A History of England, Period I. Mediæval Monarchy

Chapter VIII: Introduction (7)

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Constantly unwise in his conduct to his sons, Henry now demanded from Richard, perhaps as a recompense for his assistance, a part of Aquitaine, to be given to his favourite son John. This Richard refused to give, and consequently both John and Geoffrey of Brittany attacked him. But though Geoffrey was thus ready enough to quarrel with his elder brother, it was from no love of his father that he did so. He, as well as Richard, was hurt by Henry’s evident partiality for John. He took the opportunity of putting in his own claim for Anjou. On Henry’s refusal, he at once fled to France, where he was as usual well received. His death relieved his father for the time from his opposition, but sowed the seed of further difficulties; for on the one hand his province Brittany was at once divided between the French and English faction, and on the other King Philip II. raised claims as overlord to the guardianship of his young son Arthur. There was a growing disinclination however on all sides to plunge into war; for the Pope was constantly urging a general peace, and the combination of Christian princes for the great Eastern Crusade. A succession of weak princes, and the unnatural and artificial character of the feudal kingdom of Jerusalem, together with the rise of the new Mahomedan power of the Saracens under Saladin, had reduced European power in the East to a very low ebb; and in 1184, Heraclius, the Bishop of Jerusalem, had found it necessary to come over, to attempt to persuade the Kings of England and France to embark in a new crusade. But to Henry, although under a pledge to join such an expedition, the idea of leaving his European dominions in their present critical situation was very distasteful, and he consequently postponed taking action. The feeling however that a crusade was imminent rendered hostilities more difficult; so that when, in 1187, the arbitrary behaviour of Richard in Aquitaine had produced fresh difficulties with France, which as usual terminated in the flight of Richard and the junction of his interests with those of his father, the news of the great battle of Hettin, in which the flower of the Christian army of Jerusalem had been entirely destroyed, and the arrival of William of Tyre for the purpose of exciting the enthusiasm of the West, put a sudden end to the hostilities; and, in 1188, the two kings met in perfect friendship under the old elm in the neighbourhood of Gisors, which was their usual place of treaty, and joined with apparent heartiness in taking the Cross. Upon this occasion Henry imposed upon England the tax, known as the Saladin tax, which was a tenth on all property, and in the collection of which the King’s officers were to work hand in hand with the Church.

[Sidenote: Last war; with Richard and Philip. 1189.]

But nothing could keep the restless Richard in order; before the year was over, he was engaged in fresh quarrels with Geoffrey of Lusignan and Raymond of Toulouse. After mutual demands for the ransom of some captives, Richard advanced in arms against Raymond, who applied to his suzerain Philip for assistance. This open attack on his dominions Philip could not put up with. At length he declared himself the open enemy of the English. It was in vain that his great feudatories reminded him that he was under the crusader’s vow, in vain that a meeting was held at Gisors. The enmity of the kings was only thereby inflamed, and, in token of his eternal hostility, Philip had the old elm of reconciliation hewn down. One would have supposed that Richard, the cause of the quarrel, would have clung to his father; nor is the reason for his not doing so very plain. Perhaps it may be traced to his father’s refusal to give him up Alice, the French King’s sister, for his wife, wishing it is said to make her his own; perhaps it was continued jealousy of his brother John. Certainly he did betake himself to the French court, and with him many others of Henry’s French feudatories fell away. Henry thus found himself in a difficult situation; broken in mind and body, his resources strained to the utmost by the late heavy taxation of England, and his nobles rapidly deserting him.

[Sidenote: Henry’s disastrous peace and death.]

His health appears to have influenced his mind. He remained inactive at Le Mans, while Philip overran Maine and threatened to besiege Tours. At length Le Mans, where Henry was with his son Geoffrey, was taken. The city where he had himself been born was the particular object of Henry’s love. He felt its loss as a heavy blow, and though he knew his weakness, could not bring himself to retreat to Normandy, where his chief strength lay. With a sudden accession of energy, he reappeared in Anjou. But his appearance had no effect. One by one the fortresses of Maine were captured, and Philip constantly approached Tours. When that town fell, Henry’s spirit was quite broken. He agreed to an interview with Richard and Philip on the plain of Colombières, to make his submission. Almost fainting, and held upon his horse by his attendants, in the midst of a violent thunderstorm, he met his undutiful son, and brought himself to give him the kiss of peace, whispering as he did so, however, “May God not let me die until I have taken me due vengeance on thee.” The terms of his submission were complete. He promised to give up the Princess Alice; he allowed his nobility to swear fealty for their lands to his son Richard; he promised to pay Philip 50,000 marks for the restoration of his conquests. He had asked, in exchange, for a list of those nobles who had joined Richard in rebellion. When he found at the head of the list the name of his beloved son John, his heart was broken. “I care no more for myself nor for the world,” he said. A day or two longer he lingered, and was carried to Chinon, murmuring at intervals, “Shame, shame, on a conquered king,” and there died, attended only by his natural son and Chancellor Geoffrey.[29]

[Sidenote: Importance of the reign.]

