The History of England Part 18

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

[FN [s] Chron. Sax. p. 209. W. Malmes. p. 156.]

[MN 1102.] This treaty, though calculated so much for Henry?s advantage, he was the first to violate. He restored, indeed, the estates of all Robert's adherents; but was secretly determined, that n.o.blemen so powerful and so ill-affected, who had both inclination and ability to disturb his government, should not long remain unmolested in their present opulence and grandeur. He began with the Earl of Shrewsbury, who was watched for some time by spies, and then indicted on a charge, consisting of forty-five articles. This turbulent n.o.bleman, knowing his own guilt, as well as the prejudices of his judges and the power of his prosecutor, had recourse to arms for defence; but, being soon suppressed by the activity and address of Henry, he was banished the kingdom, and his great estate was confiscated. His ruin involved that of his two brothers, Arnulf de Montgomery, and Roger Earl of Lancaster. Soon after followed the prosecution and condemnation of Robert de Pontefract, and Robert de Mallet, who had distinguished themselves among Robert's adherents.

[MN 1103.] William de Warenne was the next victim: even William Earl of Cornwall, son of the Earl of Mortaigne, the king's uncle, having given matter of suspicion against him, lost all the vast acquisitions of his family in England. Though the usual violence and tyranny of the Norman barons afforded a plausible pretence for those prosecutions, and it is probable that none of the sentences p.r.o.nounced against these n.o.blemen was wholly iniquitous, men easily saw or conjectured, that the chief part of their guilt was not the injustice or illegality of their conduct. Robert, enraged at the fate of his friends, imprudently ventured to come into England; and he remonstrated with his brother, in severe terms, against this breach of treaty; but met with so bad a reception, that he began to apprehend danger to his own liberty, and was glad to purchase an escape by resigning his pension.

The indiscretion of Robert soon exposed him to more fatal injuries.

This prince, whose bravery and candour procured him respect while at a distance, had no sooner attained the possession of power and enjoyment of peace, than all the vigour of his mind relaxed, and he fell into contempt among those who approached his person, or were subjected to his authority. Alternately abandoned to dissolute pleasures and to womanish superst.i.tion, he was so remiss, both in the care of his treasure and the exercise of his government, that his servants pillaged his money with impunity, stole from him his very clothes, and proceeded thence to practise every species of extortion on his defenceless subjects. The barons, whom a severe administration alone could have restrained, gave reins to their unbounded rapine upon their va.s.sals, and inveterate animosities against each other; and all Normandy, during the reign of this benign prince, was become a scene of violence and depredation. [MN 1103. Attack of Normandy.] The Normans, at last, observing the regular government which Henry, notwithstanding his usurped t.i.tle, had been able to establish in England, applied to him, that he might use his authority for the suppression of these disorders, and they thereby afforded him a pretence for interposing in the affairs of Normandy. Instead of employing his mediation to render his brother's government respectable, or to redress the grievances of the Normans, he was only attentive to support his own partisans, and to increase their number by every art of bribery, intrigue, and insinuation. Having found, in a visit which he made to that duchy, that the n.o.bility were more disposed to pay submission to him than to their legal sovereign, he collected, by arbitrary extortions on England, a great army and treasure [MN 1105.], and returned next year to Normandy, in a situation to obtain, either by violence or corruption, the dominion of that province. He took Bayeux by storm, after an obstinate siege: he made himself master of Caen by the voluntary submission of the inhabitants; but, being repulsed at Falaise, and obliged by the winter season to raise the siege, he returned into England, after giving a.s.surance to his adherents, that he would persevere in supporting and protecting them.

[MN 1106. Conquest of Normandy.]

