The History of England Part 19

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 a.s.sert 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 invest.i.tures, had pa.s.sed 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 n.o.bility 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 pa.s.s 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 const.i.tution [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 superst.i.tion which were then so prevalent among men of letters. His temper was susceptible of the sentiments as well of friends.h.i.+p 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 amus.e.m.e.nts; 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 pa.s.ses 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. c.o.ke, 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 Middles.e.x 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 Middles.e.x 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 va.s.sals, 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 t.i.tle 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 friends.h.i.+p 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 Glas...o...b..ry 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 friends.h.i.+p 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 acc.u.mulating 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 grat.i.tude 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 grat.i.tude 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 BiG.o.d, 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, BiG.o.d's testimony, anointed Stephen, and put the crown upon his head; and from this religious ceremony that prince, without any shadow either of hereditary t.i.tle, or consent of the n.o.bility 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 superst.i.tion, 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 t.i.tle 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, pa.s.sed 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 n.o.bility, 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 ama.s.sing treasures. By means of this money, the usurper ensured the compliance, though not the attachment, of the princ.i.p.al clergy and n.o.bility; 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 t.i.tle, 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 n.o.bility, moved by an hereditary animosity against the Angevins, first applied to Theobald, Count of Blois, Stephen's elder brother, for protection and a.s.sistance; 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 n.o.bleman, who was in Normandy when he received intelligence of Stephen's accession, found himself much embarra.s.sed 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 n.o.bleman, 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 n.o.blemen garrisoned either with their va.s.sals, 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 n.o.bles were carried on with the utmost fury in every quarter; the barons even a.s.sumed 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 a.s.sisting 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 ent.i.tled, 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 t.i.tle, 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 n.o.bleman [r]. [MN 1138. War with Scotland.] David, King of Scotland, appeared at the head of an army in defence of his niece's t.i.tle, and penetrating into Yorks.h.i.+re, committed the most barbarous devastations on that country. The fury of his ma.s.sacres and ravages enraged the northern n.o.bility, 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, a.s.sembled 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 n.o.bles, 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 n.o.bility, 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 ent.i.tled 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 a.s.sembled 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 a.s.sembly. 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 Suss.e.x; 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 n.o.bleman 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 n.o.bility 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 a.s.sault 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 t.i.tle 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 a.s.sembling the states of the kingdom, the measure which the const.i.tution, had it been either fixed or regarded, seemed necessarily to require, she was content that the legate should a.s.semble an ecclesiastical synod, and that her t.i.tle to the throne should there be acknowledged. The legate, addressing himself to the a.s.sembly, 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 princ.i.p.ally belonged to the clergy to elect and ordain kings; he had summoned them together for that purpose and having invoked the divine a.s.sistance; he now p.r.o.nounced Matilda, the only descendant of Henry, the late sovereign, Queen of England. The whole a.s.sembly by their acclamations or silence, gave, or seemed to give, their a.s.sent 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 pa.s.sed. 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 pa.s.sive: 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 n.o.blemen 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 a.s.sumed 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.]