[Illustration: frontispiece. Jpg PORTRAIT OF HUME. ]

[Illustration: titlepage. Jpg BOADICEA HARANGUING THE BRITONS]

THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND

FROM THE INVASION OF JULIUS CÆSAR

TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF JAMES THE SECOND, BY DAVID HUME, ESQ. 

1688

London: James S. Virtue, City Road and Ivy LaneNew York: 26 John Street1860

And

Philadelphia:J. B. Lippincott & Co. March 17, 1901

In Three Volumes:

VOLUME ONE: The History Of England From The Invasion Of Julius Cæsar ToThe End Of The Reign Of James The Second............ By David Hume, Esq. 

VOLUME TWO: Continued from the Reign of William and Mary to the Death ofGeorge II........................................... By Tobias Smollett. 

VOLUME THREE: From the Accession of George III. To the Twenty-Third Yearof the Reign of Queen Victoria............... By E. Farr and E. H. Nolan. 

VOLUME ONE

Part A. 

THE EARLY BRITONS TO KING JOHN

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED

A SHORT ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE. 

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. 

THE LIFE OF DAVID HUME, ESQ. 

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. 

MY OWN LIFE. 

It is difficult for a man to speak long of himself without vanity;therefore I shall be short. It may be thought an instance of vanitythat I pretend at all to write my life; but this narrative shall containlittle more than the history of my writings; as, indeed, almost allmy life has been spent in literary pursuits and occupations. The firstsuccess of most of my writings was not such as to be an object ofvanity. 

I was born the twenty-sixth of April, 1711, old style, at Edinburgh. Iwas of a good family, both by father and mother: my father's family isa branch of the earl of Home's, or Hume's; and my ancestors had beenproprietors of the estate which my brother possesses, for severalgenerations. My mother was daughter of Sir David Falconer, president ofthe college of justice; the title of Lord Halkerton came by successionto her brother. 

My family, however, was not rich; and being myself a younger brother, my patrimony, according to the mode of my country, was of course veryslender. My father, who passed for a man of parts, died when I was aninfant, leaving me, with an elder brother and a sister, under thecare of our mother, a woman of singular merit, who, though young andhandsome, devoted herself entirely to the rearing and educating ofher children. I passed through the ordinary course of education withsuccess, and was seized very early with a passion for literature, whichhas been the ruling passion of my life, and the great source of myenjoyments. My studious disposition, my sobriety, and my industry, gavemy family a notion that the law was a proper profession for me; butI found an insurmountable aversion to every thing but the pursuits ofphilosophy and general learning; and while they fancied I was poringupon Voet and Vinnius, Cicero and Virgil were the authors which I wassecretly devouring. 

My very slender fortune, however, being unsuitable to this plan of life, and my health being a little broken by my ardent application, I wastempted, or rather forced, to make a very feeble trial for enteringinto a more active scene of life. In 1734, I went to Bristol, with somerecommendations to several eminent merchants; but in a few months foundthat scene totally unsuitable to me. I went over to France, with a viewof prosecuting my studies in a country retreat; and I there laid thatplan of life which I have steadily and successfully pursued. I resolvedto make a very rigid frugality supply my deficiency of fortune, tomaintain unimpaired my independency, and to regard every object ascontemptible, except the improvement of my talents in literature. 

During my retreat in France, first at Rheims, but chiefly at La Fleche, in Anjou, I composed my Treatise of Human Nature. After passing threeyears very agreeably in that country, I came over to London in 1737. Inthe end of 1738, I published my Treatise, and immediately went downto my mother and my brother, who lived at his country house, and wasemploying himself very judiciously and successfully in the improvementof his fortune. 

Never literary attempt was more unfortunate than my Treatise ofHuman Nature. It fell dead-born from the press, without reaching suchdistinction as even to excite a murmur among the zealots. But beingnaturally of a cheerful and sanguine temper, I very soon recovered theblow, and prosecuted with great ardor my studies in the country. In1742, I printed at Edinburgh the first part of my Essays. The workwas favorably received, and soon made me entirely forget my formerdisappointment. I continued with my mother and brother in the country, and in that time recovered the knowledge of the Greek language, which Ihad too much neglected in my early youth. 

In 1745, I received a letter from the marquis of Annandale, inviting meto come and live with him in England; I found also that the friends andfamily of that young nobleman were desirous of putting him under my careand direction, for the state of his mind and health required it. Ilived with him a twelve-month. My appointments during that time madea considerable accession to my small fortune. I then received aninvitation from General St. Clair to attend him as a secretary to hisexpedition, which was at first meant against Canada, but ended in anincursion on the coast of France. Next year, to wit, 1747, I receivedan invitation from the general to attend him in the same station inhis military embassy to the courts of Vienna and Turin. I then wore theuniform of an officer, and was introduced at these courts as aid-de-campto the general, along with Sir Harry Erskine and Captain Grant, nowGeneral Grant. These two years were almost the only interruptions whichmy studies have received during the course of my life: I passed themagreeably, and in good company; and my appointments, with my frugality, had made me reach a fortune which I called independent, though most ofmy friends were inclined to smile when I said so: in short, I was nowmaster of near a thousand pounds. 

I had always entertained a notion, that my want of success in publishingthe Treatise of Human Nature had proceeded more from the manner thanthe matter, and that I had been guilty of a very usual indiscretion, ingoing to the press too early. I, therefore, cast the first part ofthat work anew in the Inquiry concerning Human Understanding, which waspublished while I was at Turin. But this piece was at first little moresuccessful than the Treatise on Human Nature. On my return from Italy, I had the mortification to find all England in a ferment, on accountof Dr. Middleton's Free Inquiry, while my performance was entirelyoverlooked and neglected, A new edition, which had been published atLondon, of my Essays, moral and political, met not with a much betterreception. 

Such is the force of natural temper, that these disappointments madelittle or no impression on me. I went down, in 1749, and lived two yearswith my brother at his country house, for my mother was now dead. Ithere composed the second part of my Essay, which I called PoliticalDiscourses, and also my Inquiry concerning the Principles of Morals, which is another part of my Treatise that I cast anew. Meanwhile, mybookseller, A. Millar, informed me, that my former publications (allbut the unfortunate Treatise) were beginning to be the subject ofconversation; that the sale of them was gradually increasing, and thatnew editions were demanded. Answers by reverends and right reverendscame out two or three in a year; and I found, by Dr. Warburton'srailing, that the books were beginning to be esteemed in good company. However, I had fixed a resolution, which I inflexibly maintained, neverto reply to any body; and not being very irascible in my temper, I haveeasily kept myself clear of all literary squabbles. These symptoms of arising reputation gave me encouragement, as I was ever more disposed tosee the favorable than unfavorable side of things; a turn of mindwhich it is more happy to possess, than to be born to an estate of tenthousand a year. 

In 1751, I removed from the country to the town, the true scene for aman of letters. In 1752 were published at Edinburgh, where I then lived, my Political Discourses, the only work of mine that was successful onthe first publication. It was well received at home and abroad. In thesame year was published, at London, my Inquiry concerning the Principlesof Morals; which, in my own opinion, (who ought not to judge onthat subject, ) is, of all my writings, historical, philosophical, orliterary, incomparably the best, It came unnoticed and unobserved intothe world. 

In 1752, the Faculty of Advocates chose me their librarian, an officefrom which I received little or no emolument, but which gave me thecommand of a large library, I then formed the plan of writing theHistory of England; but being frightened with the notion of continuing anarrative through a period of seventeen hundred years, I commenced withthe accession of the house of Stuart, an epoch when, I thought, themisrepresentations of faction began chiefly to take place. I was, I own, sanguine in my expectations of the success of this work. I thoughtthat I was the only historian that had at once neglected present power, interest, and authority, and the cry of popular prejudices; and as thesubject was suited to every capacity, I expected proportional applause. But miserable was my disappointment; I was assailed by one cry ofreproach, disapprobation, and even detestation; English, Scotch, and Irish, whig and tory, churchman and sectary, freethinker andreligionist, patriot and courtier, united in their rage against the manwho had presumed to shed a generous tear for the fate of Charles I. Andthe earl of Stratford; and after the first ebullitions of their furywere over, what was still more mortifying, the book seemed to sinkinto oblivion. Mr. Millar told me that in a twelvemonth he sold onlyforty-five copies of it. I scarcely, indeed head of one man in the threekingdoms, considerable for rank or letters, that could endure the book. I must only except the primate of England, Dr. Herring, and the primateof Ireland, Dr. Stone, which seem two odd exceptions. These dignifiedprelates separately sent me messages not to be discouraged. 

I was, however, I confess, discouraged; and had not the war been at thattime breaking out between France and England, I had certainly retiredto some provincial town of the former kingdom, have changed my name, andnever more have returned to my native country. But as this schemewas not now practicable, and the subsequent volume was considerablyadvanced, I resolved to pick up courage and to persevere. 

In this interval, I published, at London, my Natural History ofReligion, along with some other small pieces. Its public entry wasrather obscure, except only that Dr. Hurd wrote a pamphlet againstit, with all the illiberal petulance, arrogance, and scurrility, which distinguish the Warburtonian school. This pamphlet gave me someconsolation for the otherwise indifferent reception of my performance. 

In 1756, two years after the fall of the first volume, was publishedthe second volume of my history, containing the period from the death ofCharles I. Till the revolution. This performance happened to give lessdispleasure to the whigs, and was better received. It not only roseitself, but helped to buoy up its unfortunate brother. 

But though I had been taught by experience that the whig party were inpossession of bestowing all places, both in the state and in Literature, I was so little inclined to yield to their senseless clamor, that inabove a hundred alterations, which further study, reading, or reflectionengaged me to make in the reigns of the two first Stuarts, I have madeall of them invariably to the tory side. It is ridiculous to considerthe English constitution before that period as a regular plan ofliberty. 

In 1759, I published my history of the house of Tudor. The clamoragainst this performance was almost equal to that against the historyof the two first Stuarts. The reign of Elizabeth was particularlyobnoxious. But I was now callous against the impressions of publicfolly, and continued very peaceably and contentedly, in my retreat atEdinburgh, to finish, in two volumes, the more early part of the Englishhistory, which I gave to the public in 1761, with tolerable, and buttolerable, success. 

But, notwithstanding this variety of winds and seasons, to which mywritings had been exposed, they had still been making such advances, that the copy-money given me by the booksellers much exceeded anything formerly known in England; I was become not only independent, butopulent. I retired to my native country of Scotland, determined nevermore to set my foot out of it; and retaining the satisfaction of neverhaving preferred a request to one great man, or even making advances offriendship to any of them. As I was now turned of fifty, I thought ofpassing all the rest of my life in this philosophical manner: when Ireceived, in 1763, an invitation from the earl of Hertford, with whom Iwas not in the least acquainted, to attend him on his embassy to Paris, with a near prospect of being appointed secretary to the embassy; and, in the mean while, of performing the functions of that office. Thisoffer, however inviting, I at first declined; both because I wasreluctant to begin connections with the great, and because I was afraidthat the civilities and gay company of Paris would prove disagreeableto a person of my age and humor; but on his lordship's repeating theinvitation, I accepted of it. I have every reason, both of pleasure andinterest; to think myself happy in my connections with that nobleman, aswell as afterwards with his brother, General Conway. 

Those who have not seen the strange effects of modes, will never imaginethe reception I met with at Paris, from men and women of all ranks andstations. The more I resiled from their excessive civilities, the moreI was loaded with them. There is, however, a real satisfaction in livingat Paris, from the great number of sensible, knowing, and polite companywith which that city abounds above all places in the universe. I thoughtonce of settling there for life. 

I was appointed secretary to the embassy; and, in summer, 1765, LordHertford left me, being appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland. I waschargé d'affaires till the arrival of the duke of Richmond, towards theend of the year. In the beginning of 1766, I left Paris, and next summerwent to Edinburgh, with the same view as formerly, of burying myself ina philosophical retreat. I returned to that place, not richer, but withmuch more money, and a much larger income, by means of Lord Hertford'sfriendship, than I left it; and I was desirous of trying whatsuperfluity could produce, as I had formerly made an experiment of acompetency. But in 1767, I received from Mr. Conway an invitation to beunder-secretary; and this invitation, both the character of the person, and my connections with Lord Hertford, prevented me from declining. Ireturned to Edinburgh in 1769, very opulent, (for I possessed a revenueof one thousand pounds a year, ) healthy, and though somewhat strickenin years, with the prospect of enjoying long my ease, and of seeing theincrease of my reputation. 

In spring, 1775, I was struck with a disorder in my bowels, which atfirst gave me no alarm, but has since, as I apprehend it, become mortaland incurable. I now reckon upon a speedy dissolution. I have sufferedvery little pain from my disorder; and what is more strange, have, notwithstanding the great decline of my person, never suffered amoment's abatement of my spirits; insomuch, that were I to name a periodof my life which I should most choose to pass over again, I might betempted to point to this later period. I possess the same ardor as everin study, and the same gayety in company. I consider, besides, that aman of sixty-five, by dying, cuts off only a few years of infirmities;and though I see many symptoms of my literary reputation's breaking outat last with additional lustre, I know that I could have but few yearsto enjoy it. It is difficult to be more detached from life than I am atpresent. 

To conclude historically with my own character: I am, or rather was, (for that is the style I must now use in speaking of myself, whichimboldens me the more to speak my sentiments;) I was, I say, a man ofmild disposition, of command of temper, of an open, social, and cheerfulhumor, capable of attachment, but little susceptible of enmity, and ofgreat moderation in all my passions. Even my love of literary fame, my ruling passion, never soured my temper, notwithstanding my frequentdisappointments. My company was not unacceptable to the young andcareless, as well as to the studious and literary; and as I took aparticular pleasure in the company of modest women, I had no reason tobe displeased with the reception I met with from them. In a word, thoughmost men, anywise eminent, have found reason to complain of Calumny, Inever was touched, or even attacked, by her baleful tooth; and thoughI wantonly exposed myself to the rage of both civil and religiousfactions, they seemed to be disarmed in my behalf of their wonted fury. My friends never had occasion to vindicate any one circumstance of mycharacter and conduct; not but that the zealots, we may wellsuppose, would have been glad to invent and propagate any story to mydisadvantage, but they could never find any which they thought wouldwear the face of probability. I cannot say there is no vanity in makingthis funeral oration of myself, but I hope it is not a misplaced one;and this is a matter of fact which is easily cleared and ascertained. 

April 18, 1776. 

LETTER FROM ADAM SMITH, LL. D. TO WILLLIAM STRAHAN, ESQ. 

Kirkaldy, Fifeshire, Nov. 9, 1778. [**]

DEAR SIR, It is with a real, though a very melancholy pleasure, that I sit down togive you some account of the behavior of our late excellent friend, Mr. Hume, during his last illness. 

Though, in his own judgment, his disease was mortal and incurable, yethe allowed himself to be prevailed upon, by the entreaty of his friends, to try what might be the effects of a long journey. A few days before heset out, he wrote that account of his own life, which, together withhis other papers, he has left to your care. My account, therefore, shallbegin where his ends. 

He set out for London towards the end of April, and at Morpeth met withMr. John Home and myself, who had both come down from London on purposeto see him, expecting to have found him at Edinburgh. Mr. Home returnedwith him, and attended him during the whole of his stay in England, with that care and attention which might be expected from a temper soperfectly friendly and affectionate. As I had written to my mother thatshe might expect me in Scotland, I was under the necessity of continuingmy journey. His disease seemed to yield to exercise and change of air;and when he arrived in London, he was apparently in much better healththan when he left Edinburgh. He was advised to go to Bath to drink thewaters, which appeared for some time to have so good an effect upon him, that even he himself began to entertain, what he was not apt to do, abetter opinion of his own health. His symptoms, however, soon returnedwith their usual violence; and from that moment he gave up all thoughtsof recovery, but submitted with the utmost cheerfulness, and the mostperfect complacency and resignation. Upon his return to Edinburgh, though he found himself much weaker, yet his cheerfulness never abated, and he continued to divert himself, as usual, with correcting his ownworks for a new edition, with reading books of amusement, with theconversation of his friends; and, sometimes in the evening, with a partyat his favorite game of whist. His cheerfulness was so great, and hisconversation and amusements ran so much in their usual strain, that, notwithstanding all bad symptoms, many people could not believe he wasdying. "I shall tell your friend, Colonel Edmonstone, " said Dr. Dundas, to him one day, "that I left you much better, and in a fair way ofrecovery. " "Doctor, " said he, "as I believe you would not choose to tellany thing but the truth, you had better tell him that I am dying as fastas my enemies, if I have any, could wish, and as easily and cheerfullyas my best friends could desire. " Colonel Edmonstone soon afterwardscame to see him, and take leave of him; and on his way home he could notforbear writing him a letter, bidding him once more an eternal adieu, and applying to him, as to a dying man, the beautiful French verses inwhich the abbé Chaulieu in expectation of his own death, laments hisapproaching separation from his friend the marquis de la Fare. Mr. Hume's magnanimity and firmness were such, that his most affectionatefriends knew that they hazarded nothing in talking or writing to him asto a dying man, and that so far from being hurt by this frankness, hewas rather pleased and flattered by it. I happened to come into his roomwhile he was reading this letter, which he had just received, and whichhe immediately showed me. I told him, that though I was sensible howvery much he was weakened, and that appearances were in many respectsvery bad, yet his cheerfulness was still so great, the spirit oflife seemed still to be so very strong in him, that I could not helpentertaining some faint hopes. He answered, "Your hopes are groundless. An habitual diarrhoea of more than a year's standing, would be a verybad disease at any age; at my age it is a mortal one. When I lie down inthe evening, I feel myself weaker than when I rose in the morning; andwhen I rise in the morning, weaker than when I lay down in the evening. I am sensible besides, that some of my vital parts are affected, so thatI must soon die. " "Well, " said I, "if it must be so, you have at leastthe satisfaction of leaving all your friends, your brother's family inparticular, in great prosperity. " He said that he felt that satisfactionso sensibly, that when he was reading, a few days before, Lucian'sDialogues of the Dead, among all the excuses which are alleged to Charonfor not entering readily into his boat, he could not find one thatfitted him: he had no house to finish, he had no daughter to provide forhe had no enemies upon whom he wished to revenge himself. "I could notwell imagine, " said he, "what excuse I could make to Charon in order toobtain a little delay. I have done every thing of consequence which Iever meant to do; and I could at no time expect to leave my relationsand friends in a better situation than that in which I am now likelyto leave them: I, therefore, have all reason to die contented. " Hethen diverted himself with inventing several jocular excuses, whichhe supposed he might make to Charon, and with imagining the very surlyanswers which it might suit the character of Charon to return to them. "Upon further consideration, " said he, "I thought I might say to him, 'Good Charon, I have been correcting my works for a new edition. Allow me a little time, that I may see how the public receives thealterations. ' But Charon would answer, 'When you have seen the effect ofthese, you will be for making other alterations. There will be no end ofsuch excuses; so, honest friend, please step into the boat. ' But Imight still urge, 'Have a little patience, good Charon: I have beenendeavoring to open the eyes of the public. If I live a few yearslonger, I may have the satisfaction of seeing the downfall of some ofthe prevailing systems of superstition. ' But Charon would then lose alltemper and decency. 'You loitering rogue, that will not happen thesemany hundred years. Do you fancy I will grant you a lease for so long aterm? Get into the boat this instant, you lazy, loitering rogue. '"

But, though Mr. Hume always talked of his approaching dissolutionwith great cheerfulness, he never affected to make any parade of hismagnanimity. He never mentioned the subject but when the conversationnaturally led to it, and never dwelt longer upon it than the courseof the conversation happened to require; it was a subject indeed whichoccurred pretty frequently, in consequence of the inquiries which hisfriends, who came to see him, naturally made concerning the state of hishealth. The conversation which I mentioned above, and which passed onThursday the eighth of August, was the last, except one, that I ever hadwith him. He had now become so very weak, that the company of his mostintimate friends fatigued him; for his cheerfulness was still so great, his complaisance and social disposition were still so entire, thatwhen any friend was with him, he could not help talking more, and withgreater exertion, than suited the weakness of his body. At his owndesire, therefore, I agreed to leave Edinburgh, where I was stayingpartly upon his account and returned to my mother's house here atKirkaldy, upon condition that he would send for me whenever he wishedto see me; the physician who saw him most frequently, Dr. Black, undertaking, in the mean time, to write me occasionally an account ofthe state of his health. 

On the twenty-second of August, the doctor wrote me the followingletter;--

"Since my last, Mr. Hume has passed his time pretty easily, but is muchweaker. He sits up, goes down stairs once a day, and amuses himself withreading, but seldom sees any body. He finds that even the conversationof his most intimate friends fatigues and oppresses him; and it is happythat he does not need it, for he is quite free from anxiety, impatience, or low spirits, and passes his time very well with the assistance ofamusing books. "

I received, the day after, a letter from Mr. Hume himself, of which thefollowing is an extract:--

 "Edinburgh, 23d August, 1776. 

 "MY DEAREST FRIEND, "I am obliged to make use of my nephew's hand in writing to you, as I do not rise to-day. 

 "I go very fast to decline, and last night had a small fever, which I hoped might put a quicker period to this tedious illness; but unluckily it has, in a great measure, gone off. I cannot submit to your coming over here on my account, as it is possible for me to see you so small a part of the day; but Dr. Black can better inform you concerning the degree of strength which may from time to time remain with me. Adieu, etc. "

Three days after, I received the following letter from Dr. Black:--

 "Edinburgh, Monday, 26th August, 1776. 

 "DEAR SIR, "Yesterday, about four o'clock, afternoon, Mr. Hume expired. The near approach of his death became evident in the night between Thursday and Friday, when his disease became excessive, and soon weakened him so much, that he could no longer rise out of his bed He continued to the last perfectly sensible, and free from much pain or feelings of distress. He never dropped the smallest expression of impatience; but when he had occasion to speak to the people about him, always did it with affection and tenderness. I thought it improper to write to bring you over, especially as I heard that he had dictated a letter to you, desiring you not to come. When he became very weak, it cost him an effort to speak; and he died in such a happy composure of mind, that nothing could exceed it. "

Thus died our most excellent and never to be forgotten friend;concerning whose philosophical opinions men will, no doubt, judgevariously, every one approving or condemning them, according as theyhappen to coincide or disagree with his own; but concerning whosecharacter and conduct there can scarce be a difference of opinion. Histemper, indeed, seemed to be more happily balanced, if I may be allowedsuch an expression, than that perhaps of any other man I have everknown. Even in the lowest state of his fortune, his great and necessaryfrugality never hindered him from exercising, upon proper occasions, acts both of charity and generosity. It was a frugality founded not uponavarice, but upon the love of independency. The extreme gentlenessof his nature never weakened either the firmness of his mind or thesteadiness of his resolutions. His constant pleasantry was the genuineeffusion of good nature and good humor, tempered with delicacy andmodesty, and without even the slightest tincture of malignity, sofrequently the disagreeable source of what is called wit in other men. It never was the meaning of his raillery to mortify; and therefore, farfrom offending, it seldom failed to please and delight, even those whowere the objects of it. To his friends who were frequently the objectsof it, there was not perhaps any one of all his great and amiablequalities which contributed more to endear his conversation. Andthat gayety of temper, so agreeable in society, but which is so oftenaccompanied with frivolous and superficial qualities, was in himcertainly attended with the most severe application, the most extensivelearning, the greatest depth of thought, and a capacity in every respectthe most comprehensive. Upon the whole, I have always considered him, both in his lifetime and since his death, as approaching as nearly tothe idea of a perfectly wise and virtuous man as perhaps the nature ofhuman frailty will permit. 

I ever am, dear sir, Most affectionately yours, ADAM SMITH. 

HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE BRITONS. 

The curiosity entertained by all civilized nations, of inquiring intothe exploits and adventures of their ancestors, commonly excites aregret that the history of remote ages should always be so much involvedin obscurity, uncertainty, and contradiction. Ingenious men, possessedof leisure, are apt to push their researches beyond the period in whichliterary monuments are framed or preserved; without reflecting, that thehistory of past events is immediately lost or disfigured when intrustedto memory and oral tradition, and that the adventures of barbarousnations, even if they were recorded, could afford little or noentertainment to men born in a more cultivated age. The convulsions ofa civilized state usually compose the most instructive and mostinteresting part of its history; but the sudden, violent, and unpreparedrevolutions incident to barbarians, are so much guided by caprice, andterminate so often in cruelty, that they disgust us by the uniformity oftheir appearance; and it is rather fortunate for letters that they areburied in silence and oblivion. The only certain means by which nationscan indulge their curiosity in researches concerning their remoteorigin, is to consider the language, manners, and customs of theirancestors, and to compare them with those of the neighboring nations. The fables, which are commonly employed to supply the place of truehistory, ought entirely to be disregarded; or if any exception beadmitted to this general rule, it can only be in favor of the ancientGrecian fictions, which are so celebrated and so agreeable, that theywill ever be the objects of the attention of mankind. Neglecting, therefore, all traditions, or rather tales, concerning the more earlyhistory of Britain, we shall only consider the state of the inhabitantsas it appeared to the Romans on their invasion of this country: we shallbriefly run over the events which attended the conquest made by thatempire, as belonging more to Roman than British story: we shall hastenthrough the obscure and uninteresting period of Saxon annals; and shallreserve a more full narration for those times, when the truth is bothso well ascertained, and so complete, as to promise entertainment andinstruction to the reader. 

All ancient writers agree in representing the first inhabitants ofBritain as a tribe of the Gauls or Celtæ, who peopled that island fromthe neighboring continent. Their language was the same, their manners, their government, their superstition; varied only by those smalldifferences which time or a communication with the bordering nationsmust necessarily introduce. The inhabitants of Gaul, especially in thoseparts which lie contiguous to Italy, had acquired, from a commerce withtheir southern neighbors, some refinement in the arts, which graduallydiffused themselves northwards, and spread but a very faint light overthis island. The Greek and Roman navigators or merchants (for therewere scarcely any other travellers in those ages) brought back the mostshocking accounts of the ferocity of the people, which they magnified, as usual, in order to excite the admiration of their countrymen. Thesouth-east parts, however, of Britain had already, before the ageof Cæsar, made the first and most requisite step towards a civilsettlement; and the Britons, by tillage and agriculture, had thereincreased to a great multitude. [*]

 [* Cæsar, lib. Iv. ]

The other inhabitants of the island still maintained themselves bypasture: they were clothed with skins of beasts: they dwelt in huts, which they reared in the forests and marshes, with which the country wascovered: they shifted easily their habitation, when actuated either bythe hopes of plunder or the fear of an enemy: the convenience of feedingtheir cattle was even a sufficient motive for removing their seats andas they were ignorant of all the refinements of life, their wants andtheir possessions were equally scanty and limited. 

The Britons were divided into many small nations or tribes and being amilitary people, whose sole property was then arms and their cattle, Itwas impossible, after they had acquired a relish of liberty for theirprinces or chieftains to establish any despotic authority over them. Their governments, though monarchical, [*] were free, as well as those ofall the Celtic nations; and the common people seem even to have enjoyedmore liberty among them, [**] than among the nations of Gaul, [***] fromwhom they were descended. Each state was divided into factions withinitself:[****] it was agitated with jealousy or animosity against theneighboring states: and while the arts of peace were yet unknown, warswere the chief occupation, and formed the chief object of ambition, among the people. 

 [* Diod. Sic. Lib. Iv. Mela, lib. Iii. Cap. 6. Strabo, lib. Iv. ]

 [** Dion Cassius, lib. Lxxv. ]

 [*** Cæsar, lib. Vi. ]

 [**** Tacit. Agr. ]

The religion of the Britons was one of the most considerable parts oftheir government; and the druids, who were their priests, possessedgreat authority among them. Besides ministering at the altar, anddirecting all religious duties, they presided over the education ofyouth; they enjoyed an immunity from wars and taxes; they possessedboth the civil and criminal jurisdiction; they decided all controversiesamong states as well as among private persons, and whoever refused tosubmit to their decree was exposed to the most severe penalties. Thesentence of excommunication was pronounced against him: he was forbiddenaccess to the sacrifices or public worship: he was debarred allintercourse with his fellow-citizens, even in the common affairs oflife: his company was universally shunned, as profane and dangerous:he was refused the protection of law:[*] and death itself became anacceptable relief from the misery and infamy to which he was exposed. Thus the bands of government, which were naturally loose among that rudeand turbulent people, were happily corroborated by the terrors of theirsuperstition. 

 [* Cæsar, lib. Vi. Strabo, lib. Iv. ]

No species of superstition was ever more terrible than that of thedruids. Besides the severe penalties, which it was in the power of theecclesiastics to inflict in this world, they inculcated the eternaltransmigration of souls; and thereby extended their authority as far asthe fears of their timorous votaries. They practised their rites indark groves or other secret recesses;[*] and in order to throw a greatermystery over their religion, they communicated their doctrines only tothe initiated, and strictly forbade the committing of them to writing, lest they should at any time be exposed to the examination of theprofane vulgar. 

 [* Plin. Lib. Xii. Cap. 1. ]

Human sacrifices were practised among them: the spoils of war wereoften devoted to their divinities; and they punished with the severesttortures whoever dared to secrete any part of the consecrated offering:these treasures they kept in woods and forests, secured by no otherguard than the terrors of their religion;[*] and this steady conquestover human avidity may be regarded as more signal than their promptingmen to the most extraordinary and most violent efforts. No idolatrousworship ever attained such an ascendant over mankind as that of theancient Gauls and Britons; and the Romans, after their conquest, findingit impossible to reconcile those nations to the laws and institutions oftheir masters, while it maintained its authority, were at last obligedto abolish it by penal statutes; a violence which had never, in anyother instance, been practised by those tolerating conquerors. [**]

 [* Cæsar, lib. Vi. ]

 [* Sueton. In vita Claudii. ]

THE ROMANS. 