Next year he opened the campaign with the siege of Tenchebray; and it became evident, from his preparations and progress, that he intended to usurp the entire possession of Normandy. Robert was at last roused from his lethargy; and being supported by the Earl of Mortaigne and Robert de Bellesme, the king's inveterate enemies, he raised a considerable army, and approached his brother's camp, with a view of finishing, in one decisive battle, the quarrel between them. He was now entered on that scene of action in which alone he was qualified to excel; and he so animated his troops by his example, that they threw the English into disorder, and had nearly obtained the victory [t]; when the flight of Bellesme spread a panic among the Normans, and occasioned their total defeat. Henry, besides doing great execution on the enemy, made near ten thousand prisoners, among whom was Duke Robert himself, and all the most considerable barons who adhered to his interests [u]. This victory was followed by the final reduction of Normandy: Rouen immediately submitted to the conqueror: Falaise, after some negotiation, opened its gates; and by this acquisition, besides rendering himself master of an important fortress, he got into his hands Prince William, the only son of Robert: he a.s.sembled the states of Normandy; and having received the homage of all the va.s.sals of the duchy, having settled the government, revoked his brother's donations, and dismantled the castles lately built, he returned into England, and carried along with him the duke as prisoner. That unfortunate prince was detained in custody during the remainder of his life, which was no less than twenty-eight years, and he died in the castle of Cardiff, in Glamorganshire, happy if, without losing his liberty, he could have relinquished that power which he was not qualified either to hold or exercise. Prince William was committed to the care of Helie de St. Saen, who had married Robert's natural daughter, and who, being a man of probity and honour beyond what was usual in those ages, executed the trust with great affection and fidelity. Edgar Atheling, who had followed Robert in the expedition to Jerusalem, and who had lived with him ever since in Normandy, was another ill.u.s.trious prisoner taken in the battle of Tenchebray [w].

Henry gave him his liberty, and settled a small pension on him, with which he retired; and he lived to a good old age in England, totally neglected and forgotten. This prince was distinguished by personal bravery: but nothing can be a stronger proof of his mean talents in every other respect, than that, notwithstanding he possessed the affections of the English, and enjoyed the only legal t.i.tle to the throne, he was allowed, during the reigns of so many violent and jealous usurpers, to live unmolested, and go to his grave in peace.

[FN [t] H. Hunt. p. 379. M. Paris, p .43. Brompton, p. 1002. [u]

Eadmer, p. 90. Chron. Sax. p. 214. Order. Vital. p. 821. [w] Chron.

Sax. p. 214. Ann. Waverl. n. 144.]

[MN 1107. Continuation of the quarrel with Anselm, the primate.]

A little after Henry had completed the conquest of Normandy, and settled the government of that province, he finished a controversy, which had been long depending between him and the pope, with regard to the invest.i.tures in ecclesiastical benefices; and though he was here obliged to relinquish sonic of the ancient rights of the crown, he extricated himself from the difficulty on easier terms than most princes who, in that age, were so unhappy as to be engaged in disputes with the apostolic see. The king's situation, in the beginning of his reign, obliged him to pay great court to Anselm: the advantages which he had reaped from the zealous friendship of that prelate had made him sensible how p.r.o.ne the minds of his people were to superst.i.tion, and what an ascendant the ecclesiastics had been able to a.s.sume over them.

He had seen, on the accession of his brother Rufus, that, though the rights of primogeniture were then violated, and the inclinations of almost all the barons thwarted, yet the authority of Lanfranc, the primate, had prevailed over all other considerations: his own case, which was still more unfavourable, afforded an instance in which the clergy had more evidently shown their influence and authority. These recent examples, while they made him cautious not to offend that powerful body, convinced him, at the same time, that it was extremely his interest to retain the former prerogative of the crown in filling offices of such vast importance, and to check the ecclesiastics in that independence to which they visibly aspired. The choice, which his brother, in a fit of penitence, had made of Anselm, was so far unfortunate to the king's pretensions, that this prelate was celebrated for his piety and zeal, and austerity of manners; and though his monkish devotion and narrow principles prognosticated no great knowledge of the world or depth of policy, he was, on that very account, a more dangerous instrument in the hands of politicians, and retained a greater ascendant over the bigoted populace. The prudence and temper of the king appeared in nothing more conspicuous than in the management of this delicate affair; where he was always sensible that it had become necessary for him to risk his whole crown in order to preserve the most invaluable jewel of it [x].

[FN [x] Eadmer, p. 56.]

Anselm had no sooner returned from banishment, than his refusal to do homage to the king raised a dispute, which Henry evaded at that critical juncture, by promising to send a messenger, in order to compound the matter with Pascal II., who then filled the papal throne.

