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by Samuel Rawson Gardiner
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Title: A Student's History of England, v. 1 (of 3)
From the earliest times to the Death of King Edward VII
Author: Samuel Rawson Gardiner
Release Date: February 23, 2009 [EBook #28157]
Language: English
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STUDENT'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND
_FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE DEATH OF KING EDWARD VII_
BY
SAMUEL R. GARDINER, D.C.L., LL.D.
LATE FELLOW OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD ETC.
VOL. I.
B.C. 55--A.D. 1509
_NEW IMPRESSION (1915)_
REISSUE
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
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FOURTH AVENUE & 30th STREET, NEW YORK
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_All rights reserved_
WORKS BY SAMUEL RAWSON GARDINER.
HISTORY OF ENGLAND, from the Accession of James I. to the Outbreak of
the Civil War, 1603-1642. With Maps. 10 vols. crown 8vo. 5_s._ net
each.
A HISTORY OF THE GREAT CIVIL WAR, 1642-1649. With Maps. 4 vols. crown
8vo. 5_s._ net each.
A HISTORY OF THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE PROTECTORATE, 1649-1656. With
Maps. 4 vols. crown 8vo. 5_s._ net each.
THE LAST YEARS OF THE PROTECTORATE, 1656-1658. By CHARLES HARDING
FIRTH, M.A., Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of
Oxford. With 3 Plans. 2 vols. 8vo. 24_s._ net.
A STUDENT'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. From the Earliest Times to the Death
of King Edward VII.
Vol. I. B.C. 55-A.D. 1509. With 173 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 4_s._
Vol. II. 1509-1689. With 96 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 4_s._
Vol. III. 1689-1910. With 112 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 4_s._
_Complete in One Volume, with 381 Illustrations, crown 8vo. 12s._
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English History.' Brought down to the Accession of Edward VII. By W.
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A SCHOOL ATLAS OF ENGLISH HISTORY. Edited by SAMUEL RAWSON GARDINER,
D.C.L., LL.D. With 66 Coloured Maps and 22 Plans of Battles and
Sieges. Fcp. 4to. 5_s._
LONGMANS' ELEMENTARY HISTORICAL ATLAS, abridged from S. R. Gardiner's
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CROMWELL'S PLACE IN HISTORY. Founded on Six Lectures delivered at
Oxford. Crown 8vo. 3_s._ 6_d._
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* * * * *
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PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION
The present work is intended for such students as have already an
elementary knowledge of the main facts of English history, and aims at
meeting their needs by the use of plain language on the one hand, and
by the avoidance, on the other hand, of that multiplicity of details
which is apt to overburden the memory.
At the close of the book I have treated the last eleven years, 1874 to
1885, in a manner which precludes all expression of my own views,
either on the characters of the actors or on the value of the work
performed by them; and something of the same reticence will be
observed in the pages dealing with the years immediately preceding
1874. We have not the material before us for the formation of a final
judgment on many points arising in the course of the narrative, and it
is therefore better to abstain from the expression of decided opinion,
except on matters so completely before the public as to leave no room
for hesitation. Especially is this rule to be observed in a book
addressed to those who are not yet at an age when independent
investigation is possible.
I hope it will be understood that in my mention of various authors I
have had no intention of writing a history of literature, however
brief. My object has been throughout to exhibit that side of
literature which connects itself with the general political or
intellectual movement of the country, and to leave unnoticed the
purely literary or scientific qualities of the writers mentioned. This
will explain, for instance, the total omission of the name of Roger
Bacon, and the brief and, if regarded from a different point of view,
the very unsatisfactory treatment of writers like Dickens and
Thackeray.
Those of my readers who have complained that no maps were to be found
in the book may now be referred to a 'School Atlas of English
History,' recently edited by me for Messrs. Longmans & Co. To include
an adequate number of maps in this volume would have increased its
size beyond all fitting limits.
In the spelling of Indian names I have not adopted the modern and
improved system of transliteration. Admirable as it is when used by
those who are able to give the right sound to each letter, it only
leads to mispronunciation in the mouths of those who are, as most of
the readers of this volume will be, entirely in the dark on this
point. The old rough method of our fathers at least ensures a fair
approximation to the true pronunciation.
My warmest thanks are due to Mr. GEORGE NUTT, of Rugby, and to the
Rev. W. HUNT. Mr. NUTT not only looked over the proof-sheets up to the
death of Edward I. with excellent results, but gave me most valuable
advice as to the general arrangement of the book, founded on his own
long experience of scholastic teaching. The Rev. W. HUNT looked over a
considerable portion of the remaining proof-sheets, and called my
attention to several errors and omissions which had escaped my eye.
The illustrations have been selected by Mr. W. H. ST. JOHN HOPE,
Assistant-Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries. He wishes to
acknowledge much valuable assistance given to him in the choice of
portraits by GEORGE SCHARF, Esq., C.B., F.S.A., who is recognised as
the highest authority on the subject.
I am indebted to Her Majesty the QUEEN for permission to engrave two
of the portraits appearing in the following pages--viz., those of
Bishop Fisher, on p. 393, and the Duke of Norfolk, on p. 410--the
originals in both cases being at Windsor Castle.
I have to thank Earl SPENCER for permission to engrave the portrait on
p. 362; the Earl of ESSEX for that on p. 476; the Earl of WARWICK for
that on p. 403; the Earl of CARLISLE for that on p. 459; the Viscount
DILLON, F.S.A., for that on p. 376; the Hon Sir SPENCER PONSONBY-FANE,
K.C.B., for that on p. 365; Sir JOHN FARNABY LENNARD, Bart., for that
on p. 463; Dr. EVANS for those on pp. 2, 4, 6; EDWARD HUTH, Esq., for
that on p. 387; Mrs. DENT, of Sudeley, for that on p. 395; H. HUCKS
GIBBS, Esq., for that on p. 419; T. A. HOPE, Esq., for that on p. 487;
E. B. NICHOLSON, Esq., for the portrait of Lord Burghley in the
Bodleian Library, Oxford, engraved at p. 479; the authorities of the
University of Cambridge for that on p. 477; of Jesus College,
Cambridge, for that on p. 414; and of Sidney Sussex College,
Cambridge, for that on p. 567; and the Treasurer of Christ's Hospital,
London, for the portrait of Charles II. on p. 579. I have also to
thank Mr. JOHN MURRAY for permission to engrave the figures on pp.
130, 150, 160, 166, 177, 188, 260; Messrs. PARKER & Co., Oxford, for
those on pp. 19, 51, 75, 91, 107, 128, 170, 192, 197, 230, 245, 246,
247, 253, 409, 451; Mr. W. NIVES for those at pp. 381, 409, 451; Mr.
J. G. WALLER for those on pp. 219, 229, 292, 298, 515; Mr. BRUCE for
those on pp. 17, 18, 21; Messrs. POULTON & SONS, Lee, for those on pp.
7, 132; Mr. G. A. NICHOLS, Stamford, for those on pp. 311, 316, Mr.
G. T. CLARKE, for that on p. 74; Messrs. CARL NORMAN & Co., Tunbridge
Wells, for that on p. 171; Mr. R. KEENE, Derby, for that on p. 318;
the Rev. H. H. HENSON, Vicar of Barking, Essex, for the photograph of
the monument of Sir Charles Montague on p. 507; the Science and Art
Department for those on pp. 371, 440, 518, 612; Mr. W. H. WHEELER, of
Oxford, for those on pp. 319, 384; Messrs. VALENTINE & SONS, Dundee,
for those on pp. 109, 206, 213, 238, 244, 276, 355, 378, 485, 662,
666, 668, 683, 907, 919, 937, 942; and Mr. R. KEENE, Derby, for those
on pp. 466, 467, 469, 471.
CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME
PART I.
_ENGLAND BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST._
CHAPTER I.
PREHISTORIC AND ROMAN BRITAIN.
PAGE
1. Palæolithic Man of the River-Drift 1
2. Cave-dwelling Palæolithic Man 2
3. Neolithic Man 3
4. Celts and Iberians 5
5. The Celts in Britain 6
6. Goidels and Britons 6
7. Phoenicians and Greeks 7
8. Gauls and Belgians in Britain 8
9. Culture and War 9
10. Religion of the Britons 10
11. The Romans in Gaul B.C. 55 10
12. Cæsar's First Invasion. B.C. 55 11
13. Cæsar's Second Invasion. B.C. 54 11
14. South-eastern Britain after Cæsar's Departure.
B.C. 54--A.D. 43 12
15. The Roman Empire 12
16. The Invasion of Aulus Plautius. A.D. 43 12
17. The Colony of Camulodunum 13
18. The Conquests of Ostorius Scapula 14
19. Government of Suetonius Paullinus. 58 14
20. Boadicea's Insurrection. 61 15
21. The Vengeance of Suetonius 15
22. Agricola in Britain. 78--84 16
23. Agricola's Conquests in the North 16
24. The Roman Walls 17
25. The Roman Province of Britain 19
26. Extinction of Tribal Antagonism 21
27. Want of National Feeling 22
28. Carausius and Allectus. 288--296 22
29. Constantius and Constantine. 296--337 22
30. Christianity in Britain 23
31. Weakness of the Empire 23
32. The Picts and Scots 23
33. The Saxons 24
34. Origin of the Saxons 24
35. The Roman Defence 24
36. End of the Roman Government. 383--410 25
CHAPTER II.
THE ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS.
1. Britain after the Departure of the Romans.
410--449? 26
2. The Groans of the Britons 26
3. The Conquest of Kent. 449? 27
4. The South Saxons. 477 27
5. The West Saxons and the East Saxons 28
6. The Anglian Settlements 28
7. Nature of the Conquest 28
8. The Cultivators of the Soil 29
9. Eorls, Ceorls, Gesiths 29
10. The Gesiths and the Villagers 30
11. English and Welsh 31
12. The Township and the Hundred 31
13. Weregild 32
14. Compurgation and Ordeal 32
15. Punishments 32
16. The Folk-moot 33
17. The Kingship 33
18. The Legend of Arthur 33
19. The West Saxon Advance 34
20. Repulse of the West Saxons 35
21. The Advance of the Angles 36
22. The Kymry 36
23. Britain at the End of the Sixth Century 37
CHAPTER III.
THE STRIFE OF THE ENGLISH KINGDOMS.
1. England and the Continent 37
2. Æthelberht's Supremacy 38
3. Gregory and the English 38
4. Augustine's Mission. 597 39
5. Monastic Christianity 39
6. The Archbishopric of Canterbury 40
7. Death of Æthelberht. 616 41
8. The Three Kingdoms opposed to the Welsh 41
9. Æthelfrith and the Kymry 41
10. Æthelfrith's Victories 42
11. The Greatness of Eadwine 43
12. Eadwine's Supremacy 44
13. Character of the later Conquests 44
14. Political Changes 45
15. Eadwine's Conversion and Fall 46
16. Oswald's Victory at Heavenfield 47
17. Oswald and Aidan 47
18. Oswald's Greatness and Overthrow 47
19. Penda's Overthrow 48
20. The Three Kingdoms and the Welsh 48
21. The English Missionaries 49
22. Dispute between Wilfrid and Colman. 664 49
23. Archbishop Theodore and the Penitential System 50
24. Ealdhelm and Cædmon 51
25. Bede. 673--735 52
26. Church Councils 52
27. Struggle between Mercia and Wessex 52
28. Mohammedanism and the Carolingian Empire 54
29. Ecgberht's Rule. 802--839 54
CHAPTER IV.
THE ENGLISH KINGSHIP AND THE STRUGGLE WITH THE DANES.
1. The West Saxon Supremacy 55
2. The Coming of the Northmen 56
3. The English Coast Plundered 57
4. The Danes in the North 57
5. Ælfred's Struggle in Wessex. 871--878 58
6. The Treaty of Chippenham, and its Results. 878 59
7. Ælfred's Military Work 60
8. His Laws and Scholarship 60
9. Eadward the Elder. 899--925 62
10. Eadward's Conquests 62
11. Eadward and the Scots 63
12. Æthelstan. 925--940 63
13. Eadmund (940--946) and Eadred (946--955) 63
14. Danes and English 64
15. Eadwig. 955--959 64
16. Dunstan 65
17. Archbishop Oda 65
18. Eadwig's Marriage 67
CHAPTER V.
EADGAR'S ENGLAND.
1. Eadgar and Dunstan. 959--975 67
2. The Cession of Lothian 68
3. Changes in English Institutions 69
4. Growth of the King's Power 69
5. Conversion of the Freemen into Serfs 69
6. The Hundred-moot and the Lord's Court 72
7. The Towns 72
8. The Origin of the Shires 73
9. The Shire-moot 73
10. The Ealdormen and the Witenagemot 73
11. The Land 75
12. Domestic Life 75
13. Food and Drink 75
CHAPTER VI.
ENGLAND AND NORMANDY.
1. Eadward the Martyr. 975--979 78
2. Æthelred's Early Years. 979--988 79
3. The Return of the Danes. 984 79
4. The Norman Dukes. 912--1002 80
5. Political Contrast between Normandy and England 81
6. Svend's Conquest. 1002--1013 81
7. Æthelred Restored. 1014--1016 82
8. Eadmund Ironside. 1016 83
9. Cnut and the Earldoms. 1016--1035 83
10. Cnut's Empire 84
11. Cnut's Government 84
12. The Sons of Cnut. 1035--1042 85
13. Eadward the Confessor and Earl Godwine.
1042--1051 86
14. The Banishment of Godwine. 1051 87
15. Visit of Duke William. 1051 88
16. William and the Norman Church 88
17. The Return and Death of Godwine. 1052--1053 89
18. Harold's Greatness. 1053--1066 89
19. Harold and Eadward. 1057--1065 90
20. Death of Eadward. 1066 90
21. Harold and William. 1066 91
22. Stamford Bridge. 1066 93
23. The Landing of William. 1066 96
24. The Battle of Senlac. 1066 96
25. William's Coronation. 1066 98
PART II.
_THE NORMAN AND ANGEVIN KINGS._
CHAPTER VII.
WILLIAM I. 1066--1087.
1. The First Months of the Conquest. 1066--1067 101
2. The Conquest of the West and North. 1067--1069 102
3. The Completion of the Conquest. 1070 103
4. Hereward's Revolt and the Homage of Malcolm.
1070--1072 103
5. How William kept down the English 104
6. How William kept down the Normans 105
7. Ecclesiastical Organisation. 106
8. Pope Gregory VII. 107
9. William and Gregory VII. 108
10. The Rising of the Earls. 1075 110
11. The New Forest 110
12. Domesday Book. 1085--1086 111
13. William's Great Councils 112
14. The Gemot at Salisbury. 1086 113
15. William's Death. 1087 114
CHAPTER VIII.
WILLIAM II. 1087--1100.
1. The Accession of the Red King. 1087 114
2. The Wickedness of the Red King 115
3. Ranulf Flambard 116
4. Feudal Dues 116
5. Archbishop Anselm 117
6. The Council of Rockingham. 1095 118
7. William II. and his Brothers 118
8. William and Scotland. 1093--1094 119
9. Mowbray's Rebellion. 1095 120
10. The First Crusade. 1095--1099 120
11. Normandy in Pledge. 1096 121
12. The Last Years of the Red King 121
13. The Death of the Red King. 1100 122
CHAPTER IX.
HENRY I. AND STEPHEN.
HENRY I., 1100--1135. STEPHEN, 1135--1154.
1. The Accession of Henry I. 1100 122
2. Invasion of Robert. 1101 124
3. Revolt of Robert of Bellême. 1102 124
4. The Battle of Tinchebrai. 1106 124
5. Henry and Anselm. 1100--1107 125
6. Roger of Salisbury 126
7. Growth of Trade 127
8. The Benedictines 128
9. The Cistercians 129
10. The White Ship 129
11. The Last Years of Henry I. 131
12. Stephen's Accession. 1135 131
13. Civil War 133
14. Stephen's Quarrel with the Clergy. 1139 134
15. Anarchy. 1139 134
16. The End of the War. 1141--1148 135
17. Henry, Duke of the Normans. 1149 136
18. The Last Days of Stephen. 1153--1154 137
CHAPTER X.
HENRY II. 1154--1189.
1. Henry's Accession. 1154 138
2. Pacification of England 138
3. Henry and Feudality 140
4. The Great Council and the Curia Regis 141
5. Scutage 141
6. Archbishop Thomas. 1162 142
7. Breach between Henry and Thomas 143
8. The Constitutions of Clarendon. 1164 143
9. The Persecution of Archbishop Thomas. 1164 145
10. The Assize of Clarendon. 1166 146
11. Recognitions 147
12. The Germ of the Jury 147
13. The Itinerant Justices Revived 148
14. The Inquisition of the Sheriffs. 1170 148
15. The Nobles and the Church 149
16. The Coronation of Young Henry. 1170 149
17. The Return of Archbishop Thomas. 1170 149
18. Murder of Archbishop Thomas. 1170 149
19. Popular Indignation. 1171 151
20. State of Ireland 151
21. Partial Conquest of Ireland. 1166--1172 152
22. Young Henry's Coronation and the Revolt of
the Barons. 1172--1174 153
23. The Assize of Arms. 1181 154
24. Henry II. and his Sons 155
25. The Fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. 1187 156
26. The Last Years of Henry II. 1188--1189 157
27. The Work of Henry II. 157
CHAPTER XI.
RICHARD I. 1189--1199.
1. Richard in England. 1189 159
2. William of Longchamps. 1189--1191 159
3. The Third Crusade. 1189--1192 161
4. The Return of Richard. 1192--1194 161
5. Heavy Taxation 162
6. The Administration of Hubert Walter. 1194--1198 163
7. Death of Richard. 1199 165
8. Church and State under the Angevin Kings 165
9. Growth of Learning 167
10. The University of Oxford 167
11. Country and Town 168
12. Condition of London 169
13. Architectural Changes 170
PART III.
_THE GROWTH OF THE PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUTION._ 1199-1399.
CHAPTER XII.
JOHN. 1199-1216.
1. The Accession of John. 1199 173
2. John's First War with Philip II. 1199-1200 173
3. John's Misconduct in Poitou 1200-1201 174
4. The Loss of Normandy and Anjou. 1202-1204 174
5. Causes of Philip's Success 176
6. The Election of Stephen Langton to the
Archbishopric of Canterbury. 1205 176
7. Innocent III. and Stephen Langton. 1206 177
8. John's Quarrel with the Church. 1206-1208 178
9. England under an Interdict. 1208 178
10. John Excommunicated. 1209 178
11. The Pope threatens John with Deposition.
1212-1213 179
12. John's Submission. 1213 180
13. The Resistance of the Barons and Clergy. 1213 180
14. The Battle of Bouvines. 1214 181
15. The Struggle between John and the Barons.
1214-1215 181
16. Magna Carta. 1215 182
17. War between John and the Barons. 1215-1216 184
18. Conflict between Louis and John. 1216 184
CHAPTER XIII.
HENRY III. 1216-1272.
1. Henry III. and Louis. 1216-1217 185
2. The Renewal of the Great Charter. 1216-1217 185
3. Administration of Hubert de Burgh. 1219-1232 186
4. Administration of Peter des Roches. 1232-1234 188
5. Francis of Assisi 190
6. St. Dominic 190
7. The Coming of the Friars. 1220-1224 191
8. Monks and Friars 191
9. The King's Marriage. 1236 192
10. The Early Career of Simon de Montfort.
1231-1243 193
11. Papal Exactions. 1237-1243 194
12. A Weak Parliamentary Opposition. 1244 194
13. Growing Discontent. 1244-1254 195
14. The Knights of the Shire in Parliament. 1254 196
15. Fresh Exactions. 1254-1257 196
16. The Provisions of Oxford. 1258 198
17. The Expulsion of the Foreigners. 1258 199
18. Edward and the Barons. 1259 199
19. The Breach amongst the Barons. 1259--1261 199
20. Royalist Reaction and Civil War. 1261 200
21. The Mise of Amiens. 1264 200
22. The Battle of Lewes. 1264 201
23. Earl Simon's Government. 1264--1265 201
24. The Battle of Evesham. 1265 203
25. The Last Years of Henry III. 1265--1272 204
26. General Progress of the Country 206
CHAPTER XIV.
EDWARD I. AND EDWARD II.
EDWARD I., 1272--1307. EDWARD II., 1307--1327.
1. The First Years of Edward I. 1272--1279 208
2. Edward I. and Wales. 1276--1284 210
3. Customs Duties. 1275 210
4. Edward's Judicial Reforms. 1274--1290 212
5. Edward's Legislation. 1279--1290 212
6. Edward as a National and as a Feudal Ruler 212
7. The Scottish Succession. 1285--1290 214
8. Death of Eleanor of Castile. 1290 214
9. The Award of Norham. 1291--1292 215
10. Disputes with Scotland and France. 1293--1295 216
11. The Model Parliament. 1295 218
12. The First Conquest of Scotland. 1296 219
13. The Resistance of Archbishop Winchelsey.
1296--1297 220
14. The 'Confirmatio Cartarum.' 1297 220
15. Wallace's Rising. 1297--1304 221
16. The Second Conquest of Scotland. 1298--1304 221
17. The Incorporation of Scotland with England. 1305 222
18. Character of Edward's Dealings with Scotland 222
19. Robert Bruce. 1306 223
20. Edward's Third Conquest of Scotland and Death.
1306--1307 224
21. Edward II. and Piers Gaveston. 1307--1312 224
22. Success of Robert Bruce. 1307--1314 226
23. Lancaster's Government. 1314--1322 228
24. A Constitutional Settlement. 1322 228
25. The Rule of the Despensers. 1322--1326 228
26. The Deposition and Murder of Edward II. 1327 229
CHAPTER XV.
FROM THE ACCESSION OF EDWARD III. TO THE TREATY OF BRETIGNI.
1327--1360.
1. Mortimer's Government. 1327--1330 231
2. The French Succession. 1328--1331 232
3. Troubles in Scotland. 1331--1336 232
4. Dispute with France. 1336--1337 234
5. Edward's Allies. 1337--1338 235
6. Chivalry and War 235
7. Commerce and War 236
8. Attacks on the North of France. 1338--1340 237
9. Battle of Sluys. 1340 239
10. Attacks on the West of France. 1341--1345 240
11. The Campaign of Creçy. 1346 240
12. The Tactics of Creçy. 1346 241
13. The Battle of Creçy. August 26, 1346 242
14. Battle of Nevill's Cross, and the Siege of
Calais. 1346--1347 242
15. Constitutional Progress. 1337--1347 243
16. Edward's Triumph. 1347 246
17. The Black Death. 1348 248
18. The Statute of Labourers. 1351 248
19. The Statute of Treasons. 1352 250
20. The Black Prince in the South of France. 1355 251
21. The Battle of Poitiers. 1356 251
22. The Courtesy of the Black Prince 252
23. Misery of France. 1356--1359 252
24. Edward's Last Invasion. 1359--1360 252
25. The Treaty of Bretigni. 1360 253
CHAPTER XVI.
REIGN OF EDWARD III. AFTER THE TREATY OF BRETIGNI.
1360--1377.
1. The First Years of Peace. 1360--1364 254
2. The Spanish Troubles. 1364--1368 254
3. The Taxation of Aquitaine. 1368--1369 256
4. The Renewed War. 1369--1375 256
5. Anti-Papal Legislation. 1351--1366 257
6. Predominance of the English Language 258
7. Piers the Plowman. 1362 258
8. The Anti-Clerical Party. 1371 259
9. The Duke of Lancaster. 1374--1376 260
10. John Wycliffe. 1366--1376 261
11. Lancaster and the Black Prince. 1376 261
12. The Good Parliament. 1376 262
13. The Last Year of Edward III. 1376--1377 262
14. Ireland from the Reign of John to that of
Edward II. 264
15. The Statute of Kilkenny. 1367 265
16. Weakness of the English Colony. 1367--1377 265
CHAPTER XVII.
RICHARD II. AND THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION.
1377--1381.
1. The First Years of Richard II. 1377--1378 266
2. Wycliffe and the Great Schism. 1378--1381 266
3. The Poll Taxes. 1379--1381 267
4. The Peasants' Grievances 268
5. The Peasants' Revolt. 1381 268
6. The Suppression of the Revolt 269
7. Results of the Peasants' Revolt 269
8. Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' 270
9. The Prologue of the 'Canterbury Tales' 270
10. Chaucer and the Clergy 271
11. Roads and Bridges 272
12. Modes of Conveyance 273
13. Hospitality and Inns 274
14. Alehouses 274
15. Wanderers 274
16. Robbers and Criminals 275
17. Justices of the Peace 277
CHAPTER XVIII.
RICHARD II. AND THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION.
1382--1399.
1. Progress of the War with France. 1382--1386 278
2. Richard's Growing Unpopularity. 1385--1386 278
3. The Impeachment of Suffolk and the Commission
of Regency. 1386 279
4. The Lords Appellant and the Merciless Parliament.
1387--1388 279
5. Richard's Restoration to Power. 1389 280
6. Richard's Constitutional Government. 1389--1396 280
7. Livery and Maintenance. 1390 281
8. Richard's Domestic Policy. 1390--1391 281
9. Richard's Foreign Policy. 1389--1396 282
10. Richard's Coup d'État. 1397 282
11. The Parliament of Shrewsbury. 1398 283
12. The Banishment of Hereford and Norfolk. 1398 283
13. Richard's Despotism. 1398--1399 283
14. Henry of Lancaster in England. 1399 284
15. The Deposition of Richard and the Enthronement
of Henry IV. 1399 285
16. Nature of the Claim of Henry IV. 286
PART IV.
_LANCASTER, YORK, AND TUDOR._ 1399--1509.
CHAPTER XIX.
HENRY IV. AND HENRY V.
HENRY IV., 1399--1413. HENRY V., 1413--1422.
1. Henry's First Difficulties. 1399--1400 289
2. Death of Richard II. 1400 291
3. Henry IV. and the Church 291
4. The Statute for the Burning of Heretics. 1401 292
5. Henry IV. and Owen Glendower. 1400--1402 292
6. The Rebellion of the Percies. 1402--1404 293
7. The Commons and the Church. 1404 294
8. The Capture of the Scottish Prince. 1405 295
9. The Execution of Archbishop Scrope. 1405 296
10. France, Wales, and the North. 1405--1408 296
11. Henry, Prince of Wales. 1409--1410 297
12. The Last Years of Henry IV. 1411-1413 298
13. Henry V. and the Lollards. 1413-1414 299
14. Henry's Claim to the Throne of France. 1414 300
15. The Invasion of France. 1415 301
16. The March to Agincourt. 1415 302
17. The Battle of Agincourt, October 25, 1415 302
18. Henry's Diplomacy. 1416-1417 303
19. Henry's Conquest of Normandy. 1417-1419 303
20. The Murder of the Duke of Burgundy and the
Treaty of Troyes. 1419-1420 304
21. The Close of the Reign of Henry V. 1420-1422 306
CHAPTER XX.
HENRY VI. AND THE LOSS OF FRANCE. 1422-1451.
1. Bedford and Gloucester. 1422 307
2. Bedford's Success in France. 1423-1424 307
3. Gloucester's Invasion of Hainault. 1424 308
4. Gloucester and Beaufort. 1425-1428 308
5. The Siege of Orleans. 1428-1429 309
6. Jeanne Darc and the Relief of Orleans. 1429 310
7. The Coronation of Charles VII. and the Capture
of the Maid. 1429-1430 311
8. The Martyrdom at Rouen. 1431 312
9. The Last Years of the Duke of Bedford. 1431-1435 312
10. The Defection of Burgundy. 1435 313
11. The Duke of York in France. 1436-1437 313
12. The English Lose Ground. 1437-1443 313
13. Continued Rivalry of Beaufort and Gloucester.
1439-1441 314
14. Beaufort and Somerset. 1442-1443 317
15. The Angevin Marriage Treaty. 1444-1445 317
16. Deaths of Gloucester and Beaufort. 1447 318
17. The Loss of the French Provinces. 1448-1449 318
CHAPTER XXI.
THE LATER YEARS OF HENRY VI. 1450-1461.
1. The Growth of Inclosures 320
2. Increasing Power of the Nobility 321
3. Case of Lord Molynes and John Paston 321
4. Suffolk's Impeachment and Murder. 1450 322
5. Jack Cade's Rebellion. 1450 322
6. Rivalry of York and Somerset. 1450-1453 323
7. The First Protectorate of the Duke of York.
1453-1454 323
8. The First Battle of St. Albans and the Duke
of York's Second Protectorate 324
9. Discomfiture of the Yorkists. 1456-1459 325
10. The Battle of Northampton and the Duke of
York's Claim to the Throne. 1460 326
11. The Battle of Wakefield. 1460 327
12. The Battle of Mortimer's Cross and the Second
Battle of St. Albans. 1461 328
13. The Battle of Towton and the Coronation of
Edward IV. 1461 328
CHAPTER XXII.
THE YORKIST KINGS.
1461--1485.
1. Edward IV. and the House of Commons. 1461 329
2. Loss of the Mediæval Ideals 330
3. Fresh Efforts of the Lancastrians. 1462--1465 331
4. Edward's Marriage. 1464 331
5. Estrangement of Warwick. 1465--1468 332
6. Warwick's Alliance with Clarence. 1469--1470 332
7. The Restoration of Henry VI. 1470 333
8. Edward IV. recovers the Throne. 1471 334
9. Edward IV. prepares for War with France.
1471--1474 334
10. The Invasion of France. 1475 336
11. Fall and Death of Clarence. 1476--1478 336
12. The Last Years of Edward IV. 1478--1483 336
13. Edward V. and the Duke of Gloucester. 1483 337
14. Fall of the Queen's Relations. 1483 338
15. Execution of Lord Hastings 338
16. Deposition of Edward V. 1483 340
17. Buckingham's Rebellion. 1483 341
18. Murder of the Princes. 1483 342
19. Richard's Government. 1484--1485 342
20. Richard Defeated and Slain at Bosworth. 1485 343
CHAPTER XXIII.
HENRY VII. 1485--1509.
1. The First Measures of Henry VII. 1485--1486 343
2. Maintenance and Livery 345
3. Lovel's Rising. 1486 346
4. Lancaster and York in Ireland. 1399--1485 346
5. Insurrection of Lambert Simnel. 1487 347
6. The Court of Star Chamber. 1487 348
7. Henry VII. and Brittany. 1488--1492 348
8. Cardinal Morton's Fork. 1491 349
9. The Invasion of France. 1492 349
10. Perkin Warbeck. 1491--1494 350
11. Poynings' Acts. 1494 350
12. Perkin's First Attempt on England. 1495 351
13. The Intercursus Magnus. 1496 351
14. Kildare Restored to the Deputyship. 1496 352
15. Perkin's Overthrow. 1496--1497 352
16. European Changes. 1494--1499 352
17. Execution of the Earl of Warwick. 1499 354
18. Prince Arthur's Marriage and Death. 1501--1502 354
19. The Scottish Marriage. 1503 356
20. Maritime Enterprise 356
21. Growth of the Royal Power 356
22. Empson and Dudley 357
23. Henry and his Daughter-in-law. 1502--1505 357
24. The Last Years of Henry VII. 1505--1509 357
25. Architectural Changes and the Printing Press 358
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIG. PAGE
1. Palæolithic flint scraper from Icklingham, Suffolk 2
2. Palæolithic flint implement from Hoxne, Suffolk 2
(_From Evans's_ 'Ancient Stone Implements')
3. Engraved bone from Cresswell Crags, Derbyshire 3
(_From the original in the British Museum_)
4. Neolithic flint arrow-head from Rudstone, Yorks 3
5. Neolithic celt or cutting instrument from Guernsey 3
6. Neolithic axe from Winterbourn Steepleton, Dorset 4
(_From Evans's_ 'Ancient Stone Implements')
7. Example of early British pottery 4
8. 9. Examples of early British pottery 5
(_From Greenwell's_ 'British Barrows')
10. Bronze celt from the Isle of Harty, Kent 6
11. Bronze lance-head found in Ireland 6
12. Bronze caldron found in Ireland 6
(_From Evans's_ 'Ancient Bronze Implements')
13. View of Stonehenge 7
(_From a photograph_)
14. Part of a British gold corselet found at Mold, now
in the British Museum 9
(_From the_ 'Archæologia')
15. Bust of Julius Cæsar 10
(_From the original in the British Museum_)
16. Commemorative tablet of the Second Legion found at
Halton Chesters on the Roman Wall 17
17. View of part of the Roman Wall 18
18. Ruins of a mile-castle on the Roman Wall 18
(_From Bruce's_ 'Handbook to the Roman Wall,' 2nd
edition)
19. Part of the Roman Wall at Leicester 19
(_From Rickman's_ 'Gothic Architecture,' 6th edition,
by J. H. Parker)
20. Pediment of a Roman temple found at Bath 20
(_Reduced from the_ 'Archæologia')
21. Roman altar from Rutchester 21
(_From Bruce's_ 'Handbook to the Roman Wall', 2nd
edition)
22. Plan of the city of Old Sarum 34
(_From the Ordnance Survey Plan_)
23. View of Old Sarum 35
(_Reduced from Sir R. C. Hoare's_ 'History of
Modern Wiltshire. Old and New Sarum')
24. Saxon church at Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts 51
(_From Rickman's_ 'Gothic Architecture,' 6th edition,
by J. H. Parker)
25. Saxon horsemen 53
26. Group of Saxon warriors 53
(_From_ Harl. MS. 603)
27. Remains of a viking ship from Gokstad 56
(_From a photograph of the original at Christiania_)
28. Gold ring of Æthelwulf 57
29. Gold jewel of Ælfred found at Athelney 59
(_From_ 'Archæological Journal')
30. An English vessel 60
31. A Saxon house 61
(_From_ Harl. MS. 603)
32. A monk driven out of the King's presence 66
(_From a drawing belonging to the Society of
Antiquaries_)
33. Rural life in the eleventh century. January to June 70
34. Rural life in the eleventh century. July to December 71
(_From_ Cott. MS. Julius A. vi.)
35. Plan and section of a burh of the eleventh century
at Laughton-en-le-Morthen, Yorks 74
(_From G. T. Clark's_ 'Mediæval Military Architecture')
37. Glass tumbler 76
38. Drinking-glass 76
39. Comb and case of Scandinavian type found at York 77
(_From the originals in the British Museum_)
40. Martyrdom of St. Edmund by the Danes 82
(_From a drawing belonging to the Society of
Antiquaries_)
41. First Great Seal of Eadward the Confessor (obverse) 86
(_From an original impression_)
42. Hunting. (From the Bayeux Tapestry) 87
(_Reduced from_ 'Vetusta Monumenta,' vol. vi.)
43. Tower in the earlier style, church at Earl's Barton 91
44. Tower in the earlier style, St. Benet's church,
Cambridge 91
(_From Rickman's_ 'Gothic Architecture,' 6th edition,
by J. H. Parker)
45. Building a church in the later style 92
(_From a drawing belonging to the Society of
Antiquaries_)
46. Normans feasting; with Odo, bishop of Bayeux,
saying grace. 93
(From the Bayeux Tapestry)
47. Harold swearing upon the Relics. 94
(From the Bayeux Tapestry)
48. A Norman ship. 95
(From the Bayeux Tapestry)
49. Norman soldiers mounted. 95
(From the Bayeux Tapestry)
50. Group of archers on foot. 96
(From the Bayeux Tapestry)
51. Men fighting with axes. 97
(From the Bayeux Tapestry)
52. Death of Harold. (From the Bayeux Tapestry) 98
(_Reduced from_ 'Vetusta Monumenta,' vol. vi.)
53. Coronation of a king, _temp._ William the Conqueror 99
(_From a drawing belonging to the Society of
Antiquaries_)
54. Silver penny of William the Conqueror, struck at
Romney 101
(_From an original specimen_)
54. Silver penny of William the Conqueror, struck at
Romney 101
(_From an original specimen_)
55. East end of Darenth church, Kent 107
(_From Rickman's_ 'Gothic Architecture,' 6th edition,
by J. H. Parker)
56. Part of the nave of St. Alban's abbey church 109
(_From a photograph by Valentine & Sons, Dundee_)
57. Facsimile of a part of Domesday Book relating to
Berkshire 112
(_From the original MS. in the Public Record Office_)
58. Henry I. and his queen Matilda 123
(_From Hollis's_ 'Monumental Effigies')
59. Seal of Milo of Gloucester, showing mounted armed
figure in the reign of Henry I. 125
(_From an original impression_)
60. Monument of Roger, bishop of Salisbury, died 1139 127
(_From Stothard's_ 'Monumental Effigies')
61. Porchester church, Hampshire, built about 1135 128
(_From Rickman's_ 'Gothic Architecture,' 7th edition,
by J. H. Parker)
62. Part of the nave of Durham cathedral, built about
1130 130
(_From Scott's_ 'Mediæval Architecture,' London, J.
Murray)
63. Keep of Rochester castle, built between 1126 and
1139 132
(_From a photograph by Poulton & Sons, Lee_)
64. Keep of Castle Rising, built about 1140-50 133
(_From a photograph_)
65. Tower of Castor church, Northamptonshire, built about
1145 136
(_From Britton's_ 'Architectural Antiquities')
66. Effigies of Henry II. and queen Eleanor 139
(_From Stothard's_ 'Monumental Effigies')
67. Ecclesiastical costume in the twelfth century 142
(_From_ Cott. MS. Nero C. iv. f. 37)
68. A bishop ordaining a priest 144
69. Small ship of the latter part of the twelfth century 146
(_From_ 'Harley Roll,' Y. 6)
70. Part of the choir of Canterbury cathedral, in building
1175-1184 150
(_From Scott's_ 'Mediæval Architecture,' London, J.
Murray)
71. Mitre of archbishop Thomas of Canterbury, preserved
at Sens 153
(_From Shaw's_ 'Dresses and Decorations')
72. Military and civil costume of the latter part of the
twelfth century 154
(_From_ 'Harley Roll,' Y. 6)
73. Royal Arms of England from Richard I. to Edward III. 159
(_From the wall arcade, south aisle of nave,
Westminster Abbey_)
74. The Galilee or Lady chapel, Durham cathedral,
built by bishop Hugh of Puiset, between 1180 and
1197 160
(_From Scott's_ 'Mediæval Architecture,' London, J.
Murray)
75. Effigy of a knight in the Temple church, London,
showing armour of the end of the twelfth century 162
(_From Hollis's_ 'Monumental Effigies')
76. Effigies of Richard I. and queen Berengaria 164
(_From Stothard's_ 'Monumental Effigies')
77. Part of the choir of Ripon cathedral, built during
the last quarter of the twelfth century 166
(_From Scott's_ 'Mediæval Architecture,' London, J.
Murray)
78. Lay costumes in the twelfth century 168
79. Costume of shepherds in the twelfth century 168
(_From_ Cott. MS. Nero C. iv. ff. 11 and 16)
80. Hall of Oakham castle, Rutland, built about 1185 170
(_From Hudson Turner's_ 'Domestic Architecture')
81. Norman house at Lincoln, called the Jews' House 171
(_From a photograph by Carl Norman, Tunbridge Wells_)
82. Effigies of king John and queen Isabella 175
(_From Stothard's_ 'Monumental Effigies')
83. Effigy of bishop Marshall of Exeter, died 1206 177
(_From Murray's_ 'Handbook to the Southern Cathedrals')
84. Parsonage house of early thirteenth-century date at
West Dean, Sussex 179
(_From Hudson Turner's_ 'Domestic Architecture')
85. Effigy of a knight in the Temple church, London,
showing armour worn between 1190 and 1225 182
(_From Stothard's_ 'Monumental Effigies')
86. Silver penny of John, struck at Dublin 184
(_From an original example_)
87. Effigy of Henry III. (From his tomb at Westminster) 186
88. Effigy of William Longespée, earl of Salisbury,
died 1227, from his tomb at Salisbury, showing armour
worn from about 1225 to 1250 187
(_From Stothard's_ 'Monumental Effigies')
89. Effigy of Simon, bishop of Exeter, died 1223 188
(_From Murray's_ 'Handbook to the Southern Cathedrals')
90. Beverley Minster, Yorkshire, the south transept;
built about 1220--1230 189
(_From Britton's_ 'Architectural Antiquities')
91. Longthorpe manor house, Northamptonshire, built
about 1235 192
(_From Hudson Turner's_ 'Domestic Architecture')
92. A ship in the reign of Henry III. 193
93. A bed in the reign of Henry III. 196
(_From_ Cott. MS. Nero D. i. ff. 21 and 22 _b_)
94. Barn of thirteenth-century date at Raunds,
Northamptonshire 197
(_From Hudson Turner's_ 'Domestic Architecture')
95. A fight between armed and mounted knights of the time
of Henry III. 201
(_From_ Cott. MS. Nero D. i. f. 4)
96. Seal of Robert Fitzwalter, showing a mounted knight
in complete mail armour; date about 1265 202
(_From an original impression_)
97. Effigy of a knight at Gosperton, showing armour worn
from about 1250 to 1300; date about 1270 203
(_From Stothard's_ 'Monumental Effigies')
98. Building operations in the reign of Henry III., with
the king giving directions to the architect 204
(_From_ Cott. MS. Nero D. i. f. 23 _b_)
99. East end of Westminster abbey church; begun by
Henry III. in 1245 205
(_From a photograph_)
100. Nave of Salisbury cathedral church, looking west;
date, between 1240 and 1250 206
(_From a photograph by Valentine & Sons, Dundee_)
101. A king and labourers in the reign of Henry III. 207
(_From_ Cott. MS. Nero D. i. f. 21 _b_)
102. Great Seal of Edward I. (slightly reduced) 209
(_From an original impression_)
103. Group of armed knights and a king in ordinary
dress; date, _temp._ Edward I. 211
(_From_ Arundel MS. 83, f. 132)
104. Nave of Lichfield cathedral church, looking east;
built about 1280 213
(_From a photograph by Valentine & Sons, Dundee_)
105. Effigy of Eleanor of Castile, queen of Edward I.,
in Westminster abbey 215
(_From Stothard's_ 'Monumental Effigies')
106. Cross erected near Northampton by Edward I. in
memory of queen Eleanor 217
(_From a photograph_)
107. Sir John d'Abernoun, died 1277, from his brass at
Stoke Dabernon; showing armour worn from about 1250
to 1300 219
(_From Waller's_ 'Monumental Brasses')
108. Edward II. from his monument in Gloucester cathedral 225
(_From Stothard's_ 'Monumental Effigies')
109. Lincoln cathedral, the central tower; built about
1310 227
(_From Britton's_ 'Architectural Antiquities')
110. Sir John de Creke, from his brass at Westley
Waterless, Cambridgeshire; showing armour worn
between 1300 and 1335 or 1340; date, about 1325 229
(_From Waller's_ 'Monumental Brasses')
111. Howden church, Yorkshire, the west front 230
(_From Rickman's_ 'Gothic Architecture,' 7th
edition, by J. H. Parker)
112. Effigies of Edward III. and queen Philippa, from
their tombs in Westminster abbey 233
(_From Blore's_ 'Monumental Remains')
113. A knight--Sir Geoffrey Luttrell, who died
1345--receiving his helm and pennon from his wife;
another lady holds his shield 236
(_From the Luttrell Psalter_, 'Vetusta Monumenta')
114. William of Hatfield, second son of Edward III.,
from his tomb in York Minster 237
(_From Stothard's_ 'Monumental Effigies')
115. York Minster, the nave, looking west 238
(_From a photograph by Valentine & Sons, Dundee_)
116. Royal Arms of Edward III., from his tomb 239
(_From a photograph_)
117. Shooting at the butts with the long bow 241
118. Contemporary view of a fourteenth-century walled
town 243
(_From the Luttrell Psalter_, 'Vetusta Monumenta')
119. Gloucester cathedral church, the choir, looking east 244
(_From a photograph by Valentine & Sons, Dundee_)
120. The lord's upper chamber or solar at Sutton Courtenay
manor-house; date, about 1350 245
121. Interior of the hall at Penshurst, Kent; built about
1340 246
122. A small house or cottage at Meare, Somerset; built
about 1350 247
123. Norborough Hall, Northamptonshire; built about 1350 247
(_From Hudson Turner's_ 'Domestic Architecture')
124. Ploughing 248
125. Harrowing; and a boy slinging stones at the birds 248
126. Breaking the clods with mallets 249
127. Cutting weeds 249
128. Reaping 249
129. Stacking corn 250
130. Threshing corn with a flail 250
(_From the Luttrell Psalter_, 'Vetusta Monumenta')
131. West front of Edington church, Wilts; built about
1360 253
(_From Rickman's_ 'Gothic Architecture,' 7th edition,
by J. H. Parker)
132. Gold noble of Edward III. 255
(_From an original example_)
133. Effigy of Edward the Black Prince; from his tomb at
Canterbury 256
(_From Stothard's_ 'Monumental Effigies')
134. William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester
1367-1404; from his tomb at Winchester 260
(_From Murray's_ 'Handbook to the Southern Cathedrals')
135. Tomb of Edward III. in Westminster abbey 263
(_From Blore's_ 'Monumental Remains')
136. Figures of Edward the Black Prince and Lionel
duke of Clarence; from the tomb of Edward III. 264
(_From Hollis's_ 'Monumental Effigies')
137. Richard II. and his first queen, Anne of Bohemia;
from their tomb in Westminster abbey 267
(_From Hollis's_ 'Monumental Effigies')
138. Portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer 270
(_From Harl MS. 4866_)
139. A gentleman riding out with his hawk 271
140. Carrying corn, a cart going uphill 272
141. State carriage of the fourteenth century 273
142. Bear-baiting 275
(_From the Luttrell Psalter_, 'Vetusta Monumenta')
143. West end of the nave of Winchester cathedral church 276
(_From a photograph by Valentine & Sons, Dundee_)
144. Meeting of Henry of Lancaster and Richard II. at
Flint 284
145. Henry of Lancaster claiming the throne 285
(_From Harl MS. 1319_)
146. Effigy of a knight at Clehonger, showing development
of plate armour; date about 1400 287
(_From Hollis's_ 'Monumental Effigies')
147. Henry IV. and his queen Joan of Navarre; from their
tomb in Canterbury cathedral church 290
(_From Stothard's_ 'Monumental Effigies')
148. Royal arms as borne from about 1408 to 1603 291
(_From a fifteenth-century seal_)
149. Thomas Cranley, archbishop of Dublin; from his
brass at New College, Oxford, showing the
archiepiscopal costume 292
(_From Waller's_ 'Monumental Brasses')
150. The Battle of Shrewsbury 294
151. Fight in the lists with poleaxes 297
(_From_ Cott. MS. Julius E. iv. ff. 4 and 7)
152. Costume of a judge about 1400; from a brass at
Deerhurst 298
(_From Waller's_ 'Monumental Brasses')
153. Henry V. 300
(_From an original portrait belonging to the Society
of Antiquaries_)
154. Effigy of William Phelip, lord Bardolph; from
his tomb at Dennington, Suffolk 304
(_From Stothard's_ 'Monumental Effigies')
155. Marriage of Henry V. and Catherine of France 305
(_From_ Cott. MS. Julius E. iv. f. 22)
156. Henry VI. 308
(_From an original picture in the National Portrait
Gallery_)
157. Fotheringay church, Northamptonshire; begun in 1434 311
(_From a photograph by G. A. Nichols, Stamford_)
158. and 159. Front and back views of the gilt-latten
effigy of Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, died
1439; from his tomb at Warwick 314, 315
(_From Stothard's_ 'Monumental Effigies')
160. Tattershall castle, Lincolnshire; built between 1433
and 1455 316
(_From a photograph by G. A. Nichols, Stamford_)
161. Part of Winfield manor-house, Derbyshire; built
about 1440 318
(_From a photograph by R. Keene, Derby_)
162. The Divinity School, Oxford; built between 1445 and
1454 319
(_From a photograph by W. H. Wheeler, Oxford_)
163. A sea-fight 325
(_From_ Cott. MS. Julius E. iv. f. 18 _b_)
164. Effigy of Sir Robert Harcourt, K.G., showing
armour worn from about 1445 to 1480 326
(_From Stothard's_ 'Monumental Effigies')
165. Edward IV. 330
(_From an original portrait belonging to the Society
of Antiquaries_)
166. A fifteenth-century ship 333
(_From_ Harl. MS. 2278, f. 16)
167. Large ship and boat of the fifteenth century 339
(_From_ Cott. MS. Julius E. iv. f. 5)
168. Richard III. 341
(_From an original portrait belonging to the Society
of Antiquaries_)
169. Henry VII. 344
170. Elizabeth of York, queen of Henry VII. 345
(_From original pictures in the National Portrait
Gallery_)
171. Tudor Rose; from the chapel of Henry VII.,
Westminster 346
172. Tower of St. Mary's church, Taunton; built about 1500 353
(_From Britton's_ 'Architectural Antiquities')
173. King's College Chapel, Cambridge; interior, looking
east 355
(_From a photograph by Valentine & Sons, Dundee_)
GENEALOGICAL TABLES
I
_ENGLISH KINGS FROM ECGBERHT TO HENRY I._
ECGBERHT
802-839
|
|
ÆTHELWULF
839-858
|
+---------------+--------+--------+-----------------+
| | | |
| | | |
ÆTHELBALD ÆTHELBERHT ÆTHELRED ÆLFRED
858-86 860-866 866-871 871-901
|
|
+---------------------------------------------+
| |
| |
EADWARD Æthelflæd = Æthelred
the Elder (the Lady of Ealdorman
899-924 the of the
| Mercians) Mercians
|
|
+--------------------+--------------------+
| | |
| | |
ÆTHELSTAN EADMUND EADRED
924-940 940-946 946-955
|
|
+---------------------------+
| |
EADWIG Æthelflæd = EADGAR = Ælfthryth
955-959 | 959-975 |
| |
| | Richard I. Svend
| | Duke of |
| | Normandy |
| | | |
| | | |
+----------------+ | | |
| | | |
EADWARD Ælfled = ÆTHELRED = EMMA = CNUT
the Martyr | the | 1016-1035
975-979 | Unready | |
| 979-1016 | |
+---------------------------------+ | |
| | +------+-----+
| | | |
EADMUND | | |
Ironside | HAROLD HARTHACNUT
1016 | 1036-1039 1039-1042
| |
| |
| | Godwine
| | |
| | |
| | +------------+
+----+-------+ +-------------+ | |
| | | | | |
Eadmund Eadward Ælfred EADWARD = Eadgyth HAROLD
the Ætheling the the 1066
| Ætheling Confessor
| 1042-1066
+------+------+
| |
Eadgar Margaret = Malcolm Canmore
the Ætheling |
|
Eadgyth = HENRY I.
(Matilda) 1100-1135
II
_GENEALOGY OF THE NORMAN DUKES AND OF THE KINGS OF ENGLAND FROM THE
CONQUEST TO HENRY VII._
Hrolf
912-927 (?)
|
|
William Longsword
927 (?)-943
|
|
Richard I., the Fearless
943-996
|
|
+-------------+----------------+
| |
| |
Richard II., the Good Emma = (1) Æthelred
996-1026 | the Unready
| |
| |
+-------+--------+ |
| | |
| | |
Richard III. Robert EADWARD
1026-1028 1028-1035 the Confessor
)
(
)
WILLIAM I
1035-1087
King of England
1066-1087
|
|
|
+--------------+---+-------+-----------------+
| | | |
| | | |
Robert WILLIAM II HENRY I. Adela = Stephen
Duke of 1087-1100 1100-1135 | Count of
Normandy | | Blois
1087-1106 | |
| |
Henry V. = Matilda = Geoffrey STEPHEN
Emperor | Count of 1135-1154
| Anjou
|
HENRY II.
1154-1189
|
+--------------+
|
+-----------+------+------+------------+
| | | |
Henry Geoffrey RICHARD I. JOHN
1189-1199 1199-1216
|
|
HENRY III.
1216-1272
|
+---------------+
|
EDWARD I.
1272-1307
|
|
EDWARD II.
1307-1327
|
|
EDWARD III
1327-1377
|
+---------------+----+------------------+----------------+
| | | |
| | | |
Edward the Lionel John of Gaunt Edmund
Black Prince Duke of Clarence Duke of Lancaster Duke of York
| | | |
RICHARD II. Philippa = Edmund HENRY IV. |
1377-1399 | Mortimer 1399-1412 |
| Earl of | |
| March HENRY V. |
| 1413-1422 |
Roger, Earl of March | |
| HENRY VI. |
| 1422-1461 |
| |
+--------+--+ +-------------------------+
| | |
| | |
Edmund Anne = Richard
Earl of March | Earl of Cambridge
|
Richard, Duke of York
|
|
+-----------+----------+
| |
| |
EDWARD IV. RICHARD III.
1461-1483 1483-1485
|
|
+------+------------+
| |
EDWARD V. Elizabeth = HENRY VII.
1483 1485-1509
(Descended from
John of Gaunt by
Catherine Swynford)
III
_GENEALOGY OF THE KINGS OF SCOTLAND FROM DUNCAN I. TO JAMES IV._
DUNCAN I.
(died 1057)
|
+--------+-----------------+
| |
Margaret = MALCOLM III.~~~~~~~~~ DONALD BANE
sister of | Canmore ) 1093-1094,
Edgar | 1057-1093 ( restored
Ætheling | ) 1095-1098
| (
| DUNCAN II.
+--------+--+-----------+ 1094-1095
| | |
EDGAR ALEXANDER I. DAVID I.
1098-1107 1107-1124 1124-1153
|
Henry
|
+-----------+-----------+--------+
| | |
MALCOLM IV. WILLIAM David
1153-1165 the Lion Earl of Huntingdon
1165-1214 |
| +--+---------------------+
| | |
ALEXANDER II. Margaret Isabella
1214-1249 | |
Devorguilla = John Balliol Robert Bruce
ALEXANDER III. | |
1249-1285 JOHN BALLIOL Robert Bruce
| 1292-1296 |
Margaret = Eric, ROBERT BRUCE
| King of 1306-1329
| Norway |
| +-------------+-+
| | |
Margaret DAVID II. Margaret = Walter
(the Maid of 1329-1370 | Stewart
Norway) |
+-------------------------+
|
ROBERT II., Stewart or Stuart
1370-1390
|
ROBERT III.
1390-1406
|
JAMES I.
1406-1437
|
JAMES II.
1437-1460
|
JAMES III.
1460-1488
|
JAMES IV.
1488-1513
IV
_GENEALOGY OF THE KINGS OF FRANCE FROM HUGH CAPET TO LOUIS XII._
Hugh the Great
(died 956)
|
HUGH CAPET
987-996
|
ROBERT
996-1031
|
HENRY I.
1031-1060
|
PHILIP I.
1060-1108
|
LOUIS VI.
1108-1137
|
LOUIS VII.
1137-1180
|
PHILIP II.
1180-1223
|
LOUIS VIII.
1223-1226
|
(St.) LOUIS IX
1226-1270
|
PHILIP III.
1270-1285
|
+---------------------------------+
| |
PHILIP IV. Charles
1283-1314 of Valois
| |
+---------------+---+--------+------------+ |
| | | | PHILIP VI
LOUIS X. PHILIP V. CHARLES IV. Isabella 1328-1350
1314-1316 1316-1322 1322-1328 m. Edward II. |
| | | |
+--+---+ | | |
| | Two Edward III. JOHN
Jeanne JOHN daughters 1350-1364
(died seven |
days old) |
+-----------------------------+---+
| |
CHARLES V. Dukes of Burgundy
1364-1380 Philip
| |
+---------------------+ |
| | John
CHARLES VI. Louis |
1380-1422 Duke of Orleans Philip
| | |
CHARLES VII. Charles Charles
1422-1461 Duke of Orleans
| |
LOUIS XI. LOUIS XII.
1461-1483 1498-1519
|
CHARLES VIII.
1483-1498
_SHORTER AND SOMETIMES MORE DETAILED GENEALOGIES will be found in the
following pages._
PAGE
Genealogy of the principal Northumbrian kings 41
" " English kings from Ecgberht to Eadgar 56
" " English kings from Eadgar to Eadgar the Ætheling 78
" " Danish kings 83
Genealogical connection between the Houses of England and
Normandy 84
Genealogy of the Mercian Earls 85
" " family of Godwine 89
" " Conqueror's sons and children 131
" " sons and grandchildren of Henry II. 156
" " John's sons and grandsons 208
" " claimants of the Scottish throne 216
" " more important sons of Edward III. 265
" " claimants of the throne in 1399 286
" " kings of Scotland from Robert Bruce to James I. 295
" " Nevills 324
" " Houses of Lancaster and York 327
" " Beauforts and Tudors 335
" " House of York 337
" " Woodvilles and Greys 338
Abbreviated genealogy of Henry VII. and his competitors 344
Genealogy of the Houses of Spain and Burgundy 349
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
PART I.
_ENGLAND BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST._
CHAPTER I.
PREHISTORIC AND ROMAN BRITAIN.
LEADING DATES
Cæsar's first invasion B.C. 55
Invasion of Aulus Plautius A.D. 43
Recall of Agricola 84
Severus in Britain 208
End of the Roman Government 410
1. =Palæolithic Man of the River-Drift.=--Countless ages ago, there
was a period of time to which geologists have given the name of the
Pleistocene Age. The part of the earth's surface afterwards called
Britain was then attached to the Continent, so that animals could pass
over on dry land. The climate was much colder than it is now, and it
is known from the bones which have been dug up that the country was
inhabited by wolves, bears, mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, and other
creatures now extinct. No human remains have been found amongst these
bones, but there is no doubt that men existed contemporaneously with
their deposit, because, in the river drift, or gravel washed down by
rivers, there have been discovered flints sharpened by chipping, which
can only have been produced by the hand of man. The men who used them
are known as Palæolithic, or the men of ancient stone, because these
stone implements are rougher and therefore older than others which
have been discovered. These Palæolithic men of the river drift were a
race of stunted savages who did not cultivate the ground, but lived on
the animals which they killed, and must have had great difficulty in
procuring food, as they did not know how to make handles for their
sharpened flints, and must therefore have had to hold them in their
hands.
[Illustration: Palæolithic flint scraper from Icklingham, Suffolk.
(Evans.)]
[Illustration: Palæolithic flint implement from Hoxne, Suffolk.]
2. =Cave-dwelling Palæolithic Man.=--This race was succeeded by
another which dwelt in caves. They, as well as their predecessors, are
known as Palæolithic men, as their weapons were still very rude. As,
however, they had learnt to make handles for them, they could
construct arrows, harpoons, and javelins. They also made awls and
needles of stone; and, what is more remarkable, they possessed a
decided artistic power, which enabled them to indicate by a few
vigorous scratches the forms of horses, mammoths, reindeer, and other
animals. Vast heaps of rubbish still exist in various parts of Europe,
which are found to consist of the bones, shells, and other refuse
thrown out by these later Palæolithic men, who had no reverence for
the dead, casting out the bodies of their relations to decay with as
little thought as they threw away oyster-shells or reindeer-bones.
Traces of Palæolithic men of this type have been found as far north as
Derbyshire. Their descendants are no longer be met with in these
islands. The Eskimos of the extreme north of America, however, have
the same artistic faculty and the same disregard for the dead, and it
has therefore been supposed that the cave-dwelling men were of the
race to which the modern Eskimos belong.
[Illustration: Engraved bone from Cresswell Crags, Derbyshire, now in
the British Museum (full size).]
[Illustration: Neolithic flint arrow-head from Rudstone, Yorks.
(Evans.)]
[Illustration: Neolithic celt or cutting instrument from Guernsey.
(Evans.)]
[Illustration: Neolithic axe from Winterbourn Steepleton, Dorset.
(Evans.)]
[Illustration: Early British Pottery.]
3. =Neolithic Man.=--Ages passed away during which the climate became
more temperate, and the earth's surface in these regions sank to a
lower level. The seas afterwards known as the North Sea and the
English Channel flowed over the depression; and an island was thus
formed out of land which had once been part of the continent. After
this process had taken place, a third race appeared, which must have
crossed the sea in rafts or canoes, and which took the place of the
Palæolithic men. They are known as Neolithic, or men of the new stone
age, because their stone implements were of a newer kind, being
polished and more efficient than those of their predecessors. They
had, therefore, the advantage of superior weapons, and perhaps of
superior strength, and were able to overpower those whom they found in
the island. With their stone axes they made clearings in the woods in
which to place their settlements. They brought with them domestic
animals, sheep and goats, dogs and pigs. They spun thread with spindle
and distaff, and wove it into cloth upon a loom. They grew corn and
manufactured a rude kind of pottery. Each tribe lived in a state of
war with its neighbours. A tribe when attacked in force took shelter
on the hills in places of refuge, which were surrounded by lofty
mounds and ditches. Many of these places of refuge are still to be
seen, as, for instance, the one which bears the name of Maiden Castle,
near Dorchester. On the open hills, too, are still to be found the
long barrows which the Neolithic men raised over the dead. There is
little doubt that these men, whose way of life was so superior to that
of their Eskimo-like predecessors, were of the race now known as
Iberian, which at one time inhabited a great part of Western Europe,
but which has since mingled with other races. The Basques of the
Pyrenees are the only Iberians who still preserve anything like purity
of descent, though even the Basques have in them blood the origin of
which is not Iberian.
[Illustration: Early British Pottery.]
4. =Celts and Iberians.=--The Iberians were followed by a swarm of
new-comers called Celts. The Celts belong to a group of races
sometimes known as the Aryan group, to which also belong Teutons,
Slavonians, Italians, Greeks, and the chief ancient races of Persia
and India. The Celts were the first to arrive in the West, where they
seized upon lands in Spain, in Gaul, and in Britain, which the
Iberians had occupied before them. They did not, however, destroy the
Iberians altogether. However careful a conquering tribe maybe to
preserve the purity of its blood, it rarely succeeds in doing so. The
conquerors are sure to preserve some of the men of the conquered race
as slaves, and a still larger number of young and comely women who
become the mothers of their children. In time the slaves and the
children learn to speak the language of their masters or fathers. Thus
every European population is derived from many races.
[Illustration: Bronze celt from the Isle of Harty, Kent (1/2).]
5. =The Celts in Britain.=--The Celts were fair-haired and taller than
the Iberians, whom they conquered or displaced. They had the advantage
of being possessed of weapons of bronze, for which even the polished
stone weapons of the Iberians were no match. They burned instead of
burying their dead, and raised over the ashes those round barrows
which are still to be found intermingled with the long barrows of the
Iberians.
[Illustration: Bronze lance-head found in Ireland.]
[Illustration: Bronze caldron found in Ireland.]
6. =Goidels and Britons.=--The earliest known name given to this
island was Albion. It is uncertain whether the word is of Celtic or of
Iberian origin. The later name Britain is derived from a second swarm
of Celts called Brythons or Britons, who after a long interval
followed the first Celtic immigration. The descendants of these first
immigrants are distinguished from the new-comers by the name of
Goidels, and it is probable that they were at one time settled in
Britain as well as in Ireland, and that they were pushed across the
sea into Ireland by the stronger and more civilised Britons. At all
events, when history begins Goidels were only to be found in Ireland,
though at a later time they colonised a part of what is now known as
Scotland, and sent some offshoots into Wales. At present the languages
derived from that of the Goidels are the Gaelic of the Highlands, the
Manx of the Isle of Man, and the Erse of Ireland. The only language
now spoken in the British Isles which is derived from that of the
Britons is the Welsh; but the old Cornish language, which was spoken
nearly up to the close of the eighteenth century, came from the same
stock. It is therefore likely that the Britons pushed the Goidels
northward and westward, as the Goidels had formerly pushed the
Iberians in the same directions. It was most likely that the Britons
erected the huge stone circle of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, though
it is not possible to speak with certainty. That of Avebury is of an
earlier date and uncertain origin. Both were probably intended to
serve as monuments of the dead, though it is sometimes supposed that
they were also used as temples.
[Illustration: View of Stonehenge. (From a photograph.)]
7. =Phoenicians and Greeks.=--The most civilised nations of the
ancient world were those which dwelt round the Mediterranean Sea. It
was long supposed that the Phoenicians came to Britain from the coast
of Syria, or from their colonies at Carthage and in the south of
Spain, for the tin which they needed for the manufacture of bronze.
The peninsula of Devon and Cornwall is the only part of the island
which produces tin, and it has therefore been thought that the
Cassiterides, or tin islands, which the Phoenicians visited, were to
be found in that region. It has, however, been recently shown that the
Cassiterides were most probably off the coast of Galicia, in Spain,
and the belief that Phoenicians visited Britain for tin must therefore
be considered to be very doubtful. The first educated visitor who
reached Britain was Pytheas, a Greek, who was sent by the merchants of
the Greek colony of Massalia (_Marseilles_) about =330= B.C. to make
discoveries which might lead to the opening across Gaul of a
trade-route between Britain and their city. It was probably in
consequence of the information which he carried to Massalia on his
return that there sprang up a trade in British tin. Another Greek,
Posidonius, who came to Britain about two centuries after Pytheas,
found this trade in full working order. The tin was brought by land
from the present Devon or Cornwall to an island called Ictis, which
was only accessible on foot after the tide had ebbed. This island was
probably Thanet, which was in those days cut off from the mainland by
an arm of the sea which could be crossed on foot at low water. From
Thanet the tin was carried into Gaul across the straits, and was then
conveyed in waggons to the Rhone to be floated down to the
Mediterranean.
8. =Gauls and Belgians in Britain.=--During the time when this trade
was being carried on, tribes of Gauls and Belgians landed in Britain.
The Gauls were certainly, and the Belgians probably, of the same
Celtic race as that which already occupied the island. The Gauls
settled on the east coast as far as the Fens and the Wash, whilst the
Belgians occupied the south coast, and pushed northwards towards the
Somerset Avon. Nothing is known of the relations between the
new-comers and the older Celtic inhabitants. Most likely those who
arrived last contented themselves with mastering those whom they
defeated, without attempting to exterminate them. At all events,
states of some extent were formed by the conquerors. Thus the Cantii
occupied the open ground to the north of the great forest which then
filled the valley between the chalk ranges of the North and South
Downs; the Trinobantes dwelt between the Lea and the Essex Stour; the
Iceni occupied the peninsula between the Fens and the sea which was
afterwards known as East Anglia (_Norfolk_ and _Suffolk_); and the
Catuvellauni dwelt to the west of the Trinobantes, spreading over the
modern Hertfordshire and the neighbouring districts.
[Illustration: Part of a British gold corselet found at Mold.]
9. =Culture and War.=--Though there were other states in Britain, the
tribes which have been named had the advantage of being situated on
the south-eastern part of the island, and therefore of being in
commercial communication with the continental Gauls of their own race
and language. Trade increased, and brought with it the introduction of
some things which the Britons would not have invented for themselves.
For instance, the inhabitants of the south-east of Britain began to
use gold coins and decorations in imitation of those which were then
common in Gaul. Yet, in spite of these improvements, even the most
civilised Britons were still in a rude and barbarous condition. They
had no towns, but dwelt in scattered huts. When they were hard pressed
by an enemy they took refuge in an open space cleared in the woods,
and surrounded by a high earthwork crowned by a palisade and guarded
by felled trees. When they went out to battle they dyed their faces in
order to terrify their enemies. Their warriors made use of chariots,
dashing in them along the front of the enemy's line till they espied
an opening in his ranks. They then leapt down and charged on foot into
the gap. Their charioteers in the meanwhile drove off the horses to a
safe distance, so as to be ready to take up their comrades if the
battle went against them.
10. =Religion of the Britons.=--The Celtic races worshipped many gods.
In Gaul, the Druids, who were the ministers of religion, taught the
doctrine of the transmigration of souls, and even gave moral
instruction to the young. In Ireland, and perhaps in Britain, they
were conjurers and wizards. Both in Gaul and Britain they kept up the
traditional belief which had once been prevalent in all parts of the
world, that the gods could only be appeased by human sacrifices. It
was supposed that they needed either to drink human blood or to be
supplied with human slaves, and that the only way to give them what
they wanted was to despatch as many human beings as possible into the
other world. The favourite way of doing this was to construct a huge
wicker basket in the shape of a man, to cram it with men and women,
and to set it on fire. At other times a Druid would cut open a single
human victim, and would imagine that he could foretell the future by
inspecting the size and appearance of the entrails.
[Illustration: Julius Cæsar. (From a bust in the British Museum.)]
11. =The Romans in Gaul.= B.C. =55=.--In the year =55= B.C. the Celts
of south-eastern Britain first came in contact with a Roman army. The
Romans were a civilised people, and had been engaged for some
centuries in conquering the peoples living round the Mediterranean.
They possessed disciplined armies, and a regular government. By the
beginning of the year the Roman general, Gaius Julius Cæsar, had made
himself master of Gaul. Then, after driving back with enormous
slaughter two German tribes which had invaded Gaul, he crossed the
Rhine, not because he wished to conquer Germany, but because he wished
to strike terror into the Germans in order to render them unwilling
to renew their attack. This march into Germany seems to have suggested
to Cæsar the idea of invading Britain. It is most unlikely that he
thought of conquering the island, as he had quite enough to do in
Gaul. What he really wanted was to prevent the Britons from coming to
the help of their kindred whom he had just subdued, and he would
accomplish this object best by landing on their shores and showing
them how formidable a Roman army was.
12. =Cæsar's First Invasion.= B.C. =55=.--Accordingly, towards the end
of August, Cæsar crossed the straits with about 10,000 men. There is
some uncertainty about the place of his landing, but he probably first
appeared off the spot at which Dover now stands, and then, being
alarmed at the number of the Britons who had crowded to defend the
coast, made his way by sea to the site of the modern Deal. There, too,
his landing was opposed, but he managed to reach the shore with his
army. He soon found, however, that the season was too advanced to
enable him to accomplish anything. A storm having damaged his shipping
and driven off the transports on which was embarked his cavalry, he
returned to Gaul.
13. =Cæsar's Second Invasion.= B.C. =54=--Cæsar had hitherto failed to
strike terror into the Britons. In the following year he started in
July, so as to have many weeks of fine weather before him, taking with
him as many as 25,000 foot and 2,000 horse. After effecting a landing
he pushed inland to the Kentish Stour, where he defeated the natives
and captured one of their stockades. Good soldiers as the Romans were,
they were never quite at home on the sea, and Cæsar was recalled to
the coast by the news that the waves had dashed to pieces a large
number of his ships. As soon as he had repaired the damage he resumed
his march. His principal opponent was Cassivelaunus, the chief of the
tribe of the Catuvellauni, who had subdued many of the neighbouring
tribes, and whose stronghold was a stockade near the modern St.
Albans. This chief and his followers harassed the march of the Romans
with the rush of their chariots. If Cassivelaunus could have counted
upon the continued support of all his warriors, he might perhaps have
succeeded in forcing Cæsar to retreat, as the country was covered with
wood and difficult to penetrate. Many of the tribes, however, which
now served under him longed to free themselves from his rule. First,
the Trinobantes and then four other tribes broke away from him and
sought the protection of Cæsar. Cæsar, thus encouraged, dashed at his
stockade and carried it by storm. Cassivelaunus abandoned the
struggle, gave hostages to Cæsar, and promised to pay a yearly
tribute. On this Cæsar returned to Gaul. Though the tribute was never
paid, he had gained his object. He had sufficiently frightened the
British tribes to make it unlikely that they would give him any
annoyance in Gaul.
14. =South-eastern Britain after Cæsar's Departure.= B.C. =54=--A.D.
=43=.--For nearly a century after Cæsar's departure Britain was left
to itself. The Catuvellauni recovered the predominance which they had
lost. Their chieftain, Cunobelin, the original of Shakspere's
Cymbeline, is thought to have been a grandson of Cassivelaunus. He
established his power over the Trinobantes as well as over his own
people, and made Camulodunum, the modern Colchester, his headquarters.
Other tribes submitted to him as they had submitted to his
grandfather. The prosperity of the inhabitants of south-eastern
Britain increased more rapidly than the prosperity of their ancestors
had increased before Cæsar's invasion. Traders continued to flock over
from Gaul, bringing with them a knowledge of the arts and refinements
of civilised life, and those arts and refinements were far greater now
that Gaul was under Roman rule than they had been when its Celtic
tribes were still independent. Yet, in spite of the growth of trade,
Britain was still a rude and barbarous country. Its exports were but
cattle and hides, corn, slaves, and hunting dogs, together with a few
dusky pearls.
15. =The Roman Empire.=--The Roman state was now a monarchy. The
Emperor was the head of the army, as well as the head of the state.
Though he was often a cruel oppressor of the wealthy personages who
lived in Rome itself, and whose rivalry he feared, he, for the most
part, sought to establish his power by giving justice to the provinces
which had once been conquered by Rome, but were now admitted to share
in the advantages of good government which the Empire had to give. One
consequence of the conquest of nations by Rome was that there was now
an end to cruel wars between hostile tribes. An army was stationed on
the frontier of the Empire to defend it against barbarian attacks. In
the interior the Roman peace, as it was called, prevailed, and there
was hardly any need of soldiers to keep order and to maintain
obedience.
16. =The Invasion of Aulus Plautius.= A.D. =43=.--One question which
each Emperor had to ask himself was whether he would attempt to
enlarge the limits of the Empire or not. For a time each Emperor had
resolved to be content with the frontier which Cæsar had left. There
had consequently for many years been no thought of again invading
Britain. At last the Emperor Claudius reversed this policy. There is
reason to suppose that some of the British chiefs had made an attack
upon the coasts of Gaul. However this may have been, Claudius in =43=
sent Aulus Plautius against Togidumnus and Caratacus, the sons of
Cunobelin, who were now ruling in their father's stead. Where one
tribe has gained supremacy over others, it is always easy for a
civilised power to gain allies amongst the tribes which have been
subdued. Cæsar had overpowered Cassivelaunus by enlisting on his side
the revolted Trinobantes, and Aulus Plautius now enlisted on his side
the Regni, who dwelt in the present Sussex, and the Iceni, who dwelt
in the present Norfolk and Suffolk. With their aid, Aulus Plautius, at
the head of 40,000 men, defeated the sons of Cunobelin. Togidumnus was
slain, and Caratacus driven into exile. The Romans then took
possession of their lands, and, stepping into their place, established
over the tribes chieftains who were now dependent on the Emperor
instead of on Togidumnus and Caratacus. Claudius himself came for a
brief visit to receive the congratulations of the army on the victory
which his lieutenant had won. Aulus Plautius remained in Britain till
=47=. Before he left it the whole of the country to the south of a
line drawn from the Wash to some point on the Severn had been
subjugated. The mines of the Mendips and of the western peninsula were
too tempting to be left unconquered, and it is probably their
attraction which explains the extension of Roman power at so early a
date over the hilly country in the west.
17. =The Colony of Camulodunum.=--In =47= Aulus Plautius was succeeded
by Ostorius Scapula. He disarmed the tribes dwelling to the west of
the Trent, whilst he attempted to establish the Roman authority more
firmly over those whose territory lay to the east of that river.
Amongst these later were the Iceni, who had been hitherto allowed to
preserve their native government in dependence on the Roman power. The
consequence was that they rose in arms. Ostorius overpowered them, and
then sought to strengthen his hold upon the south-east of Britain by
founding (=51=) a Roman colony at Camulodunum, which had formerly been
the headquarters of Cunobelin. Roman settlers--for the most part
discharged soldiers--established themselves in the new city, bringing
with them all that belonged to Roman life with all its conveniences
and luxuries. Roman temples, theatres, and baths quickly rose, and
Ostorius might fairly expect that in Britain, as in Gaul, the native
chiefs would learn to copy the easy life of the new citizens, and
would settle their quarrels in Roman courts of law instead of taking
arms on their own behalf.
18. =The Conquests of Ostorius Scapula.=--Ostorius, however, was soon
involved in fresh troubles. Nothing is more difficult for a civilised
power than to guard a frontier against barbarous tribes. Such tribes
are accustomed to plunder one another, and they are quick to perceive
that the order and peace which a civilised power establishes offers
them a richer booty than is to be found elsewhere. The tribes beyond
the line which Ostorius held were constantly breaking through to
plunder the Roman territory, and he soon found that he must either
allow the lands of Roman subjects to be plundered, or must carry war
amongst the hostile tribes. He naturally chose the latter alternative,
and the last years of his government were spent in wars with the
Ordovices of Central Wales, and with the Silures of Southern Wales.
The Silures were not only a most warlike people, but they were led by
Caratacus, who had taken refuge with them after his defeat by Aulus
Plautius in the east. The mountainous region which these two tribes
defended made it difficult to subdue them, and though Caratacus was
defeated (=50=), and ultimately captured and sent as a prisoner to
Rome, Ostorius did not succeed in effectually mastering his hardy
followers. The proof of his comparative failure lies in the fact that
he established strong garrison towns along the frontier of the hilly
region, which he would not have done unless he had considered it
necessary to have a large number of soldiers ready to check any
possible rising. At the northern end of the line was Deva (_Chester_),
at the southern was Isca Silurum (_Caerleon upon Usk_) and in each of
which was placed a whole legion, about 5,000 men. Between them was the
smaller post of Uriconium, or more properly Viriconium (_Wroxeter_),
the city of the Wrekin.
19. =Government of Suetonius Paullinus.= =58.=--When Suetonius
Paullinus arrived to take up the government, he resolved to complete
the conquest of the west by an attack on Mona (_Anglesey_). In Mona
was a sacred place of the Druids, who gave encouragement to the still
independent Britons by their murderous sacrifices and their
soothsayings. When Suetonius attempted to land (=61=), a rabble of
women, waving torches and shrieking defiance, rushed to meet him on
the shore. Behind them the Druids stood calling down on the intruders
the vengeance of the gods. At first the soldiers were terrified and
shrunk back. Then they recovered courage, and put to the sword or
thrust into the flames the priests and their female rout. The Romans
were tolerant of the religion of the peoples whom they subdued, but
they could not put up with the continuance of a cruel superstition
whose upholders preached resistance to the Roman government.
20. =Boadicea's Insurrection.= =61.=--At the very moment of success
Suetonius was recalled hurriedly to the east. Roman officers and
traders had misused the power which had been given them by the valour
of Roman soldiers. Might had been taken for right, and the natives
were stripped of their lands and property at the caprice of the
conquerors. Those of the natives to whom anything was left were called
upon to pay a taxation far too heavy for their means. When money was
not to be found to satisfy the tax-gatherer, a Roman usurer was always
at hand to proffer the required sum at enormous interest, after which
the unhappy borrower who accepted the proposal soon found himself
unable to pay the debt, and was stripped of all that he possessed to
satisfy the cravings of the lender. Those who resisted this oppression
were treated as the meanest criminals. Boadicea, the widow of
Prasutagus, who had been the chief of the Iceni, was publicly flogged,
and her two daughters were subjected to the vilest outrage. She called
upon the whole Celtic population of the east and south to rise against
the foreign tyrants. Thousands answered to her call, and the angry
host rushed to take vengeance upon the colonists of Camulodunum. The
colonists had neglected to fortify their city, and the insurgents,
bursting in, slew by the sword or by torture men and women alike. The
massacre spread wherever Romans were to be found. A Roman legion
hastening to the rescue was routed, and the small force of cavalry
attached to it alone succeeded in making its escape. Every one of the
foot soldiers was slaughtered on the spot. It is said that 70,000
Romans perished in the course of a few days.
21. =The Vengeance of Suetonius.=--Suetonius was no mean general, and
he hastened back to the scene of destruction. He called on the
commander of the legion at Isca Silurum to come to his help. Cowardice
was rare in a Roman army, but this officer was so unnerved by terror
that he refused to obey the orders of his general, and Suetonius had
to march without him. He won a decisive victory at some unknown spot,
probably not far from Camulodunum, and 80,000 Britons are reported to
have been slain by the triumphant soldiery. Boadicea committed suicide
by poison. The commander of the legion at Isca Silurum also put an end
to his own life, in order to escape the punishment which he deserved.
Suetonius had restored the Roman authority in Britain, but it was to
his failure to control his subordinates that the insurrection had been
due, and he was therefore promptly recalled by the Emperor Nero. From
that time no more is heard of the injustice of the Roman government.
22. =Agricola in Britain.= =78--84.=--Agricola, who arrived as
governor in =78=, took care to deal fairly with all sorts of men, and
to make the natives thoroughly satisfied with his rule. He completed
the conquest of the country afterwards known as Wales, and thereby
pushed the western frontier of Roman Britain to the sea. Yet from the
fact that he found it necessary still to leave garrisons at Deva and
Isca Silurum, it may be gathered that the tribes occupying the hill
country were not so thoroughly subdued as to cease to be dangerous.
Although the idea entertained by Ostorius of making a frontier on land
towards the west had thus been abandoned, it was still necessary to
provide a frontier towards the north. Even before Agricola arrived it
had been shown to be impossible to stop at the line between the Mersey
and the Humber. Beyond that line was the territory of the Brigantes,
who had for some time occupied the position which in the first years
of the Roman conquest had been occupied by the Iceni--that is to say,
they were in friendly dependence upon Rome, without being actually
controlled by Roman authority. Before Agricola's coming disputes had
arisen with them, and Roman soldiers had occupied their territory.
Agricola finished the work of conquest. He now governed the whole of
the country as far north as to the Solway and the Tyne, and he made
Eboracum, the name of which changed in course of time into York, the
centre of Roman power in the northern districts. A garrison was
established there to watch for any danger which might come from the
extreme north, as the garrisons of Deva and Isca Silurum watched for
dangers which might come from the west.
23. =Agricola's Conquests in the North.=--Agricola thought that there
would be no real peace unless the whole island was subdued. For seven
years he carried on warfare with this object before him. He had
comparatively little difficulty in reducing to obedience the country
south of the narrow isthmus which separates the estuary of the Clyde
from the estuary of the Forth. Before proceeding further he drew a
line of forts across that isthmus to guard the conquered country from
attack during his absence. He then made his way to the Tay, but he had
not marched far up the valley of that river before he reached the edge
of the Highlands. The Caledonians, as the Romans then called the
inhabitants of those northern regions, were a savage race, and the
mountains in the recesses of which they dwelt were rugged and
inaccessible, offering but little means of support to a Roman army. In
=84= the Caledonians, who, like all barbarians when they first come in
contact with a civilised people, were ignorant of the strength of a
disciplined army, came down from their fortresses in the mountains
into the lower ground. A battle was fought near the Graupian Hill,
which seems to have been situated at the junction of the Isla and the
Tay. Agricola gained a complete victory, but he was unable to follow
the fugitives into their narrow glens, and he contented himself with
sending his fleet to circumnavigate the northern shores of the island,
so as to mark out the limits of the land which he still hoped to
conquer. Before the fleet returned, however, he was recalled by the
Emperor Domitian. It has often been said that Domitian was jealous of
his success; but it is possible that the Emperor really thought that
the advantage to be gained by the conquest of rugged mountains would
be more than counterbalanced by the losses which would certainly be
incurred in consequence of the enormous difficulty of the task.
[Illustration: Commemorative tablet of the Second Legion found at
Halton Chesters on the Roman Wall.]
24. =The Roman Walls.=--Agricola, in addition to his line of forts
between the Forth and the Clyde, had erected detached forts at the
mouth of the valleys which issue from the Highlands, in order to
hinder the Caledonians from plundering the lower country. In =119= the
Emperor Hadrian visited Britain. He was more disposed to defend the
Empire than to extend it, and though he did not abandon Agricola's
forts, he also built further south a continuous stone wall between the
Solway and the Tyne. This wall, which, together with an earthwork of
earlier date, formed a far stronger line of defence than the more
northern forts, was intended to serve as a second barrier to keep out
the wild Caledonians if they succeeded in breaking through the first.
At a later time a lieutenant of the Emperor, Antoninus Pius, who
afterwards became Emperor himself, connected Agricola's forts
between the Forth and Clyde by a continuous earthwork. In =208= the
Emperor Severus arrived in Britain, and after strengthening still
further the earthwork between the Forth and Clyde, he attempted to
carry out the plans of Agricola by conquering the land of the
Caledonians. Severus, however, failed as completely as Agricola had
failed before him, and he died soon after his return to Eboracum.
[Illustration: View of part of the Roman Wall.]
[Illustration: Ruins of a Turret on the Roman Wall.]
[Illustration: Part of the Roman Wall at Leicester.]
[Illustration: Pediment of a Roman temple found at Bath.]
25. =The Roman Province of Britain.=--Very little is known of the
history of the Roman province of Britain, except that it made
considerable progress in civilisation. The Romans were great
road-makers, and though their first object was to enable their
soldiers to march easily from one part of the country to another, they
thereby encouraged commercial intercourse. Forests were to some extent
cleared away by the sides of the new roads, and fresh ground was
thrown open to tillage. Mines were worked and country houses built,
the remains of which are in some places still to be seen, and bear
testimony to the increased well-being of a population which, excepting
in the south-eastern part of the island, had at the arrival of the
Romans been little removed from savagery. Cities sprang up in great
numbers. Some of them were at first garrison towns, like Eboracum,
Deva, and Isca Silurum. Others, like Verulamium, near the present St.
Albans, occupied the sites of the old stockades once used as places of
refuge by the Celts, or, like Lindum, on the top of the hill on which
Lincoln Cathedral now stands, were placed in strongly defensible
positions. Aquæ Sulis, the modern Bath, owes its existence to its warm
medicinal springs. The chief port of commerce was Londinium, the
modern London. Attempts which have been made to explain its name by
the Celtic language have failed, and it is therefore possible that an
inhabited post existed there even before the Celts arrived. Its
importance was, however, owing to its position, and that importance
was not of a kind to tell before a settled system of commercial
intercourse sprang up. London was situated on the hill on which St.
Paul's now stands. There first, after the Thames narrowed into a
river, the merchant found close to the stream hard ground on which he
could land his goods. The valley for some distance above and below it
was then filled with a wide marsh or an expanse of water. An old track
raised above the marsh crossed the river by a ford at Lambeth, but, as
London grew in importance, a ferry was established where London Bridge
now stands, and the Romans, in course of time, superseded the ferry by
a bridge. It is, therefore, no wonder that the Roman roads both from
the north and from the south converged upon London. Just as Eboracum
was a fitting centre for military operations directed to the defence
of the northern frontier, London was the fitting centre of a trade
carried on with the Continent, and the place would increase in
importance in proportion to the increase of that trade.
[Illustration: Roman altar from Rutchester.]
26. =Extinction of Tribal Antagonism.=--The improvement of
communications and the growth of trade and industry could not fail to
influence the mind of the population. Wars between tribes, which
before the coming of the Romans had been the main employment of the
young and hardy, were now things of the past. The mutual hatred which
had grown out of them had died away, and even the very names of
Trinobantes and Brigantes were almost forgotten. Men who lived in the
valley of the Severn came to look upon themselves as belonging to the
same people as men who lived in the valleys of the Trent or the
Thames. The active and enterprising young men were attracted to the
cities, at first by the novelty of the luxurious habits in which they
were taught to indulge, but afterwards because they were allowed to
take part in the management of local business. In the time of the
Emperor Caracalla, the son of Severus, every freeman born in the
Empire was declared to be a Roman citizen, and long before that a
large number of natives had been admitted to citizenship. In each
district a council was formed of the wealthier and more prominent
inhabitants, and this council had to provide for the building of
temples, the holding of festivals, the erection of fortifications, and
the laying out of streets. Justice was done between man and man
according to the Roman law, which was the best law that the world had
seen, and the higher Roman officials, who were appointed by the
Emperor, took care that justice was done between city and city. No one
therefore, wished to oppose the Roman government or to bring back the
old times of barbarism.
27. =Want of National Feeling.=--Great as was the progress made, there
was something still wanting. A people is never at its best unless
those who compose it have some object for which they can sacrifice
themselves, and for which, if necessary, they will die. The Briton had
ceased to be called upon to die for his tribe, and he was not expected
to die for Britain. Britain had become a more comfortable country to
live in, but it was not the business of its own inhabitants to guard
it. It was a mere part of the vast Roman Empire, and it was the duty
of the Emperors to see that the frontier was safely kept. They were so
much afraid lest any particular province should wish to set up for
itself and to break away from the Empire, that they took care not to
employ soldiers born in that province for its protection. They sent
British recruits to guard the Danube or the Euphrates, and Gauls,
Spaniards, or Africans to guard the wall between the Solway and the
Tyne, and the entrenchment between the Forth and the Clyde. Britons,
therefore, looked on their own defence as something to be done for
them by the Emperors, not as something to be done by themselves. They
lived on friendly terms with one another, but they had nothing of what
we now call patriotism.
28. =Carausius and Allectus.= =288--296.=--In =288= Carausius, with
the help of some pirates, seized on the government of Britain and
threw off the authority of the Emperor. He was succeeded by Allectus,
yet neither Carausius nor Allectus thought of making himself the head
of a British nation. They called themselves Emperors and ruled over
Britain alone, merely because they could not get more to rule over.