The Britons had long remained in this rude but independent state, whenCæsar, having overrun all Gaul by his victories, first cast his eye ontheir island. He was not allured either by its riches or its renown; butbeing ambitious of carrying the Roman arms into a new world, then mostlyunknown, he took advantage of a short interval in his Gaulic wars, andmade an invasion on Britain. The natives, informed of his intention, were sensible of the unequal contest, and endeavored to appease him bysubmissions, which, however, retarded not the execution of his design. After some resistance, he landed, as is supposed, at Deal, [Anno ante, C. 55;] and having obtained several advantages over the Britons, andobliged them to promise hostages for their future obedience, he wasconstrained, by the necessity of his affairs, and the approach ofwinter, to withdraw his forces into Gaul. The Britons relieved, from theterror of his arms, neglected the performance of their stipulations; andthat haughty conqueror resolved next summer to chastise them for thisbreach of treaty. He landed with a greater force; and though he founda more regular resistance from the Britons, who had united underCassivelaunus, one of their petty princes, he discomfited them in everyaction. He advanced into the country; passed the Thames in the face ofthe enemy; took and burned the capital of Cassivelaunus; established hisally, Mandubratius, in the sovereignty of the Trinobantes; and havingobliged the inhabitants to make him new submissions, he again returnedwith his army into Gaul, and left the authority of the Romans morenominal than real in this island. 

The civil wars which ensued, and which prepared the way for theestablishment of monarchy in Rome, saved the Britons from that yokewhich was ready to be imposed upon them. Augustus, the successor ofCæsar, content with the victory obtained over the liberties of his owncountry, was little ambitious of acquiring fame by foreign wars; andbeing apprehensive lest the same unlimited extent of dominion, which hadsubverted the republic, might also overwhelm the empire, he recommendedit to his successors never to enlarge the territories of the Romans. Tiberius, jealous of the fame which might be acquired by his generals, made this advice of Augustus a pretence for his inactivity. [*]

 [* Tacit. Agr. ]

The mad sallies of Caligula, in which he menaced Britain with aninvasion, served only to expose himself and the empire to ridicule;and the Britons had now, during almost a century, enjoyed their libertyunmolested, when the Romans, in the reign of Claudius, began to thinkseriously of reducing them under their dominion. Without seeking anymore justifiable reasons of hostility than were employed by the lateEuropeans in subjecting the Africans and Americans, they sent over anarmy, [A. D. 43, ] under the command of Plautius, an able general, whogained some victories, and made a considerable progress in subduing theinhabitants. Claudius himself, finding matters sufficiently prepared forhis reception, made a journey into Britain, and received thesubmission of several British states, the Cantii, Atrebates, Regni, andTrinobantes, who inhabited the south-east parts of the island, and whomtheir possessions and more cultivated manner of life rendered willing topurchase peace at the expense of their liberty. The other Britons, underthe command of Caractacus, still maintained an obstinate resistance, andthe Romans made little progress against them; till Ostorius Scapula wassent over to command their armies. [A. D. 50. ] This general advancedthe Roman conquests over the Britons; pierced into the country ofthe Silures, a warlike nation, who inhabited the banks of the Severn;defeated Caractacus in a great battle; took him prisoner, and sent himto Rome, where his magnanimous behavior procured him better treatmentthan those conquerors usually bestowed on captive princes. [*]

 [* Tacit. Ann lib. Xii. ]

Notwithstanding these misfortunes, the Britons were not subdued; andthis island was regarded by the ambitious Romans as a field in whichmilitary honor might still be acquired. [A. D. 59. ] Under the reign ofNero, Suetonius Paulinus was invested with the command, and prepared tosignalize his name by victories over those barbarians. Finding thatthe island of Mona, now Anglesey, was the chief seat of the druids, heresolved to attack it, and to subject a place which was the centre oftheir superstition, and which afforded protection to all their baffledforces. The Britons endeavored to obstruct his landing on this sacredisland, both by the force of their arms and the terrors of theirreligion. The women and priests were intermingled with the soldiers uponthe shore; and running about with flaming torches in their hands, andtossing their dishevelled hair, they struck greater terror into theastonished Romans by their bowlings, cries, and execrations, than thereal danger from the armed forces was able to inspire. But Suetonius, exhorting his troops to despise the menaces of a superstition which theydespised, impelled them to the attack, drove the Britons off the field, burned the druids in the same fires which those priests had prepared fortheir captive enemies, destroyed all the consecrated groves and altars;and having thus triumphed over the religion of the Britons, he thoughthis future progress would be easy in reducing the people to subjection. But he was disappointed in his expectations. The Britons, takingadvantage of his absence, were all in arms; and headed by Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, who had been treated in the most ignominious mannerby the Roman tribunes, had already attacked, with success, severalsettlements of their insulting conquerors. Suetonius hastened to theprotection of London, which was already a flourishing Roman colony;but found, on his arrival, that it would be requisite for the generalsafety, to abandon that place to the merciless fury of the enemy. Londonwas reduced to ashes; such of the inhabitants as remained in it werecruelly massacred; the Romans and all strangers, to the number ofseventy thousand, were every where put to the sword without distinction;and the Britons, by rendering the war thus bloody, seemed determinedto cut off all hopes of peace or composition with the enemy. But thiscruelty was revenged by Suetonius in a great and decisive battle, whereeighty thousand of the Britons are said to have perished, and Boadiceaherself, rather than fall into the hands of the enraged victor, put anend to her own life by poison. [*] Nero soon after recalled Suetoniusfrom a government, where, by suffering and inflicting so manyseverities, he was judged improper for composing the angry and alarmedminds of the inhabitants. After some interval, Cerealis received thecommand from Vespasian, and by his bravery propagated the terror of theRoman arms, Julius Frontinus succeeded Cerealis both in authority and inreputation: but the general who finally established the dominion ofthe Romans in this island, was Julius Agricola, who governed it in thereigns of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian, and distinguished himself inthat scene of action. 

This great commander formed a regular plan for subduing Britain, andrendering the acquisition useful to the conquerors. He carried hisvictorious arms northwards, defeated the Britons in every encounter, pierced into the inaccessible forests and mountains of Caledonia, reduced every state to subjection in the southern parts of the island, and chased before him all the men of fiercer and more intractablespirits, who deemed war and death itself less intolerable than servitudeunder the victors. He even defeated them in a decisive action, whichthey fought under Galgacus, their leader; and having fixed a chain ofgarrisons between the Friths of Clyde and Forth, he thereby cut offthe ruder and more barren parts of the island, and secured the Romanprovince from the incursions of the barbarous inhabitants. [*]

 [* Tacit Ann. Lib. Xiv. ]

During these military enterprises, he neglected not the arts of peace. He introduced laws and civility among the Britons, taught them to desireand raise all the conveniences of life, reconciled them to the Romanlanguage and manners, instructed them in letters and science, andemployed every expedient to render those chains which he had forged botheasy and agreeable to them. [*]

 [* Tacit. Agr. ]

The inhabitants, having experienced how unequal their own force was toresist that of the Romans, acquiesced in the dominion of their masters, and were gradually incorporated as a part of that mighty empire. 

This was the last durable conquest made by the Romans, and Britain, once subdued, gave no further inquietude to the victor. Caledonia alone, defended by its barren mountains, and by the contempt which the Romansentertained for it, sometimes infested the more cultivated parts of theisland by the incursions of its inhabitants. The better to securethe frontiers of the empire, Adrian, who visited this island, built arampart between the River Tyne and the Frith of Solway; Lollius Urbicus, under Antoninus Pius, erected one in the place where Agricola hadformerly established his garrisons, Severus, who made an expeditioninto Britain, and carried his arms to the most northern extremity of it, added new fortifications to the wall of Adrian; and during the reignsof all the Roman emperors, such a profound tranquillity prevailed inBritain, that little mention is made of the affairs of that island byany historian. The only incidents which occur, are some seditions orrebellions of the Roman legions quartered there, and some usurpationsof the imperial dignity by the Roman governors. The natives, disarmed, dispirited, and submissive, had lost all desire and even idea of theirformer liberty and independence. 

But the period was now come, when that enormous fabric of the Romanempire, which had diffused slavery and oppression, together with peaceand civility, over so considerable a part of the globe, was approachingtowards its final dissolution. Italy, and the centre of the empire, removed during so many ages from all concern in the wars, had entirelylost the military spirit, and were peopled by an enervated race, equallydisposed to submit to a foreign yoke, or to the tyranny of their ownrulers. The emperors found themselves obliged to recruit theirlegions from the frontier provinces, where the genius of war, thoughlanguishing, was not totally extinct; and these mercenary forces, careless of laws and civil institutions, established a militarygovernment no less dangerous to the sovereign than to the people. The further progress of the same disorders introduced the borderingbarbarians into the service of the Romans; and those fierce nations, having now added discipline to their native bravery, could no longer berestrained by the impotent policy of the emperors, who were accustomedto employ one in the destruction of the others. Sensible of their ownforce, and allured by the prospect of so rich a prize, the northernbarbarians, in the reign of Arcadius and Honorius, assailed at onceall the frontiers of the Roman empire; and having first satiated theiravidity by plunder, began to think of fixing a settlement in the wastedprovinces. The more distant barbarians, who occupied the desertedhabitations of the former, advanced in their acquisitions, and pressedwith their incumbent weight the Roman state, already unequal to the loadwhich it sustained. Instead of arming the people in their own defence, the emperors recalled all the distant legions, in whom alone theycould repose confidence; and collected the whole military force forthe defence of the capital and centre of the empire. The necessity ofself-preservation had superseded the ambition of power; and the ancientpoint of honor, never to contract the limits of the empire, could nolonger be attended to in this desperate extremity. 

Britain by its situation was removed from the fury of these barbarousincursions; and being also a remote province, not much valued bythe Romans, the legions which defended it were carried over to theprotection of Italy and Gaul. But that province, though secured bythe sea against the inroads of the greater tribes of barbarians, foundenemies on its frontiers, who took advantage of its present defencelesssituation. The Picts and Scots, who dwelt in the northern parts, beyond the wall of Antoninus, made incursions upon their peaceable andeffeminate neighbors; and besides the temporary depredations which theycommitted, these combined nations threatened the whole province withsubjection, or, what the inhabitants more dreaded, with plunder anddevastation, The Picts seem to have been a tribe of the native Britishrace, who, having been chased into the northern parts by the conquestsof Agricola, had there intermingled with the ancient inhabitants:the Scots were derived from the same Celtic origin, had first beenestablished in Ireland, had migrated to the north-west coasts of thisisland, and had long been accustomed, as well from their old as theirnew seats, to infest the Roman province by piracy and rapine. [1]

 [* See note A, at the end of the volume. ]

These tribes finding their more opulent neighbors exposed to invasion, soon broke over the Roman wall, no longer defended by the Roman arms;and, though a contemptible enemy in themselves, met with no resistancefrom the unwarlike inhabitants. The Britons, accustomed to have recourseto the emperors for defence as well as government, made supplications toRome: and one legion was sent over for their protection. This force wasan overmatch for the barbarians, repelled their invasion, touted themin every engagement, and having chased them into their ancient limits, returned in triumph to the defence of the southern provinces of theempire. [*]

 [* Gildas, Bede, lib. I. Cap. 12. ]

Their retreat brought on a new invasion of the enemy. The Britons madeagain an application to Rome, and again obtained the assistance of alegion, which proved effectual for their relief: but the Romans, reducedto extremities at home, and fatigued with those distant expeditions, informed the Britons that they must no longer look to them for succor, exhorted them to arm in their own defence, and urged, that, as they werenow their own masters, it became them to protect by their valor thatindependence which their ancient lords had conferred upon them. [*] Thatthey might leave the island with the better grace, the Romans assistedthem in erecting anew the wall of Severus, which was built entirely ofstone, and which the Britons had not at that time artificers skilfulenough to repair. [*]

 [* Paul. Diacon. P. 43. ]

And having done this last good office to the inhabitants, they bade afinal adieu to Britain, about the year 448, after being masters of themore considerable part of it during the course of near four centuries. 

THE BRITONS. 

The abject Britons regarded this present of liberty as fatal to them;and were in no condition to put in practice the prudent counsel giventhem by the Romans, to arm in their own defence. Unaccustomed bothto the perils of war and to the cares of civil government, they foundthemselves incapable of forming or executing any measures for resistingthe incursions of the barbarians. Gratian also and Constantine, twoRomans who had a little before assumed the purple in Britain, hadcarried over to the continent the flower of the British youth; andhaving perished in their unsuccessful attempts on the imperial throne, had despoiled the island of those who, in this desperate extremity, werebest able to defend it. The Picts and Scots, finding that the Romans hadfinally relinquished Britain, now regarded the whole as their prey, andattacked the northern wall with redoubled forces. The Britons, alreadysubdued by their own fears, found the ramparts but a weak defence forthem; and deserting their station, left the country entirely open tothe inroads of the barbarous enemy. The invaders carried devastation andruin along with them; and exerted to the utmost their native ferocity, which was not mitigated by the helpless condition and submissivebehavior of the inhabitants. [*]

 [* Gildas, Bede, lib. I. Allured. Beverl. P. 45. ]

The unhappy Britons had a third time recourse to Rome, which haddeclared its resolution forever to abandon them. Ætius, the patrician, sustained at that time, by his valor and magnanimity, the totteringruins of the empire, and revived for a moment among the degenerateRomans the spirit, as well as discipline, of their ancestors. TheBritish ambassadors carried to him the letter of their countrymen, whichwas inscribed, "The groans of the Britons. " The tenor of the epistle wassuitable to its superscription. "The barbarians, " say they, "on the onehand, chase us into the sea; the sea, on the other, throws us back uponthe barbarians; and we have only the hard choice left us of perishing bythe sword or by the waves. "[*]

 [* Gildas, Bede, lib. I. Cap. 13. William of Malmesbury, lib. I. Cap. 1 Alured. Beverl. P. 45. ]

But Ætius, pressed by the arms of Attila, the most terrible enemy thatever assailed the empire, had no leisure to attend to the complaints ofallies, whom generosity alone could induce him to assist. [*]

 [* Saxon Chron. P. 11, edit. 1692. ]

The Britons, thus rejected, were reduced to despair, deserted theirhabitations, abandoned tillage, and flying for protection to the forestsand mountains, suffered equally from hunger and from the enemy. Thebarbarians themselves began to feel the pressures of famine in a countrywhich they had ravaged; and being harassed by the dispersed Britons, whohad not dared to resist them in a body, they retreated with their spoilsinto their own country. [*]

 [* Alured. Beverl, p. 45. ]

The Britons, taking advantage of this interval, returned to their usualoccupations; and the favorable seasons which succeeded, seconding theirindustry, made them soon forget their past miseries, and restoredto them great plenty of all the necessaries of life. No more can beimagined to have been possessed by a people so rude, who had not, without the assistance of the Romans, art of masonry sufficient to raisea stone rampart for their own defence; yet the monkish historians, [*]who treat of those events, complain of the luxury of the Britonsduring this period, and ascribe to that vice, not to their cowardice orimprovident counsels, all their subsequent calamities. 

 [* Gildas, Bede, lib. I. Cap. 14. ]

The Britons, entirely occupied in the enjoyment of the present intervalof peace, made no provision for resisting the enemy, who, invited bytheir former timid behavior, soon threatened them with a new invasion. We are not exactly informed what species of civil government the Romans, on their departure, had left among the Britons, but it appears probablethat the great men in the different districts assumed a kind of regal, though precarious authority, and lived in a great measure independent ofeach other. [*]

 [* Gildas, Usher, Ant. Brit. P. 248, 347. ]

To this disunion of counsels were also added the disputes of theology;and the disciples of Pelagius, who was himself a native of Britain, having increased to a great multitude, gave alarm to the clergy, whoseem to have been more intent on suppressing them, than on opposing thepublic enemy. [*]

 [* Gildas, Bede, lib. I. Cap. 17. Constant, in Vita Germ. ]

Laboring under these domestic evils, and menaced with a foreigninvasion, the Britons attended only to the suggestions of their presentfears, and following the counsels of Vortigern, prince of Dumnonium, who, though stained with every vice, possessed the chief authority amongthem, [*] they sent into Germany a deputation to invite over the Saxonsfor their protection and assistance. 

 [* Gildas, W. Malms. P. 8. ]

THE SAXONS. 

Of all the barbarous nations, known either in ancient or modern times, the Germans seem to have been the most distinguished both by theirmanners and political institutions, and to have carried to the highestpitch the virtues of valor and love of liberty; the only virtues whichcan have place among an uncivilized people, where justice and humanityare commonly neglected. Kingly government, even when established amongthe Germans, (for it was not universal, ) possessed a very limitedauthority; and though the sovereign was usually chosen from among theroyal family, he was directed in every measure by the common consentof the nation over whom he presided. When any important affairs weretransacted, all the warriors met in arms; the men of greatest authorityemployed persuasion to engage their consent; the people expressed theirapprobation by rattling their armor, or their dissent by murmurs; therewas no necessity for a nice scrutiny of votes among a multitude, whowere usually carried with a strong current to one side or the other;and the measure, thus suddenly chosen by general agreement, was executedwith alacrity, and prosecuted with vigor. Even in war, the princesgoverned more by example than by authority, but in peace, the civilunion was in a great measure dissolved, and the inferior leadersadministered justice, after an independent manner, each in hisparticular district. These were elected by the votes of the people intheir great councils; and though regard was paid to nobility in thechoice, their personal qualities, chiefly their valor, procuredthem, from the suffrages of their fellow-citizens, that honorable butdangerous distinction. The warriors of each tribe attached themselvesto the[**possibly this word is their] leader, with the most devotedaffection and most unshaken constancy. They attended him as his ornamentin peace, as his defence in war, as his council in the administration ofjustice. Their constant emulation in military renown dissolved not thatinviolable friendship which they professed to their chieftain and toeach other. To die for the honor of their band was their chief ambition;to survive its disgrace, or the death of their leader, was infamous. They even carried into the field their women and children, who adoptedall the martial sentiments of the men: and being thus impelled by everyhuman motive, they were invincible; where they were no[**possibly theword is not] opposed, either by the similar manners and institutionsof the neighboring Germans, or by the superior discipline, arms, andnumbers of the Romans. [*]

 [* Caesar, lib. Vi. ]

The leaders and their military companions were maintained by the laborof their slaves, or by that of the weaker and less warlike part of thecommunity whom they defended. The contributions which they levied wentnot beyond a bare subsistence; and the honors, acquired by a superiorrank, were the only reward of their superior dangers and fatigues. Allthe refined arts of life were unknown among the Germans: tillage itselfwas almost wholly neglected; they even seem to have been anxious toprevent any improvements of that nature; and the leaders, by annuallydistributing anew all the land among the inhabitants of each village, kept them from attaching themselves to particular possessions, ormaking such progress in agriculture as might divert their attention frommilitary expeditions, the chief occupation of the community. [*]

 [* Tacit. De Mor. Germ]

The Saxons had been for some time regarded as one of the most warliketribes of this fierce people, and had become the terror of theneighboring nations. [*]

 [* Amm. Marcell. Lib. Xxviii. Orosius. ]

They had diffused themselves from the northern parts of Germany and theCimbrian Chersonesus, and had taken possession of all the sea-coastfrom the mouth of the Rhine to Jutland; whence they had long infestedby their piracies all the eastern and southern parts of Britain, and thenorthern of Gaul. [*]

 [* Amm. Marcell. Lib. Xxvii. Cap. 7. Lib. Xxviii. Cap. 7]

In order to oppose their inroads, the Romans had established an officer, whom they called "Count of the Saxon shore;" and as the naval arts canflourish among a civilized people alone, they seem to have been moresuccessful in repelling the Saxons than any of the other barbarians bywhom they were invaded. The dissolution of the Roman power invited themto renew their inroads; and it was an acceptable circumstance thatthe deputies of the Britons appeared among them, and prompted them toundertake an enterprise to which they were of themselves sufficientlyinclined. [*]

 [* W. Malms, p. 8. ]

Hengist and Horsa, two brothers, possessed great credit among theSaxons, and were much celebrated both for their valor and nobility. Theywere reputed, as most of the Saxon princes, to be sprung from Woden, whowas worshipped as a god among those nations, and they are said to be hisgreat grandsons;[*] a circumstance which added much to their authority. 

 [* Bede, lib. I. Cap. 15. Chron. Sax. P. 13. Nennius, cap. 28. ]

We shall not attempt to trace any higher the origin of those princesand nations. It is evident what fruitless labor it must be to search, in those barbarous and illiterate ages, for the annals of a people, whentheir first leaders, known in any true history, were believed by them tobe the fourth in descent from a fabulous deity, or from a man exalted byignorance into that character. The dark industry of antiquaries, led byimaginary analogies of names, or by uncertain traditions, would invain attempt to pierce into that deep obscurity which covers the remotehistory of those nations. 

These two brothers, observing the other provinces of Germany to beoccupied by a warlike and necessitous people, and the rich provinces ofGaul already conquered or overrun by other German tribes, found iteasy to persuade their countrymen to embrace the sole enterprisewhich promised a favorable opportunity of displaying their valor andgratifying their avidity. They embarked their troops in three vesselsand about the year 449 or 450, [*] earned over one thousand six hundredmen, who landed in the Isle of Thanet, and immediately marched to thedefence of the Britons against the northern invaders. The Scots andPicts were unable to resist the valor of these auxiliaries; and theBritons, applauding their own wisdom in calling over the Saxons, hopedthenceforth to enjoy peace and security under the powerful protection ofthat warlike people. 

But Hengist and Horsa, perceiving, from their easy victory over theScots and Picts, with what facility they might subdue tae Britonsthemselves, who had not been able to resist those feeble invaders, weredetermined to conquer and fight for their own grandeur, not for thedefence of their degenerate allies. They sent intelligence to Saxonyof the fertility and riches of Britain, and represented as certain thesubjection of a people so long disused to arms, who, being now cut offfrom the Roman empire, of which they had been a province during somany ages, had not yet acquired any union among themselves, and weredestitute of all affection to their new liberties, and of all nationalattachments and regards. [**] The vices, and pusillanimity of Vortigern, the British leader, were a new ground of hope; and the Saxons inGermany, following such agreeable prospects, soon reënforced Hengist andHorsa with five thousand men, who came over in seventeen vessels. TheBritons now began to entertain apprehensions of their allies, whosenumbers they found continually augmenting; but thought of no remedy, except a passive submission and connivance. This weak expedient soonfailed them. The Saxons sought a quarrel, by complaining that theirsubsidies were ill paid, and their provisions withdrawn;[***] andimmediately taking off the mask, they formed an alliance with the Pictsand Scots, and proceeded to open hostility against the Britons. 

The Britons, impelled by these violent extremities, ana roused toindignation against their treacherous auxiliaries, were necessitated totake arms; and having deposed Vortigern, who had become odious from hisvices, and from the bad event of his rash counsels, they put themselvesunder the Command of his son, Vortimer. They fought many battles withtheir enemies; and though the victories in these actions be disputedbetween the British and Saxon annalists, the progress still made by theSaxons proves that the advantage was commonly on their side. 

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 12. W. Malms, p. 11. Hunting, lib. U. P. 309. Ethelwerd, Brompton, p. 728. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 12. Alured. Beverl. P. 49. ]

 [*** Bede, lib. I cap. 15. Nennius, cap. 35. Gildas, sect 2d. ]

In one battle, however, fought at Faglesford, now Ailsford, Horsa, theSaxon general, was slain and left the sole command over his countrymenin the hands of Hengist. This active general, continually reënforcedoy fresh numbers from Germany, carried devastation into the most remotecorners of Britain; and being chiefly anxious to spread the terror ofhis arms, he spared neither age, nor sex, nor condition, wherever hemarched with his victorious forces. The private and public edifices ofthe Britons were reduced to ashes; the priests were slaughtered on thealtars by those idolatrous ravagers; the bishops and nobility sharedthe fate of the vulgar; the people, flying to the mountains and deserts, were intercepted and butchered in heaps: some were glad to accept oflife and servitude under their victors: others, deserting theirnative country, took shelter in the province of Armorica; where, beingcharitably received by a people of the same language and manners, theysettled in great numbers, and gave the country the name of Brittany. [*]

The British writers assign one cause which facilitated the entrance ofthe Saxons into this island--the love with which Vortigern was atfirst seized for Rovena, the daughter of Hengist, and which that artfulwarrior made use of to blind the eyes of the imprudent monarch. [**]The same historians add, that Vortimer died; and that Vortigern, being restored to the throne, accepted of a banquet from Hengist, atStonehenge, where three hundred of his nobility were treacherouslyslaughtered, and himself detained captive. [***] But these stories seemto have been invented by the Welsh authors, in order to palliate theweak resistance made at first by their countrymen, and to account forthe rapid progress and licentious devastations of the Saxons. [****]

After the death of Vortimer, Ambrosius, a Briton, though of Romandescent, was invested with the command over his countrymen, andendeavored, not without success, to unite them in their resistanceagainst the Saxons. Those contests increased the animosity between thetwo rations, and roused the military spirit of the ancient inhabitants, which had before been sunk into a fatal lethargy. 

 [* Bede, lib. I. Cap. 15. Usher, p. 226. Gildas, sect. 24. ]

 [** Nennius, Galfr. Lib. Vi. Cap. 12. ]

 [*** Nennius, cap. 47. Galfr. ]

 [**** Stillingfleet's Orig. Britt. P. 324, 325. ]

Hengist, however, notwithstanding their opposition, still maintained hisground in Britain and in order to divide the forces and attention of thenatives he called over a new tribe of Saxons, under the command of hisbrother Octa, and of Ebissa, the son of Octa; and he settled them inNorthumberland. He himself remained in the southern parts of the island, and laid the foundation of their kingdom of Kent, comprehending thecounty of that name Middlesex, Essex, and part of Surrey. He fixed hisroyal seat at Canterbury, where he governed about forty years, and hedied in or near the year 488, leaving his new-acquired dominions to hisposterity. 

The success of Hengist excited the avidity of the other northernGermans; and at different times, and under different leaders, theyflocked over in multitudes to the invasion of mis island. Theseconquerors were chiefly composed of three tribes, the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes, [*] who all passed under the common appellation, sometimes, of _Saxons_, sometimes of _Angles_; and speaking the samelanguage, and being governed by the same institutions, they werenaturally led, from these causes, as well as from their common interest, to unite themselves against the ancient inhabitants. The resistance, however, though unequal, was still maintained by the Britons; but becameevery day more feeble; and their calamities admitted of few intervals, till they were driven into Cornwall and Wales, and received protectionfrom the remote situation or inaccessible mountains of those countries. 

The first Saxon state, after that of Kent, which was established inBritain, was the kingdom of South Saxony. In the year 477, [**] Ælla, a Saxon chief, brought over an army from Germany; and, landing onthe southern coast, proceeded to take possession of the neighboringterritory. The Britons, now armed, did not tamely abandon theirpossessions; nor were they expelled till defeated in many battlesby their war-like invaders. The most memorable action, mentioned byhistorians, is that of Mearcredes Burn;[***] where, though the Saxonsseem to have obtained the victory, they suffered so considerable a loss, as somewhat retarded the progress of their conquests. 

 [* Bede, lib. I. Cap. 15. Ethelwerd, p. 833, edit. Camdeni. Chron. Sax. P. 12. Alured. Beverl. P. 78. The inhabitants of Kent and the Isle of Wight were Jutes. Essex, Middlesex, Surrey, Sussex, and all the southern counties to Cornwall, were peopled by Saxons: Mercis mud other parts of the kingdom were inhabited by Angles. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 14. Alured Beverl. P. 81. ]

 [*** Chron. Sax. A. D. 485. Flor. Wigron]

But Ælla, reénforced by fresh numbers of his countrymen, again took thefield against the Britons; and laid siege to Ancired Ceaster, which wasdefended by the garrison and inhabitants with desperate valor. [*] TheSaxons, enraged by this resistance, and by the fatigues and dangerswhich they had sustained, redoubled their efforts against the place;and, when masters of it, put all their enemies to the sword withoutdistinction. This decisive advantage secured the conquests of Ælla, whoassumed the name of king, and extended his dominion over Sussex and agreat part of Surrey He was stopped in his progress to the east by thekingdom of Kent; in that to the west by another tribe of Saxons, who hadtaken possession of that territory. 

These Saxons, from the situation of the country in which they settled, were called the _West Saxons_, and landed in the year 495, underthe command of Cerdic, and of his son Kenric. [**] The Britons were, bypast experience, so much on their guard, and so well prepared to receivethe enemy, that they gave battle to Cerdic the very day of his landing;and, though vanquished, still defended, for some time, their libertiesagainst the invaders. None of the other tribes of Saxons met with suchvigorous resistance, or exerted such valor and perseverance in pushingtheir conquests. Cerdic was even obliged to call for the assistance ofhis countrymen from the kingdoms of Kent and Sussex, as well as fromGermany, and he was thence joined by a fresh army under the commandof Porte, and of his sons Bleda and Megla. [***] Strengthened by thesesuccors, he fought, in the year 508, a desperate battle with theBritons, commanded by Nazan Leod, who was victorious in the beginning ofthe action, and routed the wing in which Cerdic himself commanded. ButKenric, who had prevailed in the other wing, brought timely assistanceto his father, and restored the battle, which ended in a completevictory gained by the Saxons. [****] Nazan Leod perished, withfive thousand of his army; but left the Britons more weakened thandiscouraged by his death. The war still continued, though the successwas commonly on the side of the Saxons, whose short swords and mannerof fighting gave them great advantage over the missile weapons of theBritons. 