The messenger, as was probably foreseen, returned with an absolute refusal of the king's demands [y]; and that fortified by many reasons, which were well qualified to operate on the understandings of men in those ages. Pascal quoted the Scriptures to prove that Christ was the door; and he thence inferred, that all ecclesiastics must enter into the church through Christ alone, not through the civil magistrate, or any profane laymen [z]. "It is monstrous," added the pontiff, "that a son should pretend to beget his father, or a man to create his G.o.d: priests are called G.o.ds in Scripture, as being the vicars of G.o.d: and will you, by your abominable pretensions to grant them their invest.i.ture, a.s.sume the right of creating them [a]?"

[FN [y] W. Malm. p. 225. [z] Eadmer, p. 60. This topic is farther enforced in p. 73, 74. See also W. Malm. p. 163. [a] Eadmer, p. 61.

I much suspect that this text of Scripture is a forgery of his holiness; for I have not been able to find it. Yet it pa.s.sed current in those ages, and was often quoted by the clergy as the foundation of their power. See St. Thom. p. 169.]

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

[FN [b] Eadmer, p. 62. W. Malm. p. 225. [c] Eadmer, p. 63. [d]

Eadmer, p. 64, 66.]

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

[FN [e] Ibid. p. 65. W. Malm. p. 225. [f] Eadmer, p. 66. W. Malm.

p. 225. Hoveden, p. 469. Sim. Dunelm. p. 228. [f] Eadmer, p. 71.]

The English minister told Pascal, that his master would rather lose his crown than part with the right of granting invest.i.tures. "And I,"

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

[FN [h] Eadmer, p. 73. W. Malm. p. 226. M. Paris, p. 40. [i]

Hoveden, p. 471. [k] Eadmer, p. 81.]

The policy of the court of Rome has commonly been much admired; and men, judging by success, have bestowed the highest eulogies on that prudence by which a power from such slender beginnings, could advance, without force of arms, to establish an universal and almost absolute monarchy in Europe. But the wisdom of so long a succession of men who filled the papal throne, and who were of such different ages, tempers, and interests, is not intelligible, and could never have place in nature. The instrument, indeed, with which they wrought, the ignorance and superst.i.tion of the people, is so gross an engine, of such universal prevalence, and so little liable to accident or disorder, that it may be successful even in the most unskilful hands; and scarce any indiscretion can frustrate its operations. While the court of Rome was openly abandoned to the most flagrant disorders, even while it was torn with schisms and factions, the power of the church daily made a sensible progress in Europe; and the temerity of Gregory and caution of Pascal were equally fortunate in promoting it.

The clergy, feeling the necessity which they lay under of being protected against the violence of princes or rigour of the laws, were well pleased to adhere to a foreign head, who, being removed from the fear of the civil authority, could freely employ the power of the whole church, in defending her ancient or usurped properties and privileges, when invaded in any particular country: the monks, desirous of an independence of their diocesans, professed a still more devoted attachment to the triple crown; and the stupid people possessed no science or reason, which they could oppose to the most exorbitant pretensions. Nonsense pa.s.sed for demonstration: the most criminal means were sanctified by the piety of the end: treaties were not supposed to be binding, where the interests of G.o.d were concerned: the ancient laws and customs of states had no authority against a divine right: impudent forgeries were received as authentic monuments of antiquity: and the champions of holy church, if successful, were celebrated as heroes; if unfortunate, were worshipped as martyrs; and all events thus turned out equally to the advantage of clerical usurpations. Pascal himself, the reigning pope, was, in the course of this very controversy concerning invest.i.tures, involved in circ.u.mstances and necessitated to follow a conduct, which would have drawn disgrace and ruin on any temporal prince that had been so unfortunate as to fall into a like situation. His person was seized by the Emperor, Henry V., and he was obliged, by a formal treaty, to resign to that monarch the right of granting invest.i.tures, for which they had so long contended [l]. In order to add greater solemnity to this agreement, the emperor and pope communicated together on the same host, one half of which was given to the prince, the other taken by the pontiff: the most tremendous imprecations were publicly denounced on either of them who should violate the treaty: yet no sooner did Pascal recover his liberty, than he revoked all his concessions, and p.r.o.nounced the sentence of excommunication against the emperor, who, in the end, was obliged to submit to the terms required of him, and to yield up all his pretensions, which he never could resume [m].

