soon after to recall him [e].  The King of France had fallen into an
abject superstition; and was induced, by a devotion more sincere than
that of Henry, to make a pilgrimage to the tomb of Becket, in order to
obtain his intercession for the cure of Philip, his eldest son.  He
probably thought himself well entitled to the favour of that saint on
account of their ancient intimacy; and hoped that Becket, whom he had
protected while on earth, would not now, when he was so highly exalted
in heaven, forgot his old friend and benefactor.  The monks, sensible
that their saint's honour was concerned in the case, failed not to
publish that Lewis's prayers were answered, and that the young prince
was restored to health by Becket's intercession.  That king himself
was soon after struck with an apoplexy, which deprived him of his
understanding: Philip, though a youth of fifteen, took on him the
administration, till his father's death, which happened soon after,
opened his way to the throne; and he proved the ablest and greatest
monarch that had governed that kingdom since the age of Charlemagne.
The superior years, however, and experience of Henry, while they
moderated his ambition, gave him such an ascendant over this prince,
that no dangerous rivalship, for a long time, arose between them.  [MN
1180.]  The English monarch, instead of taking advantage of his own
situation, rather employed his good offices in composing the quarrels
which arose in the royal family of France; and he was successful in
mediating a reconciliation between Philip and his mother and uncles.
These services were but ill requited by Philip, who, when he came to
man's estate, fomented all the domestic discords in the royal family
of England, and encouraged Henry's sons in their ungrateful and
undutiful behaviour towards him.
[FN [e] Bened. Abb. p. 437, &c.]

Prince Henry, equally impatient of obtaining power, and incapable of
using it, renewed to the king the demand of his resigning Normandy;
and on meeting with a refusal, he fled with his consort to the court
of France: but not finding Philip at that time disposed to enter into
war for his sake, he accepted of his father's offers of
reconciliation, and made him submissions.  It was a cruel circumstance
in the king's fortune, that he could hope for no tranquillity from the
criminal enterprises of his sons but by their mutual discord and
animosities, which disturbed his family, and threw his state into
convulsions.  Richard, whom he had made master of Guienne, and who had
displayed his valour and military genius by suppressing the revolts of
his mutinous barons, refused to obey Henry's orders, in doing homage
to his elder brother for that duchy, and he defended himself against
young Henry and Geoffrey, who, uniting their  arms, carried war into
his territories [f].  The king, with some difficulty, composed this
difference; but immediately found his eldest son engaged in
conspiracies, and ready to take arms against himself.  While the young
prince was conducting these criminal intrigues, he was seized with a
fever at Martel, [MN 1183.] a castle near Turenne, to which he had
retired in discontent; and seeing the approaches of death, he was at
last struck with remorse for his undutiful behaviour towards his
father.  He sent a message to the king, who was not far distant;
expressed his contrition for his faults; and entreated the favour of a
visit, that he might at least die with the satisfaction of having
obtained his forgiveness.  Henry, who had so often experienced the
prince's ingratitude and violence, apprehended that his sickness was
entirely feigned, and he durst not intrust himself into his son's
hands: but when he soon after received intelligence of young Henry's
death, [MN 11th June.  Death of young Henry.] and the proofs of his
sincere repentance, this good prince was affected with the deepest
sorrow; he thrice fainted away; he accused his own hard-heartedness in
refusing the dying request of his son; and he lamented that he had
deprived that prince of the last opportunity of making atonement for
his offences, and of pouring out his soul in the bosom of his
reconciled father [s].  This prince died in the twenty-eighth year of
his age.
[FN [f] Ypod. Neust. p. 451.  Bened. Abb. p. 383.  Diceto, p. 617.
[g] Bened. Abb. p. 393.  Hoveden, p. 621.  Trivet, vol. i. p. 84.]

The behaviour of his surviving children did not tend to give the king
any consolation for the loss.  As Prince Henry had left no posterity,
Richard was become heir to all his dominions; and the king intended
that John, his third surviving son and favourite, should inherit
Guienne as his appanage; but Richard refused his consent, fled into
that duchy, and even made preparations for carrying on war, as well
against his father as against his brother Geoffrey, who was now put in
possession of Britany.  Henry sent for Eleanor his queen, the heiress
of Guienne, and required Richard to deliver up to her the dominion of
these territories; which the prince, either dreading an insurrection
of the Gascons in her favour, or retaining some sense of duty towards
her, readily performed; and he peaceably returned to his father's
court.  No sooner was this quarrel accommodated, than Geoffrey, the
most vicious perhaps of all Henry's unhappy family, broke out into
violence; demanded Anjou to be annexed to his dominions of Britany;
and on meeting with a refusal, fled to the court of France, and levied
forces against his father [h].  [MN 1185.]  Henry was freed from this
danger by his son's death, who was killed in a tournament at Paris
[i].  The widow of Geoffrey, soon after his decease, was delivered of
a son, who received the name of Arthur, and was invested in the duchy
of Britany, under the guardianship of his grandfather, who, as Duke of
Normandy, was also superior lord of that territory.  Philip, as lord
paramount, disputed some time his title to this wardship; but was
obliged to yield to the inclinations of the Bretons, who preferred the
government of Henry.
[FN [h] Neubrig. p. 422.  [i] Bened. Abb. p. 451  Chron. Gervase, p.
1480.]

[MN Crusades.]
But the rivalship between these potent princes, and all their inferior
interests, seemed now to have given place to the general passion for
the relief of the Holy Land, and the expulsion of the Saracens.  Those
infidels, though obliged to yield to the immense inundation of
Christians in the first crusade, had recovered courage after the
torrent was past; and attacking on all quarters the settlements of the
Europeans, had reduced these adventurers to great difficulties, and
obliged them to apply again for succours from the West.  A second
crusade, under the Emperor Conrade and Lewis VII., King of France, in
which there perished above two hundred thousand men, brought them but
a temporary relief; and those princes, after losing such immense
armies, and seeing the flower of their nobility fall by their side,
returned with little honour into Europe.  But these repeated
misfortunes, which drained the western world of its people and
treasure, were not yet sufficient to cure men of their passion for
those spiritual adventures; and a new incident rekindled with fresh
fury the zeal of the ecclesiastics and military adventurers among the
Latin Christians.  Saladin, a prince of great generosity, bravery, and
conduct, having fixed himself on the throne of Egypt, began to extend
his conquests over the East; and finding the settlement of the
Christians in Palestine an invincible obstacle to the progress of his
arms, he bent the whole force of his policy and valour to subdue that
small and barren, but important territory.  Taking advantage of
dissensions which prevailed among the champions of the cross, and
having secretly gained the Count of Tripoli, who commanded their
armies, he invaded the frontiers with a mighty power; and, aided by
the treachery of that count, gained over them at Tiberiade a complete
victory, which utterly annihilated the force of the already
languishing kingdom of Jerusalem.  The holy city itself fell into his
hands, after a feeble resistance; the kingdom of Antioch was almost
entirely subdued; and except some maritime towns, nothing considerable
remained of those boasted conquests, which, near a century before, it
had cost the efforts of all Europe to acquire [k].
[FN [k] M. Paris, p. 100.]

[MN 1187.]  The western Christians were astonished on receiving this
dismal intelligence.  Pope Urban III, it is pretended, died of grief,
and his successor, Gregory VIII., employed the whole time of his short
pontificate in rousing to arms all the Christians who acknowledged his
authority.  The general cry was, that they were unworthy of enjoying
any inheritance in heaven, who did not vindicate from the dominion of
the infidel the inheritance of God on earth, and deliver from slavery
that country which had been consecrated by the footsteps of their
Redeemer.  [MN 1188.  21st Jan.]  William, Archbishop of Tyre, having
procured a conference between Henry and Philip near Gisors, enforced
all these topics; gave a pathetic description of the miserable state
of the eastern Christians, and employed every argument to excite the
ruling passions of the age, superstition and jealousy of military
honour [l].  The two monarchs immediately took the cross; many of
their most considerable vassals imitated the example [m]; and as the
Emperor Frederick I. entered into the same confederacy, some
well-grounded hopes of success were entertained; and men flattered
themselves that an enterprise which had failed under the conduct of
many independent leaders, or of impruddent princes, might, at last, by
the efforts of such potent and able monarchs, be brought to a happy
issue.
[FN [l] Bened. Abb. p. 531.  [m] Neubrig. p. 435.  Heming, p. 512.]

The kings of France and England imposed a tax, amounting to the tenth
of all moveable goods on such as remained at home [n]; but as they
exempted from this burden most of the regular clergy, the secular
aspired to the same immunity; pretended that their duty obliged them
to assist the crusade with their prayers alone; and it was with some
difficulty they were constrained to desist from an opposition, which
in them who had been the chief promoters of those pious enterprises,
appeared with the worst grace imaginable [o].  This backwardness of
the clergy is perhaps a symptom, that the enthusiastic ardour which
had at first seized the people for crusades, was now by time and ill
success considerably abated; and that the frenzy was chiefly supported
by the military genius and love of glory in the monarchs.
[FN [n] Bened. Abb. p. 498.  [o] Petri Blessen. epist. 112.]

But before this great machine could be put in motion, there were still
many obstacles to surmount.  Philip, jealous of Henry's power, entered
into a private confederacy with young Richard; and, working on his
ambitious and impatient temper, persuaded him, instead of supporting
and aggrandizing that monarchy which he was one day to inherit, to
seek present power and independence by disturbing and dismembering it.
[MN 1189.  Revolt of Prince Richard.]  In order to give a pretence for
hostilities between the two kings, Richard broke into the territories
of Raymond, Count of Toulouse, who immediately carried complaints of
this violence before the King of France as his superior lord.  Philip
remonstrated with Henry; but received for answer, that Richard had
confessed to the Archbishop of Dublin, that his enterprise against
Raymond had been undertaken by the approbation of Philip himself, and
was conducted by his authority.  The King of France, who might have
been covered with shame and confusion by this detection, still
prosecuted his design, and invaded the provinces of Berri and
Auvergne, under colour of revenging the quarrel of the Count of
Toulouse [p].  Henry retaliated by making inroads upon the frontiers
of France, and burning Dreux.  As this war, which destroyed all hopes
of success in the projected crusade, gave great scandal, the two kings
held a conference at the accustomed place between Gisors and Trie, in
order to find means of accommodating their differences: they separated
on worse terms than before; and Philip, to show his disgust, ordered a
great elm, under which the conferences had been usually held, to be
cut down [q]; as if he had renounced all desire of accommodation, and
was determined to carry the war to extremities against the King of
England.  But his own vassals refused to serve under him in so
invidious a cause [r]; and he was obliged to come anew to a conference
with Henry, and to offer terms of peace.  These terms were such as
entirely opened the eyes of the King of England, and fully convinced
him of the perfidy of his son, and his secret alliance with Philip, of
which he had before only entertained some suspicion.  The King of
France required that Richard should be crowned King of England in the
lifetime of his father, should be invested in all his transmarine
dominions, and should immediately espouse Alice, Philip's sister, to
whom he had formerly been affianced, and who had already been
conducted into England [s].  Henry had experienced such fatal effects
both from the crowning of his eldest son, and from that prince's
alliance with the royal family of France, that he rejected these
terms; and Richard, in consequence of his secret agreement with
Philip, immediately revolted from him [t], did homage to the King of
France for all the dominions which Henry held of that crown, and
received the investitures as if he had already been the lawful
possessor.  Several historians assert, that Henry himself had become
enamoured of young Alice and mention this as an additional reason for
his refusing these conditions: but he had so many other just and
equitable motives for his conduct, that it is superfluous to assign a
cause, which the great prudence and advanced age of that monarch
rendered somewhat improbable.
[FN [p] Bened. Abb. p. 508.  [q] Bened. Abb. p. 517, 532.  [r] Ibid.
p. 519.  [s] Ibid. p. 521.  Hoveden, p. 652.  [t] Brompton, p. 114.
Neubrig. p. 437.]

Cardinal Albano, the pope's legate, displeased with these increasing
obstacles to the crusade, excommunicated Richard, as the chief spring
of discord: but the sentence of excommunication, which, when it was
properly prepared, and was zealously supported by the clergy, had
often great influence in that age, proved entirely ineffectual in the
present case.  The chief barons of Poictou, Guienne, Normandy, and
Anjou, being attached to the young prince, and finding that he had now
received the investiture from their superior lord, declared for him,
and made inroads into the territories of such as still adhered to the
king.  Henry, disquieted by the daily revolts of his mutinous
subjects, and dreading still worse effects from their turbulent
disposition, had again recourse to papal authority; and engaged the
Cardinal Anagni, who had succeeded Albano in the legateship, to
threaten Philip with laying an interdict on all his dominions.  But
Philip, who was a prince of great vigour and capacity, despised the
menace, and told Anagni, that it belonged not to the pope to interpose
in the temporal disputes of princes, much less in those between him
and his rebellious vassal.  He even proceeded so far as to reproach
him with partiality, and with receiving bribes from the king of
England [u]; while Richard, still more outrageous, offered to draw his
sword against the legate, and was hindered by the interposition alone
of the company from committing violence upon him [w].
[FN [u] M. Paris, p. 104.  Bened. Abb. p. 542.  Hoveden, p. 652.  [w]
M. Paris, p. 104.]

The King of England was now obliged to defend his dominions by arms,
and to engage in a war with France, and with his eldest son, a prince
of great valour, on such disadvantageous terms.  Ferté-Barnard fell
first into the hands of the enemy: Mans was next taken by assault; and
Henry, who had thrown himself into that place, escaped with some
difficulty [x]: Amboise, Chaumont, and Chateau de Loire, opened their
gates on the appearance of Philip and Richard: Tours was menaced; and
the king, who had retired to Saumur, and had daily instances of the
cowardice or infidelity of his governors, expected the most dismal
issue to all his enterprises.  While he was in this state of
despondency, the Duke of Burgundy, the Earl of Flanders, and the
Archbishop of Rheims, interposed with their good offices; and the
intelligence which he received of the taking of Tours, and which made
him fully sensible of the desperate situation of his affairs, so
subdued his spirit that he submitted to all the rigorous terms which
were imposed upon him.  He agreed that Richard should marry the
Princess Alice; that that prince should receive the homage and oath of
fealty of all his subjects both in England and his transmarine
dominions; that he himself should pay twenty thousand marks to the
King of France as a compensation for the charges of the war; that his
own barons should engage to make him observe this treaty by force, and
in case of his violating it, should promise to join Philip and Richard
against him; and that all his vassals who had entered into confederacy
with Richard, should receive an indemnity for the offence [y].
[FN [x] Ibid. p. 105.  Bened. Abb. p. 543.  Hoveden, p. 653.  [y] M.
Paris, p. 106.  Bened. Abb. p. 545.  Hoveden, p. 653.]

But the mortification which Henry, who had been accustomed to give the
law in most treaties, received from these disadvantageous terms, was
the least that he met with on this occasion.  When he demanded a list
of those barons, to whom he was bound to grant a pardon for their
connexions with Richard, he was astonished to find at the head of them
the name of his second son John [z]; who had always been his
favourite, whose interests he had ever anxiously at heart, and who had
even, on account of his ascendant over him, often excited the jealousy
of Richard [a].  The unhappy father, already overloaded with cares and
sorrows, finding this last disappointment in his domestic tenderness,
broke out into expressions of the utmost despair, cursed the day in
which he received his miserable being, and bestowed on his ungrateful
and undutiful children a malediction which he never could be prevailed
on to retract [b].  The more his heart was disposed to friendship and
affection, the more he resented the barbarous return which his four
sons had successively made to his parental care; and this finishing
blow, by depriving him of every comfort in life, quite broke his
spirit and threw him into a lingering fever, of which he expired at
the Castle of Chinon, near Saumur.  [MN 1189.  6th July.  Death,]  His
natural son Geoffrey, who alone had behaved dutifully towards him,
attended his corpse to the nunnery of Fontevrault; where it lay in
state in the abbey church.  Next day Richard, who came to visit the
dead body of his father, and who, notwithstanding his criminal
conduct, was not wholly destitute of generosity, was struck with
horror and remorse at the sight; and as the attendants observed, that,
at that very instant, blood gushed from the mouth and nostrils of the
corpse [c], he exclaimed, agreeably to a vulgar superstition, that he
was his father's murderer; and he expressed a deep sense, though too
late, of that undutiful behaviour which had brought his parent to an
untimely grave [d].
[FN [z] Hoveden. p. 654.  [a] Bened. Abb. p. 541.  [b] Hoveden, p.
654.  [c] Bened. Abb. p. 547.  Brompton, p. 1151.  [d] M. Paris, p.
107.]

[MN and character of Henry.]  Thus died, in the fifty-eighth year of
his age, and thirty-fifth of his reign, the greatest prince of his
time, for wisdom, virtue, and abilities, and the most powerful in
extent of dominion of all those that had ever filled the throne of
England.  His character, in private as well as in public life, is
almost without a blemish; and he seems to have possessed every
accomplishment, both of body and mind, which makes a man either
estimable or amiable.  He was of a middle stature, strong and well
proportioned; his countenance was lively and engaging; his
conversation affable and entertaining; his elocution easy, persuasive,
and ever at command.  He loved peace, but possessed both bravery and
conduct in war; was provident without timidity; severe in the
execution of justice without rigour; and temperate without austerity.
He preserved health, and kept himself from corpulency, to which he was
somewhat inclined, by an abstemious diet and by frequent exercise,
particularly hunting.  When he could enjoy leisure, he recreated
himself either in learned conversation or in reading; and he
cultivated his natural talents by study, above any prince of his time.
His affections, as well as his enmities, were warm and durable; and
his long experience of the ingratitude and infidelity of men never
destroyed the natural sensibility of his temper, which disposed him to
friendship and society.  His character has been transmitted to us by
several writers who were his contemporaries [e]; and it extremely
resembles, in its most remarkable features, that of his maternal
grandfather Henry I.: excepting only that ambition, which was a ruling
passion in both, found not in the first Henry such unexceptionable
means of exerting itself, and pushed that prince into measures which
were both criminal in themselves, and were the cause of farther
crimes, from which his grandson’s conduct was happily exempted.
[FN [e] Petri Bles. epist. 46, 47. in Bibliotheca Patrum, vol. xxiv.
p. 985, 986, &c.  Girald. Camb. p. 783, &c.]

[MN Miscellaneous transactions of this reign.]
This prince, like most of his predecessors of the Norman line, except
Stephen, passed more of his time on the continent than in this island:
he was surrounded with the English gentry and nobility, when abroad:
the French gentry and nobility attended him when he resided in
England: both nations acted in the government as if they were the same
people: and, on many occasions, the legislatures seem not to have been
distinguished.  As the king and all the English barons were of French
extraction, the manners of that people acquired the ascendant, and
were regarded as the models of imitation.  All foreign improvements,
therefore, such as they were, in literature and politeness, in laws
and arts, seem now to have been, in a good measure, transplanted into
England; and that kingdom was become little inferior, in all the
fashionable accomplishments, to any of its neighbours on the
continent.  The more homely but more sensible manners and principles
of the Saxons were exchanged for the affectations of chivalry, and the
subtleties of school philosophy: the feudal ideas of civil government,
the Romish sentiments in religion, had taken entire possession of the
people: by the former, the sense of submission towards princes was
somewhat diminished in the barons; by the latter the devoted
attachment to papal authority was much augmented among the clergy.
The Norman and other foreign families established in England had now
struck deep root; and being entirely incorporated with the people,
whom at first they oppressed and despised, they no longer thought that
they needed  protection of the crown for the enjoyment of their
possessions, or considered their tenure as precarious.  They aspired
to the same liberty and independence which they saw enjoyed by their
brethren on the continent, and desired to restrain those exorbitant
prerogatives and arbitrary practices, which the necessities of war and
the violence of conquest had at first obliged them to indulge in their
monarch.  That memory also of a more equal government under the Saxon
princes, which remained with the English, diffused still farther the
spirit of liberty, and made the barons both desirous of more
independence to themselves, and willing to indulge it to the people.
And it was not long ere this secret revolution in the sentiments of
men produced, first violent convulsions in the state, then an evident
alteration in the maxims of government.

The history of all the preceding Kings of England since the Conquest
gives evident proofs of the disorders attending the feudal
institutions; the licentiousness of the barons, their spirit of
rebellion against the prince and laws, and of animosity against each
other: the conduct of the barons in the transmarine dominions of those
monarchs afforded perhaps still more flagrant instances of these
convulsions; and the history of France, during several ages, consists
almost entirely of narrations of this nature.  The cities, during the
continuance of this violent government, could neither be very numerous
nor populous; and there occur instances which seem to evince, that
though these are always the first seat of law and liberty, their
police was in general loose and irregular, and exposed to the same
disorders with those by which the country was generally infested.  It
was a custom in London for great numbers, to the amount of a hundred
or more, the sons and relations of considerable citizens, to form
themselves into a licentious confederacy, to break into rich houses
and plunder them, to rob and murder the passengers, and to commit with
impunity all sorts of disorder.  By these crimes, it had become so
dangerous to walk the streets by night, that the citizens durst no
more venture abroad after sunset than if they had been exposed to the
incursions of a public enemy.  The brother of the Earl of Ferrars had
been murdered by some of those nocturnal rioters; and the death of so
eminent a person, which was much more regarded than that of many
thousands of an inferior station, so provoked the king, that he swore
vengeance against the criminals and became thenceforth more rigorous
in the execution of the laws [f].
[FN [f] Bened. Abb. p. 196.]

There is another instance given by historians, which proves to what a
height such riots had proceeded, and how open these criminals were in
committing their robberies.  A band of them had attacked the house of
a rich citizen, with an intention of plundering it; had broken through
a stone wall with hammers and wedges; and had already entered the
house sword in hand; when the citizen armed cap-a-pie, and supported
by his faithful servants, appeared in the passage to oppose them; he
cut off the right hand of the first robber that entered; and made such
stout resistance, that his neighbours had leisure to assemble, and
come to his relief.  The man who lost his hand was taken; and was
tempted by the promise of pardon to reveal his confederates; among
whom was one John Senex, esteemed among the richest and best-born
citizens in London.  He was convicted by the ordeal; and though he
offered five hundred marks for his life, the king refused the money,
and ordered him to be hanged [g].  It appears from a statute of Edward
I. that these disorders were not remedied even in that reign.  It was
then made penal to go out at night after the hour of the curfew, to
carry a weapon, or to walk without a light or lantern [h].  It is said
in the preamble to this law, that, both by night and by day, there
were continual frays in the streets of London.
[FN [g] Ibid. p. 197, 198.  [h] Observations on the ancient Statutes,
p. 216.]

Henry's care in administering justice had gained him so great a
reputation, that even foreign and distant princes made him arbiter,
and submitted their differences to his judgment.  Sanchez, King of
Navarre, having some controversies with Alphonso, King of Castile, was
contented, though Alphonso had married the daughter of Henry, to
choose this prince for a referee; and they agreed each of them to
consign three castles into neutral hands as a pledge of their not
departing from his award.  Henry  made the cause be examined before
his great council, and gave a sentence, which was submitted to by both
parties.  These two Spanish kings sent each a stout champion to the
court of England, in order to defend his cause by arms, in case the
way of duel had been chosen by Henry [i].
[FN [i] Rymer, vol. iv. p. 43.  Bened. Abb. p. 172.  Diceto, p. 597.
Brompton, p. 1120.]

Henry so far abolished the barbarous and absurd practice of
confiscating ships which had been wrecked on the coast, that he
ordained, if one man or animal were alive in the ship, that the vessel
and goods should be restored to the owners [k].
[FN [k] Rymer, vol. i. p. 36.]

The reign of Henry was remarkable also for an innovation which was
afterwards carried farther by his successors, and was attended with
the most important consequences.  This prince was disgusted with the
species of military force which was established by the feudal
institutions, and which, though it was extremely burdensome to the
subject, yet rendered very little service to the sovereign.  The
barons, or military tenants, came late into the field; they were
obliged to serve only forty days; they were unskilful and disorderly
in all their operations; and they were apt to carry into the camp the
same refractory and independent spirit, to which they were accustomed
in their civil government.  Henry, therefore, introduced the practice
of making a commutation of their military service for money; and he
levied scutages from his baronies and knights' fees, instead of
requiring the personal attendance of his vassals.  There is mention
made, in the History of the Exchequer, of these scutages in his
second, fifth, and eighteenth year [l]; and other writers give us an
account of three more of them [m].  When the prince had thus obtained
money, he made a contract with some of those adventurers in which
Europe at that time abounded: they found him soldiers of the same
character with themselves, who were bound to serve for a stipulated
time: the armies were less numerous, but more useful, than when
composed of all the military vassals of the crown: the feudal
institutions began to relax: the kings became rapacious for money, on
which all their power depended: the barons, seeing no end of
exactions, sought to defend their property: and as the same causes had
nearly the same effects in the different countries of Europe, the
several crowns either lost or acquired authority, according to their
different success in the contest.
[FN [l] Madox, p. 435, 436, 437, 438.  [m] Tyrrel, vol. ii. p. 466,
from the records.]

This prince was also the first that levied a tax on the moveables or
personal estates of his subjects, nobles as well as commons.  Their
zeal for the holy wars made them submit to this innovation; and a
precedent being once obtained, this taxation became, in following
reigns, the usual method of supplying the necessities of the crown.
The tax of Danegelt, so generally odious to the nation, was remitted
in this reign.

It was a usual practice of the Kings of England to repeat the ceremony
of their coronation thrice every year, on assembling the states at the
three great festivals.  Henry, after the first years of his reign,
never renewed this ceremony, which was found to be very expensive and
very useless.  None of his successors revived it.  It is considered as
a great act of grace in this prince, that he mitigated the rigour of
the forest laws, and punished any transgressions of them, not
capitally, but by fines, imprisonments, and other more moderate
penalties.

Since we are here collecting some detached incidents which show the
genius of the age, and which could not so well enter into the body of
our history, it may not be improper to mention the quarrel between
Roger, Archbishop of York, and Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury.  We
may judge of the violence of military men and laymen, when
ecclesiastics could proceed to such extremities.  Cardinal Haguezun
being sent, in 1176, as legate into Britain, summoned an assembly of
the clergy at London; and as both the archbishops pretended to sit on
his right hand, this question of precedency begat a controversy
between them.  The monks and retainers of Archbishop Richard fell upon
Roger, in the presence of the cardinal and of the synod, threw him to
the ground, trampled him under foot, and so bruised him with blows
that he was taken up half dead, and his life was with difficulty saved
from their violence.  The Archbishop of Canterbury was obliged to pay
a large sum of money to the legate, in order to suppress all
complaints with regard to this enormity [n].
[FN [n] Bened. Abb. p. 138, 139.  Brompton, p. 1109.  Chron Gerv. p.
1433.  Neubrig. p. 413.]

We are told by Giraldus Cambrensis, that the monks and prior of St.
Swithun threw themselves one day prostrate on the ground and in the
mire before Henry, complaining, with many tears and much doleful
lamentation, that the Bishop of Winchester, who was also their abbot,
had cut off three dishes from their table.  How many has he left you?
said the king.  Ten only, replied the disconsolate monks.  I myself,
exclaimed the king, never have more than three; and I enjoin your
bishop to reduce you to the same number [o].
[FN [o] Gir. Camb. cap. 5. in Anglia Sacra, vol. ii.]

This king left only two legitimate sons, Richard who succeeded him,
and John who inherited no territory, though his father had often
intended to leave him a part of his extensive dominions.  He was
thence commonly denominated LACKLAND.  Henry left three legitimate
daughters: Maud, born in 1156, and married to Henry, Duke of Saxony;
Eleanor, born in 1162, and married to Alphonso, King of Castile; Joan,
born in 1165, and married to William, King of Sicily [p].
[FN [p] Diceto, p. 616.]

Henry is said by ancient historians to have been of a very amorous
disposition: they mention two of his natural sons by Rosamond,
daughter of Lord Clifford; namely, Richard Longespee, or Longsword,
(so called from the sword he usually wore,) who was afterwards married
to Ela, the daughter and heir of the Earl of Salisbury; and Geoffrey,
first Bishop of Lincoln, then Archbishop of York.  All the other
circumstances of the story, commonly told of that lady, seem to be
fabulous.




CHAPTER X.

RICHARD I.

THE KING'S PREPARATIONS FOR THE CRUSADE.--SETS OUT ON THE CRUSADE.--
TRANSACTIONS IN SICILY.--KING'S ARRIVAL IN PALESTINE.--STATE OF
PALESTINE.--DISORDERS IN ENGLAND.--THE KING'S HEROIC ACTIONS IN
PALESTINE.--HIS RETURN FROM PALESTINE.--CAPTIVITY IN GERMANY.--WAR
WITH FRANCE.--THE KING'S DELIVERY.--RETURN TO ENGLAND.--WAR WITH
FRANCE.--DEATH AND CHARACTER OF THE KING.--MISCELLANEOUS TRANSACTIONS
OF THIS REIGN.



[MN 1189.]  The compunction of Richard for his undutiful behaviour
towards his father was durable, and influenced him in the choice of
his ministers and servants after his accession.  Those who had
seconded and favoured his rebellion, instead of meeting with that
trust and honour which they expected, were surprised to find that they
lay under disgrace with the new king, and were on all occasions hated
and despised by him.  The faithful ministers of Henry, who had
vigorously opposed all the enterprises of his sons, were received with
open arms, and were continued in those offices which they had
honourably discharged to their former master [a].  This prudent
conduct might be the result of reflection; but in a prince like
Richard, so much guided by passion, and so little by policy, it was
commonly ascribed to a principle still more virtuous and more
honourable.
[FN [a] Hoveden, p. 655.  Bened. Abb. p. 547.  M. Paris, p. 107.]

Richard, that he might make atonement to one parent for his breach of
duty to the other, immediately sent orders for releasing the queen-
dowager from the confinement in which she had long been detained; and
he intrusted her with the government of England till his arrival in
that kingdom.  His bounty to his brother John was rather profuse and
imprudent.  Besides bestowing on him the county of Mortaigne, in
Normandy, granting him a pension of four thousand marks a year, and
marrying him to Avisa, the daughter of the Earl of Gloucester, by whom
he inherited all the possessions of that opulent family, he increased
his appanage, which the late king had destined him, by other extensive
grants and concessions.  He conferred on him the whole estate of
William Peverell, which had escheated to the crown: he put him in
possession of eight castles, with all the forests and honours annexed
to them: he delivered over to him no less than six earldoms, Cornwall,
Devon, Somerset, Nottingham, Dorset, Lancaster, and Derby.  And
endeavouring by favours, to fix that vicious prince in his duty, he
put it too much in his power, whenever he pleased, to depart from it.

[MN The king’s preparations for the crusade.]
The king, impelled more by the love of military glory than by
superstition, acted from the beginning of his reign, as if the sole
purpose of his government had been the relief of the Holy Land, and
the recovery of Jerusalem from the Saracens.  This zeal against
infidels, being communicated to his subjects, broke out in London on
the day of his coronation, and made them find a crusade less
dangerous, and attended with more immediate profit.  The prejudices of
the age had made the lending of money on interest pass by the
invidious name of usury; yet the necessity of the practice had still
continued it, and the greater part of that kind of dealing fell
everywhere into the hands of the Jews; who being already infamous on
account of their religion, had no honour to lose, and were apt to
exercise a profession, odious in itself, by every kind of rigour, and
even sometimes by rapine and extortion.  The industry and frugality of
this people had put them in possession of all the ready money, which
the idleness and profusion, common to the English with other European
nations, enabled them to lend at exorbitant and unequal interest.  The
monkish writers represent it as a great stain on the wise and
equitable government of Henry, that he had carefully protected this
infidel race from all injures and insults; but the zeal of Richard
afforded the populace a pretence for venting their animosity against
them.  The king had issued an edict prohibiting their appearance at
his coronation; but some of them, bringing him large presents from
their nation, presumed, in confidence of that merit, to approach the
hall in which he dined: being discovered, they were exposed to the
insults of the bystanders; they took to flight; the people pursued
them; the rumour was spread that the king had issued orders to
massacre all the Jews; a command so agreeable was executed in an
instant on such as fell into the hands of the populace; those who had
kept at home were exposed to equal danger; the people, moved by
rapacity and zeal, broke into their houses, which they plundered,
after having murdered the owners; where the Jews barricaded their
doors, and defended themselves with vigour, the rabble set fire to the
houses, and made way through the flames to exercise their pillage and
violence; the usual licentiousness of London, which the sovereign
power with difficulty restrained, broke out with fury, and continued
these outrages; the houses of the richest citizens, though Christians,
were next attacked and plundered; and weariness and satiety at last
put an end to the disorder: yet, when the king empowered Glanville,
the justiciary, to inquire into the authors of these crimes, the guilt
was found to involve so many of the most considerable citizens, that
it was deemed more prudent to drop the prosecution; and very few
suffered the punishment due to this enormity.  But the disorder
stopped not at London.  The inhabitants of the other cities of
England, hearing of this slaughter of the Jews, imitated the example:
in York, five hundred of that nation, who had retired into the castle
for safety, and found themselves unable to defend the place, murdered
their own wives and children, threw the dead bodies over the walls
upon the populace, and then setting fire to the houses perished in the
flames.  The gentry of the neighbourhood, who were all indebted to the
Jews, ran to the cathedral, where their bonds were kept, and made a
solemn bonfire of the papers before the altar.  The compiler of the
Annals of Waverley, in relating these events, blesses the Almighty for
thus delivering over this impious race to destruction [b].
[FN [b] Gale's Collect. vol. iii. p. 165.]

The ancient situation of England, when the people possessed little
riches and the public no credit, made it impossible for sovereigns to
bear the expense of a steady or durable war, even on their frontiers;
much less could they find regular means for the support of distant
expeditions like those into Palestine, which were more the result of
popular frenzy than of sober reason or deliberate policy.  Richard,
therefore, knew that he must carry with him all the treasure necessary
for his enterprise, and that both the remoteness of his own country
and its poverty made it unable to furnish him with those continued
supplies, which the exigencies of so perilous a war must necessarily
require.  His father had left him a treasure of above a hundred
thousand marks; and the king, negligent of every consideration but his
present object, endeavoured to augment this sum by all expedients, how
pernicious soever to the public, or dangerous to royal authority.  He
put to sale the revenues and manors of the crown; the offices of
greatest trust and power, even those of forester and sheriff, which
anciently were so important [c], became venal; the dignity of chief
justiciary, in whose hands was lodged the whole execution of the laws,
was sold to Hugh de Puzas, Bishop of Durham, for a thousand marks; the
same prelate bought the earldom of Northumberland for life [d]; many
of the champions of the cross, who had repented of the vow, purchased
the liberty of violating it; and Richard, who stood less in need of
men than of money, dispensed, on these conditions, with their
attendance.  Elated with the hopes of fame, which, in that age,
attended no wars but those against the infidels, he was blind to every
other consideration; and when some of his wiser ministers objected to
this dissipation of the revenue and power of the crown, he replied
that he would sell London itself, could he find a purchaser [e].
Nothing, indeed, could be a stronger proof how negligent he was of all
future interests in comparison of the crusade, than his selling, for
so small a sum as ten thousand marks, the vassalage of Scotland,
together with the fortresses of Roxburgh and Berwick, the greatest
acquisition that had been made by his father during the course of his
victorious reign; and his accepting the homage of William in the usual
terms, merely for the territories which that prince held in England
[f].  The English of all ranks and stations were oppressed by numerous
exactions; menaces were employed, both against the innocent and the
guilty, in order to extort money from them; and where a pretence was
wanting against the rich, the king obliged them, by the fear of his
displeasure, to lend him sums which, he knew, it would never be in his
power to repay.
[FN [c] The sheriff had anciently both the administration of justice
and the management of the king's revenue committed to him in the
county. See HALE, OF SHERIFF’S ACCOUNTS.  [d] M. Paris, p. 109.  [e]
W. Heming. p. 519.  Knyghton, p. 2402.  [f] Hoveden, p. 662.  Rymer,
vol. i. p. 64.  M. West. p. 257.]

But Richard, though he sacrificed every interest and consideration to
the success of this pious enterprise, carried so little the appearance
of sanctity in his conduct, that Fulk, curate of Neuilly, a zealous
preacher of the crusade, who, from that merit, had acquired the
privilege of speaking the boldest truths, advised him to rid himself
of his notorious vices, particularly his pride, avarice, and
voluptuousness, which he called the king's three favourite daughters.
YOU COUNSEL WELL, replied Richard, and I HEREBY DISPOSE OF THE FIRST
TO THE TEMPLARS, OF THE SECOND TO THE BENEDICTINES, AND OF THE THIRD
TO MY PRELATES.

Richard, jealous of attempts which might be made on England during his
absence, laid Prince John, as well as his natural brother, Geoffrey,
Archbishop of York, under engagements, confirmed by their oaths, that
neither of them should enter the kingdom till his return; though he
thought proper, before his departure, to withdraw this prohibition.
The administration was left in the hands of Hugh, Bishop of Durham,
and of Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, whom he appointed justiciaries and
guardians of the realm.  The latter was a Frenchman, of mean birth,
and of a violent character; who, by art and address, had insinuated
himself into favour, whom Richard had created chancellor, and whom he
had engaged the pope also to invest with the legatine authority, that,
by centering every kind of power in his person, he might the better
ensure the public tranquillity.  All the military and turbulent
spirits flocked about the person of the king, and were impatient to
distinguish themselves against the infidels in Asia; whither his
inclinations, his engagements, led him, and whither he was impelled by
messages from the King of France, ready to embark in this enterprise.

The Emperor Frederic, a prince of great spirit and conduct, had
already taken the road to Palestine, at the head of one hundred and
fifty thousand men, collected from Germany and all the northern
states.  Having surmounted every obstacle thrown in his way by the
artifices of the Greeks and the power of the infidels, he had
penetrated to the borders of Syria; when, bathing in the cold river
Cydnus during the greatest heat of the summer season, he was seized
with a mortal distemper, which put an end to his life and his rash
enterprise [g].  His army, under the command of his son, Conrade,
reached Palestine; but was so diminished by fatigue, famine, maladies,
and the sword, that it scarcely amounted to eight thousand men; and
was unable to make any progress against the great power, valour, and
conduct of Saladin.  These reiterated calamities attending the
crusades had taught the Kings of France and England the necessity of
trying another road to the Holy Land; and they determined to conduct
their armies thither by sea, to carry provisions along with them, and,
by means of their naval power, to maintain an open communication with
their own states, and with the western parts of Europe.  The place of
rendezvous was appointed in the plains of Vezelay, on the borders of
Burgundy [h]: [MN 1190.  29th June.] Philip and Richard, on their
arrival there, found their combined army amount to one hundred
thousand men [i]; a mighty force, animated with glory and religion,
conducted by two warlike monarchs, provided with every thing which
their several dominions could supply, and not to be overcome but by
their own misconduct, or by the unsurmountable obstacles of nature.
[FN [g] Bened. Abb. p. 556.  [h] Hoveden, p. 660.  [i] Vinisauf, p.
305.]

[MN King sets out on the crusade.]
The French prince and the English here reiterated their promises of
cordial friendship, pledged their faith not to invade each other's
dominions during the crusade, mutually exchanged the oaths of all
their barons and prelates to the same effect, and subjected themselves
to the penalty of interdicts and excommunications, if they should ever
violate this public and solemn engagement.  They then separated;
Philip took the road to Genoa, Richard that to Marseilles, with a view
of meeting their fleets, which were severally appointed to rendezvous
in these harbours.  [MN 14th Sept.]  They put to sea; and, nearly
about the same time, were obliged, by stress of weather, to take
shelter in Messina, where they were detained during the whole winter.
This incident laid the foundation of animosities which proved fatal to
their enterprise.

Richard and Philip were, by the situation and extent of their
dominions, rivals in power; by their age and inclinations, competitors
for glory; and these causes of emulation which, had the princes been
employed in the field against the common enemy, might have stimulated
them to martial enterprises, soon excited, during the present leisure
and repose, quarrels between monarchs of such a fiery character.
Equally haughty, ambitious, intrepid, and inflexible, they were
irritated with the least appearance of injury, and were incapable, by
mutual condescensions, to efface those causes of complaint, which
unavoidably arose between them.  Richard, candid, sincere,
undesigning, impolitic, violent, laid himself open, on every occasion,
to the designs of his antagonist; who, provident, interested,
intriguing, failed not to take all advantages against him: and thus,
both the circumstances of their disposition in which they were
similar, and those in which they differed, rendered it impossible for
them to persevere in that harmony which was so necessary to the
success of their undertaking.

[MN Transactions in Sicily.]
The last King of Sicily and Naples was William II., who had married
Joan, sister to Richard, and who, dying without issue, had bequeathed
his dominions to his paternal aunt, Constantia, the only legitimate
descendant surviving of Roger, the first sovereign of those states who
had been honoured with the royal title.  This princess had, in
expectation of that rich inheritance, been married to Henry VI., the
reigning emperor [k]; but Tancred, her natural brother, had fixed such
an interest among the barons, that, taking advantage of Henry's
absence, he had acquired possession of the throne, and maintained his
claim, by force of arms, against all the efforts of the Germans [l].
The approach of the crusaders naturally gave him apprehensions for his
unstable government; and he was uncertain, whether he had most reason
to dread the presence of the French or of the English monarch.  Philip
was engaged in a strict alliance with the emperor his competitor;
Richard was disgusted by his rigours towards the queen-dowager, whom
the Sicilian prince had confined in Palermo, because she had opposed
with all her interest his succession to the crown.  Tancred,
therefore, sensible of the present necessity, resolved to pay court to
both these formidable princes; and he was not unsuccessful in his
endeavours.  He persuaded Philip that it was highly improper for him
to interrupt his enterprise against the infidels, by any attempt
against a Christian state: he restored Queen Joan to her liberty; and
even found means to make an alliance with Richard, who stipulated by
treaty to marry his nephew, Arthur, the young Duke of Britany, to one
of the daughters of Tancred [m].  But before these terms of friendship
were settled, Richard, jealous both of Tancred and of the inhabitants
of Messina, had taken up his quarters in the suburbs, and had
possessed himself of a small fort, which commanded the harbour; and he
kept himself extremely on his guard against their enterprises.  [MN 3d
Oct.]  The citizens took umbrage.  Mutual insults and attacks passed
between them and the English: Philip, who had quartered his troops in
the town, endeavoured to accommodate the quarrel, and held a
conference with Richard for that purpose.  While the two kings,
meeting in the open fields, were engaged in discourse on this subject,
a body of those Sicilians seemed to be drawing towards them; and
Richard pushed forwards, in order to inquire into the reason of this
extraordinary movement [n].  The English, insolent from their power,
and inflamed with former animosities, wanted but a pretence for
attacking the Messinese: they soon chased them off the field, drove
them into the town, and entered with them at the gates.  The king
employed his authority to restrain them from pillaging and massacring
the defenceless inhabitants; but he gave orders, in token of his
victory, that the standard of England should be erected on the walls.
Philip, who considered that place as his quarters, exclaimed against
the insult, and ordered some of his troops to pull down the standard:
but Richard informed him by a messenger, that, though he himself would
willingly remove that ground of offence, he would not permit it to be
done by others; and if the French king attempted such an insult upon
him, he should not succeed but by the utmost effusion of blood.
Philip, content with this species of haughty submission, recalled his
orders [o]; the difference was seemingly accommodated; but still left
the remains of rancour and jealousy in the breasts of the two
monarchs.
[FN [k] Bened. Abb. p. 580.  [1] Hoveden, p. 663.  [m] Hoveden, p.
676, 677.  Bened Abb. p. 615.  [n] Bened. Abb. p. 608.  [o] Hoveden,
p. 674.]

Tancred, who, for his own security, desired to inflame their mutual
hatred, employed an artifice which might have been attended with
consequences still more fatal.  [MN 1191.]  He showed Richard a
letter, signed by the French king, and delivered to him, as he
pretended, by the Duke of Burgundy; in which that monarch desired
Tancred to fall upon the quarters of the English, and promised to
assist him in putting them to the sword, as common enemies.  The
unwary Richard gave credit to the information; but was too candid not
to betray his discontent to Philip, who absolutely denied the letter,
and charged the Sicilian prince with forgery and falsehood.  Richard
either was, or pretended to be, entirely satisfied [p].
[FN [p] Ibid. p. 688.  Bened. Abb. p. 642, 643.  Brompton, p. 1195.]

Lest these jealousies and complaints should multiply between them, it
was proposed, that they should, by a solemn treaty, obviate all future
differences, and adjust every point that could possibly hereafter
become a controversy between them.  But this expedient started a new
dispute, which might have proved more dangerous than any of the
foregoing, and which deeply concerned the honour of Philip's family.
When Richard, in every treaty with the late king, insisted so
strenuously on being allowed to marry Alice of France, he had only
sought a pretence for quarrelling; and never meant to take to his bed
a princess suspected of a criminal amour with his own father.  After
he became master, he no longer spake of that alliance: he even took
measures for espousing Berengaria, daughter of Sanchez, King of
Navarre, with whom he had become enamoured during his abode in Guienne
[q]; Queen Eleanor was daily expected with that princess at Messina
[r] and when Philip renewed to him his applications for espousing his
sister Alice, Richard was obliged to give him an absolute refusal.  It
is pretended by Hoveden and other historians [s], that he was able to
produce such convincing proofs of Alice's infidelity, and even of her
having borne a child to Henry, that her brother desisted from his
applications, and chose to wrap up the dishonour of his family in
silence and oblivion.  It is certain, from the treaty itself, which
remains [t], that whatever were his motives, he permitted Richard to
give his hand to Berengaria; and having settled all other
controversies with that prince, he immediately set sail for the Holy
Land.  Richard awaited some time the arrival of his mother and bride;
and when they joined him, he separated his fleet into two squadrons,
and set forward on his enterprise.  Queen Eleanor returned to England,
but Berengaria and the queen-dowager of Sicily, his sister, attended
him on the expedition [u].
[FN [q] Vinisauf, p. 316.  [r] M. Paris, p. 112.  Trivet, p. 102.  W.
Heming, p. 519.  [s] Hoveden, p. 688.  [t] Rymer, vol. i. p. 69.
Chron. de Dunst, p. 44.  [u] Bened. Abb. p. 644.]

The English fleet, on leaving the port of Messina, met with a furious
tempest, and the squadron on which the two princesses were embarked
was driven on the coast of Cyprus, and some of the vessels were
wrecked near Limisso in that island.  [MN 12th April.]  Isaac, Prince
of Cyprus, who assumed the magnificent title of Emperor, pillaged the
ships that were stranded, threw the seamen and passengers into prison,
and even refused to the princesses liberty, in their dangerous
situation, of entering the harbour of Limisso.  But Richard, who
arrived soon after, took ample vengeance on him for the injury.  He
disembarked his troops; defeated the tyrant, who opposed his landing;
entered Limisso by storm; gained next day a second victory; obliged
Isaac to surrender at discretion; and established governors over the
island.  The Greek prince, being thrown into prison and loaded with
irons, complained of the little regard with which he was treated: upon
which, Richard ordered silver fetters to be made for him; and this
emperor, pleased with the distinction, expressed a sense of the
generosity of his conqueror [w].  [MN 1191.  12th May.]  The king here
espoused Berengaria, who, immediately embarking, carried along with
her to Palestine the daughter of the Cypriot prince; a dangerous
rival, who was believed to have seduced the affections of her husband.
Such were the libertine character and conduct of the heroes engaged in
this pious enterprise!
[FN [w] Bened. Abb. p. 650.  Ann. Waverl. p. 164.  Vinisauf, p. 328.
W. Heming. p. 523.]

[MN The king’s arrival in Palestine.]
The English army arrived in time to partake in the glory of the siege
of Acre or Ptolemais, which had been attacked for above two years by
the united forces of all the Christians in Palestine, and had been
defended by the utmost efforts of Saladin and the Saracens.  The
remains of the German army, conducted by the Emperor Frederic, and the
separate bodies of adventurers who continually poured in from the
West, had enabled the King of Jerusalem to form this important
enterprise [x]: but Saladin, having thrown a strong garrison into the
place under the command of Caracos, his own master in the art of war,
and molesting the besiegers with continual attacks and sallies, had
protracted the success of the enterprise, and wasted the force of his
enemies.  The arrival of Philip and Richard inspired new life into the
Christians; and these princes, acting by concert, and sharing the
honour and danger of every action, gave hopes of a final victory over
the infidels.  They agreed on this plan of operations: when the French
monarch attacked the town, the English guarded the trenches: next day,
when the English prince conducted the assault, the French succeeded
him in providing for the safety of the assailants.  The emulation
between those rival kings and rival nations produced extraordinary
acts of valour: Richard in particular, animated with a more
precipitate courage than Philip, and more agreeable to the romantic
spirit of that age, drew to himself the general attention, and
acquired a great and splendid reputation.  But this harmony was of
short duration; and occasions of discord soon arose between these
jealous and haughty princes.
[FN [x] Vinisauf, p. 269, 271, 279.]

[MN 1191.  State of Palestine.]
The family of Bouillon, which had first been placed on the throne of
Jerusalem, ending in a female, Fulk, Count of Anjou, grandfather to
Henry II. of England, married the heiress of that kingdom, and
transmitted his title to the younger branches of his family.  The
Anjevin race ending also in a female, Guy de Lusignan, by espousing
Sibylla, the heiress, had succeeded to the title; and though he lost
his kingdom by the invasion of Saladin, he was still acknowledged by
all the Christians for king of Jerusalem [y].  But as Sibylla died
without issue, during the siege of Acre, Isabella, her younger sister,
put in her claim to that titular kingdom, and required Lusignan to
resign his pretensions to her husband, Conrade, Marquis of Montferrat.
Lusignan maintaining that the royal title was unalienable and
indefeasible, had recourse to the protection of Richard, attended on
him before he left Cyprus, and engaged him to embrace his cause [z].
There needed no other reason for throwing Philip into the party of
Conrade; and the opposite views of these great monarchs brought
faction and dissension into the Christian army, and retarded all its
operations.  The Templars, the Genoese, and the Germans declared for
Philip and Conrade; the Flemings, the Pisans, the Knights of the
Hospital of St. John, adhered to Richard and Lusignan.  But
notwithstanding these disputes, as the length of the siege had reduced
the Saracen garrison to the last extremity, [MN 12th July.] they
surrendered themselves prisoners; stipulated, in return for their
lives, other advantages to the Christians, such as the restoring of
the Christian prisoners, and the delivery of the wood of the true
cross [a]; and this great enterprise, which had long engaged the
attention of all Europe and Asia, was, at last, after the loss of
three hundred thousand men, brought to a happy period.
[FN [y] Vinisauf, p. 281.  [z] Trivet, p. 134.  Vinisauf, p. 342.  W.
Heming. p. 524.  [a] This true cross was lost in the battle of
Tiberiade, to which it had been carried by the crusaders for their
protection.  Rigord, an author of that age, says, that after this
dismal event, all the children who were born throughout all
Christendom had only twenty or twenty-two teeth, instead of thirty or
thirty-two, which was their former complement, p. 14.]

But Philip, instead of pursuing the hopes of farther conquest, and of
redeeming the holy city from slavery, being disgusted with the
ascendant assumed and acquired by Richard, and having views of many
advantages, which he might reap by his presence in Europe, declared
his resolution of returning to France; and he pleaded his bad state of
health as an excuse for his desertion of the common cause.  He left,
however, to Richard ten thousand of his troops, under the command of
the Duke of Burgundy; and he renewed his oath never to commence
hostilities against that prince’s dominions during his absence.  But
he had no sooner reached Italy than he applied, it is pretended, to
Pope Celestine III. for a dispensation from his vow; and when denied
that request, he still proceeded, though after a covert manner, in a
project, which the present situation of England rendered inviting, and
which gratified, in an eminent degree, both his resentment and his
ambition.