 [* H. Hunting, lib. Ii. ]

 [** W. Malms, lib. I. Cap. I, p. 12. Chron. Sax. P. 15. ]

 [*** Chron. Sax. P. 17. ]

 [**** H. Hunting, lib ii. Ethelwerd, lib. I. Chron. Sax. P. 17. ]

Cerdic was not wanting to in good fortune; and in order to extendhis conquests, he laid siege to Mount Badon or Banesdowne, near Bath, whither the most obstinate of the discomfited Britons had retired. Thesouthern Britons, in this extremity, applied for assistance to Arthur, prince of the Silures, whose heroic valor now sustained the decliningfate of his country. [*] This is that Arthur so much celebrated in thesongs of Thaliessin, and the other British bards, and whose militaryachievements have been blended with so many fables, as even to giveoccasion for entertaining a doubt of his real existence. But poets, though they disfigure the most certain history by their fictions, anause strange liberties with truth where they are the sole historians, asamong the Britons, have commonly some foundation for their wildestexaggerations. Certain it is, that the siege of Badon was raised by theBritons in the year 520; and the Saxons were there discomfited in agreat battle. [**] This misfortune stopped the progress of Cerdic; butwas not sufficient to wrest from him the conquests which he had alreadymade. He and his son Kenric, who succeeded him, established the kingdomof the West Saxons, or of Wessex, over the counties of Hants, Dorset, Wilts, Berks, and the Isle of Wight, and left their new-acquireddominions to their posterity. Cerdic died in 534, Kenric in 560. 

While the Saxons made this progress in the south, their countrymen werenot less active in other quarters. In the year 527, a great tribe ofadventurers, under several leaders, landed on the east coast of Britain;and after fighting many battles, of which history has preserved noparticular account, they established three new kingdoms in this island. Uffa assumed the title of king of the East Angles in 575; Crida, that ofMercia in 585;[***] and Erkenwin, that of East Saxony, or Essex, nearlyabout the same time; but the year is uncertain. This latter kingdom wasdismembered from that of Kent, and comprehended Essex, Middlesex, and part of Hertfordshire; that of the East Angles, the counties ofCambridge, Suffolk, and Norfolk: Mercia was extended over all the middlecounties from the banks of the Severn to the frontiers of these twokingdoms. 

 [* H. Hunting, lib. Ii. ]

 [** Gildas, Chron. Sax. H. Hunting, lib. Ii. ]

 [*** M. West. H. Hunting, lib. Ii. ]

The Saxons, soon after the landing of Hengist, had been planted inNorthumberland; but as they met with an obstinate resistance, and madebut small progress in subduing the inhabitants, their affairs were inso unsettled a condition, that none of their princes for a long timeassumed the appellation of king. At last, in 547, [*] Ida, a Saxon princeof great valor, [**] who claimed a descent, as did all the other princesof that nation, from Woden, brought over a reénforcement from Germany, and enabled the Northumbrians to carry on their conquests over theBritons. He entirely subdued the county now called Northumberland, the bishopric of Durham, as well as some of the south-east counties ofScotland; and he assumed the crown under the title of king of Bernicia. Nearly about the same time, Ælla, another Saxon prince, having conqueredLancashire and the greater part of Yorkshire, received the appellationof king of Deïri. [***] These two kingdoms were united in the person ofEthelfrid, grandson of Ida, who married Acca, the daughter of Ælla; andexpelling her brother Edwin, established one of the most powerful of theSaxon kingdoms, by the title of Northumberland. How far his dominionsextended into the country now called Scotland is uncertain: but itcannot be doubted, that all the lowlands, especially the east coast ofthat country, were peopled in a great measure from Germany; though theexpeditions, made by the several Saxon adventurers, have escaped therecords of history. The language spoken in those countries, which ispurely Saxon, is a stronger proof of this event than can be opposed bythe imperfect, or rather fabulous annals, which are obtruded on us bythe Scottish historians. 

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 19. ]

 [** W. Malms, p. 19. ]

 [*** Alured, Beverl. P. 78]. 

THE HEPTARCHY

Thus was established, after a violent contest of near a hundred andfifty years, the Heptarchy, or seven Saxon kingdoms, in Britain; andthe whole southern part of the island, except Wales and Cornwall, had totally changed its inhabitants, language, customs, and politicalinstitutions. The Britons, under the Roman dominion, had madesuch advances towards arts and civil manners, that they had builttwenty-eight considerable cities within their province, besides a greatnumber of villages and country seats; [*] but the fierce conquerors, by whom they were now subdued, threw every thing back into ancientbarbarity; and those few natives, who were not either massacred orexpelled their habitations, were reduced to the most abject slavery. 

 [* Gildas, Sede, lib, i. ]

None of the other northern conquerors, the Franks, Goths, Vandals, orBurgundians, though they overran the southern provinces of theempire like a mighty torrent, made such devastations in the conqueredterritories, or were inflamed into so violent an animosity against theancient inhabitants. As the Saxons came over at intervals in separatebodies, the Britons, however at first unwarlike, were tempted to makeresistance; and hostilities, being thereby prolonged, proved moredestructive to both parties, especially to the vanquished. The firstinvaders from Germany, instead of excluding other adventurers, who mustshare with them the spoils of the ancient inhabitants, were obliged tosolicit fresh supplies from their own country; and a total exterminationof the Britons became the sole expedient for providing a settlement andsubsistence to the new planters. Hence there have been found in historyfew conquests more ruinous than that of the Saxons, and few revolutionsmore violent than that which they introduced. 

So long as the contest was maintained with the natives, the severalSaxon princes preserved a union of counsels and interests; but after theBritons were shut up in the barren countries of Cornwall and Wales, andgave no further disturbance to the conquerors, the band of alliance wasin a great measure dissolved among the princes of the Heptarchy. Thoughone prince seems still to have been allowed, or to have assumed, anascendant over the whole, his authority, if it ought ever to be deemedregular or legal, was extremely limited; and each state acted as if ithad been independent, and wholly separate from the rest Wars, therefore, and revolutions and dissensions, were unavoidable among a turbulent andmilitary people; and these events, however intricate or confused, oughtnow to become the objects of our attention But, added to the difficultyof carrying on at once the history of seven independent kingdoms, thereis great discouragement to a writer, arising from the uncertainty, atleast barrenness, of the accounts transmitted to us. The monks, who werethe only annalists during those ages, lived remote from publicaffairs, considered the civil transactions as entirely subordinate theecclesiastical, and, besides partaking of the ignorance and barbaritywhich were then universal, were strongly infected with credulity, withthe love of wonder, and with a propensity to imposture; vices almostinseparable from their profession and manner of life. The history ofthat period abounds in names, but is extremely barren of events; or theevents are related so much without circumstances and causes, that themost profound or most eloquent writer must despair of rendering themeither instructive or entertaining to the reader. Even the greatlearning and vigorous imagination of Milton sunk under the weight; andthis author scruples not to declare, that the skirmishes of kitesor crows as much merited a particular narrative, as the confusedtransactions and battles of the Saxon Heptarchy. [*] In order, however, to connect the events in some tolerable measure, we shall give asuccinct account of the successions of kings, and of the more remarkablerevolutions in each particular kingdom; beginning with that of Kent, which was the first established. 

 [* Milton in Kennet, p. 50]

THE KINGDOM OF KENT

Escus succeeded his father, Hengist, in the kingdom of Kent; but seemsnot to have possessed the military genius of that conqueror, who firstmade way for the entrance of the Saxon arms into Britain. All theSaxons, who sought either the fame of valor, or new establishments byarms, flocked to the standard of Ælla, king of Sussex, who was carryingon successful war against the Britons, and laying the foundations of anew kingdom. Escus was content to possess in tranquillity the kingdomof Kent, which he left in 512 to his son Octet, in whose time the EastSaxons established their monarchy, and dismembered the provinces ofEssex and Middlesex from that of Kent. His death, after a reign oftwenty two years, made room for his son Hermenric in 534, who performednothing memorable during a reign of thirty-two years; exceptingassociating with him his son Ethelbert in the government, that he mightsecure the succession hi his family, and prevent such revolutions as areincident to a turbulent and barbarous monarchy. 

Ethelbert revived the reputation of his family, which had languished forsome generations. The inactivity of his predecessors, and the situationof his country, secured from all hostility with the Britons, seemto have much enfeebled the warlike genius of the Kentish Saxons;and Ethelbert, in his first attempt to aggrandize his country, anddistinguish his own name, was unsuccessful. [*] He was twice discomfitedin battle by Ceaulin, king of Wessex, and obliged to yield thesuperiority in the Heptarchy to that ambitious monarch, who preservedno moderation in his victory, and by reducing the kingdom of Sussex tosubjection, excited jealousy in all the other princes. An associationwas formed against him; and Ethelbeit, intrusted with the command of theallies, gave him battle, and obtained a decisive victory. [**] Ceaulindied soon after; and Ethelbert succeeded as well to his ascendant amongthe Saxon states, as to his other ambitious projects. He reduced all theprinces, except the king of Northumberland, to a strict dependence uponhim; and even established himself by force on the throne of Mercia, the most extensive of the Saxon kingdoms. Apprehensive, however, of adangerous league against him, like that by which he himself had beenenabled to overthrow Ceaulin, he had the prudence to resign the kingdomof Mercia to Webba, the rightful heir, the son of Crida, who had firstfounded that monarchy. But governed still by ambition more than byjustice, he gave Webba possession of the crown on such conditions, asrendered him little better than a tributary prince under his artfulbenefactor. 

But the most memorable event which distinguished the reign of this greatprince, was the introduction of the Christian religion among the EnglishSaxons. The superstition of the Germans, particularly that of theSaxons, was of the grossest and most barbarous kind; and being foundedon traditional tales, received from their ancestors, not reduced toany system, not supported by political institutions, like that of thedruids, it seems to have made little impression on its votaries, and tohave easily resigned its place to the new doctrine promulgated to them. Woden, whom they deemed the ancestor of all their princes, was regardedas the god of war, and, by a natural consequence, became their supremedeity, and the chief object of their religious worship. They believedthat, if they obtained the favor of this divinity by their valor, (forthey made less account of the other virtues, ) they should be admittedafter their death into his hall; and reposing on couches, should satiatethemselves with ale from the skulls of their enemies, whom they hadslain in battle. Incited by this idea of paradise, which gratifiedat once the passion of revenge and that of intemperance, the rulinginclinations of barbarians, they despised the dangers of war, andincreased their native ferocity against the vanquished by theirreligious prejudices. 

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 21. ]

 [** H. Hunting, lib ii. ]

We know little of the other theological tenets of the Saxons; we onlylearn that they were polytheists; that they worshipped the sun and moon;that they adored the god of thunder, under the name of Thor; that theyhad images in their temples; that they practised sacrifices; believedfirmly in spells and enchantments; and admitted in general a systemof doctrines which they held as sacred, but which, like all othersuperstition must carry the air of the wildest extravagance, ifpropounded to those who are not familiarized to it from their earliestinfancy. 

The constant hostilities which the Saxons maintained against theBritons, would naturally indispose them for receiving the Christianfaith, when preached to them by such inveterate enemies; and perhaps theBritons, as is objected to them by Gildas and Bede, were not over-fondof communicating to their cruel invaders the doctrine of eternal lifeand salvation. But as a civilized people, however subdued by arms, stillmaintain a sensible superiority over barbarous and ignorant nations, all the other northern conquerors of Europe had been already induced toembrace the Christian faith, which they found established in the empire;and it was impossible but the Saxons, informed of this event, must haveregarded with some degree of veneration a doctrine which had acquiredthe ascendant over all their brethren. However limited in their news, they could not but have perceived a degree of cultivation in thesouthern countries beyond what they themselves possessed; and it wasnatural for them to yield to that superior knowledge, as well as zeal, by which the inhabitants of the Christian kingdoms were even at thattime distinguished. 

But these causes might long have failed of producing any considerableeffect, had not a favorable incident prepared the means of introducingChristianity into Kent. Ethelbert, in his father's lifetime, had marriedBertha, the only daughter of Cariben, king of Paris, [*] one of thedescendants of Clovis, the conqueror of Gaul. 

 [* Greg, of Tours, lib, ix. Cap. 26. H. Hunting, lib. Ii. ]

But before he was admitted to this alliance, he was obliged tostipulate, that the princess should enjoy the free exercise of herreligion; a concession not difficult to be obtained from the idolatrousSaxons. [*] Bertha brought over a French bishop to the court ofCanterbury; and being zealous for the propagation of her religion, shehad been very assiduous in her devotional exercises, had supported thecredit of her faith by an irreproachable conduct, and had employed everyan of insinuation and address to reconcile her husband to her religiousprinciples. Her popularity in the court, and her influence overEthelbert, had so well paved the way for the reception of the Christiandoctrine, that Gregory, surnamed the Great, then Roman pontiff, beganto entertain hopes of effecting a project which lie himself, before hemounted the papal throne, had once embraced, of converting the BritishSaxons. 

It happened that this prelate, at that time in a private station, hadobserved in the market place of Rome some Saxon youth exposed to sale, whom the Roman merchants, in their trading voyages to Britain, hadbought of their mercenary parents. Struck with the beauty of their faircomplexions and blooming countenances, Gregory asked to what countrythey belonged; and being told they were "Angles, " he replied that theyought more properly to be denominated "angels. " it were a pity that theprince of darkness should enjoy so fair a prey, and that so beautifula frontispiece should cover a mind destitute of internal grace andrighteousness. Inquiring further concerning the name of their province, he was Informed, that it was "Deïri, " a district of Northumberland. "Deïri!" replied he, "that is good! They are called to the mercy of Godfrom his anger--_de ira_. But what is the name of the king of thatprovince?" He was told it was "Ælla, " or "Alia. " "Alleluiah;" cried he, "we must endeavor that the praises of God be sung in their country. "Moved by these allusions, which appeared to him so happy, he deter minedto undertake himself a mission into Britain; and having obtained thepope's approbation, he prepared for that perilous journey; but hispopularity at home was so great, that the Romans, unwilling to exposehim to such dangers, opposed his design, and he was obliged for thepresent to lay aside all further thoughts of executing that piouspurpose. [**]

 [* Bede, lib. I. Cap. 25. Brompton, p. 729. ]

 [** Bede, lib. Ii. Cap. 1. Spell. Concil. P. 91. ]

The controversy between the pagans and the Christians was not entirelycooled in that age; and no pontiff before Gregory had ever carried togreater excess an intemperate zeal against the former religion. He hadwaged war with all the precious monuments of the ancients, and even withtheir writings, which, as appears from the strain of his own wit, aswell as from the style of his compositions, he had not taste or geniussufficient to comprehend. Ambitious to distinguish his pontificate bythe conversion of the British Saxons, he pitched on Augustine, a Romanmonk, and sent him with forty associates to preach the gospel in thisisland. These missionaries, terrified with the dangers which mightattend their proposing a new doctrine to so fierce a people, of whoselanguage they were ignorant, stopped some time in France, and sent backAugustine to lay the hazards and difficulties before the pope, and cravehis permission to desist from the undertaking. But Gregory exorted themto persevere in their purpose, advised them to choose some interpretersfrom among the Franks, who still spoke the same language with theSaxons, [*] and recommended them to the good offices of Queen Brunehaut, who had at this time usurped the sovereign power in France. Thisprincess, though stained with every vice of treachery and cruelty, either possessed or pretended great zeal for the cause; and Gregoryacknowledged, that to her friendly assistance was, in a great measure, owing the success of that undertaking. [**]

Augustine, on his arrival in Kent in the year 597, [***] found the dangermuch less than he had apprehended. Ethelbert, already well disposedtowards the Christian faith, assigned him a habitation in the Isleof Thanet, and soon after admitted him to a conference. Apprehensive, however, lest spells or enchantments might be employed against him bypriests, who brought an unknown worship from a distant country, he hadthe precaution to receive them in the open air, where, he believed, the force of their magic would be more easily dissipated, [****] HereAugustine, by means of his interpreters, delivered to him the tenets ofthe Christian faith, and promised him eternal joys above, and a kingdomin heaven without end, if he would be persuaded to receive that salutarydoctrine. 

 [* Bede, lib. I. Cap. 23. ]

 [** Greg. Epist. Lib. Ix. Epist. 56. Spell. Concil. P. 82. ]

 [*** Higden Polychron. Lib. V. Chron. Sax. P. 23. ]

 [**** Bede, lib. I. Cap. 25. H. Hunting, lib. Iii. Brompton, p. 729 Parker, Antiq. Brit. Eccel. P 61. ]

"Our words and promises, "[*] replied Ethelbert, "are fair; but becausethey are new and uncertain, I cannot entirely yield to them, andrelinquish the principles which I and my ancestors have so longmaintained. You are welcome, however, to remain here in peace; and asyou have undertaken so long a journey, solely, as it appears, forwhat you believe to be for our advantage, I will supply you withall necessaries, and permit you to deliver your doctrine to mysubjects. "[**]

Augustine, encouraged by this favorable reception, and seeing now aprospect of success, proceeded with redoubled zeal to preach the gospelto the Kentish Saxons. He attracted their attention by the austerity ofhis manners, by the severe penances to which he subjected himself, bythe abstinence find self-denial which he practised; and having excitedthen wonder by a course of life which appeared so contrary to nature, heprocured more easily their belief of miracles, which, it was pretended, he wrought for their conversion. Influenced by these motives, andby the declared favor of the court, numbers of the Kentish men werebaptized; and the king himself was persuaded to submit to that rite ofChristianity. His example had great influence with his subjects; buthe employed no force to bring them over to the new doctrine. Augustinethought proper, in the commencement of his mission, to assume theappearance of the greatest lenity; he told Ethelbert, that the serviceof Christ must be entirely voluntary, and that no violence ought ever tobe used in propagating so salutary a doctrine. [****]

The intelligence received of these spiritual conquests afforded greatjoy to the Romans, who now exulted as much in those peaceful trophies astheir ancestors had ever done in their most sanguinary triumphs and mostsplendid victories. Gregory wrote a letter to Ethelbert, in which, afterinforming him that the end of the world was approaching, he exhorted himto display his zeal in the conversion of his subjects, to exert rigoragainst the worship of idols, and to build up the good work ofholiness by every expedient of exhortation, terror, blandishment, orcorrection;[*****] a doctrine more suitable to that age, and to theusual papal maxims, than the tolerating principles which Augustine hadthought it prudent to inculcate. 

 [* Bede, lib. I. Cap. 25. Chron. W. Thorn, p. 1759. ]

 [** Bede, lib. I. Cap. 25. H. Hunting, lib. Iii. Brompton, p. 729]

 [*** Bede, lib. I. Cap. 26. ]

 [**** Bede, cap 26. H. Hunting, lib. Iii. ]

 [***** Bede, lib. I. Cap. 32. Brompton, p. 732 Spell. Concil, 785]

The pontiff also answered some questions, which the missionary hadput concerning the government of the new church of Kent. Besides otherqueries, which it is not material here to relate, Augustine asked, "Whether cousins-german might be allowed to marry. " Gregory answered, that that liberty had indeed been formerly granted by the Roman law;but that experience had shown that no issue could ever come from suchmarriages; and he therefore prohibited them. Augustine asked, "Whethera woman pregnant might be baptized. " Gregory answered, that he saw noobjection. "How soon after the birth the child might receive baptism. "It was answered, immediately, if necessary. "How soon a husband mighthave commerce with his wife after her delivery. " Not till she had givensuck to her child; a practice to which Gregory exhorts all women. "How;soon a man might enter the church, or receive the sacrament, afterhaving had commerce with his wife. " It was replied, that, unless he hadapproached her without desire, merely for the sake of propagating hisspecies, he was not without sin; but in all cases it was requisite forhim, before he entered the church, or communicated, to purge himselfby prayer and ablution; and he ought not, even after using theseprecautions, to participate immediately of the sacred duties. [*] Thereare some other questions and replies still more indecent and moreridiculous. [**] And on the whole it appears that Gregory and hismissionary, if sympathy of manners have any influence, were bettercalculated than men of more refined understandings, for making aprogress with the ignorant and barbarous Saxons. 

The more to facilitate the reception of Christianity, Gregory enjoinedAugustine to remove the idols from the heathen altars, but not todestroy the altars themselves; because the people, he said, would beallured to frequent the Christian worship, when they found it celebratedin a place which they were accustomed to revere. 

 [* Bede, lib. I. Cap. 27. Spell. Concil. P. 97, 98, 99, &c. ]

 [** Augustine asks, "Si mulier menstrua consuetudine tenetur, an ecclesiam intrare et licet, aut sacræ communionis sacramenta percipere?" Gregory answers, "Santæ communionis mysterium in eisdem diebus percipere non debet prohiberi. Si autem ex veneratione magna percipere non præsumitur, laudanda est. " Augustine asks, "Si post illusionem, quae par somnum solet accidere, vel corpus Domini quilibet accipere valeat; vel, si sacerdos sit, sacra mysteria celebrare?" Gregory answers this learned question by many learned distinctions. ]

And as the pagans practised sacrifices, and feasted with the priests ontheir offerings, he also exhorted the missionary to persuade them, onChristian festivals, to kill their cattle in the neighborhood of thechurch, and to indulge themselves in those cheerful entertainments towhich they had been habituated. [*] These political compliancesshow that, notwithstanding his ignorance and prejudices, he wasnot unacquainted with the arts of governing mankind. Augustine wasconsecrated archbishop of Canterbury, was endowed by Gregory withauthority over all the British churches, and received the pall, a badgeof ecclesiastical honor, from Rome. [**] Gregory also advised him notto be too much elated with his gift of working miracles;[***] and asAugustine, proud of the success of his mission, seemed to think himselfentitled to extend his authority over the bishops of Gaul, thepope informed him that they lay entirely without the bounds of hisjurisdiction. [****]

The marriage of Ethelbert with Bertha, and, much more his embracingChristianity, begat a connection of his subjects with the French, Italians, and other nations on the continent, and tended to reclaim themfrom that gross ignorance and barbarity, in which all the Saxon tribeshad been hitherto involved. [*****] Ethelbert also enacted, [******] withthe consent of the states of his kingdom, a body of laws, the firstwritten laws promulgated by any of the northern conquerors; and hisreign was in every respect glorious to himself and beneficial to hispeople. He governed the kingdom of Kent fifty years; and dying in 616, left the succession to his son, Eadbald. This prince, seduced by apassion for his mother-in-law, deserted, for some time, the Christianfaith, which permitted not these incestuous marriages: his whole peopleimmediately returned with him to idolatry. Laurentius, the successor ofAugustine found the Christian worship wholly abandoned, and was preparedto return to France, in order to escape the mortification of preachingthe gospel without fruit to the infidels. 

 [* Bede lib. I. Cap. 30. Spell. Concil. P. 89. Greg. Epist. Lib. Ix. Epist. 71. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 23, 24. ]

 [*** H. Hunting, lib. Iii. Spell. Concil. P. 83. Bede, lib. I. Greg Epist. Lib. Ix. Epist. 60. ]

 [**** Bede, lib. I. Cap. 27. ]

 [***** W. Malms, p. 10. ]

 [****** Wilkins, Leges Sax. P. 13. ]

Mellitus and Justus, who had been consecrated bishops of London andRochester, had already departed the kingdom, [*] when Laurentius, beforehe should entirely abandon his dignity, made one effort to reclaim theking. He appeared before that prince, and, throwing off his vestments, showed his body all torn with bruises and stripes which he had received. Eadbald, wondering that any man should have dared to treat in thatmanner a person of his rank, was told by Laurentius, that he hadreceived this chastisement from St. Peter, the prince of the apostles, who had appeared to him in a vision, and severely reproving him for hisintention to desert his charge, had inflicted on him these visible marksof his displeasure. [**] Whether Eadbald was struck with the miracle, or influenced by some other motive, he divorced himself from hismother-in-law, and returned to the profession of Christianity:[***]his whole people returned with him. Eadbald reached not the fame orauthority of his father, and died in 640, after a reign of twenty-fiveyears, leaving two sons, Erminfrid and Ercombert. 

 [* Bede, lib. Ii. Cap 5. ]

 [** Bede, lib. Ii cap. 2. Chron. Sax. P. 26. Higden, lib. V]

 [*** Brompton, p 739. ]

Ercombert, though the younger son, by Emma, a French princess, found means to mount the throne. He is celebrated by Bede for twoexploits--for establishing the fast of Lent in his kingdom, and forutterly extirpating idolatry, which, notwithstanding the prevalence ofChristianity, had hitherto been tolerated by the two preceding monarchs. He reigned twenty-four years, and left the crown to Egbert, his son, who reigned nine years. This prince is renowned for his encouragement oflearning; but infamous for putting to death his two cousins-german, sonsof Erminfrid, his uncle. The ecclesiastical writers praise him for hisbestowing on his sister, Domnona, some lands in the Isle of Thanet, where she founded a monastery. 

The bloody precaution of Egbert could not fix the crown on the head ofhis son Edric. Lothaire, brother of the deceased prince, took possessionof the kingdom; and in order to secure the power in his family, heassociated with him Richard, his son, in the administration of thegovernment. Edric, the dispossessed prince, had recourse to Edilwach, king of Sussex, for assistance; and being supported by that prince, fought a battle with his uncle, who was defeated and slain. Richard fledinto Germany, and afterwards died in Lucca, a city of Tuscany. Williamof Malmsbury ascribes Lothaire's bad fortune to two crimes--hisconcurrence in the murder of his cousins, and his contempt forrelics. [*]

Lothaire reigned eleven years; Edric, his successor, only two. Upon thedeath of the latter, which happened in 686 Widred, his brother, obtainedpossession of the crown. But as the succession had been of late so muchdisjointed by revolutions and usurpations, faction began to prevailamong the nobility; which invited Cedwalla, king of Wessex, with hisbrother Mollo, to attack the kingdom. These invaders committed greatdevastations in Kent; but the death of Mollo, who was slain in askirmish, [**] gave a short breathing time to that kingdom. Widredrestored the affairs of Kent, and, after a reign of thirty-twoyears, [***] left the crown to his posterity. Eadbert, Ethelbert, andAlric, his descendants, successively mounted the throne. After thedeath of the last, which happened in 794, the royal family of Kent wasextinguished; and every factious leader, who could entertain hopes ofascending the throne, threw the state into confusion. [****] Egbert, whofirst succeeded, reigned but two years; Cuthred, brother to the king ofMercia, six years; Baldred, an illegitimate branch of the royal family, eighteen; and after a troublesome and precarious reign, he was, in theyear 823, expelled by Egbert, king of Wessex, who dissolved the SaxonHeptarchy, and united the several kingdoms under his dominion. 

 [* W. Malms, p. 11. ]

 [** Higden, lib. V. ]

 [*** Chron. Sax. P. 52. ]

 [**** W. Malms, lib. I. Cap. 1, p. 11. ]

THE KINGDOM OF NORTHUMBERLAND

Adelfrid, king of Bernicia, having married Acca, the daughter of Ælla, king of Deïri, and expelled her infant brother, Edwin, had united allthe counties north of Humber into one monarchy, and acquired a greatascendant in the Heptarchy. He also spread the terror of the Saxonarms to the neighboring people; and by his victories over the Scotsand Picts, as well as Welsh, extended on all sides the bounds of hisdominions. Having laid siege to Chester, the Britons marched out withall their forces to engage him; and they were attended by a body oftwelve hundred and fifty monks from the monastery of Bangor, who stoodat a small distance from the field of battle, in order to encourage thecombatants by their presence and exhortations. Adelfrid, inquiring intothe purpose of this unusual appearance, was told that these priests hadcome to pray against him: "Then are they as much our enemies, " said he, "as those who intend to fight against us;"[*] and he immediately sent adetachment, who fell upon them, and did such execution, that only fiftyescaped with their lives. [**] The Britons, astonished at this event, received a total defeat: Chester was obliged to surrender; and Adelfrid, pursuing his victory, made himself master of Bangor, and entirelydemolished the monastery, a building so extensive, that there was amile's distance from one gate of it to another; and it contained twothousand one hundred monks, who are said to have been there maintainedby their own labor. [***] Notwithstanding Adelfrid's success in war, he lived in inquietude on account of young Edwin, whom he had unjustlydispossessed of the crown of Deïri. This prince, now grown to man'sestate, wandered from place to place, in continual danger from theattempts of Adelfrid; and received at last protection in the courtof Redwald, king of the East Angles; where his engaging and gallantdeportment procured him general esteem and affection. Redwald, however, was strongly solicited, by the king of Northumberland, to kill ordeliver up his guest: rich presents were promised him if he wouldcomply, and war denounced against him in case of his refusal. Afterrejecting several messages of this kind, his generosity began to yieldto the motives of interest; and he retained the last ambassador, tillhe should come to a resolution in a case of such importance. Edwin, informed of his friend's perplexity, was yet determined at all hazardsto remain in East Anglia; and thought, that if the protection of thatcourt failed him, it were better to die than prolong a life so muchexposed to the persecutions of his powerful rival. This confidence inRedwald's honor and friendship, with his other accomplishments, engagedthe queen on his side; and she effectually represented to her husbandthe infamy of delivering up to certain destruction their royal guest, who had fled to them for protection against his cruel and jealousenemies. [****] Redwald, embracing more generous resolutions, thoughtit safest to prevent Adelfrid, before that prince was aware of hisintention, and to attack him while he was yet unprepared for defence. 