[FN [l] W. Malm. p. 167. [m] Padre Paolo sopra benef. eccles. p. 112.

W. Malmes. p. 170. Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 63. Sim.

Dunelm. p. 233.]

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

[FN [n] Eadmer, p. 79. [o] Ibid. p. 80. [p] Ibid. p. 79.]

[MN Compromise with Anselm.]

Before bishops took possession of their dignities, they had formerly been accustomed to pa.s.s through two ceremonies: they received from the hands of the sovereign a ring and crosier, as symbols of their office; and this was called their INVESt.i.tURE: they also made those submissions to the prince which were required of va.s.sals by the rights of the feudal law, and which received the name of HOMAGE. And as the king might refuse both to grant the INVESt.i.tURE and to receive the HOMAGE, though the chapter had, by some canons of the middle age, been endowed with the right of election, the sovereign had in reality the sole power of appointing prelates. Urban II. had equally deprived laymen of the rights of granting invest.i.ture and of receiving homage [q]: the emperors never were able, by all their wars and negotiations, to make any distinction be admitted between them: the interposition of profane laymen, in any particular, was still represented as impious and abominable; and the church openly aspired to a total independence on the state. But Henry had put England as well as Normandy in such a situation as gave greater weight to his negotiations; and Pascal was for the present satisfied with his resigning the right of granting invest.i.tures, by which the spiritual dignity was supposed to be conferred; and he allowed the bishops to do homage for their temporal properties and privileges [r]. The pontiff was well pleased to have made this acquisition, which, he hoped, would in time involve the whole; and the king, anxious to procure an escape from a very dangerous situation, was content to retain some, though a more precarious authority, in the election of prelates.

[FN [q] Eadmer, p. 91. W. Malm. p. 163. Sim. Dunelm. p. 230. [r]

Eadmer, p. 91. W. Malm. p. 164, 227. Hoveden, p. 471. M. Paris, p.

43. T. Rudb. p. 274. Brompton, p. 1000. Wilkins, p. 303. Chron.

Dunst. p. 21.]

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

[FN [s] Eadmer p. 87. [t] Ibid. p. 91.]

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

[FN [u] Eadmer, p. 67, 68. Spellm. Conc. vol. ii. p. 22. [w] Eadmer, p. 68. [x] Order. Vital. p. 816.]

[MN Wars abroad.]

The acquisition of Normandy was a great point of Henry's ambition; being the ancient patrimony of his family, and the only territory, which, while in his possession, gave him any weight or consideration on the continent: but the injustice of his usurpation was the source of great inquietude, involved him in frequent wars, and obliged him to impose on his English subjects those many heavy and arbitrary taxes, of which all the historians of that age unanimously complain [y].

His nephew, William, was but six years of age when he committed him to the care of Helie de St. Saen; and it is probable, that his reason for intrusting that important charge to a man of so unblemished a character was to prevent all malignant suspicions, in case any accident should befall the life of the young prince. [MN 1110.] He soon repented of his choice, but when he desired to recover possession of William?s person, Helie withdrew his pupil, and carried him to the court of Fulk, Count of Anjou, who gave him protection [z]. In proportion as the prince grew up to man's estate, he discovered virtues becoming his birth; and wandering through different courts of Europe, he excited the friendly compa.s.sion of many princes, and raised a general indignation against his uncle, who had so unjustly bereaved him of his inheritance. Lewis the Gross, son of Philip, was at this time King of France, a brave and generous prince, who having been obliged, during the lifetime of his father, to fly into England, in order to escape the persecutions of his step-mother, Bertrude, had been protected by Henry, and had thence conceived a personal friendship for him. But these ties were soon dissolved after the accession of Lewis, who found his interests to be in so many particulars opposite to those of the English monarch, and who became sensible of the danger attending the annexation of Normandy to England. He joined, therefore, the Counts of Anjou and Flanders in giving disquiet to Henry's government; and this monarch, in order to defend his foreign dominions, found himself obliged to go over to Normandy, where he resided two years. The war which ensued amongst those princes was attended with no memorable event, and produced only slight skirmishes on the frontiers, agreeable to the weak condition of the sovereigns in that age whenever their subjects were not roused by some great and urgent occasion. Henry, by contracting his eldest son, William, to the daughter of Fulk, detached the prince from the alliance, and obliged the others to come to an accommodation with him.