It is scarcely possible to place the importance of this reign too high, or to overvalue the work of Henry II. We find in his reign the organization of almost all departments of the government subsequently completed by Edward I. The arrangements of the Curia Regis and the reforms in judicial procedure have been already mentioned. The exchequer also was put on a new footing. It now becomes possible to see with some clearness the sources and amount of the royal revenue. To the revenues derived from the domain lands and from the Danegelt, the Norman kings had added feudal dues. Both the proceeds of the royal domain and of the Danegelt appear to have been farmed. The farm of the counties amounted in Henry II.’s reign, after the deductions caused by the grants both of Stephen and of Henry, to about £8000 a year. The Danegelt, originally two shillings on every hide, amounted in Henry I.’s reign to about £2500. As this is about a tenth of what the tax would have produced had it been fully exacted, it must probably also have been farmed to the sheriff, who collected what he could of it, and paid a fixed sum to the exchequer. This unsatisfactory tax came to an end in Henry II.’s reign, perhaps through the agency of Becket. The other source of revenue was the _Donum_ and _Auxilium_, contributions paid by vassals to assist their lords. The first term applied to the counties, the second to the towns. These names became the general names of all irregular imposts, which are also sometimes called hidage, scutage, or tallage, the tallage being the aid raised from towns, the scutage the aid raised from knights’ fees, the hidage the aid raised from tenants in socage. The importance of the scutage as a commutation for military service has been already dwelt upon. Recourse appears to have been had to these scutages only three or four times during the reign. To these sources of revenue are to be added the fees from the law courts, and the incomes arising from feudal incidents, such as wardship, marriage, and reliefs. The whole income of the country was perhaps about £50,000. The taxes seem to have been assessed by Barons of the Exchequer, aided by the declaration of the knights as to their own holdings, by juries in the case of minor tenants. But it was not only in details of administration that Henry showed his character. He constantly summoned great councils, and as his power was so great and centralized that he could certainly have acted without them, this appears to show a fixed intention on his part to assume the position of a national and constitutional king. The general effect of his work at home was to form the nation. Normans became English. The English no longer felt themselves a conquered people. Their oppressors, the feudal nobility, were destroyed or kept in restraint. The new nobles were chiefly ministers of the crown, and all sections of the people looked to the King as the national representative. The importance of Henry’s reign abroad was scarcely less striking. His immense continental dominions made him one of the great powers of Europe. His close contact with France, and the difficulties which it produced, began the hereditary policy of opposition to that country which has characterized the whole of English history. On the other hand, though he may have had no clear view of what he was doing, he set on foot also the lasting friendships of the nation. The marriage of his daughter with the Guelph Duke brought England into constant friendship with Germany, and caused Otho, the son of Henry the Lion, to be brought up in England, and to be regarded as an English prince. The marriage of his other daughter with Spain set on foot that connection which lasted even beyond the Reformation. His work as a whole may be summed up in the words of Professor Stubbs: “He was faithful to the letter of his engagements. He recovered the demesne rights of the crown, so that his royal dignity did not depend for maintenance on constant taxation. He restored the usurped estates; he destroyed the illegal castles, and the system which they typified; he maintained the royal hold on the lawful ones, and the equality and uniformity of justice which their usurpers had subverted; he restored internal peace, and with it plenty, as the riches of England in the following reign amply testify. He arranged the administration of justice by enacting good laws and appointing faithful judges. He restored the currency; he encouraged commerce, he maintained the privileges of the towns; and, without encouraging an aggressive spirit, armed his people for self-defence. He sustained the form, and somewhat of the spirit of national representation. The clergy had grounds of complaint against him for very important reasons; but their chief complaints were caused by their preference for the immunities of their class to the common safeguard of justice.”

RICHARD I.

1189-1199.

Born 1157 = Berengaria of Navarre.

CONTEMPORARY PRINCES.

POPES.--Clement III., 1187. Celestine III., 1191. Innocent III., 1198.

[Sidenote: Richard seems to begin well.]

[Sidenote: Persecution of the Jews.]

Richard began his reign with some show of penitence. He got absolution for his disobedience to his father, and gave his friendship to the existing ministers, with the exception of the Seneschal of Anjou and Ranulf de Glanvill. It is possible that the government of this great justiciary had been over arbitrary, for in England, where his mother acted principally for him, Richard is said to have freed all those prisoners who were confined by the orders of his father or the justiciary, but demanded bail for those who were legally imprisoned. He also seems to have punished the severity of some of the sheriffs. His coronation pomp was interrupted by a strange disturbance. The Jews had been ordered to absent themselves from the ceremony. This strange people had been admitted to England by the Conqueror; the only capitalists of the time, their ability and willingness to lend money rendered them invaluable both to the rising industry of the country and to the crown; and to their knowledge is due much of the growth in science which was beginning to be made in this century. So great was their use, in spite of the heavy usury they demanded, that they were allowed to establish themselves in various towns, in districts known as Jewries, to build synagogues, and follow their own customs. They were not however admitted to full citizenship. The Jewries, like the forests, were not under the protection of the common law of the country, but were entirely in the King’s power. In spite of the evident advantages derived from their presence in England, their wealth, their foreign manners, their high usury, and their strange worship rendered them objects at once of contempt and hatred to the people. Some of them, in spite of the order forbidding their presence, showed themselves at the ceremony of the consecration. They were assaulted by the soldiery. This gave a signal to the the crowd who attacked the detested people in all parts of the city. Nor was this all; the same feeling spread throughout England. In some places the Jews gained safety by conversion; but early in 1190, in Norwich, in Stamford, and in York, many were put to death. In the last-mentioned place, the Jews sought refuge in the castle, and being besieged there, determined to die together. Firing the tower, they first killed their own women and children, and then sprang with them into the flames.