29. =Constantius and Constantine.= =296--337.=--Allectus was
overthrown and slain by Constantius, who, however, did not rule, as
Carausius and Allectus had done, by mere right of military
superiority. The Emperor Diocletian (=285--305=) discovered that the
whole Empire, stretching from the Euphrates to the Atlantic, was too
extensive for one man to govern, and he therefore decreed that there
should in future be four governors, two principal ones named Emperors
(_Augusti_), and two subordinate ones named Cæsars. Constantius was
first a Cæsar and afterwards an Emperor. He was set to govern Spain,
Gaul, and Britain, but he afterwards became Emperor himself, and for
some time established himself at Eboracum (_York_). Upon his death
(=306=), his son Constantine, after much fighting, made himself sole
Emperor (=325=), overthrowing the system of Diocletian. Yet in one
respect he kept up Diocletian's arrangements. He placed Spain, Gaul,
and Britain together under a great officer called a Vicar, who
received orders from himself and who gave orders to the officers who
governed each of the three countries. Under the new system, as under
the old, Britain was not treated as an independent country. It had
still to look for protection to an officer who lived on the Continent,
and was therefore apt to be more interested in Gaul and Spain than he
was in Britain.
30. =Christianity in Britain.=--When the Romans put down the Druids
and their bloody sacrifices, they called the old Celtic gods by Roman
names, but made no further alteration in religious usages. Gradually,
however, Christianity spread amongst the Romans on the Continent, and
merchants or soldiers who came from the Continent introduced it into
Britain. Scarcely anything is known of its progress in the island.
Alban is said to have been martyred at Verulamium, and Julius and
Aaron at Isca Silurum. In =314= three British bishops attended a
council held at Arles in Gaul. Little more than these few facts have
been handed down, but there is no doubt that there was a settled
Church established in the island. The Emperor Constantine acknowledged
Christianity as the religion of the whole Empire. The remains of a
church of this period have recently been discovered at Silchester.
31. =Weakness of the Empire.=--The Roman Empire in the time of
Constantine had the appearance rather than the reality of strength.
Its taxation was very heavy, and there was no national enthusiasm to
lead men to sacrifice themselves in its defence. Roman citizens became
more and more unwilling to become soldiers at all, and the Roman
armies were now mostly composed of barbarians. At the same time the
barbarians outside the Empire were growing stronger, as the tribes
often coalesced into wide confederacies for the purpose of attacking
the Empire.
32. =The Picts and Scots.=--The assailants of Britain on the north and
the west were the Picts and Scots. The Picts were the same as the
Caledonians of the time of Agricola. We do not know why they had
ceased to be called Caledonians. The usual derivation of their name
from the Latin _Pictus_, said to have been given them because they
painted their bodies, is inaccurate. Opinions differ whether they were
Goidels with a strong Iberian strain, or Iberians with a Goidelic
admixture. They were probably Iberians, and at all events they were
more savage than the Britons had been before they were influenced by
Roman civilisation. The Scots, who afterwards settled in what is now
known as Scotland, at that time dwelt in Ireland. Whilst the Picts,
therefore, assailed the Roman province by land, and strove, not always
unsuccessfully, to break through the walls which defended its northern
frontier, the Scots crossed the Irish Sea in light boats to plunder
and slay before armed assistance could arrive.
33. =The Saxons.=--The Saxons, who were no less deadly enemies of the
Roman government, were as fierce and restless as the Picts and Scots,
and were better equipped and better armed. At a later time they
established themselves in Britain as conquerors and settlers, and
became the founders of the English nation; but at first they were only
known as cruel and merciless pirates. In their long flat-bottomed
vessels they swooped down upon some undefended part of the coast and
carried off not only the property of wealthy Romans, but even men and
women to be sold in the slave-market. The provincials who escaped
related with peculiar horror how the Saxons were accustomed to torture
to death one out of every ten of their captives as a sacrifice to
their gods.
34. =Origin of the Saxons.=--The Saxons were the more dangerous
because it was impossible for the Romans to reach them in their homes.
They were men of Teutonic race, speaking one of the languages,
afterwards known as Low German, which were once spoken in the whole of
North Germany. The Saxon pirates were probably drawn from the whole of
the sea coast stretching from the north of the peninsula of Jutland to
the mouth of the Ems, and if so, there were amongst them Jutes, whose
homes were in Jutland itself; Angles, who inhabited Schleswig and
Holstein; and Saxons, properly so called, who dwelt about the mouth of
the Elbe and further to the west. All these peoples afterwards took
part in the conquest of southern Britain, and it is not unlikely that
they all shared in the original piratical attacks. Whether this was
the case or not, the pirates came from creeks and inlets outside the
Roman Empire, whose boundary was the Rhine, and they could therefore
only be successfully repressed by a power with a good fleet, able to
seek out the aggressors in their own homes and to stop the mischief at
its source.
35. =The Roman Defence.=--The Romans had always been weak at sea, and
they were weaker now than they had been in earlier days. They were
therefore obliged to content themselves with standing on the
defensive. Since the time of Severus, Britain had been divided, for
purposes of defence, into Upper and Lower Britain. Though there is no
absolute certainty about the matter, it is probable that Upper
Britain comprised the hill country of the west and north, and that
Lower Britain was the south-eastern part of the island, marked off by
a line drawn irregularly from the Humber to the Severn.[1] Lower
Britain in the early days of the Roman conquest had been in no special
need of military protection. In the fourth century it was exposed more
than the rest of the island to the attacks of the Saxon pirates.
Fortresses were erected between the Wash and Beachy Head at every
point at which an inlet of the sea afforded an opening to an invader.
The whole of this part of the coast became known as the Saxon Shore,
because it was subjected to attacks from the Saxons, and a special
officer known as the Count of the Saxon Shore was appointed to take
charge of it. An officer known as the Duke of the Britains (_Dux
Britanniarum_) commanded the armies of Upper Britain; whilst a third,
who was a civilian, and superior in rank over the other two, was the
Count of Britain, and had a general supervision of the whole country.
[Footnote 1: There were also four smaller divisions, ultimately
increased to five. All that is known about their position is that
they were not where they are placed in our atlases.]
36. =End of the Roman Government.= =383--410.=--In =383= Maximus, who
was probably the Duke of the Britains, was proclaimed Emperor by his
soldiers. If he could have contented himself with defending Britain,
it would have mattered little whether he chose to call himself an
Emperor or a Duke. Unhappily for the inhabitants of the island, not
only did every successful soldier want to be an Emperor, but every
Emperor wanted to govern the whole Empire. Maximus, therefore, instead
of remaining in Britain, carried a great part of his army across the
sea to attempt a conquest of Gaul and Spain. Neither he nor his
soldiers ever returned, and in consequence the Roman garrison in the
island was deplorably weakened. Early in the fifth century an
irruption of barbarians gave full employment to the army which
defended Gaul, so that it was impossible to replace the forces which
had followed Maximus by fresh troops from the Continent. The Roman
Empire was in fact breaking up. The defence of Britain was left to the
soldiers who remained in the island, and in =409= they proclaimed a
certain Constantine Emperor. Constantine, like Maximus, carried his
soldiers across the Channel in pursuit of a wider empire than he could
find in Britain. He was himself murdered, and his soldiers, like those
of Maximus, did not return. In =410= the Britons implored the Emperor
Honorius to send them help. Honorius had enough to do to ward off the
attacks of barbarians nearer Rome, and announced to the Britons that
they must provide for their own defence. From this time Britain ceased
to form part of the Roman Empire.
CHAPTER II.
THE ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS.
LEADING DATES
Landing of the Jutes in Thanet A.D. 449?
The West Saxons defeated at Mount Badon 520
The West Saxons take Sorbiodunum 552
Battle of Deorham 577
The West Saxons defeated at Faddiley 584
1. =Britain after the Departure of the Romans.= =410--449=?--After the
departure of the Romans, the Picts from the north and the Scots from
Ireland continued their ravages, but though they caused terrible
misery by slaughtering or dragging into slavery the inhabitants of
many parts of the country, they did not succeed in making any
permanent conquests. The Britons were not without a government and an
armed force; and their later history shows that they were capable of
carrying on war for a long time against enemies more formidable than
the Picts and Scots. Their rulers were known by the British title
Gwledig, and probably held power in different parts of the island as
the successors of the Roman Duke of the Britains and of the Roman
Count of the Saxon Shore. Their power of resistance to the Picts and
the Scots was, however, weakened by the impossibility of turning their
undivided attention to these marauders, as at the same time that they
had, to defend the Roman Wall and the western coast against the Picts
and Scots, they were exposed on the eastern coast to the attacks of
the Saxon pirates.
2. =The Groans of the Britons.=--In their misery the thoughts of the
Britons turned to those Roman legions who had defended their fathers
so well. In =446= they appealed to Aëtius, the commander of the Roman
armies, to deliver them from their destroyers. "The groans of the
Britons" was the title which they gave to their appeal to him. "The
barbarians," they wrote, "drive us to the sea; the sea drives us back
to the barbarians; between them we are exposed to two sorts of death:
we are either slain or drowned." Aëtius had no men to spare, and he
sent no help to the Britons. Before long the whole of Western Europe
was overrun by barbarian tribes, the title of Emperor being retained
only by the Roman Emperor who ruled from Constantinople over the East,
his authority over the barbarians of the West being no more than
nominal.
3. =The Conquest of Kent.= =449=?--It had been the custom of the Roman
Empire to employ barbarians as soldiers in their armies, and
Vortigern, the British ruler, now followed that bad example. In or
about =449= a band of Jutish sea-rovers landed at Ebbsfleet, in the
Isle of Thanet. According to tradition their leaders were Hengist and
Horsa, names signifying the horse and the mare, which were not very
likely to have been borne by real warriors. Whatever may have been the
names of the chiefs, Vortigern took them into his service against the
Picts, giving them the Isle of Thanet as a dwelling-place for
themselves. With their help he defeated the Picts, but afterwards
found himself unable to defend himself against his fierce auxiliaries.
Thanet was still cut off from the mainland by an arm of the sea, and
the Jutes were strong enough to hold it against all assailants. Their
numbers rapidly increased as shiploads of their fellows landed, and
they crossed the strait to win fresh lands from the Britons on the
mainland of Kent. In several battles Vortigern was overpowered. His
rival and successor, Ambrosius Aurelianus, whose name makes it
probable that he was an upholder of the old Roman discipline, drove
back the Jutes in turn. He did not long keep the upper hand, and in
=465= he was routed utterly. The defeat of the British army was
followed by an attack upon the great fortresses which had been erected
along the Saxon Shore in the Roman times. The Jutes had no means of
carrying them by assault, but they starved them out one by one, and
some twenty-three years after their first landing, the whole of the
coast of Kent was in their hands.
4. =The South Saxons.= =477.=--The conquests of the Jutes stopped at
the inlet of the sea now filled by Romney Marsh. To the south and west
was the impenetrable Andred's Wood, which covered what is now known as
the Weald. At its eastern extremity stood by the sea the strong
fortified town of Anderida, which gave its name to the wood, the most
westerly of the fortresses of the Saxon Shore still unconquered by the
Jutes. It was at last endangered by a fresh pirate band--not of Jutes
but of Saxons--which landed near Selsey, and fought its way eastwards,
conquering the South Downs and the flat land between the South Downs
and the sea, till it reached Anderida. Anderida was starved out after
a long blockade, and the Saxons, bursting in, 'slew all that dwelt
therein, nor was there henceforth one Briton left.' To this day the
Roman walls of Anderida stand round the site of the desolated city
near the modern Pevensey. Its Saxon conquerors came to be known as the
South Saxons, and their land as Sussex.
5. =The West Saxons and the East Saxons.=--Another swarm also of
Saxons, called Gewissas, landed on the shore of Southampton Water.
After a time they were reinforced by a body of Jutes, and though the
Jutes formed settlements of their own in the Isle of Wight and on the
mainland, the difference of race and language between them and the
Gewissas was not enough to prevent the two tribes from coalescing.
Ultimately Gewissas and Jutes became known as West Saxons, and
established themselves in a district roughly corresponding with the
modern Hampshire. Then, having attempted to penetrate further west,
they were defeated at Mount Badon, probably Badbury Rings in
Dorsetshire. Their overthrow was so complete as to check their advance
for more than thirty years. Whilst the coast line from the inlet of
the sea now filled by Romney Marsh to the western edge of Hampshire
had thus been mastered by Saxons, others of the same stock, known as
East Saxons, seized upon the low coast to the north of the Thames.
From them the land was called Essex. Neither Saxons nor Jutes,
however, were as yet able to penetrate far up the valley of the
Thames, as the Roman settlement of London, surrounded by marshes,
still blocked the way.
6. =The Anglian Settlements.=--The coast-line to the north of the East
Saxons was seized at some unascertained dates by different groups of
Angles. The land between the Stour and the great fen which in those
days stretched far inland from the Wash was occupied by two of these
groups, known as the North folk and the South folk. They gave their
names to Norfolk and Suffolk, and at some later time combined under
the name of East Anglians. North of the Wash were the Lindiswara--that
is to say, the settlers about the Roman Lindum, the modern Lincoln,
and beyond them, stretching to the Humber, were the Gainas, from whom
is derived the name of the modern Gainsborough. To the north of the
Humber the coast was fringed by Angle settlements which had not yet
coalesced into one.
7. =Nature of the Conquest.=--The three peoples who effected this
conquest were afterwards known amongst themselves by the common name
of English, a name which was originally equivalent to Angle, whilst
amongst the whole of the remaining Celtic population they were only
known as Saxons. The mode in which the English treated the Britons was
very different from that of the Romans, who were a civilised people
and aimed at governing a conquered race. The new-comers drove out the
Britons in order to find homes for themselves, and they preferred to
settle in the country rather than in a town. No Englishman had ever
lived in a town in his German home, or was able to appreciate the
advantages of the commerce and manufacture by which towns are
supported. Nor were they inclined to allow the inhabitants of the
Roman towns to remain unmolested in their midst. When Anderida was
captured not a Briton escaped alive, and there is good reason to
believe that many of the other towns fared no better, especially as
the remains of some of them still show marks of the fire by which they
were consumed. What took place in the country cannot be certainly
known. Many of the British were no doubt killed. Many took refuge in
fens or woods, or fled to those portions of the island in which their
countrymen were still independent. It is difficult to decide to what
extent the men who remained behind were spared, but it is impossible
to doubt that a considerable number of women were preserved from
slaughter. The conquerors, at their landing, must have been for the
most part young men, and when they wanted wives, it would be far
easier for them to seize the daughters of slain Britons than to fetch
women from the banks of the Elbe.
8. =The Cultivators of the Soil.=--When the new-comers planted
themselves on British soil, each group of families united by kinship
fixed its home in a separate village or township, to which was given
the name of the kindred followed by 'ham' or 'tun,' the first word
meaning the home or dwelling, the second the earthen mound which
formed the defence of the community. Thus Wokingham is the home of the
Wokings, and Wellington the 'tun' of the Wellings. Each man had a
homestead of his own, with a strip or strips of arable land in an open
field. Beyond the arable land was pasture and wood, common to the
whole township, every villager being entitled to drive his cattle or
pigs into them according to rules laid down by the whole township.
9. =Eorls, Ceorls, Gesiths.=--The population was divided into Eorls
and Ceorls. The Eorl was hereditarily distinguished by birth, and the
Ceorl was a simple freeman without any such distinction. How the
difference arose we do not know, but we do know that the Eorl had
privileges which the Ceorl had not. Below the Ceorls were slaves
taken in war or condemned to slavery as criminals. There were also men
known as Gesiths, a word which means 'followers,' who were the
followers of the chiefs or Ealdormen (_Eldermen_) who led the
conquerors. The Gesiths formed the war-band of the chief. They were
probably all of them Eorls, so that though every settler was either an
Eorl or a Ceorl, some Eorls were also Gesiths. This war-band of
Gesiths was composed of young men who attached themselves to the chief
by a tie of personal devotion. It was the highest glory of the Gesith
to die to save his chief's life. Of one Gesith it is told that, when
he saw a murderer aiming a dagger at his chief, he, not having time to
seize the assassin, threw his body between the blow and his chief, and
perished rather than allow him to be killed. It was even held to be
disgraceful for a Gesith to return from battle alive if his chief had
been slain. The word by which the chief was known was Hlaford
(_Lord_), which means a giver of bread, because the Gesiths ate his
bread. They not only ate his bread, but they shared in the booty which
he brought home. They slept in his hall, and were clothed in the
garments woven by his wife and her maidens. A continental writer tells
how a body of Gesiths once approached their lord with a petition that
he should take a wife, because as long as he remained unmarried there
was no one to make new clothes for them or to mend their old ones.
10. =The Gesiths and the Villagers.=--At the time of the English
settlement, therefore, there were two sorts of warriors amongst the
invaders. The Ceorls, having been accustomed to till land at home,
were quite ready to till the lands which they had newly acquired in
Britain. They were, however, ready to defend themselves and their
lands if they were attacked, and they were under the obligation of
appearing in arms when needed for defence. This general army of the
villagers was called the Fyrd. On the other hand, the Gesiths had not
been accustomed to till land at home, but had made fighting their
business. War, in short, which was an unwelcome accident to the Ceorl,
was the business of life to the Gesith. The exact relationship between
the Gesiths and the Ceorls cannot be ascertained with certainty. It is
not improbable that the Gesiths, being the best warriors amongst their
countrymen, sometimes obtained land granted them by their chiefs, and
were expected in consequence to be specially ready to serve the chief
whom they had followed from their home. It was from their relation to
their chief that they were called Gesiths, a name gradually abandoned
for that of Thegns, or servants, when they--as was soon the
case--ceased to live with their chief and had houses and lands of
their own, though they were still bound to military service. How these
Thegns cultivated their lands is a question to which there is no
certain answer. In later days they made use of a class of men known as
bondmen or villeins. These bondmen were not, like slaves, the property
of their masters. They had land of their own which they were allowed
to cultivate for themselves on condition of spending part of their
time in cultivating the land of their lords. It has been supposed by
some writers that the Thegns employed bondmen from the earliest times
of the conquest. If, however, this was the case, there arises a
further question whether the bondmen were Englishmen or Britons. The
whole subject is under investigation, and the evidence which exists is
excessively scanty. It is at least certain that the further the
conquest progressed westwards, the greater was the number of Britons
preserved alive.
11. =English and Welsh.=--The bulk of the population on the eastern
and southern coasts was undoubtedly English. English institutions and
English language took firm root. The conquerors looked on the Britons
with the utmost contempt, naming them Welsh, a name which no Briton
thought of giving to himself, but which Germans had been in the habit
of applying somewhat contemptuously to the Celts on the Continent. So
far as British words have entered into the English language at all,
they have been words such as _gown_ or _curd_, which are likely to
have been used by women, or words such as _cart_ or _pony_, which are
likely to have been used by agricultural labourers, and the evidence
of language may therefore be adduced in favour of the view that many
women and many agricultural labourers were spared by the conquerors.
12. =The Township and the Hundred.=--The smallest political community
of the new settlers was the village, or, as it is commonly called, the
township, which is still represented by the parish, the parish being
merely a township in which ecclesiastical institutions have been
maintained whilst political institutions have ceased to exist. The
freemen of the township met to settle small questions between
themselves, under the presidency of their reeve or headman. More
important cases were brought before the hundred-moot, or meeting of
the hundred, a district which had been inhabited, or was supposed to
have been inhabited, either by a hundred kindred groups of the
original settlers or by the families of a hundred warriors. This
hundred-moot was held once a month, and was attended by four men and
the reeve from every township, and also by the Eorls and Thegns living
in the hundred. It not only settled disputes about property, but gave
judgment in criminal cases as well.
13. =Weregild.=--In early days, long before the English had left their
lands beyond the sea, it was not considered to be the business of the
community to punish crime. If any one was murdered, it was the duty of
the kinsmen of the slain man to put to death the murderer. In course
of time men got tired of the continual slaughter produced by this
arrangement, and there sprang up a system according to which the
murderer might offer to the kinsmen a sum of money known as weregild,
or the value of a man, and if this money was accepted, then peace was
made and all thought of vengeance was at an end. At a later time, at
all events after the arrival of the English in this country, charges
of murder were brought before the hundred-moot whenever the alleged
murderer and his victim lived in the same hundred. If the accused
person did not dispute the fact the moot sentenced him to pay a
weregild, the amount of which differed in proportion to the rank of
the slain man, not in proportion to the heinousness of the offence. As
there was a weregild for murder, so there was also a graduated scale
of payments for lesser offences. One who struck off a hand or a foot
could buy off vengeance at a fixed rate.
14. =Compurgation and Ordeal.=--A new difficulty was introduced when a
person who was charged with crime denied his guilt. As there were no
trained lawyers and there was no knowledge of the principles of
evidence, the accused person was required to bring twelve men to be
his compurgators--that is to say, to hear him swear to his own
innocence, and then to swear in turn that his oath was true. If he
could not find men willing to be his compurgators he could appeal to
the judgment of the gods, which was known as the Ordeal. If he could
walk blindfold over red-hot ploughshares, or plunge his arm into
boiling water, and show at the end of a fixed number of days that he
had received no harm, it was thought that the gods bore witness to his
innocency and had as it were become his compurgators when men had
failed him. It is quite possible that all or most of those who tried
the ordeal failed, but as nobody would try the ordeal who could get
compurgators, those who did not succeed must have been regarded as
persons of bad character, so that no surprise would be expressed at
their failure.
15. =Punishments.=--When a man had failed in the ordeal there was a
choice of punishments. If his offence was a slight one, a fine was
deemed sufficient. If it was a very disgraceful one, such as secret
murder, he was put to death or was degraded to slavery, in most cases
he was declared to be a 'wolf's-head'--that is to say, he was outlawed
and driven into the woods, where, as the protection of the community
was withdrawn from him, anyone might kill him without fear of
punishment.
16. =The Folk-moot.=--As the hundred-moot did justice between those
who lived in the hundred, so the folk-moot did justice between those
who lived in different hundreds, or were too important to be judged in
the hundred-moot. The folk-moot was the meeting of the whole folk or
tribe, which consisted of several hundreds. It was attended, like the
hundred-moot, by four men and the reeve from each township, and it met
twice a year, and was presided over by the chief or Ealdorman. The
folk-moot met in arms, because it was a muster as well as a council
and a court. The vote as to war and peace was taken in it, and while
the chief alone spoke, the warriors signified their assent by clashing
their swords against their shields.
17. =The Kingship.=--How many folks or tribes settled in the island it
is impossible to say, but there is little doubt that many of them soon
combined. The resistance of the Britons was desperate, and it was only
by joining together that the settlers could hope to overcome it. The
causes which produced this amalgamation of the folks produced the
king. It was necessary to find a man always ready to take the command
of the united folks, and this man was called King, a name which
signifies the man of the kinship or race at the head of which he
stood. His authority was greater than the Ealdorman's, and his
warriors were more numerous than those which the Ealdorman had led. He
must come of a royal family--that is, of one supposed to be descended
from the god Woden. As it was necessary that he should be capable of
leading an army, it was impossible that a child could be king, and
therefore no law of hereditary succession prevailed. On the death of a
king the folk-moot chose his successor out of the kingly family. If
his eldest son was a grown man of repute, the choice would almost
certainly fall upon him. If he was a child or an invalid, some other
kinsman of the late king would be selected.
18. =The Legend of Arthur.=--Thirty-two years passed away after the
defeat of the West Saxons at Mount Badon in =520= (see p. 28) before
they made any further conquests. Welsh legends represent this period
as that of the reign of Arthur. Some modern inquirers have argued that
Arthur's kingdom was in the north, whilst others have argued that it
was in the south. It is quite possible that the name was given by
legend to more than one champion; at all events, there was a time when
an Ambrosius, probably a descendant of Ambrosius Aurelianus (see p.
27), protected the southern Britons. This stronghold was at
Sorbiodunum, the hill fort now a grassy space known as Old Sarum, and
his great church and monastery, where Christian priests encouraged the
Christian Britons in their struggle against the heathen Saxons, was at
the neighbouring Ambresbyrig (_the fortress of Ambrosius_), now
modernised into Amesbury. Thirty-two years after the battle of Mount
Badon the kingdom of Ambrosius had been divided amongst his
successors, who were plunged in vice and were quarrelling with one
another.
[Illustration: _Walker & Boutallse._
Plan of the city of Old Sarum, the ancient _Sorbiodunum_. The
Cathedral is of later date.]
19. =The West Saxon Advance.=--In =552= Cynric, the West Saxon king,
attacked the divided Britons, captured Sorbiodunum, and made himself
master of Salisbury Plain. Step by step he fought his way to the
valley of the Thames, and when he had reached it, he turned eastwards
to descend the river to its mouth. Here, however, he found himself
anticipated by the East Saxons, who had captured London, and had
settled a branch of their people under the name of the Middle Saxons
in Middlesex. The Jutes of Kent had pushed westwards through the
Surrey hills, but in =568= the West Saxons defeated them and drove
them back. After this battle, the first in which the conquerors strove
with one another, the West Saxons turned northwards, defeated the
Britons in =571= at Bedford, and occupied the valleys of the Thame and
Cherwell and the upper valley of the Ouse. They are next heard of much
further west, and it has been supposed that they turned in that
direction because they found the lower Ouse already held by Angle
tribes. However this may have been, they crossed the Cotswolds in
=577= under two brothers, Ceawlin and Cutha, and at Deorham defeated
and slew three kings who ruled over the cities of Glevum
(_Gloucester_), Corinium (_Cirencester_), and Aquæ Sulis (_Bath_).
They seized on the fertile valley of the Severn, and during the next
few years they pressed gradually northwards. In =584= they destroyed
and sacked the old Roman station of Viriconium. This was their last
victory for many a year. They attempted to reach Chester, but were
defeated at Faddiley by the Britons, who slew Cutha in the battle.
[Illustration: Old Sarum from an engraving published in 1843, showing
mound. (It is now obscured by trees from this point of view.)]
20. =Repulse of the West Saxons.=--After the defeat at Faddiley the
West Saxons split up into two peoples. Those of them who settled in
the lower Severn valley took the name of Hwiccan, and joined the
Britons against their own kindred. This alliance could hardly have
taken place if the Hwiccan, in settling in the Severn valley, had
destroyed the whole, or even a considerable part, of the Celtic
population, though there can be little doubt that there was still
slaughter when a battle was fought or a town taken by storm; as it is
known that the magnificent Roman buildings at Bath were standing in
ruins and the city untenanted many years after the capture of the
city. At all events, the Britons, now allied with the Hwiccan,
defeated Ceawlin at Wanborough. After this disaster, though the West
Saxon kingdom retained its independence, it was independent within
smaller limits than those which Ceawlin had wished to give to it. If
he had seized Chester he would have been on the way to gain the
mastery over all England, but he had tried to do too much in a short
time. His people can hardly have been numerous enough to occupy in
force a territory reaching from Southampton Water to Bedford on one
side and to Chester on another.
21. =The Advance of the Angles.=--Whilst the West Saxons were
enlarging their boundaries in the south, the Angles were gradually
spreading in the centre and the north. The East Anglians were stopped
on their way to the west by the great fen, but either a branch of the
Lindiswara or some new-comers made their way up the Trent, and
established themselves first at Nottingham and then at Leicester, and
called themselves the Middle English. Another body, known as the
Mercians, or men of the mark or border-land, seized on the upper
valley of the Trent. North of the Humber the advance was still slower.
In =547=, five years before the West Saxons attacked Sorbiodunum, Ida,
a chieftain of one of the scattered settlements on the coast, was
accepted as king by all those which lay between the Tees and the
Forth. His new kingdom was called Bernicia, and his principal fortress
was on a rock by the sea at Bamborough. During the next fifty years he
and his successors enlarged their borders till they reached that
central ridge of moorland hill which is sometimes known as the Pennine
range. The Angles between the Tees and the Humber called their country
Deira, but though they also united under a king, their progress was as
slow as that of the Bernicians. Bernicia and Deira together were known
as North-humberland, the land north of the Humber, a much larger
territory than that of the modern county of Northumberland.
22. =The Kymry.=--It is probable that the cause of the slow advance of
the northern Angles lay in the existence of a strong Celtic state in
front. Welsh tradition speaks of a ruler named Cunedda, who after the
departure of the Roman legions governed the territory from the Clyde
to the south of Wales, which formed the greater part of what had once
been known as Upper Britain. (See p. 25.) This territory was inhabited
by a mixed population of Britons and Goidels, with an isolated body of
Picts in Galloway. A common danger from the English fused them
together, and as a sign of the wearing out of old distinctions, they
took the name of Kymry, or Comrades, the name by which the Welsh are
known amongst one another to this day, and which is also preserved in
the name of Cumberland, though the Celtic language is no longer spoken
there.
23. =Britain at the End of the Sixth Century.=--During the sixth
century the Kymry ceased to be governed by one ruler, but the
chieftains of the various territories all acknowledged the supremacy
of a descendant of Cunedda. For purposes of war they combined
together, and as the country which they occupied was hilly and easily
defended, the northern English discovered that they too must unite
amongst themselves if they were to overpower the united resistance of
the Kymry.
CHAPTER III.
THE STRIFE OF THE ENGLISH KINGDOMS.
LEADING DATES
Augustine's mission 597
Æthelfrith's victory at Chester 613
Penda defeats Eadwine at Heathfield 633
Penda's defeat at Winwæd 655
Theodore Archbishop of Canterbury 668
Offa defeats the West Saxons at Bensington 779
Ecgberht returns to England 800
Death of Ecgberht 839
1. =England and the Continent.=--Whatever may be the exact truth about
the numbers of Britons saved alive by the English conquerors, there
can be no doubt that English speech and English customs prevailed
wherever the English settled. In Gaul, where the German Franks made
themselves masters of the country, a different state of things
prevailed. Roman officials continued to govern the country under
Frankish kings, Roman bishops converted the conquerors to
Christianity, and Roman cities maintained, as far as they could, the
old standard of civilisation. All commercial intercourse between Gaul,
still comparatively rich and prosperous, and Britain was for some time
cut off by the irruption of the English, who were at first too rude
and too much engaged in fighting to need the products of a more
advanced race. Gradually, however, as the English settled down into
peaceful industry along the south-eastern shores of the island, trade
again sprang up, as it had sprung up in the wild times preceding the
landing of Cæsar. The Gaulish merchants who crossed the straits found
themselves in Kent, and during the years in which the West Saxon
Ceawlin was struggling with the Britons the communications between
Kent and the Continent had become so friendly that in =584=, or a
little later, Æthelberht, king of Kent, took to wife Bertha, the
daughter of a Frankish king, Charibert. Bertha was a Christian, and
brought with her a Christian bishop. She begged of her husband a
forsaken Roman church for her own use. This church, now known as St.
Martin's, stood outside the walls of the deserted city of Durovernum,
the buildings of which were in ruins, except where a group of rude
dwellings rose in a corner of the old fortifications. In these
dwellings Æthelberht and his followers lived, and to them had been
given the new name of Cantwarabyrig or Canterbury (_the dwelling of
the men of Kent_). The English were heathen, but their heathenism was
not intolerant.
2. =Æthelberht's Supremacy.=--Æthelberht's authority reached far
beyond his native Kent. Within a few years after his marriage he had
gained a supremacy over most of the other kings to the south of the
Humber. There is no tradition of any war between Æthelberht and these
kings, and he certainly did not thrust them out from the leadership of
their own peoples. The exact nature of his supremacy is, however,
unknown to us, though it is possible that they were bound to follow
him if he went to war with peoples not acknowledging his supremacy, in
which case his position towards them was something of the same kind as
that of a lord to his gesiths.
3. =Gregory and the English.=--Æthelberht's position as the over-lord
of so many kings and as the husband of a Christian wife drew upon him
the attention of Gregory, the Bishop of Rome, or Pope. Many years
before, as a deacon, he had been attracted by the fair faces of some
boys from Deira exposed for sale in the Roman slave-market. He was
told that the children were Angles. "Not Angles, but angels," he
replied. "Who," he asked, "is their king?" Hearing that his name was
Ælla, he continued to play upon the words. "Alleluia," he said, "shall
be sung in the land of Ælla." Busy years kept him from seeking to
fulfil his hopes, but at last the time came when he could do something
to carry out his intentions, not in the land of Ælla, but in the land
of Æthelberht. He became Pope. In those days the Pope had far less
authority over the Churches of Western Europe than he afterwards
acquired, but he offered the only centre round which they could rally,
now that the Empire had broken up into many states ruled over by
different barbarian kings. The general habit of looking to Rome for
authority, which had been diffused over the whole Empire whilst Rome
was still the seat of the Emperors, made men look to the Roman Bishop
for advice and help as they had once looked to the Roman Emperor.
Gregory, who united to the tenderheartedness of the Christian the
strength of will and firmness of purpose which had marked out the best
of the Emperors, now sent Augustine to England as the leader of a band
of missionaries.
4. =Augustine's Mission. 597.=--Augustine with his companions landed
at Ebbsfleet, in Thanet, where Æthelberht's forefathers had landed
nearly a century and a half before. After a while Æthelberht arrived.
Singing a litany, and bearing aloft a painting of the Saviour, the
missionaries appeared before him. He had already learned from his
Christian wife to respect Christians, but he was not prepared to
forsake his own religion. He welcomed the new-comers, and told them
that they were free to convert those who would willingly accept their
doctrine. A place was assigned to them in Canterbury, and they were
allowed to use Bertha's church. In the end Æthelberht himself,
together with thousands of the Kentish men, received baptism. It was
more by their example than by their teaching that Augustine's band won
converts. The missionaries lived 'after the model of the primitive
Church, giving themselves to frequent prayers, watchings, and
fastings; preaching to all who were within their reach, disregarding
all worldly things as matters with which they had nothing to do,
accepting from those whom they taught just what seemed necessary for
livelihood, living themselves altogether in accordance with what they
taught, and with hearts prepared to suffer every adversity, or even to
die, for that truth which they preached.'
5. =Monastic Christianity.=--These missionaries were monks as well as
preachers. The Christians of those days considered the monastic life
to be the highest. In the early days of the Church, when the world was
full of vice and cruelty, it seemed hardly possible to live in the
world without being dragged down to its wickedness. Men and women,
therefore, who wished to keep themselves pure, withdrew to hermitages
or monasteries, where they might be removed from temptation, and might
fit themselves for heaven by prayer and fasting. In the fifth century
Benedict of Nursia had organised in Italy a system of life for the
monastery which he governed, and the Benedictine rule, as it was
called, was soon accepted in almost all the monasteries of Western
Europe. The special feature of this rule was that it encouraged labour
as well as prayer. It was a saying of Benedict himself that 'to labour
is to pray.' He did not mean that labour was good in itself, but that
monks who worked during some hours of the day would guard their minds
against evil thoughts better than if they tried to pray all day long.
Augustine and his companions were Benedictine monks, and their
quietness and contentedness attracted the population amidst which they
had settled. The religion of the heathen English was a religion which
favoured bravery and endurance, counting the warrior who slaughtered
most enemies as most highly favoured by the gods. The religion of
Augustine was one of peace and self-denial. Its symbol was the cross,
to be borne in the heart of the believer. The message brought by
Augustine was very hard to learn. If Augustine had expected the whole
English population to forsake entirely its evil ways and to walk in
paths of peace, he would probably have been rejected at once. It was
perhaps because he was a monk that he did not expect so much. A monk
was accustomed to judge laymen by a lower standard of self-denial than
that by which he judged himself. He would, therefore, not ask too much
of the new converts. They must forsake the heathen temples and
sacrifices, and must give up some particularly evil habits. The rest
must be left to time and the example of the monks.
6. =The Archbishopric of Canterbury.=--After a short stay Augustine
revisited Gaul and came back as Archbishop of the English. Æthelberht
gave to him a ruined church at Canterbury, and that poor church was
named Christ Church, and became the mother church of England. From
that day the Archbishop's See has been fixed at Canterbury. If
Augustine in his character of monk led men by example, in his
character of Archbishop he had to organise the Church. With
Æthelberht's help he set up a bishopric at Rochester and another in
London. London was now again an important trading city, which, though
not in Æthelberht's own kingdom of Kent, formed part of the kingdom of
Essex, which was dependent on Kent. More than these three Sees
Augustine was unable to establish. An attempt to obtain the friendly
co-operation of the Welsh bishops broke down because Augustine
insisted on their adoption of Roman customs; and Lawrence, who
succeeded to the archbishopric after Augustine's death, could do no
more than his predecessor had done.
7. =Death of Æthelberht. 616.=--In =616= Æthelberht died. The
over-lordship of the kings of Kent ended with him, and Augustine's
church, which had largely depended upon his influence, very nearly
ended as well. Essex relapsed into heathenism, and it was only by
terrifying Æthelberht's son with the vengeance of St. Peter that
Lawrence kept him from relapsing also. On the other hand, Rædwald,
king of the East Anglians, who succeeded to much of Æthelberht's
authority, so far accepted Christianity as to worship Christ amongst
his other gods.
8. =The Three Kingdoms opposed to the Welsh.=--Augustine's Church
was weak, because it depended on the kings, and had not had time to
root itself in the affections of the people. Æthelberht's supremacy
was also weak. The greater part of the small states which still
existed--Sussex, Kent, Essex, East Anglia, and most of the small
kingdoms of central England--were no longer bordered by a Celtic
population. For them the war of conquest and defence was at an end.
If any one of the kingdoms was to rise to permanent supremacy it
must be one of those engaged in strenuous warfare, and as yet
strenuous warfare was only carried on with the Welsh. The kingdoms
which had the Welsh on their borders were three--Wessex, Mercia, and
North-humberland, and neither Wessex nor Mercia was as yet very
strong. Wessex was too distracted by conflicts amongst members of
the kingly family, and Mercia was as yet too small to be of much
account. North-humberland was therefore the first of the three to
rise to the foremost place. Till the death of Ælla, the king of
Deira, from whose land had been carried off the slave-boys whose
faces had charmed Gregory at Rome, Deira and Bernicia had been as
separate as Kent and Essex. Then in =588= Æthelric of Bernicia drove
out Ælla's son and seized his kingdom of Deira, thus joining the two
kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia (see p. 36) into one, under the new
name of North-humberland.[2]
[Footnote 2: Genealogy of the principal Northumbrian
kings:--[_Note._--The names of kings are in capitals. The figures
denote the order of succession of those who ruled over the whole of
North-humberland. Those whose names are followed by a B. or D. ruled
only over Bernicia or Deira respectively.]
_House of Bernicia_ _House of Deira_
IDA B. Iffa D.
| |
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1. ÆTHELRIC ÆLLA D. Ælfric
| | |
| --------------------------- |
| | | |
2. ÆTHELFRITH = Acha 3. EADWINE OSRIC D.
| |
-------------- |
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4. OSWALD 5. OSWIU OSWINI D.]
9. =Æthelfrith and the Kymry.=--In =593=, four years before the
landing of Augustine, Æthelric was succeeded by his son Æthelfrith.
Æthelfrith began a fresh struggle with the Welsh. We know little of
the internal history of the Welsh population, but what we do know
shows that towards the end of the sixth century there was an
improvement in their religious and political existence. The
monasteries were thronged, especially the great monastery of
Bangor-iscoed, in the modern Flintshire, which contained 2,000 monks.
St. David and other bishops gave examples of piety. In fighting
against Æthelfrith the warriors of the Britons were fighting for their
last chance of independence. They still held the west from the Clyde
to the Channel. Unhappily for them, the Severn, the Dee, and the
Solway Firth divided their land into four portions, and if an enemy
coming from the east could seize upon the heads of the inlets into
which those rivers flowed he could prevent the defenders of the west
from aiding one another. Already in =577=, by the victory of Deorham
(see p. 35), the West Saxons had seized on the mouth of the Severn,
and had split off the West Welsh of the south-western peninsula.
Æthelfrith had to do with the Kymry, whose territories stretched from
the Bristol Channel to the Clyde, and who held an outlying wedge of
land then known as Loidis and Elmet, which now together form the West
Riding of Yorkshire.
10. =Æthelfrith's Victories.=--The long range of barren hills which
separated Æthelfrith's kingdom from the Kymry made it difficult for
either side to strike a serious blow at the other. In the extreme
north, where a low valley joins the Firths of Clyde and Forth, it was
easier for them to meet. Here the Kymry found an ally outside their
own borders. Towards the end of the fifth century a colony of Irish
Scots had driven out the Picts from the modern Argyle. In =603= their
king, Aedan, bringing with him a vast army, in which Picts and the
Kymry appear to have taken part, invaded the northern part of
Æthelfrith's country. Æthelfrith defeated him at Degsastan, which was
probably Dawstone, near Jedburgh. 'From that time no king of the
Scots durst come into Britain to make war upon the English.' Having
freed himself from the Scots in the north, Æthelfrith turned upon the
Kymry. After a succession of struggles of which no record remains, he
forced his way in =613= to the western sea near Chester. The Kymry had
brought with them the 2,000 monks of their great monastery
Bangor-iscoed, to pray for victory whilst their warriors were engaged
in battle. Æthelfrith bade his men to slay them all. 'Whether they
bear arms or no,' he said, 'they fight against us when they cry
against us to their God.' The monks were slain to a man. Their
countrymen were routed, and Chester fell into the hands of the
English. The capture of Chester split the Kymric kingdom in two, as
the battle of Deorham thirty-five years before had split that kingdom
off from the West Welsh of the south-western peninsula. The Southern
Kymry, in what is now called Wales, could no longer give help to the
Northern Kymry between the Clyde and the Ribble, who grouped
themselves into the kingdom of Strathclyde, the capital of which was
Alcluyd, the modern Dumbarton. Three weak Celtic states, unable to
assist one another, would not long be able to resist their invaders.
11. =The Greatness of Eadwine.=--Powerful as Æthelfrith was, he was
jealous of young Eadwine, a son of his father's rival, Ælla of Deira.
For some years Eadwine had been in hiding, at one time with Welsh
princes, at another time with English kings. In =617= he took refuge
with Rædwald, the king of the East Angles. Æthelfrith demanded the
surrender of the fugitive. Rædwald hesitated, but at last refused.
Æthelfrith attacked him, but was defeated and slain near the river
Idle, at some point near Retford. Eadwine the Deiran then became king
over the united North-humberland in the place of Æthelfrith the
Bernician, whose sons fled for safety to the Picts beyond the Forth.
Eadwine completed and consolidated the conquests of his predecessors.
He placed a fortress, named after himself Eadwinesburh, or Edinburgh,
on a rocky height near the Forth, to guard his land against a fresh
irruption of Scots and Picts, such as that which had been turned back
at Degsastan. He conquered from the Kymry Loidis and Elmet, and he
launched a fleet at Chester which added to his dominions the Isle of
Man and the greater island which was henceforth known as Anglesea, the
island of the Angles. Eadwine assumed unwonted state. Wherever he went
a standard was borne before him, as well as a spear decorated with a
tuft of feathers, the ancient sign of Roman authority. It has been
thought by some that his meaning was that he, rather than any
Welshman, was the true Gwledig, the successor of the Duke of the
Britains (_Dux Britanniarum_), and that the name of Bretwalda, or
ruler of the Britons, which he is said to have borne, was only a
translation of the Welsh Gwledig. It is true that the title of
Bretwalda is given to other powerful kings before and after Eadwine,
some of whom were in no sense rulers over Britons; but it is possible
that it was taken to signify a ruler over a large part of Britain,
though the men over whom he ruled were English, and not Britons.
12. =Eadwine's Supremacy.=--Eadwine's immediate kingship did not reach
further south than the Humber and the Dee. But before =625= he had
brought the East Angles and the kingdoms of central England to submit
to his over-lordship, and he hoped to make himself over-lord of the
south as well, and thus to reduce all England to dependence on
himself. In =625= he planned an attack upon the West Saxons, and with
the object of winning Kent to his side, he married Æthelburh, a sister
of the Kentish king. Kent was still the only Christian kingdom, and
Eadwine was obliged to promise to his wife protection for her
Christian worship. He was now free to attack the West Saxons. In
=626=, before he set out, ambassadors arrived from their king. As
Eadwine was listening to them, one of their number rushed forward to
stab him. His life was saved by the devotion of Lilla, one of his
thegns, who threw his body in the way of the assassin, and was slain
by the stroke intended for his lord. After this Eadwine marched
against the West Saxons. He defeated them in battle and forced them to
acknowledge him as their over-lord. He was now over-lord of all the
English states except Kent, and Kent had become his ally in
consequence of his marriage.
13. =Character of the later Conquests.=--Eadwine's over-lordship had
been gained with as little difficulty as Æthelberht's had been. The
ease with which each of them carried out their purpose can only be
explained by the change which had taken place in the condition of the
English. The small bodies of conquerors which had landed at different
parts of the coast had been interested to a man in the defence of the
lands which they had seized. Every freeman had been ready to come
forward to defend the soil which his tribe had gained. After tribe had
been joined to tribe, and still more after kingdom had been joined to
kingdom, there were large numbers who ceased to have any interest in
resisting the Welsh on what was, as far as they were concerned, a
distant frontier. Thus, when Ceawlin was fighting to extend the West
Saxon frontiers in the valley of the Severn, it mattered little to a
man whose own allotted land lay on the banks of the Southampton Water
whether or not his English kinsmen won lands from the Welsh near Bath
or Gloucester. The first result of this change was that the king's
war-band formed a far greater proportion of his military force than it
had formed originally. There was still the obligation upon the whole
body of the freemen to take arms, but it was an obligation which had
become more difficult to fulfil, and it must often have happened that
very few freemen took part in a battle except the local levies
concerned in defending their own immediate neighbourhood. A military
change of this kind would account for the undoubted fact that the
further the English conquest penetrated to the west the less
destructive it was of British life. The thegns, or warriors personally
attached to the king, did not want to plough and reap with their own
hands. They would be far better pleased to spare the lives of the
conquered and to compel them to labour. Every step in advance was
marked by a proportionately larger Welsh element in the population.
14. =Political Changes.=--The character of the kingship was as much
affected by the change as the character of the population. The old
folk-moots still remained as the local courts of the smaller kingdoms,
or of the districts out of which the larger kingdoms were composed,
and continued to meet under the presidency of ealdormen appointed or
approved by the king. Four men and a reeve, all of them humble
cultivators, could not, however, be expected to walk up to York from
the shores of the Forth, or even from the banks of the Tyne, whenever
Eadwine needed their counsel. Their place in the larger kingdoms was
therefore taken by the Witenagemot (_The moot of the wise men_),
composed of the ealdormen and the chief thegns, together with the
priests attached to the king's service in the time of heathendom, and,
in the time of Christianity, the bishop or bishops of his kingdom. In
one way the king was the stronger for the change. His counsellors,
like his fighting force, were more dependent on himself than before.
He was able to plan greater designs, and to carry out military
enterprises at a greater distance. In another way he was the weaker
for the change. He had less support from the bulk of his people, and
was more likely to undertake enterprises in which they had no
interest. The over-lordships of Æthelberht and Eadwine appear very
imposing, but no real tie united the men of the centre of England to
those of Kent at one time, or to those of North-humberland at another.
Eadwine was supreme over the other kings because he had a better
war-band than they had. If another king appeared whose war-band was
better than his, his supremacy would disappear.
15. =Eadwine's Conversion and Fall.=--In =627= Eadwine, moved by his
wife's entreaties and the urgency of her chaplain, Paulinus, called
upon his Witan to accept Christianity. Coifi, the priest, declared
that he had long served his gods for naught, and would try a change of
masters. 'The present life of man, O king,' said a thegn, 'seems to me
in comparison of that time which is unknown to us like to the swift
flight of a sparrow through the room wherein you sit at supper in
winter, with your ealdormen and thegns, and a good fire in the midst,
and storms of rain and snow without.... So this life of man appears
for a short space, but of what went before or what is to follow we are
utterly ignorant. If therefore this new doctrine contains something
more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed.' On this
recommendation Christianity was accepted. Paulinus was acknowledged as
Bishop of York. The new See, which had been originally intended by
Pope Gregory to be an archbishopric, was ultimately acknowledged as
such, but as yet it was but a missionary station. Paulinus converted
thousands in Deira, but the men of Bernicia were unaffected by his
pleadings. Christianity, like the extension of all better teaching,
brought at first not peace but the sword. The new religion was
contemptible in the eyes of warriors. The supremacy of Eadwine was
shaken. The men of East Anglia slew their king, who had followed his
over-lord's example by accepting Christianity. The worst blow came
from Mercia. Hitherto it had been only a little state on the Welsh
border. Its king, Penda, the stoutest warrior of his day, now gathered
under him all the central states, and founded a new Mercia which
stretched from the Severn to the Fens. He first turned on the West
Saxons, defeated them at Cirencester, and in =628= brought the
territory of the Hwiccas under Mercian sway. On the other hand, East
Anglia accepted Eadwine's supremacy and Christianity. Penda called to
his aid Cædwalla, the king of Gwynnedd, the Snowdonian region of
Wales. That he should have done so shows how completely Æthelfrith's
victory at Chester, by cutting the Kymric realm in two, had put an end
to all fears that the Kymry could ever make head against England as a
whole. The alliance was too strong for Eadwine, and in =633=, at the
battle of Heathfield--the modern Hatfield, in Yorkshire--the great
king was slain and his army routed.
16. =Oswald's Victory at Heavenfield.=--Penda was content to split up
Bernicia and Deira into separate kingdoms, and to join East Anglia to
his subject states. Cædwalla had all the wrongs of his race to avenge.
He remained in North-humberland burning and destroying till =635=,
when Oswald, who was a son of Æthelfrith and of Eadwine's sister, and
therefore united the claims of the rival families, gathered the men of
Bernicia round him, overthrew Cædwalla at Heavenfield, near the Roman
Wall, and was gratefully accepted as king by the whole of
North-humberland.
17. =Oswald and Aidan.=--In the days of Eadwine, Oswald, as the heir
of the rival house of Bernicia, had passed his youth in exile, and had
been converted to Christianity in the monastery of Hii, the island now
known as Iona. The monastery had been founded by Columba, an Irish
Scot. Christianity had been introduced into Ireland by Patrick early
in the fifth century. Ireland was a land of constant and cruel war
between its tribes, and all who wished to be Christians in more than
name withdrew themselves into monasteries, where they lived an even
stricter and more ascetic life than the monks did in other parts of
Western Europe. Bishops were retained in the monasteries to ordain
priests, but they were entirely powerless. Columba's monastery at Hii
sent its missionaries abroad, and brought Picts as well as Scots under
the influence of Christianity. Oswald now requested its abbot, the
successor of Columba, to send a missionary to preach the faith to the
men of North-humberland in the place of Paulinus, who had fled when
Eadwine was slain. The first who was sent came back reporting that the
people were too stubborn to be converted. "Was it their stubbornness
or your harshness?" asked the monk Aidan. "Did you forget to give them
the milk first and then the meat?" Aidan was chosen to take the place
of the brother who had failed. He established himself, not in an
inland town, but in Holy Island. His life was spent in wandering
amongst the men of the valleys opposite, winning them over by his
gentleness and his self-denying energy. Oswald, warrior as he was, had
almost all the gentleness and piety of Aidan. 'By reason of his
constant habit of praying or giving thanks to the Lord he was wont
whenever he sat to hold his hands upturned on his knees.' On one
occasion when he sat down to a feast with Aidan by his side, he sent
both the dainties before him and the silver dish on which they had
been served to be divided amongst the poor. "May this hand," exclaimed
the delighted Aidan, "never grow old!"
18. =Oswald's Greatness and Overthrow.=--As a king Oswald based his
power on the acknowledgment of his over-lordship by all the kingdoms
which were hostile to Penda. In =635= Wessex accepted Christianity,
and the acceptance of Christianity brought with it the acceptance of
Oswald's supremacy. Penda was thus surrounded by enemies, but his
courage did not fail him, and in =642= at the battle of Maserfield he
defeated Oswald. Oswald fell in the battle, begging with his last
words for God's mercy on the souls of his enemies.
19. =Penda's Overthrow.=--After Oswald's fall Bernicia was ruled by
his brother Oswiu. Deira, again divided from it, was governed first
by Eadwine's cousin Osric, and then by Osric's son, Oswini, who
acknowledged Penda as his over-lord. Oswini was a man after Aidan's
own heart. Once he gave a horse to Aidan to carry him on his mission
journeys. Aidan gave it away to the first beggar he met. "Is that
son of a mare," answered Aidan to the reproaches of the king, "worth
more in your eyes than that son of God?" Oswini fell at the bishop's
feet and entreated his pardon. Aidan wept. "I am sure," he cried,
"the king will not live long. I never till now saw a king humble."
Aidan was right. In =651= Oswini was slain by the order of King
Oswiu of Bernicia, who had long engaged in a struggle with Penda.
Penda had for some years been burning and slaughtering in Bernicia,
till he had turned a quarrel between himself and Oswiu into a
national strife. Oswiu rescued Bernicia from destruction, and after
Oswini's murder joined once more the two kingdoms together. Oswini
was the last heir of Ælla's house, and from that time there was but
one North-humberland. In =655= Oswiu and Penda met to fight, as it
seemed for supremacy over the whole of England, by the river Winwæd,
near the present Leeds. The heathen Penda was defeated and slain.
20. =The Three Kingdoms and the Welsh.=--For a moment it seemed as if
England would be brought together under the rule of Oswiu. After
Penda's death Mercia accepted Christianity, and the newly united
Mercia was split up into its original parts ruled by several kings.
The supremacy of Oswiu was, however, as little to be borne by the
Mercians as the supremacy of Penda had been borne by the men of
North-humberland. Under Wulfhere the Mercians rose in =659= against
Oswiu. All hope of uniting England was for the present at an end. For
about a century and a half longer there remained three larger
kingdoms--North-humberland, Mercia, and Wessex, whilst four smaller
ones--East Anglia, Essex, Kent, and Sussex--were usually attached
either to Mercia or to Wessex. The failure of North-humberland to
maintain the power was no doubt, in the first place owing to the
absence of any common danger, the fear of which would bind together
its populations in self-defence. The northern Kymry of Strathclyde
were no longer formidable, and they grew less formidable as years
passed on. The southern Kymry of Wales were too weak to threaten
Mercia, and the Welsh of the south-western peninsula were too weak to
threaten Wessex. It was most unlikely that any permanent union of the
English states would be brought about till some enemy arose who was
more terrible to them than the Welsh could any longer be.
21. =The English Missionaries.=--Some preparation might, however, be
made for the day of union by the steady growth of the Church. The
South Saxons, secluded between the forest and the sea, were the last
to be converted, but with them English heathenism came to an end as an
avowed religion, though it still continued to influence the multitude
in the form of a belief in fairies and witchcraft. Monasteries and
nunneries sprang up on all sides. Missionaries spread over the
country. In their mouths, and still more in their lives, Christianity
taught what the fierce English warrior most wanted to learn, the duty
of restraining his evil passions, and above all his cruelty. Nowhere
in all Europe did the missionaries appeal so exclusively as they did
in England to higher and purer motives. Nowhere but in England were to
be found kings like Oswald and Oswini, who bowed their souls to the
lesson of the Cross, and learned that they were not their own, but
were placed in power that they might use their strength in helping the
poor and needy.
22. =Dispute between Wilfrid and Colman. 664.=--The lesson was all the
better taught because those who taught it were monks. Monasticism
brought with it an extravagant view of the life of self-denial, but
those who had to be instructed needed to have the lesson written
plainly so that a child might read it. The rough warrior or the rough
peasant was more likely to abstain from drunkenness, if he had learned
to look up to men who ate and drank barely enough to enable them to
live; and he was more likely to treat women with gentleness and
honour, if he had learned to look up to some women who separated
themselves from the joys of married life that they might give
themselves to fasting and prayer. Yet, great as the influence of the
clergy was, it was in danger of being lessened through internal
disputes amongst themselves. A very large part of England had been
converted by the Celtic missionaries, and the Celtic missionaries,
though their life and teaching was in the main the same as that of the
Church of Canterbury and of the Churches of the Continent, differed
from them in the shape of the tonsure and in the time at which they
kept their Easter. These things were themselves unimportant, but it
was of great importance that the young English Church should not be
separated from the Churches of more civilised countries which had
preserved much of the learning and art of the old Roman Empire. One of
those who felt strongly the evil which would follow on such a
separation was Wilfrid. He was scornful and self-satisfied, but he had
travelled to Rome, and had been impressed with the ecclesiastical
memories of the great city, and with the fervour and learning of its
clergy. He came back resolved to bring the customs of England into
conformity with those of the churches of the Continent. On his
arrival, Oswiu, in =664=, gathered an assembly of the clergy of the
north headed by Colman, Aidan's successor, to discuss the point.
Learned arguments were poured forth on either side. Oswiu listened in
a puzzled way. Wilfrid boasted that his mode of keeping Easter was
derived from Peter, and that Christ had given to Peter the keys of the
kingdom of heaven. Oswiu at once decided to follow Peter, lest when he
came to the gate of that kingdom Peter, who held the keys, should lock
him out. Wilfrid triumphed, and the English Church was in all outward
matters regulated in conformity with that of Rome.
23. =Archbishop Theodore and the Penitential System.=--In =668=, four
years after Oswiu's decision was taken, Theodore of Tarsus was
consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury at Rome by the Pope himself. When
he arrived in England the time had come for the purely missionary
stage of the English Church to come to an end. Hitherto the bishops
had been few, only seven in all England. Their number was now
increased, and they were set to work no longer merely to convert the
heathen, but to see that the clergy did their duty amongst those who
had been already converted. Gradually, under these bishops, a
parochial clergy came into existence. Sometimes the freemen of a
hamlet, or of two or three hamlets together, would demand the constant
residence of a priest. Sometimes a lord would settle a priest to teach
his serfs. The parish clergy attacked violence and looseness of life
in a way different from that of the monks. The monks had given
examples of extreme self-denial. Theodore introduced the penitential
system of the Roman Church, and ordered that those who had committed
sin should be excluded from sharing in the rites of the Church until
they had done penance. They were to fast, or to repeat prayers,
sometimes for many years, before they were readmitted to communion.
Many centuries afterwards good men objected that these penances were
only bodily actions, and did not necessarily bring with them any real
repentance. In the seventh century the greater part of the population
could only be reached by such bodily actions. They had never had any
thought that a murder, for instance, was anything more than a
dangerous action which might bring down on the murderer the vengeance
of the relations of the murdered man, which might be bought off with
the payment of a weregild of a few shillings. The murderer who was
required by the Church to do penance was being taught that a murder
was a sin against God and against himself, as well as an offence
against his fellow-men. Gradually--very gradually--men would learn
from the example of the monks and from the discipline of penance that
they were to live for something higher than the gratification of their
own passions.
[Illustration: Saxon church at Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts.]
24. =Ealdhelm and Cædmon.=--When a change is good in itself, it
usually bears fruit in unexpected ways. Theodore was a scholar as well
as a bishop. Under his care a school grew up at Canterbury, full of
all the learning of the Roman world. That which distinguished this
school and others founded in imitation of it was that the scholars did
not keep their learning to themselves, but strove to make it helpful
to the ignorant and the poor. They learnt architecture on the
Continent in order to raise churches of stone in the place of churches
of wood. One of these churches is still standing at Bradford-on-Avon.
Its builder was Ealdhelm, the abbot of Malmesbury, a teacher of all
the knowledge of the time. Ealdhelm, learned as he was, let his heart
go forth to the unlearned. Finding that his neighbours would not
listen to his sermons, he sang to them on a bridge to win them to
higher things. Like all people who cannot read, the English of those
days loved a song. In the north, Cædmon, a rude herdsman on the lands
of the abbey which in later days was known as Whitby, was vexed with
himself because he could not sing. When at ale-drinkings his comrades
pressed him to sing a song, he would leave his supper unfinished and
return home ashamed. One night in a dream he heard a voice bidding him
sing of the Creation. In his sleep the words came to him, and they
remained with him when he woke. He had become a poet--a rude poet, it
is true, but still a poet. The gift which Cædmon had acquired never
left him. He sang of the Creation and of the whole course of God's
providence. To the end he was unable to compose any songs which were
not religious.
25. =Bede. 673--735.=--Of all the English scholars of the time Bæda,
usually known as 'the venerable Bede,' was the most remarkable. He was
a monk of Jarrow on the Tyne. From his youth up he was a writer on all
subjects embraced by the knowledge of his day. One subject he made his
own. He was the first English historian. The title of his greatest
work was the Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation. He told how
that nation had been converted, and of the fortunes of its Church; but
for him the Church included the whole nation, and he told of the
doings of kings and people, as well as of priests and monks. In this
he was a true interpreter of the spirit of the English Church. Its
clergy did not stand aloof from the rulers of the state, but worked
with them as well as for them. The bishops stepped into the place of
the heathen priests in the Witenagemots of the kings, and counselled
them in matters of state as well as in matters of religion.
26. =Church Councils.=--Bede recognised in the title of his book that
there was such a thing as an English nation long before there was any
political unity. Whilst kingdom was fighting against kingdom, Theodore
in =673= assembled the first English Church council at Hertford. From
that time such councils of the bishops and principal clergy of all
England met whenever any ecclesiastical question required them to
deliberate in common. The clergy at least did not meet as West Saxons
or as Mercians. They met on behalf of the whole English Church, and
their united consultations must have done much to spread the idea
that, in spite of the strife between the kings, the English nation was
really one.
[Illustration: Saxon horsemen (Harl. MS. 603.)]
[Illustration: Group of Saxon warriors. (Harl. MS. 603.)]
27. =Struggle between Mercia and Wessex.=--Many years passed away
before the kingdoms could be brought under one king. North-humberland
stood apart from southern England, and during the latter half of the
seventh century Wessex grew in power. Wessex had been weak because it
was seldom thoroughly united. Each district was presided over by an
Ætheling, or chief of royal blood, and it was only occasionally that
these Æthelings submitted to the king. From time to time a strong king
compelled the obedience of the Æthelings and carried on the old
struggle with the western Welsh. It was not till =710= that Ine
succeeded in driving the Welsh out of Somerset, and about the same
time a body of the West Saxons advancing through Dorset reached
Exeter. They took possession of half the city for themselves, and left
the remainder to the Welsh. Ine was, however, checked by fresh
outbreaks of the subordinate Æthelings, and in =726= he gave up the
struggle and went on a pilgrimage to Rome. Æthelbald, king of the
Mercians, took the opportunity to invade Wessex, and made himself
master of the country and over-lord of all the other kingdoms south of
the Humber. In =754= the West Saxons rose against him and defeated him
at Burford. After a few years his successor, Offa, once more took up
the task of making the Mercian king over-lord of southern England. In
=775=, after a long struggle, he brought Kent as well as Essex under
his sway. In =779= he defeated the West Saxons at Bensington, and
pushed the Mercian frontier to the Thames. Further than that Offa did
not venture to go, and, great as he was, the West Saxons within their
shrunken limits continued to be independent of him. He turned his
arms upon the Welsh, and drove them back from the Severn to the
embankment which is known from his name as Offa's Dyke. The West
Saxons, being freed from attack on the side of Mercia, overran Devon.
Then there was a contest for the West Saxon crown between Beorhtric
and Ecgberht. Beorhtric gained the upper hand, and entered into
alliance with Offa by taking his daughter to wife. Ecgberht fled to
the Continent.
28. =Mohammedanism and the Carolingian Empire.=--A great change had
passed over Europe since the days when a Frankish princess, by her
marriage with the Kentish Ethelberht, had smoothed the way for the
introduction of Christianity into England. In the first part of the
seventh century Mohammed had preached a new religion in Arabia. He
taught that there was one God, and that Mohammed was his prophet.
After his death his Arab followers spread as conquerors over the
neighbouring countries. Before the end of the century they had subdued
Persia, Syria, and Egypt, and were pushing westwards along the north
coast of Africa. In =711= they crossed the Straits of Gibraltar. All
Spain, with the exception of a hilly district in the north, soon fell
into their hands, and in =717= they crossed the Pyrenees. There can be
little doubt that, if they had subdued Gaul, Mohammedanism and not
Christianity would for a long time have been the prevailing religion
in Europe. From this Europe was saved by a great Frankish warrior,
Charles Martel (_the Hammer_), who in =732= drove the invaders back at
a great battle between Tours and Poitiers. Charles's son, Pippin,
dethroned the reigning family and became king of the Franks. Pippin's
son was Charles the Great, who before he died ruled over the whole of
Gaul and Germany, over the north and centre of Italy, and the
north-east of Spain. His rule was favoured both by the Frankish
warriors and by the clergy, who were glad to see so strong a bulwark
erected against the attacks of the Mohammedans. At that time the Roman
Empire, which had never ceased to exist at Constantinople, fell into
the hands of Irene, the murderess of her son. In =800= the Pope,
refusing to acknowledge that the Empire could have so unworthy a head,
placed the Imperial crown on the head of Charles as the successor of
the old Roman Emperors.
29. =Ecgberht's Rule. 802--839.=--Though Charles did not directly
govern England, he made his influence felt there. Offa had claimed his
protection, and Ecgberht took refuge at his court. Ecgberht doubtless
learned something of the art of ruling from him, and in =802= he
returned to England. Beorhtric was by this time dead, and Ecgberht
was accepted as king by the West Saxons. Before he died, in =839=, he
had made himself the over-lord of all the other kingdoms. He was
never, indeed, directly king of all England. Kent, Sussex, and Essex
were governed by rulers of his own family appointed by himself.
Mercia, East Anglia, and North-humberland retained their own kings,
ruling under Ecgberht as their over-lord. Towards the west Ecgberht's
direct government did not reach beyond the Tamar, though the Cornish
Celts acknowledged his authority, as did the Celts of Wales. The Celts
of Strathclyde and the Picts and Scots remained entirely independent.
CHAPTER IV.
THE ENGLISH KINGSHIP AND THE STRUGGLE WITH THE DANES.
LEADING DATES
First landing of the Danes 787
Treaty of Wedmore 878
Dependent alliance of the Scots with Eadward the Elder 925
Accession of Eadgar 959
1. =The West Saxon Supremacy.=--It was quite possible that the power
founded by Ecgberht might pass away as completely as did the power
which had been founded by Æthelfrith of North-humberland or by Penda
of Mercia. To some extent the danger was averted by the unusual
strength of character which for six generations showed itself in the
family of Ecgberht. For nearly a century and a half after Ecgberht's
death no ruler arose from his line who had not great qualities as a
warrior or as a ruler. It was no less important that these successive
kings, with scarcely an exception, kept up a good understanding with
the clergy, and especially with the Archbishops of Canterbury, so that
the whole of the influence of the Church was thrown in favour of the
political unity of England under the West Saxon line. The clergy
wished to see the establishment of a strong national government for
the protection of the national Church. Yet it was difficult to
establish such a government unless other causes than the goodwill of
the clergy had contributed to its maintenance. Peoples who have had
little intercourse except by fighting with one another rarely unite
heartily unless they have some common enemy to ward off, and some
common leader to look up to in the conduct of their defence.[3]
[Footnote 3: Genealogy of the English kings from Ecgberht to
Eadgar:--
ECGBERHT
802-839
|
ÆTHELWULF
839-858
|
-----------------------------------------
| | | |
ÆTHELBALD ÆTHELBERHT ÆTHELRED ÆLFRED
858-860 860-866 866-871 871-901
|
-------------------------------------------
| |
Eadward Æthelflæd = Æthelred
899-925 (the _Lady of the
| Mercians_)
--------------------------
| | |
ÆTHELSTAN EADMUND EADRED
925-940 940-946 946-955
|
------------
| |
EADWIG EADGAR
955-959 959-975]
[Illustration: Remains of a Viking ship, from a cairn at Gokstad. (Now
in the University at Christiania.)]
2. =The Coming of the Northmen.=--The common enemy came from the
north. At the end of the eighth century the inhabitants of Norway and
Denmark resembled the Angles and Saxons three or four centuries
before. They swarmed over the sea as pirates to plunder wherever they
could find stored-up wealth along the coasts of Western Europe. The
Northmen were heathen still and their religion was the old religion of
force. They loved battle even more than they loved plunder. They held
that the warrior who was slain in fight was received by the god Odin
in Valhalla, where immortal heroes spent their days in cutting one
another to pieces, and were healed of their wounds in the evening that
they might join in the nightly feast, and be able to fight again on
the morrow. He that died in bed was condemned to a chilly and dreary
existence in the abode of the goddess Hela, whose name is the Norse
equivalent of Hell.
[Illustration: Gold ring of Æthelwulf.]
3. =The English Coast Plundered.=--Since Englishmen had settled in
England they had lost the art of seamanship. The Northmen therefore
were often able to plunder and sail away. They could only be attacked
on land, and some time would pass before the Ealdorman who ruled the
district could gather together not only his own war-band, but the
fyrd, or levy of all men of fighting age. When at last he arrived at
the spot on the coast where the pirates had been plundering, he often
found that they were already gone. Yet, as time went on, the Northmen
took courage, and pushed far enough into the interior to be attacked
before they could regain the coast. Their first landing had been in
=787=, before the time of Ecgberht. In Ecgberht's reign their attacks
upon Wessex were so persistent that Ecgberht had to bring his own
war-band to the succour of his Ealdormen. His son and successor,
Æthelwulf, had a still harder struggle. The pirates spread their
attacks over the whole of the southern and the eastern coast, and
ventured to remain long enough on shore to fight a succession of
battles. In =851= they were strong enough to remain during the whole
winter in Thanet. The crews of no less than 350 ships landed in the
mouth of the Thames sacked Canterbury and London. They were finally
defeated by Æthelwulf at Aclea (_Ockley_), in Surrey. In =858=
Æthelwulf died. Four of his sons wore the crown in succession; the two
eldest, Æthelbald and Æthelberht, ruling only a short time.
4. =The Danes in the North.=--The task of the third brother,
Æthelred, who succeeded in =866=, was harder than his father's.
Hitherto the Northmen had come for plunder, and had departed sooner or
later. A fresh swarm of Danes now arrived from Denmark to settle on
the land as conquerors. Though they did not themselves fight on
horseback, they seized horses to betake themselves rapidly from one
part of England to the other. Their first attack was made on the
north, where there was no great affection for the West Saxon kings.
They overcame the greater part of North-humberland. They beat down the
resistance of East Anglia, and, fastening its king, Eadmund, to a
tree, shot him to death with arrows. His countrymen counted him a
saint, and a great monastery arose at Bury St. Edmunds in his honour.
Everywhere the Danes plundered and burnt the monasteries, because the
monks were weak, and their houses were rich with jewelled service
books and golden plate. They next turned upon Mercia, and forced the
Mercian under-king to pay tribute to them. Only Wessex, to which the
smaller eastern states of Kent and Sussex had by this time been
completely annexed, retained its independence.
5. =Ælfred's Struggle in Wessex. 871--878.=--In Wessex Æthelred strove
hard against the invaders. He won a great victory at Æscesdun
(_Ashdown_, near Reading), on the northern slope of the Berkshire
Downs. After a succession of battles he was slain in =871=. Though he
left sons of his own, he was succeeded by Ælfred, his youngest
brother. It was not the English custom to give the crown to the child
of a king if there was any one of the kingly family more fitted to
wear it. Ælfred was no common man. In his childhood he had visited
Rome, and had been hallowed as king by Pope Leo IV., though the
ceremony could have had no weight in England. He had early shown a
love of letters, and the story goes that when his mother offered a
book with bright illuminations to the one of her children who could
first learn to read it, the prize was won by Ælfred. During Æthelred's
reign he had little time to give to learning. He fought nobly by his
brother's side in the battles of the day, and after he succeeded him
he fought nobly as king at the head of his people. In =878= the Danish
host, under its king, Guthrum, beat down all resistance. Ælfred was no
longer able to keep in the open country, and took refuge with a few
chosen warriors in the little island of Athelney, in Somerset, then
surrounded by the waters of the fen country through which the Parret
flowed. After a few weeks he came forth, and with the levies of
Somerset and Wilts and of part of Hants he utterly defeated Guthrum at
Ethandun (? _Edington_, in Wiltshire), and stormed his camp.
[Illustration: Gold jewel of Ælfred found at Athelney. (Now in the
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.)]
6. =The Treaty of Chippenham, and its Results. 878.=--After this
defeat Guthrum and the Danes swore to a peace with Ælfred at
Chippenham. They were afterwards baptised in a body at Aller, not far
from Athelney. Guthrum with a few of his companions then visited
Ælfred at Wedmore, a village near the southern foot of the Mendips,
from which is taken the name by which the treaty is usually but
wrongly known. By this treaty Ælfred retained no more than Wessex,
with its dependencies, Sussex and Kent, and the western half of
Mercia. The remainder of England as far north as the Tees was
surrendered to the Danes, and became known as the Danelaw, because
Danish and not Saxon law prevailed in it. Beyond the Tees Bernicia
maintained its independence under an English king. Though the English
people never again had to struggle for its very existence as a
political body, yet, in =886=, after a successful war, Ælfred wrung
from Guthrum a fresh treaty by which the Danes surrendered London and
the surrounding district. Yet, even after this second treaty, it might
seem as if Ælfred, who only ruled over a part of England, was worse
off than his grandfather, Ecgberht, who had ruled over the whole. In
reality he was better off. In the larger kingdom it would have been
almost impossible to produce the national spirit which alone could
have permanently kept the whole together. In the smaller kingdom it
was possible, especially as there was a strong West Saxon element in
the south-west of Mercia in consequence of its original settlement by
a West Saxon king after the battle of Deorham (see p. 35). Moreover,
Ælfred, taking care not to offend the old feeling of local
independence which still existed in Mercia, appointed his son-in-law,
Æthelred, who was a Mercian, to govern it as an ealdorman under
himself.
[Illustration: An English vessel. (Harl. MS. 603.)]
7. =Ælfred's Military Work.=--Ælfred would hardly have been able to do
so much unless his own character had been singularly attractive. Other
men have been greater warriors or legislators or scholars than Ælfred
was, but no man has ever combined in his own person so much excellence
in war, in legislation, and in scholarship. As to war, he was not only
a daring and resolute commander, but he was an organiser of the
military forces of his people. One chief cause of the defeats of the
English had been the difficulty of bringing together in a short time
the 'fyrd,' or general levy of the male population, or of keeping it
long together when men were needed at home to till the fields. Ælfred
did his best to overcome this difficulty by ordering that half the men
of each shire should be always ready to fight, whilst half remained at
home. This new half-army, like his new half-kingdom, was stronger than
the whole one had been before. To an improved army Ælfred added a
navy, and he was the first English king who defeated the Danes at sea.
[Illustration: A Saxon house. (Harl. MS. 603.)]
8. =His Laws and Scholarship.=--Ælfred was too great a man to want to
make every one conform to some ideal of his own choosing. It was
enough for him to take men as they were, and to help them to become
better. He took the old laws and customs, and then, suggesting a few
improvements, submitted them to the approval of his Witenagemot, the
assembly of his bishops and warriors. He knew also that men's conduct
is influenced more by what they think than by what they are commanded
to do. His whole land was steeped in ignorance. The monasteries had
been the schools of learning; and many of them had been sacked by the
Danes, their books burnt, and their inmates scattered, whilst others
were deserted, ceasing to receive new inmates because the first duty
of Englishmen had been to defend their homes rather than to devote
themselves to a life of piety. Latin was the language in which the
services of the Church were read, and in which books like Bede's
Ecclesiastical History were written. Without a knowledge of Latin
there could be no intercourse with the learned men of the Continent,
who used that language still amongst themselves. Yet when the Danes
departed from Ælfred's kingdom, there were but very few priests who
could read a page of Latin. Ælfred did his best to remedy the evil. He
called learned men to him wherever they could be found. Some of these
were English; others, like Asser, who wrote Ælfred's life, were Welsh;
others again were Germans from beyond the sea. Yet Ælfred was not
content. It was a great thing that there should be again schools in
England for those who could write and speak Latin, the language of the
learned, but his heart yearned for those who could not speak anything
but their own native tongue. He set himself to be the teacher of
these. He himself translated Latin books for them, with the object of
imparting knowledge, not of giving, as a modern translator would do,
the exact sense of the author. When, therefore, he knew anything which
was not in the books, but which he thought it good for Englishmen to
read, he added it to his translation. Even with this he was not
content. The books of Latin writers which he translated taught men
about the history and geography of the Continent. They taught nothing
about the history of England itself, of the deeds and words of the men
who had ruled the English nation. That these things might not be
forgotten, he bade his learned men bring together all that was known
of the history of his people since the day when they first landed as
pirates on the coast of Kent. The Chronicle, as it is called, is the
earliest history which any European nation possesses in its own
tongue. Yet, after all, such a man as Ælfred is greater for what he
was than for what he did. No other king ever showed forth so well in
his own person the truth of the saying, 'He that would be first among
you, let him be the servant of all.'
9. =Eadward the Elder. 899--925.=--In =899= Ælfred died. He had
already fortified London as an outpost against the Danes, and he left
to his son, Eadward, a small but strong and consolidated kingdom. The
Danes on the other side of the frontier were not united. Guthrum's
kingdom stretched over the old Essex and East Anglia, as well as over
the south-eastern part of the old Mercia. The land from the Humber to
the Nen was under the rule of Danes settled in the towns known to the
English as the Five boroughs of Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Stamford,
and Nottingham. In the old Deira or modern Yorkshire was a separate
Danish kingdom. Danes, in short, settled wherever we now find the
place-names, such as Derby and Whitby, ending in the Danish
termination 'by' instead of in the English terminations 'ton' or
'ham,' as in Luton and Chippenham. Yet even in these parts the bulk of
the population was usually English, and the English population would
everywhere welcome an English conqueror. A century earlier a Mercian
or a North-humbrian had preferred independence to submission to a West
Saxon king. They now preferred a West Saxon king to a Danish master,
especially as the old royal houses were extinct, and there was no one
but the West Saxon king to lead them against the Danes.
10. =Eadward's Conquests.=--Eadward was not, like his father, a
legislator or a scholar, but he was a great warrior. In a series of
campaigns he subdued the Danish parts of England as far north as the
Humber. He was aided by his brother-in-law, Æthelred, and after
Æthelred's death by his own sister, Æthelred's widow, Æthelflæd, the
Lady of the Mercians, one of the few warrior-women of the world. Step
by step the brother and sister won their way, not contenting
themselves with victories in the open country, but securing each
district as they advanced by the erection of 'burhs' or
fortifications. Some of these 'burhs' were placed in desolate Roman
strongholds, such as Chester. Others were raised, like that of
Warwick, on the mounds piled up in past times by a still earlier race.
Others again, like that of Stafford, were placed where no fortress had
been before. Towns, small at first, grew up in and around the 'burhs,'
and were guarded by the courage of the townsmen themselves. Eadward,
after his sister's death, took into his own hands the government of
Mercia, and from that time all southern and central England was
united under him. In =922= the Welsh kings acknowledged his supremacy.
11. =Eadward and the Scots.=--Tradition assigns to Eadward a wider
rule shortly before his death. In the middle of the ninth century the
Picts and the intruding Scots (see p. 42) had been amalgamated under
Keneth MacAlpin, the king of the Scots, and the new kingdom had since
been welded together, just as Mercia and Wessex were being welded
together by the attacks of the Danes. It is said that in =925= the
king of the Scots, together with other northern rulers, chose Eadward
'to father and lord.' Probably this statement only covers some act of
alliance formed by the English king with the king of Scots and other
lesser rulers. Nothing was more natural than that the Scottish king,
Constantine, should wish to obtain the support of Eadward against his
enemies; and it was also natural that if Eadward agreed to support
him, he would require some acknowledgment of the superiority of the
English king; but what was the precise form of the acknowledgment must
remain uncertain. In =925= Eadward died.
12. =Æthelstan. 925--940.=--Three sons of Eadward reigned in
succession. The eldest, of illegitimate birth, was Æthelstan. Sihtric,
the Danish king at York, owned him as over-lord, and on Sihtric's
death in =926=, Æthelstan took Danish North-humberland under his
direct rule. The Welsh kings were reduced to make a fuller
acknowledgment of his supremacy than they had made to his father. He
drove the Welsh out of the half of Exeter which had been left to them,
and confined them to the modern Cornwall beyond the Tamar. Great
rulers on the Continent sought his alliance. The empire of Charles the
Great had broken up. One of Æthelstan's sisters was given to Charles
the Simple, the king of the Western Franks; another to Hugh the Great,
Duke of the French and lord of Paris, who, though nominally the vassal
of the king, was equal in power to his lord, and whose son was
afterwards the first king of modern France. A third sister was given
to Otto, the son of Henry, the king of the Eastern Franks, from whom,
in due time, sprang a new line of Emperors. Æthelstan's greatness drew
upon him the jealousy of the king of the Scots and of all the northern
kings. In =937= he defeated them all in a great battle at Brunanburh,
of which the site is unknown. His victory was celebrated in a splendid
war-song.
13. =Eadmund (940-946) and Eadred (946-955).=--Æthelstan died in
=940=. He was succeeded by his young brother, Eadmund, who had fought
bravely at Brunanburh. Eadmund had to meet a general rising of the
Danes of Mercia as well as of those of the north. After he had
suppressed the rising he showed himself to be a great statesman as
well as a great warrior. The relations between the king of the English
and the king of the Scots had for some time been very uncertain.
Little is definitely known about them but it looks as if they joined
the English whenever they were afraid of the Danes, and joined the
Danes whenever they were afraid of the English. Eadmund took an
opportunity of making it to be the interest of the Scottish king
permanently to join the English. The southern part of the kingdom of
Strathclyde had for some time been under the English kings. In =945=
Eadmund overran the remainder, but gave it to Malcolm on condition
that he should be his fellow-worker by sea and land. The king of Scots
thus entered into a position of dependent alliance towards Eadmund. A
great step was thus taken in the direction in which the inhabitants of
Britain afterwards walked. The dominant powers in the island were to
be English and Scots, not English and Danes. Eadmund thought it worth
while to conciliate the Scottish Celts rather than to endeavour to
conquer them. The result of Eadmund's statesmanship was soon made
manifest. He himself did not live to gather its fruits. In =946= an
outlaw who had taken his seat at a feast in his hall slew him as he
was attempting to drag him out by the hair. The next king, Eadred, the
last of Eadward's sons, though sickly, had all the spirit of his race.
He had another sharp struggle with the Danes, but in =954= he made
himself their master. North-humberland was now thoroughly amalgamated
with the English kingdom, and was to be governed by an Englishman,
Oswulf, with the title of Earl, an old Danish title equivalent to the
English Ealdorman, having nothing to do, except philologically, with
the old English word Eorl.
14. =Danes and English.=--In =955= Eadred died, having completed the
work which Ælfred had begun, and which had been carried on by his son
and his three grandsons. England, from the Forth to the Channel, was
under one ruler. Even the contrast between Englishmen and Danes was
soon, for the most part, wiped out. They were both of the same
Teutonic stock, and therefore their languages were akin to one another
and their institutions very similar. The Danes of the north were for
some time fiercer and less easily controlled than the English of the
south, but there was little national distinction between them, and
what little there was gradually passed away.
15. =Eadwig. 955--959.=--Eadred was succeeded by Eadwig, the eldest
son of his brother Eadmund. Eadwig was hardly more than fifteen years
old, and it would be difficult for a boy to keep order amongst the
great ealdormen and earls. At his coronation feast he gave deep
offence by leaving his place to amuse himself with a young kinswoman,
Ælfgifu, in her mother's room, whence he was followed and dragged back
by two ecclesiastics, one of whom was Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury.
16. =Dunstan.=--Dunstan in his boyhood had been attached to Eadmund's
court, but he had been driven off by the rivalry of other youths. He
was in no way fitted to be a warrior. He loved art and song, and
preferred a book to a sword. For such youths there was no place
amongst the fighting laymen, and Dunstan early found the peace which
he sought as a monk at Glastonbury. Eadmund made him abbot, but
Dunstan had almost to create his monastery before he could rule it.
Monasteries had nearly vanished from England in the time of the Danish
plunderings, and the few monks who remained had very little that was
monastic about them. Dunstan brought the old monks into order, and
attracted new ones, but to the end of his days he was conspicuous
rather as a scholar than as an ascetic. From Glastonbury he carried on
the work of teaching an ignorant generation, just as Ælfred had done
in an earlier time. Ælfred, however, was a warrior and a ruler first,
and then a teacher. Dunstan was a teacher first, and then a ruler.
Eadred took counsel with him, and Dunstan became thus the first
example of a class of men which afterwards rose to power--that,
namely, of ecclesiastical statesmen. Up to that time all who had
governed had been warriors.
17. =Archbishop Oda.=--Another side of the Church's work, the
maintenance of a high standard of morality, was, in the time of
Eadred, represented by Oda, Archbishop of Canterbury. The accepted
standard of morality differs in different ages, and, for many reasons,
it was held by the purer minds in the tenth century that celibacy was
nobler than marriage. If our opinion is changed now, it is because
many things have changed. No one then thought of teaching a girl
anything, except to sew and to look after the house, and an ignorant
and untrained wife could only be a burden to a man who was intent upon
the growth of the spiritual or intellectual life in himself and in
others. At all times the monks, who were often called the regular
clergy, because they lived according to a certain rule, had been
unmarried, and attempts had frequently been made by councils of the
Church to compel the parish priests, or secular clergy, to follow
their example. In England, however, and on the Continent as well,
these orders were seldom heeded, and a married clergy was everywhere
to be found. Of late, however, there had sprung up in the monastery of
Cluny, in Burgundy, a zeal for the establishment of universal clerical
celibacy, and this zeal was shared by Archbishop Oda, though he found
it impossible to overcome the stubborn resistance of the secular
clergy.
[Illustration: A monk driven out of the King's presence. (From a
drawing belonging to the Society of Antiquaries.)]
18. =Eadwig's Marriage.=--In its eagerness to set up a pure standard
of morality, the Church had made rules against the marriage of even
distant relations. Eadwig offended against these rules by marrying his
kinswoman, Ælfgifu. A quarrel arose on this account between Dunstan
and the young king, and Dunstan was driven into banishment. Such a
quarrel was sure to weaken the king, because the support of the
bishops was usually given to him, for the sake of the maintenance of
peace and order. The dispute came at a bad time, because there was
also a quarrel among the ealdormen and other great men. At last the
ealdormen of the north and centre of England revolted and set up the
king's brother, Eadgar, to be king of all England north of the Thames.
Upon this, Oda, taking courage, declared Eadwig and his young wife to
be separated as too near of kin, and even seized her and had her
carried beyond sea. In =959= Eadwig died, and Eadgar succeeded to the
whole kingdom.
CHAPTER V.
EADGAR'S ENGLAND.
1. =Eadgar and Dunstan. 959--975.=--Eadgar was known as the Peaceful
King. He had the advantage, which Eadwig had not, of having the Church
on his side. He maintained order, with the help of Dunstan as his
principal adviser. Not long after his accession Dunstan became
Archbishop of Canterbury. His policy was that of a man who knows that
he cannot do everything and is content to do what he can. The Danes
were to keep their own laws, and not to have English laws forced upon
them. The great ealdormen were to be conciliated, not to be repressed.
Everything was to be done to raise the standard of morality and
knowledge. Foreign teachers were brought in to set up schools. More
than this Dunstan did not attempt. It is true that in his time an
effort was made to found monasteries, which should be filled with
monks living after the stricter rule of which the example had been set
at Cluny, but the man who did most to establish monasteries again in
England was not Dunstan, but Æthelwold, Bishop of Winchester.
Æthelwold, however, was not content with founding monasteries. He also
drove out the secular canons from his own cathedral of Winchester and
filled their places with monks. His example was followed by Oswald,
Bishop of Worcester. Dunstan did not introduce monks even into his own
cathedrals at Worcester and Canterbury. As far as it is now possible
to understand the matter, the change, though it provoked great
hostility, was for the better. The secular canons were often married,
connected with the laity of the neighbourhood, and living an easy
life. The monks were celibate, living according to a strict rule, and
conforming themselves to what, according to the standard of the age,
was the highest ideal of religion. By a life of complete self-denial
they were able to act as examples to a generation which needed
teaching by example more than by word. How completely monasticism was
associated with learning is shown by the fact that the monks now
established at Worcester took up the work of continuing the Chronicle
which had been begun under Ælfred (see p. 61).
2. =The Cession of Lothian.=--It is said that Eadgar was once rowed by
six kings on the river Dee. The story, though probably untrue, sets
forth his power not only over his own immediate subjects but over the
whole island. His title of Peaceful shows that at least he lived on
good terms with his neighbours. There is reason to believe that he was
able to do this because he followed out the policy of Eadmund in
singling out the king of Scots as the ruler whom it was most worth his
while to conciliate. Eadmund had given over Strathclyde to one king of
Scots. Eadgar, it is said--and probably with truth--gave over Lothian
to another. Lothian was then the name of the whole of the northern
part of Bernicia stretching from the Cheviots to the Forth. In
Eadred's time the Scots had occupied Eadwinesburh (_Edinburgh_), the
northern border fortress of Bernicia (see p. 43), and after this the
land to the south of that fortress must have been difficult to defend
against them. It is therefore likely that the story is true that
Eadgar ceded Lothian to Kenneth, who was then king of the Scots,
especially as it would account for the peaceful character of his
reign. Kenneth in accepting the gift no doubt engaged to be faithful
to Eadgar, though it is impossible to say what was the exact nature of
his obligation. It is of more importance that a Celtic king ruled
thenceforward over an English people as well as over his own Celtic
Scots, and that ultimately his descendants became more English than
Celtic in character, through the attraction exercised upon them by
their English subjects.