[MN Disorders in England.]
Immediately after Richard had left England, and begun his march to the
Holy Land, the two prelates, whom he had appointed guardians of the
realm, broke out into animosities against each other, and threw the
kingdom into combustion.  Longchamp, presumptuous in his nature,
elated by the favour which he enjoyed with his master, and armed with
the legatine commission, could not submit to an equality with the
Bishop of Durham: he even went so far as to arrest his colleague, and
to extort from him a resignation of the earldom of Northumberland, and
of his other dignities, as the price of his liberty [b].  The king,
informed of these dissensions, ordered, by letters from Marseilles,
that the bishop should be reinstated in his offices; but Longchamp had
still the boldness to refuse compliance, on pretence that he himself
was better acquainted with the king’s secret intentions [c].  He
proceeded to govern the kingdom by his sole authority; to treat all
the nobility with arrogance; and to display his power and riches with
an invidious ostentation.  He never travelled without a strong guard
of fifteen hundred foreign soldiers, collected from that licentious
tribe with which the age was generally infested: nobles and knights
were proud of being admitted into his train: his retinue wore the
aspect of royal magnificence: and when, in his progress through the
kingdom, he lodged in any monastery, his attendants, it is said, were
sufficient to devour, in one night, the revenue of several years [d].
The king, who was detained in Europe longer than the haughty prelate
expected, hearing of this ostentation, which exceeded even what the
habits of that age indulged in ecclesiastics; being also informed of
the insolent, tyrannical conduct of his minister, thought proper to
restrain his power: he sent new orders, appointing Walter Archbishop
of Rouen, William Mareschal Earl of Strigul, Geoffrey Fitz-Peter,
William Briewere, and Hugh Bardolf, counsellors to Longchamp, and
commanding him to take no measure of importance without their
concurrence and approbation.  But such general terror had this man
impressed by his violent conduct, that even the Archbishop of Rouen
and the Earl of Strigul durst not produce this mandate of the king's;
and Longchamp still maintained an uncontrolled authority over the
nation.  But when he proceeded so far as to throw into prison
Geoffrey, Archbishop of York, who had opposed his measures, this
breach of ecclesiastical privileges excited such an universal ferment,
that Prince John, disgusted with the small share he possessed in the
government, and personally disobliged by Longchamp, ventured to
summon, at Reading, a general council of the nobility and prelates,
and cite him to appear before them.  Longchamp thought it dangerous to
intrust his person in their hands, and he shut himself up in the Tower
of London; but being soon obliged to surrender that fortress, he fled
beyond sea, concealed under a female habit, and was deprived of his
offices of chancellor and chief justiciary; the last of which was
conferred on the Archbishop of Rouen, a prelate of prudence and
moderation.  The commission of legate, however, which had been renewed
to Longchamp by Pope Celestine, still gave him, notwithstanding his
absence, great authority in the kingdom, enabled him to disturb the
government, and forwarded the views of Philip, who watched every
opportunity of annoying Richard's dominions.  [MN 1192.]  That monarch
first attempted to carry open war into Normandy; but as the French
nobility refused to follow him in an invasion of a state which they
had sworn to protect, and as the pope, who was the general guardian of
all princes that had taken the cross, threatened him with
ecclesiastical censures, he desisted from his enterprise, and employed
against England the expedient of secret policy and intrigue.  He
debauched Prince John from his allegiance; promised him his sister
Alice in marriage; offered to give him possession of all Richard's
transmarine dominions; and had not the authority of Queen Eleanor, and
the menaces of the English council, prevailed over the inclinations of
that turbulent prince, he was ready to have crossed the seas, and to
have put in execution his criminal enterprises.
[FN [b] Hoveden, p. 665.  Knyghton, p. 2403.  [c] W. Heming. p. 528.
[d] Hoveden, p. 680.  Bened. Abb. p. 626, 700.  Brompton, p. 1193.]

[MN The king’s heroic actions in Palestine.]
The jealousy of Philip was every moment excited by the glory which the
great actions of Richard were gaining him in the East, and which,
being compared to his own desertion of that popular cause, threw a
double lustre on his rival.  His envy, therefore, prompted him to
obscure that fame which he had not equalled; and he embraced every
pretence of throwing the most violent and most improbable calumnies on
the King of England.  There was a petty prince in Asia, commonly
called THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN, who had acquired such an ascendant
over his fanatical subjects, that they paid the most implicit
deference to his commands; esteemed assassination meritorious when
sanctified by his mandate; courted danger, and even certain death, in
the execution of his orders; and fancied, that when they sacrificed
their lives for his sake, the highest joys of paradise were the
infallible reward of their devoted obedience [e].  It was the custom
of this prince, when he imagined himself injured, to despatch secretly
some of his subjects against the aggressor, to charge them with the
execution of his revenge, to instruct them in every art of disguising
their purpose; and no precaution was sufficient to guard any man,
however powerful, against the attempts of these subtle and determined
ruffians.  The greatest monarchs stood in awe of this Prince of the
Assassins, (for that was the name of his people; whence the word has
passed into most European languages,) and it was the highest
indiscretion in Conrade, Marquis of Montferrat, to offend and affront
him.  The inhabitants of Tyre, who were governed by that nobleman, had
put to death some of this dangerous people: the prince demanded
satisfaction; for, as he piqued himself on never beginning any offence
[f], he had his regular and established formalities in requiring
atonement: Conrade treated his messengers with disdain: the prince
issued the fatal order: two of his subjects, who had insinuated
themselves in disguise among Conrade's guards, openly, in the streets
of Sidon, wounded him mortally; and when they were seized and put to
the most cruel tortures, they triumphed amidst their agonies, and
rejoiced that they had been destined by heaven to suffer in so just
and meritorious a cause.
[FN [e] W. Heming. p. 532.  Brompton, p. 1243.  [f] Rymer, vol. i. p.
71.]

Every one in Palestine knew from what hand the blow came.  Richard was
entirely free from suspicion.  Though that monarch had formerly
maintained the cause of Lusignan against Conrade, he had become
sensible of the bad effects attending those dissensions, and had
voluntarily conferred on the former the kingdom of Cyprus, on
condition that he should resign to his rival all pretensions to the
crown of Jerusalem [g].  Conrade himself, with his dying breath, had
recommended his widow to the protection of Richard [h]; the Prince of
the Assassins avowed the action in a formal narrative which he sent to
Europe [i]; yet, on this foundation, the King of France thought fit to
build the most egregious calumnies, and to impute to Richard the
murder of the Marquis of Montferrat, whose elevation he had once
openly opposed.  He filled all Europe with exclamations against the
crime; appointed a guard for his own person, in order to defend
himself against a like attempt [k]; and endeavoured, by these shallow
artifices, to cover the infamy of attacking the dominions of a prince
whom he himself had deserted, and who was engaged with so much glory
in a war, universally acknowledged to be the common cause of
Christendom.
[FN [g] Vinisauf, p. 391.  [h] Brompton, p. 1243.  [i] Rymer, vol. i.
p. 71.  Trivet, p. 124.  W. Heming. p. 544.  Diceto, p. 680.  [k] W
Heming. p. 532.  Brompton, p. 1245.]

But Richard's heroic actions in Palestine were the best apology for
his conduct.  The Christian adventurers under his command determined,
on opening the campaign, to attempt the siege of Ascalon, in order to
prepare the way for that of Jerusalem; and they marched along the sea-
coast with that intention.  Saladin purposed to intercept their
passage; and he placed himself on the road with an army, amounting to
three hundred thousand combatants.  On this occasion was fought one of
the greatest battles of that age; and the most celebrated, for the
military genius of the commanders, for the number and valour of the
troops, and for the great variety of events which attended it.  Both
the right wing of the Christians, commanded by d'Avesnes, and the
left, conducted by the Duke of Burgundy, were, in the beginning of the
day, broken and defeated; when Richard, who led on the main body,
restored the battle; attacked the enemy with intrepidity and presence
of mind; performed the part both of a consummate general and gallant
soldier; and not only gave his two wings leisure to recover from their
confusion, but obtained a complete victory over the Saracens, of whom
forty thousand are said to have perished in the field [l].  Ascalon
soon after fell into the hands of the Christians: other sieges were
carried on with equal success: Richard was even able to advance within
sight of Jerusalem, the object of his enterprise, when he had the
mortification to find that he must abandon all hopes of immediate
success, and must put a stop to his career of victory.  The crusaders,
animated with an enthusiastic ardour for the holy wars, broke at first
through all regards to safety or interest in the prosecution of their
purpose; and trusting to the immediate assistance of Heaven, set
nothing before their eyes but fame and victory in this world, and a
crown of glory in the next.  But long absence from home, fatigue,
disease, want, and the variety of incidents which naturally attend
war, had gradually abated that fury, which nothing was able directly
to withstand; and every one, except the King of England, expressed a
desire of speedily returning into Europe.  The Germans and the
Italians declared their resolution of desisting from the enterprise:
the French were still more obstinate in this purpose: the Duke of
Burgundy, in order to pay court to Philip, took all opportunities of
mortifying and opposing Richard [m]: and there appeared an absolute
necessity of abandoning for the present all hopes of farther conquest,
and of securing the acquisitions of the Christians by an accommodation
with Saladin.  Richard, therefore, concluded a truce with that
monarch; and stipulated that Acre, Joppa, and other sea-port towns of
Palestine, should remain in the hands of the Christians, and that
every one of that religion should have liberty to perform his
pilgrimage to Jerusalem unmolested.  This truce was concluded for
three years, three months, three weeks, three days, and three hours; a
magical number, which had probably been devised by the Europeans, and
which was suggested by a superstition well suited to the object of the
war.
[FN [l] Hoveden, p. 698.  Bened. Abb. p. 677.  Diceto, p. 662.
Brompton, p. 1214.  [m] Vinisauf, p. 380.]

The liberty, in which Saladin indulged the Christians, to perform
their pilgrimages to Jerusalem, was an easy sacrifice on his part; and
the furious wars which he waged in defence of the barren territory of
Judea were not with him, as with the European adventurers, the result
of superstition, but of policy.  The advantage indeed of science,
moderation, humanity, was at that time entirely on the side of the
Saracens; and this gallant emperor, in particular, displayed, during
the course of the war, a spirit and generosity, which even his bigoted
enemies were obliged to acknowledge and admire.  Richard, equally
martial and brave, carried with him more of the barbarian character,
and was guilty of acts of ferocity, which threw a stain on his
celebrated victories.  When Saladin refused to ratify the capitulation
of Acre, the king of England ordered all his prisoners, to the number
of five thousand, to be butchered; and the Saracens found themselves
obliged to retaliate upon the Christians by a like cruelty [n].
Saladin died at Damascus soon after concluding this truce with the
princes of the crusade: it is memorable that, before he expired, he
ordered his winding-sheet to be carried as a standard through every
street of the city; while a crier went before, and proclaimed with a
loud voice, THIS IS ALL THAT REMAINS TO THE MIGHTY SALADIN, THE
CONQUEROR OF THE EAST.  By his last will he ordered charities to be
distributed to the poor without distinction of Jew, Christian, or
Mahometan.
[FN [n] Hoveden, p. 697.  Bened. Abb. p. 673.  M. Paris, p. 115.
Vinisauf, p. 346.  W. Heming. p. 531.]

[MN 1192.  The king’s return from Palestine.]
There remained, after the truce, no business of importance to detain
Richard in Palestine; and the intelligence which he received,
concerning the intrigues of his brother John, and those of the King of
France, made him sensible that his presence was necessary in Europe.
As he dared not to pass through France, be sailed to the Adriatic; and
being shipwrecked near Aquileia, he put on the disguise of a pilgrim,
with a purpose of taking his journey secretly through Germany.
Pursued by the governor of Istria, he was forced out of the direct
road to England, and was obliged to pass by Vienna, [MN 20th Dec.]
where his expenses and liberalities betrayed the monarch in the habit
of the pilgrim; and he was arrested by orders of Leopold, Duke of
Austria.  This prince had served under Richard at the siege of Acre;
but being disgusted by some insult of that haughty monarch, he was so
ungenerous as to seize the present opportunity of gratifying at once
his avarice and revenge; and he threw the king into prison.  [MN
1193.]  The emperor, Henry VI., who also considered Richard as an
enemy, on account of the alliance contracted by him with Tancred, King
of Sicily, despatched messengers to the Duke of Austria, required the
royal captive to be delivered to him, and stipulated a large sum of
money as a reward for this service.  [MN Captivity in Germany.]  Thus,
the King of England, who had filled the whole world with his renown,
found himself, during the most critical state of his affairs, confined
in a dungeon, and loaded with irons, in the heart of Germany [o], and
entirely at the mercy of his enemies, the basest and most sordid of
mankind.
[FN [o] Chron. T. Wykes, p. 35.]

The English council was astonished on receiving this fatal
intelligence; and foresaw all the dangerous consequences which might
naturally arise from that event.  The queen-dowager wrote reiterated
letters to Pope Celestine, exclaiming against the injury which her son
had sustained; representing the impiety of detaining in prison the
most illustrious prince that had yet carried the banners of Christ
into the Holy Land; claiming the protection of the apostolic see,
which was due even to the meanest of those adventurers; and upbraiding
the pope, that in a cause where justice, religion, and the dignity of
the church, were so much concerned, a cause which it might well befit
his holiness himself to support, by taking in person a journey to
Germany, the spiritual thunders should so long be suspended over those
sacrilegious offenders [p].  The zeal of Celestine corresponded not to
the impatience of the queen-mother; and the regency of England were,
for a long time, left to struggle alone with all their domestic and
foreign enemies.
[FN [p] Rymer, vol. i. p. 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, &c.]

[MN War with France.]
The King of France, quickly informed of Richard's confinement by a
message from the emperor [q], prepared himself to take advantage of
the incident; and he employed every means of force and intrigue, of
war and negotiation, against the dominions and the person of his
unfortunate rival.  He revived the calumny of Richard's assassinating
the Marquis of Montferrat; and by that absurd pretence he induced his
barons to violate their oaths, by which they had engaged that, during
the crusade, they never would, on any account, attack the dominions of
the King of England.  He made the emperor the largest offers, if he
would deliver into his hands the royal prisoner, or at least detain
him in perpetual captivity: he even formed an alliance by marriage
with the King of Denmark, desired that the ancient Danish claim to the
crown of England should be transferred to him, and solicited a supply
of shipping to maintain it.  But the most successful of Philip's
negotiations was with Prince John, who, forgetting every tie to his
brother, his sovereign, and his benefactor, thought of nothing but how
to make his own advantage of the public calamities.  That traitor, on
the first invitation from the court of France, suddenly went abroad,
had a conference with Philip, and made a treaty, of which the object
was the perpetual ruin of his unhappy brother.  He stipulated to
deliver into Philip's hands a great part of Normandy [r]; he received,
in return, the investiture of all Richard's transmarine dominions; and
it is reported by several historians, that he even did homage to the
French king for the crown of England.
[FN [q] Ibid. p. 70.  [r] Rymer, vol. i. p. 85.]

In consequence of this treaty, Philip invaded Normandy; and by the
treachery of John's emissaries, made himself master, without
opposition, of many fortresses, Neuf-chatel, Neaufle, Gisors, Pacey,
Ivree: he subdued the counties of Eu and Aumale; and advancing to form
the siege of Rouen, he threatened to put all the inhabitants to the
sword if they dared to make resistance.  Happily, Robert, Earl of
Leicester, appeared in that critical moment; a gallant nobleman, who
had acquired great honour during the crusade, and who, being more
fortunate than his master in finding his passage homewards, took on
him the command in Rouen, and exerted himself, by his exhortations and
example, to infuse courage into the dismayed Normans.  Philip was
repulsed in every attack; the time of service from his vassals
expired; and he consented to a truce with the English regency,
received in return the promise of twenty thousand marks, and had four
castles put into his hands, as security for the payment [s].
[FN [s] Hoveden, p.730, 731.  Rymer, vol. i. p. 81.]

Prince John, who, with a view of increasing the general confusion,
went over to England, was still less successful in his enterprises.
He was only able to make himself master of the castles of Windsor and
Wallingford; but when he arrived in London, and claimed the kingdom as
heir to his brother, of whose death he pretended to have received
certain intelligence, he was rejected by all the barons, and measures
were taken to oppose and subdue him [t].  The justiciaries, supported
by the general affection of the people, provided so well for the
defence of the kingdom, that John was obliged, after some fruitless
efforts, to conclude a truce with them; and before its expiration, he
thought it prudent to return to France, where he openly avowed his
alliance with Philip [u].
[FN [t] Hoveden, p. 724.  [u] W. Heming. p. 536.]

Meanwhile the high spirit of Richard suffered in Germany every kind of
insult and indignity.  The French ambassadors, in their master's name,
renounced him as a vassal to the crown of France, and declared  all
his fiefs to be forfeited to his liege lord.  The emperor, that he
might render him more impatient for the recovery of his liberty, and
make him submit to the payment of a larger ransom, treated him with
the greatest severity, and reduced him to a condition worse than that
of the meanest malefactor.  He was even produced before the diet of
the empire at Worms, and accused by Henry of many crimes and
misdemeanours; of making an alliance with Tancred, the usurper of
Sicily; of turning the arms of the crusade against a Christian prince,
and subduing Cyprus; of affronting the Duke of Austria before Acre; of
obstructing the progress of the Christian arms by his quarrels with
the King of France; of assassinating Conrade, Marquis of Montferrat;
and of concluding a truce with Saladin, and leaving Jerusalem in the
hands of the Saracen emperor [w].  Richard, whose spirit was not
broken by his misfortunes, and whose genius was rather roused by these
frivolous or scandalous imputations; after premising, that his dignity
exempted him from answering before any jurisdiction, except that of
Heaven; yet condescended, for the sake of his reputation, to justify
his conduct before that great assembly.  He observed, that he had no
hand in Tancred's elevation, and only concluded a treaty with a prince
whom he found in possession of the throne; that the king, or rather
tyrant of Cyprus, had provoked his indignation by the most ungenerous
and unjust proceedings; and though he chastised this aggressor, he had
not retarded a moment the progress of his chief enterprise: that if he
had at any time been wanting in civility to the Duke of Austria, he
had already been sufficiently punished for that sally of passion; and
it better became men, embarked together in so holy a cause, to forgive
each other's infirmities, than to pursue a slight offence with such
unrelenting vengeance: that it had sufficiently appeared by the event,
whether the King of France or he were most zealous for the conquest of
the Holy Land, and were most likely to sacrifice private passions and
animosities to that great object: that if the whole tenour of his life
had not shown him incapable of a base assassination, and justified him
from that imputation in the eyes of his very enemies, it was in vain
for him, at present, to make his apology, or plead the many
irrefragable arguments which he could produce in his own favour: and
that, however he might regret the necessity, he was so far from being
ashamed of his truce with Saladin, that he rather gloried in that
event; and thought it extremely honourable, that, though abandoned by
all the world, supported only by his own courage, and by the small
remains of his national troops, he could yet obtain such conditions
from the most powerful and most warlike emperor that the East had ever
yet produced.  Richard, after thus deigning to apologize for his
conduct, burst out into indignation at the cruel treatment which he
had met with; that he, the champion of the cross, still wearing that
honourable badge, should, after expending the blood and treasure of
his subjects in the common cause of Christendom, be intercepted by
Christian princes in his return to his own country, be thrown into a
dungeon, be loaded with irons, be obliged to plead his cause, as if he
were a subject and a malefactor; and what he still more regretted, be
thereby prevented from making preparations for a new crusade, which he
had projected, after the expiration of the truce, and from redeeming
the sepulchre of Christ, which had so long been profaned by the
dominion of infidels.  The spirit and eloquence of Richard made such
impression on the German princes, that they exclaimed loudly against
the conduct of the emperor; the pope threatened him with
excommunication; and Henry, who had hearkened to the proposals of the
King of France and Prince John, found that it would be impracticable
for him to execute his and their base purposes, or to detain the King
of England any longer in captivity.  [MN The king’s delivery.]  He
therefore concluded with him a treaty for his ransom, and agreed to
restore him to his freedom for the sum of a hundred and fifty thousand
marks, about three hundred thousand pounds of our present money; of
which a hundred thousand marks were to be paid before he received his
liberty, and sixty-seven hostages delivered for the remainder [x].
The emperor, as if to gloss over the infamy of this transaction, made
at the same time a present to Richard of the kingdom of Arles,
comprehending Provence, Dauphiny, Narbonne, and other states, over
which the empire had some antiquated claims; a present which the king
very wisely neglected.
[FN [w] M Paris, p. 121.  W. Heming. p. 536.  [x] Rymer, vol. i. p.
84.]

The captivity of the superior lord was one of the cases provided for
by the feudal tenures; and all the vassals were in that event obliged
to give an aid for his ransom.  Twenty shillings were therefore levied
on each knight's fee in England; but as this money came in slowly, and
was not sufficient for the intended purpose, the voluntary zeal of the
people readily supplied the deficiency.  The churches and monasteries
melted down their plate, to the amount of thirty thousand marks; the
bishops, abbots, and nobles, paid a fourth of their yearly rent; the
parochial clergy contributed a tenth of their tithes; [MN 1194.  4th
Feb.] and the requisite sum being thus collected, Queen Eleanor, and
Walter, Archbishop of Rouen, set out with it for Germany; paid the
money to the emperor and the Duke of Austria at Mentz; delivered them
hostages for the remainder; and freed Richard from captivity.  His
escape was very critical.  Henry had been detected in the
assassination of the Bishop of Liege, and in an attempt of a like
nature on the Duke of Louvaine; and finding himself extremely
obnoxious to the German princes on account of these odious practices,
he had determined to seek support from an alliance with the King of
France; to detain Richard, the enemy of that prince, in perpetual
captivity; to keep in his hands the money which he had already
received for his ransom; and to extort fresh sums from Philip and
Prince John, who were very liberal in their offers to him.  He
therefore gave orders that Richard should be pursued and arrested; but
the king, making all imaginable haste, had already embarked at the
mouth of the Schelde, and was out of sight of land, when the
messengers of the emperor reached Antwerp.

[MN King’s return to England, 20th March.]
The joy of the English was extreme on the appearance of their monarch,
who had suffered so many calamities, who had acquired so much glory,
and who had spread the reputation of their name into the farthest
East, whither their fame had never before been able to extend.  He
gave them, soon after his arrival, an opportunity of publicly
displaying their exultation, by ordering himself to be crowned anew at
Winchester; as if he intended, by that ceremony, to reinstate himself
in his throne, and to wipe off the ignominy of his captivity.  Their
satisfaction was not damped, even when he declared his purpose of
resuming all those exorbitant grants, which he had been necessitated
to make before his departure for the Holy Land.  The barons, also, in
a great council, confiscated, on account of his treason, all Prince
John's possessions in England; and they assisted the king in reducing
the fortresses which still remained in the hands of his brother's
adherents [y].  Richard, having settled every thing in England, passed
over with an army into Normandy; being impatient to make war on
Philip, and to revenge himself for the many injuries which he had
received from that monarch [z].  As soon as Philip heard of the king's
deliverance from captivity, he wrote to his confederate John in these
terms: TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF: THE DEVIL IS BROKEN LOOSE [a].
[FN [y] Hoveden, p. 737.  Ann. Waverl. p. 165.  W. Heming, p. 540.
[z] Hoveden, p. 740.  [a] Ibid. p. 739.]

[MN War with France.]
When we consider such powerful and martial monarchs inflamed with
personal animosity against each other, enraged by mutual injuries,
excited by rivalship, impelled by opposite interests, and instigated
by the pride and violence of their own temper; our curiosity is
naturally raised, and we expect an obstinate and furious war,
distinguished by the greatest events, and concluded by some remarkable
catastrophe.  Yet are the incidents which attend those hostilities so
frivolous that scarce any historian can entertain such a passion for
military descriptions as to venture on a detail of them: a certain
proof of the extreme weakness of princes in those ages, and of the
little authority they possessed over their refractory vassals!  The
whole amount of the exploits on both sides is, the taking of a castle,
the surprise of a straggling party, a rencounter of horse, which
resembles more a rout than a battle.  Richard obliged Philip to raise
the siege of Verneuil; he took Loches, a small town in Anjou: he made
himself master of Beaumont, and some other places of little
consequence; and after these trivial exploits, the two kings began
already to hold conferences for an accommodation.  Philip insisted
that, if a general peace were concluded, the barons on each side
should, for the future, be prohibited from carrying on private wars
against each other: but Richard replied, that this was a right claimed
by his vassals, and he could not debar them from it.  After this
fruitless negotiation, there ensued an action between the French and
English cavalry at Fretteval, in which the former were routed, and the
King of France's cartulary and records, which commonly at that time
attended his person, were taken.  But this victory leading to no
important advantages, a truce for a year was at last, from mutual
weakness, concluded between the two monarchs.

During this war, Prince John deserted from Philip, threw himself at
his brother's feet, craved pardon for his offences, and by the
intercession of Queen Eleanor was received into favour.  I FORGIVE
HIM, said the king, AND HOPE I SHALL AS EASILY FORGET HIS INJURIES AS
HE WILL MY PARDON.  John was incapable even of returning to his duty,
without committing a baseness.  Before he left Philip's party, he
invited to dinner all the officers of the garrison, which that prince
had placed in the citadel of Evreux: he massacred them during the
entertainment: fell, with the assistance of the townsmen, on the
garrison, whom he put to the sword; and then delivered up the place to
his brother.

The King of France was the great object of Richard's resentment and
animosity: the conduct of John, as well as that of the emperor and
Duke of Austria, had been so base, and was exposed to such general
odium and reproach, that the king deemed himself sufficiently revenged
for their injuries; and he seems never to have entertained any project
of vengeance against any of them.  The Duke of Austria, about this
time, having crushed his leg by the fall of his horse at a tournament,
was thrown into a fever; and being struck, on the approaches of death,
with remorse for his injustice to  Richard, he ordered, by will, all
the English hostages in his hands to be set at liberty, and the
remainder of the debt due to him to be remitted: his son, who seemed
inclined to disobey these orders, was constrained by his ecclesiastics
to execute them [b].  [MN 1195.]  The emperor also made advances for
Richard's friendship, and offered to give him a discharge of all the
debt not yet paid to him provided he would enter into an offensive
alliance against the King of France; a proposal which was very
acceptable to Richard, and was greedily embraced by him.  The treaty
with the emperor took no effect; but it served to rekindle the war
between France and England before the expiration of the truce.  This
war was not distinguished by any more remarkable instances than the
foregoing.  After mutually ravaging the open country, and taking a few
insignificant castles, the two kings concluded a peace at Louviers,
and made an exchange of some territories with each other [c].  [MN
1196.]  Their inability to wage war occasioned the peace: their mutual
antipathy engaged them again in war before two months expired.
Richard imagined that he had now found an opportunity of gaining great
advantages over his rival, by forming an alliance with the Counts of
Flanders, Toulouse, Boulogne, Champagne, and other considerable
vassals of the crown of France [d].  But he soon experienced the
insincerity of those princes, and was not able to make any impression
on that kingdom, while governed by a monarch of so much vigour and
activity as Philip.  The most remarkable incident of this war was the
taking prisoner in battle the Bishop of Beauvais, a martial prelate,
who was of the family of Dreux, and a near relation of the French
king's.  Richard, who hated that bishop, threw him into prison and
loaded him with irons; and when the pope demanded his liberty, and
claimed him as his son, the king sent to his holiness the coat of mail
which the prelate had worn in battle, and which was all besmeared with
blood; and he replied to him, in the terms employed by Jacob's sons to
that patriarch, THIS HAVE WE FOUND: KNOW NOW WHETHER IT BE THY SON'S
COAT OR NO [e].  This  new war between England and France, though
carried out with such animosity that both kings frequently put out the
eyes of their prisoners, was soon finished by a truce of five years;
and immediately after signing this treaty, the kings were ready, on
some new offence, to break out again into hostilities; when the
mediation of the Cardinal of St. Mary, the pope's legate, accommodated
the difference [f].  This prelate even engaged the princes to commence
a treaty for a more durable peace; but the death of Richard put an end
to the negotiation.
[FN [b] Rymer, vol i. p. 88, 102.  [c] Ibid. p. 91.  [d] W. Heming, p.
549.  Brompton, p. 1273.  Rymer, vol. i. p. 94.  [e] Genesis, chap.
xxxvii. ver. 32.  M. Paris, p. 128.  Brompton, p. 1273.  [f] Rymer,
vol. i. p. 109, 110.]

[MN 1199.]  Vidomar, Viscount of Limoges, a vassal of the king's, had
found a treasure, of which he sent part to that prince as a present.
Richard, as superior lord, claimed the whole; and at the head of some
Brabancons, besieged the viscount in the castle of Chalons, near
Limoges, in order to make him comply with his demand [g].  The
garrison offered to surrender; but the king replied, that, since he
had taken the pains to come thither and besiege the place in person,
he would take it by force, and would hang every one of them.  The same
day, Richard, accompanied by Marcadee, leader of his Brabancons,
approached the castle in order to survey it; when one Bertrand de
Gourdon, an archer, took aim at him, and pierced his shoulder with an
arrow.  [MN 28th March.]  The king, however, gave orders for the
assault, took the place, and hanged all the garrison, except Gourdon,
who had wounded him, and whom he reserved for a more deliberate and
more cruel execution [h].
[FN [g] Hoveden, p. 791.  Knyghton, p. 2413.  [h] Ibid.]

The wound was not in itself dangerous; but the unskilfulness of the
surgeon made it mortal: he so rankled Richard's shoulder in pulling
out the arrow, that a gangrene ensued; and that prince was now
sensible that his life was drawing towards a period.  He sent for
Gourdon, and asked him, WRETCH, WHAT HAVE I EVER DONE TO YOU, TO
OBLIGE YOU TO SEEK MY LIFE?--WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME? replied coolly
the prisoner: YOU KILLED WITH YOUR OWN HANDS MY FATHER AND MY TWO
BROTHERS; AND YOU INTENDED TO HAVE HANGED MYSELF: I AM NOW IN YOUR
POWER, AND YOU MAY TAKE REVENGE, BY INFLICTING ON ME THE MOST SEVERE
TORMENTS: BUT I SHALL ENDURE THEM ALL WITH PLEASURE, PROVIDED I CAN
THINK THAT I HAVE BEEN SO HAPPY AS TO RID THE WORLD OF SUCH A NUISANCE
[i].  Richard, struck with the reasonableness of this reply, and
humbled by the near approach of death, ordered Gourdon to be set at
liberty, and a sum of money to be given him: but Marcadee, unknown to
him, seized the unhappy man, flayed him alive, and then hanged him.
[MN 6th April.  Death,]  Richard died in the tenth year of his reign,
and the forty-second of his age; and he left no issue behind him.
[FN [i] Hoveden, p. 791.  Brompton, p. 1277.  Knyghton, p. 2413.]

[MN and character of the king.]
The most shining parts of this prince's character are his military
talents.  No man, even in that romantic age, carried personal courage
and intrepidity to a greater height; and this quality gained him the
appellation of the lion-hearted, COEUR DE LION.  He passionately loved
glory, chiefly military glory; and as his conduct in the field was not
inferior to his valour, he seems to have possessed every talent
necessary for acquiring it.  His resentments also were high; his pride
unconquerable; and his subjects, as well as his neighbours, had
therefore reason to apprehend, from the continuance of his reign, a
perpetual scene of blood and violence.  Of an impetuous and vehement
spirit, he was distinguished by all the good as well as the bad
qualities incident to that character: he was open, frank, generous,
sincere, and brave; he was revengeful, domineering, ambitious,
haughty, and cruel; and was thus better calculated to dazzle men by
the splendour of his enterprises, than either to promote their
happiness or his own grandeur by a sound and well-regulated policy.
As military talents made great impression on the people, he seems to
have been much beloved by his English subjects; and he is remarked to
have been the first prince of the Norman line that bore any sincere
regard to them.  He passed however only four months of his reign in
that kingdom: the crusade employed him near three years; he was
detained about fourteen months in captivity; the rest of his reign was
spent either in war, or preparations for war, against France; and he
was so pleased with the fame which he had acquired in the East, that
he determined, notwithstanding his past misfortunes, to have farther
exhausted his kingdom, and to have exposed himself to new hazards, by
conducting another expedition against the infidels.

[MN Miscellaneous transactions of this reign.]
Though the English pleased themselves with the glory which the king's
martial genius procured them, his reign was very oppressive and
somewhat arbitrary, by the high taxes which he levied on them, and
often without consent of the states or great council.  In the ninth
year of his reign, he levied five shillings on each hide of land; and
because the clergy refused to contribute their share, he put them out
of the protection of law, and ordered the civil courts to give them no
sentence for any debts which they might claim [k].  Twice in his reign
he ordered all his charters to be sealed anew, and the parties to pay
fees for the renewal [l].  It is said that Hubert, his justiciary,
sent him over to France, in the space of two years, no less a sum than
one million one hundred thousand marks, besides bearing all the
charges of the government in England.  But this account is quite
incredible, unless we suppose that Richard made a thorough
dilapidation of the demesnes of the crown, which it is not likely he
could do with any advantage after his former resumption of all grants.
A king who possessed such a revenue could never have endured fourteen
months' captivity for not paying a hundred and fifty thousand marks to
the emperor, and be obliged at last to leave hostages for a third of
the sum.  The prices of commodities in this reign are also a certain
proof that no such enormous sum could be levied on the people.  A hide
of land, or about a hundred and twenty acres, was commonly let at
twenty shillings a year, money of that time.  As there were two
hundred and forty-three thousand six hundred hides in England, it is
easy to compute the amount of all the landed rents of the kingdom.
The general and stated price of an ox was four shillings; of a
labouring horse the same; of a sow, one shilling; of a sheep with fine
wool, tenpence; with coarse wool, sixpence [m].  These commodities
seem not to have advanced in their prices since the conquest [n], and
to have still been ten times cheaper than at present.
[FN [k] Hoveden, p. 743.  Tyrrel, vol. ii. p. 563.  [l] Prynne's
Chronol. Vindic. tom. i. p. 1133.  [m] Hoveden, p. 745.  [n] See note
[S], at the end of the volume.]

Richard renewed the severe laws against transgressors in his forests,
whom he punished by castration and putting out their eyes, as in the
reign of his great-grandfather.  He established by law one weight and
measure throughout his kingdom [o]: a useful institution, which the
mercenary disposition and necessities of his successor engaged him to
dispense with for money.
[FN [o] M. Paris, p. 109, 134.  Trivet, p. 127.  Ann. Waverl. p. 165.
Hoveden, p. 774.]

The disorders in London, derived from its bad police, had risen to a
great height during this reign; and in the year 1196, there seemed to
be formed so regular a conspiracy among the numerous malefactors, as
threatened the city with destruction.  There was one William
Fitz-Osbert, commonly called LONGBEARD, a lawyer, who had rendered
himself extremely popular among the lower rank of citizens; and, by
defending them on all occasions, had acquired the appellation of the
advocate or saviour of the poor.  He exerted his authority, by
injuring and insulting the more substantial citizens, with whom he
lived in a state of hostility, and who were every moment exposed to
the most outrageous violences from him and his licentious emissaries.
Murders were daily committed in the streets; houses were broken open
and pillaged in daylight; and it is pretended that no less than fifty-
two thousand persons had entered into an association, by which they
bound themselves to obey all the orders of this dangerous ruffian.
Archbishop Hubert, who was then chief justiciary, summoned him before
the council to answer for his conduct; but he came so well attended,
that no one durst accuse him, or give evidence against him; and the
primate, finding the impotence of law, contented himself with exacting
from the citizens hostages for their good behaviour.  He kept,
however, a watchful eye on Fitz-Osbert; and seizing a favourable
opportunity, attempted to commit him to custody; but the criminal,
murdering one of the public officers, escaped with his concubine to
the church of St. Mary le Bow, where he defended himself by force of
arms.  He was at last forced from his retreat, condemned, and
executed, amidst the regrets of the populace, who were so devoted to
his memory, that they stole his gibbet, paid the same veneration to it
as to the cross, and were equally zealous in propagating and attesting
reports of the miracles wrought by it [p].  But though the sectaries
of this superstition were punished by the justiciary [q], it received
so little encouragement from the established clergy, whose property
was endangered by such seditious practices, that it suddenly sunk and
vanished.
[FN [p] Hoveden, p 765.  Diceto, p. 691.  Neubrig. p. 492, 493.  [q]
Gervase, p. 1551.]

It was during the crusades that the custom of using coats of arms was
first introduced into Europe.  The knights, cased up in armour, had no
way to make themselves be known and distinguished in battle but by the
devices on their shields; and these were gradually adopted by their
posterity and families, who were proud of the pious and military
enterprises of their ancestors.

King Richard was a passionate lover of poetry; there even remain some
poetical works of his composition; and he bears a rank among the
Provencal poets or TROBADORES, who were the first of the modern
Europeans that distinguished themselves by attempts of that nature.




CHAPTER XI.

JOHN.

ACCESSION OF THE KING.--HIS MARRIAGE.--WAR WITH FRANCE.—MURDER OF
ARTHUR, DUKE OF BRITANY.--THE KING EXPELLED THE FRENCH PROVINCES.--THE
KING'S QUARREL WITH THE COURT OF ROME.—CARDINAL LANGTON APPOINTED
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.--INTERDICT OF THE KINGDOM.--EXCOMMUNICATION
OF THE KING.--THE KING'S SUBMISSION TO THE POPE.--DISCONTENTS OF THE
BARONS.--INSURRECTION OF THE BARONS.--MAGNA CHARTA.--RENEWAL OF THE
CIVIL WARS.—PRINCE LEWIS CALLED OVER.--DEATH AND CHARACTER OF THE
KING.



[MN 1199.  Accession of the king.]
The noble and free genius of the ancients, which made the government
of a single person be always regarded as a species of tyranny and
usurpation, and kept them from forming any conception of a legal and
regular monarchy, had rendered them entirely ignorant both of the
rights of PRIMOGENITURE, and a REPRESENTATION in succession;
inventions so necessary for preserving order in the lines of princes,
for obviating the evils of civil discord and of usurpation, and for
begetting moderation in that species of government, by giving security
to the ruling sovereign.  These innovations arose from the feudal law,
which, first introducing the right of primogeniture, made such a
distinction between the families of the elder and younger brothers,
that the son of the former was thought entitled to succeed to his
grandfather, preferably to his uncles, though nearer allied to the
deceased monarch.  But though this progress of ideas was natural, it
was gradual.  In the age of which we treat, the practice of
representation was indeed introduced, but not thoroughly established;
and the minds of men fluctuated between opposite principles.  Richard,
when he entered on the holy war, declared his nephew, Arthur, Duke of
Britany, his successor; and by a formal deed he set aside, in his
favour, the title of his brother John, who was younger than Geoffrey,
the father of that prince [a].  But John so little acquiesced in that
destination, that when he gained the ascendant in the English
ministry, by expelling Longchamp, the chancellor and great justiciary,
he engaged all the English barons to swear that they would maintain
his right of succession; and Richard, on his return, took no steps
towards restoring or securing the order which he had at first
established.  He was even careful, by his last will, to declare his
brother John heir to all his dominions [b]; whether that he now
thought Arthur, who was only twelve years of age, incapable of
asserting his claim against John's faction, or was influenced by
Eleanor, the queen-mother, who hated Constantia, mother of the young
duke, and who dreaded the credit which that princess would naturally
acquire if her son should mount the throne.  The authority of a
testament was great in that age, even where the succession of a
kingdom was concerned; and John had reason to hope that this title,
joined to his plausible right in other respects, would ensure him the
succession. But the idea of representation seems to have made, at this
time, greater progress in France than in England: the barons of the
transmarine provinces, Anjou, Maine, and Touraine, immediately
declared in favour of Arthur's title, and applied for assistance to
the French monarch as their superior lord.  Philip, who desired only
an occasion to embarrass John, and dismember his dominions, embraced
the cause of the young Duke of Britany, took him under his protection,
and sent him to Paris to be educated, along with his own son Lewis
[c].  In this emergence, John hastened to establish his authority in
the chief members of the monarchy; and after sending Eleanor into
Poictou and Guienne, where her right was incontestable, and was
readily acknowledged, he hurried to Rouen, and having secured the
duchy of Normandy, he passed over, without loss of time, to England.
Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, William Mareschal, Earl of Strigul,
who also passes by the name of Earl of Pembroke, and Geoffrey
Fitz-Peter, the justiciary, the three most favoured ministers of the
late king, were already engaged on his side [d]; and the submission or
acquiescence of all the other barons put him, without opposition, in
possession of the throne.
[FN [a] Hoveden, p. 677.  M Paris, p. 112.  Chron. de Dunst. p. 43.
Rymer, vol i p. 66, 68.  Bened. Abb. p. 619.  [b] Hoveden, p. 791.
Trivet, p. 138.  [c] Hoveden, p. 792.  M. Paris, p. 137.  M. West. p.
263.  Knyghton, p. 2414.  [d] Hoveden, p. 793.  M. Paris, p. 137.]

The king soon returned to France, in order to conduct the war against
Philip, and to recover the revolted provinces from his nephew Arthur.
The alliances which Richard had formed with the Earl of Flanders [e],
and other potent French princes, though they had not been very
effectual, still subsisted, and enabled John to defend himself against
all the efforts of his enemy.  In an action between the French and
Flemings, the elect Bishop of Cambray was taken prisoner by the
former; and when the Cardinal of Capua claimed his liberty, Philip,
instead of complying, reproached him with the weak efforts which he
had employed in favour of the Bishop of Beauvais, who was in a like
condition.  The legate, to show his impartiality, laid, at the same
time, the kingdom of France and the duchy of Normandy under an
interdict; and the two kings found themselves obliged to make an
exchange of these military prelates.
[FN [e] Rymer, vol. i. p. 114.  Hoveden, p. 794.  M. Paris, p. 138.]

[MN 1200.]  Nothing enabled the king to bring this war to a happy
issue so much as the selfish intriguing character of Philip, who acted
in the provinces that had declared for Arthur, without any regard to
the interests of that prince.  Constantia, seized with a violent
jealousy that he intended to usurp the entire dominion of them [f],
found means to carry off her son secretly from Paris: she put him into
the hands of his uncle; restored the provinces which had adhered to
the young prince; and made him do homage for the duchy of Britany,
which was regarded as a rerefief of Normandy.  From this incident,
Philip saw that he could not hope to make any progress against John;
and being threatened with an interdict on account of his irregular
divorce from Ingelburga, the Danish princess whom he had espoused, he
became desirous of concluding a peace with England.  After some
fruitless conferences, the terms were at last adjusted; and the two
monarchs seemed in this treaty to have an intention, besides ending
the present quarrel, of preventing all future causes of discord, and
of obviating every controversy which could thereafter arise between
them.  They adjusted the limits of all their territories, mutually
secured the interests of their vassals; and, to render the union more
durable, John gave his niece, Blanche of Castile, in marriage to
Prince Lewis, Philip's eldest son, and with her the baronies of
Issoudun and Gracai, and other fiefs in Berri.  Nine barons of the
King of England, and as many of the King of France, were guarantees of
this treaty; and all of them swore that if their sovereign violated
any article of it, they would declare themselves against him, and
embrace the cause of the injured monarch [g].
[FN [f] Hoveden, p.795.  [g] Norman Duchesnii, p. 1055.  Rymer, vol.
i. p. 117, 118, 119.  Hoveden, p. 814.  Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 47.]

John, now secure, as he imagined, on the side of France, indulged his
passion for Isabella, the daughter and heir of Aymar Tailleffer, Count
of Angouleme, a lady with whom he had become much enamoured.  His
queen, the heiress of the family of Gloucester, was still alive:
Isabella was married to the Count de la Marche, and was already
consigned to the care of that nobleman; though, by reason of her
tender years, the marriage had not been consummated.  The passion of
John made him overlook all these obstacles: he persuaded the Count of
Angouleme to carry off his daughter from her husband; and having, on
some pretence or other, procured a divorce from his own wife, he
espoused Isabella; [MN The king’s marriage.] regardless both of the
menaces of the pope, who exclaimed against these irregular
proceedings, and of the resentment of the injured count, who soon
found means of punishing his powerful and insolent rival.

[MN 1201.]  John had not the art of attaching his barons either by
affection or by fear.  The Count de la Marche, and his brother, the
Count d'Eu, taking advantage of the general discontent against him,
excited commotions in Poictou and Normandy, and obliged the king to
have recourse to arms, in order to suppress the insurrection of his
vassals.  He summoned together the barons of England, and required
them to pass the sea under his standard, and to quell the rebels: he
found that he possessed as little authority in that kingdom as in his
transmarine provinces.  The English barons unanimously replied, that
they would not attend him on this expedition, unless he would promise
to restore and preserve their privileges [h]: the first symptom of a
regular association and plan of liberty among those noblemen! but
affairs were not yet fully ripe for the revolution projected.  John,
by menacing the barons, broke the concert; and both engaged many of
them to follow him into Normandy, and obliged the rest who stayed
behind to pay him a scutage of two marks on each knight's fee, as the
price of their exemption from the service.
[FN [h] Annal. Burton, p. 262.]

The force which John carried abroad with him, and that which joined
him in Normandy, rendered him much superior to his malecontent barons;
and so much the more as Philip did not publicly give them any
countenance, and seemed as yet determined to persevere steadily in the
alliance which he had contracted with England.  But the king, elated
with his superiority, advanced claims which gave an universal alarm to
his vassals, and diffused still wider the general discontent.  As the
jurisprudence of those times required that the causes in the lords'
court should chiefly be decided by duel, he carried along with him
certain bravos, whom he retained as champions, and whom he destined to
fight with his barons, in order to determine any controversy which he
might raise against them [i].  The Count de la Marche, and other
noblemen, regarded this proceeding as an affront, as well as an
injury; and declared that they would never draw their swords against
men of such inferior quality.  The king menaced them with vengeance;
but he had not vigour to employ against them the force in his hands,
or to prosecute the injustice, by crushing entirely the nobles who
opposed it.
[FN [i] Ibid.]

[MN War with France.]
This government, equally feeble and violent, gave the injured barons
courage, as well as inclination, to carry farther their opposition;
they appealed to the King of France; complained of the denial of
justice in John’s court; demanded redress from him as their superior
lord; and entreated him to employ his authority, and prevent their
final ruin and oppression.  [MN 1202.]  Philip perceived his
advantage, opened his mind to great projects, interposed in behalf of
the French barons, and began to talk in a high and menacing style to
the King of England.  John, who could not disavow Philip's authority,
replied, that it belonged to himself first to grant them a trial by
their peers in his own court; it was not till he failed in this duty
that he was answerable to his peers in the supreme court of the French
king [k]; and he promised, by a fair and equitable judicature, to give
satisfaction to his barons.  When the nobles, in consequence of this
engagement, demanded a safe conduct, that they might attend his court,
he at first refused it; upon the renewal of Philip's menaces, he
promised to grant their demand; he violated this promise; fresh
menaces extorted from him a promise to surrender to Philip the
fortresses of Tillieres and Boutavant, as a security for performance;
he again violated his engagement; his enemies, sensible both of his
weakness and want of faith, combined still closer in the resolution of
pushing him to extremities; and a new and powerful ally soon appeared
to encourage them in their invasion of this odious and despicable
government.
[FN [k] Philipp. lib. vi.]

[MN 1203.]  The young Duke of Britany, who was now rising to man’s
estate, sensible of the dangerous character of his uncle, determined
to seek both his security and elevation by a union with Philip and the
malecontent barons.  He joined the French army, which had begun
hostilities against the King of England: he was received with great
marks of distinction by Philip; was knighted by him; espoused his
daughter Mary; and was invested not only in the duchy of Britany, but
in the counties of Anjou and Maine, which he had formerly resigned to
his uncle [l].  Every attempt succeeded with the allies.  Tillieres
and Boutavant were taken by Philip, after making a feeble defence:
Mortimar and Lyons fell into his hands almost without resistance.
That prince next invested Gournai; and opening the sluices of a lake
which lay in the neighbourhood, poured such a torrent of water into
the place, that the garrison deserted it, and the French monarch,
without striking a blow, made himself master of that important
fortress.  The progress of the French arms was rapid, and promised
more considerable success than usually in that age attended military
enterprises.  In answer to every advance which the king made towards
peace, Philip still insisted that he should resign all his transmarine
dominions to his nephew, and rest contented with the kingdom of
England; when an event happened which seemed to turn the scales in
favour of John, and to give him a decisive superiority over his
enemies.
[FN [l] Trivet, p. 142.]

Young Arthur, fond of military renown, had broken into Poictou at the
head of a small army; and passing near Mirebeau, he heard that his
grandmother, Queen Eleanor, who had always opposed his interests, was
lodged in that place, and was protected by a weak garrison and ruinous
fortifications [m].  He immediately determined to lay siege to the
fortress, and make himself master of her person: but John, roused from
his indolence by so pressing an occasion, collected an army of English
and Brabancons, and advanced from Normandy with hasty marches to the
relief of the queen-mother.  He fell on Arthur's camp before that
prince was aware of the danger; dispersed his army; took him prisoner,
together with the Count de la Marche, Geoffrey de Lusignan, and the
most considerable of the revolted barons; and returned in triumph to
Normandy [n].  [MN 1st Aug.]  Philip, who was lying before Arques in
that duchy, raised the siege, and retired upon his approach [o].  The
greater part of the prisoners were sent over to England; but Arthur
was shut up in the castle of Falaise.
[FN [m] Ann. Waverl. p. 167.  M. West. p. 264.  [n] Ann. Marg. p. 213.
M. West. p. 264.  [o] M. West. p. 264.]

The king had here a conference with his nephew; represented to him the
folly of his pretensions; and required him to renounce the French
alliance, which had encouraged him to live in a state of enmity with
all his family: but the brave, though imprudent youth, rendered more
haughty from misfortunes, maintained the justice of his cause;
asserted his claim not only to the French provinces, but to the crown
of England; and in his turn, required the king to restore the son of
his elder brother to the possession of his inheritance [p].  John,
sensible from these symptoms of spirit that the young prince, though
now a prisoner, might hereafter prove a dangerous enemy, determined to
prevent all future peril by despatching his nephew; and Arthur was
never more heard of.  [MN 1203.  Murder of Arthur, Duke of Britany.]
The circumstances which attended this deed of darkness were, no doubt,
carefully concealed by the actors, and are variously related by
historians: but the most probable account is as follows: the king, it
is said, first proposed to William de la Bray, one of his servants, to
despatch Arthur; but William replied that he was a gentleman, not a
hangman; and he positively refused compliance.  Another instrument of
murder was found, and was despatched with proper orders to Falaise;
but Hubert de Bourg, chamberlain to the king, and constable of the
castle, feigning that he himself would execute the king's mandate,
sent back the assassin, spread the report that the young prince was
dead, and publicly performed all the ceremonies of his interment; but
finding that the Bretons vowed revenge for the murder, and that all
the revolted barons persevered more obstinately in their rebellion, he
thought it prudent to reveal the secret, and to inform the world that
the Duke of Britany was still alive, and in his custody.  This
discovery proved fatal to the young prince: 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.
[FN [p] Ibid. p. 264.]