 [* Brompton, p. 779. ]

 [** Trivet, apud Spell. Concil. P. 111. ]

 [*** Bede, lib. Ii. Cap. 2. W. Malms, lib. I. Cap. 3. ]

 [**** W. Malms, lib. I. Cap. 3. H. Hunting, lib. Iii. Bede. ]

He marched suddenly with an army into the kingdom of Northumberland, andfought a battle with Adelfrid; in which that monarch was defeatedand killed, after revenging himself by the death of Regner, son ofRedwald. [*] His own sons, Eanfrid. Oswald, and Oswy, yet infants, werecarried into Scotland; and Edwin obtained possession of the crown ofNorthumberland. 

Edwin was the greatest prince of the Heptarchy in that age, and distinguished himself, both by his influence over the otherkingdoms, [**] and by the strict execution of justice in his owndominions. He reclaimed his subjects from the licentious life to whichthey had been accustomed; and it was a common saying, that during hisreign a woman or child might openly carry every where a purse ofgold, without any danger of violence or robbery. There is a remarkableinstance, transmitted to us, of the affection borne him by his servants. Cuichelme, king of Wessex, was his enemy; but finding himself unableto maintain open war against so gallant and powerful a prince, hedetermined to use treachery against him, and he employed one Eumer forthat criminal purpose, The assassin, having obtained admittance, bypretending to deliver a message from Cuichelme, drew his dagger, andrushed upon the king. Lilla, an officer of his army, seeing his master'sdanger, and having no other means of defence, interposed with his ownbody between the king and Burner's dagger, which was pushed with suchviolence, that, after piercing Lilla, it even wounded Edwin; but beforethe assassin could renew his blow, he was despatched by the king'sattendants. 

The East Angles conspired against Redwald, their king; and having puthim to death, they offered their crown to Edwin, of whose valor andcapacity they had had experience, while he resided among them. ButEdwin, from a sense o£ gratitude towards his benefactor, obliged themto submit to Earpwold, the son of Redwald; and that prince preserved hisauthority, though on a precarious footing, under the protection of theNorthumbrian monarch. [***]

 [* Bede, lib. Ii. Cap. 12. Bromton, p. 781. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 27. ]

 [*** W. Malms, lib. I. Cap. 3]

Edwin, after his accession to the crown, married Ethelburga, thedaughter of Ethelbert, king of Kent. This princess, emulating the gloryof her mother, Bertha, who had been the instrument for converting herhusband and his people to Christianity, carried Paullinus, a learnedbishop, along with her;[*] and besides stipulating a toleration for theexercise of her own religion, which was readily granted her, she usedevery reason to persuade the king to embrace it. Edwin, like aprudent prince, hesitated on the proposal, but promised to examinethe foundations of that doctrine, and declared that, if he found themsatisfactory, he was willing to be converted. [**] Accordingly he heldseveral conferences with Paullinus; canvassed the arguments propoundedwith the wisest of his counsellors; retired frequently from company, inorder to revolve alone that important question; and, after a seriousand long inquiry, declared in favor of the Christian religion;[***]the people soon after imitated his example. Besides the authority andinfluence of the king, they were moved by another striking example. Coifi, the high priest, being converted after a public conference withPaullinus, led the way in destroying the images, which he had so longworshipped, and was forward in making this atonement for his pastidolatry. [****]

This able prince perished with his son Osfrid, in a great battle whichhe fought against Penda, king of Mercia, and Caedwalla, king of theBritons. [*****] That event, which happened in the forty-eighth year ofEdwin's age and seventeenth of his reign, [******] divided the monarchyof Northumberland, which that prince had united in his person. Eanfrid, the son of Adelfrid, returned with his brothers, Oswald and Oswy, fromScotland, and took possession of Bernicia, his paternal kingdom; Osric, Edwin's cousin-german, established himself in Deïri, the inheritanceof his family, but to which the sons of Edwin had a preferable title. Eanfrid, the elder surviving son, fled to Penda, by whom he wastreacherously slain. The younger son, Vuscfraea, with Yffi, thegrandson of Edwin, by Osfrid, sought protection in Kent, and not findingthemselves in safety there, retired into France to King Dagobert, wherethey died. [*******]

 [* H. Hunting, lib. Iii. ]

 [** Bede, lib. Ii. Cap. 9. ]

 [*** Bede, lib. Ii. Cap. 9. W. Malms, lib. I. Cap. 3. ]

 [**** Bede, lib. Ii. Cap. 13. Brompton, Higden, lib. V. ]

 [***** M. West. P. 114. Chron. Sax. P. 29. ]

 [****** W. Malms, lib. I. Cap. 3. ]

 [******* Bede, lib. Ii, cap. 29. ]

Osric, king of Deïri and Eanfrid of Bernicia, returned to paganism; andthe whole people seem to have returned with them; since Paullinus, whowas the first archbishop of York; and who had converted them, thoughtproper to retire with Ethelburga, the queen dowager, into Kent. Boththese Northumbrian kings perished soon after, the first in battleagainst Caedwalla, the Briton; the second by the treachery of thatprince. Oswald, the brother of Eanfrid, of the race of Bernicia, unitedagain the kingdom of Northumberland in the year 634, and restoredthe Christian religion in his dominions. He gained a bloody andwell-disputed battle against Caedwalla; the last vigorous effort whichthe Britons made against the Saxons. Oswald is much celebrated for hissanctity and charity by the monkish historians; and they pretend thathis relics wrought miracles, particularly the curing of a sick horse, which had approached the place of his interment. [*]

 [* Bede, lib. Iii. Cap. 9. ]

He died in battle against Penda, king of Mercia, and was succeeded byhis brother Oswy, who established himself in the government of the wholeNorthumbrian kingdom, by putting to death Oswin, the son of Osric, the last king of the race of Deïri. His son Egfrid succeeded him; whoperishing in battle against the Picts, without leaving any children, because Adelthrid, his wife, refused to violate her vow of chastity, Alfred, his natural brother, acquired possession of the kingdom, whichhe governed for nineteen years; and he left it to Osred, his son, a boyof eight years of age. This prince, after a reign of eleven years, wasmurdered by Kenred, his kinsman, who, after enjoying the crown only ayear, perished by a like fate. Osric, and after him Celwulph, the sonof Kenred, next mounted the throne, which the latter relinquished inthe year 738, in favor of Eadbert, his cousin-german, who, imitatinghis predecessor, abdicated the crown, and retired into a monastery. Oswolf, son of Eadbert, was slain in a sedition, a year after hisaccession to the crown; and Mollo, who was not of the royal family, seized the crown. He perished by the treachery of Ailred, a prince ofthe blood; and Ailred, having succeeded in his design upon the throne, was soon after expelled by his subjects. Ethelred, his successor, theson of Mollo, underwent a like fate. Celwold, the next king, the brotherof Ailred, was deposed and slain by the people; and his place was filledby Osred, his nephew, who, after a short reign of a year, made way forEthelbert, another son of Mollo whose death was equally tragicalwith that of almost all his predecessors. After Ethelbert's death, auniversal anarchy prevailed in Northumberland; and the people having, byso many fatal revolutions, lost all attachment to their government andprinces, were well prepared for subjection to a foreign yoke; whichEgbert, king of Wessex, finally imposed upon them. 

THE KINGDOM OF EAST ANGLIA

The history of this kingdom contains nothing memorable except theconversion of Earpwold, the fourth king, and great-grandson of Una, thefounder of the monarchy. The authority of Edwin, king of Northumberland, on whom that prince entirety depended, engaged him to take this step;but soon after, his wife, who was an idolatress, brought him back to herreligion; and he was found unable to resist those allurements which haveseduced the wisest of mankind. After his death, which was violent, like that of most of the Saxon princes that did not early retire intomonasteries, Sigebert, his successor and half-brother, who had beeneducated in France, restored Christianity, and introduced learningamong the East Angles. Some pretend that he founded the universityof Cambridge, or rather some schools in that place. It is almostimpossible, and quite needless, to be more particular in relating thetransactions of the East Angles. What instruction or entertainment canit give the reader, to hear a long bead-roll of barbarous names, Egric, Annas, Ethelbert, Ethelwald, Aldulf, Elfwald, Beorne, Ethelred, Ethelbert, who successively murdered, expelled, or inherited from eachother, and obscurely filled the throne of that kingdom? Ethelbert, the last of these princes, was treacherously murdered by Offa, king ofMercia, in the year 792, and his state was thenceforth [*mited] withthat of Offa, as we shall relate presently. 

THE KINGDOM OF MERCIA

Mercia, the largest, if not the most powerful, kingdom of the Heptarchy, comprehended all the middle counties of England; and as its frontiersextended to those of all the other kingdoms, as well as to Wales, it received its name from that circumstance. Wibba, the son of Crida, founder of the monarchy, being placed on the throne by Ethelbert, kingof Kent, governed his paternal dominions by a precarious authority;and after his death, Ceorl, his kinsman, was, by the influence of theKentish monarch, preferred to his son Penda, whose turbulent characterappeared dangerous to that prince. Penda was thus fifty years of agebefore he mounted the throne; and his temerity and restless dispositionwere found nowise abated by time, experience, or reflection. He engagedin continual hostilities against all the neighboring states; and, byhis injustice and violence, rendered himself equally odious to his ownsubjects and to strangers. Sigebert, Egric, and Annas, three kings ofEast Anglia, perished successively in battle against him; as didalso Edwin and Oswald, the two greatest princes that had reigned overNorthumberland. At last Oswy, brother to Oswald, having defeated andslain him in a decisive battle, freed the world from this sanguinarytyrant. Peada, his son, mounted the throne of Mercia in 655, and livedunder the protection of Oswy, whose daughter he had espoused. Thisprincess was educated in the Christian faith, and she employed herinfluence, with success, in converting her husband and his subjects tothat religion. Thus the fair sex have had the merit of introducing theChristian doctrine into all the most considerable kingdoms of the SaxonHeptarchy. Peada died a violent death. [*] His son Wolfhere succeeded tothe government; and, after having reduced to dependence the kingdoms ofEssex and East Anglia, he left the crown to his brother Ethelred, who, though a lover of peace, showed himself not unfit for militaryenterprises. Besides making a successful expedition into Kent, herepulsed Egfrid, king of Northumberland, who had invaded his dominions;and he slew in battle Elswin, the brother of that prince. Desirous, however, of composing all animosities with Egfrid, he paid him a sum ofmoney as a compensation for the loss of his brother. After a prosperousreign of thirty years, he resigned the crown to Kendred, son ofWolfhere, and retired into the monastery of Bardney. [**]

 [* Hugo Candidas (p. 4) says, that he was treacherously murdered by his queen, by whose persuasion he had embraced Christianity; but this account of the matter is found in that historian alone. ]

 [** Bede, lib. V. ]Kendred returned the present of the crown to Ceolred, the son ofEthelred; and making a pilgrimage to Rome, passed his life there inpenance and devotion. The place of Ceolred was supplied by Ethelbald, great-grand-nephew to Penda, by Alwy, his brother; and this prince, being slain in a mutiny, was succeeded by Offa, who was a degree moreremote from Penda, by Eawa, another brother. 

This prince, who mounted the throne in 755, [*] had some great qualities, and was successful in his warlike enterprises against Lothaire, king ofKent, and Kenwulph, king of Wessex, He defeated the former in a bloodybattle, at Otford upon the Darent, and reduced his kingdom to a stateof dependence; he gained a victory over the latter at Bensington, inOxfordshire; and conquering that county, together with that ofGlocester, annexed both to his dominions. But all these successes werestained by his treacherous murder of Ethelbert, king of the East Angles, and his violent seizing of that kingdom. This young prince, who is saidto have possessed great merit, had paid his addresses to Elfrida, thedaughter of Offa, and was invited with all his retinue to Hereford, inorder to solemnize the nuptials: amidst the joy and festivity of theseentertainments, he was seized by Offa, and secretly beheaded; and thoughElfrida, who abhorred her father's treachery, had time to give warningto the East Anglian nobility, who escaped into their own country, Offa, having extinguished the royal family, succeeded in his designof subduing that kingdom. [**] The perfidious prince, desirous ofreestablishing his character in the world, and perhaps of appeasingthe remorses of his own conscience, paid great court to the clergy, andpractised all the monkish devotion so much esteemed in that ignorant andsuperstitious age. He gave the tenth of his goods to the church;[***]bestowed rich donations on the cathedral of Hereford, and even made apilgrimage to Rome, where his great power and riches could not fail ofprocuring him the papal absolution. The better to ingratiate himselfwith the sovereign pontiff, he engaged to pay him a yearly donation forthe support of an English college at Rome, [****] and in order to raisethe sum, he imposed a tax of a penny on each house possessed of thirtypence a year. This imposition, being afterwards levied on all England, was commonly denominated _Peter's pence_;[*****] and thoughconferred at first as a gift, was afterwards claimed as a tribute by theRoman pontiff. 

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 59. ]

 [** Brompton, p. 750, 751, 752. ]

 [*** Spell. Concil. P 308. Brompton, p. 776. ]

 [**** Spell. Concil. P. 230, 310, 312. ]

 [***** Higden, lib. V. ]

Carrying his hypocrisy still further, Offa, feigning to be directed bya vision from heaven, discovered at Verulam the relics of St Alban, themartyr, and endowed a magnificent monastery in that place. [*] Moved byal these acts of piety, Malmsbury, one of the best of the old Englishhistorians, declares himself at a loss to determine[**] whether themerits or crimes of this prince preponderated. Offa died, after a reignof thirty-nine years, in 794. [***]

This prince was become so considerable in the Heptarchy, that theemperor Charlemagne entered into an alliance and friendship with him;a circumstance which did honor to Offa; as distant princes at that timehad usually little communication with each other. That emperor being agreat lover of learning and learned men, in an age very barren of thatornament, Offa, at his desire, sent him over Alcuin, a clergymanmuch celebrated for his knowledge, who received great honors fromCharlemagne, and even became his preceptor in the sciences. The chiefreason why he had at first desired the company of Alcuin, was that hemight oppose his learning to the heresy of Felix, bishop of Urgel, inCatalonia; who maintained that Jesus Christ, considered in his humannature, could more properly be denominated the adoptive than the naturalson of God. [****] This heresy was condemned in the council of Francfort, held in 794, and consisting of three hundred bishops. Such were thequestions which were agitated in that age, and which employed theattention not only of cloistered scholars, but of the wisest andgreatest princes. [*****]

Egfrith succeeded to his father Offa, but survived him only fivemonths;[******] when he made way for Kenulph, a descendant of the royalfamily. This prince waged war against Kent, and taking Egbert, the king, prisoner, he cut off his hands, and put out his eyes; leaving Cuthred, his own brother, in possession of the crown of that kingdom. Kenulphwas killed in an insurrection of the East Anglians, whose crown hispredecessor, Offa, had usurped. He left his son Kenelm, a minor; who wasmurdered the same year by his sister Quendrade, who had entertained theambitious views of assuming the government. [*******]

 [* Ingulph. P. 5. W. Malms, lib. I. Cap. 4. ]

 [** Lib. I. Cap. 4. ]

 [*** Chron. Sax. P. 65. ]

 [**** Dupin, cent. Viii. Chap. 4]. 

 [***** Offa, in order to protect his country from Wales, drew a rampart or ditch of a hundred miles in length, from Basinwerke in Flintshire to the south sea near Bristol. See Speed's Description of Wales. ]

 [****** Ingulph. P. 6]

 [******* Ingulph, p. 7. Brompton, p. 776. ]

But she was supplanted by her uncle Ceolulf; who, two years after, wasdethroned by Beornulf The reign of this usurper, who was not of theroyal family, was short and unfortunate; he was defeated by the WestSaxons, and killed by his own subjects, the East Angles. [*] Ludican, hissuccessor, underwent the same fate;[**] and Wiglaff, who mounted thisunstable throne, and found everything in the utmost confusion, could notwithstand the fortune of Egbert, who united all the Saxon kingdoms intoone great monarchy. 

 [* Ingulph. P. 7. ]

 [** Alured. Beverl. P. 87. ]

THE KINGDOM OF ESSEX. 

This kingdom made no great figure in the Heptarchy; and the historyof it is very imperfect. Sleda succeeded to his father, Erkinwin, thefounder of the monarchy; and made way for his son Sebert, who, beingnephew to Ethelbert, king of Kent, was persuaded by that prince toembrace the Christian faith. [***] His sons and conjunct successors, Sexted and Seward, relapsed into idolatry, and were soon after slain ina battle against the West Saxons. To show the rude manner of livingin that age, Bede tells us, [****] that these two kings expressed greatdesire to eat the white bread, distributed by Mellitus, the bishop, atthe communion. [*****] But on his refusing them, unless they would submitto be baptized, they expelled him their dominions. The names of theother princes, who reigned successively in Essex, are Sigebert thelittle, Sigebert the good, who restored Christianity, Swithelm, Sigheri, Offa. This last prince, having made a vow of chastity, notwithstandinghis marriage with Keneswitha, a Mercian princess, daughter to Penda, went in pilgrimage to Rome, and shut himself up during the rest of hislife in a cloister. Selred, his successor, reigned thirty-eight years;and was the last of the royal line; the failure of which threw thekingdom into great confusion, and reduced it to dependence underMercia. [******] Switherd first acquired the crown, by the concession ofthe Mercian princes; and his death made way for Sigeric, who ended hislife in a pilgrimage to Rome. His successor. Sigered, unable to defendhis kingdom, submitted to the victorious arms of Egbert. 

 [*** Chron. Sax. P. 24]. 

 [**** Lib. Ii. Cap. 5. ]

 [***** H. Hunting, lib. Iii. Brompton, p. 738, 743. Bede. ]

 [****** W Malms, lib. I. Cap. 6. ]

THE KINGDOM OF SUSSEX. 

The history of this kingdom, the smallest in the Heptarchy, is still moreimperfect than that of Essex. Ælla, the founder of the monarchy, leftthe crown to his son Cissa, who is chiefly remarkable for his long reignof seventy-six years. During his time, the South Saxons fell almost intoa total dependence on the kingdom of Wessex; and we scarcely know thenames of the princes who were possessed of this titular sovereignty. Adelwalch, the last of them, was subdued in battle by Ceadwalla, kingof Wessex, and was slain in the action; leaving two infant sons, who, falling into the hand of the conqueror, were murdered by him. The abbotof Bedford opposed the order for this execution; but could only prevailon Ceadwalla to suspend it till they should be baptized. Bercthun andAudhum, two noblemen of character, resisted some time the violenceof the West Saxons; but their opposition served only to prolong themiseries of their country; and the subduing of this kingdom was thefirst step which the West Saxons made towards acquiring the solemonarchy of England. [*]

 [* Brompton, p. 800. ]

THE KINGDOM OF WESSEX. 

The kingdom of Wessex, which finally swallowed up all the other Saxonstates, met with great resistance on its first establishment; andthe Britons, who were now inured to arms, yielded not tamely theirpossessions to those invaders. Cerdic, the founder of the monarchy, andhis son Kenric, fought many successful, and some unsuccessful battles, against the natives; and the martial spirit, common to all the Saxons, was, by means of these hostilities, carried to the greatest height amongthis tribe. Ceaulin, who was the son and successor of Kenric, and whobegan his reign in 560, was still, more ambitious and enterprising thanhis predecessors; and by waging continual war against the Britons, headded a great part of the counties of Devon and Somerset to his otherdominions. Carried along by the tide of success, he invaded the otherSaxon states in his neighborhood, and becoming terrible to all, heprovoked a general confederacy against him. This alliance provedsuccessful under the conduct of Ethelbert, king of Kent; and Ceaulin, who had lost the affections of his own subjects by his violentdisposition, and had now fallen into contempt from his misfortunes, wasexpelled the throne, [**]and died in exile and misery. Cuichelme, andCuthwin, his sons, governed jointly the kingdom, till the expulsionof the latter in 591, and the death of the former in 593, made wayfor Cealric, to whom succeeded Ceobaîd in 593, by whose death, whichhappened in 611, Kynegils inherited the crown. 

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 22. ]

This prince embraced Christianity, [*] through the persuasion of Oswald, king of Northumberland, who had married his daughter, and who hadAttained a great ascendant in the Heptarchy. Kenwalch next succeeded tothe monarchy, and dying in 672, left the succession so much disputed, that Sexburga, his widow, a woman of spirit, [**] kept possession of thegovernment till her death, which happened two years after. Escwin thenpeaceably acquired the crown; and, after a short reign of two years, made way for Kentwin, who governed nine years. Ceodwalla, his successor, mounted not the throne without opposition; but proved a great prince, according to the ideas of those times; that is, he was enterprising, warlike, and successful. He entirely subdued the kingdom of Sussex, andannexed it to his own dominions He made inroads into Kent; but met withresistance from Widred, the king, who proved successful against Mollo, brother to Ceodwalla, and slew him in a skirmish. Ceodwalla at last, tired with wars and bloodshed, was seized with a fit of devotion;bestowed several endowments on the church; and made a pilgrimage toRome, where he received baptism, and died in 689. Ina, his successor, inherited the military virtues of Ceodwalla, and added to them the morevaluable ones of justice, policy, and prudence. He made war upon theBritons in Somerset; and, having finally subdued that province, hetreated the vanquished with a humanity hitherto unknown to the Saxonconquerors. He allowed the proprietors to retain possession of theirlands, encouraged marriages and alliances between them and his ancientsubjects, and gave them the privilege of being governed by the samelaws. These laws he augmented and ascertained; and though he wasdisturbed by some insurrections at home, his long reign of thirty-sevenyears may be regarded as one of the most glorious and most prosperous ofthe Heptarchy. In the decline of his age he made a pilgrimage to Rome;and after his return, shut himself up in a cloister, where he died. 

 [* Higden, lib. V. Chron. Sax. P. 15. Alured Beverl p. 94. ]

 [** Bede, lib. Iv. Cap. , 12. Chron. Sax. P. 41. ]

Though the kings of Wessex had always been princes of the blood, descended from Cerdic, the founder of the monarchy, the order ofsuccession had been far from exact; and a more remote prince had oftenfound means to mount the throne, in preference to one descended from anearer branch of the royal family. Ina, therefore, having no childrenof his own and lying much under the influence of Ethelburga, his queen, left by will the succession to Adelard, her brother, who was hisremote kinsman; but this destination did not take place without somedifficulty. Oswald, a prince more nearly allied to the crown, took armsagainst Adelard; but he being suppressed, and dying soon after, thetitle of Adelard was not any further disputed; and in the year 741, he was succeeded by his cousin Cudred. The reign of this prince wasdistinguished by a great victory, which he obtained by means of Edelhun, his general, over Ethelbald, king of Mercia. His death made way forSigebert, his kinsman, who governed so ill, that his people rose inan insurrection, and dethroned him, crowning Cenulph in his stead. Theexiled prince found a refuge with Duke Cumbran, governor of Hampshire;who, that he might add new obligations to Sigebert, gave him manysalutary counsels for his future conduct, accompanied with somereprehensions for the past. But these were so much resented by theungrateful prince, that he conspired against the life of his protector, and treacherously murdered him. After this infamous action, he wasforsaken by all the world; and skulking about in the wilds and forests, was at last discovered by a servant of Cumbran's, who instantly tookrevenge upon him for the murder of his master. [*]

Cenulph, who had obtained the crown on the expulsion of Sigebert, wasfortunate in many expeditions against the Britons of Cornwall; butafterwards lost some reputation by his ill success against Offa, kingof Mercia. [**] Kynehard also, brother to the deposed Sigebert, gavehim disturbance; and though expelled the kingdom, he hovered on thefrontiers, and watched an opportunity for attacking his rival. The kinghad an intrigue with a young woman, who lived at Merton, in Surrey, whither having secretly retired, he was on a sudden environed, in thenight time, by Kynehard and his followers, and after making a vigorousresistance, was murdered, with all his attendants. The nobility andpeople of the neighborhood, rising next day in arms, took revenge onKynehard for the slaughter of their king, and put every one to the swordwho had been engaged in that criminal enterprise. This event happened in784. 

 [* Higden, lib. V. W. Malms, lib. I. Cap. 2. ]

 [** W. Malms, lib. I. Cap. 2. ]

Brthric next obtained possession of the government, though remotelydescended from the royal family; but he enjoyed not that dignity withoutinquietude. Eoppa, nephew to King Ina, by his brother Ingild, who diedbefore that prince, had begot Eata, father to Alchmond, from whom sprungEgbert, [*] a young man of the most promising hopes, who gave greatjealousy to Brithric, the reigning prince, both because he seemed by hisbirth better entitled to the crown, and because he had acquired, to aneminent degree, the affections of the people. Egbert, sensible ofhis danger from the suspicions of Brithric, secretly withdrew intoFrance;[**] where he was well received by Charlemagne. By living in thecourt, and serving in the armies of that prince, the most able and mostgenerous that had appeared in Europe during several ages, he acquiredthose accomplishments which afterwards enabled him to make such ashining figure on the throne. And familiarizing himself to the mannersof the French, who, as Malmsbury observes, [***] were eminent both forvalor and civility above all the western nations, he learned to polishthe rudeness and barbarity of the Saxon character: his early misfortunesthus proved of singular advantage to him. 

It was not long ere Egbert had opportunities of displaying his naturaland acquired talents. Brithric, king of Wessex, had married Eadburga, natural daughter of Offa, king of Mercia, a profligate woman, equallyinfamous for cruelty and for incontinence. Having great influence overher husband, she often instigated him to destroy such of the nobility aswere obnoxious to her; and where this expedient failed, she scrupled notbeing herself active in traitorous attempts against them. She had mixeda cup of poison for a young nobleman, who had acquired her husband'sfriendship, and had on that account become the object of her jealousy;but unfortunately the king drank of the fatal cup along with hisfavorite, and soon after expired. [****] This tragical incident, joinedto her other crimes, rendered Eadburga so odious, that she was obligedto fly into France; whence Egbert was at the same time recalled by thenobility, in order to ascend the throne of his ancestors. [*****] Heattained that dignity in the last year of the eighth century. 

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 16. ]

 [** H. Hunting. Lib. Iv. ]

 [*** Lib. Ii. Cap. 11. ]

 [**** Higden, lib. V. M West. P. 152. Asser. In vita Alfiredi, p, 3. Ex edit, Camdeni. ]

 [***** Chron. Sax. A. D. 800. Brompton, p. 801]

In the kingdoms of the Heptarchy, an exact rule of succession was eitherunknown or not strictly observed; and thence the reigning prince wascontinually agitated with jealousy against all the princes of the blood, whom he still considered as rivals, and whose death alone could give himentire security in his possession of the throne. From this fatal cause, together with the admiration of the monastic life, and the opinion ofmerit attending the preservation of chastity even in a married state, the royal families had been entirely extinguished in all the kingdomsexcept that of Wessex; and the emulations, suspicions, and conspiracies, which had formerly been confined to the princes of the blood alone, werenow diffused among all the nobility in the several Saxon states. Egbertwas the sole descendant of those first conquerors who subdued Britain, and who enhanced their authority by claiming a pedigree from Woden, thesupreme divinity of their ancestors. But that prince, though invited bythis favorable circumstance to make attempts on the neighboring Saxons, gave them for some time no disturbance, and rather chose to turn hisarms against the Britons in Cornwall, whom he defeated in severalbattles. [*] He was recalled from the conquest of that country by aninvasion made upon his dominions by Bernulf, king of Mercia. 

The Mercians, before the accession of Egbert, had very nearly attainedthe absolute sovereignty in the Heptarchy: they had reduced the EastAngles under subjection, and established tributary princes in thekingdoms of Kent and Essex. Northumberland was involved in anarchy; andno state of any consequence remained but that of Wessex, which, much inferior in extent to Mercia, was supported solely by the greatqualities of its sovereign. Egbert led his army against the invaders;and encountering them at Ellandun, in Wiltshire, obtained a completevictory, and by the great slaughter which he made of them in theirflight, gave a mortal blow to the power of the Mercians. Whilst hehimself, In prosecution of his victory, entered their country on theside of Oxfordshire, and threatened the heart of their dominions, hesent an army into Kent, commanded by Ethelwolph, his eldest son, [**]and, expelling Baldred. The tributary king, soon made himself master ofthat county. 

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 69. ]

 [** Ethelwerd, lib iii. Cap. 2. ]

The kingdom of Essex was conquered with equal facility; and the EastAngles, from their hatred to the Mercian gov ernment, which had beenestablished over them by treachery and violence, and probably exercisedwith tyranny, immediately rose in arms, and craved the protection ofEgbert. [*] Bernulf, the Mercian king, who marched against them, wasfeated and siain; and two years after, Ludican, his successor, metwith the same fate. These insurrections and calamities facilitatedthe enterprises of Egbert, who advanced into the centre of the Mercianterritories, and made easy conquests over a dispirited and dividedpeople. In order to engage them more easily to submission, he allowedWiglef, their countryman, to retain the title of king, whilst hehimself exercised the real powers of sovereignty. [**] The anarchy whichprevailed in Northumberland tempted him to carry still farther hisvictorious arms; and the inhabitants, unable to resist his power, and desirous of possessing some established form of government, wereforward, on his first appearance, to send deputies, who submitted tohis authority, and swore allegiance to him as their sovereign. Egbert, however, still allowed to Northumberland, as he had done to Mercia, andEast Anglia, the power of electing a king, who paid him tribute, and wasdependent on him. 