3. =Changes in English Institutions.=--The long struggle with the
Danes could not fail to leave its mark upon English society. The
history of the changes which took place is difficult to trace; in the
first place because our information is scanty, in the second because
things happened in one part of the country which did not happen in
another. Yet there were two changes which were widely felt: the growth
of the king's authority, and the acceleration of the process which was
reducing to bondage the ceorl, or simple freeman.
4. =Growth of the King's Power.=--In the early days of the English
conquest the kings and other great men had around them their
war-bands, composed of gesiths or thegns, personally attached to
themselves, and ready, if need were, to die on their lord's behalf.
Very early these thegns were rewarded by grants of land on condition
of continuing military service. Every extension of the king's power
over fresh territory made their services more important. It had always
been difficult to bring together the fyrd, or general army of the
freemen, even of a small district, and it was quite impossible to
bring together the fyrd of a kingdom reaching from the Channel to the
Firth of Forth. Ælfred's division of the fyrd into two parts, one to
fight and the other to stay at home, may have served when all the
fighting had to be done in the western part of Wessex. Æthelstan or
Eadmund could not possibly make even half of the men of Devonshire or
Essex fight in his battles north of the Humber. The kings therefore
had to rely more and more upon their thegns, who in turn had thegns of
their own whom they could bring with them; and thus was formed an army
ready for military service in any part of the kingdom. A king who
could command such an army was even more powerful than one who could
command the whole of the forces of a smaller territory.
[Illustration: January--Ploughing and sowing.]
[Illustration: February--Pruning.]
[Illustration: March--Sowing and digging.]
[Illustration: April--Feasting.]
[Illustration: May--Sheep-tending.]
[Illustration: June--Cutting wood.]
[Illustration: Rural life in the eleventh century. January to June.
(Cott. MS. _Julius A._ vi.)]
[Illustration: July--Mowing.]
[Illustration: August--Harvesting.]
[Illustration: September--Feeding swine.]
[Illustration: October--Hawking.]
[Illustration: November--Making a bonfire.]
[Illustration: December--Threshing and Winnowing.]
[Illustration: Rural life in the eleventh century. July to December.
(Cott. MS. _Julius A._ vi.)]
5. =Conversion of the Freemen into Serfs.=--It is impossible to give a
certain account of the changes which passed over the English freemen,
but there can be little doubt that a process had been for some time
going on which converted them into bondmen, and that this process was
greatly accelerated by the Danish wars. When a district was being
plundered the peasant holders of the strips of village land suffered
most, and needed the protection of the neighbouring thegn, who was
better skilled in war than themselves, and this protection they
could only obtain on condition of becoming bondmen themselves--that is
to say, of giving certain days in the week to work on the special
estate of the lord. A bondman differed both from a slave and from a
modern farmer. Though he was bound to the soil and could not go away
if he wished to do so, yet he could not be sold as though he were a
slave; nor, on the other hand, could he, like a farmer, be turned out
of his holding so long as he fulfilled his obligation of cultivating
his lord's demesne. The lord was almost invariably a thegn, either of
the king or of some superior thegn, and there thus arose in England,
as there arose about the same time on the Continent, a chain of
personal relationships. The king was no longer merely the head of the
whole people. He was the personal lord of his own thegns, and they
again were the lords of other thegns. The serfs cultivated their
lands, and thereby set them free to fight for the king on behalf of
the whole nation. It seems at first sight as if the English people had
fallen into a worse condition. An organisation, partly military and
partly servile, was substituted for an organisation of free men. Yet
only in this way could the whole of England be amalgamated. The nation
gained in unity what it lost in freedom.
6. =The Hundred-moot and the Lord's Court.=--In another way the
condition of the peasants was altered for the worse by the growth of
the king's power. In former days land was held as 'folkland,' granted
by the people at the original conquest, passing to the kinsmen of the
holder if he died without children. Afterwards the clergy introduced a
system by which the owner could grant the 'bookland,' held by book or
charter, setting at nought the claim of his kinsmen, and in order to
give validity to the arrangement, obtained the consent of the king and
his Witenagemot (see p. 45). In time, the king and the Witenagemot
granted charters in other cases, and the new 'bookland' to a great
extent superseded the old 'folkland,' accompanied by a grant of the
right of holding special courts. In this manner the old hundred-moots
became neglected, people seeking for justice in the courts of the
lords. Yet those who lived on the lord's land attended his court,
appeared as compurgators, and directed the ordeal just as they had
once done in the hundred-moot.
7. =The Towns.=--The towns had grown up in various ways. Some were of
old Roman foundation, such as Lincoln and Gloucester. Others, like
Nottingham and Bristol, had come into existence since the English
settlement. Others again gathered round monasteries, like Bury St.
Edmunds and Peterborough. The inhabitants met to consult about their
own affairs, sometimes in dependence on a lord. Where there was no
lord they held a court which was composed in the same way as the
hundred-moots outside. The townsmen had the right of holding a market.
Every sale had to take place in the presence of witnesses who could
prove, if called upon to do so, that the sale had really taken place,
and markets were therefore usually to be found in towns, because it
was there that witnesses could most easily be found.
8. =The Origin of the Shires.=--Shires, which were divisions larger
than the hundreds, and smaller than the larger kingdoms, originated in
various ways. In the south, and on the east coast as far north as the
Wash, they were either old kingdoms like Kent and Essex, or
settlements forming part of old kingdoms, as Norfolk (the north folk)
formed part of East Anglia, and Dorset or Somerset, the lands of the
Dorsætan or the Somersætan, formed part of the kingdom of Wessex. In
the centre and north they were of more recent origin, and were
probably formed as those parts of England were gradually reconquered
from the Danes. The fact that most of these shires are named from
towns--as Derbyshire from Derby, and Warwickshire from Warwick--shows
that they came into existence after towns had become of importance.
9. =The Shire-moot.=--Whilst the hundred-moot decayed, the folk-moot
continued to flourish under a new name, as the shire-moot. This moot
was still attended by the freemen of the shire though the thegns were
more numerous and the simple freemen less numerous than they had once
been. Still the continued existence of the shire-moot kept up the
custom of self-government more than anything else in England. The
ordeals were witnessed, the weregild inflicted, and rights to land
adjudged, not by an officer of the king, but by the landowners of the
shire assembled for the purpose. These meetings were ordinarily
presided over by the ealdorman, who appeared as the military commander
and the official head of the shire, and by the bishop, who represented
the Church. Another most important personage was the sheriff, or
shire-reeve, whose business it was to see that the king had all his
rights, to preside over the shire-moot when it sat as a judicial
court, and to take care that its sentences were put in execution.
[Illustration: _Walker & Boutallse._
Plan and section of a burh of the eleventh century at
Laughton-en-Le-Morthen, Yorks.]
10. =The Ealdormen and the Witenagemot.=--During the long fight with
the Danes commanders were needed who could lead the forces of more
than a single shire. Before the end of Eadred's reign there were
ealdormen who ruled over many shires. One of them for instance,
Æthelstan, Ealdorman of East Anglia, and of the shires immediately to
the west of East Anglia, was so powerful that he was popularly known
as the Half-King. Such ealdormen had great influence in their own
districts, and they also were very powerful about the king. The king
could not perform any important act without the consent of the
Witenagemot, which was made up of three classes--the Ealdormen, the
Bishops, and the greater Thegns. When a king died the Witenagemot
chose his successor out of the kingly family; its members appeared as
witnesses whenever the king 'booked' land to any one; and it even, on
rare occasions, deposed a king who was unfit for his post. In the
days of a great warrior king like Eadward or Eadmund, members of the
Witenagemot were but instruments in his hands, but if a weak king came
upon the throne, each member usually took his own way and pursued his
own interest rather than that of the king and kingdom.
11. =The Land.=--The cultivated land was surrounded either by wood or
by pasture and open commons. Every cottager kept his hive of bees, to
produce the honey which was then used as we now use sugar, and drove
his swine into the woods to fatten on the acorns and beech nuts which
strewed the ground in the autumn. Sheep and cattle were fed on the
pastures, and horses were so abundant that when the Danish pirates
landed they found it easy to set every man on horseback. Yet neither
the Danes nor the English ever learnt to fight on horseback. They rode
to battle, but as soon as they approached the enemy they dismounted to
fight on foot.
12. =Domestic Life.=--The huts of the villagers clustered round the
house of the lord. His abode was built in a yard surrounded for
protection by a mound and fence, whilst very great men often
established themselves in burhs, surrounded by earthworks, either of
their own raising or the work of earlier times. Its principal feature
was the hall, in which the whole family with the guests and the thegns
of the lord met for their meals. The walls were covered with curtains
worked in patterns of bright colours. The fire was lighted on the
hearth, a broad stone in the middle, over which was a hole in the roof
through which the smoke of the hall escaped. The windows were narrow,
and were either unclosed holes in the wall, or covered with oiled
linen which would admit a certain amount of light.
[Illustration: Glass tumbler. (British Museum.)]
[Illustration: Drinking glass. (British Museum.)]
13. =Food and Drink.=--In a great house at meal-time boards were
brought forward and placed on tressels. Bread was to be had in plenty,
and salt butter. Meat too, in winter, was always salted, as turnips
and other roots upon which cattle are now fed in winter were wholly
unknown, and it was therefore necessary to kill large numbers of sheep
and oxen when the cold weather set in. There were dishes, but neither
plates nor forks. Each man took the meat in his fingers and either bit
off a piece or cut it off with a knife. The master of the house sat at
the head of the table, and the lady handed round the drink, and
afterwards sat down by her husband's side. She, however, with any
other ladies who might be present, soon departed to the chamber which
was their own apartment. The men continued drinking long. The cups or
glasses which they used were often made with the bottoms rounded so
as to force the guests to keep them in their hands till they were
empty. The usual drink was mead, that is to say, fermented honey, or
ale brewed from malt alone, as hops were not introduced till many
centuries later. In wealthy houses imported wine was to be had.
English wine was not unknown, but it was so sour that it had to be
sweetened with honey. It was held to be disgraceful to leave the
company as long as the drinking lasted, and drunkenness and quarrels
were not unfrequent. Wandering minstrels who could play and sing or
tell stories were always welcome, especially if they were jugglers as
well, and could amuse the company by throwing knives in the air and
catching them as they fell, or could dance on their hands with their
legs in the air. When the feast was over, the guests and dependents
slept on the floor on rugs or straw, each man taking care to hang his
weapons close to his head on the wall, to defend himself in case of an
attack by robbers in the night. The lord retired to his chamber,
whilst the unmarried ladies occupied bowers, or small rooms, each with
a separate door opening on to the yard. Their only beds were bags of
straw. Neither men nor women wore night-dresses of any kind, but if
they took off their clothes at all, wrapped themselves in rugs.
[Illustration: Comb and case of Scandinavian type, found at York. (Now
in the British Museum.)]
CHAPTER VI.
ENGLAND AND NORMANDY.
LEADING DATES
Death of Eadgar 975
Accession of Æthelred 979
Accession of Cnut 1016
Accession of Eadward the Confessor 1035
Banishment of Godwine 1051
Accession of Harold and Battle of Senlac 1066
1. =Eadward the Martyr. 975--979.=--Eadgar died in =975=, leaving two
boys, Eadward and Æthelred.[4] On his death a quarrel broke out
amongst the ealdormen, some declaring for the succession of Eadward
and others for the succession of Æthelred. The political quarrel was
complicated by an ecclesiastical quarrel. The supporters of Eadward
were the friends of the secular clergy; the supporters of Æthelred
were the friends of the monks. Dunstan, with his usual moderation,
gave his voice for the eldest son, and Eadward was chosen king and
crowned. Not only had he a strong party opposed to him, but he had a
dissatisfied step-mother in Ælfthryth, the mother of Æthelred, whilst
his own mother, who had probably been married to Eadgar without full
marriage rites, had been long since dead. After reigning for four
years Eadward was murdered near Corfe by some of the opposite party,
and, as was commonly supposed, by his step-mother's directions.
[Footnote 4: Genealogy of the English kings from Eadgar to Eadgar
the Ætheling:--
EADGAR
959-975
|
-----------------------
| |
EADWARD ÆTHELRED
the Martyr the Unready
975-979 979-1016
|
-----------------------
| |
EADMUND EADWARD
Ironside the Confessor
1016 1042-1066
|
Eadward
the Ætheling
|
Eadgar
the Ætheling]
2. =Æthelred's Early Years. 979--988.=--Æthelred, now a boy of ten,
became king in =979=. The epithet the Unready, which is usually
assigned to him, is a mistranslation of a word which properly means
the Rede-less, or the man without counsel. He was entirely without the
qualities which befit a king. Eadmund had kept the great chieftains in
subordination to himself because he was a successful leader. Eadgar
had kept them in subordination because he treated them with respect.
Æthelred could neither lead nor show respect. He was always picking
quarrels when he ought to have been making peace, and always making
peace when he ought to have been fighting. What he tried to do was to
lessen the power of the great ealdormen, and bring the whole country
more directly under his own authority. In =985= he drove out Ælfric,
the Ealdorman of the Mercians. In =988= Dunstan died, and Æthelred had
no longer a wise adviser by his side.
3. =The Return of the Danes. 984.=--It would have been difficult for
Æthelred to overpower the ealdormen even if he had had no other
enemies to deal with. Unluckily for him, new swarms of Danes and
Norwegians had already appeared in England. They began by plundering
the country, without attempting to settle in it. In =991= Brihtnoth,
Ealdorman of the East Saxons, was defeated and slain by them at
Maldon. Æthelred could think of no better counsel than to pay them
10,000_l._, a sum of money which was then of much greater value than
it is now, to abstain from plundering. It was not necessarily a bad
thing to do. One of the greatest of the kings of the Germans, Henry
the Fowler, had paid money for a truce to barbarians whom he was not
strong enough to fight. But when the truce had been bought Henry took
care to make himself strong enough to destroy them when they came
again. Æthelred was never ready to fight the Danes and Norwegians at
any time. In =994= Olaf Trygvasson, who had been driven from the
kingship of Norway, and Svend, who had been driven from the kingship
of Denmark, joined forces to attack London. The London citizens fought
better than the English king, and the two chieftains failed to take
the town. 'They went thence, and wrought the greatest evil that ever
any army could do, in burning, and harrying, and in man-slaying, as in
Essex, and in Kent, and in Sussex, and in Hampshire. And at last they
took their horses and rode as far as they could, and did unspeakable
evil.' The plunderers were now known as 'the army,' moving about where
they would. Æthelred this time gave them 16,000_l._ He got rid of
Olaf, who sailed away and was slain by his enemies, but he could not
permanently get rid of Svend. Svend, about the year =1000=, recovered
his kingship in Denmark, and was more formidable than he had been
before. Plunderings went on as usual, and Æthelred had no resource but
to pay money to the plunderers to buy a short respite. He then looked
across the sea for an ally, and hoped to find one by connecting
himself with the Duke of the Normans.
4. =The Norman Dukes. 912--1002.=--The country which lies on both
sides of the lower course of the Seine formed, at the beginning of the
tenth century, part of the dominions of Charles the Simple, king of
the West Franks, who had inherited so much of the dominions of Charles
the Great as lay west of a line roughly drawn from the Scheldt to the
Mediterranean through the lower course of the Rhone. Danes and
Norwegians, known on the Continent as Normans, plundered Charles's
dominions as they had plundered England, and at last settled in them
as they had settled in parts of England. In =912= Charles the Simple
ceded to their leader, Hrolf, a territory of which the capital was
Rouen, and which became known as Normandy--the land of the Normans.
Hrolf became the first Duke of the Normans, but his men were fierce
and rugged, and for some time their southern neighbours scornfully
called him and his descendants Dukes of the Pirates. In process of
time a change took place which affected both Normandy and other
countries as well. The West Frankish kings were descended from Charles
the Great; but they had failed to defend their subjects from the
Normans, and they thereby lost hold upon their people. One of their
dependent nobles, the Duke of the French, whose chief city, Paris,
formed a bulwark against the Normans advancing up the Seine, grew more
powerful than themselves. At the same time the Normans were becoming
more and more French in their speech and customs. At last an alliance
was made between Hugh Capet, the son of Hugh the Great, Duke of the
French (see p. 63), and Richard the Fearless, Duke of the Normans. The
race of Charles the Great was dethroned, and Hugh became king of the
French. In name he was king over all the territory which had been
governed by Charles the Simple. In reality that happened in France
which Æthelred had been trying to prevent in England. Hugh ruled
directly over his own duchy of France, a patch of land of which Paris
was the capital. The great vassals of the crown, who answered to the
English ealdormen, only obeyed him when it was their interest to do
so. The most powerful of these vassals was the Duke of the Normans.
In =1002= the duke was Richard II.--the Good--the son of Richard the
Fearless. In that year Æthelred, who was a widower, married Richard's
sister, Emma. It was the beginning of a connection with Normandy which
never ceased till a Norman duke made himself by conquest king of the
English.
5. =Political Contrast between Normandy and England.=--The causes
which were making the English thegnhood a military aristocracy acted
with still greater force in Normandy. The tillers of the soil, sprung
from the old inhabitants of the land, were kept by their Norman lords
in even harsher bondage than the English serfs. The Norman warriors
held their land by military service, each one being bound to fight for
his lord, and the lord in turn being bound, together with his
dependents, to fight for a higher lord, and all at last for the Duke
himself. In England, though, in theory, the relations between the king
and his ealdormen were not very different from those existing between
the Norman duke and his immediate vassals, the connection between them
was far looser. The kingdom as a whole had no general unity. The king
could not control the ealdormen, and the ealdormen could not control
the king. Even when ealdormen, bishops, and thegns met in the
Witenagemot they could not speak in the name of the nation. A nation
in any true sense hardly existed at all, and they were not chosen as
representatives of any part of it. Each one stood for himself, and it
was only natural that men who during the greater part of the year were
ruling in their own districts like little kings should think more of
keeping up their own almost independent power at home than of the
common interests of all England, which they had to consider when they
met--and that for a few days only at a time--in the Witenagemot.
Æthelred at least was not the man to keep them united.
6. =Svend's Conquest. 1002--1013.=--Æthelred, having failed to buy off
the Danes, tried to murder them. In =1002=, on St. Brice's Day, there
was a general massacre of all the Danes--not of the old inhabitants of
Danish blood who had settled in Ælfred's time--but of the new-comers.
Svend returned to avenge his countrymen. Æthelred had in an earlier
part of his reign levied a land-tax known as the Danegeld to pay off
the Danes--the first instance of a general tax in England. He now
called on all the shires to furnish ships for a fleet; but he could
not trust his ealdormen. Some of the stories told of these times may
be exaggerated, and some may be merely idle tales, but we know enough
to be sure that England was a kingdom divided against itself. Svend,
ravaging as he went, beat down resistance everywhere. In =1012= the
Danes seized Ælfheah, Archbishop of Canterbury, and offered to set him
free if he would pay a ransom for his life. He refused to do so, lest
he should have to wring money from the poor in order to pay it. The
drunken Danes pelted him with bones till one of the number clave his
skull with an axe. He was soon counted as a martyr. Long afterwards
one of the most famous of his successors, the Norman Lanfranc, doubted
whether he was really a martyr, as he had not died for the faith. 'He
that dies for righteousness,' answered the gentle Anselm, 'dies for
the faith,' and to this day the name of Ælfheah is retained as St.
Alphege in the list of English saints. In =1013= Svend appeared no
longer as a plunderer but as a conqueror. First the old Danish
districts of the north and east, and then the Anglo-Saxon realm of
Ælfred--Mercia and Wessex--submitted to him to avoid destruction. In
=1013= Æthelred fled to Normandy.
[Illustration: Martyrdom of St. Edmund by the Danes. (From a drawing
belonging to the Society of Antiquaries.)]
7. =Æthelred Restored. 1014--1016.=--In =1014= Svend died suddenly as
he was riding at the head of his troops to the attack of the monastery
of Bury St. Edmunds. A legend soon arose as to the manner of his
death. St. Edmund himself, the East Anglian king Eadmund who had once
been martyred by Danes (see p. 58), now appeared, it was said, to
protect the monastery founded in his honour. 'Help, fellow soldiers!'
cried Svend, as he caught sight of the saint. 'St. Edmund is coming to
slay me.' St. Edmund, we are told, ran his spear through the body of
the aggressor, and Svend died that night in torments. His Danish
warriors chose his son Cnut king of England.[5] The English
Witenagemot sent for Æthelred to return. At last, in =1016=, Æthelred
died before he had conquered Cnut or Cnut conquered him.
[Footnote 5: Genealogy of the Danish kings:--
Svend
|
(1) Ælfgifu = CNUT = (2) Emma
| 1016-1035 |
| |
HAROLD HARTHACNUT
Harefoot 1040-1042
1035-1040]
8. =Eadmund Ironside. 1016.=--Æthelred's eldest son--not the son of
Emma--Eadmund Ironside, succeeded him. He did all that could be done
to restore the English kingship by his vigour. In a single year he
fought six battles; but the treachery of the ealdormen was not at an
end, and at Assandun (? _Ashington_), in Essex, he was completely
overthrown. He and Cnut agreed to divide the kingdom, but before the
end of the year the heroic Eadmund died, and Cnut the Dane became king
of England without a rival.
9. =Cnut and the Earldoms. 1016--1035.=--Cnut was one of those rulers
who, like the Emperor Augustus, shrink from no barbarity in gaining
power, but when once they have acquired it exercise their authority
with moderation and gentleness. He began by outlawing or putting to
death men whom he considered dangerous, but when this had once been
done he ruled as a thoroughly English king of the best type. The Danes
who had hitherto fought for him had come not as settlers, but as an
army, and soon after Eadmund's death he sent most of them home,
retaining a force, variously stated as 3,000 or 6,000, warriors known
as his House-carls (_House-men_), who formed a small standing army
depending entirely on himself. They were not enough to keep down a
general rising of the whole of England, but they were quite enough to
prevent any single great man from rebelling against him. Cnut
therefore was, what Æthelred had wished to be, really master of his
kingdom. Under him ruled the ealdormen, who from this time were known
as Earls, from the Danish title of Jarl (see p. 64), and of these
Earls the principal were the three who governed Mercia,
North-humberland, and Wessex, the last named now including the old
kingdoms of Kent and Sussex. There was a fourth in East Anglia, but
the limits of this earldom varied from time to time, and there were
sometimes other earldoms set up in the neighbouring shires, whereas
the first-named three remained as they were for some time after Cnut's
death. It is characteristic of Cnut that the one of the Earls to whom
he gave his greatest confidence was Godwine, an Englishman, who was
Earl of the West Saxons. Another Englishman, Leofwine, became Earl of
the Mercians. A Dane obtained the earldom of the North-humbrians, but
the land was barbarous, and its Earls were frequently murdered.
Sometimes there was one Earl of the whole territory, sometimes two. It
was not till after the end of Cnut's reign that Siward became Earl of
Deira, and at a later time of all North-humberland as far as the
Tweed. The descendants of two of these Earls, Godwine and Leofwine,
leave their mark on the history for some time to come.
10. =Cnut's Empire.=--Beyond the Tweed Malcolm, king of the Scots,
ruled. He defeated the North-humbrians at Carham, and Cnut ceded
Lothian to him, either doing so for the first time or repeating the
act of Eadgar, if the story of Eadgar's cession is true. At all events
the king of the Scots from this time ruled as far south as the Tweed,
and acknowledged Cnut's superiority. Cnut also became king of Denmark
by his brother's death, and king of Norway by conquest. He entered
into friendly relations with Richard II., Duke of the Normans, by
marrying his sister Emma, the widow of Æthelred.[6]
[Footnote 6: Genealogical connection between the Houses of England
and Normandy:--
_Dukes of Normandy_
Richard I.
the Fearless
|
-----------------------------
| |
Richard II. (1) ÆTHELRED=Emma = (2) CNUT, 1016-1035
the Good the Unready | Godwine
| 979-1016 | |
--------------- -------- ----------
| | | | | |
Richard III. Robert Ælfred EADWARD=Eadgyth HAROLD
| the Confessor 1066
WILLIAM 1042-1066
the Conqueror
1066-1087]
11. =Cnut's Government.=--Cnut had thus made himself master of a great
empire, and yet, Dane as he was, though he treated Englishmen and
Danes as equals, he gave his special favour to Englishmen. He
restored, as men said, the laws of Eadgar--that is to say, he kept
peace and restored order as in the days of Eadgar. He reverenced
monks, and once as he was rowing on the waters of the fens, he heard
the monks of Ely singing. He bade the boatmen row him to the shore
that he might listen to the song of praise and prayer. He even went on
a pilgrimage to Rome, to humble himself in that city which contained
the burial places of the Apostles Peter and Paul. From Rome he sent a
letter to his subjects. 'I have vowed to God,' he wrote, 'to live a
right life in all things; to rule justly and piously my realms and
subjects, and to administer just judgment to all. If heretofore I have
done aught beyond what is just, through headiness or negligence of
youth, I am ready, with God's help, to amend it utterly.' With Cnut
these were not mere words. It is not likely that there is any truth in
the story how his flattering courtiers told him to sit by the
sea-shore and bade the inflowing tide refrain from wetting his feet,
and how when the waves rose over the spot on which his chair was
placed he refused to wear his crown again, because that honour
belonged to God alone, the true Ruler of the world. Yet the story
would not have been invented except of one who was believed to have
been clothed with real humility.
12. =The Sons of Cnut. 1035--1042.=--Cnut died in =1035=. Godwine and
the West Saxons chose Harthacnut, the son of Cnut and Emma to take his
father's place, whilst the north and centre, headed by Leofwine's son,
Leofric,[7] Earl of the Mercians, chose Harold, the son of Cnut by an
earlier wife or concubine. Godwine perhaps hoped that Harthacnut would
make the West Saxon earldom the centre of the empire which had been
his father's. Cnut's empire was, however, breaking up. The Norwegians
chose Magnus, a king of their own race, and Harthacnut remained in
Denmark to defend it against the attacks of Magnus. In Normandy there
were two English Ethelings, Ælfred and Eadward, the sons of Æthelred
by Emma, who seem to have thought that the absence of Harthacnut gave
them a chance of returning to England. Ælfred landed, but was seized
by Harold. He was blinded with such cruelty that he died. His death
was, truly or falsely, attributed to Godwine. As Harthacnut still
remained in Denmark, the West Saxons deposed him and gave themselves
to Harold, since which time England has never been divided. In =1040=
Harold died, and Harthacnut came at last to England to claim the
crown. He brought with him a Danish fleet, and with his sailors and
his house-carls he ruled England as a conquered land. He raised a
Danegeld to satisfy his men, and sent his house-carls to force the
people to pay the heavy tax. Two of them were killed at Worcester, and
he burnt Worcester to the ground. In =1042= he died 'as he stood at
his drink' at a bridal.
[Footnote 7: Genealogy of the Mercian earls:--
Leofwine
|
Leofric
|
Ælfgar
|
---------------------------
| |
Eadwine, Morkere,
Earl of Mercia Earl of North-humberland]
[Illustration: First Great Seal of Eadward the Confessor (obverse).]
13. =Eadward the Confessor and Earl Godwine. 1042--1051.=--The English
were tired of foreign rulers. 'All folk chose Eadward king.' Eadward,
the son of Æthelred and the brother of the murdered Ælfred, though an
Englishman on his father's side, was also the son of the Norman Emma,
and had been brought up in Normandy from his childhood. The Normans
were now men of French speech, and they were more polite and
cultivated than Englishmen. Eadward filled his court with Normans. He
disliked the roughness of the English, but instead of attempting to
improve them as the great Ælfred had formerly done, he stood entirely
aloof from them. The name of the Confessor by which he was afterwards
known was given him on account of his piety, but his piety was not of
that sort which is associated with active usefulness. He was fond of
hunting, but was not active in any other way, and he left others to
govern rather than himself. For some years the real governor of
England was Earl Godwine, who kept his own earldom of Wessex, and
managed to procure other smaller earldoms for his sons. As the Mercia
over which Leofric ruled was only the north-western part of the old
kingdom, and as Siward (see p. 84) had enough to do to keep the fierce
men of North-humberland in order, Godwine had as yet no competitor to
fear. In =1045= he became the king's father-in-law by the marriage of
Eadward with his daughter, Eadgyth. Eadward, however, did his best for
his Norman favourites, and appointed one of them, Robert of Jumièges,
to the bishopric of London, and afterwards raised him to the
Archbishopric of Canterbury. Between Godwine and the Normans there was
no goodwill, and though Godwine was himself of fair repute, his eldest
son, Swegen, a young man of brutal nature, alienated the goodwill of
his countrymen by seducing the Abbess of Leominster, and by murdering
his cousin Beorn. Godwine, in his blind family affection, clung to his
wicked son and insisted on his being allowed to retain his earldom.
[Illustration: Hunting. (From the Bayeux Tapestry.)]
14. =The Banishment of Godwine. 1051.=--At last, in =1051=, the strife
between the king and the Earl broke out openly. Eadward's
brother-in-law, Eustace, Count of Boulogne, visited England. On his
return his men made a disturbance at Dover, and in the riot which
ensued some of the townsmen as well as some of his own men were slain.
Eadward called on Godwine, in whose earldom Dover was, to punish the
townsmen. Godwine refused, and Eadward summoned him to Gloucester to
account for his refusal. He came attended by an armed host, but
Leofric and Siward, who were jealous of Godwine's power, came with
their armed followers to support the king. Leofric mediated, and it
was arranged that the question should be settled at a Witenagemot to
be held in London. In the end Godwine was outlawed and banished with
all his family. Swegen went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and died on
the way back.
15. =Visit of Duke William. 1051.=--In Godwine's absence Eadward
received a visit from the Duke of the Normans, William, the bastard
son of Duke Robert and the daughter of a tanner of Falaise. Robert was
a son of Richard II., and William was thus the grandson of the brother
of Eadward's mother, Emma. Such a relationship gave him no title
whatever to the English throne, as Emma was not descended from the
English kings, and as, even if she had been, no one could be lawfully
king in England who was not chosen by the Witenagemot. Eadward,
however, had no children or brothers, and though he had no right to
give away the crown, he now promised William that he should succeed
him. William, indeed, was just the man to attract one whose character
was as weak as Eadward's. Since he received the dukedom he had beaten
down the opposition of a fierce and discontented nobility at
Val-ès-dunes (=1047=). From that day peace and order prevailed in
Normandy. Law in Normandy did not come as in England from the
traditions of the shire-moot or the Witenagemot, where men met to
consult together. It was the Duke's law, and if the Duke was a strong
man he kept peace in the land. If he was a weak man, the lords fought
against one another and plundered and oppressed the poor. William was
strong and wily, and it was this combination of strength and wiliness
which enabled him to bear down all opposition.
16. =William and the Norman Church.=--An Englishman, who saw much of
William in after-life, declared that, severe as he was, he was mild to
good men who loved God. The Church was in his days assuming a new
place in Europe. The monastic revival which had originated at Cluny
(see p. 67) had led to a revival of the Papacy. In =1049=, for the
first time, a Pope, Leo IX., travelled through Western Europe, holding
councils and inflicting punishments upon the married clergy and upon
priests who took arms and shed blood. With this improvement in
discipline came a voluntary turning of the better clergy to an ascetic
life, and increased devotion was accompanied, as it always was in the
middle ages, with an increase of learning. William, who by the
strength of his will brought peace into the state, also brought men of
devotion and learning into the high places of the Church. His chief
confidant was Lanfranc, an Italian who had taken refuge in the abbey
of Bec, and, having become its prior, had made it the central school
of Normandy and the parts around. With the improvement of learning
came the improvement of art, and churches arose in Normandy, as in
other parts of Western Europe, which still preserved the old round
arch derived from the Romans, though both the arches themselves and
the columns on which they were borne were lighter and more graceful
than the heavy work which had hitherto been employed. Of all this
Englishmen as yet knew nothing. They went on in their old ways, cut
off from the European influences of the time. It was no wonder that
Eadward yearned after the splendour and the culture of the land in
which he had been brought up, or even that, in defiance of English
law, he now promised to Duke William the succession to the English
crown.
17. =The Return and Death of Godwine. 1052--1053.=--After William had
departed Englishmen became discontented at Eadward's increasing favour
to the Norman strangers. In =1052= Godwine and his sons--Swegen only
excepted--returned from exile. They sailed up the Thames and landed at
Southwark. The foreigners hastily fled, and Eadward was unable to
resist the popular feeling. Godwine was restored to his earldom, and
an Englishman, Stigand, was made Archbishop of Canterbury in the place
of Robert of Jumièges, who escaped to the Continent. As it was the law
of the Church that a bishop once appointed could not be deposed except
by the ecclesiastical authorities, offence was in this way given to
the Pope. Godwine did not long outlive his restoration. He was struck
down by apoplexy at the king's table in =1053=. Harold, who, after
Swegen's death, was his eldest son, succeeded to his earldom of
Wessex, and practically managed the affairs of the kingdom in
Eadward's name.[8]
[Footnote 8: Genealogy of the family of Godwine:--
Godwine
|
+------+-------+--------+---+----+-------+---------+
| | | | | | |
Swegen HAROLD Tostig Leofwine Gyrth Wulfnoth Eadgyth = Eadward
1066 the
Confessor]
18. =Harold's Greatness. 1053--1066.=--Harold was a brave and
energetic man, but Eadward preferred his brother Tostig, and on the
death of Siward appointed him Earl of North-humberland. A little later
Gyrth, another brother of Harold, became Earl of East Anglia, together
with Bedfordshire and Oxfordshire, and a fourth brother, Leofwine,
Earl of a district formed of the eastern shires on either side of the
Thames. All the richest and most thickly populated part of England was
governed by Harold and his brothers. Mercia was the only large earldom
not under their rule. It was now under Ælfgar, the son of Leofric, who
had lately died.
19. =Harold and Eadward. 1057--1065.=--It became necessary to arrange
for the succession to the throne, as Eadward was childless, and as
Englishmen were not likely to acquiesce in his bequest to William. In
=1057= the Ætheling Eadward, a son of Eadmund Ironside, was fetched
back from Hungary, where he had long lived in exile, and was accepted
as the heir. Eadward, however, died almost immediately after his
arrival. He left but one son, Eadgar the Ætheling (see genealogy at p.
78), who was far too young to be accepted as a king for many years to
come. Naturally the thought arose of looking on Harold as Eadward's
successor. It was contrary to all custom to give the throne to any one
not of the royal line, but the custom had been necessarily broken in
favour of Cnut, the Danish conqueror, and it might be better to break
it in favour of an English earl rather than to place a child on the
throne, when danger threatened from Normandy. During the remainder of
Eadward's reign Harold showed himself a warrior worthy of the crown.
In =1063= he invaded Wales and reduced it to submission. About the
same time Ælfgar died, and was succeeded by his son, Eadwine, in the
earldom of the Mercians. In =1065= the men of North-humberland
revolted against Tostig, who had governed them harshly, and who was
probably unpopular as a West Saxon amongst a population of Danes and
Angles. The North-humbrians chose Eadwine's brother, Morkere, as his
successor, and Harold advised Eadward to acquiesce in what they had
done. Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire were committed to Waltheof,
a son of Siward (see p. 84), and the modern Northumberland was
committed to a native ruler, Oswulf.
20. =Death of Eadward. 1066.=--England was therefore ruled by two
great families. Eadwine and Morkere, the grandsons of Leofric,
governed the Midlands and almost the whole of North-humberland. Harold
and his brothers, the sons of Godwine, governed the south and the
east. The two houses had long been rivals, and after Eadward's death
there would be no one in the country to whom they could even nominally
submit. Eadward, whose life was almost at an end, was filled with
gloomy forebodings. His thoughts, however, turned aside from the
contemplation of earthly things, and he was only anxious that the
great abbey church of Westminster, which he had been building hard by
his own new palace on what was then a lonely place outside London,
should be consecrated before his death. The church, afterwards
superseded by the structure which now stands there, was built in the
new and lighter form of round-arched architecture which Eadward had
learned to admire from his Norman friends. It was consecrated on
December 28, =1065=, but the king was too ill to be present, and on
January 5, =1066=, he died, and was buried in the church which he had
founded. Harold was at once chosen king, and crowned at Westminster.
[Illustration: Tower in the earlier style. Church at Earl's Barton.
(The battlements are much later.)]
[Illustration: Tower in the earlier style. St Benet's Church,
Cambridge.]
[Illustration: Building a church in the later style. (From a drawing
belonging to the Society of Antiquaries.)]
21. =Harold and William. 1066.=--William, as soon as he heard of his
rival's coronation, claimed the crown. He was now even mightier than
he had been when he visited Eadward. In =1063= he had conquered Maine,
and, secure on his southern frontier, he was able to turn his
undivided attention to England. According to the principles accepted
in England, he had no right to it whatever; but he contrived to put
together a good many reasons which seemed, in the eyes of those who
were not Englishmen, to give him a good case. In the first place he
had been selected by Eadward as his heir. In the second place the
deprivation of Robert of Jumièges was an offence against the Church
law of the Continent, and William was therefore able to obtain from
the Pope a consecrated banner, and to speak of an attack upon England
as an attempt to uphold the righteous laws of the Church. In the third
place, Harold had at some former time been wrecked upon the French
coast, and had been delivered up to William, who had refused to let
him go till he had sworn solemnly, placing his hand on a chest which
contained the relics of the most holy Norman saints, to do some act,
the nature of which is diversely related, but which Harold never did.
Consequently William could speak of himself as going to take vengeance
on a perjurer. With some difficulty William persuaded the Norman
barons to follow him, and he attracted a mixed multitude of
adventurers from all the neighbouring nations by promising them the
plunder of England, an argument which every one could understand.
During the whole of the spring and the summer ships for the invasion
of England were being built in the Norman harbours.
[Illustration: Normans feasting; with Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, saying
grace. (From the Bayeux Tapestry.)]
[Illustration: Harold swearing upon the Relics. (From the Bayeux
Tapestry.)]
22. =Stamford Bridge. 1066.=--All through the summer Harold was
watching for his rival's coming. The military organisation of England,
however, was inferior to that of Normandy. The Norman barons and their
vassals were always ready for war, and they could support on their
estates the foreign adventurers who were placed under their orders
till the time of battle came. Harold had his house-carls, the constant
guard of picked troops which had been instituted by Cnut, and his
thegns, who, like the Norman barons, were bound to serve their lord
in war. The greater part of his force, however, was composed of the
peasants of the fyrd, and when September came they must needs be sent
home to attend to their harvest, which seems to have been late this
year. Scarcely were they gone when Harold received news that his
brother Tostig, angry with him for having consented to his deposition
from the North-humbrian earldom, had allied himself to Harold
Hardrada, the fierce sea-rover, who was king of Norway, and that the
two, with a mighty host, after wasting the Yorkshire coast, had sailed
up the Humber. The two Northern Earls, Eadwine and Morkere, were hard
pressed. Harold had not long before married their sister, and,
whatever might be the risk, he was bound as the king of all England to
aid them. Marching swiftly northwards with his house-carls and the
thegns who joined him on the way, he hastened to their succour. On
the way worse tidings reached him. The Earls had been defeated, and
York had agreed to submit to the Norsemen. Harold hurried on the
faster, and came upon the invaders unawares as they lay heedlessly on
both sides of the Derwent at Stamford Bridge. Those on the western
side, unprepared as they were, were soon overpowered. One brave
Norseman, like Horatius and his comrades in the Roman legend, kept the
narrow bridge against the army, till an Englishman crept under it and
stabbed him from below through a gap in the woodwork. The battle
rolled across the Derwent, and when evening came Harold Hardrada, and
Tostig himself, with the bulk of the invaders, had been slain. For the
last time an English king overthrew a foreign host in battle on
English soil.
[Illustration: A Norman ship. (From the Bayeux Tapestry.)]
[Illustration: Norman soldiers mounted. (From the Bayeux Tapestry.)]
23. =The Landing of William. 1066.=--Harold had shown what an English
king could do, who fought not for this or that part of the country,
but for all England. It was the lack of this national spirit in
Englishmen which caused his ruin. As Harold was feasting at York in
celebration of his victory, a messenger told him of the landing of the
Norman host at Pevensey. He had saved Eadwine and Morkere from
destruction, but Eadwine and Morkere gave him no help in return. He
had to hurry back to defend Sussex without a single man from the north
or the Midlands, except those whom he collected on his line of march.
The House of Leofric bore no goodwill to the House of Godwine. England
was a kingdom divided against itself.
[Illustration: Group of archers on foot. (From the Bayeux Tapestry.)]
[Illustration: Men fighting with axes. (From the Bayeux Tapestry.)]
24. =The Battle of Senlac. 1066.--=Harold, as soon as he reached the
point of danger, drew up his army on the long hill of Senlac on which
Battle Abbey now stands. On October 14 William marched forth to attack
him. The military equipment of the Normans was better than that of the
English. Where the weapons on either side are unlike, battles are
decided by the momentum--that is to say, by the combined weight and
speed of the weapons employed. The English fought on foot mostly with
two-handed axes; the Normans fought not only on horseback with lances,
but also with infantry, some of them being archers. A horse, the
principal weapon of a horseman, has more momentum than an armed
footman, whilst an arrow can reach the object at which it is aimed
long before a horse. Harold, however, had in his favour the slope of
the hill up which the Normans would have to ride, and he took
advantage of the lie of the ground by posting his men with their
shields before them on the edge of the hill. The position was a strong
one for purposes of defence, but it was not one that made it easy for
Harold to change his arrangements as the fortunes of the day might
need. William, on the other hand, had not only a better armed force,
but a more flexible one. He had to attack, and, versed as he was in
all the operations of war, he could move his men from place to place
and make use of each opportunity as it arrived. The English were brave
enough, but William was a more intelligent leader than Harold, and his
men were better under control. Twice after the battle had begun the
Norman horsemen charged up the hill only to be driven back. The wily
William, finding that the hill was not to be stormed by a direct
attack, met the difficulty by galling the English with a shower of
arrows and ordering his left wing to turn and fly. The stratagem was
successful. Some of the English rushed down the hill in pursuit. The
fugitives faced round and charged the pursuers, following them up the
slope. The English on the height were thus thrown into confusion; but
they held out stoutly, and as the Norman horsemen now in occupation of
one end of the hill charged fiercely along its crest, they locked
their shields together and fought desperately for life, if no longer
for victory. Slowly and steadily the Normans pressed on, till they
reached the spot where Harold, surrounded by his house-carls, fought
beneath his standard. There all their attacks were in vain, till
William, calling for his bowmen, bade them shoot their arrows into the
air. Down came the arrows in showers upon the heads of the English
warriors, and one of them pierced Harold's eye, stretching him
lifeless on the ground. In a series of representations in worsted
work, known as the Bayeux Tapestry, which was wrought by the needle of
some unknown woman and is now exhibited in the museum of that city,
the scenes of the battle and the events preceding it are pictorially
recorded.
[Illustration: Death of Harold, who is attempting to pull the arrow
from his eye. (From the Bayeux Tapestry.)]
25. =William's Coronation. 1066.=--William had destroyed both the
English king and the English army. It is possible that England, if
united, might still have resisted. The great men at London chose for
their king Eadgar the Ætheling, the grandson of Eadmund Ironside.
Eadwine and Morkere were present at the election, but left London as
soon as it was over. They would look after their own earldoms; they
would not join others, as Harold had done, in defending England as a
whole. Divided England would sooner or later be a prey to William. He
wanted, however, not merely to reign as a conqueror, but to be
lawfully elected as king, that he might have on his side law as well
as force. He first struck terror into Kent and Sussex by ravaging the
lands of all who held out against him. Then he marched to the Thames
and burnt Southwark. He did not, however, try to force his way into
London, as he wanted to induce the citizens to submit voluntarily to
him, or at least in a way which might seem voluntary. He therefore
marched westwards, crossed the Thames at Wallingford, and wheeled
round to Berkhampstead. His presence there made the Londoners feel
utterly isolated. Even if Eadwine and Morkere wished to do anything
for them, they could not come from the north or north-west without
meeting William's victorious army. The great men and citizens alike
gave up all thought of resistance, abandoned Eadgar, and promised to
take William for their king. On Christmas Day, =1066=, William was
chosen with acclamation in Eadward's abbey at Westminster, where
Harold had been chosen less than a year before. The Normans outside
mistook the shouts of applause for a tumult against their Duke, and
set fire to the houses around. The English rushed out to save their
property, and William, frightened for the only time in his life, was
left alone with the priests. Not knowing what was next to follow, he
was crowned king of the English by Ealdred, Archbishop of York, in an
empty church, amidst the crackling of flames and the shouts of men
striving for the mastery.
[Illustration: Coronation of a king, _temp._ William the Conqueror.
(From a drawing in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries.)]
_Books recommended for further study of Part I._
DAWKINS, W. Boyd. Early Man in Britain.
RHYS, J. Early Britain.
ELTON, C. J. Origins of English History.
GUEST, E. Origines Celticæ. Vol. ii. pp. 121-408.
FREEMAN. History of the Norman Conquest. Vols. i.-iii.
GREEN, J. R. The Making of England.
---- The Conquest of England.
---- History of the English People. Vol. i. pp. 1-114.
BRIGHT, W. Chapters of English Church History.
STUBBS, W. The Constitutional History of England. Chaps. I.-IX.
CUNNINGHAM, W. The Growth of English Industry and Commerce during the
Early and Middle Ages. pp. 1-128.
HODGKIN, T. The Political History of England. Vol i. From the Earliest
Times to 1066.
PART II.
_THE NORMAN AND ANGEVIN KINGS._
CHAPTER VII.
WILLIAM I. =1066--1087.=
LEADING DATES
William's coronation 1066
Completion of the Conquest 1070
The rising of the Earls 1075
The Gemot at Salisbury 1086
Death of William I. 1087
[Illustration: A silver penny of William the Conqueror, struck at
Romney.]
1. =The First Months of the Conquest. 1066--1067.=--Though at the time
when William was crowned he had gained actual possession of no more
than the south-eastern part of England, he claimed a right to rule the
whole as lawful king of the English, not merely by Eadward's bequest,
but by election and coronation. In reality, he came as a conqueror,
whilst the Normans by whose aid he gained the victory at Senlac left
their homes not merely to turn their Duke into a king, but also to
acquire lands and wealth for themselves. William could not act justly
and kindly to his new subjects even if he wished. What he did was to
clothe real violence with the appearance of law. He gave out that as
he had been the lawful king of the English ever since Eadward's death,
Harold and all who fought under him at Senlac had forfeited their
lands by their treason to himself as their lawful king. These lands he
distributed amongst his Normans. The English indeed were not entirely
dispossessed. Sometimes the son of a warrior who had been slain was
allowed to retain a small portion of his father's land. Sometimes the
daughter or the widow of one of Harold's comrades was compelled to
marry a Norman whom William wished to favour. Yet, for all that, a
vast number of estates in the southern and eastern counties passed
from English into Norman hands. The bulk of the population, the
serfs--or, as they were now called by a Norman name, the
villeins--were not affected by the change, except so far as they found
a foreign lord less willing than a native one to hearken to their
complaints. The changes which took place were limited as yet to a
small part of England. In three months after his coronation William
was still without authority beyond an irregular line running from the
Wash to the western border of Hampshire, except that he held some
outlying posts in Herefordshire. It is true that Eadwine and Morkere
had acknowledged him as king, but they were still practically
independent. Even where William actually ruled he allowed all
Englishmen who had not fought on Harold's side to keep their lands,
though he made them redeem them by the payment of a fine, on the
principle that all lands in the country, except those of the Church,
were the king's lands, and that it was right to fine those who had not
come to Senlac to help him as their proper lord.
2. =The Conquest of the West and North. 1067--1069.=--In March =1067=
William returned to Normandy. In his absence the Normans left behind
in England oppressed the English, and were supported in their
oppression by the two regents appointed to govern in William's name,
his half-brother, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, whom he had made Earl of
Kent, and William Fitz-Osbern, Earl of Hereford. In some parts the
English rose in rebellion. In December William returned, and after
putting down resistance in the south-eastern counties, set himself to
conquer the rest of England. It took him more than two years to
complete his task. Perhaps he would have failed even then if the whole
of the unconquered part of the country had risen against him at the
same time. Each district, however, resisted separately, and he was
strong enough to beat them down one by one. In the spring of =1068= he
besieged and took Exeter, and subdued the West to the Land's End. When
this had been accomplished he turned northwards against Eadwine and
Morkere, who had declared against him. William soon frightened them
into submission, and seized on York and all the country to the south
of York on the eastern side of England. In =1069= the English of the
North rose once more and summoned to their aid Svend, king of
Denmark, a nephew of the great Cnut. Svend sent a Danish fleet, and
the Danes were joined by Eadgar the Ætheling and by other English
chiefs. They burnt and plundered York, but could do no more. Their
great host melted away. The Danes went off with their booty to their
ships, and the English returned to their homes. William found no army
to oppose him, and he not only regained the lands which he had
occupied the year before, but added to them the whole country up to
the Tweed.
3. =The Completion of the Conquest. 1070.=--William was never cruel
without an object, but there was no cruelty which he would not commit
if it would serve his purpose. He resolved to make all further
resistance impossible. The Vale of York, a long and wide stretch of
fertile ground running northwards from the city to the Tees, was laid
waste by William's orders. The men who had joined in the revolt were
slain. The stored-up crops, the ploughs, the carts, the oxen and sheep
were destroyed by fire. Men, women, and children dropped dead of
starvation, and their corpses lay unburied in the wasted fields. Some
prolonged life by feeding on the flesh of horses, or even of men.
Others sold themselves into slavery, bowing their heads, as was said,
in the evil days for meat. "Waste! waste! waste!" was the account
given long afterwards of field after field in what had once been one
of the most fertile districts in England. William's work of conquest
was almost over. Early in =1070= he crossed the hills amidst frost and
snow, and descended upon Chester. Chester submitted, and with it the
shires on the Welsh border. The whole of England was at last subdued.
4. =Hereward's Revolt and the Homage of Malcolm. 1070--1072.=--Only
one serious attempt to revolt was afterwards made, but this was no
more than a local rising. The Isle of Ely was in those days a real
island in the midst of the waters of the fens. Hereward, with a band
of followers, threw himself into the island, and it was only after a
year's attack that he was driven out. When the revolt was at its
height, Eadwine and Morkere fled from William's court to join the
insurgents. Eadwine was murdered by his own attendants. Morkere
reached Ely, and when resistance was at an end was banished to
Normandy. No man ever deserved less pity than these two brothers. They
had never sought any one's advantage but their own, and they had been
faithless to every cause which they had pretended to adopt. Before
Hereward was overpowered, Malcolm, king of the Scots, ravaged northern
England, carrying off with him droves of English slaves. In =1072=
William, who had by that time subdued Hereward, marched into Scotland
as far as the Tay. Malcolm submitted to him at Abernethy, and
acknowledged him to be his lord. Malcolm's acknowledgment was only a
repetition of the acknowledgment made by his predecessors the Scottish
kings, to Eadward and Cnut (see pp. 63, 84); but William was more
powerful than Eadward or Cnut had been, and was likely to construe the
obligation more strictly.
5. =How William kept down the English.=--William, having conquered
England, had now to govern it. His first object was to keep the
English in subjection.
_(a) The Confiscation of Land._--In the first place he continued to
treat all who had resisted him as rebels, confiscating their land and
giving it to some Norman follower. In almost every district there was
at least one Norman landowner, who was on the watch against any
attempt of his English neighbours to revolt, and who knew that he
would lose his land if William lost his crown.
_(b) Building Castles._--In the second place William built a castle in
every town of importance, which he garrisoned with his own men. The
most notable example of these castles is the Tower of London.
_(c) The Feudal Army._--In the third place, though the diffusion of
Norman landowners and of William's castles made a general revolt of
the English difficult, it did not make it impossible, and William took
care to have an army always ready to put down a revolt if it occurred.
No king in those days could have a constantly paid army, such as
exists in all European countries at the present day, because there was
not much money anywhere. Some men had land and some men had bodily
strength, and they bartered one for the other. The villein gave his
strength to plough and reap for his lord, in return for the land which
he held from him. The fighting man gave his strength to his lord, to
serve him with his horse and his spear, in return for the land which
he held from him. This system, which is known as feudal, had been
growing up in England before the Conquest, but it was perfected on the
Continent, and William brought it with him in its perfected shape. The
warrior who served on horseback was called a knight, and when a knight
received land from a lord on military tenure--that is to say, on
condition of military service--he was called the vassal of his lord.
When he became a vassal he knelt, and, placing his hands between those
of his lord, swore to be his man. This act was called doing homage.
The land which he received as sufficient to maintain him was called a
knight's fee. After this homage the vassal was bound to serve his
lord in arms, this service being the rent payable for his land. If the
vassal broke his oath and fought against his lord, he was regarded as
a traitor, or a betrayer of his trust, and could be turned out of his
land. The whole land of England being regarded as the king's, all land
was held from the king. Sometimes the knights held their fees directly
from the king and did homage to him. These knights were known as
tenants in chief (_in capite_), however small their estates might be.
Usually, however, the tenants in chief were large landowners, to whom
the king had granted vast estates; and these when they did homage
engaged not merely to fight for him in person, but to bring some
hundreds of knights with them. To enable them to do this they had to
give out portions of their land to sub-tenants, each engaging to bring
himself and a specified number of knights. There might thus be a
regular chain of sub-tenants, A engaging to serve under B, B under C,
C under D, and so on till the tenant-in-chief was reached, who engaged
to bring them all to serve the king. Almost all the larger
tenants-in-chief were Normans, though Englishmen were still to be
found amongst the sub-tenants, and even amongst the smaller
tenants-in-chief. The whole body, however, was preponderantly Norman,
and William could therefore depend upon it to serve him as an army in
the field in case of an English rising.
6. =How William kept down the Normans.=--William was not afraid only
of the English. He had cause to fear lest the feudal army, which was
to keep down the English, might be strong enough to be turned against
himself, and that the barons--as the greater tenants-in-chief were
usually called--might set him at naught as Eadwine and Morkere had set
Harold at naught, and as the Dukes of Normandy had set at naught the
kings of France. To prevent this he adopted various contrivances.
_(a) Abolition of the great Earldoms._--In the first place he
abolished the great earldoms. In most counties there were to be no
earls at all, and no one was to be earl of more than one county. There
was never again to be an Earl of the West Saxons like Godwine, or an
Earl of the Mercians like Leofric.
_(b) The Estates of the Barons scattered._--- Not only did William
diminish the official authority of the earls, he also weakened the
territorial authority of the barons. Even when he granted to one man
estates so numerous that if they had been close together they would
have extended at least over a whole county, he took care to scatter
them over England, allowing only a few to be held by a single owner in
any one county. If, therefore, a great baron took it into his head to
levy war against the king, he would have to collect his vassals from
the most distant counties, and his intentions would thus be known
before they could be put in practice.
_(c) The Fyrd kept in readiness._--Still more important was William's
resolution to be the real head of the English nation. He had weakened
it enough to fear it no longer, but he kept it strong enough to use
it, if need came, against the Norman barons. He won Englishmen to his
side by the knowledge that he was ready to do them justice whenever
they were wronged, and he could therefore venture to summon the fyrd
whenever he needed support, without having cause to fear that it would
turn against him.
7. =Ecclesiastical Organisation.=--Before the Conquest the English
Church had been altogether national. Its bishops had sat side by side
with the ealdormen or earls in the shire-moots, and in the Witenagemot
itself. They had been named, like the ealdormen or earls, by the king
with the consent of the Witenagemot. Ecclesiastical questions had been
decided and ecclesiastical offences punished not by any special
ecclesiastical court, but by the shire-moot or Witenagemot, in which
the laity and the clergy were both to be found. William resolved to
change all this. The bishops and abbots whom he found were Englishmen,
and he replaced most of them by Normans. The new Norman bishops and
abbots were dependent on the king. They looked on the English as
barbarians, and would certainly not support them in any revolt, as
their English predecessors might have done. Thurstan, indeed, the
Norman Abbot of Glastonbury, was so angry with his English monks
because they refused to change their style of music that he called in
Norman archers to shoot them down on the steps of the altar. Such
brutality, however, was exceptional, and, as a rule, even Norman
bishops and abbots were well disposed towards their English
neighbours, all the more because they were not very friendly with the
Norman nobles, who often attempted to encroach on the lands of the
Church. Many a king in William's position would have been content to
fill the sees with creatures of his own, who would have done what they
were bidden and have thought of no one's interest but his. William
knew, as he had already shown in Normandy, that he would be far better
served if the clergy were not only dependent on himself but deserving
the respect of others. He made his old friend Lanfranc (see p. 88)
Archbishop of Canterbury. Lanfranc had, like William, the mind of a
ruler, and under him bishops and abbots were appointed who enforced
discipline. The monks were compelled to keep the rules of their
order, the canons of cathedrals were forced to send away their wives,
and though the married clergy in the country were allowed to keep
theirs, orders were given that in future no priest should marry.
Everywhere the Church gave signs of new vigour. The monasteries became
again the seats of study and learning. The sees of bishops were
transferred from villages to populous towns, as when the Bishop of
Dorchester, in Oxfordshire, migrated to Lincoln, and the Bishop of
Thetford to Norwich. New churches were built and old ones restored
after the new Continental style, which is known in England as Norman,
and which Eadward had introduced in his abbey of Westminster. The
Church, though made dependent on William, was independent, so far as
its spiritual rights were concerned, of the civil courts.
Ecclesiastical matters were discussed, not in the Witenagemot, but in
a Church synod, and, in course of time, punishments were inflicted by
Church courts on ecclesiastical offenders. The power of William was
strengthened by the change. That power rested on three supports--the
Norman conquerors, the English nation, and the Church, and each one of
these three had reason to distrust the other two.
[Illustration: East end of Darenth Church, Kent. Built about 1080.]
8. =Pope Gregory VII.=--The strength which William had acquired showed
itself in his bearing towards the Pope. In =1073= Archdeacon
Hildebrand, who for some years had been more powerful at Rome than the
Popes themselves, himself became Pope under the name of Gregory VII.
Gregory was as stern a ruler of the Church as William was of the
State. He was an uncompromising champion of the Cluniac reforms (see
p. 67). His object was to moderate the cruelty and sinfulness of the
feudal warriors of Europe by making the Church a light to guide the
world to piety and self-denial. As matters stood on the Continent, it
had been impossible for the Church to attain to so high a standard.
The clergy bought their places and fought and killed like the laymen
around them. The Cluniac monks, therefore, thought it best to separate
the clergy entirely from the world. In the first place they were to be
celibate, that they might not be entangled in the cares of life. In
the second place they were to refrain from simony, or the purchase of
ecclesiastical preferment, that they might not be dependent on the
great men of the world. A third demand was added later, that bishops
and abbots should not receive from laymen the ring and staff which
were the signs of their authority--the ring as the symbol of marriage
to their churches; the staff or crozier, in the shape of a shepherd's
crook, as the symbol of their pastoral authority. The Church, in fact,
was to be governed by its own laws in perfect independence, that it
might become more pure itself, and thus capable of setting a better
example to the laity. As might have been expected, though the internal
condition of the Church was greatly improved, yet when Gregory
attempted entirely to free ecclesiastics from the influence and
authority of the State, he found himself involved in endless quarrels.
Clergy and laity alike resisted him, and they were supported by the
Emperor Henry IV., whose rule extended over Germany and the greater
part of Italy. Gregory next claimed the right of excommunicating kings
and emperors, and of deposing them if they did not repent after
excommunication. The State, he declared, was as the moon, receiving
light from the Church, which shone like the sun in heaven. The whole
of the remainder of Gregory's life was spent in a struggle with the
Emperor, and the struggle was carried on by the successors of both.
[Illustration: Part of the nave of St. Alban's Abbey Church. Built by
Abbot Paul between 1077 and 1093.]
9. =William and Gregory VII.=--It is remarkable that such a Pope as
Gregory never came into conflict with William. William appointed
bishops and abbots by giving them investiture, as the presenting of
the ring and staff was called. He declared that no Pope should be
obeyed in England who was not acknowledged by himself, that no papal
bulls or letters should have any force till he had allowed them, and
that the decrees of an ecclesiastical synod should bind no one till he
had confirmed them. When, at a later time, Gregory required William to
do homage to the see of Rome, William refused, on the ground that
homage had never been rendered by his predecessors. To all this
Gregory submitted. No doubt Gregory was prudent in not provoking
William's anger; but that he should have refrained from even finding
fault with William may perhaps be set down to the credit of his
honesty. He claimed to make himself the master of kings because as a
rule they did not care to advance the purity of the Church. William
did care to advance it. He chose virtuous and learned bishops, and
defended the clergy against aggression from without and corruption
within. Gregory may well have been content to leave power over the
Church in the hands of a king who ruled it in such a fashion.
10. =The Rising of the Earls. 1075.=--Of the three classes of men over
which William ruled, the great Norman barons imagined themselves to be
the strongest, and were most inclined to throw off his yoke. The chief
feature of the reigns of William and of his successors for three
generations was the struggle which scarcely ever ceased between the
Norman barons on the one side, and the king supported by the English
and the clergy on the other. It was to the advantage of the king that
he had not to contend against the whole of the Normans. Normans with
small estates clung for support, like their English neighbours, to the
crown. The first of many risings of the barons took place in =1075=.
Roger, Earl of Hereford, in spite of William's prohibition, gave his
sister in marriage to Ralph of Wader, Earl of Norfolk, who, though of
English birth on his father's side, had fought for William at Senlac,
and may practically be counted as a Norman. As the chronicler
expressed it:
There was that bride-ale
To many men's bale.
The two earls plotted a rising against William and the revivals of the
old independent earldoms. They took arms and were beaten. Ralph fled
the country, and Roger was condemned to perpetual imprisonment. His
followers were blinded or had their feet cut off. It was the Norman
custom not to put criminals to death. To this rule, however, William
made one exception. Waltheof, the last earl of purely English race,
had been present at the fatal bride-ale, but though he had listened to
the plottings of the conspirators, he had revealed all that he knew to
William. His wife, Judith, a niece of the Conqueror, accused him of
actual treason, and he was beheaded at Winchester. By the English he
was regarded as a martyr, and it was probably his popularity amongst
them which made William resolve upon his death.
11. =The New Forest.=--Only once did William cause misery amongst his
subjects for the sake of his own enjoyment. Many kings before him had
taken pleasure in hunting, but William was the first who claimed the
right of hunting over large tracts of country exclusively for himself.
He made, as the chronicler says, 'mickle deer-frith'--a tract, that is
to say, in which the deer might have peace--'and laid laws therewith
that he who slew hart or hind that man should blind him.... In sooth
he loved the high deer as though he were their father.' He forbade, in
short, all men, except those to whom he gave permission, to hunt
within the limits of the royal forests. In the south-west of
Hampshire, near his favourite abode at Winchester, he enlarged the New
Forest. The soil is poor, and it can never have been covered by
cultivated fields, but here and there, by the sides of streams, there
were scattered hamlets, and these were destroyed and the dwellers in
them driven off by William's orders, that there might be a 'mickle
deer-frith.' We may be sure that there was not nearly as much misery
caused by the making of the New Forest as was caused by the harrying
of the Vale of York, but popular tradition rightly held in more
abhorrence the lesser cruelty for the sake of pleasure than the
greater cruelty for the sake of policy. It told how the New Forest was
accursed for William's family. In his own lifetime a son and a
grandson of his were cut off within it by unknown hands, probably
falling before the vengeance of some who had lost home and substance
through the creation of the Forest, and in due time another son, who
succeeded him on the throne, was to meet with a similar fate.
12. =Domesday Book. 1085--1086.=--It was to William's credit that his
government was a strong one. In William's days life and property and
female honour were under the protection of a king who knew how to make
himself obeyed. Strong government, however, is always expensive, and
William and his officers were always ready with an excuse for getting
money. "The king and the headmen loved much and overmuch covetousness
on gold and on silver, and they recked not how sinfully it was gotten,
if only it came to them.... They reared up unright tolls, and many
other unright things they did that are hard to reckon." Other men, in
short, must observe the law; William's government was a law to itself.
It was, however, a law, and not a mere scramble for money. Though
there were no Danish invaders now, William continued to levy the
Danegeld, and he had rents and payments due to him in many quarters
which had been due to his predecessors. In order to make his exactions
more complete and more regular, he resolved to have set down the
amount of taxable property in the realm that his full rights might be
known, and in =1085=, "He sent over all England into ilk shire his
men, and let them find out how many hundred hides were in the shire,
or what the king himself had of land or cattle in the land, or whilk
rights he ought to have.... Eke he let write how mickle of land his
archbishops had, and his bishops, and his abbots and his earls, and
what or how mickle ilk man had that landholder was in England in land
and in cattle, and how mickle fee it was worth. So very narrowly he
let speer it out that there was not a single hide nor a yard of land,
nor so much as--it is a shame to tell, though he thought it no shame
to do--an ox nor a cow nor a swine was left that was not set in his
writ." The chronicler who wrote these words was an English monk of
Peterborough. Englishmen were shocked by the new regularity of
taxation. They could hardly be expected to understand the advantages
of a government strong enough through regular taxation to put down the
resistance of rebellious earls at home and to defy invasion from
abroad. The result of the inquiries of the king's commissioners was
embodied in Domesday Book, so called because it was no more possible
to appeal from it than from the Last Judgment.
[Illustration: Reduced facsimile of part of Domesday Book.]
13. =William's Great Councils.=--Though William was himself the true
ruler of England, he kept up the practice of his predecessors in
summoning the Witenagemot from time to time. In his days, however, the
name of the Witenagemot was changed into that of the Great Council,
and, to a slight extent, it changed its nature with its name. The
members of the Witenagemot had attended because they were officially
connected with the king, being ealdormen or bishops or thegns serving
in some way under him. Members of the Great Council attended because
they held land in chief from the king. The difference, however, was
greater in appearance than in reality. No doubt men who held very
small estates in chief might, if they pleased, come to the Great
Council, and if they had done so the Great Council would have been
much more numerously attended than the Witenagemot had been. The
poorer tenants-in-chief, however, found that it was not only too
troublesome and expensive to make the journey at a time when all long
journeys had to be made on horseback, but that when they arrived their
wishes were disregarded. They therefore stayed at home, so that the
Great Council was regularly attended only by the bishops, the abbots
of the larger abbeys, and certain great landowners who were known as
barons. In this way the Great Council became a council of the wealthy
landowners, as the Witenagemot had been, though the two assemblies
were formed on different principles.
14. =The Gemot at Salisbury. 1086.=--In =1086=, after Domesday Book
had been finished, William summoned an unusually numerous assembly,
known as the Great Gemot, to meet at Salisbury. At this not only the
tenants-in-chief appeared, but also all those who held lands from them
as sub-tenants. "There came to him," wrote the chronicler, "... all
the landowning men there were over all England, whose soever men they
were, and all bowed down before him and became his men, and swore
oaths of fealty to him, that they would be faithful to him against all
other men." It was this oath which marked the difference between
English and Continental feudalism, though they were now in other
respects alike. On the Continent each tenant swore to be faithful to
his lord, but only the lords who held directly from the crown swore to
be faithful to the king. The consequence was that when a lord rebelled
against the king, his tenants followed their lord and not the king. In
England the tenants swore to forsake their lord and to serve the king
against him if he forsook his duty to the king. Nor was this all. Many
men break their oaths. William, however, was strong enough in England
to punish those who broke their oaths to him, whilst the king of
France was seldom strong enough to punish those who broke their oaths
to him.
15. =William's Death. 1087.=--The oath taken at Salisbury was the
completion of William's work in England. To contemporaries he appeared
as a foreign conqueror, and often as a harsh and despotic ruler. Later
generations could recognise that his supreme merit was that he made
England one. He did not die in England. In =1087= he fought with his
lord, the king of France, Philip I. In anger at a jest of Philip's he
set fire to Mantes. As he rode amidst the burning houses his horse
shied and threw him forward on the pommel of his saddle. He was now
corpulent and the injury proved fatal. On September 9 he died. When
the body was carried to Caen for burial in the abbey of St. Stephen,
which William himself had reared, a knight stepped forward and claimed
as his own the ground in which the grave had been dug. It had been
taken, he said, by William from his father. "In the name of God," he
cried, "I forbid that the body of the robber be covered with my mould,
or that he be buried within the bounds of my inheritance." The
bystanders acknowledged the truth of his accusation, and paid the
price demanded.
CHAPTER VIII.
WILLIAM II. =1087--1100.=
LEADING DATES
Accession of William II 1087
Norman rebellion against William II. 1088
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury 1093
The Council of Rockingham, and the First Crusade 1095
Conquest of Jerusalem by the Crusaders 1099
Death of William II. 1100
1. =The Accession of the Red King. 1087.=--In Normandy the Conqueror
was succeeded by his eldest son, Robert. Robert was sluggish and
incapable, and his father had expressed a wish that England, newly
conquered and hard to control, should be ruled by his more energetic
second son, William. To the third son, Henry, he gave a sum of money.
There was as yet no settled rule of succession to the English crown,
and William at once crossed the sea and was crowned king of the
English at Westminster, by Lanfranc. William Rufus, or the Red King,
as men called him, feared not God nor regarded man. Yet the English
rallied round him, because they knew that he was strong-willed, and
because they needed a king who would keep the Norman barons from
oppressing them. For that very reason the more turbulent of the Norman
barons declared for Robert, who would be too lazy to keep them in
order. In the spring of =1088= they broke into rebellion in his name.
William called the English people to his help. He would not, he said,
wring money from his subjects or exercise cruelty in defence of his
hunting grounds. On this the English rallied round him. At the head of
a great army he marched to attack the rebels, and finally laid siege
to Rochester, which was held against him by his uncle Odo, Bishop of
Bayeux, whom he had released from the imprisonment in which the
Conqueror had kept him. William called upon yet greater numbers of the
English to come to his help. Every one, he declared, who failed him
now should be known for ever by the shameful name of _Nithing_, or
worthless. The English came in crowds. When at last Odo surrendered,
the English pleaded that no mercy should be shown him. "Halters, bring
halters!" they cried; "hang up the traitor bishop and his accomplices
on the gibbet." William, however, spared him, but banished him for
ever from England.
2. =The Wickedness of the Red King.=--William had crushed the Norman
rebels with English aid. When the victory was won he turned against
those who had helped him. It was not that he oppressed the English
because they were English, but that he oppressed English and Normans
alike, though the English, being the weaker, felt his cruelty most. He
broke all his promises. He gathered round him mercenary soldiers from
all lands to enforce his will. He hanged murderers and robbers, but he
himself was the worst of robbers. When he moved about the country with
the ruffians who attended him, the inhabitants fled to the woods,
leaving their houses to be pillaged. William allowed no law to be
pleaded against his own will. His life, and the life of his courtiers,
was passed in the foulest vice. He was as irreligious as he was
vicious. It was in especial defiance of the Christian sentiment of the
time that he encouraged the Jews, who had begun to come into England
in his father's days, to come in greater numbers. They grew rich as
money-lenders, and William protected them against their debtors,
exacting a high price for his protection. Once, it is said, he invited
the Jewish rabbis to argue in his presence with the bishops on the
merits of their respective creeds, and promised to become a Jew if
the rabbis had the better of the argument. His own mouth was filled
with outrageous blasphemies. "God," he said, "shall never see me a
good man. I have suffered too much at His hands."
3. =Ranulf Flambard.=--The chief minister of the Red King was Ranulf
Flambard, whom he ultimately made Bishop of Durham. He was one of the
clerks of the king's chapel. The word 'clerk' properly signified a
member of the clergy. The only way in which men could work with their
brains instead of with their hands was by becoming clerks, the
majority of whom, however, only entered the lower orders, without any
intention of becoming priests or even deacons. Few, except clerks,
could read or write, and whatever work demanded intelligence naturally
fell into their hands. They acted as physicians or lawyers, kept
accounts, and wrote letters. The clerks of the king's chapel were the
king's secretaries and men of business. These ready writers had taken
a leading part in the compilation of Domesday Book, and they were
always active in bringing in money. Under the Conqueror they were
expected to observe at least something of the rules of justice. Under
the Red King they were expected to disregard them entirely. Of all the
clerks Ranulf Flambard was the most unscrupulous; therefore he rose
into the greatest favour. The first William had appointed high
officers, known as Justiciars, to act in his name from time to time
when he was absent from England, or was from any cause unable to be
present when important business was transacted. Flambard was appointed
Justiciar by the second William, and in his hands the office became
permanent. The Justiciar was now the king's chief minister, acting in
his name whether he was present or absent. Flambard used his power to
gather wealth for the king on every side. "He drave the king's
gemots," we are told, "over all England;" that is to say, he forced
the reluctant courts to exact the money which he claimed for the king.
4. =Feudal Dues.=--It was Flambard who systematised, if he did not
invent, the doctrine that the king was to profit by his position as
supreme landlord. In practice this meant that he exacted to the full
the consequences of feudal tenure. If a man died who held land by
knight service from the crown, leaving a son who was a minor, the boy
became the ward of the king, who took the profits of his lands till he
was twenty-one, and forced him to pay a relief or fine for taking them
into his own hands when he attained his majority. If the land fell to
an heiress the king claimed the right of marrying her to whom he
would, or of requiring of her a sum of money for permission to take a
husband at her own choice, or, as was usually the case, at the choice
of her relations. Under special circumstances the king exacted aids
from his tenants-in-chief. If he were taken prisoner they had to pay
to ransom him from captivity. When he knighted his eldest son or
married his eldest daughter they had to contribute to the expense. It
is true that this was in accordance with the principle of feudality.
Neither a boy nor a woman could render service in the field, and it
was therefore only fair that the king should hold the lands at times
when no service was rendered to him for them; and it was also fair
that the dependents should come to their lord's help in times of
special need, especially as all that the king took from them they in
turn took from their own sub-tenants. Flambard, however, did not
content himself with a moderately harsh exaction of these feudal dues.
The grievance against him was that he made the king 'to be every man's
heir, whether he were in orders or a layman,' that is to say, that
Flambard so stripped and exhausted the land belonging to the king's
wards as to make it almost worthless, and then demanded reliefs so
enormous that when the estate had at last been restored, all its value
had passed into the hands of the king. When a bishop or an abbot died,
the king appointed no successor, and appropriated the revenues of the
vacant see or monastery till some one chose to buy the office from
him. The king alone grew rich, whilst his vassals were impoverished.
5. =Archbishop Anselm.=--In =1089= Lanfranc died, and the
archbishopric of Canterbury was then left vacant for nearly four
years. The Archbishop of Canterbury was more than the first of English
bishops. He was not only the maintainer of ecclesiastical discipline,
but also the mouthpiece of the English people when they had complaints
to make to the king. Men turned their thoughts to Anselm, the Abbot of
Bec. Anselm was a stranger from Aosta, on the Italian side of the
Alps. He was the most learned man of the age, and had striven to
justify the theology of the day by rational arguments. He was as
righteous as he was learned, and as gentle as he was righteous. Tender
to man and woman, he had what was in those days a rare tenderness to
animals, and had caused astonishment by saving a hunted hare from its
pursuers. In =1092= the king's vassals assembled in the Great Council
urged William to choose a successor to Lanfranc, and asked him to
allow prayers to be offered in the churches that God might move his
heart to select a worthy chief pastor. "Pray as you will," said the
king, scornfully. "I shall do as I think good; no man's prayers will
do anything to shake my will!" In the spring of =1093= William fell
sick. Believing himself to be a dying man, he promised to amend his
life, and named Anselm archbishop. On his refusal to accept the
nomination, Anselm was dragged to the king's bedside, and the pastoral
staff, the symbol of the pastoral office of a bishop, was forced into
his hands by the bystanders.
6. =The Council of Rockingham. 1095.=--To this well-meant violence
Anselm submitted unwillingly. He was, he said, a weak old sheep to be
yoked with an untamed bull to draw the plough of the English Church.
Yet, gentle as he was, he was possessed of indomitable courage in
resistance to evil. William recovered, and returned to his blasphemy
and his tyranny. In vain Anselm warned him against his sins. A fresh
object of dispute soon arose between the king and the new archbishop.
Two Popes claimed the obedience of Christendom. Urban II. was the Pope
acknowledged by the greater part of the Church. Clement III. was the
Pope supported by the Emperor. Anselm declared that Urban was the true
Pope, and that he would obey none other. William asserted that his
father had laid down a rule that no Pope should be acknowledged in
England without the king's assent, and he proposed to act upon it by
acknowledging neither Clement nor Urban. His object was, perhaps, to
prevent the enforcement of ecclesiastical discipline by temporarily
getting rid of the papal authority. Anselm wanted the authority of the
Pope to check vice and disorder. The question was set aside for a
time, but in =1095= Anselm, tired of witnessing William's wicked
actions, asked leave to go to Rome to fetch from Urban the pallium, a
kind of scarf given by the Pope to archbishops in recognition of their
office. William replied that he did not acknowledge Urban as Pope. A
Great Council was summoned to Rockingham to discuss the question. The
lay barons, who liked to see the king resisted, were on Anselm's side.
The bishops, many of whom were creatures of William, appointed from
amongst his clerks, took the side of the king. Anselm stated his case
firmly and moderately, and then, caring nothing for the angry king,
retired into the chapel and went quietly to sleep. The king, finding
that the barons would give him no support, was unable to punish
Anselm. Two years later, in =1097=, Anselm betook himself to Rome, and
William at once seized on his estates.
7. =William II. and his Brothers.=--Normandy under Robert was even
worse off than England under William. William was himself a tyrant,
but in Normandy there were at least a hundred tyrants because Robert
was too easy-tempered to bring any one to justice. The land was full
of violence. Each baron made war on his neighbour, and, as usual, the
peasant suffered most. Robert's own life was vicious and wasteful, and
he was soon in debt. He sold the Cotentin and the territory of
Avranches to his youngest brother, Henry. Henry was cool-headed and
prudent, and he kept order in his new possession better than either of
his elder brothers would have done. The brothers coveted the
well-ordered land, and in =1091=, two years before Anselm became
archbishop, they marched together against Henry. Henry was besieged on
St. Michael's Mount, a rocky island surrounded by the sea at high
water. After a time water ran short. The easy-tempered Robert sent in
a supply. "Shall we let our brother die of thirst?" he said to
William. Henry was in the end forced to surrender, and the land which
he had purchased was lost to him for a time. In =1095= Henry was again
in Normandy. Robert of Bellême, the lord of Domfront, was the most
cruel of the cruel barons. Once he had torn out with his own hands the
eyes of his godson, merely because the child's father had displeased
him. The people of Domfront called on Henry to deliver them from such
a monster. Henry seized Domfront, ruled its people with justice, and
soon recovered the possessions from which his brothers had driven him.
8. =William and Scotland. 1093--1094.=--William's attention was at
this time drawn to the North. Early in his reign he annexed
Cumberland, and had secured it against the Scots by fortifying
Carlisle, which had been desolate since the Danish invasion in the
reign of Ælfred. Malcolm, king of the Scots, was a rude warrior who
had been tamed into an outward show of piety by his saintly wife,
Margaret, the sister of Eadgar the Ætheling. Though he could not read
her books of devotion, he liked to look at the pictures in them and to
kiss the relics which she honoured. Margaret gathered Englishmen round
her, and spread abroad something of southern piety and civilisation
amongst the fierce Celtic warriors of her husband. She could not teach
them to change their natures. In =1093= Malcolm burst into
Northumberland, plundering and burning, till an Englishman slew him at
Alnwick. Queen Margaret died broken-hearted at the news, and was
before long counted as a saint. For the moment the Scottish Celts were
weary of the English queen and her English ways. They set up Malcolm's
brother, Donald Bane, as their king, refusing to be governed by any
of Margaret's sons. Donald at once 'drave out all the English that
before were with King Malcolm.' In =1094= Duncan, Margaret's step-son,
gained the crown from Donald with the aid of a troop of English and
Norman followers. The Celts soon drove out his followers, and after a
while they slew him and restored Donald.
9. =Mowbray's Rebellion. 1095.=--William had as yet too much to do at
home to interfere further in Scotland. The Norman barons hated him,
and in =1095= Robert of Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland--the name was
now confined to the land between the Tweed and the Tyne--refused
obedience. William at once marched against him, and took from him the
new castle which he had built in =1080=, and which has ever since been
known as Newcastle-on-Tyne. Robert held out long in his stronger
fortress of Bamborough, which was only taken at last by fraud. He was
condemned to a lifelong imprisonment, and it is even said that the
Pope, seeing his case hopeless, allowed his wife to marry again as
though her husband had been dead. Mowbray's rebellion, like the
conspiracy of the Earls against the Conqueror, shows how eagerly the
Norman barons longed to shake off the yoke of the king, and how
readily Englishmen and the less powerful Normans supported even a
tyrannical king rather than allow the barons to have their way.
10. =The First Crusade. 1095--1099.=--These petty wars were
interrupted by a call to arms from the Pope. For centuries Christians
had made pilgrimages to Bethlehem and Jerusalem, the holy places where
their Lord had been born and had been crucified. When the Arabs
conquered the Holy Land, Mohammedans as they were, they gave
protection to the pilgrims from the West. The Turks, who were also
Mohammedans, had lately obtained the mastery over the Arabs, and had
secured dominion over the Holy Land. They were fierce warriors,
ignorant and cruel, who either put the pilgrims to death or subjected
them to torture and ill-usage. In =1095= Pope Urban II. came to
Clermont to appeal to the Christians of the West to set out on a
Crusade--a war of the Cross--to deliver the Holy City from the
infidel. After he had spoken the multitude burst out with the cry, "It
is the will of God!" Men of every rank placed on their garments a
cross, as the sign of their devotion to the service of Christ. In
=1096= a huge multitude set forth under Peter the Hermit, who had been
active in urging men to take part in the Crusade. They believed it to
be unnecessary to take money or food, trusting that God would supply
His warriors. All these perished on the way. A better-equipped body
of knights and nobles set out later under Godfrey of Bouillon. They
fought their way through Asia Minor and Syria to Jerusalem, and in
=1099= the Holy City was taken by storm. Godfrey, though he became its
first Christian king, refused to be crowned. "I will not," he said,
"wear a crown of gold where my Saviour wore a crown of thorns." The
piety of the Christian warriors was not accompanied by mercy to the
vanquished. Holding Mohammedans to be the special enemies of God, they
treated them as no better than savage beasts. There was a terrible
butchery when Jerusalem was taken, and Christian men fancied that they
did God service by dashing out the brains of Mohammedan babes against
the walls.
11. =Normandy in Pledge. 1096.=--Robert was amongst the Crusaders. To
raise money for his expedition he pledged Normandy to his brother
William. William had no wish to take part in a holy war, but he was
ready to make profit out of those who did. Normandy was the better for
the change. It is true that William oppressed it himself, but he saved
the people from the worse oppression of the barons.
12. =The Last Years of the Red King.=--The remaining years of
William's reign were years of varying success. An English force set up
Eadgar, the son of Malcolm and Margaret, as king of the Scots, and
Eadgar consented to hold his crown as William's vassal. William's
attempts to reduce the Welsh to submission ended in failure, and he
was obliged to content himself with hemming them in with castles. In
=1098= the wicked Robert of Bellême succeeded his brother as earl of
Shrewsbury. Robert robbed and tortured Englishmen as he had robbed and
tortured Normans. He was a great builder of castles, and at
Bridgenorth he raised a fortress as the centre of a group of strong
places which could defy the Welsh and form the basis of his operations
against them. In the same year William captured Le Mans, the capital
of Maine, which had recovered its independence from Robert, which was
held against him by Helie de la Flêche, one of the few unselfish men
of the day. Unlike his father, the Red King often began enterprises
which he did not finish. In =1099= he had all his work to do over
again. He was hunting in the New Forest when he heard that Helie had
regained Le Mans. He rode hard to Southampton, and, leaping on board a
vessel, bade the sailors put to sea. A storm was raging, and the
sailors prayed him to wait till the wind fell. "I never heard," he
answered, "of a king being drowned." The next morning he was in
Normandy. He recovered Le Mans, but returned to England without
conquering Maine.
13. =The Death of the Red King. 1100.=--On August 2, =1100=, the Red
King went out to hunt in the New Forest. In the evening his body was
found pierced by an arrow. Who his slayer was is unknown. The blow may
have been accidental. It is more likely to have been intentional. In
every part of England were men who had good cause to hate William, and
nowhere were his enemies in greater numbers than round the New Forest.
Whoever was his slayer, the body of the tyrant was borne to the
cathedral of Winchester and buried as the corpse of a wild beast,
without funeral rites or weeping eyes. When, after a few years had
passed, the tower above the unhallowed tomb fell in, men said that it
had fallen because so foul a body lay beneath it.
CHAPTER IX.
HENRY I. AND STEPHEN.
HENRY I., =1100--1135=. STEPHEN, =1135--1154=.
LEADING DATES
The Accession of Henry I. 1100
Battle of Tinchebrai 1106
Death of Henry I. and Accession of Stephen 1135
The Civil War 1139
Treaty of Wallingford 1153
Death of Stephen 1154
[Illustration: Henry I. and his queen Matilda. (From the west front of
Rochester Cathedral.)]
1. =The Accession of Henry I. 1100.=--When the news spread that the
Red King had been slain in the New Forest, his younger brother, Henry,
hastened to Winchester, where he was chosen king by the barons who
happened to be there. At his coronation at Westminster he swore to
undo all the evil of his brother's reign. The name by which he came to
be known--the Lion of Justice--shows how well he kept his promise. He
maintained order as his father had done, and his brother had not done.
Flambard, the wicked minister of the Red King, was imprisoned in the
Tower, and Anselm, the good archbishop, recalled to England. Henry's
chief strength lay in the support of the English. To please them he
married Eadgyth, the daughter of Malcolm and Margaret, the descendant
through her mother of the old English kings. Through Eadgyth the
blood of Alfred and Ecgberht was transmitted to the later kings. It
was, however, necessary that she should take another name. Every one
at Henry's court talked French, and 'Eadgyth' was unpronounceable in
French. The new queen was therefore known as Matilda, or Maud. The
English called her the good queen. The Normans mocked her husband and
herself by giving them the English nicknames of Godric and Godgifu.
2. =Invasion of Robert. 1101.=--One danger at least Henry had to face.
The Norman barons yearned after the weak rule of Robert, who was again
in possession of Normandy. Once, we are told, he had to stay in bed
till noon, because his favourites had carried off his clothes, and he
had no others to put on. A duke who could not keep his own clothes was
not likely to be able to rule his duchy, and Normandy was again the
scene of fightings and plunderings which he made no effort to
suppress. Flambard, having escaped from prison, fled to Normandy, and
urged Robert to claim England as the heritage of the eldest son of the
Conqueror. Robert listened to the tempter and sailed for England. When
he landed at Porchester he found that the Church and the English had
rallied to Henry. Robert's position was hopeless, and he made a treaty
with his brother, abandoning all claim to the crown.
3. =Revolt of Robert of Bellême. 1102.=--Henry knew that the great
barons wished well to Robert, and on one pretext or another he
stripped most of them of power. Robert of Bellême, the strongest and
wickedest of them all, rose in revolt. After capturing many of his
castles, Henry laid siege to his great fortress at Bridgenorth. The
barons who served under Henry urged him to spare a rebel who was one
of their own class. The Englishmen and the inferior Norman knights
thought otherwise. "Lord King Henry," they cried, "trust not those
traitors. They do but strive to deceive you, and to take away from you
the strength of kingly justice.... Behold, we all stand by you
faithfully; we are ready to serve and help you in all things. Attack
the castle vigorously; shut in the traitor on all sides, and make no
peace with him till you have him alive or dead in your hands."
Bridgenorth was taken, and Robert of Bellême, having been stripped of
his English land, was sent off to Normandy. Henry was now, in very
truth, king of the English. "Rejoice, King Henry," ran a popular song,
"and give thanks to the Lord God, because thou art a free king since
thou hast overthrown Robert of Bellême, and hast driven him from the
borders of thy kingdom." Never again during Henry's reign did the
great Norman lords dare to lift hand against him.
4. =The Battle of Tinchebrai. 1106.=--It was impossible for Henry to
avoid interference in Normandy. Many of his vassals in England
possessed lands in Normandy as well, where they were exposed to the
violence of Robert of Bellême and of others who had been expelled from
England. The Duke of the Normans would do nothing to keep the peace,
and Henry crossed the sea to protect his own injured subjects. Duke
Robert naturally resisted him, and at last, in =1106=, a great battle
was fought at Tinchebrai, in which Robert was utterly defeated. Duke
Robert was kept for the remainder of his life a prisoner in Cardiff
Castle, where he died after an imprisonment of twenty-eight years.
Henry became Duke of the Normans as well as king of the English, and
all Normandy was the better for the change. Robert of Bellême was
thrown into prison, and the cruel oppressor thus shared the fate of
the weak ruler whose remissness had made his oppressions possible.
[Illustration: Seal of Milo of Gloucester, showing mounted armed
figure in the reign of Henry I.]
