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Title: The Angevins and the Charter - 1154-1216
Author: Toyne, S. M.
Language: English
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BELL'S ENGLISH HISTORY SOURCE BOOKS
_General Editors_: S. E. WINBOLT, M.A., AND KENNETH BELL, M.A.
THE ANGEVINS AND
THE CHARTER
(1154-1216)
THE BEGINNING OF ENGLISH LAW, THE INVASION
OF IRELAND AND THE CRUSADES
BY
S. M. TOYNE, M.A.
HEADMASTER OF ST. PETER'S SCHOOL, YORK
LATE ASSISTANT MASTER AT HAILEYBURY COLLEGE
[Illustration]
LONDON
G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.
1913
INTRODUCTION
This series of English History Source Books is intended for use with any
ordinary textbook of English History. Experience has conclusively shown
that such apparatus is a valuable--nay, an indispensable--adjunct to the
history lesson. It is capable of two main uses: either by way of lively
illustration at the close of a lesson, or by way of inference-drawing,
before the textbook is read, at the beginning of the lesson. The kind of
problems and exercises that may be based on the documents are legion,
and are admirably illustrated in a _History of England for Schools_,
Part I., by Keatinge and Frazer, pp. 377-381. However, we have no wish
to prescribe for the teacher the manner in which he shall exercise his
craft, but simply to provide him and his pupils with materials hitherto
not readily accessible for school purposes. The very moderate price of
the books in this series should bring them within the reach of every
secondary school. Source books enable the pupil to take a more active
part than hitherto in the history lesson. Here is the apparatus, the raw
material: its use we leave to teacher and taught.
Our belief is that the books may profitably be used by all grades of
historical students between the standards of fourth-form boys in
secondary schools and undergraduates at Universities. What
differentiates students at one extreme from those at the other is not so
much the kind of subject-matter dealt with, as the amount they can read
into or extract from it.
In regard to choice of subject-matter, while trying to satisfy the
natural demand for certain "stock" documents of vital importance, we
hope to introduce much fresh and novel matter. It is our intention that
the majority of the extracts should be lively in style--that is,
personal, or descriptive, or rhetorical, or even strongly partisan--and
should not so much profess to give the truth as supply data for
inference. We aim at the greatest possible variety, and lay under
contribution letters, biographies, ballads and poems, diaries, debates,
and newspaper accounts. Economics, London, municipal, and social life
generally, and local history, are represented in these pages.
The order of the extracts is strictly chronological, each being
numbered, titled, and dated, and its authority given. The text is
modernised, where necessary, to the extent of leaving no difficulties in
reading.
We shall be most grateful to teachers and students who may send us
suggestions for improvement.
S. E. WINBOLT.
KENNETH BELL.
NOTE TO THIS VOLUME
(1154-1216).
I have to acknowledge, with thanks to Messrs. Chatto & Windus,
permission to reprint two extracts from Jocelin de Brakelond from their
edition in the King's Classics; to the Clarendon Press, Oxford,
permission to reprint passages from Mr. Orpen's translation of the _Song
of Dermot_. The history of this period necessitates a rather large
proportion of statutes, but the liveliness of style in the _Dialogus de
Scaccario_ and the interesting nature of its contents will, I hope, be
considered to be sufficient excuse for the number of extracts from that
one source.
S. M. T.
HAILEYBURY, _January 1913_.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION v
PART I. STATUTES
1164. CONSTITUTIONS OF CLARENDON 1
1166. ASSIZE OF CLARENDON 3
1170. INQUEST OF SHERIFFS--"THE KING'S
OFFICERS AT FAULT" 5
1181. ASSIZE OF ARMS 6
1188. SALADIN TITHE 6
1205. THE LEVYING OF A FORCE 7
1213. CONCESSION OF ENGLAND TO THE POPE 7
1213. SUMMONS TO A COUNCIL AT OXFORD 9
1215. MAGNA CHARTA 9
EXTRACTS FROM THE _Dialogus de Scaccario_, WRITTEN BY RICHARD
FITZNEAL, BISHOP OF LONDON IN HENRY II.'S REIGN:
(1) THE EXCHEQUER 19
(2) SCUTAGE AND MURDRUM 22
(3) FUSION OF ENGLISH AND NORMANS 23
(4) DANEGELD 24
(5) FORESTS 29
(6) SHERIFFS AND BAILIFFS 29
(7) LIVERIES 30
PART II. MISCELLANEOUS SOURCES
1155. HENRY PUTS HIS HOUSE IN ORDER _Roger de Hoveden_ 31
_circ._ 1155. SUPERSTITIONS OF THE
IRISH AND THEIR CHARACTER _Giraldus Cambrensis_ 32
_circ._ 1155. THE PAGANISM OF THE IRISH " 34
1154-7. A TRIBAL DISPUTE _Song of Dermot_ 37
1155. BULL OF POPE ADRIAN II. 39
1155-62. BECKET'S EARLY LIFE _Roger of Wendover_ 40
1164. DISPUTE CONCERNING THE
CONSTITUTIONS OF CLARENDON _Roger de Hoveden_ 41
1165. BECKET'S EXILE " 43
1170. HIS RETURN " 45
1170. HIS SAINTLY LIFE " 46
1171. HIS DEATH " 48
1168. COMING OF DERMOT _Song of Dermot_ 49
1170. EARL RICHARD IN IRELAND " 49
1171-2. HENRY II.'S INVASION OF IRELAND " 53
1172. SYNOD OF CASHEL _Giraldus Cambrensis_ 55
1173. DISPUTES OF HENRY II. AND
HIS SONS _Roger de Hoveden_ 57
1174. TROUBLE WITH SCOTLAND " 58
1174. THE PENANCE OF HENRY " 59
1175. END OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL DISPUTE " 60
1178. ALBIGENSIAN HERESY " 61
1182. ELECTION OF AN ABBOT _Jocelin de Brakelond_ 65
1185. JOHN IN IRELAND _Giraldus Cambrensis_ 67
1187. CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM _Geoffrey de Vinsauf_ 70
1189. RAISING MONEY FOR THE CRUSADE _Richard of Devizes_ 72
1189. LAWS OF THE CRUSADERS _Historical Documents
of the Middle Ages_ 75
1190. THE ABBOT AND THE JEWS _Jocelin de Brakelond_ 75
1190. KINGS AT MESSINA _Geoffrey de Vinsauf_ 76
1190. CAPTURE OF MESSINA AND JEALOUSY
OF PHILIP " 78
1191. CAPTURE OF CYPRUS AND RICHARD'S
MARRIAGE _Richard of Devizes_ 79
1191. AT ACRE _Geoffrey de Vinsauf_ 82
1191. RETURN OF PHILIP " 88
1192. RICHARD'S SICKNESS AND TRUCE _Richard of Devizes_ 89
1192-3. SALADIN'S CHIVALRY _Geoffrey de Vinsauf_ 91
1192. RETURN " 92
1192. CAPTURE OF RICHARD I. _Roger de Hoveden_ 94
1192. RELEASE OF RICHARD I. " 96
1191-3. ENGLAND UNDER THE CHANCELLORS " 97
1202. CAPTURE OF ARTHUR _Roger of Wendover_ 100
1204. LOSS OF NORMANDY " 101
_circ._ 1204. LONDON _Richard of Devizes_ 101
_circ._ 1190-1206. THE TOWNS OF ENGLAND _Richard of Devizes_ 102
1202-6. JOHN'S GRANT TO THE
ABBEY OF CROYLAND _Ingulph's "Chronicles"_ 104
1207. ELECTION OF LANGTON _Roger of Wendover_ 106
1208. THE INTERDICT " 108
1214. THE BATTLE OF BOUVINES _Matthew of Westminster_ 108
1214. EVENTS LEADING TO THE MAGNA
CHARTA _Roger of Wendover_ 109
KING JOHN AND THE ABBOT _Traditional Ballad of
the 13th Century_ 111
1216. THE LAST DAYS OF KING JOHN _Matthew of Westminster_ 114
THE ANGEVINS AND
THE CHARTER
(1154-1216)
PART I. STATUTES 1154-1216
CONSTITUTIONS OF CLARENDON, 1164.
+Source.+--_Historical Documents of the Middle Ages._ Henderson. Bohn's
Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
1. If a controversy concerning advowson and presentation of Churches
arise between laymen, or between laymen and clerks, or between clerks,
it shall be treated of and terminated in the court of the lord King.
3. Clerks charged and accused of anything, being summoned by the Justice
of the King, shall come into his court, about to respond there for what
it seems to the King's Court that he should respond there; and in the
ecclesiastical court for what it seems he should respond there; so that
the Justice of the King shall send to the Court of the Holy Church to
see in what manner the affair will there be carried on. And if the clerk
shall be convicted, or shall confess, the Church ought not to protect
him further.
4. It is not lawful for his archbishops, bishops and persons of the
kingdom to go out of the kingdom without the permission of the lord
King. And if it please the King and they go out, they shall give
assurance that neither in going, nor in making a stay, nor in returning,
will they seek the hurt or harm of King or kingdom.
6. Laymen ought not to be accused unless through reliable and legal
accusers and witnesses in the presence of the bishop, in such wise that
the archdean do not lose his right nor anything which he ought to have
from it.
7. No one who holds of the King in chief, and no one of his demesne
servitors, shall be excommunicated, nor shall the lands of any one of
them be placed under an interdict, unless first the lord King, if he be
in the land, or his Justiciar, if he be without the kingdom, be asked to
do justice concerning him.
9. If a quarrel arise between a clerk and a layman or between a layman
and a clerk concerning any tenement which the clerk wishes to attach to
the church property, but the layman to a lay fee: by the inquest of
twelve lawful men, through the judgement of the Chief Justice of the
King, it shall be determined in the presence of the Justice himself,
whether the tenement belongs to the Church property or to the lay fee.
10. Whoever shall belong to the city or castle or fortress or demesne
manor of the lord King, if he be summoned by the archdean or bishop for
any offence for which he ought to respond to them, and he be unwilling
to answer their summonses, it is perfectly right to place him under the
interdict: but he ought not to be excommunicated until the chief
servitor of the lord King of that town shall be asked to compel him by
law to answer the summonses.
12. When an archbishopric is vacant, or a bishopric, or an abbey, or a
priory of the demesne of the King, it ought to be in his hand: and he
ought to receive all the revenues and incomes from it, as demesne ones.
And, when it comes to providing for the church, the lord King should
summon the more important persons of the Church, and, in the lord King's
own chapel, the election ought to take place with the assent of the lord
King and with the counsel of the persons of the kingdom whom he had
called for this purpose. And there, before he is consecrated, the person
elected shall do homage and fealty to the lord King as to his liege
lord, for his life and his members and his earthly honours, saving his
order.
14. A church or cemetery shall not, contrary to the King's justice
detain the chattels of those who are under penalty of forfeiture to the
King, for they (the chattels) are the King's, whether they are found
within the churches or without them.
16. The sons of rustics may not be ordained without the consent of the
lord on whose land they are known to have been born.
ASSIZE OF CLARENDON, 1166.
+Source.+--MS. in Bodleian Library.
1. In the first place the aforesaid King Henry, by the counsel of all
his barons, for the preservation of peace and the observing of justice,
has decreed that an inquest shall be made throughout the separate
counties, and throughout the separate hundreds, through twelve of the
more lawful men of the hundred, and through four of the more lawful men
of each township, upon oath that they will speak the truth: whether in
their hundred or in their township there be any man who, since the lord
King has been King, has been charged or published as being a robber or
murderer or thief: or any one who is a harbourer of murderers or robbers
or thieves. And the Justices shall make this inquest by themselves, and
the Sheriffs by themselves.
2. And he who shall be found through the oath of the aforesaid persons
to have been charged or published as being a robber or murderer or
thief, or a receiver of them, since the lord King had been King, shall
be taken and shall go to the ordeal of water, and shall swear that he
was not a robber or murderer or thief or receiver of them since the lord
King has been King, to the extent of five shillings as far as he knows.
3. And if the lord of him who has been taken, or his steward or his
vassals, shall, as his sureties, demand him back within three days after
he has been taken, he himself, and his chattels, shall be remanded under
surety until he shall have done his law.
9. And let there be no one within his castle or without his castle, nor
even in the honour of Wallingford, who shall forbid the sheriffs to
enter into his court or his land to take the view of frank-pledge; and
let all be under pledges; and let them be sent before the sheriffs under
free pledge.
10. And in the cities or burghs, let no one have men or receive them in
his home or his land or his soc, whom he will not take in hand to
present before the Justice if they be required: or let them be in
frank-pledge.
12. And if any one shall be taken who shall be possessed of robbed or
stolen goods, if he be notorious and have evil testimony from the
public, and have no warrant, he shall not have law. And if he be not
notorious, on account of the goods in his possession, he shall go to the
water.[1]
14. The lord King wishes also that those who shall be tried and shall be
absolved by the law if they be of very bad testimony and are publicly
and disgracefully defamed by the testimony of many and public men, shall
forswear the lands of the King, so that within eight days they shall
cross the sea unless the wind detains them; and with the first wind
which they shall have afterwards, they shall cross the sea; and they
shall not return any more to England, unless by the mercy of the lord
King: and there, and if they return, they shall be outlawed; and if they
return they shall be taken as outlaws.
15. And the lord King forbids that any waif, that is vagabond or unknown
person, shall be entertained anywhere except in the burgh, and there he
shall not be entertained more than a night, unless he become ill there,
or his horse, so that he can show an evident excuse.
20. The lord King forbids, moreover, that monks or canons or any
religious house, receive any one of the petty people as monk or canon or
brother, until they know of what testimony he is, unless he be sick unto
death.
21. The lord King forbids, moreover, that any one in all England receive
in his land or his soc or the house under him any one of that sect of
renegades who were excommunicated and branded at Oxford. And if any one
receive them, he himself shall be at the mercy of the lord King; and the
house in which they have been shall be carried without the town and
burned.
[1] THE JUDGMENT OF BOILING WATER.--"The priest shall sprinkle over them
some of the water itself; and to those who are about to go into the
judgement of God, to all of them, he shall give to drink of that same
holy water. And when he shall have given it, moreover, he shall say to
each one: 'I have given this water to thee or to you for a sign to-day.'
Then pieces of wood shall be placed under the cauldron, and the priest
shall say ... prayers when the water itself shall have begun to grow
warm.--And he who puts his hand in the water for the trial itself, shall
say the Lord's Prayer, and shall sign himself with the sign of the
cross; and that boiling water shall hastily be put down near the fire,
and the judge shall suspend that stone, bound to that measure, within
that same water in the accustomed way: and thus he who enters to be
tried by judgement shall extract it thence in the name of God himself.
Afterwards with great diligence, his hand shall be thus wrapped up,
signed with the seal of the judge, until the third day; when it shall be
viewed and judged of by suitable men."--_Historical Documents of the
Middle Ages_, p. 316. (Published by G. Bell & Sons.)
"THE KING'S OFFICERS AT FAULT." THE INQUEST OF SHERIFFS, 1170.
+Source.+--MS. in Bodleian Library.
§ 5. Let an enquiry be made concerning the goods of those that fled on
account of the Assize of Clarendon and of those that perished through
that assize. Let it be known what was done and what left each hundred
and vill and let it be written down exactly and in order. In like manner
let an enquiry be made, whether any man was unjustly accused at that
assize through bribery, malice, or any unjust cause.
§ 6. Let an enquiry be made concerning the aids for the marriage of the
king's daughter. What left each hundred and vill, whether it be in
revenue or pardons and to whom this money was given up and delivered.
§ 9. An enquiry shall be made, whether the sheriffs or any bailiffs
whatsoever have returned anything of the goods they have taken and
whether they have made their peace with men after they heard of the
king's coming, in order to prevent a complaint coming from them to the
lord king.
ASSIZE OF ARMS, 1181.
+Source.+--_Roger de Hoveden_, Vol. II., p. 261. Bohn's Libraries.
G. Bell & Sons.
1. Whoever has a fiefdom of one knight, let him have a coat of mail, a
helmet, a shield and a lance; and let every knight have as many coats of
mail and helmets and shields and pikes as he has knights fiefdoms in his
demesne.
3. Also let all burghers and the whole community of freemen have a
doublet, an iron headpiece and a pike.
7. Let no Jew keep his coat of mail or his hauberk, but sell them or
give them or get rid of them in some way, provided that they remain in
the service of the King.
8. Let no man carry arms outside England except by order of the King.
THE SALADIN TITHE, 1188.
+Source.+--_Benedictus Abbas_, Vol. II., 31.
The King, on the advice of his faithful counsellors, chose clerks and
laymen in whose wisdom he could confide and sent them through each
county to collect the tenths according to the decree, which obtained in
his land across the Channel. But from each town in the whole of England
he had all the richer inhabitants chosen, for instance, from London 200
and from York 100 and from the other towns according to their number and
wealth. All were ordered to present themselves to him on given days at
given places. From these he took a tenth of their incomes and their real
property. The valuation was effected by his officers, who had knowledge
of their incomes and their goods. If he found any rebellious, he at once
had them imprisoned and kept in chains until they had paid the uttermost
farthing. He dealt in a similar manner with the Jews of his land, from
whom he acquired an enormous sum of money.
THE LEVYING OF A FORCE, 1205.
AN ATTEMPT TO BLEND THE FYRD OR "FOLKMOOT IN ARMS" AND THE FEUDAL LEVY.
+Source.+--_Patent Rolls_, I., 55.
The King to the Sheriff of Rutland greeting. It has been ordained with
the assent of archbishops, bishops, counts, barons and all our loyal
subjects of England, that throughout England nine fighting men shall
find a tenth well equipped with horses and arms for the defence of our
realm: that those nine provide for the tenth on a specified day two
pounds towards his equipment. Furthermore we charge thee, as thou lovest
thy goods and thyself, to provide that all the tenth men of thy district
be at London for three weeks dating from Easter, being well equipped
according as we have ordained.... It has been ordained also, that, if
foreigners come to our shores, all shall attack them with one accord
using force of arms. Let none make excuse or delay but go at the first
rumour of the invasion.
JOHN'S CONCESSION OF ENGLAND TO THE POPE, 1213.
+Source.+--_Historical Documents of the Middle Ages._ Henderson.
Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
John, by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of
Normandy and Aquitaine, Count of Anjou, to all the faithful of Christ
who shall look upon this present Charter, greeting. We wish it to be
known to all of you, through this our charter, furnished with our seal,
that inasmuch as we had offended in many ways God and our mother the
Holy Church, and in consequence are known to have very much needed the
divine mercy, and cannot offer anything worthy for making due
satisfaction to God and to the Church unless we humiliate ourselves and
our kingdoms: we, wishing to humiliate ourselves for Him who humiliated
Himself for us unto death, the Grace of the Holy Spirit inspiring, not
induced by force or compelled by fear, but of our own good and
spontaneous will, and by the common counsel of our barons, do offer and
freely concede to God and His holy apostles Peter and Paul and to our
mother the Holy Roman Church, and to our lord pope Innocent and to his
Catholic successors, the whole kingdom of England and the whole kingdom
of Ireland, with all their rights and appurtenances, for the remission
of our own sins and of those of our whole race, as well for the living
as for the dead; and now receiving and holding them, as it were a
vassal, from God and the Roman Church, in the presence of that prudent
man Gaudulph, subdeacon, and of the household of the lord pope, we
perform and swear fealty for them to him our aforesaid lord pope
Innocent and his Catholic successors and the Roman Church, according to
the form appended; and in the presence of the lord pope, if we shall be
able to come before him, we shall do liege homage to him; binding our
successors and our heirs by our wife forever, in similar manner to
perform fealty and show homage to him who shall be chief pontiff at that
time, and to the Roman Church without demur. As a sign, moreover, of
this our perpetual obligation and concession we will and establish that
from the proper and especial revenues of our aforesaid kingdoms, for all
the service and customs which we ought to render for them, saving in all
things the penny of St. Peter, the Roman Church shall receive yearly a
thousand marks sterling, namely at the feast of St. Michael five hundred
marks, and at Easter five hundred marks--seven hundred, namely, for the
kingdom of England, and three hundred for the kingdom of Ireland--saving
to us and to our heirs our rights, liberties and regalia; all of which
things, as they have been described above, we wish to have perpetually
valid and firm; and we bind ourselves and our successors not to act
counter to them. And if we or any one of our successors shall presume to
attempt this,--whoever he be unless being duly warned he come to his
senses, he shall lose his right to the kingdom, and this charter of our
obligation and concession shall always remain firm.
FORM OF THE OATH OF FEALTY.
I, John, by the grace of God, King of England, and Lord of Ireland, from
this hour forth will be faithful to God and St. Peter, and the Roman
Church and my lord pope Innocent and his successors, who are ordained in
a Catholic manner. I shall not bring it about by deed, word, consent or
counsel, that they lose life or members or be taken captive. I will
impede their being harmed, if I know of it, and will cause harm to be
removed from them if I shall be able: otherwise, as quickly as I can I
will intimate it or tell of it to such person as I believe for certain
will inform them. Any counsel which they entrust to me through
themselves or through their envoys or through their latters, I will keep
secret, nor will I knowingly disclose it to any one to their harm. I
will aid to the best of my ability in holding and defending against all
men the patrimony of St. Peter, and especially the kingdom of England
and the kingdom of Ireland. So may God and these Holy Gospels aid me.
SUMMONS TO A COUNCIL AT OXFORD, 1213.
+Source.+--_Report on the dignity of a Peer_, p. 2.
The King to the Sheriff of Oxford greeting. We charge thee to see that
all the fighting men of thy bailliwick, who have been summoned, should
come to us at Oxford with their arms for fifteen days from All Saints'
Day: in like manner the barons, but without their arms: and see that
four discreet men from thy county come to that same place for the same
length of time to talk with us about the affairs of our realm. Given
under my own hand.
MAGNA CHARTA, 1215.
+Source.+--_Historical Documents of the Middle Ages._ Henderson. Bohn's
Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
John, by the grace of God King of England, lord of Ireland, duke of
Normandy and Aquitaine, count of Anjou: to the archbishops, bishops,
abbots, earls, barons, justices, foresters, sheriffs, prevosts, serving
men, and to all his bailiffs and faithful subjects, greeting. Know that
we, by the will of God and for the safety of our soul, and of the souls
of all our predecessors and our heirs, to the honour of God and for the
exalting of the holy church and the bettering of our realm....
1. First of all have granted to God, and, for us and for our heirs
forever, have confirmed, by this our present charter that the English
Church shall be free and shall have its rights intact and its liberties
uninfringed. And thus we will that it be observed.
As is apparent from the fact that we, spontaneously and of our own free
will, before discord broke out between ourselves and our barons, did
grant and by our charter confirm--and did cause the Lord Pope Innocent
III. to confirm--freedom of elections, which is considered most
important and most necessary to the Church of England. Which charter
both we ourselves will observe, and we will that it be observed with
good faith by our heirs forever. We have also granted to all freemen of
our realm, on the part of ourselves and our heirs forever, all the
subjoined liberties, to have and to hold, to them and to their heirs,
from us and from our heirs:
2. If any one of our earls or barons, or of others holding from us in
chief, through military service, shall die; and if, at the time of his
death, his heir be of full age and owe a relief: he shall have his
inheritance by paying the old relief; namely, the heir, or the heirs of
an earl, by paying one hundred pounds for the whole barony of an earl;
the heir or heirs of a baron, by paying one hundred pounds for the whole
barony; the heir or heirs of a knight, by paying one hundred shillings
at most for a whole knight's fee; and he who shall owe less shall give
less, according to the ancient custom of fees.
3. But if the heir of any of the above persons shall be under age and in
wardship,--when he comes of age, he shall have his inheritance without
relief and without fine.