Thus were united all the kingdoms of the Heptarchy in one great state, near four hundred years after the first arrival of the Saxons inBritain; and the fortunate arms and prudent policy of Egbert atlast effected what had been so often attempted in vain by so manyprinces. [***] Kent, Northumberland, and Mercia, which had successivelyaspired to general dominion, were now incorporated in his empire; andthe other subordinate kingdoms seemed willingly to share the same fate. His territories were nearly of the same extent with what is nowproperly called England; and a favorable prospect was afforded tothe Anglo-Saxons of establishing a civilized monarchy, possessed oftranquillity within itself, and secure against foreign invasion. Thisgreat event happened in the year 827. [****]

 [* Ethelwerd, lib. Iii. Cap. 2. ]

 [** Ingulph. P. 7, 8, 19. ]

 [*** Chron. Sax. P. 71. ]

 [**** Chron. Sax. P. 71. ]

The Saxons, though they had been so long settled in the island, seem notas yet to have been much improved beyond their German ancestors, eitherhi arts, civility, knowledge, humanity, justice, or obedience to thelaws. Even Christianity, though it opened the way to connections betweentheir and the more polished states of Europe, had not hitherto been veryeffectual in banishing their ignorance, or softening their barbarousmanners. As they received that doctrine through the corrupted channelsof Rome, it carried along with it a great mixture of credulity andsuperstition, equally destructive to the understanding and to morals. The reverence towards saints and relics seems to have almost supplantedthe idoration of the Supreme Being; monastic observances were esteemedmore meritorious than the active virtues; the knowledge of naturalcauses was neglected, from the universal belief of miraculousinterpositions and judgments; bounty to the church atoned for everyviolence against society; and the remorses for cruelty, murder, treachery, assassination, and the more robust vices, were appeased, notby amendment of life, but by penances, servility to the monks, and anabject and illiberal devotion. [*] The reverence for the clergy hadbeen carried to such a height, that, wherever a person appeared in asacerdotal habit, though on the highway, the people flocked around him, and, showing him all marks of profound respect, received every word heuttered as the most sacred oracle. [**] Even the military virtues, so inherent in all the Saxon tribes, began to be neglected; and thenobility, preferring the security and sloth of the cloister to thetumults and glory of war, valued themselves chiefly on endowingmonasteries, of which they assumed the government. [***] The severalkings too, being extremely impoverished by continual benefactions to thechurch, to which the states of their kingdoms had weakly assented, couldbestow no rewards on valor or military services, and retained not evensufficient influence to support their government. [****]

 [* These abuses were common to all the European churches; but the priests in Italy, Spain, and Gaul, made some atonement for them by other advantages which they rendered society. For several ages, they were almost all Romans, or, in other words, the ancient natives; and they preserved the Roman language and laws, with some remains of the former civility. But the priests in the Heptarchy, after the first missionaries, were wholly Saxons, and almost as ignorant and Barbarous as the laity. They contributed, therefore, little to no improvement of society in knowledge or the arts. ]

 [** Bede, lib. Iii. Cap. 26. ]

 [*** Bede, lib. V. Cap. 23. Bedae Epist. Ad Egbert. ]

 [**** Bedse Epist. Ad Egbert. ]

Another inconvenience which attended this corrupt species ofChristianity, was the superstitious attachment to Rome, and the gradualsubjection of the kingdom to a foreign jurisdiction. The Britons, havingnever acknowledged any subordination to the Roman pontiff, had conductedall ecclesiastical government by their domestic synods and councils;[*]but the Saxons, receiving their religion from Roman monks, were taughtat the same time a profound reverence for that see, and were naturallyled to regard it as the capital of their religion. Pilgrimages to Romewere represented as the most meritorious acts of devotion. Not onlynoblemen and ladies of rank undertook this tedious journey, [**] butkings themselves, abdicating their crowns, sought for a secure passportto heaven at the feet of the Roman pontiff. New relics, perpetually sentfrom that endless mint of superstition, and magnified by lying miracles, invented in convents, operated on the astonished minds of the multitude. And every prince has attained the eulogies of the monks, the onlyhistorians of those ages, not in proportion to his civil and militaryvirtues, but to his devoted attachment towards their order, and hissuperstitious reverence for Rome. 

The sovereign pontiff, encouraged by this blindness and submissivedisposition of the people, advanced every day in his encroachmentson the independence of the English churches. Wilfrid, bishop ofLindisferne, the sole prelate of the Northumbrian kingdom, increasedthis subjection in the eighth century, by his making an appeal toRome against the decisions of an English synod, which had abridged hisdiocese by the erection of some new bishoprics. [***] Agatho, the pope, readily embraced this precedent of an appeal to his court; and Wilfrid, though the haughtiest and most luxurious prelate of his age, [****]having obtained with the people the character of sanctity, was thus ableto lay the foundation of this papal pretension. 

 [* Append, to Bede, numb. 10, ex edit. 1722. Spehn. Concil p. 108, 109. ]

 [** Bede. Lib. V. Cap. 7. ]

 [*** See Appendix to Bede, numb. 19. Higden, lib. V. ]

 [**** Eddius, vita Vilfr. Sect. 24, 60]

The great topic by which Wilfrid confounded the imaginations of men, was, that St. Peter, to whos custody the keys of heaven were intrusted, would certainly refuse admittance to every one who should be wantingin respect to his successor, This conceit, well suited to vulgarconceptions, made great impression on the people during severalages, and has act even at present lost all influence in the Catholiccountries. Had this abject superstition produced general peace andtranquillity, it had made some atonement for the ills attending it;but besides the usual avidity of men for power and riches, frivolouscontroversies in theology were engendered by it, which were so muchthe more fatal, as they admitted not, like the others, of any finaldetermination from established possession. The disputes, excited inBritain, were of the most ridiculous kind, and entirely worthy of thoseignorant and barbarous ages. There were some intricacies, observed byall the Christian churches, in adjusting the day of keeping Easter;which depended on a complicated consideration of the course of the sunand moon; and it happened that the missionaries, who had converted theScots and Britons, had followed a different calendar from that which wasobserved at Rome, in the age when Augustine converted the Saxons. Thepriests also of all the Christian churches were accustomed to shave partof their head; but the form given to this tonsure was different in theformer from what was practised in the latter. The Scots and Britonspleaded the antiquity of _their_ usages; the Romans and theirdisciples, the Saxons, insisted on the universality of _theirs_. That Easter must necessarily be kept by a rule, which comprehended boththe day of the year and age of the moon, was agreed by all; that thetonsure of a priest could not be omitted without the utmost impiety, wasa point undisputed; but the Romans and Saxons called their antagonistsschismatics, because they celebrated Easter on the very day of the fullmoon in March, if that day fell on a Sunday, instead of waiting till theSunday following; and because they shaved the fore part of their headfrom ear to ear, instead of making that tonsure on the crown of thehead, and in a circular form. In order to render their antagonistsodious, they affirmed that, once in seven years, they concurred with theJews in the time of celebrating that festival;[*] and that they mightrecommend their own form of tonsure, they maintained, that it imitatedsymbolically the crown of thorns worn by Christ in his passion; whereasthe other form was invented by Simon Magus, without any regard to thatrepresentation. [**]

 [* Bede, lib. Ii. Cap. 19. ]

 [** Bede, lib. V. Cap. 21. Eddius, sect. 24]

These controversies had, from the beginning, excited such animositybetween the British and Romish priests that, instead of concurringin their endeavors to convert the idolatrous Saxons, they refused allcommunion together, and each regarded his opponent as no better thana pagan. [*] The dispute lasted more than a century; and was at lastfinished, not by men's discovering the folly of it, which would havebeen too great an effort for human reason to accomplish, but by theentire prevalence of the Romish ritual over the Scotch and British. [**]Wilfrid, bishop of Lindisferne, acquired great merit, both with thecourt of Rome and with all the southern Saxons, by expelling thequartodeciman schism, as it was called, from the Northumbrian kingdom, into which the neighborhood of the Scots had formerly introducedit. [***]

Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, called, in the year 680, a synodat Hatfield, consisting of all the bishops in Britain, [****] where wasaccepted and ratified the decree of the Lateran council, summoned byMartin, against the heresy of the Monothelites. The council and synodmaintained, in opposition to these heretics, that, though the divineand human nature in Christ made but one person, yet had they differentinclinations, wills, acts, and sentiments, and that the unity of theperson implied not any unity in the consciousness. [*****] This opinionit seems somewhat difficult to comprehend; and no one, unacquainted withthe ecclesiastical history of those ages, could imagine the height ofzeal and violence with which it was then inculcated. The decree ofthe Lateran council calls the Monothelites impious, execrable, wicked, abominable, and even diabolical; and curses and anathematizes them toall eternity. [******]

 [* Bede, lib. Ii. Cap. 2, 4, 20. Eddius, sect. 12. ]

 [** Bede, lib. V. Cap. 16, 22. ]

 [*** Bede, lib. Iii. Cap. 25. Eddius, sect. 12. ]

 [**** Spell. Concil. Vol. I. P. 168. ]

 [***** Spell. Concil. Vol. I. P. 171. ]

 [****** Spell. Concil. Vol. I. P. 172, 173, 174. ]

CHAPTER II. 

The Saxons, from the first introduction of Christianity among them, hadadmitted the use of images; and perhaps that religion, without some ofthose exterior ornaments, had lot made so quick a progress with theseidolaters; but they had not paid any species of worship or addressto images; and this abuse never prevailed among Christians, till itreceived the sanction of the second council of Nice. 

EGBERT. 

[Sidenote: 827. ] The kingdoms of the Heptarchy, though united by arecent conquest, seemed to be firmly cemented into one state underEgbert; and the inhabitants of the several provinces had lost all desireof revolting from that monarch, or of restoring their former independentgovernments. Their language was every where nearly the same, theircustoms, laws, institutions, civil and religious; and as the race ofthe ancient kings was totally extinct in all the subjected states, thepeople readily transferred their allegiance to a prince who seemedto merit it by the splendor of his victories, the vigor of hiaadministration, and the superior nobility of his birth. A union also ingovernment opened to them the agreeable prospect of future tranquillity;and it appeared more probable that they would thenceforth becomeformidable to their neighbors, than be exposed to their inroads anddevastations. But these flattering views were soon overcast bythe appearance of the Danes, who, during some centuries, kept theAnglo-Saxons in perpetual inquietude, committed the most barbarousravages upon them, and at last reduced them to grievous servitude. 

The emperor Charlemagne, though naturally generous and humane, had beeninduced by bigotry to exercise great severities upon the pagan Saxons inGermany, whom he subdued; and besides often ravaging their country withfire and sword, he had, in cool blood, decimated all the inhabitantsfor their revolts, and had obliged them, by the most rigorous edicts, to make a seeming compliance with the Christian doctrine. That religion, which had easily made its way among the British Saxons by insinuationand address, appeared shocking to their German brethren, when imposed onthem by the violence of Charlemagne; and the more generous and warlikeof these pagans had fled northward into Jutland, in order to escapethe fury of his persecutions. Meeting there with a people of similarmanners, they were readily received among them; and they soon stimulatedthe natives to concur in enterprises which both promised revenge onthe haughty conqueror, and afforded subsistence to those numerousinhabitants with which the northern countries were now overburdened. [*]They invaded the provinces of France, which were exposed by thedegeneracy and dissensions of Charlemagne's posterity; and being thereknown under the general name of Normans, which they received from theirnorthern situation, they became the terror of all the maritime and evenof the inland countries. They were also tempted to visit England intheir frequent excursions; and being able, by sudden inroads, to makegreat progress over a people who were not defended by any naval force, who had relaxed their military institutions, and who were sunk into asuperstition which had become odious to the Danes and ancient Saxons, they made no distinction in their hostilities between the French andEnglish kingdoms. Their first appearance in this island was in the year787, [**] when Brithric reigned in Wessex. A small body of them landed inthat kingdom, with a view of learning the state of the country; and whenthe magistrate of the place questioned them concerning their enterprise, and summoned them to appear before the king, and account for theirintentions, they killed him, and, flying to, their ships, escaped intotheir own country. The next alarm was given to Northumberland in theyear 794, [***] when a body of these pirates pillaged a monastery; buttheir ships being much damaged by a storm, and their leader slain ina skirmish, they were at last defeated by the inhabitants, and theremainder of them put to the sword. [Sidenote: 832] Five years afterEgbert had established his monarchy over England, the Danes landed inthe Isle of Shepey, and having pillaged it, escaped with impunity. [****]They were not so fortunate in their next year's enterprise, when theydisembarked from thirty-five ships, and were encountered by Egbert, atCharmouth, in Dorsetshire. The battle was bloody; but though the Daneslost great numbers, they maintained the post which they had taken, andthence made good their retreat to their ships. [*****]

 [* Ypod. Neust. P. 414. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 64. ]

 [*** Chron. Sax. P. 66. Alured. Beveri. P. 108. ]

 [**** Chron. Sax. P. 72]

 [***** Chiron. Sax. P. 72. Ethelwerd, lib. Iii. Cap. 2. ]

Having learned, by experience, that they must expect a vigorousresistance from this warlike prince, they entered into an alliance withthe Britons of Cornwall; and, landing two years after in that country, made an inroad with their confederates into the county of Devon, butwere met at Hengesdown by Egbert, and totally defeated. [*] While Englandremained in this state of anxiety, and defended itself more by temporaryexpedients than by any regular plan of administration, Egbert, who alonewas able to provide effectually against this new evil, unfortunatelydied, and left the government to his son Ethelwolf. 

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 72. ]

ETHELWOLF. 

This prince had neither the abilities nor the vigor of his father, andwas better qualified for governing a convent than a kingdom. [*] He beganhis reign with making a partition of his dominions, and delivering overto his eldest son, Athelstan, the new-conquered provinces of Essex, Kent, and Sussex. But no inconveniences seem to have arisen from thispartition as the continual terror of the Danish invasions preventedall domestic dissension. A fleet of these ravagers, consisting ofthirty-three sail, appeared at Southampton, but were repulsed with lossby Wolfhere, governor of the neighboring country. [**] The same year, Æthelhelm, governor of Dorsetshire, routed another band, which haddisembarked at Portsmouth; but he obtained the victory after a furiousengagement, and he bought it with the loss of his life. [***]

 [* W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap 2. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 73. Ethelwerd, lib. Iii. Cap. 3. ]

 [*** Chron. Sax. P. 73. H. Hunting, lib. V. ]

Next year, the Danes made several inroads into England, and foughtbattles, or rather skirmishes, in East Anglia and Lindesey and Kent;where, though they were sometimes repulsed and defeated, they alwaysobtained their end, of committing spoil upon the country, and carryingoff their booty. They avoided coming to a general engagement, which wasnot suited to their plan of operations. Their vessels were small, andran easily up the creeks and rivers, where they drew them ashore, and, having formed an intrenchment round them, which they guarded with partof their number, the remainder scattered themselves every where, andcarrying off the inhabitants, and cattle, and goods, they hastenedto their ships, and quickly disappeared. If the military force of thecounty were assembled, (for there was no time for troops to march froma distance, ) the Danes either were able to repulse them, and to continuetheir ravages with impunity, or they betook themselves to their vessels, and, setting sail, suddenly invaded some distant quarter, which was notprepared for their reception. 

Every part of England was held in continual alarm; and the inhabitantsof one county durst not give assistance to those of another, lest theirown families and property should in the mean time be exposed by theirabsence to the fury of these barbarous ravagers. [*]

[* Alured. Beverl. P. 108. ]

All orders of men were involved in this calamity; and the priests andmonks, who had been commonly spared in the domestic quarrels ofthe Heptarchy, were the chief objects on which the Danish idolatersexercised their rage and animosity. Every season of the year wasdangerous, and the absence of the enemy was no reason why any man couldesteem himself a moment in safety. 

These incursions had now become almost annual; when the Danes, encouraged by their successes against France as well as England, (forboth kingdoms were alike exposed to this dreadful calamity, ) invadedthe last in so numerous a body as seemed to threaten it with universalsubjection. But the English, more military than the Britons, whom a fewcenturies before they had treated with like violence, roused themselveswith a vigor proportioned to the exigency. Ceorle, governor ofDevonshire, fought a battle with one body of the Danes at Wiganburgh, [*]and put them to rout with great slaughter. 

 [* H. Hunting, lib. V. Ethelwerd, lib. Iii. Cap 3. Sim. Dunelm. P. 120. ]

King Athelstan attacked another at sea, near Sandwich, sunk nine oftheir ships, and put the rest to flight. [*]

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 74. Asser. P. 2. ]

A body of them, however, ventured, for the first time, to take up winterquarters in England; and receiving in the spring a strong reënforcementof their countrymen, in three hundred and fifty vessels, they advancedfrom the Isle of Thanet, where they had stationed themselves, burnt thecities of London and Canterbury, and having put to flight Brichtric, whonow governed Mercia under the title of king, they marched into the heartof Surrey, and laid every place waste around them. Ethelwolf, impelledby the urgency of the danger, marched against them at the head of theWest Saxons; and, carrying with him his second son, Ethelbald, gave thembattle at Okely, and gained a bloody victory over them. This advantageprocured but a short respite to the English. The Danes still maintainedtheir settlement in the Isle of Thanet; and, being attacked by Ealherand Huda, governors of Kent and Surrey, though defeated in the beginningof the action, they finally repulsed the assailants, and killed boththe governors, removed thence to the Isle of Shepey, where they took uptheir winter quarters, that they might farther extend their devastationand ravages. 

This unsettled state of England hindered not Ethelwolf from making apilgrimage to Rome, whither he carried his fourth and favorite son, Alfred, then only six years of age. [*] He passed there a twelvemonthin exercises of devotion; and failed not in that most essential part ofdevotion, liberality to the church of Rome. Besides giving presents tothe more distinguished ecclesiastics, he made a perpetual grant of threehundred mancuses[**] a year to that see; one third to support thelamps of St. Peter's, another those of St. Paul's, a third to the popehimself. [***] In his return home, he married Judith, daughter of theemperor Charles the Bald; but, on his landing in England, he met with anopposition which he little looked for. 

His eldest son, Athelstan, being dead, Ethelbald, his second, who hadassumed the government, formed, in concert with many of the nobles, theproject of excluding his father from a throne which his weakness andsuperstition seem to have rendered him so ill qualified to fill. Thepeople were divided between the two princes, and a bloody civil war, joined to all the other calamities under which the English labored, appeared inevitable, when Ethelwolf had the facility to yield to thegreater part of his son's pretensions. He made with him a partition ofthe kingdom; and, taking to himself the eastern part, which was always, at that time, esteemed the least considerable, as well as the mostexposed, [****] he delivered over to Ethelbald the sovereignty of thewestern. Immediately after, he summoned the states of the whole kingdom, and with the same facility conferred a perpetual and important donationon the church. 

 [* Asser. P. 2. Chron. Sax. 76. H. Hunting, lib. V. ]

 [** A mancus was about the weight of our present half crown. See Spelman's Glossary, in verbo Mancus. ]

 [*** W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 2. ]

 [**** Asser. P. 3. W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 2. M. West. P. 7, 8. ]

The ecclesiastics, in those days of ignorance, made rapid advances inthe acquisition of power and grandeur; and, inculcating the most absurdand most interested doctrines, though they sometimes met, from thecontrary interests of the laity, with an opposition which it requiredtime and address to overcome, they found no obstacle in their reason orunderstanding. Not content with the donations of land made them by theSaxon princes and nobles, and with temporary oblations from the devotionof the people, they had cast a wishful eye on a vast revenue, which theyclaimed as belonging to them by a sacred and indefeasible title. Howeverlittle versed in the Scriptures, they had been able to discover that, under the Jewish law, a tenth of all the produce of land was conferredon the priesthood; and, forgetting what they themselves taught, that themoral part only of that law was obligatory on Christians, they insistedthat this donation conveyed a perpetual property, inherent by divineright in those who officiated at the altar. During some centuries, thewhole scope of sermons and homilies was directed to this purpose; andone would have imagined, from the general tenor of these discourses, that all the practical parts of Christianity were comprised in the exactand faithful payment of tithes to the clergy. [*] Encouraged by theirsuccess in inculcating these doctrines, they ventured farther than theywere warranted even by the Levitical law, and pretended to draw thetenth of all industry, merchandise, wages of laborers, and pay ofsoldiers;[**] nay, some canonists went so far as to affirm that theclergy were entitled to the tithe of the profits made by courtesansin the exercise of their profession. [***] Though parishes had beeninstituted in England by Honorius, archbishop of Canterbury, near twocenturies before, [****] the ecclesiastics had never yet been able to getpossession of the tithes; they therefore seized the present favorableopportunity of making that acquisition; when a weak, superstitiousprince filled the throne, and when the people, discouraged by theirlosses from the Danes, and terrified with the fear of future invasions, were susceptible of any impression which bore the appearance ofreligion. [*****] So meritorious was this concession deemed by theEnglish, that, trusting entirely to supernatural assistance, theyneglected the ordinary means of safety; and agreed, even in the presentdesperate extremity, that the revenues of the church should beexempted from all burdens, though imposed for national defence andsecurity. [******]

 [* Padre Paolo, sopra beneficii ecclesiastici, p. 51, 52, edit. Colon. 1675. ]

 [** Spell. Concil. Vol. I. P. 268. ]

 [*** Padre Paolo, p. 132. ]

 [**** Parker, p. 77. ]

 [***** Ingulph. P. 862. Selden's Hist. Of Tithes, c. 8. ]

 [****** Asser. P. 2. Chron. Sax. P. 76. W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 2. Ethelwerd, lib. Iii. Cap. 3. M. West. P. 158. Ingulph. P. 17. Alured. Beverl. P. 95. ]

ETHELBALD AND ETHELBERT. 

Ethelwolf lived only two years after making this grant; and by his willhe shared England between his two eldest sons, Ethelbald and Ethelbert;the west being assigned to the former, the east to the latter. Ethelbaldwas a profligate prince; and marrying Judith, his mother-in-law, gavegreat offence to the people; but moved by the remonstrances of Swithun, bishop of Winchester, he was at last prevailed on to divorce her. His reign was short; and Ethelbert, his brother, succeeding to thegovernment, behaved himself, during a reign of five years, in a mannermore worthy of his birth and station. The kingdom, however, was stillinfested by the Danes, who made an inroad and sacked Winchester, butwere there defeated. A body also of these pirates, who were quarteredin the Isle of Thanet, having deceived the English by a treaty, unexpectedly broke into Kent, and committed great outrages. 

ETHERED

Ethelbert was succeeded by his brother Ethered, who, though he defendedhimself with bravery, enjoyed, during his whole reign, no tranquillityfrom those Danish irruptions. His younger brother, Alfred, seconded himin all his enterprises, and generously sacrificed to the public good allresentment, which he might entertain on account of his being excluded byEthered from a large patrimony which had been left him by his father. 

The first landing of the Danes, in the reign of Ethered, was among theEast Angles, who, more anxious for their present safety than for thecommon interest, entered into a separate treaty with the enemy, andfurnished them with horses, which enabled them to make an irruption byland into the kingdom of Northumberland. They there seized the cityof York, and defended it against Osbricht and Ælia, two Northumbrianprinces, who perished in the assault. [*] Encouraged by these successes, and by the superiority which they had acquired in arms, they nowventured, under the command of Hinguar and Hubba, to leave thesea-coast, and penetrating into Mercia, they took up their winterquarters at Nottingham, where they threatened the kingdom with a finalsubjection. 

 [* Asser, p. 6. Chron. Sax. P. 79. ]

The Mercians, in this extremity, applied to Ethered for succor; and thatprince, with his brother Alfred, conducting a great army to Nottingham, obliged the enemy to dislodge, and to retreat into Northumberland. {870. } Their restless disposition, and their avidity for plunder, allowed them not to remain long in those quarters; they broke into EastAnglia, defeated and took prisoner Edmund, the king of that country, whom they afterwards murdered in cool blood; and, committing the mostbarbarous ravages on the people, particularly on the monasteries, theygave the East Angles cause to regret the temporary relief which they hadobtained, by assisting the common enemy. 

The next station of the Danes was at Reading; whence they infestedthe neighboring country by their incursions. The Mercians, desirous ofshaking off their dependence on Ethered, refused to join him withtheir forces; and that prince, attended by Alfred, was obliged to marchagainst the enemy with the West Saxons alone, his hereditary subjects. The Danes, being defeated in an action, shut themselves up in theirgarrison; but quickly making thence an irruption, they routed the WestSaxons, and obliged them to raise the siege. An action soon after ensuedat Aston, in Berkshire, where the English, in the beginning of the day, were in danger of a total defeat. Alfred, advancing with one divisionof the army, was surrounded by the enemy in disadvantageous ground;and Ethered, who was at that time hearing mass, refused to march to hisassistance till prayers should be finished;[*] but, as he afterwardsobtained the victory, this success, not the danger of Alfred, wasascribed by the monks to the piety of that monarch. 

 [* Asser. P. 7. W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 3 Sim. Dunelm. P. 125. Anglia Sacra, vol. I. P. 205. ]

[Illustration: 035. Jpg ALFRED BEFORE THE DANISH GENERAL]

ALFRED. 

This battle of Aston did not terminate the war; another battle was alittle after fought at Basing, where the Danes were more successful; andbeing reënforced by a new army from their own country, they became everyday more terrible to the English. Amidst these confusions, Ethered diedof a wound which he had received in an action with the Danes; andleft the inheritance of his cares and misfortunes, rather than of hisgrandeur, to his brother Alfred, who was now twenty-two years of age. 

This prince gave very early marks of those great virtues and shiningtalents, by which, during the most difficult times, he saved his countryfrom utter ruin and subversion. Ethelwolf, his father, the year afterhis return with Alfred from Rome, had again sent the young princethither with a numerous retinue; and a report being spread of the king'sdeath, the Pope, Leo III. , gave Alfred the royal unction;[*] whetherprognosticating his future greatness from the appearances of hispregnant genius, or willing to pretend, even in that age, to the rightof conferring kingdoms. Alfred, on his return home, became every daymore the object of his father's affections; but being indulged in allyouthful pleasures, he was much neglected in his education; and he hadalready reached his twelfth year, when he was yet totally ignorant ofthe lowest elements of literature. His genius was first roused bythe recital of Saxon poems, in which the queen took delight; and thisspecies of erudition, which is sometimes able to make a considerableprogress even among barbarians, expanded those noble and elevatedsentiments which he had received from nature. [**] Encouraged by thequeen, and stimulated by his own ardent inclination, he soon learned toread those compositions; and proceeded thence to acquire the knowledgeof the Latin tongue, in which he met with authors that better promptedhis heroic spirit, and directed his generous views. Absorbed in theseelegant pursuits, he regarded his accession to royalty rather as anobject of regret than of triumph;[***] but being called to the throne, in preference to his brother's children, as well by the will ofhis father, --a circumstance which had great authority with theAnglo-Saxons[****]--as by the vows of the whole nation, and the urgencyof public affairs, he shook off his literary indolence, and exertedhimself in the defence of his people. He had scarcely buried hisbrother, when he was obliged to take the field, in order to oppose theDanes, who had seized Wilton, and were exercising their usual ravages onthe countries around. 

 [* Asser. P. 2. W. Malms, lib. Ii. Chap. 2. Ingulph. P. 869. Sim. Dunelm. P. 120, 139. ]

 [** Asser. P. 5. M. West, p. 167. ]

 [*** Asser. P. 7. ]

 [**** Asser. P. 22. Sim. Dunelm. P. 121. ]

He marched against them with the few troops which he could assemble ona sudden, and, giving them battle, gained at first an advantage;but, by his pursuing the victory too far, the superiority of the enemy'snumbers prevailed, and recovered them the day. Their loss, however, in the action, was so considerable, that, fearing Alfred would receivedaily reënforcements from his subjects, they were content to stipulatefor a safe retreat, and promised to depart the kingdom. For thatpurpose, they were conducted to London, and allowed to take up winterquarters there; but, careless of their engagements, they immediatelyset themselves to the committing of spoil on the neighboring country. Burrhed, king of Mercia, in whose territories London was situated, madea new stipulation with them, and engaged them, by presents of money, toremove to Lindesey, in Lincolnshire, a country which they had alreadyreduced to ruin and desolation. Finding, therefore, no object in thatplace, either for their rapine or violence, they suddenly turnedback upon Mercia, in a quarter where they expected to find it withoutdefence; and fixing their station at Repton, in Derbyshire, they laidthe whole country desolate with fire and sword. Burrhed, despairing ofsuccess against an enemy whom no force could resist, and no treatiesbind, abandoned his kingdom, and, flying to Rome, took shelter in acloister. [*] He was brother-in-law to Alfred, and the last who bore thetitle of king in Mercia. 

The West Saxons were now the only remaining power in England; and thoughsupported by the vigor and abilities of Alfred, they were unable tosustain the efforts of those ravagers, who from all quarters invadedthem. A new swarm of Danes came over this year under three princes, Guthrum, Oscitel, and Amund; and having first joined their countrymen atRepton, they soon found the necessity of separating, in order to providefor their subsistence. Part of them, under the command of Haldene, their chieftain, [**] marched into Northumberland, where they fixedtheir residence; part of them took quarters at Cambridge, whence theydislodged in the ensuing summer and seized Wereham, in the county ofDorset, the very centre of Alfred's dominions. That prince so straitenedthem in these quarters, that they were content to come to a treaty withhim, and stipulated to depart his country. Alfred, well acquainted withtheir usual perfidy, obliged them to swear upon the holy relics to theobservance of the treaty;[***] not that he expected they would pay anyveneration to the relics; but he hoped that, if they now violated thisoath, their impiety would infallibly draw down upon them the vengeanceof Heaven. 