[Sidenote: All offices put up for sale.]

In fact, the Crusades brought with them a passion for adventure and licentiousness, as well as religious enthusiasm. This spirit was now abroad in England, and the King, with his wild love of adventure at any price, was its fitting representative. For the sake of adventure, honesty, good government, and national honour, were sacrificed. Thus there was scarcely an office which was not openly put up up for sale; cities bought their charters, judges their seats on the bench, bishops their sees. Thus too Hugh de Pudsey bought the Earldom of Northumberland for £1000; and Longchamp, the Bishopric of Ely for £3000; while the King relinquished all the advantages his father had won over William the Lion of Scotland for 10,000 marks; it was for Huntingdon alone that the Northern King did fealty to Richard.

[Sidenote: Starts for the Crusade, leaving England to Longchamp. 1190.]

Having by such unjustifiable means procured money for his purposes, entirely regardless of the misery he could scarcely fail to leave behind him, Richard crossed over to France to join his forces with those of Philip Augustus. Such precautions as he did take against maladministration in England were not of the wisest. He put the whole power into the hands of William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, whom he made at once Chancellor and Chief Justiciary, securing for him also the authority of Papal Legate. But Longchamp was a man who could not fail to have many enemies. Of low extraction, and regarded as merely the favourite of Richard, he was fond of exhibiting his grandeur in the most ostentatious manner; moreover, in making him justiciary Richard supplanted Hugh de Pudsey, to whom the office had already been given. Pudsey did not surrender without some opposition. He obtained from the King letters patent, naming him justiciary north of the Humber; when he exhibited these to Longchamp, the Chancellor contrived indeed to entrap him to London, and there made him surrender his claims, but he had made himself a powerful enemy for life. Richard also, as a second precaution, made his brother John, and his half-brother Geoffrey, who had got the Archbishopric of York in exchange for the chancellorship, promise not to enter England during his absence. But he afterwards unwisely absolved John from his vow. He thus left behind him in England a possible claimant to the succession, whose power as a baron was very great, for he was the possessor of Derbyshire, the inheritance of the Earl of Gloucester, which he had obtained by marriage, and of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, and Somerset, which Richard had himself given him.

[Sidenote: Quarrels with Philip in Sicily.]

The death of William II. of Sicily, and of the French Queen Isabella, delayed the Crusade till June 1190. But at the end of that month, the Kings set out towards their first point, which was Sicily, Philip by Genoa, Richard by Marseilles. At the same time, a fleet of more than a hundred sail left the harbours of Brittany and Guienne. On reaching Sicily the friendship of the two kings was at first most edifying, but it was not long before various causes of dispute arose between them. To the inhabitants of the island the Crusaders seemed a horde of new invaders. The overbearing character of Richard exasperated the feelings of jealousy thus aroused. The conciliatory manners of Philip, on the other hand, were such that he was known as the Lamb, in contradistinction to Richard, who was called the Lion. The difference of feeling with which they were regarded was plainly shown when, on the occasion of some quarrel, the town of Messina was closed against Richard, while Philip was admitted within its walls. The enemies of the French King suggested indeed that his mildness was a proof of treasonable lukewarmness towards his fellow Crusaders. These suspicions were afterwards confirmed. On the death of William II.,[30] Tancred, an illegitimate son of William’s brother Roger, had seized the throne, despoiling of her rights Constance, the daughter of Roger and the wife of Henry VI. of Germany, and keeping in some sort of confinement Richard’s sister Joanna, the widow of William the Good, and retaining the dowry secured her by her husband’s will. The enmity thus excited in Richard’s mind gave way, after a lengthened dispute, to the natural feeling of friendship between the two Norman houses. Joanna and her dowry were given back to Richard; and at one of the meetings between the two princes, Tancred informed him of a plot on the part of the French to fall treacherously on the English army. Philip does not seem to have denied the charge, and it was perhaps the consciousness of his guilt which prevented him from making any effectual opposition when Richard repudiated his sister Alice. Contrary to the national feelings, and on purely political grounds, Richard had been contracted to this princess by his father. He now, throwing over this unnatural match, sought for himself a wife from Spain, a country then and for long afterwards connected by close friendship with England. This wife was Berengaria, the daughter of Sancho I. of Navarre. Though unavenged, the insult was felt. From that time onwards Philip and Richard were enemies.

[Sidenote: Conquers Cyprus. 1191.]

[Sidenote: Jerusalem taken by Saladin. 1187.]

[Sidenote: Acre besieged. 1189.]

[Sidenote: Arrival of the Crusaders.]

[Sidenote: Richard saves Acre.]

[Sidenote: Philip goes home.]