This peace was not of long duration. His nephew, William, retired to the court of Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, who espoused his cause; and the King of France having soon after, for other reasons, joined the party, a new war was kindled in Normandy, which produced no event more memorable than had attended the former. [MN 1113.] At last the death of Baldwin, who was slain in an action near Eu, gave some respite to Henry, and enabled him to carry on war with more advantage against his enemies.

[FN [y] Eadmer, p. 83. Chron. Sax. p. 211, 212, 213, 219, 220, 228.

H. Hunt p. 380. Hoveden, p. 470. Ann. Waverl. p. 143. [z] Order Vital. p. 837.]

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

[MN 1119.] The complaints of the Norman prince were thenceforth heard with great coldness by the council; and Calixtus confessed, after a conference which he had the same summer with Henry, and when that prince probably renewed his presents, that, of all men whom he had ever yet been acquainted with, he was, beyond comparison, the most eloquent and persuasive.

The warlike measures of Lewis proved as ineffectual as his intrigues.

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

[FN [a] H. Hunt. p. 381. M. Paris, p. 47. Diceto, p. 503. [b]

Order. Vital. p. 854.]

[MN 1120. Death of Prince William.]

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

[FN [c] Sim. Dunelm. p. 242. Alured Beverl. p. 148. [d] Order.

Vital. p. 868. [e] Hoveden, p. 476. Order. Vital. p. 869.]

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

[FN [f] Gu1. Neub. lib. 1. cap. 3. [g] Eadmer, p. 110.]

Prince William left no children; and the king had not now any legitimate issue, except one daughter, Matilda, whom, in 1110, he had betrothed, though only eight years of age [h], to the Emperor Henry V., and whom he had then sent over to be educated in Germany [i]. But as her absence from the kingdom, and her marriage into a foreign family, might endanger the succession, Henry, who was now a widower, was induced to marry, in hopes of having male heirs; [MN King?s second marriage. 1121.] and he made his addresses to Adelais, daughter of G.o.dfrey, Duke of Lovaine, and niece of Pope Calixtus, a young princess of an amiable person [k]. But Adelais brought him no children; and the prince who was most likely to dispute the succession, and even the immediate possession of the crown, recovered hopes of subverting his rival, who had successively seized all his patrimonial dominions.

William, the son of Duke Robert, was still protected in the French court; and as Henry's connexions with the Count of Anjou were broken off by the death of his son, Fulk joined the party of the unfortunate prince, gave him his daughter in marriage, and aided him in raising disturbances in Normandy. But Henry found the means of drawing off the Count of Anjou, by forming anew with him a nearer connexion than the former, and one more material to the interests of that count's family. [MN 1127.] The emperor, his son-in-law, dying without issue, he bestowed his daughter on Geoffrey, the eldest son of Fulk, and endeavoured to ensure her succession by having her recognized heir to all his dominions, and obliging the barons, both of Normandy and England to swear fealty to her. [MN 1128.] He hoped that the choice of this husband would be more agreeable to all his subjects than that of the emperor; as securing them from the danger of falling under the dominion of a great and distant potentate, who might bring them into subjection, and reduce their country to the rank of a province: but the barons were displeased that a step so material to national interests had been taken without consulting them [l]; and Henry had too sensibly experienced the turbulence of their disposition, not to dread the effects of their resentment. It seemed probable, that his nephew's party might gain force from the increase of the malecontents: an accession of power which that prince acquired a little after, tended to render his pretensions still more dangerous. Charles, Earl of Flanders, being a.s.sa.s.sinated during the celebration of divine service, King Lewis immediately put the young prince in possession of that country, to which he had pretensions in the right of his grandmother Matilda, wife to the Conqueror. But William survived a very little time this piece of good fortune, which seemed to open the way to still farther prosperity. He was killed in a skirmish with the Landgrave of Alsace, his compet.i.tor for Flanders; and his death put an end, for the present, to the jealousy and inquietude of Henry.