All men were struck with horror at this inhuman deed; and from that
moment the king, detested by his subjects, retained a very precarious
authority over both the people and the barons in his dominions.  The
Bretons, enraged at this disappointment in their fond hopes, waged
implacable war against him; and fixing the succession of their
government, put themselves in a posture to revenge the murder of their
sovereign.  John had got into his power his niece, Eleanor, sister to
Arthur, commonly called THE DAMSEL OF BRITANY; and carrying her over
to England, detained her ever after in captivity [q]; but the Bretons,
in despair of recovering this princess, chose Alice for their
sovereign; a younger daughter of Constantia, by her second marriage
with Guy de Thouars; and they intrusted the government of the duchy to
that nobleman.  The states of Britany, meanwhile, carried their
complaints before Philip, as their liege lord, and demanded justice
for the violence committed by John on the person of Arthur, so near a
relation, who, notwithstanding the homage which he did to Normandy,
was always regarded as one of the chief vassals of the crown.  Philip
received their application with pleasure; summoned John to stand a
trial before him, and on his non-appearance passed sentence, with the
concurrence of the peers, upon that prince; declared him guilty of
felony and parricide; and adjudged him to forfeit to his superior lord
all his seignories and fiefs in France [r].
[FN [q] Trivet, p. 145.  T. Wykes, p. 36.  Ypod. Neust. p. 459.  [r]
W. Heming, p. 455.  M. West. p. 264.  Knyghton, p. 2420.]

[MN The King expelled from the French provinces.]
The King of France, whose ambitious and active spirit had been
hitherto confined, either by the sound policy of Henry, or the martial
genius of Richard, seeing now the opportunity favourable against this
base and odious prince, embraced the project of expelling the English,
or rather the English king, from France, and of annexing to the crown
so many considerable fiefs, which, during several ages, had been
dismembered from it.  Many of the other great vassals, whose jealousy
might have interposed, and have obstructed the execution of this
project, were not at present in a situation to oppose it; and the rest
either looked on with indifference, or gave their assistance to this
dangerous aggrandizement of their superior lord.  The Earls of
Flanders and Blois were engaged in the holy war: the Count of
Champagne was an infant, and under the guardianship of Philip: the
duchy of Britany, enraged at the murder of their prince, vigorously
promoted all his measures: and the general defection of John's vassals
made every enterprise easy and successful against him.  Philip, after
taking several castles and fortresses beyond the Loire, which he
either garrisoned or dismantled, received the submissions of the Count
of Alencon, who deserted John, and delivered up all the places under
his command to the French: upon which Philip broke up his camp, in
order to give the troops some repose after the fatigues of the
campaign.  John, suddenly recollecting some forces, laid siege to
Alencon; and Philip, whose dispersed army could not be brought
together in time to succour it, saw himself exposed to the disgrace of
suffering the oppression of his friend and confederate.  But his
active and fertile genius found an expedient against this evil.  There
was held at that very time a tournament at Moret, in the Gatinois;
whither all the chief nobility of France and the neighbouring
countries had resorted, in order to signalize their prowess and
address.  Philip presented himself before them; craved their
assistance in his distress; and pointed out the plains of Alencon, as
the most honourable field in which they could display their generosity
and martial spirit.  Those valorous knights vowed that they would take
vengeance on the base parricide, the stain of arms and of chivalry;
and putting themselves, with all their retinue, under the command of
Philip, instantly marched to raise the siege of Alencon.  John,
hearing of their approach, fled from before the place; and, in the
hurry, abandoned all his tents, machines, and baggage, to the enemy.

This feeble effort was the last exploit of that slothful and cowardly
prince for the defence of his dominions.  He thenceforth remained in
total inactivity at Rouen; passing all his time with his young wife in
pastimes and amusements, as if his state had been in the most profound
tranquillity, or his affairs in the most prosperous condition.  If he
ever mentioned war, it was only to give himself vaunting airs, which,
in the eyes of all men, rendered him still more despicable and
ridiculous.  LET THE FRENCH GO ON, said he, I WILL RETAKE IN A DAY
WHAT IT HAS COST THEM YEARS TO ACQUIRE [s].  His stupidity and
indolence appeared so extraordinary, that the people endeavoured to
account for the infatuation by sorcery, and believed that he was
thrown into this lethargy by some magic or witchcraft.  The English
barons, finding that their time was wasted to no purpose, and that
they must suffer the disgrace of seeing, without resistance, the
progress of the French arms, withdrew from their colours, and secretly
returned to their own country [t].  No one thought of defending a man
who seemed to have deserted himself; and his subjects regarded his
fate with the same indifference to which in this pressing exigency
they saw him totally abandoned.
[FN [s] M. Paris, p. 146.  M. West. p. 266.  [t] M. Paris, p. 146.  M.
West. p. 264.]

John, while he neglected all domestic resources, had the meanness to
betake himself to a foreign power, whose protection he claimed: he
applied to the pope, Innocent III., and entreated him to interpose his
authority between him and the French monarch.  Innocent, pleased with
any occasion of exerting his superiority, sent Philip orders to stop
the progress of his arms, and to make peace with the King of England.
But the French barons received the message with indignation;
disclaimed the temporal authority assumed by the pontiff; and vowed
that they would, to the uttermost, assist their prince against all his
enemies; Philip, seconding their ardour, proceeded, instead of obeying
the pope's envoys, to lay siege to Chateau Gaillard, the most
considerable fortress which remained to guard the frontiers of
Normandy.

[MN 1204.]  Chateau Gaillard was situated partly on an island in the
river Seine, partly on a rock opposite to it; and was secured by every
advantage which either art or nature could bestow upon it.  The late
king, having cast his eye on this favourable situation, had spared no
labour or expense in fortifying it; and it was defended by Roger de
Laci, Constable of Chester, a determined officer, at the head of a
numerous garrison.  Philip, who despaired of taking the place by
force, purposed to reduce it by famine; and, that he might cut off its
communication with the neighbouring country, he threw a bridge across
the Seine, while he himself, with his army, blockaded it by land.  The
Earl of Pembroke, the man of greatest vigour and capacity in the
English court, formed a plan for breaking through the French
intrenchments, and throwing relief into the place.  He carried with
him an army of four thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry, and
suddenly attacked, with great success, Philip's camp in the
night-time; having left orders that a fleet of seventy flat-bottomed
vessels should sail up the Seine, and fall at the same instant on the
bridge.  But the wind and the current of the river, by retarding the
vessels, disconcerted this plan of operations; and it was morning
before the fleet appeared; when Pembroke, though successful in the
beginning of the action, was already repulsed with considerable loss,
and the King of France had leisure to defend himself against these new
assailants, who also met with a repulse.  After this misfortune, John
made no farther efforts for the relief of Chateau Gaillard; and Philip
had all the leisure requisite for conducting and finishing the siege.
Roger de Laci defended himself for a twelvemonth with great obstinacy;
and having bravely repelled every attack, and patiently borne all the
hardships of famine, he was at last overpowered by a sudden assault in
the night-time, and made prisoner of war, with his garrison [u].
Philip, who knew how to respect valour even in an enemy, treated him
with civility, and gave him the whole city of Paris for the place of
his confinement.
[FN [u] Trivet, p. 144.  Gul. Britto, lib. 7.  Ann. Waverl. p. 168.]

When this bulwark of Normandy was once subdued, all the province lay
open to the inroads of Philip; and the King of England despaired of
being any longer able to defend it.  He secretly prepared vessels for
a scandalous flight, and that the Normans might no longer doubt of his
resolution to abandon them, he ordered the fortifications of Pont de
l'Arche, Molineaux, and Montfort l'Amauri, to be demolished.  Not
daring to repose confidence in any of his barons, whom he believed to
be universally engaged in a conspiracy against him, he intrusted the
government of the province to Archas Martin and Lupicaire, two
mercenary Brabancons, whom he had retained in his service.  Philip,
now secure of his prey, pushed his conquests with vigour and success
against the dismayed Normans.  Falaise was first besieged; and
Lupicaire, who commanded in this impregnable fortress, after
surrendering the place, enlisted himself with his troops in the
service of Philip, and carried on hostilities against his ancient
master.  Caen, Coutance, Seez, Evreux, Baieux, soon fell into the
hands of the French monarch, and all the Lower Normandy was reduced
under his dominion.  To forward his enterprises on the other division
of the province, Gui de Thouars, at the head of the Bretons, broke
into the territory, and took Mount St. Michael, Avranches, and all the
other fortresses in that neighbourhood.  The Normans, who abhorred the
French yoke, and who would have defended themselves to the last
extremity if their prince had appeared to conduct them, found no
resource but in submission; and every city opened its gates as soon as
Philip appeared before it.  [MN 1205.]  Rouen alone, Arques, and
Verneuil, determined to maintain their liberties, and formed a
confederacy for mutual defence.  Philip began with the siege of Rouen:
the inhabitants were so inflamed with hatred to France, that, on the
appearance of his army, they fell on all the natives of that country
whom they found within their walls, and put them to death.  But after
the French king had begun his operations with success, and had taken
some of their outworks, the citizens, seeing no resource, offered to
capitulate; and demanded only thirty days to advertise their prince of
their danger, and to require succours against the enemy.  [MN 1st
June.]  Upon the expiration of the term, as no supply had arrived,
they opened their gates to Philip [w]; and the whole province soon
after imitated the example, and submitted to the victor.  Thus was
this important territory re-united to the crown of France, about three
centuries after the cession of it by Charles the Simple to Rollo, the
first duke: and the Normans, sensible that this conquest was probably
final, demanded the privilege of being governed by French laws; which
Philip, making a few alterations on the ancient Norman customs,
readily granted them.  But the French monarch had too much ambition
and genius to stop in his present career of success.  He carried his
victorious army into the western provinces; soon reduced Anjou, Maine,
Touraine, and part of Poictou [x]; and in this manner the French
crown, during the reign of one able and active prince, received such
an accession of power and grandeur, as in the  ordinary course of
things, it would have required several ages to attain.
[FN [w] Trivet. p. 147.  Ypod. Neust. p. 459.  [x] Trivet, p. 149.]

John, on his arrival in England, that he might cover the disgrace of
his own conduct, exclaimed loudly against his barons, who, he
pretended, had deserted his standard in Normandy; and he arbitrarily
extorted from them a seventh of all their moveables, as a punishment
for the offence [y].  Soon after he forced them to grant him a scutage
of two marks and a half on each knight's fee for an expedition into
Normandy; but he did not attempt to execute the service for which he
pretended to exact it.  Next year he summoned all the barons of his
realm to attend him on this foreign expedition, and collected ships
from all the sea-ports; but meeting with opposition from some of his
ministers, and abandoning his design, he dismissed both fleet and
army, and then renewed his exclamations against the barons for
deserting him.  He next put to sea with a small army, and his subjects
believed that he was resolved to expose himself to the utmost hazard
for the defence and recovery of his dominions: but they were
surprised, after a few days, to see him return again into harbour,
without attempting any thing.  [MN 1206.]  In the subsequent season,
he had the courage to carry his hostile measures a step farther.  Gui
de Thouars, who governed Britany, jealous of the rapid progress made
by his ally, the French king, promised to join the King of England
with all his forces; and John ventured abroad with a considerable
army, and landed at Rochelle.  He marched to Angers, which he took and
reduced to ashes.  But the approach of Philip with an army threw him
into a panic; and he immediately made proposals for peace, and fixed a
place of interview with his enemy: but instead of keeping his
engagement, he stole off with his army, embarked at Rochelle, and
returned, loaded with new shame and disgrace, into England.  The
mediation of the pope, procured him at last a truce for two years with
the French monarch [z]; almost all the transmarine provinces were
ravished from him; and his English barons, though harassed with
arbitrary taxes and fruitless expeditions, saw themselves and their
country baffled and affronted in every enterprise.
[FN [y] M. Paris, p. 146.  M. West. p. 265.  [z] Rymer, vol. i. p.
141.]

In an age when personal valour was regarded as the chief
accomplishment, such conduct as that of John, always disgraceful, must
be exposed to peculiar contempt; and he must thenceforth have expected
to rule his turbulent vassals with a very doubtful authority.  But the
government exercised by the Norman princes had wound up the royal
power to so high a pitch, and so much beyond the usual tenour of the
feudal constitutions, that it still behoved him to be debased by new
affronts and disgraces, ere his barons could entertain the view of
conspiring against him, in order to retrench his prerogatives.  The
church, which at that time declined not a contest with the most
powerful and vigorous monarchs, took first advantage of John's
imbecility; and, with the most aggravating circumstances of insolence
and scorn, fixed her yoke upon him.

[MN 1207.  The king’s quarrel with the court of Rome.]
The papal chair was then filled by Innocent III., who, having attained
that dignity at the age of thirty-seven years, and being endowed with
a lofty and enterprising genius, gave full scope to his ambition, and
attempted, perhaps more openly than any of his predecessors, to
convert that superiority which was yielded him by all the European
princes into a real dominion over them.  The hierarchy, protected by
the Roman pontiff, had already carried to an enormous height its
usurpations upon the civil power; but in order to extend them farther,
and render them useful to the court of Rome, it was necessary to
reduce the ecclesiastics themselves under an absolute monarchy, and to
make them entirely dependent on their spiritual leader.  For this
purpose, Innocent first attempted to impose taxes at pleasure upon the
clergy; and in the first year of this century, taking advantage of the
popular frenzy for crusades, he sent collectors over all Europe, who
levied, by his authority, the fortieth of all ecclesiastical revenues
for the relief of the Holy Land, and received the voluntary
contributions of the laity to a like amount [a].  The same year
Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, attempted another innovation,
favourable to ecclesiastical and papal power: in the king's absence,
he summoned, by his legatine authority, a synod of all the English
clergy, contrary to the inhibition of Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, the chief
justiciary; and no proper censure was ever passed on this
encroachment, the first of the kind, upon the royal power.  But a
favourable incident soon after happened, which enabled so aspiring a
pontiff as Innocent to extend still farther his usurpations on so
contemptible a prince as John.
[FN [a] Rymer, vol. i. p. 119.]

Hubert the primate died in 1205; and as the monks or canons of Christ-
Church, Canterbury, possessed a right of voting in the election of
their archbishop, some of the juniors of the order, who lay in wait
for that event, met clandestinely the very night of Hubert's death,
and, without any congé d'élire from the king, chose Reginald, their
sub-prior, for the successor; installed him in the archiepiscopal
throne before midnight; and, having enjoined him the strictest
secrecy, sent him immediately to Rome, in order to solicit the
confirmation of his election [b].  The vanity of Reginald prevailed
over his prudence; and he no sooner arrived in Flanders, than he
revealed to every one the purpose of his journey, which was
immediately known in England [c].  The king was enraged at the novelty
and temerity of the attempt, in filling so important an office without
his knowledge or consent: the suffragan bishops of Canterbury, who
were accustomed to concur in the choice of their primate, were no less
displeased at the exclusion given them in this election: the senior
monks of Christ-Church were injured by the irregular proceedings of
their juniors: the juniors themselves, ashamed of their conduct, and
disgusted with the levity of Reginald, who had broken his engagements
with them, were willing to set aside his election [d]: and all men
concurred in the design of remedying the false measures which had been
taken.  But as John knew that this affair would be canvassed before a
superior tribunal, where the interposition of royal authority in
bestowing ecclesiastical benefices was very invidious; where even the
cause of suffragan bishops was not so favourable as that of monks; he
determined to make the new election entirely unexceptionable: he
submitted the affair wholly to the canons of Christ-Church, and,
departing from the right claimed by his predecessors, ventured no
farther than to inform them privately, that they would do him an
acceptable service if they chose John de Gray, Bishop of Norwich, for
their primate [e].  The election of that prelate was accordingly made
without a contradictory vote; and the king, to obviate all contests,
endeavoured to persuade the suffragan bishops not to insist on their
claim of concurring in the election; but those prelates, persevering
in their pretensions, sent an agent to maintain their cause before
Innocent; while the king and the convent of Christ-Church, despatched
twelve monks of that order to support, before the same tribunal, the
election of the Bishop of Norwich.
[FN [b] M. Paris, p. 148.  M. West. p. 266.  [c] Ibid.  [d] M. West.
p. 266.  [e] M. Paris, p. 149.  M. West. p. 266.]

Thus there lay three different claims before the pope, whom all
parties allowed to be the supreme arbiter in the contest.  The claim
of the suffragans, being so opposite to the usual maxims of the papal
court, was soon set aside: the election of Reginald was so obviously
fraudulent and irregular, that there was no possibility of defending
it; but Innocent maintained that, though this election was null and
invalid, it ought previously to have been declared such by the
sovereign pontiff, before the monks could proceed to a new election;
and that the choice of the Bishop of Norwich was of course as
uncanonical as that of his competitor [f].  Advantage was therefore
taken of this subtlety for introducing a precedent, by which the see
of Canterbury, the most important dignity in the church after the
papal throne, should ever after be at the disposal of the court of
Rome.
[FN [f] M. Paris, p. 155.  Chron. de Mailr. p. 182.]

While the pope maintained so many fierce contests, in order to wrest
from princes the right of granting investitures, and to exclude laymen
from all authority in conferring ecclesiastical benefices, he was
supported by the united influence of the clergy, who, aspiring to
independence, fought with all the ardour of ambition, and all the zeal
of superstition, under his sacred banners.  But no sooner was this
point, after a great effusion of blood, and the convulsions of many
states, established in some tolerable degree, than the victorious
leader, as is usual, turned his arms against his own community, and
aspired to centre all power in his person.  By the invention of
reserves, provisions, commendants, and other devices, the pope
gradually assumed the right of filling vacant benefices; and the
plenitude of his apostolic power, which was not subject to any
limitations, supplied all defects of title in the person on whom he
bestowed preferment.  The canons which regulated elections were
purposely rendered intricate and involved: frequent disputes arose
among candidates: appeals were every day carried to Rome: the
apostolic see, besides reaping pecuniary advantages from these
contests, often exercised the power of setting aside both the
litigants, and, on pretence of appeasing faction, nominated a third
person, who might be more acceptable to the contending parties.

The present controversy about the election to the see of Canterbury
afforded Innocent an opportunity of claiming this right; and he failed
not to perceive and avail himself of the advantage.  He sent for the
twelve monks deputed by the convent to maintain the cause of the
Bishop of Norwich; and commanded them, under the penalty of
excommunication, to choose for their primate Cardinal Langton, an
Englishman by birth, but educated in France, and connected, by his
interest and attachments, with the see of Rome [g].  [MN Cardinal
Langton appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.]  In vain did the monks
represent, that they had received from their convent no authority for
this purpose; that an election, without a previous writ from the king,
would be deemed highly irregular; and that they were merely agents for
another person, whose right they had no power or pretence to abandon.
None of them had the courage to persevere in this opposition, except
one, Elias de Brantefield: all the rest, overcome by the menaces and
authority of the pope, complied with his orders, and made the election
required of them.
[FN [g] M. Paris, p. 155.  Ann. Waverl. p. 169.  W. Heming. p. 553.
Knyghton, p. 2415.]

Innocent, sensible that this flagrant usurpation would be highly
resented by the court of England, wrote John a mollifying letter; sent
him four golden rings set with precious stones; and endeavoured to
enhance the value of the present by informing him of the many
mysteries implied in it.  He begged him to consider seriously the FORM
of the rings, their NUMBER, their MATTER, and their COLOUR.  Their
form, he said, being round, shadowed out eternity, which had neither
beginning nor end; and he ought thence to learn his duty of aspiring
from earthly objects to heavenly, from things temporal to things
eternal.  The number four, being a square, denoted steadiness of mind,
not to be subverted either by adversity or prosperity, fixed for ever
on the firm basis of the four cardinal virtues.  Gold, which is the
matter, being the most precious of metals, signified wisdom, which is
the most valuable of all accomplishments, and justly preferred by
Solomon to riches, power, and all exterior attainments.  The blue
colour of the sapphire represented faith; the verdure of the emerald,
hope; the redness of the ruby, charity; and the splendour of the
topaz, good works [h].  By these conceits Innocent endeavoured to
repay John for one of the most important prerogatives of his crown,
which he had ravished from him; conceits probably admired by Innocent
himself: for it is easily possible for a man, especially in a
barbarous age, to unite strong talents for business with an absurd
taste for literature and the arts.
[FN [h] Rymer, vol. i. p. 139.  M. Paris, p. 155.]

John was inflamed with the utmost rage when he heard of this attempt
of the court of Rome [i]; and he immediately vented his passion on the
monks of Christ-Church, whom he found inclined to support the election
made by their fellows at Rome.  He sent Fulke de Cantelupe, and Henry
de Cornhulle, two knights of his retinue, men of violent tempers and
rude manners, to expel them the convent, and take possession of their
revenues.  These knights entered the monastery with drawn swords,
commanded the prior and the monks to depart the kingdom, and menaced
them, that, in case of disobedience, they would instantly burn them
with the convent [k].  Innocent, prognosticating, from the violence
and imprudence of these measures, that John would finally sink in the
contest, persevered the more vigorously in his pretensions, and
exhorted the king not to oppose God and the church any longer, nor to
prosecute that cause for which the holy martyr, St. Thomas, had
sacrificed his life, and which had exalted him equal to the highest
saints in heaven [l]: a clear hint to John to profit by the example of
his father; and to remember the prejudices and established principles
of his subjects, who bore a profound veneration to that martyr, and
regarded his merits as the subject of their chief glory and
exultation.
[FN [i] Rymer, vol. i. p. 143.  [k] M. Paris, p. 156.  Trivet, p. 151.
Ann. Waverl. p. 169.  [l] M. Paris, p. 157.]

Innocent, finding that John was not sufficiently tamed to submission,
sent three prelates, the Bishops of London, Ely, and Worcester, to
intimate, that if he persevered in his disobedience, the sovereign
pontiff would be obliged to lay the kingdom under an interdict [m].
All the other prelates threw themselves on their knees before him, and
entreated him, with tears in their eyes, to prevent the scandal of
this sentence, by making a speedy submission to his spiritual father,
by receiving from his hands the new-elected primate, and by restoring
the monks of Christ-Church to all their rights and possessions.  He
burst out into the most indecent invectives against the prelates;
swore by God's teeth, (his usual oath,) that if the pope presumed to
lay his kingdom under an interdict, he would send to him all the
bishops and clergy of England, and would confiscate all their estates;
and threatened that, if thenceforth he caught any Romans in his
dominions, he would put out their eyes and cut off their noses, in
order to set a mark upon them which might distinguish them from all
other nations [n].  Amidst all this idle violence, John stood on such
bad terms with his nobility, that he never dared to assemble the
states of the kingdom, who, in so just a cause, would probably have
adhered to any other monarch, and have defended with vigour the
liberties of the nation against these palpable usurpations of the
court of Rome.  [MN Interdict of the kingdom.]  Innocent, therefore,
perceiving the king's weakness, fulminated at last the sentence of
interdict, which he had for some time held suspended over him [o].
[FN [m] Ibid.  [n] Ibid.  [o] M. Paris, p. 157.  Trivet, p. 152.  Ann.
Waverl. p. 170.  M. West. p. 268.]

The sentence of interdict was at that time the great instrument of
vengeance and policy employed by the court of Rome; was denounced
against sovereigns for the lightest offences; and made the guilt of
one person involve the ruin of millions, even in their spiritual and
eternal welfare.  The execution of it was calculated to strike the
senses in the highest degree, and to operate with irresistible force
on the superstitious minds of the people.  The nation was of a sudden
deprived of all exterior exercise of its religion: the altars were
despoiled of their ornaments: the crosses, the relics, the images, the
statues of the saints, were laid on the ground; and, as if the air
itself were profaned, and might pollute them by its contact, the
priests carefully covered them up, even from their own approach and
veneration.  The use of bells entirely ceased in all the churches: the
bells themselves were removed from the steeples, and laid on the
ground with the other sacred utensils.  Mass was celebrated with shut
doors, and none but the priests were admitted to that holy
institution.  The laity partook of no religious rite, except baptism
to new-born infants, and the communion to the dying: the dead were not
interred in consecrated ground: they were thrown into ditches, or
buried in common fields; and their obsequies were not attended with
prayers or any hallowed ceremony.  Marriage was celebrated in the
church-yard [p]; and that every action in life might bear the marks of
this dreadful situation, the people were prohibited the use of meat,
as in Lent, or times of the highest penance; were debarred from all
pleasures and entertainments; and were forbidden even to salute each
other, or so much as to shave their beards, and give any decent
attention to their person and apparel.  Every circumstance carried
symptoms of the deepest distress, and of the most immediate
apprehension of divine vengeance and indignation.
[FN [p] Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 51.]

The king, that he might oppose HIS temporal to THEIR spiritual
terrors, immediately, from his own authority, confiscated the estates
of all the clergy who obeyed the interdict [q]; banished the prelates,
confined the monks in their convent, and gave them only such a small
allowance from their own estates as would suffice to provide them with
food and raiment.  He treated with the utmost rigour all Langton's
adherents, and every one that showed any disposition to obey the
commands of Rome; and in order to distress the clergy in the tenderest
point, and at the same time expose them to reproach and ridicule, he
threw into prison all their concubines, and required high fines as the
price of their liberty [r].
[FN [q] Ann. Waverl. p. 170.  [r] M. Paris, p. 158.  Ann. Waverl. p.
170.]

After the canons which established the celibacy of the clergy were, by
the zealous endeavours of Archbishop Anselm, more rigorously executed
in England, the ecclesiastics gave, almost universally, and avowedly,
in to the use of concubinage; and the court of Rome, which had no
interest in prohibiting this practice, made very slight opposition to
it.  The custom was become so prevalent, that, in some cantons of
Switzerland, before the reformation, the laws not only permitted, but,
to avoid scandal, enjoined the use of concubines to the younger clergy
[s]; and it was usual every where for priests to apply to the
ordinary, and obtain from him a formal liberty for this indulgence.
The bishop commonly took care to prevent the practice from
degenerating into licentiousness: he confined the priest to the use of
one woman, required him to be constant to her bed, obliged him to
provide for her subsistence and that of her children; and though the
offspring was, in the eye of the law, deemed illegitimate, this
commerce was really a kind of inferior marriage, such as is still
practised in Germany among the nobles; and may be regarded by the
candid as an appeal from the tyranny of civil and ecclesiastical
institutions, to the more virtuous and more unerring laws of nature.
[FN [s] Padre Paolo, Hist. Conc. Trid. lib. I.]

The quarrel between the king and the see of Rome continued for some
years; and though many of the clergy, from the fear of punishment,
obeyed the orders of John, and celebrated divine service, they
complied with the utmost reluctance, and were regarded, both by
themselves and the people, as men who betrayed their principles, and
sacrificed their conscience to temporal regards and interests.  During
this violent situation, the king, in order to give a lustre to his
government, attempted military expeditions against Scotland, against
Ireland, against the Welsh [t]; and he commonly prevailed, more from
the weakness of his enemies, than from his own vigour or abilities.
Meanwhile, the danger to which his government stood continually
exposed from the discontents of the ecclesiastics increased his
natural propension to tyranny; and he seems to have even wantonly
disgusted all orders of men, especially his nobles, from whom alone he
could reasonably expect support and assistance.  He dishonoured their
families by his licentious amours; he published edicts, prohibiting
them from hunting feathered game, and thereby restrained them from
their favourite occupation and amusement [u]; he ordered all the
hedges and fences near his forests to be levelled, that his deer might
have more ready access into the fields for pasture; and he continually
loaded the nation with arbitrary impositions.  [MN 1208.]  Conscious
of the general hatred which he had incurred, he required his nobility
to give him hostages for security of their allegiance; and they were
obliged to put into his hands their sons, nephews, or near relations.
When his messengers came with like orders to the castle of William de
Braouse, a baron of great note, the lady of that nobleman replied,
that she would never intrust her son into the hands of one who had
murdered his own nephew while in his custody.  Her husband reproved
her for the severity of this speech; but, sensible of his danger, he
immediately fled with his wife and son into Ireland, where he
endeavoured to conceal himself.  The king discovered the unhappy
family in their retreat; seized the wife and son, whom he starved to
death in prison; and the baron himself narrowly escaped, by flying
into France.
[FN [t] W. Heming. p. 556.  Ypod. Neust, p. 460.  Knyghton, p. 2420.
[u] M. West. p. 268.]

[MN 1209.]  The court of Rome had artfully contrived a gradation of
sentences, by which it kept offenders in awe; still affording them an
opportunity of preventing the next anathema by submission; and in case
of their obstinacy, was able to refresh the horror of the people
against them by new denunciations of the wrath and vengeance of
Heaven.  As the sentence of interdict had not produced the desired
effect on John, and as his people, though extremely discontented, had
hitherto been restrained from rising in open rebellion against him, he
was soon to look for the sentence of excommunication; and he had
reason to apprehend, that, notwithstanding all his precautions, the
most dangerous consequences might ensue from it.  He was witness of
the other scenes, which, at that very time, were acting in Europe, and
which displayed the unbounded and uncontrolled power of the papacy.
Innocent, far from being dismayed at his contests with the King of
England, had excommunicated the Emperor Otho, John's nephew [w]; and
soon brought that powerful and haughty prince to submit to his
authority.  He published a crusade against the Abigenses, a species of
enthusiasts in the south of France, whom he denominated heretics,
because, like other enthusiasts, they neglected the rites of the
church, and opposed the power and influence of the clergy: the people
from all parts of Europe, moved by their superstition and their
passion for wars and adventures, flocked to his standard: Simon de
Montfort, the general of the crusade, acquired to himself a
sovereignty in these provinces: the Count of Toulouse, who protected,
or perhaps only tolerated the Albigenses, was stripped of his
dominions: and these sectaries themselves, though the most innocent
and inoffensive of mankind, were exterminated with all the
circumstances of extreme violence and barbarity.  Here were therefore
both an army and a general, dangerous from their zeal and valour, who
might be directed to act against John; and Innocent, after keeping the
thunder long suspended, gave, at last, authority to the Bishops of
London, Ely, and Worcester, to fulminate the sentence of
excommunication against him [x].  [MN Excommunication of the king.]
These prelates obeyed; though their brethren were deterred from
publishing, as the pope required of them, the sentence in the several
churches of their dioceses.
[FN [w] M. Paris, p. 160.  Trivet, p. 154.  M. West. p. 269.  [x] M.
Paris, p. 159.  M. West. p. 270.]

No sooner was the excommunication known, than the effects of it
appeared.  Geoffrey, Archdeacon of Norwich, who was intrusted with a
considerable office in the court of exchequer, being informed of it
while sitting on the bench, observed to his colleagues the danger of
serving under an excommunicated king; and he immediately left his
chair, and departed the court.  John gave orders to seize him, to
throw him into prison, to cover his head with a great leaden cope;
and, by this and other severe usage, he soon put an end to his life
[y]: nor was there any thing wanting to Geoffrey, except the dignity
and rank of Becket, to exalt him to an equal station in heaven with
that great and celebrated martyr.  Hugh de Wells, the chancellor,
being elected by the king's appointment Bishop of Lincoln, upon a
vacancy in that see, desired leave to go abroad, in order to receive
consecration from the Archbishop of Rouen; but he no sooner reached
France than he hastened to Pontigny, where Langton then resided, and
paid submissions to him as his primate.  The bishops, finding
themselves exposed either to the jealousy of the king or hatred of the
people, gradually stole out of the kingdom; and, at last, there
remained only three prelates to perform the functions of the episcopal
office [z].  Many of the nobility, terrified by John’s tyranny, and
obnoxious to him on different accounts, imitated the example of the
bishops; and most of the others who remained were, with reason,
suspected of having secretly entered into a confederacy against him
[a].  John was alarmed at his dangerous situation; a situation which
prudence, vigour, and popularity might formerly have prevented, but
which no virtues or abilities were now sufficient to retrieve.  He
desired a conference with Langton at Dover; offered to acknowledge him
as primate, to submit to the pope, to restore the exiled clergy, even
to pay them a limited sum as a compensation for the rents of their
confiscated estates.  But Langton, perceiving his advantage, was not
satisfied with these concessions: he demanded that full restitution
and reparation should be made to all the clergy; a condition so
exorbitant, that the king, who probably had not the power of
fulfilling it, and who foresaw that this estimation of damages might
amount to an immense sum, finally broke off the conference [b].
[FN [y] M. Paris, p. 159.  [z] Ann. Waverl. p. 170.  Ann. Marg. p. 14.
[a] M. Paris, p. 162.  M. West. p. 270, 271.  [b] Ann. Waverl. p.
171.]

[MN 1212.]  The next gradation of papal sentences was to absolve
John's subjects from their oaths of fidelity and allegiance, and to
declare every one excommunicated who had any commerce with him in
public or in private; at his table, in his council, or even in private
conversation [c]; and this sentence was accordingly, with all
imaginable solemnity, pronounced against him.  But as John still
persevered in his contumacy, there remained nothing but the sentence
of deposition; which, though intimately connected with the former, had
been distinguished from it by the artifice of the court of Rome; and
Innocent determined to dart this last thunderbolt against the
refractory monarch.  But as a sentence of this kind required an armed
force to execute it, the pontiff, casting his eyes around, fixed at
last on Philip, King of France, as the person into whose powerful hand
he could most properly intrust that weapon, the ultimate resource of
his ghostly authority.  And he offered the monarch, besides the
remission of all his sins and endless spiritual benefits, the property
and possession of the kingdom of England, as the reward of his labour
[d].
[FN [c] M. Paris, p. 161.  M. West. p. 270.  [d] M. Paris, p. 162.  M.
West. p. 271.]

[MN 1213.]  It was the common concern of all princes to oppose these
exorbitant pretensions of the Roman pontiff, by which they themselves
were rendered vassals, and vassals totally dependent, of the papal
crown: yet even Philip, the most able monarch of the age, was seduced
by present interest, and by the prospect of so tempting a prize, to
accept this liberal offer of the pontiff, and thereby to ratify that
authority which, if he ever opposed its boundless usurpations, might,
next day, tumble him from the throne.  He levied a great army;
summoned all the vassals of the crown to attend him at Rouen;
collected a fleet of seventeen hundred vessels, great and small, in
the sea-ports of Normandy and Picardy; and partly from the zealous
spirit of the age, partly from the personal regard universally paid
him, prepared a force, which seemed equal to the greatness of his
enterprise.  The king, on the other hand, issued out writs, requiring
the attendance of all his military tenants at Dover, and even of all
able-bodied men, to defend the kingdom in this dangerous extremity.  A
great number appeared; and he selected an army of sixty thousand men;
a power invincible, had they been united in affection to their prince,
and animated with a becoming zeal for the defence of their native
country [e].  But the people were swayed by superstition, and regarded
their king with horror, as anathematized by papal censures: the
barons, besides lying under the same prejudices, were all disgusted by
his tyranny, and were, many of them, suspected of holding a secret
correspondence with the enemy; and the incapacity and cowardice of the
king himself, ill fitted to contend with those mighty difficulties,
made men prognosticate the most fatal effects from the French
invasion.
[FN [e] M. Paris, p. 163.  M. West. p. 271.]

Pandolf, whom the pope had chosen for his legate, and appointed to
head this important expedition, had, before he left Rome, applied for
a secret conference with his master, and had asked him, whether, if
the King of England, in this desperate situation, were willing to
submit to the apostolic see, the church should, without the consent of
Philip, grant him any terms of accommodation [f]!  Innocent, expecting
from his agreement with a prince so abject both in character and
fortune, more advantages than from his alliance with a great and
victorious monarch, who, after such mighty acquisitions, might become
too haughty to be bound by spiritual chains, explained to Pandolf the
conditions on which he was willing to be reconciled to the King of
England.  The legate, therefore, as soon as he arrived in the north of
France, sent over two Knights Templars to desire an interview with
John at Dover, which was readily granted: he there represented to him,
in such strong and probably in such true colours, his lost condition,
the disaffection of his subjects, the secret combination of his
vassals against him, the mighty armament of France, that John yielded
at discretion [g], and subscribed to all the conditions which Pandolf
was pleased to impose upon him.  [MN 13th May.  The king’s submission
to the pope.]  He promised, among other articles, that he would submit
himself entirely to the judgment of the pope; that he would
acknowledge Langton for primate; that he would restore all the exiled
clergy and laity, who had been banished on account of the contest;
that he would make them full restitution of their goods, and
compensation for all damages, and instantly consign eight thousand
pounds in part of payment; and that every one outlawed or imprisoned
for his adherence to the pope should immediately be received into
grace and favour [h].  Four barons swore, along with the king, to the
observance of this ignominious treaty [i].
[FN [f] M. Paris, p. 162.  [g] M. West. p. 271.  [h] Rymer, vol. i. p.
166.  M. Paris, p. 163.  Annal. Burt. p. 268.  [i] Rymer, vol. i. p.
170.  M. Paris, p. 163.]

But the ignominy of the king was not yet carried to its full height.
Pandolf required him, as the first trial of obedience, to resign his
kingdom to the church; and he persuaded him, that he could nowise so
effectually disappoint the French invasion as by thus putting himself
under the immediate protection of the apostolic see.  John, lying
under the agonies of present terror, made no scruple of submitting to
this condition.  He passed a charter, in which he said, that, not
constrained by fear, but of his own free will, and by the common
advice and consent of his barons, he had, for remission of his own
sins, and those of his family, resigned England and Ireland, to God,
to St. Peter and St. Paul, and to Pope Innocent and his successors in
the apostolic chair: he agreed to hold these dominions as feudatory of
the church of Rome, by the annual payment of a thousand marks; seven
hundred for England, three hundred for Ireland: and he stipulated that
if he or his successors should ever presume to revoke or infringe this
charter, they should instantly, except upon admonition they repented
of their offence, forfeit all right to their dominions [k].
[FN [k] Rymer, vol. i. p. 176.  M. Paris, p. 165.]

[MN 15th May.]  In consequence of this agreement, John did homage to
Pandolf, as the pope's legate, with all the submissive rites which the
feudal law required of vassals before their liege lord and superior.
He came disarmed into the legate's presence, who was seated on a
throne; he flung himself on his knees before him; he lifted up his
joined hands, and put them within those of Pandolf; he swore fealty to
the pope; and he paid part of the tribute which he owed for his
kingdom as the patrimony of St. Peter.  The legate, elated by this
supreme triumph of sacerdotal power, could not forbear discovering
extravagant symptoms of joy and exultation: he trampled on the money,
which was laid at his feet as an earnest of the subjection of the
kingdom; an insolence of which, however offensive to all the English,
no one present, except the Archbishop of Dublin, dared to take any
notice.  But though Pandolf had brought the king to submit to these
base conditions, he still refused to free him from the excommunication
and interdict, till an estimation should be taken of the losses of the
ecclesiastics, and full compensation and restitution should be made
them.

John, reduced to this abject situation under a foreign power, still
showed the same disposition to tyrannize over his subjects, which had
been the chief cause of all his misfortunes.  One Peter of Pomfret, a
hermit, had foretold that the king, this very year, should lose his
crown; and for that rash prophecy he had been thrown into prison in
Corfe-castle.  John now determined to bring him to punishment as an
impostor; and though the man pleaded that his prophecy was fulfilled,
and that the king had lost the royal and independent crown which he
formerly wore, the defence was supposed to aggravate his guilt: he was
dragged at horses' tails to the town of Warham, and there hanged on a
gibbet with his son [l].
[FN [l] M. Paris, p. 165.  Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 56.]

When Pandolf, after receiving the homage of John, returned to France,
he congratulated Philip on the success of his pious enterprise; and
informed him that John, moved by the terror of the French arms, had
now come to a just sense of his guilt; had returned to obedience under
the apostolic see, and even consented to do homage to the pope for his
dominions; and having thus made his kingdom a part of St. Peter's
patrimony, had rendered it impossible for any Christian prince,
without the most manifest and most flagrant impiety, to attack him
[m].  Philip was enraged on receiving this intelligence: he exclaimed
that having, at the pope’s instigation, undertaken an expedition,
which had cost him above sixty thousand pounds sterling, he was
frustrated of his purpose, at the time when its success was become
infallible: he complained that all the expense had fallen upon him;
all the advantages had accrued to Innocent: he threatened to be no
longer the dupe of these hypocritical pretences; and, assembling his
vassals, he laid before them the ill-treatment which he had received,
exposed the interested and fraudulent conduct of the pope, and
required their assistance to execute his enterprise against England,
in which he told them, that, notwithstanding the inhibitions and
menaces of the legate, he was determined to persevere.  The French
barons were, in that age, little less ignorant and superstitious than
the English: yet, so much does the influence of those religious
principles depend on the present dispositions of men, they all vowed
to follow their prince on his intended expedition, and were resolute
not to be disappointed of that glory and those riches which they had
long expected from this enterprise.  The Earl of Flanders alone, who
had previously formed a secret treaty with John, declaring against the
injustice and impiety of the undertaking, retired with his forces [n];
and Philip, that he might not leave so dangerous an enemy behind him,
first turned his arms against the dominions of that prince.
Meanwhile, the English fleet was assembled under the Earl of
Salisbury, the king's natural brother; and though inferior in number,
received orders to attack the French in their harbours.  Salisbury
performed this service with so much success, that he took three
hundred ships; destroyed a hundred more [o]; and Philip, finding it
impossible to prevent the rest from falling into the hands of the
enemy, set fire to them himself, and thereby rendered it impossible
for him to proceed any farther in his enterprise.
[FN [m] Trivet, p. 160.  [n] M. Paris, p. 166.  [o] Ibid. p. 166.
Chron. Dunst, vol. i. p. 59.  Trivet, p. 157.]

John, exulting in his present security, insensible to his past
disgrace, was so elated with this success, that he thought of no less
than invading France in his turn, and recovering all those provinces
which the prosperous arms of Philip had formerly ravished from him.
He proposed this expedition to the barons, who were already assembled
for the defence of the kingdom.  But the English nobles both hated and
despised their prince: they prognosticated no success to any
enterprise conducted by such a leader; and pretending that their time
of service was elapsed, and all their provisions exhausted, they
refused to second his undertaking [p].  The king, however, resolute in
his purpose, embarked with a few followers, and sailed to Jersey, in
the foolish expectation that the barons would at last be ashamed to
stay behind [q].  But finding himself disappointed, he returned to
England; and, raising some troops, threatened to take vengeance on all
his nobles for their desertion and disobedience.  The Archbishop of
Canterbury, who was in a confederacy with the barons, here interposed;
strictly inhibited the king from thinking of such an attempt; and
threatened him with a renewal of the sentence of excommunication, if
he pretended to levy war upon any of his subjects, before the kingdom
were freed from the sentence of interdict [r].
[FN [p] M. Paris, p. 166.  [q] M. Paris, p. 166.  [r] Ibid. p. 167.]

The church had recalled the several anathemas pronounced against John,
by the same gradual progress with which she had at first issued them.
By receiving his homage, and admitting him to the rank of a vassal,
his deposition had been virtually annulled, and his subjects were
again bound by their oaths of allegiance.  The exiled prelates had
then returned in great triumph, with Langton at their head; and the
king, hearing of their approach, went forth to meet them, and throwing
himself on the ground before them, he entreated them, with tears, to
have compassion on him and the kingdom of England [s].  [MN July.]
The primate, seeing these marks of sincere penitence, led him to the
chapter-house of Winchester, and there administered an oath to him, by
which he again swore fealty and obedience to Pope Innocent and his
successors; promised to love, maintain, and defend holy church and the
clergy; engaged that he would re-establish the good laws of his
predecessors, particularly those of St. Edward, and would abolish the
wicked ones; and expressed his resolution of maintaining justice and
right in all his dominions [t].  The primate next gave him absolution
in the requisite forms, and admitted him to dine with him, to the
great joy of all the people.  The sentence of interdict, however, was
still upheld against the kingdom.  A new legate, Nicholas, Bishop of
Frescati, came into England in the room of Pandolf; and he declared it
to be the pope's intentions never to loosen that sentence till full
restitution were made to the clergy of every thing taken from them,
and ample reparation for all damages which they had sustained.  He
only permitted mass to be said with a low voice in the churches, till
those losses and damages could be estimated to the satisfaction of the
parties.  Certain barons were appointed to take an account of the
claims; and John was astonished at the greatness of the sums to which
the clergy made their losses to amount.  No less than twenty thousand
marks were demanded by the monks of Canterbury alone; twenty-three
thousand for the see of Lincoln; and the king, finding these
pretensions to be exorbitant and endless, offered the clergy the sum
of a hundred thousand marks for a final acquittal.  The clergy
rejected the offer with disdain; but the pope, willing to favour his
new vassal, whom he found zealous in his declarations of fealty, and
regular in paying the stipulated tribute to Rome, directed his legate
to accept of forty thousand.  The issue of the whole was, that the
bishops and considerable abbots got reparation beyond what they had
any title to demand; the inferior clergy were obliged to sit down
contented with their losses; and the king, after the interdict was
taken off, renewed, in the most solemn manner, and by a new charter,
sealed with gold, his professions of homage and obedience to the see
of Rome.
[FN [s] Ibid. p. 166.  Ann. Waverl. p. 178.  [t] M. Paris, p. 166.]

[MN 1214.]  When this vexatious affair was at last brought to a
conclusion, the king, as if he had nothing farther to attend to but
triumphs and victories, went over to Poictou, which still acknowledged
his authority [u]; and he carried war into Philip's dominions.  He
besieged a castle near Angiers; but the approach of Prince Lewis,
Philip's son, obliged him to raise the siege with such precipitation,
that he left his tents, machines, and baggage behind him; and he
returned to England with disgrace.  About the same time he heard of
the great and decisive victory gained by the King of France at Bovines
over the Emperor Otho, who had entered France at the head of a hundred
and fifty thousand Germans; a victory which established for ever the
glory of Philip, and gave full security to all his dominions.  John
could, therefore, think henceforth of nothing farther than of ruling
peaceably his own kingdom; and his close connexions with the pope,
which he was determined at any price to maintain, ensured him, as he
imagined, the certain attainment of that object.  But the last and
most grievous scene of this prince’s misfortunes still awaited him;
and he was destined to pass through a series of more humiliating
circumstances than had ever yet fallen to the lot of any other
monarch.
[FN [u] Queen Eleanor died in 1203 or 1204.]

[MN Discontents of the barons.]
The introduction of the feudal law into England by William the
Conqueror had much infringed the liberties, however imperfect, enjoyed
by the Anglo-Saxons in their ancient government, and had reduced the
whole people to a state of vassalage under the king or barons, and
even the greater part of them to a state of real slavery.  The
necessity also of intrusting great power in the hands of a prince, who
was to maintain military dominion over a vanquished nation, had
engaged the Norman barons to submit to a more severe and absolute
prerogative than that to which men of their rank, in other feudal
governments, were commonly subjected.  The power of the crown, once
raised to a high pitch, was not easily reduced; and the nation, during
the course of a hundred and fifty years, was governed by an authority
unknown, in the same degree, to all the kingdoms founded by the
northern conquerors.  Henry I., that he might allure the people to
give an exclusion to his elder brother Robert, had granted them a
charter, favourable in many particulars to their liberties; Stephen
had renewed the grant; Henry II. had confirmed it: but the concessions
of all these princes had still remained without effect; and the same
unlimited, at least irregular authority, continued to be exercised
both by them and their successors.  The only happiness was, that arms
were never yet ravished from the hands of the barons and people: the
nation, by a great confederacy, might still vindicate its liberties;
and nothing was more likely than the character, conduct, and fortunes
of the reigning prince to produce such a general combination against
him.  Equally odious and contemptible, both in public and private
life, he affronted the barons by his insolence, dishonoured their
families by his gallantries, enraged them by his tyranny,  and gave
discontent to all ranks of men by his endless exactions and
impositions [w].  The effect of these lawless practices had already
appeared in the general demand made by the barons of a restoration of
their privileges; and after he had reconciled himself to the pope, by
abandoning the independence of the kingdom, he appeared to all his
subjects in so mean a light, that they universally thought they might
with safety and honour insist upon their pretensions.
[FN [w] Chron Mailr. p. 188.  T. Wykes, p. 36.  Ann. Waverl. p. 181.
W. Heming. p. 557.]

But nothing forwarded this confederacy so much as the concurrence of
Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury; a man whose memory, though he was
obtruded on the nation by a palpable encroachment of the see of Rome,
ought always to be respected by the English.  This prelate, whether he
was moved by the generosity of his nature and his affection to public
good; or had entertained an animosity against John on account of the
long opposition made by that prince to his election; or thought that
an acquisition of liberty to the people would serve to increase and
secure the privileges of the church; had formed the plan of reforming
the government, and had prepared the way for that great innovation, by
inserting those singular clauses above-mentioned in the oath which he
administered to the king, before he would absolve him from the
sentence of excommunication.  Soon after, in a private meeting of some
principal barons at London, he showed them a copy of Henry I.'s
charter, which, he said, he had happily found in a monastery; and he
exhorted them to insist on the renewal and observance of it: the
barons swore, that they would sooner lose their lives than depart from
so reasonable a demand [x].  The confederacy began now to spread
wider, and to comprehend almost all the barons in England; and a new
and more numerous meeting was summoned by Langton at St. Edmondsbury,
under colour of devotion.  [MN Nov. 1.]  He again produced to the
assembly the old charter of Henry; renewed his exhortations of
unanimity and vigour in the prosecution of their purpose; and
represented in the strongest colours the tyranny to which they had so
long been subjected, and from which it now behoved them to free
themselves and their posterity [y].  The barons, inflamed by his
eloquence, incited by the sense of their own wrongs, and encouraged by
the appearance of their power and numbers, solemnly took an oath,
before the high altar, to adhere to each other, to insist on their
demands, and to make endless war on the king, till he should submit to
grant them [z].  They agreed that, after the festival of Christmas,
they would prefer in a body their common petition; and, in the mean
time, they separated, after mutually engaging that they would put
themselves in a posture of defence, would enlist men and purchase
arms, and would supply their castles with the necessary provisions.
[FN [x] M. Paris, p. 167.  [y] M. Paris, p. 175.  [z] Ibid. p. 176.]

[MN 1215.  6th Jan.]
The barons appeared in London on the day appointed, and demanded of
the king, that, in consequence of his own oath before the primate, as
well as in deference to their just rights, he should grant them a
renewal of Henry's charter, and a confirmation of the laws of St.
Edward.  The king, alarmed with their zeal and unanimity, as well as
with their power, required a delay; promised that, at the festival of
Easter, he would give them a positive answer to their petition; and
offered them the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Ely, and the
Earl of Pembroke, the mareschal, as sureties for his fulfilling this
engagement [a].  The barons accepted of the terms, and peaceably
returned to their castles.
[FN [a] Ibid. p. 176.  M. West. p. 273.]

[MN 15th Jan.]  During this interval, John, in order to break or
subdue the league of his barons, endeavoured to avail himself of the
ecclesiastical power, of whose influence he had, from his own recent
misfortunes, had such fatal experience.  He granted to the clergy a
charter, relinquishing for ever that important prerogative, for which
his father and all his ancestors had zealously contended; yielding to
them the free election on all vacancies; reserving only the power to
issue a congé d'élire, and to subjoin a confirmation of the election;
and declaring that, if either of these were withheld, the choice
should nevertheless be deemed just and valid [b].  He made a vow to
lead an army into Palestine against the infidels, and he took on him
the cross; in hopes that he should receive from the church that
protection which she tendered to every one that had entered into this
sacred and meritorious engagement [c].  And he sent to Rome his agent,
William de Mauclerc, in order to appeal to the pope against the
violence of his barons, and procure him a favourable sentence from
that powerful tribunal [d].  The barons also were not negligent on
their part in endeavouring to engage the pope in their interests: they
despatched Eustace de Vescie to Rome; laid their case before Innocent
as their feudal lord: and petitioned him to interpose his authority
with the king, and oblige him to restore and confirm all their just
and undoubted privileges [e].
[FN [b] Rymer, vol. i. p. 197.  [c] Rymer, vol. i. p. 200.  Trivet, p.
162.  T. Wykes, p. 37.  M. West. p. 273.  [d] Rymer, vol. i. p. 184.
[e] Ibid.]