At length the armies broke up from Sicily and sailed for Acre. With the three leading ships of the English fleet were Berengaria and the King’s sister Joanna. Richard brought up the rear. Two of the Queen’s vessels were wrecked upon the Isle of Cyprus, and their crew imprisoned by Isaac, the ruler of that island. This monarch, a descendant of the Emperor John Comnenus, banished from Byzantium, had established himself with the title of Emperor in the Isle of Cyprus. He was an inhuman tyrant, the dread of pilgrims and of shipwrecked sailors. He tried to entice the two queens to land, but luckily Richard’s fleet arrived. The Cyprians were driven from Lymesol, where the King established his court. He there received Guy of Lusignan, the nominal King of Jerusalem, completed his marriage with Berengaria, and made a treaty with Isaac. But when the Emperor sought to evade his engagements, Richard conquered the rest of the island, and organized it in the feudal fashion. On the 8th of July he reached Acre. The arrival of this warlike prince raised the spirit of the besiegers, who were in a very depressed condition. The siege had lasted since 1189, having been undertaken by Guy of Lusignan, who saw the importance of the place, if he was to continue to hold his kingdom. This was indeed a doubtful question. The Christian fortunes had sunk very low. Among the Mahomedans power after power had arisen with rapid success, and sunk as rapidly under the attacks of its own slaves or vassals. As the Abbassid Caliphs yielded to the Seljukian Turks, the Seljukians in their turn yielded to the Atabeks. The power of this race was brought to its height by Noureddin, who established his rule at Damascus, and extended it even into Egypt. Saladin, the son of Ayub, had attended his uncle Shiracouh, when he destroyed the rule of the Fatimite Caliphs in Egypt, and brought that province under the power of Noureddin. On Noureddin’s death, Saladin acquired possession of Egypt, to which he subsequently added the provinces of Damascus and Aleppo, and raised an empire which reached from Tripoli in Africa to the Tigris. It was this new warlike power which had overwhelmed the kingdom of Jerusalem. Baldwin IV.,[31] King of Jerusalem, became a leper. His sister Sybilla married Guy of Lusignan, a French prince of weak character, who succeeded to the throne. His elevation excited the jealousy of Raymond, Count of Tripoli, the greatest of his vassals. By his treacherous advice, Saladin attacked Tiberias. To complete his treachery, Raymond persuaded the Christians to take up a position in a camp destitute of water, and withdrew with his forces at the moment of attack. The destruction of the Christians was complete. In a few months Jerusalem itself was taken, and Tyre and Tripoli the only places left in Christian hands. Tyre was defended with success by the bravery of Conrad of Montferrat, who, in consequence of this success, was regarded as the great champion of the Christians. He had married a young sister of Sybilla of Lusignan, and upon the death of Sybilla, holding that the right went to the living princess, his wife, rather than to Lusignan, the husband of the dead princess, he demanded the throne. Meanwhile Guy besieged Acre, thirty miles south of Tyre, and was there surrounded by an army under the command of Saladin, and cut off from all assistance except by sea. It was under these circumstances, in the midst of the disputed succession to the throne, that the third crusade had begun. Frederick Barbarossa, who had marched with the Germans by land, perished on the road, and the Duke of Swabia reached the camp with only five thousand wearied men. The arrival of the hosts of England and France by sea changed the aspect of affairs; and the kingdom might have regained had it not been for the bad feeling which existed between Richard and Philip, which found new food in the rivalry of the two claimants for the crown of Jerusalem. Conrad of Montferrat at once allied himself with the French monarch; Guy of Lusignan, whose family in Languedoc were English vassals, attached himself to Richard. Directed by the enthusiasm of Richard, who, whenever mere fighting was the question, came prominently forward, the arms of the besiegers were successful, and Acre fell. The superiority which Richard acquired in actual warfare added fresh fuel to Philip’s anger. There were besides certain circumstances in his own kingdom, where he had lately acquired Flanders, which seemed to require his presence. He therefore withdrew from the crusade, leaving the Duke of Burgundy with a part of his army under Richard’s command. Had Richard been a general as well as a soldier, he had still forces enough to have brought this crusade to a successful issue. As it was, it consisted but of a series of brilliant but useless skirmishes. Even the great battle of Arsouf, which Richard won in September on his way to Joppa, brought him no nearer his object.

[Sidenote: Richard quarrels with Austria.]

[Sidenote: Truce with Saladin. 1192.]

The presence of Philip in France, in close proximity to his own dominions, made him wish to be at home; and in 1192 he began negotiations with Saladin. He might even yet have been successful. In the course of the year he marched within sight of the Holy City. But his allies insisted that the capture was impossible, and he withdrew to Ascalon. There all causes for giving up his enterprise became stronger. The split with France widened. He quarrelled deeply with the Archduke of Austria, and with the faction of Conrad of Montferrat, who was also intriguing with Saladin. News of the disturbances in his own kingdom reached him. Everything urged him to go home. He summoned a council to settle the dispute as to the kingdom, was astonished when Conrad was named, but unwillingly gave his consent. At this very time, in what appeared to be only too opportune a moment for Richard, Conrad was murdered, as there seems no reason to doubt, by two members of the sect of the Assassins sent by the Old Man of the Mountain;[32] but the crime was soon fastened upon Richard. For the present, however, he was free to take advantage of the death of Montferrat. Sure of the incompetence of Lusignan, he gave the kingdom to Henry of Champagne. To save appearances, he made one more rapid advance towards Jerusalem, but halted within sight of the city, apparently overborne by the argument that an attack on Egypt would be more profitable. Hearing that Saladin was besieging Joppa, he hastened to the relief of that town, and there won his final victory. Both he and Saladin were worn in health and weary of the strife. A three years’ truce was arranged between them. By this it was agreed that Ascalon should be shared with the Turks, while the Christians should possess from Joppa to Tyre, the Counts of Tripoli and Antioch should be included in the treaty, and pilgrims have free access to Jerusalem. He then set off on his homeward voyage.