5. =Henry and Anselm. 1100--1107.=--Though Anselm had done everything
in his power to support Henry against Robert of Bellême, he was
himself engaged in a dispute with the king which lasted for some
years. A bishop in Anselm's time was not only a great Church officer,
whose duty it was to maintain a high standard of religion and morality
amongst the clergy. He was also one of the king's barons, because he
was possessed of large estates, and was therefore bound like any other
baron to send knights to the king when they were needed. Consequently,
when Anselm became archbishop he had not only received investiture
from William II. by accepting from him the ring and the staff which
were the signs of ecclesiastical authority, but also did homage, thus
acknowledging himself to be the king's man, and obliging himself, not
indeed to fight for him in person, but to send knights to fight under
his orders. When, however, Henry came to the throne, and asked Anselm
to repeat the homage which he had done to William, Anselm not only
refused himself to comply with the king's request, but also refused to
consecrate newly-chosen bishops who had received investiture from
Henry. During the time of his exile Anselm had taken part in a council
of the Church, in which bishops and abbots had been forbidden by the
Pope and the council either to receive investiture from laymen or to
do homage to them. These decrees had not been issued merely to serve
the purpose of papal ambition. At that time all zealous ecclesiastics
thought that the only way to stop the violence of kings in their
dealings with the Church was to make the Church entirely independent.
Anselm's experience of the Red King's wickedness must have made him
ready to concur with this new view, and there can be no doubt that it
was from the most conscientious motives that he refused to do homage
to Henry. On the other hand, Henry, wishing to rule justly, thought it
very hard that the archbishop should insist upon the independence of
the bishops, especially as in consequence of their large estates they
had so many knights to send into the field. Though the dispute was a
hot one, it was carried on without any of the violence which had
characterised the dispute between Anselm and the Red King, and it
ended in a compromise. Henry abandoned all claim to give the ring and
the pastoral staff which were the signs of a bishop's or an abbot's
spiritual jurisdiction, whilst Anselm consented to allow the new
bishop or abbot to render the homage which was the sign of his
readiness to employ all his temporal wealth and power on the king's
behalf. The bishop was to be chosen by the chapter of his cathedral,
the abbot by the monks of his abbey, but the election was to take
place in the king's presence, thus giving him influence over their
choice. Whether this settlement would work in favour of the king or
the clergy depended on the character of the kings and the clergy. If
the kings were as riotous as the Red King and the clergy as
self-denying as Anselm, the clergy would grow strong in spite of these
arrangements. If the kings were as just and wise as Henry, and the
clergy as wicked as Ralph Flambard, all advantage would be on the side
of the king.
6. =Roger of Salisbury.=--After the defeat of the Norman barons the
Great Council ceased for a time to have any important influence on the
government. Henry was practically an absolute king, and it was well
that he should be so, as the country wanted order more than
discussion. Henry, however, loved to exercise absolute power in an
orderly way, and he chose for his chief minister Roger, whom he made
Bishop of Salisbury. Roger had first attracted his notice when he was
going out hunting, by saying mass in a shorter time than any other
priest, but he retained his favour by the order and system which he
introduced into the government. A special body of officials and
councillors was selected by the king--perhaps a similar body had been
selected by his predecessor--to sit in judgment over cases in which
tenants-in-chief were concerned, as well as over other cases which
were, for one reason or another, transferred to it from the Baronial
Courts. This council or committee was called the _Curia Regis_ (the
King's Court). The members of this _Curia Regis_ met also in the
Exchequer, so called from the chequered cloth which covered the table
at which they sat. They were then known as Barons of the Exchequer,
and controlled the receipts and outgoings of the treasury. The
Justiciar presided in both the _Curia Regis_ and the Exchequer.
Amongst those who took part in these proceedings was the Chancellor,
who was then a secretary and not a judge, as well as other superior
officers of the king. A regular system of finance was introduced, and
a regular system of justice accompanied it. At last the king
determined to send some of the judges of his court to go on circuit
into distant parts of the kingdom. These itinerant Justices
(_Justitiarii errantes_) brought the royal power into connection with
the local courts. Their business was of a very miscellaneous
character. They not only heard the cases in which the king was
concerned--the pleas of the crown, as they were called--but they made
assessments for purposes of taxation, listened to complaints, and
conveyed the king's wishes to his people.
[Illustration: Monument of Roger, Bishop of Salisbury (died 1139), in
his cathedral church.]
7. =Growth of Trade.=--Though Henry's severe discipline was not liked,
yet the law and order which he maintained told on the prosperity of
the country, and the trade of London flourished so much as to attract
citizens from Normandy to settle in it. Flemings too, trained in
habits of industry, came in crowds, and with the view of providing a
bulwark against the Welsh, Henry settled a colony of them in South
Pembrokeshire, which has since been known as Little England beyond
Wales. The foreigners were not popular, but the Jews, to whom Henry
continued the protection which William had given them, were more
unpopular still.
[Illustration: Porchester Church, Hampshire. Built about 1135.]
8. =The Benedictines.=--In the midst of this busy life the Benedictine
monasteries were still harbours of refuge for all who did not care to
fight or trade. They were now indeed wealthier than they had once
been, as gifts, usually of land, had been made to the monks by those
who reverenced their piety. Sometimes these gifts took a shape which
afterwards caused no little evil. Landowners who had churches on their
lands often gave to a monastery the tithes which had hitherto been
paid for the support of the parish priest, and the monastery stepped
into the place of the parish priest, sending a vicar to act for it in
the performance of its new duties. As the monks themselves grew richer
they grew less ascetic. Their life, however, was not spent in
idleness. They cared for the poor, kept a school for the children, and
managed their own property. Some of their number studied and wrote,
and our knowledge of the history of these times is mainly owing to
monastic writers. When Henry I. came to the throne the Chronicle was
still being written in the English tongue by the monks of Worcester,
and for some years after his death was still carried on at
Peterborough. The best historical compositions were, however, in
Latin, the language understood by the clergy over all Western Europe.
Amongst the authors of these Latin works, the foremost was William of
Malmesbury.
9. =The Cistercians.=--Useful as the Benedictines were, there were
some monks who complained that the extreme self-denial of their
founder, St. Benedict, was no longer to be met with, and the
complainants had lately originated a new order, called the Cistercian,
from Cîteaux, in Burgundy, the site of their first abbey. The
Cistercians made their appearance in England in =1128=. Their
buildings and churches were simpler than those of the Benedictines,
and their life more austere. They refused to receive gifts of tithes
lest they should impoverish the parish clergy. They loved to make
their homes in solitary places far from the haunts of men, and some of
the most beautiful of the abbeys which remain in ruins--those, for
instance, of Fountains and Tintern--were Cistercian abbeys. They are
beautiful, not because the Cistercians loved pleasant places, but
because they loved solitude, whilst the Benedictines had either
planted themselves in towns or had allowed towns to grow up round
their monasteries.
[Illustration: Part of the nave of Durham Cathedral. Built about
1130.]
10. =The White Ship.=--Henry, in consequence of the possession of
Normandy, had been frequently involved in war with France. Robert's
son, William Clito, claimed Normandy, and his claim was supported by
Louis VI. the Fat, who was styled king of France, though the territory
which he actually ruled was no larger than Normandy. In these wars
Henry was usually successful, and at last, in =1127=, William was
killed, and Henry freed from danger. His own son, also named William,
had already been drowned on the voyage between Normandy and England in
=1120=. The ship in which he sailed ran upon a rock, and the young man
was placed in a boat, and might have escaped if he had not returned to
save his half-sister, the Countess of Perche, who was still on board.
As soon as he approached the sailors and passengers crowded into the
boat and swamped it. Only one man, a butcher, was saved, by clinging
to the mast of the ship when it sank. The captain, who was with him
on the mast, threw himself off as soon as he learned that the king's
son had been drowned, and perished in the water. It is said that no
man dared to tell Henry that his son was drowned, and that at last a
little child was sent to inform him of his misfortune.
11. =The Last Years of Henry I.=--Henry had many illegitimate
children, but after William's death the only lawful child left to him
was Matilda. She had been married as a child to the Emperor Henry V.,
but her husband had died before she was grown up, and she then
returned to her father, as the Empress Matilda. There had never been a
queen in England, and it would have been very hard for a woman to rule
in those times of constant war and bloodshed. Yet Henry persuaded the
barons to swear to accept her as their future sovereign. He then
married her to Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, who came of a brave and
active race, and whose lands, which lay to the south of Normandy,
would enlarge the French possessions of Henry's descendants. In =1135=
Henry died. The great merit of his English government was that he
forsook his brother's evil ways of violence, and maintained peace by
erecting a regular administrative system, which kept down the outrages
of the barons. One of the English chroniclers in recording his death
prayed that God might give him the peace that he loved.[9]
[Footnote 9: Genealogy of the Conqueror's sons and grandchildren:--
WILLIAM I. = Matilda of Flanders
1066-1087 |
+------------+--------+---+---------+
| | | |
Robert, Duke of WILLIAM II. HENRY I. Adela = Stephen of Blois
Normandy 1087-1100 1100-1135 |
| | |
| | | STEPHEN
William Clito William | 1135-1154
|
(1) The Emperor Henry V. = Matilda = (2) Geoffrey Plantagenet
|
HENRY II.
1154-1189]
[Illustration: Keep of Rochester Castle. Built between 1126 and 1139.]
12. =Stephen's Accession. 1135.=--Among the barons who had sworn to
obey Matilda was Stephen of Blois, a son of the Conqueror's daughter
Adela, and a nephew of Henry I. As soon as Henry's death was known
Stephen made his way to London, where he was joyfully received as
king. The London citizens felt that their chief interest lay in the
maintenance of peace, and they thought that a man would be more likely
than a woman to secure order. The barons chose Stephen king at
Winchester, where his brother, Henry of Blois, was the bishop. Shortly
afterwards some of these very barons rose against him, but their
insurrection was soon repressed. More formidable was the hostility of
David, king of the Scots. David was closely connected with the family
of Henry I., his sister having been Henry's wife, the Empress Matilda
being consequently his niece. He also held in right of his own wife
the earldom of Huntingdon. Under the pretext of taking up Matilda's
cause he broke into the north of England. Though he himself carried on
the work of introducing English civilisation into Scotland, his Celtic
followers were still savage, and massacred women and infants. In
=1137= Stephen drove David back. In =1138= David reappeared, and this
time the aged Thurstan, Archbishop of York, sent the levies of the
North against him. In the midst of the English army was a cart bearing
a standard, at the top of which the banners of the three great
churches of St. Peter's of York, St. John of Beverley, and St. Wilfrid
of Ripon, waved round the consecrated Host. The battle which ensued,
near Northallerton, has consequently been known as the battle of the
Standard. The Scots were completely defeated, but Stephen, in spite of
the victory gained for him, found himself obliged to buy peace at a
heavy price. He agreed that David's son, Henry, should hold
Northumberland, with the exception of the fortresses of Bamborough and
of Newcastle, as a fief of the English Crown. David himself was also
allowed to keep Cumberland without doing homage.
[Illustration: Keep of Castle Rising. Built about 1140-50.]
13. =Civil War.=--It would have been well for Stephen if he had learnt
from the men of the North that his strength lay in rallying the
English people round him against the great barons, as the Red King and
Henry I. had done when their right to the crown had been challenged by
Robert. Instead of this, he brought over mercenaries from Flanders,
and squandered treasure and lands upon his favourites so as to have
little left for the hour of need. He made friends easily, but he made
enemies no less easily. One of the most powerful of the barons was
Robert, Earl of Gloucester, an illegitimate son of Henry I., who held
the strong fortress of Bristol, and whose power extended over both
sides of the lower course of the Severn. In =1138= Stephen, who
distrusted him, ordered his castles to be seized. Robert at once
declared his half-sister Matilda to be the lawful queen, and a
terrible civil war began. Robert's garrison at Bristol was a terror to
all the country round. He, too, gathered foreign mercenaries, who knew
not what pity was. Other barons imitated Robert's example, fighting
only for themselves whether they nominally took the part of Stephen or
of Matilda, and the southern and midland counties of England were
preyed upon by the garrisons of their castles.
14. =Stephen's Quarrel with the Clergy. 1139.=--Evil as were the men
who fought on either side, it was to Stephen and not to Matilda and
Robert that men as yet looked to restore order. The port towns,
London, Yarmouth, and Lynn, clung to him to the last. Unfortunately
Stephen did not know how to make good use of his advantages. The
clergy, like the traders, had always been in favour of order. Some of
them, with the Justiciar, Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, at their head,
had organised the Exchequer of Henry I., had gathered in the payments
due to the Crown, or had acted as judges. Yet with all their zeal in
the service of the Crown, they had not omitted to provide for their
own interests. Roger in particular had been insatiable in the pursuit
of wealth for himself and of promotion for his family. One of his
nephews, Nigel, Bishop of Ely, was Treasurer, whilst another,
Alexander, was Bishop of Lincoln, and his own illegitimate son, Roger,
was Chancellor. In =1139= Stephen, rightly or wrongly, threw him into
prison with his son and Alexander of Lincoln. The other nephew, Nigel,
escaped to his uncle's castle at Devizes, in which was the younger
Roger's mother, Matilda of Ramsbury. Stephen brought her son before
the castle, and put a rope round his neck to hang him unless the
castle was surrendered. The unhappy mother could not bear the sight,
and opened the gates to Stephen. It might have been wise to deprive a
too ambitious bishop of his castle, but it was not wise personally to
maltreat the clergy. Every priest in England turned against Stephen.
His own brother, Henry, Bishop of Winchester, declared against him,
and Stephen was obliged to do penance for his offence. The
administration of the Exchequer was shattered, and though it was not
altogether destroyed, and money was brought to it for the king's use
even in the worst times, Stephen's financial resources were from
henceforth sadly diminished.
15. =Anarchy. 1139.=--The war now lapsed into sheer anarchy. The
barons on either side broke loose from all restraint. "They fought
amongst themselves with deadly hatred; they spoiled the fairest lands
with fire and rapine; in what had been the most fertile of counties
they destroyed almost all the provision of bread." All goods and money
they carried off, and if they suspected any man to have concealed
treasure they tortured him to oblige him to confess where it was.
"They hanged up men by the feet and smoked them with foul smoke; some
were hanged up by their thumbs, others by their head, and coats of
mail were hung on to their feet. They put knotted strings about men's
heads, and twisted them till they went to the brain. They put men into
prisons where adders and snakes and toads were crawling; and so they
tormented them. Some they put into a chest, short and narrow and not
deep, and that had sharp stones within; and forced men therein, so
that they broke all their limbs. In many of the castles were hateful
and grim things called neckties, which two or three men had enough to
do to carry. This instrument of torture was thus made: it was fastened
to a beam, and had a sharp iron to go about a man's neck and throat,
so that he might no way sit or lie or sleep, but he bore all the iron.
Many thousands they starved with hunger.... Men said openly that
Christ and His saints were asleep."
16. =The End of the War. 1141--1148.=--In the autumn of =1139=,
Matilda appeared in England, and in =1141= there was a battle at
Lincoln, in which Stephen was taken prisoner. Henry of Winchester (see
p. 131) acknowledged Matilda as queen, and all England submitted to
her, London giving way most reluctantly. Her rule did not last long.
She was as much too harsh as Stephen was too good-natured. She seized
the lands of the Church, and ordered the Londoners to pay a heavy fine
for having supported Stephen. On this the Londoners rang their bells,
and the citizens in arms swarmed out of their houses 'like bees out of
a hive.' Matilda fled to Winchester before them. Bishop Henry then
turned against her. Robert of Gloucester was taken prisoner, and after
a while Matilda was obliged to set free King Stephen in exchange for
her brother. Fighting continued for some time. On all sides men were
longing for peace. The fields were untilled because no man could tell
who would reap the harvest. Thousands perished of starvation. If peace
there was to be, it could only come by Stephen's victory. It was now
known that Matilda was even less fit to govern than Stephen. Stephen
took one castle after another. In =1147= Earl Robert died, and in
=1148= Matilda gave up the struggle and left England.
[Illustration: Tower of Castor Church, Northamptonshire. Built about
1145. (The parapet and spire are later.)]
17. =Henry, Duke of the Normans. 1149.=--Whilst Matilda had been
losing England her husband had been conquering Normandy, and for a
little while it seemed possible that England and Normandy would be
separated; England remaining under Stephen and his heirs, and
Normandy united with Anjou under the Angevin Geoffrey and his
descendants. That the separation did not yet take place was partly
owing to the different character of the two heirs. Stephen's son,
Eustace, was rough and overbearing. Geoffrey's son, Henry, was shrewd
and prudent. Henry had already been in England when he was still quite
young, and had learnt something of English affairs from his uncle,
Robert of Gloucester. He returned to his father in =1147=, and in
=1149= Geoffrey gave up to him the duchy of Normandy. He was then sent
to try his fortune in England in his mother's stead, but he was only a
boy of sixteen, and too young to cope with Stephen. In =1150= he
abandoned the struggle for a time. In his absence Stephen had still
rebels to put down and castles to besiege, but he had the greater part
of the kingdom at his back, and if Henry had continued to leave him
alone he would probably have reduced all his enemies to submission.
18. =The Last Days of Stephen. 1153--1154.=--In =1150= Geoffrey died,
and Henry became Count of Anjou as well as Duke of Normandy. Before
long he acquired a much wider territory than either Anjou or Normandy.
Louis VII. of France had to wife Eleanor, the Duchess of Aquitaine,
and through her had added to his own scanty dominions the whole of the
lands between the Loire and the Pyrenees. Louis, believing that she
was unfaithful to him, had divorced her on the pretext that she was
too near of kin. Henry was not squeamish about the character of so
great an heiress, and in =1152= married the Duchess of Aquitaine for
the sake of her lands. Thus strengthened, he again returned to
England. He was now a young man of nineteen; his vigour was as great
as that of Stephen, and his skill greater. He won fortress after
fortress. Before the end of =1153= Eustace died, and Stephen had no
motive for prolonging the strife if his personal interests could be
saved. It was arranged by the treaty of Wallingford that Stephen
should retain the crown for life, and that Henry should be his heir.
The castles which had sprung up during the civil war without the
licence of the king--the 'adulterine castles,' as they were
called--and there were no less than 365[10] of them--were to be
destroyed, and order and good government were to return. For five
months Henry remained in England. The robber barons could not hold out
against the two rivals now united. Many of the castles were
demolished, and 'such good peace as never was here' was established.
In =1154= Stephen died, and young Henry ruled England in his own name.
[Footnote 10: The number usually given, '1,115,' is probably an
error.]
CHAPTER X.
HENRY II. =1154--1189=.
LEADING DATES
Accession of Henry II. 1154
Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury 1162
The Constitutions of Clarendon 1164
Murder of Archbishop Thomas 1172
The Assize of Arms 1181
Fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem 1187
Death of Henry II. 1189
1. =Henry's Accession. 1154.=--Henry II. was but twenty-one when he
returned, after Stephen's death, to govern England. He had before him
the difficult task of establishing order where anarchy had prevailed,
but it was a task for which he was specially suited. His frame was
strong and thick-set, and he was as active as he was strong. His
restlessness was the dismay of his courtiers. Eager to see everything
for himself, and having to rule a territory extending from the
Pyrenees to the Scottish border, he was always on the move. His
followers were not allowed to know till he started in the morning
where he intended to sleep at night, and he frequently changed his
mind even after he had set out. He was as busy with his mind as he was
with his body, as fond of a book as of a horse, and ready to chat with
any one of whatever rank. Even when he was at mass he either drew
pictures to amuse himself or conversed in whispers with his
neighbours. His ceaseless energy was combined with a strong will, a
clear perception of the limits beyond which action would be unwise, a
good eye for ability in others, and a power of utilising their ability
in his own service. On the Continent his sagacity appeared in his
resolution to be content with the dominions which he had acquired
without making further conquests. In England his main object was the
same as that of his predecessors, to establish the king's authority
over the great barons. What especially distinguished him was his clear
perception of the truth that he could only succeed by securing, not
merely the passive goodwill, but the active co-operation of those who,
whether they were of Norman or of English descent, were inferior in
wealth and position to the great barons.
[Illustration: Effigies of Henry II. and Queen Eleanor at
Fontevrault.]
2. =Pacification of England.=--Henry's first year was spent in
completing the work which he had begun after the treaty of
Wallingford. He sent Stephen's mercenaries over the sea and
completed the destruction of the 'adulterine castles.' One great rebel
after another was forced to submit and have his strong walls pulled
down. There were to be no more dens of robbers in England, but all men
were to obey the king and the law. What castles remained were the
king's, and as long as they were his rebellions would not be likely to
be successful. Henry even regained from Malcolm IV., king of the
Scots, Northumberland and Cumberland, which had been surrendered by
Stephen (see p. 133). In his government Henry did his best to carry
out the plans of his grandfather, Henry I. It was perhaps because he
was afraid that one Justiciar would be too powerful, that he appointed
two, Richard de Lucy and the Earl of Leicester, to see that justice
was executed and the government maintained whether the king were
absent or present. The old Bishop Nigel of Ely was reappointed
Treasurer, and presided over the Exchequer at Westminster. Thomas of
London, known in later times by the name of Becket,[11] an active and
vigorous man, fifteen years older than the king, who had been ordained
a deacon, but had nothing clerical about him except the name, was made
Chancellor. Thomas was the king's chosen friend, and the two together
delighted in the work of restoring order. Thomas liked sumptuous
living, and the magnificence of his housekeeping and of his feasts was
the talk of the whole country. Yet though he laughed and jested in the
midst of his grandeur, he kept himself from every kind of vice. Henry
was fond of horseplay, and once on a bitter winter's day, when he was
riding with Thomas, he snatched at a fine new scarlet mantle from the
Chancellor's neck to throw to a beggar. Thomas struggled hard, and the
two men nearly pulled one another off their horses, but in the end the
beggar got the mantle.
[Footnote 11: His father's name was Becket, but at that time
hereditary surnames had not come into use. He was once called Thomas
Becket in his lifetime by one of his murderers as an insult.]
3. =Henry and Feudality.=--It was principally with Thomas the
Chancellor that Henry consulted as to the best means of establishing
his authority. He resolved not only to renew but to extend the
administrative system of Henry I. The danger which threatened him came
from the great barons, and as the great barons were as dangerous to
the lesser ones and to the bulk of the people as they were to the
king, Henry was able to strengthen himself by winning the affections
of the people. Feudality in itself was only a method of owning land;
but it was always threatening to pass into a method of government. In
France the great feudal lords ruled their own territories with very
little regard for the wishes of the king, and the smaller feudal lords
had their own courts in which they hanged and imprisoned their
villeins. In Stephen's time an attempt had been made to introduce this
system into England, with evil consequences both to king and people.
Before the Conquest great landowners had often received permission
from the king to exercise criminal jurisdiction in the Manor Courts on
their own estates, whilst the vast extent of their landed property
gave them a preponderant voice in the proceedings of the shire-moots,
now known by the Normans as County Courts. Henry resolved to attack
the evil at both ends: in the first place to make the barons support
the king's government instead of setting up their own; in the second
place, to weaken the Manor and County Courts and to strengthen courts
directly proceeding from himself.
4. =The Great Council and the Curia Regis.=--Henry in the early years
of his reign revived the importance of the Great Council, taking care
that it should be attended not only by the great barons, but by
vassals holding smaller estates, and therefore more dependent on
himself. He summoned the Great Council oftener than his predecessors
had done. In this way even the greater barons got the habit of sharing
in the government of England as a whole, instead of seeking to split
up the country, as France was split up, into different districts, each
of which might be governed by one of themselves. It was in consequence
of the increasing habit of consulting with the king that the Great
Council, after many changes, ultimately grew into the modern
Parliament. It was of no less importance that Henry II. strengthened
the _Curia Regis_, which had been established in the reign of Henry I.
(see p. 127) to collect the king's revenue, to give him political
advice, and to judge as many questions as it could possibly get hold
of. It was especially by doing justice that the _Curia Regis_ was
likely to acquire strength, and the strength of the _Curia Regis_ was
in reality the strength of the king.
5. =Scutage.=--If Henry was to carry out justice everywhere it would
be necessary for him to weaken still further the power of the barons.
He reintroduced a plan which had been first adopted by his
grandfather, which had the double merit of strengthening the king upon
the Continent and of weakening the barons in England. Henry needed an
army to defend his Continental possessions against the king of France.
The fyrd, or general levy of Englishmen, was not bound to fight except
at home, and though the feudal vassals were liable to serve abroad,
they could only be made to serve for forty days in the year, which
was too short a time for Henry's purposes. He accordingly came to an
agreement with his vassals. The owner of every knight's fee was to pay
a sum of money known as scutage (_shield-money_) in lieu of service.
Both parties gained by the arrangement. The king got money with which
he paid mercenaries abroad, who would fight for him all the year
round, and the vassal escaped the onerous duty of fighting in quarrels
in which he took no interest. Indirectly the change weakened the
feudal vassals, because they had now less opportunity than before of
acquiring a military training in actual war.
[Illustration: Ecclesiastical costume in the twelfth century.]
6. =Archbishop Thomas. 1162.=--Henry, who meditated great judicial
reforms, foresaw that the clergy would be an obstacle in his way. He
was eager to establish one law for his whole kingdom, and the clergy,
having been exempted by the Conqueror from the jurisdiction of the
ordinary law courts in all ecclesiastical matters, had, during the
anarchy of Stephen's reign, encroached on the royal authority, and
claimed to be responsible, even in criminal cases, only to the
ecclesiastical courts, which were unable to inflict the penalty of
death, so that a clerk who committed a murder could not be hanged like
other murderers. As large numbers of clerks were only in the lower
orders, and as many of them had only taken those orders to escape from
the hardships of lay life, their morals were often no better than
those of their lay neighbours. A vacancy occurring in the
Archbishopric of Canterbury, Henry, who wished to make these clerks
punishable by his own courts, thought that the arrangement would
easily be effected if Thomas, who had hitherto been active as a
reformer in his service, were Archbishop as well as Chancellor. It was
in vain that Thomas remonstrated. "I warn you," he said to Henry,
"that, if such a thing should be, our friendship would soon turn to
bitter hate." Henry persisted in spite of the warning, and Thomas
became Archbishop.
7. =Breach between Henry and Thomas.=--The first act of the new
Archbishop was to surrender his Chancellorship. He was unable, he
said, to serve two masters. It is not difficult to understand his
motives. The Church, as the best men of the twelfth century believed,
was divinely instituted for the guidance of the world. It was but a
short step for the nobler spirits amongst the clergy to hold it
necessary that, in order to secure the due performance of such exalted
duties, the clergy should be exempted from the so-called justice of
laymen, which was often only another name for tyranny, even if the
exemption led to the infliction upon wicked clerks of lesser
punishments than were meet. In this way the clergy would unconsciously
fall into the frame of mind which might lead them to imagine it more
to the honour of God that a wicked clerk should be insufficiently
punished than that he should be punished by a layman. Of all men
Archbishop Thomas was the most likely to fall into this mistake. He
was, as Chancellor, prone to magnify his office, and to think more of
being the originator of great reforms than of the great reforms
themselves. As Archbishop he would also be sure to magnify his office,
and to think less, as Anselm would have thought, of reconciling the
true interests of the kingdom with the true interests of the Church,
than of making the Archbishop's authority the centre of stirring
movement, and of raising the Church, of which he was the highest
embodiment in England, to a position above the power of the king. All
this he would do with a great, if not a complete, sincerity. He would
feel that he was himself the greater man because he believed that he
was fighting in the cause of God.
[Illustration: A bishop ordaining a priest. (From a MS. of the latter
part of the twelfth century.)]
8. =The Constitutions of Clarendon. 1164.=--Between a king eager to
assert the rights of the crown and an archbishop eager to assert the
rights of the clergy a quarrel could not be long deferred. Thomas's
first stand, however, was on behalf of the whole country. At a Great
Council at Woodstock he resisted the king's resolution to levy the old
tax of Danegeld, and in consequence Danegeld was never levied again.
Henry had for some time been displeased because, without consulting
him, the Archbishop had seized on lands which he claimed as the
property of the see of Canterbury, and had excommunicated one of the
king's tenants. Then a clerk who had committed a rape and a murder had
been acquitted in an ecclesiastical court. On this, Henry called on
the bishops to promise to obey the customs of the realm. Thomas, being
told that the king merely wanted a verbal promise to save his dignity,
with some reluctance consented. He soon found that he had been
tricked. In =1164= Henry summoned a Great Council to meet at
Clarendon, and directed some of the oldest of his barons to set down
in writing the customs observed by his grandfather. Their report was
intended to settle all disputed points between the king and the
clergy, and was drawn up under sixteen heads known as the
Constitutions of Clarendon. The most important of them declared that
beneficed clergy should not leave the realm without the king's leave;
that no tenant-in-chief of the king should be excommunicated without
the king's knowledge; that no villein should be ordained without his
lord's consent; that a criminous clerk should be sent to the
ecclesiastical court for trial, and that after he had been there
convicted or had pleaded guilty the Church should deprive him and
leave him to the lay court for further punishment. It was for the
_Curia Regis_ to determine what matters were properly to be decided by
the ecclesiastical courts; and no appeal to Rome was to be allowed
without its permission. To all this Thomas was violently opposed,
maintaining that the sentence of deprivation, which was all that an
ecclesiastical court was empowered to inflict, was so terrible, that
one who had incurred it ought not to be sentenced to any further
penalty by a lay court. After six days' struggle he left the Council,
refusing to assent to the Constitutions.
9. =The Persecution of Archbishop Thomas. 1164.=--Unluckily for
himself, Henry could not be content firmly and quietly to enforce the
law as it had been declared at Clarendon. He had in his character much
of the orderly spirit of his grandfather, Henry I., but he had also
something of the violence of his great-uncle, William II. A certain
John the Marshal had a suit against the archbishop, and when the
archbishop refused to plead in a lay court, the king's council
sentenced him to a fine of 500_l._ Then Henry summoned the archbishop
to his castle at Northampton to give an account of all the money
which, when he was Chancellor, he had received from the king--a claim
which is said to have amounted to 30,000_l._, a sum equal in the money
of these days to not much less than 400,000_l._ now. Thomas, with the
crucifix in his hand, awaited in the hall the decision of Henry, who
with the council was discussing his fate in an upper chamber. When the
Justiciar came out to tell him that he had been declared a traitor he
refused to listen, and placed himself under the Pope's protection. Hot
words were bandied on either side as he walked out of the hall. "This
is a fearful day," said one of his attendants. "The Day of Judgment,"
replied Thomas, "will be more fearful." Thomas made his way to the
coast and fled to France. Henry in his wrath banished no less than
four hundred of the archbishop's kinsmen and friends. Thomas found
less help in France than he had expected. There were once more two
rival Popes--Alexander III., who was acknowledged by the greater part
of the clergy and by the kings of England and France, and Calixtus
III., who had been set up by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.
Alexander was too much afraid lest Henry should take the part of
Calixtus to be very eager in supporting Thomas. He therefore did his
best to effect a reconciliation between Henry and Thomas, but for some
years his efforts were of no avail.
[Illustration: Small ship of the latter part of the twelfth century.]
10. =The Assize of Clarendon. 1166.=--Henry, being temporarily
disembarrassed of Thomas's rivalry, was able to devote his time to
carrying out still further the judicial organisation of the country.
In =1166= he held a Great Council at Clarendon, and with its approval
issued a set of decrees known as the Assize of Clarendon. By this
assize full force was given to a change which had for some time been
growing in the judicial system. The old English way of dealing with
criminals had been by calling on an accused person to swear to his own
innocence and to bring compurgators to swear that his oath was true.
If the accused failed to find compurgators he was sent to the ordeal.
According to the new way there was to be in each county juries
consisting of twelve men of the hundred and of four from each township
in it to present offences--felonies, murders, and robberies--and to
accuse persons on common report. They were sworn to speak the truth,
so that their charges were known as verdicts (_verè dicta_). No
compurgators were allowed, but the accused, after his offence had been
presented, had to go to the ordeal, and even if he succeeded in this
he was, if his character was notoriously bad, to abjure the
realm--that is to say, to be banished, swearing never to return. If he
came back he was held to be an outlaw, and might be put to death
without mercy by any one.
11. =Recognitions.=--A very similar system to that which was thus
adopted in criminal cases had already in the early part of Henry's
reign been widely extended in civil cases. When, before the Conquest,
disputes occurred amongst the English as to the possession of
property, each party swore to the justice of his own case, brought
compurgators, and summoned witnesses to declare in his favour. There
was, however, no method of cross-examination, and if the hundred or
shire court was still unsatisfied, it had recourse to the ordeal. The
Normans introduced the system of trial by battle, under the belief
that God would intervene to give victory to the litigant whose cause
was just. This latter system, however, had never been popular with the
English, and Henry favoured another which had been in existence in
Normandy before the Conquest, and was fairly suited to English habits.
This was the system of recognitions. Any freeholder who had been
dispossessed of his land might apply to the _Curia Regis_, and the
_Curia Regis_ ordered the sheriff of the county in which was the land
in dispute to select four knights of that county, by whom twelve
knights were chosen to serve as Recognitors. It was the business of
these Recognitors to find out either by their own knowledge or by
private inquiry the truth of the matter. If they were unanimous their
verdict was accepted as final. If not, other knights were added to
them, and when at last twelve were found agreeing, their agreement was
held to settle the question.
12. =The Germ of the Jury.=--Thus, whilst in criminal cases the local
knowledge of sworn accusers was treated as satisfactory evidence of
guilt, in civil cases a system was growing up in which is to be traced
the germ of the modern jury. The Recognitors did not indeed hear
evidence in public or become judges of the fact, like the modern jury;
they were rather sworn witnesses, allowed to form an opinion not
merely, like modern witnesses, on what they had actually seen or
heard, but also on what they could gather by private inquiry.
13. =The Itinerant Justices Revived.=--To carry out this system Henry
renewed his grandfather's experiment of sending members of the _Curia
Regis_ as itinerant justices visiting the counties. They held what
were called the pleas of the crown--that is to say, trials which were
brought before the king's judges instead of being tried either in the
county courts or the manorial courts. Both these judges and the king
had every interest in getting as much business before their courts as
possible. Offenders were fined and suitors had to pay fees, and the
best chance of increasing these profits was to attract suitors by
administering justice better than the local courts. The more thronged
were the king's courts, the more rich and powerful he became. The
consequent growth of the influence of the itinerant justices was no
doubt offensive to the lords of the manor, and especially to the
greater landowners, as diminishing their importance, and calling them
to account whenever they attempted to encroach on their less powerful
neighbours.
14. =The Inquisition of the Sheriffs. 1170.=--It was not long before
Henry discovered another way of diminishing the power of the barons.
In the early part of his reign the sheriffs of the counties were still
selected from the great landowners, and the sheriff was not merely the
collector of the king's revenue in his county, but had, since the
Conquest, assumed a new importance in the county court, over which in
the older times the ealdorman or earl and the bishop had presided.
Since the Conquest the bishop, having a court of his own for
ecclesiastical matters, had ceased to take part in its proceedings,
and the earl's authority, which had been much lessened after the
Conquest, had now disappeared. The sheriff, therefore, was left alone
at the head of the county court, and when the new system of trial grew
up he as well as the itinerant justices was allowed to receive the
presentments of juries. When, in the spring of =1170=, the king
returned to England after an absence of four years, he held a strict
inquiry into the conduct of them all, and deposed twenty of them. In
many cases, no doubt, the sheriffs had done things to displease Henry,
but there can be no doubt that the blow thus struck at the sheriffs
was, in the main, aimed at the great nobility. The successors of those
turned out were of lower rank, and therefore more submissive. From
this time it was accepted by the kings of England as a principle of
government that no great noble should serve as sheriff.
15. =The Nobles and the Church.=--Henry knew well that the great
nobles were indignant, and that it was possible that they might rise
against him, as at one time or another they had risen against every
king since the Conquest. He knew too that his predecessors had found
their strongest support against the nobles in the Church, and that the
Church was no longer unanimously on his side. He could indeed count
upon all the bishops save one. Bishops who were or had been his
officials, bishops envious of Thomas or afraid of himself, were all at
his disposal, but they brought him no popular strength. Thomas alone
amongst them had a hold on the imagination of the people through his
austerities and his daring. Moreover, as the champion of the clergy,
he was regarded as being also the champion of the people, from whose
ranks the clergy were recruited.
16. =The Coronation of Young Henry. 1170.=--At the moment of Henry's
return to England he had special need of the Church. He wished the
kingdom of England to pass at his death to his eldest son, Henry, and
since the Conquest no eldest son had ever succeeded his father on the
throne. He therefore determined to adopt a plan which had succeeded
with the kings of France, of having the young Henry chosen and crowned
in his own lifetime, so that when he died he might be ready to step
into his father's place. Young Henry was chosen, and on June 14,
=1170=, he was crowned by Roger, Archbishop of York; but on the day
before the coronation Roger received from Thomas a notice of his
excommunication of all bishops taking part in the ceremony, on the
ground that it belonged only to an Archbishop of Canterbury to crown a
king, and this excommunication had been ratified by the Pope. It was
therefore possible that the whole ceremony might go for nothing.
17. =The Return of Archbishop Thomas. 1170.=--To obviate this danger
Henry again sought to make peace with Thomas. An agreement was come to
on the vague terms that the past should be forgotten on both sides.
Henry perhaps hoped that when Thomas was once again in England he
would be too wise to rake up the question of his claim to crown the
king. If it was so he was soon disappointed. On December 1, =1170=,
Thomas landed at Sandwich and rode to Canterbury amidst the shouts of
the people. He refused to release from excommunication the bishops who
had taken part in young Henry's coronation unless they would first
give him satisfaction for the wrong done to the see of Canterbury,
thus showing that he had forgotten nothing.
[Illustration: Part of the choir of Canterbury Cathedral (in building
from 1175-1184).]
18. =Murder of Archbishop Thomas. 1170.=--The aggrieved bishops at
once crossed the sea to lay their complaint before Henry. "What a
parcel of fools and dastards," cried Henry impatiently, "have I
nourished in my house, that none of them can be found to avenge me on
one upstart clerk!" Four of his knights took him at his word, and
started in all haste for Canterbury. The Archbishop before their
arrival had given fresh offence in a cause more righteous than that of
his quarrel with the bishops. Ranulf de Broc and others who had had
the custody of his lands in his absence refused to surrender them,
robbed him of his goods, and maltreated his followers. On Christmas
Day he excommunicated them and repeated the excommunication of the
bishops. On December 29 the four knights sought him out. They do not
seem at first to have intended to do him bodily harm. The
excommunication of the king's servants before the king had been
consulted was a breach of the Constitutions of Clarendon, and they
bade him, in the king's name, to leave the kingdom. After a hot
altercation the knights retired to arm themselves. The archbishop was
persuaded by his followers to take refuge in the church. In rushed the
knights crying, "Where is the traitor? Where is the archbishop?"
"Behold me," replied Thomas, "no traitor, but a priest of God." The
assailants strove to lay hands upon him. He struggled and cast forth
angry words upon them. In the madness of their wrath they struck him
to the ground and slew him as he lay.
19. =Popular Indignation. 1171.=--Archbishop Thomas did not die as a
martyr for any high or sacred cause. He was not a martyr for the
faith, like those who had been thrown to the lions by the Roman
emperors. He was not a martyr for righteousness, like Archbishop
Ælfheah. He was a martyr for the privileges of his order and of his
see. Yet if he sank below the level of the great martyrs, he did not
sink to that lowest stage at which men cry out for the preservation of
their own privileges, after those privileges have ceased to benefit
any but themselves. The sympathy of the mass of the population shows
the persistence of a widespread belief that in maintaining the
privileges of the clergy Thomas was maintaining the rights of the
protectors of the poor. This sentiment was only strengthened by his
murder. All through Europe the news was received with a burst of
indignation. Of that indignation the Pope made himself the mouthpiece.
In the summer of =1171= two Papal legates appeared in Normandy to
excommunicate Henry unless he was able to convince them that he was
guiltless of the murder. Henry was too cautious to abide their coming.
He crossed first to England and then to Ireland, resolved to have
something to offer the Pope which might put him in a better humour.
20. =State of Ireland.=--In the domain of art, Ireland was inferior to
no European nation. In metal-work, in sculpture, and in the skilful
illumination of manuscripts it surpassed them all. It had no mean
school of music and song. In political development it lagged far
behind. Ireland was still in the tribal stage, and had never been
welded into unity by foreign conquerors, as Gaul had been welded into
unity by the Romans, and as England had been welded into unity by the
Normans. Tribe warred with tribe and chief with chief. The efforts of
chiefs to attain supremacy over the whole island had always ended in
partial or complete failure. The Danes had made settlements in Dublin,
Wexford, Waterford, Cork, and Limerick, but though the native Celtic
population was not strong enough to expel them, neither were they
strong enough to conquer the Celts. The Church was as disorganised as
the State, and there was little discipline exercised outside the
monasteries. For some time the Popes and the Archbishops of Canterbury
had been anxious to establish a better regulated Church system, and in
=1154= Adrian IV.--the only Englishman who was ever Pope--hoping that
Henry would bring the Irish Church under Papal order, had made him a
present of Ireland, on the ground that all islands belonged to the
Pope.
21. =Partial Conquest of Ireland. 1166--1172.=--Henry, however, had
too much to do during the earlier years of his reign to think of
conquering Ireland. In =1166= Dermot, king or chief of Leinster,
having been driven out of his dominions, appealed to Henry for aid.
Henry gave him leave to carry over to Ireland any English knights whom
he could persuade to help him. On this a number of knights from South
Wales, of whom the most important was Richard de Clare, afterwards
known as Strongbow, flocked across the Irish Sea (=1169--1170=). They
fought and conquered, and Strongbow, who married Dermot's daughter,
gave himself the title of Earl of Leinster. The rule of these knights
was a rule of cruelty and violence, and, what was more, it might well
become dangerous to Henry himself. If feudal nobles established
themselves in Ireland, they might soon be holding out a hand to help
the feudal nobles who were Henry's worst enemies in England. When
Henry landed in Ireland in =1171= he set himself to restore order. The
Irish welcomed him because he alone could bridle the invaders, and the
invaders submitted to him because they dared not resist him. He
gathered a synod of the clergy at Cashel, and arranged for the future
discipline of the Church. Unhappily he could not remain long in
Ireland, and when he left it the old anarchy and violence blazed up
again. Though Henry had not served Ireland, he had gained his own
personal ends. He had frightened Strongbow and his followers, and had
shown the Pope, by his proceedings at Cashel, that his friendship was
worth having.
[Illustration: Mitre of Archbishop Thomas of Canterbury preserved at
Sens.]
22. =Young Henry's Coronation and the Revolt of the Barons.
1172--1174.=--In the spring of =1172= Henry was back in Normandy. The
English barons were longing to take advantage of his quarrel with the
Church, and his only chance of resisting them was to propitiate the
Church. He met the Papal legates at Avranches, swore that he was
innocent of the death of Thomas, and renounced the Constitutions of
Clarendon. He then proceeded to pacify Louis VII., whose daughter was
married to the younger Henry, by having the boy recrowned in due form.
Young Henry was a foolish lad, and took it into his head that because
he had been crowned his father's reign was at an end. In =1173= he
fled for support to his father-in-law and persuaded him to take up his
cause. "Your master," said Louis to the ambassadors of the father, "is
king no longer. Here stands the king of the English." These words were
the signal for a general attack on the elder king. Headed by Louis,
his neighbours and discontented subjects took arms against him, and it
was not till September that he prevailed over them. In July the great
English barons of the north and centre rose in insurrection, and
William the Lion, king of the Scots, joined them. De Lucy, the
Justiciar, stood up for Henry; but, though he gained ground, the war
was still raging in the following year, =1174=. In the spring of that
year the rebels were gaining the upper hand, and the younger Henry was
preparing to come to their help. In July the elder Henry landed in
England. For the first and only time in his life he brought to England
the mercenaries who were paid with the scutage money. At Canterbury he
visited the tomb of Thomas, now acknowledged as a martyr, spent the
whole night in prayer and tears, and on the next morning was, at his
own request, scourged by the monks as a token of his penitence. That
night he was awakened by a messenger with good news. Ranulf de
Glanvile had won for him a great victory at Alnwick, had dispersed the
barons' host, and had taken prisoner the Scottish king. About the same
time the fleet which was to bring his son over was dispersed by a
storm. Within a few weeks the whole rebellion was at an end. It was
the last time that the barons ventured to strive with the king till
the time came when they had the people and the Church on their side.
William the Lion was carried to Normandy, where, by the treaty of
Falaise, he acknowledged himself the vassal of the king of England for
the whole of Scotland.
[Illustration: Military and civil costume of the latter part of the
twelfth century.]
23. =The Assize of Arms. 1181.=--In September =1174= there was a
general peace. In =1181= Henry issued the Assize of Arms, organising
the old fyrd in a more serviceable way. Every English freeman was
bound by it to find arms of a kind suitable to his property, that he
might be ready to defend the realm against rebels or invaders. The
Assize of Arms is the strongest possible evidence as to the real
nature of Henry's government. He had long ago sent back to the
Continent the mercenaries whom he had brought with him in the peril of
=1174=, and he now entrusted himself not to a paid standing army, but
to the whole body of English freemen. He was, in truth, king of the
English not merely because he ruled over them, but because they were
ready to rally round him in arms against those barons whose ancestors
had worked such evil in the days of Stephen. England was not to be
given over either to baronial anarchy or to military despotism.
24. =Henry II. and his Sons.=--In England Henry ruled as a national
king over a nation which, at least, preferred his government to that
of the barons. The old division between English and Norman was dying
out, and though the upper classes, for the most part, still spoke
French, intermarriages had been so frequent that there were few
amongst them who had not some English ancestress and who did not
understand the English language. Henry was even strong enough to
regain much that he had surrendered when he abandoned the
Constitutions of Clarendon. In his Continental possessions there was
no such unity. The inhabitants of each province were tenacious of
their own laws and customs, and this was especially the case with the
men of Aquitaine, the country south of the Loire, who differed in
habits, and even in language, from the Frenchmen of Normandy and
Anjou. They therefore found it difficult to give a share of the
allegiance which they owed to their own duchess, Eleanor, to her
Angevin husband, the king of England. Henry in =1172= having appointed
his eldest son, Henry, as the future ruler of Normandy and Anjou as
well as of England, thought it wise to recognise this feeling by
giving to his second son, Richard, the immediate possession of
Eleanor's duchy of Aquitaine. In =1181= he provided for his third son,
Geoffrey, by a marriage with Constance, the heiress of Brittany, over
which country he claimed a feudal superiority as Duke of the Normans.
Yet, though he gave away so much to his sons, he wished to keep the
actual control over them all. The arrangement did not turn out well.
He had set no good example of domestic peace. His sons knew that he
had married their mother for the sake of her lands, that he had
subsequently thrown her into prison and had been faithless to her with
a succession of mistresses. Besides this, they were torn away from
him by the influence of the men whom they were set to rule. Richard
was dragged away from his father by the interests and feelings of the
men of Aquitaine, Geoffrey by the interests and feelings of the men of
Brittany. John, the fourth son, who was named Lackland from having no
territory assigned to him, was, as yet, too young to be
troublesome.[12] Both Richard and Geoffrey had taken part with their
brother Henry in the great revolt of =1173=. In =1177= they were again
quarrelling with their father and with each other. "Dost thou not
know," was the message which Geoffrey sent to his father, "that it is
our proper nature, planted in us by inheritance from our ancestors,
that none of us should love the other, but that ever brother should
strive with brother and son against father? I would not that thou
shouldst deprive us of our hereditary right nor vainly seek to rob us
of our nature." Henry loved his children, and could never bring
himself to make war very seriously against them. Henry died young in
=1183=, and Geoffrey in =1185=. Richard was now the heir of all his
father's lands, from the Tweed to the Pyrenees. Henry made an effort
to provide for John in Ireland, and in =1185= he sent the youth--now
eighteen years old--to Dublin to rule as king of Ireland. John soon
showed his incompetence. He was rude to the English barons, and still
ruder to the Irish chiefs, amusing himself by laughing at their dress
and pulling the hairs out of their beards. Before the end of the year
his father was obliged to recall him.
[Footnote 12: Genealogy of the sons and grandchildren of Henry
II.:--
HENRY II.
1154-1189
|
---------------------------------------------------
| | | |
Henry RICHARD Geoffrey JOHN = (1) Avice of
_m._ Margaret 1189-1199 _m._ Constance 1199-1216| Gloucester
of France _m._ Berengaria of Brittany | (2) Isabella of
of Navarre | | Angoulême
| |
Arthur HENRY III.
1216-1272]
25. =The Fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. 1187.=--The divisions in
Henry's family were stirred up afresh by the new king of France,
Philip II., who had succeeded his father, Louis VII., in =1179=.
Philip was resolved to enlarge his narrow dominions at the expense of
Henry. He was Henry's feudal lord, and he was crafty enough to know
that by assisting Henry's sons he might be able to convert his nominal
lordship into a real power. News, however, arrived in the midst of the
strife which for a little time put an end to the discords of men and
peoples. The Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, which had been established
after the first crusade, had only maintained itself because the
Mahommedan rulers of Egypt were the rivals and enemies of the
Mahommedan rulers of Syria. Yet even with the advantage of divisions
amongst their enemies, the Christians had only defended themselves
with difficulty. A second crusade which had gone out to relieve them
in Stephen's reign, under the Emperor Conrad III. and Louis VII. of
France, had accomplished nothing. Their real defenders were two bodies
of soldiers, known as the Knights Templars and the Knights of St.
John, who were bound, like monks, to vows of celibacy, so that they
might always be free to defend Jerusalem. At last a great Mahommedan
warrior, Saladin, arose, who ruled both Egypt and Syria, and was
therefore able to bring the united forces of the two countries against
the Christian colony. In =1187= he destroyed the Christian army at
Tiberias, and in the same year took Jerusalem and almost every city
still held by the Christians in the East. Tyre alone held out, and
that, too, would be lost unless help came speedily.
26. =The Last Years of Henry II. 1188--1189.=--For a moment the rulers
of the West were shocked at the tidings from the East. In =1188=
Philip, Henry, and Richard had taken the cross as the sign of their
resolution to recover the Holy City from the infidel. To enable him to
meet the expenses of a war in the East, Henry imposed upon England a
new tax of a tenth part of all movable property, which is known as the
Saladin tithe, but in a few months those who were pledged to go on the
crusade were fighting with one another--first Henry and Richard
against Philip, and then Philip and Richard against Henry. At last, in
=1189=, Henry, beaten in war, was forced to submit to Philip's terms,
receiving in return a list of those of his own barons who had engaged
to support Richard against his father. The list reached him when he
was at Chinon, ill and worn out. The first name on it was that of his
favourite son John. The old man turned his face to the wall. "Let
things go now as they will," he cried bitterly. "I care no more for
myself or for the world." After a few days of suffering he died. The
last words which passed his lips were, "Shame, shame upon a conquered
king."
27. =The Work of Henry II.=--The wisest and most powerful ruler can
only assist the forces of nature; he cannot work against them. Those
who merely glance at a map in which the political divisions of France
are marked as they existed in Henry's reign, cannot but wonder that
Henry did not make himself master of the small territory which was
directly governed, in turn, by Louis VII. and Philip II. A careful
study of the political conditions of his reign shows, however, that he
was not really strong enough to do anything of the kind. His own power
on the Continent was purely feudal, and he held authority over his
vassals there because they had personally done homage to him. Henry,
however, had also done homage to the king of France, and did not
venture, even if he made war upon his lord, the king of France, to
push matters to extremities against him, lest his sons as his own
vassals might push matters to extremities against himself. He could
not, in short, expel the king of France from Paris, lest he should
provoke his own vassals to follow his example of insubordination and
expel him from Bordeaux or Rouen. Moreover, Henry had too much to do
in England to give himself heart and soul to Continental affairs,
whilst the king of France, on the contrary, who had no foreign
possessions, and was always at his post, would be the first to profit
by a national French feeling whenever such a feeling arose. England
under Henry II. was already growing more united and more national. The
crown which Henry derived from the Conqueror was national as well as
feudal. Henry, like his predecessors, had two strings to his bow. On
the one hand he could call upon his vassals to be faithful to him
because they had sworn homage to him, whilst he himself, as far as
England was concerned, had sworn homage to no one. On the other hand,
he could rally round him the national forces. To do this he must do
justice and gain the goodwill of the people at large. It was this that
he had attempted to do, by sending judges round the country and by
improving the law, by establishing scutage to weaken the power of the
barons, and by strengthening the national forces by the Assize of
Arms. No doubt he had little thanks for his pains. Men could feel the
weight of his arm and could complain of the heavy fines exacted in his
courts of justice. It was only a later generation, which enjoyed the
benefits of his hard discipline, which understood how much England
owed to him.
CHAPTER XI.
RICHARD I. =1189--1199=.
LEADING DATES
Accession of Richard I. 1189
Richard's Return to England from the Crusade 1194
Death of Richard I. 1199
1. =Richard in England. 1189.=--Richard was accepted without dispute
as the master of the whole of the Angevin dominions. He was a warrior,
not a statesman. Impulsive in his generosity, he was also impulsive in
his passions. Having determined to embark on the crusade, he came to
England eager to raise money for its expenses. With this object he not
only sold offices to those who wished to buy them, and the right of
leaving office to those who wished to retire, but also, with the
Pope's consent, sold leave to remain at home to those who had taken
the cross. Regardless of the distant future, he abandoned for money to
William the Lion the treaty of Falaise, in which William had engaged
to do homage to the English king.
[Illustration: Royal arms of England from Richard I. to Edward III.
(From the wall arcade, south aisle of nave, Westminster Abbey.)]
[Illustration: The Galilee or Lady Chapel, Durham Cathedral. Built by
Bishop Hugh of Puiset between 1180 and 1197.]
2. =William of Longchamps. 1189--1191.=--To secure order during his
absence Richard appointed two Justiciars--Hugh of Puiset, Bishop of
Durham, and William of Longchamps, Bishop of Ely. At the same time he
attempted to conciliate all who were likely to be dangerous by making
them lavish grants of land, especially giving what was practically
royal authority over five shires to his brother John. Such an
arrangement was not likely to last. Before the end of =1189= Richard
crossed to the Continent. Scarcely was he gone when the populace in
many towns turned savagely on the Jews and massacred them in crowds.
The Jews lived by money-lending, and money-lenders are never popular.
In York they took refuge in the castle, and when all hope of defending
themselves failed, slew their wives and children, set fire to the
castle, and perished in the flames. The Justiciars were too much
occupied with their own quarrels to heed such matters. Hugh was a
stately and magnificent prelate. William was lame and misshapen,
quick of wit and unscrupulous. In a few weeks he had deprived his
rival of all authority. His own power did not last long. He had a
sharp tongue, and did not hesitate to let all men, great and small,
know how meanly he thought of them. Those whom he despised found a
leader in John, who was anxious to succeed his brother, and thought
that it might some day be useful to have made himself popular in
England. In the autumn of =1191= William of Longchamps was driven out
of the country.
3. =The Third Crusade. 1189--1192.=--Richard threw his whole
heart--his lion's heart, as men called it--into the crusade. Alike by
sea and by land, he knew better than any other leader of his age how
to direct the operations of war. He was too impetuous to guard himself
against the intrigues and personal rancour of his fellow-Crusaders. At
Messina he quarrelled with the wily Philip II. of France, while he
gave offence to all Germans by upholding the claims of Tancred to the
crown of Sicily, which was also claimed by the German king, who
afterwards became the Emperor Henry VI. In the spring of =1191=
Richard sailed from Sicily for the Holy Land, conquering Cyprus on the
way, where he married Berengaria of Navarre. Passing on to the coast
of Syria, he found the Crusaders besieging Acre, and his own vigour
greatly contributed to its fall. When Acre was taken Philip slipped
home to plot against Richard, and Richard found every French Crusader
and every German Crusader banded together against him. When he
advocated the right of Guy of Lusignan to the crown of Jerusalem, they
advocated the claim of Conrad of Montferrat. Jerusalem was not to be
had for either of them. Twice Richard brought the Crusading host
within a few miles of the Holy City. Each time he was driven to
retreat by the failure of the Crusaders to support him. The last time
his comrades invited him at least to reach a spot from which a view of
the city could be gained. Richard refused. If he was not worthy, he
said, to regain the city, he was not worthy to look on it.
4. =The Return of Richard. 1192--1194.=--In =1192= there was nothing
for it but to return home. Enemies were watching for him on every
shore. Landing at the head of the Adriatic, he attempted to make his
way in disguise through Germany. With characteristic want of
reflection, he roasted his meat at a village inn near Vienna with a
jewelled ring on his finger. Attention was aroused, and he was
arrested and delivered up to Leopold, Duke of Austria, who had been
his bitter antagonist in the Holy Land, and Leopold delivered him up
to his own feudal superior, the Emperor, Henry VI.
[Illustration: Effigy of a knight in the Temple Church, London,
showing armour of the end of the twelfth century.]
The imprisonment of Richard was joyful news to Philip and John. John
did his best to get into his hands all the English and Continental
dominions of his brother. His meanness was, however, by this time well
known, and he was repelled on all sides. At last in =1193= the Emperor
consented to let Richard go on payment of what was then the enormous
ransom of 150,000 marks, or 100,000_l._ "Beware," wrote Philip to John
when he heard that the Emperor's consent had been given; "the devil is
loose again," Philip and John tried to bribe the Emperor to keep his
prisoner, but in February =1194= Richard was liberated, and set out
for England.
5. =Heavy taxation.=--Before Richard reappeared in England each
tenant-in-chief had to pay the aid which was due to deliver his lord
from prison (see p. 117), but this was far from being enough. Besides
all kinds of irregular expedients the Danegeld had been practically
revived, and to it was now given the name of carucage, a tax of two
shillings on every plough-land. Another tax of a fourth part of all
movable goods had also been imposed, for which a precedent had been
set by Henry II. when he levied the Saladin tithe (see p. 157).
Richard had now to gather in what was left unpaid of these charges.
Yet so hated was John that Richard was welcomed with every appearance
of joy, and John thought it prudent to submit to his brother. Philip,
however, was still an open enemy, and as soon as Richard had gathered
in all the money that he could raise in England he left the country
never to return. On the Continent he could best defend himself against
Philip, and, besides this, Richard was at home in sunny Aquitaine, and
had no liking for his English realm.
6. =The Administration of Hubert Walter. 1194--1198.=--For four years
the administration of England was in the hands of a new Justiciar, the
Archbishop of Canterbury, Hubert Walter. He was a statesman of the
school of Henry II., and he carried the jury system yet farther than
Henry had done. The immense increase of taxation rendered it the more
necessary to guard against unfairness, and Hubert Walter placed the
selection of the juries of presentment (see p. 147) in the hands of
four knights in every shire, who, as is probable, were chosen by the
freeholders in the County Court, instead of being named by the
sheriff. This was a further step in the direction of allowing the
counties to manage their own affairs, and a still greater one was
taken by the frequent employment of juries in the assessment of the
taxes paid within the county, so as to enable them to take a prominent
part in its financial as well as in its judicial business. In =1198=
there was taken a new survey of England for taxable purposes, and
again elected juries were employed to make the returns. In this year
Archbishop Hubert retired from the Justiciarship, and was succeeded by
Geoffrey Fitz-Peter. Archbishop Hubert's administration marks a great
advance in constitutional progress, though it is probable that his
motive was only to raise money more readily. The main constitutional
problem of the Norman and Angevin reigns was how to bring the national
organisation of the king's officials into close and constant
intercourse with the local organisation of the counties. Henry I. and
Henry II. had attacked the problem on one side by sending the judges
round the country to carry the king's wishes and commands to each
separate county. It still remained to devise a scheme by which the
wishes and complaints of the counties could be brought to the king.
Hubert Walter did not contrive that this should be done, but he made
it easy to be done in the next generation, because before he left
office he had increased the powers of the juries in each county and
had accustomed them to deal independently with all the local matters
in which the king and the county were both interested. It only
remained to bring these juries together in one place where they might
join in making the king aware of the wishes and complaints of all
counties alike. When this had been accomplished there would, for the
first time, be a representative assembly in England.
[Illustration: Richard I. From his tomb at Fontevrault.]
[Illustration: Berengaria. From her tomb at Espan.]
7. =Death of Richard. 1199.=--It was not only Richard's love for his
old home which fixed him on the Continent. He knew that the weakest
part of his dominions was there. His lands beyond sea had no natural
unity. Normans did not love Angevins, neither did Angevins love the
men of Poitou or Guienne. Philip was willingly obeyed in his own
dominions, and he had all the advantage which his title of king of the
French could give him. Richard fought desperately, and for the most
part successfully, against the French king, and formed alliances with
all who were opposed to him. He built on a rock overhanging the Seine
above Les Andelys a mighty fortress--the Château Gaillard, or Saucy
Castle, as he called it in jest. With characteristic haste he
completed the building in a few months. "How fair a child is mine!" he
called to his followers, "this child but a twelvemonth old." Other
child he had none, and he had but the miserable John to look to to
hold his dominions after he was gone. He did not live long enough to
see whether his new castle could stand a siege. A peasant dug up a
treasure on the land of the lord of Châlus in the Limousin. Richard
claimed it as his right because he was the over-lord. On the refusal
of the lord to surrender it he laid siege to Châlus. An arrow from the
castle struck him on the shoulder. The wound rankled, and
mortification followed. As Richard lay dying the castle surrendered,
and the man who had aimed the fatal shot was brought before him. "What
have I done to thee," asked Richard, "that thou shouldest slay me?"
"Thou hast slain my father and two of my brothers with thy own hand,"
said the prisoner, "and thou wouldest fain have killed me too. Avenge
thyself upon me as thou wilt. I will gladly endure the greatest
torments thou canst devise, since I have seen thee on thy deathbed."
Richard, generous to the last, bade his attendants set the prisoner
free. They kept him till Richard was dead, and then tortured him to
death.
[Illustration: Part of the choir of Ripon Cathedral: built during the
last quarter of the twelfth century.]
8. =Church and State under the Angevin Kings.=--During the forty-five
years of the reigns of Richard and his father the chief feature of
English history is the growth of the power of the state. There was
more justice and order, and also more taxation, at the end of the
period than at the beginning. During the same period the influence of
the Church grew less. The character of Thomas's resistance to the king
was lower than that of Anselm, and not long after Thomas's murder
Henry indirectly regained the power which he had lost, and filled the
sees with officials and dependents who cared little for the higher
aims of religion. The evil consequences of making the Church
dependent on the king were at least as great as those of freeing the
political and social life of the clergy from the control of the State.
Even monasticism ceased to afford a strong example of self-denial. The
very Cistercians, who had begun so well, had fallen from their
original purity. They were now owners of immense tracts of
pasture-land, and their keenness in money-making had become notorious.
They exercised great influence, but it was the influence of great
landlords, not the influence of ascetics.
9. =Growth of Learning.=--The decay of asceticism was to some extent
brought about by the opening of new careers into which energetic men
might throw themselves. They were needed as judges, as administrators,
as councillors. A vigorous literature sprung up in the reign of Henry
II., but at the end of the reign most of it was connected with the
court rather than with the monasteries. Henry's Justiciar, Ranulf de
Glanvile, wrote the first English law-book. His Treasurer, Richard
Fitz-Nigel, set forth in the _Dialogus de Scaccario_ the methods of
his financial administration, and also produced 'The Deeds of King
Henry and King Richard.' William of Newburgh, indeed, the best
historian of these reigns, wrote in a small Yorkshire monastery, but
Roger of Hoveden and Ralph de Diceto pursued their historical work
under the influence of the court. Still more striking is the
universality of the intellectual inquisitiveness of Walter Map. On the
one hand, in his _De Nugis Curialium_ he chattered over the manners of
his contemporaries, and in his satirical poems scourged the greed and
vices of the clergy, whilst on the other hand he took a principal part
in spreading a knowledge of the legend of the high-souled King Arthur
and of the quest of the Holy Grail. Giraldus Cambrensis again, or
Gerald of Wales, wrote on all sorts of subjects with shrewd humour and
extensive knowledge.
10. =The University of Oxford.=--There was already in England a place
where learning was cherished for its own sake. For some time there had
been growing up on the Continent gatherings for the increase of
learning, which ultimately were known as universities, or corporations
of teachers and scholars. One at Bologna had devoted itself to the
study of the civil or Roman law. Another at Paris gave itself to the
spread of all the knowledge of the time. In these early universities
there were no colleges. Lads, very poor for the most part, flocked to
the teachers and lodged themselves as best they could. Such a
university, though the name was not used till later, had been
gradually forming at Oxford. Its origin and early history is obscure,
but in =1186= Giraldus, wishing to find a cultivated audience for his
new book on the topography of Ireland, read it aloud at Oxford, where,
as he tells us, 'the clergy in England chiefly flourished and excelled
in clerkly lore.' It appears that there were already separate
faculties or branches of study, and persons recognised as doctors or
teachers in all of them.
[Illustration: Lay costumes in the twelfth century.]
[Illustration: Costume of shepherds in the twelfth century.]
11. =Country and Town.=--Intellectual progress was accompanied by
material progress. In the country the old system of cultivation by the
labour service of villein-tenants still prevailed, but in many parts
the service had been commuted, either for a money payment or for
payments in kind, such as payments of a fixed number of eggs or fowls,
or of a fixed quantity of honey or straw. Greater progress was made in
the towns. At the time of the Conquest there were about eighty towns
in England, most of them no larger than villages. The largest towns
after London were Winchester, Bristol, Norwich, York, and Lincoln, but
even these had not a population much above 7,000 apiece. In the
smaller towns trade was sufficiently provided for by the establishment
of a market to which country people brought their grain or their
cattle, and where they provided themselves in turn with such rude
household necessaries as they required. Even before the Conquest port
towns had grown up on the coast, but foreign trade was slight,
imports being almost entirely confined to luxuries for the rich. The
order introduced by the Normans and the connection between England and
the king's Continental possessions was followed by an increase of
trade, and there arose in each of the larger towns a corporation which
was known as the Merchant Gild, and which was, in some instances at
least, only a development of an older association existing in the
times before the Conquest. No one except the brothers of the Merchant
Gild was allowed to trade in any article except food, but any one
living in the town might become a brother on payment of a settled fee.
The first Merchant Gild known was constituted in =1093=. A little
later, Henry I. granted charters to some of the towns, conferring on
them the right of managing their own affairs; and his example was
followed, in far greater profusion, by Henry II. and Richard I. Though
the organisation of the Merchant Gild was originally distinct from the
organisation of the town, and the two were in theory kept apart, the
Merchant Gild, to which most of the townsmen belonged, usually
encroached upon the authorities of the town, regulated trade to its
own advantage, and practically controlled the choice of officers, the
principal officer being usually styled an Alderman, with power to keep
order and generally to provide for the well-being of the place. In
this way the tradesmen and merchants of the towns prepared themselves
unconsciously for the time when they would be called on to take part
in managing the affairs of the country. Even in these early times,
however, the artisans in some of the trades attempted to combine
together.
12. =Condition of London.=--Of all the towns London had been growing
most rapidly in wealth and population, and during the troubles in
which John had been pitted against William of Longchamps it had
secured the right of being governed by a Mayor and Aldermen of its
own, instead of being placed under the jurisdiction of the King's
sheriff. The Mayor and Aldermen, however, did not represent all the
townsmen. In London, though there is no evidence of the existence of a
Merchant Gild, there was a corporation composed of the wealthier
traders, by which the city was governed. The Mayor and Aldermen were
chosen out of this corporation, as were the juries elected to assess
the taxes. Artisans soon came to believe that these juries dealt
unfairly with the poor. One of the Aldermen, William Longbeard, made
himself the mouthpiece of their complaints and stirred them up against
the rest. Hubert Walter sent a messenger to seize him, but William
Longbeard slew the messenger and fled into the church of Mary-at-Bow.
Here, according to the ideas of his age, he should have been safe, as
every church was considered to be a sanctuary in which no criminal
could be arrested. Hubert Walter, however, came in person to seize
him, set the church on fire, and had him dragged out. William
Longbeard was first stabbed, and then tried and hanged, and for the
time the rich tradesmen had their way against the poorer artisans.
[Illustration: Hall of Oakham Castle, Rutland: built about 1185.]
13. =Architectural Changes.=--Even in the most flourishing towns the
houses were still mostly of wood or rubble covered with thatch, and
only here and there was to be found a house of stone. So slight,
indeed, were the ordinary buildings, that it was provided by the
Assize of Clarendon that the houses of certain offenders should be
carried outside the town and burnt. Here and there, however, as in the
case of the so-called Jews' house at Lincoln, stone houses were
erected. In the larger houses the arrangements were much as they had
been before the Conquest, the large hall being still the most
conspicuous part, though another apartment, known as the solar, to
which an ascent was made by steps from the outside, and which served
as a sitting-room for the master of the house, had usually been
added. The castles reared by the king or the barons were built for
defence alone, and it was in the great cathedrals and churches that
the skill of the architect was shown. An enormous number of parish
churches of stone were raised by Norman builders to supersede earlier
buildings of wood. For some time the round-arched Norman architecture
which had been introduced by Eadward the Confessor was alone followed,
such as may be studied in the Galilee of Durham (see p. 160) the nave
of St. Albans (see p. 109) and the tower of Castor (see p. 136).
Gradually the pointed arch of Gothic architecture took its place, and
after a period of transition, of which the nave of Durham, and the
choirs of Canterbury and of Ripon afford examples (see pp. 130, 150,
166), the graceful style now known as Early English was first used on
a large scale in =1192= in the choir of the cathedral of Lincoln.
[Illustration: Norman House at Lincoln, called the Jews' House. Built
about 1140. The square windows are of later date.]
_Books recommended for further study of Part II._
STUBBS, W. (Bishop of Oxford). Constitutional History of England. Vol
i. chaps. ix.-xiii.
FREEMAN, E. A. History of the Norman Conquest. Vols. iv. and v.
History of William Rufus.
GREEN, J. R. History of the English People. Vol. i. pp. 115-189.
NORGATE, Miss K. England under the Angevin Kings. Vols. i. and ii. pp.
1-388.
CUNNINGHAM, W. Growth of English Industry and Commerce during the
Early and Middle Ages, pp. 129-173.
WAKEMAN, H. O., and HASSALL, A. Constitutional Essays.
ADAMS, G. B. The Political History of England. Vol. ii. From the
Norman Conquest to the Death of John (1066-1216).
PART III.
_THE GROWTH OF THE PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUTION._ =1199-1399=.
CHAPTER XII.
JOHN. =1199-1216=.
LEADING DATES
Accession of John 1199
Loss of Normandy 1204
England under an Interdict 1208
Magna Carta 1215
Death of John 1216
1. =The Accession of John. 1199.=--After Richard's death there were
living but two descendants of Henry II. in the male line--John,
Richard's only surviving brother, and Arthur, the young son of John's
elder brother, Geoffrey. The English barons had to make their choice
between uncle and nephew, and, as had been done in the days of Ælfred,
they preferred the grown man to the child. It was the last time when
that principle of election was confessedly acted on. Archbishop Hubert
in announcing the result used words which seem strange now:
"Forasmuch," he declared to the people assembled to witness John's
coronation, "as we see him to be prudent and vigorous, we all, after
invoking the Holy Spirit's grace, for his merits no less than his
royal blood, have with one consent chosen him for our king." In
reality, John was of all men most unworthy. He was without dispute the
worst of the English kings. Like William II. he feared not God nor
regarded man. Though William indeed was more vicious in his private
life, John's violence and tyranny in public life was as great as
William's, and he added a meanness and frivolity which sank him far
below him.
2. =John's First War with Philip II. 1199--1200.=--On the Continent
John had a difficult game to play. Normandy and Aquitaine submitted
to him, but Anjou and its dependent territories declared for Arthur,
who was Duke of Brittany in right of his mother. Philip II., who had
long been the rival of Richard, now took the field in =1199= as the
rival of John in support of Arthur; but for the moment he ruined his
chance of success by keeping in his own hands the castles which he
took from John instead of making them over to Arthur. Arthur's
supporters took offence, and in =1200= Philip made peace with John.
Philip acknowledged John as Richard's heir, but forced him in return
to pay a heavy sum of money, and to make other concessions.
3. =John's Misconduct in Poitou. 1200--1201.=--John did not know how
to make use of the time of rest which he had gained. Being tired of
his wife, Avice of Gloucester, he persuaded some Aquitanian bishops to
divorce him from her, though he took care to keep the lands which he
had received from her at her marriage. He then married Isabella of
Angoulême, though she was betrothed to a Poitevin noble, Hugh of
Lusignan. Hugh was enraged, and, together with many of his neighbours,
took arms against John. In =1201= John charged all the barons of
Poitou with treason, and bade them clear their character by selecting
champions to fight with an equal number of English and Norman knights.
4. =The Loss of Normandy and Anjou. 1202--1204.=--The Poitevin barons,
instead of accepting the wager of battle, appealed to Philip as John's
over-lord, and in =1202= Philip summoned John to answer their
complaints before his peers. John not only did not appear, but made no
excuse for his absence; and Philip afterwards pretended that the peers
had condemned him to forfeit his lands. After this Philip, in alliance
with Arthur, invaded Normandy. John's aged mother, Eleanor, who was
far more able and energetic than her son, took up his cause against
her grandson Arthur. She was besieged by Arthur at Mirebeau when John
came to her help, and not only raised the siege, but carried off
Arthur as a prisoner. Many of his vassals rose against him, and
finding himself unable to meet them in the field he wreaked his
vengeance on his helpless prisoner. A little before Easter =1203=
Arthur ceased to live. How the boy died has never been known, but it
was generally believed that he was drowned in the Seine near
Rouen--some said by his uncle's own hands. The murderer was the first
to suffer from the crime. Philip at once invaded Normandy. The Norman
barons had long ceased to respect John, and very few of them would do
anything to help him. Philip took castle after castle. John was indeed
capable of a sudden outbreak of violence, but he was incapable of
sustained effort. He now looked sluggishly on, feasting and amusing
himself whilst Philip was conquering Normandy. "Let him alone," he
lazily said; "I shall some day win back all that he is taking from me
now." His best friends dropped off from him. The only fortress which
made a long resistance was that Château Gaillard which Richard had
built to guard the Seine. In =1204= it was at last taken, and before
the end of that year Normandy, Maine, Anjou, and Touraine, together
with part of Poitou, had submitted to Philip.
[Illustration: Effigy of King John on his monument in Worcester
Cathedral.]
[Illustration: Isabella, wife of King John. From her monument at
Fontevrault.]
5. =Causes of Philip's Success.=--It was not owing to John's vigour
that Aquitaine was not lost as well as Normandy and Anjou. Philip had
justified his attack on John as being John's feudal lord, and as being
therefore bound to take the part of John's vassals whom he had
injured. Hitherto the power of the king over his great vassals, which
had been strong in England, had been weak in France. Philip made it
strong in Normandy and Anjou because he had the support there of the
vassals of John. That these vassals favoured him was owing partly to
John's contemptible character, but also to the growth of national
unity between the inhabitants of Normandy and Anjou on the one hand
and those of Philip's French dominions on the other. Normans and
Angevins both spoke the same language as the Frenchmen of Paris and
its neighbourhood. Their manners and characters were very much the
same, and the two peoples very soon blended with one another. They had
been separated merely because their feudal organisation had been
distinct, because the lord over one was John and over the other was
Philip. In Aquitaine it was otherwise. The language and manners there,
though much nearer to those of the French than they were to those of
the English, differed considerably from the language and manners of
the Frenchmen, Normans, and Angevins. What the men of Aquitaine really
wanted was independence. They therefore now clung to John against
Philip as they had clung to Richard against Henry II. They resisted
Henry II. because Henry II. ruled in Anjou and Normandy, and they
wished to be free from any connection with Anjou and Normandy. They
resisted Philip because Philip now ruled in Anjou and Normandy. They
were not afraid of John any longer, because they thought that now that
England alone was left to him, he would be too far off to interfere
with them.
6. =The Election of Stephen Langton to the Archbishopric of
Canterbury. 1205.=--In England John had caused much discontent by the
heavy taxation which he imposed, not with the regularity of Henry II.
and Hubert Walter, but with unfair inequality. In =1205= Archbishop
Hubert Walter died. The right of choosing a new archbishop lay with
the monks of the monastery of Christchurch at Canterbury, of which
every archbishop, as the successor of St. Augustine, was the abbot.
This right, however, had long been exercised only according to the
wish of the king, who practically named the archbishop. This time the
monks, without asking John's leave, hurriedly chose their sub-prior
Reginald, and sent him off with a party of monks to Rome, to obtain
the sanction of the Pope. Reginald was directed to say nothing of his
election till he reached Rome; but he was a vain man, and had no
sooner reached the Continent than he babbled about his own dignity as
an archbishop. When John heard this he bade the monks choose the
Bishop of Norwich, John de Grey, the king's treasurer; and the monks,
thoroughly frightened, chose him as if they had not already made their
election. John had, however, forgotten to consult the bishops of the
province of Canterbury, who had always been consulted by his father
and brother, and they too sent messengers to the Pope to complain of
the king.
[Illustration: Bishop Marshall of Exeter, died 1206; from his tomb at
Exeter, showing a bishop vested for mass.]
7. =Innocent III. and Stephen Langton. 1206.=--The Pope was Innocent
III., who at once determined that John must not name bishops whose
only merit was that they were good state officials. Being an able man,
he soon discovered that Reginald was a fool. He therefore in =1206=
sent for a fresh deputation of monks, and, as soon as they arrived in
Rome, bade them make a new choice in the name of their monastery. At
Innocent's suggestion they chose Stephen Langton, one of the most
pious and learned men of the day, whose greatness of character was
hardly suspected by anyone at the time.
8. =John's Quarrel with the Church. 1206--1208.=--The choice of an
archbishop in opposition to the king was undoubtedly something new.
The archbishopric of Canterbury was a great national office, and a
king as skilful as Henry II. would probably have succeeded in refusing
to allow it to be disposed of by the Pope and a small party of monks.
John was unworthy to be the champion of any cause whatever. In =1207=,
after an angry correspondence with Innocent, he drove the monks of
Christchurch out of the kingdom. Innocent in reply threatened England
with an interdict, and in the spring of =1208= the interdict was
published.
9. =England under an Interdict. 1208.=--An interdict carried with it
the suppression of all the sacraments of the Church except those of
baptism and extreme unction. Even these were only to be received in
private. No words of solemn import were pronounced at the burial of
the dead. The churches were all closed, and to the men of that time
the closing of the church-doors was like the closing of the very gate
of heaven. In the choice of the punishment inflicted there was some
sign that the Papacy was hardly as strong in the thirteenth as it had
been in the eleventh century. Gregory VII. had smitten down kings by
personal excommunication; Innocent III. found it necessary to stir up
resistance against the king by inflicting sufferings on the people.
Yet there is no evidence of any indignation against the Pope. The
clergy rallied almost as one man round Innocent, and songs proceeded
from the monasteries which mocked the few official bishops who took
John's side as money-makers who cared more for marks than for Mark,
and more for lucre than for Luke, whilst John de Grey was branded with
the title of 'that beast of Norwich.' John taking no heed of the
popular feeling, seized the property of the clergy who obeyed the
interdict. Yet he was not without fear lest the barons should join the
clergy against him, and to keep them in obedience he compelled them to
entrust to him their eldest sons as hostages. One lady to whom this
order came replied that she would never give her son to a king who had
murdered his nephew.
10. =John Excommunicated. 1209.=--In =1209= Innocent excommunicated
John himself. John cared nothing for being excluded from the services
of the Church, but he knew that if the excommunication were published
in England few would venture to sit at table with him, or even to
speak with him. For some time he kept it out of the country, but it
became known that it had been pronounced at Rome, and even his own
dependents began to avoid his company. He feared lest the barons whom
he had wearied with heavy fines and taxes might turn against him, and
he needed large sums of money to defend himself against them. First he
turned on the Jews, threw them into prison, and after torturing those
who refused to pay, wrung from them 40,000_l._ The abbots were next
summoned before him and forced by threats to pay 100,000_l._ Besides
this the wealthy Cistercians had to pay an additional fine, the amount
of which is uncertain, but of which the lowest estimate is 27,000_l._
In =1211= some of the barons declared against John, but they were
driven from the country, and those who remained were harshly treated.
Some of their sons who had been taken as hostages were hanged or
starved to death.
[Illustration: Parsonage house of early thirteenth-century date at
West Dean, Sussex.]
11. =The Pope threatens John with Deposition. 1212--1213.=--In =1212=
Innocent's patience came to an end, and he announced that he would
depose John if he still refused to give way, and would transfer his
crown to his old enemy, Philip II. The English clergy and barons were
not likely to oppose the change. Philip gathered a great army in
France to make good the claim which he expected Innocent to give him.
John, indeed, was not entirely without resource. The Emperor Otto IV.
was John's sister's son, and as he too had been excommunicated by
Innocent he made common cause with John against Philip. Early in
=1213= John gathered an army of 60,000 men to resist Philip's landing,
and if Otto with his Germans were to attack France from the east, a
French army would hardly venture to cross into England, unless indeed
it had no serious resistance to fear. John, however, knew well that he
could not depend on his own army. Many men in the host hated him
bitterly, and he feared deposition, and perhaps death, at the hands of
those whom he had summoned to his help.
12. =John's Submission. 1213.=--Under these circumstances John
preferred submission to the Pope to submission to Philip or his own
barons. He invited Pandulf, the Pope's representative, to Dover. He
swore to admit Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury, to restore
to their rights all those of the clergy or laity whom he had banished,
and to give back the money which he had wrongfully exacted. Two days
later he knelt before Pandulf and did homage to the Pope for England
and Ireland. He was no longer to be an independent king but the Pope's
vassal. In token of his vassalage he agreed that he and his successors
should pay to Innocent and his successors 1,000 marks a year, each
mark being equal to 13_s._ 4_d._, or two-thirds of a pound. Innocent
had reached his aim as far as John was concerned. In his eyes the
Papacy was not merely the guide of the Church, it was an institution
for controlling kings and forcing them to act in accordance with the
orders of the Popes. It remained to be seen whether the Pope's orders
would be always unselfish, and whether the English barons and clergy
would submit to them as readily as did this most miserable of English
kings.
13. =The Resistance of the Barons and Clergy. 1213.=--At first John
seemed to have gained all that he wanted by submission. Pandulf bade
Philip abandon all thought of invading England, and when Philip
refused to obey, John's fleet fell upon the French fleet off the coast
of Flanders and destroyed it. John even proposed to land with an army
in Poitou and to reconquer Normandy and Anjou. His subjects thought
that he ought to begin by fulfilling his engagements to them. John
having received absolution, summoned four men from each county to meet
at St. Albans to assess the damages of the clergy which he had bound
himself to make good. The meeting thus summoned was the germ of the
future House of Commons. It was not a national political assembly, but
it was a national jury gathered together into one place. The exiled
barons were recalled, and John now hoped that his vassals would follow
him to Poitou. They refused to do so, alleging their poverty and the
fact that they had already fulfilled their feudal obligation of forty
days' service by attending him at Dover. They had, in fact, no
interest in regaining Normandy and Anjou for John. Though the English
barons still spoke French, and were proud of their Norman descent,
they now thought of themselves as Englishmen and cared for England
alone. John turned furiously on the barons, and was only hindered from
attacking them by the new Archbishop, who threatened to excommunicate
everyone who took arms against them. It was time for all Englishmen
who loved order and law to resist John. Stephen Langton put himself at
the head of the movement, and at a great assembly at St. Paul's
produced a charter of Henry I., by which that king had promised to put
an end to the tyranny of the Red King, and declared amidst general
applause that it must be renewed by John. It was a memorable scene. Up
to this time it had been necessary for the clergy and the people to
support the king against the tyranny of the barons. Now the clergy and
people offered their support to the barons against the tyranny of the
king. John had merely the Pope on his side. Innocent's view of the
situation was very simple. John was to obey the Pope, and all John's
subjects were to obey John. A Papal legate arrived in England, fixed
the sum which John was to pay to the clergy, and refused to listen to
the complaints of those who thought themselves defrauded.
14. =The Battle of Bouvines. 1214.=--In =1214= John succeeded in
carrying his barons and their vassals across the sea. With one army he
landed at Rochelle, and recovered what had been lost to him on the
south of the Loire, but failed to make any permanent conquests to the
north of that river. Another army, under John's illegitimate brother,
the Earl of Salisbury, joined the Emperor Otto in an attack on Philip
from the north. The united force of Germans and English was, however,
routed by Philip at Bouvines, in Flanders. "Since I have been
reconciled to God," cried John, when he heard the news, "and submitted
to the Roman Church, nothing has gone well with me." He made a truce
with Philip, and temporarily renounced all claims to the lands to the
north of the Loire.
15. =The Struggle between John and the Barons. 1214--1215.= When John
returned he called upon all his vassals who had remained at home to
pay an exorbitant scutage. In reply they met at Bury St. Edmunds. The
charter of Henry I., which had been produced at St. Paul's the year
before, was again read, and all present swore to force John to accept
it as the rule of his own government. John asked for delay, and
attempted to divide his antagonists by offering to the clergy the
right of free election to bishoprics and abbacies. Then he turned
against the barons. Early in =1215= he brought over a large force of
foreign mercenaries, and persuaded the Pope to threaten the barons
with excommunication. His attempt was defeated by the constancy of
Stephen Langton. The demands of the barons were placed in writing by
the archbishop, and, on John's refusal to accept them, an army was
formed to force them on the king. The army of God and the Holy Church,
as it was called, grew rapidly. London admitted it within its walls,
and the accession of London to the cause of the barons was a sign that
the traders of England were of one mind with the barons and the
clergy. John found that their force was superior to his own, and at
Runnimede on June 15, =1215=, confirmed with his hand and seal the
articles of the barons, with the full intention of breaking his
engagement as soon as he should be strong enough to do so.
[Illustration: Effigy of a knight in the Temple Church, London,
showing armour worn between 1190 and 1225.]
16. =Magna Carta. 1215.=--_Magna Carta_, or the Great Charter, as the
articles were called after John confirmed them, was won by a
combination between all classes of freemen, and it gave rights to them
all.
(_a_) _Its Concessions._--The Church was to be free, its privileges
were to be respected, and its right to free elections which John had
granted earlier in the year was not to be infringed on. As for the
laity, the tenants-in-chief were to pay only fixed reliefs when they
entered on their estates. Heirs under age were to be the king's wards,
but the king was to treat them fairly, and do nothing to injure their
land whilst it was in his hands. The king might continue to find
husbands for heiresses and wives for heirs, but only amongst those of
their own class. The tenants-in-chief again were bound to pay aids to
the king when he needed ransom from imprisonment, or money to enable
him to bear the expenses of knighting his eldest son or of marrying
his eldest daughter. For all other purposes the king could only demand
supplies from his tenants-in-chief with the consent of the Common
Council of the realm. As only the tenants-in-chief were concerned,
this Common Council was the Great Council of tenants-in-chief, such as
had met under the Norman and Angevin kings. A fresh attempt, however,
was made to induce the smaller tenants-in-chief to attend, in addition
to the bishops, abbots, and barons, by a direction that whilst these
were to be summoned personally, the sheriffs should in each county
issue a general summons to the smaller tenants-in-chief. Though the
sub-tenants had no part in the Common Council of the realm, they were
relieved by a direction that they should pay no more aids to their
lords than their lords paid to the king, and by a general declaration
that all that had been granted to their lords by the king should be
allowed by their lords to them. The Londoners and other townsmen had
their privileges assured to them; and all freemen were secured against
heavy and irregular penalties if they committed an offence.
(_b_) _Its Securities._--Such were the provisions of this truly
national act, which Englishmen were for ages engaged in maintaining
and developing. The immediate question was how to secure what had been
gained. The first thing necessary for this purpose was to make the
courts of law the arbitrators between the king and his subjects. In a
series of articles it was declared that the sworn testimony of a man's
peers should be used whenever fines or penalties were imposed, and
this insistence on the employment of the jury system as it then
existed was emphasised by the strong words to which John placed his
seal: "No freeman may be taken, or imprisoned, or disseised, or
outlawed, or banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go against
him, or send against him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers,
or by the law of the land. To none will we sell or deny or delay right
or justice." It was a good security if it could be maintained, but it
would avail nothing against a king who was willing and able to use
force to set up the old tyranny once more. In the first place John
must dismiss all his foreign mercenaries. So little, however, was John
trusted that it was thought necessary in the second place to establish
a body of twenty-five--twenty-four barons and the Mayor of
London--which was to guard against any attempt of the king to break
his word. If John infringed upon any of the articles of the Charter
the twenty-five, with the assistance of the whole community of the
kingdom, had the right of distraining upon the king's lands till
enough was obtained to make up the loss to the person who had suffered
wrong. In other words, there was to be a permanent organisation for
making war upon the king.
17. =War between John and the Barons. 1215--1216.=--John waited for
the moment of vengeance. Not only did he refuse to send his
mercenaries away, but he sent to the Continent for large
reinforcements. Pope Innocent declared the barons to be wicked rebels,
and released John from his oath to the Great Charter. War soon broke
out. John's mercenaries were too strong for the barons, and in the
beginning of =1216= almost all England with the exception of London
had been overrun by them. Though the Pope laid London under an
interdict, neither the citizens nor the barons paid any attention to
it. They sent to Louis, the eldest son of Philip of France, to invite
him to come and be their king in John's stead. Louis was married to
John's niece, and might thus be counted as a member of the English
royal family. The time had not yet come when a man who spoke French
was regarded as quite a foreigner amongst the English barons. On May
21, =1216=, Louis landed with an army in the Isle of Thanet.