Innocent beheld with regret the disturbances which had arisen in
England, and was much inclined to favour John in his pretensions.  He
had no hopes of retaining and extending his newly-acquired superiority
over that kingdom, but by supporting so base and degenerate a prince,
who was willing to sacrifice every consideration to his present
safety: and he foresaw that, if the administration should fall into
the hands of those gallant and high-spirited barons, they would
vindicate the honour, liberty, and independence of the nation, with
the same ardour which they now exerted in defence of their own.  He
wrote letters therefore to the prelates, to the nobility, and to the
king himself.  He exhorted the first to employ their good offices in
conciliating peace between the contending parties, and putting an end
to civil discord: to the second he expressed his disapprobation of
their conduct in employing force to extort concessions from their
reluctant sovereign: the last he advised to treat his nobles with
grace and indulgence, and to grant them such of their demands as
should appear just and reasonable [f].
[FN [f] Ibid. p. 196, 197.]

The barons easily saw, from the tenour of these letters, that they
must reckon on having the pope, as well as the king, for their
adversary; but they had already advanced too far to recede from their
pretensions, and their passions were so deeply engaged, that it
exceeded even the power of superstition itself any longer to control
them.  They also foresaw, that the thunders of Rome, when not seconded
by the efforts of the English ecclesiastics, would be of small avail
against them; and they perceived that the most considerable of the
prelates, as well as all the inferior clergy, professed the highest
approbation of their cause.  Besides that these men were seized with
the national passion for laws and liberty, blessings of which they
themselves expected to partake, there concurred very powerful causes
to loosen their devoted attachment to the apostolic see.  It appeared
from the late usurpations of the Roman pontiff, that he pretended to
reap alone all the advantages accruing from that victory which, under
his banners, though at their own peril, they had every where obtained
over the civil magistrate.  The pope assumed a despotic power over all
the churches: their particular customs, privileges, and immunities,
were treated with disdain: even the canons of general councils were
set aside by his dispensing power: the whole administration of the
church was centered in the court of Rome: all preferments ran of
course in the same channel: and the provincial clergy saw, at least
felt, that there was a necessity for limiting these pretensions.  The
legate, Nicholas, in filling those numerous vacancies which had fallen
in England during an interdict of six years, had proceeded in the most
arbitrary manner; and had paid no regard, in conferring dignities, to
personal merit, to rank, to the inclination of the electors, or to the
customs of the country.  The English church was universally disgusted;
and Langton himself, though he owed his elevation to an encroachment
of the Romish see, was no sooner established in his high office than
he became jealous of the privileges annexed to it, and formed
attachments with the country subjected to his jurisdiction.  These
causes, though they opened slowly the eyes of men, failed not to
produce their effect: they set bounds to the usurpations of the
papacy: the tide first stopped, and then turned against the sovereign
pontiff: and it is otherwise inconceivable how that age, so prone to
superstition, and so sunk in ignorance, or rather so devoted to a
spurious erudition, could have escaped falling into an absolute and
total slavery under the court of Rome.

[MN 1215.  Insurrection of the barons.]
About the time that the pope's letters arrived in England, the
malecontent barons, on the approach of the festival of Easter, when
they were to expect the king's answer to their petition, met by
agreement at Stamford; and they assembled a force, consisting of above
two thousand knights, besides their retainers and inferior persons
without number.  [MN 27th April.]  Elated with their power, they
advanced in a body to Brackley, within fifteen miles of Oxford, the
place where the court then resided; and they there received a message
from the king, by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Earl of
Pembroke, desiring to know what those liberties were which they so
zealously challenged from their sovereign.  They delivered to these
messengers a schedule containing the chief articles of their demands;
which was no sooner shown to the king than he burst into a furious
passion, and asked why the barons did not also demand of him his
kingdom? swearing that he would never grant them such liberties as
must reduce himself to slavery [g].
[FN [g] M. Paris, p. 176.]

No sooner were the confederated nobles informed of John's reply than
they chose Robert Fitz-Walter their general, whom they called THE
MARESCHAL OF THE ARMY OF GOD AND OF HOLY CHURCH; and they proceeded
without farther ceremony to levy war upon the king.  They besieged the
castle of Northampton during fifteen days, though without success [h]:
the gates of Bedford castle were willingly opened to them by William
Beauchamp, its owner: [MN 24th May.] they advanced to Ware in their
way to London, where they held a correspondence with the principal
citizens: they were received without opposition into that capital: and
finding now the great superiority of their force, they issued
proclamations, requiring the other barons to join them; and menacing
them, in case of refusal or delay, with committing devastation on
their houses and estates [i].  In order to show what might be expected
from their prosperous arms, they made incursions from London, and laid
waste the king's parks and palaces; and all the barons, who had
hitherto carried the semblance of supporting the royal party, were
glad of this pretence for openly joining a cause which they always had
secretly favoured.  The king was left at Odiham in Hampshire, with a
poor retinue of only seven knights; and after trying several
expedients to elude the blow, after offering to refer all differences
to the pope alone, or to eight barons, four to be chosen by himself,
and four by the confederates [k], he found himself at last obliged to
submit at discretion.
[FN [h] Ibid. p. 177.  Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 71.  [i] M. Paris, p.
177.  [k] Rymer, vol. i. p. 200.]

[MN 15th June.  Magna Charta.]
A conference between the king and the barons was appointed at
Runnemede, between Windsor and Staines; a place which has ever since
been extremely celebrated on account of this great event.  The two
parties encamped apart, like open enemies; and after a debate of a few
days, the king, with a facility somewhat suspicious, signed and sealed
the charter which was required of him.  [MN 19th June.]  This famous
deed, commonly called the GREAT CHARTER, either granted or secured
very important liberties and privileges to every order of men in the
kingdom; to the clergy, to the barons, and to the people.

The freedom of elections was secured to the clergy; the former charter
of the king was confirmed, by which the necessity of a royal congé'
d'élire and confirmation was superseded: all check upon appeals to
Rome was removed, by the allowance granted every man to depart the
kingdom at pleasure: and the fines to be imposed on the clergy for any
offence were ordained to be proportional to their lay estates, not to
their ecclesiastical benefices.

The privileges granted to the barons were either abatements in the
rigour of the feudal law, or determinations in points which had been
left by that law, or had become, by practice, arbitrary and ambiguous.
The reliefs of heirs succeeding to a military fee were ascertained; an
earl's and baron's at a hundred marks, a knight's at a hundred
shillings.  It was ordained by the charter, that, if the heir be a
minor, he shall immediately, upon his majority, enter upon his estate,
without paying any relief: the king shall not sell his  wardship: he
shall levy only reasonable profits upon the estate, without committing
waste, or hurting the property: he shall uphold the castles, houses,
mills, parks, and ponds: and if he commit the guardianship of the
estate to the sheriff or any other, he shall previously oblige them to
find surety to the same purpose.  During the minority of a baron,
while his lands are in wardship, and are not in his own possession, no
debt which he owes to the Jews shall bear any interest.  Heirs shall
be married without disparagement; and before the marriage be
contracted, the nearest relations of the person shall be informed of
it.  A widow, without paying any relief, shall enter upon her dower,
the third part of her husband's rents: she shall not be compelled to
marry, so long as she chooses to continue single; she shall only give
security never to marry without her lord's consent.  The king shall
not claim the wardship of any minor who hold lands by military tenure
of a baron, on pretence that he also holds lands of the crown by
soccage or any other tenure.  Scutages shall be estimated at the same
rate as in the time of Henry I.; and no scutage or aid, except in the
three general feudal cases, the king's captivity, the knighting of his
eldest son, and the marrying of his eldest daughter, shall be imposed
but by the great council of the kingdom: the prelates, earls, and
great barons, shall be called to this great council, each by a
particular writ; the lesser barons by a general summons of the
sheriff.  The king shall not seize any baron's land for a debt to the
crown, if the baron possesses as many goods and chattels as are
sufficient to discharge the debt.  No man shall be obliged to perform
more service for his fee than he is bound to by his tenure.  No
governor or constable of a castle shall oblige any knight to give
money for castle-guard, if the knight be willing to perform the
service in person, or by another able-bodied man; and if the knight be
in the field himself, by the king's command, he shall be exempted from
all other service of this nature.  No vassal shall be allowed to sell
so much of his land as to incapacitate himself from performing his
service to his lord.

These were the principal articles calculated for the interest of the
barons; and had the charter contained nothing farther, national
happiness and liberty had been very little promoted by it, as it would
only have tended to increase the power and independence of an order of
men who were already too powerful, and whose yoke might have become
more heavy on the people than even that of an absolute monarch.  But
the barons, who alone drew and imposed on the prince this memorable
charter, were necessitated to insert in it other clauses of a more
extensive and more beneficent nature: they could not expect the
concurrence of the people without comprehending, together with their
own, the interests of inferior ranks of men; and all provisions which
the barons, for their own sake, were obliged to make, in order to
ensure the free and equitable administration of justice, tended
directly to the benefit of the whole community.  The following were
the principal clauses of this nature.

It was ordained, that all the privileges and immunities above-
mentioned, granted to the barons against the king, should be extended
by the barons to their inferior vassals.  The king bound himself not
to grant any writ, empowering a baron to levy aids from his vassals,
except in the three feudal cases.  One weight and one measure shall be
established throughout the kingdom.  Merchants shall be allowed to
transact all business, without being exposed to any arbitrary tolls
and impositions; they and all freemen shall be allowed to go out of
the kingdom and return to it at pleasure: London, and all cities and
burghs, shall preserve their ancient liberties, immunities, and free
customs: aids shall not be required of them but by the consent of the
great council: no towns or individuals shall be obliged to make or
support bridges but by ancient custom: the goods of every freeman
shall be disposed of according to his will: if he die intestate, his
heirs shall succeed to them.  No officer of the crown shall take any
horses, carts, or wood, without the consent of the owner.  The king's
courts of justice shall be stationary, and shall no longer follow his
person: they shall be open to every one; and justice shall no longer
be sold, refused, or delayed by them.  Circuits shall be regularly
held every year: the inferior tribunals of justice, the county court,
sheriff's turn, and court leet, shall meet at their appointed time and
place: the sheriffs shall be incapacitated to hold pleas of the crown,
and shall not put any person upon his trial from rumour or suspicion
alone, but upon the evidence of lawful witnesses.  No freeman shall be
taken or imprisoned, or dispossessed of his free tenement and
liberties, or outlawed, or banished, or anywise hurt or injured,
unless by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land;
and all who suffered otherwise, in this or the two former reigns,
shall be restored to their rights and possessions.  Every freeman
shall be fined in proportion to his fault; and no fine shall be levied
on him to his utter ruin: even a villain or rustic shall not, by any
fine, be bereaved of his carts, ploughs, and implements of husbandry.
This was the only article calculated for the interests of this body of
men, probably at that time the most numerous in the kingdom.

It must be confessed, that the former articles of the great charter
contain such mitigations and explanations of the feudal law as are
reasonable and equitable; and that the latter involve all the chief
outlines of a legal government, and provide for the equal distribution
of justice and free enjoyment of property; the great objects for which
political society was at first founded by men, which the people have a
perpetual and unalienable right to recall, and which no time, nor
precedent, nor statute, nor positive institution, ought to deter them
from keeping ever uppermost in their thoughts and attention.  Though
the provisions made by this charter might, conformably to the genius
of the age, be esteemed too concise, and too bare of circumstances, to
maintain the execution of its articles, in opposition to the chicanery
of lawyers, supported by the violence of power; time gradually
ascertained the sense of all the ambiguous expressions; and those
generous barons who first extorted this concession still held their
swords in their hands, and could turn them against those who dared, on
any pretence, to depart from the original spirit and meaning of the
grant.  We may now, from the tenour of this charter, conjecture what
those laws were of King Edward, which the English nation, during so
many generations, still desired, with such an obstinate perseverance,
to have recalled and established.  They were chiefly these latter
articles of MAGNA CHARTA; and the barons who, at the beginning of
these commotions, demanded the revival of the Saxon laws, undoubtedly
thought that they had sufficiently satisfied the people, by procuring
them this concession, which comprehended the principal objects to
which they had so long aspired.  But what we are most to admire is,
the prudence and moderation of those haughty nobles themselves, who
were enraged by injuries, inflamed by opposition, and elated by a
total victory over their sovereign.  They were content, even in this
plenitude of power, to depart from some articles of Henry I.’s
charter, which they made the foundation of their demands, particularly
from the abolition of wardships, a matter of the greatest importance;
and they seem to have been sufficiently careful not to diminish too
far the power and revenue of the crown.  If they appear, therefore, to
have carried other demands to too great a height, it can be ascribed
only to the faithless and tyrannical character of the king himself, of
which they had long had experience, and which, they foresaw, would, if
they provided no farther security, lead him soon to infringe their new
liberties, and revoke his own concessions.  This alone gave birth to
those other articles, seemingly exorbitant, which were added as a
rampart for the safeguard of the great charter.

The barons obliged the king to agree that London should remain in
their hands, and the Tower be consigned to the custody of the primate,
till the fifteenth of August ensuing, or till the execution of the
several articles of the great charter [l].  The better to ensure the
same end, he allowed them to choose five-and-twenty members from their
own body, as conservators of the public liberties; and no bounds were
set to the authority of these men either in extent or duration.  If
any complaint were made of a violation of the charter, whether
attempted by the king, justiciaries, sheriffs, or foresters, any four
of these barons might admonish the  king to redress the grievance: if
satisfaction were not obtained, they could assemble the whole council
of twenty-five, who, in conjunction with the great council, were
empowered to compel him to observe the charter, and, in case of
resistance, might levy war against him, attack his castles, and employ
every kind of violence, except against his royal person, and that of
his queen and children.  All men throughout the kingdom were bound,
under the penalty of confiscation, to swear obedience to the twenty-
five barons; and the freeholders of each county were to choose twelve
knights, who were to make report of such evil customs as required
redress, conformably to the tenour of the great charter [m].  The
names of those conservators were, the Earls of Clare, Albemarle,
Gloucester, Winchester, Hereford, Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, Robert
de Vere, Earl of Oxford, William Mareschal the younger, Robert
Fitz-Walter, Gilbert de Clare, Eustace de Vescey, Gilbert Delaval,
William de Mowbray, Geoffrey de Say, Roger de Mombezon, William de
Huntingfield, Robert de Ros, the constable of Chester, William de
Aubenie, Richard de Perci, William Malet, John Fitz-Robert, William de
Lanvalay, Hugh de Bigod, and Roger de Montfichet [n].  These men were,
by this convention, really invested with the sovereignty of the
kingdom: they were rendered co-ordinate with the king, or rather
superior to him, in the exercise of the executive power: and as there
was no circumstance of government which, either directly or
indirectly, might not bear a relation to the security or observance of
the great charter, there could scarcely occur any incident in which
they might not lawfully interpose their authority.
[FN [l] Rymer, vol. i. p. 201.  Chron. Dunst vol. i. p. 73.  [m] This
seems a very strong proof that the House of Commons was not then in
being; otherwise the knights and burgesses from the several counties
could have given in to the Lords a list of grievances, without so
unusual an election.  [n] M. Paris, p. 181.]

John seemed to submit passively to all these regulations, however
injurious to majesty: he sent writs to all the sheriffs, ordering them
to constrain every one to swear obedience to the twenty-five barons
[o]: he dismissed all his foreign forces: he pretended that his
government was thenceforth to run in a new tenour, and be more
indulgent to the liberty and independence of his people.  But he only
dissembled, till he should find a favourable opportunity for annulling
all his concessions.  The injuries and indignities which he had
formerly suffered from the pope and the King of France, as they came
from equals or superiors, seemed to make but small impression on him:
but the sense of this perpetual and total subjection under his own
rebellious vassals sunk deep in his mind, and he was determined, at
all hazards, to throw off so ignominious a slavery [p].  He grew
sullen, silent, and reserved: he shunned the society of his courtiers
and nobles: he retired into the Isle of Wight, as if desirous of
hiding his shame and confusion; but in this retreat he meditated the
most fatal vengeance against all his enemies [q].  He secretly sent
abroad his emissaries to enlist foreign soldiers, and to invite the
rapacious Brabancons into his service, by the prospect of sharing the
spoils of England, and reaping the forfeitures of so many opulent
barons, who had incurred the guilt of rebellion by rising in arms
against him [r]: and he despatched a messenger to Rome, in order to
lay before the pope the great charter, which he had been compelled to
sign, and to complain, before that tribunal, of the violence which had
been imposed upon him [s].
[FN [o] Ibid. p. 182.  [p] M. Paris, p. 183.  [q] Ibid.  [r] Ibid.
Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p.72.  Chron. Malr. p. 188.  [s] M. Paris, p.
183.  Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 73.]

Innocent, considering himself as feudal lord of the kingdom, was
incensed at the temerity of the barons, who, though they pretended to
appeal to his authority, had dared, without waiting for his consent,
to impose such terms on a prince, who, by resigning to the Roman
pontiff his crown and independence, had placed himself immediately
under the papal protection.  He issued, therefore, a bull, in which,
from the plenitude of his apostolic power, and from the authority
which God had committed to him, to build and destroy kingdoms, to
plant and overthrow, he annulled and abrogated the whole charter, as
unjust in itself, as obtained by compulsion, and as derogatory to the
dignity of the apostolic see.  He prohibited the barons from exacting
the observance of it: he even prohibited the king himself from paying
any regard to it: he absolved him and his  subjects from all oaths
which they had been constrained to take to that purpose: and he
pronounced a general sentence of excommunication against every one who
should persevere in maintaining such treasonable and iniquitous
pretensions [t].
[FN [t] Rymer, vol. i. p. 203, 204, 205, 208.  M. Paris, p. 184, 185,
187.]

[MN Renewal of the civil wars.]
The king, as his foreign forces arrived along with this bull, now
ventured to take off the mask; and, under sanction of the pope's
decree, recalled all the liberties which he had granted to his
subjects, and which he had solemnly sworn to observe.  But the
spiritual weapon was found, upon trial, to carry less force with it
than he had reason from his own experience to apprehend.  The primate
refused to obey the pope in publishing the sentence of excommunication
against the barons: and though he was cited to Rome, that he might
attend a general council there assembled, and was suspended, on
account of his disobedience to the pope, and his secret correspondence
with the king’s enemies [u]; though a new and particular sentence of
excommunication was pronounced by name against the principal barons
[w]; John still found, that his nobility and people, and even his
clergy, adhered to the defence of their liberties, and to their
combination against him: the sword of his foreign mercenaries was all
he had to trust to for restoring his authority.
[FN [u] M. Paris, p. 189.  [w] Rymer, vol. i. p. 211.  M. Paris, p.
192.]

The barons, after obtaining the great charter, seem to have been
lulled into a fatal security, and to have taken no rational measures,
in case of the introduction of a foreign force, for reassembling their
armies.  The king was, from the first, master of the field; and
immediately laid siege to the castle of Rochester, which was
obstinately defended by William de Aubenie, at the head of a hundred
and forty knights with their retainers, but was at last reduced by
famine.  [MN 30th Nov.]  John, irritated with the resistance, intended
to have hanged the governor and all the garrison; but, on the
representation of William de Mauleon, who suggested to him the danger
of reprisals, he was content to sacrifice, in this barbarous manner,
the inferior prisoners only [x].  The captivity of William de Aubenie,
the best officer among the confederated barons, was an irreparable
loss to their cause; and no regular opposition was thenceforth made to
the progress of the royal arms.  The ravenous and barbarous
mercenaries, incited by a cruel and enraged prince, were let loose
against the estates, tenants, manors, houses, parks of the barons, and
spread devastation over the face of the kingdom.  Nothing was to be
seen but the flames of villages and castles reduced to ashes, the
consternation and misery of the inhabitants, tortures exercised by the
soldiery to make them reveal their concealed treasures, and reprisals
no less barbarous committed by the barons and their partisans on the
royal demesnes, and on the estates of such as still adhered to the
crown.  The king, marching through the whole extent of England, from
Dover to Berwick, laid the provinces waste on each side of him; and
considered every estate, which was not his immediate property, as
entirely hostile, and the object of military execution.  The nobility
of the north, in particular, who had shown the greatest violence in
the recovery of their liberties, and who, acting in a separate body,
had expressed their discontent even at the concessions made by the
great charter, as they could expect no mercy, fled before him with
their wives and families, and purchased the friendship of Alexander,
the young King of Scots, by doing homage to him.
[FN [x] M. Paris, p. 187.]

[MN Prince Lewis called over.]
The barons, reduced to this desperate extremity, and menaced with the
total loss of their liberties, their properties, and their lives,
employed a remedy no less desperate; and making applications to the
court of France, they offered to acknowledge Lewis, the eldest son of
Philip, for their sovereign, on condition that he would afford them
protection from the violence of their enraged prince.  Though the
sense of the common rights of mankind, the only rights that are
entirely indefeasible, might have justified them in the deposition of
their king; they declined insisting, before Philip, on a pretension
which is commonly so disagreeable to sovereigns, and which sounds
harshly in the royal ears.  They affirmed, that John was incapable of
succeeding to the crown, by reason of the attainder passed upon him
during his brother's reign; though that attainder had been reversed,
and Richard. had even, by his last will, declared him his  successor.
They pretended that he was already legally deposed by sentence of the
Peers of France, on account of the murder of his nephew; though that
sentence could not possibly regard any thing but his transmarine
dominions, which alone he held in vassalage to that crown.  On more
plausible grounds they affirmed, that he had already deposed himself
by doing homage to the pope, changing the nature of his sovereignty,
and resigning an independent crown for a fee under a foreign power.
And as Blanche of Castile, the wife of Lewis, was descended by her
mother from Henry II., they maintained, though many other princes
stood before her in the order of succession, that they had not shaken
off the royal family, in choosing her husband for their sovereign.

Philip was strongly tempted to lay hold on the rich prize which was
offered to him.  The legate menaced interdicts and excommunications,
if he invaded the patrimony of St. Peter, or attacked a prince who was
under the immediate protection of the holy see [y]: but as Philip was
assured of the obedience of his own vassals, his principles were
changed with the times, and he now undervalued as much all papal
censures, as he formerly pretended to pay respect to them.  His chief
scruple was with regard to the fidelity which he might expect from the
English barons in their new engagements, and the danger of intrusting
his son and heir into the hands of men, who might, on any caprice or
necessity, make peace with their native sovereign, by sacrificing a
pledge of so much value.  He therefore exacted from the barons twenty-
five hostages of the most noble birth in the kingdom [z]; and having
obtained this security, he sent over first a small army to the relief
of the confederates; then more numerous forces, which arrived with
Lewis himself at their head.
[FN [y] M. Paris, p. 194.  M. West. p. 275.  [z] M. Paris, p. 193.
Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 74.]

The first effect of the young prince's appearance in England was the
desertion of John's foreign troops, who, being mostly levied in
Flanders, and other provinces of France, refused to serve against the
heir of their monarchy [a].  The Gascons and Poictevins alone, who
were still John's subjects, adhered to his cause; but they were too
weak to maintain that superiority in the field which they had hitherto
supported against the confederated barons.  Many considerable noblemen
deserted John’s party, the Earls of Salisbury, Arundel, Warrenne,
Oxford, Albemarle, and William Mareschal the younger: his castles fell
daily into the hands of the enemy; Dover was the only place which,
from the valour and fidelity of Hubert de Burgh, the governor, made
resistance to the progress of Lewis [b]: and the barons had the
melancholy prospect of finally succeeding in their purpose, and of
escaping the tyranny of their own king, by imposing on themselves and
the nation a foreign yoke.  But this union was of short duration
between the French and English nobles: and the imprudence of Lewis,
who, on every occasion, showed too visible a preference to the former,
increased that jealousy which it was so natural for the latter to
entertain in their present situation [c].  The Viscount of Melun, too,
it is said, one of his courtiers, fell sick at London, and finding the
approaches of death, he sent for some of his friends among the English
barons, and warning them of their danger, revealed Lewis’s secret
intentions of exterminating them and their families as traitors to
their prince, and of bestowing their estates and dignities on his
native subjects, in whose fidelity he could more reasonably place
confidence [d]: this story, whether true or false, was universally
reported and believed; and concurring with other circumstances which
rendered it credible, did great prejudice to the cause of Lewis.  The
Earl of Salisbury, and other noblemen, deserted again to John's party
[e]; and as men easily change sides in a civil war, especially where
their power is founded on an hereditary and independent authority, and
is not derived from the opinion and favour of the people, the French
prince had reason to dread a sudden reverse of fortune.  The king was
assembling a considerable army, with a view of fighting one great
battle for his crown; but passing from Lynn to Lincolnshire, his road
lay along the sea-shore, which was overflowed at high water; and not
choosing the proper time for his journey, he lost in the inundation
all his carriages, treasure,  baggage, and regalia.  The affliction
for this disaster, and vexation from the distracted state of his
affairs, increased the sickness under which he then laboured; and
though he reached the castle of Newark, he was obliged to halt there,
[MN 17th Oct.  Death,] and his distemper soon after put an end to his
life, in the forty-ninth year of his age, and eighteenth of his reign;
and freed the nation from the dangers to which it was equally exposed
by his success or by his misfortunes.
[FN [a] M. Paris, p. 195.  [b] M. Paris, p. 198.  Chron. Dunst. vol.
i. p. 75, 76.  [c] W. Heming. p. 559.  [d] M. Paris, p. 199.  M. West.
p. 277.  [e] Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 76.]

[MN and character of the king.]  The character of this prince is
nothing but a complication of vices, equally mean and odious; ruinous
to himself, and destructive to his people.  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.  It is hard to say whether his conduct to his
father, his brother, his nephew, or his subjects, was most culpable;
or whether his crimes, in these respects, were not even exceeded by
the baseness which appeared in his transactions with the King of
France, the pope, and the barons.  His European dominions, when they
devolved to him by the death of his brother, were more extensive than
have ever, since his time, been ruled by an English monarch; but he
first lost, by his misconduct, the flourishing provinces in France,
the ancient patrimony of his family: he subjected his kingdom to a
shameful vassalage under the see of Rome: he saw the prerogatives of
his crown diminished by law, and still more reduced by faction: and he
died at last, when in danger of being totally expelled by a foreign
power, and of either ending his life miserably in prison, or seeking
shelter, as a fugitive, from the pursuit of his enemies.

The prejudices against this prince were so violent, that he was
believed to have sent an embassy to the Miramoulin, or Emperor of
Morocco, and to have offered to change his religion and become
Mahometan, in order to purchase the protection of that monarch.  But
though this story is told us, on plausible authority, by Matthew Paris
[f], it is in itself utterly improbable; except that there is nothing
so incredible but may be believed to proceed from the folly and
wickedness of John.
[FN [f] P. 169.]

The monks throw great reproaches on this prince for his impiety and
even infidelity; and as an instance of it, they tell us, that having
one day caught a very fat stag, he exclaimed, HOW PLUMP AND WELL FED
IS THIS ANIMAL! AND YET, I DARE SWEAR, HE NEVER HEARD MASS [g].  This
sally of wit upon the usual corpulency of the priests, more than all
his enormous crimes and iniquities, made him pass with them for an
atheist.

John left two legitimate sons behind him; Henry, born on the first of
October, 1207, and now nine years of age; and Richard, born on the
sixth of January, 1209; and three daughters; Jane, afterwards married
to Alexander King of Scots; Eleanor, married first to William
Mareschal the younger, Earl of Pembroke, and then to Simon Mountfort,
Earl of Leicester; and Isabella, married to the Emperor Frederic II.
All these children were born to him by Isabella of Angoulesme, his
second wife.  His illegitimate children were numerous, but none of
them were anywise distinguished.

It was this king who, in the ninth year of his reign, first gave by
charter, to the city of London, the right of electing, annually, a
mayor out of its own body, an office which was till now held for life.
He gave the city also power to elect and remove its sheriffs at
pleasure, and its common-councilmen annually.  London-bridge was
finished in this reign.  The former bridge was of wood.  Maud, the
empress, was the first that built a stone bridge in England.
[FN [g] M. Paris, p. 170.]




APPENDIX II.

THE FEUDAL AND ANGLO-NORMAN GOVERNMENT AND MANNERS.

ORIGIN OF THE FEUDAL LAW.--ITS PROGRESS.--FEUDAL GOVERNMENT OF
ENGLAND.--THE FEUDAL PARLIAMENT.--THE COMMONS.--JUDICAL POWER.--
REVENUE OF THE CROWN.--COMMERCE.--THE CHURCH.--CIVIL LAWS.--MANNERS.



The feudal law is the chief foundation, both of the political
government and of the jurisprudence established by the Normans in
England.  Our subject therefore requires, that we should form a just
idea of this law, in order to explain the state, as well of that
kingdom, as of all other kingdoms of Europe, which, during those ages,
were governed by similar institutions.  And though I am sensible, that
I must here repeat many observations and reflections which have been
communicated by others [a]; yet, as every book, agreeably to the
observation of a great historian [b], should be as complete as
possible within itself, and should never refer, for any thing
material, to other books, it will be necessary, in this place, to
deliver a short plan of that prodigious fabric, which, for several
centuries, preserved such a mixture of liberty and oppression, order
and anarchy, stability and revolution, as was never experienced in any
other age, or any other part of the world.
[FN [a] L'Esprit des Loix.  Dr. Robertson's History of Scotland.  [b]
Padre Paolo, Hist. Conc. Trid.]

[MN Origin of the feudal law.]
After the northern nations had subdued the provinces of the Roman
empire, they were obliged to establish a system of government which
might secure their conquests, as well against the revolt of their
numerous subjects, who remained in the provinces, as from the inroads
of other tribes, who might be tempted to ravish from them their new
acquisitions.  The great change of circumstances made them here depart
from those institutions which prevailed among them while they remained
in the forests  of Germany; yet it was still natural for them to
retain, in their present settlement, as much of their ancient customs
as was compatible with their new situation.

The German governments, being more a confederacy of independent
warriors than a civil subjection, derived their principal force from
many inferior and voluntary associations, which individuals formed
under a particular head or chieftain, and which it became the highest
point of honour to maintain with inviolable fidelity.  The glory of
the chief consisted in the number, the bravery, and the zealous
attachment of his retainers: the duty of the retainers required, that
they should accompany their chief in all wars and dangers, that they
should fight and perish by his side, and that they should esteem his
renown or his favour a sufficient recompense for all their services
[c].  The prince himself was nothing but a great chieftain, who was
chosen from among the rest on account of his superior valour or
nobility; and who derived his power from the voluntary association or
attachment of the other chieftains.
[FN [c] Tacit. de Mor. Germ.]

When a tribe, governed by these ideas, and actuated by these
principles, subdued a large territory, they found, that though it was
necessary to keep themselves in a military posture, they could neither
remain united in a body, nor take up their quarters in several
garrisons, and that their manners and institutions debarred them from
using these expedients; the obvious ones, which, in a like situation,
would have been employed by a more civilized nation.  Their ignorance
in the art of finances, and perhaps the devastations inseparable from
such violent conquests, rendered it impracticable for them to levy
taxes sufficient for the pay of numerous armies; and their repugnance
to subordination, with their attachment to rural pleasures, made the
life of the camp or garrison, if perpetuated during peaceful times,
extremely odious and disgustful to them.  They seized, therefore, such
a portion of the conquered lands as appeared necessary; they assigned
a share for supporting the dignity of their prince and government;
they distributed other parts, under the title of fiefs, to the chiefs;
these made a new partition among their retainers: the express
condition  of all these grants was, that they might be resumed at
pleasure, and that the possessor, so long as he enjoyed them, should
still remain in readiness to take the field for the defence of the
nation.  And though the conquerors immediately separated, in order to
enjoy their new acquisitions, their martial disposition made them
readily fulfil the terms of their engagement: they assembled on the
first alarm; their habitual attachment to the chieftain made them
willingly submit to his command; and thus a regular military force,
though concealed, was always ready to defend, on any emergence, the
interest and honour of the community.

We are not to imagine that all the conquered lands were seized by the
northern conquerors; or that the whole of the land thus seized was
subjected to those military services.  This supposition is confuted by
the history of all the nations on the continent.  Even the idea given
us of the German manners by the Roman historian may convince us, that
that bold people would never have been content with so precarious a
subsistence, or have fought to procure establishments which were only
to continue during the good pleasure of their sovereign.  Though the
northern chieftains accepted of lands, which, being considered as a
kind of military pay, might be resumed at the will of the king or
general; they also took possession of estates, which being hereditary
and independent, enabled them to maintain their native liberty, and
support, without court favour, the honour of their rank and family.

[MN Progress of the feudal law.]
But there is a great difference, in the consequences, between the
distribution of a pecuniary subsistence, and the assignment of lands
burdened with the condition of military service.  The delivery of the
former, at the weekly, monthly, or annual terms of payment, still
recalls the idea of a voluntary gratuity from the prince, and reminds
the soldier of the precarious tenure by which he holds his commission.
But the attachment naturally formed with a fixed portion of land
gradually begets the idea of something like property, and makes the
possessor forget his dependent situation, and the condition which was
at first annexed to the grant.  It seemed equitable that one who had
cultivated and sowed a field should reap the harvest: hence fiefs,
which were at first entirely precarious, were soon made annual.  A man
who had employed his money in building, planting, or other
improvements, expected to reap the fruits of his labour or expense:
hence they were next granted during a term of years.  It would be
thought hard to expel a man from his possessions, who had always done
his duty, and performed the conditions on which he originally received
them: hence the chieftains, in a subsequent period, thought themselves
entitled to demand the enjoyment of their feudal lands during life.
It was found that a man would more willingly expose himself in battle,
if assured that his family should inherit his possessions, and should
not be left by his death in want and poverty: hence fiefs were made
hereditary in families, and descended, during one age, to the son,
then to the grandson, next to the brothers, and afterwards to more
distant relations [d].  The idea of property stole in gradually upon
that of military pay; and each century made some sensible addition to
the stability of fiefs and tenures.
[FN [d] Lib. Feud. lib. I. tit. 1.]

In all these successive acquisitions, the chief was supported by his
vassals; who, having originally a strong connexion with him, augmented
by the constant intercourse of good offices, and by the friendship
arising from vicinity and dependence, were inclined to follow their
leader against all his enemies, and voluntarily, in his private
quarrels, paid him the same obedience, to which, by their tenure, they
were bound in foreign wars.  While he daily advanced new pretensions
to secure the possession of his superior fief, they expected to find
the same advantage, in acquiring stability to their subordinate ones;
and they zealously opposed the intrusion of a new lord, who would be
inclined, as he was fully entitled, to bestow the possession of their
lands on his own favourites and retainers.  Thus the authority of the
sovereign gradually decayed; and each noble, fortified in his own
territory by the attachment of his vassals, became too powerful to be
expelled by an order from the throne; and he secured by law what he
had at first acquired by usurpation.

During this precarious state of the supreme power, a difference would
immediately be experienced between those portions of territory which
were subjected to the feudal tenures, and those which were possessed
by an allodial or free title.  Though the latter possessions had at
first been esteemed much preferable, they were soon found, by the
progressive changes introduced into public and private law, to be of
an inferior condition to the former.  The possessors of a feudal
territory, united by a regular subordination under one chief, and by
the mutual attachments of the vassals, had the same advantages over
the proprietors of the other, that a disciplined army enjoys over a
dispersed multitude; and were enabled to commit with impunity all
injuries on their defenceless neighbours.  Every one, therefore,
hastened to seek that protection which he found so necessary; and each
allodial proprietor, resigning his possessions into the hands of the
king, or of some nobleman respected for power or valour, received them
back with the condition of feudal services [e], which, though a burden
somewhat grievous, brought him ample compensation, by connecting him
with the neighbouring proprietors, and placing him under the
guardianship of a potent chieftain.  The decay of the political
government thus necessarily occasioned the extension of the feudal:
the kingdoms of Europe were universally divided into baronies, and
these into inferior fiefs: and the attachment of vassals to their
chief, which was at first an essential part of the German manners, was
still supported by the same causes from which it at first arose; the
necessity of mutual protection, and the continued intercourse between
the head and the members, of benefits and services.
[FN [e] Marculf. Form. 47. apud Lindenbr. p. 1238.]

But there was another circumstance which corroborated these feudal
dependencies, and tended to connect the vassals with their superior
lord by an indissoluble bond of union.  The northern conquerors, as
well as the more early Greeks and Romans, embraced a policy which is
unavoidable to all nations that have made slender advances in
refinement: they every where united the civil jurisdiction with the
military power.  Law, in its commencement, was not an intricate
science, and was  more governed by maxims of equity, which seem
obvious to common sense, than by numerous and subtle principles,
applied to a variety of cases by profound reasonings from analogy.  An
officer, though he had passed his life in the field, was able to
determine all legal controversies which could occur within the
district committed to his charge; and his decisions were the most
likely to meet with a prompt and ready obedience, from men who
respected his person, and were accustomed to act under his command.
The profit arising from punishments, which were then chiefly
pecuniary, was another reason for his desiring to retain the judicial
power; and when his fief became hereditary, this authority, which was
essential to it, was also transmitted to his posterity.  The counts
and other magistrates, whose power was merely official, were tempted,
in imitation of the feudal lords, whom they resembled in so many
particulars, to render their dignity perpetual and hereditary; and in
the decline of the regal power, they found no difficulty in making
good their pretensions.  After this manner, the vast fabric of feudal
subordination became quite solid and comprehensive; it formed every
where an essential part of the political constitution; and the Norman
and other barons, who followed the fortunes of William, were so
accustomed to it that they could scarcely form an idea of any other
species of civil government [f].
[FN [f] The ideas of the feudal government were so rooted, that even
lawyers, in those ages, could not form a notion of any other
Constitution  REGNUM (says Bracton, lib. 2. cap. 34.) QUOD EX
COMITATIBUS ET BARONIBUS DICITUR ESSE CONSTITUTUM.]

The Saxons who conquered England, as they exterminated the ancient
inhabitants, and thought themselves secured by the sea against new
invaders, found it less requisite to maintain themselves in a military
posture: the quantity of land which they annexed to offices seems to
have been of small value; and for that reason continued the longer in
its original situation, and was always possessed during pleasure by
those who were intrusted with the command.  These conditions were too
precarious to satisfy the Norman barons, who enjoyed more independent
possessions and jurisdictions in their own country; and William was
obliged, in the new distribution of land, to copy the tenures which
were now become universal on the continent.  England of a sudden
became a feudal kingdom [g]; and received all the advantages, and was
exposed to all the inconveniences, incident to that species of civil
polity.
[FN [g] Coke, Comm. on Lit. p. 1, 2. ad sect. 1.]

[MN The feudal government of England.]
According to the principles of the feudal law, the king was the
supreme lord of the landed property: all possessors, who enjoyed the
fruits or revenue of any part of it, held those privileges, either
mediately or immediately, of him; and their property was conceived to
be in some degree conditional [h].  The land was still apprehended to
be a species of BENEFICE, which was the original conception of a
feudal property; and the vassal owed, in return for it, stated
services to his baron, as the baron himself did for his land to the
crown.  The vassal was obliged to defend his baron in war; and the
baron, at the head of his vassals, was bound to fight in defence of
the king and kingdom.  But besides these military services, which were
casual, there were others imposed of a civil nature, which were more
constant and durable.
[FN [h] Somner of Gavelk. p. 109.  Smith de Rep. lib. 3. cap. 10.]

The northern nations had no idea that any man, trained up to honour,
and inured to arms, was ever to be governed, without his own consent,
by the absolute will of another; or that the administration of justice
was ever to be exercised by the private opinion of any one magistrate,
without the concurrence of some other persons, whose interest might
induce them to check his arbitrary and iniquitous decisions.  The
king, therefore, when he found it necessary to demand any service of
his barons or chief tenants, beyond what was due by their tenures, was
obliged to assemble them in order to obtain their CONSENT: and when it
was necessary to determine any controversy which might arise among the
barons themselves, the question must be discussed in their presence,
and be decided according to their opinion or ADVICE.  In these two
circumstances of consent and advice consisted chiefly the civil
services of the ancient barons; and these implied all the considerable
incidents of government.  In one view, the barons regarded this
attendance as their principal PRIVILEGE; in another, as a grievous
BURDEN.  That no momentous affairs could be transacted without their
consent and advice was in GENERAL esteemed the great security of their
possessions and dignities: but as they reaped no immediate profit from
their attendance at court, and were exposed to great inconvenience and
charge by an absence from their own estates, every one was glad to
exempt himself from each PARTICULAR exertion of this power; and was
pleased both that the call for that duty should seldom return upon
him, and that others should undergo the burden in his stead.  The
king, on the other hand, was usually anxious, for several reasons,
that the assembly of the barons should be full at every stated or
casual meeting: this attendance was the chief badge of their
subordination to his crown, and drew them from that independence which
they were apt to affect in their own castles and manors; and where the
meeting was thin or ill attended, its determinations had less
authority, and commanded not so ready an obedience from the whole
community.

The case was the same with the barons in their courts, as with the
king in the supreme council of the nation.  It was requisite to
assemble the vassals, in order to determine by their vote any question
which regarded the barony; and they sat along with the chief in all
trials, whether civil or criminal, which occurred within the limits of
their jurisdiction.  They were bound to pay suit and service at the
court of their baron: and as their tenure was military, and
consequently honourable, they were admitted into his society, and
partook of his friendship.  Thus, a kingdom was considered only as a
great barony, and a barony as a small kingdom.  The barons were peers
to each other in the national council, and, in some degree, companions
to the king: the vassals were peers to each other in the court of
barony, and companions to their baron [i].
[FN [i] Du Cange, Gloss. in verb. PAR  Cujac. Commun. in Lib. Feud.
lib. I. tit. p. 18.  Spellm. Gloss. in verb.]

But though this resemblance so far took place, the vassals, by the
natural course of things, universally, in the feudal constitutions,
fell into a greater subordination under the baron, than the baron
himself under his  sovereign; and these governments had a necessary
and infallible tendency to augment the power of the nobles.  The great
chief, residing in his country-seat, which he was commonly allowed to
fortify, lost, in a great measure, his connexion or acquaintance with
the prince; and added every day new force to his authority over the
vassals of the barony.  They received from him education in all
military exercises: his hospitality invited them to live and enjoy
society in his hall: their leisure, which was great, made them
perpetual retainers on his person, and partakers of his country sports
and amusements: they had no means of gratifying their ambition but by
making a figure in his train: his favour and countenance was their
greatest honour: his displeasure exposed them to contempt and
ignominy: and they felt every moment the necessity of his protection,
both in the controversies which occurred with other vassals, and, what
was more material, in the daily inroads and injuries which were
committed by the neighbouring barons.  During the time of general war,
the sovereign, who marched at the head of his armies, and was the
great protector of the state, always acquired some accession to his
authority, which he lost during the intervals of peace and
tranquillity: but the loose police, incident to the feudal
constitutions, maintained a perpetual, though secret hostility,
between the several members of the state; and the vassals found no
means of securing themselves against the injuries to which they were
continually exposed, but by closely adhering to their chief, and
falling into a submissive dependence upon him.

If the feudal government was so little favourable to the true liberty
even of the military vassal, it was still more destructive of the
independence and security of the other members of the state, or what,
in a proper sense, we call the people.  A great part of them were
SERFS, and lived in a state of absolute slavery or villanage: the
other inhabitants of the country paid their rents in services, which
were in a great measure arbitrary; and they could expect no redress of
injuries, in a court of barony, from men who thought they had a right
to oppress and tyrannize over them.  The towns were situated either
within the demesnes of the king, or the lands of the great barons, and
were almost entirely subjected to the absolute will of their master.
The languishing state of commerce kept the inhabitants poor and
contemptible; and the political institutions were calculated to render
that poverty perpetual.  The barons and gentry, living in rustic
plenty and hospitality, gave no encouragement to the arts, and had no
demand for any of the more elaborate manufactures: every profession
was held in contempt but that of arms: and if any merchant or
manufacturer rose by industry and frugality to a degree of opulence,
he found himself but the more exposed to injuries, from the envy and
avidity of the military nobles.

These concurring causes gave the feudal governments so strong a bias
towards aristocracy, that the royal authority was extremely eclipsed
in all the European states; and, instead of dreading the growth of
monarchical power, we might rather expect, that the community would
every where crumble into so many independent baronies, and lose the
political union by which they were cemented.  In elective monarchies,
the event was commonly answerable to this expectation; and the barons,
gaining ground on every vacancy of the throne, raised themselves
almost to a state of sovereignty, and sacrificed to their power both
the rights of the crown and the liberties of the people.  But
hereditary monarchies had a principle of authority which was not so
easily subverted; and there were several causes which still maintained
a degree of influence in the hands of the sovereign.

The greatest baron could never lose view entirely of those principles
of the feudal constitution which bound him, as a vassal, to submission
and fealty towards his prince; because he was every moment obliged to
have recourse to those principles, in exacting fealty and submission
from his own vassals.  The lesser barons, finding that the
annihilation of royal authority left them exposed, without protection,
to the insults and injuries of more potent neighbours, naturally
adhered to the crown, and promoted the execution of general and equal
laws.  The people had still a stronger interest to desire the grandeur
of the sovereign; and the king, being the legal magistrate, who
suffered by every internal convulsion or oppression, and who regarded
the great nobles as his immediate rivals, assumed the salutary office
of general guardian or protector of the Commons.  Besides the
prerogatives with which the law invested him, his large demesnes and
numerous retainers rendered him, in one sense, the greatest baron in
his kingdom; and where he was possessed of personal vigour and
abilities, (for his situation required these advantages,) he was
commonly able to preserve his authority, and maintain his station as
head of the community, and the chief fountain of law and justice.

The first kings of the Norman race were favoured by another
circumstance, which preserved them from the encroachments of their
barons.  They were generals of a conquering army, which was obliged to
continue in a military posture, and to maintain great subordination
under their leader, in order to secure themselves from the revolt of
the numerous natives, whom they had bereaved of all their properties
and privileges.  But though this circumstance supported the authority
of William and his immediate successors, and rendered them extremely
absolute, it was lost as soon as the Norman barons began to
incorporate with the nation, to acquire a security in their
possessions, and to fix their influence over their vassals, tenants,
and slaves: and the immense fortunes which the Conqueror had bestowed
on his chief captains served to support their independence, and make
them formidable to their sovereign.

He gave, for instance, to Hugh de Abrincis, his sister's son, the
whole county of Chester, which he erected into a palatinate, and
rendered by his grant almost independent of the crown [k].  Robert,
Earl of Mortaigne, had 973 manors and lordships: Allan, Earl of
Britany and Richmond, 442: Odo, Bishop of Baieux, 439 [l]: Geoffrey,
Bishop of Coutance, 280 [m]: Walter Giffard, Earl of Buckingham, 107:
William, Earl Warrenne, 298, besides 28 towns or hamlets in Yorkshire:
Todenei, 81: Roger Bigod, 123: Robert, Earl of Eu, 119: Roger
Mortimer, 132, besides several hamlets: Robert de Stafford, 130:
Walter de Eurus, Earl of Salisbury, 46: Geoffrey de Mandeville, 118:
Richard de Clare, 171: Hugh de Beauchamp, 47: Baldwin de Ridvers, 164:
Henry de Ferrars, 222: William de Percy, 119 [n]: Norman d'Arcy, 33
[o].  Sir Henry Spellman computes, that, in the large county of
Norfolk, there were not, in the Conqueror's time, above sixty-six
proprietors of land [p].  Men, possessed of such princely revenues and
jurisdictions, could not long be retained in the rank of subjects.
The great Earl Warrenne, in a subsequent reign, when he was questioned
concerning his right to the lands which he possessed, drew his sword,
which he produced as his title; adding, that William the Bastard did
not conquer the kingdom himself; but that the barons, and his ancestor
among the rest, were joint adventurers in the enterprise [q].
[FN [k] Camd. in Chesh.  Spellm. Gloss. in verb. COMES PALATINUS.  [l]
Brady's Hist. p. 198, 200.  [m] Order. Vital.  [n] Dugdale's Baronage,
from Doomsday Book, vol. i. p. 60, 74; iii. 112, 132, 136, 138, 156,
174, 200, 207, 223, 254, 257, 269.  [o] Ibid. p. 369.  It is
remarkable, that this family of d'Arcy seems to be the only male
descendants of any of the Conqueror's barons now remaining among the
Peers.  Lord Holdernesse is the heir of that family.  [p] Spellm.
Gloss. in verb. DOMESDAY.  [q] Dugd. Bar. vol. i. p. 79.  Ibid.
Origines Juridicales, p. 13.]

[MN The feudal Parliament.]
The supreme legislative power of England was lodged in the king and
great council, or what was afterwards called the Parliament.  It is
not doubted but the archbishops, bishops, and most considerable
abbots, were constituent members of this council.  They sat by a
double title: by prescription, as having always possessed that
privilege, through the whole Saxon period, from the first
establishment of Christianity; and by their right of baronage, as
holding of the king IN CAPITE, by military service.  These two titles
of the prelates were never accurately distinguished.  When the
usurpations of the church had risen to such a height as to make the
bishops affect a separate dominion, and regard their seat in
Parliament as a degradation of their episcopal dignity; the king
insisted, that they were barons, and, on that account, obliged, by the
general principles of the feudal law, to attend on him in his great
councils [r].  Yet there still remained some practices, which
supposed their title to be derived merely from ancient possession.
When a bishop was elected, he sat in Parliament before the king had
made him restitution of his temporalities; and during the vacancy of a
see, the guardian of the spiritualities was summoned to attend along
with the bishops.
[FN [r] Spellm. Gloss. In verb. BARO.]

The barons were another constituent part of the great council of the
nation.  These held immediately of the crown by a military tenure:
they were the most honourable members of the state, and had a RIGHT to
be consulted in all public deliberations: they were the immediate
vassals of the crown, and owed as a SERVICE their attendance in the
court of their supreme lord.  A resolution taken without their consent
was likely to be but ill executed; and no determination of any cause
or controversy among them had any validity, where the vote and advice
of the body did not concur.  The dignity of earl or count was official
and territorial, as well as hereditary; and as all the earls were also
barons, they were considered as military vassals of the crown, were
admitted in that capacity into the general council, and formed the
most honourable and powerful branch of it.

But there was another class of the immediate military tenants of the
crown, no less, or probably more numerous than the barons, the tenants
IN CAPITE by knights' service; and these, however inferior in power or
property, held by a tenure which was equally honourable with that of
the others.  A barony was commonly composed of several knights' fees;
and though the number seems not to have been exactly defined, seldom
consisted of less than fifty hides of land [s]: but where a man held
of the king only one or two knights' fees, he was still an immediate
vassal of the crown, and as such had a title to have a seat in the
general councils.  But as this attendance was usually esteemed a
burden, and one too great for a man of slender fortune to bear
constantly, it is probable that, though he had a title, if he pleased,
to be admitted, he was not obliged, by any penalty, like the barons,
to pay a regular attendance.  All the immediate military tenants of
the crown amounted not fully to 700, when Doomsday Book was framed;
and as the members were well pleased, on any pretext, to excuse
themselves from attendance, the assembly was never likely to become
too numerous for the despatch of public business.
[FN [s] Four hides made one knight's fee: the relief of a barony was
twelve times greater than that of a knight's fee; whence we may
conjecture its usual value.  Spellm. Gloss. in verb. FEODUM.  There
were 243,600 hides in England, and 60,215 knights' fees; whence it is
evident, that there were a little more than four hides in each
knight's fee.]

[MN The Commons.]
So far the nature of a general council, or ancient Parliament, is
determined, without any doubt or controversy.  The only question seems
to be with regard to the Commons, or the representatives of counties
and boroughs, whether they were also, in more early times, constituent
parts of Parliament?  This question was once disputed in England with
great acrimony; but such is the force of time and evidence, that they
can sometimes prevail, even over faction; and the question seems by
general consent, and even by their own, to be at last determined
against the ruling party.  It is agreed, that the Commons were no part
of the great council, till some ages after the Conquest; and that the
military tenants alone of the crown composed that supreme and
legislative assembly.