[Sidenote: John’s behavior in England. 1191.]

It was indeed time for the King to return. Richard had left William of Ely the chief command both in Church and State. An ambitious upstart, of ostentatious habits, William speedily roused against himself the bitterest hatred. He had one dangerous enemy who could give a voice to this unpopularity. This was the King’s brother John, who wished to secure what he believed would be the speedy succession to the throne, while William sought to give a seeming legality to his position by upholding the claim of young Arthur of Brittany. Hence arose two great factions in the kingdom. The King, hearing in Sicily of the misdeeds of his Chancellor, had commissioned Archbishop Walter of Rouen, and William, the heir of Strongbow of Pembroke, if necessary, to remove him from the regency; at all events to join themselves with him and Fitz-Peter in a committee of government. Archbishop Walter shrank from the task. The quarrel came to an issue at Lincoln, which Gerard of Camville held in the interests of John, and which the Chancellor claimed for the crown. John seized the royal castles of Nottingham and Tickhill, and the question was brought before a meeting at Winchester, where a compromise was effected. A second cause of quarrel occurred, when the Bishop caused Geoffrey, the King’s natural brother, the new Archbishop of York, who had landed in England contrary to his oath, to be apprehended in the very church at Dover. The two brothers made common cause. They demanded satisfaction for Geoffrey, and summoned a meeting between Reading and Windsor. Meanwhile the Chancellor suddenly left Windsor, and shut himself up in the Tower of London, and the meeting reassembled in St. Paul’s. There all the charges against the Chancellor were produced; Hugh of Durham produced his old grievances, Geoffrey of York his late injuries. The Tower was ill provided with food; the Chancellor was obliged to appear and to plead; but now at length Richard’s envoys produced their authority. Longchamp was dismissed from his offices. Walter of Rouen was put in his place, and the fallen Chancellor took refuge in France. The Pope received him, and excommunicated his enemies; but as usual this proceeding, when against the popular feeling, had but little effect.

[Sidenote: Return of Philip Augustus.]

Meanwhile Philip Augustus had been returning from the Holy Land. In December 1192 he reached Paris, and early in the following year demanded from the Seneschal of Normandy the restoration of his sister Alice, the Castle of Gisors, and the towns of Aumale and Eu, which he said that Richard had promised him. On the refusal of this request he began to tamper with John, begging him to come to him, when Normandy and England should be assured to him. John was stopped from immediate action by the influence of Queen Eleanor, but the disorder in the country was becoming flagrant. Richard’s French vassals in Aquitaine were with difficulty suppressed.

[Sidenote: Need of Richard’s return.]

[Sidenote: His imprisonment in Germany.]

[Sidenote: John and Philip combine against him.]

It was plain that the return of the King alone could save the kingdom. Yet those English pilgrims who returned home before Christmas were surprised to find the King yet absent. He did not come, and the gloomy news was at length noised abroad that he was in a dungeon in Germany. He had attempted to return by sea, but afraid to travel through France, he had made his way up the Adriatic, intending to cross Germany to the dominions of his friend and relative the Duke of Saxony. Travelling in disguise, he had been discovered while in the Duchy of Austria; and the Archduke, whose anger he had roused at Ascalon, made him his prisoner. He shortly after sold him to Henry VI., Emperor of Germany. The capture of the King, whose name was in every one’s mouth, strongly excited the feelings of Europe, and steps were immediately taken for his liberation. But to John his imprisonment served only as a means of aggrandizement. He hurried abroad, did homage to Philip, purchasing his favour with Gisors, the Vexin, and with Tours, and pledging himself not to make peace with his brother without Philip’s permission. He tried to persuade the English justiciaries that his brother was dead, and secured, with his auxiliaries, Wallingford and Windsor. Philip, too, basely took advantage of his rival’s position, used all his influence to lengthen his imprisonment, broke off the feudal connection between them, and invaded his dominions. Richard’s subjects were, however, remarkably true to him. The justiciaries, assisted by Queen Eleanor, boldly opposed John in England, and the burghers of Rouen put Philip to a shameful flight.

[Sidenote: England ransoms him.]

In Germany Richard did homage to Henry for England. The connection of England with Germany makes it possible that there may have been some political meaning in this act. Some general action against France, or against Apulia, may have been thought of. But it came to nothing. It was afterwards cancelled by Henry himself, and has been generally regarded as a mere formality. However formal the act of homage may have been, Richard was certainly much connected with the German Empire. He mixed authoritatively in the next imperial election, after the death of Henry VI. in 1198; and it was chiefly by his influence that Otho, his nephew, a prince of the Guelphic royal family, and generally regarded as an English prince, was elected to succeed him. Of more immediate importance to England than this connection was the sum of money demanded for the King’s ransom. The form of a trial was gone through at Spiers. All the charges which had been brought against him in the East were repeated;--his friendship with Tancred, his victory over Isaac, the murder of Conrad, his insults to Austria, even his final treaty with Saladin. He replied frankly and eloquently to these charges, and it was finally agreed that he should be liberated on the payment of 100,000 marks of silver, and 50,000 additional as a contribution to the Emperor’s proposed march against Apulia. He was to be liberated as soon as the first sum was paid; for the payment of the second hostages were to be left. With considerable difficulty the money was collected, chiefly from the estates of the Church; and after some further difficulties, caused by the intrigues of Philip Augustus, in 1194, on the 13th of March the King landed at Sandwich.