4. The administrator of the land of such heir who shall be under age
shall take none but reasonable issues from the land of the heir, and
reasonable customs and services; and this without destruction and waste
of men or goods. And if we shall have committed the custody of any such
land to the sheriff or to any other man who ought to be responsible to
us for the issues of it, and he cause destruction or waste to what is in
his charge; we will fine him, and the land shall be handed over to two
lawful and discreet men of that fee who shall answer to us, or to him to
whom we shall have referred them, regarding those issues. And if we
shall have given or sold to any one the custody of any such land, and he
shall have caused destruction or waste to it,--he shall lose that
custody, and it shall be given to two lawful and discreet men of that
fee, who likewise shall answer to us, as has been explained.
5. The administrator, moreover, so long as he may have the custody of
the land, shall keep in order from the issues of that land, the houses,
parks, warrens, lakes, mills and other things pertaining to it. And he
shall restore to the heir when he comes to full age, his whole land
stocked with ploughs and wainnages, according as the time of the
wainnage requires and the issues of the land will reasonably permit.
6. Heirs may marry without disparagement; so, nevertheless, that, before
the marriage is contracted, it shall be announced to the relations by
blood of the heir himself.
7. A widow, after the death of her husband, shall straightway and
without difficulty, have her marriage portion and her inheritance, nor
shall she give anything in return for her dowry, her marriage portion,
or the inheritance which belonged to her, and which she and her husband
held on the day of the death of that husband. And she may remain in the
house of her husband, after his death for forty days: within which her
dowry shall be paid over to her.
8. No widow shall be forced to marry when she prefers to live without a
husband; so, however, that she gives security not to marry without our
consent, if she hold from us, or the consent of the lord from whom she
holds, if she hold from another.
9. Neither we nor our bailiffs shall seize any revenue for any debt, so
long as the chattels of the debtor suffice to pay the debt; nor shall
the sponsors of that debtor be distrained so long as that chief debtor
has enough to pay the debt. But if the chief debtor fail in paying the
debt, not having the wherewithal to pay it, the sponsors shall answer
for the debt. And if they shall wish, they may have the lands and
revenues of the debtor until satisfaction shall have been given them for
the debt previously paid for him; unless the chief debtor shall show
that he is quit in that respect towards those same sponsors.
10. If any one shall have taken any sum, great or small, as a loan from
the Jews, and shall die before that debt is paid--that debt shall not
bear interest so long as the heir, from whomever he may hold, shall be
under age. And if the debt fall into our hands, we shall take nothing
save the chattel contained in the deed.
11. And if any one dies owing a debt to the Jews, his wife shall have
her dowry, and shall restore nothing of that debt. But if there shall
remain not children of that dead man, and they shall be under age, the
necessaries shall be provided for them according to the nature of the
dead man's holding; and from the residue the debt shall be paid, saving
the service due to the lords. In like manner shall be done concerning
debts that are due to others besides Jews.
12.[2] No scutage or aid shall be imposed in our realm unless by the
common counsel of our realm; except for redeeming our body, and
knighting our eldest son, and marrying once our eldest daughter. And for
these purposes there shall only be given a reasonable aid. In like
manner shall be done concerning the aids of the city of London.
13. And the city of London shall have all its old liberties and free
customs as well by land as by water. Moreover, we will and grant that
all other cities and burroughs, and towns and ports, shall have all
their liberties and free customs.
14.[2] And in order to have the common counsel of the realm in the
matter of assessing an aid otherwise than in the aforesaid cases, or of
assessing a scutage,--we shall cause, under seal through our letters,
the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and greater barons to be
summoned for a fixed day--for a term, namely, at least forty days
distant--and for a fixed place. And, moreover, we shall cause to be
summoned in general, through our sheriffs and bailiffs, all those who
hold of us in chief. And in all those letters of summons we shall
express the cause of the summons. And when a summons has thus been made,
the business shall be proceeded with on the day appointed according to
the counsel of those who shall be present, even though not all shall
come who were summoned.
15.[2] We will not allow any one henceforth to take an aid from his
freemen save for the redemption of his body, and the knighting of his
eldest son, and the marrying, once, of his eldest daughter; and for
these purposes there shall be given a reasonable aid only.
16. No one shall be forced to do more service for a knight's fee, or for
another freeholding, than is due from it.
17. Common pleas shall not follow our court, but shall be held in a
certain fixed place.
18. Assizes of novel disseisin, of mort d'ancestor, and of darrein
presentment shall not be held save in their own counties, and in this
way: we, or our chief justice, if we shall be absent from the kingdom,
shall send two justices through each county four times a year; they,
with four knights from each county, chosen by the county, shall hold the
aforesaid assizes in the county, and on the day and at the place of the
county court.
19. And if on the day of the county court the aforesaid assizes cannot
be held, a sufficient number of knights and free tenants, from those who
were present at the county court on that day, shall remain, so that
through them the judgements may be suitably given, according as the
matter may have been great or small.
20. A freeman shall only be amerced for a small offence according to the
measure of that offence. And for a great offence he shall be amerced
according to the magnitude of the offence, saving his contenement[3];
and a merchant, in the same way, saving his merchandise. And a villein,
in the same way, if he fall under our mercy, shall be amerced saving his
wainnage. And none of the aforesaid fines shall be imposed save upon
oath of upright men from the neighbourhood.
21. Earls and barons shall not be amerced save through their peers, and
only according to the measure of the offence.
22. No clerk shall be amerced for his lay tenement, except according to
the manner of the other persons aforesaid; and not according to the
amount of his ecclesiastical benefice.
23. Neither a town nor a man shall be forced to make bridges over the
rivers, with the exception of those who, from of old and of right, ought
to do it.
24. No sheriff, constable, coroners or other bailiffs of ours shall hold
the pleas of our crown.
25. All counties, hundreds, wapentakes, and trithings--our demesne
manors being excepted--shall continue according to the old farms,
without any increase at all.
26. If any one holding from us a lay fee shall die, and our sheriff or
bailiff can show our letters patent containing our summons for the debt
which the dead man owed to us,--our sheriff or bailiff may be allowed to
attach and enroll the chattels of the dead man to the value of that
debt, through view of lawful men; in such way, however, that nothing
shall be moved thence until the debt is paid which was plainly owed to
us. And the residue shall be left to the executors that they may carry
out the will of the dead man. And if nothing is owed to us by him, all
the chattels shall go to the use prescribed by the deceased, saving
their reasonable portions to his wife and children.
27. If any freeman shall have died intestate, his chattels shall be
distributed through the hands of his near relatives and friends, by view
of the church; saving to any one the debts which the dead man owed him.
28. No constable or other bailiff of ours shall take the corn or other
chattels of any one except he straightway give money for them, or can be
allowed a respite in that regard by the will of the seller.
29. No constable shall force any knight to pay money for castle-ward, if
he be willing to perform that ward in person, or--he for a reasonable
cause not being able to perform it himself--through another proper man.
And if we shall have led or sent him on a military expedition, he shall
be quit of ward according to the amount of time during which, through
us, he shall have been in military service.
30. No sheriff nor bailiff of ours, nor any one else, shall take the
horses or carts of any freeman for transport, unless by the will of that
freeman.
31. Neither we nor our bailiffs shall take another's wood for castles or
for other private uses, unless by the will of him to whom the wood
belongs.
32. We shall not hold the lands of those convicted of felony longer than
a year and a day; and then the lands shall be restored to the lords of
the fiefs.
33. Henceforth all the weirs in the Thames and Medway, and throughout
all England, save on the sea-coast, shall be done away with entirely.
34. Henceforth the writ which is called "Praecipe" shall not be served
on any one for any holding, so as to cause a free man to lose his court.
35. There shall be one measure of wine throughout our whole realm, and
one measure of ale, and one measure of corn--namely, the London
quart;--and one width of dyed and russet and hauberk cloths--namely, two
ells below the selvage. And with weights, moreover, it shall be as with
measures.
36. Henceforth nothing shall be given or taken for a writ of inquest in
a matter concerning life or limb; but it shall be conceded gratis, and
shall not be denied.
37. If any one hold from us in fee-farm or in socage, or in burkage, and
hold land of another by military service, we shall not, by reason of
that fee-farm, or socage, or burkage, have the wardship of his heir or
of his land which is held in fee from another. Nor shall we have the
wardship of that fee-farm, or socage, or burkage, unless that fee-farm
owe military service. We shall not by reason of some petit-serjeantry
which someone holds of us through the service of giving us knives or
arrows or the like, have the wardship of his heir or of the land which
he holds of another by military service.
38. No bailiff, on his own simple assertion, shall henceforth put any
one to his law, without producing faithful witnesses in evidence.
39. No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or disseized, or outlawed,
or exiled, or in any way harmed--nor will we go upon or send upon
him--save by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land.
40. To none will we sell, to none deny or delay, right or justice.
41. All merchants may safely and securely go out of England, and come
into England, and delay and pass through England, as well by land as by
water, for the purpose of buying and selling, free from all evil taxes,
subject to the ancient and right customs--save in time of war, and if
they are of the land at war against us. And if such be found in our land
at the beginning of the war, they shall be held, without harm to their
bodies and goods, until it shall be known to us or our chief justice how
the merchants of our land are to be treated who shall, at that time be
found in the land at war against us. And if ours shall be safe there,
the others shall be safe in our land.
42. Henceforth, any person, saving his fealty to us, may go out of our
realm and return to it, safely and securely, by land and by water,
except, perhaps, for a brief period in time of war, for the common good
of the realm. But prisoners and outlaws are excepted, according to the
law of the realm; also people of a land at war against us, and the
merchants, with regard to whom shall be done as we have said.
43. If anyone hold from any escheat--as from the honour of Wallingford,
Nottingham, Boloin, Lancaster, or the other escheats which are in our
hands and are baronies--and shall die, his heir shall not give another
relief, nor shall he perform for us other service than he would perform
for a baron if that barony were in the hand of a baron; and we shall
hold it in the same way in which the baron has held it.
44. Persons dwelling without the forest shall not henceforth come before
the forest justices, through common summonses, unless they are impleaded
or are the sponsors of some person or persons attached for matters
concerning the forest.
45. We will not make men justices, constables, sheriffs, or bailiffs,
unless they are such as know the law of the realm, and are minded to
observe it rightly.
46. All barons who have founded abbeys for which they have charters of
the Kings of England, or ancient right of tenure, shall have, as they
ought to have, their custody when vacant.
47. All forests constituted as such in our time shall straightway be
annulled; and the same shall be done for riverbanks which we closed[4]
in our time.
[Here follow three temporary clauses.]
* * * * *
51. And straightway after peace is restored we shall remove from the
realm all the foreign soldiers, cross-bowmen, servants, hirelings, who
may have come with horses and arms to the harm of the realm.
52. If anyone shall have been disseized by us, or removed without a
legal sentence of his peers, from his lands, castles, liberties or
lawful right, we shall straightway restore them to him. And if a dispute
shall arise concerning this matter it shall be settled according to the
judgement of the twenty-five barons who are mentioned below as sureties
for the peace. But with regard to all those things of which any one was,
by King Henry our father, or King Richard our brother, disseized or
dispossessed without legal judgement of his peers, which we have in our
hand, or which others hold, and for which we ought to give a guarantee:
we shall have respite until the common time for crusaders. Except with
regard to those concerning which a plea was moved, or an inquest made by
our order, before we took the cross. But when we return from our
pilgrimage, or if, by chance, we desist from our pilgrimage, we shall
straightway then show full justice regarding them.
53. We shall have the same respite, moreover, and in the same manner, in
the matter of showing justice with regard to forests to be annulled and
forests to remain, which Henry our father or Richard our brother
constituted; and in the matter of wardships of lands which belong to the
fee of another--wardships of which kind we have hitherto enjoyed by
reason of the fee which some one held from us in military service: and
in the matter of abbeys founded in the fee of another than ourselves--in
which the lord of the fee may say that he has jurisdiction. And when we
return, or if we desist from our pilgrimage, we shall straightway
exhibit full justice to those complaining with regard to these matters.
* * * * *
60. Moreover, all the subjects of our realm, clergy as well as laity,
shall, as far as pertains to them, observe, with regard to their
vassals, all these aforesaid customs and liberties, which we have
decreed shall, as far as pertains to us, be observed in our realm with
regard to our own.
61. Inasmuch as, for the sake of God, and for the bettering of our
realm, and for the more ready healing of the discord which has arisen
between us and our barons, we have made all these aforesaid
concessions--wishing them to enjoy for ever entire and firm stability,
we make and grant to them the following security: that the barons,
namely, may elect at their pleasure twenty-five barons from the realm,
who ought, with all their strength, to observe, maintain and cause to be
observed, the peace and privileges which we have granted to them and
confirmed by this our present charter.
[Here follows "a treaty of peace" between John and the Barons.]
* * * * *
Moreover, it has been sworn on our part, as well as on the
part of the barons, that all these above-mentioned provisions
shall be observed with good faith and without evil intent.
The witnesses being the above-mentioned and many others.
Given through our hand in the plain called Runnimede between
Windsor and Stanes, on the fifteenth day of June, in the
seventeenth year of our reign.
[2] These important articles were omitted in the charters sworn by
subsequent kings.
[3] Means of subsistence.
[4] The Latin is "quae per nos tempore nostro positae sunt in defenso."
Henderson renders "made into places of defence." In Cassell's _Dict. of
English History_ it is rendered "in defiance." But _defensum_ in Med.
Latin = (1) "prohibition" hence the French _défense_, and (2) "a close
season" for fishing or hunting. I suggest that here it is used in a
sense midway between (1) and (2) and means "closed" permanently to the
public, just as the forests were. Naturally there would be objections
raised to new "close" forests and new "close" rivers. Both the other
suggested translations appear meaningless.
DIALOGUS DE SCACCARIO.
+Source.+--_Historical Documents of the Middle Ages._ Henderson. Bohn's
Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
In the twenty-third year of the reign of King Henry II., while I was
sitting at the window of a tower next to the river Thames, a man spoke
to me impetuously, saying: "Master, hast thou not read that there is no
use in science or in a treasure that is hidden?" When I replied to him,
"I have read so," straightway he said: "Why, therefore, dost thou not
teach others the knowledge concerning the exchequer which is said to be
thine to such an extent, and commit it to writing lest it die with thee?"
* * * * *
1. _What the Exchequer is, and what is the reason of this name._
_Disciple._ What is the exchequer?
_Master._ The exchequer is a quadrangular surface about ten feet in
length, five in breadth, placed before those who sit around it in the
manner of a table, and all around it, it has an edge about the height of
one's four fingers, lest any thing placed upon it should fall off. There
is placed over the top of the exchequer, moreover, a cloth bought at the
Easter term, not an ordinary one, but a black one marked with stripes,
the stripes being distant from each other the space of a foot or the
breadth of a hand. In the spaces, moreover, are counters placed
according to their values; about these we shall speak below. Although,
moreover, such a surface is called exchequer, nevertheless this name is
so changed about that the court itself, which sits when the exchequer
does, is called exchequer: so that if at any time through a decree
anything is established by common counsel, it is said to have been done
at the exchequer of this or that year. As, moreover, one says to-day "at
the exchequer," so one formerly said "at the tallies."
_D._ What is the reason of this name?
_M._ No truer one occurs to me at present than that it has a shape
similar to that of a chess board.
_D._ Would the prudence of the ancients ever have called it so for its
shape alone, when it might for a similar reason be called a table
(tabularium)?
_M._ I was right in calling thee painstaking. There is another, but a
more hidden reason. For just as, in a game of chess, there are certain
grades of combatants and they proceed or stand still by certain laws or
limitations, some presiding and others advancing: so, in this, some
preside, some assist by reason of their office, and no one is free to
exceed the fixed laws, as will be manifest from what is to follow.
Moreover, as in chess, the battle is fought between Kings, so in this it
is chiefly between two that the conflict takes place and the war is
waged,--the treasurer, namely, and the sheriff who sits there to render
account; the others sitting by as judges to see and to judge.
* * * * *
_M._ ... The barons, moreover, who sit at the exchequer shall pay
nothing under the name of customs for the victuals of their household
bought in the cities and burghs and ports. But if an officer of the
revenues shall have compelled one of them to pay anything for these,--if
only one of his servants is present who is willing to prove by taking an
oath that the things have been bought for his master's use: to the baron
indeed, the money exacted shall be restored entire, and the scoundrel of
a collector shall pay a pecuniary punishment according to the quality of
the person.
... If those who sit at the exchequer shall have mutually molested each
other with any sort of contumelious attack, they shall make peace again;
the others of their rank who serve with them acting as mediators, in
such wise that satisfaction shall be rendered by him who, in their
estimation, has injured an innocent person. But if he be unwilling to
acquiesce, but rather persevere in his rashness, the matter shall be
laid before the president, and afterwards, from him each one shall
receive justice. But if, through the devil, the instigator of evil, who
does not look with unmoved eyes on the joyous happiness of fraternal
peace, it should happen that occasion for discord should come up among
the greater officials themselves, and thence--which God forbid--a war of
insults should arise; and, Satan adding goads, peace cannot be restored
by the other colleagues in those labours:--the knowledge of all these
things shall be reserved for the prince himself; who, according as God,
in whose hand it is, inspires his heart, shall punish the offence; lest
those who are set over others should seem to be able to do with impunity
what they decree should be punished in others.
_D._ From this is manifest what Solomon says: "Death and life are in the
power of the tongue," and likewise James: "The tongue is a little member
and boasteth great things."
_M._ So it is; but let us proceed concerning the prerogatives. Common
assessments are held at times, throughout the counties, by itinerant
justices whom we call deambulatory or wandering judges; the assessments
are called common because, when the sum is known which is required in
common from those who have estates in the county, it is distributed
according to the hides of land, so that when the time comes for payment
at the exchequer, nothing of it is lacking. From all these payments all
those who, by mandate of the King, sit at the Exchequer are entirely
free, so that not only are none of them exacted from their domains, but
also none from all their fiefs.
* * * * *
2. _Scutage and Murdrum._
_D._ Now if it please thee, do not delay to make clear what are scutage
and murdrum....
_M._ It happens sometimes that, when the machinations of enemies
threaten or attack the kingdom, the King decrees that, from the
different Knights' fees, a certain sum shall be paid,--a mark, namely,
or a pound; and from this come the payments or gifts to the soldiers.
For the prince prefers to expose mercenaries, rather than natives, to
the fortunes of war. And so this sum, which is paid in the name of the
shields, is called scutage. From this, moreover, they who sit at the
exchequer are quit.
Murder (murdrum), indeed, is properly called the secret death of
somebody, whose slayer is not known. For "murdrum" means the same as
"hidden" or "occult." Now in the primitive state of the kingdom after
the conquest, those who were left of the Anglo-Saxon subjects secretly
laid ambushes for the suspected and hated race of the Normans, and, here
and there, when opportunity offered, killed them secretly in the woods
and in remote places: when the Kings and their Ministers had for some
years, with exquisite kinds of torture, raged against the Anglo-Saxons;
and they, nevertheless, had not, in consequence of these measures
altogether desisted--when he who had caused his death was not to be
found, and it did not appear from his flight who he was. "As a vengeance
it was decided that the hundred in which the dead Norman was found
should be condemned to pay a large sum of tested silver to the treasury."
_D._ Ought not the occult death of an Anglo-Saxon like that of a Norman,
to be reputed murder?
_M._ By the original institution it ought not to, as thou hast heard:
but during the time that the English and Normans have now dwelt
together, and mutually married and given in marriage, the nations have
become so intermingled that one can hardly tell to-day--I speak of free
men--who is of English and who of Norman race; excepting, however, the
bondsmen who are called "villani," to whom it is not free, if their
lords object, to depart from the condition of their station. On this
account almost always when any one is found thus slain to-day, it is
punished as murder; except in the case of those who show certain proofs,
as we have said, of a servile condition.
3. _The Fusion of English and Norman._
_D._ I wonder that this prince of singular excellence, and this man of
most distinguished virtue, should have shown such mercy towards the race
of the English, subjugated and suspected by him, that not only did he
keep from harm the serfs by whom agriculture could be exercised, but
left even to the nobles of the kingdom their estates and ample
possessions.
_M._ Although these things do not pertain to the matters undertaken and
concerning which I have bound myself, I will nevertheless freely expound
what I have heard on these matters from the natives themselves. After
the conquest of the kingdom, after the just overthrow of the rebels,
when the King himself and the King's nobles went over the new places, a
diligent inquiry was made as to who there were who, contending in war
against the King, had saved themselves through flight. To all of these,
and even to the heirs of those who had fallen in battle, all hope of the
lands and estates and revenues which they had before possessed was
precluded: for it was thought much for them even to enjoy the privilege
of being alive under their enemies. But those who, having been called to
the war, had not yet come together, or, occupied with family or any kind
of necessary affairs had not been present,--when, in course of time, by
their devoted service they had gained the favour of their lords, they
began to have possessions for themselves alone; without hope of
hereditary possession, but according to the pleasure of their lords. But
as time went on, when, becoming hateful to their masters, they were here
and there driven from their possessions, and there was no one to restore
what had been taken away,--a common complaint of the natives came to the
King to the effect that, thus hateful to all and despoiled of their
property, they would be compelled to cross to foreign lands. Counsel at
length having been taken on these matters, it was decided that what
they, either on merits or having entered into a legal pact, had been
able to obtain from their masters, should be conceded to them by
inviolable right; but that, however, they should claim nothing for
themselves by right of heredity from the time of the conquest of the
race.
* * * * *
4. _Danegeld and Essarts._
_M._ "Our island content with its own, does not need the goods of the
stranger
Therefore with every good right, our predecessors have called it,
Truly the lap of riches; the home, too, of every delight."
On account of this she has suffered innumerable injuries from outsiders;
for it is written "marked jewels attract the thief." For the robbers of
the surrounding islands, making an irruption and depopulating the
shores, carried off gold and silver and all sorts of precious things.
But when the King and the natives, drawn up in warlike array, pressed on
in defence of their race, they betook themselves to flight by sea. Now
among these robbers almost the first, and always the most ready to do
harm, was that warlike and numerous race of the Danes, who, besides
possessing the common avarice of plunderers, pressed on the more eagerly
because they claimed, of ancient right, some part in the domination of
that kingdom, as the history of the Britons more fully relates. In
order, therefore, to ward these off, it was decreed by the English Kings
that, from each "hide" of the kingdom, by a certain perpetual right, two
shillings of silver should be paid for the use of the brave men, who,
patrolling and carefully watching the shores kept off the attack of the
enemy. Therefore, since principally on account of the Danes this revenue
was instituted, it is called "Danegeldum" or "Danegeldus." This,
therefore, under the native kings, was paid yearly, as has been said,
until the time of King William I. of the race and people of the Normans.