[Illustration: A silver penny of John, struck at Dublin.]
18. =Conflict between Louis and John. 1216.=--John, in spite of his
success, found himself without sufficient money to pay his
mercenaries, and he therefore retreated to Winchester. Louis entered
London in triumph, and afterwards drove John out of Winchester.
Innocent indeed excommunicated Louis, but no one took heed of the
excommunication. Yet John was not without support. The trading towns
of the East, who probably regarded Louis as a foreigner, took his
part, and many of his old officials, to whom the victory of the barons
seemed likely to bring back the anarchy of Stephen's time, clung to
him. One of these, a high-spirited and strong-willed man, Hubert de
Burgh, held out for John in Dover Castle. John kept the field and even
won some successes. As he was crossing the Wash the tide rose rapidly
and swept away his baggage. He himself escaped with difficulty. Worn
out in mind and body, he was carried on a litter to Newark, where on
October 19, =1216=, he died.
CHAPTER XIII.
HENRY III. =1216-1272=.
LEADING DATES
Accession of Henry III. 1216
The Fall of Hubert de Burgh 1232
The Provisions of Oxford 1258
Battle of Lewes 1264
Battle of Evesham 1265
Death of Henry III. 1272
1. =Henry III. and Louis. 1216--1217.=--Henry III., the eldest son of
John, was but nine years old at his father's death. Never before had
it been useful for England that the king should be a child. As Henry
had oppressed no one and had broken no oaths, those who dared not
trust the father could rally to the son. The boy had two guardians,
one of whom was Gualo, the legate of Pope Honorius III., a man gentler
and less ambitious than Innocent III., whom he had just succeeded; the
other was William the Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, who had been constant
to John, not because he loved his evil deeds, but because, like many
of the older officials, he feared that the victory of the barons would
be followed by anarchy. These two had on their side the growing
feeling on behalf of English nationality; whereas, as long as John
lived, his opponents had argued that it was better to have a foreign
king like Louis than to have a king like John, who tyrannised over the
land by the help of foreign mercenaries. Henry's followers daily
increased, and in =1217= Louis was defeated by the Marshal at Lincoln.
Later in the year Hubert de Burgh, the Justiciar, sent out a fleet
which defeated a French fleet off Dover. Louis then submitted and left
the kingdom.
2. =The Renewal of the Great Charter. 1216--1217.=--The principles on
which William the Marshal intended to govern were signified by the
changes made in the Great Charter when it was renewed on the king's
accession in =1216=, and again on Louis's expulsion in =1217=. Most of
the clauses binding the king to avoid oppression were allowed to
stand; but those which prohibited the raising of new taxation without
the authority of the Great Council, and the stipulation which
established a body of twenty-five to distrain on John's property in
case of the breach of the Charter, were omitted. Probably it was
thought that there was less danger from Henry than there had been from
John; but the acceptance of the compromise was mainly due to the
feeling that, whilst it was desirable that the king should govern with
moderation, it would be a dangerous experiment to put the power to
control him in the hands of the barons, who might use it for their own
advantage rather than for the advantage of the nation. The whole
history of England for many years was to turn on the difficulty of
weakening the power of a bad king without producing anarchy.
[Illustration: Effigy of Henry III. from his tomb in Westminster
Abbey.]
[Illustration: Effigy of William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury (died
1227); from his tomb in Salisbury Cathedral: showing armour worn from
about 1225 to 1250.]
3. =Administration of Hubert de Burgh. 1219-1232.=--In =1219= William
the Marshal died. For some years the government was mainly in the
hands of Hubert de Burgh, who strenuously maintained the authority of
the king over the barons, whilst at the same time he set himself
distinctly at the head of the growing national feeling against the
admission of foreigners to wealth and high position in England. As a
result of the disturbances of John's reign many of the barons and of
the leaders of the mercenaries had either fortified their own castles
or had taken possession of those which belonged to the king. In =1220=
Hubert demanded the surrender of these castles as Henry II. had done
in the beginning of his reign. In =1221= the Earl of Aumale was forced
to surrender his castles, and in =1224= Faukes de Breauté, one of the
leaders of John's mercenaries who had received broad lands in England,
was reduced to submission and was banished on his refusal to give up
his great castle at Bedford. As long as Hubert ruled, England was to
belong to the English. His power was endangered from the very quarter
from which it ought to have received most support. In =1227= Henry
declared himself of age. He was weak and untrustworthy, always ready
to give his confidence to unworthy favourites. His present favourite
was Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester. The bishop was a greedy
and unscrupulous Poitevin, who regarded the king's favour as a means
of enriching himself and his Poitevin relatives and friends. Henry was
always short of money, and was persuaded by Peter that it was
Hubert's fault. In =1232= Hubert was charged with a whole string of
crimes and dismissed from office.
[Illustration: Simon, Bishop of Exeter (died 1223); from his tomb at
Exeter, showing rich mass-vestments.]
[Illustration: Beverley Minster, Yorkshire--the south transept; built
about 1220-1230.]
4. =Administration of Peter des Roches. 1232-1234.=--Henry was now
entirely under the power of Peter des Roches. In =1233= he ordered
Hubert to be seized. Though Hubert took sanctuary in a chapel, he was
dragged out, and a smith was ordered to put him in fetters. The man
refused to obey. "Is not this," he said, "that most faithful and
high-souled Hubert who has so often saved England from the ravages of
foreigners, and has given England back to the English?" Hubert was
thrown into the Tower, and was never again employed in any office of
state. As long as Peter des Roches ruled the king it would be hard to
keep England for the English. Poitevins and Bretons flocked over from
the Continent, and were appointed to all the influential posts which
fell vacant. The barons had the national feeling behind them when they
raised complaints against this policy. Their leader was Earl Richard
the Marshal, the son of the Earl William who had governed England
after the death of John. Without even the semblance of trial Henry
declared Earl Richard and his chief supporters guilty of treason. At a
Great Council held at Westminster some of the barons remonstrated.
Peter des Roches replied saucily that there were no peers in England
as in France, meaning that in England the barons had no rights against
the king. Both Henry and Peter could, however, use their tongues
better than their swords. They failed miserably in an attempt to
overcome the men whom they had unjustly accused, till in =1234= Peter
stirred up some of the English lords in Ireland to seize on Earl
Richard's possessions there. The Earl hurried over to defend his
estates. Amongst his followers were many of Peter's confidants, who,
treacherously deserting him in the first battle, left him to be slain
by his enemies. Peter at least gained nothing by his villainy. Edmund
Rich, a saintly man, who had recently become Archbishop of Canterbury,
protested against his misdeeds. All England was behind the Archbishop,
and Henry was compelled to dismiss Peter and then to welcome back
Peter's enemies and to restore them to their rights. It was of no
slight importance that a man so devoted and unselfish as Edmund Rich
had put himself at the head of the movement. It was a good thing, no
doubt, to maintain that wealth should be in the hands rather of
natives than of foreigners; but after all every contention for
material wealth alone is of the earth, earthy. No object which appeals
exclusively to the selfish instincts can, in the long run, be worth
contending for. Edmund Rich's accession to the national cause was a
guarantee that the claims of righteousness and mercy in the management
of the national government would not altogether be forgotten, and
fortunately there were new forces actively at work in the same
direction. The friars, the followers of St. Francis and St. Dominic,
had made good their footing in England.
5. =Francis of Assisi.=--Francis, the son of a merchant in the Tuscan
town of Assisi, threw aside the vanities of youth after a serious
illness. He was wedded, he declared, to Poverty as his bride. He
clothed himself in rags. When his father sent him with a horseload of
goods to a neighbouring market, he sold both horse and goods, and
offered the money to build a church. His father was enraged, and
summoned him before the bishop that he might be deprived of the right
of inheriting that which he knew not how to use. Francis stripped
himself naked, renouncing even his clothes as his father's property.
"I have now," he said, "but one Father, He that is in heaven." He
wandered about as a beggar, subsisting on alms and devoting himself to
the care of the sick and afflicted. In his heroism of self-denial he
chose out the lepers, covered as they were with foul and infectious
sores, as the main objects of his tending. Before long he gathered
together a brotherhood of men like-minded with himself, who left all,
to give not alms but themselves to the help of the poor and sorrowful
of Christ's flock. In =1209= Innocent III. constituted them into a new
order, not of monks but of Friars (_Fratres_ or brethren). The special
title of the new order, which after ages have known by the name of
Franciscans, was that of Minorites (_Fratres Minores_), or the lesser
brethren, because Francis in his humility declared them to be less
than the least of Christ's servants. Like Francis, they were to be
mendicants, begging their food from day to day. Having nothing
themselves, they would be the better able to touch the hearts of those
who had nothing. Yet it was not so much the humility of Francis as his
loving heart which distinguished him amongst men. Not only all human
beings but all created things were dear to him. Once he is said to
have preached to birds. He called the sun and the wind his brethren,
the moon and the water his sisters. When he died the last feeble words
which he breathed were, "Welcome, sister Death!"
6. =St. Dominic.=--Another order arose about the same time in Spain.
Dominic, a Spaniard, was appalled, not by the misery, but by the
ignorance of mankind. The order which he instituted was to be called
that of the Friars Preachers, though they have in later times usually
been known as Dominicans. Like the Franciscans they were to be Friars,
or brothers, because all teaching is vain, as much as all charitable
acts are vain, unless brotherly kindness be at the root. Like the
Franciscans they were to be mendicants, because so only could the
world be convinced that they sought not their own good, but to win
souls to Christ.
7. =The Coming of the Friars. 1220-1224.=--In =1220= the first
Dominicans arrived in England. Four years later, in =1224=, the first
Franciscans followed them. Of the work of the early Dominicans in
England little is known. They preached and taught, appealing to those
whose intelligence was keen enough to appreciate the value of
argument. The Franciscans had a different work before them. The misery
of the dwellers on the outskirts of English towns was appalling. The
townsmen had made provision for keeping good order amongst all who
shared in the liberties,[13] or, as we should say, in the privileges
of the town; but they made no provision for good order amongst the
crowds who flocked to the town to pick up a scanty living as best they
might. These poor wretches had to dwell in miserable hovels outside
the walls by the side of fetid ditches into which the filth of the
town was poured. Disease and starvation thinned their numbers. No man
cared for their bodies or their souls. The priests who served in the
churches within the town passed them by, nor had they any place in the
charities with which the brethren of the gilds assuaged the
misfortunes of their own members. It was amongst these that the
Franciscans lived and laboured, sharing in their misery and their
diseases, counting their lives well spent if they could bring comfort
to a single human soul.
[Footnote 13: A phrase which may serve to keep in mind the medieval
meaning of '_libertas_' is to be found in the statement that a
certain monastery kept up a pair of stocks '_pro libertate
servandâ_'--that is to say, to keep up its franchise of putting
offenders into the stocks.]
8. =Monks and Friars.=--The work of the friars was a new phase in the
history of the Church. The monks had made it their object to save
their own souls; the friars made it their object to save the bodies
and souls of others. The friars, like the monks, taught by the example
of self-denial; but the friars added active well-doing to the passive
virtue of restraint. Such examples could not fail to be attended with
consequences of which those who set them never dreamed, all the more
because the two new orders worked harmoniously towards a common end.
The Dominicans quickened the brain whilst the Franciscans touched the
heart, and the whole nation was the better in consequence.
[Illustration: Longthorpe Manor House, Northampton; built about 1235.
Some of the larger windows are later.]
9. =The King's Marriage. 1236.=--In =1236= Henry married Eleanor, the
daughter of the Count of Provence. The immediate consequence was the
arrival of her four uncles with a stream of Provençals in their train.
Amongst these uncles William, Bishop-elect of Valence, took the lead.
Henry submitted his weak mind entirely to him, and distributed rank
and wealth to the Provençals with as much profusion as he had
distributed them to the Poitevins in the days of Peter des Roches. The
barons, led now by the king's brother, Richard of Cornwall,
remonstrated when they met in the Great Council, which was gradually
acquiring the right of granting fresh taxes, though all reference to
that right was dropped out of all editions of the Great Charter issued
in the reign of Henry. For some time they granted the money which
Henry continually asked for, coupling, however, with their grant the
demand that Henry should confirm the Charter. The king never refused
to confirm it. He had no difficulty in making promises, but he never
troubled himself to keep those which he had made.
[Illustration: A ship in the reign of Henry III.]
10. =The Early Career of Simon de Montfort. 1231--1243.=--Strangely
enough, Simon de Montfort, the man who was to be the chief opponent of
Henry and his foreign favourites, was himself a foreigner. He was
sprung from a family established in Normandy, and his father, the
elder Simon de Montfort, had been the leader of a body of Crusaders
from the north of France, who had poured over the south to crush a
vast body of heretics, known by the name of Albigeois, from Albi, a
town in which they swarmed. The elder Simon had been strict in his
orthodoxy and unsparing in his cruelty to all who were unorthodox.
From him the younger Simon inherited his unswerving religious zeal and
his constancy of purpose. There was the same stern resolution in both,
but in the younger man these qualities were coupled with a
statesmanlike instinct, which was wanting to the father. Norman as he
was, he had a claim to the earldom of Leicester through his
grandmother, and in =1231= this claim was acknowledged by Henry. For
some time Simon continued to live abroad, but in =1236= he returned to
England to be present at the king's marriage. He was at once taken
into favour, and in =1238= married the king's sister, Eleanor. His
marriage was received by the barons and the people with a burst of
indignation. It was one more instance, it was said, of Henry's
preference for foreigners over his own countrymen. In =1239= Henry
turned upon his brother-in-law, brought heavy charges against him, and
drove him from his court. In =1240= Simon was outwardly reconciled to
Henry, but he was never again able to repose confidence in one so
fickle. In =1242= Henry resolved to undertake an expedition to France
to recover Poitou, which had been gradually slipping out of his
hands. At a Great Council held before he sailed, the barons, who had
no sympathy with any attempt to recover lost possessions in France,
not only rated him soundly for his folly, but, for the first time,
absolutely refused to make him a grant of money. Simon told him to his
face that the Frenchman was no lamb to be easily subdued. Simon's
words proved true. Henry sailed for France, but in =1243= he
surrendered all claims to Poitou, and returned discomfited. If he did
not bring home victory he brought with him a new crowd of Poitevins,
who were connected with his mother's second husband. All of them
expected to receive advancement in England, and they seldom expected
it in vain.
11. =Papal Exactions. 1237--1243.=--Disgusted as were the English
landowners by the preference shown by the king to foreigners, the
English clergy were no less disgusted by the exactions of the Pope.
The claim of Innocent III. to regulate the proceedings of kings had
been handed down to his successors and made them jealous of any ruler
too powerful to be controlled. The Emperor Frederick II. had not only
succeeded to the government of Germany, and to some influence over the
north of Italy, but had inherited Naples and Sicily from his mother.
The Pope thus found himself, as it were, between two fires. There was
constant bickering between Frederick and Gregory IX., a fiery old man
who became Pope in =1227=, and in =1238= Gregory excommunicated
Frederick, and called on all Europe to assist him against the man whom
he stigmatised as the enemy of God and the Church. As the king of
England was his vassal in consequence of John's surrender, he looked
to him for aid more than to others, especially as England, enjoying
internal peace more than other nations, was regarded as especially
wealthy. In =1237=, the year before Frederick's excommunication,
Gregory sent Cardinal Otho as his legate to demand money from the
English clergy. The clergy found a leader in Robert Grossetête, Bishop
of Lincoln, a wise and practical reformer of clerical disorders; but
though they grumbled, they could get no protection from the king, and
were forced to pay. Otho left England in =1241=, carrying immense sums
of money with him, and the promise of the king to present three
hundred Italian priests to English benefices before he presented a
single Englishman. In =1243= Gregory IX. was succeeded by Innocent
IV., who was even more grasping than his predecessor.
12. =A Weak Parliamentary Opposition. 1244.=--Against these evils the
Great Council strove in vain to make head. It was now beginning to be
known as Parliament, though no alteration was yet made in its
composition. In =1244= clergy and barons joined in remonstrating with
the king, and some of them even talked about restraining his power by
the establishment of a Justiciar and Chancellor, together with four
councillors, all six to be elected by the whole of the baronage.
Without the consent of the Chancellor thus chosen no administrative
act could be done. The scheme was a distinct advance upon that of the
barons who, in =1215=, forced the Great Charter upon John. The barons
had then proposed to leave the appointment of executive officials to
the king, and to appoint a committee of twenty-five, who were to have
nothing to do with the government of the country, but were to compel
the king by force to keep the promises which he had made. In =1244=
they proposed to appoint the executive officials themselves. It was
the beginning of a series of changes which ultimately led to that with
which we are now familiar, the appointment of ministers responsible to
Parliament. It was too great an innovation to be accepted at once,
especially as it was demanded by the barons alone. The clergy, who
were still afraid of the disorders which might ensue if power were
lodged in the hands of the barons, refused to support it, and for a
time it fell to the ground. At the same time Richard of Cornwall
abandoned the baronial party. He had lately married the queen's
sister, which may have drawn him over to the king; but it is also
probable that his own position as the king's brother made him
unwilling to consent to a scheme which would practically transfer the
government from the king to the barons. On the other hand Earl Simon
was found on the side of the barons. He held his earldom by
inheritance from his English grandmother, and the barons were willing
to forgive his descent from a foreign grandfather when they found him
prepared to share their policy.
13. =Growing Discontent. 1244--1254.=--The clergy had to learn by
bitter experience that it was only by a close alliance with the barons
that they could preserve themselves from wrong. In =1244= a new envoy
from the Pope, Master Martin, travelled over England wringing money
from the clergy. Though he was driven out of the country in =1245=,
the Papal exactions did not cease. The Pope, moreover, continued to
present his own nominees to English benefices, and in =1252=
Grossetête complained that these nominees drew three times as much
income from England as flowed into the royal exchequer. For a time
even Henry made complaints, but in =1254= Innocent IV. won him over to
his side. Frederick II. had died in =1250=, and his illegitimate son,
Manfred, a tried warrior and an able ruler, had succeeded him as king
of Sicily and Naples. Innocent could not bear that that crown should
be worn by the son of the man whom he had hated bitterly, and offered
it to Edmund, the second son of Henry III. Henry lept at the offer,
hoping that England would bear the expense of the undertaking. England
was, however, in no mood to comply. Henry had been squandering money
for years. He had recently employed Earl Simon in Gascony, where Simon
had put down the resistance of the nobles with a heavy hand. The
Gascons complained to Henry, and Henry quarrelled with Simon more
bitterly than before. In =1254= Henry crossed the sea to restore order
in person. To meet his expenses he borrowed a vast sum of money, and
this loan, which he expected England to meet, was the only result of
the expedition.
[Illustration: A bed in the reign of Henry III.]
14. =The Knights of the Shire in Parliament. 1254.=--During the king's
absence the queen and Earl Richard, who were left as regents, and who
had to collect money as best they might, gathered a Great Council, to
which, for the first time, representative knights, four from each
shire, were summoned. They were merely called on to report what amount
of aid their constituents were willing to give, and the regents were
doubtless little aware of the importance of the step which they were
taking. It was only, to all appearances, an adaptation of the summons
calling on the united jury to meet at St. Albans to assess the damages
of the clergy in the reign of John. It might seem as if the regents
had only summoned a united jury to give evidence of their
constituents' readiness to grant certain sums of money. In reality the
new scheme was sure to take root, because it held out a hope of
getting rid of a constitutional difficulty which had hitherto proved
insoluble--the difficulty, that is to say, of weakening the king's
power to do evil without establishing baronial anarchy in its place.
It was certain that the representatives of the freeholders in the
counties would not use their influence for the destruction of order.
[Illustration: Barn of thirteenth-century date at Raunds,
Northamptonshire.]
15. =Fresh Exactions. 1254-1257.=--At the end of =1254= Henry returned
to England. In =1255= a new Pope, Alexander IV., confirmed his
predecessor's grant of the kingdom of Sicily to Edmund, on condition
that Henry should give a large sum of money for the expenses of a war
against Manfred. To make it easy for Henry to find the money,
Alexander gave him a tenth of the revenues of the English clergy, on
the plea that the clergy had always borne their share of the expenses
of a crusade, and that to fight for the Pope against Manfred was
equivalent to a crusade. Immense sums were wrung from the clergy, who
were powerless to resist Pope and king combined. Their indignation was
the greater, not only because they knew that religion was not at stake
in the Pope's effort to secure his political power in Italy, but also
because the Papal court was known to be hopelessly corrupt, it being a
matter of common talk that all things were for sale at Rome. The
clergy indeed were less than ever in a condition to resist the king
without support. Grossetête was dead, and the Archbishop of
Canterbury, the queen's uncle, Boniface of Savoy, whose duty it was to
maintain the rights of the Church, was a man who cared nothing for
England except on account of the money he drew from it. Other
bishoprics as well were held by foreigners. The result of the weakness
of the clergy was that they were now ready to unite with the barons,
whom they had deserted in =1244= (see p. 195). Henry's misgovernment,
in fact, had roused all classes against him, as the townsmen and the
smaller landowners had been even worse treated than the greater
barons. In =1257= one obstacle to reform was removed. Richard of
Cornwall, the king's brother, who was formidable through his wealth
and the numbers of his vassals, had for some time taken part against
them. In =1257= he was chosen king of the Romans by the German
electors, an election which would make him Emperor as soon as he had
been crowned by the Pope. He at once left England to seek his fortunes
in Germany, where he was well received as long as he had money to
reward his followers, but was deserted as soon as his purse was empty.
16. =The Provisions of Oxford. 1258.=--The crisis in England came in
=1258=, whilst Richard was still abroad. Though thousands were dying
of starvation in consequence of a bad harvest, Henry demanded for the
Pope the monstrous sum of one-third of the revenue of all England.
Then the storm burst. At a Parliament at Westminster the barons
appeared in arms and demanded, first, the expulsion of all foreigners,
and, secondly, the appointment of a committee of twenty-four--twelve
from the king's party and twelve from that of the barons--to reform
the realm. The king unwillingly consented, and the committee was
appointed. Later in the year Parliament met again at Oxford to receive
the report of the new committee. The Mad Parliament, as it was
afterwards called in derision, was resolved to make good its claims.
The scheme of reinforcing Parliament by the election of knights of the
shire had indeed been suffered to fall into disuse since its
introduction in =1254=, yet every tenant-in-chief had of old the right
of attending, and though the lesser tenants-in-chief had hitherto
seldom or never exercised that right, they now trooped in arms to
Oxford to support the barons. To this unwonted gathering the committee
produced a set of proposals which have gone by the name of the
Provisions of Oxford. There was to be a council of fifteen, without
the advice of which the king could do no act, and in this council the
baronial party had a majority. The offices of state were filled in
accordance with the wishes of the twenty-four, and the barons thus
entered into possession of the authority which had hitherto been the
king's. The danger of the king's tyranny was averted, but it remained
to be seen whether a greater tyranny would not be erected in its
stead. One clause of the Provisions of Oxford was not reassuring. The
old Parliaments, which every tenant-in-chief had at least the
customary right of attending, were no longer to exist. Their place was
to be taken by a body of twelve, to be chosen by the barons, which was
to meet three times a year to discuss public affairs with the council
of fifteen.
17. =The Expulsion of the Foreigners. 1258.=--The first difficulty of
the new government was to compel the foreigners to surrender their
castles. William de Valence, the king's half-brother, headed the
resistance of the foreigners. The barons swore that no danger should
keep them back till they had cleared the land of foreigners and had
obtained the good laws which they needed. Earl Simon set the example
by surrendering his own castles at Kenilworth and Odiham. The national
feeling was with Simon and the barons, and at last the foreigners were
driven across the sea. For a time all went well. The committee of
twenty-four continued its work and produced a further series of
reforms. All persons in authority were called on to swear to be
faithful to the Provisions of Oxford, and the king and his eldest son,
Edward, complied with the demand.
18. =Edward and the Barons. 1259.=--Early in =1259= Richard came back
to England, and gave satisfaction by swearing to the Provisions.
Before long signs of danger appeared. The placing complete authority
in the hands of the barons was not likely to be long popular, and Earl
Simon was known to be in favour of a wider and more popular scheme.
Hugh Bigod, who had been named Justiciar by the barons, gave offence
by the way in which he exercised his office. Simon was hated by the
king, and he knew that many of the barons did not love him. The
sub-tenants--the Knights Bachelors of England as they called
themselves--doubting his power to protect them, complained, not to
Simon, but to Edward, the eldest son of the King, that the barons had
obtained the redress of their own grievances, but had done nothing for
the rest of the community. Edward was now a young man of twenty,
hot-tempered and impatient of control, but keen-sighted enough to
know, what his father had never known, that the royal power would be
increased if it could establish itself in the affections of the
classes whose interests were antagonistic to those of the barons. He
therefore declared that he had sworn to the Provisions, and would keep
his oath; but that if the barons did not fulfil their own promises, he
would join the community in compelling them to do so. The warning was
effectual, and the barons issued orders for the redress of the
grievances of those who had found so high a patron.
19. =The Breach amongst the Barons. 1259--1261.=--Simon had no wish to
be involved in a purely baronial policy. He had already fallen out
with Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, the leader of the barons
who had resisted the full execution of the promises made at Oxford in
the interest of the people at large. "With such fickle and faithless
men," said Simon to him, "I care not to have ought to do. The things
we are treating of now we have sworn to carry out. And thou, Sir Earl,
the higher thou art the more art thou bound to keep such statutes as
are wholesome for the land." The king fomented the rising quarrel, and
in =1261= announced that the Pope had declared the Provisions to be
null and void, and had released him from his oath to observe them.
20. =Royalist Reaction and Civil War. 1261.=--Henry now ruled again in
his own fashion. Even the Earl of Gloucester discovered that if the
king was to be resisted it must be by an appeal to a body of men more
numerous than the barons alone. He joined Simon in inviting a
Parliament to meet, at which three knights should appear for each
county, thus throwing over the unfortunate narrowing of Parliament to
a baronial committee of twelve, which had been the worst blot on the
Provisions of Oxford. In the summer of =1262= the Earl of Gloucester
died, and was succeeded by his son, Earl Gilbert, one of Simon's
warmest personal admirers. In =1263= Simon, now the acknowledged head
of the barons and of the nation, finding that the king could not be
brought to keep the Provisions, took arms against him. He was a master
in the art of war, and gained one fortified post after another. Henry,
being, as usual, short of money, called on the Londoners for a loan.
On their refusal Edward seized a sum of money which belonged to them,
and so exasperated them that, on the queen's passing under London
Bridge, the citizens reviled her and pelted her with stones. The war
was carried on with doubtful results, and by the end of the year both
parties agreed to submit to the arbitration of the king of France.
21. =The Mise of Amiens. 1264.=--The king of France Louis IX.,
afterwards known as St. Louis, was the justest and most unselfish of
men. In =1259= he had surrendered to Henry a considerable amount of
territory in France, which Henry had been unable to reconquer for
himself; and was well satisfied to obtain from Henry in return a
formal renunciation of the remainder of the lands which Philip II. had
taken from John. Yet, well-intentioned as Louis was, he had no
knowledge of England, and in France, where the feudal nobility was
still excessively tyrannical, justice was only to be obtained by the
maintenance of a strong royal power. He therefore thought that what
was good for France was also good for England, and in the beginning of
=1264= he relieved Henry from all the restrictions which his subjects
had sought to place upon him. The decision thus taken was known as
the Mise, or settlement, of Amiens, from the place at which it was
issued.
22. =The Battle of Lewes. 1264.=--The Mise of Amiens required an
unconditional surrender of England to the king. The Londoners and the
trading towns were the first to reject it. Simon put himself at the
head of a united army of barons and citizens. In the early morning of
May 14 he caught the king's army half asleep at Lewes. Edward charged
at the Londoners, against whom he bore a grudge since they had
ill-treated his mother, and cleared them off the field with enormous
slaughter. When he returned the battle was lost. Henry himself was
captured, and Richard, king of the Romans, was found hiding in a
windmill. Edward, in spite of his success, had to give himself up as a
prisoner.
[Illustration: A fight between armed and mounted knights of the time
of Henry III.]
[Illustration: Seal of Robert Fitzwalter, showing a mounted knight in
complete mail armour. Date, about 1265.]
23. =Earl Simon's Government. 1264-1265.=--Simon followed up his
victory by an agreement called the Mise of Lewes, according to which
all matters of dispute were again to be referred to arbitration. In
the meantime there were to be three Electors, Earl Simon himself, the
Earl of Gloucester, and the Bishop of Chichester. These were to elect
nine councillors, who were to name the ministers of state. To keep
these councillors within bounds a Parliament was called, in which with
the barons, bishops, and abbots there sat not only chosen knights for
each shire, but also for the first time two representatives of certain
towns. This Parliament met in =1265=. It was not, indeed, a full
parliament, as only Simon's partisans amongst the barons were
summoned, but it was the fullest representation of England as a whole
which had yet met, and not a merely baronial committee like that
proposed in =1258=. The views of Simon were clearly indicated in an
argumentative Latin poem written after the battle of Lewes by one of
his supporters. In this poem the king's claim to do as he likes with
his own is met by a demand that he shall rule according to law. Such a
demand was made by others than the poet. "The king," a great lawyer of
the day had said, "is not subject to any man, but to God and the law."
The difficulty still remained of ascertaining what the law was. The
poet did not, indeed, anticipate modern theories, and hold that the
law was what the representatives of the people made it to be; but he
held that the law consisted in the old customs, and that the people
themselves must be appealed to as the witnesses of what those old
customs were. "Therefore," he wrote, "let the community of the kingdom
advise, and let it be known what the generality thinks, to whom their
own laws are best known. Nor are all those of the country so ignorant
that they do not know better than strangers the customs of their own
kingdom which have been handed down to them by their ancestors."[14]
The poet, in short, regarded the Parliament as a national jury, whose
duty it was to give evidence on the laws and customs of the nation, in
the same way that a local jury gave evidence on local matters.
[Footnote 14:
"Igitur communitas regni consulatur;
Et quid universitas sentiat, sciatur,
Cui leges propriæ maxime sunt notæ.
Nec cuncti provinciæ sic sunt idiotæ,
Quin sciant plus cæteris regni sui mores,
Quos relinquunt posteris hii qui sunt priores."]
[Illustration: Effigy of a knight at Gosperton, showing armour worn
from about 1250 to 1300. Date, about 1270.]
24. =The Battle of Evesham. 1265.=--Simon's constitution was
premature. Men wanted a patriotic king who could lead the nation
instead of one who, like Henry, used it for his own ends. The new
rulers were sure to quarrel with one another. If Simon was still Simon
the Righteous, his sons acted tyrannically. The barons began again to
distrust Simon himself, and the young Earl of Gloucester, like his
father before him, put himself at the head of the dissatisfied barons,
and went over to the king. Edward escaped from confinement, by urging
his keepers to ride races with one another, and then galloping off
when their horses were too tired to follow him. Edward and Gloucester
combined forces, and, falling on Earl Simon at Evesham, defeated him
utterly. Simon was slain in the fight and his body barbarously
mutilated; but his memory was treasured, and he was counted as a saint
by the people for whom he had worked. Verses have been preserved in
which he is compared to Archbishop Thomas, who had given himself as a
sacrifice for the Church, as Simon had given himself as a sacrifice
for the nation.
[Illustration: Building operations in the reign of Henry III., with
the king giving directions to the architect.]
25. =The Last Years of Henry III. 1265--1272.=--The storm which had
been raised was some time in calming down. Some of Earl Simon's
followers continued to hold out against the king. When at last they
submitted, they were treated leniently, and in =1267=, at a Parliament
at Marlborough, a statute was enacted embodying most of the demands
for the redress of grievances made by the earlier reformers. The
kingdom settled down in peace, because Henry now allowed Edward to be
the real head of the government. Edward, in short, carried on Earl
Simon's work in ruling justly, with the advantage of being raised
above jealousies by his position as heir to the throne. In =1270=
England was so peaceful that Edward could embark on a crusade. At Acre
he very nearly fell a victim to a fanatic belonging to a body which
counted assassination a religious duty. His wife, Eleanor of Castile,
who was tenderly attached to him, had to be led out of his tent, lest
her bitter grief should distract him during an operation which the
surgeons held to be necessary. In =1272= Henry III. died, and his
son, though in a distant land, was quietly accepted as his successor.
[Illustration: East end of Westminster Abbey Church: begun by Henry
III. in 1245.]
[Illustration: Nave of Salisbury Cathedral Church, looking west. Date,
between 1240 and 1250.]
[Illustration: A king and labourers in the reign of Henry III.]
26. =General Progress of the Country.=--In spite of the turmoils of
Henry's reign the country made progress in many ways. Men busied
themselves with replacing the old round-arched churches by large and
more beautiful ones, in that Early English style of which Lincoln
Cathedral was the first example on a large scale. In =1220= it was
followed by Beverley Minster (see p. 189). The nave of Salisbury
Cathedral was begun in =1240= (see p. 206), and a new Westminster
Abbey grew piecemeal under Henry's own supervision during the greater
part of the reign (see p. 205). Mental activity accompanied material
activity. At Oxford there were reckoned 15,000 scholars. Most
remarkable was the new departure taken by Walter de Merton, Henry's
Chancellor. Hitherto each scholar had shifted for himself, lived where
he could, and been subjected to little or no discipline. In founding
Merton College, the first college which existed in the University,
Merton proposed not only to erect a building in which the lads who
studied might be boarded and placed under supervision, but to train
them with a view to learning for its own sake, and not to prepare them
for the priesthood. The eagerness to learn things difficult was
accompanied by a desire to increase popular knowledge. For the first
time since the Chronicle came to an end, which was soon after the
accession of Henry II., a book--Layamon's _Brut_--appeared in the
reign of John in the English language, and one at least of the songs
which witness to the interest of the people in the great struggle with
Henry III. was also written in the same language. Yet the great
achievement of the fifty-six years of Henry's reign was--to use the
language of the smith who refused to put fetters on the limbs of
Hubert de Burgh (see p. 188)--the giving of England back to the
English. In =1216= it was possible for Englishmen to prefer a
French-born Louis as their king to an Angevin John. In =1272= England
was indeed divided by class prejudices and conflicting interests, but
it was nationally one. The greatest grievance suffered from Henry III.
was his preference of foreigners over his own countrymen. In
resistance to foreigners Englishmen had been welded together into a
nation, and in their new king Edward they found a leader who would not
only prove a wise and thoughtful ruler, but who was every inch an
Englishman.
_Genealogy of John's Sons and Grandsons._
JOHN, 1199-1216
|
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| | |
HENRY III. = Eleanor of Richard, Eleanor = Simon de
1216-1272 | Provence Earl of Cornwall Montfort
| and King of the Romans
-------------
| |
EDWARD I. Edmund, titular King of Sicily
1272-1307
CHAPTER XIV.
EDWARD I. AND EDWARD II.
EDWARD I., =1272--1307.= EDWARD II., =1307--1327.=
LEADING DATES
Accession of Edward I. 1272
Death of Alexander III. 1285
The Award of Norham 1292
The Model Parliament 1295
The First Conquest of Scotland 1296
Confirmatio Cartarum 1297
Completion of the Second Conquest of Scotland 1304
The Incorporation of Scotland with England 1305
The Third Conquest of Scotland 1306
Accession of Edward II. 1307
Execution of Gaveston 1312
Battle of Bannockburn 1314
Execution of Lancaster 1322
Deposition of Edward II. 1327
[Illustration: Great Seal of Edward I.]
1. =The First Years of Edward I. 1272--1279.=--Edward I., though he
inherited the crown in =1272=, did not return to England till =1274=,
being able to move in a leisurely fashion across Europe without fear
of disturbances at home. He fully accepted those articles of John's
Great Charter which had been set aside at the beginning of the reign
of Henry III., and which required that the king should only take
scutages and aids with the consent of the Great Council or Parliament.
The further requirement of the barons that they should name the
ministers of the crown, was allowed to fall asleep. Edward was a
capable ruler, and knew how to appoint better ministers than the
barons were likely to choose for him. It was Edward's peculiar merit
that he stood forward not only as a ruler but as a legislator. He
succeeded in passing one law after another, because he thoroughly
understood that useful legislation is only possible when the
legislator on the one hand has an intelligent perception of the
remedies needed to meet existing evils, and on the other hand is
willing to content himself with such remedies as those who are to be
benefited by them are ready to accept. The first condition was
fulfilled by Edward's own skill as a lawyer, and by the skill of the
great lawyers whom he employed. The second condition was fulfilled by
his determination to authorise no new legislation without the counsel
and consent of those who were most affected by it. He did not, indeed,
till late in his reign call a whole Parliament together, as Earl Simon
had done. But he called the barons together in any matter which
affected the barons, and he called the representatives of the townsmen
together in any matter which affected the townsmen, and so on with the
other classes.
2. =Edward I. and Wales. 1276--1284.=--Outside England Edward's first
difficulty was with the Welsh, who, though their Princes had long been
regarded by the English Kings as vassals, had practically maintained
their independence in the mountainous region of North Wales of which
Snowdon is the centre. Between them and the English Lords Marchers,
who had been established to keep order in the marches, or border-land,
there was nothing but hostility. The Welshmen made forays and
plundered the English lands, and the English retorted by slaughtering
Welshmen whenever they could come up with them amongst the hills.
Naturally the Welsh took the side of any enemy of the English kings
with whom it was possible to ally themselves. Llewelyn, Prince of
Wales, had joined Earl Simon against Henry III., and had only done
homage to Henry after Simon had been defeated. After Henry's death he
refused homage to Edward till =1276=. In =1282= he and his brother
David renewed the war, and Edward, determined to put an end to the
independence of such troublesome neighbours, marched against them.
Before the end of the year Llewelyn was slain, and David was captured
and executed in =1283=. Wales then came fully under the dominion of
the English kings. Edward's second son, afterwards King Edward II.,
was born at Carnarvon in =1284=, and soon afterwards, having become
heir to the throne upon the death of his elder brother, was presented
to the Welsh as Prince of Wales, a title from that day usually
bestowed upon the king's eldest son. At the same time, though Edward
built strong castles at Conway and Carnarvon to hold the Welsh in awe,
he made submission easier by enacting suitable laws for them, under
the name of the Statute of Wales, and by establishing a separate body
of local officials to govern them, as well as by confirming them in
the possession of their lands and goods.
[Illustration: Group of armed knights, and a king in ordinary dress.
Date, _temp._ Edward I.]
3. =Customs Duties. 1275.=--Though Edward I. was by no means
extravagant, he found it impossible to meet the expenses of government
without an increase of taxation. In =1275= he obtained the consent of
Parliament to the increase of the duties on exports and imports which
had hitherto been levied without Parliamentary sanction. He was now to
receive by a Parliamentary grant a fixed export duty of 6_s._ 8_d._ on
every sack of wool sent out of the country, and of a corresponding
duty on wool-fells and leather. Under ordinary circumstances it is
useless for any government to attempt to gain a revenue by export
duty, because such a duty only raises the price abroad of the products
of its own country, and foreigners will therefore prefer to buy the
articles which they need from some country which does not levy export
duties, and where, therefore, the articles are to be had more cheaply.
England, however, was, in Edward's time, and for many years
afterwards, an exception to the rule. On the Continent men could not
produce much wool or leather for sale, because private wars were
constantly occurring, and the fighting men were in the habit of
driving off the sheep and the cattle. In England there were no private
wars, and under the king's protection sheep and cattle could be bred
in safety. There were now growing up manufactures of cloth in the
fortified towns of Flanders, and the manufacturers there were obliged
to come to England for the greater part of the wool which they used.
They could not help paying not only the price of the wool, but the
king's export duty as well, because if they refused they could not get
sufficient wool in any other country.
4. =Edward's Judicial Reforms. 1274--1290.=--Every king of England
since the Norman Conquest had exercised authority in a twofold
capacity. On one hand he was the head of the nation, on the other hand
he was the feudal lord of his vassals. Edward laid more stress than
any former king upon his national headship. Early in his reign he
organised the courts of law, completing the division of the _Curia
Regis_ into the three courts which existed till recent times: the
Court of King's Bench, to deal with criminal offences reserved for the
king's judgment, and with suits in which he was himself concerned; the
Court of Exchequer, to deal with all matters touching the king's
revenue; and the Court of Common Pleas, to deal with suits between
subject and subject. Edward took care that the justice administered in
these courts should as far as possible be real justice, and in =1289=
he dismissed two Chief Justices and many other officials for
corruption. In =1285= he improved the Assize of Arms of Henry II. (see
p. 154), so as to be more sure of securing a national support for his
government in time of danger.
5. =Edward's Legislation. 1279--1290.=--It was in accordance with the
national feeling that Edward, in =1290=, banished from England the
Jews, whose presence was most profitable to himself, but who were
regarded as cruel tyrants by their debtors. On the other hand, Edward
took care to assert his rights as a feudal lord. In =1279=, by the
statute _De religiosis_, commonly known as the Statute of Mortmain, he
forbade the gift of land to the clergy, because in their hands land
was no longer liable to the feudal dues. In =1290=, by another
statute, _Quia emptores_, he forbade all new sub-infeudation. If from
henceforth a vassal wished to part with his land, the new tenant was
to hold it, not under the vassal who gave it up, but under that
vassal's lord, whether the lord was the king or anyone else. The
object of this law was to increase the number of tenants-in-chief, and
thus to bring a larger number of landowners into direct relations with
the king.
[Illustration: Nave of Lichfield Cathedral, looking east. Built about
1280.]
6. =Edward as a National and as a Feudal Ruler.=--In his government of
England Edward had sought chiefly to strengthen his position as the
national king of the whole people, and to depress legally and without
violence the power of the feudal nobility. He was, however, ambitious,
with the ambition of a man conscious of great and beneficent aims, and
he was quite ready to enforce even unduly his personal claims to
feudal obedience whenever it served his purpose to do so. His
favourite motto, 'Keep troth' (_Pactum serva_), revealed his sense of
the inviolability of a personal engagement given or received, but his
legal mind often led him into construing in his own favour
engagements in which only the letter of the law was on his side,
whilst its spirit was against him. It was chiefly in his relations
with foreign peoples that he fell into this error, as it was here
that he was most strongly tempted to lay stress upon the feudal tie
which made for him, and to ignore the importance of a national
resistance which made against him. In dealing with Wales, for
instance, he sent David to a cruel death, because he had broken the
feudal tie which bound him to the king of England, feeling no sympathy
with him as standing up for the independence of his own people.
7. =The Scottish Succession. 1285-1290.=--In the earlier part of
Edward's reign Alexander III. was king of Scotland. Alexander's
ancestors, indeed, had done homage to Edward's ancestors, but in
=1189= William the Lion had purchased from Richard I. the abandonment
of all the claim to homage for the crown of Scotland which Henry II.
had acquired by the treaty of Falaise (see pp. 154, 159). William's
successors, however, held lands in England, and had done homage for
them to the English kings. Edward would gladly have restored the old
practice of homage for Scotland itself, but to this Alexander had
never given way. To Edward there was something alluring in the
prospect of being lord of the whole island, as it would not only
strengthen his own personal position, but would bring two nations into
peaceful union. Between the southern part of Scotland, indeed, and the
northern part of England there was no great dissimilarity. On both
sides of the border the bulk of the population was of the same Anglian
stock, whilst, in consequence of the welcome offered by the Scottish
kings to persons of Norman descent, the nobility was as completely
Norman in Scotland as it was in England, many of the nobles indeed
possessing lands on both sides of the border. A prospect of effecting
a union by peaceful means offered itself to Edward in =1285=, when
Alexander III. was killed by a fall from his horse near Kinghorn.
Alexander's only descendant was Margaret, a child of his daughter and
of King Eric of Norway. In =1290= it was agreed that she should marry
the Prince of Wales, but that the two kingdoms should remain
absolutely independent of one another. Unfortunately, the Maid of
Norway, as the child was called, died on her way to Scotland, and this
plan for establishing friendly relations between the two countries
came to naught. If it had succeeded three centuries of war and misery
might possibly have been avoided.
8. =Death of Eleanor of Castile. 1290.=--Another death, which happened
in the same year, brought sorrow into Edward's domestic life. His wife
Eleanor died in November. The corpse was brought for burial from
Lincoln to Westminster, and the bereaved husband ordered the erection
of a memorial cross at each place where the body rested.
[Illustration: Effigy of Eleanor of Castile, queen of Edward I., in
Westminster Abbey.]
9. =The Award of Norham. 1291--1292.=--Edward, sorrowing as he was,
was unable to neglect the affairs of State. On the death of the Maid
of Norway there was a large number of claimants to the Scottish crown.
The hereditary principle, which had long before been adopted in regard
to the succession to landed property, was gradually being adopted in
most kingdoms in regard to the succession to the crown. There were
still, however, differences of opinion as to the manner in which
hereditary succession ought to be reckoned, and there were now many
claimants, of whom at least three could make out a plausible case.
David, Earl of Huntingdon, a brother of William the Lion, had left
three daughters. The grandson of the eldest daughter was John Balliol;
the son of the second was Robert Bruce; the grandson of the third was
John Hastings. Balliol maintained that he ought to succeed as being
descended from the eldest: Bruce urged that the son of a younger
daughter was nearer to the common ancestor, David, than the grandson
of the elder: whilst Hastings asked that Scotland should be divided
into three parts--according to a custom which prevailed in feudal
estates in which the holder left only daughters--amongst the
representatives of David's three daughters.[15] Every one of these
three claimants was an English baron, and Bruce held large estates in
both countries. The only escape from a desolating civil war seemed to
be to appeal to Edward's arbitration, and in =1291= Edward summoned
the Scots to meet him at Norham. He then demanded as the price of his
arbitration the acknowledgment of his position as lord paramount of
Scotland, in virtue of which the Scottish king, when he had once been
chosen, was to do homage to himself as king of England. Edward, who
might fairly have held that, in spite of the abandonment of the treaty
of Falaise by Richard, he had a right to the old vague over-lordship
of earlier kings, appears to have thought it right to take the
opportunity of Scotland's weakness to renew the stricter relationship
of homage which had been given up by Richard. At all events, the
Scottish nobles and clergy accepted his demand, though the commonalty
made some objection, the nature of which has not been recorded. Edward
then investigated carefully the points at issue, and in =1292= decided
in favour of Balliol. If he had been actuated by selfish motives he
would certainly have adopted the suggestion of Hastings that Scotland
ought to be divided into three kingdoms.
[Footnote 15: Genealogy of the claimants of the Scottish throne:--
DAVID I.
1124-1153
|
Henry
|
----------------------------------------------
| | |
MALCOLM IV. WILLIAM David, Earl of Huntingdon
1153-1165 THE LION |
1165-1214 -------------------------------------
/ | | |
/ | | |
/ Margaret Isabella Ada
ALEXANDER II. _m._ Alan, Lord _m._ Robert Bruce _m._ Henry
1214-1249 of Galloway | Hastings
| | | |
ALEXANDER III. Devorguilla Robert Bruce Henry
1249-1285 _m._ John Balliol the Claimant Hastings
| | | |
| ---------------- | |
Margaret | | | John
_m._ Eric, king Margaret JOHN BALLIOL Robert Bruce Hastings,
of Norway _m._ John, the 1292-1296 | the
| Black Comyn | | Claimant
| | | |
Margaret, | Edward Balliol ROBERT BRUCE
The Maid of John, the Red 1306-1329
Norway Comyn]
[Illustration: Cross erected near Northampton by Edward I. in memory
of Queen Eleanor built between 1291 and 1294.]
10. =Disputes with Scotland and France. 1293--1295.=--The new king of
Scotland did homage to Edward for his whole kingdom. If Edward could
have contented himself with enforcing the ordinary obligations of
feudal superiority all might have gone well. Unfortunately for all
parties, he attempted to stretch them by insisting in =1293= that
appeals from the courts of the king of Scotland should lie to the
courts of the king of England. Suitors found that their rights could
not be ascertained till they had undertaken a long and costly journey
to Westminster. A national feeling of resistance was roused amongst
the Scots, and though Edward pressed his claims courteously, he
continued to press them. A temper grew up in Scotland which might be
dangerous to him if Scotland could find an ally, and an ally was not
long in presenting himself. Philip IV. now king of France, was as wily
and unscrupulous as Philip II. had been in the days of John. Edward
was his vassal in Guienne and Gascony, and Philip knew how to turn the
feudal relationship to account in France as well as Edward knew how to
turn it to account in Scotland. The Cinque Ports[16] along the
south-eastern shore of England swarmed with hardy and practised
mariners, and there had often been sea-fights between French and
English sailors quite independently of the two kings. In =1293= there
was a great battle in which the French were worsted. Though Edward was
ready to punish the offenders, Philip summoned him to appear as a
vassal before his lord's court at Paris. In =1294=, however, an
agreement was made between the two kings. Edward was for mere form's
sake to surrender his French fortresses to Philip in token of
submission, and Philip was then to return them. Philip, having thus
got the fortresses into his hands, refused to return them. In =1295= a
league was made between France and Scotland, which lasted for more
than three hundred years. Its permanence was owing to the fact that it
was a league between nations more than a league between kings.
[Footnote 16: Sandwich, Dover, Hythe, Romney, Hastings; to which
were added Winchelsea and Rye as 'ancient towns,' besides several
'limbs' or dependencies.]
11. =The Model Parliament. 1295.=--Edward, attacked on two sides,
threw himself for support on the English nation. Towards the end of
=1295= he summoned a Parliament which was in most respects the model
for all succeeding Parliaments. It was attended not only by bishops,
abbots, earls, and barons, by two knights from every shire, and two
burgesses from every borough, but also by representatives of the
chapters of cathedrals and of the parochial clergy. It cannot be said
with any approach to certainty, whether the Parliament thus collected
met in one House or not. As, however, the barons and knights offered
an eleventh of the value of their movable goods, the clergy a tenth,
and the burgesses a seventh, it is not unlikely that there was a
separation into what in modern times would be called three Houses, at
least for purposes of taxation. At all events, the representatives of
the clergy subsequently refused to sit in Parliament, preferring to
vote money to the Crown in their own convocations.
[Illustration: Sir John d'Abernoun, died 1277: from his brass at Stoke
Dabernon: showing armour worn from about 1250 to 1300.]
12. =The first Conquest of Scotland. 1296.=--In =1296= Edward turned
first upon Scotland. After he crossed the border Balliol sent to him
renouncing his homage. "Has the felon fool done such folly?" said
Edward. "If he will not come to us, we will go to him." He won a
decisive victory over the Scots at Dunbar. Balliol surrendered his
crown, and was carried off, never to reappear in Scotland. Edward set
up no more vassal kings. He declared himself to be the immediate king
of Scotland, Balliol having forfeited the crown by treason. The
Scottish nobles did homage to him. On his return to England he left
behind him the Earl of Surrey and Sir Hugh Cressingham as guardians of
the kingdom, and he carried off from Scone the stone of destiny on
which the Scottish kings had been crowned, and concerning which there
had been an old prophecy to the effect that wherever that stone was
Scottish kings should rule. The stone was placed, where it still
remains, under the coronation-chair of the English kings in
Westminster Abbey, and there were those long afterwards who deemed the
prophecy fulfilled when the Scottish King James VI. came to take his
seat on that chair as James I. of England.
13. =The Resistance of Archbishop Winchelsey. 1296--1297.=--The
dispute with France and the conquest of Scotland cost much money, and
Edward, finding his ordinary revenue insufficient, had been driven to
increase it by unusual means. He gathered assemblies of the merchants,
and persuaded them without the leave of Parliament to increase the
export duties, and he also induced the clergy in the same way to grant
him large sums. The clergy were the first to resist. In =1296=
Boniface VIII., a Pope who pushed to the extreme the Papal claims to
the independence of the Church, issued the Bull, _Clericis laicos_, in
which he declared that the clergy were not to pay taxes without the
Pope's consent; and when at the end of the year Edward called on his
Parliament to grant him fresh sums, Winchelsey, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, refused, on the ground of this Bull, to allow a penny to
be levied from the clergy. Edward, instead of arguing with him,
directed the chief justice of the King's Bench to announce that, as
the clergy would pay no taxes, they would no longer be protected by
the king. The clergy now found themselves in evil case. Anyone who
pleased could rob them or beat them, and no redress was to be had.
They soon therefore evaded their obligation to obey the Bull, and paid
their taxes, under the pretence that they were making presents to the
king, on which Edward again opened his courts to them. In the days of
Henry I. or Henry II. it would not have been possible to treat the
clergy in this fashion. The fact was, that the mass of the people now
looked to the king instead of to the Church for protection, and
therefore respected the clergy less than they had done in earlier
days.
14. =The 'Confirmatio Cartarum.' 1297.=--In =1297= Edward, having
subdued the Scots in the preceding year, resolved to conduct one army
to Flanders, and to send another to Gascony to maintain his rights
against Philip IV. He therefore called on his barons to take part in
these enterprises. Amongst those ordered to go to Gascony were Roger
Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, and Humfrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford. They
declared that they were only bound to follow the king himself, and
that as Edward was not going in person to Gascony they would not go.
"By God, Sir Earl," said the king to one of them, "you shall either go
or hang." "By God," was the reply, "I will neither go nor hang." The
two earls soon found support. The barons were sore because Edward's
reforms had diminished their authority. The clergy were sore because
of their recent treatment. The merchants were sore because of the
exactions to which they had been subjected. Archbishop Winchelsey
bound the malcontents together by asking Edward to confirm _Magna
Carta_ and other charters granted by his predecessors, and by adding
other articles now proposed for the first time, so as to preclude him
from demanding taxes not granted by Parliament. Edward found that the
new articles restricted his action more than it had been restricted by
the older charters. He was deeply vexed, as he thought that he
deserved to be trusted, and that, though he had exacted illegal
payments, he had only done so out of necessity. He saw, however, that
he must yield, but he could not bring himself to yield in person, and
he therefore crossed the sea to Flanders, leaving the Prince of Wales
to make the required concession. On October 10, =1297=, the
_Confirmatio Cartarum_, as it was called, was issued in the king's
name. It differed from _Magna Carta_ in this, that whereas John had
only engaged not to exact feudal revenue from his vassals without
consent of Parliament, Edward I. also engaged not to exact customs
duties without a Parliamentary grant. From that time no general
revenue could be taken from the whole realm without a breach of the
law, though the king still continued for some time to raise tallages,
or special payments, from the tenants of his own demesne lands.
15. =Wallace's Rising. 1297--1304.=--Whilst Edward was contending with
his own people his officers had been oppressing the Scots. They had
treated Scotland as a conquered land, not as a country joined to
England by equal union. Resistance began in =1297=, and a rising was
headed by Wallace, a gentleman of moderate fortune in the western
lowlands. Wallace's bold and vigorous attacks gained him the
confidence of the lesser gentry and the people, though the nobles,
mostly of Norman descent, supported the English government, and only
joined Wallace when it was dangerous to stand aloof. In the autumn, an
English army advancing into Scotland reached the south bank of the
Forth near Stirling. Wallace, who showed on that day that he was
skilful as well as brave, drew up his army on the north bank at some
little distance from the narrow bridge over which the English must
come if they were to attack him. When half of them had crossed, he
fell upon that half before the troops in the rear could advance to its
succour. Wallace's victory was complete, and he then invaded England,
ravaging and slaughtering as far as Hexham.
16. =The Second Conquest of Scotland. 1298--1304.=--In =1298= Edward,
who had been unsuccessful on the Continent, made a truce with Philip.
Returning to England, he marched against Wallace, and came up with
him at Falkirk. The battle which ensued, like William's victory at
Senlac (see p. 96), was a triumph of inventive military skill over
valour content to rest upon ancient methods. The Scots were hardy
footmen, drawn up in three rings, and provided with long spears.
Against such a force so armed the cavalry of the feudal array would
dash itself in vain. Edward, however, had marked in his Welsh wars the
superiority of the long-bow drawn to the ear--not, as in the case of
the shorter bows of older times, to the breast of the archer--and
sending its cloth-yard shaft with a strength and swiftness hitherto
unknown. He now brought with him a large force of bowmen equipped in
this fashion. At Falkirk the long-bow was tried for the first time in
any considerable battle. The effect was overwhelming: a shower of
arrows poured upon a single point in the ring of the spearmen soon
cleared a gap. Edward's cavalry dashed in before the enemy had time to
close, and the victory was won. Wallace had had scarcely one of the
Scottish nobles with him either at Stirling or at Falkirk, and unless
all Scotland combined he could hardly be expected to succeed against
such a warrior as Edward. Wallace's merit was that he did not despair
of his country, and that by his patriotic vigour he prepared the minds
of Scotsmen for a happier day. He himself fled to France, but Scotland
struggled on without him. Some of the nobles, now that Wallace was no
longer present to give them cause of jealousy, took part in the
resistance, and only in =1304= did Edward after repeated campaigns
complete his second conquest of the country.
17. =The Incorporation of Scotland with England. 1305.=--In =1305=
Wallace, who had returned from France, but had taken no great part in
the late resistance, was betrayed to the English. His barbarity in his
raid on Northumberland in =1297= (see p. 221) had marked him out for
vengeance, and he was executed at Tyburn as a traitor to the English
king of Scotland, whose right he had never acknowledged. Edward then
proceeded to incorporate Scotland with England. Scotland was to be
treated very much as Wales had been treated before. There was to be as
little harshness as possible. Nobles who had resisted Edward were to
keep their estates on payment of fines, the Scottish law was to be
observed, and Scots were to be chosen to represent the wishes of their
fellow-countrymen in the Parliament at Westminster. On the other hand,
the Scottish nobles were to surrender their castles, and the country
was to be governed by an English Lieutenant, who, together with his
council, had power to amend the laws.
18. =Character of Edward's Dealings with Scotland.=--Edward's
dealings with Scotland, mistaken as they were, were not those of a
self-willed tyrant. If it be once admitted that he was really the lord
paramount of Scotland, everything that he did may be justified upon
feudal principles. First, Balliol forfeited his vassal crown by
breaking his obligations as a vassal. Secondly, Edward, through the
default of his vassal, took possession of the fief which Balliol had
forfeited, and thus became the immediate lord of Balliol's vassals.
Thirdly, those vassals rebelled--so at least Edward would have
said--against their new lord. Fourthly, they thereby forfeited their
estates to him, and he was therefore, according to his own view, in
the right in restoring their estates to them--if he restored them at
all--under new conditions. Satisfactory as this argument must have
seemed to Edward, it was weak in two places. The Scots might attack it
at its basis by retorting that Edward had never truly been lord
paramount of Scotland at all; or they might assert that it did not
matter whether he was so or not, because the Scottish right to
national independence was superior to all feudal claims. It is this
latter argument which has the most weight at the present day, and it
seems to us strange that Edward, who had done so much to encourage the
national growth of England, should have entirely ignored the national
growth of Scotland. All that can be said to palliate Edward's mistake
is that it was, at first, difficult to perceive that there was a
Scottish nationality at all. Changes in the political aspect of
affairs grow up unobserved, and it was not till after his death that
all classes in Scotland were completely welded together in resistance
to an English king. At all events, if he treated the claim of the
Scots to national independence with contempt, he at least strove,
according to his own notions, to benefit Scots and English alike. He
hoped that one nation, justly ruled under one government, would grow
up in the place of two divided peoples.
19. =Robert Bruce. 1306.=--It was better even for England that
Edward's hopes should fail. Scotland would have been of little worth
to its more powerful neighbour if it had been cowed into subjection;
whereas when, after struggling and suffering for her independence, she
offered herself freely as the companion and ally of England to share
in common duties and common efforts, the gift was priceless. That
Scotland was able to shake off the English yoke was mainly the work of
Robert Bruce, the grandson of the Robert Bruce who had been one of the
claimants of the Scottish crown at Norham. The Bruces, like Balliol,
were of Norman descent, and as Balliol's rivals they had attached
themselves to Edward. The time was now come when all chances of
Balliol's restoration were at an end, and thoughts of gaining the
crown stirred in the mind of the younger Bruce. After Edward's last
settlement of Scotland it was plain that there was no longer room for
a Scottish vassal king, and Bruce was therefore driven to connect his
own aspirations with those of the Scottish nation. He had, however,
one powerful rival amongst the nobles. John Comyn--the Red Comyn, as
he was called--had been one of the many claimants of the throne who
appeared before Edward at Norham, and he still looked with a jealous
eye upon all who disputed his title. He was, however, persuaded in
=1306= to meet Bruce in the Grey Friars Church at Dumfries. As Bruce
pleaded his own right to the crown, Comyn denounced him as a traitor
to Edward. Bruce answered by driving his dagger into him. "I doubt,"
cried Bruce, as he rushed from the church, "that I have slain the Red
Comyn." "I will mak sicker" (_make sure_), said Kirkpatrick, who was
in attendance upon him, and, going in, completed the murder. Bruce
made for Scone and was crowned king of Scotland in the presence of
many of the chief nobility.
20. =Edward's Last March on Scotland and Death. 1306--1307.= Edward,
to whom Bruce was but a rebel and a murderer, despatched against him
the Earl of Pembroke who routed his forces at Methven. The revolt was
suppressed and Bruce's supporters were carried off to English prisons,
and their lands divided amongst English noblemen. The Countess of
Buchan, who had taken a prominent part in Bruce's coronation, was
subjected to an imprisonment of great severity in the castle of
Berwick. Bruce almost alone escaped. He knew now that he had the
greater part of the nobility as well as the people at his side, and
even in his lonely wanderings and hairbreadth escapes he was, what
neither Balliol nor Wallace had been, the true head of the Scottish
nation. Before the end of =1306= he reappeared in Carrick, where his
own possessions lay, and where the whole population was on his side,
and inflicted heavy losses on the English garrisons. Early in July
=1307= Edward, who himself had tarried in Cumberland, once more set
out to take the field in person; but he was now old and worn out, and
he died at Burgh on Sands, a few miles on the English side of the
border.
[Illustration: Edward II.; from his monument in Gloucester Cathedral.]
21. =Edward II. and Piers Gaveston. 1307--1312.=--The new king, Edward
II., was as different as possible from his father. He was not wicked,
like William II. and John, but he detested the trouble of public
business, and thought that the only advantage of being a king was that
he would have leisure to amuse himself. During his father's life he
devoted himself to Piers Gaveston, a Gascon, who encouraged him in
his pleasures and taught him to mistrust his father. Edward I.
banished Gaveston; Edward II., immediately on his accession, not only
recalled him, but made him regent when he himself crossed to France to
be married to Isabella, the daughter of Philip IV. The barons, who
were already inclined to win back some of the authority of which
Edward I. had deprived them, were very angry at the place taken over
their heads by an upstart favourite, especially as Gaveston was
ill-bred enough to make jests at their expense. The barons found a
leader in Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, the son of that Edmund, the
brother of Edward I., who had received the title of king of Sicily
from the Pope (see p. 197). Thomas of Lancaster had very large
estates. He was an ambitious man, who tried to play the part which had
been played by Earl Simon without any of Simon's qualifications for
the position. In =1308= the king yielded to the barons so far as to
send Gaveston out of the country to Ireland as his Lieutenant. In
=1309= he recalled him. The barons were exasperated, and in the
Parliament of =1310= they brought forward a plan for taking the
king's government out of his hands, very much after the fashion of the
Provisions of Oxford. Twenty-one barons were appointed Lords
Ordainers, to draw up ordinances for the government of the country. In
=1311= they produced the ordinances. Gaveston was to be banished for
life. The king was to appoint officers only with the consent of the
barons, without which he was not to go to war nor leave the kingdom.
The ordinances may have been justified in so far as they restrained
the authority of a king so incapable as Edward II. Constitutionally
their acceptance was a retrograde step, as, like the Provisions of
Oxford, they placed power in the hands of the barons, passing over
Parliament as a whole. Edward agreed to the ordinances, but refused to
surrender Gaveston. The barons took arms to enforce their will, and in
=1312=, having captured Gaveston, they beheaded him near Warwick
without the semblance of a trial.
22. =Success of Robert Bruce. 1307--1314.=--Whilst Edward and the
barons were disputing Bruce gained ground rapidly. In =1313= Stirling
was the only fortress of importance in Scotland still garrisoned by
the English, and the English garrison bound itself to surrender on
June 24, =1314=, if it had not been previously relieved. Even Edward
II. was stirred by this doleful news, and in =1314= he put himself at
the head of an army to relieve Stirling. Lancaster, however, and all
whom he could influence refused to follow him, on the ground that the
king had not, in accordance with the ordinances, received permission
from the barons to go to war. On June 24 Edward reached Bannockburn,
within sight of Stirling. Like his father, he brought with him English
archers as well as English horsemen, but he foolishly sent his archers
far in advance of his horsemen, where they would be entirely
unprotected. Bruce, on the other hand, not only had a small body of
horse, which rode down the archers, but he strengthened the defensive
position of his spearmen by digging pits in front of his line and
covering them with turf. Into these pits the foremost horses of the
English cavalry plunged. Edward's whole array was soon one mass of
confusion, and before it could recover itself a body of gillies, or
camp-followers, appearing over a hill was taken for a fresh Scottish
army. The vast English host turned and fled. Stirling at once
surrendered, and all Scotland was lost to Edward. Materially, both
England and Scotland suffered grievously from the result of the battle
of Bannockburn. English invasions of southern Scotland and Scottish
invasions of northern England spread desolation far and wide, stifling
the germs of nascent civilisation. Morally, both nations were in the
end the gainers. The hardihood and self-reliance of the Scottish
character is distinctly to be traced to those years of struggle
against a powerful neighbour. England, too, was the better for being
balked of its prey. No nation can suppress the liberty of another
without endangering its own.
[Illustration: Lincoln Cathedral--the central tower; built about
1310.]
23. =Lancaster's Government. 1314--1322.=--Edward was thrown by his
defeat entirely under the power of Lancaster, who took the whole
authority into his hands and placed and displaced ministers at his
pleasure. Lancaster, however, was a selfish and incompetent ruler. He
allowed the Scots to ravage the north of England without venturing to
oppose them, and as he could not even keep order at home, private wars
broke out amongst the barons. In =1318= Bruce took Berwick, the great
border fortress against Scotland. It was rather by good luck than by
good management that Edward was at last able to resist Lancaster.
Edward could not exist without a personal favourite, and he found one
in Hugh le Despenser. Despenser was at least an Englishman, which
Gaveston had not been, and his father, Hugh le Despenser the elder,
did his best to raise up a party to support the king. In =1321=,
however, Parliament, under Lancaster's influence, declared against
them and sentenced them to exile. Edward took arms for his favourites,
and in =1322= defeated Lancaster at Boroughbridge, and then had him
tried and beheaded at Pontefract.
24. =A Constitutional Settlement. 1322.=--Favourites as they were, the
Despensers had at least the merit of seeing that the king could not
overpower the barons by the mere assertion of his personal authority.
At a Parliament held at York in =1322=, the king obtained the
revocation of the ordinances, and a declaration that 'matters to be
established for the estate of our lord the king and of his heirs, and
for the estate of the realm and of the people, shall be treated,
accorded, and established in Parliaments by our lord the king, and by
the consent of the prelates, earls and barons, and commonalty of the
realm, according as hath been hitherto accustomed.' Edward I. had in
=1295= gathered a full Parliament, including the commons. But there
was no law to prevent him or his successors excluding the commons on
some future occasion. Edward II. by this declaration, issued with
consent of Parliament, confirmed his father's practice by a
legislative act. Unless the law were broken or repealed, no future
statute could come into existence without the consent of the commons.
25. =The Rule of the Despensers. 1322--1326.=--For some years after
the execution of Lancaster, Edward, or rather the Despensers, retained
power, but it was power which did not work for good. In =1323= Edward
made a truce with Scotland, but the cessation of foreign war did not
bring with it a cessation of troubles at home. Edward was entirely
unable to control his favourites. The elder Despenser was covetous and
the younger Despenser haughty, and they both made enemies for
themselves and the king. Queen Isabella was alienated from her
husband, partly by his exclusive devotion to the Despensers and partly
by the contempt which an active woman is apt to feel for a husband
without a will of his own. In =1325= she went to France, and was soon
followed by her eldest son, named Edward after his father. From that
moment she conspired against her husband. In =1326= she landed,
accompanied by her paramour, Robert Mortimer, and bringing with her
foreign troops. The barons rose in her favour. London joined them, and
all resistance was speedily beaten down. The elder Despenser was
hanged by the queen at Bristol. The younger was hanged, after a form
of trial, at Hereford.
[Illustration: Sir John de Creke; from his brass at Westley Waterless,
Cambridgeshire: showing armour worn between 1300 and 1335 or 1340.
Date, about 1325.]
26. =The Deposition and Murder of Edward II. 1327.=--Early in =1327= a
Parliament met at Westminster. It was filled with the king's enemies,
and under pressure from the queen and Mortimer Edward II. was
compelled to sign a declaration of his own wrong-doing and
incompetency, after which he formally resigned the crown. He was
allowed to live for eight months, at the end of which he was brutally
murdered in Berkeley Castle. The deposition of Edward II.--for his
enforced resignation was practically nothing less than that--was the
work of a faithless wife and of unscrupulous partisans, but at least
they clothed their vengeance in the forms of Parliamentary action. It
was by the action of Parliament in loosing the feudal ties by which
vassals were bound to an unworthy king, that it rose to the full
position of being the representative of the nation, and at the same
time virtually proclaimed that the wants of the nation must be
satisfied at the expense of the feudal claims of the king. The
national headship of the king would from henceforward be the
distinguishing feature of his office, whilst his feudal right to
personal service would grow less and less important every year.
[Illustration: Howden Church, Yorkshire--the west front; built about
1310-1320. The tower was built between 1390 and 1407.]
CHAPTER XV.
FROM THE ACCESSION OF EDWARD III. TO THE TREATY OF BRETIGNI.
1327--1360.
LEADING DATES
Reign of Edward III., 1327--1377
Accession of Edward III. 1327
Beginning of the War with France 1337
Battle of Creçy 1346
The Black Death 1348
Battle of Poitiers 1356
Treaty of Bretigni 1360
1. =Mortimer's Government. 1327--1330.=--Edward III. was only fifteen
at his accession. For three years power was in the hands of his
mother's paramour, Mortimer. Robert Bruce, though old and smitten with
leprosy, was still anxious to wring from England an acknowledgment of
Scottish independence, and, in spite of the existing truce, sent an
army to ravage the northern counties of England. Edward led in person
against it an English force far superior in numbers and equipment; but
the English soldier needed many things, whilst the Scot contented
himself with a little oatmeal carried on the back of his hardy pony.
If he grew tired of that he had but to seize an English sheep or cow
and to boil the flesh in the hide. Such an army was difficult to come
up with. Fighting there was none, except once when the Scots broke
into the English camp at night and almost succeeded in carrying off
the young king. Mortimer was at his wits' end, and in =1328= agreed to
a treaty acknowledging the complete independence of Scotland. It was a
wise thing to do, but no nation likes to acknowledge failure, and
Mortimer became widely unpopular. He succeeded indeed in breaking up a
conspiracy against himself, and in =1330= even executed Edmund, Earl
of Kent, a brother of Edward II. The discontented barons found another
leader in the king, who, young as he was, had been married at fifteen
to Philippa of Hainault. Though he was already a father, he was still
treated by Mortimer as a child, and was virtually kept a prisoner. At
Nottingham he introduced a body of Mortimer's enemies into the castle
through a secret passage in the rock on which it stood. His mother
pleaded in vain for her favourite: "Fair son, have pity on the gentle
Mortimer." Mortimer was hanged, and Queen Isabella was never again
allowed to take part in public affairs.
2. =The French Succession. 1328--1331.=--Isabella's three brothers,
Louis X., Philip V., and Charles IV., had successively reigned in
France. Louis X. died in =1316=, leaving behind him a daughter and a
posthumous son, who died a week after his birth. Then Philip V. seized
the crown, his lawyers asserting that, according to the Salic law, 'no
part of the heritage of Salic land can fall to a woman,' and that
therefore no woman could rule in France. As a matter of fact this was
a mere quibble of the lawyers. The Salic law had been the law of the
Salian Franks in the fifth century, and had to do with the inheritance
of estates, not with the inheritance of the throne of France, which
was not at that time in existence. The quibble, however, was used on
the right side. What Frenchmen wanted was that France should remain an
independent nation, which it was not likely to do under a queen who
might marry the king of another country. The rule thus laid down was
permanently adopted in France. When Philip V. died in =1322= the
throne passed, not to his daughter, but to his brother, Charles IV.,
and when Charles died in =1328=, to his cousin, Philip of Valois, who
reigned as Philip VI. At that time England was still under the control
of Mortimer and Isabella, and though Isabella, being the sister of
Charles IV., thought of claiming the crown, not for herself, but for
her son, Mortimer did not press the claim. In =1329= he sent Edward to
do homage to Philip VI. for his French possessions, but Edward only
did it with certain reservations, and in =1330= preparations for war
were made in England. In =1331=, after Mortimer's fall, when Edward
was his own master, he again visited France, and a treaty was
concluded between the two kings in which he abandoned the reservations
on his homage.
[Illustration: Effigies of Edward III. and Queen Philippa; from their
tombs in Westminster Abbey.]
3. =Troubles in Scotland. 1329--1336.=--On his return, Edward looked
in another direction. In =1329= Robert Bruce died, leaving his crown
to his son, David II., a child five years old. Certain English
noblemen had in the late treaty (see p. 231) been promised restoration
of the estates of their ancestors in Scotland, and in =1332= some of
them, finding the promise unfulfilled, offered English forces to John
Balliol's son, Edward, to help him to the Scottish crown. Aided by
his English allies, Edward Balliol landed in Scotland, defeated the
Scottish army at Dupplin, and was crowned king. Before the end of the
year he was surprised at Annan, and fled to England to appeal to
Edward for help. Though Edward had all the love of enterprise of his
grandfather, Edward I., yet there was a marked contrast between the
deliberate calculation of Edward I. and the almost accidental way in
which Edward III. involved himself in an attempt to regain the
lordship of Scotland. In =1333= he laid siege to Berwick, then in the
hands of the Scots. The Scots advanced into England, and their
spearmen crossed a marsh to attack the English array of knights and
archers posted on the slope of Halidon Hill. The arrows poured like
rain on their struggling columns. The Scots were thrown into
confusion, and their whole army was almost destroyed. Berwick was
regained, and Bannockburn, it seemed, was avenged. Edward not only set
up Balliol as his vassal, but compelled him to yield all Scotland
south of the Forth to be annexed to England. Such a settlement could
not last. Balliol was as weak as his father had been, and the Scots,
recovering courage, drove him out in =1334=. Edward invaded Scotland
again and again. As long as he was in the country he was strong enough
to keep his puppet on the throne, but whenever he returned to England
David Bruce's supporters regained strength. The struggle promised to
be lengthy unless help came to the Scots.
4. =Dispute with France. 1336--1337.=--Philip VI., like Philip IV. in
the days of Edward I. (see p. 218), had his own reasons for not
allowing the Scots to be crushed. He pursued the settled policy of his
predecessors in attempting to bring the great fiefs into his power,
and especially that part of Aquitaine which was still held by the most
powerful of his vassals, the king of England. Whilst Edward was doing
his best to bring Scotland into subjection by open war, Philip was
doing his best to disturb Edward in his hold upon Aquitaine by secret
intrigues and legal chicanery. Ill-feeling increased on both sides.
Philip welcomed David Bruce and gave him protection in France, and in
=1336= French sailors attacked English shipping and landed plunderers
in the Isle of Wight. In =1337= Edward determined to resist, and the
long war roughly known as the Hundred Years' War began. It was in
reality waged to discover by an appeal to arms whether the whole of
Aquitaine was to be incorporated with France and whether Scotland was
to be incorporated with England. That which gave it its peculiar
bitterness was, however, not so much the claims of the kings, as the
passions of their subjects. The national antagonism aroused by the
plunderings of French sea-rovers would be invigorated by the
plunderings of Englishmen in the fields of France.
5. =Edward's Allies. 1337--1338.=--To Edward it was merely a question
of defending, first England, and then Aquitaine, against aggression.
He won over, with large offers of money, the alliance of the princes
of the Empire whose lands lay round the French frontier to the north
and east, and even gained the support of the Emperor Lewis the
Bavarian. His relations with Flanders were even more important. In
Flanders there had sprung up great manufacturing towns, such as Ghent,
Bruges, and Ypres, which worked up into cloth the wool which was the
produce of English sheep. These wealthy towns claimed political
independence, and thus came into collision with their feudal lord, the
Count of Flanders. Early in the reign of Philip VI., the Count, who
held the greater part of his lands from the king of France, had
appealed to Philip for support, and Philip, who, unlike his wiser
predecessors, despised the strength which he might gain from the
goodwill of citizens in a struggle against their lords, took the part
of the Count, and for a time crushed the citizens at the battle of
Cassel. After a while the cities recovered themselves, and formed an
alliance under the leadership of Jacob van Arteveldt, a Flemish
nobleman, who had ingratiated himself with them by enrolling himself
amongst the brewers of Ghent, and who was now successful in urging his
countrymen to enter into friendship with Edward.
6. =Chivalry and War.=--In the long run Edward's cause would be found
a losing one, but there were circumstances which made it prevail for a
time. In France there was a broad distinction between gentlemen on the
one side and citizens and peasants on the other. The gentlemen
despised all who were not of their own class. In earlier days there
had sprung up a view of life known as chivalry, which taught that the
knight was bound to observe the laws of honour, to fight fairly, to
treat with courtesy a defeated enemy, and to protect women and all who
were unable to help themselves. Ennobling as the idea was, it had been
narrowed by the refusal of the gentlemen to extend the rules of
chivalry beyond their own order, and they were, therefore, ready to
exercise cruelty upon those who were not gentlemen, whilst proffering
the most high-flown compliments to those who were. In France, too,
this broad distinction of ranks told upon the military strength of the
crown. The fighting force of the French king was his feudal array of
armour-protected cavalry, composed entirely of gentlemen, and aiming
at deciding battles in the old fashion by the rush of horsemen. If
foot soldiers were brought at all into the field they were, for the
most part, ill armed and ill trained peasants, exposed to be
helplessly slaughtered by the horsemen.
[Illustration: A knight--Sir Geoffrey Luttrell, who died
1345--receiving his helm and pennon from his wife. Another lady holds
his shield.]
7. =Commerce and War.=--In England, on the other hand, the various
orders of society had been welded together into a united people. The
king and his vassals indeed still talked the language of chivalry, but
they were wise enough to seek strength elsewhere. War had become in
England the affair of the nation, and no longer the affair of a class.
It must be waged with efficient archers as well as with efficient
horsemen, the archers being drawn from the class of yeomen or free
landed proprietors of small plots of land, which was entirely wanting
in France. Such an army needed pay, and the large sums required for
the purpose could only be extracted from a nation which, like the
English, had grown comparatively rich because it was at peace within
its own borders. Edward was compelled, if he wanted to fight, to
encourage trade, though it is only fair to remember that he showed
himself ready to encourage trade without any such ulterior object. He
brought Flemish weavers into England, and did his best to improve the
feeble woollen manufacture of the Eastern counties. His great
resource, however, for purposes of taxation, was the export of wool to
the Flemish manufacturing towns. Sometimes he persuaded Parliament to
raise the duties upon exported wool; sometimes he raised them, by an
evasion of the law, after making a private compact with the merchants
without consulting Parliament at all; sometimes he turned merchant
himself and bought wool cheaply in England to sell it dear in
Flanders. It was said of a great minister of later times that he made
trade flourish by means of war.[17] It might be said with greater
truth of Edward III. that he made war flourish by means of trade.
[Footnote 17: See the inscription on the monument to the elder Pitt
in the Guildhall, in the City of London.]
[Illustration: William of Hatfield, second son of Edward III.; from
his tomb in York Minster: showing rich costume worn by the youth of
the upper classes about 1340. The embroidery on the tunic has been
partly worn off on the effigy.]
[Illustration: York Minster:--The nave, looking west, built during the
first half of the fourteenth century. The west window was completed
and glazed in 1338.]
8. =Attacks on the North of France. 1338--1340.=--Great as was
Edward's advantage in having a united nation at his back, it hardly
seemed in the first years of the war as though he knew how to use it.
Though he had declared war against Philip in =1337=, he did not begin
hostilities till the following year. In =1338=, after landing at
Antwerp, he obtained from the Emperor Lewis the title of Imperial
Vicar, which gave him a right to the military services of the vassals
of the Empire. Crowds of German and Low Country lords pressed into his
ranks, but they all wanted high pay, and his resources, great as
they were, were soon exhausted, and he had to pawn his crowns to
satisfy their needs. These lords proved as useless as they were
expensive. In =1339= Edward crossed the French frontier, but he could
not induce Philip to fight, and being deserted by his German allies,
he was obliged to return to England. He then attempted to fall back on
the support of the Flemings, but was told by them that unless he
formally took the title of king of France, which he had only
occasionally done before, they could not fight for him, as the king of
France, whoever he might be, was their superior lord, and as such had
a claim to their services. After some hesitation, in the beginning of
=1340=, Edward satisfied their scruples by reviving the claim which he
had formerly abandoned, declaring himself to be, in right of his
mother, the lawful king of France; and quartering the French arms with
his own. A third territorial question was thus added to the other two.
Practically Edward's answer to Philip's effort to absorb all Aquitaine
in France was a counter-demand that all France should be absorbed in
England.
[Illustration: Royal arms of Edward III., adopted in 1340 and used
till about 1405. From the tomb of Edward III.]
9. =Battle of Sluys. 1340.=--Edward had not yet learnt to place
confidence in those English archers who had served him so well at
Halidon Hill. In =1340=, however, he found himself engaged in a
conflict which should have taught him where his true strength lay. The
French navy held the Channel, and had burnt Southampton. The fleet of
the Cinque Ports was no longer sufficient to cope with the enemy.
Edward proudly announced that he, like his progenitors, was the lord
of the English sea on every side, and called out every vessel upon
which he could lay hands. The result was a naval victory at Sluys, in
which well-nigh the whole French fleet was absolutely destroyed. It
was by the English archers that the day was won. So complete was the
victory that no one dared to tell the ill news to Philip, till his
jester called out to him, "What cowards those English are!" "Because,"
he explained, "they did not dare to leap into the sea as our brave
Frenchmen did."
10. =Attacks on the West of France. 1341--1345.=--If Edward was to
obtain still greater success, he had but to fight with a national
force behind him on land as he had fought at sea; but he was slow to
learn the lesson. Personally he was as chivalrous as Philip, and
thought that far more could be done by the charge of knights on
horseback than by the cloth-yard shafts of the English bowmen. For six
more years he frittered away his strength. There was a disputed
succession in Brittany, and one of the claimants, John of Montfort,
ranged himself on the side of the English. There was fighting in
Brittany and fighting on the borders of Edward's lands in Aquitaine,
but up to the end of =1345= there was no decisive result on either
side. In Scotland, too, things had been going so badly for Edward that
in =1341= David Bruce had been able to return, and was now again
ruling over his own people.
11. =The Campaign of Creçy. 1346.=--Surprising as Edward's neglect to
force on a battle in France appears to us, it must be remembered that
in those days it was far more difficult to bring on an engagement than
it is in the present day. Fortified towns and castles were then almost
impregnable, except when they were starved out; and it was therefore
seldom necessary for a commander--on other grounds unwilling to
fight--to risk a battle in order to save an important post from
capture. Edward, however, does not appear to have thought that there
was anything to be gained by fighting. In =1346= he led a large
English army into Normandy, taking with him his eldest son, afterwards
known as the Black Prince, at that time a lad of sixteen. It had been
from Normandy and Calais that the fleets had put out by which the
coasts of England had been ravaged, and Edward now deliberately
ravaged Normandy. He then marched on, apparently intending to take
refuge in Flanders. As the French had broken the bridges over the
Seine, he was driven to ascend the bank of the river almost to Paris
before he could cross. His burnings and his ravages continued till
Philip, stung to anger, pursued him with an army more than twice as
numerous as his own. Edward had the Somme to cross on his way, and the
bridges over that river had been broken by the French, as those over
the Seine had been broken; and but for the opportune discovery of a
ford at Blanche Tache Edward would have been obliged to fight with an
impassable river at his back. When he was once over the Somme he
refused--not from any considerations of generalship, but from a point
of honour--to continue his retreat further. He halted on a gentle
slope near the village of Creçy facing eastwards, as Philip's force
had swept round to avoid difficulties in the ground, and was
approaching from that direction.
[Illustration: Shooting at the butts with the long-bow.]
12. =The Tactics of Creçy. 1346.=--Great as was Edward's advantage in
possessing an army so diverse in its composition as that which he
commanded, it would have availed him little if he had not known how to
order that army for battle. At once it appeared that his skill as a
tactician was as great as his weakness as a strategist. His experience
at Halidon Hill (see p. 234) had taught him that the archers could
turn the tide of battle against any direct attack, however violent. He
knew, too, from the tradition of Bannockburn (see p. 226), that
archers could readily be crushed by a cavalry charge on the flank; and
he was well aware that his own horsemen were in too small numbers to
hold out against the vast host of the French cavalry. He therefore
drew up his line of archers between the two villages of Creçy and
Vadicourt, though his force was not large enough to extend from one to
the other. He then ordered the bulk of his horsemen to dismount and to
place themselves with levelled spears in bodies at intervals in the
line of archers. The innovation was thoroughly reasonable, as spearmen
on foot would be able to check the fiercest charge of horse, if only
the horse could be exposed to a shower of arrows. The English army was
drawn up in three corps, two of them in the front line. The Black
Prince was in command of one of the two bodies in front, whilst the
king himself took charge of the third corps, which acted as a reserve
in the rear.
13. =The Battle of Creçy. August 26, 1346.=--When Philip drew nigh in
the evening his host was weary and hungry. He ordered his knights to
halt, but each one was thinking, not of obeying orders, but of
securing a place in the front, where he might personally distinguish
himself. Those in the rear pushed on, and in a few minutes the whole
of the French cavalry became a disorganised mob. Then Philip ordered
15,000 Genoese crossbowmen to advance against the enemy. At the best a
crossbow was inferior to the English long-bow, as it was weaker in its
action and consumed more time between each shot. To make matters
worse, a heavy shower of rain had wetted the strings of the unlucky
Genoese, rendering their weapons useless. The English had covers for
their bows, and had kept them dry. The thick shower of their arrows
drove the Genoese back. Philip took their retreat for cowardice. "Kill
me those scoundrels!" he cried, and the French knights rode in amongst
them, slaughtering them at every stride. Then the French horsemen
charged the English lines. Some one amongst the Black Prince's retinue
took alarm, and hurried to the king to conjure him to advance to the
son's assistance. Edward knew better. "Is he dead?" he asked, "or so
wounded that he cannot help himself?" "No, sire, please God," was the
reply, "but he is in a hard passage of arms, and he much needs your
help." "Return," answered the king, "to those that sent you, and tell
them not to send to me again so long as my son lives; I command them
to let the boy win his spurs." The French were driven off with
terrible slaughter, and the victory was won. It was a victory of foot
soldiers over horse soldiers--of a nation in which all ranks joined
heartily together over one in which all ranks except that of the
gentry were despised. Edward III. had contributed a high spirit and a
keen sense of honour, but it was to the influence of Edward I.--to his
wide and far-reaching statesmanship, and his innovating military
genius--that the victory of Creçy was really due.
14. =Battle of Nevill's Cross, and the Siege of Calais.
1346--1347.=--Whilst Edward was fighting in France, the Scots invaded
England, but they were defeated at Nevill's Cross, and their king,
David Bruce (David II.), taken prisoner. Edward, when the news reached
him, had laid siege to Calais. In this siege cannon,[18] which had
been used in earlier sieges of the war, were employed, but they were
too badly made and loaded with too little gunpowder to do much damage.
In =1347= Calais was starved into surrender, and Edward, who regarded
the town as a nest of pirates, ordered six of the principal burgesses
to come out with ropes round their necks, as a sign that they were to
be put to death. It was only at Queen Philippa's intercession that he
spared their lives, but he drove every Frenchman out of Calais, and
peopled it with his own subjects. A truce with Philip was agreed on,
and Edward returned to England.
[Footnote 18: It has been said that they were used at Creçy, but
this is uncertain.]
[Illustration: Contemporary view of a fourteenth-century walled town.]
[Illustration: Gloucester Cathedral. The choir, looking east: built
between 1340 and 1350.]