[Sidenote: Destruction of John’s party.]

[Sidenote: War with France.]

[Sidenote: Richard’s death at Chaluz. 1199.]

His appearance in England at once destroyed the influence of John’s party. Hubert the Justiciary had been doing his best to suppress it; such castles as still held out surrendered at the presence of Richard. His residence in England was short. He caused himself to be re-crowned, to remove the stain of his captivity, had recourse to his old nefarious means of gathering money, and then, weary of idleness, crossed into the more troubled country of France. With Philip it was impossible that he should have peace. An almost continuous war between the kings occupied the rest of the reign. Richard never displayed the talents of a general, and the war dwindled into an uninteresting series of petty skirmishes. These were usually decided in favour of Richard. Once, in the year 1196, united action among the enemies of France seemed to threaten Philip with a heavy blow. Raymond of St. Gilles, Richard’s old enemy, married his sister, Joanna of Sicily; the Count of Flanders, the Bretons, and the Count of Champagne joined in the league; and in the following year, Count Baldwin of Flanders succeeded in taking Philip prisoner, but he was freed on promising peace; nor for want of leaders did the alliance get much beyond the ordinary petty warfare of the time. At length, in 1198, a truce was patched up by the Papal influence, but before disbanding his troops, Richard led them to attack the Castle of Chaluz, where the Count of Limoges was said to be keeping some treasure which the King claimed. He was there wounded in the shoulder, as he rode round the walls, and the wound proved fatal. During his illness the castle was taken, and all the garrison hanged, with the exception of Bertrand de Gourdon, who had discharged the fatal arrow. He was reserved for the King’s own judgment. “What have I done,” asked the King, “that you should take my life?” “You have killed my father and my two brothers,” answered he, “and I would willingly bear any torture to see you die.” King Richard is said, in spite of his merciless temper, to have ordered his life to be spared. Mercadi, the chief of his mercenaries, was not so scrupulous; he had him flayed and hanged.

Although the King himself was but a few months in his own country, the conduct of affairs in England possesses some interest, as showing the further advance of the administrative system established by Henry II. After the King’s return from his captivity, and final triumph over the machinations of John, the kingdom was left in the hand of Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury. He had been trained by Glanvill, and belonged to the class of officials created by the late King. It was through his activity that, while the ransom was still being collected, the kingdom was reduced to tranquillity, and John’s castles captured in the name of the King. On Richard’s withdrawal to his native dominions, Hubert held the three high offices of Justiciary, Archbishop, and Papal Legate. The whole government of the kingdom was virtually in his hands. It was carried on by him in harmony with the system in which he had been trained; and in the instructions given to the justices, for a great visitation of the kingdom in the year 1194, we find the superiority of the central to the local courts still further increased by an order, that sheriffs should not act as justices in their own counties. The dangerous power of these officers was for the time destroyed, when afterwards by the Magna Charta they were forbidden to hold the pleas of the crown at all, that is to say, all business in which the crown was interested was removed from their jurisdiction to that of the central courts. The demands of Richard for money were incessant. And on one occasion, when a large carucage, or tax upon every carucate of land, was demanded, which was in fact a renewal of the Danegelt in another shape, a fresh survey of the country, established by sworn and representative witnesses, and very similar to the Domesday survey, was ordered. In this system of representative inquiry for financial purposes is to be found the beginning of the representative system subsequently employed in Parliament. So heavy were the taxes, that opposition was finally excited, and Hugh of Lincoln followed the example of Thomas à Becket, and refused payment from his Church land. It was apparently in connection with this opposition that Hubert, in 1198, withdrew from his secular work, and was succeeded by Geoffrey Fitz-Peter. Politically, the strength of the crown exhibited in these transactions, the very completeness and excellence of Henry’s system, tended to change the interests of the various classes in England. The crown, hitherto the champion of the people against the feudal barons, began to overstrain its power, and all classes were gradually forced into opposition to it,--a work completed by the greater and less glorious tyranny of John, and by the increased feeling of nationality excited among the barons, when the loss of Normandy severed them entirely from France.

_Lines of Jerusalem and Sicily._

Godfrey de Bouillon, 1st King of Jerusalem; his brother Baldwin I.,
2nd King.

=======================================================================

Tancred of Hauteville, descended from Rollo, Duke of Normandy.
|
+----+------------------------+
| |
Robert Guiscard, Roger.
conquered Sicily, |
1090. Roger, 1st King of Sicily, 1130-1154.
|
+----------------------+-------+------------+
| | |
Roger, died 1148. William I., 1154. Constance = Henry VI.,
| | Emperor.
Tancred, 1189. William II., 1166 = Joanna.

JOHN.

1199-1216.

Born 1167 = 1. Hadwisa of Gloucester.
= 2. Isabella de la Marche.
|
+-------+----+----------+-----+-------------------+
| | | | |
Henry III. | Jane=Alexander Isabella=Frederick Eleanor = 1. William of
| II. II. Pembroke.
Richard. = 2. Simon de
d. 1272. Montfort.