 [* Asser. P. 8. Chron. Sax. P. 82. Ethelwerd, lib. Iv. Cap. 4. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 83. ]

 [*** Asser. P 8. ]

But the Danes, little apprehensive of the danger suddenly, withoutseeking any pretence, fell upon Alfred's army; and having put it torout, marched westward, and took possession of Exeter. The princecollected new forces, and exerted such vigor, that he fought in oneyear eight battles with the enemy, [*] and reduced them to the utmostextremity. He hearkened, however, to new proposals of peace, and wassatisfied to stipulate with them, that they would settle somewhere inEngland, [**] and would not permit the entrance of more ravagers into thekingdom. But while he was expecting the execution of this treaty, whichit seemed the interest of the Danes themselves to fulfil, he heard thatanother body had landed, and, having collected all the scattered troopsof their country men, had surprised Chippenham, then a considerabletown, and were exercising their usual ravages all around them. 

This last incident quite broke the spirit of the Saxons, and reducedthem to despair. Finding that, after all the miserable havoc which theyhad undergone in their persons and in their property, after all thevigorous actions which they had exerted in their own defence, a newband, equally greedy of spoil and slaughter, had disembarked amongthem, they believed themselves abandoned by Heaven to destruction, anddelivered over to those swarms of robbers which the fertile north thusincessantly poured forth against them. Some left their country andretired into Wales, or fled beyond sea; others submitted tothe conquerors, in hopes of appeasing their fury by a servileobedience. [***] And every man's attention being now engrossed in concernfor his own preservation, no one would hearken to the exhortations ofthe king, who summoned them to make, under his conduct, one effort morein defence of their prince, their country, and their liberties. Alfredhimself was obliged to relinquish the ensigns of his dignity, to dismisshis servants, and to seek shelter in the meanest disguises from thepursuit and fury of his enemies. He concealed himself under a peasant'shabit, and lived some time in the house of a neat-herd, who had beenintrusted with the care of some of his cows. [****]

 [* Asser. P. 8. The Saxon Chronicle, p. 82, says nine battles. ]

 [** Asser. P. 9. Alured. Beverl. P. 104. ]

 [*** Chron. Sax. P. 84. Alured. Beverl. P. 105. ]

 [**** Asser. P. 9. ]

There passed here an incident, which has been recorded by all thehistorians, and was long preserved by popular tradition, thoughit contains nothing memorable in itself, except so far as everycircumstance is interesting which attends so much virtue and dignityreduced to such distress. The wife of the neat-herd was ignorant of thecondition of her royal guest; and observing him one day busy, by thefireside, in trimming his bow and arrows, she desired him to take careof some cakes which were toasting, while she was employed elsewherein other domestic affairs. But Alfred, whose thoughts were otherwiseengaged, neglected this injunction; and the good woman, on her return, finding her cakes all burnt, rated the king very severely, and upbraidedhim, that he always seemed very well pleased to eat her warm cakesthough he was thus negligent in toasting them. [*]

By degrees, Alfred, as he found the search of the enemy become moreremiss, collected some of his retainers, and retired into the centreof a bog, formed by the stagnating waters of the Thone and Parret, inSomersetshire. He here found two acres of firm ground; and building ahabitation on them, rendered himself secure by its fortifications, andstill more by the unknown and inaccessible roads which led to it, andby the forests and morasses with which it was every way environed. Thisplace he called Æthelingay, or the Isle of Nobles;[**] and it now bearsthe name of Athelney. He thence made frequent and unexpected salliesupon the Danes, who often felt the vigor of his arm, but knew not fromwhat quarter the blow came. He subsisted himself and his followers bythe plunder which he acquired; he procured them consolation byrevenge; and from small successes, he opened their minds to hope that, notwithstanding his present low condition, more important victoriesmight at length attend his valor. 

 [* Asser. P. 9. M. West. P. 170. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 85. W Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 4. Ethelwerd, lib iv. Cap. 4. Ingulph. P. 26. ]

Alfred lay here concealed, but not inactive, during a twelvemonth; whenthe news of a prosperous event reached his ears, and called him to thefield. Hubba the Dane, having spread devastation, fire, and slaughterover Wales, had landed in Devonshire from twenty-three vessels, and laidsiege to the castle of Kinwith, a place situated near the mouth of thesmall river Tau. Oddune, earl of Devonshire, with his followers, hadtaken shelter there; and being ill supplied with provisions, andeven with water, he determined, by some vigorous blow, to prevent thenecessity of submitting to the barbarous enemy. He made a sudden sallyon the Danes before sun-rising; and taking them unprepared, he put themto rout, pursued them with great slaughter, killed Hubba himself, andgot possession of the famous Reafen, or enchanted standard, in which theDanes put great confidence. [*] It contained the figure of a raven, whichhad been inwoven by the three sisters of Hinguar and Hubba, withmany magical incantations, and which, by its different movements, prognosticated, as the Danes believed, the good or bad success of anyenterprise. [**]

When Alfred observed this symptom of successful resistance in hissubjects, he left his retreat; but before he would assemble them inarms, or urge them to any attempt, which, if unfortunate, might, intheir present despondency, prove fatal, he resolved to inspect himselfthe situation of the enemy, and to judge of the probability of success. For this purpose he entered their camp under the disguise of a harper, and passed unsuspected through every quarter. He so entertainedthem with his music and facetious humors, that he met with a welcomereception, and was even introduced to the tent of Guthrum, their prince, where he remained some days. [***] He remarked the supine security of theDanes, their contempt of the English, their negligence in foraging andplundering, and their dissolute wasting of what they gained by rapineand violence. Encouraged by these favorable appearances, he secretlysent emissaries to the most considerable of his subjects, and summonedthem to a rendezvous, attended by their warlike followers, at Brixton, on the borders of Selwood Forest. [****] The English, who had hoped toput an end to their calamities by servile submission, now found theinsolence and rapine of the conqueror more intolerable than all pastfatigues and dangers; and at the appointed day, they joyfully resortedto their prince. On his appearance, they received him with shouts ofapplause, [*****] and could not satiate their eyes with the sight of thisbeloved monarch, whom they had long regarded as dead, and who now, withvoice and looks expressing his confidence of success, called them toliberty and to vengeance. 

 [* Asser. P. 10. Chron. Sax. P. 84. Abbas Rieval. P. 395. Alured. Beverl. P. 105. ]

 [** Asser. P. 10. ]

 [*** W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 4. ]

 [**** Chron Sax. P. 85. ]

 [***** Asser. P. 10. Chron. Sax. P. 85. Sim. Dunelm. P. 128. Alured. Beverl. P. 105. Abbas Rieval. P. 354. ]

He instantly conducted them to Eddington, where the Danes were encamped;and taking advantage of his previous knowledge of the place, he directedhis attack against the most unguarded quarter of the enemy. The Danes, surprised to see an army of English, whom they considered as totallysubdued, and still more astonished to hear that Alfred was at theirhead, made but a faint resistance, notwithstanding their superiority ofnumber, and were soon put to flight with great slaughter. The remainderof the routed army, with their prince, was besieged by Alfred in afortified camp to which they fled; but being reduced to extremity bywant and hunger, they had recourse to the clemency of the victor, andoffered to submit on any conditions. The king, no less generous thanbrave, gave them their lives, and even formed a scheme for convertingthem from mortal enemies into faithful subjects and confederates. Heknew that the kingdoms of East Anglia and Northumberland were totallydesolated by the frequent inroads of the Danes, and he now proposed torepeople them, by settling there Guthrum and his followers. He hopedthat the new planters would at last betake themselves to industry, when, by reason of his resistance, and the exhausted condition of the country, they could no longer subsist by plunder; and that they might serve himas a rampart against any future incursions of their countrymen. Butbefore he ratified these mild conditions with the Danes, he requiredthat they should give him one pledge of their submission, and oftheir inclination to incorporate with the English, by declaring theirconversion to Christianity. [*] Guthrum and his army had no aversion tothe proposal; and, without much instruction, or argument, or conference, they were all admitted to baptism. The king answered for Guthrum at thefont, gave him the name of Athelstan, and received him as his adoptedson. [**]

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 85. ]

 [** Asser. P. 10. Chron. Sax. P. 90. ]

The success of this expedient seemed to correspond to Alfred's hopes:the greater part of the Danes settled peaceably in their new quarters:some smaller bodies of the same nation, which were dispersed in Mercia, were distributed into the five cities of Derby, Leicester, Stamford, Lincoln, and Nottingham, and were thence called the Fif or Five-burgers. The more turbulent and unquiet made an expedition into France, under thecommand of Hastings;[*] and except by a short incursion of Danes, whosailed up the Thames, and landed at Fulham, but suddenly retreated totheir ships, on finding the country in a posture of defence, Alfred wasnot for some years infested by the inroads of those barbarians. [**]

 [* W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 4. Ingulph. P. 26. ]

 [** Asser. P. 11. ]

The king employed this interval of tranquillity in restoring order tothe state, which had been shaken by so many violent convulsions; inestablishing civil and military institutions; in composing the minds ofmen to industry and justice; and in providing against the return of likecalamities. He was, more properly than his grandfather Egbert, the solemonarch of the English, (for so the Saxons were now universally called, )because the kingdom of Mercia was at last incorporated in his state, and was governed by Ethelbert, his brother-in-law, who bore the title ofearl; and though the Danes, who peopled East Anglia and Northumberland, were for some time ruled immediately by their own princes, they allacknowledged a subordination to Alfred, and submitted to his superiorauthority. As equality among subjects is the great source of concord, Alfred gave the same laws to the Danes and English, and put thementirely on a like footing in the administration both of civil andcriminal justice. The fine for the murder of a Dane was the same withthat for the murder of an Englishman; the great symbol of equality inthose ages. 

The king, after rebuilding the ruined cities, particularly London, [*]which had been destroyed by the Danes in the reign of Ethelwolf, established a regular militia for the defence of the kingdom. Heordained that all his people should be armed and registered; he assignedthem a regular rotation of duty; he distributed part into the castlesand fortresses, which he built at proper places;[**] he required anotherpart to take the field on any alarm, and to assemble at stated places ofrendezvous; and he left a sufficient number at home, who were employedin the cultivation of the land, and who afterwards took their turn inmilitary service. [***]

 [* Asser. P. 15. Chron. Sax. P. 88. M. West. P. 171. Sim. Dunelm. P. 131. Brompton, p. 812. Alured. Beverl. Ex edit. Hearns, p. 106. ]

 [** Asser. P 18. Ingulph. P. 27. ]

 [*** Chron. Sax. P. 92, 93. ]

The whole kingdom was like one great garrison; and the Danes could nosooner appear in one place, than a sufficient number was assembledto oppose them, without leaving the other quarters defenceless ordisarmed. [*]

 [* Spelman's Life of Alfred, p. 147, edit. 1709. ]

But Alfred, sensible that the proper method of opposing an enemy whomade incursions by sea, was to meet them on their own element, took careto provide himself with a naval force, [*] which, though the mostnatural defence of an island, had hitherto been totally neglected bythe English. He increased the shipping of his kingdom both in number andstrength, and trained his subjects in the practice as well of sailingas of naval action. He distributed his armed vessels in proper stationsaround the island, and was sure to meet the Danish ships, either beforeor after they had landed their troops, and to pursue them in all theirincursions. Though the Danes might suddenly, by surprise, disembarkon the coast, which was generally become desolate by their frequentravages, they were encountered by the English fleet in their retreat;and escaped not, as formerly, by abandoning their booty, but paid, bytheir total destruction, the penalty of the disorders which they hadcommitted. 

 [* Asser. P. 9. M. West. P. 179. ]

In this manner Alfred repelled several inroads of these piraticalDanes, and maintained his kingdom, during some years, in safety andtranquillity. A fleet of a hundred and twenty ships of war was stationedupon the coast; and being provided with warlike engines, as well aswith expert seamen, both Frisians and English, (for Alfred supplied thedefects of his own subjects by engaging able foreigners in his service, )maintained a superiority over those smaller bands, with which Englandhad so often been infested. [*]

 [* Asser. P. 11. Chiron Sax p. 86, 87. M. West. P. 176. ]

But at last Hastings, the famous Danish chief, having ravaged all theprovinces of France, both along the sea-coast and the Loire and Seine, and being obliged to quit that country, more by the desolation whichhe himself had occasioned, than by the resistance of the inhabitants, appeared off the coast of Kent with a fleet of three hundred and thirtysail. The greater part of the enemy disembarked in the Rother and seizedthe fort of Apuldore. Hastings himself, commanding a fleet of eightysail, entered the Thames, and fortifying Milton, in Kent, began tospread his forces over the country, and to commit the most destructiveravages. But Alfred, on the first alarm of this descent, flew to thedefence of his people, at the head of a select band of soldiers, whom healways kept about his person, [*] and, gathering to him the armed militiafrom all quarters, appeared in the field with a force superior to theenemy. All straggling parties, whom necessity, or love of plunder, haddrawn to a distance from their chief encampment, were cut off by theEnglish;[**] and these pirates, instead of increasing their spoil, foundthemselves cooped up in their fortifications, and obliged to subsist bythe plunder which they had brought from France. Tired of this situation, which must in the end prove ruinous to them, the Danes at Apuldore rosesuddenly from their encampment, with an intention of marching towardsthe Thames, and passing over into Essex: but they escaped not thevigilance of Alfred, who encountered them at Farnham, put them torout, [***] seized all their horses and baggage, and chased the runawayson board their ships, which carried them up the Colne to Mersey, inEssex, where they intrenched themselves. Hastings, at the same time, andprobably by concert, made a like movement; and deserting Milton, took possession of Bamflete, near the Isle of Canvey, in the samecounty, [****] where he hastily threw up fortifications for his defenceagainst the power of Alfred. 

 [* Asser. P. 19. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 92. ]

 [*** Chron. Sax. P. 93. Flor. Wigorn. P. 595. ]

 [**** Chron. Sax. P. 93. ]

Unfortunately for the English, Guthrum, prince of the East AnglianDanes, was now dead; as was also Guthred, whom the king had appointedgovernor of the Northumbrians; and those restless tribes, beingno longer restrained by the authority of their princes, and beingencouraged by the appearance of so great a body of their countrymen, broke into rebellion, shook off the authority of Alfred, and yielding totheir inveterate habits of war and depredation, [*] embarked on board twohundred and forty vessels, and appeared before Exeter, in the west ofEngland. Alfred lost not a moment in opposing this new enemy. Havingleft some forces at London to make head against Hastings and the otherDanes, he marched suddenly to the west, [**] and, falling on therebels before they were aware, pursued them to their ships with greatslaughter. 

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 92. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 93. ]

These ravagers, sailing next to Sussex, began to plunder the countrynear Chichester; but the order which Alfred had everywhere established, sufficed here, without his presence, for the defence of the place, and the rebels, meeting with a new repulse, in which many of them werekilled, and some of their ships taken, [*] were obliged to put again tosea, and were discouraged from attempting any other enterprise. 

 [* Chron. Sax p. 96. Flor. Wigorn. P. 596. ]

Meanwhile the Danish invaders in Essex, having united their force underthe command of Hastings, advanced into the inland country, and madespoil of all around them; but soon had reason to repent of theirtemerity. The English army left in London, assisted by a body of thecitizens, attacked the enemy's intrenchments at Bamflete, overpoweredthe garrison, and having done great execution upon them, carried offthe wife and two sons of Hastings. [*] Alfred generously spared thesecaptives, and even restored them to Hastings, [**] on condition that heshould depart the kingdom. 

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 94. M. West. W 178. ]

 [** M. West, p. 179. ]

But though the king had thus honorably rid himself of this dangerousenemy, he had not entirely subdued or expelled the invaders. Thepiratical Danes willingly followed in an excursion any prosperousleader who gave them hopes of booty, but were not so easily induced torelinquish their enterprise, or submit to return, baffled and withoutplunder, into their native country. Great numbers of them, after thedeparture of Hastings, seized and fortified Shobury, at the mouth of theThames; and having left a garrison there, they marched along the river, till they came to Boddington, in the county of Glocester; where, beingreënforced by some Welsh, they threw up intrenchments, and prepared fortheir defence. The king here surrounded them with the whole force ofhis dominions; [*] and as he had now a certain prospect of victory, heresolved to trust nothing to chance, but rather to master his enemies byfamine than assault. They were reduced to such extremities, thathaving eaten their own horses, and having many of them perished withhunger, [**] they made a desperate sally upon the English; and thoughthe greater number fell in the action, a considerable body made theirescape. [***]

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 94. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 94. M. West. P. 179. Flor. Wigorn. P. 596. ]

 [*** Chron. Sax p. 96. ]

These roved about for some time in England, still pursued by thevigilance of Alfred; they attacked Leicester with success, defendedthemselves in Hartford, and then fled to Quatford, where they werefinally broken and subdued. The small remains of them either dispersedthemselves among their countrymen in Northumberland and East Anglia, [*]or had recourse again to the sea, where they exercised piracy, under thecommand of Sigefert, a Northumbrian. 

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 97. ]

This freebooter, well acquainted with Alfred's naval preparations, hadframed vessels of a new construction, higher, and longer, and swifterthan those of the English; but the king soon discovered his superiorskill, by building vessels still higher, and longer, and swifter thanthose of the Northumbrians; and falling upon them, while they wereexercising their ravages in the west, he took twenty of their ships; andhaving tried all the prisoners at Winchester, he hanged them as pirates, the common enemies of mankind. 

The well-timed severity of this execution, together with the excellentposture of defence established every where, restored full tranquillityin England, and provided for the future security of the government. TheEast Anglian and Northumbrian Danes, on the first appearance of Alfredupon their frontiers, made anew the most humble submissions to him;and he thought it prudent to take them under his immediate government, without establishing over them a viceroy of their own nation. [*] TheWelsh also acknowledged his authority; and this great prince had now, byprudence, and justice, and valor, established his sovereignty overall the southern parts of the island, from the English Channel to thefrontiers of Scotland; when he died, {901. } in the vigor of his ageand the full strength of his faculties, after a glorious reign oftwenty-nine years and a half, [**] in which he deservedly attained theappellation of Alfred the Great, and the title of founder of the Englishmonarchy. 

 [* Flor. Wigorn. P. 598. ]

 [** Asser. P. 21. Chron. Sax. P. 95. ]

The merit of this prince, both in private and public life, may withadvantage be set in opposition to that of any monarch, or citizen, which the annals of any age, or any nation, can present to us. He seems, indeed, to be the model of that perfect character, which, under thedenomination of a sage or wise man, philosophers have been fond ofdelineating, rather as a fiction of their imagination, than in hopes ofever seeing it really existing; so happily were all his virtues temperedtogether, so justly were they blended, and so powerfully did eachprevent the other from exceeding its proper boundaries. He knew how toreconcile the most enterprising spirit with the coolest moderation;the most obstinate perseverance with the easiest flexibility: themost severe justice with the gentlest lenity; the greatest vigor incommanding with the most perfect affability of deportment;[*] thehighest capacity and inclination for science with the most shiningtalents for action. 

 [* Asser. P. 13. ]

His civil and his military virtues are almost equally the objects ofour admiration; excepting only that the former, being more rare amongprinces, as well as more useful, seem chiefly to challenge our applause. Nature, also, as if desirous that so bright a production of her skillshould be set in the fairest light, had bestowed on him every bodilyaccomplishment--vigor of limbs, dignity of shape and air, with apleasing, engaging, and open countenance. Fortune alone, by throwing himinto that barbarous age, deprived him of historians worthy to transmithis fame to posterity; and we wish to see him delineated in more livelycolors, and with more particular strokes, that we may at least perceivesome of those small specks and blemishes, from which, as a man, it isimpossible he could be entirely exempted. 

But we should give but an imperfect idea of Alfred's merit, were weto confine our narration to his military exploits, and were not moreparticular in our account of his institutions for the execution ofjustice, and of his zeal for the encouragement of arts and sciences. 

After Alfred had subdued, and had settled or expelled the Danes, hefound the kingdom in the most wretched condition; desolated by theravages of those barbarians, and thrown into disorders which werecalculated to perpetuate its misery. Though the great armies of theDanes were broken, the country was full of straggling troops of thatnation, who, being accustomed to live by plunder, were become incapableof industry; and who, from the natural ferocity of their manners, indulged themselves in committing violence, even beyond what wasrequisite to supply their necessities. The English themselves, reducedto the most extreme indigence by those continued depredations, hadshaken off all bands of government; and those who had been plunderedto-day, betook themselves next day to a like disorderly life, and, from despair, joined the robbers in pillaging and ruining theirfellow-citizens. These were the evils for which it was necessary thatthe vigilance and activity of Alfred should provide a remedy. 

That he might render the execution of justice strict and regular, hedivided all England into counties: these counties he subdividedinto hundreds, and the hundreds into tithings. Every householder wasanswerable for the behavior of his family and slaves, and even of hisguests, if they lived above three days in his house. Ten neighboringhouseholders were formed into one corporation, who, under the name ofa tithing, decennary, or fribourg, were answerable for each other'sconduct, and over whom, one person, called a tithing-man, headbourg, or borsholder, was appointed to preside. Every man was punished as anoutlaw who did not register himself in some tithing. And no mancould change his habitation without a warrant or certificate from theborsholder of the tithing to which he formerly belonged. 

When any person, in any tithing or decennary, was guilty of a crime, theborsholder was summoned to answer for him; and if he were not willing tobe surety for his appearance, and his clearing himself, the criminalwas committed to prison, and there detained till his trial. If he fled, either before or after finding sureties, the borsholder and decennarybecame liable to inquiry, and were exposed to the penalties of law. Thirty-one days were allowed them for producing the criminal; and ifthat time elapsed without their being able to find him, the borsholder, with two other members of the decennary, was obliged to appear, and, together with three chief members of the three neighboring decennaries, (making twelve in all, ) to swear that his decennary was free from allprivity, both of the crime committed, and of the escape of the criminal. If the borsholder could not find such a number to answer for theirinnocence, the decennary was compelled by fine to make satisfaction tothe king, according to the degree of the offence. [*]

 [* Leges St. Edw. Cap. 20, apud Wilkins, p. 202. ]

By this institution, every man was obliged, from his own interest, tokeep a watchful eye over the conduct of his neighbors; and was ina manner surety for the behavior of those who were placed under thedivision to which he belonged; whence these decennaries received thename of frank-pledges. 

Such a regular distribution of the people, with such a strictconfinement in their habitation, may not be necessary in times whenmen are more inured to obedience and justice; and it might, perhaps, beregarded as destructive of liberty and commerce in a polished state; butit was well calculated to reduce that fierce and licentious people underthe salutary restraint of law and government. But Alfred took care totemper these rigors by other institutions favorable to the freedom ofthe citizens; and nothing could be more popular and liberal than hisplan for the administration of justice. The borsholder summoned togetherhis whole decennary to assist him in deciding any lesser differenceswhich occurred among the members of this small community. In affairsof greater moment, in appeals from the decennary, or in controversiesarising between members of different decennaries, the cause was broughtbefore the hundred, which consisted of ten decennaries, or a hundredfamilies of freemen, and which was regularly assembled once in fourweeks, for the deciding of causes. [*] Their method of decision deservesto be noted, as being the origin of juries; an institution admirable initself, and the best calculated for the preservation of liberty andthe administration of justice that ever was devised by the wit of man. Twelve freeholders were chosen, who, having sworn, together with thehundreder, or presiding magistrate of that division, to administerimpartial justice, [**] proceeded to the examination of that cause whichwas submitted to their jurisdiction. And beside these monthly meetingsof the hundred, there was an annual meeting, appointed for a moregeneral inspection of the police of the district; for the inquiry intocrimes, the correction of abuses in magistrates, and the obliging ofevery person to show the decennary in which he was registered. Thepeople, in imitation of their ancestors, the ancient Germans, assembledthere in arms; whence a hundred was sometimes called a wapentake, andits courts served both for the support of military discipline and forthe administration of civil justice. [***]

 [* Leges St. Edw. Cap. 2. ]

 [** Foedus Alfred. Et Gothurn. Apud Wilkins, cap. 3, p. 47. Leg. Ethelstani cap. 2, apud Wilkins, p. 58. LL. Ethelr. Sect. 4. Wilkins, p. 117. ]

 [*** Spelman, in voce Wapentake. ]

The next superior court to that of the hundred was the county court, which met twice a year, after Michaelmas and Easter, and consistedof the freeholders of the county, who possessed an equal vote in thedecision of causes. The bishop presided in this court, together withthe alderman; and the proper object of the court was, the receivingof appeals from the hundreds and decennaries, and the deciding of suchcontroversies as arose between men of different hundreds. Formerly, thealderman possessed both the civil and military authority; but Alfred, sensible that this conjunction of powers rendered the nobility dangerousand independent, appointed also a sheriff in each county, who enjoyeda coördinate authority with the former in the judicial function. [*]His office also impowered him to guard the rights of the crown in thecounty, and to levy the fines imposed, which in that age formed nocontemptible part of the public revenue. 

 [* Ingulph. P. 870. ]

There lay an appeal, in default of justice, from all these courts, tothe king himself in council; and as the people, sensible of the equityand great talents of Alfred, placed their chief confidence in him, hewas soon overwhelmed with appeals from all parts of England. He wasindefatigable in the despatch of these causes;[*] but finding that histime must be entirely engrossed by this branch of duty, he resolved toobviate the inconvenience, by correcting the ignorance or corruption ofthe inferior magistrates, from which it arose. [**] He took care to havehis nobility instructed in letters and the laws; [***] he chose theearls and sheriffs from among the men most celebrated for probity andknowledge; he punished severely all malversation in office;[****] andhe removed all the earls whom he found unequal to the trust;[*****]allowing only some of the more elderly to serve by a deputy, till theirdeath should make room for more worthy successors. 

 [* Asser. P. 20. ]

 [** Asser. P. 18, 21. Flor. Wigorn. P. 594. Abbas Rieval. P. 355. ]

 [*** Flor. Wigorn. P. 594. Brompton, p. 814. ]

 [**** Le Miroir de Justice, chap. 2. ]

 [***** Asser, p. 20. ]

The better to guide the magistrates in the administration of justice, Alfred framed a body of laws, which, though now lost, served long as thebasis of English jurisprudence, and is generally deemed the origin ofwhat is denominated the COMMON LAW. He appointed regular meetings of thestates of England twice a year, in London, [*] a city which he himselfhad repaired and beautified, and which he thus rendered the capital ofthe kingdom. 

 [* Le Miroir de Justice. ]

The similarity of these institutions to the customs of the ancientGermans, to the practice of the other northern conquerors, and to theSaxon laws during the Heptarchy, prevents us from regarding Alfredas the sole author of this plan of government, and leads us ratherto think, that, like a wise-man, he contented himself with reforming, extending, and executing the institutions which he found previouslyestablished. But, on the whole, such success attended his legislation, that everything bore suddenly a new face in England. Robberies andiniquities of all kinds were repressed by the punishment or reformationof the criminals;[*] and so exact was the general police, that Alfred, it is said, hung up, by way of bravado, golden bracelets near thehighways, and no man dared to touch them. [**] Yet, amidst these rigorsof justice, this great prince preserved the most sacred regard to theliberty of his people; and it is a memorable sentiment preserved inhis will, that it was just the English should forever remain as free astheir own thoughts. [***]

 [* Ingulph. P. 27. ]

 [* W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 4. ]

 [* Asset, p. 24. ]

As good morals and knowledge are almost inseparable, in every age, though not in every individual, the care of Alfred for the encouragementof learning among his subjects was another useful branch of hislegislation, and tended to reclaim the English from their formerdissolute and ferocious manners; but the king was guided, in thispursuit, less by political views than by his natural bent and propensitytowards letters. When he came to the throne, he found the nation sunkinto the grossest ignorance and barbarism, proceeding from the continueddisorders in the government, and from the ravages of the Danes. Themonasteries were destroyed, the monks butchered or dispersed, theirlibraries burnt; and thus the only seats of erudition in those ages weretotally subverted. Alfred himself complains, that on his accession heknew not one person, south of the Thames, who could so much as interpretthe Latin service, and very few in the northern parts who had reachedeven that pitch of erudition. But this prince invited over the mostcelebrated scholars from all parts of Europe; he established schoolsevery where for the instruction of his people; he founded, at leastrepaired, the University of Oxford, and endowed it with many privilegesrevenues, and immunities; he enjoined by law all freeholders possessedof two hides[*] of land, or more, to send their children to school, fortheir instruction; he gave preferment both in church and state tosuch only as had made some proficiency in knowledge; and by all theseexpedients he had the satisfaction, before his death, to see a greatchange in the face of affairs; and in a work of his, which is stillextant, he congratulates himself on the progress which learning, underhis patronage, had already made in England. 