For in his day the Danes as well as the other robbers by land and by
sea, restrained their hostile attacks, knowing to be true that which is
written, "When a strong man armed keepeth his palace his possessions are
in peace." For they also knew, indeed, that men of surpassing valour do
not suffer injuries to go unpunished. When, therefore, the land had long
been quiet under the rule of this King, he became unwilling that that
should be paid as a yearly tax which had been exacted by the urgent
necessity of a time of war, nor yet, however, on account of unforeseen
cases, did he wish it to be entirely omitted. It was occasionally paid,
therefore, in his time, and in that of his successor; that is, when from
outside nations, wars or rumours of wars arose. But whenever it is paid,
those who sit at the exchequer are free from it, as has been said. The
sheriffs, too, although they are not counted under the barons of the
exchequer, are quit of this for their domains, on account of the labour
of collecting the tax. Know, moreover, that the domains of any one are
called those which are cultivated at his own expense or labour, and
likewise those which are possessed by his serfs in his name. For the
serfs, according to the law of the kingdom, not only may be transferred
by their lords from those places which they now possess and others; but
they themselves also are sold or sundered in every possible way; which
right they themselves, as well as the lands which they cultivate, in
order to serve their masters, are considered domains. Likewise it is
said by those to whom the ancient dignity of exchequer was known from
what they had seen with their own eyes, that its barons are free, for
their domains, of essarts (clearance-fines) of the forests. With whom we
also agree; adding the reservation, that they may be called quit of
those essarts which had been made before the day on which the
illustrious King Henry I. bade farewell to human affairs. For if they
were quit of all, whenever made or to be made, the barons would seem to
be free with impunity, according to their own will and judgment, to cut
down their woods in which the Royal forest consists; which they can, in
fact, by no means do with impunity, unless the consent of the King or of
the chief forester has first been gained. Nay, those who have their
domicile in the forest, may not take from their own woods what they want
for the necessary uses of their homes, unless by view of those deputed
to guard the forest. But there are many who wish to prove by their
arguments that no one, by reason of his seat at the exchequer, is free
from these essarts. If any one at all of those sitting there should, by
any misfortune, commit a fault against the King, for which he would
merit to be punished with a pecuniary fine, he would not be freed from
that punishment except by special mandate of the King. Since, therefore,
a clearance is a fault committed against the forest of the King, he who
thus errs, and on this account receives a penalty, ought not, as they
say, to be acquitted unless by express mandate of the King. Now,
although this reasoning is subtle and seems to some almost sufficient,
it is to be said, in objection to it, that the penalty for clearance is
fixed and common to those who err in this way; so that, namely, for the
clearance of one acre of wheat land one shilling is paid; but for an
acre in which oats are sown, six pence, by a perpetual law. Moreover,
from these items a certain total sum arises, for which the sheriff is
compelled to account to the exchequer; just as from the established two
shillings or one from the different "hides" one sum arises which is
called the common assessment. Since, therefore, in these respects, the
essart has an express similitude with the common assessment, as has been
said, it would seem as if the barons, not without justice, should be
considered quit from the essarts, just as from the other common
assessments. Likewise the authority, not to be despised, of custom and
long usage is against them (the cavillers). For those whose memory is
hoary call to mind that it was so in past times. I myself, who speak
with thee, have, in modern times, looked upon Robert, Earl of Leicester,
a discreet man learned in letters, and versed in matters of the law. He,
while having an inborn virtue of mind, became also an emulator of his
father's prudence: his industry examined into many matters under our
Prince Henry the Second, whom neither fictitious prudence nor
dissimulated folly deceives; so that, by the King's order, not only at
the exchequer did Robert obtain the dignity of president, but also
throughout the whole kingdom. He once, when the visitation of the
forests, which they commonly call the "view," and which takes place
every third year, was at hand, obtained a writ of the King to the effect
that he should be quit of whatever might be demanded from his land for
essarts, the sum being stated to which these amounted: and when this
writ was brought and publicly read before the exchequer, all were amazed
and wondered, saying, "does not this Earl invalidate our privileges?"
And while those who sat there mutually regarded each other, Nigel, of
blessed memory, the whilom Bishop of Ely, began speaking thus with
modesty: "My lord earl, thou dost seem to have invalidated, by this
writ, the prerogative of the exchequer, since thou hast obtained a
mandate of the King for those things from which thou, by reason of thy
seat at the exchequer, art free; and if one may logically draw an
inference by deduction from the major term, whoever does not obtain a
writ of the King concerning his essarts, will soon become answerable for
their payment, but, with all due reverence, this mode of absolution is
pernicious on account of the example it sets." When, therefore, as
happens in doubtful cases, some were of one opinion, and others of
another, there was brought in, as a valid argument in this matter, the
yearly (pipe) roll of the time of that great King of whom we spoke
above, under whom the dignity and the knowledge of the exchequer are
said to have flourished in a high degree; and something was found which
seemed to justify the bishop who made the assertion concerning the
prerogative of those sitting there. Having heard these things, the earl,
after deliberating a little with himself, said: "I confess that in this
matter I obtained a writ of the King, not that I might invalidate your
right, but that thus, without trouble, I might avoid the too unfortunate
exaction--unknown, however, to the King--of the collectors." Abandoning
his writ, therefore, he chose to be absolved on account of the
prerogative of his seat. Some time after, when the aforesaid bishop,
detained by infirmity, could not be present, and I myself supplied, as
well as I could, his place at the exchequer, it happened that essarts
were paid. When, therefore, what had been exacted from his domain had
been paid, I complained publicly, alleging the right of exemption. By
the common counsel and verdict of all, therefore, the sum which had
already been paid was restored to me. Reserving therefore, what had been
raised from his domain, I restored to his serfs, in its entirety, what
had been exacted from each one, so that the memory might survive and be
witness in this matter.
_D._ With all due reverence, one should not use examples, but reasons in
these matters.
_M._ That is so; but it happens, at times, that the causes of things and
the reasons of sayings are secret; and then it suffices to bring up
examples relating to them; especially if they are taken from the cases
of prudent men, whose deeds are circumspect and are not done without
reason. But whatever we have said about these things taking part for
this privilege or against it, thou may'st be sure that in this matter we
have called nothing certain, unless what the authority of the King
decreed should be observed. But the account of the forests and also the
punishment or absolution of those who transgress with regard to them,
whether it be a pecuniary or a corporal one, is kept separate from the
other judgments of the kingdom, and is subjected to the will of the King
alone or to that of some one of his intimates specially deputed for this
purpose. It subsists by its own laws, which, they say, are not subject
to the common law of the kingdom, but to the voluntary decree of the
princes; so that whatever has been done according to its law may be said
to be not absolutely just, but just according to the law of the forest.
The forests, moreover, are the sanctuaries of the Kings and their
greatest delight, thither they go for the sake of hunting, having laid
aside their cares for a while, so that they may be refreshed by a short
rest. There the serious, and at the same time the natural uproars of the
court having ceased, they breathe in for a while the boon of pure
liberty; whence it comes that they who transgress with regard to the
forest are subject to the royal displeasure alone.
_D._ From my earliest youth I have learned that it is wrong for a
prudent person to prefer to suffer ignorance rather than to demand the
causes of things that have been said, in order, therefore, that the
foregoing may more fully be made clear, do not put off revealing what a
forest is.
* * * * *
5. _The Forest._
_M._ The forest of the King is the safe dwelling-place of wild beasts;
not of every kind, but of the kinds that live in woods; not in all
places, but in fixed ones, and ones suitable for the purpose; whence it
is called "foresta," the "e" being changed into "o," as if it were
"feresta"--_i.e._ an abiding place for wild beasts.
_D._ Is there a forest of the King in each county?
_M._ No; but only of the wooded ones, where the wild beasts can have
their lairs and ripe nourishment: nor does it matter to whom the woods
belong, whether to the King or to the nobles of the kingdom,--the wild
beasts can none the less run around everywhere free and unharmed.
* * * * *
6. _The Sheriffs and Bailiffs._
_M._ All the sheriffs, therefore, and the bailiffs, to whom summonses
are directed, are bound by the same necessity of the law; that is, by
the authority of the royal mandate; that, namely, on the day mentioned
and at the place designated, they shall come together and render
satisfaction for their debts. In order that this may be clearer to thee,
look more closely at the tenor of the summons itself, for it reads: "See
to it, as thou dost love thyself and all thy belongings, that thou art
at the exchequer of such and such a time and place; and that thou hast
with thee whatever thou owest of the old farm and the new, and these
debts written below." Pay attention, then, for two things are said which
fit in with the two which follow: for this, "See to it as thou dost love
thyself," refers to "that thou art there and there at such and such a
time and place"; that expression, however, "and as thou dost love all
thy belongings," seems to refer to this: "and that thou hast with thee
these debts written below"; as if it were openly said, "thy absence,
whoever thou art that receiveth a summons, unless it can be excused by
causes necessary and defined by law, will redound to the peril of thy
head; for thou wilt seem thus to have spurned the royal mandate, and to
have acted irreverently in contempt of the royal majesty, if, being
summoned concerning the matters for which thou art bounden to the King,
thou dost neither come nor send one to excuse thee...."
* * * * *
7. _Liveries._
_D._ What is that thou didst speak of as liveries of both kinds?
_M._ Some of the liveries are of poor people; as when, solely from the
promptings of charity, one penny a day or two or more, are accorded to
someone by the King for food and clothing. But some are of people who do
service, so that they receive them as wages; such are the custodians of
the palaces, the guardians of the royal temples, the pipers, the seizers
of wolves, and the like. These, then, are liveries of different kinds
which are paid for different reasons, but are counted among the fixed
payments. And mark that, although the King is free to confer these
liveries on any poor people whatever, they nevertheless, by ancient
custom, are usually assigned to those who minister at court, and who,
having no income, fall into bodily sickness and become unfit for labour.
PART II. MISCELLANEOUS SOURCES.
HENRY PUTS HIS HOUSE IN ORDER, 1155-7.
+Source.+--_Roger de Hoveden_, Vol. I., Part II., pp. 255-6. Bohn's
Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
In the year 1155, being the first year of the reign of King Henry, son
of the Empress Matilda, the said King laid siege to the castles of his
enemies in England, and captured them; some of which he retained in his
own hands, and some he levelled with the ground. After this, he crossed
over into Normandy, and did homage to Louis, King of the Franks, for
Normandy, Aquitaine, Anjou, Maine, and Touraine, with all their
appurtenances.
In the year of grace 1156, being the second year of the reign of King
Henry, son of the Empress Matilda, the said King returned from Normandy
to England, and caused nearly all the castles, which had been erected in
England in the time of King Stephen, to be demolished, and issued a new
coinage, which was the only one received and current throughout the
realm; he also established peace in the kingdom, and commanded the laws
of King Henry, his grandfather, to be observed inviolably throughout the
whole of his kingdom, and in many matters followed the advice of
Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury.
In the year of grace 1157, being the third year of the reign of King
Henry, son of the Empress Matilda, the said King, by the advice and
entreaty of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, conferred the
Chancellorship upon Thomas, Archdeacon of Canterbury, and bestowed upon
him many revenues, both ecclesiastical and of a secular nature, and
received him so much into his esteem and familiarity, that throughout
the kingdom there was no one his equal, save the King alone.
In the same year, Malcolm, King of the Scots, came to the King of
England at Chester, and did homage to him, in the same way that his
grandfather had done homage to the former King Henry, saving always all
his dignities.
SUPERSTITIONS AND CHARACTER OF THE IRISH, CIRC. 1155.
_Instance of Superstition._
+Source.+--_Giraldus Cambrensis_, p. 79, Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell &
Sons.
I now proceed to relate some wonderful occurrences which have happened
within our times. About three years before the arrival of Earl John in
Ireland, it chanced that a priest, who was journeying from Ulster
towards Meath, was benighted in a certain wood on the borders of Meath.
While, in company with only a young lad, he was watching by a fire which
he had kindled under the branches of a spreading tree, lo! a wolf came
up to them, and immediately addressed them to this effect: "Rest secure,
and be not afraid, for there is no reason you should fear, where no fear
is!" The travellers being struck with astonishment and alarm, the wolf
added some orthodox words referring to God. The priest then implored him
and adjured him by Almighty God and faith in the Trinity, not to hurt
them, but to inform them what creature it was that in the shape of a
beast uttered human words. The wolf, after giving catholic replies to
all questions, added at last: "There are two of us, a man and a woman,
natives of Ossory, who, through the curse of one Natalis, saint and
abbot, are compelled every seven years to put off the human form, and
depart from the dwellings of men. Quitting entirely the human form, we
assume that of wolves. At the end of the seven years, if they chance to
survive, two others being substituted in their places, they return to
their country and their former shape. And now, she who is my partner in
this visitation lies dangerously sick not far from hence, and, as she is
at the point of death, I beseech you, inspired by divine charity, to
give her the consolations of your priestly office."
At this word the priest followed the wolf trembling, as he led the way
to a tree at no great distance, in the hollow of which he beheld a
she-wolf, who under that shape was pouring forth human sighs and groans.
On seeing the priest, having saluted him with human courtsey, she gave
thanks to God, who in this extremity had vouchsafed to visit her with
such consolation. She then received from the priest all the rites of the
church, duly performed, as far as the last communion. This also she
importunately demanded, earnestly supplicating him to complete his good
offices by giving her the viaticum. The priest stoutly asserting that he
was not provided with it, the he-wolf, who had withdrawn to a short
distance, came back and pointed out a small missal-book, containing some
consecrated wafers which the priest carried on his journey, suspended
from his neck, under his garment, after the fashion of the country. He
then intreated him not to deny them the gift of God, and the aid
destined for them by Divine Providence; and to remove all doubt, using
his claw for a hand, he tore off the skin of the she-wolf from the head
down to the navel, folding it back. Thus she immediately presented the
form of an old woman. The priest, seeing this, and compelled by his fear
more than his reason, gave the communion; the recipient having earnestly
implored it, and devoutly partaking of it. Immediately afterwards the
he-wolf rolled back the skin, and fitted it to its original form.
_Their Character._
+Source.+--_Giraldus Cambrensis_, p. 111. Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell &
Sons.
It appears to me very remarkable, and deserving of notice, that, as in
the present life the people of this nation are beyond all others,
irascible and prompt to revenge, so also in the life that is after
death, the saints of this country, exalted by their merits above those
of other lands, appear to be of a vindictive temper. There appears to me
no other way of accounting for this circumstance, but this: as the Irish
people possessed no castles, while the country is full of marauders, who
live by plunder, the people, and more especially the ecclesiastics, made
it their practice to have recourse to the churches, instead of fortified
places, as refuges for themselves and their property; and, by Divine
Providence and permission, there was frequent need that the Church
should visit her enemies with the severest chastisements; this being the
only mode by which evildoers and impious men could be deterred from
breaking the peace of ecclesiastical societies, and for securing even to
a servile submission the reverence due to the very churches themselves,
from a rude and irreligious people.
THE PAGANISM OF THE IRISH, CIRC. 1155.
+Source.+--_Giraldus Cambrensis_, p. 135. Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell &
Sons.
They are given to treachery more than any other nation, and never keep
the faith they have pledged, neither shame nor fear withholding them
from constantly violating the most solemn obligations, which, when
entered into with themselves, they are above all things anxious to have
observed. So that, when you have used the utmost precaution, when you
have been most vigilant for your own security and safety, by requiring
oaths and hostages, by treaties of alliance firmly made, and by benefits
of all kinds conferred, then begins your time to fear; for then
especially their treachery is awake, when they suppose that, relying in
the fulness of your security, you are off your guard. That is the moment
for them to fly to their citadel of wickedness, turn against you their
weapons of deceit, and endeavour to do you injury, by taking the
opportunity of catching you unawares.
(_G. C._, p 138.)
There are some things which shame would prevent my relating, unless the
course of my subject required it. For a filthy story seems to reflect a
stain on the author, although it may display his skill. But the severity
of history does not allow us either to sacrifice truth or affect
modesty; and what is shameful in itself may be related by pure lips in
decent words. There is then in the northern and most remote part of
Ulster, namely, at Kenel Cunil, a nation which practices a most
barbarous and abominable rite in creating their King. The whole people
of that country being gathered in one place, a white mare is led into
the midst of them, and he who is to be inaugurated, not as a prince, but
as a brute, not as a king, but as an outlaw, comes before the people on
all fours, confessing himself a beast with no less impudence than
imprudence. The mare being immediately killed, and cut in pieces and
boiled, a bath is prepared for him from the broth. Sitting in this he
eats of the flesh which is brought to him, the people standing round and
partaking of it also. He is also required to drink of the broth in which
he is bathed, not drawing it in any vessel, nor even in his hand, but
lapping it with his mouth. These unrighteous rites being duly
accomplished, his royal authority and dominion are ratified.
(_G. C._, p. 139.)
Moreover, though the faith has been planted for so long a period in this
country that it has grown to maturity, there are some corners of the
land in which many are still unbaptised, and to whom, through the
negligence of their pastors, the knowledge of the truth has never
penetrated. I heard some sailors relate that, having been once driven by
a violent storm, during Lent, to the northern islands and unexplored
expanse of the sea of Connaught, they at last took shelter under a small
island. Here they could hardly hold their ground by the help of their
anchor, though they had three cables out or more. After three days, the
storm abating, the sky becoming again clear, and the sea calm, they
beheld at no great distance the features of a land which was before
entirely unknown to them. From this land not long afterwards they saw a
small boat rowing towards them. It was narrow and oblong, and made of
wattled boughs, covered and sewn with the hides of beasts. In it were
two men, stark naked, except that they wore broad belts of the skin of
some animal fastened round their waists. They had long yellow hair, like
the Irish, falling below the shoulders and covering great part of their
bodies. The sailors finding that these men were from some part of
Connaught, and spoke the Irish language, took them into the ship. All
that they saw there was new to them and a subject of wonder. They said
that they had never seen before a large ship, built of timber, or
anything belonging to civilised man. Bread and cheese being offered to
them, they refused to eat them, having no knowledge of either. Flesh,
fish, and milk, they said, were their only food. Nor did they wear any
clothes, except sometimes the skins of beasts, in cases of great
necessity. Having inquired of the sailors whether they had on board any
flesh with which they could satisfy their hunger, and being told in
reply that it was not lawful to eat flesh during Lent, they were utterly
ignorant what Lent was. Neither did they know anything about the year,
the month, or the week; and by what names the days of the week were
called was entirely beyond their conception. Being asked whether they
were Christians, and had been baptised, they replied that to the present
hour they had never heard of the name of Christ, and knew nothing about
Him. On their return, they carried back a loaf and a cheese, that they
might be able to astonish their countrymen by the sight of the
provisions which the strangers ate.
It must be observed also, that the men who enjoy ecclesiastical
immunity, and are called ecclesiastical men, although they be laics and
have wives, and wear long hair hanging down below the shoulders, but
only do not bear arms, wear for their protection, by authority of the
Pope, fillets on the crown of their heads, as a mark of distinction.
Moreover, these people, who have customs so very different from others,
and so opposite to them, on making signs either with the hands or the
head, beckon when they mean that you should go away, and nod backward as
often as they wish to be rid of you. They are also prone to the failing
of jealousy beyond any other nation. The women also, as well as the men,
ride astride, with their legs stuck out on each side of the horse.
TRIBAL DISPUTE (1154-7).
+Source.+--_Song of Dermot._ Orpen. Clarendon Press. 1892.
l. 22. Now in Leath-luinn there was a king,
O'Rourke he was called in Irish,
In Tisbrun, the barren, he dwelt,
A waste, a woody land.
But O'Rourke, the rich King,
Had a beautiful wife at this time,
The daughter of King Melaghlin
To whom Meath was subject.
* * * *
l. 40. Dermot, King of Leinster
Whom this lady loved so much,
Made pretence to her of loving,
While he did not love her at all,
But only wished to the utmost of his power
To avenge, if he could, the great shame
Which the men of Leath-luinn wrought of old
On the men of Leath-Mogha in his territory.
King Dermot often sent word
To the lady whom he so loved--
By letter and by messenger,
Often did the King send word
That she was altogether, in truth,
The thing in the world that he most loved;
l.94. King Dermot immediately
Came marching to the place
Where the lady had sent word
That she would be ready.
In this way Dermot the King
Carried off the lady at this time.
* * * *
l. 110. O'Rourke much grieving,
To Connaught went in all haste.
To the King of Connaught he relates all:
* * * *
l. 126. The King of Connaught sent word
To the King of Ossory in the first place,
That he should not fail their King
But should come to their aid.
And these men fully promised him
That they would make him King in that territory
If they could cast out of it
King Dermot who was so bold.
And this man immediately revolted
Against his lord King Dermot;
And Melaghlin, the traitor,
Abandoned his lord;
And Mac Torkil of Dublin
Abandoned his lord at this moment.
There joined in the treason
Murrough O'Brien, an evil rebel.
* * * *
l. 206. When Dermot the King perceived
That he was betrayed at this time--
His own men failed him,
So completely was he betrayed--
And that they wished to take him
To hand him over and sell him to O'Rourke,
While the King of Connaught on the other hand
Should make a great destruction of him--
Why should I delay you
From your geste at all?
His people by the strong hand
Have cast out King Dermot,
Have wrested the whole kingdom from him
And have driven him from Ireland.
When the King was exiled
He took ship at Corkerau
* * * *
His ships had a very fine breeze,
At Bristol they take the shore.
* * * *
THE BULL OF POPE ADRIAN IV. EMPOWERING HENRY II. TO CONQUER IRELAND,
A.D. 1155.
+Source.+--_Historical Documents of the Middle Ages_, p. 10. Henderson.
Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
Bishop Adrian, servant of the servants of God, sends to his dearest son
in Christ, the illustrious King of the English, greeting and apostolic
benediction. Laudably and profitably enough thy magnificence thinks of
extending thy glorious name on earth, and of heaping up rewards of
eternal felicity in heaven, inasmuch as, like a good catholic prince,
thou dost endeavour to enlarge the bounds of the Church, to declare the
truth of the Christian faith to ignorant and barbarous nations, and to
extirpate the plants of evil from the field of the Lord....
There is indeed no doubt, as thy Highness doth also acknowledge, that
Ireland and all other islands which Christ the Sun of Righteousness has
illumined, and which have received the doctrines of the Christian faith,
belong to the jurisdiction of St. Peter and of the Holy Roman Church....
Thou hast signified to us, indeed, most beloved son in Christ, that thou
dost desire to enter into the island of Ireland, in order to subject the
people to the laws and to extirpate the vices that have there taken
root, and that thou art willing to pay an annual pension to St. Peter of
one penny from every house, and to preserve the rights of the churches
in that land inviolate and entire....
[This bull was not thought to be genuine by the majority of historians,
but Mr. Orpen in _Ireland under the Normans_, 1912, successfully proves
its authenticity.]
THOMAS À BECKET. LIFE BEFORE HIS ELECTION (1162).
+Source.+--_Roger of Wendover, Annal 1162._ Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell &
Sons.
The same year, the clergy and people of the whole province of Canterbury
assembled at Westminster, where Thomas, the King's Chancellor, was
solemnly elected, without opposition, to be Archbishop. This happened on
Whitsunday: the Chancellor was ordained priest, by Walter Bishop of
Rochester, in the church of Canterbury, and on the following Sunday was
consecrated by Henry Bishop of Winchester, and solemnly enthroned.
Messengers were immediately despatched to Rome, but they met the Pope on
this side of the Alps entering France, and they returned to England,
bringing with them the pall; which was placed on the altar in the Church
of Canterbury. Thomas then, having taken the usual oaths, received the
pall from the altar, and reverently put on him the robes of a
high-priest. But this change of habit was preliminary to a change of
heart also, for he now renounced secular cares, and attended only to the
spiritual concerns of the Church and the gain of souls. He sent
messengers to the King in Normandy, renouncing the Chancellorship and
resigning the great seal. This act sank deep into the mind of the King,
who looked upon himself alone as the cause of his resignation. This was
the first occasion on which the King's feelings were ruffled towards
Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury. Now this Thomas was a native of the
City of London, and from his childhood was adorned with many virtues.
From his birth, he used to take pleasure in invoking the blessed virgin,
and, next to Christ, reposed all his hopes upon her. When he had
finished his schooling, he entered the service of Theobald, Archbishop
of Canterbury, and by his industry, soon won his way to intimacy and
familiarity with him. Of his services and labours for the cause of God's
Church, how he more than once visited the threshold of the apostles on
matters of business, and how he successfully discharged his commissions,
it is not easy to relate, seeing that his whole mind was devoted to
examining and deciding causes and to instructing the people. He was
first promoted by the Archbishop to be Archdeacon of Canterbury, and
shortly after he was made King's Chancellor, in which capacity he wisely
and prudently checked the rapacity of those kites, who, in servility to
the King, had conspired to plunder the property both of the provincials
and of the church.
DISPUTE CONCERNING CONSTITUTIONS OF CLARENDON (1164).