CONTEMPORARY PRINCES.

POPE.--Innocent III., 1198.

[Sidenote: John secures the crown.]

King Richard had nominated John as his successor, having never renewed the recognition of Arthur of Brittany which he had made in Sicily. The new King at once set about securing his possession. He succeeded in laying hands upon the treasury at Chinon and the castles of Normandy. In Brittany, Anjou, Maine, and Touraine, there were signs of opposition. The barons put forward the claim of Arthur; Constance, his mother, took the young prince to the court of Philip, and that king proceeded in his name to master the towns and fortresses. But the assistance of his mother Eleanor, who had taken possession of her old inheritance Poitou and Aquitaine, enabled John to make successful opposition to the invasion, and on the 25th of April he was crowned at Rouen, and felt himself strong enough to establish his claims in England. Thither he had already sent the chief of his brother’s ministers--Hubert Walter, the Archbishop of Canterbury; Fitz-Peter, justiciary, and afterwards Earl of Essex; and William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke. These ministers had already obliged the nobles to tender their oath of allegiance; and John, on his arrival in May, was crowned at Westminster, taking the usual oaths to guard the Church, to do justice, and to repeal bad laws, but giving no further charter. The Archbishop is said to have begun the coronation with the declaration that the throne was elective, an assertion received with acclamation by those who were present. He is said afterwards to have declared that he took this step, knowing the King’s character; he was, however, throughout his life a devoted servant of the crown.

[Sidenote: His strong position.]

[Sidenote: His danger from France. 1200.]

John’s position at the beginning of his reign was good. He was accepted in England; he was strong enough to refuse the Scottish King’s demands on Northumberland and Cumberland; the Counts of Flanders and Boulogne made offers of friendship; and Otho of Germany even pressed him not to make peace with the French king, promising to come to his assistance. It was from Philip only that he appeared to have to dread any danger; for that king’s early friendship for him had now changed to hatred, as he declared because he had accepted his continental dominions without asking leave of him, his feudal superior. We have thus early the key to the policy of Philip Augustus, who was determined to make use of the letter of the feudal law to bring his great vassal into subjection and establish royalty in France. He had a ready weapon in the person of young Arthur, who had already done homage to him for Maine, Anjou, Touraine, and Brittany. The efforts of the Church were however constantly exerted to keep the peace between these rivals; and Philip had a difficulty on his own hands which induced him to desire peace. He had married Ingelborga of Denmark, but had almost immediately separated from her and married Agnes de Méranie. The cause of the divorced princess was warmly taken up at Rome, and in this year Innocent III. had laid France under an interdict.

[Sidenote: Peace with Philip, and marriage treaty.]

[Sidenote: Marriage with Isabella de la Marche.]

[Sidenote: Homage of Scotland.]

Under these circumstances a treaty was patched up. John promised to young Louis, the heir of France, the hand of his niece Blanche of Castile, and along with her the Earldom of Evreux; at the same time pledging himself not to assist his nephew Otho against the rival Emperor of Germany, Philip of Swabia. Philip in return secured to England the disputed province of the Vexin, and for the time dropped the claims of Arthur. A formal interchange of homage was then made; on the part of John for his French possessions, on the part of Louis for his newly acquired earldom, on the part of Arthur for his provinces in France. John at once began to destroy his good position. A large aid gathered before his coronation, and another for the purpose of paying a sum of money demanded by the late treaty, had already excited anger in England. He now proceeded to rouse the displeasure of some of his chief French nobles. He put away his wife Hadwisa, the daughter of the Earl of Gloucester, and was beginning to treat for the hand of a Portuguese princess, when he suddenly fell in love with Isabella, the daughter of the Count of Angoulême, and carried her off from her betrothed husband, the Count de la Marche. Before the storm broke, however, he was able to oblige the Scotch king, with whom he had been in constant correspondence, to meet him at Lincoln, and there to do him homage, and to swear to be his liegeman for life, limb and land. It must be supposed that this was real personal homage for the kingdom of Scotland, as William the Lion’s claims on the Northern counties were still postponed.

[Sidenote: Outbreak in Poitou.]

[Sidenote: John’s French provinces forfeited. 1202.]

But the King’s difficulties soon began. Wishing to collect an army to suppress disturbances in Poitou, he was met by a refusal from his barons, who assembled at Leicester, and demanded the establishment of their rights. The disturbances in Poitou were caused by the insurrection of the Count de la Marche, full of anger at losing his wife. Deserted by his barons, John was unable to suppress the insurrection. He had been invited to Paris, and received with every demonstration of friendship; but while there the barons of Poitou, following the policy of Philip Augustus, and it is fair to believe induced by him, lodged formal complaints with the French king as their suzerain. John was called upon to plead before the feudal Court of Peers. He refused, averring that the Duke of Normandy had never transacted business with his suzerain except personally upon the borders of his own duchy. Philip seized the opportunity, urged that the Duke of Normandy was at the same time Count of Poitou, obtained judgment against John, declared all his fiefs forfeited and again raised the claims of Arthur. War was the immediate consequence. The defection of the Count of Boulogne opened the west of Normandy, and that side of the country was speedily in the hands of the French.

[Sidenote: Death of Arthur. 1203.]