15. =Constitutional Progress. 1337--1347.=--Edward III. had begun his
reign as a constitutional ruler, and on the whole he had no reason to
regret it. In his wars with France and Scotland he had the popular
feeling with him, and he showed his reliance on it when, in =1340=, he
consented to the abolition of his claim to impose tallage on his
demesne lands (see p. 221)--the sole fragment of unparliamentary
taxation legally retained by the king after the _Confirmatio
Cartarum_. In =1341= the two Houses of Parliament finally separated
from one another, and when Edward picked a quarrel with Archbishop
Stratford, the Lords successfully insisted that no member of their
House could be tried excepting by his peers. The Commons, on the other
hand, were striving--not always successfully--to maintain their hold
upon taxation. In =1341= they made Edward a large money grant on
condition of his yielding to their demands, and Edward (whose
constitutional intentions were seldom proof against his wish to retain
the power of the purse) shamelessly broke his engagement after
receiving the money. On other occasions the Commons were more
successful; yet, after all, the composition of their House was of more
importance than any special victory they might gain. In it the county
members--or knights of the shire--sat side by side with the burgesses
of the towns. In no other country in Europe would this have been
possible. The knights of the shire were gentlemen, who on the
Continent were reckoned amongst the nobility, and despised townsmen
far too much to sit in the same House with them. In England there was
the same amalgamation of classes in Parliament as on the
battle-field. When once gentlemen and burgesses formed part of the
same assembly, they would come to have common interests; and, in any
struggle in which the merchants were engaged, it would be a great gain
to them that a class of men trained to arms would be inclined to take
their part.
[Illustration: The upper chamber or solar at Sutton Courtenay
manor-house. Date, about 1350.]
[Illustration: Interior of the Hall at Penshurst, Kent: showing the
screen with minstrels' gallery over it, and the brazier for fire in
the middle: built about 1340.]
16. =Edward's Triumph. 1347.=--Edward's return after the surrender of
Calais was followed by an outburst of luxury. As the sea-rovers of
Normandy and Calais had formerly plundered Englishmen, English
landsmen now plundered Normandy and Calais. "There was no woman who
had not gotten garments, furs, feather-beds, and utensils from the
spoils." Edward surrounded himself with feasting and jollity. About
this time he instituted the Order of the Garter, and his tournaments
were thronged with gay knights and gayer ladies in gorgeous attires.
The very priests caught the example, and decked themselves in
unclerical garments. Even architecture lent itself to the prevailing
taste for magnificence. The beautiful Decorated style which had come
into use towards the end of the reign of Edward I.--and which may be
seen[19] in the central tower of Lincoln Cathedral (see p. 227), in
the west front of Howden Church (see p. 230), and in the nave of York
Minster (see p. 238)--was, in the reign of Edward III., superseded by
the Perpendicular style, in which beauty of form was abandoned for the
sake of breadth, as in the choir of Gloucester and the nave of
Winchester (see pp. 244, 276). Roofs become wide, as in the Hall of
Penshurst (see p. 246), and consequently halls were larger and better
adapted to crowded gatherings than those at Meare and Norborough (p.
247).
[Footnote 19: Lichfield Cathedral (p. 213) is transitional.]
[Illustration: A small house or cottage at Meare, Somerset. Built
about 1350.]
[Illustration: Norborough Hall, Northamptonshire. A manor-house built
about 1350. The dormer windows and addition to the left are of much
later date.]
17. =The Black Death. 1348.=--In the midst of this luxurious society
arrived, in =1348=, a terrible plague which had been sweeping over
Asia and Europe, and which in modern times has been styled the Black
Death. No plague known to history was so destructive of life. Half of
the population certainly perished, and some think that the number of
those who died must be reckoned at two-thirds.
[Illustration: Ploughing.]
[Illustration: Harrowing. A boy slinging stones at the birds.]
[Illustration: Breaking the clods with mallets.]
[Illustration: Cutting weeds.]
[Illustration: Reaping.]
18. =The Statute of Labourers. 1351.=--This enormous destruction of
life could not fail to have important results on the economic
condition of the country. The process of substituting money rents for
labour service, which had begun some generations before (see p. 168),
had become very general at the accession of Edward III. so that the
demesne land which the lord kept in his own hands was on most estates
cultivated by hired labour. Now, when at least half of the labourers
had disappeared, those who remained, having less competition to fear,
demanded higher wages, whilst at the same time the price of the
produce of the soil was the same or less than it had been before. The
question affected not merely the great lords but the smaller gentry
as well. The House of Commons, which was filled with the smaller
gentry and the well-to-do townsmen--who were also employers of
labour--was therefore as eager as the House of Lords to keep down
wages. In =1351= the Statute of Labourers was passed, fixing a scale
of wages at the rates which had been paid before the Black Death, and
ordering punishments to be inflicted on those who demanded more. It is
not necessary to suppose that the legislators had any tyrannical
intentions. For ages all matters relating to agriculture had been
fixed by custom; and the labourers were outrageously violating custom.
Custom, however, here found itself in opposition to the forces of
nature, and though the statute was often renewed, with increasing
penalties, it was difficult to secure obedience to it in the teeth of
the opposition of the labourers. The chief result of the statute was
that it introduced an element of discord between two classes of
society.
[Illustration: Stacking corn.]
[Illustration: Threshing corn with the flail.]
19. =The Statute of Treasons. 1352.=--In =1352= was passed the Statute
of Treasons, by which the offences amounting to treason were defined,
the chief of them being levying war against the king. As no one but a
great nobleman was strong enough even to think of levying war against
the king, this statute may be regarded as a concession to the
wealthier landowners rather than to the people at large.
20. =The Black Prince in the South of France. 1355.=--In =1350= Philip
VI. of France died, and was succeeded by his son John. The truce (see
p. 243) was prolonged, and it was not till =1355= that war was
renewed. Edward himself was recalled to England by fresh troubles in
Scotland, but the Black Prince landed at Bordeaux and marched through
the south of France, plundering as he went. Neither father nor son
seems to have had any idea of gaining their ends except by driving the
French by ill-treatment into submission. "You must know," wrote a
contemporary in describing the condition of southern Languedoc, "that
this was, before, one of the fat countries of the world, the people
good and simple, who did not know what war was, and no war had ever
been waged against them before the Prince of Wales came. The English
and Gascons found the country full and gay, the rooms furnished with
carpets and draperies, the caskets and chests full of beautiful
jewels; but nothing was safe from these robbers." The Prince returned
to Bordeaux laden with spoils.
21. =The Battle of Poitiers. 1356.=--In =1356= the Black Prince swept
over central France in another similar plundering expedition. He was
on his way back with his plunder to Bordeaux with no more than 8,000
men to guard it when he learnt as he passed near Poitiers that King
John was close to him with 50,000. He drew up his little force on a
rising ground amidst thick vineyards, with a hedge in front of him
behind which he could shelter his archers. As at Creçy, the greater
part of the English horsemen were dismounted, and John, thinking that
therein lay their secret of success, ordered most of his horsemen to
dismount as well, not having discovered that though spearmen on foot
could present a formidable resistance to a cavalry charge, they were
entirely useless in attacking a strong position held by archers. Then
he sent forward 300 knights who retained their horses, bidding a
strong body of dismounted horsemen to support them. The horsemen,
followed by the footmen, charged at a gap in the hedge, but the hedge
on either side was lined with English bowmen, and men and horses were
struck down. Those who survived fled and scattered their countrymen
behind. Seeing the disorder, the Black Prince ordered the few knights
whom he had kept on horseback to sweep round and to fall upon the
confused crowd in the flank. The archers advanced to second them,
and, gallantly as the French fought, their unhorsed knights could
accomplish nothing against the combined efforts of horse and foot.
King John was taken prisoner and the battle was at an end.
22. =The Courtesy of the Black Prince.=--The Black Prince had been
cruel to townsmen and peasants, but he was a model of chivalry, and
knew how to deal with a captive king. At supper he stood behind John's
chair and waited on him, praising his bravery. "All on our side," he
said, "who have seen you and your knights, are agreed about this, and
give you the prize and the chaplet if you will wear it." After the
astounding victory of Poitiers, the Black Prince, instead of marching
upon Paris, went back to Bordeaux. In =1357= he made a truce for two
years and returned to England with his royal captive.
23. =Misery of France. 1356--1359.=--In =1356=, the year in which the
Black Prince fought at Poitiers, his father ravaged Scotland. Edward,
however, gained nothing by this fresh attempt at conquest. In his
retreat he suffered heavy loss, and in =1357=, changing his plan, he
replaced David Bruce (see p. 242) on the throne, and strove to win the
support of the Scots instead of exasperating them by violence. In the
meanwhile the two years' truce brought no good to France. The nobles
wrung from the peasants the sums needed to redeem their relatives, who
were prisoners in England, and the disbanded soldiers, French and
English, formed themselves into free companies and plundered as
mercilessly as the Black Prince had done in time of war. Worn down
with oppression, the French peasants broke into a rebellion known as
the Jacquerie, from the nickname of Jacques-Bonhomme, which the gentry
gave to them. After committing unheard-of cruelties the peasants were
repressed and slaughtered. An attempt of the States-General--a sort of
French Parliament which occasionally met--to improve the government
failed. Peace with England was talked of, but Edward's terms were too
hard to be accepted, and in =1359= war began again.
24. =Edward's Last Invasion. 1359--1360.=--So miserably devastated was
France that Edward, when he invaded the country in =1359=, had to take
with him not only men and munitions of war, but large stores of
provisions. He met no enemy in the field, but the land had been so
wasted that his men suffered much from want of food, in spite of the
supplies which they had taken with them. "I could not believe," wrote
an Italian who revisited France after an absence of some years, "that
this was the same kingdom which I had once seen so rich and
flourishing. Nothing presented itself to my eyes but a fearful
solitude, an extreme poverty, land uncultivated, houses in ruins. Even
the neighbourhood of Paris manifested everywhere marks of destruction
and conflagration. The streets were deserted; the roads overgrown with
weeds; the whole a vast solitude." In the spring of =1360= Edward
moved on towards the banks of the Loire, hoping to find sustenance
there. Near Chartres he was overtaken by a terrible storm of hail and
thunder, and in the roar of the thunder he thought that he heard the
voice of God reproving him for the misery which he had caused. He
abated his demands and signed the treaty of Bretigni.
[Illustration: West front of Edington Church, Wilts: built about 1360.
An example of the transition from the Decorated style to the
Perpendicular.]
25. =The Treaty of Bretigni. 1360.=--By the treaty of Bretigni John
was to be ransomed for an enormous sum; Edward was to surrender his
claim to the crown of France and to the provinces north of Aquitaine,
receiving in return the whole of the duchy of Aquitaine together with
the districts round Calais and Ponthieu, all of them to be held in
full sovereignty, without any feudal obligation to the king of
France. Probably it cost Edward little to abandon his claim to the
French crown, which had only been an after-thought; and it was a clear
gain to get rid of those feudal entanglements which had so frequently
been used as a pretext of aggression against the English kings. It was
hardly likely, however, that England would long be able to keep a
country like Aquitaine, which was geographically part of France and in
which French sympathies were constantly on the increase. "We will obey
the English with our lips," said the men of Rochelle, when their town
was surrendered, "but our hearts shall never be moved towards them."
CHAPTER XVI.
REIGN OF EDWARD III. AFTER THE TREATY OF BRETIGNI.
1360--1377.
LEADING DATES
Reign of Edward III., 1327-1377.
Battle of Navarrete 1367
Renewal of war with France 1369
Truce with France 1375
The Good Parliament 1376
Death of Edward III. 1377
1. =The First Years of Peace. 1360--1364.=--To hold his new provinces
the better, Edward sent the Black Prince to govern them in =1363= with
the title of Duke of Aquitaine. King John had been liberated soon
after the making of the peace, and had been allowed to return to
France on payment of part of his ransom, and on giving hostages for
the payment of the remainder. In =1363= one of the hostages, his son,
the Duke of Anjou, broke his parole and fled, on which John, shocked
at such perfidy, returned to England to make excuses for him, and died
there in =1364=. If honour, he said, were not to be found elsewhere,
it ought to be found in the breasts of kings.
2. =The Spanish Troubles. 1364--1368.=--John's eldest son and
successor, Charles V., known as the Wise, or the Prudent, was less
chivalrous, but more cautious than his father, and soon found an
opportunity of stirring up trouble for the Black Prince without
exposing his own lands to danger. Pedro the Cruel, king of Castile,
who had for some time been the ally of England, had murdered his
wife, tyrannised over his nobles, and contracted an alliance with the
Mohammedans of Granada. The Pope having excommunicated him, his own
illegitimate brother, Henry of Trastamara, claimed the crown, and
sought aid of the king of France. Charles V. sent Bertrand du
Guesclin, a rising young commander, to his help. Du Guesclin's army
was made up of men of the Free Companies (see p. 252), which still
continued to plunder France on their own account after the Peace of
Bretigni. In this way Charles got rid of a scourge of his own country
at the same time that he attacked an ally of the English. In =1366= Du
Guesclin entered Spain. The tyrannical Pedro took refuge at Bayonne,
where he begged the Black Prince to help him. The Gascon nobles
pleaded with the Prince to reject the monster, but the Prince was not
to be held back. "It is not a right thing or reasonable," he said,
when they urged him to keep aloof from the unjust undertaking to which
he invited them, "that a bastard should hold a kingdom, and thrust out
of it, and of his heritage, a brother and heir of the land by legal
marriage. All kings and sons of kings should never agree nor consent
to it, for it is a great blow at the royal state." In =1367= the Black
Prince entered Spain, and with the help of his English archers
thoroughly defeated Henry at Navarrete. Then vengeance overtook him on
the side on which he had sinned. Pedro was as false as he was cruel,
and refused to pay the sums which he had engaged to furnish to the
Prince's troops. Sickness broke out in the English ranks, and the
Black Prince returned to Bordeaux with only a fifth part of his army,
and with his own health irretrievably shattered. In =1368= Henry made
his way back to Spain, defeated and slew Pedro, and undid the whole
work of the Black Prince to the south of the Pyrenees.
[Illustration: A gold noble of Edward III., struck between A.D. 1360
and 1369.]
[Illustration: Effigy of Edward the Black Prince, from his tomb at
Canterbury: showing the type of armour worn from 1335 to 1400.]
3. =The Taxation of Aquitaine. 1368--1369.=--Worse than this was in
store for the Black Prince. As his soldiers clamoured for their wages,
he levied a hearth tax to supply their needs. The Aquitanian
Parliament declared against the tax, and appealed to the king of
France to do them right. In =1369= Charles, who knew that the men of
Aquitaine would be on his side, summoned the Black Prince to Paris to
defend his conduct, on the pretext that, as there had been some
informality in the treaty of Bretigni, he was himself still the feudal
superior of the Duke of Aquitaine. "Willingly," replied the Black
Prince when he received the summons, "we will go to the court of
Paris, as the king of France orders it; but it shall be with helmet on
head and sixty thousand men with us."
4. =The Renewed War. 1369--1375.=--Edward, by the advice of
Parliament, resumed the title of King of France, and war broke out
afresh in =1369=. The result of the first war had been owing to the
blunders of the French in attacking the English archers with the
feudal cavalry. Charles V. and his commander, Du Guesclin, resolved to
fight no battles. Their troops hung about the English march, cut off
stragglers, and captured exposed towns. The English marched hither and
thither, plundering and burning, but their armies, powerful as they
were when attacked in a defensive position, could not succeed in
forcing a battle, and were worn out without accomplishing anything
worthy of their fame. The Black Prince, soured by failure and
ill-health, having succeeded in =1370= in recapturing Limoges, ordered
his men to spare no one in the town. "It was great pity," wrote the
chronicler Froissart, "for men, women, and children threw themselves
on their knees before the Prince, crying 'Mercy! mercy! gentle Sire!'"
The Prince, who had waited at table behind a captive king, hardened
his heart. More than three thousand--men, women and children--were
butchered on that day. Yet the spirit of chivalry was strong within
him, and he spared three gentlemen who fought bravely merely in order
to sell their lives dearly. In =1371= the Black Prince was back in
England. His eldest surviving brother, John of Gaunt--or Ghent--Duke
of Lancaster, continued the war in France. In =1372= the English lost
town after town. In =1373= John of Gaunt set out from Calais. He could
plunder, but he could not make the enemy fight. "Let them go," wrote
Charles V. to his commanders; "by burning they will not become masters
of your heritage. Though storms rage over a land, they disperse of
themselves. So will it be with these English." When the English
reached the hilly centre of France food failed them. The winter came,
and horses and men died of cold and want. A rabble of half-starved
fugitives was all that reached Bordeaux after a march of six hundred
miles. Aquitaine, where the inhabitants were for the most part hostile
to the English, and did everything in their power to assist the
French, was before long all but wholly lost, and in =1375= a truce was
made which put an end to hostilities for a time, leaving only Calais,
Cherbourg, Brest, Bayonne, and Bordeaux in the hands of the English.
5. =Anti-Papal Legislation. 1351--1366.=--The antagonism between
England and France necessarily led to an antagonism between England
and the Papacy. Since =1305= the Popes had fixed their abode at
Avignon, and though Avignon was not yet incorporated with France, it
was near enough to be under the control of the king of France. During
the time of this exile from Rome, known to ardent churchmen as the
Babylonian captivity of the Church, the Popes were regarded in England
as the tools of the French enemy. The Papal court, too, became
distinguished for luxury and vice, and its vast expenditure called for
supplies which England was increasingly loth to furnish. By a system
of provisions, as they were called, the Pope provided--or appointed
beforehand--his nominees to English benefices, and expected that his
nominees would be allowed to hold the benefices to the exclusion of
those of the patrons. In =1351= the Statute of Provisors[20] attempted
to put an end to the system, but it was not immediately successful,
and had to be re-enacted in later years. In =1353= a Statute of
_Præmunire_[21] was passed, in which, though the Pope's name was not
mentioned, an attempt was made to stop suits being carried before
foreign courts--in other words before the Papal court at Avignon.
Another claim of the Popes was to the 1,000 marks payable annually as
a symbol of John's vassalage, a claim most distasteful to Englishmen
as a sign of national humiliation. Since =1333=, the year in which
Edward took the government into his own hands, the payment had not
been made, and in =1366= Parliament utterly rejected a claim made by
the Pope for its revival.
[Footnote 20: Provisors are the persons provided or appointed to a
benefice.]
[Footnote 21: So called from the first words of the writs appointed
to be issued under it, _Præmunire facias_; the first of these two
words being a corruption of _Præmoneri_.]
6. =Predominance of the English Language.=--The national spirit which
revealed itself in an armed struggle with the French and in a legal
struggle with the Papacy showed itself in the increasing predominance
of the English language. In =1362= it supplanted French in the law
courts, and in the same year Parliament was opened with an English
speech. French was still the language of the court, but it was
becoming a foreign speech, pronounced very differently from the
'French of Paris.'
7. =Piers the Plowman. 1362.=--Cruel as had been the direct results of
the English victories in France, they had indirectly contributed to
the overthrow of that feudalism which weighed heavily upon France and
upon all Continental Europe. The success of the English had been the
success of a nation strong in the union of classes. The cessation of
the war drove the thoughts of Englishmen back upon themselves. The old
spiritual channels had been, to a great extent, choked up. Bishops
were busy with the king's affairs; monks had long ceased to be
specially an example to the world; and even the friars had fallen from
their first estate, and had found out that, though they might
personally possess nothing, their order might be wealthy. The men who
won victories in France came home to spend their booty in show and
luxury. Yet, for all the splendour around, there was a general feeling
that the times were out of joint, and this feeling was strengthened by
a fresh inroad of the Black Death in =1361=. To the prevalent
yearning for a better life, a voice was given by William Langland,
whose _Vision of Piers the Plowman_ appeared in its first shape in
=1362=. In the opening of his poem he shows to his readers the
supremacy of the Maiden Meed--bribery--over all sorts and conditions
of men, lay and clerical. Then he turns to the purification of this
wicked world. They who wish to eschew evil and to do good inquire
their way to Truth--the eternal God--and find their only guide in
'Piers the Plowman.' The simple men of the plough, who do honest work
and live upright lives, know how to find the way to Truth. That way
lies not through the inventions of the official Church, the pardons
and indulgences set up for sale. "They who have done good shall go
into eternal life, but they who have done evil into eternal fire."
Langland's teaching, in short, is the same as that of the great
Italian poet, Dante, who, earlier in the century, had cried aloud for
the return of justice and true religion. He stands apart from Dante
and from all others of his time in looking for help to the despised
peasant. No doubt his peasant was idealised, as no one knew better
than himself; but it was honesty of work in the place of dishonest
idleness which he venerated. It was the glory of England to have
produced such a thought far more than to have produced the men who,
heavy with the plunder of unhappy peasants, stood boldly to their arms
at Creçy and Poitiers. He is as yet hardly prepared to say what is the
righteousness which leads to eternal life. It is not till he issues a
second edition in =1377= that he can answer. To do well, he now tells
us, is to act righteously to all in the fear of God. To do better is
to walk in the way of love: "Behold how good a thing it is for
brethren to dwell in unity." To do best is to live in fellowship with
Christ and the Church, and in all humility to bring forth the fruits
of the Divine communion.
8. =The Anti-Clerical Party. 1371.=--Langland wished to improve, not
to overthrow, existing institutions, but for all that his work was
profoundly revolutionary. They who call on those who have left their
first love to return to it are seldom obeyed, but their voice is often
welcomed by the corrupt and self-seeking crowd which is eager, after
the fashion of birds of prey, to tear the carcase from which life has
departed. A large party was formed in England, especially amongst the
greater barons, which was anxious to strip the clergy of their wealth
and power, without any thought for the better fulfilment of their
spiritual functions. In the Parliament of =1371= bishops were declared
unfit to hold offices of state. Amongst others who were dismissed was
William of Wykeham, the Bishop of Winchester. He was a great architect
and administrator, and having been deprived of the Chancellorship used
his wealth to found at Winchester the first great public school in
England. By this time a Chancellor was no longer what he had been in
earlier days (see p. 127), a secretary to the king. He was now
beginning to exercise equitable jurisdiction--that is to say, the
right of deciding suits according to equity, in cases in which the
strict artificial rules of the ordinary courts stood in the way of
justice.
[Illustration: William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, 1367-1404:
from his tomb at Winchester.]
9. =The Duke of Lancaster. 1374--1376.=--In =1374=, as soon as the
Duke of Lancaster returned from his disastrous campaign (see p. 257),
he put himself at the head of the baronial and anti-clerical party. He
was selfish and unprincipled, but he had enormous wealth, having
secured the vast estates of the Lancaster family by his marriage with
Blanche, the granddaughter of the brother of Thomas of Lancaster, the
opponent of Edward II. Rich as he was he wished to be richer, and he
saw his opportunity in an attack upon the higher clergy, which might
end in depriving them not only of political power, but of much of
their ecclesiastical property as well. His accession to the baronial
party was of the greater importance because he was now practically the
first man in the state. The king was suffering from softening of the
brain, and had fallen under the influence of a greedy and unscrupulous
mistress, Alice Perrers, whilst the Black Prince was disqualified by
illness from taking part in the management of affairs. A bargain was
struck between the Duke and Alice Perrers, who was able to obtain the
consent of the helpless king to anything she pleased. She even sat on
the bench with the judges, intimidating them into deciding in favour
of the suitors who had bribed her most highly. It seemed as if
Langland's Meed (see p. 259) had appeared in person. The king's
patronage was shared between her and Lancaster.
10. =John Wycliffe. 1366--1376.=--If Lancaster's character had been
higher, he might have secured a widespread popularity, as the feeling
of the age was adverse to the continuance of a wealthy clergy. Even as
things were, he had on his side John Wycliffe, the most able reasoner
and devoted reformer of his age, who, like others before and after
him, imagined that a high spiritual enterprise could be achieved with
the help of low and worldly politicians. Wycliffe had distinguished
himself at Oxford, and had attracted Lancaster's notice by the ability
of his argument against the Pope's claim to levy John's tribute (see
p. 258). In =1374= he had been sent to Bruges to argue with the
representatives of the Pope on the question of the provisions, and by
=1376= had either issued, or was preparing to issue, his work _On
Civil Lordship_, in which, by a curious adaptation of feudal ideas, he
declared that all men held their possessions direct from God, as a
vassal held his estate from his lord; and that as a vassal was bound
to pay certain military services, failing which he lost his estate, so
everyone who fell into mortal sin failed to pay his service to God,
and forfeited his right to his worldly possessions. In this way
dominion, as he said, was founded on grace--that is to say, the
continuance of man's right to his possessions depended on his
remaining in a state of grace. It is true that Wycliffe qualified his
argument by alleging that he was only announcing theoretical truth,
and that no man had a right to rob another of his holding because he
believed him to be living in sin. It is evident, however, that men
like Lancaster would take no heed of this distinction, and would
welcome Wycliffe as an ally in the work of despoiling the clergy for
their own purposes.
11. =Lancaster and the Black Prince. 1376.=--Ordinary citizens, who
cared nothing for theories which they did not understand, were roused
against Lancaster by the unblushing baseness of his rule. Nor was this
all. The anti-clerical party was also a baronial party, and ever since
the Knights Bachelors of England had turned to the future Edward I. to
defend them against the barons who made the Provisions of Oxford (see
p. 199), the country gentry and townsmen had learnt the lesson that
they would be the first to suffer from the unchecked rule of the
baronage. They now had the House of Commons to represent their wishes,
but as yet the House of Commons was too weak to stand alone. At last
it was rumoured that when the Black Prince died his young son Richard
was to be set aside, and that Lancaster was to claim the inheritance
of the crown, as an earlier John had claimed it in the place of the
youthful Arthur. The Black Prince awoke from his lethargy, and stood
forward as the leader of the Commons.
12. =The Good Parliament. 1376.=--A Parliament, known as the Good
Parliament, met in =1376=, and, strong through the Black Prince's
support, the Commons refused to grant supply till an account of the
receipts and expenditure had been laid before them. "What," cried
Lancaster, "do these base and ignoble knights attempt? Do they think
they be the kings and princes of the land? I think they know not what
power I am of. I will therefore, early in the morning, appear unto
them so glorious, and will show such power among them, and with such
vigour I will terrify them that neither they nor theirs shall dare
henceforth to provoke me to wrath." Lancaster soon found that his
brother was stronger than he. The Commons obtained a new Council, in
which Wykeham was included and from which Lancaster was shut out. They
then proceeded to accuse before the House of Lords Richard Lyons and
Lord Latimer of embezzling the king's revenue. Lyons, accustomed to
the past ways of the court, packed 1,000_l._ in a barrel and sent it
to the Black Prince. The Black Prince returned the barrel and the
money, and the Lords condemned Lyons to imprisonment. Latimer was also
sentenced to imprisonment, but he was allowed to give bail and
regained his liberty. These two cases are the first instances of the
exercise of the right of impeachment--that is to say, of the
accusation of political offenders by the Commons before the Lords.
Alice Perrers was next driven from court.
[Illustration: Tomb of Edward III. in Westminster Abbey.]
13. =The Last Year of Edward III. 1376--1377.=--Whilst Parliament was
still sitting the Black Prince, worn out by his exertions, died. His
son, young Richard, was at once recognised as heir to the throne.
Lancaster, however, regained his influence over his doting father.
Alice Perrers and Lord Latimer found their way back to court. The
Speaker of the House of Commons was thrown into prison. Frivolous
charges were brought against Wykeham, who was deprived of his
temporalities and banished from the court. In =1377= a new Parliament,
elected under Lancaster's influence, reversed all the proceedings of
the Good Parliament, and showed how little sympathy the baronial party
had with the people by imposing a poll tax of 4_d._ a head on all
except beggars, thus making the payment of a labourer and a duke
equal. The bishops, unable to strike at Lancaster, struck at Wycliffe,
as his creature. Wycliffe was summoned to appear before an
ecclesiastical court at St. Paul's, presided over by Courtenay, the
Bishop of London. He came supported by Lancaster and a troop of
Lancaster's followers. Hot words were exchanged between them and the
Bishop. The London crowd took their Bishop's part and the Duke was
compelled to flee for his life. In the summer of =1377= Edward III.
died, deserted by everyone, Alice Perrers making off, after robbing
him of his finger-rings.
[Illustration: Figures of Edward, the Black Prince, and Lionel, Duke
of Clarence, from the tomb of Edward III.; illustrating the ordinary
costume of gentlemen at the end of the fourteenth century.]
14. =Ireland from the Reign of John to that of Edward II.=--When
England was gradually losing its hold on France, what hold it had had
on Ireland was gradually slipping away. Henry II. had been quite
unable to effect in Ireland the kind of conquest which William the
Conqueror had effected in England. William had succeeded because he
had been able to secure order by placing himself at the head of the
conquered nation. In Ireland, in the first place, the king was a
perpetual absentee; and, in the second place, there was no Irish
national organisation at the head of which he could have placed
himself, even if he had from time to time visited the island. There
were separate tribes, each one attached to its own chief and to its
own laws and customs. They were unable to drive out their feudal
conquerors; but in the outlying parts of the country, they were able
to absorb them, just as the English in their own country absorbed
their Norman conquerors. The difference was that in England the
conquerors were absorbed into a nation: in Ireland they were absorbed
into the several tribes. The few who retained the English laws and
habits were, for the most part, confined to the part of Ireland in the
neighbourhood of Dublin, which was specially accessible to English
influences. In =1315= Edward Bruce, the brother of Robert Bruce,
invaded Ireland, and, though he was ultimately defeated and slain, he
did enough to shatter the power of the English nobility; and it was
mainly in consequence of his partial success that the authority of the
English government was, for some time to come, limited to a certain
district round Dublin, known about a century later as the English
Pale, the extent of which varied from time to time.
15. =The Statute of Kilkenny. 1367.=--As long as the French wars
lasted the attention of the English Government was diverted from
Ireland. In =1361=, however, the year after the Treaty of Bretigni,
the king's son, Lionel Duke of Clarence, was sent to extend English
rule. In =1367= he gathered a Parliament of the English colonists.
This Parliament passed the Statute of Kilkenny, by which the relations
between the two races were defined. Within the Pale English laws and
customs were to prevail, and even Irishmen living there were to be
debarred from the use of their own language. Beyond the Pale the Irish
were to be left to themselves, communication between the two peoples
being cut off as much as possible. The idea of conquering Ireland was
abandoned, and the idea of maintaining a colony on a definite part of
Irish soil was substituted for it. The Statute of Kilkenny was, in
short, a counterpart of the Treaty of Bretigni. In both cases Edward
III. preferred the full maintenance of his authority over a part of a
country to its assertion over the whole.
16. =Weakness of the English Colony. 1367--1377.=--It takes two to
make a bargain, and the Irish were not to be prevented from
encroaching on the English because the English had resolved no longer
to encroach upon them. The renewal of the war with France in =1369=
made it impossible to send help from England, and during the latter
part of the reign of Edward III. the Irish pillaged freely within the
English territory, constantly winning ground from their antagonists.
_Genealogy of the more important Sons of Edward III._
EDWARD III.
d. 1377
|
--------------------------------------------------
| | | | |
Edward, Lionel, John of Gaunt, Edmund, Thomas,
the Black Duke of Duke of Duke of Duke of
Prince, Clarence, Lancaster, York, Gloucester,
d. 1376 d. 1368 d. 1399 d. 1402 d. 1397
CHAPTER XVII.
RICHARD II. AND THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION.
1377--1381.
LEADING DATES
Reign of Richard II., 1377-1399
Accession of Richard II 1377
The peasants' revolt 1381
1. =The First Years of Richard II. 1377--1378.=--"Woe to the land,"
quoted Langland from Ecclesiastes, in the second edition of _Piers the
Plowman_, "when the king is a child." Richard was but ten years of age
when he was raised to the throne. The French plundered the coast, and
the Scots plundered the Borders. In the presence of such dangers
Lancaster and Wykeham forgot their differences, and as Lancaster was
too generally distrusted to allow of his acting as regent, the council
governed in the name of the young king. Lancaster, however, took the
lead, and renewed the war with France with but little result beyond so
great a waste of money as to stir up Parliament to claim a control
over the expenditure of the Crown.
2. =Wycliffe and the Great Schism. 1378--1381.=--In =1378= began the
Great Schism. For nearly half a century from that date there were two
Popes, one at Avignon and one at Rome. Wycliffe had been gradually
losing his reverence for a single Pope, and he had none left for two.
He was now busy with a translation of the Bible into English, and sent
forth a band of "poor priests," to preach the simple gospel which he
found in it. He was thus brought into collision with the pretensions
of the priesthood, and was thereby led to question the doctrines on
which their authority was based. In =1381= he declared his disbelief
in the doctrine of transubstantiation, and thereby denied to priests
that power "of making the body of Christ," which was held to mark them
off from their fellow-men. In any case, so momentous an announcement
would have cost Wycliffe the hearts of large numbers of his
supporters. It was the more fatal to his influence as it was
coincident with social disorders, the blame for which was certain,
rightly or wrongly, to be laid at his door.
[Illustration: Richard II. and his first queen, Anne of Bohemia: from
the gilt-latten effigies on their tomb in Westminster Abbey, made by
Nicholas Broker and Godfrey Prest, coppersmiths of London, in 1395.]
3. =The Poll-taxes. 1379--1381.=--The disastrous war with France made
fresh taxation unavoidable. In =1379= a poll-tax was imposed by
Parliament on a graduated scale, reaching from the 6_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._
required of a duke, to the groat or 4_d._, representing in those days
at least the value of 4_s._ at the present day, required of the
poorest peasant. A second poll-tax in =1380= exacted no less than
three groats from every peasant, and from every one of his unmarried
children above the age of fifteen. In =1381= a tiler of Dartford in
Kent struck dead a collector who attempted to investigate his
daughter's age in an indecent fashion. His neighbours took arms to
protect him. In an incredibly short time the peasants of the east and
south of England rose in insurrection.
4. =The Peasants' Grievances.=--The peasants had other grievances
besides the weight of taxation thrown on them by a Parliament in which
they had no representatives. The landlords, finding it impossible to
compel the acceptance of the low wages provided for by the Statute of
Labourers (see p. 248), had attempted to help themselves in another
way. Before the Black Death the bodily service of villeins had been
frequently commuted into a payment of money which had been its fair
equivalent, but which, since the rise of wages consequent upon the
Black Death, could not command anything like the amount of labour
surrendered. The landlords in many places now declared the bargain to
have been unfair, and compelled the villeins to render once more the
old bodily service. The discontent which prevailed everywhere was
fanned not merely by the attacks made by Wycliffe's poor priests upon
the idle and inefficient clergy, but by itinerant preachers
unconnected with Wycliffe, who denounced the propertied classes in
general. One of these, John Ball, a notorious assailant of the gentry,
had been thrown into prison. His favourite question was--
When Adam delved and Eve span
Who was then a gentleman?
5. =The Peasants' Revolt. 1381.=--From one end of England to another
the revolt spread. The parks of the gentry were broken into, the deer
killed, the fish-ponds emptied. The court-rolls which testified to the
villeins' services were burnt, and lawyers and all others connected
with the courts were put to death without mercy. From Kent and Essex
100,000 enraged peasants, headed by Wat Tyler and Jack Straw, released
John Ball from gaol and poured along the roads to London. They hoped
to place the young Richard at their head against their enemies the
gentry. The boy was spirited enough, and in spite of his mother's
entreaties insisted on leaving the Tower, and being rowed across the
Thames to meet the insurgents on the Surrey shore. Those who were with
him, however, refused to allow him to land. The peasants had
sympathisers in London itself, who allowed them to break into the
city. Lancaster's palace of the Savoy and the houses of lawyers and
officials were sacked and burnt. All the lawyers who could be found
were murdered, and others who were not lawyers shared their fate. The
mob broke into the Tower, and beheaded Simon of Sudbury, Archbishop of
Canterbury, who had, as Chancellor, proposed the obnoxious taxes to
Parliament.
6. =The Suppression of the Revolt.=--The boy-king met the mob at
Mile-End, and promised to abolish villeinage in England. Charters of
manumission were drawn out and sealed, and a great part of the
insurgents returned contentedly home. About 30,000, however, remained
behind. When Richard came amongst them at Smithfield, Wat Tyler
threatened him, and Walworth, the Mayor of London, slew Wat Tyler with
his dagger. A shout for vengeance was raised. With astonishing
presence of mind Richard rode forward. "I am your king," he said; "I
will be your leader." His boldness inspired the insurgents with
confidence, and caused them to desist from their threats and to return
to their homes. In the country the gentry, encouraged by the failure
of the insurgents in London, recovered their courage. The insurrection
was everywhere vigorously suppressed. Richard ordered the payment of
all services due, and revoked the charters he had granted. The judges
on their circuits hanged the ringleaders without mercy. When
Parliament met it directed that the charters of manumission should be
cancelled. Lords and Commons alike stood up for the rich against the
poor, and the boy-king was powerless to resist them, and it is
possible that he did not wish to do so.
7. =Results of the Peasants' Revolt.=--The revolt of the peasants
strengthened the conservative spirit in the country. The villeinage
into which the peasants had been thrust back could not, indeed, endure
long, because service unwillingly rendered is too expensive to be
maintained. Men were, however, no longer in a mood to listen to
reformers. Great noblemen, whose right to the services of their
villeins had been denied, now made common cause with the great
churchmen. The propertied classes, lay and clerical, instinctively saw
that they must hang together. Wycliffe's attack on transubstantiation
finding little response, he was obliged to retire to his parsonage at
Lutterworth, where he laboured with his pen till his death in =1384=.
His followers, known by the nickname of Lollards,[22] were, however,
for some time still popular amongst the poorer classes.
[Footnote 22: The name is said to have been derived from a low
German word, _lollen_, to sing, from their habit of singing, but
their clerical opponents derived it from the Latin _lolium_ (tares),
as if they were the tares in the midst of the wheat which remained
constant to the Church.]
[Illustration: Portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer.]
8. =Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales.'=--A combination between the great
nobles and the higher clergy might, at the end of the fourteenth
century, meet with temporary success; but English society was too
diversified, and each separate portion of it was too closely linked to
the other to make it possible for the higher classes to tyrannise over
the others for any long time. What that society was like is best seen
in Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_. Chaucer was in many ways the exact
opposite of Langland, and was the precursor of modern literature as
Wycliffe was the precursor of modern religion. He was an inimitable
story-teller, with an eye which nothing could escape. He was ready to
take men as he found them, having no yearning for the purification of
a sinful world. Heroic examples of manly constancy and of womanly
purity and devotion, are mingled in his pages with coarse and ribald
tales; still, coarse and ribald as some of his narratives are, Chaucer
never attempts to make vice attractive. He takes it rather as a matter
of course, calling, not for reproof, but for laughter, whenever those
who are doing evil place themselves in ridiculous situations.
9. =The Prologue of the 'Canterbury Tales.'=--Whilst, however, there
is not one of the _Canterbury Tales_ which fails to bring vividly
before the reader one aspect or another of the life of Chaucer's day,
it is in the prologue that is especially found evidence of the close
connection which existed between different ranks of society. Men and
women of various classes are there represented as riding together on
a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury, and beguiling
the way by telling stories to one another. No baron, indeed, takes
part in the pilgrimage, and the villein class is represented by the
reeve, who was himself a person in authority, the mere cultivator of
the soil being excluded. Yet, within these limits, the whole circle of
society is admirably represented. The knight, just returned from deeds
of chivalry, is on the best of terms with the rough-spoken miller and
the reeve, whilst the clerk of Oxford, who would gladly learn and
gladly teach, and who followed in his own life those precepts which he
commended to his parishioners, has no irreconcilable quarrel with the
begging friar or with the official of the ecclesiastical courts, whose
only object is to make a gain of godliness.
[Illustration: A gentleman riding out with his hawk: from the Luttrell
Psalter.]
10. =Chaucer and the Clergy.=--In his representation of the clergy,
Chaucer shows that, like Langland, he had no reverence for the merely
official clergy. His "poor parson of a town," indeed, is a model for
all helpers and teachers. The parson is regardless of his own comfort,
ever ready to toil with mind and body for his parishioners, and, above
all, resolved to set them an example, knowing
That if gold ruste, what schulde yren doo?
For if a prest be foul, on whom we truste,
No wondur is a lewid man to ruste.[23]
[Footnote 23: _i.e._, if a priest, who is like gold, allow himself
to rust, or fall into sloth or sin, how can he expect the 'lewid
man' or layman, who is as iron to him, to be free from these
faults?]
The final character given to him is:--
A bettre preest I trowe ther nowher non is.
He waytud after no pompe ne reverence,
Ne maked him a spiced conscience;[24]
But Cristes lore, and his apostles twelve,
He taught, and ferst he folwed[25] it himselve.
[Footnote 24: A nice conscience; to see offence where there is
none.]
[Footnote 25: Followed.]
The majority amongst Chaucer's clergy are, however, of a very
different kind. There is the parish clerk, who, when he is waving the
censer in church thinks more of the pretty women there than of his
duty; the monk who loves hunting, and hates work and reading; the
friar who is ready to grant absolution to any one who will give money
to the friars; who has a word and a jest for every man, and presents
of knives and pins for the women; who takes a farthing where he cannot
get a penny, but turns aside from those who have not even a farthing
to give; the pardoner, who has for sale sham relics--a piece of the
sail of the ship which carried St. Peter on the sea of Galilee, and a
glass of pigs' bones, which he was ready to sell as bones of saints,
if he could thereby extract something even from the poorest widow. He
would not, he said, work with his hands like the apostles. He wanted
to have money, wool, cheese, and wheat at other people's expense.
Though Wycliffe had failed to reform the Church there was evidently
much room for a reformer.
[Illustration: Carrying corn--a cart going uphill: from the Luttrell
Psalter.]
11. =Roads and Bridges.=--Such men as these latter did not go on
pilgrimages through pure religious zeal. Villeins, indeed, were "bound
to the soil," and lived and died on land which they tilled; but the
classes above them moved about freely, and took pleasure in a
pilgrimage, as a modern Englishman takes pleasure in a railway
excursion. It was considered to be a pious work to make or repair
roads and bridges, and the existence of many bridges especially was
owing to the clergy. The most famous bridge in England, London Bridge,
had been begun in the place of an old wooden one in =1176=--in the
reign of Henry II.--by a priest, Peter Colechurch, who obtained gifts
for the purpose from notable people of all kinds. It was completed in
=1209=, houses being built upon it in order that their rents might pay
for keeping it in good condition. Local taxes were sometimes levied to
maintain the roads and bridges, and in default of these, it was held
to be the duty of the owners of land to keep the communications open.
[Illustration: State carriage of the fourteenth century: from the
Luttrell Psalter.]
12. =Modes of Conveyance.=--In spite of these precautions, roads were
often neglected, so that those who were not obliged to go on foot
travelled almost entirely on horseback, women almost always riding
astride like men. It was only at the end of the fourteenth century
that a few ladies rode sideways. Kings and queens and exceedingly
great people occasionally used lumbering but gorgeously ornamented
carriages; but this was to enable them to appear in splendour, as this
way of travelling must, at least in fine weather, have been far less
agreeable than the ordinary ride. The only other wheeled vehicles in
existence were the peasants' carts on two wheels, roughly made in the
form of a square box either of boards or of a lighter framework. It
was one of the grievances of the peasants that when the king moved
from one manor to another his purveyors seized their carts to carry
his property, and that though the purveyors were bound by frequently
repeated statutes to pay for their hire, these statutes were often
broken, and the carts sent back without payment for their use. The
same purveyors often took corn and other agricultural produce, for
which they paid little or nothing.
13. =Hospitality and Inns.=--When the king arrived in the evening at a
town his numerous attendants were billeted upon the townsmen, without
asking leave. Monasteries were always ready to offer hospitality to
himself or to any great person, and even to provide rougher fare for
the poorest stranger in a special guest-house provided for the
purpose. In castles, the owner was usually glad to see a stranger of
his own rank. The halls were still furnished with movable tables, as
in the days before the Conquest (see p. 76), and at night mattresses
were placed for persons of inferior rank on the floor, which was
strewn with rushes; whilst a stranger of high rank had usually a bed
in the solar (see p. 245) with the lord of the castle. Travellers of
the middle class were not thought good enough to be welcomed in
monasteries and castles, and were not poor enough to be received out
of charity; and for them inns were provided. These inns provided beds,
of which there were several in each room, and the guests then bought
their provisions and fuel from the host, instead of being charged for
their meals as is now the custom. From a manual of French
conversation, written at the end of the fourteenth century for the use
of Englishmen, it appears that cleanliness was not always to be found
in these inns. "William," one traveller is supposed to say to another,
"undress and wash your legs, and rub them well for the love of the
fleas, that they may not leap on your legs; for there is a peck of
them lying in the dust under the rushes.... Hi! the fleas bite me so,
and do me great harm, for I have scratched my shoulders till the blood
flows."
14. =Alehouses.=--By the roadside were alehouses for temporary
refreshment, known by a bunch of twigs at the end of a pole, from
which arose the saying that "Good wine needs no bush." The ale of the
day was made without hops, which were still unknown in England, and
ale would therefore only keep good for about five days.
15. =Wanderers.=--Besides the better class of travellers the roads
were frequented by wanderers of all kinds, quack doctors, minstrels,
jugglers, beggars, and such like. Life in the country was dull, and
even great lords took pleasure in amusements which are now only to be
heard of at country fairs. Any one who could play or sing was always
welcome, and the verses sung were often exceedingly coarse. A tumbler
who could stand on his head or balance a heavy article at the end of a
stick balanced on his chin, or the leader of a performing bear, was
seldom turned away from the door, whilst the pedlar went from place to
place, supplying the wants which are now satisfied in the shop of the
village or the neighbouring town.
[Illustration: Bear-baiting: from the Luttrell Psalter.]
16. =Robbers and Criminals.=--The roads, indeed, were not always safe.
Outlaws who had escaped from the punishment due to their crimes took
refuge in the broad tracts of forest land which occupied much of the
soil which has since been cultivated, shot the king's deer, and robbed
merchants and wealthy travellers, leaving the poor untouched, like the
legendary Robin Hood of an earlier date. Such robbers were highly
esteemed by the poor, as the law from which they suffered was cruelly
harsh, hanging being the penalty for thefts amounting to a shilling.
Villeins who fled from service could be reclaimed by their masters,
unless they could succeed in passing a year in a town, and
consequently were often found amongst vagabonds who had to live as
best they might, often enough by committing fresh crimes. Prisons, in
which even persons guilty of no more than harmless vagabondage were
confined, reeked with disease, and those who were, as wanderers or
drunkards, put in the stocks, had, if an unpleasant, at least a less
dangerous experience than the prisoner. One means of escape, indeed,
was available to some, at least, of these unfortunates. They could
take refuge in the sanctuaries to be found in churches, from which no
officer of the law could take them, and, though the Church preserved
some guilty ones from just punishment, she also saved many who were
either innocent or who were exposed to punishments far too severe for
their slight offences.
[Illustration: West end of the nave of Winchester Cathedral: begun by
Bishop Edington (who built the great window) between 1360 and 1366:
carried on by Bishop William of Wykeham from 1394 to 1416, and finally
completed after his death.]
17. =Justices of the Peace.=--Even harshness is less dangerous than
anarchy, and from time to time measures were taken to provide against
anarchy. Before the Conquest order had been kept by making either the
kindred or the township liable to produce offenders, and this system
was maintained by the Norman kings. In the time of Richard I. all men
were required to swear to keep the peace, to avoid crime, and to join
in the hue and cry in pursuit of criminals. In the time of Henry III.
persons called guardians of the peace were occasionally appointed to
see that order was kept, and at the accession of Edward III. these
officials were established for a time by Act of Parliament as
conservators of the peace. In =1360=, the year of the Treaty of
Bretigni, they were permanently continued, and the name of Justices of
the Peace was given to them. They were to keep the peace in each
county, and their number was to be made up of a lord, three or four
gentlemen, and a lawyer, who was in those days always a cleric.[26]
They were to seize and imprison, and even to try persons accused of
crime. The king named these justices, but he had to name all of them
except the lawyer from amongst the local landowners. In every way, in
the fourteenth century, the chief local landowners were becoming
prominent. The kings attempted to govern with their help, both in
Parliament and in the counties.
[Footnote 26: Many clerics took one of the minor orders so as to
secure the immunities of the clergy, without any intention of being
ordained a deacon or a priest.]
CHAPTER XVIII.
RICHARD II. AND THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION.
1382--1399.
LEADING DATES
Reign of Richard II., 1377--1399
The impeachment of Suffolk 1386
The Merciless Parliament 1388
Richard begins his constitutional government 1389
Richard's coup-d'état 1397
Deposition of Richard 1399
1. =Progress of the War with France. 1382--1386.=--In =1382= Richard
at the early age of fifteen was married to Anne of Bohemia. Though he
was a young husband he was at all events old enough to be accused of
disasters which he could not avoid. Not only was the war with France
not prospering, but English influence was declining in Flanders. In
=1382= Philip van Arteveldt, who like his father Jacob (see p. 235)
headed the resistance of Ghent against the Count of Flanders, was
defeated and slain at Roosebeke by Charles VI., the young king of
France. In =1383= an English expedition led by Henry Spencer, Bishop
of Norwich, under the pretext of a crusade against the French as the
followers of the Pope of Avignon, ended in complete failure, and
Flanders, the great purchaser of English wool, fell under the control
of France. In =1385= Richard, indeed, invaded Scotland, ravaged the
country and burnt Edinburgh, though without producing any permanent
result. In =1386= a French fleet and army was gathered at Sluys, and
an invasion of England was threatened.
2. =Richard's growing Unpopularity. 1385--1386.=--When the king
returned from Scotland in =1385= he made a large creation of peers. He
raised his two younger uncles to the Dukedoms of York and Gloucester;
his Chancellor, Michael de la Pole, to the earldom of Suffolk, and his
favourite, Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, to the marquisate of
Dublin, making him not long afterwards Duke of Ireland. Suffolk was an
able and apparently an honest administrator, who upheld the king's
prerogative against the encroachments of Parliament. Oxford was a gay
and heedless companion of Richard's pleasures, who encouraged him in
unnecessary expense, and thereby provoked to resistance those who
might have put up with an extension of the royal authority. That
resistance, however, was to a great extent due to causes not of
Richard's own making. Though the French in =1386= abandoned their
attempt at invasion, the preparations to resist them had been costly,
and Englishmen were in an unreasonable mood. Things, they said, had
not gone so in the days of Edward III. A cry for reform and
retrenchment, for more victories and less expense, was loudly raised.
3. =The Impeachment of Suffolk and the Commission of Regency.
1386.=--The discontented found a leader in Gloucester, the youngest of
the king's uncles. Wealthy, turbulent, and ambitious, he put himself
at the head of all who had a grievance against the king. Lancaster had
just sailed for Spain to prosecute a claim in right of his second wife
to the throne of Castile, and as York was without ambition, Gloucester
had it all his own way. Under his guidance a Parliament demanded the
dismissal of Richard's ministers, and, on his refusal, impeached
Suffolk. Suffolk, though probably innocent of the charges brought
against him, was condemned and driven from power, and Commissioners of
regency were appointed for a year to regulate the realm and the king's
household, as the Lords Ordainers had done in the days of Edward II.
(see p. 226).
4. =The Lords Appellant and the Merciless Parliament. 1387--1388.=--In
one way the Commissioners of regency satisfied the desire of
Englishmen. In =1387= they sent the Earl of Arundel to sea, and
Arundel won a splendid victory over a combined fleet of French,
Flemings, and Spaniards. Richard, on the other hand, fearing that they
would prolong their power when their year of office was ended,
consulted upon the legality of the commission with the judges in the
presence of Suffolk and others of his principal supporters, amongst
whom was the Duke of Ireland. With one voice the judges declared that
Parliament might not put the king in tutelage. Richard then made
preparations to prevent by force the renewal of the commission, and to
punish as traitors those who had originated it. His intention got
abroad, and five lords, the Duke of Gloucester, the Earls of Arundel,
Nottingham, Warwick, and Derby, the latter being the son of the absent
Lancaster, appeared at the head of an overwhelming force against him.
The five lords appellant, as they were called, appealed, or accused of
treason five of Richard's councillors before a Parliament which met at
Westminster in =1388=, by flinging down their gloves as a token that
they were ready to prove the truth of their charge in single combat.
The Duke of Ireland, attempting resistance, was defeated by Derby at
Radcot Bridge, and finally escaped to Ireland. The Parliament, called
by its admirers the Wonderful, and by its opponents the Merciless
Parliament, was entirely subservient to the lords appellant, who,
instead of meeting their antagonists in single combat, accused them
before the House of Lords. The Duke of Ireland, Suffolk, Chief Justice
Tresilian, and Brember, who had been Mayor of London, were condemned
to be hanged. The two first-named had escaped to the Continent, but
the others were put to death. The fifth councillor, the Archbishop of
York, escaped with virtual deprivation by the Pope. Four other
knights, amongst them Sir Simon Burley, a veteran soldier and trusted
companion of the Black Prince, were also put to death. Richard was
allowed nominally to retain the crown, but in reality he was subjected
to a council in which Gloucester and his adherents were supreme.
5. =Richard's Restoration to Power. 1389.=--Richard's entire
submission turned the scale in his favour. England had been
dissatisfied with him, but it had never loved the rule of the great
feudal lords. Gloucester's council was no more popular than had been
the Committees named in the Provisions of Oxford in the reign of Henry
III., or the Lords Ordainers in the reign of Edward II., and it fell
more easily than any government, before or afterwards. Suddenly, on
May 3, =1389=, Richard asked his uncle in full council how old he was.
"Your highness," replied Gloucester, "is in your twenty-second year."
"Then," said Richard, "I must be old enough to manage my own affairs,
as every heir is at liberty to do when he is twenty-one." No attempt
having been made to confute this argument, Richard dismissed the
council, and ruled once more in person.
6. =Richard's Constitutional Government. 1389--1396.=--This sudden
blow was followed by seven years of constitutional government. It
seemed as if Richard had solved the problem of the relations between
Crown and Parliament, which had perplexed so many generations of
Englishmen. In =1389= he appointed ministers at his own pleasure, but
when Parliament met in =1390= he commanded them to lay down their
offices in order that no one should be deterred from bringing charges
against them; and it was only upon finding that no one had any
complaint to bring against them that he restored them to their posts.
Nor did he show any signs of irritation against those by whom he had
been outraged. Not only did he forbear to recall Suffolk and his other
exiled favourites, but after a little time he admitted Gloucester and
his supporters to sit in council alongside of his own adherents.
7. =Livery and Maintenance. 1390.=--During the fourteenth century the
importance of the House of Commons had been steadily growing, and the
king on the one hand and the great nobles on the other had been sorely
tempted to influence the elections unduly. The means of doing so had
come with a change in civil relationships, the natural result of that
change in military relationships which had given a new character to
the wars of Edward III. (see p. 236). Just as the king now fought with
paid soldiers of every rank instead of fighting with vassals bound by
feudal tenure, so the great nobles surrounded themselves with
retainers instead of vassals. The vassal had been on terms of social
equality with his lord, and was bound to follow him on fixed terms.
The retainer was an inferior, who was taken into service and professed
himself ready to fight for his lord at all times and in all causes. In
return his lord kept open house for his retainers, supplied them with
coats, known as liveries, marked with his badge, and undertook to
maintain them against all men, either by open force or by supporting
them in their quarrels in the law courts; and this maintenance, as it
was called, was seldom limited to the mere payment of expenses. The
lord, by the help of his retainers, could bully witnesses and jurors,
and wrest justice to the profit of the wrongdoer. As yet, indeed, the
practice had not attained the proportions which it afterwards assumed,
but it was sufficiently developed to draw down upon it in =1390= a
statute prohibiting maintenance and the granting of liveries. Such a
statute was not merely issued in defence of private persons against
intimidation; it also helped to protect the Crown against the violence
of the great lords. The growth of the power of the House of Commons
was a good thing as long as the House of Commons represented the
wishes of the community. It would be a bad thing if it merely
represented knots of armed retainers who either voted in their own
names according to the orders of their lords, or who frightened away
those who came to vote for candidates whom their lords opposed.
8. =Richard's Domestic Policy. 1390--1391.=--It was therefore well for
the community that there should be a strong and wise king capable of
making head against the ambition of the lords. For some years Richard
showed himself wise. Not only did he seek, by opening the council to
his opponents, to win over the lords to take part in the peaceable
government of the country instead of disturbing it, but he forwarded
legislation which carried out the general wishes of the country. The
Statute of Provisors (see p. 258) was re-enacted and strengthened in
=1390=, the Statute of Mortmain (see p. 212) in =1391=, and the
Statute of Præmunire (see p. 258) in =1393=.
9. =Richard's Foreign Policy. 1389--1396.=--Richard's foreign policy
was based upon a French alliance. In =1389= he made a truce with
France for three years. Negotiations for a permanent peace were
frustrated because the French would make no peace unless Calais were
surrendered to them, and English feeling was against the surrender of
the claims sanctioned by the Treaty of Bretigni. The truce was,
however, prolonged from time to time, and in =1396=, when Richard, who
was by that time a widower, married Isabella, the daughter of Charles
VI., a child of eight, it was prolonged for twenty-eight years. Wise
as this policy was, it was distasteful to Englishmen, and their
dissatisfaction rose when they learnt that Richard had surrendered
Brest and Cherbourg to the French. It was true that these places had
been pledged to him for money, and that he had only given them up as
he was bound to do when the money was paid, but his subjects drew no
fine distinctions, and fancied that he was equally ready to surrender
Calais and Bordeaux.
10. =Richard's Coup d'État. 1397.=--Richard knew that Gloucester was
ready to avail himself of any widespread dissatisfaction, and that he
had recently been allying himself with Lancaster against him. To
please Lancaster, who had married his mistress, Catherine Swynford, as
his third wife, Richard had legitimatised the Beauforts, his children
by her, for all purposes except the succession of the crown, thus
giving personal offence to Gloucester. Lancaster's son Derby, and
Nottingham, another of the lords appellant (see p. 279), were now
favourable to the king, and when rumours reached Richard that
Gloucester was plotting against him, he resolved to anticipate the
blow. He arrested the three of the lords appellant whom he still
distrusted, Gloucester, Warwick, and Arundel, and charged them before
Parliament, not with recent malpractices, of which he had probably no
sufficient proof, but with the slaughter of his ministers in the days
of the Merciless Parliament. Warwick was banished to the Isle of Man,
Arundel was executed, and Gloucester imprisoned at Calais, where he
was secretly murdered, as was generally believed by the order of the
king. Archbishop Arundel, brother of the Earl of Arundel, was also
banished. In such contradiction was this sudden outburst of violence
to the prudence of Richard's recent conduct, that it has sometimes
been supposed that, he had been dissimulating all the time. It is more
probable that, without being actually insane, his mind had to some
extent given way. He was always excitable, and in his better days his
alertness of mind carried him forward to swift decisions, as when he
met the mob at Smithfield, and when he vindicated his authority from
the restraint of his uncle. Signs had not been wanting that his native
energy was no longer balanced by the restraints of prudence. In =1394=
he had actually struck Arundel in Westminster Abbey. In =1397= there
was much to goad him to hasty and ill-considered action. The year
before complaints had been raised against the extravagance of his
household. The peace which he had given to his country was made the
subject of bitter reproach against him, and he seems to have believed
that Gloucester was plotting to bring him back into the servitude to
which he had been subjected by the Commissioners of regency.
11. =The Parliament of Shrewsbury. 1398.=--Whether Richard was mad or
not, he at all events acted like a madman. In =1398= he summoned a
packed Parliament to Shrewsbury, which declared all the acts of the
Merciless Parliament to be null and void, and announced that no
restraint could legally be put on the king. It then delegated all
parliamentary power to a committee of twelve lords and six commoners
chosen from the king's friends. Richard was thus made an absolute
ruler unbound by the necessity of gathering a Parliament again. He had
freed himself not merely from turbulent lords but also from all
constitutional restraints.
12. =The Banishment of Hereford and Norfolk. 1398.=--Richard had shown
favour to the two lords appellant who had taken his side. Derby became
Duke of Hereford, and Nottingham Duke of Norfolk. Before long Hereford
came to the king with a strange tale. Norfolk, he said, had complained
to him that the king still distrusted them, and had suggested that
they should guard themselves against him. Norfolk denied the truth of
the story, and Richard ordered the two to prove their truthfulness by
a single combat at Coventry. When the pair met in the lists in full
armour Richard stopped the fight, and to preserve peace, as he said,
banished Norfolk for life and Hereford for ten years, a term which was
soon reduced to six. There was something of the unwise cunning of a
madman in the proceeding.
13. =Richard's Despotism. 1398--1399.=--Richard, freed from all
control, was now, in every sense of the word, despotic. He extorted
money without a semblance of right, and even compelled men to put
their seals to blank promises to pay, which he could fill up with any
sum he pleased. He too, like the lords, gathered round him a vast
horde of retainers, who wore his badge and ill-treated his subjects
at their pleasure. He threatened the Percies, the Earl of
Northumberland and his son, Harry Hotspur, with exile, and sent them
off discontented to their vast possessions in the North. Early in
=1399= the Duke of Lancaster died. His son, the banished Hereford, was
now Duke of Lancaster. Richard, however, seized the lands which ought
to have descended to him from his father. Every man who had property
to lose felt that Lancaster's cause was his own. Richard at this
inopportune moment took occasion to sail to Ireland. He had been there
once before in =1394= in the vain hope of protecting the English
colonists (see p. 265). His first expedition had been a miserable
failure: his second expedition was cut short by bad news from England.
[Illustration: Meeting of Henry of Lancaster and Richard II. at Flint:
from Harl. MS. 1319.]
14. =Henry of Lancaster in England. 1399.=--Lancaster, with a small
force, landed at Ravenspur, in Yorkshire, a harbour which has now
disappeared in the sea. At first he gave out that he had come merely
to demand his own inheritance. Then he alleged that he had come to
redress the wrongs of the realm. Northumberland brought the Percies to
his help. Armed men flocked to his support in crowds. The Duke of
York, who had been left behind by Richard as regent, accepted this
statement and joined him with all his forces. When Richard heard what
had happened, he sent the Earl of Salisbury from Ireland to Wales to
summon the Welshmen to his aid. The Welshmen rallied to Salisbury, but
the king was long in following, and when Richard landed they had all
dispersed. Richard found himself almost alone in Conway Castle, whilst
Lancaster had a whole kingdom at his back.
[Illustration: Henry of Lancaster claiming the throne: from Harl. MS.
1319.]
15. =The Deposition of Richard and the Enthronement of Henry IV.
1399.=--By lying promises Lancaster induced Richard to place himself
in his power at Flint. "My lord," said Lancaster to him, "I have now
come before you have sent for me. The reason is that your people
commonly say you have ruled them very rigorously for twenty or two and
twenty years; but, if it please God, I will help you to govern
better." The pretence of helping the king to govern was soon
abandoned. Richard was carried to London and thrown into the Tower. He
consented, probably not till after he had been threatened with the
fate of Edward II., to sign his abdication. On the following morning
the act of abdication was read in Parliament. The throne was empty
Then Lancaster stepped forward. "In the name," he said, "of the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I, Henry of Lancaster, challenge this
realm of England, and the crown with all its members and
appurtenances, as I am descended by right line of the blood coming
from the good lord King Henry the Third,[27] and through that right
God of his grace hath sent me, with help of my kin and of my friends,
to recover it, the which realm was in point to be undone for default
of governance and undoing of the good laws." The assent of Parliament
was given, and Lancaster took his seat in Richard's throne as King
Henry IV.
[Footnote 27: Genealogy of the claimants of the throne in 1399:--
HENRY III.
1216-1272
|
---------------------------------
| |
EDWARD I. Edmund
1272-1307 |
| ----------------------
| | |
EDWARD II. Thomas, Henry,
1307-1327 Earl of Lancaster Earl of Lancaster
| |
EDWARD III |
1327-1377 |
| |
-------------------- |
| | Henry, Duke of Lancaster
Edward, Lionel, |
the Black Prince Duke of Clarence Blanche = John of Gaunt,
| | | Duke of
RICHARD II. Philippa = Edmund Mortimer, | Lancaster
1377-1399 | Earl of March |
| |
Roger Mortimer, HENRY IV.
Earl of March 1399-1413
|
Edmund Mortimer,
Earl of March]
[Illustration: Effigy of a knight at Clehonger, showing development of
plate armour. Date, about 1400.]
16. =Nature of the Claim of Henry IV.=--The claim which Henry put
forward would certainly not bear investigation. It laid stress on
right of descent, and it has since been thought that Henry intended to
refer to a popular belief that his ancestor Edmund, the second son of
Henry III., was in reality the eldest son, but had been set aside in
favour of his younger brother, Edward I., on account of a supposed
physical deformity from which he was known as Edmund Crouchback. As a
matter of fact the whole story was a fable, and the name Crouchback
had been given to Edmund not because his back was crooked, but because
he had worn a cross on his back as a crusader (see p. 197). That Henry
should have thought it necessary to allude to this story, if such was
really his meaning, shows the hold which the idea of hereditary
succession had taken on the minds of Englishmen. In no other way could
he claim hereditary right as a descendant of Henry III. Richard had
selected as his heir Roger Mortimer, the son of the daughter of
Lionel, Duke of Clarence, the next son of Edward III., after the Black
Prince, who lived to be old enough to have children. Roger Mortimer,
indeed, had recently been killed in Ireland, but he had left a boy,
Edmund Mortimer, who, on hereditary principles, was heir to the
kingdom, unless the doctrine announced by Edward III. that a claim to
the crown descended through females was to be set aside. In fact the
real importance of the change of kings lay not in what Henry said, but
in what he avoided saying. It was a reversion to the old right of
election, and to the precedent set in the deposition of Edward II.
Henry tacitly announced that in critical times, when the wearer of the
crown was hopelessly incompetent, the nation, represented by
Parliament, might step in and change the order of succession. The
question at issue was not merely a personal one between Richard and
Henry. It was a question between hereditary succession leading to
despotism on the one side, and to parliamentary choice, perhaps to
anarchy, on the other. That there were dangers attending the latter
solution of the constitutional problem would not be long in appearing.
_Books recommended for further study of Part III._
GREEN, J. R. History of the English People. Vol. i. pp. 189-520.
STUBBS, W. (Bishop of Oxford). Constitutional History of England. Vol.
i. chap. xii. sections 151-155; vol. ii. chaps. ix. and x.
---- The Early Plantagenets, 129-276.
NORGATE, Miss K. England under the Angevin Kings. Vol. ii. p. 390.
MICHELET, J. History of France (Middle Ages). Translated by G. H.
Smith.
LONGMAN, W. The History of the Life and Times of Edward III.
GAIRDNER, James. The Houses of Lancaster and York, pp. 1-64.
ROGERS, James E. Thorold. A History of Agriculture and Prices in
England. Vols. i. and ii.
CUNNINGHAM, W. Growth of English Industry and Commerce in the Early
and Middle Ages, pp. 172-365.
WAKEMAN, H. O. and HASSALL, A. (Editors). Essays Introductory to the
Study of English Constitutional History.
ASHLEY, W. J. An Introduction to English Economic History and Theory.
Vol. i.
JUSSERAND, J. J. English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages. Translated
by Lucy Toulmin Smith (Miss).
BROWNE, M. Chaucer's England.
JESSOPP, A., Dr. The Coming of the Friars, and other Historic Essays.
OMAN, C. W. C. The Art of War in the Middle Ages.
ADAMS, G. B. The Political History of England. Vol. ii. From the
Norman Conquest to the Death of John (1066-1216).
TOUT, T. F. The Political History of England. Vol. iii. From the
Accession of Henry III. to the Death of Edward III. (1216-1377).
OMAN, C. The Political History of England. Vol. iv. From the Accession
of Richard II. to the Death of Richard III. (1377-1485).
PART IV.
_LANCASTER, YORK, AND TUDOR._ =1399--1509.=
CHAPTER XIX.
HENRY IV. AND HENRY V.
HENRY IV., =1399--1413=. HENRY V., =1413--1422=.
LEADING DATES
Accession of Henry IV. 1399
Statute for the burning of heretics 1401
Battle of Shrewsbury 1403
Fight at Bramham Moor 1408
Succession of Henry V. 1413
Battle of Agincourt 1415
Treaty of Troyes 1420
Death of Henry V. 1422
1. =Henry's First Difficulties. 1399--1400.=--Henry IV. fully
understood that his only chance of maintaining himself on the throne
was to rule with due consideration for the wishes of Parliament. His
main difficulty, like that of his predecessor, was that the great
lords preferred to hold their own against him individually with the
help of their armies of retainers, instead of exercising political
power in Parliament. In his first Parliament an angry brawl arose. The
lords who in the last reign had taken the side of Gloucester flung
their gloves on the floor of the House as a challenge to those who had
supported Richard when he compassed Gloucester's death; and though
Henry succeeded in keeping the peace for the time, a rebellion broke
out early in =1400= in the name of Richard. Henry, like the kings
before him, found his support against the turbulent nobles in the
townsmen and the yeomen, and he was thus able to suppress the
rebellion. Some of the noblemen who were caught by the excited
defenders of the throne were butchered without mercy and without law.
[Illustration: Henry IV. and his queen, Joan of Navarre: from their
tomb in Canterbury Cathedral.]
2. =Death of Richard II. 1400.=--A few weeks after the suppression of
this conspiracy it was rumoured that Richard had died in prison at
Pontefract. According to Henry's account of the matter he had
voluntarily starved himself to death. Few, however, doubted that he
had been put to death by Henry's orders. To prove the untruth of this
story, Henry had the body brought to St. Paul's, where he showed to
the people only the face of the corpse, as if this could be any
evidence whatever. After Richard's death, if hereditary succession had
been regarded, the person having a claim to the crown in preference to
Henry was the young Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, the descendant of
Lionel, Duke of Clarence (see p. 287). Henry therefore took care to
keep the boy under custody during the whole of his reign.
[Illustration: Royal arms as borne by Henry IV. after about 1408, and
by successive sovereigns down to 1603.]
3. =Henry IV. and the Church.=--Besides seeking the support of the
commonalty, Henry sought the support of the Church. Since the rise of
the friars at the beginning of the thirteenth century (see p. 191) the
Church had produced no new orders of monks or friars. In the
thirteenth and fourteenth she produced the schoolmen, a succession of
great thinkers who systematised her moral and religious teaching.
Imagining that she had no more to learn, she now attempted to
strengthen herself by persecuting those who disbelieved her teaching,
and after the suppression of the revolt of the peasants, made common
cause with the landlords, who feared pecuniary loss from the
emancipation of the villeins. This conservative alliance against
social and religious change was the more easily made because many of
the bishops were now members of noble families, instead of springing,
as had usually been the case in the better days of the mediæval
Church, from poor or middle-class parentage. In the reign of Richard
II. a Courtenay, a kinsman of the Earl of Devonshire, had become first
Bishop of London (see p. 263), and then Archbishop of Canterbury. He
was succeeded in his archbishopric by an Arundel, brother of the Earl
of Arundel who had been executed by Richard, and Archbishop Arundel
was in the days of Henry IV. the spokesman of the clergy.
[Illustration: Thomas Cranley, Archbishop of Dublin, 1397-1417: from
his brass at New College, Oxford. Showing the archiepiscopal
mass-vestments and the cross and pall. Date, about 1400.]
4. =The Statute for the Burning of Heretics. 1401.=--In =1401= the
clergy cried aloud for new powers. The ecclesiastical courts could
condemn men as heretics, but had no power to burn them. Bishops and
abbots formed the majority of the House of Lords, and though the
Commons had not lost that craving for the wealth of the Church which
had distinguished John of Gaunt's party, they had no sympathy with
heresy. Accordingly the statute for the burning of heretics (_De
hæretico comburendo_), the first English law for the suppression of
religious opinion, was passed with the ready consent of the king and
both Houses. The first victim was William Sawtre, a priest who held,
amongst other things, "that after the words of consecration in the
Eucharist the bread remains bread, and nothing more." He was burnt by
a special order from the king and council even before the new law had
been enacted.
5. =Henry IV. and Owen Glendower. 1400--1402.=--If Henry found it
difficult to maintain order in England, he found it still more
difficult to keep the peace on the borders of Wales. In =1400= an
English nobleman, Lord Grey of Ruthyn, seized on an estate belonging
to Owen Glendower, a powerful Welsh gentleman. Owen Glendower called
the Welsh to arms, ravaged Lord Grey's lands, and proclaimed himself
Prince of Wales. For some years Wales was practically independent.
English townsmen and yeomen were ready to support Henry against any
sudden attempt of the nobility to crush him with their retainers, but
they were unwilling to bear the burden of taxation needed for the
steady performance of a national task. In the meanwhile Henry was
constantly exposed to secret plots. In =1401= he found an iron with
four spikes in his bed. In the autumn of =1402= he led an expedition
into Wales, but storms of rain and snow forced him back. His English
followers attributed the disaster to the evil spirits which, as they
fully believed, were at the command of the wizard Glendower.
6. =The Rebellion of the Percies. 1402--1404.=--The Scots were not
forgetful of the advantages to be derived from the divisions of
England. They had amongst them some one--whoever he may have
been--whom they gave out to be King Richard, and when Henry marched
against Wales in =1402= they invaded England. They were met by the
Percies and defeated at Homildon Hill. The Percies had still something
of the enormous power of the feudal barons of the eleventh century.
Their family estates stretched over a great part of Northumberland,
and as they were expected to shield England against Scottish invasions
they were obliged to keep up a military retinue which might be
employed against the king as well as in his service. It was mainly
through their aid that Henry had seated himself on the throne. Their
chief, the Earl of Northumberland, and his brother, the Earl of
Worcester, were aged men, but Northumberland's son, Henry Percy--Harry
Hotspur as he was usually called--was of a fiery temper, and
disinclined to submit to insult. Hotspur's wife was a Mortimer, and
her brother, Sir Edmund Mortimer, the uncle of the young Earl of
March, had been taken prisoner by Glendower. It was noticed that
Henry, who had ransomed other prisoners, took no steps to ransom
Mortimer, and it was believed that he was in no hurry to set free one
whose hereditary claim to the crown, like that of the Earl of March,
came before his own. Other causes contributed to irritate the Percies,
and in =1403=, bringing with them as allies the Scottish prisoners
whom they had taken at Homildon Hill, they marched southwards against
Henry. Southern England might not be ready adequately to support Henry
in an invasion of Wales, but it was in no mood to allow him to be
dethroned by the Percies. It rallied to his side, and enabled him
signally to defeat the Percies at Shrewsbury. Hotspur was killed in
the fight, and his uncle, the Earl of Worcester, being captured, was
beheaded without delay. Northumberland, who was not present at the
battle, was committed to prison in =1404=, but was pardoned on promise
of submission.
[Illustration: The battle of Shrewsbury: from the "Life of Richard
Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick;" drawn by John Rous about 1485.]
7. =The Commons and the Church. 1404.=--After such a deliverance the
Commons could not but grant some supplies. In the autumn of =1404=,
however, they pleaded for the confiscation of the revenues of the
higher clergy, which were sufficient, as they alleged, to support 15
earls, 1,500 knights, 6,200 esquires, and 100 hospitals as well. The
king refused to listen to the proposal, and money was voted in the
ordinary way. It was the first deliberate attempt to meet the growing
expenditure of the Crown by the confiscation of ecclesiastical
revenue.
8. =The Capture of the Scottish Prince. 1405.=--Early in =1405= Henry
was threatened with a fresh attack. Charles VI. of France was now a
confirmed lunatic, and his authority had mainly fallen into the hands
of his brother Louis, Duke of Orleans, a profligate and unscrupulous
man who was regarded by the feudal nobility of France as their leader.
The Duke of Orleans refused to consider himself bound to Henry by the
truce which had been made with Richard, and, forming an alliance with
Owen Glendower, prepared to send a fleet to his aid. When there was
war between England and France the Scots seldom remained quiet, but
this time Henry was freed from that danger by an unexpected
occurrence. The reigning King of Scotland was Robert III., whose
father, Robert II., had been the first king of the House of Stuart,
and had ascended the throne after the death of David Bruce, as being
the son of his sister Margaret.[28] Robert III., weakly in mind and
body, had committed to the custody of his brother, the Duke of Albany,
his eldest son, the Duke of Rothesay, who had gained an evil name by
his scandalous debauchery. Rothesay died in the prison in which his
uncle had confined him, and popular rumour alleged that Albany had
murdered him to clear the way to the throne. Robert now sent young
James, his only surviving son, to be educated in France in order to
save him from Albany's machinations. On his way the prince was
captured by an English ship, and delivered to Henry, who kept him
under guard as a hostage for the peaceful behaviour of his countrymen.
The prince, he said, should have been sent to him to be educated, as
he could talk French as well as the king of France. When Robert died
soon afterwards the captive became King James I.; but he was not
allowed to return home, and Albany ruled Scotland as regent in his
name.
[Footnote 28: Genealogy of the kings of Scotland from Robert Bruce
to James I.:--
ROBERT I., Bruce
(1306-1329)
|
------------------------------
| |
DAVID II. Margaret = Walter Stewart
(1329-1370) |
ROBERT II., Stewart or Stuart
(1370-1390)
|
|--------------
| |
ROBERT III. Robert, Duke
(1390-1406) of Albany
|
--------------------|
| |
David, JAMES I.
Duke of Rothesay (1406-1437)]
9. =The Execution of Archbishop Scrope. 1405.=--The capture of such a
hostage as James was the more valuable to Henry as at that very moment
there was a fresh rising in the North, in which Scrope, the Archbishop
of York, took a leading part. The insurgents were soon dispersed, and
both Archbishop Scrope and Mowbray, the Earl Marshal, were captured.
Henry had them both beheaded, though neither were tried by their
peers, and ecclesiastics were not punishable by a secular court.
Knowing that the insurrection had been contrived by Northumberland,
Henry gave himself no rest till he had demolished the fortifications
of his castles of Alnwick, Warkworth, and Prudhoe. Northumberland
himself escaped to Scotland.
10. =France, Wales, and the North. 1405--1408.=--In =1405=, whilst
Henry was in the North, a French fleet landed a force in Wales and
seized Carmarthen. In =1406= the Duke of Orleans attacked the
possessions still held by the English in Guienne, but though he
plundered the country he could do no more. Once again fortune relieved
Henry of a dangerous enemy. The Duke of Orleans had a rival in his
cousin John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, who, in addition to his
own duchy and county of Burgundy, was ruler of Flanders through his
mother. His wise and firm government attached the manufacturing towns
of Flanders to him, and the example of his government in Flanders won
him favour in Paris and other French towns, especially in the north of
France. He was, however, personally brutal and unscrupulous, and
having entered into a competition for power with the Duke of Orleans,
he had him murdered in =1407= in the streets of Paris. At once a civil
war broke out between the Burgundian party, supported by the towns,
and the Orleans party, which rested on the feudal nobility, and was
now termed the party of the Armagnacs, from the Count of Armagnac, its
chief leader after the murder of the Duke of Orleans. Henry had no
longer to fear invasion from France. In =1408= he was freed from yet
another enemy. The old Earl of Northumberland, who had wandered from
Scotland to Wales, now wandered north again to try his fortunes in his
own country. As he passed through Yorkshire he was met by the sheriff
of the county, and defeated and slain on Bramham Moor. At the same
time South Wales fell again under the power of the king, and though
Owen Glendower still continued to hold out in the mountainous region
round Snowdon, his power rapidly declined.
[Illustration: Fight in the lists with poleaxes between Richard
Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and Sir Pandolf Malatesta, at Verona,
_temp._ Henry IV.: from the "Life of Richard, Earl of Warwick;" drawn
by John Rous about 1485.]
11. =Henry, Prince of Wales. 1409--1410.=--No one had been more
helpful to the king in these wars than his son, Henry, Prince of
Wales. He had fought at Shrewsbury and in Wales, and had learnt to
command as well as to fight. Young as he was--in =1409= he was but
twenty-two--he was already seen to be a man born to have the mastery.
He took his place in his father's council as well as in his armies in
the field. He was skilful, resolute, always knowing his own mind,
prompt to act as each occasion arose. He was, moreover, unfeignedly
religious. It seemed as if a king as great as Edward I. was about to
ascend the throne. Yet between the character of Edward I. and the
character of Prince Henry there was a great difference. Edward I.
worked for the future as well as for the present. His constructive
legislation served his country for generations after his death. Even
his mistaken attempt to unite England and Scotland was, to some extent
at least, an anticipation of that which was done by the Act of Union
four hundred years after his death. The young Henry had no such power
of building for the future. He worked for the present alone, and his
work crumbled away almost as soon as he was in his grave. His ideas
were the ordinary ideas of his age, and he never originated any of his
own. In =1410=, when a heretic, Badby, was led to be burnt, the Prince
in vain urged him to recant. As the flames blazed up, the poor wretch,
stung by the torment, cried for mercy. The Prince bade the
executioners drag away the blazing faggots, and offered Badby support
for his lifetime if he would abandon his heresy. Badby refused, and
the Prince sternly ordered the executioners to push the faggots back
and to finish their cruel work. In that very year the House of
Commons, which was again urging the king to confiscate the revenues of
the clergy, even urged him also to soften the laws against the
Lollards. The king refused, and he had no opposition to fear from the
Prince of Wales.
[Illustration: Costume of a judge, about 1400: from the brass of Sir
John Cassy, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, at Deerhurst,
Gloucestershire.]
12. =The Last Years of Henry IV. 1411--1413.=--It was not long before
a bitter quarrel broke out between Henry IV. and his son, which lasted
till the death of the old man. In later times stories were told how
Prince Henry gave himself up to the society of low and debauched
companions, how he amused himself by robbing the receivers of his own
rents, and how, having struck Chief Justice Gascoigne for sitting in
judgment on one of his unruly followers, he was sent to prison for
contempt of court. There is no real evidence in support of these
stories; but there is good reason to believe that, though they were
certainly exaggerated, they were not altogether without foundation.
Since =1410= the Prince kept house in the heart of London, and, as a
young and active man suddenly called from service in the field to live
in the midst of the temptations of a city, he may very well have
developed a taste for boisterous amusements, even if he did not fall
into grosser forms of dissipation. It is certain that during this
period of his life he ran deeply into debt, and was no longer on good
terms with his father. Yet even the story about the Chief Justice goes
on to say that the Prince took his punishment meekly and offered no
resistance, and that his father thanked God that he had so upright a
judge and so obedient a son. Political disagreement probably widened
the breach between the King and the Prince. Henry IV. had grown
accustomed to live from hand to mouth, and had maintained himself on
the throne rather because Englishmen needed a king than because he was
himself a great ruler. In his foreign policy he was swayed by the
interests of the moment. In =1411= he helped the Burgundians against
the Armagnacs. In =1412= he helped the Armagnacs against the
Burgundians. Prince Henry already aimed at a steady alliance with the
Burgundians, with a view to a policy more thoroughgoing than that of
keeping a balance between the French parties. The king, too, was
subject to epileptic attacks, and to a cutaneous disorder which his
ill-willers branded by the name of leprosy. It has even been said that
in =1412= the Prince urged his father to abdicate in his favour. If
so, he had not long to wait for the crown. In =1413= Henry IV. died,
and Henry V. sat upon his throne.
13. =Henry V. and the Lollards. 1413--1414.=--Henry V. was steadied by
the duties which now devolved upon him. He indeed dismissed from the
chancellorship Archbishop Arundel, who had supported his father
against himself, and gave it to his half-uncle, Henry Beaufort, Bishop
of Winchester, one of the legitimated sons of John of Gaunt and
Catherine Swynford (see p. 282), but he allowed no plans of vengeance
to take possession of his mind. His first thought was to show that he
had confidence in his own title to the crown. He liberated the Earl of
March, and transferred the body of Richard II. to a splendid tomb at
Westminster, as if he had nothing to fear from any competitor. If
there was one thing on which, as far as England was concerned, his
heart was set, it was on strengthening the religion of his ancestors.
He founded three friaries and he set himself to crush the Lollards.
Sir John Oldcastle, who bore the title of Lord Cobham in right of his
wife, was looked up to by the Lollards as their chief supporter.
Oldcastle was brought before Archbishop Arundel. Both judge and
accused played their several parts with dignity. Arundel without angry
reviling asserted the necessity of accepting the teaching of the
Church. Oldcastle with modest firmness maintained the falsity of many
of its doctrines. In the end he was excommunicated, but before any
further action could be taken he escaped, and was nowhere to be found.
His followers were so exasperated as to form a plot against the king's
life. Early in =1414= Henry fell upon a crowd of them in St. Giles's
Fields. Most escaped, but of those who were taken the greater part
were hanged or burnt. The result was a statute giving fresh powers to
the king for the punishment of the Lollards. Every book written by
them was to be confiscated. Three years later (=1417=) Oldcastle was
seized and burnt. He was the last of the Lollards to play an
historical part. The Lollards continued to exist in secret, especially
in the towns, but there was never again any one amongst them who
combined religious fervour with cultivated intelligence.
[Illustration: Henry V.: from an original painting belonging to the
Society of Antiquaries.]
14. =Henry's Claim to the Throne of France. 1414.=--Henry V. was
resolved to uphold the old foreign policy of the days of Edward III.
as well as the old religion. In =1414=, whilst he amused the French
court by offers of friendship, he was in reality preparing to demand
the crown of France as the right of the king of England, leaving out
of sight the consideration that if the claim of Edward III. had been
worth anything at all, it would have descended to the Earl of March
and not to himself. Everything seemed to combine to make easy an
attack on France. Burgundians and Armagnacs were engaged in a
death-struggle. In =1413= a riotous Burgundian mob had made itself
master of Paris and the Government. Then the Armagnacs had got the
upper hand, and the Duke of Burgundy was driven back to his own
dominions. Henry now made an alliance with the Duke of Burgundy
against the ruling powers, and prepared to invade the distracted land.
Thus far he proceeded in imitation of Edward III., who had attacked
Philip VI. in alliance with the Flemings. With Edward III., however,
the claim to the French crown had always been a secondary
consideration. He went to war because French sailors plundered English
ports and the French king assisted the Scots. Henry had no such reason
to urge. He went to war because he was young and warlike, because the
enterprise was easy, and because foreign conquest would unite all
Englishmen round his throne. When once the war was begun he was
certain to carry it on in a different spirit from that of Edward III.
Edward had gone to weaken the plunderers by plundering in return, and
to fight battles only when they happened to come in his way. Henry
went with the distinct resolution to conquer France and to place the
French crown on his own head. Every step which he took was calculated
with skill for the attainment of this end. Of immediate, perhaps of
lifelong, success Henry was as nearly certain as it was possible to
be. Yet, if he had remembered what had been the end of campaigns
adorned by the brilliant victories of Creçy and Poitiers, he might
have known that all that he could do would end in ultimate failure,
and that the day must come when divided France would unite to cast
out, if not himself, at least his heirs. It was significant that when
his Chancellor, Beaufort, announced to Parliament the king's
intention, he took for his text, after the manner of political
speakers in those days, 'Let us work while it is called to-day.' Henry
was not inclined, as Edward I. had been, to take thought for a distant
morrow.
15. =The Invasion of France. 1415.=--In =1415= Henry openly made his
claim and gathered his army at Southampton. He there detected a
conspiracy to place the Earl of March on the throne, which had been
formed by Lord Scrope and Sir Thomas Grey, in combination with March's
brother-in-law, the Earl of Cambridge, a son of the Duke of York (see
genealogy at p. 327), the son of Edward III. All three were executed,
and then Henry sailed for France. He landed at the mouth of the Seine
and besieged Harfleur. Harfleur fell after an heroic defence, and the
Seine valley lay open to Henry.[29] Over two-thirds of his army,
however, had perished from dysentery and fever, and with no more, even
at the highest calculation, than 15,000 men, he was unable to take
advantage of the opportunity to march upon Paris. His brother the Duke
of Clarence, urged him to return to England, but Henry knew that if he
went back with baffled hopes his throne would hardly stand the shock.
He resolved to march to Calais. It might be that he would find a Creçy
on the way.
[Footnote 29: Havre de Grâce was not yet in existence.]
16. =The March to Agincourt. 1415.=--Not a Frenchman could be found
who would take seriously Henry's claim to be the true king of France.
When he reached the Somme he found the bridges over the river broken,
and he was only able to cross it by ascending it almost to its source.
Then, bending to the left, he pushed on towards Calais. His own army
was by this time scarcely more than 10,000 strong, and he soon learnt
that a mighty French host of at least 50,000 men blocked the way at
Agincourt. Though his little band was worn with hunger, he joyfully
prepared for battle. He knew that the Duke of Burgundy had kept aloof,
and that the Armagnac army opposed to him was a feudal host of the
same character as that which had been defeated at Creçy. There were no
recognised commanders, no subordination, no notion of the superior
military power of the English archers.
17. =The Battle of Agincourt, October 25, 1415.=--In the early
morning, mass was said in the English army, and Henry's scanty
followers prayed earnestly that their king's right, as they believed
it to be, might be shown on that day. Henry's own prayers were long
and fervid. He was told that it was the hour of prime, the first hour
of prayer. "Now," he said, "is good time, for all England prayeth for
us, and, therefore, be of good cheer." He then went forth to marshal
his army. To a knight who wished that every brave Englishman now at
home were there, he replied that he would not have one man more. Few
as they were, they were in the hands of God, who could give them the
victory. Henry's tactics were those of Creçy. He drew up his archers
between thick woods which defended their flanks, and with sharp stakes
planted in the ground to defend them in front, placing his dismounted
horsemen at intervals between the bodies of archers. The French,
however, showed no signs of attacking, and Henry, knowing that unless
he cut his way through his soldiers would starve, threw tactics to
the winds and ordered his archers to advance. He had judged wisely.