+Source.+--_Roger de Hoveden_, Vol. I., p. 259, _seqq._ Bohn's
Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
In the year of grace 1164, being the tenth year of the reign of King
Henry, son of the Empress Matilda, the said Henry gave to Henry, duke of
Saxony, his daughter Matilda in marriage. In the same year, having
called together a great council, and all the archbishops and bishops of
England being assembled in his presence, he requested them, out of their
love for and obedience to him, and for the establishment of the kingdom,
to receive the laws of King Henry, his grandfather, and faithfully to
observe them: on which, Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, made answer
for himself and the others, that they would receive those laws, which
the King said were made by his grandfather, and with good faith would
observe the same; saving their orders and the honour of God and of the
Holy Church in all respects. But this reservation greatly displeased the
King, and he used every possible method to make the bishops promise that
they would, without any exception whatever, observe those laws; to this,
however, the Archbishop of Canterbury would on no account agree.
After this, there came to England, a certain man belonging to the
religious orders, named Philip de Eleemosyna being sent as a legate "a
latere" by Alexander the supreme Pontiff, and all the cardinals, for the
purpose of making peace between the King and the Archbishop of
Canterbury; by whom the Pope and all the cardinals sent word to the
Archbishop of Canterbury, that he must make peace with the King of
England his master, and promise, without any exception, to obey his
laws. Assenting, therefore, to this and other advice on the part of
these great men, the Archbishop of Canterbury came to the King at
Woodstock, and there made a promise to the King and agreed that he
would, in good faith, and without any bad intent, observe his laws.
Shortly after this, the clergy and people of the kingdom being convened
at Clarendon, the archbishop reported that he had made this concession
to the King, and wishing to recede from his agreement, said that in
making the concession he had greatly sinned, but would sin no longer in
so doing. In consequence of this, the King's anger was greatly aroused
against him, and he threatened him and his people with exile and death;
upon which, the Bishops of Salisbury and Norwich came to the archbishop,
together with Robert, Earl of Leicester, Reginald, Earl of Cornwall, and
the two Templars, Richard de Hastings and Tostes de Saint Omer, and in
tears threw themselves at the feet of archbishop, and begged that he
would at least, for the sake of the King's dignity, come to him, and in
the presence of the people, declare that he would observe his laws. The
archbishop being consequently overcome by the entreaties of such great
men, came to the King, and in the presence of the clergy, and the
people, said that he acceded to those laws which the King called those
of his grandfather. He also conceded that the bishops should receive
those laws and promise to observe them. Upon this, the King gave orders
to all the earls and barons of the realm, that they should go out and
call to remembrance the laws of King Henry his grandfather, and reduce
them to writing. When this had been done, the King commanded the
archbishops and bishops to annex their seals to the said writing; but,
while the others were ready so to do, the Archbishop of Canterbury swore
that he would never annex his seal to that writing or confirm those laws.
When the King saw that he could not by these means attain his object, he
ordered a written copy of these laws to be made, and gave a duplicate of
it to the Archbishop of Canterbury, which he, in spite of the
prohibition of the whole of the clergy, received from the King's hand,
and turning to the clergy exclaimed "Courage brethren! by means of this
writing we shall be enabled to discover the evil intentions of the King,
and against whom we ought to be on our guard"; after which he retired
from the court, and was unable by any means to recover the King's
favour. And because he had acted inadvisedly in this matter, he
suspended himself from the celebration of divine service from that hour,
until such time as he himself, or his messenger, should have spoken
thereon with our lord the Pope.
BECKET'S EXILE (1165).
+Source.+--_Roger de Hoveden_, Vol. I., pp. 266, 267. Bohn's Libraries.
G. Bell & Sons.
At this moment the King sent him word by his knights to come to him
without delay, and render to him a full account of all the receipts of
the revenues of the kingdom during the time that he had been his
Chancellor. And, in particular, he was questioned with reference to
thirty thousand pounds of silver; on which the archbishop made answer:
"My lord the King knows that I have often rendered him an account with
reference to all the demands he is now making upon me before my election
to the Archbishopric of Canterbury. But, upon my election to that See,
the King's son, Henry, to whom the kingdom was bound by its oath, and
all the barons of the exchequer, and Richard de Lucy, the justiciary of
England, released me before God and the Holy Church, from all receipts
and reckonings, and from all secular exactions on behalf of our lord the
King, and thus, free and acquitted, was I elected to the administration
of the duties of this office; and for that reason do I refuse to plead
any further." The King, upon hearing this, said to his barons: "Make
haste and pronounce judgment upon this person, who, being my liege-man,
refuses to take his trial in my court"; on which they went forth and
pronounced that he deserved to be arrested and placed in confinement. On
hearing this, the King sent to him Reginald, Earl of Cornwall, and
Robert, Earl of Leicester, to inform him of the judgment that had been
pronounced upon him: who accordingly said to him: "Listen to the
judgment pronounced upon you." To this, the bishop made answer: "In the
name of Almighty God, and under penalty of excommunication, I forbid you
this day to pronounce judgment upon me, inasmuch as I have appealed unto
the presence of our lord the Pope." While the above-named earls were
carrying this answer to the King, the archbishop went forth from the
chamber, and going through the midst of them, reached his palfrey, and
mounting it, left the palace, all the people shouting after him and
saying: "Where are you going, traitor? Stop and hear your sentence!"
When, however, he had arrived at the outer gates, he found them shut,
and was in great apprehension of being taken by his enemies, but
Almighty God delivered him. For, Peter de Munctorio, one of his
servants, espied a number of keys hanging on a nail near the gate, and
taking them down, opened it, on which the archbishop sallied forth on
horseback, the King's porters standing by, and uttering not a word. The
archbishop made all haste to arrive at the house of some canons regular,
where he was hospitably entertained, and commanded the tables to be set
out and all the poor that were to be found before the gates to be
introduced to eat and drink in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This
was accordingly done; and he, together with them and his people,
becomingly partook of the repast in the refectory of the canons, and,
when it was finished, made his bed in the Church, between the nave and
the altar. In the meantime, he had secretly ordered preparations to be
made for his journey, as it was his intention to depart by night. At
twilight, therefore, when the King and the rest were supping in the
town, taking with him two friars of the Cistercian Order, the name of
one of whom was Robert de Caune, and of the other, Scainen, and a single
servant, who was called Roger de Broc, he went out of the town through
the gate, which was left entirely without guards, and at daybreak
arrived at Lincoln, and was entertained at the house of James. Here the
archbishop changed his dress, and, changing his name, ordered himself to
be called by that of Dereham; and being recognized by few persons,
taking remote ways and bye-paths, he hastened towards the sea-shore, he
and his attendants riding on at night, and concealing themselves in the
day among his friends and acquaintances. At last they arrived at the
sea-shore, and reaching the port of Sandwich, secretly embarked on board
of a ship, and then, secretly setting sail, in the morning landed in
Flanders, whence he immediately made his way to France.
Before, however, he had arrived at the court of Louis, King of the
Franks, Gilbert Folliet, bishop of London, and William, Earl of Arundel,
had arrived on behalf of the King of England, to prevent the King of
France from receiving the Archbishop of Canterbury in his kingdom, and
to request him to beg our lord the Pope, out of his love for him, not to
receive the Archbishop of Canterbury into his favour. But the more pains
the above-named envoys of the King of England took to have Archbishop of
Canterbury expelled from the kingdom of France, the more did the King of
France favour him and his cause.
THE RETURN (1170).
+Source.+--_Roger de Hoveden_, Vol. I., p. 330. Bohn's Libraries. G.
Bell & Sons.
In the meantime, Louis, King of the Franks, and the archbishops,
bishops, and nobles of the kingdom of France, besought the Roman Pontiff
in behalf of the Archbishop of Canterbury, by the love which they bore
him, and with protestations of implicit obedience, no longer to admit
the excuses and delays which the King of England continually put
forward, as he loved the kingdom of France and the honour of the
Apostolic See. William, the bishop of Sens, also, being astonished at
the desolate condition of the English Church, repaired to the Apostolic
See, and obtained of the Roman Church, that, an end being put to all
appeals, the King of the English should be subjected to excommunication,
and his kingdom to interdict, unless peace were restored to the Church
of Canterbury. Thus, at last, it pleased God, the dispenser of all
things, to recompense the merits of His dearly beloved Thomas, and to
crown his long labours with the victorious palm of martyrdom. He,
therefore, brought the King of England to a better frame of mind, who,
through the paternal exhortation of our lord the Pope, and by the advice
of the King of the Franks, and of many bishops, received the archbishop
again into favour, and allowed him to return to his church.
BECKET'S LIFE (1170).
+Source.+--_Roger de Hoveden_, Vol. I., p. 333. Bohn's Libraries. G.
Bell & Sons.
As for his life, it was perfectly unimpeachable before God and man. To
arise before daybreak did not seem to him a vain thing, as he knew that
the Lord has promised a crown to the watchful. For every day he arose
before daybreak, while all the rest were asleep, and entering his
oratory would pray there for a long time; and then returning, he would
awake his chaplains and clerks from their slumbers, and, the matins and
the hours of the day being chaunted, devoutly celebrate the mass; and
every day and night he received three or five flagellations from the
hand of a priest. After the celebration of the mass, every day he
re-entered his oratory, and, shutting the door after him, devoted
himself to prayer with abundant tears; and no one but God alone knew the
manner in which he afflicted his flesh. And thus did he do daily unto
his flesh until the hour for dining, unless some unusual solemnity or
remarkable cause prevented it. On coming forth from his oratory, he
would come to dine among his people, not that he might sate his body
with costly food, but that he might make his household cheerful thereby,
and that he might fill the poor ones of the Lord with good things, whom,
according to his means, he daily increased in numbers. And although
costly and exquisite food and drink were set before him, still his only
food and drink were bread and water.
One day, while the archbishop was sitting at the table of Alexander, the
Supreme Pontiff, a person who was aware of this secret, placed before
him a cup full of water. On the Supreme Pontiff taking it up, and
tasting it, he found it to be the purest wine, and delicious to drink;
on which he said: "I thought that this was water"; and on replacing the
cup before the archbishop, the wine immediately returned to its former
taste of water. Oh wondrous change by the right hand of the Most High!
Every day, when the archbishop arose from dinner, unless more important
business prevented him, he always devoted himself to reading the
Scriptures until the hour of vespers at the time of sunset. His bed was
covered with soft coverlets and cloths of silk, embroidered on the
surface with gold wrought therein; and while other persons were asleep,
he alone used to lie on the bare floor before his bed, repeating psalms
and hymns, and never ceasing from prayers, until at last, overcome with
fatigue, he would gradually recline his head upon a stone, put beneath
it in place of a pillow: and thus would his eyes enjoy sleep, while his
heart was ever watchful for the Lord. His inner garment was of coarse
sackcloth, made of goat's hair, with which his whole body was covered,
from the arms down to the knees. But his outer garments were remarkable
for their splendour and extreme costliness, to the end that, thus
deceiving human eyes, he might please the sight of God. There was no
individual acquainted with this secret of his way of living, with the
exception of two--one of whom was Robert, Canon of Merton, his chaplain,
and the name of the other was Brun, who had charge of his sackcloth
garments, and washed them when necessary; and they were bound by their
words and oaths that, during his life, they would disclose these facts
to no one.
BECKET'S DEATH (1171).
+Source.+--_Roger de Hoveden_, Vol. I., pp. 335, 336. Bohn's Libraries.
G. Bell & Sons.
Hardly had the father been residing one month in his see, when lo! on
the fifth day of the feast of the Nativity of our Lord, there came to
Canterbury four knights, or rather sworn satellites of Satan, whose
names were as follows: William de Tracy, Hugh de Morville, Richard
Briton, and Reginald Fitz-Urse, men of families remarkable for their
respectability, but destined, by their daring to commit so enormous a
crime, to blemish the glories of knighthood and the honours of their
ancestors with perpetual ignominy. Accordingly, these persons made their
way into the presence of the archbishop, and, as nothing salutary was
the object of their message, in the malice they had conceived they
omitted pronouncing any salutation, and addressed him in an insolent and
haughty manner. Threats were exchanged on both sides and threat was
answered with threat.
Now, the archbishop, with meekness and self-possession, had gone before
them to the choir of the church, the monks having entreated, nay, forced
him, on account of the solemnity of the season, to perform the service
at vespers. When he perceived these armed men behind him, in the middle
of the cloisters, it might have been expected that their own malignant
feelings would have warned them to leave the church; but, neither did
reverence for the solemn occasion dissuade them from their crime, nor
the innocence of the patriarch prevent them from shedding his blood.
Indeed, so entirely had their shameless determination to perpetrate the
crime taken possession of them and blinded them, that they neither
regarded the disgrace to their knighthood, nor took account of any
danger. Therefore, following the archbishop with headlong and heedless
steps, with drawn swords, they entered the church, and furiously cried
aloud: "Where is this traitor?" After which, no one making answer, they
repeated, "Where is the archbishop?" Upon this he, the confessor, and,
shortly to be, the martyr in the cause of Christ, being sensible that
under the first name he was falsely charged, and that, by virtue of his
office, the other belonged to him, came down from the steps to meet
them, and said: "Behold, here am I," showing such extraordinary presence
of mind, that neither his mind seemed agitated by fear, nor his body by
trepidation.
On this the knights instantly laid hands on him and seized him, that,
for the perpetration of their design, they might drag him out of the
church, but were unable so to do. The archbishop, on seeing his
murderers with drawn swords, after the manner of one in prayer, bowed
his head, uttering these as his last words: "To God and to Saint Mary,
and to the Saints, the patrons of this church, and to Saint Denis, I
commend myself and the cause of the Church." After this, amid all these
tortures, this martyr, with unconquerable spirit and admirable
constancy, uttered not a word or cry, nor heaved a sigh, nor lifted his
arm against the smiter; but, bowing his head, which he had exposed to
their swords, held it unmoved until the deed was completed.
COMING OF DERMOT (1168-9).
+Source.+--_Song of Dermot._
_Dermot had an interview with Earl Richard._
His daughter he offered him to wife,
The thing in the world that he most loved:
That he would let him have her to wife
And would give Leinster to him,
On condition that he would aid him
So that he should be able to subdue it.
_Earl Richard (Strongbow) in Ireland, 1170._
l. 1501. Very soon afterwards Earl Richard
Landed at Waterford
Full fifteen hundred men he brought with him.
* * * *
On St. Bartholomew's day
Earl Richard, the prudent,
Took by assault and won
The City of Waterford.
* * * *
l. 1524. King Dermot speedily
Came there, be sure, right royally.
The King in his company
Brought there many of his barons,
And his daughter he brought there;
To the noble earl he gave her.
The earl honourably
Wedded her in the presence of the people.
King Dermot then gave
To the earl, who was so renowned,
Leinster he gave him
With his daughter, whom he so much loved,
Provided only that he should have the lordship
Of Leinster during his life.
* * * *
Then they turned towards Dublin
The King and the renowned earl
* * * *
l. 1644. Outside the walls of the city
Was the King encamped;
* * * *
Now Dermot, the noble King,
Despatched Morice Regan,
And by Morice proclaimed
To the citizens of the city
That without delay, without any respite,
They should surrender without gainsaying.
* * * *
And Miles the renowned baron
To the earl gave up the city.
* * * *
And the King returned
To Ferns in his own country.
* * * *
At Ferns then tarried
King Dermot during this winter.
The King, who was so noble,
Lies buried at Ferns.
King Dermot is dead. May God have mercy on his soul.
All the Irish of the country
Revolted against the earl.
* * * *
And the rich King of Connaught
Summoned to him
The Irish of all Ireland
In order to lay siege to Dublin.
* * * *
l. 1767. The earl you must know, at this time
Was within the city, of a truth.
The son of Stephen promptly sent
Some of his men to the earl:
In order to aid and succour him
He sent men to him at this crisis,
When Robert had sent
About thirty-six of his men
To aid the earl Richard,
The traitors without any delay
Fell upon Robert,
In the town of Wexford
They wrongfully slew his men:
* * * *
Within a castle on the Slaney ...
The traitors took Robert
And put him in prison in Begerin.
* * * *
l. 2199. When the earl (Richard) had appeased
The Irish of the country,
Then the English King sent
To the earl to announce
That, without delay, without gainsaying,
Without taking time or respite,
The earl should come speedily
To speak to him at once.
* * * *
l. 2229. Earl Richard at this time
At Pembroke found the rich king.
* * * *
The noble earl saluted him
In the name of the Son of the King of Majesty,
And the King graciously
Made answer to Earl Richard.
The King thereupon replied
"May God almighty bless you."
* * * *
l. 2495. As soon as the King came to the sea
At Pembrokeshire, in order to cross over,
Lo! then at the harbour
Twelve traitors from Wexford
Came to land in a boat
* * * *
"Hold it not, lord, as folly,"
Thus spake the traitors unto him,
"If we shall say to you--be it known to you all--
Why we have come to you.
We have taken yon rebellious vassal,
Robert Fitzstephen is his name,
* * * *
In a strong prison we have placed him;
To thee we shall give him up, noble King,
Who art lord of the English,
And do you, noble renowned King,
Do your pleasure in this matter."
The King replied to them
"On this condition be ye welcome,
That ye hand over this man to me,
And then ye will see what I shall do with him."
_Henry II.'s Invasion of Ireland, 1171-2._
l. 2579. Hear, my lords, concerning King Henry,
Who was the son of the empress,
How he resolved to cross the sea
And to conquer Ireland
Entirely through the recommendation
Of the noble earl, according to the people.
King Henry then crossed over
To Ireland with his ships.
The King then brought with him
Four hundred armed knights.
King Henry when he took ship
Put to sea at the Cross:
At Pembrokeshire at this time
The rich King put to sea.
With him the noble earl crossed over,
According to the statement of the old people.
At Waterford the noble King
Landed with four thousand English,
On All Hallows' Day, of a truth,
If the geste does not deceive us;
Before the feast of St. Martin
The King at length came to Ireland.
With the King there crossed over
Vassals of good kindred.
* * * *
l. 2614. The earl of his own free will
Surrendered the city to the King:
To the King he surrendered Waterford
Of his own free will and agreement.
Homage for Leinster
He did to the King of England.
* * * *
From Waterford King Henry
Set out with his marquises,
To Dublin with his men
He went without delay.
Richard, the noble and valiant earl,
Straightway surrendered the city to him.
Dublin King Henry gave
To the custody of Hugh de Lacy
And he afterwards guarded the city
By the command of the King.
And the King of England
Thence turned towards Munster,
To the City of Cashel
Went the King with his splendid following,
Where at that time was the seat
Of the archbishopric of Munster.
From Cashel the puissant King
Went on to Lismore.
King Henry Curt Mantel
At Lismore wished to fortify
A castle: so wished King Henry,
Who was the empress' son,
I know not why, but nevertheless
At this time, he put it off.
Towards Leinster the English King
Set out at this time:
Towards Leinster, the rich,
He went with his chivalry,
Eighteen weeks, nor more nor less,
According to what the old people say,
The duke of Normandy remained
In Ireland with his baronage.
Of Normandy at this time
The rich King was duke;
Of Gascony and of Brittany
Of Poitou, of Anjou, and of Maine,
Was King Henry called
Lord, according to the old people.
In Ireland was the King
About a fortnight and four months.
In the land up and down
Marched the noble King.
* * * *
While the renowned King
Was in the City of Dublin
Lo! a messenger in haste
... Came to announce to the King
That Henry his eldest son
Had in truth revolted against him,
And that he sought to deprive him wholly
Of the lordship of Normandy.
* * * *
l. 2763. And the King towards Normandy
Went with his great nobles
In order to make war against a son of his
Who wished to despoil him.
War had the rich King
With the French in Normandy.
In Ireland remained
The noble earl with his friends.
THE CONSTITUTIONS OF THE SYNOD OF CASHEL (1172).
+Source.+--_Giraldus Cambrensis_, p. 232. Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell &
Sons.
_First._ It is decreed that all the faithful throughout Ireland shall
eschew concubinage with their cousins and kinsfolk, and contract and
adhere to lawful marriages.
_Second._ That children be catechised outside the church doors, and
infants baptised at the consecrated fonts in the baptisteries of the
churches.
_Third._ That all good Christians do pay the Tithes of beasts, corn and
other produce, to the church of the parish of which they live.
_Fourth._ That all the lands and possessions of the church be entirely
free from all exactions of secular men; and especially that neither the
petty kings nor earls, or other great men in Ireland, nor their sons,
nor any of their household, shall exact provisions and lodgings on any
ecclesiastical territories, as the custom is, nor under any pretence
presume to extort them by violent means; and that the detestable
practice of extorting a loaf four times a year from the mills belonging
to the churches, by neighbouring lords, shall henceforth be utterly
abolished.
_Fifth._ That in the case of a homicide committed by laics, when it is
compounded for by the adverse parties, none of the clergy, though of
kindred to the perpetrators of the crime, shall contribute anything;
that, as they were free from the guilt of the homicide, so they shall be
also exonerated from any payment in satisfaction for it.
_Sixth._ That every good Christian, being sick and weak, shall solemnly
make his last will and testament in the presence of his confessor and
neighbours, and that, if he have any wife and children, all his moveable
goods, his debts and servants' wages being first paid, shall be divided
into three parts, one of which he shall bequeath to his children,
another to his lawful wife, and the third to such uses as he shall
declare. And if it shall happen that there be no lawful child or
children, then his goods shall be equally divided between his wife and
legatees. And if his wife die before him, then his goods shall be
divided into two parts, of which the children shall take one, and his
residuary legatees the other.
_Seventh._ That those who depart this life after a good confession shall
be buried with masses and vigils and all due ceremonies.
_Finally._ That divine offices shall be henceforth celebrated in every
part of Ireland, according to the forms and usages of the Church of
England.
DISPUTES WITH HENRY'S SONS (1173).
+Source.+--_Roger de Hoveden_, Part 2, Vol. I., pp. 367 _seqq._ Bohn's
Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
There also came to Limoges the Earl of Maurienne, and desired to know
how much of his own territory the King of England intended to grant to
his son John; and on the King expressing an intention to give him the
Castle of Chinon, the Castle of Lodun, and the Castle of Mirabel, the
King, his son, would in nowise agree thereto, nor allow it to be done.
For he was already greatly offended that his father was unwilling to
assign to him some portion of his territories, where he, with his wife,
might take up their residence. Indeed, he had requested his father to
give him either Normandy, or Anjou, or England, which request he had
made at the suggestion of the King of France, and of those of the Earls
and Barons of England and Normandy, who disliked his father: and from
this time it was that the King, the son, had been seeking pretexts and
an opportunity for withdrawing from his father. And he had now so
entirely revolted in feeling from obeying his wishes, that he could not
even converse with him on any subject in a peaceable manner.
Having now gained his opportunity, both as to place and occasion, the
King, the son, left his father, and proceeded to the King of France.
However, Richard Barre, his chancellor, Walter, his chaplain, Ailward,
his chamberlain, and William Blund, his apparitor, left him, and
returned to the King, his father. Thus did the king's son lose both his
feelings and his senses: he repulsed the innocent, persecuted a father,
usurped authority, seized upon a kingdom; he alone was the guilty one,
and yet a whole army conspired against his father. "So does the madness
of one make many mad." For he it was who thirsted for the blood of a
father, the gore of a parent!
In the meantime, Louis, King of the Franks, held a great council at
Paris, at which he and all the principal men of France made oath to the
son of the King of England that they would assist him in every way in
expelling his father from the kingdom if he should not accede to his
wishes: on which he swore to them that he would not make peace with his
father, except with their sanction and consent. After this, he swore
that he would give to Philip, Earl of Flanders, for his homage, a
thousand pounds of yearly revenues in England, and the whole of Kent,
together with Dover Castle, and Rochester Castle; to Matthew, Earl of
Boulogne, for his homage, the Soke of Kirketon in Lindsey, and the
earldom of Mortaigue, with the honour of Hay; and to Theobald, Earl of
Blois, for his homage, two hundred pounds of yearly revenues in Anjou,
and the Castle of Amboise, with all the jurisdiction which he had
claimed to hold in Touraine; and he also quitted claim to him of all
right that the King his father and himself had claimed in Chateau
Regnaud. All these gifts, and many besides, that he had made to other
persons, he confirmed under his new seal, which the King of France had
ordered to be made for him.