Arthur himself now appeared in arms, renounced John, and entered Poitou in alliance with the insurgent barons. He there besieged Mirabeau, where the old Queen then was lying ill on her return from a journey into Spain, whither she had gone to fetch the Princess of Castile, according to the treaty with the French King. The capture of the castle seemed inevitable, when John, with one of those sudden acts of vigour which broke his indolent life, suddenly came upon the besiegers, and surrounded them, rescued his mother, and took the young prince captive. The war became still more vehement. The Bretons claimed the restoration of their prince. Philip moved his army to the Loire, and town after town was captured, while John lay in sensual enjoyment at Rouen. The Norman barons, unused to an unwarlike governor, deserted to Philip, and John was compelled to return to England. He had hardly reached it when the terrible rumour spread that the young Prince Arthur had disappeared. His fate is variously related. The more commonly accepted story is, that, imprisoned at Falaise, under the care of Hubert de Burgh, he escaped, by the good will of his custodian, from the designs of John, who had sent to have his eyes put out. He was thence removed to Rouen, to the charge of Robert de Vipont, and murdered, perhaps by his uncle’s own hand, and his body thrown into the Seine.

[Sidenote: Loss of Normandy. 1205.]

However he may have died, his death raised a storm of indignation. Philip pressed more boldly forward. In March 1204, Chateau Gaillard, the key of Normandy upon the Seine, was taken. One after the other, Caen, Bayeux, Coutances, Lisieux, and all the country to Mont St. Michel, were captured; Rouen alone remained. John was again summoned before the Peers at Paris. Philip even prepared to invade England, and to make good there the claims of the Counts of Brabant and Boulogne, who had married the granddaughters of King Stephen. In June, Rouen was compelled to capitulate, and in the following year, Loches and Chinon, south of the Loire, yielded, and Rochelle, Niort, and Thouars, in Poitou, were the only towns left in the possession of the English.

[Sidenote: Peace with Philip. 1206.]

Meanwhile John had tried in vain to assemble an effective army in England. He had raised money and collected troops, but it would seem that they were disaffected; for at the urgent entreaties of his faithful servants, Hubert of Canterbury and William Marshall, they were disbanded. One futile attempt was indeed made from Rochelle, and John boasted loudly of his capture of Montauban, but he was none the less compelled in October of this year to make a two years’ peace with Philip. The connection between England and Normandy was thus for ever broken; henceforward the country was thrown upon its own resources, and its life and interests became more distinctly national.

Many causes had been at work to separate the interests of the crown and nation, but before mentioning them it will be necessary to speak of the second great event of John’s reign, his dispute with Innocent III.

[Sidenote: Election of the Archbishop of Canterbury.]

[Sidenote: Election of Stephen Langton. 1207.]

In July 1205, had died Hubert of Canterbury, whose influence as minister of the crown had been paramount during this and the preceding reign. The right of election to the metropolitan See had been constantly disputed between the monks of the cathedral and the suffragan bishops of the province. The younger monks thought to steal a march upon their rivals, and, even before the Archbishop had been buried, had elected Reginald, the sub-prior. Without waiting for the King’s approval, which had been invariably required during the reigns of the Norman kings, they hurried the Archbishop elect abroad, binding him not to disclose his election till he reached Rome. His vanity got the better of his wisdom; he boasted of his good fortune. A rumour of what had been done reached the ears of the King. The elder monks took fright, betook themselves to John, and received orders from him, in complete disregard of the claims of the bishops, to elect John de Grey, Bishop of Norwich, one of his ministers. He was elected, invested with the temporalities, and messengers stating the fact were at once sent to Rome. It was now the turn of the bishops to complain. In point of fact, the last three archbishops had been elected by the common consent of the bishops and monks, and with the approval of the crown. The older right was decidedly with the bishops, and they too despatched messengers to the Papal Court. A claim raised by three distinct parties, and brought to his court to settle, was exactly the opportunity Innocent desired. There was much in the position of England and the English Church which he would have wished to see changed. The election of bishops and archbishops, under whatever forms it had been carried on, had been virtually in the hands of the crown. Many of these appointments had been given to Churchmen, who had devoted their chief time to the great administrative system which Henry II. had perfected.[33] The mixture of lay and ecclesiastical elements was very objectionable to the Pope; while if there was one thing more than another which he was desirous of suppressing, it was the independence of national churches as represented by their bishops. Innocent, therefore, now ruled that the bishops had not the slightest voice in the matter, that the monks alone had from time immemorial possessed the right of election, although it had accidentally fallen into abeyance. He thus robbed both king and bishops of their share in the election, and then declaring that the election of Reginald in the present instance had been irregular, bade the monks, a considerable number of whom had come to Rome, proceed at once to the election of his old friend and fellow-student, Stephen Langton, cardinal priest of St. Chrysagonus. He so far acknowledged the existence of John as to write him several letters pressing him to receive the Archbishop. On the rejection of these overtures, foreseeing that he was entering on an important struggle, he arranged a peace with Philip of Swabia, the rival of Otho the Guelph, the Papal candidate for the throne of Germany, and proceeded to consecrate the new archbishop with his own hands at Viterbo.

[Sidenote: John’s violence.]

[Sidenote: Interdict and flight of bishops. 1208.]

[Sidenote: Excommunication. 1209.]

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A History of England, Period I. Mediæval MonarchyChapter VIII: Introduction (7)

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