The vassals of a baron were, by their tenure, immediately dependent on
him, owed attendance at his court, and paid all their duty to the
king, through that dependence which their lord was obliged by HIS
tenure to acknowledge to his sovereign and superior.  Their land,
comprehended in the barony, was represented in Parliament by the baron
himself, who was supposed, according to the fictions of the feudal
law, to possess the direct property of it; and it would have been
deemed incongruous to give it any other representation.  They stood in
the same capacity to him, that he and the other barons did to the
king.  The former were peers of the barony; the latter were peers of
the realm.  The vassals possessed a subordinate rank within their
district; the baron enjoyed a superior dignity in the great assembly:
they were in some degree his companions at home; he the king's
companion at court: and nothing can be more evidently repugnant to all
feudal ideas, and to that gradual subordination which was essential to
those ancient institutions, than to imagine that the king would apply
either for the advice or consent of men, who were of a rank so much
inferior, and whose duty was immediately paid to the MESNE lord that
was interposed between them and the throne [t].
[FN [t] Spellm. Gloss. in verb. BARO.]

If it be unreasonable to think that the vassals of a barony, though
their tenure was military, and noble, and honourable, were ever
summoned to give their opinion in national councils, much less can it
be supposed, that the tradesmen or inhabitants of boroughs, whose
condition was so much inferior, would be admitted to that privilege.
It appears from Doomsday, that the greatest boroughs were, at the time
of the Conquest, scarcely more than country villages; and that the
inhabitants lived in entire dependence on the king or great lords, and
were of a station little better than servile [u].  They were not then
so much as incorporated; they formed no community; were not regarded
as a body politic; and being really nothing but a number of low
dependent tradesmen, living, without any particular civil tie, in
neighbourhood together, they were incapable of being represented in
the states of the kingdom.  Even in France, a country which made more
early advances in arts and civility than England, the first
corporation is sixty years posterior to the Conquest under the Duke of
Normandy; and the erecting of these communities was an invention of
Lewis the Gross, in order to free the people from slavery under the
lords, and to give them protection, by means of certain privileges and
a separate jurisdiction [w].  An ancient French writer calls them a
new and wicked device, to procure liberty to slaves, and encourage
them in shaking off the dominion of their masters [x].  The famous
charter, as it is called, of the Conqueror to the city of London,
though granted at a time when he assumed the appearance of gentleness
and lenity, is nothing but a letter of protection, and a declaration
that the citizens should not be treated as slaves [y].  By the English
feudal law, the superior lord was prohibited from marrying his female
ward to a burgess or a villain [z]; so near were these two ranks
esteemed to each other, and so much inferior to the nobility and
gentry.  Besides possessing the advantages of birth, riches, civil
powers, and privileges, the nobles and gentlemen alone were armed; a
circumstance which gave them a mighty superiority, in an age when
nothing but the military profession was honourable, and when the loose
execution of laws gave so much encouragement to open violence, and
rendered it so decisive in all disputes and controversies [a].
[FN [u]  LIBER HOMO anciently signified a gentleman; for scarce any
one beside was entirely free.  Spellm. Gloss. in verbo.  [w] Du
Cange’s Gloss in verb. COMMUNE, COMMUNITAS.  [x] Guibertus, de vita
sua, lib. 2. cap. 7.  [y] Stat. of Merton, 1235. cap. 6.  [z]
Hollingshed, vol. iii. p. 15.  [a] Madox's Baron. Angl. p. 19.]

The great similarity among the feudal governments of Europe is well
known to every man that has any acquaintance with ancient history; and
the antiquaries of all foreign countries, where the question was never
embarrassed by party disputes, have allowed, that the Commons came
very late to be admitted to a share in the legislative power.  In
Normandy particularly, whose constitution was most likely to be
William's model in raising his new fabric of English government, the
states were entirely composed of the clergy and nobility; and the
first incorporated boroughs or communities of that duchy were Rouen
and Falaise, which enjoyed their privileges by a grant of Philip
Augustus in the year 1207 [b].  All the ancient English historians,
when they mention the great council of the nation, call it an assembly
of the baronage, nobility, or great men; and none of their
expressions, though several hundred passages might be produced, can,
without the utmost violence, be tortured to a meaning, which will
admit the Commons to be constituent members of that body [c].  If in
the long period of two hundred years, which elapsed between the
Conquest and the latter end of Henry III., and which abounded in
factions, revolutions, and convulsions of all kinds, the House of
Commons never performed one single legislative act, so considerable as
to be once mentioned by any of the numerous historians of that age,
they must have been totally insignificant: and, in that case, what
reason can be assigned for their ever being assembled?  Can it be
supposed that men of so little weight or importance possessed a
negative voice against the king and the barons?  Every page of the
subsequent histories discovers their existence; though these histories
are not written with greater accuracy than the preceding ones, and
indeed scarcely equal them in that particular.  The MAGNA CHARTA of
King John provides, that no scutage or aid should be imposed, either
on the land or towns, but by consent of the great council; and for
more security, it enumerates the persons entitled to a seat in that
assembly, the prelates and immediate tenants of the crown, without any
mention of the Commons: an authority so full, certain, and explicit,
that nothing but the zeal of party could ever have procured credit to
any contrary hypothesis.
[FN [b] Norman. Du Chesnii, p. 1066.  Du Cange, Gloss, in verb.
COMMUNE.  [c] Sometimes the historians mention the people, POPULUS, as
part of the Parliament; but they always mean the laity, in opposition
to the clergy.  Sometimes the word COMMUNITAS is found; but it always
means COMMUNITAS BARONAGII.  These points are clearly proved by Dr.
Brady.  There is also mention sometimes made of a crowd or multitude
that thronged into the great council on particular interesting
occasions; but as deputies from boroughs are never once spoken of, the
proof that they had not then any existence becomes the more certain
and undeniable.  These never could make a crowd, as they must have had
a regular place assigned them, if they had made a regular part of the
legislative body.  There were only one hundred and thirty boroughs who
received writs of summons from Edward I.  It is expressly said in
Gesta. Reg. Steph. p. 932, that it was usual for the populace, VULGUS,
to crowd into the great councils; where they were plainly mere
spectators, and could only gratify their curiosity.]

It was probably the example of the French barons which first
emboldened the English to require greater independence from their
sovereign: it is also probable, that the boroughs and corporations of
England were established in imitation of those of France.  It may,
therefore, be proposed as no unlikely conjecture, that both the chief
privileges of the Peers in England and the liberty of the Commons were
originally the growth of that foreign country.

In ancient times, men were little solicitous to obtain a place in the
legislative assemblies; and rather regarded their attendance as a
burden, which was not compensated by any return of profit or honour
proportionate to the trouble and expense.  The only reason for
instituting those public councils was, on the part of the subject,
that they desired some security from the attempts of arbitrary power;
and on the part of the sovereign, that he despaired of governing men
of such independent spirits without their own consent and concurrence.
But the Commons, or the inhabitants of boroughs, had not as yet
reached such a degree of consideration as to desire SECURITY against
their prince, or to imagine that, even if they were assembled in a
representative body, they had power or rank sufficient to enforce it.
The only protection which they aspired to, was against the immediate
violence and injustice of their fellow-citizens; and this advantage
each of them looked for, from the courts of justice, or from the
authority of some great lord, to whom, by law or his own choice, he
was attached.  On the other hand, the sovereign was sufficiently
assured of obedience in the whole community, if he procured the
concurrence of the nobles; nor had he reason to apprehend, that any
order of the state could resist his and their united authority.  The
military sub-vassals could entertain no idea of opposing both their
prince and their superiors: the burgesses and tradesmen could much
less aspire to such a thought: and thus, even if history were silent
on the head, we have reason to conclude, from the known situation of
society during those ages, that the Commons were never admitted as
members of the legislative body.

The EXECUTIVE power of the Anglo-Norman government was lodged in the
king.  Besides the stated meetings of the national council at the
three great festivals of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide [d], he
was accustomed, on any sudden exigence, to summon them together.  He
could at his pleasure command the attendance of his barons and their
vassals, in which consisted the military force of the kingdom; and
could employ them, during forty days, either in resisting a foreign
enemy, or reducing his rebellious subjects.  And what was of great
importance, the whole JUDICIAL power was ultimately in his hands, and
was exercised by officers and ministers of his appointment.
[FN [d] Dugd. Orig. Jurid. p. 15.  Spellm. Gloss. In verbo
PARLIAMENTUM.]

[MN Judicial power.]
The general plan of the Anglo-Norman government was, that the court of
barony was appointed to decide  such controversies as arose between
the several vassals or subjects of the same barony; the hundred court
and county court, which were still continued as during the Saxon times
[e], to judge between the subjects of different baronies [f]; and the
CURIA REGIS, or king's court, to give sentence among the barons
themselves [g].  But this plan, though simple, was attended with some
circumstances which, being derived from a very extensive authority
assumed by the Conqueror, contributed to increase the royal
prerogative: and, as long as the state was not disturbed by arms,
reduced every order of the community to some degree of dependence and
subordination.
[FN [e] Ang. Sacra, vol. i. p. 334, &c.  Dugd. Orig. Jurid. p. 27, 29.
Madox, Hist. of Exch. p. 75, 76.  Spellm. Gloss. in verbo HUNDRED.
[f] None of the feudal governments in Europe had such institutions as
the county courts, which the great authority of the Conqueror still
retained from the Saxon customs.  All the freeholders of the county,
even the greatest barons, were obliged to attend the sheriffs in these
courts, and to assist them in the administration of justice.  By these
means they received frequent and sensible admonitions of their
dependence on the king or supreme magistrate: they formed a kind of
community with their fellow barons and freeholders: they were often
drawn from their individual and independent state, peculiar to the
feudal system, and were made members of a political body: and,
perhaps, this institution of county courts in England has had greater
effects on the government than has yet been distinctly pointed out by
historians, or traced by antiquaries.  The barons were never able to
free themselves from this attendance on the sheriffs and itinerant
justices till the reign of Henry III.  [g] Brady, Pref. p. 143.]

The king himself often sat in his court, which always attended his
person [h]: he there heard causes and pronounced judgment [i]; and
though he was assisted by the advice of the other members, it is not
to be imagined that a decision could easily be obtained contrary to
his inclination or opinion.  In his absence the chief justiciary
presided, who was the first magistrate in the state, and a kind of
viceroy, on whom depended all the civil affairs of the kingdom [k]
The other chief officers of the crown, the constable, mareschal,
seneschal, chamberlain, treasurer, and chancellor [l], were members,
together with such feudal barons as thought proper to attend, and the
barons of the exchequer, who at first were also feudal barons,
appointed by the king [m].  This court, which was sometimes called the
king's court, sometimes the court of exchequer, judged in all causes,
civil and criminal, and comprehended the whole business which is now
shared out among four courts, the chancery, the king's-bench, the
common-pleas, and the exchequer [n].
[FN [h] Madox, Hist. of Exch. p. 103.  [i] Bracton, lib. 3. cap. 9.
Sec. 1. cap. 10. Sec. 1.  [k] Spellm. Gloss. in verbo JUSTICIARII.
[l] Madox, Hist. Exch. p. 27, 29, 33, 38, 41, 54.  The Normans
introduced the practice of sealing charters; and the chancellor's
office was to keep the great seal.  Ingulph. Dugd. p. 33, 34.  [m]
Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 134, 135.  Gerv. Dorob. p. 1387.  [n]
Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 56, 70.]

Such an accumulation of powers was itself a great source of authority,
and rendered the jurisdiction of the court formidable to all the
subjects; but the turn which judicial trials took soon after the
Conquest served still more to increase its authority, and to augment
the royal prerogatives.  William, among the other violent changes
which he attempted and effected, had introduced the Norman law into
England [o], had ordered all the pleadings to be in that tongue, and
had interwoven, with the English jurisprudence, all the maxims and
principles, which the Normans, more advanced in cultivation, and
naturally litigious, were accustomed to observe in the distribution of
justice.  Law now became a science, which at first fell entirely into
the hands of the Normans; and which, even after it was communicated to
the English, required so much study and application, that the laity,
in those ignorant ages, were incapable of attaining it, and it was a
mystery almost solely confined to the clergy, and chiefly to the monks
[p]. The great officers of the crown, and the feudal barons, who were
military men, found themselves unfit to penetrate into those
obscurities; and though they were entitled to a seat in the supreme
judicature, the business of the court was wholly managed by the chief
justiciary and the law barons, who were men appointed by the king and
entirely at his disposal [q].  This natural course of things was
forwarded by the multiplicity of business which flowed into that
court, and which daily augmented by the appeals from all the
subordinate judicatures of the kingdom.
[FN [o] Dial. de Scac. p. 30. apud Madox, Hist. of the Exchequer.  [p]
Malmes. lib. 4. p. 123.  [q] Dugd. Orig. Jurid. p. 25.]

In the Saxon times, no appeal was received in the king's court, except
upon the denial or delay of justice by the inferior courts; and the
same practice was still observed in most of the feudal kingdoms of
Europe.  But the great power of the Conqueror established, at first,
in England, an authority, which the monarchs in France were not able
to attain till the reign of St. Lewis, who lived near two centuries
after: he empowered his court to receive appeals both from the courts
of barony and the county courts, and by that means brought the
administration of justice ultimately into the hands of the sovereign
[r].  And lest the expense or trouble of a journey to courts should
discourage suitors, and make them acquiesce in the decision of the
inferior judicatures, itinerant judges were afterwards established,
who made their circuits throughout the kingdom, and tried all causes
that were brought before them [s].  By this expedient the courts of
barony were kept in awe; and if they still preserved some influence,
it was only from the apprehensions which the vassals might entertain
of disobliging their superior, by appealing from his jurisdiction.
But the county courts were much discredited; and as the freeholders
were found ignorant of the intricate principles and forms of the new
law, the lawyers gradually brought all business before the king's
judges, and abandoned the ancient simple and popular judicature.
After this manner, the formalities of justice, which, though they
appear tedious and cumbersome, are found requisite to the support of
liberty in all monarchical governments, proved at first, by a
combination of causes, very advantageous to royal authority in
England.
[FN [r] Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 65.   Glanv. lib. 12. cap. 1. 7.
LL. Hen. I. Sec. 31, apud Wilkins, p. 248.  Fitz-Stephens, p. 36.
Coke's Comment. on the statute of Marlbridge, cap. 20.  [s] Madox,
Hist. of the Exch. p. 83, 84, 100.  Gerv. Dorob. p. 1410.  What made
the Anglo-Norman barons more readily submit to appeals from their
court to the king's court of exchequer, was their being accustomed to
like appeals in Normandy to the ducal court of exchequer.  See
Gilbert's History of the Exchequer, p. 1, 2; though the author thinks
it doubtful, whether the Norman court was not rather copied from the
English, p. 6.]

[MN Revenue of the crown.]
The power of the Norman kings was also much supported by a great
revenue; and by a revenue that was fixed, perpetual, and independent
of the subject.  The people, without betaking themselves to arms, had
no check upon the king, and no regular security for the due
administration of justice.  In those days of violence, many instances
of oppression passed unheeded; and soon after were openly pleaded as
precedents, which it was unlawful to dispute or control.  Princes and
ministers were too ignorant to be themselves sensible of the
advantages attending an equitable administration; and there was no
established council or assembly which could protect the people, and,
by withdrawing supplies, regularly and peaceably admonish the king of
his duty, and ensure the execution of the laws.

The first branch of the king's stated revenue was the royal demesnes
or crown lands, which were very extensive, and comprehended, besides a
great number of manors, most of the chief cities of the kingdom.  It
was established by law, that the king could alienate no part of his
demesne, and that he himself, or his successor, could at any time
resume such donations [t]: but this law was never regularly observed;
which happily rendered in time the crown somewhat more dependent.  The
rent of the crown lands, considered merely as so much riches, was a
source of power: the influence of the king over his tenants and the
inhabitants of his towns increased this power: but the other numerous
branches of his revenue, besides supplying his treasury, gave, by
their very nature, a great latitude to arbitrary authority, and were a
support of the prerogative; as will appear from an enumeration of
them.
[FN [t] Fleta, lib. 1. cap. 8. Sec. 17. lib. 3. cap. 6. Sec. 3.
Bracton, lib. 2. cap. 5.]

The king was never content with the stated rents, but levied heavy
talliages at pleasure on the inhabitants both of town and country, who
lived within his demesne.  All bargains of sale, in order to prevent
theft, being prohibited, except in boroughs and public markets [u], he
pretended to exact tolls, on all goods which were there sold [w].  He
seized two hogsheads, one before and one behind the mast, from every
vessel that imported wine.  All goods paid to his customs a
proportionable part of their value [x]: passage over bridges and on
rivers was loaded with tolls at pleasure [y]: and though the boroughs
by degrees bought the liberty of farming these impositions, yet the
revenue profited by these bargains: new sums were often exacted for
the renewal and confirmation of their charters [z] and the people were
thus held in perpetual dependence.
[FN [u] LL. Will. I. cap. 61.  [w] Madox, p. 530.  [x] Ibid. p. 529.
This author says a fifteenth.  But it is not easy to reconcile this
account to other authorities.  [y] Madox, p. 529.  [z] Madox's Hist.
of the Exch. p. 275, 276, 277, &c.]

Such was the situation of the inhabitants within the royal demesnes.
But the possessors of land, or the military tenants, though they were
better protected both by law, and by the great privilege of carrying
arms, were, from the nature of their tenures, much exposed to the
inroads of power, and possessed not what we should esteem, in our age,
a very durable security.  The Conqueror ordained, that the barons
should be obliged to pay nothing beyond their stated services [a],
except a reasonable aid to ransom his person if he were taken in war,
to make his eldest son a knight, and to marry his eldest daughter.
What should, on these occasions, be deemed a reasonable aid, was not
determined; and the demands of the crown were so far discretionary.
[FN [a] LL. Will. Conq. Sec. 55.]

The king could require in war the personal attendance of his vassals,
that is, of almost all the landed proprietors; and if they declined
the service, they were obliged to pay him a composition in money,
which was called a scutage.  The sum was, during some reigns,
precarious and uncertain; it was sometimes levied without allowing the
vassal the liberty of personal service [b]; and it was an usual
artifice of the king, to pretend an expedition, that he might be
entitled to levy the scutage from his military tenants.  Danegelt was
another species of land-tax levied by the early Norman kings,
arbitrarily, and contrary to the laws of the Conqueror [c].  Moneyage
was also a general land-tax of the same nature, levied by the two
first Norman kings, and abolished by the charter of Henry I. [d].  It
was a shilling paid every three years by each hearth, to induce the
king not to use his prerogative in debasing the coin.  Indeed it
appears from that charter, that though the Conqueror had granted his
military tenants an immunity from all taxes and talliages, he and his
son William had never thought themselves bound to observe that rule,
but had levied impositions at pleasure on all the landed estates of
the kingdom.  The utmost that Henry grants, is, that the land
cultivated by the military tenant himself shall not be so burdened;
but he reserves the power of taxing the farmers; and as it is known
that Henry's charter was never observed in any one article, we may be
assured that this prince and his successors retracted even this small
indulgence, and levied arbitrary impositions on all the lands of all
their subjects.  These taxes were sometimes very heavy; since
Malmesbury tells us, that in the reign of William Rufus, the farmers,
on account of them, abandoned tillage, and a famine ensued [e].
[FN [b] Gervase de Tilbury, p. 25.  [c] Madox's Hist of the Exch. p.
475.  [d] Matth. Paris, p. 38.  [e] So also Chron. Abb. St. Petri de
Burgo, p. 55.  Knyghton, p. 2366.]

The escheats were a great branch both of power and of revenue,
especially during the first reigns after the Conquest.  In default of
posterity from the first baron, his land reverted to the crown, and
continually augmented the king's possessions.  The prince had indeed
by law a power of alienating these escheats; but by this means he had
an opportunity of establishing the fortunes of his friends and
servants, and thereby enlarging his authority.  Sometimes he retained
them in his own hands; and they were gradually confounded with the
royal demesnes, and became difficult to be distinguished from them.
This confusion is probably the reason why the king acquired the right
of alienating his demesnes.

But besides escheats from default of heirs, those which ensued from
crimes, or breach of duty towards the superior lord, were frequent in
ancient times.  If the vassal, being thrice summoned to attend his
superior’s court, and do fealty, neglected or refused obedience, he
forfeited all title to his land [f].  If he denied his tenure, or
refused his service, he was exposed to the same penalty [g].  If he
sold his estate without licence from his lord [h], or if he sold it
upon any other tenure or title than that by which he himself held it
[i], he lost all right to it.  The adhering to his lord's enemies [k],
deserting him in war [l], betraying his secrets [m], debauching his
wife, or his near relations [n], or even using indecent freedoms with
them [o], might be punished by forfeiture.  The higher crimes, rapes,
robbery, murder, arson, &c., were called felony; and being interpreted
want of fidelity to his lord, made him lose his fief [p].  Even where
the felon was vassal to a baron, though his immediate lord enjoyed the
forfeiture, the king might retain possession of his estate during a
twelvemonth, and had the right of spoiling and destroying it, unless
the baron paid him a reasonable composition [q].  We have not here
enumerated all the species of felonies, or of crimes by which
forfeiture was incurred: we have said enough to prove, that the
possession of feudal property was anciently somewhat precarious, and
that the primary idea was never lost, of its being a kind of FEE or
BENEFICE.
[FN [f] Hottom. de Feud. Disp. cap. 38. col. 886.  [g] Lib. Feud. lib.
3. tit. 1; lib. 4. tit. 21, 39.  [h] Id. lib. 1. tit. 21.  [i] Id.
lib. 4. tit. 44.  [k] Id. lib. 3. tit. 1.  [l] Id. lib. 4. tit. 14,
21.  [m] Id. lib. 4. tit. 14.  [n] Id. lib. 1. tit. 14, 23.  [o] Id.
lib. 1. tit. 1.  [p] Spellm. Gloss. in verb. FELONIA.  [q] Ibid.
Glanville, lib. 7 cap. 17.]

When a baron died, the king immediately took possession of the estate;
and the heir, before he recovered his right, was obliged to make
application to the crown, and desire that he might be admitted to do
homage for his land, and pay a composition to the king.  This
composition was not at first fixed by law, at least by practice: the
king was often exorbitant in his demands, and kept possession of the
land till they were complied with.

If the heir were a minor, the king retained the whole profit of the
estate till his majority; and might grant what sum he thought proper
for the education and maintenance of the young baron.  This practice
was also founded on the notion, that a fief was a benefice, and that
while the heir could not perform his military services, the revenue
devolved to the superior, who employed another in his stead.  It is
obvious, that a great proportion of the landed property must, by means
of this device, be continually in the hands of the prince, and that
all the noble families were thereby held in perpetual dependence.
When the king granted the wardship of a rich heir to any one, he had
the opportunity of enriching a favourite or minister: if he sold it,
he thereby levied a considerable sum of money.  Simon de Mountfort
paid Henry III. ten thousand marks, an immense sum in those days, for
the wardship of Gilbert de Umfreville [r].  Geoffrey de Mandeville
paid to the same prince the sum of twenty thousand marks, that he
might marry Isabel, Countess of Gloucester, and possess all her lands
and knights' fees.  This sum would be equivalent to three hundred
thousand, perhaps four hundred thousand pounds in our time [s].
[FN [r] Madox's Hist. of the Exch. p. 223.  [s] Madox’s Hist. of the
Exch. p. 322.]

If the heir were a female, the king was entitled to offer her any
husband of her rank he thought proper; and if she refused him, she
forfeited her land.  Even a male heir could not marry without the
royal consent; and it was usual for men to pay large sums for the
liberty of making their own choice in marriage [t].  No man could
dispose of his land, either by sale or will, without the consent of
his superior.  The possessor was never considered as full proprietor:
he was still a kind of beneficiary; and could not oblige his superior
to accept of any vassal that was not agreeable to him.
[FN [t] Ibid. p. 320.]

Fines, amerciaments, and oblatas, as they were called, were another
considerable branch of the royal power and revenue.  The ancient
records of the exchequer, which are still preserved, give surprising
accounts of the numerous fines and amerciaments levied in those days
[u] and of the strange inventions fallen upon to exact money from the
subject.  It appears that the ancient kings of England put themselves
entirely on the footing of the barbarous eastern princes, whom no man
must approach without a present, who sell all their good offices, and
who intrude themselves into every business that they may have a
pretence for extorting money.  Even justice was avowedly bought and
sold; the king's court itself, though the supreme judicature of the
kingdom, was open to none that brought not presents to the king; the
bribes given for the expedition, delay [w], suspension, and, doubtless
for the perversion of justice, were entered in the public registers of
the royal revenue, and remain as monuments of the perpetual iniquity
and tyranny of the times.  The barons of the exchequer, for instance,
the first nobility of the kingdom, were not ashamed to insert, as an
article in their records, that the county of Norfolk paid a sum that
they might be fairly dealt with [x]; the borough of Yarmouth, that the
king's charters, which they have for their liberties, might not be
violated [y]; Richard, son of Gilbert, for the king's helping him to
recover his debt from the Jews [z]; Serlo, son of Terlavaston, that he
might be permitted to make his defence in case he were accused of a
certain homicide [a]; Walter de Burton, for free law, if accused of
wounding another [b]; Robert de Essart, for having an inquest to find
whether Roger the Butcher, and Wace and Humphrey, accused him of
robbery and theft out of envy and ill-will or not [c]; William
Buhurst, for having an inquest to find whether he were accused of the
death of one Godwin out of ill-will, or for just cause [d].  I have
selected these few instances from a great number of a like kind, which
Madox had selected from a still greater number, preserved in the
ancient rolls of the exchequer [e].
[FN [u] Id. p. 272.  [w] Id. p. 274, 309.  [x] Id. p. 295.  [y] Id.
ibid.  [z] Madox’s Hist. of the Exch. p. 296.  He paid two hundred
marks, great sum in those days.  [a] Id. p. 296.  [b] Id. ibid.  [c]
Id. p. 298.  [d] Id. p. 302.  [e] Id. chap. 12.]

Sometimes the party litigant offered the king a certain portion, a
half, a third, a fourth, payable out of the debts, which he, as the
executor of justice, should assist him in recovering [f].  Theophania
de Westland agreed to pay the half of two hundred and twelve marks,
that she might recover that sum against James de Fughleston [g];
Solomon, the Jew, engaged to pay one mark out of every seven that he
should recover against Hugh de la Hose [h]; Nicholas Morrel promised
to pay sixty pounds, that the Earl of Flanders might be distrained to
pay him three hundred and forty-three pounds, which the earl had taken
from him; and these sixty pounds were to be paid out of the first
money that Nicholas should recover from the earl [i].
[FN [f] Id. p. 311.  [g] Id. ibid.  [h] Id. p. 79, 312.  [i] Id. p.
312.]

As the king assumed the entire power over trade, he was to be paid for
a permission to exercise commerce or industry of any kind [k].  Hugh
Oisel paid four hundred marks for liberty to trade in England [l];
Nigel de Havene gave fifty marks for the partnership in merchandize
which he had with Gervase de Hanton [m]; the men of Worcester paid one
hundred shillings, that they might have the liberty of selling and
buying dyed cloth as formerly [n]; several other towns paid for a like
liberty [o].  The commerce indeed of the kingdom was so much  under
the control of the king, that he erected guilds, corporations, and
monopolies, wherever he pleased; and levied sums for these exclusive
privileges [p].
[FN [k] Id. p. 323.  [l] Id. ibid.  [m] Id. ibid.  [n] Id. p. 324.
[o] Id. ibid.  [p] Madox's Hist. of the Exch. p. 232, 233, &c.]

There were no profits so small as to be below the king's attention.
Henry, son of Arthur, gave ten dogs to have a recognition against the
Countess of Copland for one knight's fee [q].  Roger, son of Nicholas,
gave twenty lampreys and twenty shads for an inquest to find, whether
Gilbert, son of Alured, gave to Roger two hundred muttons to obtain
his confirmation for certain lands, or whether Roger took them from
him by violence [r]; Geoffrey Fitz-Pierre, the chief justiciary, gave
two good Norway hawks, that Walter le Madine might have leave to
export a hundred weight of cheese out of the king's dominions [s].
[FN [q] Id. p. 298.  [r] Id. p. 305.  [s] Id. p. 325.]

It is really amusing to remark the strange business in which the king
sometimes interfered, and never without a present.  The wife of Hugh
de Neville gave the king two hundred hens, that she might lie with her
husband one night [t]; and she brought with her two sureties, who
answered each for a hundred hens.  It is probable that her husband was
a prisoner, which debarred her from having access to him.  The Abbot
of Rucford paid ten marks for leave to erect houses and place men upon
his land near Welhang, in order to secure his wood there from being
stolen [u].  Hugh, Archdeacon of Wells, gave one tun of wine for leave
to carry six hundred sums of corn whither he would [w]; Peter de
Peraris gave twenty marks for leave to salt fishes, as Peter Chevalier
used to do [x].
[FN [t] Id. p. 320.  [u] Id. p. 326.  [w] Id. p. 320.  [x] Id. p.
326.]

It was usual to pay high fines, in order to gain the king's good-will,
or mitigate his anger.  In the reign of Henry II., Gilbert, the son of
Fergus, fines in nine hundred and nineteen pounds, nine shillings, to
obtain that prince's favour; William de Chataignes, a thousand marks,
that he would remit his displeasure.  In the reign of Henry III., the
city of London fines in no less a sum than twenty thousand pounds on
the same account [y].
[FN [y] Id. p. 327, 329.]

The king's protection and good offices of every kind were bought and
sold.  Robert Grislet paid twenty marks of silver, that the king would
help him against the Earl of Mortaigne, in a certain plea [z]: Robert
de Cundet gave thirty marks of silver, that the king would bring him
to an accord with the Bishop of Lincoln [a]: Ralph de Breckham gave a
hawk, that the king would protect him [b]; and this is a very frequent
reason for payments: John, son of Ordgar, gave a Norway hawk, to have
the king's request to the king of Norway to let him have his brother
Godard's chattels [c]: Richard de Neville gave twenty palfreys to
obtain the king's request to Isolda Bisset, that she should take him
for a husband [d]: Roger Fitz-Walter gave three good palfreys to have
the king's letter to Roger Bertram's mother, that she should marry him
[e]: Eling, the dean, paid one hundred marks, that his whore and his
children might be let out upon bail [f]: the Bishop of Winchester gave
one tun of good wine for his not putting the king in mind to give a
girdle to the Countess of Albemarle [g]: Robert de Veaux gave five of
the best palfreys, that the king would hold his tongue about Henry
Pinel's wife [h].  There are in the records of exchequer, many other
singular instances of a like nature [i].  It will, however, be just to
remark, that the same  ridiculous practices and dangerous abuses
prevailed in Normandy, and probably in all the other states of Europe
[k]: England was not, in this respect, more barbarous than its
neighbours.
[FN [z] Madox's Hist. of the Exch. p. 329.  [a] Id. p. 330.  [b] Id.
p. 332.  [c] Id. ibid.  [d] Id. p. 333.  [e] Id. ibid.  [f] Id. p.
342.  PRO HABENDA AMICA SUA ET FILIIS, &c.  [g] Id. p. 352.  [h] Id.
ibid.  UT REX TACERET DE UXORE HENRICI PINEL.  [i] WE SHALL GRATIFY
THE READER'S CURIOSITY BY SUBJOINING A FEW MORE INSTANCES FROM MADOX,
p. 332.  Hugh Oisel was to give the king two robes of a good green
colour, to have the king's letters patent to the merchants of
Flanders, with a request to render him one thousand marks, which he
lost in Flanders.  The Abbot of Hyde paid thirty marks, to have the
king's letters of request to the Archbishop of Canterbury, to remove
certain monks that were against the abbot.  Roger de Trihanton paid
twenty marks and a palfrey, to have the king's request to Richard de
Umfreville to give him his sister to wife, and to the sister, that she
would accept him for a husband.  William de Cheveringworth paid five
marks, to have the king's letter to the Abbot of Perfore, to let him
enjoy peaceably his tithes as formerly.  Matthew de Hereford, clerk,
paid ten marks for a letter of request to the Bishop of Llandaff, to
let him enjoy peaceably his church of Schenfrith.  Andrew Neulun gave
three Flemish caps for the king's request to the Prior of Chikesand,
for performance of an agreement made between them.  Henry de Fontibus
gave a Lombardy horse of value, to have the king's request to Henry
Fitz-Hervey, that he would grant him his daughter to wife.  Roger, son
of Nicholas, promised all the lampreys he could get, to have the
king's request to Earl William Marshall, that he would grant him the
manor of Langeford at Firm.  The burgesses of Gloucester promised
three hundred lampreys, that they might not be distrained to find the
prisoners of Poictou with necessaries, unless they pleased.  Id. p.
352.  Jordan, son of Reginald, paid twenty marks, to have the king's
request to William Paniel, that he would grant him the land of Mill
Nieresult, and the custody of his heirs: and if Jordan obtained the
same, he was pay the twenty marks, otherwise not.  Id. p. 333.  [k]
Madox's Hist. of the Exch. p. 359.]

These iniquitous practices of the Norman kings were so well known,
that on the death of Hugh Bigod, in the reign of Henry II., the best
and most just of these princes, the eldest son and the widow of this
nobleman came to court, and strove, by offering large presents to the
king, each of them to acquire possession of that rich inheritance.
The king was so equitable as to order the cause to be tried by the
great council!  But, in the mean time, he seized all the money and
treasure of the deceased [l].  Peter of Blois, a judicious, and even
an elegant writer for that age, gives a pathetic description of the
venality of justice, and the oppressions of the poor, under the reign
of Henry; and he scruples not to complain to the king himself of these
abuses [m].  We may judge what the case would be under the government
of worst princes.  The articles of inquiry concerning the conduct of
sheriffs, which Henry promulgated in 1170, show the great power, as
well as the licentiousness of these officers [n].
[FN [l] Bened. Abb. p. 180, 181.  [m] Petri Bles. Epist. 95. apud
Bibl. Patrum, tom. p. xxiv. 2014.  [n] Hoveden, Chron. Gerv. p. 1410.]

Amerciaments, or fines for crimes and trespasses, were another
considerable branch of the royal revenue [o].  Most crimes were atoned
for by money; the fines imposed were not limited by any rule or
statute; and frequently occasioned the total ruin of the person, even
for the slightest trespasses.  The forest-laws, particularly, were a
great source of oppression.  The king possessed sixty-eight forests,
thirteen chases, and seven hundred and eighty-one parks, in different
parts of England [p]; and considering the extreme passion of the
English and Normans for hunting, these were so many snares laid for
the people, by which they were allured into trespasses, and brought
within the reach of arbitrary and rigorous laws, which the king had
thought proper to enact by his own authority.
[FN [o] Madox, chap. 14.  [p] Spellm. Gloss. in verbo FORESTA.]

But the most barefaced acts of tyranny and oppression were practised
against the Jews, who were entirely out of the protection of law, were
extremely odious from the bigotry of the people, and were abandoned to
the immeasurable rapacity of the king and his ministers.  Besides many
other indignities to which they were continually exposed, it appears
that they were once all thrown into prison, and the sum of sixty-six
thousand marks exacted for their liberty [q]: at another time, Isaac
the Jew paid alone five thousand one hundred marks [r]; Brun, three
thousand marks [s]; Jurnet, two thousand; Bennet, five hundred: at
another, Licorica, widow of David, the Jew of Oxford, was required to
pay six thousand marks; and she was delivered over to six of the
richest and discreetest Jews in England, who were to answer for the
sum [t].  Henry III. borrowed five thousand marks from the Earl of
Cornwall; and for his repayment, consigned over to him all the Jews in
England [u].  The revenue arising from exactions upon this nation was
so considerable, that there was a particular court of exchequer set
apart for managing it [w].
[FN [q] Madox's Hist. of the Exch. p. 151.  This happened in the reign
of King John.  [r] Id. p. 151.  [s] Id. p. 153.  [t] Id. p. 168.  [u]
Id. p. 156.  [w] Id. chap. 7.]

[MN Commerce.]
We may judge concerning the low state of commerce among the English,
when the Jews, notwithstanding these oppressions, could still find
their account in trading among them, and lending them money.  And as
the improvements of agriculture were also much checked by the immense
possessions of the nobility, by the disorders of the times, and by the
precarious state of feudal property, it appears that industry of no
kind could then have place in the kingdom [x].
[FN [x] We learn from the extracts given us of Doomsday by Brady, in
his Treatise of Boroughs, that almost all the boroughs of England had
suffered in the shock of the Conquest, and had extremely decayed
between the death of the Confessor, and the time when Doomsday was
framed.]

It is asserted by Sir Henry Spellman [y], as an undoubted truth, that,
during the reigns of the first Norman princes, every edict of the
king, issued with the consent of his privy council, had the full force
of law.  But the barons, surely, were not so passive as to intrust a
power, entirely arbitrary and despotic, into the hands of the
sovereign.  It only appears, that the constitution had not fixed any
precise boundaries to the royal power; that the right of issuing
proclamations on any emergence, and of exacting obedience to them, a
right which was always supposed inherent in the crown, is very
difficult to be distinguished from a legislative authority; that the
extreme imperfection of the ancient laws, and the sudden exigencies
which often occurred in such turbulent governments, obliged the prince
to exert frequently the latent powers of his prerogative; that he
naturally proceeded, from the acquiescence of the people, to assume,
in many particulars of moment, an authority from which he had excluded
himself by express statutes, charters, or concessions, and which was,
in the main, repugnant to the general genius of the constitution; and
that the lives, the personal liberty, and the properties of all his
subjects, were less secured by law against the exertion of his
arbitrary authority, than by the independent power and private
connexions of each individual.  It appears from the great charter
itself, that not only John, a tyrannical prince, and Richard, a
violent one, but their father, Henry, under whose reign the prevalence
of gross abuses is the least to be suspected, were accustomed, from
their sole authority, without process of law, to imprison, banish, and
attaint the freemen of their kingdom.
[FN [y] Gloss. in verb. JUDICIUM DEI.  The author of the MIROIR DES
JUSTICES complains, that ordinances are only made by the king and his
clerks, and by aliens and others, who dare not contradict the king,
but study to please him.  Whence, he concludes, laws are oftener
dictated by will, than founded on right.]

A great baron, in ancient times, considered himself as a kind of
sovereign within his territory; and was attended by courtiers and
dependents more zealously attached to him than the ministers of state
and the great officers were commonly to THEIR sovereign.  He often
maintained in his court the parade of royalty, by establishing a
justiciary, constable, mareschal, chamberlain, seneschal, and
chancellor, and assigning to each of these officers a separate
province and command.  He was usually very assiduous in exercising his
jurisdiction; and took such delight in that image of sovereignty, that
it was found necessary to restrain his activity, and prohibit him by
law from holding courts too frequently [z].  It is not to be doubted,
but the example, set him by the prince of a  mercenary and sordid
extortion, would be faithfully copied, and that all his good and bad
offices, his justice and injustice, were equally put to sale.  He had
the power, with the king's consent, to exact talliages even from the
free citizens who lived within his barony; and as his necessities made
him rapacious, his authority was usually found to be more oppressive
and tyrannical than that of the sovereign [a].  He was ever engaged in
hereditary or personal animosities or confederacies with his
neighbours, and often gave protection to all desperate adventurers and
criminals, who could be useful in serving his violent purposes.  He
was able alone, in times of tranquillity, to obstruct the execution of
justice within his territories; and by combining with a few
malecontent barons of high rank and power, he could throw the state
into convulsions.  And, on the whole, though the royal authority was
confined within bounds, and often within very narrow ones, yet the
check was irregular, and frequently the source of great disorders; nor
was it derived from the liberty of the people, but from the military
power of many petty tyrants, who were equally dangerous to the prince
and oppressive to the subject.
[FN [z] Dugd. Jurid. Orig. p. 26.  [a] Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p.
520.]

[MN The Church.]
The power of the church was another rampart against royal authority;
but this defence was also the cause of many mischiefs and
inconveniences.  The dignified clergy, perhaps, were not so prone to
immediate violence as the barons; but as they pretended to a total
independence on the state, and could always cover themselves with the
appearances of religion, they proved, in one respect, an obstruction
to the settlement of the kingdom, and to the regular execution of the
laws.  The policy of the Conqueror was in this particular liable to
some exception.  He augmented the superstitious veneration for Rome,
to which that age was so much inclined; and he broke those bands of
connexion, which, in the Saxon times, had preserved an union between
the lay and the clerical orders.  He prohibited the bishops from
sitting in the county courts; he allowed ecclesiastical causes to be
tried in spiritual courts only [b]; and he so much exalted the power
of the clergy, that of sixty thousand two hundred and fifteen knights'
fees, into which he divided England, he placed no less than twenty-
eight thousand and fifteen under the church [c].
[FN [b] Char. Will. apud Wilkins, p. 230.  Spellm. Conc. vol. ii. p.
14.  [c] Spellm. Gloss. in verb. MANUS MORTUA.  We are not to imagine,
as some have done, that the church possessed lands in this proportion,
but only that they and their vassals enjoyed such a proportionable
part of the landed property.]

[MN Civil laws.]
The right of primogeniture was introduced with the feudal law: an
institution which is hurtful, by producing and maintaining an unequal
division of private property; but is advantageous, in another respect,
by accustoming the people to a preference in favour of the eldest son,
and thereby preventing a partition or disputed succession in the
monarchy.  The Normans introduced the use of surnames, which tend to
preserve the knowledge of families and pedigrees.  They abolished none
of the old absurd methods of trial by the cross or ordeal; and they
added a new absurdity, the trial by single combat [d], which became a
regular part of jurisprudence, and was conducted with all the order,
method, devotion, and solemnity imaginable [e].  The ideas of chivalry
also seem to have been imported by the Normans: no traces of those
fantastic notions are to be found among the plain and rustic Saxons.
[FN [d] LL. Will. cap. 68.  [e] Spellm. Gloss. in verb. CAMPUS.  The
last instance of these duels was in the 15th of Eliz.  So long did
that absurdity remain.]

[MN Manners.]
The feudal institutions, by raising the military tenants to a kind of
sovereign dignity, by rendering personal strength and valour
requisite, and by making every knight and baron his own protector and
avenger, begat that martial pride and sense of honour, which, being
cultivated and embellished by the poets and romance-writers of the
age, ended in chivalry.  The virtuous knight fought not only in his
own quarrel, but in that of the innocent, of the helpless, and, above
all, of the fair, whom he supposed to be for ever under the
guardianship of his valiant arm.  The uncourteous knight who, from his
castle, exercised robbery on travellers, and committed violence on
virgins, was the object of his perpetual indignation; and he put him
to death, without scruple, or trial, or appeal, whenever he met with
him.  The great independence of men made personal honour and fidelity
the chief tie among them; and rendered it the capital virtue of every
true knight, or genuine professor of chivalry.  The solemnities of
single combat, as established by law, banished the notion of every
thing unfair or unequal in rencounters; and maintained an appearance
of courtesy between the combatants till the moment of their
engagement.  The credulity of the age grafted on this stock the notion
of giants, enchanters, dragons, spells [f], and a thousand wonders,
which still multiplied during the time of the crusades; when men,
returning from so great a distance, used the liberty of imposing every
fiction on their believing audience.  These ideas of chivalry infected
the writings, conversation, and behaviour of men, during some ages;
and even after they were, in a great measure, banished by the revival
of learning, they left modern GALLANTRY and the POINT OF HONOUR, which
still maintain their influence, and are the genuine offspring of those
ancient affectations.
[FN [f] In all legal single combats, it was part of the champion's
oath, that he carried not about him any herb, spell, or enchantment,
by which he might procure victory.  Dugd. Orig. Jurid. p. 82.]

The concession of the great charter, or rather its full establishment,
(for there was a considerable interval of time between the one and the
other,) gave rise, by degrees, to a new species of government, and
introduced some order and justice into the administration.  The
ensuing scenes of our history are therefore somewhat different from
the preceding.  Yet the great charter contained no establishment of
new courts, magistrates, or senates, nor abolition of the old.  It
introduced no new distribution of the powers of the commonwealth, and
no innovation in the political or public law of the kingdom.  It only
guarded, and that merely by verbal clauses, against such tyrannical
practices as are incompatible with civilized government, and, if they
become very frequent, are incompatible with all government.  The
barbarous license of the kings, and perhaps of the nobles, was
thenceforth somewhat more restrained: men acquired some more security
for their properties and their liberties: and government approached a
little nearer to that end for which it was originally instituted, the
distribution of justice, and the equal protection of the citizens.
Acts of violence and iniquity in the crown, which before were only
deemed injurious to individuals, and were hazardous chiefly in
proportion to the number, power, and dignity of the persons affected
by them, were now regarded, in some degree, as public injuries, and as
infringements of a charter calculated for general security.  And thus
the establishment of the great charter, without seeming anywise to
innovate in the distribution of political power, became a kind of
epoch in the constitution.




CHAPTER XII.

HENRY III.

SETTLEMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT.--GENERAL PACIFICATION.--DEATH OF THE
PROTECTOR.--SOME COMMOTIONS.--HUBERT DE BURGH DISPLACED.--THE BISHOP
OF WINCHESTER MINISTER.--KING’S PARTIALITY TO FOREIGNERS.--
GRIEVANCES.--ECCLESIASTICAL GRIEVANCES.--EARL OF CORNWALL ELECTED KING
OF THE ROMANS.--DISCONTENT OF THE BARONS.--SIMON DE MOUNTFORT, EARL OF
LEICESTER.--PROVISIONS OF OXFORD.—USURPATION OF THE BARONS.--PRINCE
EDWARD.--CIVIL WARS OF THE BARONS.--REFERENCE TO THE KING OF FRANCE.--
RENEWAL OF THE CIVIL WARS.--BATTLE OF LEWES.--HOUSE OF COMMONS.--
BATTLE OF EVESHAM AND DEATH OF LEICESTER.--SETTLEMENT OF THE
GOVERNMENT.--DEATH--AND CHARACTER OF THE KING.--MISCELLANEOUS
TRANSACTIONS OF THIS REIGN.



[MN 1216.]  Most sciences, in proportion as they increase and improve,
invent methods by which they facilitate their reasonings; and,
employing general theorems, are enabled to comprehend, in a few
propositions, a great number of inferences and conclusions.  History
also, being a collection of facts which are multiplying without end,
is obliged to adopt such arts of abridgment, to retain the more
material events, and to drop all the minute circumstances, which are
only interesting during the time, or to the persons engaged in the
transactions.  This truth is no where more evident than with regard to
the reign upon which we are going to enter.  What mortal could have
the patience to write or read a long detail of such frivolous events
as those with which it is filled, or attend to a tedious narrative
which would follow, through a series of fifty-six years, the caprices
and weaknesses of so mean a prince as Henry?  The chief reason why
Protestant writers have been so anxious to spread out the incidents of
this reign is, in order to expose the rapacity, ambition, and
artifices of the court of Rome; and to prove that the great
dignitaries of the Catholic church, while they pretended to have
nothing in view but the salvation of souls, had bent all their
attention to the acquisition of riches, and were restrained by no
sense of justice or of honour in the pursuit of that great object [a].
But this conclusion would readily be allowed them, though it were not
illustrated by such a detail of uninteresting incidents; and follows,
indeed, by an evident necessity, from the very situation in which that
church was placed with regard to the rest of Europe.  For, besides
that ecclesiastical power, as it can always cover its operations under
a cloak of sanctity, and attacks men on the side where they dare not
employ their reason, lies less under control than civil government;
besides this general cause, I say, the pope and his courtiers were
foreigners to most of the churches which they governed; they could not
possibly have any other object than to pillage the provinces for
present gain; and as they lived at a distance, they would be little
awed by shame or remorse, in employing every lucrative expedient which
was suggested to them.  England being one of the most remote provinces
attached to the Romish hierarchy, as well as the most prone to
superstition, felt severely during this reign, while its patience was
not yet fully exhausted, the influence of these causes; and we shall
often have occasion to touch cursorily upon such incidents.  But we
shall not attempt to comprehend every transaction transmitted to us;
and, till the end of the reign, when the events become more memorable,
we shall not always observe an exact chronological order in our
narration.
[FN [a] M. Paris, p. 623.]

[MN Settlement of the government.]
The Earl of Pembroke, who, at the time of John's death, was Mareschal
of England, was, by his office, at the head of the armies, and
consequently, during a state of civil wars and convulsions, at the
head of the government; and it happened fortunately for the young
monarch and for the nation, that the power could not have been
intrusted into more able and more faithful hands.  This nobleman, who
had maintained his loyalty unshaken to John, during the lowest fortune
of that monarch, determined to support the authority of the infant
prince; nor was he dismayed at the number and violence of his enemies.
Sensible that Henry, agreeably to the prejudices of the times, would
not be deemed a sovereign till crowned and anointed by a churchman, he
immediately carried the young prince to Gloucester, [MN 1216.  28th
Oct.] where the ceremony of coronation was performed, in the presence
of Gualo, the legate, and of a few noblemen, by the Bishops of
Winchester and Bath [b].  As the concurrence of the papal authority
was requisite to support the tottering throne, Henry was obliged to
swear fealty to the pope, and renew that homage to which his father
had already subjected the kingdom [c]; and in order to enlarge the
authority of Pembroke, and to give him a more regular and legal title
to it, a general council of the barons was soon after summoned at
Bristol, [MN 11th Nov.] where that nobleman was chosen protector of
the realm.
[FN [b] M. Paris, p. 200.  Hist. Croyl. cont. p. 474.  W. Heming. p.
562  Trivet, p. 168.  [c] M. Paris, p. 200.]

Pembroke, that he might reconcile all men to the government of his
pupil, made him grant a new charter of liberties, which, though mostly
copied from the former concessions extorted from John, contains some
alterations which may be deemed remarkable [d].  The full privilege of
elections in the clergy, granted by the late king, was not confirmed,
nor the liberty of going out of the kingdom, without the royal
consent: whence we may conclude, that Pembroke and the barons, jealous
of the ecclesiastical power, both were desirous of renewing the king's
claim to issue a congé d'élire to the monks and chapters, and thought
it requisite to put some check to the frequent appeals to Rome.  But
what may chiefly surprise us, is, that the obligation to which John
had subjected himself, of obtaining the consent of the great council
before he levied any aids or scutages upon the nation, was omitted;
and this article was even declared hard and severe, and was expressly
left to future deliberation.  But we must consider, that, though this
limitation may perhaps appear to us the most momentous in the whole
charter of John, it was not regarded in that light by the ancient
barons, who were more jealous in guarding against particular acts of
violence in the crown, than against such general impositions, which,
unless they were evidently reasonable and necessary, could scarcely,
without general consent, be levied upon men who had arms in their
hands, and who could repel any act of oppression by which they were
all immediately affected.  We accordingly find, that Henry, in the
course of his reign, while he gave frequent occasions for complaint,
with regard to his violations of the great charter, never attempted,
by his mere will, to levy any aids or scutages; though he was often
reduced to great necessities, and was refused supply by his people.
So much easier was it for him to transgress the law, when individuals
alone were affected, than even to exert his acknowledged prerogatives,
where the interest of the whole body was concerned.
[FN [d] Rymer, vol. i. p. 215.]

This charter was again confirmed by the king in the ensuing year, with
the addition of some articles, to prevent the oppressions by sheriffs;
and also with an additional charter of forests, a circumstance of
great moment in those ages, when hunting was so much the occupation of
the nobility, and when the king comprehended so considerable a part of
the kingdom within his forests, which he governed by peculiar and
arbitrary laws.  All the forests which had been enclosed since the
reign of Henry II. were disafforested; and new perambulations were
appointed for that purpose: offences in the forests were declared to
be no longer capital; but punishable by fine, imprisonment, and more
gentle penalties: and all the proprietors of land recovered the power
of cutting and using their own wood at their pleasure.