Besides these, he made other gifts, which, under the same seal, he
confirmed: namely, to William, King of Scotland, for his assistance, the
whole of Northumberland as far as the river Tyne. To the brother of the
same king, he gave, for his services, the Earldom of Huntingdon and of
Cambridgeshire, and to Earl Hugh Bigot, for his services, the Castle of
Norwich.
TROUBLE WITH SCOTLAND (1174).
+Source.+--_Roger de Hoveden_, Part 2, Vol. I., p. 377. Bohn's
Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
In the meantime, William, King of the Scots, came into Northumberland
with a large force, and there with his Scotch and Galloway men committed
execrable deeds. Infants, children, youths, aged men, all of both sexes,
from the highest to the lowest, they slew alike without mercy or ransom.
The priests and clergy they murdered in the very churches upon the
altars. Consequently, wherever the Scots and the Galloway men came,
horror and carnage prevailed. Shortly after, the King of the Scots sent
his brother David to Leicester; but before he arrived there, Reginald,
Earl of Cornwall, and Richard de Lacy, Justiciary of England, had burned
the City of Leicester to the ground, together with its churches and
buildings, with the exception of the castle.
THE PENANCE OF HENRY (1174).
+Source.+--_Roger de Hoveden_, Part 2, Vol. I., p. 383. Bohn's
Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
On the day after this, he[5] set out on a pilgrimage to the tomb of
Saint Thomas the Martyr, Archbishop of Canterbury. On his approach, as
soon as he was in sight of the church, in which the body of the blessed
martyr lay buried, he dismounted from the horse on which he rode, took
off his shoes, and, barefoot, clad in woollen garments, walked three
miles to the tomb of the martyr, with such humility and compunction of
heart, that it may be believed beyond a doubt to have been the work of
Him who looketh down on the earth, and maketh it to tremble. To those
who beheld them, his footsteps along the road on which he walked, seemed
to be covered with blood, and really were so; for his tender feet being
cut by the hard stones, a great quantity of blood flowed from them on to
the ground. When he had arrived at the tomb, it was a holy thing to see
the affliction which he suffered, with sobs and tears, and the
discipline to which he submitted at the hands of the bishops and a great
number of priests and monks. Here, also, aided by the prayers of many
holy men, he passed the night, before the sepulchre of the blessed
martyr, in prayer, fasting, and lamentations. As for the gifts and
revenues, which, for the remission of his sins, he bestowed on this
church, they can never under any circumstance be obliterated from the
remembrance thereof. In the morning of the following day, after hearing
mass, he departed thence, on the third day before the ides of July,
being Saturday, with the intention of proceeding to London. And inasmuch
as he was mindful of the Lord in his entire heart, the Lord granted unto
him the victory over his enemies, and delivered them captive into his
hands. For on the very same Saturday on which the King left Canterbury,
William, King of the Scots, was taken prisoner at Alnwick by the
above-named knights of Yorkshire, who pursued him after his retreat from
Prudhoe. On the following day, namely on the seventh day before the
calends of August, the King departed from Seleham, and proceeded to
Northampton; on his arrival at which place, William, King of the Scots,
was brought to him, with his feet fastened beneath a horse's belly.
[5] The King of England, the father.
END OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL DISPUTE (1175).
+Source.+--_Roger de Hoveden_, Part 2, Vol. I., p. 392. Bohn's
Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
"Those who are in holy orders are not allowed to give judgment on
matters of life and death. Wherefore we do forbid them either themselves
to take part in dismemberment, or to order it to be done by others. And
if anyone shall be guilty of doing such a thing, let him be deprived of
the office and position of the orders that have been granted to him. We
do also forbid, under penalty of excommunication, any priest to hold the
office of sheriff, or that of any secular public officer."
"Likewise, inasmuch as the church of God, according to the verity of the
Gospel, ought to be the house of prayer, and not a den of thieves, and
market for blood; under pain of excommunication we do forbid secular
causes, in which the shedding of blood, or bodily punishment is likely
to be the result, to be tried in churches or in churchyards. For it is
absurd and cruel for judgment of bloodshed, to be discussed in the place
which has also been appointed the place of refuge for the guilty."
THE ALBIGENSIAN HERESY IN TOULOUSE (1178).
+Source.+--_Roger de Hoveden_, Vol. I., pp. 471-475. Bohn's
Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
In the meantime the Arian heresy which, as previously mentioned, had
been condemned in the province of Toulouse, had revived; and this coming
to the ears of the King of France and the King of England, inflamed by
zeal for the Christian faith, they determined personally to go thither,
in order that they might entirely drive the before-named heretics from
those parts. However, after a short time had intervened, it seemed to
them that it might be more effectual if they sent thither wise men to
convert the heretics to the Christian faith by their preaching and
learning, than if they themselves were to hasten thither in person, for
they were reminded of the words, "Tis enough to have commanded
vengeance; more will the dread of your name effect than your sword; your
presence diminishes your fame."
They therefore sent thither Peter, cardinal priest, titular of St.
Chrysogonus, and legate of the Apostolic See, the Archbishops of Bourges
and Narbonne, Reginald, Bishop of Bath, John, Bishop of Poitou, Henry,
Abbot of Clairval, and many other ecclesiastics, in order that by their
preaching they might convert the said heretics to the Christian faith,
or on reasonable grounds prove them to be heretics, and separate them
from the threshold of holy Mother Church and from communion with the
faithful. In addition to this, the before-named Kings chose Raymond,
Count of Toulouse, the Viscount of Touraine, Raymond of Neufchatel, and
other influential men, and ordered them to act as assessors to the
above-named cardinal and his associates in the faith of Christ, and to
expel the said heretics from those parts by the power of their might.
Accordingly, when the before-named cardinal and the other Catholic
persons had entered Toulouse, they found there a certain wealthy man,
who possessed two castles, one within the city and the other without the
walls of the city, who, before their coming had confessed himself to be
a sectary of the heretical corruption; and now, moved by terror, and
desiring to screen this execrable sect, made pretence that he was a
Christian. When the cardinal came to know this, he ordered the said
wealthy person to be brought before him; on whose coming for the purpose
of making confession of his faith, he was found to be in every article
an antagonist of the Christian religion. Accordingly, he was pronounced
by the aforesaid cardinal and the bishops who were with him, a manifest
heretic, and condemned; and they gave orders that his property should be
confiscated, and that the castles which he possessed, lofty and of great
beauty, should be levelled with the ground. Upon seeing himself thus
condemned, and his property confiscated, he came to the cardinal, and
the bishops, his associates, and prostrating himself at their feet;
asked pardon, and, penance being enjoined him, was led naked and
scourged through the streets and lanes of the city. After this, he swore
that he would go to Jerusalem, and remain there three years in the
service of God, and if, after the said three years, he should return
home, his possessions were to be restored to him on condition, however,
that his castles should be levelled in testimony of his heretical
depravity; he was also to give the count of Toulouse five hundred pounds
of silver.
On these taking place, many of the heretics, fearing lest they might be
dealt with in a similar manner, came to the cardinal and his associates,
and secretly confessing their errors and asking pardon, obtained mercy.
In the meanwhile, it came to their ears, that certain false brethren,
namely Raymond, Bernard, the son of Raymond, and certain other
heresiarchs, transforming themselves into angels of light, while they
were those of Satan, and preaching what was contrary to the Christian
faith, led astray the minds of many by their false preaching, and had
dragged them with themselves to hell. These being summoned to come into
the presence of the cardinal and his associates, for the purpose of
making confession of their faith, made answer that they would come
before them if they should have a safe conduct in going and returning. A
safe conduct, in going and returning, being accordingly given to them,
they came before the above-named cardinal and the bishops, barons,
clergy, and people who were present, and produced before them a certain
paper in which they had written down the articles of their faith. On
their reading this at length, there seemed in it certain expressions of
a suspicious nature, which, unless more fully expressed, might possibly
conceal the heresy which they preached. When one of them attempted to
explain the articles so written, and to speak in Latin, he was barely
able to connect two words, being utterly ignorant of the Latin language.
Upon this it was necessary for the cardinal and the bishops to bring
themselves more on a level with them, and, in consequence of their
ignorance, to use the vulgar tongue. Accordingly, on being examined as
to the articles of the Christian faith, they made answer as to all the
articles of the faith as soundly and as circumspectly as if they had
been most sincere Christians.
Upon the Count of Toulouse and others, who had formerly heard them
preach what was contrary to the Christian faith, hearing this statement
from them, being struck with the greatest astonishment, and inflamed
with zeal for the Christian faith, they arose and most clearly convicted
them to their faces of having lied; saying that they had heard from some
of them that there were two Gods, the one good and the other bad, the
good one having only made things invisible and which cannot be changed
or corrupted, the bad one, the heavens, the earth, man and the other
things visible. Others again affirmed that they had heard at their
preaching, that the body of Christ was not made by the administration of
a priest who was unworthy, or who had been convicted of any crime.
Others again said that they had heard from them that baptism was of no
use to infants, and the utterance of numerous other blasphemies against
God and the Holy Church, and the Catholic faith, which, by reason of
their abominable enormity, it is better to be silent upon than to
disclose. The heretics, however, contradicted these matters, and said
that they had given false testimony against them. For they said
publicly, in presence of the before-named cardinal and bishops, and all
the people there present, and made confession, and stoutly asserted,
that there is but one God most high, who has made all things visible and
invisible, and entirely denied that there were two first principles of
things. They also confessed that the priest, whether good or bad,
whether just or unjust, and whether such a character that they knew him
beyond doubt to be an adulterer or criminal in other respects, was able
to make the body and blood of Christ, and that, through the ministration
of a priest of this character, and by virtue of the divine words which
were pronounced by the Lord, bread and wine were really changed in
substance into the body and blood of Christ. When, however, they had
been convicted by many and competent witnesses, and many persons were
still preparing to bear witness against them, because the Church is not
wont to deny the bosom of mercy to those who turn thereto, they
carefully warned them, laying aside all heretical corruptions, to return
to the unity of the faith. They also advised them, as they had been
excommunicated by our Lord, the Pope, and the before-named cardinal, and
the Archbishops of Bourges and Narbonne, and the Bishop of Toulouse, on
account of their perverse preaching and schism, to come to be reconciled
to the Catholic faith, according to the forms prescribed by the Church.
This, however, being warped into tortuous ways, and hardened by
abandoned habits, they refused to do, on which the said cardinal, and
the above-mentioned Bishops, together with the before-named Bishop of
Poitiers, and the other religious men who had assisted them throughout,
in the sight of the whole people, with lighted candles again denounced
them as excommunicated, and condemned them, together with their
prompter, the devil, and gave orders to all the faithful in Christ,
thenceforth cautiously to avoid the before-named Raymond and Bernard,
and their accomplices, as persons excommunicated and handed over to
Satan; and that if at any time in future they should preach to them
anything else than what they had confessed in their hearing, they should
reject their preaching as false, and contrary to the Catholic and
Apostolic faith, and drive them as heretics and forerunners of
Anti-Christ to a distance from their territories. Moreover, the Count of
Toulouse, and the other more influential men of the province, in
presence of all the people gave assurance on oath, that from that time
forward they would neither, for entreaty nor for money, support the
heretics.
THE ELECTION OF AN ABBOT (1182).
+Source.+--_Jocelin de Brakelond_, Chapter 2. King's Classics. Chatto &
Windus.
At last the prior and the twelve that were with him, after many fatigues
and delays, stood before the King at Waltham, the manor of the Bishop of
Winchester, upon the second Sunday in Lent. The King graciously received
them; and, saying that he wished to act in accordance with the will of
God and the honour of our Church, commanded the brethren by
prolocutors--namely, Richard, the Bishop of Winchester, and Geoffrey,
the chancellor, afterwards Archbishop of York--that they should nominate
three members of our convent. The prior and brethren retiring as if to
confer thereupon,--drew forth the sealed writing and opened it, and
found the names written in this order--Samson, sub-sacrista; Roger,
celerarius; Hugh, tercius prior. Hereupon those brethren who were of
higher standing blushed with shame; they also marvelled that this same
Hugh should be at once elector and elected. But, inasmuch as they could
not alter what was done, by mutual arrangement they changed the order of
the names; first naming Hugh, because he was third prior; secondly,
Roger the cellarer; thirdly, Samson, thus literally making the last
first, and the first last. The King, first enquiring whether they were
born in his realm, and in whose lordship, said he knew them not,
directing that with those three, some other three of the convent should
be nominated. This being assented to, William the Sacrist said, "Our
prior ought to be nominated because he is our head," which was directly
allowed. The prior said, "William the Sacrist is a good man"; the like
was said of Dennis, and that was settled. These being nominated before
the King without any delay, the King marvelled, saying, "These men have
been speedy in their work; God is with them."
Next the King commanded that, for the honour of his kingdom, they should
name three persons of other houses. On hearing this, the brethren were
afraid, suspecting some craft. At last, upon conference, it was resolved
that they should name three, but upon this understanding, that they
would not receive any one of those three, unless by assent of the
convent at home. And they named these three--Master Nicholas of
Waringford, afterwards (for a season) Abbot of Malmesbury; Bertrand,
Prior of St. Faith's, afterwards Abbot of Chertsey; and Master H. of St.
Neot's, a monk of Bec, a man highly religious, and very circumspect in
spiritual as well as temporal affairs.
This being done, the King thanked them, and ordered that three should be
struck off of the nine; and forthwith the three strangers were struck
off, namely, the Prior of St. Faith's, afterwards Abbot of Chertsey,
Nicholas, a monk of St. Albans, afterwards Abbot of Malmesbury, and the
Prior of St. Neot's. William the Sacrist voluntarily retired, two of the
five were struck out by command of the King, and, ultimately, one out of
the remaining three. There then remained but two, the Prior and Samson.
Then at length the before-named prolocutors of our lord the King were
called to the council of the brethren: and Dennis, speaking as one for
all began by commending the persons of the prior and Samson, saying,
that each of them was learned, each was good, each was of meritorious
life and good character. But always in the corner of his discourse he
gave prominence to Samson, multiplying words in his praise, saying that
he was a man strict in life, severe in reforming excesses, and ready to
work hard; heedful, moreover, in secular matters, and approved in
various offices. The Bishop of Winchester replied, "We see what it is
you wish to say; from your address we gather that your prior seems to
you, to have been somewhat remiss, and that, in fact, you wish to have
him who is called Samson." Dennis answered, "Either of them is good,
but, by God's help, we desire to have the best." To whom the bishop, "Of
two good men the better should be chosen. Speak out at once; is it your
wish to have Samson?" Whereupon several, in fact the majority, answered
clearly, "We do wish Samson." No one gainsaid this, though some
studiously held their peace, being fearful of offending either one or
the other.
Samson was then named to the King, and after a brief consultation with
those about him, the King called all in, and said, "You present to me
Samson--I know him not; had you presented to me your prior, I should
have accepted him, because I know and am well acquainted with him; but
now I will do as you desire me. Take heed to yourselves; by the very
eyes of God, if you have done ill, I shall call you to severe account."
And he inquired of the prior, whether he assented to this choice and
agreed thereto; who replied that he was well content it should be so,
and that Samson was worthy of a much greater dignity. Then the elect,
falling down at the King's feet and kissing them, hastily arose, and
forthwith went towards the altar, erect in gait, and with unmoved
countenance, singing "Miserere mei Deus" together with his brethren. The
King, observing this, said to the bystanders, "By the eyes of God, this
abbot-elect thinks himself worthy to govern an abbey!"
JOHN IN IRELAND (1185).
+Source.+--_Giraldus Cambrensis_, p. 309. Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell &
Sons.
All things necessary for this great expedition having been prepared and
made ready by the royal commands, John, the King of England's youngest
son, on whom the dominion of Ireland had been lately conferred, took his
journey by the coast road of South Wales towards Menevia and arrived at
Pembroke. He was accompanied by a person of the highest station, Ranulf
de Glanville, the King's chief privy counsellor and Justiciary of all
England, who conducted him on board ship. On Wednesday, in Easter week,
the breeze blowing favourably from the eastward, he embarked in the
noble fleet which lay at anchor in Milford harbour, and on account of
the sudden change of wind was prevented visiting the venerable church of
St. David's, an unpropitious omen. Setting sail the same evening, the
fleet accomplished its passage and reached the port of Waterford about
noon on the day following, having on board about three hundred
men-at-arms, and a large force of horse soldiers and archers.
* * * * *
I think it, therefore, not amiss that I should briefly state why, and
from what causes, this first enterprise of the King's son did not fulfil
his expectations; the success not being equal to the vast preparations
for it.... I should say, then, that the first and principal cause of
these mischances, was the King's not having listened to the solemn call
of the patriarch Heraclius, before mentioned, and either gone himself,
or at least sent one of his sons on his behalf, with ready devotion, in
obedience to the commands of Christ. But instead of this, at the moment
of this memorable summons, and in the very presence of the venerable
envoy charged with it, he sent this son of his, with a retinue and
outfit more sumptuous than profitable, not to the East, but to the West,
not against the Saracens, but against Christians; for his own
aggrandisement, not for the cause of Jesus Christ.
Another cause was this; as soon as the King's son landed in Ireland,
there met him at Waterford a great many of the Irish of the better class
in those parts; men who, having been hitherto loyal to the English and
disposed to be peaceable, came to congratulate him as their new lord,
and receive him with the kiss of peace. But our newcomers and Normans
not only treated them with contempt and derision, but even rudely pulled
them by their beards, which the Irishmen wore full and long, according
to the custom of their country. No sooner, however, had they made their
escape, than they withdrew from the neighbourhood with all their
households, and, betaking themselves to the King of Limerick, the prince
of Cork, and Roderick, King of Connaught, gave full particulars of all
that they had observed during their visit to the King's son. They said
that they found him to be a mere boy, surrounded by others almost as
young as himself; and that the young prince abandoned himself to
juvenile pursuits; and they further declared, that what they saw
promised no mature or stable counsels, no security for the peace of
Ireland.
On hearing this, the princes of Limerick, Connaught and Cork, who were
at that time the mainstay of Ireland, although they were prepared to
wait upon the young King's son and offer him their homage and submission
with the usual forms, began to consider among themselves to what greater
evils these small beginnings might lead, and what course would be taken
with the proud and independent, when good and peaceable subjects were
thus treated. They then resolved unanimously to resist the English, and
defend with their lives their ancient liberties; and the better to carry
this resolution into effect, a new league was generally entered into,
and those who were before enemies were now reconciled, and became
friends....
Another cause is this: We took away their lands from our own Irishmen,
who had faithfully stood by us from the first coming over of
Fitz-Stephen and the earl, and have given them to our newcomers. These
Irish, therefore, betaking themselves to our enemies, became spies upon
us, and guides to shew them the way to us, having the more power to do
us injury from their former familiarity with us. Besides, the care and
custody of all the towns and castles on the sea-coast, with the lands,
revenues and tributes appertaining to them, which ought to have been
administered for the public good and for defence against the enemy, were
assigned to persons who thought only of hunting-out money; and keeping
themselves carefully within the town walls, they spent their time and
all that they had in drunkenness and surfeiting, to the loss and damage
of the good citizens, instead of the annoyance of the enemy....
In the meantime this was the state of the island: all the roads were
impracticable, all communications cut off; no security anywhere from the
broad axes of the Irish; new reports daily of fresh losses by the
English. Such was the condition of the country outside the towns. Within
the walls, there was some semblance of order and tranquillity; and with
plenty of wine and money, delinquencies in all quarters were easily
atoned. Besides, when the storm was gathering in the enemy's quarters,
it was time for the troops to look at their arms, instead of being
immersed in civil affairs. But instead of this, there was so much
vexatious litigation, that the veteran soldiers were more harassed by
their adversaries within, than by the enemy without the walls....
I must add to my account of the mischiefs done by the new Government,
one that is the greatest of all. Not only do we neglect to make any
offering to the Church of Christ, not only are the honours and thanks
due to God unacknowledged by any gift of the prince and his followers,
but we even rob the Church of its lands and possessions, and strive to
abridge or annul its ancient rights and privileges....
The many outrages and disorders which have been the fruits of the new
Government of Ireland, are not to be imputed so much to the tender years
of the King's son, as to evil counsels, although both had a large share
in them; for the land, as yet rude and barbarous, required men of
experience, whose minds were matured, to reduce it to order.... But that
these great disorders were more to be attributed to the advice of evil
counsellors, was even whispered among the younger sort, and taken for
certain by older and more discreet persons.
CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM (1187).
+Source.+--_Geoffrey de Vinsauf, Chronicles of the Crusades_, pp. 78-9.
G. Bell & Sons.
The fall of Jerusalem was now impending: the victor advancing with speed
equal to his hatred, laid siege to the city, and erecting his machines,
with sacrilegious irreverence profaned all the holy places. There was a
certain cross of stone, which our soldiers formerly, when, after the
capture of Antioch, they had gloriously taken this city, had erected on
the wall in commemoration of the deed. The ferocious invaders destroyed
this cross with a blow from one of their machines, and at the same time
struck down a great part of the wall. The citizens interposed such
defences as they were able, but all the exertions of our men were
ineffectual: bows, balistas and slings were used to no purpose; both
arms and machines visibly declared that the Lord was wroth, and foretold
the fall of the city. A large number of people had flocked together to
the city from the neighbouring fortresses, trusting rather in the
sanctity of the place than in the strength of its defences; but in so
great a multitude hardly fourteen knights could be found. The priests
and clerks, although it was contrary to their profession, discharged the
duties of soldiers, according to the emergency, and fought bravely for
the Lord's house, bearing in mind the maxim, that to repel force by
force is allowed by all laws both human and divine. But the populace
alike ignorant and timorous, flocked in numbers round the patriarch and
the queen, who were left in charge of the city, bitterly complaining and
earnestly entreating that they might treat with the Sultan for peace, as
soon as possible. Their capitulation, however, was one to be deplored,
rather than praised: for each of them had to pay the ransom of his own
life; a man was valued at ten bezants, a woman at five, a child at one;
and whoever was unable to pay, was made a slave. It thus happened that
when many of them, either out of their own property, or by aids gathered
from other sources, had paid the price of their safety, there remained
14,000, who could not redeem themselves and were made slaves for life.
To those who purchased their liberty, the choice was given, either to
proceed to Antioch, or to be carried under safe-conduct to Alexandria,
and thence to cross the sea. That day was indeed a bitter day, on which
the exiles separated, each on his different road, and left that sacred
city, that city which had been the queen of cities, but which was now
reduced to slavery; that city which was the inheritance of its children,
but was now in the hands of strangers, on account of the wickedness of
those who dwelt therein.
Glorious was Jerusalem, the city of God, where the Lord suffered, and
was buried, and where He displayed the glory of His resurrection; but
she is now subject to contamination at the hands of her base-born foe;
nor is there any grief like that grief, that they should possess the
sepulchre, who persecuted Him that lies buried in it; and those, who had
despised the Crucified, have made themselves masters of his Cross! This
most holy city had been, for about ninety-six years, in the hands of our
people, ever since the victorious arms of the Christians had taken it,
at the same time as Antioch; when it had been forty years before in the
possession of the unbelievers. When the city was taken, the crier of the
Mahometan law proceeded to the summit of the rock of Calvary, and there
published their false law, in the place where Christ had consummated the
law of death upon the cross. Another diabolical act was perpetuated by
the enemy. They fastened ropes round a certain cross, which stood upon
the pinnacle of the church of the Hospitallers, and dragged it to the
ground, where they spat upon it, and hacked it, and drew it, in derision
of our faith, through all the filth of the city.
RAISING MONEY FOR THE CRUSADE (1189).