 [* A hide contained land sufficient to employ one plough. See H. Hunting, lib. Vi. In A. D. 1008. Annal. Waverl. In A. D. 1083. Gervase of Tilbury says, it commonly contained about one hundred acres. ]

But the most effectual expedient, employed by Alfred for theencouragement of learning, was his own example, and the constantassiduity with which, notwithstanding the multiplicity and urgencyof his affairs, he employed himself in the pursuits of knowledge. Heusually divided his time into three equal portions: one was employed insleep, and the refection of his body by diet and exercise; another, inthe despatch of business; a third, in study and devotion; and that hemight more exactly measure the hours, he made use of burning tapers ofequal length, which he fixed in lanterns, [*] an expedient suited to thatrude age, when the geometry of dialling, and the mechanism of clocks andwatches, were totally unknown. And by such a regular distribution of histime though he often labored under great bodily infirmities, [**]this martial hero, who fought in person fifty-six battles by sea andland, [***] was able, during a life of no extraordinary length, toacquire more knowledge, and even to compose more books, than moststudious men, though blessed with the greatest leisure and application, have, in more fortunate ages, made the object of their uninterruptedindustry. 

 [* Asser. P. 20. W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 4. Ingulph. P. 870. ]

 [** Asser. P. 4, 12, 13, 17, J W. Malms, lib. Iv. Cap. 4. ]

 [*** Asser. P. 13. ]

Sensible that the people, at all times, especially when theirunderstandings are obstructed by ignorance and bad education, are notmuch susceptible of speculative instruction, Alfred endeavored to conveyhis morality by apologues, parables, stories, apothegms, couched inpoetry; and besides propagating among his subjects former compositionsof that kind, which he found in the Saxon tongue, [*] he exercisedhis genius in inventing works of a like nature, [**] as well as intranslating from the Greek the elegant Fables of Æsop. He also gaveSaxon translations of Orosius's and Bede's histories; and of Boethiusconcerning the consolation of philosophy. [***] And he deemed it nowisederogatory from his other great characters of sovereign, legislator, warrior, and politician, thus to lead the way to his people in thepursuits of literature. 

 [* Spelruan, p. 124. ]

 [** Abbas Rieval. P. 355. ]

 [*** W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 4, Brompton, p. 814. ]

Meanwhile, this prince was not negligent in encouraging the vulgarand mechanical arts, which have a more sensible, though not a closerconnection with the interests of society. He invited, from all quarters, industrious foreigners to re-people his country, which had beendesolated by the ravages of the Danes. [*] He introduced and encouragedmanufactures of all kinds, and no inventor or improver of any ingeniousart did he suffer to go unrewarded. [**] He prompted men of activity tobetake themselves to navigation, to push commerce into the most remotecountries, and to acquire riches by propagating industry among theirfellow-citizens. He set apart a seventh portion of his own revenuefor maintaining a number of workmen, whom he constantly employed inrebuilding the ruined cities, castles, palaces, and monasteries. [***]Even the elegances of life were brought to him from the Mediterraneanand the Indies;[****] and his subjects, by seeing those productions ofthe peaceful arts, were taught to respect the virtues of justice andindustry, from which alone they could arise. Both living and dead, Alfred was regarded by foreigners, no less than by his own subjects, as the greatest prince, after Charlemagne, that had appeared in Europeduring several ages, and as one of the wisest and best that had everadorned the annals of any nation. 

 [* Asser. P. 13. Flor. Wigorn. P. 588. ]

 [** Asser. P. 20. ]

 [*** Asser. P. 20. W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 4. ]

 [**** W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 4. ]

Alfred had, by his wife Ethelswitha, daughter of a Mercian earl, threesons and three daughters. The eldest son, Edmund, died without issue, in his father's lifetime. The third, Ethelward, inherited his father'spassion for letters, and lived a private life. The second, Edward, succeeded to his power, and passes by the appellation of Edward theElder, being the first of that name who sat on the English throne. 

EDWARD THE ELDER. 

This prince, who equalled his father in military talents, thoughinferior to him in knowledge and erudition, [*] found immediately on hisaccession, a specimen of that turbulent life to which all princes, andeven all individuals, were exposed, in an age when men, less restrainedby law or justice, and less occupied by industry, had no aliment fortheir inquietude out wars, insurrections, convulsions, rapine, anddepredation. 

 [* W. Malms, lib. Ii cap. 4, Hoveden, p. 421. ]

Ethelwald, his cousin-german, son of King Ethelbert, the elderbrother of Alfred, insisted on his preferable title;[*] and arming hispartisans, took possession of Winburne, where he seemed determined todefend himself to the last extremity, and to await the issue of hispretensions. [**] But when the king approached the town with a greatarmy, Ethelwald, having the prospect of certain destruction, made hisescape, and fled first into Normandy, thence into Northumberland, wherehe hoped that the people, who had been recently subdued by Alfred, andwho were impatient of peace, would, on the intelligence of that greatprince's death, seize the first pretence or opportunity of rebellion. The event did not disappoint his expectations: the Northumbriansdeclared for him, [***] and Ethelwald, having thus connected hisinterests with the Danish tribes, went beyond sea, and collecting a bodyof these freebooters, he excited the hopes of all those who had beenaccustomed to subsist by rapine and violence. [****]

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 99, 100. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 100. H. Hunting, lib. V. P. 352. ]

 [*** Chron. Sax. P. 100. H. Hunting, lib. V. P. 352. ]

 [**** Chron. Sax. P. 100. Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 24. ]

The East Anglian Danes joined his party; the Five-burgers, who wereseated in the heart of Mercia, began to put themselves in motion; andthe English found that they were again menaced with those convulsionsfrom which the valor and policy of Alfred had so lately rescued them. The rebels, headed by Ethelwald, made an incursion into the countiesof Glocester, Oxford, and Wilts; and having exercised their ravages inthese places, they retired with their booty, before the king, who hadassembled an army, was able to approach them. Edward, however, who wasdetermined that his preparations should not be fruitless, conductedhis forces into East Anglia, and retaliated the injuries which theinhabitants had committed, by spreading the like devastation among them. Satiated with revenge, and loaded with booty, he gave orders to retire;but the authority of those ancient kings, which was feeble in peace, wasnot much better established in the field; and the Kentish men, greedy ofmore spoil, ventured, contrary to repeated orders, to stay behind him, and to take up their quarters in Bury. This disobedience proved, in theissue, fortunate to Edward. The Danes assaulted the Kentish men, butmet with so vigorous a resistance, that, though they gained the field ofbattle, they bought that advantage by the loss of their bravestleaders, and, among the rest, by that of Ethelwald, who perished in theaction. [*] The king, freed from the fear of so dangerous a competitor, made peace on advantageous terms with the East Angles. [**]

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 101. Brompton, p. 832. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 102. Brompton, p. 832. M West. P. 181. ]

In order to restore England to such a state of tranquillity as it wasthen capable of attaining, nought was wanting but the subjection ofthe Northumbrians, who, assisted by the scattered Danes in Mercia, continually infested the bowels of the kingdom. Edward, in order todivert the force of these enemies, prepared a fleet to attack them bysea, hoping that when his ships appeared on their coast, they mustat least remain at home, and provide for their defence. But theNorthumbrians were less anxious to secure their own property, thangreedy to commit spoil on their enemy; and, concluding that the chiefstrength of the English was embarked on board the fleet, they thoughtthe opportunity favorable, and entered Edward's territories with alltheir forces. The king, who was prepared against this event, attackedthem, on their return, at Tetenhall in the county of Stafford, put themto rout, recovered all the booty, and pursued them with great slaughterinto their own country. 

All the rest of Edward's reign was a scene of continued and successfulaction against the Northumbrians, the East Angles, the Five-burgers, andthe foreign Danes, who invaded him from Normandy and Brittany. Nor washe less provident in putting his kingdom in a posture of defence, thanvigorous in assaulting the enemy. He fortified the towns of Chester, Eddesbury, Warwick, Cherbury, Buckingham, Towcester, Maldon, Huntingdon, and Colchester. He fought two signal battles at Temsford and Maldon. [*]

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 10, Flor. Wigorn. P. 6. ]

He vanquished Thurketill, a great Danish chief, and obliged him toretire with his followers into France, in quest of spoil and adventures. He subdued the East Angles, and forced them to swear allegiance tohim: he expelled the two rival princes of Northumberland, Reginald andSidroc, and acquired, for the present, the dominion of that province:several tribes of the Britons were subjected by him; and even the Scots, who, during the reign of Egbert, had, under the conduct of Kenneth, their king, increased their power by the final subjection of the Picts, were nevertheless obliged to give him marks of submission. [*] In allthese fortunate achievements, he was assisted by the activity andprudence of his sister Ethelfleda, who was widow of Ethelbert, earl ofMercia, and who after her husband's death, retained the governmentof that province. This princess, who had been reduced to extremity inchildbed, refused afterwards all commerce with her husband; not from anyweak superstition, as was common in that age, but because she deemed alldomestic occupations unworthy of her masculine and ambitious spirit. [**]She died before her brother; and Edward, during the remainder of hisreign, took upon himself the immediate government of Mercia, whichbefore had been intrusted to the authority of a governor. [***] The SaxonChronicle fixes the death of this prince in 925 his kingdom devolved toAthelstan, his natural son. 

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 110. Hoveden, p. 421. ]

 [** W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 5. M. West. P. 182. Ingulph. P. 28. Higgen p. 261. ]

 [*** Chron. Sax. P. 110. Brompton, p. 831. ]

ATHELSTAN. 

{925. } The stain in this prince's birth was not, in those times, deemedso considerable as to exclude him from the throne; and Athelstan, beingof an age, as well as of a capacity, fitted for government, obtained thepreference to Edward's younger children, who, though legitimate, wereof too tender years to rule a nation so much exposed both to foreigninvasion and to domestic convulsions. Some discontents, however, prevailed on his accession; and Alfred, a nobleman of considerablepower, was thence encouraged to enter into a conspiracy against him. This incident is related by historians, with circumstances which thereader, according to the degree of credit he is disposed to give them, may impute either to the invention of monks, who forged them, or totheir artifice, who found means of making them real. Alfred, it is said, being seized upon strong suspicions, but without any certain proof, firmly denied the conspiracy imputed to him; and, in order to justifyhimself, he offered to swear to his innocence before the pope, whoseperson, it was supposed, contained such superior sanctity, that no onecould presume to give a false oath in his presence, and yet hope toescape the immediate vengeance of Heaven. The king accepted of thecondition, and Alfred was conducted to Rome, where, either conscious ofhis innocence, or neglecting the superstition to which he appealed, heventured to make the oath required of him, before John, who then filledthe papal chair; but no sooner had he pronounced the fatal words, thanhe fell into convulsions, of which, three days after, he expired. Theking, as if the guilt, of the conspirator were now fully ascertained, confiscated his estate, and made a present of it to the monasteryof Malmesbury, [*] secure that no doubts would ever thenceforth beentertained concerning the justice of his proceedings. 

 [* W. Malms. Lib. Ii. Cap. 6. Spel. Concil. P. 407. ]

The dominion of Athelstan was no sooner established over his Englishsubjects, than he endeavored to give security to the government, byproviding against the insurrections of the Danes, which had created somuch disturbance to his predecessors. He marched into Northumberland;and, finding that the inhabitants bore with impatience the English yoke, he thought it prudent to confer on Sithric, a Danish nobleman, the titleof king, and to attach him to his interests by giving him his sisterEditha in marriage. But this policy proved by accident the source ofdangerous consequences. Sithric died in a twelvemonth after; and his twosons by a former marriage, Anlaf and Godfrid, founding pretensions ontheir father's elevation, assumed the sovereignty, without waitingfor Athelstan's consent. They were soon expelled by the power of thatmonarch; and the former took shelter in Ireland, as the latter didin Scotland, where he received, during some time, protection fromConstantine, who then enjoyed the crown of that kingdom. The Scottishprince, however, continually solicited, and even menaced by Athelstan, at last promised to deliver up his guest; but secretly detesting thistreachery, he gave Godfrid warning to make his escape;[*] and thatfugitive, after subsisting by piracy for some years, freed the king, byhis death, from any further anxiety. Athelstan, resenting Constantine'sbehavior, entered Scotland with an army, and ravaging the country withimpunity, [**] he reduced the Scots to such distress, that their king wascontent to preserve his crown by making submissions to the enemy. TheEnglish historians assert, [***] that Constantine did homage to Athelstanfor his kingdom; and they add, that the latter prince, being urged byhis courtiers to push the present favorable opportunity, and entirelysubdue Scotland, replied, that it was more glorious to confer thanconquer kingdoms. [****]

 [* W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 6. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 111. Hoveden, p. 422. H. Hunting, lib. V. P. 354. ]

 [*** Hoveden, p. 422. ]

 [**** W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 6. Anglia Sacra, vol. I. P. 212. ]

But those annals, so uncertain and imperfect in themselves, lose allcredit when national prepossessions and animosities have place; and, on that account, the Scotch historians, who, without having any moreknowledge of the matter, strenuously deny the fact, seem more worthy ofbelief. 

Constantine, whether he owed the retaining of his crown to themoderation of Athelstan, who was unwilling to employ all his advantagesagainst him, or to the policy of that prince who esteemed thehumiliation of an enemy a greater acquisition than the subjection ofa discontented and mutinous people thought the behavior of the Englishmonarch more an object of resentment than of gratitude. He enteredinto a confederacy with Anlaf, who had collected a great body of Danishpirates, whom he found hovering in the Irish seas, and with some Welshprinces, who were terrified at the growing power of Athelstan; andall these allies made by concert an irruption with a great army intoEngland. Athelstan, collecting his forces, met the enemy hear Brunsbury, in Northumberland, and defeated them in a general engagement. Thisvictory was chiefly ascribed to the valor of Turketul, the Englishchancellor; for, in those turbulent ages, no one was so much occupied incivil employments as wholly to lay aside the military character. [*]

 [* The office of chancellor, among the Anglo- Saxons, resembled more that of a secretary of state than that of our present chancellor See Spelman in voce Cancellarius. ]

There is a circumstance, not unworthy of notice, which historiansrelate, with regard to the transactions of this war. Anlaf, on theapproach of the English army, thought that he could not venture toomuch to insure a fortunate event, and employing the artifice formerlypractised by Alfred against the Danes, he entered the enemy's camp, inthe habit of a minstrel. The stratagem was, for the present, attendedwith like success. He gave such satisfaction to the soldiers, whoflocked about him, that they introduced him to the king's tent; andAnlaf, having played before that prince and his nobles during theirrepast, was dismissed with a handsome reward. His prudence kept him fromrefusing the present; Dut his pride determined him, on his departure, to bury it while he fancied that he was unespied by all the world. Buta soldier in Athelstan's camp, who had formerly served under Anlaf, hadbeen struck with some suspicion on the first appearance of the minstrel, and was engaged by curiosity to observe all his motions. He regardedthis last action as a full proof of Anlaf's disguise; and he immediatelycarried the intelligence to Athelstan, who blamed him for not soonergiving him information, that he might have seized his enemy. But thesoldier told him, that, as he had formerly sworn fealty to Anlaf, hecould never have pardoned himself the treachery of betraying and ruininghis ancient master; and that Athelstan himself, after such an instanceof his criminal conduct, would have had equal reason to distrust hisallegiance. Athelstan, having praised the generosity of the soldier'sprinciples, reflected on the incident, which he foresaw might beattended with important consequences. He removed his station in thecamp; and as a bishop arrived that evening with a reënforcement oftroops, (for the ecclesiastics were then no less warlike than the civilmagistrates, ) he occupied with his train that very place which had beenleft vacant by the king's removal. The precaution of Athelstan was foundprudent; for no sooner had darkness fallen, than Anlaf broke into thecamp, and hastening directly to the place where he had left the king'stent, put the bishop to death, before he had time to prepare for hisdefence. [*]

There fell several Danish and Welsh princes in the action ofBrunsbury;[**] and Constantine and Anlaf made their escape withdifficulty, leaving the greater part of their army on the field ofbattle. After this success, Athelstan enjoyed his crown in tranquillity;and he is regarded as one of the ablest and most active of those ancientprinces. He passed a remarkable law, which was calculated for theencouragement of commerce, and which it required some liberality of mindin that age to have devised--that a merchant, who had made three longsea voyages on his own account, should be admitted to the rank of athane or gentleman. This prince died at Glocester, in the year 94l, [***]after a reign of sixteen years, and was succeeded by Edmund, hislegitimate brother. 

 [* W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 6. Higden, p. 263. ]

 [** Brompton, p. 839 Ingulph. P. 29. ]

 [*** Chron. Sax. P. 114]

EDMUND. 

{941. } Edmund, on his accession, met with disturbance from the restlessNorthumbrians, who lay in wait for every opportunity of breaking intorebellion. But marching suddenly with his forces into their country, heso overawed the rebels that they endeavored to appease him by the mosthumble submissions. [*]

 [* W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 7. Brompton, p 857. ]

In order to give him the surer pledge of their obedience, they offered toembrace Christianity; a religion which the English Danes had frequentlyprofessed, when reduced to difficulties, but which, for that veryreason, they regarded as a badge of servitude, and shook off as soonas a favorable opportunity offered. Edmund, trusting little to theirsincerity in this forced submission, used the precaution of removing theFive-burgers from the towns of Mercia, in which they had been allowedto settle; because it was always found that they took advantage of everycommotion, and introduced the rebellious or foreign Danes into theheart of the kingdom. He also conquered Cumberland from the Britons; andconferred that territory on Malcolm, king of Scotland, on condition thathe should do him homage for it, and protect the north from all futureincursions of the Danes. 

Edmund was young when he came to the crown; yet was his reign short, ashis death was violent. One day, as he was solemnizing a festival in thecounty of Glocester, he remarked that Leolf, a notorious robber, whomhe had sentenced to banishment, had yet the boldness to enter the hallwhere he himself dined, and to sit at table with his attendants. Enragedat this insolence, he ordered him to leave the room; but on his refusingto obey, the king, whose temper, naturally choleric, was inflamed bythis additional insult, leaped on him himself, and seized him by thehair; but the ruffian, pushed to extremity, drew his dagger, and gaveEdmund a wound of which he immediately expired. This event happened inthe year 946, and in the sixth year of the king's reign. Edmund leftmale issue, but so young, that they were incapable of governing thekingdom; and his brother, Edred, was promoted to the throne. 

EDRED

{946. } The reign of this prince, as those of his predecessors, wasdisturbed by the rebellions and incursions of the Northumbrian Danes, who, though frequently quelled, were never entirely subdued, nor hadever paid a sincere allegiance to the crown of England. The accessionof a new king seemed to them a favorable opportunity for shaking off theyoke; but on Edred's appearance with an army, they made him their wontedsubmissions; and the king, having wasted the country with fire andsword, as a punishment of their rebellion, obliged them to renew theiroaths of allegiance; and he straight retired with his forces. Theobedience of the Danes lasted no longer than the present terror. Provoked at the devastations of Edred, and even reduced by necessityto subsist on plunder, they broke into a new rebellion, and were againsubdued; but the king, now instructed by experience, took greaterprecautions against their future revolt. He fixed English garrisons intheir most considerable towns, and placed over them an English governor, who might watch all their motions, and suppress any insurrection on itsfirst appearance. He obliged also Malcolm, king of Scotland, to renewhis homage for the lands which he held in England. 

Edred, though not unwarlike, nor unfit for active life, lay under theinfluence of the lowest superstition, and had blindly delivered overhis conscience to the guidance of Dunstan commonly called _St. Dunstan_, abbot of Glastonbury, whom he advanced to the highestoffices, and who covered, under the appearance of sanctity, the mostviolent and most insolent ambition. Taking advantage of the implicitconfidence reposed in him by the king, this churchman importedinto England a new order of monks, who much changed the state ofecclesiastical affairs, and excited, on their first establishment, themost violent commotions. 

From the introduction of Christianity among the Saxons, there hadbeen monasteries in England; and these establishments had extremelymultiplied by the donations of the princes and nobles, whosesuperstition, derived from their ignorance and precarious life, andincreased by remorses for the crimes into which they were so frequentlybetrayed, knew no other expedient for appeasing the Deity, than aprofuse liberality towards the ecclesiastics. But the monks had hithertobeen a species of secular priests, who lived after the manner of thepresent canons or prebendaries, and were both intermingled, in somedegree, with the world, and endeavored to render themselves usefulto it. They were employed in the education of youth;[*] they had thedisposal of their own time and industry; they were not subjected tothe rigid rules of an order; they had made no vows of implicit to theirsuperiors;[*] and they still retained the choice, without quitting theconvent, either of a married or a single life. [**]

 [* Osberne in Anglia Sacra, tom. Ii. P. 91. ]

 [** See Wharton's notes to Anglia Sacra, tom. Ii. P. 91. Gervase, p 1645. Chron. Wint. MS. Apud Spel. Concil. P. 434. ] The Pope, having cast his eye on the monks as the basis of his authority, was determined to reduce them under strict rules of obedience, to procure them the credit of sanctity by an appearance of the most rigid mortification, and to break off all their other ties which might interfere with his spiritual policy. Under pretence, therefore, of reforming abuses which were in some degree unavoidable in the ancient establishments, he had already spread over the southern countries of Europe the severe laws of the monastic life, and began to form attempts towards a like innovation in England. The favorable opportunity offered itself, (and it was greedily seized, ) arising from the weak superstition of Edred, and the violent, impetuous character of Dunstan. As the bishops and parochial clergy lived apart with their families, and were more connected with the world, the hopes of success with them were fainter, and the pretence for making them renounce marriage was much less plausible. 

But a mistaken piety had produced in Italy a new species of monks, called Benedictines; who, carrying farther the plan sible principles ofmortification, secluded themselves entirely from the world, renouncedall claim to liberty, and made a merit of the most inviolable chastity. These practices and principles, which superstition at first engendered, were greedily embraced and promoted by the policy of the court of Rome. The Roman pontiff, who was making every day great advances towards anabsolute sovereignty over the ecclesiastics, perceived that the celibacyof the clergy alone could break off entirely their connection with thecivil power, and, depriving them of every other object of ambition, engage them to promote, with unceasing industry, the grandeur of theirown order. He was sensible that so long as the monks were indulgedin marriage, and were permitted to rear families, they never could besubjected to strict discipline, or reduced to that slavery, under theirsuperiors, which was requisite to procure to the mandates, issued fromRome, a ready and zealous obedience. Celibacy, therefore, began to beextolled as the indispensable duty of priests; and the pope undertook tomake all the clergy, throughout the western world, renounce at oncethe privilege of marriage; a fortunate policy, but at the same timean undertaking the most difficult of any, since he had the strongestpropensities of human nature to encounter, and found that the sameconnections with the female sex, which generally encourage devotion, were here unfavorable to the success of his project. It is no wonder, therefore, that this master-stroke of art should have met with violentcontradiction, and that the interests of the hierarchy, and theinclinations of the priests, being now placed in this singularopposition, should, notwithstanding the continued efforts of Rome haveretarded the execution of that bold scheme during the course of nearthree centuries. 

Dunstan was born of noble parents in the west of England; and beingeducated under his uncle Aldhelm, then archbishop of Canterbury, hadbetaken himself to the ecclesiastical life, and had acquired somecharacter in the court of Edmund. He was, however, represented tothat prince as a man of licentious manners;[*] and finding his fortuneblasted by these suspicions, his ardent ambition prompted him to repairhis indiscretions, by running into an opposite extreme. He secludedhimself entirely from the world; he framed a cell so small, that hecould neither stand erect in it, nor stretch out his limbs during hisrepose; and he here employed himself perpetually either in devotionor in manual labor. [**] It is probable that his brain became graduallycrazed by these solitary occupations, and that his head was filled withchimeras, which, being believed by himself and his stupid votaries, procured him the general character of sanctity among the people. Hefancied that the devil, among the frequent visits which he paid him, was one day more earnest than usual in his temptations, till Dunstan, provoked at his importunity, seized him by the nose with a pair ofred-hot pincers, as he put his head into the cell; and he held him theretill that malignant spirit made the whole neighborhood resound with hisbellowings. This notable exploit was seriously credited and extolled bythe public; it is transmitted to posterity by one, who, considering theage in which he lived, may pass for a writer of some elegance;[***]and it insured to Dunstan a reputation which no real piety, much lessvirtue, could, even in the most enlightened period, have ever procuredhim with the people. 

 [* Osberne, p. 95. M. West, p. 187. ]

 [** Osberne, p. 96. ]

 [*** Osberne, p. 97. ]

Supported by the character obtained in his retreat, Dunstan appearedagain in the world; and gained such an ascendent over Edred who hadsucceeded to the crown, as made him not only the director of thatprince's conscience, but his counsellor in the most momentous affairs ofgovernment. He was placed at the head of the treasury, [*] and being thuspossessed both of power at court, and of credit with the populace, he was enabled to attempt with success the most arduous enterprises. Finding that his advancement had been owing to the opinion of hisausterity, he professed himself a partisan of the rigid monasticrules; and after introducing that reformation into the convents ofGlastonbury and Abingdon, he endeavored to render it universal in thekingdom. 

The minds of men were already well prepared for this innovation. Thepraises of an inviolable chastity had been carried to the highestextravagance by some of the first preachers of Christianity among theSaxons: the pleasures of love had been represented as incompatible withChristian perfection; and a total abstinence from all commerce with thesex was deemed such a meritorious penance, as was sufficient to atonefor the greatest enormities. The consequence seemed natural, thatthose, at least, who officiated at the altar, should be clear of thispollution; and when the doctrine of transubstantiation, which was nowcreeping in, [**] was once fully established, the reverence to the realbody of Christ in the eucharist bestowed on this argument an additionalforce and influence. 

 [* Osberne, p. 102. "Wallingford, " p. 541, ]

 [** Spel. Concil. Vol. I. P. 452. ]

The monks knew how to avail themselves of all these popular topics, andto set off their own character to the best advantage. They affected thegreatest austerity of life and manners; they indulged themselves in thehighest strains of devotion; they inveighed bitterly against the vicesand pretended luxury of the age; they were particularly vehement againstthe dissolute lives of the secular clergy, their rivals; every instanceof libertinism in any individual of that order was represented as ageneral corruption; and where other topics of defamation were wanting, their marriage became a sure subject of invective, and their wivesreceived the name of concubine, or other more opprobrious appellation. The secular clergy, on the other hand, who were numerous and rich, andpossessed of the ecclesiastical dignities, defended themselves withvigor and endeavored to retaliate upon their adversaries. The peoplewere thrown into agitation; and few instances occur of more violentdissensions, excited by the most material differences in religion; orrather by the most frivolous; since it is a just remark, that the moreaffinity there is between theological parties, the greater commonly istheir animosity. 

The progress of the monks, which was become considerable, was somewhatretarded by the death of Edred, their partisan, who expired after areign of nine years. He left children; but as they were infants, hisnephew Edwy, son of Edmund, was placed on the throne. 