[FN [h] Chron. Sax. p. 215. W. Malm. p. 166. Order. Vital. p. 83.

[i] See note [M], at the end of the volume. [k] Chron. Sax. p. 223.

W. Malm. p. 165. [l] W. Malm. p. 175. The annals of Waverly, p. 150, say, that the king asked and obtained the consent of all the barons.]

The chief merit of this monarch's government consists in the profound tranquillity which he established and maintained throughout all his dominions during the greater part of his reign. The mutinous barons were retained in subjection; and his neighbours, in every attempt which they made upon him, found him so well prepared, that they were discouraged from continung or renewing their enterprises. In order to repress the incursions of the Welsh, he brought over some Flemings, in the year 1111, and settled them in Pembrokeshire, where they long maintained a different language, and customs, and manners, from their neighbours. Though his government seems to have been arbitrary in England, it was judicious and prudent; and was as little oppressive as the necessity of his affairs would permit. He wanted not attention to the redress of grievances; and historians mention in particular the levying of purveyance, which he endeavoured to moderate and restrain.

The tenants in the king's demesne lands were at that time obliged to supply, GRATIS, the court with provisions, and to furnish carriages on the same hard terms, when the king made a progress, as he did frequently, into any of the counties. These exactions were so grievous, and levied in so licentious a manner, that the farmers, when they heard of the approach of the court, often deserted their houses as if an enemy had invaded the country [m], and sheltered their persons and families in the woods from the insults of the king's retinue. Henry prohibited those enormities, and punished the persons guilty of them by cutting off their hands, legs, or other members [n].

But the prerogative was perpetual; the remedy applied by Henry was temporary; and the violence itself of this remedy, so far from giving security to the people, was only a proof of the ferocity of the government, and threatened a quick return of like abuses.

[FN [m] Eadmer, p. 94. Chron. Sax. p. 212. [n] Eadmer, p. 94.]

One great and difficult object of the king's prudence was, the guarding against the encroachments of the court of Rome, and protecting the liberties of the church of England. The pope, in the year 1101, had sent Guy, Archbishop of Vienne, as legate into Britain; and though he was the first that for many years had appeared there in that character, and his commission gave general surprise [o], the king, who was then in the commencement of his reign, and was involved in many difficulties, was obliged to submit to this encroachment on his authority. But in the year 1116, Anselm, Abbot of St. Sabas, who was coming over with a like legatine commission, was prohibited from entering the kingdom [p]; and Pope Calixtus who, in his turn, was then labouring under many difficulties, by reason of the pretensions of Gregory, an anti-pope, was obliged to promise that he never would for the future, except when solicited by the king himself, send any legate into England [q]. Notwithstanding this engagement, the pope, as soon as he had suppressed his antagonist, granted the Cardinal de Crema a legatine commission over that kingdom; and the king, who, by reason of his nephew's intrigues and invasions, found himself at that time in a dangerous situation, was obliged to submit to the exercise of this commission [r]. A synod was called by the legate at London; where, among other canons, a vote pa.s.sed, enacting severe penalties on the marriages of the clergy [s]. The cardinal, in a public harangue, declared it to be an unpardonable enormity, that a priest should dare to consecrate and touch the body of Christ immediately after he had risen from the side of a strumpet; for that was the decent appellation which he gave to the wives of the clergy. But it happened that, the very next night, the officers of justice, breaking into a disorderly house, found the cardinal in bed with a courtezan [t]; an incident which threw such ridicule upon him, that he immediately stole out of the kingdom: the synod broke up; and the canons against the marriage of clergymen were worse executed than ever [u].

[FN [o] Ibid. p. 58. [p] Hoveden, p. 474. [q] Eadmer, p. 125, 137, 138. [r] Chron. Sax. p. 229. [s] Spellm. Conc. vol. ii. p. 34. [t]

Hoveden, p. 478. M. Paris, p. 48. Matth. West. ad. ann. 1125. H.

Huntingdon, p. 382. It is remarkable that this last writer, who was a clergyman as well as the others, makes an apology for using such freedom with the fathers of the church; but says, that the fact was notorious, and ought not to be concealed. [u] Chron. Sax. p. 234.]