+Source.+--_Richard of Devizes, Chronicles of the Crusades_, §§ 3, 9,
11, 12. G. Bell & Sons.
3. Now in the year of our Lord's incarnation 1189, Richard, the son of
King Henry II. by Eleanor, brother of Henry III.[6] was consecrated King
of the English by Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, at Westminster, on
the 3rd of the Nones of September (3 Sept.). On the very day of the
coronation, about that solemn hour, in which the Son was immolated to
the Father, a sacrifice of the Jews to their father the devil was
commenced in the city of London, and so long was the duration of this
famous mystery, that the holocaust could scarcely be accomplished the
ensuing day. The other cities and towns of the kingdom emulated the
faith of the Londoners, and with a like devotion despatched their
bloodsuckers with blood to hell. In this commotion there was prepared,
though unequally, some evil against the wicked, everywhere throughout
the realm, only Winchester alone, the people being prudent and
circumspect, and the city always acting mildly, spared its vermin. It
never did anything over speedily; fearing nothing more than to repent,
it considers everything before the commencement.
9. The time of commencing his journey pressed hard upon King Richard, as
he, who had been first of all the princes on this side the Alps in the
taking up of the cross, was unwilling to be last in setting out. A King
worthy of the name of King, who, in the first year of his reign, left
the kingdom of England for Christ, scarcely otherwise than if he had
departed never to return. So great was the devotion of the men, so
hastily, so quickly and so speedily did he run, yea fly, to avenge the
wrongs of Christ. However, whilst he kept the greater matter in his
mind, giving himself in some little measure to deliberation for the
kingdom, having received power from the pope that he might withdraw the
cross from such of his own subjects as he should desire, for the
government of his kingdom, he first appointed Hugh Pudsey, bishop of
Durham, to be chief justice of the whole realm, and with design, as is
thought by many, further creating him a young earl of Northumberland out
of an old bishop, the custody of as many castles as he liked being
yielded to him, he diligently cleared from his coffers ten thousand
pounds of silver. Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, William Briwere and Hugh Bardulf
being permitted to remain at home, the cross being withdrawn from them,
the King's treasurer transferred the whole collections of the three as
three nuts into the Exchequer. All the sheriffs of the kingdom on any
trivial accusation falling under the King's displeasure, were deprived
of their unlucky power, and scarcely permitted to see his face, even by
the mediation of inestimable treasure.
11. Godfrey, bishop of Winchester, mindful of his profession, suing for
the restoration of the possessions of his church which had been taken
away, as no one had any right of replevin against the church of
Winchester with respect to its two manors, namely Meones and Weregrave,
recovered them by judicial decree, three thousand pounds of silver being
privately given to the King. Nor did the considerate man omit at the
same time to pay a fine to the King for the indemnity of the church's
treasure, for his patrimony, for the county of Hampshire and for the
custody of the Castles of Winchester and Porchester. And because the
time for the payment of so much money was nigh at hand, as he could not
pass over the day fixed for the payment without detriment to the whole
business, and he could find no nearer resource under heaven, although
against his will, he laid his hand on the treasure of his church, to
restore which, however, he obliged himself and his successors, providing
security to the convent by the testimony of a sealed bond. A man of such
courtesy and moderation, who not even when angry ever did anything to
those who were under him, but what savoured of mildness: truly of his
family, and one of his familiars, of whom it is said, under whom to live
is to reign.
12. The King readily disburthened all whose money was a burthen to them,
such powers and possessions as they chose being given to anybody at
pleasure; wherewith also on a time an old acquaintance in the company
joking him, he broke off with this evasion, "I would sell London if I
could find a chapman." Many a one might have been forewarned by that
expression, had it been uttered sooner, not to learn to be a wise
merchant, after the English proverb, "by buying for a dozen, and selling
for one and a half."
[6] Henry, son of King Henry II., is frequently styled Henry the Third,
in the early chronicles.
LAWS OF RICHARD I. CONCERNING CRUSADERS WHO WERE TO GO BY SEA (1189).
+Source.+--_Historical Documents of the Middle Ages_, p. 135. Henderson.
G. Bell & Sons.
Richard by the grace of God, King of England, and Duke of Normandy and
Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou, to all his subjects who are about to go
by sea to Jerusalem, greeting. Know that we, by the common counsel of
upright men, have made the laws here given. Whoever slays a man on
shipboard, shall be bound to the dead man and thrown into the sea. But
if he shall slay him on land, he shall be bound to the dead man and
buried in the earth. If any one, moreover, shall be convicted through
lawful witnesses of having drawn a knife to strike another, or of having
struck him so as to draw blood, he shall lose his hand. But if he shall
strike him with his fist without drawing blood, he shall be dipped three
times in the sea. But if any one shall taunt or insult a comrade or
charge him with hatred of God: as many times as he shall have insulted
him, so many ounces of silver shall he pay. A robber, moreover,
convicted of theft, shall be shorn like a hired fighter, and boiling tar
shall be poured over his head, and feathers from a cushion shall be
shaken out over his head--so that he may be publicly known; and at the
first land where the ships shall put in he shall be cast on shore. Under
my own witness at Chinon.
THE ABBOT AND THE JEWS (1190).
+Source.+--_Jocelin de Brakelond_, Chapter 6. King's Classics. Chatto &
Windus.
The lord Abbot sought from the King letters enjoining that the Jews
should be driven away from the town of St. Edmund, he stating that
whatever is within the town of St. Edmund, or within the banlieue
thereof, of right belongs to St. Edmund: therefore the Jews ought to
become the men of St. Edmund, otherwise they should be expelled from the
town. Licence was accordingly given that he might put them forth,
saving, nevertheless, that they had all their chattels and the value of
their houses and lands. And when they were expelled, and with an armed
force conducted to divers towns, the abbot gave order that all those
that from henceforth should harbour or entertain Jews in the town of St.
Edmund should be solemnly excommunicated in every church and at every
altar. Howbeit it was afterwards conceded by the King's justices that if
the Jews should come to the great pleas of the Abbot, to demand their
debts from their debtors, on such occasion they might for two days and
two nights lodge within the town, and on the third day be permitted to
depart freely.
THE KINGS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND AT MESSINA (1190).
+Source.+--_Chronicles of the Crusades_, Chap. XIII., pp. 163-4. Bohn's
Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
It is a general custom, that when any particular king or prince of the
earth, conspicuous for his glory, might, and authority, comes forth in
public, his appearance of power shall not fall short of that with which
he is actually invested,--nay, it is but right and becoming that the
greatness of a king should be shown in his display and the homage which
is paid him; for a common proverb says, "Such as I see you are, I esteem
you." Moreover the general style and manner is taken from the
disposition of the chief. When, therefore, the King of France, of so
high renown, whose edict so many princes and nations obeyed, was known
to be entering the port of Messina, the natives, of every age and sex,
rushed forth to see so famous a King; but he, content with a single
ship, as if to avoid the sight of men, entered the port of the Citadel
privately, while those who awaited him along the shore conceived this to
be a proof of his weakness, and spoke upbraidingly of him as one not
likely to be the performer of any great actions, who thus slunk from the
eye of man, and being frustrated in their hopes of seeing him, they
returned indignant to their homes. But when the report was spread of the
arrival of the noble-minded King of England, the people rushed out
eagerly to behold him, crowding along the shore and seating themselves
wherever they were likely to catch a glimpse of him. And lo! they beheld
the sea in the distance covered with innumerable galleys; and the sound
of trumpets and clarions, loud and shrill, strike upon the ear! Then, as
they approached nearer, they saw the galleys as they were impelled
onward, laden and adorned with arms of all kinds; their pennons and
standards floating in countless numbers in the breeze in good order, and
on the tops of their spears; the prow of the galleys distinguished from
each other by the variety of the paintings, with shields glittering in
the sun, and you might behold the sea boiling, from the number of
oarsmen who plied it, and the ears of the spectators rang with the peals
of the instruments commonly called trumpets, and their delight was
aroused by the approach of the varied crowd, when lo! the magnificent
King, accompanied by the crowd of obedient galleys, standing on a prow
more elevated and ornamental than the others, as if to see what he had
not seen before, or to be seen by the crowds that densely thronged the
shore, lands in a splendid dress, where the sailors whom he had sent
before him, and others of his equipage, receive him with
congratulations, and bring forward the chargers and horses which had
been committed to their care for transportation, that he and his suite
might mount. The natives crowd round him on all sides, mixed with his
own men, and followed him to his hostel. The common people conversed
with each other in admiration of his great glory; and agreed that he was
worthy of Empire, and deserved to be set over nations and kingdoms, "for
the fame of him which we had before heard fell far short of the truth
when we saw him." Meanwhile, the trumpets blew, and their sounds being
harmoniously blended, there arose a kind of discordant concord of notes.
Whilst the sameness of the sounds being continued, the one followed the
other in mutual succession, and the notes which had been lowered were
again resounded.
THE CAPTURE OF MESSINA, AND THE JEALOUSY OF PHILIP, KING OF FRANCE (1190).
+Source.+--_Chronicles of the Crusades_, pp. 169-70. Bohn's Libraries.
G. Bell & Sons.
King Richard captured Messina by one assault, in less time than a priest
could chant the matin service. Many more of the citizens would have
fallen, had not King Richard, with an impulse of generosity, ordered
their lives to be spared. But who could reckon the sum of money which
the citizens lost? All the gold and silver, and whatsoever precious
thing was found became the property of the victors. They also set fire
to, and burnt to ashes, the enemy's galleys, lest they should escape,
and recover strength to resist. The victors also carried off their
noblest women. And lo! after this action had been performed, the French
suddenly beheld the ensigns and standards of King Richard floating above
the walls of the city; at which the King of France was so mortified,
that he conceived that hatred against King Richard which lasted during
his life, and afterwards led him to the unjust invasion of Normandy.
Chap. XVII. The King of France, jealous of the successes of the King of
England, and misliking his high spirit, very much grieved that he should
not have the glory which the other had gained by the force of his own
greatness; for, contrary to the conditions of mutual agreement, and
while the army was in the greatest danger, and a great slaughter going
on before his eyes, he proffered not a helping hand to the King of
England against an obstinate foe. As he was bound by the treaty of
alliance. Nay, he resisted as much as he could, and kept him a long time
from occupying the entrance of the city where he himself abode. The city
being taken, as we said before, and the banners of King Richard planted
on the walls, the King of France, as an acknowledgment of his
superiority, ordered his banners to be planted above those of the
English King. King Richard, indignant at this command, considering what
previously occurred, and bearing in mind the rights of their fellowship,
sent no answer, lest he should seem to surrender his right, and the
victory should be ascribed not only to one who had been inactive, but to
a perjured adversary. At the intercession of mediators, however, the
anger of King Richard, was at length appeased; an end was put to their
wrangling, and, yielding to the soothings of his friends, with some
difficulty, he was held invincible, being overcome by his foes, gave way
to the request of the King of France, viz. that he should deliver into
his custody the towers he had taken, and place in them guards of both
nations, until they should learn the sentiments of King Tancred as to
what had been done; and he who remained angry and obdurate to threats
and boastings was moved by prayers and soothing. The standards of both
were, therefore, raised above the walls of the city, until he should try
the constancy of the King of France, and prove his friendship.
CAPTURE OF CYPRUS AND RICHARD'S MARRIAGE, 1191.
+Source.+--_Richard of Devizes_, §§ 59, 61, _Chronicles of the Crusades_.
Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
59. The fleet of Richard, King of the English, put out to sea, and
proceeded in this order. In the fore-front went three ships only, in one
of which was the Queen of Sicily and the young damsel of Navarre,
probably still a virgin; in the other two a certain part of the King's
treasure and arms; in each of the three, marines and provisions. In the
second line there were, what with ships and busses and men of war,
thirteen; in the third, fourteen; in the fourth, twenty; in the fifth,
thirty; in the sixth, forty; in the seventh, sixty; in the last, the
King himself, followed with his galleys.
60. Now as the ships were proceeding in the aforesaid manner and order,
some being before others, two of the three first, driven by the violence
of the winds, were broken on the rocks near the port of Cyprus; the
third, which was English, more speedy than they, having turned back into
the deep, escaped the peril. Almost all the men of both ships got away
alive to land, many of whom the hostile Cypriotes slew, some they took
captive, some, taking refuge in a certain church, were besieged.
Whatever also in the ships was cast up by the sea, fell a prey to the
Cypriotes.... God so willed that the cursed people should receive the
reward of their evil deeds by the hands of one who would not spare. The
third English ship, in which were the women, having cast out its
anchors, rode out at sea, and watched all things from opposite, to
report the misfortune to the King, lest haply, being ignorant of the
loss and disgrace, he should pass the place unrevenged. The next line of
the King's ships came up after the other, and they all stopped at the
first. A full report reached the King, who, sending heralds to the lord
of the island, and obtaining no satisfaction, commanded his entire army
to arm, from the first even to the last, and to get out of the great
ships into the galleys and boats, and follow him to the shore. What he
commanded, was immediately performed; they came in arms to the port. The
King being armed, leaped first from his galley, and gave the first blow
in the war; but before he was able to strike a second, he had three
thousand of his followers with him, striking away by his side. All the
timber that had been placed as a barricade in the port was cast down
instantly, and the brave fellows went up into the city, as ferocious as
lionesses are wont to be when robbed of their young. The fight was
carried on manfully against them, numbers fell down wounded on both
sides, and the swords of both parties were made drunk with blood. The
Cypriotes are vanquished, the city is taken, with the castle besides;
whatever the victors choose is ransacked, and the lord of the island is
himself taken and brought to the King. He, being taken, supplicates and
obtains pardon; he offers homage to the King, and it is received; and he
swears, though unasked, that henceforth he will hold the island of him
as his liege lord, and will open all the castles of the land to him,
make satisfaction for the damage already done; and further, bring
presents of his own. On being dismissed after the oath, he is commanded
to fulfil the conditions in the morning.
61. That night the King remained peaceably in the castle; and his
newly-sworn vassal flying, retired to another castle, and caused the
whole of the men of that land, who were able to bear arms, to be
summoned to repair to him, and so they did. The King of Jerusalem,
however, that same night, landed in Cyprus, that he might assist the
King and salute him, whose arrival he had desired above that of any
other in the whole world. On the morrow, the lord of Cyprus was sought
for and found to have fled. The King, seeing that he was abused and
having been informed where he was, directed the King of Jerusalem to
follow the traitor by land with the half of the army, while he conducted
the other part by water, intending to be in the way, that he might not
escape by sea. The divisions reassembled around the city in which he had
taken refuge, and he, having sallied out against the King, fought with
the English, and the battle was carried on sharply by both sides. The
English would that day have been beaten, had they not fought under the
command of King Richard. They at length obtained a dear-bought victory,
the Cypriote flies, and the castle is taken. The Kings pursue him as
before, the one by land, the other by water, and he is besieged in the
third castle. Its walls are cast down by engines hurling huge stones;
he, being overcome, promises to surrender, if only he might not be put
in iron fetters. The King consents to the prayers of the supplicant, and
caused silver shackles to be made for him. The prince of the pirates
being thus taken, the King traversed the whole island, and took all its
castles, and placed his constables in each, and constituted justiciaries
and sheriffs; and the whole land was subjected to him in everything just
like England. The gold, and the silk, and the jewels from the treasures
that were broken open, he retained for himself; the silver and victuals
he gave to the army. To the King of Jerusalem also he made a handsome
present out of his booty.
And because Lent had already passed, and the lawful time of contract was
come, he caused Berengaria, daughter of the King of Navarre, whom his
mother had brought to him in Lent, to be affianced to him in the island.
AT ACRE, (1191).
+Source.+--_Geoffrey de Vinsauf_, Chs. IV., V., VI., VIII., _Chronicles
of the Crusades_. Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
On the following day of Pentecost, King Richard arrived with an army,
the flower of war, and upon learning that the King of France had gained
the goodwill and favour of all, by giving to each of his soldiers three
"aurei" a month,--not to be outdone or equalled in generosity, he
proclaimed by mouth of herald, that whosoever was in his service, no
matter of what nation, should receive four statute "aurei" a month for
his pay. By these means his generosity was extolled by all, for he
outshone everyone else in merit and favours, as he outdid them in gifts
and magnificence. "When," exclaimed they, "will the first attack take
place, by a man whom we have expected so long and anxiously? A man, by
far the first of kings, and the most skilled in war throughout
Christendom? Now let the will of God be done, for the hope of all rests
on King Richard." But after some days sojourn, the King was afflicted
with a severe illness, to which the common people gave the name of
Arnoldia, which is produced by change of climate working on the
constitution. But for all that, he caused petrariae and mangonels to be
raised, and a fort in front of the city gates; and spared no pains to
expedite the construction of machines.
Ch. V. The King of France, not liking the delay in commencing the
attack, sent word to King Richard, that a favourable opportunity now
offered itself: and he also warned, by voice of herald, the army to
prepare for an assault. But King Richard had signified his inability
hitherto to attend to his duty, both on account of indisposition, and
because his men were not yet come; though he hoped that they would
arrive in the next fleet of ships, and would bring with them materials
for the construction of machines. The King of France, not thinking fit
to desist, on that account, from his purpose, commanded an assault to be
proclaimed, by voice of herald throughout the army. Therefore, on the
Monday after the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, the King
of France, having erected his machines, gave orders to his men to arm.
Then might have been seen a countless multitude of armed men, worthily
equipped; and so many coats of scale armour, gleaming helmets, and noble
chargers with pennons and banners of various workmanship, and soldiers
of tried valour and courage, as never had been seen before. Having
placed men to defend the trenches against the threatened attack of
Saladin from without, the armies approached the walls of the city and
commenced a most vigorous assault, by casting darts and stones from
arbalests and machines, without ceasing. When the Turks who were shut up
in the city saw this, they raised a tumultuous clamour and shouted to
the skies; so that it resembled the crash in the air caused by thunder
and lightning; for some had this sole duty--to beat basins and platters;
to strike timbrels; and by other means to make signal to Saladin and the
army without; in order that they might come to their succour, according
to agreement. And when the Turks from without saw and heard this, they
gathered in a body; and collecting every material within their reach to
fill up the ditch, they essayed to cross over, and attack our men, but
failed in effecting their object. For Godfrey of Lusignan, a man of the
most approved valour, opposed them, and drove them back from the
barricades, which they had already seized upon, above our men; and he
slew ten of them with an axe he carried in his hand, in a most glorious
manner; and none he smote escaped; nay, he took some alive; for such was
his courage and activity, that no one since the time of those famous
soldiers, Roland and Oliver, could lay claim to such distinction, from
the mouth of all, as himself. Our men regained the barricades, but with
much labour and difficulty; for the Turks kept pouring in, and by their
obstinate persistence, made the issue a long time doubtful. So severe
and insupportable was the struggle, and so horrible the clamour of the
conflict, that the men who were making the assault on the city and were
intent on filling up the trenches, were forced to retire and give up the
attempt, for they were not able to carry on the assault, and at the same
time defend their camp from the Turks without. And many of the French
perished from the darts cast by the arbalests, the throwing of stones,
and the pouring on them of Greek fire; and there was great mourning and
lamentation among the people. O! with what earnestness had we expected
the arrival of the Kings! How fallen were our hopes! They had come, and
we profited not; nay, we suffered a severer loss than usual; and those
we expected came to no purpose. Our men of France having laid aside
their arms, the Turks began to revile them shamefully; and reproached
them with not being able to accomplish what they had begun; moreover,
they threw Greek fire on the machines and other warlike instruments of
the King of France, which had been made with such care, and destroyed
them. Whence the King of France, overcome by fury and anger, sunk into a
state of languid sickness, from sorrow, it was said; and from confusion
and discouragement, mounted not on horseback.
Ch. VIII. The City of Acre, from its strong position, and its being
defended by the choicest men of the Turks, appeared difficult to be
taken by assault. The French had hitherto spent their labour in vain in
constructing machines and engines for breaking down the walls, with the
greatest care; for whatever they erected, at a great expense, the Turks
destroyed with Greek fire or some devouring conflagration. Amongst other
machines and engines which the King of France had erected for breaking
down the walls, he had prepared one with great labour, to be used for
scaling it, which they called a "cat," because like a cat it crept up
and adhered to the wall. He had also another, made of strong hurdle
twigs, put together most compactly, which they used to call a
"cercleia," and under its covering of hides the King of France used to
sit, and employ himself in throwing darts from a sling; he would thus
watch the approach of the Turks, above on the walls, by the battlements,
and then hit them unawares. But it happened one day that the French were
eagerly pressing forward to apply their cat to the walls, when behold!
the Turks let down upon it a heap of the driest wood, and threw upon it
a quantity of Greek fire, as well as upon the hurdle they had
constructed with such toil, and then aimed a petraria in that direction,
and all having forthwith caught fire, they broke them in pieces by the
blows from their petraria. Upon this the King of France was enraged
beyond measure, and began to curse all those who were under his command;
and rated them shamefully for not exacting condign vengeance of the
Saracens, who had done them such injuries. In the heat of his passion,
and when the day was drawing in, he published an edict, by voice of
herald, that an assault should be made upon the city on the morrow.
Ch. XV. What can we say of this race of unbelievers who thus defended
their city? They must be admired for their valour in war, and were the
honour of their whole nation. Yet they dreaded our men, not without
reason, for they saw the choicest soldiers from the ranks of all
Christendom come to destroy them; their walls in part broken down, in
part shattered, the greater portion of their army mutilated, some
killed, and others weakened by their wounds. There were still remaining
in the city 6000 Turks, with Mestoc and Caracois their chiefs, but they
despaired of succour. They perceived that the Christian army was very
much dejected at the death of Alberic Clements, and their sons and
kinsmen who had fallen in battle, and that they were determined either
to die bravely, or gain the mastery over the Turks, and that they
thought a middle course dishonourable. Under these circumstances, by
common counsel and assent, the besieged begged a truce, in order to
inform Saladin of their condition, and to ascertain how far he would
afford them security according to the manner of barbarous nations, by
either sending them speedy help, or giving them leave to depart from the
city with honour. To obtain this object, two of the most noble of the
Saracens and of Paganism, Mestoc and Caracois, came to our Kings with
the promise that if Saladin did not send them speedy assistance, they
would give up the city, on the condition that all the besieged Turks
should be permitted to depart in freedom, with their arms and property,
and go whithersoever they liked. And on the King of France and nearly
all the French giving their assent to this condition at the conference,
King Richard absolutely refused his, and said, it was not to be
consented to, that after so long and laborious a siege they should enter
a deserted city only. On his pleasure being known, Caracois and Mestoc
returned to the city without effecting their object. And Saladin, when
he learnt that ambassadors had been sent by the besieged, commanded them
to persevere and defend their city with as much courage as that which
they had hitherto shewn, promising that most ample assistance should
soon come to them without a doubt; for he declared to the ambassadors
who waited upon him that he would certainly persevere, and as he was
expecting a large body of soldiers from Babylon, they would soon come in
ships and galleys; for he had given orders to Muleina to be with him,
without fail, in eight days; and if they did not come according to
agreement, he promised with an oath to procure for them as honourable a
peace as he could from the Christians, and the liberty to depart. On
hearing these things, the ambassadors returned to the city, and,
repeating the promises of Saladin, persuaded the townsmen to resist
while they looked forward with anxiety for the promised assistance.
Ch. XVI. Meanwhile, the petrariae of the Christians never ceased, day
and night, to shake the walls; and when the Turks saw this, they were
smitten with wonder, astonishment, terror, and confusion; and many,
yielding to their fears, threw themselves down from the walls by night,
and without waiting for the promised aid, very many sought, with
supplications, the sacrament of baptism and Christianity....