The French horsemen were on ploughed ground soaked with rain, and when
at last they charged, the legs of their horses stuck fast in the
clinging mud. The English arrows played thickly on them. Immovable and
helpless, they were slaughtered as they stood. In vain their
dismounted horsemen pushed forward in three columns upon the English
knights. Their charge was vigorously resisted, and the archers,
overlapping each column, drew forth the heavy leaden mallets which
each man carried, and fell upon the helpless rout with blows which
crashed through the iron headpieces of the Frenchmen. Such as could
escape fled hastily to the rear, throwing into wild confusion the
masses of their countrymen who had not as yet been engaged. The battle
was won, but unfortunately the victory was stained by a cruel deed.
Some French plunderers had got into the rear to seize upon the
baggage, and Henry, believing that a fresh enemy was upon him, gave
orders, which were promptly carried out, to slay the prisoners. The
loss of the French was enormous, and fell heavily on their nobility,
always eager to be foremost in fight. Amongst the prisoners who were
spared was the young Duke of Orleans.
18. =Henry's Diplomacy. 1416--1417.=--If Henry had not yet secured the
crown of France, he had at least made sure of the crown of England.
When he landed at Dover he was borne to land on the shoulders of the
multitude. He entered London amidst wild enthusiasm. There was no fear
of any fresh conspiracy to place the Earl of March on the throne. In
=1416= he sent his brother, the Duke of Bedford, to secure Harfleur
against a French attack, whilst he himself was diplomatically active
in an attempt to win over to his side the Duke of Burgundy and
Sigismund, King of the Romans, who actually visited him in England.
Sigismund promised much, but had little power to fulfil his promises,
whilst the Duke shifted backwards and forwards, looking out for his
own advantage and giving no real help to either side. In =1417= the
quarrels in France reached a head. The Count of Armagnac, getting into
his possession the Dauphin Charles, a boy of fourteen, established a
reign of terror in Paris, and the Duke of Burgundy, summoned by the
frightened citizens to their help, levied war against the Armagnacs
and marched to Paris.
19. =Henry's Conquest of Normandy. 1417--1419.=--Henry seized the
opportunity and landed in Normandy. Caen was taken by storm, and in a
few weeks all Normandy except Rouen had submitted to Henry. There had
been a terrible butchery when Caen was stormed, but when once
submission was secured Henry took care that justice and order should
be enforced, and that his soldiers should abstain from plunder and
outrage. In Paris affairs were growing worse. The citizens rose
against the Armagnacs and imprisoned all of them on whom they could
lay hands. Then the mob burst into the prisons and massacred the
prisoners, the Count of Armagnac himself being one of the number.
Henry's army in the meanwhile closed round Rouen. The magistrates, to
prolong the defence, thrust out the poorer inhabitants. Henry, who
knew not pity when there was a practical object to be gained, thrust
them back. During five months the poor wretches wandered about half
starved, dying off day by day. On Christmas Day, in honour of Christ's
nativity, Henry sent some food to the few who were left. Famine did
its work within as well as without the walls, and on January 19,
=1419=, Rouen, the old ducal capital of the Norman kings, surrendered
to Henry.
[Illustration: Effigy of William Phelip, Lord Bardolf (died 1441),
with the Garter and Lancastrian collar of SS.: from his tomb at
Dennington, Suffolk. The type of armour here shown prevailed from
about 1415 to 1435.]
[Illustration: Marriage of Henry V. and Catherine of France: from the
'Life of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick,' drawn by John Rous about
1485.]
20. =The Murder of the Duke of Burgundy and the Treaty of Troyes.
1419--1420.=--In the summer of =1419= English troops swept the country
even up to the walls of Paris. Henry, however, gained more by the
follies and crimes of his enemies than by his own skill. Terrified at
the prospect of losing all, Burgundians and Armagnacs seemed for a
moment to forget their quarrel and to be ready to join together in
defence of their common country; but the hatred in their hearts could
not be rooted out. At a conference between the Duke of Burgundy and
the Dauphin on the bridge of Montereau, angry words sprang easily to
the lips of both. The Duke put his hand on the pommel of his sword,
and some of the Dauphin's attendants, believing their master's life in
danger, fell on the Duke and slew him. After this an agreement between
the factions was no longer possible. The new Duke of Burgundy, Philip
the Good, at once joined the English against the Dauphin, whom he
regarded as an accomplice of his father's murderers. Even Queen
Isabella, the mother of the Dauphin, shared in the outcry against her
own son, and in =1420= was signed the Treaty of Troyes, by which the
Dauphin was disinherited in favour of Henry, who was to be king of
France on the death of Charles VI. In accordance with its terms, Henry
married Charles's daughter Catherine, and ruled France as regent till
the time came when he was to rule it as king.
21. =The Close of the Reign of Henry V. 1420--1422.=--The Treaty of
Troyes was very similar in its stipulations to that which Henry II.
had made with Stephen at Wallingford (see p. 137). The result was, as
might have been expected, totally different. Henry II. had the English
nation behind his back. Henry V. presumed to rule over a foreign
nation, the leaders of which had only accepted him in a momentary fit
of passion. He never got the whole of France into his power. He held
Paris and the North, whilst the Duke of Burgundy held the East. South
of the Loire the Armagnacs were strong, and that part of France stood
by the Dauphin, though even here the English possessed a strip of land
along the sea-coast in Guienne and Gascony, and at one time drew over
some of the lords to admit Henry's feudal supremacy. In =1420= Henry
fancied it safe for him to return to England, but, in his absence, in
the spring of =1421= his brother, the Duke of Clarence, was defeated
and slain at Baugé by a force of Frenchmen and of Scottish
auxiliaries. Clarence had forgotten that English victories had been
due to English archery. He had plunged into the fight with his
horsemen, and had paid the penalty for his rashness with his life.
Henry hurried to the rescue of his followers, and drove the French
over the Loire; though Orleans, on the north bank of that river,
remained unconquered. Instead of laying siege to it Henry turned
sharply round northwards to besiege Meaux, the garrison of which was
plundering the country round Paris in the name of the Dauphin, and
seemed likely to shake the fidelity to Henry even of Paris itself.
Meaux held out for many months. When at last it fell, in =1422=, Henry
was already suffering from a disease which carried him off before the
end of the year at the age of thirty-five. Henry V. had given his life
to the restoration of the authority of the Church in England, and to
the establishment of his dynasty at home by means of the glory of
foreign conquest. What man could do he did, but he could not achieve
the impossible.
CHAPTER XX.
HENRY VI. AND THE LOSS OF FRANCE. =1422--1451=.
LEADING DATES
Reign of Henry VI., 1422-1461
The accession of Henry VI. 1422
The relief of Orleans 1429
End of the alliance with the Duke of Burgundy 1435
Marriage of Henry VI. with Margaret of Anjou 1445
Murder of the Duke of Suffolk and Jack Cade's rebellion 1450
Loss of the last French possessions except Calais 1451
1. =Bedford and Gloucester. 1422.=--In England Henry V. was succeeded
in =1422= by his son, Henry VI., a child of nine months. In the same
year, in consequence of the death of Charles VI., the infant was
acknowledged as king of France in the north and east of that country.
The Dauphin, holding the lands south of the Loire, and some territory
even to the north of it, claimed to reign over the whole of France by
hereditary right as Charles VII. Henry V. had appointed his eldest
surviving brother, John, Duke of Bedford, regent in France, and his
youngest brother, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, regent in England. In
England there were no longer any parties banded against the Crown, and
the title of the Earl of March had not a single supporter; but both
the Privy Council and the Parliament agreed that the late king could
not dispose of the regency by will. Holding that Bedford as the elder
brother had the better claim, they nevertheless, in consequence of his
absence in France, appointed Gloucester Protector, with the proviso
that he should give up his authority to Bedford if the latter were to
return to England. They also imposed limitations upon the authority of
the Protector, requiring him to act by the advice of the Council.
2. =Bedford's Success in France. 1423--1424.=--The English nation was
bent upon maintaining its supremacy in France. Bedford was a good
warrior and an able statesman. In =1423= he prudently married the
sister of Philip of Burgundy, hoping thereby to secure permanently the
all-important fidelity of the Duke. His next step was to place
difficulties in the way of the Scottish auxiliaries who poured into
France to the help of Charles. Through his influence the captive James
I. (see p. 295) was liberated and sent home to Scotland, on the
understanding that he would prevent his subjects from aiding the
enemies of England. Bedford needed all the support he could find, as
the French had lately been gaining ground. In =1424=, however, Bedford
defeated them at Verneuil. In England it was believed that Verneuil
was a second Agincourt, and that the French resistance would soon be
at an end.
3. =Gloucester's Invasion of Hainault. 1424.=--Bedford's progress in
France was checked by the folly of his brother Gloucester, who was as
unwise and capricious as he was greedy of power. Gloucester had lately
married Jacqueline, the heiress of Holland and Hainault, though her
husband, the Duke of Brabant, was still living, on the plea that her
first marriage was null on the ground of nearness of kin. In =1424=
Gloucester overran Hainault, which was under the government of the
Duke of Brabant, thereby giving offence to the Duke of Burgundy, who
was a cousin and ally of the Duke of Brabant, and who had no wish to
see the English holding a territory so near to his own county of
Flanders. The Duke of Brabant recovered Hainault and captured
Jacqueline, who had already been abandoned by Gloucester. A coolness
arose between the Duke of Burgundy and the English which was never
completely removed.
[Illustration: Henry VI.: from an original picture in the National
Portrait Gallery.]
4. =Gloucester and Beaufort. 1425--1428.=--In England as well as on
the Continent Gloucester's self-willed restlessness roused enemies,
the most powerful of them being his uncle, the Chancellor, Henry
Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester (see pp. 301, 335), a wealthy and
ambitious prelate not without those statesmanlike qualities which were
sadly lacking to Gloucester. If Beaufort ruled the Council, Gloucester
had the art of making himself popular with the multitude, whose
sympathies were not likely to be given to a bishop of the type of
Beaufort, who practised no austerities and who had nothing in him to
appeal to the popular imagination. So bitter was the feud between
Gloucester and Beaufort that in =1426= Bedford was obliged to visit
England to keep the peace between them. Before he returned to France
he persuaded Beaufort to surrender the chancellorship to Kemp, the
Bishop of London, and to leave England for a time. Moreover, in =1427=
he himself swore that as long as the king was under age the Council
and not the Protector was to govern. When Gloucester was asked to take
the same oath, he signed it, but refused to swear. In =1428=, after
Bedford had returned to France, Beaufort came back, bringing with him
from Rome the title of Cardinal, and authority to raise soldiers for a
crusade against heretics in Bohemia. A storm was at once raised
against him. A Cardinal, it was said, was a servant of the Roman See,
and as no man could serve two masters, he ought not to hold an English
bishopric or to sit in the English Council, far less to send to
Bohemia English troops which were needed in France. Gloucester fancied
that the opportunity of overthrowing his rival had come. Beaufort,
however, was too prudent to press his claims. He absented himself from
the Council and allowed the men whom he had raised for Bohemia to be
sent to France instead. Before the end of the year the outcry against
him died away, and, Cardinal as he was, he resumed his old place in
the Council.
5. =The Siege of Orleans. 1428--1429.=--The time had arrived when the
presence of every English soldier was needed in France. Bedford had
made himself master of almost the whole country north of the Loire
except Orleans. If he could gain that city it would be easy for him to
overpower Charles, who kept court at Chinon. In =1428=, therefore, he
laid siege to Orleans. The city, however, defended itself gallantly,
though all that the French outside could hope to do was to cut off the
supplies of the besiegers. In February =1429= they attempted to
intercept a convoy of herrings coming from Paris for the English
troops, but were beaten off in what was jocosely styled the Battle of
the Herrings, and it seemed as though Orleans, and with it France
itself, were doomed. Frenchmen were indeed weary of the foreign yoke
and of the arrogant insolence of the rough island soldiers. Yet in
France all military and civil organisation had hitherto come from the
kings, and unfortunately for his subjects Charles was easy-tempered
and entirely incapable either of carrying on war successfully or of
inspiring that enthusiasm without which the most careful organisation
is as the twining of ropes of sand. It would need a miracle to inspire
Frenchmen with the belief that it was possible for them to defeat the
victors of Agincourt and Verneuil, and yet without such a miracle
irretrievable ruin was at hand.
6. =Jeanne Darc and the Relief of Orleans. 1429.=--The miracle was
wrought by a young maiden of seventeen, Jeanne Darc, the daughter of a
peasant of Domremi, in the duchy of Bar. Her home was at a distance
from the actual scenes of war, but whilst she was still little more
than a child, tales of horror, reaching her from afar, had filled her
with 'pity for the realm of France' and for its young king, whom she
idealised into the pattern of every virtue. As she brooded over the
thought of possible deliverance, her warm imagination summoned up
before her bright and saintly forms, St. Michael, St. Catherine, and
St. Margaret, who bade her, the chosen of God, to go forth and save
the king, and conduct him to Reims to be crowned and anointed with the
holy oil from the vessel which, as men believed, had been brought down
from heaven in days of old. At last in =1428= her native hamlet was
burnt down by a Burgundian band. Then the voices of the saints bade
her go to Vaucouleurs, where she would find a knight, Robert de
Baudricourt, who would conduct her to Charles. Months passed before
Baudricourt would do aught but scorn her message, and it was not till
February =1429=, when the news from Orleans was most depressing, that
he consented to take her in his train. She found Charles at Chinon,
and, as the story goes, convinced him of her Divine mission by
recognising him in disguise in the midst of his courtiers. Soldiers
and theologians alike distrusted her, but her native good sense, her
simple and earnest faith, and above all her purity of heart and life
disarmed all opposition, and she was sent forth to lead an army to the
relief of Orleans. She rode on horseback clothed in armour as a man,
with a sword which she had taken from behind the altar of St.
Catherine by her side, and a consecrated banner in her hand. She
brought with her hope of victory, enthusiasm built on confidence in
Divine protection, and wide-reaching patriotism. 'Pity for the realm
of France' inspired her, and even the rough soldiers who followed her
forsook for a time their debaucheries that they might be fit to follow
God's holy maid. Such an army was invincible; but whilst to the French
the maid was an instrument of the mercy of God, to the English she was
an emissary of hell and the forerunner of defeat. On May 7 she led the
storm of one of the English fortified posts by which the town was
hemmed in. After a sharp attack she planted her standard on the wall.
The English garrison was slain to a man. The line of the besiegers was
broken through, and Orleans was saved. On the 12th the English army
was in full retreat.
[Illustration: Fotheringhay Church, Northamptonshire. The contract for
building it, between Edward Duke of York, and William Horwod,
freemason, is dated September 24, 1434.]
7. =The Coronation of Charles VII. and the Capture of the Maid.
1429--1430.=--The Maid followed up her victory. She had at her side
brave and skilful warriors, such as La Hire and the Bastard of
Orleans, the illegitimate son of the murdered Louis of Orleans, and
with their help she pressed the English hard, driving them northwards
and defeating them at Patay. She insisted on conducting Charles to
Reims, and he, indolently resisting at first, was carried away by her
persistent urgency. Hostile towns opened their gates to her on the
way, and on July 17 she saw with chastened joy the man whom she had
saved from destruction crowned in the great cathedral of Reims. For
her part, she was eager to push on the war, but Charles was slothful,
and in a hurry to be back to the pleasures of his court. When she led
the troops to the attack of Paris, she was ordered back by the king,
and the army sent into winter quarters. In the spring of =1430= the
Maid was allowed again to attack the English, but she had no longer
the support which she had once had. Many of the French soldiers were
meanly jealous of her, and were vexed when they were told that they
owed their victories to a woman. On the other side the Duke of
Burgundy was frightened by the French successes into giving real aid
to Bedford, and on May 23, in a skirmish before Compiègne, her
countrymen doing nothing to save or to rescue her, the Maid was taken
by Burgundian soldiers. Before the end of the year her captors sold
her to the English, who firmly believed her to be a witch.
8. =The Martyrdom at Rouen. 1431.=--The English had no difficulty in
finding an ecclesiastical court to judge their prisoner. Even the
French clergy detested the Maid as having appealed to supernatural
voices which had not been recognised by the Church; and in spite of an
intelligent and noble defence she was condemned to be burnt. At the
stake she behaved with heroic simplicity. When the flames curled round
her she called upon the saints who had befriended her. Her last
utterance was a cry of "Jesus!" An Englishman who had come to triumph
hung his head for shame. "We are lost," he said; "we have burnt a
saint!"
9. =The Last Years of the Duke of Bedford. 1431--1435.=--The English
gained nothing by their unworthy vengeance. Though the personal
presence of the Maid was no longer there to encourage her countrymen,
they had learnt from her to cherish that 'pity for the realm of
France' which had glowed so brightly in her own bosom. It was in vain
that towards the end of =1431= Bedford carried the young Henry, now a
boy of ten years, who had already been crowned in England the year
before, to be crowned at Nôtre Dame, the cathedral of Paris. The
Parisians were disgusted by the troop of foreigners which accompanied
him, and their confidence was shaken when Bedford sent the king back
to England as not venturing to trust him amongst his French subjects.
In =1432= the armies of Charles VII. stole forwards step by step, and
Bedford, who had no money to pay his troops, could do nothing to
resist them. The English Parliament, which had cheerfully voted
supplies as long as there seemed a prospect of conquering France, hung
back from granting them when victories were no longer won. In =1433=
Bedford was again forced to return to England to oppose the intrigues
of Gloucester, who, though he had lost the title of Protector when the
young king was crowned, had thrown the government into confusion by
his intrigues. When Bedford went back to France in =1434= he found the
tide running strongly against him. Little more than Paris and Normandy
were held by the English, and the Duke of Burgundy was inclining more
and more towards the French. In =1435= a congress was held at Arras,
under the Duke of Burgundy's presidency, in the hope that peace might
be made. The congress, however, failed to accomplish anything, and
soon after the English ambassadors were withdrawn Bedford died at
Rouen. If so wise a statesman and so skilful a warrior had failed to
hold down France, no other Englishman was likely to achieve the task.
10. =The Defection of Burgundy. 1435.=--After Bedford's death the Duke
of Burgundy renounced his alliance with the English and entered into a
league with Charles VII. In =1430=, by the death of the Duke of
Brabant, he inherited Brabant, and in =1436= he inherited from the
faithless Jacqueline Hainault, Holland, Zealand, and Friesland (see p.
308). He thus, being already Count of Flanders, became ruler over
well-nigh the whole of the Netherlands in addition to his own
territories in Burgundy. The vassal of the king of France was now a
European potentate. England had therefore to count on the enmity of a
ruler whose power of injuring her was indeed serious.
11. =The Duke of York in France. 1436--1437.=--Bedford's successor was
the young Richard, Duke of York, whose father was that Earl of
Cambridge who had been executed at Southampton (see p. 301); whilst
his mother was Anne Mortimer, the sister of the Earl of March. As the
Earl of March had died in =1425=, the Duke of York was now, through
his mother, the heir of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, and thus, if
hereditary right was to be regarded, heir to the throne. That a man
with such claims should have been entrusted with such an office shows
how firmly the victories of Henry V. had established the House of
Lancaster in England. Disputes in the English Council, however,
delayed his departure, and in April =1436=, before he could arrive in
France, Paris was lost, whilst the Duke of Burgundy besieged Calais.
England, stung by the defection of Burgundy, made an unusual effort.
One army drove the Burgundians away from before Calais, whilst another
under the Duke of York himself regained several fortresses in
Normandy, and in =1437= Lord Talbot drove the Burgundians behind the
Somme.
12. =The English Lose Ground. 1437--1443.=--Gallant as the Duke of
York was, he was soon recalled, and in =1437= was succeeded by Richard
Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. Warwick, however, failed to do more than
to hold what his predecessor had gained, and he died in =1439=. Both
in England and France the suffering was terrible, and England would
find neither men nor money to support a falling cause. In =1439= a
peace conference was held at Calais, but the English continued
arrogantly to claim the crown of France, and peace was not to be had.
In =1440= York was sent back, and fighting went on till =1443=, in
which the English lost ground both in Normandy and in Guienne.
[Illustration: Gilt-latten effigy (front view) of Richard Beauchamp,
Earl of Warwick, died 1439: from his tomb at Warwick. Made by William
Austen, of London, founder, 1453.]
[Illustration: Gilt-latten effigy (back view) of Richard Beauchamp,
Earl of Warwick, died 1439: from his tomb at Warwick. Made by William
Austen, of London, founder, 1453.]
13. =Continued Rivalry of Beaufort and Gloucester. 1439--1441.=--The
chief advocate in England of the attempt to make peace at Calais in
=1439= had been Cardinal Beaufort, whose immense wealth gave him
authority over a Council which was always at its wits' end for money.
Beaufort was wise enough to see that the attempt to reconquer the lost
territory, or even to hold Normandy, was hopeless. Such a view,
however, was not likely to be popular. Nations, like men, often
refuse openly to acknowledge failure long after they cease to take
adequate means to avert it. Of the popular feeling Gloucester made
himself the mouthpiece, and it was by his influence that exorbitant
pretensions had been put forward at Calais. In =1440= he accused
Beaufort of using his authority for his own private interests, and
though Beaufort gave over to the public service a large sum of money
which he received as the ransom of the Duke of Orleans from a
captivity which had lasted twenty-four years (see p. 303), Gloucester
virulently charged him with an unpatriotic concession to the enemy.
Gloucester's domestic relations, on the other hand, offered an easy
object of attack. When he deserted Jacqueline he took a mistress,
Eleanor Cobham, and subsequently married her, which he was able to do
without difficulty, as his union with Jacqueline was, in the eyes of
the Church, no marriage at all. The new Duchess of Gloucester being
aware that if the king should die her husband would be next in order
of succession to the throne, was anxious to hasten that event. It was
a superstitious age, and the Duchess consulted an astrologer as to the
time of the king's death, and employed a reputed witch to make a waxen
image of the king under the belief that as the wax melted before the
fire the king's life would waste away. In =1441= these proceedings
were detected. The astrologer was hanged, the witch was burnt, whilst
the Duchess escaped with doing public penance and with imprisonment
for life. Gloucester could not save her, but he did not lose his
place in the Council, where he continued to advocate a war policy,
though with less success than before.
[Illustration: Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire: built of brick by
Ralph, Lord Cromwell, between 1433 and 1455.]
14. =Beaufort and Somerset. 1442--1443.=--In =1442= Henry was in his
twenty-first year. Unfeignedly religious and anxious to be at peace
with all men, his character was far too weak and gentle to fit him for
governing in those rough times. He had attached himself to Beaufort
because Beaufort's policy was pacific, and because Gloucester's life
was scandalous. Beaufort's position was secured at court, but the
situation was not one in which a pacific statesman could hope for
success. The French would not consent to make peace till all that they
had lost had been recovered; yet, hardly bested as the English in
France were, it was impossible in the teeth of English public opinion
for any statesman, however pacific, to abandon lands still commanded
by English garrisons. Every year, however, brought the problem nearer
to the inevitable solution. In =1442= the French attacked the strip of
land which was all that the English now held in Guienne and Gascony,
and with the exception of Bordeaux and Bayonne captured almost every
fortified town. The command in France was given to Cardinal Beaufort's
nephew, John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset. Somerset, who was thoroughly
incompetent, did not even leave England till the autumn of =1443=, and
when he arrived in France accomplished nothing worthy of his office.
15. =The Angevin Marriage Treaty. 1444--1445.=--Henry now fell under
the influence of William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, a descendant of
the favourite of Richard II. Suffolk had fought bravely in France, and
had learnt by sad experience the hopelessness of the English cause. In
=1444=, with the consent of the king and the Parliament, he negotiated
at Tours a truce for ten months. In order to make it more lasting
there was to be a marriage between Henry and Margaret of Anjou. Her
father, René, the Duke of Anjou, was titular king of Jerusalem and
Sicily, in neither of which did he possess a foot of ground, whilst
his duchy of Anjou was almost valueless to him in consequence of the
forays of the English, who still held posts in Maine. Charles had the
more readily consented to the truce, because it was understood that
the surrender of Maine would be a condition of the marriage. In =1445=
Suffolk led Margaret to England, where her marriage to Henry was
solemnised. A French queen who brought with her no portion except a
truce bought by the surrender of territory could hardly fail to be
unpopular in England.
[Illustration: Part of Wingfield manor-house, Derbyshire: built by
Ralph, Lord Cromwell, about 1440.]
16. =Deaths of Gloucester and Beaufort. 1447.=--The truce was renewed
from time to time, and Suffolk's authority seemed firmly established.
In =1447= Gloucester was charged with high treason in a Parliament
held at Bury St. Edmunds, but before he had time to answer he was
found dead in his bed. His death may, with strong probability, be
ascribed to natural causes, but it was widely believed that he had
been murdered and that Suffolk was the murderer. A few weeks later
Gloucester's old rival, Cardinal Beaufort, the last real statesman who
supported the throne of Henry VI., followed him to the grave, and
Suffolk was left alone to bear the responsibility of government and
the disgrace of failure.
[Illustration: The Divinity School, Oxford: built between 1445 and
1454.]
17. =The Loss of the French Provinces. 1448--1449.=--Suffolk had
undertaken more than he was able to fulfil. Somerset had died in
=1444=, and Suffolk being jealous of all authority but his own, he
sent York to govern Ireland. He could not secure the fulfilment of the
conditions which he had made with the king of France. The English
commanders refused to evacuate Maine, and in =1448= a French army
entered the province and drove out the English. Edmund, the new Duke
of Somerset, was sent to take the command in Normandy, which had
formerly been held by his brother. In =1449= an Aragonese captain in
the English service, who had no pay for his troops, having seized
Fougères, a place on the frontier of Brittany, for the sake of the
booty to be gained, Charles made the attack an excuse for the renewal
of the war. So destitute was the condition in which the English forces
were left that neither Somerset nor the warlike Talbot (see p. 313),
who had recently been created Earl of Shrewsbury, was able to resist
him. Rouen fell in =1450=, and in =1450= the whole of Normandy was
lost. In =1451= the French attacked Bordeaux and Bayonne, two
port-towns which, in consequence of their close commercial intercourse
with England, had no wish to transfer their allegiance to Charles.
England, however, sent them no succour, and before the end of the year
they were forced to capitulate. The relics of Guienne and Gascony thus
passed into the hands of the French, and of all the possessions which
the kings of England had once held on the Continent Calais alone
remained.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE LATER YEARS OF HENRY VI. =1450--1461=.
LEADING DATES
Reign of Henry VI., 1422--1461
Murder of the Duke of Suffolk and Jack Cade's rebellion 1450
First Protectorate of the Duke of York 1453
First Battle of St. Albans and second Protectorate of the
Duke of York 1455
Battle of Blore Heath and the discomfiture of the Yorkists 1459
After a Yorkist victory at Northampton the Duke of York
is declared heir to the crown, but is defeated and slain
at Wakefield 1460
Battles of Mortimer's Cross, St. Albans, and Towton 1461
Coronation of Edward IV. 1461
1. =The Growth of Inclosures.=--Since the insurrection of the peasants
in =1381= (see p. 268) villeinage had to a great extent been dying
out, in consequence of the difficulty felt by the lords in enforcing
their claims. Yet the condition of the classes connected with the land
was by no means prosperous. The lords of manors indeed abandoned the
old system of cultivating their own lands by the labour of villeins,
or by labourers hired with money paid by villeins in commutation for
bodily service. They began to let out their land to tenants who paid
rent for it; but even the new system did not bring in anything like
the old profit. The soil had been exhausted for want of a proper
system of manuring, and arable land scarcely repaid the expenses of
its cultivation. For this evil a remedy was found in the inclosure of
lands for pasturage. This change, which in itself was beneficial by
increasing the productiveness of the country, and by giving rest to
the exhausted soil, became oppressive because all the benefit went to
the lords of the manors, whilst the tenants of the manors were left to
struggle on as best they might. Not only had they no share in the
increase of wealth which was brought about by the inclosure of what
had formerly been the common land of the manors, but the poorer
amongst them had less employment than before, as it required fewer men
to look after sheep than to grow corn.
2. =Increasing Power of the Nobility.=--The disproportionate increase
of the wealth of the landowners threw into their hands a
disproportionate amount of power. The great landowner especially was
able to gather bands of retainers and to spread terror around him. The
evil of liveries and maintenance, which had become prominent in the
reign of Richard II. (see p. 281), had increased since his deposition.
It was an evil which the kings were powerless to control. Again and
again complaints were raised of 'want of governance.' Henry V. had
abated the mischief for a time by employing the unruly elements in his
wars in France, but it was a remedy which, when defeat succeeded
victory, only increased the disease which it was meant to cure. When
France was lost bands of unruly men accustomed to deeds of violence
poured back into England, where they became retainers of the great
landowners, who with their help set king and laws at defiance.
3. =Case of Lord Molynes and John Paston.=--The difficulty of
obtaining justice may be illustrated by a case which occurred in
Norfolk. The manor of Gresham belonged to John Paston, a gentleman of
moderate fortune. It was coveted by Lord Molynes, who had no legal
claim to it whatever. Lord Molynes, however, took possession of it in
=1448= with the strong hand. If such a thing had happened at present
Paston would have gone to law; but to go to law implies the submitting
of a case to a jury, and in those days a jury was not to be trusted to
do justice. In the first place it was selected by the sheriff, and the
sheriff took care to choose such men as would give a verdict pleasing
to the great men whom he wished to serve, and in the second place,
supposing that the sheriff did not do this, a juryman who offended
great men by giving a verdict according to his conscience, but
contrary to their desire, ran the risk of being knocked on the head
before he reached home. Paston accordingly, instead of going to law,
begged Lord Molynes to behave more reasonably. Finding his entreaties
of no avail, he took possession of a house on the manor. Lord Molynes
merely waited till Paston was away from home, and then sent a thousand
men, who drove out Paston's wife and pillaged and wrecked the house.
Paston ultimately recovered the manor, but redress for the injury done
him was not to be had.
4. =Suffolk's Impeachment and Murder. 1450.=--A government which was
too weak to redress injuries was certain to be unpopular. The loss of
the French possessions made it still more unpopular. The brunt of the
public displeasure fell on Suffolk, who had just been made a duke, and
who, through the queen's favour, was all-powerful at court. It was
believed that he had sold himself to France, and it was known that
whilst the country was impoverished large grants had been made to
court favourites. An outcry was raised that the king 'should live of
his own,' and ask for no more grants from his people. In =1450=
Suffolk was impeached. Though the charge brought against him was a
tissue of falsehoods, Henry did not dare to shield him entirely, and
ordered him into banishment for five years. Suffolk, indeed, embarked
for the Continent, but a large ship ranged up alongside of the vessel
in which he was. Having been dragged on board amidst cries of
"Welcome, traitor!" he was, two days afterwards, transferred to a
boat, where his head was chopped off with six strokes of a rusty
sword. His body was flung on the beach at Dover.
5. =Jack Cade's Rebellion. 1450.=--Suffolk's supporters remained in
office after his death. The men of Kent rose against them, and found a
leader in an Irish adventurer, Jack Cade, who called himself Mortimer,
and gave out that he was an illegitimate son of the late Earl of
March. He established himself on Blackheath at the head of 30,000 men,
asking that the burdens of the people should be diminished, the Crown
estates recovered, and the Duke of York recalled from Ireland to take
the place of the present councillors. Jack Cade's rebellion, in short,
unlike that of Wat Tyler, was a political, not a social movement. In
demanding that the government should be placed in the hands of the
Duke of York, Jack Cade virtually asked that the Duke should step into
the place, not of the Council, but of the King--that is to say, that a
ruler who could govern should be substituted for one who could not,
and in whose name the great families plundered England. It was this
demand which opened the long struggle which was soon to devastate the
country. At first it seemed as if Jack Cade would carry all before
him. London, which had the most to gain by the establishment of a
strong government, opened its gates to him. When, however, he was
tested by success, he was found wanting. Striking with his sword the
old Roman milestone known as London Stone, he cried out, "Now is
Mortimer lord of this city." His followers gave themselves up to wild
excesses. They beheaded Lord Say and his son-in-law, the Sheriff of
Kent, and carried about their heads on pikes. They plundered houses
and shops. The citizens who had invited them to enter now turned
against them. After a fight on London Bridge the insurgents agreed to
go home on the promise of a pardon. Jack Cade himself, attempting to
gather fresh forces, was chased into Sussex and slain.
6. =Rivalry of York and Somerset. 1450--1453.=--In the summer of
=1450=, Richard, Duke of York, the real leader of the opposition, came
back from Ireland. He found that Somerset, who had just returned from
Normandy after the final loss of that province (see p. 320), had
succeeded Suffolk in the king's confidence. Somerset, however, was not
merely the favourite of Henry and the queen. The bulk of the nobility
was on his side, whilst York was supported by the force of popular
discontent and by such of the nobility as cherished a personal grudge
against Somerset and his friends. In =1451= the loss of Guienne and
Gascony increased the weight of Somerset's unpopularity. In =1452=
both parties took arms; but, this time, civil war was averted by a
promise from the king that York should be admitted to the Council, and
that Somerset should be placed in confinement till he answered the
charges against him. On this York dismissed his army. Henry, however,
was not allowed to keep his promise, and Somerset remained in power,
whilst York was glad to be allowed to retire unhurt. Somerset
attempted to recover his credit by fresh victories in France, and sent
the old Earl of Shrewsbury to Bordeaux to reconquer Gascony.
Shrewsbury was successful for a while, but in =1453= he was defeated
and slain at Castillon, and the whole enterprise came to nothing.
7. =The First Protectorate of the Duke of York. 1453--1454.=--Henry's
mind had never been strong, and in =1453= it entirely gave way. His
insanity was probably inherited from his maternal grandfather, Charles
VI. The queen bore him a son, named Edward, but though the infant was
brought to his father, Henry gave no sign of recognising his
presence. It was necessary to place the government in other hands, and
in =1454= the Duke of York was named Protector by the House of Lords,
which, as the majority of its members were at that time ecclesiastics,
did not always re-echo the sentiments of the great families. If only
the king had remained permanently insane York might have established
an orderly government. Henry, however, soon recovered as much sense as
he ever had, and York's protectorate came to an end.
8. =The First Battle of St. Albans and the Duke of York's Second
Protectorate.=--The restoration of Henry was in reality the
restoration of Somerset. In =1455= York, fearing destruction, took
arms against his rival. A battle was fought at St. Albans, in which
Somerset was defeated and slain. This was the first battle in the wars
known as the Wars of the Roses, because a red rose was the badge of
the House of Lancaster, to which Henry belonged, and a white rose the
badge of the House of York. After the victory York accompanied the
king to London. Though the bulk of the nobility was against him, he
had on his side the powerful family of the Nevills, as he had married
Cicely Nevill, the sister of the head of that family, the Earl of
Salisbury. Still more powerful was Salisbury's eldest son, who had
married the heiress of the Beauchamps, Earls of Warwick, and who held
the earldom of Warwick in right of his wife.[30] In June =1455= the
king was again insane, and York was for the second time named
Protector. This Protectorate, however, did not last long, as early in
=1456= the king recovered his senses, and York had to resign his post.
[Footnote 30: Genealogy of the Nevills:--
John of Gaunt
|
Ralph Nevill, = Joan
Thomas Montague, Earl of |
Earl of Salisbury Westmoreland |
| |
| ---------------------
Richard Beauchamp, | | |
Earl of Warwick Alice = Richard, Cicely = Richard,
| | Earl of Duke of
| | Salisbury, York,
| | beheaded at killed at
| | Pontefract, Wakefield,
| | 1460 1460
| |
| -------------------------------------
| | | |
Anne = Richard, John, George,
Earl of Warwick, Marquess of Archbishop
the king-maker, Montague of York
killed at Barnet,
1471]
[Illustration: A sea-fight: from the 'Life of Richard Beauchamp, Earl
of Warwick:' drawn by John Rous about 1485.]
9. =Discomfiture of the Yorkists. 1456--1459.=--For two years Henry
exercised such authority as he was capable of exercising. In =1458= he
tried his hand at effecting a reconciliation. The chiefs of the two
parties walked hand in hand in procession to St. Paul's, York himself
leading the queen. The Yorkists founded masses for the repose of the
souls of their enemies slain at St. Albans, and paid money to their
widows. It seemed as if the old practice of the weregild (see p. 32)
had been unexpectedly revived. The spirit which had made weregild
possible was, however, no longer to be found. Warwick retired to
Calais, of which he was governor, and sent out vessels to plunder the
merchant ships of all nations. When he was summoned to Westminster to
give account of his actions, a quarrel broke out there between his
servants and those of the king. Believing his own life to be in
danger, he made his way back to Calais. The Yorkists spent the winter
in preparing for war. In the summer of =1459= Lord Audley, sent by the
queen to seize the Earl of Salisbury, was defeated by him at Blore
Heath, in Staffordshire. Later in the year the two parties with their
whole forces prepared for a battle near Ludlow, but the Yorkists found
themselves no match for their enemies, and, without fighting, York,
with his second son, the Earl of Rutland, took refuge in Ireland. His
eldest son Edward, Earl of March, with Salisbury and Warwick, made his
way to Calais.
[Illustration: Effigy of Sir Robert Harcourt, K.G. (died 1471): from
his tomb at Stanton Harcourt, Oxon; showing armour worn from about
1445 to 1480.]
10. =The Battle of Northampton and the Duke of York's Claim to the
Throne. 1460.=--In =1460= the Yorkist Earls of Salisbury, Warwick, and
March were once more in England. They defeated the royal army at
Northampton and captured the king. York returned from Ireland, and,
as soon as Parliament met, took an unexpected step. If hereditary
descent was to count for anything, his claim to the throne was
superior to that of Henry himself, as he was the heir of Edward III.
through his mother Anne, the sister of the last Earl of March.[31] The
Duke of York now placed his hand on the throne, claiming it in right
of birth. The Lords decided that Henry, to whom they had sworn oaths
of fealty, should retain the crown, but that York should succeed him,
to the exclusion of Henry's son, Edward, Prince of Wales.
[Footnote 31: Genealogy of the Houses of Lancaster and York:--
EDWARD III.
(1307-1377)
|
------------------------------------------------
| | | |
Edward, Lionel, Duke John of Edmund, Duke of
the Black Prince of Clarence Gaunt of York
| | | |
| ------- | ----------------
| | | |
RICHARD II. Philippa = Edmund HENRY IV. |
(1377-1399) | Mortimer, (1399-1413) |
| Earl of | |
| March ----------------- |
| | | |
| (1) HENRY V. (2) John, Duke |
| (1413-1422) of Bedford |
| | (3) Thomas, Duke |
Roger Mortimer, HENRY VI. of Clarence |
Earl of March (1422-1461) (4) Humphrey, |
| Duke of |
| Gloucester |
| |
--------------------- ----------------------------
| | |
Edmund Mortimer, Anne = Richard, Earl of Cambridge
Earl of March |
Richard, Duke of York
|
Edward, Earl of March,
afterwards EDWARD IV.]
11. =The Battle of Wakefield. 1460.=--The struggle, which had at first
been one between two unequal sections of the nobility, each nominally
acknowledging Henry VI. as their king, thus came to be one between the
Houses of Lancaster and York. The queen, savage at the wrong done to
her son, refused to accept the compromise. Withdrawing to the North,
she summoned to her aid the Earl of Northumberland and the Lancastrian
lords. The North was always exposed to Scottish invasions, and the
constant danger kept the inhabitants ready for war, and strengthened
the authority of the great lords who led them. For the same reason the
people of the North were ruder and less civilised than their
fellow-countrymen in the South. Plunder and outrage did not come amiss
to men who were frequently subjected to plunder and outrage. An army
composed of 18,000 of these rough warriors placed itself at the
queen's disposal. With these she routed her enemies at Wakefield. York
himself was slain. His son, Rutland, was stabbed to death by Lord
Clifford, whose father had been slain at St. Albans. Salisbury was
subsequently beheaded by the populace at Pontefract. By command of
Margaret, York's head was cut off, and, adorned in mockery with a
paper crown, was fixed with those of Salisbury and Rutland above one
of the gates of York.
12. =The Battle of Mortimer's Cross and the Second Battle of St.
Albans. 1461.=--The battle of Wakefield differed in character from the
earlier battles of the war. They had been but conflicts between bands
of noblemen and their armed retainers, in which the general population
took little part, whilst the ordinary business of the country went on
much as usual. At Wakefield not only were cruel passions developed,
but a new danger appeared. When Margaret attempted to gain her ends
with the help of her rude northern followers, she roused against her
the fears of the wealthier and more prosperous South. The South found
a leader in York's son, Edward. Though only in his nineteenth year,
Edward showed that he had the qualities of a commander. Rapid in his
movements, he fell upon some Lancastrian forces and defeated them on
February 2, =1461=, at Mortimer's Cross. In the meanwhile Margaret was
marching with her northern host upon London, plundering and destroying
as she went. Warwick, carrying the king with him, met her on the way,
but in the second battle of St. Albans--fought on February 17--was
driven back, leaving the king behind him.
13. =The Battle of Towton and the Coronation of Edward IV.
1461.=--With a civilised army at her back, Margaret might have won her
way into London, and established her authority, at least for a time.
Her unbridled supporters celebrated their victory by robbery and rape,
and Margaret was unable to lead them forward. The Londoners steeled
their hearts against her. Edward was marching to their help, and on
February 25 he entered London. The men of the neighbouring counties
flocked in to his support. On March 2 the crown was offered to him at
Clerkenwell by such lords as happened to be in London. On his
presenting himself to the multitude in Westminster Hall, he was
greeted with shouts of "Long live the king!" Edward IV. represented to
peace-loving England the order which had to be upheld against the
barbarous host which Margaret and the Lancastrian lords had called to
their aid. He had yet to justify the choice. The northern host had
retreated to its own country, and Edward swiftly followed it up. His
advanced guard was surprised and driven back at Ferry Bridge; but his
main army pressed on, and on March 29 gained a decisive victory at
Towton. The slaughter of the defeated side was enormous. Margaret
escaped with Henry to Scotland, and Edward, returning southwards, was
crowned at Westminster on June 29.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE YORKIST KINGS.
EDWARD IV., =1461--1483=. EDWARD V., =1483=. RICHARD III.,
=1483--1485=.
LEADING DATES
Coronation of Edward IV. 1461
Restoration of Henry VI. 1470
Edward IV. recovers the crown--Battles of Barnet and
Tewkesbury 1471
Edward V. 1483
Richard III. deposes Edward V. 1483
Richard III. killed at Bosworth 1485
1. =Edward IV. and the House of Commons. 1461.=--On June 29, =1461=,
Edward IV. was crowned, and created his two brothers, George and
Richard, Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester. His first Parliament
declared the three Lancastrian kings to have been usurpers, and Henry
VI., his wife, his son, and his chief supporters, to be traitors. At
the end of the session Edward thanked the Commons for their support,
and assured them of his resolution to protect them at the hazard of
his own life. It was the first time that a king had addressed the
Commons, and his doing so was a sign that a new era had begun, in
which the wishes of the middle class in town and country were to
prevail over those of the great nobles. It did not follow that the
House of Commons would take the control of the government into its own
hands, as it does at the present day. For a long time the election of
the members had been carried out under pressure from the local
nobility. If the great men in a county resolved that certain persons
should be returned as members, those who came to the place of election
in support of others would be driven off, and perhaps beaten or
wounded. Consequently each House of Commons had hitherto represented
the dominant party, Lancastrian or Yorkist, as the case might be.
Before there could be a House of Commons capable of governing, the
interference of the nobles with elections would have to be brought to
an end, and it was only by a strong king that their power could be
overthrown. The strengthening of the kingship was the only road to
future constitutional progress.
[Illustration: Edward IV.: from an original painting belonging to the
Society of Antiquaries.]
2. =Loss of the Mediæval Ideals.=--Before the end of the 15th century
the English people had lost all the ideals of the middle ages. The
attempt of Henry V. to revive the old ecclesiastical feeling had
broken down through the race for material power opened by his French
wars, and through the savagery of the wars of the Roses. The new
religious feeling of Wycliffe and the nobler Lollards had perished
with Sir John Oldcastle from the same causes. Neither the Church nor
the opponents of the Church had any longer a sway over men's hearts.
The clergy continued to perform their part in the services of the
Church not indeed without belief, but without the spiritual fervour
which influences the lives of men. The chivalry of the middle ages was
as dead as its religion. Men spoke of women as coarsely as they spoke
of their cattle. Human nature indeed could not be entirely crushed.
John Paston's wife (see p. 321), for instance, was quaintly
affectionate. "I would," she once wrote to her husband, "ye were at
home, if it were for your ease ... now liever than a gown, though it
were of scarlet." But the system of wardship (see p. 116) made
marriages a matter of bargain and sale. "For very need," wrote a
certain Stephen Scrope, "I was fain to sell a little daughter I have
for much less than I should." When Scrope was old he wished to marry
Paston's young sister, and the girl was willing to take him if she
were sure that his land was not burdened with debt. She would be glad
enough to escape from home. Her mother kept her in close confinement
and beat her once or twice every week, and sometimes twice a day, so
that her head was broken in two or three places. This low and material
view of domestic life had led to an equally low and material view of
political life, and the cruelty which stained the wars of the Roses
was but the outcome of a state of society in which no man cared much
for anything except his own greatness and enjoyment. The ideal which
shaped itself in the minds of the men of the middle class was a king
acting as a kind of chief constable, who, by keeping great men in
order, would allow their inferiors to make money in peace.
3. =Fresh Efforts of the Lancastrians. 1462--1465.=--Edward IV. only
very partially responded to this demand. He was swift in action when a
crisis came, and was cruel in his revenge, but he was lustful and
indolent when the crisis was passed, and he had no statesmanlike
abilities to lay the foundations of a powerful government. The wars
were not ended by his victory at Towton. In =1462= Queen Margaret
reappeared in the North, and it was not till =1464= that Warwick's
brother, Lord Montague, thoroughly defeated her forces at Hedgeley
Moor and Hexham; for which victories he was rewarded by Edward with
the earldom of Northumberland, which had been forfeited by the
Lancastrian head of the House of Percy. Montague's victory was marked
by the usual butcheries; the Duke of Somerset, a son of the duke who
had been slain at St. Albans, being amongst those who perished on the
scaffold. In =1465= Henry himself was taken prisoner and lodged in the
Tower.
4. =Edward's Marriage. 1464.=--Whilst these battles were being fought
Edward was lingering in the South courting the young widow of Sir John
Grey, usually known by her maiden name as Elizabeth Woodville. His
marriage to her gave offence to his noble supporters, who disdained to
acknowledge a queen of birth so undistinguished; and their ill-will
was increased when they found that Edward distributed amongst his
wife's kindred estates and preferments which they had hoped to gain
for themselves. The queen's father became Earl Rivers and Lord
Constable, and her brothers and sisters were enriched by marriages
with noble wards of the Crown. One of her brothers, a youth of twenty,
was married to the old Duchess of Norfolk, who was over eighty.
5. =Estrangement of Warwick. 1465--1468.=--No doubt there was as much
of policy as of affection in the slight shown by Edward to the Yorkist
nobility. Warwick--the King-maker, as he was called--had special cause
for ill-humour. He had expected to be a King-ruler as well as a
King-maker, and he took grave offence when he found Edward slipping
away from his control. It seemed as if Edward had the settled purpose
of raising up a new nobility to counterbalance the old. In =1467=
Warwick's brother, the Archbishop of York, was deprived of the
chancellorship. In foreign politics, too, Edward and Warwick
disagreed. Warwick had taken up the old policy of the Beauforts, and
was anxious for an alliance with the astute Louis XI., who had in
=1461= succeeded his father, Charles VII., as king of France. Edward,
perhaps with some thought passing through his head of establishing his
throne by following in the steps of Henry V., declared for an alliance
with Burgundy. In =1467= Warwick was allowed to go to France as an
ambassador, whilst Edward was entertaining Burgundian ambassadors in
England. In the same year Charles the Rash succeeded his father,
Philip the Good (see p. 306), as Duke of Burgundy, and in =1468=
married Edward's sister, Margaret. The Duke of Burgundy, the rival of
the king of France, was the lord of the seventeen provinces of the
Netherlands, and his friendship brought with it that peaceful
intercourse with the manufacturing towns of Flanders which it was
always the object of English policy to secure.
6. =Warwick's Alliance with Clarence. 1469--1470.=--Warwick, disgusted
with Edward, found an ally in Edward's brother, Clarence, who, like
Warwick, was jealous of the Woodvilles. Warwick had no son, and his
two daughters, Isabel and Anne, would one day share his vast estates
between them. Warwick gave Isabel in marriage to Clarence, and
encouraged him to think that it might be possible to seat him--in days
when everything seemed possible to the strong--on Edward's throne.
Edward had by this time lost much of his popularity. His extravagant
and luxurious life made men doubt whether anything had been gained by
substituting him for Henry, and in =1469= and =1470= there were
risings fomented by Warwick. In the latter year Edward, with the help
of his cannon, the importance of which in battles was now great,
struck such a panic into his enemies at a battle near Stamford that
the place of action came to be known as Lose-coat Field, from the
haste with which the fugitives stripped themselves of their armour to
make their flight the easier. Warwick and Clarence fled across the
sea. Warwick was governor of Calais, but his own officer there refused
to admit him, and he was forced to take refuge in France.
[Illustration: A fifteenth-century ship: from Harl. MS. 2278.]
7. =The Restoration of Henry VI. 1470.=--Warwick knew that he had no
chance of recovering power without the support of the Lancastrian
party, and, disagreeable as it was to him, he allowed Louis XI. to
reconcile him to Queen Margaret, the wife of that Henry VI., of whom
he had been the bitterest enemy. Louis, who dreaded Edward's alliance
with the Duke of Burgundy, did everything to support Edward's foes,
and sent Warwick off to England, where he was subsequently to be
joined by the queen. Edward, who was in his most careless mood, was
foolish enough to trust Warwick's brother, Montague, from whom he had
taken away, not only his new earldom of Northumberland to restore it
to the head of the Percies (see p. 331), but all the lands connected
with it, and had thought to compensate him with the mere marquisate
of Montague, unaccompanied by any estate wherewith to support the
dignity of his rank. Montague turned against him, and Edward, fearing
for his life, fled to Holland. Warwick became master of England, and
this time the King-maker drew Henry from the Tower and placed him once
more on the throne, imbecile as he now was.
8. =Edward IV. recovers the Throne. 1471.=--In the spring of =1471=
Edward was back in England, landing at Ravenspur, where Henry IV. had
landed in =1399=. Like Henry IV., he lyingly declared that he had come
merely to claim his duchy and estates. Like Henry IV., too, he found a
supporter in an Earl of Northumberland, who was this time the Percy
who, Lancastrian as he was, had been restored by Edward to his earldom
at the expense of Montague. Clarence, too--false, fleeting, perjured
Clarence, as Shakspere truly calls him--had offered to betray Warwick.
Edward gathered a sufficient force to march unassailed to London,
where he was enthusiastically received. Taking with him the
unfortunate Henry he won a complete victory at Barnet. The battle was
fought in a dense fog, and was decided by a panic caused amongst
Warwick's men through the firing of one of their divisions into
another. Warwick and Montague were among the slain. By this time
Margaret had landed with a fresh army at Weymouth. Edward caught her
and her army at Tewkesbury, where he inflicted on her a crushing
defeat. Her son, Edward Prince of Wales, was either slain in the
battle, or more probably murdered after the fight was over; and the
Duke of Somerset, the brother of the duke who had been executed after
the battle of Hexham (see p. 331), the last male heir of the House of
Beaufort, as well as others, who had taken refuge in the abbey, were
afterwards put to death, though Edward had solemnly promised them
their lives. On the night after Edward's return to London Henry VI.
ended his life in the Tower. There can be no reasonable doubt that he
was murdered, and that, too, by Edward's directions.
9. =Edward IV. prepares for War with France. 1471--1474.=--Edward IV.
was now all powerful. He had no competitor to fear. No descendant of
Henry IV. remained alive. Of the Beauforts, the descendants of John of
Gaunt by Catherine Swynford (see p. 282), the male line had perished,
and the only representative was young Henry, Earl of Richmond, whose
mother, the Lady Margaret, was the daughter of the first Duke of
Somerset, and the cousin of the two dukes who had been executed after
the battles of Hexham and Tewkesbury.[32] His father, Edmund Tudor,
Earl of Richmond, who died before his birth, was the son of a Welsh
gentleman of no great mark, who had had the luck to marry Catherine of
France, the widow of Henry V. The young Richmond was, however, an
exile, and, as he was only fourteen years of age when Edward was
restored, no serious danger was as yet to be apprehended from that
side. Moreover, the slaughter amongst both the Yorkist and the
Lancastrian nobility had, for the time, put an end to all danger of a
rising. Edward was, therefore, at liberty to carry out his own foreign
policy. He obtained grants from Parliament to enable him, in alliance
with Charles of Burgundy, to make war against Louis XI. The grants
were insufficient, and he supplemented them by a newly invented system
of benevolences, which were nominally free gifts made to him by the
well-to-do, but which were in reality exactions, because those from
whom they were required dared not refuse to pay. The system raised
little general ill will, partly because the small owners of property
who were relieved from taxation were not touched by the benevolences,
and partly because the end which Edward had put to the civil war made
his government welcome. In some cases his personal charm counted for
something. One old lady whom he asked for ten pounds replied that for
the sake of his handsome face she would give him twenty. He kissed her
and she at once made it forty.
[Footnote 32: Genealogy of the Beauforts and the Tudors:--
John of Gaunt = Catherine Swynford
----------+------------
| |
John Beaufort, Cardinal Beaufort,
Earl of Somerset, legitimated by Act
legitimated by Act of of Parliament
Owen Tudor = Catherine, Parliament
| widow of |
| Henry V. |----------------------
| | |
| John, 1st Duke of Somerset Edmund,
| | 2nd Duke of
| | Somerset,
| | killed at
| | St. Albans,
| | 1455
| | ------------+----
| | | |
Edmund Tudor = Margaret Henry, Edmund,
Earl of Richmond, | 3rd Duke of 4th Duke of
d. 1456 | Somerset, Somerset,
HENRY VII. executed after executed after
(1485-1509) the battle of the battle of
Hexham, 1464 Tewkesbury, 1471]
10. =The Invasion of France. 1475.=--In =1475= Edward invaded France.
If he could have secured the steady support of the Duke of Burgundy he
might have accomplished something, but the Duke's dominions were too
scattered to enable him to have a settled policy. He was sometimes led
to attack the king of France, because he had interests as a French
vassal; whilst at other times he threw all his strength into projects
for encroachments in Germany, because he had also interests as a
vassal of the Emperor. When Edward landed Charles was anxious to carry
on war in Germany, and would give no help to Edward in France. Louis
XI., who preferred a victory of diplomacy to one of force, wheedled
Edward into a seven years' truce by a grant of 75,000 crowns, together
with a yearly pension of 50,000, and by a promise to marry the Dauphin
Charles to Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of the king of England.
Louis also made presents to Edward's chief followers, and was
delighted when the English army turned its back on France. In
consequence of this understanding Queen Margaret recovered her
liberty.
11. =Fall and Death of Clarence. 1476--1478.=--Soon after Edward's
return he became suspicious of his brother Clarence, who took upon
himself to interfere with the course of justice. In =1477= the Duke of
Burgundy, Charles the Rash, was slain at Nancy by the Swiss, leaving
only a daughter, Mary. Ducal Burgundy was at once seized by Louis, as
forfeited for want of male heirs, but Franche Comté, or the county of
Burgundy, was a part of the Empire, and therefore beyond his reach;
and this latter district, together with the provinces of the
Netherlands, formed a dower splendid enough to attract suitors for
Mary's hand. Amongst these was Clarence,[33] now a widower. Edward,
who had no wish to see his brother an independent sovereign, forbade
him to proceed with his wooing. Other actions of Clarence were
displeasing to the king, and when Parliament met, =1478=, Edward with
his own mouth accused his brother of treason. Clarence was condemned
to death, and perished secretly in the Tower, being, according to
rumour, drowned in a butt of malmsey.
[Footnote 33: Mary was the child of an earlier wife of Charles the
Bold than Margaret the sister of Edward IV. and Clarence, and the
latter was therefore not related to her.]
12. =The Last Years of Edward IV. 1478--1483.=--The remainder of
Edward's life was spent in quiet, as far as domestic affairs were
concerned. In foreign affairs he met with a grave disappointment.
Mary of Burgundy had found a husband in Maximilian, archduke of
Austria, the son of the Emperor Frederick III. In =1482= she died,
leaving two children, Philip and Margaret. The men of Ghent set
Maximilian at naught, and, combining with Louis, forced Maximilian in
the treaty of Arras to promise the hand of Margaret to the Dauphin,
and the cession of some Netherlandish territory to France. Edward died
on April 9, =1483=, and it has been said that the treaty of Arras,
which extended French influence in the Netherlands, brought about his
death. It is more reasonable to attribute it to the dissoluteness of
his life.
13. =Edward V. and the Duke of Gloucester. 1483.=--Edward IV. left two
sons. The elder, a boy of twelve, was now Edward V., and his younger
brother, Richard, was Duke of York.[34] The only grown-up man of the
family was the youngest brother of Edward IV., Richard, Duke of
Gloucester. Gloucester had shown himself during his brother's reign to
be possessed of the qualities which fit a man to fulfil the duties of
a high position. He was not only a good soldier and an able commander,
but, unlike his brother Clarence, was entirely faithful to Edward,
though he showed his independence by refusing to take part in Edward's
treaty with Louis of France. He had a rare power of winning popular
sympathy, and was most liked in Yorkshire, where he was best known. He
had, however, grown up in a cruel and unscrupulous age, and had no
more hesitation in clearing his way by slaughter than had Edward IV.
or Margaret of Anjou. Though absolute proof is wanting, there is
strong reason to believe that he took part in cutting down Prince
Edward after the battle of Tewkesbury, and that he executed his
brother's orders in providing for the murder of Henry VI. in the
Tower. He made no remonstrance against, though he took no part in, the
death of Clarence, with whom he was on bad terms, because Clarence
claimed the whole of the estates of the King-maker, whose eldest
daughter Isabel he had married; whereas Gloucester, having married the
younger daughter Anne, the widow of the slaughtered son of Henry VI.
put in a claim to half. Gloucester was now to be tried as he had never
been tried before, his brother having appointed him by will to be the
guardian of his young nephew and of the kingdom. If the authority thus
conferred upon him met with general acceptance, he would probably make
an excellent ruler. If it were questioned he would strike out, and
show no mercy. In those hard days every man of high position must be
either hammer or anvil, and Richard was resolved that he would not be
the anvil.
[Footnote 34: Genealogy of the Yorkist Kings:--
Richard, Duke of York,
killed at Wakefield, 1460
|
----------------------------------------------------
| | | |
Elizabeth = EDWARD IV. Margaret = Charles, George = Isabel RICHARD
Woodville | (1461-1483) the Rash, Duke of | Nevil III.,
| Duke of Clarence,| Duke of
| Burgundy d. 1478| Gloucester,
| | afterwards
| | king, m. to
| | Anne Nevill
| | (1483-1485)
--------------------------- | |
| | | | |
Elizabeth, m. EDWARD V., Richard, Edward, |
to Henry VII. murdered Duke of York, Earl of Edward,
1483 murdered 1483 Warwick, d. 1484
executed 1499]
14. =Fall of the Queen's Relations. 1483.=--The young king was at
Ludlow, and rode up towards London, guarded by Earl Rivers, his uncle
on his mother's side, and by his half-brother, Sir Richard Grey.
Another half-brother, the Marquis of Dorset, was lieutenant of the
Tower.[35] Gloucester had strong reasons for believing that the Greys
intended to keep the young king in their hands and, having him crowned
at once, so as to put an end to his own guardianship, to make
themselves masters of the kingdom. He therefore struck the first blow.
Accompanied by his friend and supporter, the Duke of Buckingham, he
overtook the cavalcade, and sent Rivers and Grey prisoners to
Pontefract. The queen-mother at once took refuge in the sanctuary at
Westminster, whence no one could remove her without violating the
privileges of the Church.
[Footnote 35: Genealogy of the Woodvilles and Greys:--
Richard, Earl Rivers
|
+--------------------------------+
| |
Anthony (1) Sir John Grey = Elizabeth Woodville = (2) EDWARD IV.
Woodville, | |
Earl Rivers, +----------+---------+ +-----+
executed | | |
1483 Thomas Grey, Sir Richard Grey, EDWARD V.,
Marquis of Dorset executed 1483 murdered 1483]
[Illustration: Large ship and boat of the fifteenth century. The
mainsail of the ship has the Beauchamp arms, and the streamer the bear
and ragged staff. From the 'Life of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of
Warwick,' by John Rous; drawn about 1485.]
15. =Execution of Lord Hastings.=--The young king arrived in London on
May 4. The Council acknowledged Gloucester as Protector, and removed
Edward to the Tower, which in those days was a place of safety rather
than a prison. Dorset, however, had equipped a fleet, and Gloucester
was afraid lest a fresh attempt might be made by the queen's party to
overthrow him. His fears were increased because Lord Hastings, the
leading member of the Council, who had taken his part against the
Woodvilles, now turned against him and began to intrigue with the
queen's supporters. Coming into the council chamber on June 13, he
laid bare his left arm, which had been withered from his birth, and
declared that the mischief was the effect of witchcraft, and that the
witches were the queen and Jane Shore, who had been one of the many
mistresses of Edward IV., and was now the mistress of Hastings.
Hastings admitted that the queen and Jane Shore were worthy of
punishment if they were guilty. "What!" cried Gloucester, "dost thou
serve me with ifs and with ands? I tell thee they have done it, and
that I will make good on thy body, traitor." Gloucester struck his
fist on the table. Armed men rushed in, dragged Hastings out, and cut
off his head on a log of wood. Jane Shore was compelled to do public
penance in a white sheet. Of the causes of Hastings' desertion of
Gloucester it is impossible to speak with certainty. It is a probable
conjecture that he had discovered that Gloucester entertained the
thought of making himself more than Protector. Young Edward's
coronation would make the boy capable, formally at least, of
exercising royal power, and as it was known that the boy loved his
mother's relations, it was almost certain that he would place the
Woodvilles in power. Now that Gloucester had imprisoned Rivers and
Grey, it was certain that the first thing done by the Woodvilles, if
they got a chance, would be to send Gloucester to the scaffold, and
Gloucester was not the man patiently to allow himself to be crushed.
It is ridiculous to speak of Gloucester as an accomplished dissembler.
The story of witchcraft served its purpose, but it was the stupid lie
of a man who had not hitherto been accustomed to lying.
16. =Deposition of Edward V. 1483.=--The execution of Hastings was
promptly followed by the execution of Rivers and Grey. Dorset saved
himself by escaping beyond sea. By threats Gloucester got the Duke of
York into his hands, and lodged him with his brother in the Tower. He
was now in a temper which would stop at no atrocity. He put up a Dr.
Shaw to preach a sermon against Edward's claim to the throne. In those
days if a man and woman made a contract of marriage neither of the
contracting parties could marry another, though no actual marriage had
taken place. Shaw declared that Edward IV. had promised marriage to
one of his mistresses before he met Elizabeth Woodville, and that
therefore, his marriage with Elizabeth being invalid, all his children
by her were illegitimate, and Gloucester was the true heir to the
throne. Further, Shaw declared that Gloucester was the only legitimate
son of the Duke of York, both Edward IV. and Clarence being the sons
of their mother by some other man. That Richard should have authorised
so base an attack upon his mother's honour shows the depth of infamy
to which he had now sunk. At first it seemed as if he had lowered
himself to no purpose. The hearers of the sermon, instead of shouting,
"God save King Richard!" held their peace. At a meeting in the City
the Duke of Buckingham told the same story as had been told by Shaw,
and there the servants of the two dukes shouted for 'King Richard,'
and their voice was taken as the voice of the City. On June 25
Parliament declared Gloucester to be the lawful heir, and on July 6 he
was crowned as Richard III. The Woodvilles were not popular, and the
bloodshed with which Richard had maintained himself against them was
readily condoned.
[Illustration: Richard III.: from an original painting belonging to
the Society of Antiquaries.]
17. =Buckingham's Rebellion. 1483.=--Richard's enemies were chiefly to
be found amongst the nobility. No nobleman could feel his life secure
if he crossed Richard's path. The first to revolt was Buckingham, who
had played the part of a king-maker, and who was disappointed because
Richard did not reward him by conceding his claim to estates so vast
that if he possessed them he would have been master of England.
Buckingham, who was descended from Edward III. through his youngest
son, the Duke of Gloucester, at first thought of challenging a right
to the throne for himself, but afterwards determined to support the
claim of the Earl of Richmond, the Tudor heir of the House of
Lancaster (see p. 334). He was skilfully led from one step to another
by John Morton, Bishop of Ely, one of the ablest statesmen of the
day. Richmond was to sail from Brittany, where he was in exile, and
Buckingham was to raise forces in Wales, where the Welsh Tudors were
popular, whilst other counties were to rise simultaneously. The
rebellion came to nothing. Heavy rains caused a flood of the Severn,
and Buckingham, in Shropshire, was cut off from his army in Wales.
Buckingham was betrayed to Richard, and on November 2 was beheaded at
Salisbury.
18. =Murder of the Princes. 1483.=--At some time in the summer or
autumn the princes in the Tower ceased to live. There had been
movements in their favour in some counties, and there can be no
reasonable doubt that Richard had them secretly killed. It was only by
degrees that the truth leaked out. Wherever it was believed it roused
indignation. Murders there had been in plenty, but the murdered as yet
had been grown men. To butcher children was reserved for Richard
alone.
19. =Richard's Government. 1484--1485.=--As long as the last tale of
murder was still regarded as doubtful, Richard retained his
popularity. In a Parliament which met in January =1484= he enacted
good laws, amongst which was one declaring benevolences illegal. In
the summer he was welcomed as he moved about, yet he knew that danger
threatened. Richmond was preparing invasion and the hollow friendship
of the English nobility was not to be trusted. In vain Richard
scattered gifts in profusion amongst them. They took the gifts and
hoped for deliverance. The popular goodwill grew cooler, and in the
winter Richard, needing money, and not venturing to summon another
Parliament, raised a forced loan. A loan not being a gift, he did not
technically break the statute against benevolences though practically
he set it at naught. Domestic misfortunes came to add to Richard's
political troubles. His only son, Edward, died in =1484=. His wife,
Anne, died in =1485=. Richard was now eager, if he had not been eager
before, to marry his niece, Elizabeth of York, the daughter of Edward
IV. This monstrous proposal was scouted by his own supporters, and he
had reluctantly to abandon the scheme. If there could be queens in
England, Elizabeth was on hereditary principles the heiress of the
throne, unless, indeed, Richard's argument against her mother's
marriage (see p. 340) was to be accepted. Richmond was naturally as
anxious as Richard could be to win her hand, and his promise to marry
her was the condition on which he obtained the support of those
Yorkists who were Richard's enemies.
20. =Richard Defeated and Slain at Bosworth. 1485.=--In August =1485=
Richmond landed at Milford Haven. As he marched on he was joined by
considerable numbers, but on August 22 he found Richard waiting for
him near Bosworth, with a host far larger than his own. Richard,
however, could not count on the fidelity of his own commanders. Lord
Stanley, who had married Richmond's widowed mother, the Lady Margaret
(see p. 334), together with his brother, Sir William Stanley, were
secretly in accord with Richmond, though they had placed themselves on
Richard's side. When the battle began Stanley openly joined Richmond,
whilst the Earl of Northumberland who was also nominally on Richard's
side withdrew his forces and stood aloof. Knowing that defeat was
certain, Richard, with the crown on his head, rushed into the thick of
the fight and met a soldier's death. After the battle the fallen crown
was discovered on a bush, and placed by Stanley, amidst shouts of
'King Henry!' on Richmond's head.
CHAPTER XXIII.
HENRY VII. 1485--1509.
LEADING DATES
Accession of Henry VII. 1485
The Battle of Stoke 1487
Poynings' Acts 1494
Capture of Perkin Warbeck 1497
Alliance with Scotland 1503
Death of Henry VII. 1509
[Illustration: Henry VII.: from an original picture in the National
Portrait Gallery.]
1. =The First Measures of Henry VII. 1485--1486.=--Henry VII. owed his
success not to a general uprising against Richard, but to a
combination of the nobles who had hitherto taken opposite sides. To
secure this combination he had promised to marry Elizabeth, the
heiress of the Yorkist family. Lest an attempt should be made to
challenge her title, Henry imprisoned in the Tower the Earl of
Warwick, the son of Clarence, who might possibly maintain that a
female was incapable of inheriting. He was indeed unwilling to have it
thought that he derived his title from a wife, and when Parliament met
on November 7 he obtained from it a recognition of his own right to
the throne, though it would have puzzled the most acute
controversialist to discover in what that right consisted. Parliament,
therefore, contented itself with declaring that the inheritance of the
crown was to 'be, rest, and abide in King Henry VII. and his heirs,'
without giving any reasons why it was to be so.[36] As far as the
House of Lords was concerned the attendance when this declaration was
made was scanty. Only twenty-nine lay peers were present, not because
many of the great houses had become extinct, but because some of the
principal Yorkist peers had been attainted, and others had been left
without a summons. In the quieter times which followed this slur upon
them was removed, and the House of Lords was again filled. On January
18, =1486=, Henry married Elizabeth. This marriage and the blending of
the white and red rose in the Tudor badge was Henry's way of
announcing that he intended to be the king of both parties.
[Footnote 36: Abbreviated genealogy of Henry VII. and his
competitors:--
EDWARD III.
|
+----------------+----------------+
| |
Lionel, Duke of Clarence John of Gaunt,
: Duke of Lancaster
: :
+-----+-----------+ :
| | :
| George :
| Duke of Clarence :
| | :
EDWARD IV. Edward, :
| Earl of Warwick :
Elizabeth HENRY VII.]
[Illustration: Elizabeth of York, queen of Henry VII.: from an
original picture in the National Portrait Gallery.]
2. =Maintenance and Livery.=--Henry could not maintain himself on the
throne merely by the support of the nobility. The middle classes, as
in the days of Edward IV., called out for a strong king, and were
ready to overlook violence and cruelty if only order could be secured.
Henry was shrewd enough to know that their aid was indispensable, and,
Lancastrian as he was, he adopted the policy of the Yorkist kings.
Economical and patient, he might succeed where Edward IV. had
partially failed. He had no injuries to avenge, no cruelties to repay.
He clearly saw that both the throne and the lives and properties of
the middle classes were rendered insecure by maintenance and
livery--the support given by the great landowners to their retainers,
and the granting of badges by which the retainers might recognise one
another, and thus become as it were a uniformed army ready to serve
their lords in the field. Against these abuses Richard II. had
directed a statute, (see p. 281) and that statute had been confirmed
by Edward IV. These laws had, however, been inoperative; and Henry, in
his first Parliament, did not venture to do more than to make the
peers swear to abandon their evil courses.
3. =Lovel's Rising. 1486.=--In =1486= Lord Lovel, who had been one of
Richard's ministers, rose in arms and seized Worcester. Henry found
warm support even in Yorkshire, where Richard had been more popular
than elsewhere. At short warning a 'marvellous great number of
esquires, gentlemen, and yeomen' gathered round him, and the rebellion
was easily put down. Lovel escaped to Flanders, where he found a
protector in Margaret, the dowager Duchess of Burgundy, the sister of
Edward IV. and Richard III. Before long a new attack upon Henry was
developed. For the first time an English king had to ward off danger
from Ireland.
[Illustration: Tudor rose (white and red): from the gates of the
Chapel of Henry VII.]
4. =Lancaster and York in Ireland. 1399--1485.=--Since the expedition
of Richard II. no king had visited Ireland, and the English colonists
were left to defend themselves against the Celtic tribes as best they
might. In =1449= Richard, Duke of York, who had not at that time
entered on his rivalry with Henry VI., was sent to Dublin as Lord
Lieutenant (see p. 319) where he remained till =1450=, and gained
friends amongst both races by his conciliatory firmness. In =1459=,
after the break-up of his party at Ludlow (see p. 326), he appeared in
Ireland in the character of a fugitive seeking for allies. Between him
and the English colony a bargain was soon struck. They gave him troops
which fought gallantly for him at Wakefield, and he, claiming to be
Lord Lieutenant, assented to an act in which they asserted the
complete legislative independence of the Parliament of the colony. The
colony, therefore, became distinctly Yorkist. Its leader was the Earl
of Kildare, the chief of the eastern Fitzgeralds or Geraldines, the
Earl of Desmond being the chief of the Geraldines of the West. Between
them was the Earl of Ormond, the chief of the Butlers, the hereditary
foe of the Geraldines, who, probably merely because his rivals were
Yorkist, had attached himself to the Lancastrian party. All three were
of English descent, but all three exercised the tribal authority of an
Irish chief, and were practically independent of English control.
Ormond fought at Towton on the Lancastrian side, and was executed
after the battle. Family quarrels broke out amongst his kindred, and
for the time Kildare was supreme in the English Pale (see p. 265).
5. =Insurrection of Lambert Simnel. 1487.=--Kildare and the colonists
had every reason to distrust Henry, but to oppose him they needed a
pretender. They found one in the son of an Oxford tradesman, a boy of
ten, named Lambert Simnel, who had been persuaded to give himself out
as the Earl of Warwick, who, as it was said, had escaped from the
Tower. In =1487= Simnel landed in Ireland, where he was soon joined by
Lord Lovel from Flanders, and by the Earl of Lincoln, of the family of
Pole or De la Pole,[37] whose mother, Elizabeth, was the eldest sister
of Edward IV., and who had been named by Richard III. as his heir
after the death of his son (see p. 342). Lincoln and Lovel, after
crowning Simnel at Dublin, crossed to Lancashire, taking with them the
pretender, and 2,000 trained German soldiers under Martin Schwarz; as
well as an Irish force furnished by Kildare. Scarcely an Englishman
would join them, and on June 16 they were utterly defeated by Henry at
Stoke, a village between Nottingham and Newark. Lincoln and Schwarz
were slain. Lovel was either drowned in the Trent or, according to
legend, was hidden in an underground vault, where he was at last
starved to death through the neglect of the man whose duty it was to
provide him with food. Simnel was pardoned, and employed by Henry as
a turnspit in his kitchen.
[Footnote 37: Genealogy of the De la Poles and Poles:--
Richard, Duke of York
|
+------------------------+--------------------------+
| |
Elizabeth= John de la Pole, George, Duke
| Duke of Suffolk of Clarence,
| died 1477
+--+--------------+----------------------+ |
| | | |
John de la Pole, Edmund de la Pole, Sir Richard Margaret, = Sir Richard
Earl of Lincoln, Earl of Suffolk, de la Pole, Countess | Pole
killed at Stoke, beheaded 1513 killed at of |
1487 Pavia, 1525 Salisbury |
|
+-------------------------------+--------------------+
| |
Henry, Lord Montague, Reginald Pole,
beheaded 1538 Cardinal and Archbishop
of Canterbury, died 1558]
6. =The Court of Star Chamber. 1487.=--Nothing could serve Henry
better than this abortive rising. At Bosworth he had been the leader
of one party against the other. At Stoke he was the leader of the
nation against Irishmen and Germans. He felt himself strong enough in
his second Parliament to secure the passing of an act to ensure the
execution of the engagements to which the lords had sworn two years
before (see p. 345). A court was to be erected, consisting of certain
specified members of the Privy Council and of two judges, empowered to
punish with fine and imprisonment all who were guilty of interfering
with justice by force or intrigue. The new court, reviving, to some
extent, the disused criminal authority of the king's Council, sat in
the Star Chamber[38] at Westminster. The results of its establishment
were excellent. Wealthy landowners, the terror of their neighbours,
who had bribed or bullied juries at their pleasure, and had sent their
retainers to inflict punishment on those who had displeased them, were
brought to Westminster to be tried before a court in which neither
fear nor favour could avail them. It was the greatest merit of the new
court that it was not dependent on a jury, because in those days
juries were unable or unwilling to give verdicts according to their
conscience.
[Footnote 38: So called either because the roof was decorated with
stars or because it was the room in which had formerly been kept
Jewish bonds or 'starres.']
7. =Henry VII. and Brittany. 1488--1492.=--Henry VII. was a lover of
peace by calculation, and would gladly have let France alone if it had
been possible to do so. France, however, was no longer the divided
power which it had been in the days of Henry V. When Louis XI. died in
=1483=, he left to his young son, Charles VIII., a territory the whole
of which, with the exception of Brittany, was directly governed by the
king. Charles's sister, Anne of Beaujeu, who governed in his name,
made it the object of her policy to secure Brittany. She waged war
successfully against its duke, Francis II., and after he died, in
=1488=, she continued to wage war against his daughter, the Duchess
Anne. In England there was a strong feeling against allowing the
Duchess to be overwhelmed. At the beginning of =1489= Henry, having
received from Parliament large supplies, sent 6,000 Englishmen to
Anne's assistance. Maximilian--whose hold on the Netherlands, where he
ruled in the name of his young son, Philip (see p. 337), was always
slight--proposed marriage to the young duchess, and in =1490= was
wedded to her by proxy. He was a restless adventurer, always aiming at
more than he had the means of accomplishing. Though he could not find
time to go at once to Brittany to make good his claim, yet in =1491=
he called on Henry to assist him in asserting it.
8. =Cardinal Morton's Fork. 1491.=--Henry, who knew how unpopular a
general taxation was, fell back on the system of benevolences (see p.
335), excusing his conduct on the plea that the statute of Richard
III. abolishing benevolences (see p. 342) was invalid, because Richard
himself was a usurper. In gathering the benevolence the Chancellor,
Cardinal Morton, who had been helpful to Henry in the days of his
exile (see p. 341), invented a new mode of putting pressure on the
wealthy, which became known as Cardinal Morton's fork. If he addressed
himself to one who lived in good style, he told him that his mode of
living showed that he could afford to give money to the king. If he
had to do with one who appeared to be economical, he told him that he
must have saved and could therefore afford to give money to the king.
Before Henry could put the money thus gained to much use, Anne,
pressed hard by the French, repudiated her formal marriage with
Maximilian, who had never taken the trouble to visit her, and gave her
hand to Charles VIII., who on his part refused to carry out his
contract to marry Maximilian's daughter Margaret (see p. 337). From
that time Brittany, the last of the great fiefs to maintain its
independence, passed under the power of the king of France. Feudality
was everywhere breaking down, and in France, as in England, a strong
monarchy was being erected on its ruins.
9. =The Invasion of France. 1492.=--Maximilian's alliance had proved
but a broken reed, but there was now arising a formidable power in the
south of Europe, which might possibly give valuable support to the
enemies of France. The peninsula to the south of the Pyrenees had
hitherto been divided amongst various states, but in =1469= a marriage
between Ferdinand, king of Aragon, and Isabella, the heiress of
Castile, united the greater part under one dominion. Ferdinand and
Isabella were, for the present, fully occupied with the conquest of
Granada, the last remnant of the possessions of the Moors in Spain,
and that city did not surrender till early in =1492=. In the meanwhile
all England was indignant with the king of France on account of his
marriage with the heiress of Brittany. Money was voted and men were
raised, and on October 2, =1492=, Henry crossed to Calais to invade
France. He was, however, cool enough to discover that both Ferdinand
and Maximilian wanted to play their own game at his expense, and as
Anne of Beaujeu was ready to meet him half-way, he concluded a treaty
with the French king on November 3 at Etaples, receiving large sums of
money for abandoning a war in which he had nothing to gain. In =1493=
the Spaniards followed Henry's example, and made a peace with France
to their own advantage.[39]
[Footnote 39: Genealogy of the Houses of Spain and Burgundy:--
Charles the Rash, Duke of Burgundy Frederick III., Emperor
| |
| +---------------+
| |
Mary = Maximilian I. Ferdinand V. = Isabella,
| Emperor King of Aragon | Queen of
| | Castile
| |
+-----+--+ +----------+--------+
| | | |
Margaret Philip = Juana Catharine = HENRY VIII.,
| | King
| | of England
+-----------------+---+ |
| | MARY,
Charles V., Ferdinand I., Queen of England
Emperor Emperor]
10. =Perkin Warbeck. 1491--1494.=--Henry's prudent relinquishment of a
war of conquest was not likely to bring him popularity in England, and
his enemies were now on the watch for another pretender to support
against him. Such a pretender was found in Perkin Warbeck, a Fleming
of Tournay, who had landed at Cork in the end of =1491= or the
beginning of =1492=, and who had been pressed by the townsmen to give
himself some name which would attach him to the Yorkist family. He
allowed them to call him Richard, Duke of York, the younger of the
princes who had been murdered in the Tower. He received support from
Desmond, and probably from Kildare, upon which Henry deprived Kildare
of the office of Lord Deputy. Perkin crossed to France, and ultimately
made his way to Flanders, where he was supported by Margaret of
Burgundy. In =1493= Henry demanded his surrender, and on receiving a
refusal broke off commercial intercourse between England and Flanders.
The interruption of trade did more harm to England than to Flanders,
and gave hopes to the Yorkist party that it might give rise to
ill-will between the nation and the king. For some time, however, no
one gave assistance to Perkin, and in =1494= Charles VIII. crossed the
Alps to invade Italy, and drew the attention of the Continental powers
away from the affairs of England.
11. =Poynings' Acts. 1494.=--Henry seized the opportunity to bring
into obedience the English colony in Ireland. He sent over as Lord
Deputy Sir Edward Poynings, a resolute and able man. At a Parliament
held by him at Drogheda two acts were passed. By the one it was
enacted that all English laws in force at that time should be obeyed
in Ireland; by the other, known for many generations afterwards as
Poynings' Law, no bill was to be laid before the Irish Parliament
which had not been previously approved by the king and his Council in
England. At the same time the greater part of the Statute of Kilkenny
(see p. 265) was re-enacted; and restricted the authority of the
Government at Dublin to the English Pale.
12. =Perkin's First Attempt on England. 1495.=--Henry's firm
government in England had given offence even to men who were not
Yorkists. Early in =1495= he discovered that Sir William Stanley, who
had helped him to victory at Bosworth, had turned against him.
Stanley, who was probably involved in a design for sending Perkin to
invade England, was tried and executed. In the summer of =1495= Perkin
actually arrived off Deal. Being no warrior, he sent a party of his
followers on shore, though he remained himself on shipboard to see
what would happen. The countrymen fell upon the invaders, who were all
slain or captured. Then Perkin sailed to Ireland, was repulsed at
Waterford, and ultimately took refuge in Scotland, where King James
IV., anxious to distinguish himself in a war with England,
acknowledged him as the Duke of York, and found him a wife of noble
birth, Lady Catherine Gordon. It was probably in order to rally even
the most timid around him, in face of such a danger, that Henry
obtained the consent of Parliament to an act declaring that no one
supporting a king in actual possession of the crown could be subjected
to the penalty of treason in the event of that king's dethronement.
13. =The Intercursus Magnus. 1496.=--The danger of a Scottish invasion
made Henry anxious to be on good terms with his neighbours. Maximilian
had become Emperor in =1493= upon his father's death. In the
Netherlands, however, his influence had declined, as his son, the
young Archduke Philip, was now growing up, and claimed actually to
rule the country which he had inherited from his mother, Mary of
Burgundy (see p. 337), his father having merely the right of
administering the government of it till he himself came of age. It was
therefore with Philip, and not with Maximilian, that Henry concluded,
in =1496=, a treaty known as the _Intercursus Magnus_, for the
encouragement of trade between England and the Netherlands, each
party engaging at the same time to give no shelter to each other's
rebels.
14. =Kildare Restored to the Deputyship. 1496.=--In Ireland also Henry
was careful to avert danger. The government of Poynings had not been
entirely successful, and the Geraldines had taken good care to show
that they could be troublesome in spite of the establishment of
English government. The Earl of Kildare was at the time in England,
and a story is told of some one who, having brought a long string of
charges against him, wound up by saying that all Ireland could not
govern the Earl, whereupon the king replied that then the Earl should
govern all Ireland. The story is untrue, but it well represents the
real situation. In =1496= Henry sent Kildare back as Lord Deputy. A
bargain seems to have been struck between them. Henry abandoned his
attempt to govern Ireland from England, and Kildare was allowed to use
the king's name in any enterprise upon which his heart was set,
provided that he did not support any more pretenders to the English
throne.
15. =Perkin's Overthrow. 1496--1497.=--In the autumn of =1496= James
IV. made an attack on England in Perkin's name, but it was no more
than a plundering foray. Henry, however, early in =1497=, obtained
from Parliament a grant of money, to enable him to resist any attempt
to repeat it. This grant had unexpected consequences. The Cornishmen,
refusing payment, marched up to Blackheath, where on June 18 they were
overpowered by the king's troops. James IV., thinking it time to be
quit of Perkin, sent him off by sea. In July Perkin arrived at Cork,
but there was no shelter for him there now that Kildare was Lord
Deputy, and in September he made his way to Cornwall. Followed by
6,000 Cornishmen he reached Taunton, but the news of the defeat of the
Cornish at Blackheath depressed him, and the poor coward ran away from
his army and took sanctuary in Beaulieu Abbey. He was brought to
London, where he publicly acknowledged himself to be an impostor.
Henry was too humane to do more than place him in confinement.
[Illustration: Tower of St. Mary's Church, Taunton: built about 1500.]
16. =European Changes. 1494--1499.=--In =1494= Charles VIII. had
passed through Italy as a conqueror to make good his claims to the
kingdom of Naples. In =1495= he had returned to France, and in =1496=
the French army left behind had been entirely destroyed. Yet the
danger of a renewed attack from France made the other Continental
powers anxious to unite, and in =1496= the Archduke Philip married
Juana, the eldest daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, whilst his
sister was sent to Spain to be married to their only son, Juan. In
=1497= the death of the young prince led to consequences unexpected
when the two marriages were arranged. Philip, who held Franche Comté
and the Netherlands, and who was through his father Maximilian heir to
the German dominions of the House of Austria, would now, that his wife
had become the heiress of Spain, be able to transmit to his
descendants the whole of the Spanish monarchy as well. That monarchy
was no longer confined to Europe. Portugal at the end of the
fourteenth century had led the way in maritime adventure, and
Portuguese navigators discovered a way to India round the Cape of Good
Hope. Spain was anxious to do as much, and in =1492= Columbus had
discovered the West Indies, and the kings of Spain became masters of
the untold wealth produced by the gold and silver mines of the New
World. It was impossible but that the huge power thus brought into
existence would one day arouse the jealousy of Europe. For the
present, however, the danger was less than it would be after the
deaths of Ferdinand and Isabella, as the actual combination of their
territories with those which Philip was to inherit from Maximilian had
not been effected. In =1499= France gave a fresh shock to her
neighbours. Charles VIII. had died the year before, and his successor,
Louis XII., invaded Italy and subdued the duchy of Milan, to which he
had set up a claim. Naturally the powers jealous of France sought to
have Henry on their side. There had been for some time a negotiation
for a marriage between Henry's eldest son, Arthur, Prince of Wales,
and Catherine of Aragon, the youngest daughter of Ferdinand and
Isabella, but hitherto nothing had been concluded.
17. =Execution of the Earl of Warwick. 1499.=--Perkin had long been
eager to free himself from prison. In =1498= he was caught attempting
to escape, but Henry contented himself with putting him in the stocks.
He was then removed to the Tower, where he persuaded the unhappy Earl
of Warwick (see p. 343) to join him in flight. It is almost certain
that Warwick was guilty of no more, but Henry, soured by the repeated
attempts to dethrone him, resolved to remove him from his path. On
trumped-up evidence Warwick was convicted and executed, and Perkin
shared his fate.
[Illustration: King's College Chapel, Cambridge (looking east). Begun
by Henry VI. in 1441, completed by Henry VII. The screen built between
1531 and 1535.]
18. =Prince Arthur's Marriage and Death. 1501--1502.=--Warwick's death
was the one judicial murder of Henry's reign. To the Spaniards it
appeared to be a prudent action which had cleared away the last of
Henry's serious competitors. The negotiations for the Spanish
marriage were pushed on, and in =1501= Catherine, a bride of fifteen,
gave her hand to Arthur, a bridegroom of fourteen. In =1502= the
prince died, and the attempt to bind England and Spain together seemed
to have come to an end.
19. =The Scottish Marriage. 1503.=--Another marriage treaty proved
ultimately to be of far greater importance. Henry was sufficiently
above the prejudices of his time to be anxious to be on good terms
with Scotland. For some time a negotiation had been in progress for a
marriage between James IV. and Henry's daughter, Margaret. The
marriage took place in =1503=. To the counsellors who urged that in
the case of failure of Henry's heirs in the male line England would
become subject to Scotland Henry shrewdly replied that there was no
fear of that, as 'the greater would draw the less.'