Thus these famous charters were brought nearly to the shape in which
they have ever since stood; and they were, during many generations,
the peculiar favourites of the English nation, and esteemed the most
sacred rampart to national liberty and independence.  As they secured
the rights of all orders of men, they were anxiously defended by all,
and became the basis, in a manner, of the English monarchy, and a kind
of original contract, which both limited the authority of the king,
and ensured the conditional allegiance of his subjects.  Though often
violated, they were still claimed by the nobility and people; and as
no precedents were supposed valid that infringed them, they rather
acquired than lost authority, from the frequent attempts made against
them, in several ages, by regal and arbitrary power.

While Pembroke, by renewing and confirming the great charter, gave so
much satisfaction and security to the nation in general, he also
applied himself successfully to individuals.  He wrote letters, in the
king's name, to all the malecontent barons; in which he represented to
them, that, whatever jealousy and animosity they might have
entertained against the late king, a young prince, the lineal heir of
their ancient monarchs, had now succeeded to the throne, without
succeeding either to the resentments or principles of his predecessor:
that the desperate expedient, which they had employed of calling in a
foreign potentate, had, happily for them, as well as for the nation,
failed of entire success; and it was still in their power, by a speedy
return to their duty, to restore the independence of the kingdom, and
to secure that liberty for which they so zealously contended: that as
all past offences of the barons were now buried in oblivion, they
ought, on their part, to forget their complaints against their late
sovereign, who, if he had been anywise blameable in his conduct, had
left to his son the salutary warning, to avoid the paths which had led
to such fatal extremities; and that, having now obtained a charter for
their liberties, it was their interest to show, by their conduct, that
this acquisition was not incompatible with their allegiance, and that
the rights of king and people, so far from being hostile and opposite,
might mutually support and sustain each other [e].
[FN [e] Rymer, vol i. p. 25.  Brady's App. No. 143.]

These considerations, enforced by the character of honour and
constancy which Pembroke had ever maintained, had a mighty influence
on the barons; and most of them began secretly to negotiate with him,
and many of them openly returned to their duty.  The diffidence which
Lewis discovered of their fidelity forwarded this general propension
towards the king; and when the French prince refused the government of
the castle of Hertford to Robert Fitz-Walter, who had been so active
against the late king, and who claimed that fortress as his property,
they plainly saw that the English were excluded from every trust, and
that foreigners had engrossed all the confidence and affection of
their new sovereign [f].  The excommunication, too, denounced by the
legate against all the adherents of Lewis, failed not, in the turn
which men's dispositions had taken, to produce a mighty effect upon
them; and they were easily persuaded to consider a cause as impious,
for which they had already entertained an unsurmountable aversion [g].
Though Lewis made a journey to France, and brought over succours from
that kingdom [h], he found, on his return, that his party was still
more weakened by the desertion of his English confederates, and that
the death of John had, contrary to his expectations, given an
incurable wound to his cause.  The Earls of Salisbury, Arundel, and
Warrenne, together with William Mareschal, eldest son of the
protector, had embraced Henry's party, and every English nobleman was
plainly watching for an opportunity of returning to his allegiance.
Pembroke was so much strengthened by these accessions that he ventured
to invest Mountsorel; though, upon the approach of the Count de Perche
with the French army, he desisted from his enterprise, and raised the
siege [i].  The count, elated with this success, marched to Lincoln;
and being admitted into the town, he began to attack the castle, which
he soon reduced to extremity.  The protector summoned all his forces
from every quarter, in order to relieve a place of such importance;
and he appeared so much superior to the French, that they shut
themselves up within the city, and resolved to act upon the defensive
[k].  But the garrison of the castle having received a strong
reinforcement, made a vigorous sally upon the besiegers; while the
English army, by concert, assaulted them in the same instant from
without, mounted the walls by scalade, and bearing down all
resistance, entered the city sword in hand.  Lincoln was delivered
over to be pillaged; the French army was totally routed; the Count de
Perche, with only two persons more, was killed; but many of the chief
commanders, and about four hundred knights, were made prisoners by the
English [l].  So little blood was shed in this important action, which
decided the fate of one of the most powerful kingdoms in Europe; and
such wretched soldiers were those ancient barons, who yet were
unacquainted with every thing but arms!
[FN [f] M. Paris, p. 200, 202.  [g] Ibid. p. 200.  M. West. p. 277.
[h] Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 79.  M. West. p. 277.  [i] M. Paris, p.
203.  [k] Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 81.  [l] M. Paris, p.204, 205.
Chron. de Mailr. p. 195.]

Prince Lewis was informed of this fatal event while employed in the
siege of Dover, which was still valiantly defended against him by
Hubert de Burgh.  He immediately retreated to London, the centre and
life of his party; and he there received intelligence of a new
disaster, which put an end to all his hopes.  A French fleet, bringing
over a strong reinforcement, had appeared on the coast of Kent, where
they were attacked by the English, under the command of Philip
d'Albiney, and were routed with considerable loss.  D'Albiney employed
a stratagem against them, which is said to have contributed to the
victory.  Having gained the wind of the French, he came down upon them
with violence; and throwing in their faces a great quantity of
quicklime, which he purposely carried on board, he so blinded them,
that they were disabled from defending themselves [m].
[FN [m] M. Paris, p. 206.  Ann. Waverl. p. 183.  W. Heming. p. 563.
Trivet, p. 169.  M. West. p. 277.  Knyghton, p. 2428.]

After this second misfortune of the French, the English barons
hastened every where to make peace with the protector, and, by an easy
submission, to prevent those attainders to which they were exposed on
account of their rebellion.  Lewis, whose cause was now totally
desperate, began to be anxious for the safety of his person, and was
glad, on any honourable conditions, to make his escape from a country
where he found every thing was now become hostile to him.  He
concluded a peace with Pembroke, promised to evacuate the kingdom, and
only stipulated, in return, an indemnity to his adherents, and a
restitution of their honours and fortunes, together with the free and
equal enjoyment of those liberties which had been granted to the rest
of the nation [n].  Thus was happily ended a civil war, which  seemed
to be founded on the most incurable hatred and jealousy, and had
threatened the kingdom with the most fatal consequences.
[FN [n] Rymer, vol. i. p. 221.  M. Paris, p. 207.  Chron. Dunst. vol.
i. p. 83.  M. West. p. 278.  Knyghton, p. 2429.]

[MN 1216.  General pacification.]
The precautions which the King of France used in the conduct of this
whole affair are remarkable.  He pretended that his son had accepted
of the offer from the English barons without his advice, and contrary
to his inclination: the armies sent to England were levied in Lewis's
name.  When that prince came over to France for aid, his father
publicly refused to grant him any assistance, and would not so much as
admit him to his presence.  Even after Henry's party acquired the
ascendant, and Lewis was in danger of falling into the hands of his
enemies, it was Blanche of Castile, his wife, not the king, his
father, who raised armies, and equipped fleets for his succour [o].
All these artifices were employed, not to satisfy the pope, for he had
too much penetration to be so easily imposed on; nor yet to deceive
the people, for they were too gross even for that purpose.  They only
served for a colouring to Philip's cause; and, in public affairs, men
are often better pleased that the truth, though known to every body,
should be wrapped up under a decent cover, than if it were exposed in
open daylight to the eyes of all the world.
[FN [o] M. Paris, p. 256.  Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 82.]

After the expulsion of the French, the prudence and equity of the
protector's subsequent conduct contributed to cure entirely those
wounds which had been made by intestine discord.  He received the
rebellious barons into favour; observed strictly the terms of peace
which he had granted them; restored them to their possessions; and
endeavoured, by an equal behaviour, to bury all past animosities in
perpetual oblivion.  The clergy alone, who had adhered to Lewis, were
sufferers in this revolution.  As they had rebelled against their
spiritual sovereign, by disregarding the interdict and
excommunication, it was not in Pembroke's power to make any
stipulations in their favour; and Gualo, the legate, prepared to take
vengeance on them for their disobedience [p].  Many of them were
deposed; many suspended; some banished; and all who escaped punishment
made atonement for their offence by paying large sums to the legate,
who amassed an immense treasure by this expedient.
[FN [p] Brady's App. No. 144  Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 83.]

[MN Death of the protector.]
The Earl of Pembroke did not long survive the pacification, which had
been chiefly owing to his wisdom and valour [q]; and he was succeeded
in the government by Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, and
Hubert de Burgh, the justiciary.  The councils of the latter were
chiefly followed; and had he possessed equal authority in the kingdom
with Pembroke, he seemed to be every way worthy of filling the place
of that virtuous nobleman.  [MN Some commotions.]  But the licentious
and powerful barons, who had once broken the reins of subjection to
their prince, and had obtained, by violence, an enlargement of their
liberties and independence, could ill be restrained by laws under a
minority; and the people, no less than the king, suffered from their
outrages and disorders.  They retained by force the royal castles,
which they had seized during the past convulsions, or which had been
committed to their custody by the protector [r]: they usurped the
king's demesnes [s]: they oppressed their vassals: they infested their
weaker neighbours: they invited all disorderly people to enter in
their retinue, and to live upon their lands: and they gave them
protection in all their robberies and extortions.
[FN [q] M. Paris, p. 210.  [r] Trivet p. 174.  [s] Rymer, vol. i. p.
276.]

No one was more infamous for these violent and illegal practices than
the Earl of Albemarle; who, though he had early returned to his duty,
and had been serviceable in expelling the French, augmented to the
utmost the general disorder, and committed outrages in all the
counties of the north.  In order to reduce him to obedience, Hubert
seized an opportunity of getting possession of Rockingham Castle,
which Albemarle had garrisoned with his licentious retinue: but this
nobleman, instead of submitting, entered into a secret confederacy
with Fawkes de Breauté, Peter de Mauleon, and other barons, and both
fortified the castle of Biham for his defence, and made himself
master, by surprise, of that of Fotheringay.  Pandolf, who was
restored to his legateship, was active in suppressing this rebellion;
and, with the concurrence of eleven bishops, he pronounced the
sentence of excommunication against Albemarle and his adherents [t]:
an army was levied: a scutage of ten shillings a knight's fee was
imposed on all the military tenants: Albemarle's associates gradually
deserted him: and he himself was obliged at last to sue for mercy.  He
received a pardon, and was restored to his whole estate.
[FN [t] Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 102.]

This impolitic lenity, too frequent in those times, was probably the
result of a secret combination among the barons, who never could
endure to see the total ruin of one of their own order: but it
encouraged Fawkes de Breauté, a man whom King John had raised from a
low origin, to persevere in the course of violence to which he had
owed his fortune, and to set at nought all law and justice.  When
thirty-five verdicts were at one time found against him, on account of
his violent expulsion of so many freeholders from their possessions,
he came to the court of justice with an armed force, seized the judge
who had pronounced the verdicts, and imprisoned him in Bedford castle.
He then levied open war against the king; but being subdued and taken
prisoner, his life was granted him; but his estate was confiscated,
and he was banished the kingdom [u].
[FN [u] Rymer, vol. i. p. 198.  M. Paris, p. 221, 224.  Ann. Waverl.
p. 188.  Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 141, 146.  M. West. p. 283.]

[MN 1222.]  Justice was executed with greater severity against
disorders less premeditated, which broke out in London.  A frivolous
emulation in a match of wrestling, between the Londoners on the one
hand, and the inhabitants of Westminster and those of the neighbouring
villages on the other, occasioned this commotion.  The former rose in
a body, and pulled down some houses belonging to the Abbot of
Westminster: but this riot, which, considering the tumultuous
disposition familiar to that capital, would have been little regarded,
seemed to become more serious by the symptoms which then appeared of
the former attachment of the citizens to the French interest.  The
populace, in the tumult, made use of the cry of war commonly employed
by the French troops: MOUNTJOY, MOUNTJOY, GOD HELP US AND OUR LORD
LEWIS!  The justiciary made inquiry into the disorder; and finding one
Constantine Fitz-Arnulf to have been the ringleader, an insolent man,
who justified his crime in Hubert's presence, he proceeded against him
by martial law, and ordered him immediately to be hanged, without
trial or form of process.  He also cut off the feet of some of
Constantine's accomplices [w].
[FN [w] M. Paris, p. 217, 218, 259.  Ann. Waverl. p. 187.  Chron.
Dunst. vol. i. p. 129.]

This act of power was complained of as an infringement of the great
charter: yet the justiciary, in a Parliament summoned at Oxford, (for
the great councils about this time began to receive that appellation,)
made no scruple to grant, in the king's name, a renewal and
confirmation of that charter.  When the assembly made application to
the crown for this favour, as a law in those times seemed to lose its
validity if not frequently renewed, William de Briewere, one of the
council of regency, was so bold as to say openly, that those liberties
were extorted by force, and ought not to be observed: but he was
reprimanded by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and was not countenanced
by the king or his chief ministers [x].  A new confirmation was
demanded and granted two years after; and an aid, amounting to a
fifteenth of all moveables, was given by the Parliament, in return for
this indulgence.  The king issued writs anew to the sheriffs,
enjoining the observance of the charter; but he inserted a remarkable
clause in the writs, that those who paid not the fifteenth should not
for the future be entitled to the benefit of those liberties [y].
[FN [x] M. West. p. 282.  [y] Clause 9. H. 3. m. 9. and m. 6. d.]

The low state into which the crown was fallen made it requisite for a
good minister to be attentive to the preservation of the royal
prerogatives, as well as to the security of public liberty.  Hubert
applied to the pope, who had always great authority in the kingdom,
and was now considered as its superior lord, and desired him to issue
a bull declaring the king to be of full age, and entitled to exercise
in person all the acts of royalty [z].  In consequence of this
declaration, the justiciary resigned into Henry's hands the two
important fortresses of the Tower and Dover Castle, which had been
intrusted to his custody; and he required the other barons to imitate
his example.  They refused compliance: the Earls of Chester and
Albemarle, John Constable of Chester, John de Lacy, Brian de l'Isle,
and William de Cantel, with some others, even formed a conspiracy to
surprise London, and met in arms at Waltham with that intention: but
finding the king prepared for defence, they desisted from their
enterprise.  When summoned to court in order to answer for their
conduct, they scrupled not to appear, and to confess the design: but
they told the king, that they had no bad intentions against his
person, but only against Hubert de Burgh, whom they were determined to
remove from his office [a].  They appeared too formidable to be
chastised; and they were so little discouraged by the failure of their
first enterprise, that they again met in arms at Leicester, in order
to seize the king, who then resided at Northampton: but Henry,
informed of their purpose, took care to be so well armed and attended
that the barons found it dangerous to make the attempt; and they sat
down and kept Christmas in his neighbourhood [b].  The archbishop and
the prelates, finding every thing tending towards a civil war,
interposed with their authority, and threatened the barons with the
sentence of excommunication, if they persisted in detaining the king's
castles.  This menace at last prevailed: most of the fortresses were
surrendered; though the barons complained that Hubert's castles were
soon after restored to him, while the king still kept theirs in his
own custody.  There are said to have been eleven hundred and fifteen
castles at that time in England [c].
[FN [z] M. Paris, p. 220.  [a] Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 137.  [b] M.
Paris, p. 221.  Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 138.  [c] Coke's Comment. on
Magna Charta, chap. 17.]

It must be acknowledged that the influence of the prelates and the
clergy was often of great service to the public.  Though the religion
of that age can merit no better name than that of superstition, it
served to unite together a body of men who had great sway over the
people, and who kept the community from falling to pieces, by the
factions and independent power of the nobles; and what was of great
importance, it threw a mighty authority into the hands of men, who, by
their profession, were averse to arms and violence; who tempered by
their mediation the general disposition towards  military enterprises;
and who still maintained, even amidst the shock of arms, those secret
links, without which it is impossible for human society to subsist.

Notwithstanding these intestine commotions in England, and the
precarious authority of the crown, Henry was obliged to carry on war
in France; and he employed to that purpose the fifteenth which had
been granted him by Parliament.  Lewis VIII., who had succeeded his
father Philip, instead of complying with Henry's claim, who demanded
the restitution of Normandy, and the other provinces wrested from
England, made an irruption into Poictou, took Rochelle [d], after a
long siege, and seemed determined to expel the English from the few
provinces which still remained to them.  Henry sent over his uncle,
the Earl of Salisbury, together with his brother, Prince Richard, to
whom he had granted the earldom of Cornwall, which had escheated to
the crown.  Salisbury stopped the progress of Lewis's arms, and
retained the Poictevin and Gascon vassals in their allegiance: but no
military action of any moment was performed on either side.  The Earl
of Cornwall, after two years' stay in Guienne, returned to England.
[FN [d] Rymer, vol. i. p. 269.  Trivet, p. 179.]

[MN 1227.]  This prince was nowise turbulent or factious in his
disposition: his ruling passion was to amass money, in which he
succeeded so well as to become the richest subject in Christendom: yet
his attention to gain threw him sometimes into acts of violence; and
gave disturbance to the government.  There was a manor which had
formerly belonged to the earldom of Cornwall, but had been granted to
Waleran de Ties, before Richard had been invested with that dignity,
and while the earldom remained in the crown.  Richard claimed this
manor, and expelled the proprietor by force: Waleran complained: the
king ordered his brother to do justice to the man, and restore him to
his rights: the earl said, that he would not submit to these orders,
till the cause should be decided against him by the judgment of his
peers: Henry replied, that it was first necessary to reinstate Waleran
in possession, before the cause could be tried; and he reiterated his
orders to the earl [e].  We may judge of the state of the government,
when this  affair had nearly produced a civil war.  The Earl of
Cornwall, finding Henry peremptory in his commands, associated himself
with the young Earl of Pembroke, who had married his sister, and who
was displeased on account of the king's requiring him to deliver up
some royal castles which were in his custody.  These two malecontents
took into the confederacy the Earls of Chester, Warrenne, Gloucester,
Hereford, Warwick, and Ferrers, who were all disgusted on a like
account [f].  They assembled an army; which the king had not the power
or courage to resist; and he was obliged to give his brother
satisfaction, by grants of much greater importance than the manor
which had been the first ground of the quarrel [g].
[FN [e] M. Paris, p. 233.  [f] M. Paris, p. 233.  [g] Ibid.]

The character of the king, as he grew to man's estate, became every
day better known; and he was found in every respect unqualified for
maintaining a proper sway among those turbulent barons, whom the
feudal constitution subjected to his authority.  Gentle, humane, and
merciful even to a fault, he seems to have been steady in no other
circumstance of his character; but to have received every impression
from those who surrounded him, and whom he loved, for the time, with
the most imprudent and most unreserved affection.  Without activity or
vigour, he was unfit to conduct war: without policy or art, he was ill
fitted to maintain peace: his resentments, though hasty and violent,
were not dreaded, while he was found to drop them with such facility;
his friendships were little valued, because they were neither derived
from choice, nor maintained with constancy.  A proper pageant of state
in a regular monarchy, where his ministers could have conducted all
affairs in his name and by his authority; but too feeble in those
disorderly times to sway a sceptre, whose weight depended entirely on
the firmness and dexterity of the hand which held it.

[MN Hugh de Burgh displaced.]
The ablest and most virtuous minister that Henry ever possessed was
Hubert de Burgh [h]; a man who had been steady to the crown in the
most difficult and dangerous times, and who yet showed no disposition,
in the height of his power, to enslave or oppress the people.  The
only exceptionable part of his conduct is that which is mentioned by
Matthew Paris [i], if the fact be really true; and proceeded from
Hubert's advice, namely, the recalling publicly and the annulling of
the charter of forests, a concession so reasonable in itself, and so
passionately claimed both by the nobility and people: but it must be
confessed that this measure is so unlikely, both from the
circumstances of the times and character of the minister, that there
is reason to doubt of its reality, especially as it is mentioned by no
other historian.  Hubert, while he enjoyed his authority, had an
entire ascendant over Henry, and was loaded with honours and favours
beyond any other subject.  Besides acquiring the property of many
castles and manors, he married the eldest sister of the King of Scots,
was created Earl of Kent, and, by an unusual concession, was made
chief justiciary of England for life: [MN 1231.] yet Henry, in a
sudden caprice, threw off this faithful minister, and exposed him to
the violent persecutions of his enemies.  Among other frivolous crimes
objected to him, he was accused of gaining the king's affections by
enchantment, and of purloining from the royal treasury a gem, which
had the virtue to render the wearer invulnerable, and of sending this
valuable curiosity to the Prince of Wales [k].  The nobility, who
hated Hubert on account of his zeal in resuming the rights and
possessions of the crown, no sooner saw the opportunity favourable,
than they inflamed the king's animosity against him, and pushed him to
seek the total ruin of his minister.  Hubert took sanctuary in a
church: the king ordered him to be dragged from thence: he recalled
those orders: he afterwards renewed them: he was obliged by the clergy
to restore him to the sanctuary: he constrained him soon after to
surrender himself prisoner, and he confined him in the castle of
Devizes.  Hubert made his escape, was expelled the kingdom, was again
received into favour, recovered a great share of the king's
confidence, but never showed any inclination to reinstate himself in
power and authority [l].
[FN [h] Ypod. Neustriae, p. 464.  [i] P. 232.  M. West. p. 216,
ascribes this counsel to Peter, Bishop of Winchester.  [k] M. Paris,
p. 259.  [l] Ibid. p. 259, 260, 261, 266.  Chron. T. Wykes, p. 41, 42.
Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 220, 221.  M. West. p. 291, 301.]

[MN Bishop of Winchester minister.]
The man who succeeded him in the government of the king and kingdom
was Peter, Bishop of Winchester, a Poictevin by birth, who had been
raised by the late king, and who was no less distinguished by his
arbitrary principles and violent conduct, than by his courage and
abilities.  This prelate had been left by King John justiciary and
regent of the kingdom during an expedition which that prince made into
France; and his illegal administration was one chief cause of that
great combination among the barons which finally extorted from the
crown the charter of liberties, and laid the foundations of the
English constitution.  Henry, though incapable, from his character, of
pursuing the same violent maxims which had governed his father, had
imbibed the same arbitrary principles; and, in prosecution of Peter's
advice, he invited over a great number of Poictevins, and other
foreigners, who, he believed, could more safely be trusted than the
English, and who seemed useful to counterbalance the great and
independent power of the nobility [m].  Every office and command was
bestowed on these strangers: they exhausted the revenues of the crown,
already too much impoverished [n]; they invaded the rights of the
people; and their insolence, still more provoking than their power,
drew on them the hatred and envy of all orders of men in the kingdom
[o].
[FN [m] M. Paris, p. 263.  [n] Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 151.  [o] M.
Paris, p. 268.]

[MN 1233.]  The barons formed a combination against this odious
ministry, and withdrew from Parliament, on pretence of the danger to
which they were exposed from the machinations of the Poictevins.  When
again summoned to attend, they gave for answer, that the king should
dismiss his foreigners, otherwise they would drive both him and them
out of the kingdom, and put the crown on another head more worthy to
wear it [p]: such was the style they used to their sovereign!  They at
last came to Parliament, but so well attended, that they seemed in a
condition to prescribe laws to the king and ministry.  Peter des
Roches, however, had in the interval found means of sowing dissension
among them, and of bringing over to his party the Earl of Cornwall, as
well as the Earls of Lincoln and Chester.  The confederates were
disconcerted in their measures: Richard, Earl Mareschal, who had
succeeded to that dignity on the death of his brother William, was
chased into Wales; he thence withdrew into Ireland, where he was
treacherously murdered by the contrivance of the Bishop of Winchester
[q].  The estates of the more obnoxious barons were confiscated,
without legal sentence or trial by their peers [r], and were bestowed
with a profuse liberality on the Poictevins.  Peter even carried his
insolence so far as to declare publicly, that the barons of England
must not pretend to put themselves on the same footing with those of
France; or assume the same liberties and privileges: the monarch in
the former country had a more absolute power than in the latter.  It
had been more justifiable for him to have said, that men, so unwilling
to submit to the authority of laws, could with the worst grace claim
any shelter or protection from them.
[FN [p] Ibid. p. 265.  [q] Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 219.  [r] M.
Paris, p. 265.]

When the king at any time was checked in his illegal practices, and
when the authority of the great charter was objected to him, he was
wont to reply, "Why should I observe this charter, which is neglected
by all my grandees, both prelates and nobility?"  It was very
reasonably said to him, "You ought, sir, to set them the example [s]."
[FN [s] Ibid. p. 609.]

So violent a ministry as that of the Bishop of Winchester could not be
of long duration; but its fall proceeded at last from the influence of
the church, not from the efforts of the nobles.  Edmond, the primate,
came to court, attended by many of the other prelates, and represented
to the king the pernicious measures embraced by Peter des Roches, the
discontents of his people, the ruin of his affairs; and, after
requiring the dismission of the minister and his associates,
threatened him with excommunication in case of his refusal.  Henry,
who knew that an excommunication so agreeable to the sense of the
people could not fail of producing the most dangerous effects, was
obliged to submit: foreigners were banished: the natives were restored
to their place in council [t]: the primate, who was a man of prudence,
and who took care to execute the laws, and observe the charter of
liberties, bore the chief sway in the government.
[FN [t] Ibid. p. 271, 272.]

[MN 1236.  Jan.]  But the English in vain flattered themselves that
they should be long free from the dominion of foreigners.  [MN King's
partiality to foreigners.]  The king having married Eleanor, daughter
of the Count of Provence [u], was surrounded by a great number of
strangers from that country, whom he caressed with the fondest
affection, and enriched by an imprudent generosity [w].  The Bishop of
Valence, a prelate of the house of Savoy, and maternal uncle to the
queen, was his chief minister, and employed every art to amass wealth
for himself and his relations.  Peter of Savoy, a brother of the same
family, was invested in the honour of Richmond, and received the rich
wardship of Earl Warrenne: Boniface of Savoy was promoted to the see
of Canterbury.  Many young ladies were invited over from Provence, and
married to the chief noblemen in England, who were the king's wards
[x].  And as the source of Henry's bounty began to fail, his Savoyard
ministry applied to Rome, and obtained a bull, permitting him to
resume all past grants; absolving him from the oath which he had taken
to maintain them; even enjoining him to make such a resumption, and
representing those grants as invalid, on account of the prejudice
which ensued from them to the Roman pontiff, in whom the superiority
of the kingdom was vested [y].  The opposition made to the intended
resumption prevented it from taking place; but the nation saw the
indignities to which the king was willing to submit, in order to
gratify the avidity of his foreign favourites.  About the same time he
published in England the sentence of excommunication pronounced
against the Emperor Frederic, his brother-in-law [z]; and said, in
excuse, that, being the pope's vassal, he was obliged by his
allegiance to obey all the commands of his holiness.  In this weak
reign, when any neighbouring potentate insulted the king's dominions,
instead of taking revenge for the injury, he complained to the pope as
his superior lord, and begged him to give protection to his vassal
[a].
[FN [u] Rymer, vol. i. p. 448.  M. Paris, p. 286.  [w] M. Paris, p.
236, 301, 305, 316, 541.  M. West. p. 302, 304.  [x] M. Paris, p. 484.
M. West. p. 338.  [y] M. Paris, p. 295, 301.  [z] Rymer, vol. i. p.
383.  [a] Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 150.]

[MN 1236.  Grievances.]
The resentment of the English barons rose high at the preference given
to foreigners; but no remonstrance or complaint could ever prevail on
the king to abandon them, or even to moderate his attachment towards
them.  After the Provencals and Savoyards might have been supposed
pretty well satiated with the dignities and riches which they had
acquired, a new set of hungry foreigners were invited over, and shared
among them those favours, which the king ought in policy to have
conferred on the English nobility, by whom his government could have
been supported and defended.  His mother, Isabella, who had been
unjustly taken by the late king from the Count de la Marche, to whom
she was betrothed, was no sooner mistress of herself, by the death of
her husband, than she married that nobleman [b]; [MN 1247.] and she
had borne him four sons, Guy, William, Geoffrey, and Aymer, whom she
sent over to England, in order to pay a visit to their brother.  The
good-natured and affectionate disposition of Henry was moved at the
sight of such near relations; and he considered neither his own
circumstances, nor the inclinations of his people, in the honours and
riches which he conferred upon them [c].  Complaints rose as high
against the credit of the Gascon, as ever they had done against that
of the Poictevin and of the Savoyard favourites; and to a nation
prejudiced against them, all their measures appeared exceptionable and
criminal.  Violations of the great charter were frequently mentioned;
and it is indeed more than probable that foreigners, ignorant of the
laws, and relying on the boundless affections of a weak prince, would,
in an age when a regular administration was not any where known, pay
more attention to their present interest than to the liberties of the
people.  It is reported that the Poictevins and other strangers, when
the laws were at any time appealed to, in opposition to their
oppressions, scrupled not to reply, WHAT DID THE ENGLISH LAWS SIGNIFY
TO THEM?  THEY MINDED THEM NOT.  And as words are often more offensive
than actions, this open contempt of the English tended much to
aggravate the general discontent, and made every act of violence
committed by the foreigners appear not only an injury but an affront
to them [d].
[FN [b] Trivet, p. 174.  [c] M. Paris, p. 491.  M. West. p. 338.
Knyghton, p. 2436.  [d] M. Paris, p. 566, 666.  Ann. Waverl. p. 214.
Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 335.]

I reckon not among the violations of the great charter some arbitrary
exertions of prerogative, to which Henry's necessities pushed him, and
which, without producing any discontent, were uniformly continued by
all his successors till the last century.  As the Parliament often
refused him supplies, and that in a manner somewhat rude and indecent
[e], he obliged his opulent subjects, particularly the citizens of
London, to grant him loans of money; and it is natural to imagine,
that the same want of economy which reduced him to the necessity of
borrowing, would prevent him from being very punctual in the repayment
[f].  He demanded benevolences, or pretended voluntary contributions,
from his nobility and prelates [g].  He was the first king of England
since the Conquest that could fairly be said to lie under the
restraint of law; and he was also the first that practised the
dispensing power, and employed the clause of NON OBSTANTE in his
grants and patents.  When objections were made to this novelty, he
replied, that the pope exercised that authority; and why might not he
imitate the example?  But the abuse which the pope made of his
dispensing power, in violating the canons of general councils, in
invading the privileges and customs of all particular churches, and in
usurping on the rights of patrons, was more likely to excite the
jealousy of the people, than to reconcile them to a similar practice
in their civil government.  Roger de Thurkesby, one of the king's
justices, was so displeased with the precedent, that he exclaimed,
ALAS!  WHAT TIMES ARE WE FALLEN INTO!  BEHOLD, THE CIVIL COURT IS
CORRUPTED IN IMITATION OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL, AND THE RIVER IS
POISONED FROM THE FOUNTAIN.
[FN [e] M. Paris, p. 301.  [f] Ibid. p. 406.  [g] Ibid. p. 507.]

The king's partiality and profuse bounty to his foreign relations, and
to their friends and favourites, would have appeared more tolerable to
the English, had any thing been done meanwhile for the honour of the
nation; or had Henry's enterprises in foreign countries been attended
with any success or glory to himself or to the public: at least, such
military talents in the king would have served to keep his barons in
awe, and have given weight and authority to his government.  But
though he declared war against Lewis IX. in 1242, and made an
expedition into Guienne, upon the invitation of his father-in-law, the
Count de la Marche, who promised to join him with all his forces, he
was unsuccessful in his attempts against that great monarch, was
worsted at Taillebourg, was deserted by his allies, lost what remained
to him of Poictou, and was obliged to return, with loss of honour,
into England [h].  The Gascon nobility were attached to the English
government, because the distance of their sovereign allowed them to
remain in a state of almost total independence; [MN 1253.] and they
claimed, some time after, Henry's protection against an invasion,
which the King of Castile made upon that territory.  Henry returned
into Guienne, and was more successful in this expedition; but he
thereby involved himself and his nobility in an enormous debt, which
both increased their discontents, and exposed him to greater danger
from their enterprises [i].
[FN [h] M. Paris, p. 393, 394, 398, 399, 405.  W. Heming. p. 574.
Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 153.  [i] M. Paris, p. 614.]

Want of economy, and an ill-judged liberality, were Henry's great
defects; and his debts, even before this expedition, had become so
troublesome, that he sold all his plate and jewels, in order to
discharge them.  When this expedient was first proposed to him, he
asked where he should find purchasers?  It was replied, the citizens
of London.  ON MY WORD, said he, IF THE TREASURY OF AUGUSTUS WERE
BROUGHT FOR SALE, THE CITIZENS ARE ABLE TO BE THE PURCHASERS: THESE
CLOWNS, WHO ASSUME TO THEMSELVES THE NAME OF BARONS, ABOUND IN EVERY
THING, WHILE WE ARE REDUCED TO NECESSITIES [k].  And he was
thenceforth observed to be more forward and greedy in his exactions
upon the citizens [l].
[FN [k] Ibid. p. 501.  [l] Ibid. p. 501, 507, 518, 578, 606, 625,
648.]

[MN Ecclesiastical grievances.]
But the grievances, which the English during this reign had reason to
complain of in the civil government, seem to have been still less
burdensome than those which they suffered from the usurpations and
exactions of the court of Rome.  [MN 1253.]  On the death of Langton
in 1228, the monks of Christ-church elected Walter de Hemesham, one of
their own body, for his successor: but as Henry refused to confirm the
election, the pope, at his desire, annulled it [m]; and immediately
appointed Richard, Chancellor of Lincoln, for archbishop, without
waiting for a new election.  On the death of Richard in 1231, the
monks elected Ralph de Neville, Bishop of Chichester; and though Henry
was much pleased with the election, the pope, who thought that prelate
too much attached to the crown, assumed the power of annulling his
election [n].  He rejected two clergymen more, whom the monks had
successively chosen; and he at last told them, that, if they would
elect Edmond, treasurer of the church of Salisbury, he would confirm
their choice; and his nomination was complied with.  The pope had the
prudence to appoint both times very worthy primates; but men could not
forbear observing his intention of thus drawing gradually to himself
the right of bestowing that important dignity.
[FN [m] M. Paris, p. 224.  [n] Ibid. p. 254.]

The avarice, however, more than the ambition, of the see of Rome,
seems to have been in this age the ground of general complaint.  The
papal ministers, finding a vast stock of power amassed by their
predecessors, were desirous of turning it to immediate profit which
they enjoyed at home, rather than of enlarging their authority in
distant countries, where they never intended to reside.  Every thing
was become venal in the Romish tribunals; simony was openly practised;
no favours, and even no justice, could be obtained without a bribe;
the highest bidder was sure to have the preference, without regard
either to the merits of the person or of the cause; and besides the
usual perversions of right in the decision of controversies, the pope
openly assumed an absolute and uncontrolled authority of setting
aside, by the plenitude of his apostolic power, all particular rules,
and all privileges of patrons, churches, and convents.  On pretence of
remedying these abuses, Pope Honorius, in 1226, complaining of the
poverty of his see as the source of all grievances, demanded from
every cathedral two of the best prebends, and from every convent two
monks' portions, to be set apart as a perpetual and settled revenue of
the papal crown: but all men being sensible that the revenue would
continue for ever, the abuses immediately return, his demand was
unanimously rejected.  About three years after, the pope demanded and
obtained the tenth of all ecclesiastical revenues, which he levied in
a very oppressive manner; requiring payment before the clergy had
drawn their rents or tithes, and sending about usurers, who advanced
them the money at exorbitant interest.  In the year 1240, Otho, the
legate, having in vain attempted the clergy in a body, obtained
separately, by intrigues and menaces, large sums from the prelates and
convents, and on his departure is said to have carried more money out
of the kingdom than he left in it.  This experiment was renewed four
years after with success by Martin the nuncio, who brought from Rome
powers of suspending and excommunicating all clergymen that refused to
comply with his demands.  The king, who relied on the pope for the
support of his tottering authority, never failed to countenance those
exactions.

Meanwhile, all the chief benefices of the kingdom were conferred on
Italians; great numbers of that nation were sent over at one time to
be provided for; non-residence and pluralities were carried to an
enormous height; Mansel, the king's chaplain, is computed to have held
at once seven hundred ecclesiastical livings; and the abuses became so
evident as to be palpable to the blindness of superstition itself.
The people, entering into associations, rose against the Italian
clergy; pillaged their barns; wasted their lands; insulted the persons
of such of them as they found in the kingdom [o]; and when the
justices made inquiry into the authors of this disorder, the guilt was
found to involve so many, and those of such high rank, that it passed
unpunished.  At last, when Innocent IV., in 1245, called a general
council at Lyons, in order to excommunicate the Emperor Frederic, the
king and nobility sent over agents to complain before the council of
the rapacity of the Romish church.  They represented, among many other
grievances, that the benefices of the Italian clergy in England had
been estimated, and were found to amount to sixty thousand marks [p] a
year, a sum which exceeded the annual revenue of the crown [q].  They
obtained only an evasive answer from the pope; but as mention had been
made before the council of the feudal subjection of England to the see
of Rome, the English agents, at whose head was Roger Bigod, Earl of
Norfolk, exclaimed against the pretension, and insisted that King John
had no right, without the consent of his barons, to subject the
kingdom to so ignominious a servitude [r].  The popes, indeed, afraid
of carrying matters too far against England, seem thenceforth to have
little insisted on that pretension.
[FN [o] Rymer, vol. i. p. 323.  M. Paris, p. 255, 257.  [p] Innocent's
bull in Rymer, vol. i. p. 471, says only fifty thousand marks a year.
[q] M. Paris, p. 451.  The customs were part of Henry's revenue, and
amounted to six thousand pounds a year: they were at first small sums
paid by the merchants for the use of the king's warehouses, measures,
weights, &c.  See Gilbert's History of the Exch. p. 214.  [r] M.
Paris, p. 460.]

This check, received at the council of Lyons, was not able to stop the
court of Rome in its rapacity; Innocent exacted the revenues of all
vacant benefices, the twentieth of all ecclesiastical revenues without
exception; the third of such as exceeded a hundred marks a year, and
the half of such as were possessed by non-residents [s].  He claimed
the goods of all intestate clergymen [t]; he pretended a title to
inherit all money gotten by usury; he levied benevolences upon the
people; and when the king, contrary to his usual practice, prohibited
these exactions, he threatened to pronounce against him the same
censures which he had emitted against the Emperor Frederic [u].
[FN [s] Ibid. p. 480.  Ann. Burt. p. 305, 373.  [t] M. Paris, p. 474.
[u] Ibid. p. 476.]

[MN 1255.]  But the most oppressive expedient employed by the pope was
the embarking of Henry in a project for the conquest of Naples or
Sicily on this side the Fare, as it was called; an enterprise, which
threw much dishonour on the king, and involved him, during some years,
in great trouble and expense.  The Romish church, taking advantage of
favourable incidents, had reduced the kingdom of Sicily to the same
state of feudal vassalage which she pretended to extend over England,
and which, by reason of the distance, as well as high spirit of this
latter kingdom, she was not able to maintain.  After the death of the
Emperor Frederic II., the succession of Sicily devolved to Conradine,
grandson of that monarch; and Mainfroy, his natural son, under
pretence of governing the kingdom during the minority of the prince,
had formed a scheme of establishing his own authority.  Pope Innocent,
who had carried on violent war against the Emperor Frederic, and had
endeavoured to dispossess him of his Italian dominions, still
continued hostilities against his grandson; but being disappointed in
all his schemes by the activity and artifices of Mainfroy, he found
that his own force alone was not sufficient to bring to a happy issue
so great an enterprise.  He pretended to dispose of the Sicilian
crown, both as superior lord of that particular kingdom, and as vicar
of Christ, to whom all kingdoms of the earth were subjected; and he
made a tender of it to Richard, Earl of Cornwall, whose immense
riches, he flattered himself, would be able to support the military
operations against Mainfroy.  As Richard had the prudence to refuse
the present [w], he applied to the king, whose levity and thoughtless
disposition gave Innocent more hopes of success; and he offered him
the crown of Sicily for his second son, Edmond [x].  Henry, allured by
so magnificent a present, without reflecting on the consequences,
without consulting either with his brother or the Parliament, accepted
of the insidious proposal; and gave the pope unlimited credit to
expend whatever sums he thought necessary for completing the conquest
of Sicily.  Innocent, who was engaged by his own interests to wage war
with Mainfroy, was glad to carry on his enterprises at the expense of
his ally: Alexander IV., who succeeded him in the papal throne,
continued the same policy; and Henry was surprised to find himself on
a sudden involved in an immense debt, which he had never been
consulted in contracting.  The sum already amounted to one hundred and
thirty-five thousand five hundred and forty-one marks, besides
interest [y]; and he  had the prospect, if he answered this demand, of
being soon loaded with more exorbitant expenses; if he refused it, of
both incurring the pope's displeasure, and losing the crown of Sicily,
which he hoped soon to have the glory of fixing on the head of his
son.
[FN [w] M. Paris, p. 650.  [x] Rymer, vol. i. p. 502, 512, 530.  M.
Paris, p. 599, 613.  [y] Rymer, vol. i. p. 587.  Chron. Dunst. vol. i.
p. 319.]

He applied to the Parliament for supplies; and that he might be sure
not to meet with opposition, he sent no writs to the more refractory
barons; but even those who were summoned, sensible of the ridiculous
cheat imposed by the pope, determined not to lavish their money on
such chimerical projects; and making a pretext of the absence of their
brethren, they refused to take the king's demands into consideration
[z].  In this extremity the clergy were his only resource; and as both
their temporal and spiritual sovereign concurred in loading them, they
were ill able to defend themselves against this united authority.
[FN [z] M. Paris, p. 614.]

The pope published a crusade for the conquest of Sicily; and required
every one, who had taken the cross against the infidels, or had vowed
to advance money for that service, to support the war against
Mainfroy, a more terrible enemy, as he pretended, to the Christian
faith than any Saracen [a].  He levied a tenth on all ecclesiastical
benefices in England for three years; and gave orders to excommunicate
all bishops who made not punctual payment.  He granted to the king the
goods of intestate clergymen; the revenues of vacant benefices; the
revenues of all non-residents [b].  But these taxations, being levied
by some rule, were deemed less grievous than another imposition, which
arose from the suggestion of the Bishop of Hereford, and which might
have opened the door to endless and intolerable abuses.
[FN [a] Rymer, vol. i. p. 547, 548, &c.  [b] Ibid. vol. i. p. 597,
598.]

This prelate, who resided at the court of Rome, by a deputation from
the English church, drew bills of different values, but amounting on
the whole to one hundred and fifty thousand five hundred and forty
marks, on all the bishops and abbots of the kingdom; and granted these
bills to Italian merchants, who, it was pretended, had advanced money
for the service of the war against Mainfroy [c].  As there was no
likelihood of the English prelates submitting, without compulsion, to
such an extraordinary demand, Rustand, the legate, was charged with
the commission of employing authority to that purpose; and he summoned
an assembly of the bishops and abbots, whom he acquainted with the
pleasure of the pope and of the king.  Great were the surprise and
indignation of the assembly.  The Bishop of Worcester exclaimed, that
he would lose his life rather than comply: the Bishop of London said,
that the pope and king were more powerful than he; but if his mitre
were taken off his head, he would clap on a helmet in its place [d].
The legate was no less violent on the other hand; and he told the
assembly, in plain terms, that all ecclesiastical benefices were the
property of the pope, and he might dispose of them, either in whole or
in part, as he saw proper [e].  In the end, the bishops and abbots,
being threatened with excommunication, which made all the revenues
fall into the king's hands, were obliged to submit to the exaction;
and the only mitigation which the legate allowed them was, that the
tenths, already granted, should be accepted as a partial payment of
the bills.  But the money was still insufficient for the pope's
purpose: the conquest of Sicily was as remote as ever: the demands
which came from Rome were endless: Pope Alexander became so urgent a
creditor, that he sent over a legate to England, threatening the
kingdom with an interdict, and the king with excommunication, if the
arrears, which he pretended to be due to him, were not instantly
remitted [f].  And at last Henry, sensible of the cheat, began to
think of breaking off the agreement, and of resigning into the pope's
hands that crown, which it was not intended by Alexander, that he or
his family should ever enjoy [g].
[FN [c] M. Paris, p. 612, 628.  Chron. T. Wykes, p. 54.  [d] M. Paris,
p. 614.  [e] Ibid. p. 619.  [f] Rymer, vol. i. p. 624.  M. Paris, p.
648.  [g] Rymer, vol. i. p. 630.]

[MN Earl of Cornwall elected King of the Romans.]
The Earl of Cornwall had now reason to value himself on his foresight,
in refusing the fraudulent bargain with Rome, and in preferring the
solid honours of an opulent and powerful prince of the blood of
England, to the empty and precarious glory of a foreign dignity.  But
he had not always firmness sufficient to adhere to this resolution:
his vanity and ambition prevailed at last over his prudence and his
avarice; and he was engaged in an enterprise no less extensive and
vexatious than that of his brother, and not attended with much greater
probability of success.  The immense opulence of Richard having made
the German princes cast their eye on him as a candidate for the
empire, he was tempted to expend vast sums of money on his election;
and he succeeded so far as to be chosen King of the Romans, which
seemed to render his succession infallible to the imperial throne.  He
went over to Germany, and carried out of the kingdom no less a sum
than seven hundred thousand marks, if we may credit the account given
by some ancient authors [h], which is probably much exaggerated [i].
His money, while it lasted, procured him friends and partisans; but it
was soon drained from him by the avidity of the German princes; and
having no personal or family connexions in that country, and no solid
foundation of power, he found at last that he had lavished away the
frugality of a whole life in order to procure a splendid title; and
that his absence from England, joined to the weakness of his brother's
government, gave reins to the factious and turbulent dispositions of
the English barons, and involved his own country and family in great
calamities.
[FN [h] M. Paris, p. 638.  The same author, a few pages before, makes
Richard's treasures amount to little more than half the sum, p. 634.
The king's dissipations and expenses, throughout his whole reign,
according to the same author, had amounted only to about nine hundred
and forty thousand marks, p. 638.  [i] The sums mentioned by ancient
authors, who were almost all monks, are often improbable, and never
consistent.  But we know, from an infallible authority, the public
remonstrance to the council of Lyons, that the king's revenues were
below sixty thousand marks a year: his brother, therefore, could never
have been master of seven hundred thousand marks; especially as he did
not sell his estates in England, as we learn from the same author: and
we hear afterwards of his ordering all his woods to be cut, in order
to satisfy the rapacity of the German princes.  His son succeeded to
the earldom of Cornwall, and his other revenues.]

[MN Discontents of the barons.]
The successful revolt of the nobility from King John, and their
imposing on him and his successors limitations of their royal power,
had made them feel their own weight and importance, had set a
dangerous precedent of resistance, and being followed by a long
minority, had impoverished as well as weakened that crown, which they
were at last induced, from the fear of worse consequences, to replace
on the head of young Henry.  In the king's situation, either great
abilities and vigour were requisite to overawe the barons, or great
caution and reserve to give them no pretence for complaints; and it
must be confessed that this prince was possessed of neither of these
talents.  He had not prudence to choose right measures; he wanted even
that constancy, which sometimes gives weight to wrong ones; he was
entirely devoted to his favourites, who were always foreigners; he
lavished on them, without discretion, his diminished revenue; and
finding that his barons indulged their disposition towards tyranny,
and observed not to their own vassals the same rules which they had
imposed on the crown, he was apt, in his administration, to neglect
all the salutary articles of the great charter, which he remarked to
be so little regarded by his nobility.  This conduct had extremely
lessened his authority in the kingdom; had multiplied complaints
against him; and had frequently exposed him to affronts, and even to
dangerous attempts upon his prerogative.  In the year 1244, when he
desired a supply from Parliament, the barons, complaining of the
frequent breaches of the great charter, and of the many fruitless
applications which they had formerly made for the redress of this and
other grievances, demanded, in return, that he should give them the
nomination of the great justiciary and of the chancellor, to whose
hands chiefly the administration of justice was committed; and if we
may credit the historian [k], they had formed the plan of other
limitations, as well as of associations to maintain them, which would
have reduced the king to be an absolute cipher; and have held the
crown in perpetual pupilage and dependence.  The king, to satisfy
them, would agree to nothing but a renewal of the charter, and a
general permission to excommunicate all the violaters of it; and he
received no supply, except a scutage of twenty shillings on each
knight's fee, for the marriage of his eldest daughter to the King of
Scotland; a burden which was expressly annexed to their feudal
tenures.
[FN [k] M. Paris, p. 432.]

Four years after, in a full Parliament, when Henry demanded a new
supply, he was openly reproached with a breach of his word, and the
frequent violations of the charter.  He was asked, whether he did not
blush to desire any aid from his people, whom he professedly hated and
despised, to whom, on all occasions, he preferred aliens and
foreigners, and who groaned under the oppressions which he either
permitted or exercised over them.  He was told that, besides
disparaging his nobility, by forcing them to contract unequal and mean
marriages with strangers, no rank of men was so low as to escape
vexatious from him or his ministers; that even the victuals consumed
in his household, the clothes which himself and his servants wore,
still more the wine which they used, were all taken by violence from
the lawful owners, and no compensation was ever made them for the
injury; that foreign merchants, to the great prejudice and infamy of
the kingdom, shunned the English harbours, as if they were possessed
by pirates, and the commerce with all nations was thus cut off by
these acts of violence; that loss was added to loss, and injury to
injury, while the merchants, who had been despoiled of their goods,
were also obliged to carry them at their own charge to whatever place
the king was pleased to appoint them; that even the poor fishermen on
the coast could not escape his oppressions and those of his courtiers;
and finding that they had not full liberty to dispose of their
commodities in the English market, were frequently constrained to
carry them to foreign ports, and to hazard all the perils of the
ocean, rather than those which awaited them from his oppressive
emissaries; and that his very religion was a ground of complaint to
his subjects, while they observed, that the waxen tapers and splendid
silks, employed in so many useless processions, were the spoils which
he had forcibly ravished from the true owners [l].  Throughout this
remonstrance, in which the complaints, derived from an abuse of the
ancient right of purveyance, may be supposed to be somewhat
exaggerated, there appears a strange mixture of regal tyranny in the
practices which gave rise to it, and of aristocratical liberty, or
rather licentiousness, in the expressions employed by the Parliament.
But a mixture of this kind is observable in all the ancient feudal
governments; and both of them proved equally hurtful to the people.
[FN [l] M. Paris, p. 498.  See farther, p. 578.  M. West. p. 348.]

As the king, in answer to their remonstrance, gave the Parliament only
good words and fair promises, attended with the most humble
submissions, which they had often found deceitful, he obtained at that
time no supply; and therefore, in the year 1253, when he found himself
again under the necessity of applying to Parliament, he had provided a
new pretence, which he deemed infallible, and taking the vow of a
crusade, he demanded their assistance in that pious enterprise [m].
The Parliament, however, for some time hesitated to comply; and the
ecclesiastical order sent a deputation, consisting of four prelates,
the primate, and the Bishops of Winchester, Salisbury, and Carlisle,
in order to remonstrate with him on his frequent violations of their
privileges, the oppressions with which he had loaded them and all his
subjects [n], and the uncanonical and forced elections which were made
to vacant dignities.  "It is true," replied the king, "I have been
somewhat faulty in this particular: I obtruded you, my Lord of
Canterbury, upon your see: I was obliged to employ both entreaties and
menaces, my Lord of Winchester, to have you elected: my proceedings, I
confess, were very irregular, my Lords of Salisbury and Carlisle, when
I raised you from the lowest stations to your present dignities: I am
determined henceforth to correct these abuses; and it will also become
you, in order to make a thorough reformation, to resign your present
benefices, and try to enter again in a more regular and canonical
manner [o]."  The bishops, surprised at these unexpected sarcasms,
replied, that the question was not at present how to correct past
errors, but to avoid them for the future.  The king promised redress
both of ecclesiastical and civil grievances; and the Parliament in
return agreed to grant him a supply, a tenth of the ecclesiastical
benefices, and a scutage of three marks on each knight's fee: but as
they had experienced his frequent breach of promise, they required
that he should ratify the great charter in a manner still more
authentic and more solemn than any which he had hitherto employed.
All the prelates and abbots were assembled: they held burning tapers
in their hands: the great charter was read before them: they denounced
the sentence of excommunication against every one who should
thenceforth violate that fundamental law: they threw their tapers on
the ground, and exclaimed, MAY THE SOUL OF EVERY ONE WHO INCURS THIS
SENTENCE SO STINK AND CORRUPT IN HELL!  The king bore a part in this
ceremony, and subjoined, "So help me God, I will keep all these
articles inviolate, as I am a man, as I am a Christian, as I am a
knight, and as I am a king crowned and anointed [p]."  Yet was the
tremendous ceremony no sooner finished, than his favourites, abusing
his weakness, made him return to the same arbitrary and irregular
administration; and the reasonable expectations of his people were
thus perpetually eluded and disappointed [q].
[FN [m] M. Paris, p. 518, 558, 568.  Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 293.
[n] M. Paris, p. 568.  [o] Ibid. p. 579.  [p] M. Paris, p. 580.  Ann.
Burt. p. 323.  Ann. Waverl. p. 210.  W. Heming. p. 571.  M. West. p.
353.  [q] M. Paris, p. 597, 608.]