Ch. XVII. Saladin, perceiving the dangers of delay, at length determined
to yield to the entreaties of the besieged; he was, moreover, persuaded
by his admirals, and his satraps, and his influential courtiers, who had
many friends and kinsmen among the besieged. The latter alleged also,
that he was bound to them on his promise made on the Mahometan law, that
he would procure for them an honourable capitulation at the last moment,
lest, perchance, made prisoners at discretion, they should be
exterminated or put to an ignominious death, and thus the law of
Mahomet, which had been strictly observed by their ancestors, be effaced
by its dependence on him; and nevertheless very much would be derogated
from his name and excellence if the worshippers of Mahomet should fall
into the hands of Christians. They also begged to remind Saladin of the
fact that they, a chosen race of Turks, in obedience to his commands,
had been cooped up in the city, and withstood a siege for so long a
time; they reminded him too, that they had not seen their wives and
children for three years, during which period the siege had lasted; and
they said that it would be better to surrender the city, than that
people of such merit should be destroyed. The princes persuading the
Sultan to this effect, that their latter condition might not be worse
than their former one; he assented to their making peace on the best
terms they could, and they drew up a statement of what appeared to them
the most proper terms of treaty....
Ch. XVIII. Thus, after the Friday after the Translation of St. Benedict,
the principal and noblest of the admirals were given and received as
hostages, and the space of one month fixed for the delivery of the Cross
and the collecting together of the captives. And when it was rumoured
abroad that the city was to be given up, the common people, in their
folly, were inflamed with fury, but the wiser portion rejoiced, at
gaining so profitably and without danger, what they had been so long a
time unable to obtain. Then was it proclaimed and prohibited by voice of
herald, that any one should molest the Turks by word or deed, or provoke
them by abuse, or that missiles should any longer be cast for the
destruction of the walls or of the Turks who might be seen on the
battlements.
RETURN OF PHILIP (1191).
+Source.+--_Geoffrey de Vinsauf_, Ch. XXI., _Chronicles of the Crusades_.
Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
Ch. XXI. Affairs being in this position, at the end of the month of
July, within which the Turks had promised to restore the holy cross, and
receive back their hostages, a rumour spread among the army, that the
King of France, on whom the hope of the people rested, intended to
return home, and was making active preparations for his journey. Oh how
wicked and how insulting a proceeding, while as yet so much work
remained on hand, to wish to go away, when his duty was to rule so large
a multitude of people, and when his presence was so necessary to
encourage the Christians to so pious a work, and to provide for the
progress of so arduous an undertaking! O why did he come so long a way
and with so much toil, if he intended to return almost immediately? O
wonderful performance of his vow, by merely entering the Holy Land, and
contending against the Turks with such small triumph! But why need we
say more? The King of France alleged sickness as the cause of his
return; and said that he had performed his vow as far as he was able;
most of all, because he was well and sound when he took up the cross
with King Henry between Trie and Gisors.... But when the inflexible
determination of the King of France to return became known to all, and
his refusal to yield to the murmurs of his men, or their supplications
to remain, the French would have renounced their subjection to him, if
it could have been done, and would have loathed his dominion; and they
imprecated on him every kind of adversity and misfortune that could fall
to the lot of man in this life. But for all that the King of France
hastened his voyage as much as possible, and left in his stead the Duke
of Burgundy, with a large number of men. Moreover, he begged King
Richard to supply him with two galleys, and the King readily gave him
two of his best; how ungrateful he was of this service was afterwards
seen.
RICHARD'S SICKNESS (1192). A TRUCE.
+Source.+--_Richard of Devizes_, §§ 87, 88, 90, 91, 92, 93, _Chronicles
of the Crusades_. Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
§ 87. The King was extremely sick, and confined to his bed; his fever
continued without intermission; the physicians whispered that it was an
acute semitertian.... No one speaks of the indisposition of the King,
lest the secret of their intense sorrow should be disclosed to the
enemy; for it was thoroughly understood that Saladin feared the charge
of the whole army less than that of the King alone; and if he should
know that he was dead, he would instantly pelt the French with cow-dung,
and intoxicate the best of the English with a dose that should make them
tremble.
§ 88. In the meantime, a certain Gentile, called Saffatin, came down to
see the King as he generally did: he was a brother of Saladin, an
ancient man of war of remarkable politeness and intelligence, and one
whom the King's magnanimity and munificence had charmed even to the love
of his person and favour of his party. The King's servants greeting him
less joyfully than they were accustomed, and not admitting him to an
interview with the King, "I perceive," said he by his interpreter, "that
you are greatly afflicted; nor am I ignorant of the cause. My friend
your King is sick.... O! if that Richard, whom although I love yet I
fear, if he were despatched out of the way, how little should we then
fear, how very little should we make account of that youngest of the
sons, who sleeps at home in clover. It was not unknown to us, that
Richard, who nobly succeeded his great father in the kingdom,
immediately set forward against us even in the very year of his
coronation. The number of his ships and troops was not unknown to us
before his setting forth. We knew, even at the very time, with what
speed he took Messina. The well-fortified city of Sicily, which he
besieged; and although none of our people believed it, yet our fears
increased, and fame added false terrors to the true.
§ 91. "His valour unable to rest in one place, proceeded through a
boundless region, and everywhere left trophies of his courage. We
questioned among ourselves whether he made ready to subdue, for his God
the Land of Promise only, or at the same time to take the whole world
for himself. Who shall worthily relate the capture of Cyprus? Verily had
the island of Cyprus been close to Egypt, and had my brother Saladin
subdued it in ten years, his name would have been reckoned by the people
among the names of the gods. When, however, we at last perceived that he
overthrew whatever resisted his purpose, our hearts were melted as the
hoar-frost melts at the appearance of the approaching sun, forasmuch as
it was said of him that he ate his enemies alive. And if he were not
presently, on the very day of his arrival before Acre, received freely
into the city with open gates, fear alone was the cause. It was not from
their desire to preserve the city, but through dread of the torments
promised them and their despair of life that they fought so bravely, or
rather, desperately, fearing this more than death, endeavouring this by
all means, namely, that they should not die unrevenged. And this was not
from sheer obstinacy, but to follow up the doctrine of our faith. For we
believe that the spirits of the unavenged wander for ever, and that they
are deprived of all rest. But what did the rashness and timidity of the
devoted profit them? Being vanquished by force and constrained by fear
to surrender, they were punished with a more lenient death than they
expected. And yet, oh! shame on the Gentiles, their spirits wandered
unavenged! I swear to you by the Great God, that if, after he had gained
Acre, he had immediately led his army to Jerusalem, he would not have
found even one of our people in the whole circuit of the Christian's
land; on the contrary, we should have offered him inestimable treasure,
that he might not proceed, that he might not prosecute us further.
§ 92. "But thanks be to God, he was burdened with the King of the French,
and hindered by him like a cat with a hammer tied to its tail. To
conclude, we, though his rivals, see nothing in Richard that we can find
fault with but his valour; nothing to hate but his experience in war.
But what glory is there in fighting with a sick man? And although this
very morning I could have wished that both you and he had all received
your final doom, now I compassionate you on account of your King's
illness. I will either obtain for you a settled peace with my brother,
or at the least, a good and durable truce...."
§ 93. The bishop of Salisbury and such of the most trusty of the King's
household as were present, who had secretly deliberated with him upon
this subject, reluctantly consented to the truce which before they had
determined to purchase at any price, as if it had been detested and not
desired by them. So their right hands being given and received,
Saffatin, when he had washed his face, and disguised his sorrow,
returned to Jerusalem, to Saladin. The council was assembled before his
brother, and after seventeen days of weighty argument, he with
difficulty succeeded in prevailing on the stubbornness of the Gentiles
to grant a truce to the Christians. The time was appointed and the form
approved. If it please King Richard, for the space of three years, three
months, three weeks, three days and three hours, such a truce shall be
observed between the Christians and the Gentiles, that whatever either
one party or the other in any wise possesses, he shall possess without
molestation to the end; it will be permitted during the interval, that
the Christians at their pleasure may fortify Acre only, and the Gentiles
Jerusalem. All contracts, commerce, every act and every thing shall be
mutually carried on by all in peace. Saffatin himself is despatched to
the English as the bearer of this decree.
CHIVALRY OF SALADIN (1192-3).
+Source.+--_Geoffrey de Vinsauf_, Ch. 32, _Chronicles of the Crusades_.
Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
The next day certain of the Turks appeared before Saladin, and earnestly
entreated of him that they might be allowed to take vengeance on the
Christians who were now in their power, for the death of their friends,
fathers, brothers, sons, and relations who had been slain, first at
Acre, and afterwards at other places, and now, as they said, that they
had so good an opportunity. Saladin sent for the Turkish chiefs to
consult about this request, and Mestoc, Saphadin, Bedridin, and
Dorderin, were speedily in attendance. When the subject was placed
before them, it was their unanimous opinion that the Christians should
have leave to come and go, without injury or hinderance. "For," said
they to Saladin, "it would be a deep stain upon our honour, if the
treaty which has been made between you and the King of England should,
by our interference, be broken, and the faith of the Turks for ever
afterwards be called in question." In consequence of these observations,
Saladin gave orders immediately that the Christians should be taken care
of, and escorted to the city and back again without molestation. To
discharge this commission, Saphadin was at his own request deputed; and
under his protection the pilgrims had free access to the Holy Sepulchre,
and were treated with the greatest liberality, after which they returned
joyfully to Acre.
RETURN OF RICHARD (1193).
+Source.+--_Geoffrey de Vinsauf_, Ch. 37, _Chronicles of the Crusades_.
Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
Everything was now settled, and the King was already on the point of
embarking, when determining before he went, to leave nothing behind him
which might detract from his honour, he ordered proclamation to be made
that all who had claims on him should come forward, and that all his
debts should be paid fully, and more than fully, to avoid all occasion
afterwards of detraction or complaint. What sighs and tears were there
when the royal fleet weighed anchor! A blessing was invoked on the
King's many acts of benevolence, his virtues and his largesses were set
forth, and the numerous excellences combined in one man. How then did
the lamentations of all resound as they exclaimed, O Jerusalem, bereft
now of every succour! How hast thou lost thy defender? Who will protect
thee, should the truce be broken, now that King Richard is departed?
Such were the words of each when the King, whose health was not yet
fully re-established, and who was the subject of all their anxious
wishes, went on board and set sail. All night the ship ran on her way by
the light of the stars, and when morning dawned, the King looked back
with yearning eyes upon the land which he had left, and after long
meditation, he prayed aloud, in the hearing of several, in these words:
"O holy land, I commend thee to God, and if his heavenly grace shall
grant me so long to live, that I may in his good pleasure, afford thee
assistance, I hope, as I propose to be able to be some day a succour to
thee." With these words he urged the sailors to spread their canvass to
the winds, that they might the sooner cross over the expanse of sea that
lay before them; ignorant indeed of the tribulations and sorrows which
awaited him, and the calamities that he was to suffer from the treachery
that had long before been transmitted to France, by which it was
contrived that he should be wickedly thrown into prison, though he
justly suspected no such evil in the service of God, and in so laborious
a pilgrimage. O how unequally was he recompensed for his exertions in
the common cause! His inheritance was seized by another, his castles in
Normandy were unjustly taken, his rivals made cruel assaults on his
rights without provocation, and he only escaped from captivity by paying
a ransom to the Emperor of Germany. To gather the money for his ransom,
the taxes were raised to the uttermost; a large collection was levied
upon all his land and everything was distracted; for the chalices and
hallowed vessels of gold and silver were gathered from the churches, and
the monasteries were obliged to do without their utensils; neither was
this unlawful according to the decrees of the holy fathers, nay, it was
even a matter of necessity inasmuch as no saint, many though there be,
ever during life, suffered so much for the Lord as King Richard in his
captivity in Austria and in Germany. He who had gained so many triumphs
over the Turks was nefariously circumvented by the brethren of his own
faith, and seized by those who agreed with him in name only as members
of the Creed of Christ. Alas, how much more are secret snares to be
feared than open discord, according to the proverb, "It is easier to
avoid a hostile than a deceitful man." Oh, shame be it said, that one
whom no adversary could resist, nor the whole force of Saladin could
conquer, was now seized by an ignoble people, and kept a prisoner in
Germany. Oh, how painful is it for those who have been nurtured in
liberty, to be placed at the beck of another! But out of that captivity,
by God's usual mercy, his own activity, and the care of his faithful
servants, he was at length set at liberty for a large sum of money,
because he was known to be a man of great power. At last restored to his
native soil and the kingdom of his ancestors, in a short time he
restored all to tranquillity. He then crossed over into Normandy, to
avenge himself on the wanton aggressions of the King of France, his
rival; and when he had more than once defeated him, he powerfully
recovered with sword and spear his alienated rights, even with
augmentation.
RICHARD'S CAPTURE (1192).
+Source.+--_Roger de Hoveden_, Vol. II., pp. 269-70. Bohn's Libraries.
G. Bell & Sons.
After this, the King of England placing everything in the hands of
Henry, Count of Champagne, hastened to return to his kingdom, by reason
of the sinister reports which he had heard, both as to the King of
France and the expulsion of his Chancellor, as also the Earl of
Mortaigne, his brother, who had seized the castles of the kingdom and
would have taken possession of the whole thereof if he could have found
the opportunity. Accordingly, the King of England came to Caiaphas,
where he fell sick, and proceeded thence to Acre. Here, after the feast
of St. Michael, being the eighth day before the Ides of October, and the
fifth day of the week, he embarked on board of a large buss, and, within
a month from that day, arrived at the island of Cunerfu, where he went
on board a boat, and sailed towards three galleys which he saw on the
opposite side off the coast of Romania, and hired them to take him as
far as Ragusa, for two hundred marks of silver; after which he returned
to his buss, and the said galleys with him; and, having made terms with
them, he took with him Baldwin, the advocate of Bethune, and twenty
other companions, and embarked on board one of the said galleys, and on
landing at Gazera, near Ragusa, declined to tell them that he was King
of England, but said that they were pilgrims. However, although he had a
long beard and long hair and garments, and everything else to resemble
the people of that country, he was unable to remain unknown, in
consequence of his great expenditure, which was quite foreign to the
usage of the people of that country.
Immediately, the people of the province guessing that he was the King of
England, prepared to capture him and deliver him to the Emperor of the
Romans, who hated him, on account of the aid he had given to King
Tancred, and for the death of his kinsman, the Marquis Conrad. Upon the
King of England being informed of this by one of his followers, he
placed his retinue in charge of Baldwin, the Advocate of Bethune, and
ordered him to remain the next four days at that place, making a more
lavish expenditure than he himself had done; after which, he himself,
with a single attendant, having mounted a swift horse, his attendant
doing the same, set out late at night, and, hastening day and night,
arrived in the neighbourhood of Vienna; at a little village, not far
from which place he and his attendant took up their abode. While the
King's attendant was gone to buy food, the King, being fatigued by the
labour of his journey, immediately threw himself upon a bed and fell
asleep. In the meantime, his attendant, while endeavouring to exchange
some money, was recognized by the servant of the duke of Austria, and
taken prisoner, and brought before the duke; and, when he could conceal
it no longer, disclosed to him the lodging of the King; on which they
came, and, finding him asleep, took him prisoner. As for the Advocate of
Bethune, and those who were with him, on attempting to leave the town,
they were taken prisoners, and not allowed to depart.
THE RELEASE OF RICHARD (1192).
+Source.+--_Roger de Hoveden_, Vol. II., pp. 281-2. Bohn's
Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
Accordingly, upon hearing of the confinement of the King, Walter,
Archbishop of Rouen, and the other justiciaries of our lord the King,
sent the Abbot of Boxley and the Abbot of Pont Robert to Germany, to
seek the King of England. After having passed through the whole of
Germany, and not finding the King, they entered Bavaria, and met the
King at a town, the name of which is Oxefer, where he was brought before
the Emperor, to hold a conference with him, on Palm Sunday. On hearing
that the before-named abbots had come from England, the King showed
himself courteous and affable to them; making enquiries about the state
of his kingdom and the fidelity of his subjects, and the health and
prosperity of the King of Scotland, in whose fidelity he placed a very
strong reliance: on which they testified to what they had heard and
seen. A conference accordingly taking place between them, the King made
complaint of the treachery of his brother, John, earl of Mortaigne, on
whom he had conferred so many favours and boundless honors, and who had
thrown himself into the hands of the King of France against him, and,
having broken the ties of brotherhood, had made a league with death and
a compact with hell. The King, though greatly afflicted upon this
subject, suddenly broke forth into these words of consolation, saying,
"My brother John is not the man to subjugate a country, if there is a
person able to make the slightest resistance to his attempts."
During his journey of three days, while on the road to meet the emperor,
it was the admiration of all how boldly, how courteously, and how
becomingly he behaved himself, and they judged him worthy of the
imperial elevation who so thoroughly understood the arts of command, and
how, with uniform self-possession, to rise superior to the two-faced
events of fortune. On a day named, after he had held a conference by
messengers with the emperor, they were unable on that day to have an
interview with him, because the Emperor had made of him many demands, to
which the King had determined not to yield, even though his life should
be perilled thereby. On the morrow, however, while all were despairing,
with joyous success ensued joyous consolation.
For, on the emperor accusing the King of many things, and charging him
with many misdeeds, both with his betrayal of the land of Sulia, and
with the death of the Marquis of Montferrat, as also with reference to
certain covenants made between them and not observed by him, the King
made answer with such frankness, such self-possession and such
intrepidity, that the emperor thought him worthy, not only of his favour
and pardon, but even of his praise. For he raised the King when bending
before him, and received him with the kiss of peace, and made a treaty
of friendship with him, and, loading him with honors and succour (the
people standing round and bursting into tears for very joy), made a
promise that he would reconcile the King of England with the King of
France. After this, with the mediation of the duke of Austria, the King
of England promised that he would pay to the Emperor for his liberation,
by way of ransom, one hundred thousand marks. The emperor also promised
that, if by his means the King of England and the King of France could
not be reconciled, he would send the King of England home without
exacting the money.
ENGLAND UNDER THE CHANCELLORS (1191-3).
+Source.+--_Roger de Hoveden_, Vol. II., p. 231 _seqq_. Bohn's Libraries.
G. Bell & Sons.
William, bishop of Ely, the King's Chancellor, was a great man among all
the people of the west, and, as though gifted with a two-fold right
hand, wielded the power of the kingdom, and the authority of the
Apostolic See, and was in possession of the King's seal over all lands,
so as to be enabled to govern according to his own will, and of his own
power to bring all things to completion; even in the same degree of
estimation as both king and priest together was he held; nor was there
any person to be found to dare to offer resistance to his will. For he
said, and the thing was done, he commanded, and all means were
discovered. In his hands were the royal treasures, the whole of the
King's riches, and the entire exchequer, so much so that all property
whatsoever that swam beneath our skies was no longer said to belong to
the King, but to him. And really if it had been the time of the Cæsars,
he would with Tiberius have had himself styled the living God. But when
the King had given him certain earls as his associates, in order that at
least the more weighty concerns of the realm might be managed by their
counsels in common, he could not at all endure to have any partner
therein, as he thought that the greater part of his glory would be
thrown into the shade, if he should stand in need of the advice of any
mortal being. Therefore he ruled alone, therefore he reigned alone, and
from sea to sea was he dreaded as though a God; and were I to say still
more, I should not be telling a falsehood, because God is long-suffering
and merciful; while he, ruling every thing according to his own
impulses, was neither able to observe justice when acting, nor to endure
delay in waiting the proper time. Hence it arose that he set at nought
all the letters and mandates of his lord; that he might not seem to have
a superior nor be supposed to be subject to any one, having always made
every one act as the servant of his own will. Therefore, after England
had for a considerable time suffered under so heavy a burden and a yoke
so insupportable, at length, while groaning at his deeds, she cried
aloud with all her might. As, therefore, a man so powerful could not be
overcome by man, the Father of Mercies and the God of all consolation
came to the aid of the people who supplicated God, and supplanting the
hand of mercy in his case, hurled him down from his power, and brought
this accuser, or rather destroyer, to such a pitch of giddiness of mind,
that he was unable to recover or rouse himself therefrom; but he so
hardened his heart, blinded his mind, and infatuated his counsels, that
he first besieged the Archbishop of York in a church, then seized him,
and after seizing him, violently tore him away; after tearing him away,
strongly bound him; after strongly binding him, dragged him along; and
after dragging him along, threw him into prison. And although there was
a concourse of people who exclaimed, "What has this righteous man and
friend of God been guilty of, that he should be taken to prison? his
innocent blood is condemned without a cause." Still pity could not
listen where pride reigned, and God was not heard where the tyrant held
sway. For the said Archbishop was coming from the country of Normandy
with his pastoral staff and mitre, and ring, and superhumeral, which in
later times has been styled the pall. And although he was the son of
King Henry, of happy memory, and the brother of King Richard, who now
reigns, and the brother of John, Earl of Mortaigne, still, his royal
blood could be of no service to him; and although he had been recently
consecrated, the recent performance of that sacrament could not avail
him.
The associates also of the said Chancellor whom the King had associated
with him in the government of the kingdom, accused him of many offences,
saying that, despising their advice, he had transacted all the affairs
of the kingdom according to impulse and his own will. The Archbishop of
Rouen also, and William Marshal, Earl of Striguil, then for the first
time produced before the people the sealed letters from our lord the
King, in which the King had sent orders from Messina, that they should
be associated with him in the government of the kingdom, and that,
without the advice of them and the other persons so appointed, he was
not to act in the affairs of the King and the kingdom, and that if he
should do anything to the detriment of the kingdom, or without the
consent of the persons before-named, he should be deposed and the
Archbishop of Rouen substituted in his place.
It seemed good, therefore, to John, the King's brother, and all the
bishops, earls, and barons of the kingdom, and to the citizens of
London, that the Chancellor should be deposed, and they accordingly
deposed him, and substituted in his place the Archbishop of Rouen, who
was willing to do nothing in the government of kingdom except with the
will and consent of the persons assigned to him as associates therein,
and with the sanction of the barons of the exchequer.
THE CAPTURE OF ARTHUR (1202).
+Source.+--_Roger of Wendover_, Vol. II., _Annal 1202_. Bohn's
Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
When the French and the people of Poictou learned that the King was on
his way, they went out with a pompous array to meet him, and give him
battle; but when they met each other in battle order, and had engaged,
the King bravely withstood their turbulent attacks, and at length put
them to flight, pursuing them so quickly with his cavalry, that he
entered the castle at the same time as the fugitives. Then a most severe
conflict took place inside the walls of the castle, but was soon
determined by the laudable valour of the English: in the conflict there
two hundred French knights were taken prisoners, and all the nobles in
Poictou and Anjou, together with Arthur himself, so that not one out of
the whole number escaped, who could return and tell the misfortune to
the rest of their countrymen. Having, therefore, secured his prisoners
in fetters and shackles, and placed them in cars, a new and unusual mode
of conveyance, the King sent some of them to Normandy, and some to
England, to be imprisoned in strong castles, whence there would be no
fear of their escape; but Arthur was kept at Falaise under close custody.
THE LOSS OF NORMANDY (1204).
+Source.+--_Roger of Wendover_, Vol. II., _Annal 1204_. Bohn's
Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
Thus the castle of the Rock of Andelys fell into the hands of the French
King on the 6th of March, and Roger de Lacy with all his followers were
taken to France, where, on account of the bravery he had shown in
defence of his castle, he was detained prisoner on parole. On this all
the holders of castles in the transmarine territories, with the citizens
and other subjects of the King of England, sent messages to England to
tell him in what a precarious situation they were placed, and that the
time, according to the terms of the treaty, was near, when they must
either give up the cities and castles to the King of the French, or
consign to destruction the hostages which they had given him. To which
message King John answered, and intimated by the same messengers to all
of them, that they were to expect no assistance from him, but that they
each were to do what seemed best to him. And thus, all kind of defence
failing in those provinces, the whole of Normandy, Tours, Anjou, and
Poictou, with the cities, castles, and other possessions, except the
Castles of Rochelle, Thouars, and Niorz, fell to the dominion of the
King of the French. When this was told to the English King, he was
enjoying all the pleasures of life with his Queen, in whose company he
believed that he possessed everything he wanted; moreover, he felt
confidence in the immensity of the wealth he had collected, as if by
that he could regain the territory he had lost.