20. =Maritime Enterprise.=--Henry's chief merit was that he had
re-established order. Commercial prosperity followed, though the
commerce was as yet on a small scale. It is probable that the
population of England was no more than 2,500,000. London contained but
130,000 inhabitants, whilst Paris contained 400,000. There was no
royal navy, as there was no royal army, but merchant vessels were
armed to protect themselves. The company of Merchant Adventurers made
voyages to the Baltic, and the men of Bristol sent out fleets to the
Iceland fishery. Henry did what he could to encourage maritime
enterprise. He had offered to take Columbus into his service before
the great navigator closed with Spain, and in =1497= he sent the
Venetian, John Cabot, and his sons across the Atlantic, where they
landed in Labrador before any Spaniards had set foot on the American
continent. England however, was as yet too poor to push these
discoveries farther, and the lands beyond the sea were for the present
left to Spain.
21. =Growth of the Royal Power.=--The improvement in the general
well-being of the country had been rendered possible by the extension
of the royal power, and the price paid for order was the falling into
abeyance of the constitutional authority of Parliaments. The loss
indeed was greater in appearance than in reality. In the fifteenth
century the election of members of the House of Commons depended more
upon the will of the great lords than upon the political sentiments of
the community. In the first half of the sixteenth century they
depended on the will of the king. The peculiarity of the Tudor rule
was that its growing despotism was exercised without the support of
the army. It rested on the goodwill of the middle classes. Treading
cautiously in the steps of Edward IV., Henry VII. recognised that in
order to have a full treasury it was less dangerous to exact payments
illegally from the few than to exact them legally from the many. Hence
his recourse in times of trouble to benevolences. Hence, too, the
eagerness with which he gathered in fines. The Cornish rebels were
fined individually. The great lords who persisted in keeping retainers
were fined. On one occasion the king visited the Earl of Oxford, and
found, when he went away, a band of retainers drawn up to do him
honour. "My lord," he said, "I thank you for your entertainment, but
my attorney must speak with you." If there was a man in England who
had deserved well of Henry it was Oxford, but Oxford had to pay
15,000_l._, a sum worth perhaps 180,000_l._ at the present day, to
atone for his offence. No services rendered to Henry were to excuse
from obedience to the law.
22. =Empson and Dudley.=--As Henry grew older the gathering of money
became a passion. His chief instruments were Empson and Dudley, who
under pretence of enforcing the law established the worst of
tyrannies. Even false charges were brought for the sake of extracting
money. At the end of his reign Henry had accumulated a hoard of
1,800,000_l._, mainly gathered by injustice and oppression. The
despotism of one man was no doubt better than the despotism of many,
but the price paid for the change was a heavy one.
23. =Henry and his Daughter-in-law. 1502--1505.=--On the death of
Prince Arthur in =1502=, Ferdinand and Isabella proposed that their
daughter Catharine should marry her brother-in-law, Henry, the only
surviving son of the king of England, though the boy was six years
younger than herself. They had already paid half their daughter's
marriage portion, and they believed, probably with truth, that they
had little chance of recovering it from Henry VII., and that it would
therefore be more economical to re-marry their daughter where they
would get off with no more expense than the payment of the other half.
Henry on the other hand feared lest the repayment of the first half
might be demanded of him, and consequently welcomed the proposal. In
=1503= a dispensation for the marriage was obtained from Pope Julius
II., but in =1505=, when the time for the betrothal arrived, the young
Henry protested, no doubt at his father's instigation, that he would
proceed no farther.
24. =The Last Years of Henry VII. 1505--1509.=--Circumstances were
changed by the death of Isabella in =1504=, when her son-in-law, the
Archduke Philip, claimed to be sovereign of Castile in right of his
wife Juana. Philip, sailing from the Netherlands to Spain in =1506=,
was driven into Weymouth by a storm, and Henry seized the opportunity
of wringing from him commercial concessions as well as the surrender
of Edmund de la Pole, a brother of the Earl of Lincoln who perished at
Stoke, and a nephew of Edward IV. Henry was himself now a widower on
the look-out for a rich wife, and Philip promised him the hand of his
sister, Margaret, who had formerly been betrothed to Charles VIII.
(see p. 337). Once more, however, the conditions of the game changed.
Philip died a few months after his arrival in Spain, leaving a mad
widow, and as Ferdinand then regained his authority Catharine's
marriage was again discussed. Other schemes were also proposed,
amongst them one for marrying Catharine, not to the young prince, but
to her old father-in-law, the king. In =1509=, before any of these
plans could take effect, Henry VII. died. He deserves to be reckoned
amongst the kings who have accomplished much for England. If he was
not chivalrous or imaginative, neither was the age in which he lived.
His contemporaries needed a chief constable to keep order, and he gave
them what they needed.
25. =Architectural Changes and the Printing Press.=--Architecture,
which in England, as upon the Continent, had been the one great art of
the Middle Ages, was already, though still instinct with beauty,
giving signs in its over-elaboration of approaching decadence. To the
tower of Fotheringhay Church (see p. 311) had succeeded the tower of
St. Mary's, Taunton. To the roof of the nave of Winchester Cathedral
(see p. 276) had succeeded the roof of the Divinity School at Oxford
(see p. 319), and of the chapel of King's College, Cambridge (see p.
355). Art in this direction could go no farther. The new conditions in
which the following age was to move were indicated by the discovery of
America and the invention of printing. New objects of knowledge
presented themselves, and a new mode of spreading knowledge was at
hand. In the reign of Edward IV., Caxton, the earliest English
printer, set up his press at Westminster, and the king and his nobles
came to gaze at it as at some new toy, little knowing how profoundly
it was to modify their methods of government. Henry VII. had enough to
do without troubling himself with such matters. It was his part to
close an epoch of English history, not to open a fresh one.
_Books recommended for further study of Part IV._
GREEN, J. R. History of the English People. Vol. i. p. 521-Vol. ii. p.
77.
STUBBS, W. (Bishop of Oxford). Constitutional History of England. Vol.
ii. from p. 441, and Vol. iii.
HALLAM, H. Constitutional History of England. Vol. i. pp. 1-15.
ROGERS, J. E. THOROLD. History of Agriculture and Prices. Vols. iii.
and iv.
CUNNINGHAM, W. The Growth of English Industry and Commerce. Vol. i.
pp. 335-449.
WYLIE, J. H. History of England under Henry IV.
GAIRDNER, JAMES. Lancaster and York.
-------- Richard III.
-------- Henry VII.
RAMSAY, SIR JAMES. Lancaster and York.
OMAN, C. The Political History of England. Vol. iv. From the Accession
of Richard II. to the Death of Richard III. (1377-1485).
FISHER, H. A. L. The Political History of England. Vol. v. From the
Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of Henry VIII. (1485-1547).
INDEX
TO
THE FIRST VOLUME
Aaron, martyrdom of, 23.
Aclea, battle of, 57.
Acre, captured by the Crusaders, 161;
Edward I. at, 204.
Adrian IV. grants Ireland to Henry II., 152.
Adulterine castles, 137.
Aedan, king of the Scots, is defeated at Degsastan, 42.
Ælfgar, earl of the Mercians, 90.
Ælfgifu, wife of Eadwig, 65, 66.
Ælfheah, Archbishop, murdered by the Danes, 82.
Ælfred, his struggle with the Danes, 58;
his position after the Treaty of Wedmore, 59;
gains London, _ib._;
character of his work, 60.
Ælfred the Ætheling, murder of, 85, 86.
Ælfthryth, wife of Eadgar, 78.
Ælla, king of Deira, slave-boys from his kingdom found at Rome, 38.
Æscesdun, battle of, 58.
Æthelbald, king of the Mercians, 53.
Æthelbald, king of the West Saxons, 57.
Æthelberht, king of Kent, his supremacy, 38;
becomes a Christian, 39;
helps Augustine to set up bishoprics, 40;
death of, 41.
Æthelberht, king of the West Saxons, 57.
Æthelflæd, the Lady of the Mercians, 62.
Æthelfrith, king of North-humberland, his struggle with the northern
Welsh, 41;
defeats the Scots at Degsastan, 42;
and the Kymry near Chester, 43;
is defeated and slain by Eadwine, _ib._
Æthelred, ealdorman of Mercia, 60.
Æthelred, king of the West Saxons, his struggle with the
Danes, 58, 62.
Æthelred the Unready, his relations with the Danes, 79;
and with the Normans, 80;
orders a massacre of the Danes, 81;
flies to Normandy, 82;
returns and dies, 83.
Æthelric unites North-humberland, 41.
Æthelstan, reign of, 63.
Æthelstan, the Half-King, 73.
Æthelwold drives secular canons from Winchester, 68.
Æthelwulf defeats the Northmen, 57.
Aëtius refuses help to the Britons, 26.
Agincourt, battle of, 302.
Agricola, campaigns of, 16;
forts built by, 17.
Agriculture in Eadgar's time, 75.
Aidan establishes himself in Holy Island, 47;
his relations with Oswald, _ib._;
and with Oswine, _ib._
Alban, martyrdom of, 23.
Albany, the Duke of, suspected of the murder of the Duke of
Rothesay, 295;
is regent of Scotland, 296.
Albigeois, the, crusade against, 193.
Albin, probable Iberian derivation of the name, 6.
Albion, _see_ Albin.
Alcluyd (Dumbarton), the capital of Strathclyde, 43.
Alexander, bishop of Lincoln, 134.
Alexander III., king of Scotland, death of, 214.
Alexander III., Pope, shrinks from supporting Archbishop
Thomas, 145.
Alexander IV., Pope, confirms a grant of Sicily to Edmund
Crouchback, 197.
Allectus asserts a claim to the Empire, 22.
Alnwick, Malcolm Canmore slain at, 119;
William the Lion captured at, 154;
dismantled, 296.
Ambresbyrig (Amesbury) named from Ambrosius, 34.
Ambrosius fights with the West Saxons, 34.
Ambrosius Aurelianus, fights with the Jutes, 27.
Amiens, the mise of, 200.
Anderida destroyed by the South Saxons, 28.
Andred's Wood covers the Weald, 27.
Angevin kings, Church and State under, 165;
growth of learning under, 167;
growth of commerce under, 168;
architectural changes under, 170.
Angles ravage Roman Britain, 24;
settle in Britain, 28;
advance gradually, 36;
_see_ Bernicia, Deira, East Anglia, Mercia, North-humberland.
Anglesea, _see_ Mona.
Anjou, Geoffrey, Count of, 131;
united with Normandy, 137;
declares for Arthur, 174;
conquered by Philip II., 176;
English forays in, 317.
Anne of Beaujeu, policy of, 348.
Anne of Bohemia marries Richard II., 278.
Anne of Brittany is married to Maximilian by proxy, 349;
married to Charles VIII., 349.
Anselm acknowledges Ælfheah to be a martyr, 82;
character of, 117;
becomes Archbishop of Canterbury, 118;
quarrels with William II., _ib._;
his relations with Henry I., 125.
Antoninus Pius, wall of, 17.
Appellant, the Lords, 279.
Aquitaine, Duchy of, passes to Henry II. by his marriage, 137;
is given to Richard, 155;
divided in language and character from the North of France, 176;
intrigues of Philip IV. in, 218;
efforts of Philip VI. to gain, 234;
ceded to Edward III., 253;
the Black Prince made Duke of, 254;
resistance to the Black Prince in, 256;
almost wholly lost, 257;
complete loss of, 320.
Aquæ Sulis (Bath) subdued by the West Saxons, 35.
Archers employed at Senlac, 96;
armed with the long bow at Falkirk, 221;
improperly employed at Bannockburn, 226;
effect of, at Halidon Hill, 234;
drawn from the yeomen, 236;
win the battle of Creçy, 242;
are successful at Poitiers, 251.
Architecture before the Conquest, 51;
Norman, 89;
under the Angevins, 170;
Early English style of, 207;
Decorated and Perpendicular styles of, 247;
later development of, 358.
Arles, Council of, 23.
Armagnac, the Count of, establishes a reign of terror, 303;
murder of, 304.
Armagnacs, party of the, oppose the Burgundians, 296;
relations of Henry IV. with, 299;
make war with the Burgundians, 301;
insurrection of the Parisians against, 304.
Army, the, the folk-moot in arms, 33;
Ælfred's organisation of, 60;
under William I., 104, 106;
reorganised by Henry II., 141;
its condition under Edward III., 236.
Arras, congress at, 313;
Treaty of, 337.
Arteveldt, Jacob van, 235.
Arteveldt, Philip van, 278.
Arthur, legend of, 33.
Arthur, nephew of John, descent of, 173;
murder of, 174.
Arthur, Prince of Wales, marriage and death of, 356.
Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, banished, 282;
his position under Henry IV., 292;
deprived of the Chancellorship, 299;
Oldcastle tried before, 300.
Arundel, the Earl of, opposes Richard II., 279;
executed, 282.
Aryans, the, 5.
Assandun, battle of, 83.
Asser, life of Ælfred by, 61.
Assize of Arms, 154.
Assize of Clarendon, _see_ Clarendon.
Athelney, Ælfred takes refuge in, 58.
Augustine preaches to the men of Kent, 39;
becomes Archbishop of Canterbury and founds other bishoprics, 40;
fails to obtain the co-operation of the Welsh bishops, 41.
Aumale, Earl of, surrenders his castles to Hubert de Burgh, 187.
Austria, imprisonment of Richard I. in, 161.
Avice of Gloucester divorced by John, 174.
Avignon, the Popes at, 257.
Badby burnt as a heretic, 298.
Badon, Mount, _see_ Mount Badon.
Balliol, Edward, wins and loses the crown of Scotland, 232, 233.
Balliol, John, descent of, 215;
declared King of Scotland, 216;
is defeated and surrenders the crown, 219.
Bamborough, Ida's fortress at, 36;
Mowbray besieged in, 120.
Bangor-iscoed, monastery at, 42;
slaughter of the monks of, 43.
Bannockburn, battle of, 226.
Barnet, battle of, 334.
Basques, the, Iberian descent of, 5.
Bath, _see_ Aquæ Sulis.
Battle Abbey, site of, 96.
Baugé, battle of, 306.
Bayeux Tapestry, the, 98.
Bayonne taken by the French, 320.
Bears, performing, 275.
Beaufort, Henry, Bishop of Winchester, becomes Chancellor, 299;
invites Parliament to support Henry V., 301;
opposes Gloucester, 308;
becomes a cardinal, 309;
continues his opposition to Gloucester, 314;
policy of, 317;
death of, 318.
Bec, Abbey of, 89, 117.
Becket, _see_ Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Bede, Ecclesiastical History of, 52.
Bedford, West Saxon victory at, 35;
castle of Faukes de Breauté at, 187.
Bedford, John, Duke of, brother of Henry V., sent to secure
Harfleur, 303;
Regent of France, 307;
marries the Duke of Burgundy's sister, _ib._;
defeats the French at Verneuil, 308;
returns to England, 312;
death of, 313.
Belgians land in Britain, 8.
Bellême, _see_ Robert of Bellême.
Benedict of Nursia establishes the Benedictine rule, 40.
Benedictines, monasteries of the, 128.
Benevolences invented by Edward IV., 335;
abolished by Richard III., 342.
Bensington, Mercian victory at, 53.
Berengaria marries Richard I., 161.
Bernard du Guesclin, _see_ Du Guesclin.
Bernicia, formation of the kingdom of, 36;
is merged for a time in North-humberland, 41;
is untouched by the preaching of Paulinus, 46;
is finally merged in North-humberland, 48;
maintains its independence after the Danish conquest, 59.
Bertha obtains from Æthelberht a disused church, 38.
Bigod, Hugh, appointed justiciar by the barons, 199.
Bigod, Roger, Earl of Norfolk, resists Edward I., 220.
Black Death, the, 248, 259.
Black Prince, the, fights at Creçy, 242;
ravages the south of France, and defeats the French at
Poitiers, 251;
his courtesy to King John, 252;
is sent to Aquitaine, 254;
his expedition into Spain, 255;
taxes Aquitaine, 256;
loses Aquitaine, 257;
leads the Good Parliament, and dies, 262.
Blanche Tache, ford of, 240.
Blore Heath, battle of, 326.
Boadicea, insurrection of, 15.
Bohun, Humfrey, Earl of Hereford, resists Edward I., 220.
Boniface VIII., 220.
Boniface of Savoy, Archbishop of Canterbury, 197.
Bordeaux taken by the French, 320.
Boroughbridge, defeat of Thomas of Lancaster at, 228.
Bosworth, battle of, 343.
Bouvines, battle of, 181.
Brabant, the Duke of, captures Jacqueline of Hainault, 308.
Bradford-on-Avon, early stone church at, 51.
Bramham Moor, defeat of Northumberland on, 296.
Brember hanged, 280.
Bretigni, Treaty of, 253.
Bretwalda, title of, 44.
Bridgenorth, Robert of Bellême's castle at, 121;
besieged by Henry I., 124.
Bridges, making and repair of, 272, 273.
Brigantes, the, conquest of, 16.
Brihtnoth slain at Maldon, 79.
Bristol garrisoned by Robert of Gloucester, 134.
Britain, its name derived from the Britons, 6;
tin trade opened to, 8;
Gauls and Belgians in, _ib._;
Cæsar's invasion of, 11;
trade of Gaul with, 12;
beginning of the Roman conquest of, 13-17;
condition of the Roman province of, 19-22;
emperors specially connected with, 22;
Christianity in, 23;
ravaged by the Picts and Scots, 23;
and by the Saxons, 24;
military divisions of, _ib._;
end of the Roman government of, 25, 26;
is deserted by the Romans, 26;
its organisation after the departure of the Romans, _ib._;
the English conquest of, 27-29.
Britons, the, succeed the Goidels, 6;
languages spoken by the descendants of, 7;
habits of, 9;
religion of, 10;
introduction of Roman manners amongst, 13;
increased civilisation of, 21;
non-existence of a national feeling amongst, 22;
ask Honorius in vain for help, 25;
the groans of the, 26;
treatment of, by the English conquerors, 29;
are better treated in the West, 31;
slight modification of English language by them, 31;
_see_ Kymry.
Brittany, its relation with Henry II., 155;
Edward III. sends forces to, 240;
annexed to France, 349.
Bruce, Edward, invades Ireland, 264.
Bruce, Robert, claims the crown of Scotland, 215.
Bruce, Robert, grandson of the preceding, _see_ Robert I.
Brunanburh, battle of, 63.
Brut, Layamon's, 207.
Brythons, _see_ Britons.
Buchan, Countess of, imprisoned, 224.
Buckingham, Edward Stafford, Duke of, supports
Richard III., 338, 341;
executed as a rebel, 342.
Burford, West Saxon victory at, 53.
Burgundians, party of the, opposed to the Armagnacs, 296, 299;
are friendly to Henry V., 301.
Burgundy, Charles the Rash, Duke of, marries the sister of
Edward IV., 332;
policy of, 336;
is slain at Nancy, _ib._
Burgundy, John the Fearless, Duke of, has the Duke of Orleans
murdered, 296;
allies himself with Henry V., 301;
holds aloof in the campaign of Agincourt, 302;
makes war upon the Armagnacs, 303;
murder of, 305.
Burgundy, Philip the Good, Duke of, joins the English against
the Dauphin, 306;
allies himself with the Duke of Bedford, 307;
forms a league with Charles VII., 313;
inherits territories in the Netherlands, _ib._
Burhs erected by Eadward the Elder, 62.
Burley, Sir Simon, executed, 280.
Bury St. Edmunds, foundation of the monastery at, 58;
death of Svend at, 82;
meeting of barons at, 181.
CADE, JACK, rebellion of, 322.
Cædmon, poetry of, 52.
Cædwalla, allied with Penda, 46;
is defeated by Oswald, 47.
Caen, burial of William I. at, 114;
stormed by Henry V., 303.
Caerleon upon Usk, _see_ Isca Silurum.
Cæsar, Gaius Julius, makes war in Gaul and Germany, 10;
twice invades Britain, 11.
Caint, the, occupied by the Cantii, 8.
Calais taken by Edward III., 243;
besieged by the Duke of Burgundy, 313.
Caledonians, the, wars of Agricola with, 16.
Cambridge, the Earl of, execution of, 301.
Camulodunum, Cunobelin's headquarters at, 12;
Roman colony of, 13;
captured by Boadicea, 15.
Cannon, first use of, 242.
Canterbury, Æthelberht's residence at, 38;
Augustine preaches at, 39;
foundation of the archbishopric of, 40;
murder of Archbishop Thomas at, 150;
Henry II. does penance at, 153;
architecture of the choir of, 171;
disputed election of the Archbishop of, 177.
_Canterbury Tales_, the, 270.
Caractacus, defeat and flight of, 13;
capture of, 14.
Carausius claims to be emperor, 22.
Carham, battle of, 84.
Carlisle fortified by William II., 119.
Carnarvon, Edward I. builds a castle at, 210.
Carriages and carts, 273.
Carucage substituted for Danegeld, 162.
Cashel, synod at, 152.
Cassel, battle of, 235.
Cassiterides, the geographical position of, 8.
Cassivelaunus, resistance to Cæsar by, 11.
Castile, intervention of the Black Prince in, 255;
united with Aragon, 349.
Catherine of Aragon married to Prince Arthur, 356;
marriages proposed for, 357.
Catherine of France marries Henry V., 306;
marries Owen Tudor, 335.
Catuvellauni, the, position of, 9;
attacked by Cæsar, 11;
subsequent history of, 12.
Caxton, William, establishes a printing press at Westminster, 358.
Ceawlin overruns the Severn Valley, 35;
defeated at Wanborough, 36.
Celibacy of the clergy, early opinion in favour of, 65;
inculcated at Cluny, 67.
Celtic Christianity, influence of, 47, 49.
Celts, the, succeed the Iberians in Western Europe, 5;
are divided into two stocks, 7;
know their conquerors as Saxons, 29.
Ceorls, distinguished from Eorls, 29;
are the tillers of the soil, 30.
Chancellor, the official position of, 127;
becomes a judge, 260.
Charles Martel defeats the Mohammedans, 54.
Charles the Great, Emperor, 55, 63.
Charles the Simple, king of the West Franks, 63;
cedes Normandy to Hrolf, 80.
Charles IV., king of France, death of, 232.
Charles V., king of France, opposes the English in Spain, 255;
summons the Black Prince to Paris, 256;
renews the war against the English, _ib._;
avoids a battle, 257.
Charles VI., king of France, defeats the Flemings, 278;
allies himself with Richard II., 282;
loses his senses, 295;
disinherits the Dauphin, 306;
dies, 307.
Charles VII., king of France, as Dauphin, falls into the hands
of the Armagnacs, 303;
is present at the murder of John, Duke of Burgundy, 305;
is disinherited, 306;
claims to succeed to the crown at his father's death, 307;
his weakness, 309;
is helped by the Maid of Orleans, 310;
is crowned, 311;
consents to a truce, 317;
renews the war, 320.
Charles VIII., king of France, succeeds to the crown, 348;
invades Italy, 352;
death of, 354.
Château Gaillard built by Richard I., 165;
lost by John, 354.
Chaucer, Geoffrey, his _Canterbury Tales_, 270.
Chester (_see_ Deva) submits to William I., 103.
Chinon, Henry II. dies at, 157.
Chivalry, 235.
Christ Church, at Canterbury, privileges of, 177;
expulsion of the monks of, 178.
Christianity introduced into Britain, 23;
into England, 39;
character of early English, _see_ England, the Church of.
Chronicle, the, begun under Ælfred, 61;
continued at Worcester, 68, 129;
completed at Peterborough, 129.
Church of England, _see_ England, the Church of.
Cinque Ports, the, 218.
Cirencester, _see_ Corinium.
Cistercians, the, introduced into England, 129;
decline of asceticism amongst, 167;
are fined by John, 179.
Clare, Gilbert de, _see_ Gloucester, Earl of.
Clare, Richard de, _see_ Strongbow.
Clare, Richard de, _see_ Gloucester, Earl of.
Clarence, Lionel, Duke of, sent to Ireland, 265.
Clarence, George, Duke of, brother of Edward IV., created a
duke, 329;
marries Warwick's daughter, and quarrels with Edward IV., 332;
put to death, 336.
Clarence, Thomas, Duke of, brother of Henry IV., killed at
Baugé, 306.
Clarendon, the Constitutions of, 144;
the assize of, 146.
Claudius, the Emperor, plans the conquest of Britain, 13.
Clergy, the, _see_ Ecclesiastical Courts, England, Church of.
_Clericis Laicos_, the Bull named, 220.
Clifford, Lord, stabs the Earl of Rutland, 328.
Cluny, clerical celibacy inculcated at, 67;
reforms originated at, 107.
Cnut, reign of, 83-85.
Cobham, Eleanor, mistress and wife of the Duke of Gloucester, 315;
does penance for witchcraft, 316.
Colleges, first foundation of, at Oxford, 207.
Colman disputes with Wilfrid, 50.
Columba founds a monastery at Iona, 47.
Columbus discovers the West Indies, 354.
Commerce between Britain and Gaul, 8, 12;
between England and Gaul, 38;
under the Angevin kings, 168;
under Edward I., 211;
under Edward III., 235, 236;
under Henry VII., 351.
Common Pleas, establishment of a separate Court of, 212.
Commons, the House of (_see_ Parliament), finally separated
from the Lords, 243;
struggle of, against unparliamentary taxation, 244;
importance of the constitution of, 245;
supported by the Black Prince, 261;
influence over the elections of, 281;
proposes to confiscate Church property, 294;
addressed by Edward IV., 329.
Compurgation, system of, 32;
set aside by Henry II., 146, 147.
Comyn, John (the Red), slain by Bruce, 224.
_Confirmatio Cartarum_, 221.
Conrad III., Emperor, takes part in the second Crusade, 157.
Constance of Brittany marries Geoffrey, 155.
Constantine takes an army from Britain, 25.
Constantine, king of the Scots, allies himself with Eadward, 63.
Constantine the Great becomes sole Emperor, 22;
acknowledges Christianity as the religion of the Empire, 23.
Constantius, the Emperor, 22.
Constitutions of Clarendon, 144;
renounced by Henry II., 153.
Convocations of the clergy vote money, 219.
Conway, Edward I. builds a castle at, 210.
Corinium (Cirencester), West Saxon conquest of, 35.
Cornish, the, derivation of the old language of, 7;
submit to Ecgberht, 55.
Cotentin, the, sold to Henry, 119.
County courts derived from the shire-moots, 141.
Courtenay, Bishop of London, supported by the citizens against
Lancaster, 263.
Creçy, battle of, 241, 242.
Cressingham, Sir Hugh, governs Scotland in the name of
Edward I., 219.
Crown, the, _see_ King.
Crusade, the first, 120;
the second, 157;
the third, 161;
against the Albigeois, 193;
the seventh, 204.
Cumberland, origin of the name of, 37;
annexed by William II., 119;
left to David I., 133;
regained by Henry II., 140.
Cunedda, extensive rule of, 37.
Cunobelin, government of, 12.
_Curia Regis_, the, organised under Henry I., 127;
strengthened by Henry II., 141;
powers assigned by the Constitutions of Clarendon to, 145;
orders the appointment of recognitors, 147;
divided into three courts, 212.
Customs on imports and exports under Edward I., 211, 221.
Cutha, 35.
Cymbeline, original of Shakspere's, 12.
Cynric captures Sorbiodunum, 34.
Danegeld, levy of, 81; abolition of, 143.
Danelaw, the, formation of, 59.
Danes, the, invade England, 58;
make peace with Ælfred, 59;
extent of the settlements of, 62;
are amalgamated with the English, 64;
relations of Dunstan with, 67;
reappear as invaders, 79;
conquer England, 81-83;
settle in Ireland, 152.
Darc, Jeanne, delivers Orleans, 310;
conducts Charles VII. to Rheims, 311;
martyrdom of, 312.
David I., king of the Scots, invades England, 131.
David II. (Bruce), king of Scotland, 232;
takes refuge with Philip VI., 234;
restoration of, 240;
taken prisoner at Nevill's Cross, 242;
restored by Edward III., 252.
David, brother of Llewelyn, executed, 140.
David, Earl of Huntingdon, 215.
David, St., piety of, 42.
Decorated style, the, 247.
Degsastan, Æthelfrith's victory at, 42.
Deira, formation of the kingdom of, 36;
is merged for a time in North-humberland, 41;
accepts Christianity, 46;
is finally merged in North-humberland, 48;
Danish kingdom of, 62, 63.
Deorham, battle of, 35.
Derby, Earl of (son of John of Gaunt), opposes Richard II., 279;
defeats the Duke of Ireland, 280;
becomes Duke of Hereford, and is banished, 283;
succeeds to the Duchy of Lancaster, 284;
and forces Richard II. to abdicate, 285;
_see_ Henry IV.
Dermot invites Strongbow to Ireland, 152.
Despensers, the, 228, 229.
Deva, Roman colony of, 14, 19.
Devizes, surrender of the castle of, 134.
_Dialogus de Scaccario_, 167.
Diocletian reorganises the Empire, 22.
Domesday Book, 111.
Domestic life in Eadgar's time, 75.
Domfront occupied by Henry, 119.
Dominic, St., 190.
Dominicans arrive in England, 191.
Donald Bane made king of the Scots by the Celts, 119.
Dorchester, abandonment of the see of, 107.
Dorset, Marquis of, his relations with Richard III., 338.
Druids, character of the, 10;
resist Suetonius, 14.
Dublin, Danish settlement in, 152.
Du Châtel, Tannegui, murders the Duke of Burgundy, 305.
Du Guesclin, Bernard, supports Henry of Trastamara, 255;
his mode of fighting with the English, 256.
Dunbar, Balliol defeated at, 219.
Duncan II., king of the Scots, 120.
Dunstan, character and work of, 65;
banished by Eadwig, 67;
becomes Eadgar's Minister, _ib._;
his attitude towards the monks, 68;
supports Eadward's succession, 78;
death of, 79.
Dupplin, Edward Balliol's victory at, 234.
Durham, architecture of the choir and galilee of, 171.
Eadgar, reign of, 67.
Eadgar, king of the Scots, 121.
Eadgar the Ætheling, early years of, 90;
chosen king, 98;
is abandoned, 100.
Eadgyth married to Eadward the Confessor, 87.
Eadgyth married to Henry I., 122;
is known as Matilda, 124.
Eadmund Ironside, 83.
Eadmund, king of East Anglia, killed by the Danes, 58.
Eadmund, king of the English, 63.
Eadred, king of the English, 64.
Eadward the Confessor, his life in Normandy, 85;
is chosen king, 86;
his relations with Godwine, 87;
makes William his heir, 88;
dies, 91.
Eadward the Elder, reign of, 62;
his relations with the Scots, 63.
Eadward the Ætheling, death of, 90.
Eadward the Martyr, 78.
Eadwig, reign of, 64;
his quarrel with the clergy, 65;
his marriage and death, 67.
Eadwine, king of North-humberland, greatness of, 43;
marries Æthelburh, 44;
is converted and slain, 46.
Eadwine, son of Ælfgar, becomes Earl of the Mercians, 90;
is present at Eadgar's election, 98;
submits to William, 102;
is murdered, 103.
Eadwinesburh, _see_ Edinburgh.
Ealdhelm as a builder and teacher, 51.
Ealdormen, the, are the leaders of the English conquerors, 30;
preside over the folk-moot, 33;
growing power of, 73;
their position under Æthelred the Unready, 79.
Ealdred, Archbishop of York, crowns William I., 100.
Earl, title of, derivation of, 64.
Earldoms under Cnut, 83;
diminished after the Norman Conquest, 105.
Early English architecture, 171.
East Anglia, first settlement of, 28;
growth of, 36;
comparative weakness of, 41;
its relations with Ecgberht, 55;
overrun by the Danes, 58.
East Saxons establish themselves to the north of the Thames, 28;
capture London, 35;
_see_ Essex.
Easter, dispute on the mode of keeping, 50.
Ebbsfleet, landing of the Jutes at, 27;
landing of Augustine at, 39.
Ecclesiastical courts, jurisdiction of, 106;
conflict of Henry II. with, 142.
Ecgberht, at the court of Charles the Great, 53;
becomes king of the West Saxons, and over-lord of the other
kingdoms, 55.
Edinburgh, Eadwine builds the castle of, 43;
occupied by the Scots, 68.
Edmund Crouchback, second son of Henry III., named king of
Sicily and Naples, 196;
supposed primogeniture of, 286.
Education in the time of Ælfred, 61;
in the time of Dunstan, 65;
carried on at Oxford, 167, 207.
Edward I., appeal of the Knights Bachelors to, 199;
taken prisoner at Lewes, 201;
defeats Earl Simon at Evesham, 203;
takes part in the seventh Crusade 204;
becomes king, 208;
constitutional position of, 209;
his dealings with Wales, 210;
finance of, 211;
judicial reforms and legislation of, 212;
arranges for a personal union between England and Scotland, 214;
erects the Eleanor crosses, 215;
awards the Scottish crown to John Balliol, 216;
his relations with Philip IV., 218;
summons the Model Parliament, 218;
his first conquest of Scotland, 219;
grants the _Confirmatio Cartarum_, 220;
his second conquest of Scotland, 221;
incorporates Scotland with England, 222;
his third conquest of Scotland, and death, 224.
Edward II., birth of, 210;
succeeds to the crown, 224;
marriage of, 225;
resistance of the barons to, _ib._;
defeated at Bannockburn, 226;
overthrows Lancaster and effects a constitutional settlement, 228;
deposed and murdered, 229.
Edward III., accession and marriage of, 231;
does homage to Philip VI., 232;
sets up Edward Balliol in Scotland and begins war with
France, 234;
allies himself with the Emperor and the cities of Flanders, 235;
encourages trade, 236;
is named Imperial Vicar, 237;
claims the crown of France, 239;
wins the battle of Sluys, _ib._;
marches through the north of France, 240;
wins the battle of Creçy, 241, 242;
takes Calais, 243;
constitutional progress under, _ib._;
restores David Bruce, 252;
makes peace with France, 253;
enters on a fresh war with France, 256.
Edward IV., as Earl of March, takes part in the battle of
Northampton, 326;
wins the battle of Mortimer's Cross,
and is acknowledged by the Londoners as king, 328;
wins the battle of Towton, and is crowned, 329;
marries Elizabeth Woodville, and promotes her kindred, 331;
allies himself with Burgundy, 332;
loses and recovers the crown, 334;
invents benevolences, 335;
invades France, 336;
puts Clarence to death, 336;
death of, 337.
Edward V. succeeds to the throne, 337;
lodged in the Tower, 340;
deposed, 341;
murdered, 342.
Edward, Prince of Wales, _see_ Black Prince, the.
Edward, Prince of Wales, son of Henry VI., birth of, 323;
slain at Tewkesbury, 334.
Edward, Prince of Wales, son of Richard III., death of, 342.
Eleanor of Aquitaine marries Henry II., 137;
imprisonment of, 155;
takes part with John against Arthur, 174.
Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I., accompanies her husband
on the Crusade, 204;
death of, 214.
Eleanor of Provence marries Henry III., 192.
Eleanor, sister of Henry III., marries Simon de Montfort, 193.
Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., proposed marriage of the
Dauphin to, 336;
proposed marriage of Richard III. to, 342;
marries Henry VII., 345.
Elmet conquered by Eadwine, 43.
Emma marries Æthelred, 81.
Empire, the Western, revived by Charles the Great, 55.
Empson and Dudley, exactions of, 357.
England, early social and political institutions of, 29-32;
contrasted with Gaul, 37;
commerce with Gaul renewed by, 38;
Christianity introduced into, 39;
growing power of three kingdoms in, 41;
character of the later conquests in, 44;
political changes in, 45;
spread of Christianity in, 49;
influence of Church Councils on the political unity of, 52;
Ecgberht's over-lordship in, 55;
attacks of the Northmen and Danes on, 56;
its condition under Ælfred, 60;
its relations with Scotland, 63, 68;
development of the institutions of, 69;
Danish conquest of, 79-83;
Norman conquest of, 96-103;
Norman constitution of, 113;
civil war in, 134;
pacification of, 137;
administrative reforms of Henry II. in, 140;
made tributary to the Papacy, 180;
military reforms in, 154;
effect of the reign of Henry II. on, 158;
constitutional result of the administration of Hubert Walter
in, 163;
growth of learning in, 167;
growth of commerce in, 168;
architectural changes in, 170;
the Barons' Wars in, 200-203;
architectural and literary growth in, 206, 207;
complete national unity of, 208;
completion of the Parliamentary constitution of, 218, 220, 228, 243;
relieved of tribute to the Papacy, 258;
social and moral condition of, during the Wars of the Roses, 330.
England, the Church of, Wilfrid's influence on, 50;
parochial organisation of, _ib._;
its close connection with the State, 52;
councils of, _ib._;
organisation of, after the Norman Conquest, 106;
its relations with Stephen, 134;
and with Henry II., 149;
result of the Angevin reigns on, 166;
Papal exactions resisted by, 194;
payments exacted from, 197;
temporary Parliamentary representation of the clergy of, 219;
taxation resisted by the clergy of, 220;
social condition of, 236;
supports Henry IV., 291;
members of noble families in the episcopate of, _ib._;
procures a statute for burning heretics, 292;
proposal to confiscate the property of, 294.
English, the, origin of the name of, 28;
nature of their conquest of Britain, 29;
village settlements of, _ib._;
division of ranks among, _ib._;
effect of the conquest of Britain on the language of, 31;
early political organisation of, _ib._;
early judicial system of, 32;
position of, under William I., 104;
support William II., 115;
support Henry I. 124;
cease to be distinguished from Normans, 155;
reappearance of their language in literature, 207;
predominance of their language, 258.
Eorls, distinguished from Ceorls, 29;
their relation to Gesiths, 30.
Erse, a Goidelic language, 7.
Eskimos, compared with palæolithic men, 3.
Essex, Saxon settlement in, 28;
is dependent on Kent, and accepts Christianity, 40;
relapses into heathenism, 41;
comparative weakness of, _ib._
Eustace, Count of Boulogne, visits Eadward the Confessor, 87.
Eustace, son of Stephen, death of, 137.
Evesham, battle of, 203.
Exchequer, the, organised by Roger of Salisbury, 127;
disorganised under Stephen, 134;
reorganised under Henry II., 140;
establishment of a separate Court of, 212.
Exeter taken by William I., 102.
Faddiley, battle of, 35.
Falaise, Treaty of, 154;
abandoned by Richard I., 159.
Falkirk, Wallace defeated at, 222.
Faukes de Breauté, banishment of, 187.
Ferdinand V., king of Aragon, marries Isabella of Castile, 349.
Ferry Bridge, skirmish at, 429.
Feudality, early forms of, 81;
after the Norman Conquest, 104;
organised by William I., 113;
Flambard's further organisation of, 116;
ideas of Edward I. on, 214.
Fitz-Osbern, William, oppresses the English, 102.
Five Boroughs, the, 62.
Flambard, Ranulf, tyranny of, 116;
imprisonment of, 122;
escapes, 124.
Flanders, commercial intercourse with, 211;
Edward I. in, 221;
alliance of Edward III. with, 235;
falls under the control of France, 278.
Flemings emigrate to Wales, 128;
introduced as weavers by Edward III., 236.
Folk-moot, functions of the, 33.
Fountains Abbey, 129.
France, social condition of, 235;
miserable state of, 251, 252;
friendship of Richard II. with, 282.
Francis of Assisi, St., 190.
Franciscans, the, constitution of, 190;
arrive in England, 191.
Frederick I., Barbarossa, Emperor, supports an anti-pope, 145.
Frederick II., Emperor, excommunication of, 194;
death of, 195.
Freemen, gradual disappearance of, 69.
French, the, Dukes of, 63;
Hugh Capet, king of, 80.
Friars, the, orders of, 190;
arrive in England, 191.
Fyrd, the, a general army of the villagers, 30;
Ælfred reforms, 60;
comparative disuse of, 69;
retained after the Norman Conquest, 106;
_see_ Assize of Arms.
Gaelic a Goidelic language, 7.
Gainas, the, settlements of, 28.
Gainsborough, origin of the name of, 28.
Garter, the order of the, institution of, 246.
Gascoigne, Chief Justice, 299.
Gaul, trade of Britain with, 8, 12;
persistency of Roman civilisation in, 37;
renewal of trade with, 38.
Gauls arrive in Britain, 8.
Gaveston, Piers, favoured by Edward II., 224;
execution of, 226.
Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, marries the Empress Matilda, 131;
conquers Normandy, 136.
Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, Justiciar, 163.
Geoffrey, son of Henry II., marries the heiress of Brittany, 155;
dies, 156.
Gesiths, the, personal devotion of, 30;
their relation to the Ceorls, _ib._;
their name changed to that of Thegns, 31.
Gewissas, the, combine with Jutes, 28;
_see_ West Saxons.
Ghent, Jacob van Arteveldt at, 235;
Philip van Arteveldt at, 278.
Giraldus Cambrensis, 167.
Glanvile, Ranulf de, captures William the Lion, 154;
writes the first English law-book, 167.
Glastonbury, Dunstan, abbot of, 65;
proceedings of Dunstan at, 106.
Glendower, Owen, heads the Welsh, 293;
decline of the power of, 296.
Glevum (Gloucester), Saxon conquest of, 35.
Gloucester, Duke of (brother of Edward IV.), _see_ Richard III.
Gloucester, Duke of, Humphrey (brother of Henry V.), appointed
Protector, 307;
marries Jacqueline of Hainault, 308;
quarrels with Cardinal Beaufort, 309, 314;
his relations with Eleanor Cobham, 315;
advocates a war policy, 317;
death of, 318.
Gloucester, Duke of, Thomas, son of Edward III., heads the
opposition to Richard II., 279;
driven from power, 280;
murdered, 282.
Gloucester, Earl of (Gilbert de Clare), allies himself with Earl
Simon, 200;
becomes one of the three Electors, 201;
joins Edward against Simon at Evesham, 203.
Gloucester, Earl of, _see_ Robert.
Gloucester, Earl of (Richard de Clare), quarrels with Earl
Simon, 199;
joins Earl Simon, and dies, 200.
Gloucester, _see_ Glevum.
Godfrey of Bouillon, 121.
Godwine becomes Earl of the West Saxons, 84;
supports Harthacnut, 85;
charged with the murder of Ælfred, 86;
governs under Eadward, 87;
outlawed, 88;
return and death of, 89.
Goidels, the, a branch of the Celts, 6;
languages spoken by the descendants of, 7.
Good Parliament, the, 262.
Granada, conquest of, 349.
Graupian Hill, the, battle of, 17.
Great Council, the, composition of, 113;
urges William to name an archbishop, 117;
summoned to Rockingham, 118;
becomes unimportant under Henry I., 126;
frequently consulted by Henry II., 141;
meets at Clarendon, 144;
remonstrates with Henry III., 188, 192;
refuses money to Henry III., 194;
begins to be known as Parliament, 195;
_see_ Parliament.
Gregory I., Pope, finds English slave-boys at Rome, 28;
sends Augustine to England, 39.
Gregory VII., Pope, his relations with William I., 107.
Gregory IX., Pope, demands money from England, 194.
Grey, John de, nominated Archbishop of Canterbury by John, 177;
unpopularity of, 178.
Grey, family of, favoured by Edward IV., 331.
Grey, Sir Thomas, execution of, 301.
Grossetête, Robert, Bishop of Lincoln, opposes Henry III., 194, 195;
death of, 197.
Gualo, legate of Honorius III., 185.
Guthrum defeats Ælfred, 58;
makes peace at Wedmore, 59;
cedes London to Ælfred, _ib._;
extent of the kingdom of, 62.
Gwledig, British title of, 26;
title thought to have been assumed by Eadwine, 44.
Gwynnedd under Cædwalla, 46.
Gyrth, Earl of East Anglia, 89.
Hadrian, the Emperor, wall of, 17.
Halidon Hill, the Scots defeated at, 234.
Harfleur taken by Henry V., 302;
secured by the Duke of Bedford, 303.
Harold Hardrada invades England, 94;
is slain at Stamford Bridge, 96.
Harold, son of Cnut, chosen king by the Mercians, 85;
death of, 86.
Harold, son of Godwine, earl of the West Saxons, 89;
rules England under Eadward, 90;
chosen king, 91;
his oath to William, 93;
marches into the North, 94;
defeats Harold Hardrada at Stamford Bridge, 95;
defeated and slain at Senlac, 98.
Harthacnut, chosen king of the West Saxons, 85;
comes to England, and dies, 86.
Hastings, battle of, _see_ Senlac.
Hastings, John, claims a third of Scotland, 215.
Hastings, Lord, turns against Richard III., 339;
execution of, 340.
Heathfield, battle of, 46.
Heavenfield, battle of, 47.
Hedgeley Moor, battle of, 331.
Helie de la Flêche opposes William II., 121.
Hengist, traditional leader of the Jutes, 27.
Henry I. receives no land at his father's death, 114;
his wars with his brothers, 119;
accession and marriage of, 122;
puts down insurrections, 124;
conquers Normandy, 125;
his dispute with Anselm, _ib._;
judicial reforms of, 127;
makes war in Normandy, 129;
loses his only son, 130;
death of, 131.
Henry II., early career of, 136;
marries Eleanor, 137;
character of, 138;
advances Thomas of London, 140;
administrative system of, 140-142;
appoints Thomas archbishop, and quarrels with him, 143;
draws up the Constitutions of Clarendon, 144;
persecutes Thomas, 145;
issues the Assize of Clarendon, 146;
renews the itinerant justices, and inquires into the conduct
of the sheriffs, 148;
has young Henry crowned, 149;
uses strong language against Thomas, 150;
goes to Ireland, 151;
renounces the Constitutions of Clarendon, 153;
does penance, 154;
issues the Assize of Arms, _ib._;
his domestic troubles, 155;
takes the cross and dies, 157;
his weakness on the Continent and strength in England, 158;
literary vigour under, 167.
Henry III., minority of, 185;
favours Poitevins under the influence of Peter des Roches, 187;
marries Eleanor of Provence and favours Provençals, 192;
frequently renews the Great Charter, 192;
quarrels with Simon de Montfort, 193;
surrenders Poitou, 194;
is opposed by Parliament, 195;
hopes to make his second son King of Sicily, 196;
misgovernment of, 197;
consents to the Provisions of Oxford, 198;
recovers power, 200;
taken prisoner at Lewes, 201;
last years of, 204;
progress of the country in the reign of, 206.
Henry IV., (_see_ Derby) Earl of, claims the throne, 286;
meets with difficulties, 289;
leans on the Church, 291;
rebellion of the Percies against, 293;
keeps James I. as a hostage, 295;
suppresses a rebellion in the North, 296;
quarrels with the Prince of Wales, 298;
death of, 299.
Henry IV., Emperor, resists Gregory VII., 108.
Henry V., career of, as Prince of Wales, 297-299;
domestic policy of, 299;
claims the crown of France, 300;
defeats the French at Agincourt, 302;
conquers Normandy, 303;
forms an alliance with the Duke of Burgundy, and is declared
heir to the French throne, 306;
marriage and death of, _ib._
Henry V., Emperor, marries Matilda, 131.
Henry VI., accession of, 307;
crowned at Westminster and Paris, 312;
marriage of, 317;
supports Somerset, 323;
insanity of, _ib._;
recovery and renewed insanity of, 324;
second recovery of, _ib._;
attempts to reconcile the parties, 325;
declared a traitor by Edward IV., 329;
restoration of, 333;
murder of, 334.
Henry VI., Emperor, his relations with Richard I., 161, 162.
Henry VII., as Earl of Richmond, genealogy of, 334;
invades England, 343;
defeats Richard III. and becomes king, _ib._;
supported by the middle classes, 345;
suppresses Lord Lovel's rising, 346;
his relations with Brittany and France, 348;
assailed by Perkin Warbeck, 350;
sends Poynings to Ireland, 352;
restores Kildare to the Deputyship, 352;
secures Warbeck, _ib._;
effects an alliance with Scotland, 356;
encourages maritime enterprise, 356;
fills his treasury, 357;
his alliance with the Archduke Philip, 358;
last years and death of, 358.
Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester, 131;
declares against Stephen, 134.
Henry of Trastamara, 255.
Henry, son of Henry II., coronation of, 149;
rebellion of, 153;
death of, 156.
Henry the Fowler, his mode of warfare, 79.
Hereford, Duke of, _see_ Derby, Earl of.
Hereford, Earl of, _see_ Bohun, Humfrey.
Heretics, Statute for burning, 292.
Hereward, rising of, 103.
Herrings, battle of the, 309.
Hexham, battle of, 331.
Hii, _see_ Iona.
Hlaford, _see_ Lord.
Homildon Hill, battle of, 293.
Honorius III., Pope, protects Henry III., 185.
Horsa, a traditional leader of the Jutes, 27.
Horses used to carry warriors to battle, 75.
House-carls, 83, 93.
Hrolf, Duke of the Normans, 80.
Hubert, Walter, administration of, 163;
death of, 177.
Hubert de Burgh holds Dover Castle, 185;
administration of, 186-188.
Hugh Capet, 80.
Hugh of Lusignan rises against John, 174.
Hugh the Great, Duke of the French, 63.
Hundreds, early political organisation of the, 31.
Hundred Years' War, the, 234.
Hundred-moot, the, organisation of, 31;
judicial functions of, 32;
gradual decay of, 72.
Huntingdon, David I. holds the earldom of, 132.
Hwiccas, the, split off from the West Saxons, 36.
Iberians, the, 5.
Iceni, the geographical position of, 8;
take part with the Romans, 13;
roused to insurrection by Boadicea, 15.
Ictis, probably identified with Thanet, 8.
Ida becomes king of Bernicia, 36.
Idle, the, Eadwine's victory on, 43.
Impeachment of Latimer and Lyons, 262;
of Suffolk, 322.
Inclosures, growth of, 320.
Ine, his rule in Wessex, 53.
Innocent III., Pope, influences the election of Stephen
Langton, 177;
puts England under an interdict, and reduces John to
submission, 178-180;
declares against the barons, 181-184;
establishes the Friars, 190.
Innocent IV. becomes Pope, 195;
wins over Henry III., 196.
Inquisition of the Sheriffs, the, 148.
_Intercursus Magnus_, the, 351.
Interdict, England under, 178.
Investiture, William I. claims the right of granting, 108;
Anselm's position with regard to, 125;
compromise on, 126.
Iona, missionaries sent forth from, 47.
Ireland, ancient language of, 7;
Druids in, 10;
Christianity introduced into, 47;
state of civilisation in, 151;
partially conquered by Henry II., 152;
results of the conquest of, 264;
weakness of the English colony in, 265;
under Lancaster and York, 346;
under Henry VII., 350, 351.
Ireland, Duke of (_see_ Oxford, Earl of), supports Richard II., 279;
is condemned to death, but escapes, 280.
Isabella of Angoulême marries John, 174.
Isabella of Bavaria, Queen of France, takes part against her
son, 306.
Isabella of France marries Edward II., 225;
obtains the deposition of her husband, 229;
gives power to Mortimer, 231;
is placed in seclusion, 232.
Isca Silurum, Roman colony of, 14;
martyrdom of Aaron at, 23.
Isle of Wight, Jutish settlements in, 28;
plundered by the French, 234.
Itinerant justices under Henry I., 127;
under Henry II., 148.
Jacquerie, the, 252.
Jacqueline of Hainault, marriage of, 308.
James I., king of Scotland, kept in custody by Henry IV., 295;
liberation of, 307.
James IV., king of Scotland, invades England, 352;
marries the daughter of Henry VII., 356.
Jerusalem captured by the Crusaders, 121;
captured by Saladin, 157;
Richard I. refuses to look at, 161.
Jews, the, encouraged by William II., 115;
protected by Henry I., 128;
massacre of, 160;
persecuted by John, 179;
banished by Edward I., 212.
Jews' House, the so-called, 170.
John, king of England, his misconduct in Ireland, 156;
leads the opposition to William of Longchamps, 161;
joins Philip II. against Richard, 162;
accession of, 173;
loses Normandy and Anjou, 174;
appoints an Archbishop of Canterbury, 177;
quarrels with the Pope, 178;
submits to the Pope, 180;
quarrels with the barons, 181;
confirms _Magna Carta_, 182;
makes war with the barons, 184;
dies, 185.
John, king of France, defeated at Poitiers, 251;
brought to England, 252;
is liberated, but returns to England and dies, 254.
John Ball, 268.
Judicial system of the early English, 31;
of Eadgar, 72;
of William I., 107;
of Henry I., 127;
of Henry II., 146.
Judith accuses Waltheof, 110.
Jury of presentment, 147.
Jury system, the, germ of, 147;
completed, 321.
Justices of the peace, the, origin of, 277.
Justiciar, institution of the office of, 116;
his position under Henry I., 127.
Jutes, probably ravage Roman Britain, 24;
subdue Kent, 27;
settle in the Isle of Wight and the mainland opposite, 28.
Kemp, Bishop of London, becomes Lord Chancellor, 309.
Kenilworth, Earl, Simon's castle at, 199.
Kenneth, king of the Scots, receives Lothian from Eadgar, 68.
Kenneth MacAlpin unites the Scots and Picts, 63.
Kent, foundation of the Jutish kingdom of, 27;
its inhabitants driven back by the West Saxons, 35;
Gaulish traders in, 38;
accepts Christianity, 39;
is kept by Lawrence from relapsing, 41;
comparative weakness of, _ib._
Kent, Earl of (brother of Edward II.), execution of, 231.
Kildare, Earl of, supports the Yorkists, 347;
supports Lambert Simnel, _ib._;
is deprived of the Deputyship for supporting Warbeck, 350;
restored to the Deputyship, 352.
Kilkenny, Statute of, 265.
King, authority of the, origin of, 33;
effect of the enlargement of the kingdoms on, 45;
increased importance of, 69;
limitations imposed by _Magna Carta_ on, 182;
proposed administrative restrictions on, 195;
effect of the revolution of 1399 upon, 289.
King's Bench, Court of, 212.
Knights Bachelors, the, appeal to Edward, 199.
Knights of the shire first admitted to Parliament, 196;
later elections of, 200, 201;
importance of their conjunction with borough members, 245.
Kymry, the, origin of the name, 37;
share in the defeat of the Scots at Degsastan, 42;
are defeated by Æthelfrith near Chester, 43;
geographical dismemberment of, _ib._;
in alliance with Penda, 46;
weakness of, 49;
_see_ Welsh.
Labourers, Statute of, 248, 268.
Lambeth, ford over the Thames at, 20.
Lancaster, Duke of (John of Gaunt), makes unsuccessful war
in France, 257;
heads the anti-clerical party, 260;
opposes the Black Prince, 262;
reverses the proceedings of the Good Parliament, _ib._;
supports Wycliffe, 263;
takes the lead at the accession of Richard II., 266;
goes to Spain, 279;
marries Catherine Swynford, 282.
Lancaster, Earl of (Thomas), opposes Edward II., 225;
execution of, 228.
Lanfranc trusted by William I., 88;
becomes Archbishop of Canterbury, 106;
crowns William II., 114;
death of, 117.
Langland, William, 259.
Langton, Stephen, chosen Archbishop of Canterbury at Rome, 177;
allowed by John to come to England, 180;
produces a charter of Henry I., 181;
his part in obtaining the Great Charter, 182.
Latimer, Lord, impeached, 262.
Lawrence, Archbishop of Canterbury, keeps Kent Christian, 41.
Layamon's Brut, 207.
Leicester, Anglian settlement at, 36;
earldom of, inherited by Simon de Montfort, 193.
Leicester, Earl of, shares the Justiciar's office with Richard
de Lucy, 140.
Le Mans, sieges of, 121.
Leo IX., Papacy of, 88.
Leofric, Earl of the Mercians, 85, 90.
Leofwine, Earl of the Mercians, 84.
Leofwine, son of Godwine, earl of the shires about the Thames, 90.
Leopold, Duke of Austria, imprisons Richard I., 161.
Lewes, battle of, 201.
Lewis III. (the Bavarian), Emperor, supports Edward III., 235.
Lilla gives his life for his lord, 44.
Limoges taken by the Black Prince, 257.
Lincoln (_see_ Lindum), settlement of the Lindiswaras round, 28;
establishment of the see of, 107;
Stephen taken prisoner at, 135;
cathedral at, 171, 207.
Lincoln, Earl of, killed at Stoke, 347.
Lindiswaras, settlement of, 28;
possible advance of, 36.
Lindum, Roman city at, 20;
Anglian settlers round, 28.
Liveries, _see_ Maintenance and Livery.
Llewelyn, career of, 140.
Loidis conquered by Eadwine, 43.
Lollards, the, rise of, 269;
Oldcastle's leadership of, 300.
Londinium, _see_ London.
London, early importance of the position of, 20;
foundation of the bishopric of, 40;
its commercial position under the kings of Essex, _ib._;
acquired and fortified by Ælfred, 62, 63;
attacked by Olaf Trygvasson and Svend, 79;
after the Conquest, 127;
supports Stephen, 131, 134;
submits for a time to Matilda, 135;
municipal organisation of, 169;
sends troops to the battle of Lewes, 201;
Wat Tyler in, 269;
Jack Cade in, 323;
Edward IV. in, 328.
London Bridge, building of, 272.
Long bow, the, _see_ Archers.
Longchamps, William of, appointed a justiciar in the absence
of Richard I., 159;
is banished, 161.
Lord, devotion of Gesiths to their, 30;
is expected to marry, _ib._;
growth of his jurisdiction, 72.
Lords, House of, names the Duke of York Protector, 324;
decides on his claim to the crown, 329.
Lose-coat Field, 332.
Lothian, cession of, to Scotland, 68, 84.
Louis VI., king of France, makes war with Henry I., 129.
Louis VII., king of France, divorces Eleanor of Aquitaine, 137;
supports young Henry's rebellion, 153;
takes part in the second Crusade, 157.
Louis (afterwards Louis VIII., king of France) opposes John, 184;
expelled from England, 185.
Louis IX., Saint, king of France, surrenders territory to
Henry III., 200;
mediates between Henry III. and the barons, _ib._
Louis X., king of France, succeeded by his brother, 232.
Louis XI., king of France, succeeds his father, 332;
buys off Edward IV., 336.
Louis XII., king of France, invades Italy, 354.
Lovel, Lord, insurrection of, 345;
supports Simnel, and is defeated at Stoke, 346, 347.
Lucy, Richard de, joint justiciar with the Earl of Leicester, 140;
makes head against young Henry's rebellion, 153.
Ludlow, break-up of the Yorkists at, 326.
Lynn supports Stephen, 134.
Lyons, Richard, impeached, 262.
Mad Parliament, the, 198.
_Magna Carta_, 182;
partially renewed at the accession of Henry III., 185;
attitude of Edward I. to, 288.
Magnus, king of Norway, 85.
Maiden Castle, 4.
Maine conquered by William I., 91;
failures of William II. in, 121;
conquered by Philip II., 176;
surrendered to René by Henry VI., 317;
the English driven out of, 319.
Maintenance and livery, Statute against, 281;
increase of, 321;
measures of Henry VII. against, 345.
Malcolm, king of the Scots, his alliance with Eadmund, 64.
Malcolm III., Canmore, ravages England, 103;
submits to William I., 104;
death of, 119.
Malcolm IV. loses North-humberland and Cumberland, 140.
Man, Isle of, subdued by Eadwine, 43.
Manfred, king of Sicily and Naples, 195, 197.
Manor courts, 141.
Mantes burnt by William I., 114.
Manx, a Goidelic language, 7.
March, Earl of, _see_ Edward IV.
March, Edmund Mortimer, Earl of, his claim to the crown, 287;
imprisoned by Henry IV., 291;
freed by Henry V., 299.
March, Roger, Earl of, grandson of the Duke of Clarence, named
heir by Richard II., 287.
Margaret, daughter of Henry VII., married to James IV., 356.
Margaret of Anjou marries Henry VI., 317;
gives birth to a son, 323;
puts herself at the head of the Northern forces, 326;
defeats the Duke of York at Wakefield, and Warwick at the
second battle of St. Albans, 328;
is defeated at Towton, 329;
is defeated at Hedgeley Moor and Hexham, 331;
reconciled to Warwick, 333;
defeated at Tewkesbury, 334.
Margaret, sister of Edward IV., married to Charles the Rash, 332;
protects Lord Lovel, 346.
Margaret, the Lady, 334.
Margaret, the Maid of Norway, 214.
Margaret, first wife of Malcolm Canmore, 119.
Marlborough, Statute of, 204.
Marriages of heiresses arranged by the lord, 117.
Marshal, Richard the, 188, 189.
Marshal, William, the, guardian of Henry III., 185.
Martin, Master, his exactions, 195.
Mary, heiress of Burgundy, 336;
marries the Archduke Maximilian, and dies, 337.
Maserfield, Oswald slain at, 48.
Massalia, tin-trade of, 8.
Matilda, daughter of Henry I., married to the Emperor Henry V.,
and to Geoffrey of Anjou, 131;
claims the crown, 134;
fails to maintain her claim, 135.
Matilda, wife of Henry I., _see_ Eadgyth.
Maximilian I., Emperor, as Archduke, marries Mary of Burgundy, 337;
marries Anne of Brittany by proxy, 348.
Maximus leads an army out of Britain, 25.
Meaux besieged by Henry V., 306.
Mercenaries employed on the Continent by Henry II., 142;
temporarily brought to England, 153, 155;
employed by John, 182.
Merchant Adventurers, the, 356.
Merchant Gild, the, 169.
Mercia, first settlement of, 36;
comparative smallness of, 41;
unites with other districts under Penda, 46;
accepts Christianity, and rejects the supremacy of
North-humberland, 48;
its relations with Ecgberht, 55;
its relations with Ælfred, 60;
under Leofwine, 84;
under Leofric, 85, 87;
under Ælfgar and Eadwine, 90.
Mercians, the, distinguished from the Middle English, 36.
Merciless Parliament, the, 280.
Merton College, foundation of, 207.
Middle English, the, first settlements of, 36.
Middle Saxons a branch of the East Saxons, 35.
Middlesex, Saxon settlement in, 35.
Ministerial responsibility, proposal to establish, 195.
Mirebeau, Eleanor besieged in, 174.
Mise of Amiens, the, 200.
Mohammedanism, origin and spread of, 54.
Molynes, Lord, ill-treats John Paston, 321.
Mona (Anglesey) conquered by Suetonius, 14.
Monasticism, character of early, 39;
converts made in England by, 40;
character of Irish, 47;
Benedictine, 128.
Monks contrasted with Friars, 191.
Montague, Lord, made Earl of North-humberland, 331;
is deprived of the earldom, 333;
turns against Edward IV., and is killed at Barnet, 332.
Montfort, de, _see_ Simon de Montfort.
Morkere, becomes Earl of North-humberland, 90;
is present at Eadgar's election, 98;
submits to William, 102;
is banished, 103.
Mortimer, Edmund, _see_ March, Earl of.
Mortimer, Roger, paramour of Queen Isabella, 229;
governs in the name of Edward III., 231;
is hanged, 232.
Mortimer, Sir Edmund, imprisoned by Glendower, 293.
Mortimer's Cross, battle of, 328.
Mortmain, Statute of, 212.
Morton, Thomas, Bishop of Ely, afterwards Cardinal and Archbishop
of Canterbury, gives advice to Buckingham, 341, 342;
his 'fork,' 349.
Mount Badon, British victory at, 28.
Mowbray, Robert of, rebellion of, 120.
Navarrete, battle of, 255.
Navy, Ælfred's, 60.
Neolithic man, 3.
Nevill, influence of the family of, 324.
Nevill, George, Archbishop of York, deprived of the
Chancellorship, 332.
Nevill's Cross, battle of, 242.
Newark, death of John at, 185.
Newcastle-on-Tyne, foundation of, 120.
New Forest, the, making of, 110;
death of William II. in, 122.
Nigel, Bishop of Ely, Treasurer of Henry I., Stephen's attack on, 134;
is reappointed Treasurer, 140.
Norfolk, origin of the name of, 28.
Norfolk, Duke of, banished by Richard II., 283.
Norfolk, Earl of, _see_ Bigod, Roger.
Norham, award of the crown of Scotland at, 216.
Norman Conquest, the, 96-103.
Normandy, early dukes of, 80;
institutions of, 81;
its condition under Robert, 118;
pledged to William II., 121;
recovered by Robert, 124;
conquered by Henry I., 125;
conquered by Geoffrey, 136;
Henry, Duke of, 137;
conquered by Philip II., 174, 176;
invaded by Edward III., 240;
conquered by Henry V., 303;
reconquered by the French, 320.
Normans favoured by Eadward, 87;
their style of architecture, 89.
Northampton, Archbishop Thomas called to account at, 145;
battle of, 326.
North-humberland, component parts of, 36;
united by Æthelric, 41;
divided by Penda, and re-united under Oswald, 47;
is again divided, but re-united under Oswiu, 48;
its relations with Ecgberht, 55;
overrun by the Danes, 58;
Danish kingdom in, 62, 63;
is amalgamated with England, 64;
its condition under Cnut, 84;
under Siward, 84, 87.
Northmen, their attacks on England, 56;
religion of, 57;
_see_ Danes.
Northumberland invaded by Malcolm Canmore, 119;
given to Henry, son of David I. 133;
recovered by Henry II., 140.
Northumberland, the Earl of, assists Henry IV., 284;
quarrels with Henry IV., 293;
imprisoned and pardoned, 294;
defeated and slain, 296.
Norwich, establishment of the see of, 107.
Nottingham, Anglian settlement at, 56;
seizure of Mortimer at, 232.
Nottingham, Earl of, opposes Richard II., 279;
is made Duke of Norfolk and banished, 283.
Oda, Archbishop, advocates the celibacy of the clergy, 65;
separates Eadwig and Ælfgifu, 67.
Odo oppresses the English, 102;
is banished by William II., 115.
Offa, king of the Mercians, defeats the West Saxons at Bensington, 53;
his dyke, 54.
Olaf Trygvasson, 79, 80.
Oldcastle, Sir John, burnt as a Lollard, 300.
Old Sarum, earthworks of Sorbiodunum at, 34.
Ordainers, the Lords, 226.
Ordeal, system of, 32;
continued by Henry II., 146.
Ordovices, the, resist the Romans, 14.
Orleans, siege of, 309.
Orleans, Duke of, Charles, captured at Agincourt, 303;
ransomed, 315.
Orleans, Duke of, Louis, makes an alliance with Glendower, 295;
murdered, 296.
Ormond, Earl of, supports the Lancastrians, 346.
Osric governs Deira, 48.
Ostorius Scapula arrives in Britain, 13;
conquests of, 14.
Oswald, bishop of Worcester, 68.
Oswald, King of North-humberland, his greatness and piety, 47;
is slain at Maserfield, 48.
Oswini, his relations with Aidan, 48;
is murdered, _ib._
Oswiu unites North-humberland, 48;
defeats Penda, _ib._;
decides for Wilfrid against Colman, 50.
Otho, Cardinal, legate of Gregory IX., 194.
Otto I., Emperor, 63.
Otto IV., Emperor, supports John, 179;
defeated at Bouvines, 181.
Over-lordship, character of, 38.
Oxford, growth of the University of, 167;
the so-called Mad Parliament meets at, 198;
thronged with scholars, 207.
Oxford, Earl of (Robert de Vere), made Duke of Ireland, 278;
_see_ Ireland, Duke of.
Palæolithic man, 1.
Pandulf receives John's submission, 180.
Papacy, influence of, in the time of Gregory I., 39;
strength of, in the eleventh century, 88;
its position in the time of Gregory VII., 107;
in the time of Innocent III., 178;
Babylonian captivity of, 257;
England relieved of tribute to, 258;
great schism of, 266.
Paris, the capital of Hugh Capet's duchy, 80;
rising against the Armagnacs in, 304;
Henry VI. crowned at, 312;
lost to the English, 313.
Parliament (_see_ Great Council, the), germ of representation in, 180;
first use of the name of, 195;
scheme of administrative reform proposed in, _ib._;
knights of the shire elected to, 196;
relations between the clergy and the barons, 197;
insists on the Provisions of Oxford, 197;
representatives of towns admitted by Earl Simon to, 201;
growth of, under Edward I., 210, 218;
Scottish representatives in, 222;
acknowledgment of the legislative power of the Commons in, 228;
finally separated into two Houses, 244;
opposition to the clergy in, 259;
Richard II. invites complaints in, 280.
Paston, John, attacked by Lord Molynes, 321;
domestic life of, 330.
Patay, battle of, 311.
Patrick, St., introduces Christianity into Ireland, 47.
Paulinus effects conversions in Deira, 46.
Peasants' Revolt, the, 268.
Pedro the Cruel, 255.
Pembroke, Earl of, _see_ William the Marshal.
Penda defeats Eadwine at Heathfield, 46;
splits up North-humberland, 47;
is defeated and slain, 48.
Penitential system, the, introduced by Theodore, 50.
Percies, the, territorial influence of, 293.
Percy, Henry (Hotspur), 293, 294.
Perpendicular style, the, 247.
Perrers, Alice, 260, 262.
Peter des Roches influences Henry III., 188;
is dismissed, 189.
Peter the Hermit, 120.
Pevensey, landing of William at, 96.
Philip I., king of France, makes war with William I., 114.
Philip II., king of France, stirs up enmity between Henry II.
and his sons, 156;
quarrels with Richard I., 161;
stirs up John against Richard, 162;
supports Arthur against John, 174;
wins Normandy and Anjou from John, 175;
prepares an invasion of England, 179;
wins a victory at Bouvines, 181.
Philip IV., king of France, his relations with Edward I. and
with Scotland, 218.
Philip V., king of France, succeeds in virtue of the so-called
Salic law, 232.
Philip VI., king of France, succeeds in virtue of the so-called
Salic law, and receives the homage of Edward III., 232;
protects David Bruce, 234;
defeats the Flemings at Cassel, 235;
avoids fighting the English, 239;
is defeated at Creçy, 242;
death of, 251.
Philip, the Archduke, birth of, 337;
marries Juana, 352;
dies, 358.
Philippa of Hainault marries Edward III., 231;
begs the lives of the burgesses of Calais, 243.
Phoenicians, the, supposed visits to Britain of, 7.
Picts, the, ravages of, 23, 26;
unite with the Scots, 63.
_Piers the Plowman_, 259.
Pippin becomes king of the Franks, 54.
Plautius, Aulus, subdues south east Britain, 13.
Poitevins, favour of Henry III. to, 187, 194.
Poitiers, battle of, 251.
Poitou, John's attack on the barons of, 174;
submission to Philip II. of part of, 176;
John attempts to recover, 180;
Henry III. surrenders, 194.
Poll-taxes, 267, 268.
Poor priests sent out by Wycliffe, 268.
Posidonius visits Britain, 8.
Poynings' Acts, 350.
Præmunire, Statute of, 258;
re-enacted, 282.
Printing press, the, 358.
Prisons, condition of, 275.
Provençals favoured by Henry III., 192.
Provisions of Oxford, the, 198.
Provisors, Statute of, 258;
re-enacted, 282.
Puiset, Hugh de, appointed a justiciar in the absence of
Richard I., 159.
Punishments, early English, 32;
mediæval, 275.
Purveyors, 274.
Pytheas opens a trade-route to Britain, 8.
_Quia emptores_, Statute of, 212.
Radcot Bridge, the Duke of Ireland defeated at, 280.
Rædwald, king of East Anglia, 41;
Eadwine takes refuge with, 43.
Ralph de Diceto, 167.
Ralph of Wader takes part in the Rising of the Earls, 110.
Ranulph Flambard, _see_ Flambard.
Recognitions, 147.
Reginald elected Archbishop of Canterbury by the monks, 177.
Regni, the, join Aulus Plautius, 13.
Regular clergy, the, 65.
Rent, land let for, 321.
Representative institutions, _see_ Parliament.
Retainers substituted for vassals, 281;
increase of the number of, 321.
Rich, Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, 189.
Richard I., as Duke of Aquitaine, 155;
takes the cross, 157;
becomes King of England, 159;
sells the homage of Scotland, _ib._;
his Crusade and imprisonment, 161;
is liberated, 162;
his short visit to England, _ib._;
death of, 165.
Richard II., proposal to set aside, 261;
his minority, 266;
meets the insurgents, 268;
offers to head them, 269;
marries Anne of Bohemia, 278;
his favouritism, _ib._;
superseded in his authority by a Commission of Regency, 279;
regains power and governs constitutionally, 280;
makes an alliance with France, and marries Isabella, 282;
makes himself absolute, _ib._;
banishes Norfolk and Hereford, 283;
goes to Ireland, 284;
forced to abdicate, 285;
murdered, 291;
alleged reappearance of, 293;
buried at Westminster, 299.
Richard III. (_see_ Duke of Gloucester) is created a duke, 329;
character of, 337;
becomes Protector, 338;
has Hastings executed, 340;
is crowned king, 341;
his government, 342;
defeated and slain, 343.
Richard, Earl of Cornwall, leads the barons against Henry III., 192;
deserts the barons, 195;
takes part in summoning knights of the shire to Parliament, 196;
is chosen king of the Romans, 198;
hides himself after the battle of Lewes, 201.
Richard Fitz-Nigel writes the _Dialogus de Scaccario_, 167.
Richard the Fearless, Duke of the Normans, 80.
Richard the Good, Duke of the Normans, 81.
Richmond, Earl of, _see_ Henry VII.
Riding on horseback, 273.
Ripon, architecture of the choir of, 171.
Rising of the Earls, the, 110.
Rivers, Earl, becomes Lord Constable, 331;
imprisoned, 338;
executed, 340.
Roads, making and repair of, 272, 273.
Robert I. (Bruce), king of Scotland, allied with Edward I., 223;
slays Comyn, and is crowned King of Scotland, 224;
defeats Edward II. at Bannockburn, 226;
leprosy of, 231;
death of, 232.
Robert II., king of Scotland, 295.
Robert III., king of Scotland, 295.
Robert, Earl of Gloucester, his power in the West of England, 133;
declares for Matilda, 134;
taken prisoner, and exchanged for Stephen, 135;
death of, _ib._
Robert, Duke of the Normans (father of William the Conqueror), 88.
Robert, Duke of the Normans (son of William the Conqueror),
incapacity of, 114;
rebellion in England in favour of, 115;
goes on the first Crusade, 121;
fails to overthrow Henry I., 124;
defeat, imprisonment, and death of, 125.
Robert of Bellême, cruelty of, 119;
becomes Earl of Shrewsbury, 121;
expelled by Henry I., 124;
imprisonment of, 125.
Robert of Jumièges, Archbishop of Canterbury, 87.
Robin Hood, legend of, 275.
Rochester, foundation of the bishopric of, 40;
Odo besieged in, 115.
Rockingham, Council at, 118.
Roger, Archbishop of York, crowns the young Henry, 149.
Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, Minister of Henry I., 126;
quarrels with Stephen, 134.
Roger, Earl of Hereford, takes part in the Rising of the Earls, 110.
Roger of Hoveden, 167.
Roger, son of Roger of Salisbury, 134.
Roman Empire, the establishment of, 12;
continuance of, in the East after its destruction in the West, 27.
Romans, the, invasion of Gaul by, 10;
invasion of Britain by, 11;
commencement of the conquest of Britain by, 12;
massacre of, 15;
complete conquest of the greater part of Britain by, 17;
civilisation introduced into Britain by, 21;
end of their rule in Britain, 26;
persistency of their civilisation in Gaul, 37.
Romney Marsh divides Jutes from South Saxons, 27.
Roosebeke, battle of, 278.
Roses, Wars of the, _see_ Wars of the Roses.
Rothesay, Duke of, death of, 295.
Rouen occupied by Hrolf, 80;
surrenders to Henry V., 304;
retaken by the French, 320.
Rutland, Earl of (son of the Duke of York), accompanies his
father to Ireland, 326;
murdered, 328.
St. Albans (_see_ Verulam), architecture of the nave of the
abbey of, 171;
meeting of a national jury at, 180;
the first battle of, 324;
the second battle of, 328.
St. John, Knights of, 157.
St. Michael's Mount, Henry besieged at, 119.
Saladin takes Jerusalem, 157.
Saladin tithe, the, 157.
Salic law, the so-called, 232.
Salisbury, great Gemot at, 113;
cathedral at, 207.
Salisbury, Richard, Earl of, his connection with the Duke of York, 324;
takes part in the battles of Blore Heath and Northampton, 326;
beheaded, 328.
Sarum, Old, 34.
Savoy, the, burnt, 269.
Saxon shore, the defence of, 25;
over run by the Jutes, 27.
Saxons, the (_see_ East Saxons, South Saxons, West Saxons), ravage
Roman Britain, 24;
settle in Britain, 27;
merge their name in that of English, 28;
are known by the Celts as Saxons, 29.
Sawtre, William, burnt as a heretic, 292.
Say, Lord, beheaded by Jack Cade, 323.
Schwartz, Martin, defeated at Stoke, 347.
Scotland, kingdom of, formed by a union of Scots and Picts, 63;
its relations with England under Eadmund, 64;
its relations with Cnut, 84;
with William I., 104;
with William II., 119;
with Stephen, 133;
with Henry II., 154;
with Richard I., 159;
disputed succession in, 214;
Edward I. acknowledged Lord Paramount of, 216;
its league with France, 218;
twice conquered by Edward I., 219, 221;
incorporated with England, 222;
conquered a third time by Edward I., 224;
independence of, 226;
first war of Edward III. with, 231;
struggle between Edward Balliol and David Bruce in, 233, 234;
accession of the Stuarts to the throne of, 295;
assists France in its wars with England, 307.
Scots, the ravages of, 23;
abode of, in Ireland, 23;
renewed ravages of, 26;
settle in Argyle, and are defeated at Degsastan, 42;
their relations with Eadward the Elder, 63;
_see_ Scotland.
Scrope, Archbishop of York, executed, 296.
Scrope, Lord, execution of, 301.
Scutage, 141.
Secular clergy, the, 67.
Selsey, landing of the South Saxons near, 27.
Senlac, battle of, 96.
Serfs, _see_ Villeins.
Severn, West Saxon conquest of the Valley of, 35.
Severus fails in conquering the Caledonians, 19.
Sheriffs, their position in Eadgar's reign, 73;
weakened by Henry II., 148.
Shires, origin of, 73.
Shire-moot, the, 73;
_see_ County Courts.
Shore, Jane, penance of, 340.
Shrewsbury, Earl of, _see_ Talbot, Lord.
Shrewsbury, Parliament of, 283;
battle of, 294.
Silchester, Roman church at, 23.
Simnel, Lambert, insurrection in favour of, 347.
Simon de Montfort, early career of, 193;
takes the side of the barons, 195;
employed in Gascony, 196;
executes the Provisions of Oxford, 199;
heads the baronial party, 200;
wins the battle of Lewes, 201;
constitutional scheme of, _ib._;
killed at Evesham, 203;
compared with Archbishop Thomas, 204.
Siward, Earl of North-humberland, 84, 87.
Slaves preserved alive at the English conquest, 30.
Sluys, battle of, 239.
Somerset, Welsh driven out of, 53.
Somerset, Edmund Beaufort, second Duke of, commands in Normandy, 320;
supported by Henry VI., 323;
slain at St. Albans, 324.
Somerset, Edmund Beaufort, fourth Duke of, executed, 334.
Somerset, John Beaufort, first Duke of, commands in France, 317;
kept from court by Suffolk, 318;
dies, 320.
Somerset, Henry Beaufort, third Duke of, executed, 331.
Sorbiodunum (_Old Sarum_), the stronghold of Ambrosius, 34.
South Saxons, the, first conquests of, 27;
destroy Anderida, 28.
Spain, union of the kingdoms of, 349;
growth of the monarchy of, 354.
Spencer, Henry, bishop of Norwich, leads an expedition to
Flanders, 278.
Stamford Bridge, battle of, 95.
Standard, battle of the, 133.
Stanley, Lord, joins Henry VII., 343.
Stanley, Sir William, deserts Richard III., 343;
execution of, 351.
Star Chamber, Court of, organisation of, 348.
States-General, the French, meet during John's captivity, 252.
Statute of Wales, 210.
Stephen, accession of, 131;
makes peace with the Scots, 133;
quarrels with the barons, _ib._;
quarrels with the clergy, 134;
death of, 135.
Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, 89.
Stirling, Wallace's victory at, 221.
Stoke, battle of, 347.
Stone implements, 1-4.
Strathclyde, formation of the kingdom of, 43;
is not dependent on Ecgberht, 55;
its relations with Eadmund, 64.
Strongbow in Ireland, 152.
Stuart, family of, inherit the throne of Scotland, 295.
Suetonius Paullinus, campaigns of, 14-16.
Suffolk, origin of the name of, 28.
Suffolk, Michael de la Pole, Earl of, Chancellor of Richard II., 278;
driven from power, 279;
condemned to death, 280.
Suffolk, William de la Pole, Earl of, arranges a truce with
France, 317;
presides over the government of England, 318;
impeached and murdered, 322.
Surrey, Earl of, governs Scotland in the name of Edward I., 219.
Sussex, conquest of, 27, 28;
weakness of, 41;
accepts Christianity, 49.
Svend attacks London, 79;
returns to Denmark, 80;
invades England, 81;
death of, 83.
Swegen, son of Godwine, misconduct of, 87;
death of, 88.
Swynford, Catherine, marries John of Gaunt, 282.
Talbot, Lord, defeats the Burgundians, 313;
becomes Earl of Shrewsbury, 320;
defeated and slain, 323.
Tallages levied by Edward I., 221;
abolished by Edward III., 243.
Taxation, _see_ Danegeld, Customs.
Templars, the Knights, 157.
Tewkesbury, battle of, 334.
Thames, the, early ferry over, 20.
Thanet, probable identification of Ictis with, 8;
Jutes established in, 27.
Thegns, how distinguished from Gesiths, 31;
their devotion to their lord, 44;
growing military importance of, 69.
Theodore, Archbishop, his influence on the Church of England, 50;
assembles the first Church Council, 52.
Thetford, removal of the see from, 107.
Thomas of London (Becket), Chancellor, 140;
being appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, resists Henry II., 143;
takes refuge in France, 145;
returns to England, 149;
is murdered, 150.
Thurstan, Archbishop, leads the levies at the Battle of the
Standard, 132.
Tiberias, battle of, 157.
Tin, Phoenician and Greek trade in, 8.
Tinchebrai, battle of, 125.
Tintern Abbey, 129.
Togidumnus, death of, 13.
Tostig, Earl of North-humberland, 89;
driven from his earldom, 90;
allied to Harold Hardrada, 94;
killed at Stamford Bridge, 96.
Touraine conquered by Philip II., 176.
Towns, growth of, 62, 72, 168;
condition of the outskirts of, 191.
Townships, early political organisation of, 31.
Towton, battle of, 329.
Trade, _see_ Commerce.
Transition from round-arched to Pointed architecture, 171.
Travelling modes of, 273.
Treasons, Statute of, 250.
Trent, the Anglian occupation of the Valley of, 36.
Tresilian, Chief Justice, hanged, 280.
Trinobantes, the geographical position of, 8;
side with Cæsar, 11;
submit to Cunobelin, 12.
Troyes, the Treaty of, 306.
Tudor, Owen, marries the widow of Henry V., 335.
Tumblers, 275.
Tyre in danger, 157.
Universities, growth of, 167.
Urban II., Pope, supported by Lanfranc, 118;
preaches a Crusade, 120.
Uriconium, _see_ Viriconium.
Valence, William de, resists the Provisions of Oxford, 199.
Val-ès-dunes, battle of, 88.
Verneuil, battle of, 308.
Verulamium, Roman city at, 19;
martyrdom of St. Alban at, 23.
Vicar, meaning of the term, 129.
Villages, arrangements of, 75.
Villeins, the, uncertain origin of, 31;
increase of, 69;
position of, after the Norman conquest, 102;
partial commutation of the services of, 168;
effect of the Black Death upon, 248;
insurrection of, 268;
take refuge in towns, 275;
land ceases to be cultivated by, 320, 321.
Viriconium, Roman colony at, 14.
Vortigern establishes Jutes in Thanet, 27.
Wakefield, battle of, 328.
Wales reduced by Harold, 90;
Flemish settlement in, 128;
conquered by Edward I., 210;
marches of, _ib._;
supports Richard II., 285.
Wallace, William, rises against Edward I., 221;
execution of, 222.
Wallingford, Treaty of, 137.
Walls, the Roman, 17.
Walter Map, 167.
Waltheof, Earl of Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire, 90;
is beheaded, 110.
Wanborough, Ceawlin defeated at, 36.
War-band, the, composed of Gesiths, 30.
Warbeck, Perkin, insurrection of, 350-352;
execution of, 354.
Wardship, nature of the lord's claim to, 116;
results of the system, 330.
Wars of the Roses, origin of the name of, 324;
state of society during, 330.
Warwick, Earl of, opposes Richard II., 279;
banishment of, 282.
Warwick, Earl of (son of the Duke of Clarence), imprisonment of, 343;
execution of, 354.
Warwick, Richard Beauchamp, Earl of, regent in France, 313.
Warwick, Richard Nevill, Earl of (the King-maker), influence of, 324;
retires to Calais, and comes back and defeats the Lancastrians
at Northampton, 326;
estranged from Edward IV., 332;
is reconciled to Queen Margaret, 333;
restores Henry VI., and is defeated and slain at Barnet, 334.
Wat Tyler, insurrection of, 268, 269.
Wedmore, Peace of (the so-called), 59.
Welsh, the, speak a language derived from that of the Britons, 7;
origin of their name, 31;
adopt the name Kymry, 37;
defeated by Æthelfrith near Chester, 43;
split up into three divisions, _ib._;
driven out of Somerset, 53;
their relations with Ecgberht, 56;
_see_ Wales.
Weregild, system of, 32.
Wessex, gradual formation of, 28, 34, 35;
is weakened by internal quarrels, 41;
accepts Christianity, 48;
growing unity of, 53;
causes of the supremacy of, 55;
an earldom under Godwine and Harold, 84, 89.
West Saxons, the, first conquests of, 28;
defeated at Mount Badon, _ib._;
occupy Salisbury Plain, 34;
wage war with the men of Kent and with the Britons of the
Severn Valley, 35;
are defeated at Faddiley, _ib._;
_see_ Wessex.
West Wales split off from other Welsh territory, 42.
Westminster Abbey, consecration of, 91;
coronation of William I. in, 100.
White Ship, the, wreck of, 129.
Wilfrid supports Papal authority, 50.
William I. (the Conqueror) declared heir of Eadward the
Confessor, 88;
his rule in Normandy, _ib._;
claims the crown from Harold, 91;
lands at Pevensey, and defeats Harold at Senlac, 96-98;
crowned at Westminster, 100;
progress of his conquest, 101-103;
devastates the Vale of York, 103;
subdues Hereward, and receives Malcolm's submission, 104;
his method of keeping English and Normans in subjection, 104-106;
his relations with the Church, 106-110;
suppresses the Rising of the Earls, 110;
lays waste the New Forest, _ib._;
has Domesday Book prepared, 111;
receives oaths at Salisbury, 113;
death of, 114.
William II. (Rufus) is crowned King of England, 114;
is supported by the English against Robert, 115;
character of, _ib._;
his treatment of Anselm, 117;
his quarrels with his brothers, 118;
his relations with Scotland, 119;
suppresses Mowbray's rebellion, 120;
last years of, 121;
is murdered, 122.
William, son of Henry I., wrecked, 129.
William Clito, son of Robert, 129.
William Longbeard, 169, 170.
William of Malmesbury, 129.
William of Newburgh, 167.
William the Lion, king of Scotland, acknowledges himself to be
a vassal of Henry II., 154;
frees himself from vassalage, 159.
Winchelsey, Archbishop, 221.
Winchester, secular canons driven out of 68;
burial of William II. at, 122;
Stephen chosen king at, 131.
Winwæd, the battle of, 48.
Witenagemot, the, constitution of, 45;
discussion on the acceptance of Christianity in, 46;
constitutional powers of, 74;
becomes the Great Council, 113;
_see_ Great Council, the.
Women, education of, in the Middle Ages, 65.
Wonderful Parliament, the, 280.
Worcester, secular canons driven from, 68.
Wroxeter, _see_ Viriconium.
Wulfhere maintains the independence of Mercia, 48.
Wycliffe, John, his doctrines, 261;
summoned before an ecclesiastical court at St. Paul's, 262;
sends out 'poor priests,' and renounces transubstantiation, 266;
retires, and dies, 269.
Wykeham, William of, deprived of the Chancellorship, 260;
restored to the Council, and again dismissed, 262.
Yarmouth supports Stephen, 134.
York (_see_ Eboracum) submits to Harold Hardrada, 95;
taken by William I., 102;
devastation of the Vale of, 103;
massacre of Jews at, 160.
York Archbishop of, his right to crown a king questioned, 149.
York, Archbishopric of, founded, 46.
York, Duke of Edmund (son of Edward III.), joins Henry IV., 285.
York, Richard, Duke of, (father of Edward IV.), is regent in
France, 313;
governs Ireland, 319;
first Protectorate of, 323;
second Protectorate of, 324;
driven to Ireland, 326;
claims the throne, 327;
defeated and slain, 328.
York, Richard, Duke of (son of Edward IV.), lodged in the Tower, 341;
murdered, 342.
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