[MN 1258.  Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester.]
All these imprudent and illegal measures afforded a pretence to Simon
de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, to attempt an innovation in the
government, and to wrest the sceptre from the feeble and irresolute
hand which held it.  This nobleman was a younger son of that Simon de
Montfort, who had conducted, with such valour and renown, the crusade
against the Albigenses, and who, though he tarnished his famous
exploits by cruelty and ambition, had left a name very precious to all
the bigots of that age, particularly to the ecclesiastics.  A large
inheritance in England fell by succession to this family; but as the
elder brother enjoyed still more opulent possessions in France, and
could not perform fealty to two masters, he transferred his right to
Simon, his younger brother, who came over to England, did homage for
his lands, and was raised to the dignity of Earl of Leicester.  In the
year 1238, he espoused Eleanor, dowager of William, Earl of Pembroke,
and sister to the king [r]; but the marriage of this princess with a
subject and a foreigner, though contracted with Henry's consent, was
loudly complained of by the Earl of Cornwall and all the barons of
England; and Leicester was supported against their violence by the
king's favour and authority alone [s].  But he had no sooner
established himself in his possessions and dignities, than he
acquired, by insinuation and address, a strong interest with the
nation, and gained equally the affections of all orders of men.  He
lost, however, the friendship of Henry, from the usual levity and
fickleness of that prince; he was banished the court; he was recalled;
he was intrusted with the command of Guienne [t], where he did good
service and acquired honour; he was again disgraced by the king, and
his banishment from court seemed now final and irrevocable.  Henry
called him traitor to his face: Leicester gave him the lie, and told
him, that if he were not his sovereign, he would soon make him repent
of that insult.  Yet was this quarrel accommodated, either from the
good nature or timidity of the king; and Leicester was again admitted
into some degree of favour and authority.  But as this nobleman was
become too great to preserve an entire complaisance to Henry's
humours, and to act in subserviency to his other minions, he found
more advantage in cultivating his interest with the public, and in
inflaming the general discontents which prevailed against the
administration.  He filled every place with complaints against the
infringement of the great charter, the acts of violence committed on
the people, the combination between the pope and the king in their
tyranny and extortions, Henry's neglect of his native subjects and
barons; and though he himself a foreigner, he was more loud than any
in representing the indignity of submitting to the dominion of
foreigners.  By his hypocritical pretensions to devotion, he gained
the favour of the zealots and clergy: by his seeming concern for
public good, he acquired the affections of the public: and besides the
private friendships which he had cultivated with the barons, his
animosity against the favourites created an union of interests between
him and that powerful order.
[FN [r] Ibid. p. 314.  [s] M. Paris, p. 315.  [t] Rymer, vol. i. p.
459, 513.]

A recent quarrel, which broke out between Leicester and William de
Valence, Henry's half-brother, and chief favourite, brought matters to
extremity [u], and determined the former to give full scope to his
bold and unbounded ambition, which the laws and the king's authority
had hitherto with difficulty restrained.  He secretly called a meeting
of the most considerable barons, particularly Humphrey de Bohun, high
constable, Roger Bigod, earl mareschal, and the Earls of Warwick and
Gloucester; men who by their family and possessions stood in the first
rank of the English nobility.  He represented to this company the
necessity of reforming the state, and of putting the execution of the
laws into other hands than those which had hitherto appeared, from
repeated experience, so unfit for the charge with which they were
intrusted.  He exaggerated the oppressions exercised against the lower
orders of the state, the violations of the barons' privileges, the
continued depredations made on the clergy; and in order to aggravate
the enormity of his conduct, he appealed to the great charter, which
Henry had so often ratified, and which was calculated to prevent for
ever the return of those intolerable grievances.  He magnified the
generosity of their ancestors, who, at a great expense of blood, had
extorted that famous concession from the crown; but lamented their own
degeneracy, who allowed so important an advantage, once obtained, to
be wrested from them by a weak prince and by insolent strangers.  And
he insisted, that the king's word, after so many submissions and
fruitless promises on his part, could no longer be relied on; and that
nothing but his absolute inability to violate national privileges
could henceforth ensure the regular observance of them.
[FN [u] M. Paris, p. 649.]

These topics, which were founded in truth, and suited so well to the
sentiments of the company, had the desired effect; and the barons
embraced a resolution of redressing the public grievances, by taking
into their own hands the administration of government.  Henry having
summoned a Parliament, in expectation of receiving supplies for his
Sicilian project, the barons appeared in the hall, clad in complete
armour, and with their swords by their side: the king on his entry,
struck with the unusual appearance, asked them what was their purpose,
and whether they intended to make him their prisoner [w]: Roger Bigod
replied, in the name of the rest, that he was not their prisoner, but
their sovereign; that they even intended to grant him large supplies,
in order to fix his son on the throne of Sicily; that they only
expected some return for this expense and service; and that, as he had
frequently made submissions to the Parliament, had acknowledged his
past errors, and had still allowed himself to be carried into the same
path, which gave them such just reason of complaint, he must now yield
to more strict regulations, and confer authority on those who were
able and willing to redress the national grievances.  Henry, partly
allured by the hopes of supply, partly intimidated by the union and
martial appearance of the barons, agreed to their demand: and promised
to summon another Parliament at Oxford, in order to digest the new
plan of government, and to elect the persons who were to be intrusted
with the chief authority.
[FN [w] Annal. Theokesbury.]

[MN 11th June.  Provisions of Oxford.]
This Parliament, which the royalists, and even the nation, from
experience of the confusions that attended its measures, afterwards
denominated the MAD PARLIAMENT, met on the day appointed; and as all
the barons brought along with them their military vassals, and
appeared with an armed force, the king, who had taken no precautions
against them, was in reality a prisoner in their hands, and was
obliged to submit to all the terms which they were pleased to impose
upon him.  Twelve barons were selected from among the king's
ministers; twelve more were chosen by Parliament: to these twenty-
four, unlimited authority was granted to reform the state; and the
king himself took an oath, that he would maintain whatever ordinances
they should think proper to enact for that purpose [x].  Leicester was
at the head of the supreme council, to which the legislative power was
thus in reality transferred; and all their measures were taken by his
secret influence and direction.  Their first step bore a specious
appearance, and seemed well calculated for the end which they
professed to be the object of all these innovations: they ordered that
four knights should be chosen by each county; that they should make
inquiry into the grievances of which their neighbourhood had reason to
complain, and should attend the ensuing Parliament, in order to give
information to that assembly of the state of their particular counties
[y]: a nearer approach to our present constitution than had been made
by the barons in the reign of King John, when the knights were only
appointed to meet in their several counties, and there to draw up a
detail of their grievances.  Meanwhile the twenty-four barons
proceeded to enact some regulations as a redress of such grievances as
were supposed to be sufficiently notorious.  They ordered that three
sessions of Parliament should be regularly held every year in the
months of February, June, and October; that a new sheriff should be
annually elected by the votes of the freeholders in each county [z];
that the sheriffs should have no power of fining the barons who did
not attend their courts, or the circuits of the justiciaries; that no
heirs should be committed to the wardship of foreigners, and no
castles intrusted to their custody; and that no new warrens or forests
should be created, nor the revenues of any counties or hundreds be let
to farm.  Such were the regulations which the twenty-four barons
established at Oxford, for the redress of public grievances.
[FN [x] Rymer, vol. i. p. 655.  Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 334.
Knyghton, p. 2445.  [y] M. Paris, p. 657.  Addit. p. 140.  Ann. Burt.
p. 412.  [z] Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 336.]

But the Earl of Leicester and his associates, having advanced so far
to satisfy the nation, instead of continuing in this popular course,
or granting the king that supply which they had promised him,
immediately provided for the extension and continuance of their own
authority.  They roused anew the popular clamour which had long
prevailed against foreigners; and they fell with the utmost violence
on the king's half-brothers, who were supposed to be the authors of
all national grievances, and whom Henry had no longer any power to
protect.  The four brothers, sensible of their danger, took to flight,
with an intention of making their escape out of the kingdom; they were
eagerly pursued by the barons; Aymer, one of the brothers, who had
been elected to the see of Winchester, took shelter in his episcopal
palace, and carried the others along with him; they were surrounded in
that place, and threatened to be dragged out by force, and to be
punished for their crimes and misdemeanors; and the king, pleading the
sacredness of an ecclesiastical sanctuary, was glad to extricate them
from this danger by banishing them the kingdom.  In this act of
violence, as well as in the former usurpations of the barons, the
queen and her uncles were thought to have secretly concurred; being
jealous of the credit acquired by the brothers, which they found had
eclipsed and annihilated their own.

[MN Usurpations of the barons.]
But the subsequent proceedings of the twenty-four barons were
sufficient to open the eyes of the nation, and to prove their
intention of reducing for ever both the king and the people under the
arbitrary power of a very narrow aristocracy, which must at last have
terminated either in anarchy, or in a violent usurpation and tyranny.
They pretended that they had not yet digested all the regulations
necessary for the reformation of the state and for the redress of
grievances; and they must still retain their power, till that great
purpose were thoroughly effected: in other words, that they must be
perpetual governors, and must continue to reform, till they were
pleased to abdicate their authority.  They formed an association among
themselves, and swore that they would stand by each other with their
lives and fortunes; they displaced all the chief officers of the
crown, the justiciary, the chancellor, the treasurer; and advanced
either themselves or their own creatures in their place: even the
officers of the king's household were disposed of at their pleasure:
the government of all the castles was put into hands in whom they
found reason to confide: and the whole power of the state being thus
transferred to them, they ventured to impose an oath, by which all the
subjects were obliged to swear, under the penalty of being declared
public enemies, that they would obey and execute all the regulations,
both known and unknown, of the twenty-four barons; and all this for
the greater glory of God, the honour of the church, the service of the
king, and the advantage of the kingdom [a].  No one dared to withstand
this tyrannical authority.  Prince Edward himself, the king's eldest
son, a youth of eighteen, who began to give indications of that great
and manly spirit which appeared throughout the whole course of his
life, was, after making some opposition, constrained to take that oath
which really deposed his father and his family from sovereign
authority [b].  Earl Warrenne was the last person in the kingdom that
could be brought to give the confederated barons this mark of
submission.
[FN [a] Chron T. Wykes, p. 52.  [b] Ann. Burt. p. 411.]

But the twenty-four barons, not content with the usurpation of the
royal power, introduced an innovation in the constitution of
Parliament, which was of the utmost importance.  They ordained that
this assembly should choose a committee of twelve persons, who should,
in the intervals of the sessions, possess the authority of the whole
Parliament, and should attend, on a summons, the person of the king in
all his motions.  But so powerful were these barons, that this
regulation was also submitted to; the whole government was overthrown,
or fixed on new foundations; and the monarchy was totally subverted,
without its being possible for the king to strike a single stroke in
defence of the constitution against the newly-elected oligarchy.

[MN 1259.]  The report that the King of the Romans intended to pay a
visit to England gave alarm to the ruling barons, who dreaded lest the
extensive influence and established authority of that prince would be
employed to restore the prerogatives of his family, and overturn their
plan of government [c].  They sent over the Bishop of Worcester, who
met him at St. Omars; asked him, in the name of the barons, the reason
of his journey, and how long he intended to stay in England; and
insisted that, before he entered the kingdom, he should swear to
observe the regulations established at Oxford.  On Richard's refusal
to take this oath, they prepared to resist him as a public enemy; they
fitted out a fleet, assembled an army, and exciting the inveterate
prejudices of the people against foreigners, from whom they had
suffered so many oppressions, spread the report that Richard, attended
by a number of strangers, meant to restore by force the authority of
his exiled brothers, and to violate all the securities provided for
public liberty.  The King of the Romans was at last obliged to submit
to the terms required of him [d].
[FN [c] M. Paris, p. 661.  [d] Ibid. p. 661, 662.  Chron. T. Wykes, p.
53.]

But the barons, in proportion to their continuance in power, began
gradually to lose that popularity which had assisted them in obtaining
it; and men repined that regulations, which were occasionally
established for the reformation of the state, were likely to become
perpetual, and to subvert entirely the ancient constitution.  They
were apprehensive lest the power of the nobles, always oppressive,
should now exert itself without control, by removing the counterpoise
of the crown; and their fears were increased by some new edicts of the
barons, which were plainly calculated to procure to themselves an
impunity in all their violences.  They appointed that the circuits of
the itinerant justices, the sole check on their arbitrary conduct,
should be held only once in seven years; and men easily saw that a
remedy, which returned after such long intervals against an oppressive
power, which was perpetual, would prove totally insignificant and
useless [e].  The cry became loud in the nation, that the barons
should finish their intended regulations.  The knights of the shires,
who seem now to have been pretty regularly assembled, and sometimes in
a separate house, made remonstrances against the slowness of their
proceedings.  They represented that, though the king had performed all
the conditions required of him, the barons had hitherto done nothing
for the public good, and had only been careful to promote their own
private advantage, and to make inroads on the royal authority; and
they even appealed to Prince Edward, and claimed his interposition for
the interests of the nation and the reformation of the government [f].
The prince replied, that though it was from constraint, and contrary
to his private sentiments, he had sworn to maintain the provisions of
Oxford, he was determined to observe his oath: but he sent a message
to the barons, requiring them to bring their undertaking to a speedy
conclusion, and fulfil their engagements to the public: otherwise he
menaced them, that, at the expense of his life, he would oblige them
to do their duty, and would shed the last drop of his blood in
promoting the interests, and satisfying the just wishes of the nation
[g].
[FN [e] M. Paris, p. 667.  Trivet, p. 209.  [f] Annal. Burt. p. 427.
[g] Id. ibid.]

The barons, urged by so pressing a necessity, published at last a new
code of ordinances for the reformation of the state [h]; but the
expectations of the people were extremely disappointed, when they
found that these consisted only of some trivial alterations in the
municipal law, and still more, when the barons pretended that the task
was not yet finished, and that they must farther prolong their
authority, in order to bring the work of reformation to the desired
period.  The current of popularity was now much turned to the side of
the crown; and the barons had little to rely on for their support,
besides the private influence and power of their families, which,
though exorbitant, was likely to prove inferior to the combination of
king and people.  Even this basis of power was daily weakened by their
intestine jealousies and animosities; their ancient and inveterate
quarrels broke out when they came to share the spoils of the crown;
and the rivalship between the Earls of Leicester and Gloucester, the
chief leaders among them, began to disjoint the whole confederacy.
The latter, more moderate in his pretensions, was desirous of stopping
or retarding the career of the barons' usurpations; but the former,
enraged at the opposition which he met with in his own party,
pretended to throw up all concern in English affairs, and he retired
into France [i].
[FN [h] Ann. Burt. p. 428, 439.  [i] Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 348.]

The kingdom of France, the only state with which England had any
considerable intercourse, was at this time governed by Lewis IX., a
prince of the most singular character that is to be met with in all
the records of history.  This monarch united, to the mean and abject
superstition of a monk, all the courage and magnanimity of the
greatest hero; and, what may be deemed more extraordinary, the justice
and integrity of a disinterested patriot, the mildness and humanity of
an accomplished philosopher.  So far from taking advantage of the
divisions among the English, or attempting to expel those dangerous
rivals from the provinces which they still possessed in France, he had
entertained many scruples with regard to the sentence of attainder
pronounced against the king's father, had even expressed some
intention of restoring the other provinces, and was only prevented
from taking that imprudent resolution by the united remonstrances of
his own barons, who represented the extreme danger of such a measure
[k], and, what had a greater influence on Lewis, the justice of
punishing, by a legal sentence, the barbarity and felony of John.
Whenever this prince interposed in English affairs, it was always with
an intention of composing the differences between the king and his
nobility; he recommended to both parties every peaceable and
reconciling measure; and he used all his authority with the Earl of
Leicester, his native subject, to bend him to compliance with Henry.
[MN 20th May.]  He made a treaty with England, at a time when the
distractions of that kingdom were at the greatest height, and when the
king's authority was totally annihilated; and the terms which he
granted might, even in a more prosperous state of their affairs, be
deemed reasonable and advantageous to the English.  He yielded up some
territories which had been conquered from Poictou and Guienne; he
ensured the peaceable possession of the latter province to Henry; he
agreed to pay that prince a large sum of money; and he only required
that the king should, in return, make a final cession of Normandy and
the other provinces, which he could never entertain any hopes of
recovering by force of arms [l].  This cession was ratified by Henry,
by his two sons, and two daughters, and by the King of the Romans and
his three sons: Leicester alone, either moved by a vain arrogance, or
desirous to ingratiate himself with the English populace, protested
against the deed, and insisted on the right, however distant, which
might accrue to his consort [m].  Lewis saw, in his obstinacy, the
unbounded ambition of the man; and as the barons insisted that the
money due by treaty should be at their disposal, not at Henry's, he
also saw, and probably with regret, the low condition to which this
monarch, who had more erred from weakness than from any bad intention,
was reduced by the turbulence of his own subjects.
[FN [k] M. Paris, p. 604.  [l] Rymer, vol. i. p. 675.  M. Paris, p.
566.  Chron. T. Wykes, p. 53.  Trivet, p. 208.  M. West. p. 371.  [m]
Chron. T. Wykes, p. 53.]

[MN 1261.]  But the situation of Henry soon after wore a more
favourable aspect.  The twenty-four barons had now enjoyed the
sovereign power near three years; and had visibly employed it, not for
the reformation of the state, which was their first pretence, but for
the aggrandizement of themselves and of their families.  The breach of
trust was apparent to all the world: every order of men felt it, and
murmured against it: the dissensions among the barons themselves,
which increased the evil, made also the remedy more obvious and easy;
and the secret desertion, in particular, of the Earl of Gloucester to
the crown, seemed to promise Henry certain success in any attempt to
resume his authority.  Yet durst he not take that step, so
reconcilable both to justice and policy, without making a previous
application to Rome, and desiring an absolution from his oaths and
engagements [n].
[FN [n] Ann. Burt. p. 389.]

The pope was at this time much dissatisfied with the conduct of the
barons, who, in order to gain the favour of the people and clergy of
England, had expelled all the Italian ecclesiastics, had confiscated
their benefices, and seemed determined to maintain the liberties and
privileges of the English church, in which the rights of patronage,
belonging to their own families, were included.  The extreme animosity
of the English clergy against the Italians was also a source of his
disgust to this order; and an attempt, which had been made by them for
farther liberty and greater independence on the civil power, was
therefore less acceptable to the court of Rome [o].  About the same
time that the barons at Oxford had annihilated the prerogatives of the
monarchy, the clergy met in a synod at Merton, and passed several
ordinances, which were no less calculated to promote their own
grandeur at the expense of the crown.  They decreed, that it was
unlawful to try ecclesiastics by secular judges; that the clergy were
not to regard any prohibitions from civil courts; that lay patrons had
no right to confer spiritual benefices; that the magistrate was
obliged, without farther inquiry, to imprison all excommunicated
persons; and that ancient usage, without any particular grant or
charter, was a sufficient authority for any clerical possessions or
privileges [p].  About a century before, these claims would have been
supported by the court of Rome beyond the most fundamental articles of
faith: they were the chief points maintained by the great martyr,
Becket; and his resolution in defending them had exalted him to the
high station which he held in the catalogue of Romish saints.  But
principles were changed with the times: the pope was become somewhat
jealous of the great independence of the English clergy, which made
them stand less in need of his protection, and even imboldened them to
resist his authority, and to complain of the preference given to the
Italian courtiers, whose interests, it is natural to imagine, were the
chief object of his concern.  He was ready, therefore, on the king's
application, to annul these new constitutions of the church of England
[q].  And, at the same time, he absolved the king, and all his
subjects, from the oath which they had taken to observe the provisions
of Oxford [r].
[FN [o] Rymer, vol. i. p. 755.  [p] Ann. Burt. p. 389.  [q] Rymer,
vol. i. p. 755.  [r] Ibid. p. 722.  M. Paris, p. 666.  W. Heming. p.
580.  Ypod. Neust. p. 463.  Knyghton, p. 2446.]

[MN Prince Edward.]
Prince Edward, whose liberal mind, though in such early youth, had
taught him the great prejudice which his father had incurred, by his
levity, inconstancy, and frequent breach of promise, refused for a
long time to take advantage of this absolution; and declared, that the
provisions of Oxford, how unreasonable soever in themselves, and how
much soever abused by the barons, ought still to be adhered to by
those who had sworn to observe them [s]: he himself had been
constrained by violence to take that oath; yet he was determined to
keep it.  By this scrupulous fidelity, the prince acquired the
confidence of all parties, and was afterwards enabled to recover fully
the royal authority, and to perform such great actions, both during
his own reign and that of his father.
[FN [s] M. Paris, p. 667.]

The situation of England, during this period, as well as that of most
European kingdoms, was somewhat peculiar.  There was no regular
military force maintained in the nation: the sword, however, was not,
properly speaking, in the hands of the people: the barons were alone
intrusted with the defence of the community; and after any effort
which they made, either against their own prince or against
foreigners, as the military retainers departed home, the armies were
disbanded, and could not speedily be re-assembled at pleasure.  It was
easy, therefore, for a few barons, by a combination, to get the start
of the other party, to collect suddenly their troops, and to appear
unexpectedly in the field with an army, which their antagonists,
though equal, or even superior in power and interest, would not dare
to encounter.  Hence the sudden revolutions which often took place in
those governments: hence the frequent victories obtained, without a
blow, by one faction over the other: and hence it happened, that the
seeming prevalence of a party was seldom a prognostic of its long
continuance in power and authority.

[MN 1262.]  The king, as soon as he received the pope's absolution
from his oath, accompanied with menaces of excommunication against all
opponents, trusting to the countenance of the church, to the support
promised him by many considerable barons, and to the returning favour
of the people, immediately took off the mask.  After justifying his
conduct by a proclamation, in which he set forth the private ambition,
and the breach of trust, conspicuous in Leicester and his associates,
he declared, that he had resumed the government, and was determined
thenceforth to exert the royal authority for the protection of his
subjects.  He removed Hugh le Despenser and Nicholas de Ely, the
justiciary and chancellor appointed by the barons; and put Philip
Basset and Walter de Merton in their place.  He substituted new
sheriffs in all the counties, men of character and honour: he placed
new governors in most of the castles: he changed all the officers of
his household: [MN 23d April.] he summoned a Parliament, in which the
resumption of his authority was ratified, with only five dissenting
voices: and the barons, after making one fruitless effort to take the
king by surprise at Winchester, were obliged to acquiesce in those new
regulations [t].
[FN [t] M. Paris, p. 668.  Chron. T. Wykes, p. 55.]

The king, in order to cut off every objection to his conduct, offered
to refer all the differences between  him and the Earl of Leicester,
to Margaret, Queen of France [u].  The celebrated integrity of Lewis
gave a mighty influence to any decision which issued from his court;
and Henry probably hoped, that the gallantry, on which all barons, as
true knights, valued themselves, would make them ashamed not to submit
to the award of that princess.  Lewis merited the confidence reposed
in him.  By an admirable conduct, probably as political as just, he
continually interposed his good offices to allay the civil discords of
the English: he forwarded all healing measures, which might give
security to both parties: and he still endeavoured, though in vain, to
soothe, by persuasion, the fierce ambition of the Earl of Leicester,
and to convince him how much it was his duty to submit peaceably to
the authority of his sovereign.
[FN [u] Rymer, vol. i. p. 724.]

[MN 1263.]  That bold and artful conspirator was nowise discouraged by
the bad success of his past enterprises.  The death of Richard, Earl
of Gloucester, who was his chief rival in power, and who, before his
decease, had joined the royal party, seemed to open a new field to his
violence, and to expose the throne to fresh insults and injuries.  It
was in vain that the king professed his intentions of observing
strictly the great charter, even of maintaining all the regulations
made by the reforming barons at Oxford or afterwards, except those
which entirely annihilated the royal authority: these powerful
chieftains, now obnoxious to the court, could not peaceably resign the
hopes of entire independence and uncontrolled power, with which they
had flattered themselves, and which they had so long enjoyed.  [MN
Civil wars of the barons.]  Many of them engaged in Leicester's views;
and among the rest, Gilbert, the young Earl of Gloucester, who brought
him a mighty accession of power, from the extensive authority
possessed by that opulent family.  Even Henry, son of the King of the
Romans, commonly called Henry d'Allmaine, though a prince of the
blood, joined the party of the barons against the king, the head of
his own family.  Leicester himself, who still resided in France,
secretly formed the links of this great conspiracy, and planned the
whole scheme of operations.

The princes of Wales, notwithstanding the great power of the monarchs,
both of the Saxon and Norman line, still preserved authority in their
own country.  Though they had often been constrained to pay tribute to
the crown of England, they were with difficulty retained in
subordination, or even in peace; and almost through every reign since
the Conquest, they had infested the English frontiers with such petty
incursions and sudden inroads, as seldom merit to have place in a
general history.  The English, still content with repelling their
invasions, and chasing them back into their mountains, had never
pursued the advantages obtained over them, nor been able, even under
their greatest and most active princes, to fix a total, or so much as
a feudal subjection on the country.  This advantage was reserved to
the present king, the weakest and most indolent.  In the year 1237,
Lewellyn, Prince of Wales, declining in years, and broken with
infirmities, but still more harassed with the rebellion and undutiful
behaviour of his youngest son, Griffin, had recourse to the protection
of Henry; and consenting to subject his principality, which had so
long maintained, or soon recovered, its independence, to vassalage
under the crown of England, had purchased security and tranquillity on
these dishonourable terms.  His eldest son and heir, David, renewed
the homage to England; and having taken his brother prisoner,
delivered him into Henry's hands, who committed him to custody in the
Tower.  That prince, endeavouring to make his escape, lost his life in
the attempt; and the Prince of Wales, freed from the apprehensions of
so dangerous a rival, paid thenceforth less regard to the English
monarch, and even renewed those incursions, by which the Welsh, during
so many ages, had been accustomed to infest the English borders.
Lewellyn, however, the son of Griffin, who succeeded to his uncle, had
been obliged to renew the homage, which was now claimed by England as
an established right; but he was well pleased to inflame those civil
discords, on which he rested his present security, and founded his
hopes of future independence.  He entered into a confederacy with the
Earl of Leicester, and collecting all the force of his principality,
invaded England with an army of thirty thousand men.  He ravaged the
lands of Roger de Mortimer, and of all the barons who adhered to the
crown [w]; he marched into Cheshire, and committed like depredations
on Prince Edward's territories; every place where his disorderly
troops appeared was laid waste with fire and sword; and though
Mortimer, a gallant and expert soldier, made stout resistance, it was
found necessary that the prince himself should head the army against
this invader.  Edward repulsed Prince Lewellyn, and obliged him to
take shelter in the mountains of North Wales: but he was prevented
from making farther progress against the enemy, by the disorders which
soon after broke out in England.
[FN [w] Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 354.]

The Welsh invasion was the appointed signal for the malecontent barons
to rise in arms, and Leicester, coming over secretly from France,
collected all the forces of his party, and commenced an open
rebellion.  He seized the person of the Bishop of Hereford; a prelate
obnoxious to all the inferior clergy, on account of his devoted
attachment to the court of Rome [x].  Simon, Bishop of Norwich, and
John Mansel, because they had published the pope's bull, absolving the
king and kingdom from their oaths to observe the provisions of Oxford,
were made prisoners, and exposed to the rage of the party.  The king's
demesnes were ravaged with unbounded fury [y]: and as it was
Leicester's interest to allure to his side, by the hopes of plunder,
all the disorderly ruffians in England, he gave them a general licence
to pillage the barons of the opposite party, and even all neutral
persons.  But one of the principal resources of his faction was the
populace of the cities, particularly of London; and as he had, by his
hypocritical pretensions to sanctity, and his zeal against Rome,
engaged the monks and lower ecclesiastics in his party, his dominion
over the inferior ranks of men became uncontrollable.  Thomas
Fitz-Richard, Mayor of London, a furious and licentious man, gave the
countenance of authority to these disorders in the capital; and having
declared war against the substantial citizens, he loosened all the
bands of government, by which that turbulent city was commonly but ill
restrained.  On the approach of Easter, the zeal of superstition, the
appetite for plunder, or what is often as prevalent with the populace
as either of these motives, the pleasure of committing havoc and
destruction, prompted them to attack the unhappy Jews, who were first
pillaged without resistance, then massacred to the number of five
hundred persons [z].  The Lombard bankers wore next exposed to the
rage of the people; and though, by taking sanctuary in the churches,
they escaped with their lives, all their money and goods became a prey
to the licentious multitude.  Even the houses of the rich citizens,
though English, were attacked by night; and way was made by sword and
by fire to the pillage of their goods, and often to the destruction of
their persons.  The queen, who, though defended by the Tower, was
terrified by the neighbourhood of such dangerous commotions, resolved
to go by water to the castle of Windsor; but as she approached the
bridge, the populace assembled against her: the cry ran, DROWN THE
WITCH; and besides abusing her with the most opprobrious language, and
pelting her with rotten eggs and dirt, they had prepared large stones
to sink her barge, when she should attempt to shoot the bridge; and
she was so frightened, that she returned to the Tower [a].
[FN [x] Trivet, p. 211.  M. West. p. 382, 392.  [y] Trivet, p. 211.
M. West. p. 382.  [z] Chron. T. Wykes, p. 59.  [a] Ibid. p. 57.]

The violence and fury of Leicester's faction had risen to such a
height in all parts of England, that the king, unable to resist their
power, was obliged to set on foot a treaty of peace; and to make an
accommodation with the barons on the most disadvantageous terms [b].
[MN July.]  He agreed to confirm anew the provisions of Oxford, even
those which entirely annihilated the royal authority; and the barons
were again reinstated in the sovereignty of the kingdom.  They
restored Hugh le Despenser to the office of chief justiciary; they
appointed their own creatures sheriffs in every county in England;
they took possession of all the royal castles and fortresses; they
even named all the officers of the king's household; and they summoned
a Parliament to meet at Westminster, in order to settle more fully
their plan of government.  [MN 1263.  14th Oct.]  They here produced a
new list of twenty-four barons, to whom they proposed that the
administration should be entirely committed; and they insisted that
the authority of this junto should continue, not only during the reign
of the king, but also during that of Prince Edward.
[FN [b] Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 358.  Trivet, p. 211.]

This prince, the life and soul of the royal party, had unhappily,
before the king's accommodation with the barons, been taken prisoner
by Leicester in a parley at Windsor [c]; and that misfortune, more
than any other incident, had determined Henry to submit to the
ignominious conditions imposed upon him.  But Edward, having recovered
his liberty by the treaty, employed his activity in defending the
prerogatives of his family; and he gained a great party even among
those who had at first adhered to the cause of the barons.  His cousin
Henry d'Allmaine, Roger Bigod, earl marshal, Earl Warrenne, Humphrey
Bohun, Eaff of Hereford, John Lord Basset, Ralph Basset, Hammond
l'Estrange, Roger Mortimer, Henry de Piercy, Robert do Brus, Roger de
Leybourne, with almost all the lords marchers, as they were called, on
the borders of Wales and of Scotland, the most warlike parts of the
kingdom, declared in favour of the royal cause; and hostilities, which
were scarcely well composed, were again renewed in every part of
England.  But the near balance of the parties, joined to the universal
clamour of the people, obliged the king and barons to open anew the
negotiations for peace; and it was agreed, by both sides, to submit
their differences to the arbitration of the King of France [d].
[FN [c] M. Paris, p. 669.  Trivet, p. 213.  [d] M. Paris, p. 668.
Chron. T. Wykes, p. 58.  W. Heming, p. 580.  Chron Dunst. vol. i. p.
363.]

[MN Reference to the King of France.]
This virtuous prince, the only man who, in like circumstances, could
safely have been intrusted with such an authority by a neighbouring
nation, had never ceased to interpose his good offices between the
English factions; and had even, during the short interval of peace,
invited over to Paris both the king and the Earl of Leicester, in
order to accommodate the differences between them; but found, that the
fears and animosities on both sides, as well as the ambition of
Leicester, were so violent, as to render all his endeavours
ineffectual.  But when this solemn appeal, ratified by the oaths and
subscriptions of the leaders in both factions, was made to his
judgment, he was not discouraged from pursuing his honourable purpose:
[MN 1264.] he summoned the states of France at Amiens; and there, in
the presence of that assembly, as well as in that of the King of
England, and Peter de Montfort, Leicester's son, he brought this great
cause to a trial and examination.  It appeared to him, that the
provisions of Oxford, even had they not been extorted by force, had
they not been so exorbitant in their nature, and subversive of the
ancient constitution, were expressly established as a temporary
expedient, and could not, without breach of trust, be rendered
perpetual by the barons.  [MN 23d Jan.]  He therefore annulled these
provisions; restored to the king the possession of his castles, and
the power of nomination to the great offices; allowed him to retain
what foreigners he pleased in his kingdom, and even to confer on them
places of trust and dignity; and, in a word, re-established the royal
power in the same condition on which it stood before the meeting of
the Parliament at Oxford.  But while he thus suppressed dangerous
innovations, and preserved unimpaired the prerogatives of the English
crown, he was not negligent of the rights of the people; and besides
ordering that a general amnesty should be granted for all past
offences, he declared that his award was not anywise meant to derogate
from the privileges and liberties which the nation enjoyed by any
former concessions or charters of the crown [e].
[FN [e] Rymer, vol. i. p. 776, 777, &c.  Chron. T. Wykes, p. 58.
Knyghton, p. 2446.]

This equitable sentence was no sooner known in England, than Leicester
and his confederates determined to reject it, and to have recourse to
arms, in order to procure to themselves more safe and advantageous
conditions [f].  [MN Renewal of the civil wars.]  Without regard to
his oaths and subscriptions, that enterprising conspirator directed
his two sons, Richard and Peter de Montfort, in conjunction with
Robert de Ferrars, Earl of Derby, to attack the city of Worcester;
while Henry and Simon de Montfort, two others of his sons, assisted by
the Prince of Wales, were ordered to lay  waste the estate of Roger de
Mortimer.  He himself resided at London; and employing, as his
instrument, Fitz-Richard, the seditious mayor, who had violently and
illegally prolonged his authority, he wrought up that city to the
highest ferment and agitation.  The populace formed themselves into
bands and companies; chose leaders; practised all military exercises;
committed violence on the royalists; and to give them greater
countenance in their disorders, an association was entered into
between the city and eighteen great barons, never to make peace with
the king but by common consent and approbation.  At the head of those
who swore to maintain this association were the Earls of Leicester,
Gloucester, and Derby, with le Despenser, the chief justiciary; men
who had all previously sworn to submit to the award of the French
monarch.  Their only pretence for this breach of faith was, that the
latter part of Lewis's sentence was, as they affirmed, a contradiction
to the former: he ratified the charter of liberties, yet annulled the
provisions of Oxford; which were only calculated, as they maintained,
to preserve that charter; and without which, in their estimation, they
had no security for its observance.
[FN [f] Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 363.]

The king and prince finding a civil war inevitable, prepared
themselves for defence; and summoning the military vassals from all
quarters, and being reinforced by Baliol, Lord of Galloway, Brus, Lord
of Annandale, Henry Piercy, John Comyn [g], and other barons of the
north, they composed an army, formidable, as well from its numbers as
its military prowess and experience.  The first enterprise of the
royalists was the attack of Northampton, which was defended by Simon
de Montfort, with many of the principal barons of that party; and a
breach being made in the walls by Philip Basset, the place was carried
by assault, and both the governor and the garrison were made
prisoners.  [MN 5th April.]  The royalists marched thence to Leicester
and Nottingham; both which places having opened their gates to them,
Prince Edward proceeded with a detachment into the county of Derby, in
order to ravage with fire and sword the lands of the earl of that
name, and take revenge on him for his disloyalty.  Like maxims of war
prevailed with both parties throughout England; and the kingdom was
thus exposed in a moment to greater devastation, from the animosities
of the rival barons, than it would have suffered from many years of
foreign or even domestic hostilities, conducted by more humane and
more generous principles.
[FN [g] Rymer, vol. i. p 772.  M. West. p. 385.  Ypod. Neust. p. 469.]

The Earl of Leicester, master of London, and of the counties in the
south-east of England, formed the siege of Rochester, which alone
declared for the king in those parts, and which, besides Earl
Warrenne, the governor, was garrisoned by many noble and powerful
barons of the royal party.  The king and prince hastened from
Nottingham, where they were then quartered, to the relief of the
place; and on their approach, Leicester raised the siege, and
retreated to London, which, being the centre of his power, he was
afraid might, in his absence, fall into the king's hands, either by
force, or by a correspondence with the principal citizens, who were
all secretly inclined to the royal cause.  Reinforced by a great body
of Londoners, and having summoned his partisans from all quarters, he
thought himself strong enough to hazard a general battle with the
royalists, and to determine the fate of the nation in one great
engagement; which, if it proved successful, must be decisive against
the king, who had no retreat for his broken troops in those parts;
while Leicester himself, in case of any sinister accident, could
easily take shelter in the city.  To give the better colouring to his
cause, he previously sent a message with conditions of peace to Henry,
submissive in the language, but exorbitant in the demands [h]; and
when the messenger returned with the lie and defiance from the king,
the prince, and the King of the Romans, he sent a new message,
renouncing in the name of himself and of the associated barons, all
fealty and allegiance to Henry.  He then marched out of the city, with
his army divided into four bodies: the first commanded by his two
sons, Henry and Guy de Montfort, together with Humphrey de Bohun, Earl
of Hereford, who had deserted to the barons; the second led by the
Earl of Gloucester, with William de Montchesney and John Fitz-John;
the third, composed of Londoners, under the command of Nicholas de
Segrave; the fourth headed by himself in person.  The Bishop of
Chichester gave a general absolution to the army, accompanied with
assurances that, if any of them fell in the ensuing action, they would
infallibly be received into heaven, as the reward of their suffering
in so meritorious a cause.
[FN [h] M. Paris, p. 669.  W. Heming. p. 583.]

[MN Battle of Lewes.  14th May.]
Leicester, who possessed great talents for war, conducted his march
with such skill and secrecy, that he had well nigh surprised the
royalists in their quarters at Lewes in Sussex: but the vigilance and
activity of Prince Edward soon repaired this negligence; and he led
out the king's army to the field in three bodies.  He himself
conducted the van, attended by Earl Warrenne and William de Valence:
the main body was commanded by the King of the Romans and his son
Henry: the king himself was placed in the rear at the head of his
principal nobility.  Prince Edward rushed upon the Londoners, who had
demanded the post of honour in leading the rebel army, but who, from
their ignorance of discipline and want of experience, were ill fitted
to resist the gentry and military men, of whom the prince's body was
composed.  They were broken in an instant; were chased off the field;
and Edward, transported by his martial ardour, and eager to revenge
the insolence of the Londoners against his mother [i], put them to the
sword for the length of four miles, without giving them any quarter,
and without reflecting on the fate which in the mean time attended the
rest of the army.  The Earl of Leicester, seeing the royalists thrown
into confusion by their eagerness in the pursuit, led on his remaining
troops against the bodies commanded by the two royal brothers: he
defeated, with great slaughter, the forces headed by the King of the
Romans; and that prince was obliged to yield himself prisoner to the
Earl of Gloucester; he penetrated to the body where the king himself
was placed, threw it into disorder, pursued his advantage, chased it
into the town of Lewes, and obliged Henry to surrender himself
prisoner [k].
[FN [i] M. Paris, p. 670.  Chron. T. Wykes, p. 62.  W. Heming. p. 583.
M. West. p. 387.  Ypod. Neust. p. 469.  H. Knyghton, p. 2450.  [k] M.
Paris, p. 670.  M. West. p. 387.]

Prince Edward, returning to the field of battle from his precipitate
pursuit of the Londoners, was astonished to find it covered with the
dead bodies of his friends and still more to hear, that his father and
uncle were defeated and taken prisoners, and that Arundel, Comyn Brus,
Hamond L'Estrange, Roger Leybourne, and many considerable barons of
his party, were in the hands of the victorious enemy.  Earl Warrenne,
Hugh Bigod, and William de Valence, struck with despair at this event,
immediately took to flight, hurried to Pevensey, and made their escape
beyond sea [l]: but the prince, intrepid amidst the greatest
disasters, exhorted his troops to revenge the death of their friends,
to relieve the royal captives, and to snatch an easy conquest from an
enemy disordered by their own victory [m].  He found his followers
intimidated by their situation; while Leicester, afraid of a sudden
and violent blow from the prince, amused him by a feigned negotiation,
till he was able to recall his troops from the pursuit, and to bring
them into order [n].  There now appeared no farther resource to the
royal party, surrounded by the armies and garrisons of the enemy,
destitute of forage and provisions, and deprived of their sovereign,
as well as of their principal leaders, who could alone inspirit them
to an obstinate resistance.  The prince, therefore, was obliged to
submit to Leicester's terms, which were short and severe, agreeably to
the suddenness and necessity of the situation: he stipulated, that he
and Henry d'Allmaine should surrender themselves prisoners as pledges
in lieu of the two kings; that all other prisoners on both sides
should be released [o]; and that, in order to settle fully the terms
of agreement, application should be made to the King of France, that
he should name six Frenchmen, three prelates, and three noblemen:
these six to choose two others of their own country; and these two to
choose one Englishman, who, in conjunction with themselves, were to be
invested by both parties with full powers to make what regulations
they thought proper for the settlement of the kingdom.  The prince and
young Henry accordingly delivered themselves into Leicester's hands,
who sent them under a guard to Dover castle.  Such are the terms of
agreement commonly called the MISE of Lewes, from an obsolete French
term of that meaning: for it appears, that all the gentry and nobility
of England, who valued themselves on their Norman extraction, and who
disdained the language of their native country, made familiar use of
the French tongue till this period, and for some time after.
[FN [l] Chron. T. Wykes, p. 63.  [m] W. Heming. p. 584.  [n] Ibid.
[o] M. Paris, p. 671  Knyghton, p. 2451.]

Leicester had no sooner obtained this great advantage, and gotten the
whole royal family in his power, than he openly violated every article
of the treaty, and acted as sole master, and even tyrant of the
kingdom.  He still detained the king in effect a prisoner, and made
use of that prince's authority to purposes the most prejudicial to his
interests, and the most oppressive of his people [p].  He every where
disarmed the royalists, and kept all his own partisans in a military
posture [q]: he observed the same partial conduct in the deliverance
of the captives, and even threw many of the royalists into prison,
besides those who were taken in the battle of Lewes: he carried the
king from place to place, and obliged all the royal castles, on
pretence of Henry's commands, to receive a governor and garrison of
his own appointment: all the officers of the crown and of the
household were named by him; and the whole authority, as well as arms
of the state, was lodged in his hands: he instituted in the counties a
new kind of magistracy, endowed with new and arbitrary powers, that of
conservators of the peace [r]: his avarice appeared bare-faced, and
might induce us to question the greatness of his ambition, at least
the largeness of his mind, if we had not reason to think, that he
intended to employ his acquisitions as the instruments for attaining
farther power and grandeur.  He seized the estates of no less than
eighteen barons, as his share of the spoil gained in the battle of
Lewes: he engrossed to himself the ransom of all the prisoners; and
told his barons, with a wanton insolence, that it was sufficient for
them that he had saved them, by that victory, from the forfeitures
and attainders which hung over them [s]: he even treated the Earl of
Gloucester in the same injurious manner, and applied to his own use
the ransom of the King of the Romans, who, in the field of battle, had
yielded himself prisoner to that nobleman.  Henry, his eldest son,
made a monopoly of all the wool in the kingdom, the only valuable
commodity for foreign markets which it at that time produced [t].  The
inhabitants of the cinque-ports, during the present dissolution of
government, betook themselves to the most licentious piracy, preyed on
the ships of all nations, threw the mariners into the sea, and, by
these practices, soon banished all merchants from the English coasts
and harbours.  Every foreign commodity rose to an exorbitant price;
and woollen cloth, which the English had not then the art of dyeing,
was worn by them white, and without receiving the last hand of the
manufacturer.  In answer to the complaints which arose on this
occasion, Leicester replied, that the kingdom could well enough
subsist within itself, and needed no intercourse with foreigners; and
it was found that he even combined with the pirates of the
cinque-ports, and received as his share the third of their prizes [u].
[FN [p] Rymer, vol. i. p. 790, 791, &c.  [q] Ibid. p. 795.  Brady's
Appeals, No. 211, 212.  Chron. T. Wykes, p. 63.  [r] Rymer, vol. i. p.
792.  [s] Knyghton, p. 2451.  [t] Chron. T. Wykes, p. 65.  [u] Ibid.]

No farther mention was made of the reference to the King of France, so
essential an article in the agreement of Lewes; and Leicester summoned
a Parliament, composed altogether of his own partisans, in order to
rivet, by their authority, that power which he had acquired by so much
violence, and which he used with so much tyranny and injustice.  An
ordinance was there passed, to which the king's consent had been
previously extorted, that every act of royal power should be exercised
by a council of nine persons, who were to be chosen and removed by the
majority of three, Leicester himself, the Earl of Gloucester, and the
Bishop of Chichester [w].  By this intricate plan of government, the
sceptre was really put into Leicester's hands; as he had the entire
direction of the Bishop of Chichester, and thereby commanded all the
resolutions of the council of three, who could  appoint or discard at
pleasure every member of the supreme council.
[FN [w] Rymer, vol. i. p. 793.  Brady's App. No. 213.]

But it was impossible that things could long remain in this strange
situation.  It behoved Leicester either to descend with some peril
into the rank of a subject or to mount up with no less into that of a
sovereign; and his ambition, unrestrained either by fear or by
principle, gave too much reason to suspect him of the latter
intention.  Meanwhile he was exposed to anxiety from every quarter;
and felt that the smallest incident was capable of overturning that
immense and ill-cemented fabric which he had reared.  The queen, whom
her husband had left abroad, had collected in foreign parts an army of
desperate adventurers, and had assembled a great number of ships, with
a view of invading the kingdom, and of bringing relief to her
unfortunate family.  Lewis, detesting Leicester's usurpations and
perjuries, and disgusted at the English barons, who had refused to
submit to his award, secretly favoured all her enterprises, and was
generally believed to be making preparations for the same purpose.  An
English army, by the pretended authority of the captive king, was
assembled on the seacoast to oppose this projected invasion [x]; but
Leicester owed his safety more to cross winds, which long detained and
at last dispersed and ruined the queen's fleet, than to any resistance
which, in their present situation, could have been expected from the
English.
[FN [x] Brady's App. No. 216, 217.  Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 373.  M.
West. p. 385.]

Leicester found himself better able to resist the spiritual thunders
which were levelled against him.  The pope, still adhering to the
king's cause, against the barons, despatched Cardinal Guido as his
legate into England, with orders to excommunicate, by name, the three
earls, Leicester, Gloucester, and Norfolk, and all others, in general,
who concurred in the oppression and captivity of their sovereign [y].
Leicester menaced the legate with death, if he set foot within the
kingdom; but Guido, meeting in France the Bishops of Winchester,
London, and Worcester, who had been sent thither on a negotiation,
commanded them, under the penalty of ecclesiastical censures, to carry
his bull into England, and to publish it against the barons.  When the
prelates arrived off the coast, they were boarded by the piratical
mariners of the cinque-ports, to whom probably they gave a hint of the
cargo which they brought along with them: the bull was torn and thrown
into the sea; which furnished the artful prelates with a plausible
excuse for not obeying the orders of the legate.  Leicester appealed
from Guido to the pope in person; but before the ambassadors,
appointed to defend his cause, could reach Rome, the pope was dead;
and they found the legate himself, from whom they had appealed, seated
on the papal throne, by the name of Urban IV.  That daring leader was
nowise dismayed with this incident; and as he found that a great part
of his popularity in England was founded on his opposition to the
court of Rome, which was now become odious, he persisted with the more
obstinacy in the prosecution of his measures.
[FN [y] Rymer, vol. i. p. 798.  Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 373.]

[MN 1265.  20th Jan.]  That he might both increase and turn to
advantage his popularity, Leicester summoned a new Parliament in
London, where he knew his power was uncontrollable; and he fixed this
assembly on a more democratical basis than any which had ever been
summoned since the foundation of the monarchy.  Besides the barons of
his own party, and several ecclesiastics who were not immediate
tenants of the crown, he ordered returns to be made of two knights
from each shire, and what is more remarkable, of deputies from the
boroughs, an order of men which, in former ages, had always been
regarded as too mean to enjoy a place in the national councils [z].
[MN House of Commons.]  This period is commonly esteemed the epoch of
the House of Commons in England; and it is certainly the first time
that historians speak of any representatives sent to Parliament by the
boroughs.  In all the general accounts given in preceding times of
those assemblies, the prelates and barons only are mentioned as the
constituent members; and even in the most particular narratives
delivered of parliamentary transactions, as in the trial of Thomas à
Becket, where the events of each day, and almost of each hour, are
carefully recorded by contemporary authors [a], there is not,
throughout the whole, the least appearance of a House of Commons.  But
though that House derived  its existence from so precarious and even
so invidious an origin as Leicester's usurpation, it soon proved, when
summoned by the legal princes, one of the most useful, and, in process
of time, one of the most powerful members of the national
constitution; and gradually rescued the kingdom from aristocratical as
well as from regal tyranny.  But Leicester's policy, if we must
ascribe to him so great a blessing, only forwarded by some years an
institution, for which the general state of things had already
prepared the nation; and it is otherwise inconceivable, that a plant
set by so inauspicious a hand could have attained to so vigorous a
growth, and have flourished in the midst of such tempests and
convulsions.  The feudal system, with which the liberty, much more the
power of the Commons, was totally incompatible, began gradually to
decline; and both the king and the commonalty, who felt its
inconveniences, contributed to favour this new power, which was more
submissive than the barons to the regular authority of the crown, and
at the same time afforded protection to the inferior orders of the
state.
[FN [z] Rymer, vol. i. p. 802.  [a] Fitz-Stephen, Hist. Quadrip.
Hoveden, &c.]

Leicester having thus assembled a Parliament of his own model, and
trusting to the attachment of the populace of London, seized the
opportunity of crushing his rivals among the powerful barons.  Robert
de Ferrars, Earl of Derby, was accused in the king's name, seized, and
committed to custody without being brought to any legal trial [b].
John Gifford, menaced with the same fate, fled from London, and took
shelter in the borders of Wales.  Even the Earl of Gloucester, whose
power and influence had so much contributed to the success of the
barons, but who of late was extremely disgusted with Leicester's
arbitrary conduct, found himself in danger from the prevailing
authority of his ancient confederate; and he retired from Parliament
[c].  This known dissension gave courage to all Leicester's enemies
and to the king's friends, who were now sure of protection from so
potent a leader.  Though Roger Mortimer, Hamond L'Estrange, and other
powerful marchers of Wales, had been obliged to leave the kingdom,
their authority still remained over the territories subjected to their
jurisdiction; and there were many others who were disposed to give
disturbance to the new government.  The animosities, inseparable from
the feudal aristocracy, broke out with fresh violence, and threatened
the kingdom with new convulsions and disorders.
[FN [b] Chron. T. Wykes, p. 66.  Ann. Waverl. p. 216.  [c] M. Paris,
p. 671.  Ann. Waverl. p. 216.]