LONDON (CIRC. 1204).
+Source.+--_Richard of Devizes, Chronicles of the Crusades_, § 80.
Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
Every race of men, out of every nation which is under heaven, resort
thither in great numbers; every nation has introduced into that city its
vices and bad manners. No one lives in it without offence; there is not
a single street in it that does not abound in miserable, obscene
wretches; there, in proportion as any man has exceeded in wickedness, so
much is he the better. I am not ignorant of the disposition I am
exhorting; you have, in addition to your youth, an ardent disposition, a
slowness of memory and a soberness of reason between extremes. I feel in
myself no uneasiness about you, unless you should abide with men of
corrupt lives; for from our associations our manners are formed. But let
that be as it may. You will come to London. Behold! I warn you, whatever
of evil or perversity there is in any, whatever in all parts of the
world, you will find in that city alone. Go not to the dances of
panders, nor mix yourself up with the herds of the houses of ill fame;
avoid the talus and the dice, the theatre and the tavern. You will find
more braggadocios there than in all France, while the number of
flatterers is infinite. Stage-players, buffoons, those that have no hair
on their bodies, Garamantes, pickthanks, catamites, effeminate
evildoers, lewd musical girls, druggists, lustful persons,
fortune-tellers, extortioners, nightly strollers, magicians, mimics,
common beggars, tatterdemalions--this whole crew has filled every house.
So if you do not wish to live with the shameful, you will not dwell in
London.
THE TOWNS OF ENGLAND.
I am not speaking against the learned, whether monks or Jews; although,
still, from their very dwelling together with such evil persons, I
should esteem them less perfect there than elsewhere.
Nor does my advice go so far, as that you should betake yourself to no
city; with my counsel you will take up your residence nowhere but in a
town, though it remains to say in what.
Therefore, if you should land near Canterbury, you will have to lose
your way, if even you should but pass through it. It is an assemblage of
the vilest, entirely devoted to their--I know not whom, but who has been
lately canonized, and had been the Archbishop of Canterbury, as
everywhere they die in the open day in the streets for want of bread and
employment.
Rochester and Chichester are mere villages, and they possess nothing for
which they should be called cities, but the Sees of their bishops.
Oxford scarcely, I will not say satisfies, but sustains its clerks.
Exeter supports men and beasts with the same grain. Bath is placed, or
rather buried, in the lowest parts of the valleys, in a very dense
atmosphere and sulphury vapour, as it were at the gates of Hell. Nor yet
will you select your habitation in the Northern cities nor in Worcester,
Chester, Hereford, on account of the desperate Welshmen. York abounds in
Scots, vile and faithless men, or rather rascals. The town of Ely is
always putrefied by the surrounding marshes. In Durham, Norwich, or
Lincoln, there are very few of your disposition among the powerful; you
will never hear anyone speak French. At Bristol there is nobody who is
not, or has not been, a soap-maker, and every Frenchman esteems
soap-makers as he does nightmen.
After the cities, every market, village or town, has but rude and rustic
inhabitants. Moreover, at all times, account the Cornish people for such
as you know our Flemish are accounted in France. For the rest, the
kingdom itself is generally most favoured with the dew of heaven and the
fatness of the earth; and in every place there are some good, but much
fewer in them all than in Winchester alone.
This is in those parts the Jerusalem of the Jews, in it alone they enjoy
perpetual peace; it is the school of those who desire to live well and
prosper. Here they become men, here there is bread and wine enough for
nothing. There are therein monks of such compassion and gentleness,
clergy of such understanding and frankness, citizens of such civility
and good faith, ladies of such beauty and modesty, that little hinders
but I should go there and become a Christian with such Christians. To
that city I direct you, the city of cities, the mother of all, the best
above all.
There is but one fault, and that alone in which they customarily indulge
too much. With the exception I should say of the learned and of the
Jews, the Winchester people tell lies like watchmen, but it is in making
up reports. For in no place under heaven so many false rumours are
fabricated so easily as there; otherwise they are true in everything.
JOHN'S GRANT TO THE ABBEY OF CROYLAND (1202-1206).
+Source.+--_Ingulph's Chronicles._ Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
The Charter of our lord the King, John, as to the confirmation of the
boundaries of the abbey, and of which mention is made above, was to the
following effect: "John, by the Grace of God, King of England, lord of
Ireland, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and Earl of Anjou, to the
archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, justiciaries, sheriffs, and
all his bailiffs and faithful subjects, greeting. Know ye, that we have
granted and confirmed unto God and the Church of St. Guthlac at
Croyland, and to the abbot and monks there serving God, all the lands
and tenements, and other the possessions to the said church belonging,
and in especial the site of the said abbey, together with the boundaries
thereof herein named, which extend as follow: a distance of five
leagues, from Croyland to the place where the Asendyk falls into the
waters of the Welland, together with all piscaries to the said
boundaries belonging. Wherefore we do will and strictly command that the
before-named church, and abbot, and monks shall hold and for ever
possess all their lands, tenements, and other their possessions, and all
the gifts which since the death of King Henry, the grandfather of our
father, have been reasonably given to them, fully, peacefully, freely,
quietly, and honourably, to enjoy the same in wood and in plain, in
meadows and in pastures, in waters and in marshes, in preserves and in
fisheries, in mills and in mill-dams, and in all other things and
places, with right of Sach and Soch, and Thol, and Them, and
Infangthefe, and with all other free customs and acquittances, as fully,
freely, and quietly as the said church, and abbot, and monks, held the
same in the time of King Henry, the grandfather of our father, or other
our predecessors Kings of England, and as fully, freely, and quietly as
any churches in our kingdom of England hold the same, in such manner as
is by the Charter of King Henry our father reasonably testified, etc.
Given by the hand of Simon, Archdeacon of Wells."
Not even thus, however, did the venerable abbot Henry gain the wish for
repose, but, like a stone out of the living rock to be placed in a
heavenly house, was he squared, both on the right side and on the left,
by repeated blows and numerous buffetings. For Acharius, also the Abbot
of Burgh St. Peter (not content with his own boundaries, but desirous,
contrary to the prophetic warning "to join house to house, and lay field
to field, till there be no place,") first, by the royal writ, obtained
of the King from beyond sea, impleaded the said abbot Henry, and without
any good reason claimed against him our southern marsh called Alderland,
of which our monastery had held undisturbed possession from its
foundation until the times of our said father, just as the Assyrians did
against the people of God. Upon this, Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury,
who was then chief justiciary of England, sent letters mandatory to the
abbats of Ramsay and Thorney, directing them to make inquisition in his
behalf upon the oaths of eighteen knights, mutually agreed upon, what
right each of them had to the lands, meadows, pastures, and marshes, and
all other things between the river Rene, and the river Welland, and
which ought to be the boundaries between the Abbey of Burgh and the
Abbey of Croyland, and fully to state the said inquisition, under their
seals, and those of the knights to the before-named archbishop and
justices.
A dissension, however, arising between the inquisitors, they returned to
their homes, leaving the matter unsettled.
At length, however, after many conferences, discussions, delays, and
expenses on both sides the dispute between the two abbats having been
enquired into at great length before the justices of our lord the King
at Lexington, was finally settled to the no small detriment of the
church of Croyland.
THE ELECTION OF LANGTON (1207).
+Source.+--_Roger of Wendover_, Vol. II., _Annal 1207_. Bohn's
Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
About this time the monks of the church of Canterbury appeared before
our lord the Pope, to plead a disgraceful dispute which had arisen
between themselves; for a certain part of them, by authenticated letters
of the convent, presented Reginald, sub-prior of Canterbury, as they had
often done, to be archbishop-elect, and earnestly required the
confirmation of his election; the other portion of the same monks had,
by letters alike authentic, presented John, bishop of Norwich, showing
by many arguments that the election of the sub-prior was null, not only
because it had been made by night, and without the usual ceremonies, and
without the consent of the King, but also because it had not been made
by the older and wiser part of the convent; and thus setting forth these
reasons, they asked that that election should be confirmed, which was
made before fitting witnesses in open day and by consent, and in the
presence of the King. At length, after long arguments on both sides, our
lord the Pope, seeing that the parties could not agree in fixing on the
same person, and that both elections had been made irregularly, and not
according to the decrees of the holy canons, by the advice of his
cardinals, annulled both elections, laying the apostolic interdict on
the parties, and by definitive judgment ordering, that neither of them
should again aspire to the honours of the archbishopric. When at length
the letters of our lord the Pope came to the notice of the English King,
he was exceedingly enraged, as much at the promotion of Stephen Langton,
as at the annulling of the election of the bishop of Norwich, and
accused the monks of Canterbury of treachery; for he said that they had,
to the prejudice of his rights, elected their sub-prior without his
permission, and afterwards, to palliate their fault by giving
satisfaction to him, they chose the bishop of Norwich; that they had
also received money from the treasury for their expenses in obtaining
the confirmation of the said bishop's election from the apostolic see;
and to complete their iniquity, they had there elected Stephen Langton,
his open enemy, and had obtained his consecration to the archbishopric.
On this account the said King, in the fury of his anger and indignation,
sent Fulk de Cantelu and Henry de Cornhill, two most cruel and inhuman
knights, with armed attendants, to expel the monks of Canterbury, as if
they were guilty of a crime against his injured majesty from England, or
else to consign them to capital punishment. These knights were not slow
to obey the commands of their lord, but set out for Canterbury, and,
entering the monastery with drawn swords, in the King's name fiercely
ordered the prior and monks to depart immediately from the kingdom of
England as traitors to the King's Majesty; and they affirmed with an
oath that, if they (the monks) refused to do this, they would themselves
set fire to the monastery, and the other offices adjoining it, and would
burn all the monks themselves with their buildings. The monks, acting
unadvisedly, departed without violence or laying hands on anyone; all of
them, except thirteen sick men who were lying in the infirmary unable to
walk, forthwith crossed into Flanders, and were honourably received at
the Abbey of St. Bertinus and other monasteries on the Continent.
Afterwards, by the orders of the King, some monks of the order of St.
Augustine were placed in the church of Canterbury in their stead to
perform the duties there; the before-mentioned bulk managing, and even
distributing and confiscating, all the property of the same monks,
whilst their lands and those of the archbishop remained uncultivated.
The aforesaid monks were driven from their monastery into exile on the
fourteenth of July.
THE INTERDICT (1208).
+Source.+--_Roger of Wendover_, Vol. II., _Annal 1208_. Bohn's
Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
The Bishops of London, Ely, and Winchester, in execution of the
legateship entrusted to them, went to King John, and after duly setting
forth the apostolic commands, entreated of him humbly and with tears,
that he, having God in his sight, would recall the archbishop and the
monks of Canterbury to their Church, and honour and love them with
perfect affection, and they informed him that thus he would avoid the
shame of an interdict, and the Disposer of rewards, would if he did so,
multiply his temporal honours on him, and after his death would bestow
lasting glory on him. When the said bishops wished, out of regard to the
King, to prolong the discourse, the King became nearly mad with rage,
and broke forth in words of blasphemy against the Pope and his
cardinals, swearing by God's teeth, that, if they or any other priests
soever presumptuously dared to lay his dominions under an interdict, he
would immediately send all the prelates of England, clerks as well as
ordained persons, to the Pope, and confiscate all their property; he
added, moreover, that all the clerks of Rome or of the Pope himself who
could be found in England or in his other territories, he would send to
Rome with their eyes plucked out, and their noses slit, that by these
marks they might be known there from other people; in addition to this,
he plainly ordered the bishops to take themselves quickly from his sight
if they wished to keep their bodies free from harm.
THE BATTLE OF BOUVINES (1214).
+Source.+--_Matthew of Westminster_, Vol. II., p. 119. Bohn's
Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
The Count of Flanders and William, Earl of Salisbury, by making a
prodigal distribution of the King's treasures, collected a numerous army
of hired mercenaries, having formed a design of suddenly attacking
Philip, King of France on a Sunday, as he was not accustomed to bear
arms on that day. They had also great hope from, and great reliance in,
the wisdom and assistance of the Emperor Otho, who was, as it were,
watching for a struggle with a drawn sword.
Accordingly the battle of Bouvines in Flanders was fought, and great
bravery was shown on both sides. The King of France had three fine
horses stabbed under him, nevertheless by the assistance of God he that
day gained an important triumph over his enemies. Many nobles both of
the Empire and of the kingdom of England were taken prisoners, but the
Emperor escaped with a few of his men who were at hand. To the greater
confusion of King John, he was repulsed from the castle which is called
Monk's Rock, in consequence of the arrival of Louis, a son of the King
of France; so that hearing the news of the taking of his nobles at
Bouvines, he felt both God and man were offended with, and hostile to
him. Accordingly he fled disgracefully and ignominiously from the siege
before mentioned, and if he had not given eleven thousand marks of
silver for a truce for 3 years and then retreated into England with all
speed, he would no doubt have been taken, to his great disgrace.
EVENTS LEADING TO THE MAGNA CHARTA (1214).
+Source.+--_Roger of Wendover_, Vol. II., _Annal 1214_. Bohn's
Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
On the 25th of August in the same year, Stephen, Archbishop of
Canterbury, with the bishops, abbots, priors, deacons, and barons of the
kingdom assembled at St. Paul's in the City of London, and there the
archbishop granted permission to the Conventual Churches, as well as to
the secular priests, to chant the services of the church in a low voice,
in the hearing of their parishioners. At this conference, as report
asserts, the said archbishop called some of the nobles aside to him, and
conversed privately with them to the following effect: "Did you hear,"
said he, "how, when I absolved the King at Winchester, I made him swear
that he would do away with unjust laws, and would recall good laws, such
as those of King Edward, and cause them to be observed by all in the
kingdom; a Charter of Henry Ist of England has just now been found, by
which you may, if you wish it, recall your long-lost rights and your
former condition."
* * * * *
On the Monday next after the octaves of Easter, the said barons
assembled in the town of Brackley, and when the King learned this, he
sent the archbishop of Canterbury, and William Marshal earl of Pembroke,
with some other prudent men, to them to enquire what the laws and
liberties were which they demanded. The barons then delivered to the
messengers a paper, containing in great measure the laws and ancient
customs of the kingdom, and declared that, unless the King immediately
granted them and confirmed them under his own seal, they would, by
taking possession of his fortresses, force him to give them sufficient
satisfaction as to their before-named demands. The archbishop with his
fellow messengers then carried the paper to the King, and read to him
the heads of the paper one by one throughout.
The King when he heard the purport of these heads, derisively said, with
the greatest indignation, "Why, amongst these unjust demands, did not
the barons ask for my kingdom also? Their demands are vain and
visionary, and are unsupported by any plea of reason whatever." And at
length he angrily declared with an oath, that he would never grant them
such liberties as would render him their slave. The principal of these
laws and liberties, which the nobles required to be confirmed to them,
are partly described above in the Charter of King Henry, and partly
extracted from the old laws of King Edward as the following history will
show in due time.
KING JOHN AND THE ABBOT OF CANTERBURY.
[Traditional ballad of the 13th century. Probably of Coptic folk-lore
and transferred to John. Thus it illustrates the reputation of John and
not an actual incident.]
An ancient story I'll tell you anon
Of a notable prince that was called King John;
And he ruled England with main and with might,
For he did great wrong and maintain'd little right.
And I'll tell you a story, a story so merry
Concerning the Abbot of Canterbury;
How for his house-keeping, and high renown,
They rode post for him to London town.
An hundred men the King did hearsay,
The Abbot kept in his house every day;
And fifty gold chains, without any doubt,
In velvet coats waited the Abbot about.
"How now, father Abbot, I hear it of thee,
Thou keepest a far better house than me,
And for thy house-keeping, and high renown,
I fear thou work'st treason against my crown."
"My liege," quo' the Abbot, "I would it were known,
I never spend nothing but what is my own;
And I trust, your grace will do me no dere,
For spending of my own true-gotten gere."
"Yes, yes, father Abbot, thy fault it is high,
And now for the same thou needest must die;
For except thou canst answer me questions three,
Thy head shall be smitten from thy body.
"And first," quo' the King, "When I'm in this stead,
With my crown of gold so fair on my head;
Among all my liege-men so noble of birth
Thou must tell me to one penny what I am worth.
"Secondly, tell me, without any doubt,
How soon I may ride the whole world about;
And at the third question thou must no shrink,
But tell me here truly, what I do think."
"O, these are hard questions for my shallow wit,
Nor I cannot answer your grace as yet;
But if you will give me but three weeks' space,
I'll do my endeavour to answer your grace."
"Now three weeks' space to thee I will give,
And that is the longest time thou hast to live;
For if thou dost not answer my questions three,
Thy lands and thy livings are forfeit to me."
Away rode the Abbot all sad at that word,
And he rode to Cambridge and Oxenford;
But never a doctor there was so wise,
That could with his learning an answer devize.
Then home rode the Abbot of comfort so cold,
And he met his shepherd a going to fold:
"How now, my lord Abbot, you are welcome home;
What news do you bring us from good King John?"
"Sad news, sad news, shepherd, I must give;
That I have but three days more to live:
For if I do not answer him questions three,
My head will be smitten from my body.
"The first is to tell him there in that stead
With his crown of gold so fair on his head,
Among all his liege-men so noble of birth,
To within one penny of what he is worth.
"The second, to tell him, without any doubt,
How soon he may ride this whole world about:
And at the third question I must not shrink,
But tell him there truly what he does think."
"Now cheer up, sir Abbot, did you never hear yet,
That a fool he may learn a wise man to wit?
Lend one horse, and serving men, and your apparel,
And I'll ride to London to answer your quarrel.
"Nay, frown not, if it hath been told unto me,
I am like your lordship as ever may be;
And if you will but lend me your gown,
There is none shall know us at fair London town."
"Now horses, and serving men thou shalt have,
With sumptuous array most gallant and brave;
With crozier, and mitre, and rochet, and cope,
Fit to appear 'fore our father the Pope."
"Now welcome Sir Abbot," the King he did say,
"'Tis well thou'rt come back to keep thy day;
For an if thou canst answer my questions three,
Thy life and thy living both savéd shall be.
"And first, when thou seest here in this stead,
With my crown of gold so fair on my head,
Among all my liege-men so noble of birth,
Tell me to one penny what I am worth."
"For thirty pence our Saviour was sold
Among the false Jews, as I have been told;
And twenty-nine is the worth of thee,
For I think thou art one penny worser than he."
The King he laughed and swore by St. Bittel
"I did not think I had been worth so little!
--Now secondly tell me, without any doubt,
How soon I may ride this whole world about."
"You must rise with the sun, and ride with the same,
Until the next morning he riseth again;
And then your grace need not make any doubt,
But in twenty-four hours you'll ride it about."
The King he laughed and swore by St. John,
"I did not think it could be gone so soon!
--Now from the third question thou must not shrink,
But tell me here truly what I do think."
"Yea, that I shall do, and make your grace merry:
You think I'm the Abbot of Canterbury;
But I'm his poor shepherd, as plain you may see,
That am come to beg pardon for him and for me."
The King he laughed and swore by the mass,
"I'll make thee lord abbot this day in his place!"
"Now, nay, my liege, be not in such speed,
For alack, I can neither write, nor read."
"Four nobles a week, then, I will give thee,
For this merry jest thou hast shown unto me;
And tell the old Abbot when thou comest home,
Thou has brought him a pardon from good King John."
THE LAST DAYS OF KING JOHN (1216).
+Source.+--_Matthew of Westminster_, Vol. II., pp. 127, 128.
G. Bell & Sons.
Prince Louis and all his followers embarked on board the ships, and came
with a fair wind to the isle of Thanet, and anchored in the place which
is called Stanhore, on the 21st of May. King John was at that time with
his army at Dover, but as he was surrounded by a band of foreign
mercenaries, who loved Louis more than John, King of England, he did not
dare to encounter Louis in a hostile manner, lest his troups might
perchance desert King John himself in his necessity, and transfer
themselves to Louis. From which considerations he preferred retreating
at the time to engaging in a doubtful battle. Therefore, he retreated,
and withdrew to Canterbury, and left and entrusted the Castle of Dover
to the custody and good faith of Hubert de Burgh. And soon afterwards,
Gualo, the legate, landed in England, for the protection of King John
and the kingdom against Louis and his partisans. But King John fled as
far as Winchester, and Louis, when he found that no one offered to
resist him, disembarked from his ships, and landing at Sandwich, subdued
immediately the whole of that district, with the exception of the town
of Dover, and hastening towards London, he made himself master of the
Castle of Rochester, and on the 2nd of June he arrived in London, where
first of all he offered up prayers at St. Paul's, and was afterwards
publicly received by the clergy and laity with great joy, and received
the fealty and homage of all the barons. And shortly afterwards, namely
on the 14th of June, the city of Winchester was surrendered to him; and
on the day after the feast of Saint John, he took the castle of the
city, and the bishop's castle also; and on the 9th of July he received
the submission of the Castles of Odiham, Farnham, Guildford and Reigate.
The Castle of Windsor was besieged by the earls and barons of both
France and England, but they were forced to retreat from before it,
without succeeding in their object. But the Castle of Cambridge was
taken by the barons, with twenty esquires which were found in it.
The same year Gualo, the legate, exacted visitation fees throughout all
England, from all the cathedral churches and houses of religious
brotherhoods, fixing each visitation fee at fifty shillings. He also
seized all the benefices of the clergy and men of religious orders, who
adhered to Louis and the barons, and converted them to the use of his
own clergy. In the meantime, King John, inflamed with the madness of
passion, oppressed and grievously afflicted the provinces of Suffolk and
Norfolk. Then, continuing his march towards the north, he irrecoverably
lost his carriages, and much of his baggage at Wellester, where they
were swallowed up by a quicksand. And when he heard the news he grieved
inconsolably, and redoubling deep sighs, he passed the night at
Swineshead Abbey, belonging to the Carthusian order, where according to
his custom, he gorged himself with peaches soaked in new wine and cider,
and being greatly absorbed in grief for his recent loss, he became
attacked with a severe illness.
But the next day, concealing his illness lest the enemy should triumph
over him, he, though with difficulty, mounted his horse; and soon
afterwards, having had a litter drawn by horses made for him, he
dismounted from his palfrey and entered it, and in this way he came to
the Castle of Leadford, where he spent the night, and found his disease
increase greatly. But the next day he was carried forwards and arrived
at the Castle of Newark where he took to his bed, and his sickness
assumed a fatal appearance; and summoning the Abbot of Crofestune, who
was skilful in the art of medicine, to his side, he confessed himself to
him, and received the eucharist from him. And he appointed Henry, his
eldest son, the heir of his kingdom, bequeathing his body to the Church
of Worcester, under the protection of Saint Wolstan. After this, with
the greatest bitterness of spirit, he cursed all his barons, instead of
bidding them farewell; and in this manner, poor, deprived of all his
treasures, and not retaining the smallest portion of land in peace, so
that he was truly called Lackland, he most miserably departed from this
life on the night following the next after the day of Saint Luke the
Evangelist. And because this John made himself detestable to many
persons, not only on account of the death of his nephew, Arthur, but
also on account of his tyrannical conduct, and of the tribute with which
he bound the kingdom of England under perpetual slavery, and of the war
which his misdeeds provoked, he scarcely deserved to be mourned by the
lamentations of any one.
The following are the territories which John lost by his cruelties and
oppressions, which he did not resist from doing to everyone. First of
all the duchy of Normandy, the County of Blois, the County of Maine,
Anjou, Poitou, the Limosin, Auvergne and Angoulême. And all these
districts at one time belonged to King John. Besides this he subjected
England and Ireland to the payment of tribute, and never recovered any
of his losses, to the day of his death.
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