The Earl of Leicester, surrounded with these difficulties, embraced a
measure from which he hoped to reap some present advantages, but which
proved in the end the source of all his future calamities.  The active
and intrepid Prince Edward had languished in prison ever since the
fatal battle of Lewes; and as he was extremely popular in the kingdom,
there arose a general desire of seeing him again restored to liberty
[d].  Leicester, finding that he could with difficulty oppose the
concurring wishes of the nation, stipulated with the prince, that, in
return, he should order his adherents to deliver up to the barons all
their castles, particularly those on the borders of Wales; and should
swear neither to depart the kingdom during three years, nor introduce
into it any foreign forces [e].  The king took an oath to the same
effect, and he also passed a charter, in which he confirmed the
agreement or MISE of Lewes; and even permitted his subjects to rise in
arms against him if he should ever attempt to infringe it [f].  So
little care did Leicester take, though he constantly made use of the
authority of this captive prince, to preserve to him any appearance of
royalty or kingly prerogatives!
[FN [d] Knyghton, p. 2451.  [e] Ann. Waverl. p. 216.  [f] Blackstone's
Mag. Charta.  Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 378.]

[MN 11th Mar.]  In consequence of this treaty, Prince Edward was
brought into Westminster-hall, and was declared free by the barons:
but instead of really recovering his liberty, as he had vainly
expected, he found that the whole transaction was a fraud on the part
of Leicester; that he himself still continued a prisoner at large, and
was guarded by the emissaries of that nobleman; and that, while the
faction reaped all the benefit from the performance of his part of the
treaty, care was taken that he should enjoy no advantage by it.  As
Gloucester, on his rupture with the barons, had retired for safety to
his estates on the borders of Wales, Leicester followed him with an
army to Hereford [g]; continued still to menace and negotiate; and
that he might add authority to his cause, he carried both the king and
prince along with him.  The Earl of Gloucester here concerted with
young Edward the manner of that prince's escape.  He found means to
convey to him a horse of extraordinary swiftness; and appointed Roger
Mortimer, who had returned into the kingdom, to be ready at hand with
a small party to receive the prince, and to guard him to a place of
safety.  Edward pretended to take the air with some of Leicester's
retinue, who were his guards; and making matches between their horses,
after he thought he had tired and blown them sufficiently, he suddenly
mounted Gloucester's horse and called to his attendants, that he had
long enough enjoyed the pleasure of their company, and now bid them
adieu.  They followed him for some time, without being able to
overtake him; and the appearance of Mortimer with his company put an
end to their pursuit.
[FN [g] Chron. T. Wykes, p. 67.  Ann. Waverl. p. 218.  W. Heming. p.
585.  Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 383, 384.]

The royalists, secretly prepared for this event, immediately flew to
arms; and the joy of this gallant prince's deliverance, the
oppressions under which the nation laboured, the expectation of a new
scene of affairs, and the countenance of the Earl of Gloucester,
procured Edward an army which Leicester was utterly unable to
withstand.  This nobleman found himself in a remote quarter of the
kingdom, surrounded by his enemies, barred from all communication with
his friends by the Severn, whose bridges Edward had broken down, and
obliged to fight the cause of his party under these multiplied
disadvantages.  In this extremity he wrote to his son, Simon de
Montfort, to hasten from London with an army for his relief; and Simon
had advanced to Kenilworth with that view, where, fancying that all
Edward's force and attention were directed against his father, he lay
secure and unguarded.  But the prince, making a sudden and forced
march, surprised him in his camp, dispersed his army, and took the
Earl of Oxford and many other noblemen prisoners, almost without
resistance.  Leicester, ignorant of his son 's fate, passed the Severn
in boats during Edward's absence, and lay at Evesham, in expectation
of being every hour joined by his friends from London; when the
prince, who availed himself of every favourable moment, appeared in
the field before him.  [MN Battle of Evesham and death of Leicester.
4th Aug.]  Edward made a body of his troops advance from the road
which led to Kenilworth, and ordered them to carry the banners taken
from Simon's army; while he himself, making a circuit with the rest of
his forces, purposed to attack the enemy on the other quarter.
Leicester was long deceived by this stratagem, and took one division
of Edward's army for his friends; but at last, perceiving his mistake,
and observing the great superiority and excellent disposition of the
royalists, he exclaimed that they had learned from him the art of war,
adding, "The Lord have mercy on our souls, for I see our bodies are
the prince's!"  The battle immediately began, though on very unequal
terms.  Leicester's army, by living on the mountains of Wales without
bread, which was not then much used among the inhabitants, had been
extremely weakened by sickness and desertion, and was soon broken by
the victorious royalists; while his Welsh allies, accustomed only to a
desultory kind of war, immediately took to flight, and were pursued
with great slaughter.  Leicester himself; asking for quarter, was
slain in the heat of the action, with his eldest son Henry, Hugh le
Despenser, and about one hundred and sixty knights, and many other
gentlemen of his party.  The old king had been purposely placed by the
rebels in the front of the battle; and being clad in armour, and
thereby not known by his friends, he received a wound, and was in
danger of his life; but crying out, I AM HENRY OF WINCHESTER, YOUR
KING, he was saved, and put in a place of safety by his son, who flew
to his rescue.

The violence, ingratitude, tyranny, rapacity, and treachery of the
Earl of Leicester, give a very bad idea of his moral character, and
make us regard his death as the most fortunate event which, in this
conjuncture, could have happened to the English nation; yet must we
allow the man to have possessed great abilities, and the appearance of
great virtues, who, though a stranger, could at a time when strangers
were the most odious, and the most universally decried, have acquired
so extensive an interest in the kingdom, and have so nearly paved his
way to the throne itself.  His military capacity and his political
craft were equally eminent: he possessed the talents both of governing
men and conducting business: and though his ambition was boundless, it
seems neither to have exceeded his courage nor his genius; and he had
the happiness of making the low populace, as well as the haughty
barons, co-operate towards the success of his selfish and dangerous
purposes.  A prince of greater abilities and vigour than Henry, might
have directed the talents of this nobleman either to the exaltation of
his throne, or to the good of his people: but the advantages given to
Leicester by the weak and variable administration of the king, brought
on the ruin of royal authority, and produced great confusions in the
kingdom, which however, in the end, preserved and extremely improved
national liberty and the constitution.  His popularity, even after his
death, continued so great, that though he was excommunicated by Rome,
the people believed him to be a saint; and many miracles were said to
be wrought upon his tomb [h].
[FN [h] Chron. de Mailr. p. 232.]

[MN Settlement of the government.]
The victory of Evesham, with the death of Leicester, proved decisive
in favour of the royalists, and made an equal, though an opposite,
impression on friends and enemies in every part of England.  The King
of the Romans recovered his liberty: the other prisoners of the royal
party were not only freed, but courted by their keepers: Fitz-Richard,
the seditious Mayor of London, who had marked out forty of the most
wealthy citizens for slaughter, immediately stopped his hand on
receiving intelligence of this great event: and almost all the
castles, garrisoned by the barons, hastened to make their submissions,
and to open their gates to the king.  The isle of Axholme alone, and
that of Ely, trusting to the strength of their situation, ventured to
make resistance; but were at last reduced, as well as the castle of
Dover, by the valour and activity of Prince Edward [i].  [MN 1266.]
Adam de Gourdon, a courageous baron, maintained himself during some
time in the forests of Hampshire, committed depredations in the
neighbourhood, and obliged the prince to lead a body of troops into
that county against him.  Edward attacked the camp of the rebels; and
being transported by the ardour of battle, leaped over the trench with
a few followers, and encountered Gourdon in single combat.  The
victory was long disputed between these valiant combatants; but ended
at last in the prince's favour, who wounded his antagonist, threw him
from his horse, and took him prisoner.  He not only gave him his life,
but introduced him that very night to the queen at Guildford, procured
him his pardon, restored him to his estate, received him into favour,
and was ever after faithfully served by him [k].
[FN [i] M. Paris, p. 676.  W. Heming, p. 588.  [k] M. Paris, p. 675.]

A total victory of the sovereign over so extensive a rebellion
commonly produces a revolution of government, and strengthens as well
as enlarges, for some time, the prerogatives of the crown: yet no
sacrifices of national liberty were made on this occasion; the great
charter remained still inviolate; and the king, sensible that his own
barons, by whose assistance alone he had prevailed, were no less
jealous of their independence than the other party, seems thenceforth
to have more carefully abstained from all those exertions of power
which had afforded so plausible a pretence to the rebels.  The
clemency of this victory is also remarkable: no blood was shed on the
scaffold: no attainders, except of the Montfort family, were carried
into execution: and though a Parliament, assembled at Winchester,
attainted all those who had borne arms against the king, easy
compositions were made with them for their lands [1]; and the highest
sum levied on the most obnoxious offenders exceeded not five years'
rent of their estate.  Even the Earl of Derby, who again rebelled,
after having been pardoned and restored to his fortune, was obliged to
pay only seven years' rent, and was a second time restored.  The mild
disposition of the king, and the prudence of the prince, tempered the
insolence of victory, and gradually restored order to the several
members of the state, disjointed by so long a continuance of civil
wars and commotions.
[FN [l] Id. ibid.]

The city of London, which had carried farthest the rage and animosity
against the king, and which seemed determined to stand upon its
defence after almost all the kingdom had submitted, was, after some
interval, restored to most of its liberties and privileges; and
Fitz-Richard the mayor, who had been guilty of so much illegal
violence, was only punished by fine and imprisonment.  The Countess of
Leicester, the king's sister, who had been extremely forward in all
attacks on the royal family, was dismissed the kingdom with her two
sons, Simon and Guy, who proved very ungrateful for this lenity.  Five
years afterwards, they assassinated, at Viterbo in Italy, their cousin
Henry d'Allmaine, who at that very time was endeavouring to make their
peace with the king; and by taking sanctuary in the church of the
Franciscans, they escaped the punishment due to so great an enormity
[m].
[FN [m] Rymer, vol. i. p. 879. vol. ii. p. 4, 5.  Chron. T. Wykes, p.
94.  W. Heming. p. 589.  Trivet, p. 240.]

[MN 1267.]  The merits of the Earl of Gloucester, after he returned to
his allegiance, had been so great in restoring the prince to his
liberty, and assisting him in his victories against the rebellious
barons, that it was almost impossible to content him in his demands;
and his youth and temerity, as well as his great power, tempted him,
on some new disgust, to raise again the flames of rebellion in the
kingdom.  The mutinous populace of London, at his instigation, took to
arms; and the prince was obliged to levy an army of thirty thousand
men in order to suppress them.  Even this second rebellion did not
provoke the king to any act of cruelty; and the Earl of Gloucester
himself escaped with total impunity.  He was only obliged to enter
into a bond of twenty thousand marks, that he should never again be
guilty of rebellion: a strange method of enforcing the laws, and a
proof of the dangerous independence of the barons in those ages!
These potent nobles were, from the danger of the precedent, averse to
the execution of the laws of forfeiture and felony against any of
their fellows; though they could not, with a good grace, refuse to
concur in obliging them to fulfil any voluntary contract and
engagement into which they had entered.

[MN 1270.]  The prince, finding the state of the kingdom tolerably
composed, was seduced, by his avidity for glory and by the prejudices
of the age, as well as by the earnest solicitations of the King of
France, to undertake an expedition against the infidels in the Holy
Land [n]; and he endeavoured previously to settle the state in such a
manner as to dread no bad effects from his absence.  As the formidable
power and turbulent disposition of the Earl of Gloucester gave him
apprehensions, he insisted on carrying him along with him, in
consequence of a vow which that nobleman had made to undertake the
same voyage: in the mean time, he obliged him to resign some of his
castles, and to enter into a new bond not to disturb the peace of the
kingdom [o].  He sailed from England with an army, and arrived in
Lewis's camp before Tunis in Africa, where he found that monarch
already dead from the intemperance of the climate and the fatigues of
his enterprise.  The great, if not only, weakness of this prince in
his government, was the imprudent passion for crusades; but it was his
zeal chiefly that procured him from the clergy the title of St. Lewis,
by which he is known in the French history; and if that appellation
had not been so extremely prostituted, as to become rather a term of
reproach, he seems by his uniform probity and goodness, as well as his
piety, to have fully merited the title.  He was succeeded by his son
Philip, denominated the Hardy; a prince of some merit, though much
inferior to that of his father.
[FN [n] M. Paris, p. 677.  [o] Chron. T. Wykes, p. 90.]

[MN 1271.]  Prince Edward, not discouraged by this event, continued
his voyage to the Holy Land, where he signalized himself by acts of
valour; revived the glory of the English name in those parts; and
struck such terror into the Saracens, that they employed an assassin
to murder him, who wounded him in the arm, but perished in the attempt
[p].  Meanwhile, his absence from England was attended with many of
those pernicious consequences  which had been dreaded from it.  The
laws were not executed: the barons oppressed the common people with
impunity [q]: they gave shelter on their estates to bands of robbers,
whom they employed in committing ravages on the estates of their
enemies: the populace of London returned to their usual
licentiousness: and the old king, unequal to the burden of public
affairs, called aloud for his gallant son to return [r], and to assist
him in swaying that sceptre which was ready to drop from his feeble
and irresolute hands.  [MN 1272.  16th Nov.  Death,]  At last,
overcome by the cares of government and the infirmities of age, he
visibly declined, and he expired at St. Edmondsbury, in the
sixty-fourth year of his age, and fifty-sixth of his reign; the
longest reign that is to be met with in the English annals.  His
brother, the King of the Romans, (for he never attained the title of
Emperor,) died about seven months before him.
[FN [p] M. Paris, p. 678, 679.  W. Heming. p. 520.  [q] Chron. Dunst.
vol. i. p. 404.  [r] Rymer, vol. i. p. 869.  M. Paris, p. 678.]

[MN and character of the king.]  The most obvious circumstance of
Henry's character is his incapacity for government, which rendered him
as much a prisoner in the hands of his own ministers and favourites,
and as little at his own disposal, as when detained a captive in the
hands of his enemies.  From this source, rather than from insincerity
or treachery, arose his negligence in observing his promises; and he
was too easily induced, for the sake of present convenience, to
sacrifice the lasting advantages arising from the trust and confidence
of his people.  Hence too were derived his profusion to favourites,
his attachment to strangers, the variableness of his conduct, his
hasty resentments, and his sudden forgiveness and return of affection.
Instead of reducing the dangerous power of his nobles, by obliging
them to observe the laws towards their inferiors, and setting them the
salutary example in his own government, he was seduced to imitate
their conduct, and to make his arbitrary will, or rather that of his
ministers, the rule of his actions.  Instead of accommodating himself,
by a strict frugality, to the embarrassed situation in which his
revenue had been left by the military expeditions of his uncle, the
dissipations of his father, and the usurpations of the barons; he was
tempted to levy money by irregular exactions, which, without enriching
himself, impoverished, at least disgusted, his people.  Of all men,
nature seemed least to have fitted him for being a tyrant; yet there
are instances of oppression in his reign, which, though derived from
the precedents left him by his predecessors, had been carefully
guarded against by the great charter, and are inconsistent with all
rules of good government.  And on the whole, we may say, that greater
abilities, with his good dispositions, would have prevented him from
falling into his faults; or, with worse dispositions, would have
enabled him to maintain and defend them.

This prince was noted for his piety and devotion, and his regular
attendance on public worship; and a saying of his on that head is much
celebrated by ancient writers.  He was engaged in a dispute with Lewis
IX. of France, concerning the preference between sermons and masses:
he maintained the superiority of the latter, and affirmed that he
would rather have one hour's conversation with a friend, than hear
twenty of the most elaborate discourses pronounced in his praise [s].
[FN [s] Walsing. Edw. I. p. 43.]

Henry left two sons, Edward, his successor, and Edmond, Earl of
Lancaster; and two daughters, Margaret, Queen of Scotland, and
Beatrix, Duchess of Britany.  He had five other children, who died in
their infancy.

[MN Miscellaneous transactions of the reign.]
The following are the most remarkable laws enacted during this reign.
There had been great disputes between the civil and ecclesiastical
courts concerning bastardy.  The common law had deemed all those to be
bastards who were born before wedlock; by the canon law they were
legitimate: and when any dispute of inheritance arose, it had formerly
been usual for the civil courts to issue writs to the spiritual,
directing them to inquire into the legitimacy of the person.  The
bishop always returned an answer agreeable to the canon law, though
contrary to the municipal law of the kingdom.  For this reason the
civil courts had changed the terms of their writ; and instead of
requiring the spiritual courts to make inquisition concerning the
legitimacy of the person, they only proposed the simple question of
fact, whether he were born, before or after wedlock?  The prelates
complained of this practice to the Parliament assembled at Merton in
the twentieth of this king, and desired that the municipal law might
be rendered conformable to the canon; but received from all the
nobility the memorable reply, NOLUMUS LEGES ANGLIAE MUTARE!  We will
not change the laws of England [t].
[FN [t] Statute of Merton, chap. 9.]

After the civil wars, the Parliament, summoned at Marlebridge, gave
their approbation to most of the ordinances which had been established
by the reforming barons, and which, though advantageous to the
security of the people, had not received the sanction of a legal
authority.  Among other laws, it was there enacted, that all appeals
from the courts of inferior lords should be carried directly to the
king's courts without passing through the courts of the lords
immediately superior [u].  It was ordained that money should bear no
interest during the minority of the debtor [w].  This law was
reasonable, as the estates of minors were always in the hands of their
lords, and the debtors could not pay interest where they had no
revenue.  The charter of King John had granted this indulgence: it was
omitted in that of Henry III., for what reason is not known; but it
was renewed by the statute of Marlebridge.  Most of the other articles
of this statute are calculated to restrain the oppressions of
sheriffs, and the violence and iniquities committed in distraining
cattle and other goods.  Cattle and the instruments of husbandry
formed at that time the chief riches of the people.
[FN [u] Statute of Marleb. chap. 20.  [w] Ibid. chap. 16.]

In the thirty-fifth year of this king an assize was fixed of bread,
the price of which was settled, according to the different prices of
corn, from one shilling a quarter to seven shillings and sixpence [x],
money of that age.  These great variations are alone a proof of bad
tillage [y]: yet did the prices often rise much higher than any taken
notice of by the statute.  The Chronicle of Dunstable tells us, that,
in this reign, wheat was once sold for a mark, nay, for a pound, a
quarter, that is, three pounds of our present money [z].  The same law
affords us a proof of the little communication between the parts of
the kingdom, from the very different prices which the same commodity
bore at the same time.  A brewer, says the statute, may sell two
gallons of ale for a penny in cities, and three or four gallons for
the same price in the country.  At present, such commodities, by the
great consumption of the people, and the great stocks of the brewers,
are rather cheapest in cities.  The Chronicle above mentioned
observes, that wheat one year was sold in many places for eight
shillings a quarter, but never rose in Dunstable above a crown.
[FN [x] Statutes at Large, p. 6.  [y] We learn from Cicero's Orations
against Verres, lib. 3, cap. 84, 92, that the price of corn in Sicily
was, during the praetorship of Sacerdos, five Denarii a Modius; during
that of Verres, which immediately succeeded, only two Sesterces; that
is, ten times lower; a presumption, or rather a proof, of the very bad
state of tillage in ancient times.  [z]  Knyghton, p. 2444.]

Though commerce was still very low, it seems rather to have increased
since the Conquest; at least if we may judge of the increase of money
by the price of corn.  The medium between the highest and lowest
prices of wheat, assigned by the statute, is four shillings and three
pence a quarter, that is, twelve shillings and nine pence of our
present money.  This is near half of the middling price in our time.
Yet the middling price of cattle, so late as the reign of King
Richard, we find to be above eight, near ten times lower than the
present.  Is not this the true inference, from comparing these facts,
that, in all uncivilized nations, cattle, which propagate of
themselves, bear always a lower price than corn, which requires more
art and stock to render it plentiful than those nations are possessed
of?  It is to be remarked that Henry's assize of corn was copied from
a preceding assize established by King John; consequently, the prices
which we have here compared of corn and cattle may be looked on as
contemporary; and they were drawn, not from one particular year, but
from an estimation of the middling prices for a series of years.  It
is true, the prices assigned by the assize of Richard were meant as a
standard for the accompts of sheriffs and escheators; and as
considerable profits were allowed to these ministers, we may naturally
suppose, that the common value of cattle was somewhat higher: yet
still, so great a difference between the prices of corn and cattle as
that of four to one, compared to the present rates, affords important
reflections concerning the very different state of industry and
tillage in the two periods.

Interest had in that age amounted to an enormous height, as might be
expected from the barbarism of the times and men's ignorance of
commerce.  Instances occur of fifty per cent paid for money [a].
There is an edict of Philip Augustus near this period, limiting the
Jews in France to forty-eight per cent [b].  Such profits tempted the
Jews to remain in the kingdom, notwithstanding the grievous
oppressions to which, from the prevalent bigotry and rapine of the
age, they were continually exposed.  It is easy to imagine how
precarious their state must have been under an indigent prince,
somewhat restrained in his tyranny over his native subjects, but who
possessed an unlimited authority over the Jews, the sole proprietors
of money in the kingdom, and hated, on account of their riches, their
religion, and their usury: yet will our ideas scarcely come up to the
extortions which, in fact, we find to have been practised upon them.
In the year 1241, twenty thousand marks were exacted from them [c]:
two years after money was again extorted; and one Jew alone, Aaron of
York, was obliged to pay above four thousand marks [d].  In 1250,
Henry renewed his oppressions; and the same Aaron was condemned to pay
him thirty thousand marks upon an accusation of forgery [e]: the high
penalty imposed upon him, and which, it seems, he was thought able to
pay, is rather a presumption of his innocence than of his guilt.  In
1255, the king demanded eight thousand marks from the Jews, and
threatened to hang them if they refused compliance.  They now lost all
patience, and desired leave to retire with their effects out of the
kingdom.  But the king replied: "How can I remedy the oppressions you
complain of?  I am myself a beggar.  I am spoiled, I am stripped of
all my revenues: I owe above two hundred thousand marks; and if I had
said three hundred thousand, I should not exceed the truth: I am
obliged to pay my son, Prince Edward, fifteen thousand marks a year: I
have not a farthing; and I must have money, from any hand, from any
quarter, or by any means."  He then delivered over the Jews to the
Earl of Cornwall, that those whom the one brother had flayed, the
other might embowel, to make use of the words of the historian [f].
King John, his father, once demanded ten thousand marks from a Jew of
Bristol; and on his refusal, ordered one of his teeth to be drawn
every day till he should comply.  The Jew lost seven teeth, and then
paid the sum required of him [g].  One talliage paid upon the Jews in
1243 amounted to sixty thousand marks [h]; a sum equal to the whole
yearly revenue of the crown.
[FN [a] M. Paris, p. 586.  [b] Brussel, Traité des Fiefs, vol. i. p.
576  [c] M. Paris, p. 372.  [d] Ibid. p. 410.  [e] Ibid. p. 525.  [f]
M. Paris, p. 606.  [g] Ibid. p. 160.  [h] Madox, p. 152.]

To give a better pretence for extortions, the improbable and absurd
accusation, which has been at different times advanced against that
nation, was revived in England, that they had crucified a child in
derision of the sufferings of Christ.  Eighteen of them were hanged at
once for this crime [i]: though it is nowise credible, that even the
antipathy borne them by the Christians, and the oppressions under
which they laboured, would ever have pushed them to be guilty of that
dangerous enormity.  But it is natural to imagine, that a race,
exposed to such insults and indignities, both from king and people,
and who had so uncertain an enjoyment of their riches, would carry
usury to the utmost extremity, and by their great profits make
themselves some compensation for their continual perils.
[FN [i] M. Paris, p. 613.]

Though these acts of violence against the Jews proceeded much from
bigotry, they were still more derived from avidity and rapine.  So far
from desiring in that age to convert them, it was enacted by law in
France, that if any Jew embraced Christianity, he forfeited all his
goods, without exception, to the king, or his superior lord.  These
plunderers were careful, lest the profits, accruing from their
dominion over that unhappy race, should be diminished by their
conversion [k].
[FN [k] Brussel, vol. i. p. 622.  Du Cange, verbo JUDAEI.]

Commerce must be in a wretched condition, where interest was so high,
and where the sole proprietors of money employed it in usury only, and
were exposed to such extortion and injustice.  But the bad police of
the country was another obstacle to improvements; and rendered all
communication dangerous, and all property precarious.  The Chronicle
of Dunstable says [l], that men were never secure in the houses, and
that whole villages were often plundered by bands of robbers, though
no civil wars at that time prevailed in the kingdom.  In 1249, some
years before the insurrection of the barons, two merchants of Brabant
came to the king at Winchester, and told him that they had been
spoiled of all their goods by certain robbers, whom they knew, because
they saw their faces every day in his court; that like practices
prevailed all over England, and travellers were continually exposed to
the danger of being robbed, bound, wounded, and murdered; that these
crimes escaped with impunity, because the ministers of justice
themselves were in a confederacy was the robbers; and that they, for
their part, instead of bringing matters to a fruitless trial by law,
were willing, though merchants, to decide their cause with the robbers
by arms and a duel.  The king, provoked at these abuses, ordered a
jury to be enclosed, and to try the robbers: the jury, though
consisting of twelve men of property in Hampshire, were found to be
also in a confederacy with the felons, and acquitted them.  Henry, in
a rage, committed the jury to prison, threatened them with a severe
punishment, and ordered a new jury to be enclosed, who, dreading the
fate of their fellows, at last found a verdict against the criminals.
Many of the king's own household were discovered to have participated
in the guilt; and they said for their excuse, that they received no
wages from him, and were obliged to rob for a maintenance [m].
KNIGHTS AND ESQUIRES, says the Dictum of Kenilworth, WHO WERE ROBBERS,
IF THEY HAVE NO LAND, SHALL PAY THE HALF OF THEIR GOODS, AND FIND
SUFFICIENT SECURITY TO KEEP HENCEFORTH THE PEACE OF THE KINGDOM.  Such
were the matters of the times!
[FN [1] Vol. i. p. 155.  [m] M. Paris, p. 509.]

One can the less repine, during the prevalence of such manners, at the
frauds and forgeries of the clergy; as it gives less disturbance to
society, to take men's money from them with their own consent, though
by deceits and lies, than to ravish it by open force and violence.
During this reign the papal power was at its summit, and was even
beginning insensibly to decline, by reason of the immeasurable avarice
and extortions of the court of Rome, which disgusted the clergy as
well as laity, in  every kingdom of Europe.  England itself, though
sunk in the deepest abyss of ignorance and superstition, had seriously
entertained thoughts of shaking off the papal yoke [n]; and the Roman
pontiff was obliged to think of new expedients for riveting it faster
upon the Christian world.  For this purpose, Gregory IX. published his
decretals [o], which are a collection of forgeries, favourable to the
court of Rome, and consist of the supposed decrees of popes in the
first centuries.  But these forgeries are so gross, and confound so
palpably all language, history, chronology, and antiquities, matters
more stubborn than any speculative truths whatsoever, that even that
church, which is not startled at the most monstrous contradictions and
absurdities, has been obliged to abandon them to the critics.  But in
the dark period of the thirteenth century they passed for undisputed
and authentic; and men, entangled in the mazes of this false
literature, joined to the philosophy, equally false, of the times, had
nothing wherewithal to defend themselves, but some small remains of
common sense, which passed for profaneness and impiety, and the
indelible regard to self-interest, which, as it was the sole motive in
the priests for framing these impostures, served also, in some degree,
to protect the laity against them.
[FN [n] M. Paris, p. 421.  [o] Trivet, p. 191.]

Another expedient, devised by the church of Rome, in this period, for
securing her power, was the institution of new religious orders,
chiefly the Dominicans and Franciscans, who proceeded with all the
zeal and success that attend novelties; were better qualified to gain
the populace than the old orders, now become rich and indolent;
maintained a perpetual rivalship with each other in promoting their
gainful superstitions; and acquired a great dominion over the minds,
and, consequently, over the purses of men, by pretending a desire of
poverty and a contempt for riches.  The quarrels which arose between
these orders, lying still under the control of the sovereign pontiff,
never disturbed the peace of the church, and served only as a spur to
their industry in promoting the common cause; and though the
Dominicans lost some popularity by their denial of the immaculate
conception, a point in which they unwarily engaged too far to be able
to recede with honour, they counterbalanced this disadvantage, by
acquiring more solid establishments, by gaining the confidence of
kings and princes, and by exercising the jurisdiction assigned them,
of ultimate judges and punishers of heresy.  Thus, the several orders
of monks became a kind of regular troops or garrisons of the Romish
church; and though the temporal interests of society, still more the
cause of true piety, were hurt, by their various devices to captivate
the populace, they proved the chief supports of that mighty fabric of
superstition, and till the revival of true learning, secured it from
any dangerous invasion.

The trial by ordeal was abolished in this reign by order of council: a
faint mark of improvement in the age [p].
[FN [p] Rymer, vol. i. p. 228.  Spellman, p. 326.]

Henry granted a charter to the town of Newcastle, in which he gave the
inhabitants a licence to dig coal.  This is the first mention of coal
in England.

We learn from Madox [q], that this king gave, at one time, one hundred
shillings to master Henry, his poet: also the same year he orders this
poet ten pounds.
[FN [q] Page 268.]

It appears from Selden, that, in the forty-seventh of his reign, a
hundred and fifty temporal, and fifty spiritual barons were summoned
to perform the service due by their tenures [r].  In the thirty-fifth
of the subsequent reign, eighty-six temporal barons, twenty bishops,
and forty-eight abbots, were summoned to a Parliament convened at
Carlisle [s].
[FN [r] Titles of Honour, part ii. Chap. 3.  [s] Parl. Hist. vol. i.
p. 151.]




NOTES.



NOTE [A]

This question has been disputed with as great zeal and even acrimony,
between the Scotch and Irish antiquaries, as if the honour of their
respective countries were the most deeply concerned in the decision.
We shall not enter into any detail on so uninteresting a subject, but
shall propose our opinion in a few words.  It appears more than
probable, from the similitude of language and manners, that Britain
either was originally peopled, or was subdued, by the migration of
inhabitants from Gaul, and Ireland from Britain: the position of the
several countries is an additional reason that favours this
conclusion.  It appears also probable, that the migration of that
colony of Gauls or Celts, who peopled or subdued Ireland, was
originally made from the north-west parts of Britain; and this
conjecture (if it do not merit a higher name) is founded both on the
Irish language, which is a very different dialect from the Welsh, and
from the language anciently spoken in South Britain; and on the
vicinity of Lancashire, Cumberland, Galloway, and Argyleshire, to that
island.  These events, as they passed long before the age of history
and records, must be known by reasoning alone, which in this case
seems to be pretty satisfactory: Caesar and Tacitus, not to mention a
multitude of other Greek and Roman authors, were guided by like
inferences.  But besides these primitive facts, which lie in a very
remote antiquity, it is a matter of positive and undoubted testimony,
that the Roman province of Britain, during the time of the lower
empire, was much infested by bands of robbers or pirates, whom the
provincial Britons called Scots or Scuits; a name which was probably
used as a term of reproach, and which these banditti themselves did
not acknowledge or assume.  We may infer from two passages in
Claudian, and from one in Orosius, and another in Isidore, that the
chief seat of these Scots was in Ireland.  That some part of the Irish
freebooters migrated back to the north-west parts of Britain, whence
their ancestors had probably been derived in a more remote age, is
positively asserted by Bede, and implied in Gildas.  I grant that
neither Bede nor Gildas are Caesars or Tacituses; but such as they
are, they remain the sole testimony on the subject, and therefore must
be relied on for want of better: happily, the frivolousness of the
question corresponds to the weakness of the authorities.  Not to
mention, that if any part of the traditional history of a barbarous
people can be relied on, it is the genealogy of nations, and even
sometimes that of families.  It is in vain to argue against these
facts from the supposed warlike disposition of the Highlanders, and
unwarlike of the ancient Irish.  Those arguments are still much weaker
than the authorities.  Nations change very quickly in these
particulars.  The Britons were unable to resist the Picts and Scots,
and invited over the Saxons for their defence, who repelled those
invaders: yet the same Britons valiantly resisted for one hundred and
fifty years, not only this victorious band of Saxons, but infinite
numbers more, who poured in upon them from all quarters.  Robert
Bruce, in 1322, made a peace, in which England, after many defeats,
was constrained to acknowledge the independence of his country: yet in
no more distant period than ten years after, Scotland was totally
subdued by a small handful of English, led by a few private noblemen.
All history is full of such events.  The Irish Scots, in the course of
two or three centuries, might find time and opportunities sufficient
to settle in North Britain, though we can neither assign the period
nor causes of that revolution.  Their barbarous manner of life
rendered them much fitter than the Romans for subduing these
mountaineers.  And, in a word, it is clear from the language of the
two countries, that the Highlanders and the Irish are the same people,
and that the one are a colony from the other.  We have positive
evidence which, though from neutral persons, is not perhaps the best
that may be wished for, that the former, in the third or fourth
century, sprang from the latter: we have no evidence at all that the
latter sprang from the former.  I shall add, that the name of Erse or
Irish given by the low-country Scotch to the language of the Scotch
Highlanders, is a certain proof of the traditional opinion delivered
from father to son, that the latter people came originally from
Ireland.


NOTE [B]

There is a seeming contradiction in ancient historians with regard to
some circumstances in the story of Edwy and Elgiva.  It is agreed that
this prince had a violent passion for his second or third cousin,
Elgiva, whom he married, though within the degrees prohibited by the
canons.  It is also agreed, that he was dragged from a lady on the day
of his coronation, and that the lady was afterwards treated with the
singular barbarity above mentioned.  The only difference is, that
Osberne and some others call her his strumpet, not his wife, as she is
said to be by Malmesbury.  But this difference is easily reconciled;
for if Edwy married her contrary to the canons, the monks would be
sure to deny her to be his wife, and would insist that she could be
nothing but his strumpet; to that, on the whole, we may esteem this
representation of the matter as certain, at least, as by far the most
probable.  If Edwy had only kept a mistress, it is well known that
there are methods of accommodation with the church, which would have
prevented the clergy from proceeding to such extremities against him:
but his marriage contrary to the canons, was an insult on their
authority, and called for their highest resentment.


NOTE [C]

Many of the English historians make Edgar's ships amount to an
extravagant number, to three thousand, or three thousand six hundred:
see Hoveden, p. 426.  Flor. Wigorn. p. 607.  Abbas Rieval. p. 360.
Brompton, p. 869, says, that Edgar had four thousand vessels.  How can
these accounts be reconciled to probability, and to the state of the
navy in the time of Alfred?  W. Thorne makes the whole number amount
only to three hundred, which is more probable.  The fleet of Ethelred,
Edgar's son, must have been short of one thousand ships; yet the Saxon
Chronicle, p. 137, says, it was the greatest navy that ever had been
seen in England.


NOTE [D]

Almost all the ancient historians speak of this massacre of the Danes
as if it had been universal, and as if every individual of that nation
throughout England had been put to death.  But the Danes were almost
the sole inhabitants in the kingdoms of Northumberland and East-
Anglia, and were very numerous in Mercia.  This representation,
therefore, of the matter is absolutely impossible.  Great resistance
must have been made, and violent wars ensued; which was not the case.
This account given by Wallingford, though he stands single, must he
admitted as the only true one.  We are told that the name LURDANE,
LORD DANE, for an idle lazy fellow, who lives at other people's
expense, came from the conduct of the Danes, who were put to death.
But the English princes had been entirely masters for several
generations; and only supported a military corps of that nation.  It
seems probable, therefore, that it was these Danes only that were put
to death.


NOTE [E]

The ingenious author of the article GODWIN, in the Biographia
Britannica, has endeavoured to clear the memory of that nobleman, upon
the supposition, that all the English annals had been falsified by the
Norman historians after the Conquest.  But that this supposition has
not much foundation, appears hence, that almost all these historians
have given a very good character to his son Harold, whom it was much
more the interest of the Norman cause to blacken.


NOTE [F]

The whole story of the transactions between Edward, Harold, and the
Duke of Normandy, is told so differently by the ancient writers, that
there are few important passages of the English history liable to so
great uncertainty.  I have followed the account which appeared to me
the most consistent and probable.  It does not seem likely, that
Edward ever executed a will in the duke's favour, much less that he
got it ratified by the states of the kingdom, as is affirmed by some.
The will would have been known to all, and would have been produced by
the Conqueror, to whom it gave so plausible, and really so just a
title; but the doubtful and ambiguous manner in which he seems always
to have mentioned it, proves that he could only plead the known
intentions of that monarch in his favour, which he was desirous to
call a will.  There is indeed a charter of the Conqueror preserved by
Dr. Hickes, vol. i., where he calls himself REX HEREDITARIUS, meaning
heir by will; but a prince possessed of so much power, and attended
with so much success, may employ what pretence he pleases: it is
sufficient to refute his pretences, to observe that there is a great
difference and variation among historians, with regard to a point
which, had it been real, must have been agreed upon by all of them.

Again, some historians, particularly Malmesbury and Matthew of
Westminster, affirm that Harold had no intention of going over to
Normandy, but, that taking the air in a pleasure boat on the coast, he
was driven over, by stress of weather, to the territories of Guy,
Count of Ponthieu: but besides that this story is not probable in
itself, and is contradicted by most of the ancient historians, it is
contradicted by a very curious and authentic monument lately
discovered.  It is a tapestry, preserved in the ducal palace of Rouen,
and supposed to have been wrought by orders of Matilda, wife to the
emperor: at least it is of very great antiquity.  Harold is there
represented as taking his departure from King Edward in execution of
some commission, and mounting his vessel with a great train.  The
design of redeeming his brother and nephew, who were hostages, is the
most likely cause that can be assigned; and is accordingly mentioned
by Eadmer, Hoveden, Brompton, and Simeon of Durham.  For a farther
account of this piece of tapestry, see Histoire de l'Academie de
Littérature, tom. ix. p. 535.


NOTE [G]

It appears from the ancient translations of the Saxon annals and laws,
and from King Alfred's translation of Bede, as well as from all the
ancient historians, that COMES in Latin, ALDERMAN in Saxon, and EARL
in Dano-Saxon, were quite synonymous.  There is only a clause in a law
of King Athelstan's (see Spellm. Conc. p. 406) which has stumbled some
antiquaries, and has made them imagine that an earl was superior to an
alderman.  The weregild, or the price of an earl's blood, is there
fixed at fifteen thousand thrimsas, equal to that of an archbishop;
whereas that of a bishop and alderman is only eight thousand thrimsas.
To solve this difficulty we must have recourse to Selden's conjecture,
(see his Titles of Honour, chap. v. p. 603, 604,) that the term of
earl was in the age of Athelstan just beginning to be in use in
England, and stood at that time for the atheling or prince of the
blood, heir to the crown.  This he confirms by a law of Canute, Sec.
55, where an atheling and an archbishop are put upon the same footing.
In another law of the same Athelstan, the weregild of the prince, or
atheling, is said to be fifteen thousand thrimsas.  See Wilkins, p.
71.  He is therefore the same who is called earl in the former law.


NOTE [H]

There is a paper or record of the family of Sharneborn, which
pretends, that that family, which was Saxon, was restored upon proving
their innocence, as well as other Saxon families which were in the
same situation.  Though this paper was able to impose on such great
antiquaries as Spellman (see Gloss. in verbo DRENGES) and Dugdale,
(see Baron. vol. i. p. 118,) it is proved by Dr. Brady (see Answ. to
Petyt, p. 11, 12) to have been a forgery; and is allowed as such by
Tyrrel, though a pertinacious defender of his party notions (see his
Hist. vol. ii. introd. p. 51, 73).  Ingulf, p. 70, tells us, that very
early, Hereward, though absent during the time of the Conquest, was
turned out of all his estate, and could not obtain redress.  William
even plundered the monasteries.  Flor. Wigorn. p. 636.  Chron. Abb.
St. Petri de Burgo, p. 48.  M. Paris, p. 5.  Sim. Dun. p. 200.
Diceto, p. 482.  Brompton, p. 967.  Knyghton, p. 2344.  Alur. Beverl.
p. 130.  We are told by Ingulf, that Ivo de Taillebois plundered the
monastery of Croyland of a great part of its land, and no redress
could be obtained.


NOTE [I]

The obliging of all the inhabitants to put out their fires and lights
at certain hours, upon the sounding of a bell called the COURFEU, is
represented by Polydore Vergil, lib. 9, as a mark of the servitude of
the English.  But this was a law of police, which William had
previously established in Normandy.  See Du Moulin, Hist. de
Normandie, p. 160.  The same law had place in Scotland.  LL. Burgor
cap. 86.


NOTE [K]

What these laws were of Edward the Confessor, which the English, every
reign during a century and a half, desire so passionately to have
restored, is much disputed by antiquaries, and our ignorance of them
seems one of the greatest defects in the ancient English history.  The
collection of laws in Wilkins, which pass under the name of Edward,
are plainly a posterior and an ignorant compilation.  Those to be
found in Ingulf are genuine; but so imperfect, and contain so few
clauses favourable to the subject, that we see no great reason for
their contending for them so vehemently.  It is probable, that the
English meant the COMMON LAW, as it prevailed during the reign of
Edward; which we may conjecture to have been more indulgent to liberty
than the Norman institutions.  The most material articles of it were
afterwards comprehended in Magna Charta.


NOTE [L]

Ingulf, p. 70.  H. Hunt. p. 370, 372.  M. West. p. 225.  Gul. Neub. p.
357.  Alured. Beverl. p. 124.  De Gest. Angl. p. 333.  M. Paris, p. 4.
Sim. Dun. p. 206.  Brompton, p. 962, 980, 1161.  Gervase Tilb. lib. i.
cap. 16.  Textus Roffensis apud Seld. Spicileg. ad Eadm. p. 179.  Gul.
Pict. p. 206.  Ordericus Vitalis, p. 621, 666, 853.  Epist. St. Thom.
p. 801.  Gul. Malmes. p. 52, 57.  Knyghton, p. 2354.  Eadmer. p. 110.
Thom. Rudborne in Ang. Sacra, vol. i. p. 248.  Monach. Roff. in Ang
Sacra, vol. ii. p. 276.  Girald. Camb. in eadem, vol. ii. p. 413.
Hist Elyensis, p. 516.  The words of this last historian, who is very
ancient, are remarkable and worth transcribing: "REX ITAQUE FACTUS
WILLIELMUS, QUID IN PRINCIPES ANGLORUM, QUI TANTAE CLADI SUPERESSE
POTERANT, FECERIT, DICERE, CUM NIHIL PROSIT, OMITTO.  QUID ENIM
PRODESSET, SI NEC UNUM IN TOTO REGNO DE ILLIS DICEREM PRISTINA
POTESTATE UTI PERMISSUM, SED OMNES AUT IN GRAVEM PAUPERTATIS AERUMNAM
DETRUSOS, AUT EXHAEREDATOS, PATRIA PULSOS, AUT EFFOSSIS OCULIS, VEL
CAETERIS AMPUTATIS MEMBRIS OPPROBRIUM HOMINUM FACTOS, AUT CERTE
MISERRIME AFFLICTOS, VITA PRIVATOS?  SIMILI MODO UTILITATE CARERE
EXISTIMO DICERE QUID IN MINOREM POPULUM, NON SOLUM AB EO, SED A SUIS
ACTUM SIT, CUM ID DICTU SCIAMUS DIFFICILE, ET OB IMMANEM CRUDELITATEM,
FORTASSIS INCREDIBILE."


NOTE [M]

Henry, by the feudal customs, was entitled to levy a tax for the
marrying of his eldest daughter, and he exacted three shillings a hide
on all England.  H. Hunt. p. 379.  Some historians (Brady, p. 270, and
Tyrrel, vol. ii. p. 182) heedlessly make this sum amount to above
eight hundred thousand pounds of our present money: but it could not
exceed one hundred and thirty-five thousand.  Five hides, sometimes
less, made a knight's fee, of which there were about sixty thousand in
England, consequently near three hundred thousand hides; and at the
rate of three shillings a hide, the sum would amount to forty-five
thousand pounds, or one hundred and thirty-five thousand of our
present money.  See Rudborne, p. 257.  In the Saxon times, there were
only computed two hundred and forty-three thousand six hundred hides
in England.


NOTE [N]

The legates À LATERE, as they were called, were a kind of delegates
who possessed the full power of the pope in all the provinces
committed to their charge, and were very busy in extending as well as
exercising it.  They nominated to all vacant benefices, assembled
synods, and were anxious to maintain ecclesiastical privileges, which
never could be fully protected without encroachments on the civil
power.  If there were the least concurrence or opposition, it was
always supposed that the civil power was to give way: every deed which
had the least pretence of holding of any thing spiritual, as
marriages, testaments, promissory oaths, were brought into the
spiritual court, and could not be canvassed before a civil magistrate.
These were the established laws of the church; and where a legate was
sent immediately from Rome, he was sure to maintain the papal claims
with the utmost rigour: but it was an advantage to the king to have
the Archbishop of Canterbury appointed legate, because the connexions
of that prelate with the kingdom tended to moderate his measures.


NOTE [O]

William of Newbridge, p. 383, (who is copied by later historians,)
asserts, that Geoffrey had some title to the counties of Maine and
Anjou.  He pretends that Count Geoffrey, his father, had left him
these dominions by a secret will, and had ordered that his body should
not be buried, till Henry should swear to the observance of it, which
he, ignorant of the contents, was induced to do.  But besides that
this story is not very likely in itself, and savours of monkish
fiction, it is found in no other ancient writer, and is contradicted
by some of them, particularly the monk of Marmoutier, who had better
opportunities than Newbridge of knowing the truth.  See Vita Gauf.
Duc. Norman. p. 103.


NOTE [P]

The sum scarcely appears credible, as it would amount to much above
half the rent of the whole land.  Gervase is indeed a contemporary
author; but churchmen are often guilty of strange mistakes of that
nature, and are commonly but little acquainted with the public
revenues.  This sum would make five hundred and forty thousand pounds
of our present money.  The Norman Chronicle, p. 995, says that Henry
raised only sixty Angevin shillings on each knight's fee in his
foreign dominions: this is only a fourth of the sum which Gervase says
he levied on England; an inequality nowise probable.  A nation may, by
degrees, be brought to bear a tax of fifteen shillings in the pound,
but a sudden and precarious tax can never be imposed to that amount,
without a very visible necessity, especially in an age so little
accustomed to taxes.  In the succeeding reign the rent of a knight's
fee was computed at four pounds a year.  There were sixty thousand
knights' fees in England.


NOTE [Q]

Fitz-Stephens, p. 18.  This conduct appears violent and arbitrary, but
was suitable to the strain of administration in those days.  His
father Geoffrey, though represented as a mild prince, set him an
example of much greater violence.  When Geoffrey was master of
Normandy, the chapter of sees presumed, without his consent, to
proceed to the election of a bishop; upon which be ordered all of
them, with the bishop elect, to be castrated, and made all their
testicles be brought him in a platter.  Fitz-Steph. p. 44.  In the war
of Toulouse, Henry laid a heavy and an arbitrary tax on all the
churches within his dominions.  See Epist. St. Thom. p. 232.


NOTE [R]

I follow here the narrative of Fitz-Stephens, who was secretary to
Becket; though, no doubt, he may be suspected of partiality towards
his patron.  Lord Lyttleton chooses to follow the authority of a
manuscript letter, or rather manifesto, of Folliot, Bishop of London,
which is addressed to Becket himself, at the time when the bishop
appealed to the pope from the excommunication pronounced against him
by his primate.  My reasons, why I give the preference to
Fitz-Stephens, are, (1.) If the friendship of Fitz-Stephens might
render him partial to Becket, even after the death of that prelate,
the declared enmity of the bishop must, during his lifetime, have
rendered him more partial on the other side.  (2.) The bishop was
moved by interest, as well as enmity, to calumniate Becket.  He had
himself to defend against the sentence of excommunication, dreadful to
all, especially to a prelate: and no more effectual means than to
throw all the blame on his adversary.  (3.) He has actually been
guilty of palpable calumnies in that letter.  Among these, I reckon
the following:--He affirms that, when Becket subscribed the
Constitutions of Clarendon, he said plainly to all the bishops of
England, "It is my master's pleasure that I should forswear myself,
and at present I submit to it, and do resolve to incur a perjury, and
repent afterwards as I may."  However barbarous the times, and however
negligent zealous churchmen were then of morality, these are not words
which a primate of great sense, and of much seeming sanctity, would
employ in an assembly of his suffragans: he might act upon these
principles, but never surely would publicly avow them.  Folliot also
says, that all the bishops were resolved obstinately to oppose the
Constitutions of Clarendon, but the primate himself betrayed them from
timidity, and led the way to their subscribing.  This is contrary to
the testimony of all the historians, and directly contrary to Becket's
character, who surely was not destitute either of courage or of zeal
for ecclesiastical immunities.  (4.) The violence and injustice of
Henry, ascribed to him by Fitz-Stephens, is of a piece with the rest
of the prosecution.  Nothing could be more iniquitous, than, after two
years' silence, to make a sudden and unprepared demand upon Becket to
the amount of forty-four thousand marks, (equal to a sum of near a
million in our time,) and not allow him the least interval to bring in
his accounts.  If the king was so palpably oppressive in one article,
he may he presumed to be equally so in the rest.  (5.) Though
Folliot's letter, or rather manifesto, be addressed to Becket himself,
it does not acquire more authority on that account.  We know not what
answer was made by Becket: the collection of letters cannot he
supposed quite complete.  But that the collection was not made by one
(whoever he were) very partial to that primate, appears from the tenor
of them, where there are many passages very little favourable to him:
insomuch that the editor of them at Brussels, a jesuit, thought proper
to publish them with great omissions, particularly of this letter of
Folliot's.  Perhaps Becket made no answer at all, as not deigning to
write to an excommunicated person, whose very commerce would
contaminate him; and the bishop, trusting to this arrogance of his
primate, might calumniate him the more freely.  (6.) Though the
sentence pronounced on Becket by the great council implies that he had
refused to make any answer to the king's court, this does not fortify
the narrative of Folliot.  For if his excuse was rejected as false and
frivolous, it would he treated as no answer.  Becket submitted so far
to the sentence of confiscation of goods and chattels, that he gave
surety, which is a proof that he meant not at that time to question
the authority of the king's courts.  (7.) It may be worth observing,
that both the author of Historia quadripartita, and Gervase,
contemporary writers, agree with Fitz-Stephens; and the latter is not
usually very partial to Becket.  All the ancient historians give the
same account.


NOTE [S]

Madox, in his Baronia Anglica, cap. 14, tells us, that in the
thirtieth of Henry II. thirty-three cows and two bulls cost but eight
pounds seven shillings, money of that age; five hundred sheep, twenty-
two pounds ten shillings, or about ten pence three farthings per
sheep; sixty-six oxen, eighteen pounds three shillings; fifteen
breeding mares, two pounds twelve shillings and sixpence; and
twenty-two hogs, one pound two shillings.  Commodities seem then to
have been about ten times cheaper than at present; all except the
sheep, probably on account of the value of the fleece.  The same
author, in his Formulare Anglicanum, p. 17, says, "that in the tenth
year of Richard I. mention is made of ten per cent. paid for money:
but the Jews frequently exacted much higher interest."



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