EDWY

{955. } Edwy, at the time of his accession, was not above sixteen orseventeen years of age, was possessed of the most amiable figure, and was even endowed, according to authentic accounts, with the mostpromising virtues. [*] He would have been the favorite of his people, hadhe not unhappily, at the commencement of his reign, been engaged in acontroversy with the monks, whose rage neither the graces of the bodynor virtues of the mind could mitigate, and who have pursued his memorywith the same unrelenting vengeance, which they exercised against hisperson and dignity during his short and unfortunate reign. There wasa beautiful princess of the royal blood, called Elgiva, who had madeimpression on the tender heart of Edwy; and as he was of an age when theforce of the passions first begins to be felt, he had ventured, contraryto the advice of his gravest counsellors, and the remonstrances of themore dignified ecclesiastics, [**] to espouse her; though she was withinthe degrees of affinity prohibited by the canon law. [***]

 [* Chron. Sax. P, 115. ]

 [** H. Hunting, lib. V. P. 356. ]

 [*** W. Malms. Lib. Ii. Cap. 7. ]

As the austerity affected by the monks made them particularly violent onthis occasion, Edwy entertained a strong prepossession against them;and seemed, on that account, determined not to second their projectof expelling the seculars from all the convents, and of possessingthemselves of those rich establishments. War was therefore declaredbetween the king and the monks; and the former soon found reasonto repent his provoking such dangerous enemies. On the day of hiscoronation, his nobility were assembled in a great hall, and wereindulging themselves in that riot and disorder, which, from the exampleof their German ancestors, had become habitual to the English;[*] whenEdwy, attracted by softer pleasures, retired into the queen's apartment, and in that privacy gave reins to his fondness towards his wife, whichwas only moderately checked by the presence of her mother. Dunstanconjectured the reason of the king's retreat; and, carrying along withhim Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, over whom he had gained an absoluteascendant, he burst into the apartment, upbraided Edwy with hislasciviousness, probably bestowed on the queen the most opprobriousepithet that can be applied to her sex, and tearing him from her arms, pushed him back, in a disgraceful manner, into the banquet of thenobles. [**] Edwy, though young, and opposed by the prejudices of thepeople, found an opportunity of taking revenge for this public insult. He questioned Dunstan concerning the administration of the treasuryduring the reign of his predecessor;[***] and when that minister refusedto give any account of money expended, as he affirmed, by orders of thelate king, he accused him of malversation in his office, and banishedhim the kingdom. But Dunstan's cabal was not inactive during hisabsence: they filled the public with high panegyrics on his sanctity:they exclaimed against the impiety of the king and queen; and havingpoisoned the minds of the people by these declamations, they proceededto still more outrageous acts of violence against the royal authority. Archbishop Odo sent into the palace a party of soldiers, who seizedthe queen; and having burned her face with a rod-hot iron, in order todestroy that fatal beauty which had seduced Edwy, they carried her byforce into Ireland, there to remain in perpetual exile. [****] Edwy, finding it in vain to resist, was obliged to consent to his divorce, which was pronounced by Odo;[*****] and a catastrophe still more dismalawaited the unhappy Elgiva. That amiable princess being cured of herwounds, and having even obliterated the scars with which Odo had hopedto deface her beauty, returned into England, and was flying to theembraces of the king, whom she still regarded as her husband; when shefell into the hands of a party whom the primate had sent to intercepther. Nothing but her death could now give security to Odo and the monks, and the most cruel death was requisite to satiate their vengeance. Shewas hamstringed; and expired a few days after at Glocester in the mostacute torments. [******]

 [* Wallingford, p. 542. ]

 [** W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 7. Osberne, p. 83, 105. M. West. P. 195, 196. ]

 [*** Wallingford, p. 542. Alured. Beverl. P. 112. ]

 [**** Osberne, p. 84. Gervase, p. 1644. ]

 [***** Hoveden, p. 425. ]

 [****** Osberne, p. 84. Gervase, p. 1645, 1646]

The English, blinded with superstition, instead of being shocked withthis inhumanity, exclaimed that the misfortunes of Edwy and his consortwere a just judgment for their dissolute contempt of the ecclesiasticalstatutes. They even proceeded to rebellion against their sovereign; andhaving placed Edgar at their head, the younger brother of Edwy, a boyof thirteen years of age, they soon put him in possession of Mercia, Northumberland, East Anglia, and chased Edwy into the southern counties. That it might not be doubtful at whose instigation this revolt wasundertaken, Dunstan returned into England, and took upon him thegovernment of Edgar and his party. He was first installed in the seeof Worcester, then in that of London, [**] and, on Odo's death, andthe violent expulsion of Brithelm, his successor, in that ofCanterbury;[***] of all which he long kept possession. Odo istransmitted to us by the monks under the character of a man of piety:Dunstan was even canonized; and is one of those numerous saints of thesame stamp, who disgrace the Romish calendar. Meanwhile the unhappy Edwywas excommunicated, [****] and pursued with unrelenting vengeance; buthis death, which happened soon after, freed his enemies from allfurther inquietude, and gave Edgar peaceable possession of thegovernment. [*****] [2]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 117. Flor. Wigorn. P. 605. Wallingford, p. 544]

 [*** Hoveden, p. 425. Osberne, p. 109. ]

 [**** Brompton, p. 863. ]

 [***** See note B, at the end of the volume. ]

EDGAR

{959. } This prince, who mounted the throne in such early youth, soondiscovered an excellent capacity in the administration of affairs, andhis reign is one of the most fortunate that we meet with in the ancientEnglish history. He showed no aversion to war; he made the wisestpreparations against invaders; and, by this vigor and foresight, hewas enabled without any danger of suffering insults, to indulge hisinclination towards peace, and to employ himself in supporting andimproving the internal government of his kingdom. He maintained a bodyof disciplined troops; which he quartered in the north, in order to keepthe mutinous Northumbrians in subjection, and to repel the inroads ofthe Scots. He built an supported a powerful navy;[*] and thathe might retain the seamen in the practice of their duty, and alwayspresent a formidable armament to his enemies, he stationed threesquadrons off the coast, and ordered them to make, from time to time, the circuit of his dominions. [**] [3] The foreign Danes dared not toapproach a country which appeared in such a posture of defence: thedomestic Danes saw inevitable destruction to be the consequence oftheir tumults and insurrections: the neighboring sovereigns, the king ofScotland, the princes of Wales, of the Isle of Man, of the Orkneys, andeven of Ireland, [***] were reduced to pay submission to so formidablea monarch. He carried his superiority to a great height, and might haveexcited a universal combination against him, had not his power been sowell established, as to deprive his enemies of hopes of shaking it It issaid, that residing once at Chester, and having purposed to go by waterto the abbey of St. John the Baptist, he obliged eight of his tributaryprinces to row him in a barge upon the Dee. [****] The English historiansare fond of mentioning the name of Kenneth III. , king of Scots, amongthe number: the Scottish historians either deny the fact, or assert thattheir king, if ever he acknowledged himself a vassal to Edgar, didhim homage, not for his crown, but for the dominions which he held inEngland. 

But the chief means by which Edgar maintained his authority, andpreserved public peace, was the paying of court to Dunstan and themonks, who had at first placed him on the throne, and who, by theirpretensions to superior sanctity and purity of manners, had acquired anascendant over the people. He favored their scheme for dispossessing thesecular canons of all the monasteries;[*****] he bestowed prefermenton none but their partisans; he allowed Dunstan to resign the see ofWorcester into the hands of Oswald, one of his creatures; [******] andto place Ethelwold, another of them, in that of Winchester;[*******] heconsulted these prelates in the administration of all ecclesiasticaland even in that of many civil affairs; and though the vigor of his owngenius prevented him from being implicitly guided by them, the king andthe bishops found such advantages in their mutual agreement, that theyalways acted in concert, and united their influence in preserving thepeace and tranquillity of the kingdom. 

 [* Higden, p. 265. ]

 [** See note C, at the end of the volume]

 [*** Spel. Concil. P. 432. ]

 [**** W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 8. Hoveden, p. 406. H. Hunting, lib. V. P. 356]. 

 [***** Chron. Sax. P. 117, 118. W, Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 8. Hoveden, p. 425, 426. Osberne, p. 112. ]

 [****** W. Malms. Lib. Ii. Cap. 8. Hoveden, p. 425. ]

 [******* Gervase, p. 1646. Brompton, p. 864, Flor. Wigorn. P. 606. Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 27, 28. ]

In order to complete the great work of placing the new order of monks inall the convents, Edgar summoned a general council of the prelates, and the heads of the religious orders. He here inveighed against thedissolute lives of the secular clergy; the smallness of their tonsure, which, it is probable, maintained no longer any resemblance to the crownof thorns; their negligence in attending the exercise of their function;their mixing with the laity in the pleasures of gaming, hunting, dancing, and singing; and their openly living with concubines, by whichit is commonly supposed he meant their wives. He then turned himself toDunstan, the primate; and in the name of King Edred, whom he supposed tolook down from heaven with indignation against all those enormities, he thus addressed him: "It is you, Dunstan, by whose advice I foundedmonasteries, built churches, and expended my treasure in the support ofreligion and religious houses. You were my counsellor and assistant inall my schemes: you were the director of my conscience: to you I wasobedient in all things. When did you call for supplies, which I refusedyou? Was my assistance ever wanting to the poor? Did I deny support andestablishments to the clergy and the convents? Did I not hearken to yourinstructions, who told me that these charities were, of all others, themost grateful to my Maker, and fixed a perpetual fund for the supportof religion? And are all our pious endeavors now frustrated by thedissolute lives of the priests? Not that I throw any blame on you: youhave reasoned, besought, inculcated, inveighed; but it now behoves youto use sharper and more vigorous remedies; and conjoining your spiritualauthority with the civil power, to purge effectually the temple of Godfrom thieves and intruders. "[*]

 [* Abbas Rieval. P. 360, 361. Spel. Concil. P. 476, 477, 478. ]

It is easy to imagine that this harangue had the desired effect; andthat, when the king and prelates thus concurred with popular prejudices, it was not long before the monks prevailed, and established their newdiscipline in almost all the convents. 

We may remark, that the declamations against the secular clergy are, both here and in all the historians, conveyed in general terms; andas that order of men are commonly restrained by the decency of theircharacter, it is difficult to believe that the complaints against theirdissolute manners could be so universally just as is pretended. It ismore probable that the monks paid court to the populace by an affectedausterity of life; and representing the most innocent liberties taken bythe other clergy as great and unpardonable enormities, thereby preparedthe way for the increase of their own power and influence. Edgar, however, like a true politician, concurred with the prevailing party;and he even indulged them in pretensions, which, though they might, whencomplied with, engage the monks to support royal authority during hisown reign, proved afterwards dangerous to his successors, and gavedisturbance to the whole civil power. He seconded the policy of thecourt of Rome, in granting to some monasteries an exemption fromepiscopal jurisdiction; he allowed the convents, even those of royalfoundation, to usurp the election of their own abbot; and he admittedtheir forgeries of ancient charters, by which, from the pretended grantof former kings, they assumed many privileges and immunities. [*]

These merits of Edgar have procured him the highest panegyrics from themonks; and he is transmitted to us, not only under the character of aconsummate statesman and an active prince, --praises to which beseems tohave been justly entitled, --but under that of a great saint and a man ofvirtue. But nothing could more betray both his hypocrisy in inveighingagainst the licentiousness of the secular clergy, and the interestedspirit of his partisans in bestowing such eulogies on his piety, thanthe usual tenor of his conduct, which was licentious to the highestdegree, and violated every law, human and divine. Yet those very monks, who, as we are told by Ingulf, a very ancient historian, had no idea ofany moral or religious merit, except chastity and obedience, not onlyconnived at his enormities, but loaded him with the greatest praises. History, however, has preserved some instances of his amours, fromwhich, as from a specimen, we may form a conjecture of the rest. 

Edgar broke into a convent, carried off Editha, a nun, by force, andeven committed violence on her person. [**]

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 118. W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 8. Seldom Spicileg, ad Eadm. P. 149, 157. ]

 [** W. Malms, lib. Ii cap. 8. Osberne, p. 3. Diceto, p. 457. Higden, p. 265, 267, 268. Spel. Concil. P. 481. ]

For this act of sacrilege he was reprimanded by Dunstan; and that hemight reconcile himself to the church, he was obliged, not to separatefrom his mistress, but to abstain from wearing his crown during sevenyears, and to deprive himself so long of that vain ornament;[*]a punishment very unequal to that which had been inflicted on theunfortunate Edwy, who, for a marriage, which in the strictest sensecould only deserve the name of irregular, was expelled his kingdom, sawhis queen treated with singular barbarity, was loaded with calumnies, and has been represented to us under the most odious colors. Such is theascendant which may be attained, by hypocrisy and cabal, over mankind. 

 [* Osberne, p. 111. ]

There was another mistress of Edgar's, with whom he first formed aconnection by a kind of accident. Passing one day by Andover, he lodgedin the house of a nobleman, whose daughter, being endowed with all thegraces of person and behavior, inflamed him at first sight with thehighest desire; and he resolved by any expedient to gratify it. Ashe had not leisure to employ courtship or address for attaining hispurpose, he went directly to her mother, declared the violence of hispassion, and desired that the young lady might be allowed to pass thatvery night with him. The mother was a woman of virtue, and determinednot to dishonor her daughter and her family by compliance; but beingwell acquainted with the impetuosity of the king's temper, she thoughtit would be easier, as well as safer, to deceive than refuse him. Shefeigned therefore a submission to his will; but secretly ordered awaiting maid, of no disagreeable figure, to steal into the king's bed, after all the company should be retired to rest. In the morning, beforedaybreak, the damsel, agreeably to the injunctions of her mistress, offered to retire; but Edgar, who had no reserve in his pleasures, andwhose love to his bed-fallow was rather inflamed by enjoyment, refusedhis consent, and employed force and entreaties to detain her. Elfleda(for that was the name of the maid) trusting to her own charms, andto the love with which, she hoped, she had now inspired the king, madeprobably but a faint resistance; and the return of light discovered thedeceit to Edgar. He had passed a night so much to his satisfaction, thathe expressed no displeasure with the old lady on account of her fraud;his love was transferred to Elfleda; she became his favorite mistress, and maintained her ascendant over him, till his marriage withElfrida. [*]

 [* W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 8. Higden, p. 268. ]

The circumstances of his marriage with this lady were more singularand more criminal. Elfrida was daughter and heir of Olgar, earl ofDevonshire; and though she had been educated in the country, and hadnever appeared at court, she had filled all England with the reputationof her beauty. Edgar himself, who was indifferent to no accounts of thisnature, found his curiosity excited by the frequent panegyrics which heheard of Elfrida; and reflecting on her noble birth, he resolved, if hefound her charms answerable to their fame, to obtain possession of heron honorable terms. He communicated his intention to Earl Athelwold, hisfavorite, but used the precaution, before he made any advances to herparents, to order that nobleman, on some pretence, to pay them a visit, and to bring him a certain account of the beauty of their daughter. Athelwold, when introduced to the young lady, found general report tohave fallen short of the truth; and being actuated by the most vehementlove, he determined to sacrifice to this new passion his fidelity to hismaster, and to the trust reposed in him. He returned to Edgar, and toldhim, that the riches alone, and high quality of Elfrida, had been theground of the admiration paid her, and that her charms, far from beingany wise extraordinary would have been overlooked in a woman of inferiorstation. When he had, by this deceit, diverted the king from his purposehe took an opportunity, after some interval, of turning again theconversation on Elfrida; he remarked, that though the parentage andfortune of the lady had not produced on him, as on others, any illusionwith regard to her beauty, he could not forbear reflecting, that shewould, on the whole, be an advantageous match for him, and might, by herbirth and riches, make him sufficient compensation for the homeliness ofher person. If the king, therefore, gave his approbation he wasdetermined to make proposals in his own behalf to the earl ofDevonshire, and doubted not to obtain his, as well as the young lady's, consent to the marriage. Edgar, pleased with an expedient forestablishing his favorite's fortune, not only exhorted him to executehis purpose but forwarded his success by his recommendations to theparents of Elfrida; and Athelwold was soon made happy in the possessionof his mistress. Dreading, however, the detection of the artifice, heemployed every pretence for detaining Elfrida in the country, and forkeeping her at a distance from Edgar. 

The violent passion of Athelwold had rendered him blind to the necessaryconsequences which must attend his conduct, and the advantages whichthe numerous enemies, that always pursue a royal favorite, would, byits means, be able to make against him. Edgar was soon informed of thetruth; but before he would execute vengeance on Athelwold's treachery, he resolved to satisfy himself, with his own eyes, of the certaintyand full extent of his guilt. He told him that he intended to pay hima visit in his castle, and be introduced to the acquaintance of hisnew-married wife; and Athelwold, as he could not refuse the honor, onlycraved leave to go before him a few hours, that he might the betterprepare every thing for his reception. He then discovered the wholematter to Elfrida; and begged her, if she had any regard either to herown honor or his life, to conceal from Edgar, by every circumstanceof dress and behavior, that fatal beauty which had seduced him fromfidelity to his friend, and had betrayed him into so many falsehoods. Elfrida promised compliance, though nothing was farther from herintentions. She deemed herself little beholden to Athelwold for apassion which had deprived her of a crown; and knowing the force of herown charms, she did not despair, even yet, of reaching that dignity, ofwhich her husband's artifice had bereaved her. She appeared before theking with all the advantages which the richest attire, and the mostengaging airs, could bestow upon her, and she excited at once in hisbosom the highest love towards herself, and the most furious desire ofrevenge against her husband. He knew, however, how to dissemble thesepassions; and seducing Athelwold into a wood, on pretence of hunting, he stabbed him with his own hand, and soon after publicly espousedElfrida. [*]

 [* W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 8. Hoveden, p. 426. Brompton, p. 865, 866. Flor. Wigorn. P. 606. Higden, p. 268. ]

Before we conclude our account of this reign, we must mention twocircumstances, which are remarked by historians. The reputation of Edgarallured a great number of foreigners to visit his court; and he gavethem encouragement to settle in England. [*]

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 116. H. Hunting, lib. V. P. 356. Brompton, p. 865. ]

We are told that they imported all the vices of their respectivecountries, and contributed to corrupt the simple manners of thenatives;[*] but as this simplicity of manners so highly and oftenso injudiciously extolled, did not preserve them from barbarity andtreachery, the greatest of all vices, and the most incident to a rude, uncultivated people, we ought perhaps to deem their acquaintance withforeigners rather an advantage; as it tended to enlarge their views, andto cure them of those illiberal prejudices and rustic manners to whichislanders are often subject. 

Another remarkable incident of this reign was the extirpation of wolvesfrom England. This advantage was attained by the industrious policyof Edgar. He took great pains in hunting and pursuing those ravenousanimals; and when he found that all that escaped him had taken shelterin the mountains and forests of Wales, he changed the tribute of moneyimposed on the Welsh princes of Athelstan, his predecessor, [**] intoan annual tribute of three hundred heads of wolves; which produced suchdiligence in hunting them, that the animal has been no more seen in thisisland. 

 [* W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 8. ]

 [** W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 6. Brompton, p. 838, ]

Edgar died after a reign of sixteen years, and in the thirty-third ofhis age. He was succeeded by Edward, whom he had by his first marriagewith the daughter of Earl Ordmer. 

EDWARD THE MARTYR

{957. } The succession of this prince, who was only fifteen years of ageat his father's death, did not take place without much difficulty andopposition. Elfrida, his step-mother, had a son, Ethelred, seven yearsold, whom she attempted to raise to the throne: she affirmed thatEdgar's marriage with the mother of Edward was exposed to insuperableobjections; and as she had possessed great credit with her husband, shehad found means to acquire partisans, who seconded all her pretensions. But the title of Edward was supported by many advantages. He wasappointed successor by the will of his father;[*] he was approachingto man's estate, and might soon be able to take into his own hands thereins of government; the principal nobility, dreading the imperioustemper of Clirida, were averse to her son's government, which mustenlarge her authority, and probably put her in possession of theregency; above all, Dunstan, whose character of sanctity had given himthe highest credit with the people, hud espoused the cause of Edward, over whom he had already acquired a great ascendant;[**] and he wasdetermined to execute the will of Edgar in his favor. To cut off allopposite pretensions, Dunstan resolutely anointed and crowned the youngprince at Kingston; and the whole kingdom, without further dispute, submitted to him. [***]

 [* Hoveden, p. 427. Eadmer p. 3. ]

 [** Eadmer, p. 3. ]

 [*** W. Malms, lib. Ii cap. 9. Hoveden, p. 427. Osberne, p. 113. ]

It was of great importance to Dunstan and the monks to place on thethrone a king favorable to their cause; the secular clergy had stillpartisans in England, who wished to support them in the possessionof the convents, and of the ecclesiastical authority. On the firstintelligence of Edgar's death, Alfere, duke of Mercia, expelled thenew orders of monks from all the monasteries which lay within hisjurisdiction;[***] but Elfwin, duke of East Anglia, and Brithnot, duke of the East Saxons, protected them within their territories, andinsisted upon the execution of the late laws enacted in their favor. Inorder to settle this controversy, there were summoned several synods, which, according to the practice of those times, consisted partly ofecclesiastical members, partly of the lay nobility. The monks were ableto prevail in these assemblies; though, as it appears, contrary to thesecret wishes, if not the declared inclination, of the leading men inhe nation. [****] They had more invention in forging miracles tosupport their cause; or having been so fortunate as to obtain, by theirpretended austerities, the character of piety, their miracles were morecredited by the populace. 

 [*** Chron. Sax. P. 123. W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 9. Hoveden, p. 427 Brompton, p. 870. Flor. Wigorn. P, 307. ]

 [**** W. Malms. Lib. Ii. Cap. 9. ]

In one synod, Dunstan, finding the majority of votes against him, roseup, and informed the audience, that he had that instant receivedan immediate revelation in behalf of the monks: the assembly wasso astonished at this intelligence, or probably so overawed by thepopulace, that they proceeded no farther in their deliberations. Inanother synod, a voice issued from the crucifix, and informed themembers that the establishment of the monks was founded on the willof Heaven and could not be opposed without impiety. [*] But the miracleperformed in the third synod was still more alarming: the floor of thehall in which the assembly met, sunk of a sudden, and a great number ofthe members were either bruised or killed by the fall. It was remarked, that Dunstan had that day prevented the king from attending the synod, and that the beam on which his own chair stood was the only one that didnot sink under the weight of the assembly;[**] but these circumstances, instead of begetting any suspicion of contrivance, were regarded as thesurest proof of the immediate interposition of Providence in behalf ofthose favorites of Heaven. 

 [* W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 9. Osberne, p. 112. Gervase, p. 1647, Brompton, p. 870. Higden, p. 269. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 124. W. Malms, lib. Ii. Cap. 9. Hoveden, p. 427. H. Hunting, lib. V. P. 357. Gervase, p. 1647. Brompton, p. 870. Flor. Wigorn. P. 607 Higden, p 269. Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 29]

Edward lived four years after his accession, and there passednothing memorable during his reign. His death alone was memorable andtragical. [*]

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 124. ]

This young prince was endowed with the most amiable innocence ofmanners; and as his own intentions were always pure, he was incapableof entertaining any suspicion against others. Though his step-mother hadopposed his succession, and had raised a party in favor of her ownson, he always showed her marks of regard, and even expressed, on alloccasions, the most tender affection towards his brother. He was huntingone day in Dorsetshire, and being led by the chase near Corfe Castle, where Elfrida resided, he took the opportunity of paying her visit, unattended by any of his retinue, and he thereby presented her withthe opportunity which she had long wished for. After he had mounted hishorse, he desired some liquor to be brought him: while he was holdingthe cup to his head, a servant of Elfrida approached him, and gave hima stab behind. The prince, finding himself wounded, put spurs to hishorse; but becoming faint by loss of blood, he fell from the saddle, hisfoot stuck in the stirrup, and he was dragged along by his unruly horsetill he expired. Being tracked by the blood, his body was found, and wasprivately interred at Wereham by his servants. 

The youth and innocence of this prince, with his tragical death, begatsuch compassion among the people, that they believed miracles to bewrought at his tomb; and they gave him the appellation of _martyr_, though his murder had no connection with any religious principle oropinion. Elfrida built monasteries, and performed many penances, inorder to atone for her guilt; but could never, by all her hypocrisyor remorses, recover the good opinion of the public, though so easilydeluded in those ignorant ages. 

CHAPTER III. 

ETHELRED

{978} THE freedom which England had so long enjoyed from thedepredations of the Danes, seems to have proceeded, partly from theestablishments which that piratical nation had obtained in the northof France, and which employed all then superfluous hands to people andmaintain them; partly from the vigor and warlike spirit of a long raceof English princes, who preserved the kingdom in a posture of defence, by sea and land, and either prevented or repelled every attempt ofthe invaders. But a new generation of men being now sprung up in thenorthern regions, who could no longer disburden themselves on Normandy, the English had reason to dread that the Danes would again visit anisland to which they were invited, both by the memory of their pastsuccesses, and by the expectation of assistance from their countrymen, who, though long established in the kingdom, were not yet thoroughlyincorporated with the natives, nor had entirely forgotten theirinveterate habits of war and depredation. And as the reigning princewas a minor, and even when he attained to man's estate, never discoveredeither courage or capacity sufficient to govern his own subjects, muchless to repel a formidable enemy, the people might justly apprehend theworst calamities from so dangerous a crisis. 

{981. } The Danes, before they durst attempt any important enterpriseagainst England, made an inconsiderable descent by way of trial; andhaving landed from seven vessels near Southamptom, they ravaged thecountry, enriched themselves by spoil, and departed with impunity. Sixyears after, they made a like attempt in the west, and met with likesuccess. The invaders, having now found affairs in a very differentsituation from that in which they formerly appeared, encouragedtheir countrymen to assemble a greater force, and to hope for moreconsiderable advantages. 

{991} They landed in Essex, under the command of two leaders; andhaving defeated and slain, at Maldon, Brithnot, duke of that county, who ventured with a small body to attack them, they spread theirdevastations over all the neighboring provinces. In this extremity, Ethelred, to whom historians give the epithet of the _Unready_, instead of rousing his people to defend with courage their honor andtheir property, hearkened to the advice of Siricius, archbishop ofCanterbury, which was seconded by many of the degenerate nobility;and paying the enemy the sum of ten thousand pounds, he bribed themto depart the kingdom. This shameful expedient was attended with thesuccess which might be expected. The Danes next year appeared off theeastern coast, in hopes of subduing a people who defended themselvesby their money, which invited assailants, instead of their arms, whichrepelled them. But the English, sensible of their folly, had in theinterval assembled in a great council, and had determined to collectat London a fleet able to give battle to the enemy;[*] though thatjudicious measure failed of success, from the treachery of Alfric, dukeof Mercia, whose name is infamous in the annals of that age, by thecalamities which his repeated perfidy brought upon his country. Thisnobleman had, in 983, succeeded to his father, Alfere, in that extensivecommand; but, being deprived of it two years after, and banished thekingdom, he was obliged to employ all his intrigue, and all his power, which was too great for a subject, to be restored to his country, andreinstated in his authority. Having had experience of the credit andmalevolence of his enemies, he thenceforth trusted for security, not tohis services, or to the affections of his fellow-citizens, but to theinfluence which he had obtained over his vassals, and to the publiccalamities, which he thought must, in every revolution, render hisassistance necessary. Having fixed this resolution, he determined toprevent all such successes as might establish the royal authority, orrender his own situation dependent or precarious. As the English hadformed the plan of surrounding and destroying the Danish fleet inharbor, he privately informed the enemy of their danger; and when theyput to sea, in consequence of this intelligence, he deserted to them, with the squadron under his command, the night before the engagement, and thereby disappointed all the efforts of his countrymen. [**]Ethelred, enraged at his perfidy, seized his son Alfgar, and ordered hiseyes to be put out. [***]

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 126. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 127. W. Malms, p. 62. Higden, p. 270. ]

 [*** Chror. Sax. P. 128. W. Malms, p. 62. ]

But such was the power of Alfric, that he again forced himself intoauthority; and though he had given this specimen of his character, andreceived this grievous provocation, it was found necessary to intrusthim anew with the government of Mercia. This conduct of the court, which, in all its circumstances, is so barbarous, weak, and imprudentboth merited and prognosticated the most grievous calamities. 

{993. } The northern invaders, now well acquainted with the defencelesscondition of England, made a powerful descent under the command ofSweyn, king of Denmark, and Olave king of Norway; and sailing up theHumber, spread on all sides their destructive ravages. Lindesey was laidwaste; Banbury was destroyed; and all the Northumbrians, though mostlyof Danish descent, were constrained either to join the invaders, or tosuffer under their depredations. A powerful army was assembled to opposethe Danes, and a general action ensued; but the English were deserted inthe battle, from the cowardice or treachery of their three leaders, allof them men of Danish race, Frena, Frithegist, and Godwin, who gave theexample of a shameful flight to the troops under their command. 

Encouraged by this success, and still more by the contempt which itinspired for their enemy, the pirates ventured to attack the centre ofthe kingdom; and entering the Thames in ninety-four vessels, laid siegeto London, and threatened it with total destruction. But the citizens, alarmed at the danger, and firmly united among themselves, made a bolderdefence than the cowardice of the nobility and gentry gave the invadersreason to apprehend; and the besiegers, after suffering the greatesthardships, were finally frustrated in their attempt. In order to revengethemselves, they laid waste Essex, Sussex, and Hampshire; and havingthere procured horses, they were thereby enabled to spread through themore inland counties the fury of their depredations. In this extremity, Ethelred and his nobles had recourse to the former expedient; andsending ambassadors to the two northern kings, they promised themsubsistence and tribute, on condition they would, for the present, putan end to their ravages, and soon after depart the kingdom. Sweyn andOlave agreed to the terms, and peaceably took up their quarters atSouthampton, where the sum of sixteen thousand pounds was paid to them. Olave even made a journey to Andover, where Ethelred resided; and hereceived the rite of confirmation from the English bishops, as well asmany rich presents from the king. He here promised that he would nevermore infest the English territories; and he faithfully fulfilled theengagement. This prince receives the appellation of St. Olave from thechurch of Rome; and, notwithstanding the general presumption, which lieseither against the understanding or morals of every one who in thoseignorant ages was dignified with that title, he seems to have been a manof merit and of virtue, Sweyn, though less scrupulous than Olave, wasconstrained, upon the departure of the Norwegian prince, to evacuatealso the kingdom, with all his followers. 

{997. } This composition brought only a short interval to the miseries ofthe English. The Danish pirates appeared soon after in the Severn; andhaving committed spoil in Wales, as well as in Cornwall and Devonshire, they sailed round to the south coast, and entering the Tamar, completedthe devastation of these two counties. They then returned to the BristolChannel; and penetrating into the country by the Avon, spread themselvesover all that neighborhood, and carried fire and sword even intoDorsetshire. They next changed the seat of war; and after ravaging theIsle of Wight, they entered the Thames and Medway, and laid siege toRochester, where they defeated the Kentish men in a pitched battle. After this victory, the whole province of Kent was made a scene ofslaughter, fire, and devastation. The extremity of these miseries forcedthe English into counsels for common defence, both by sea and land;but the weakness of the king, the divisions among the nobility, thetreachery of some, the cowardice of others, the want of concert in all, frustrated every endeavor; their fleets and armies either came too lateto attack the enemy, or were repulsed with dishonor; and the peoplewere thus equally ruined by resistance or by submission. The English, therefore, destitute both of prudence and unanimity in council, of courage and conduct in the field, had recourse to the same weakexpedient which, by experience, they had already found so ineffectual:they offered the Danes to buy peace, by paying them a large sum ofmoney, These ravagers rose continually in their demands; and nowrequired the payment of twenty-four thousand pounds, to which theEnglish were so mean and imprudent as to submit. [*]

 [* Hoveden, p. 429. Chron. Malm. P. 153. ]

The departure of the Danes procured them another short interval ofrepose, which they enjoyed as if it were to be perpetual without makingany effectual preparations for a more vigorous resistance upon the nextreturn of the enemy. 

Besides receiving this sum, the Danes were engaged by another motive todepart a kingdom which appeared so little in a situation to resist theirefforts. They were invited over by their countrymen in Normandy, who atthis time were hard pressed by the arms of Robert, king of France, andwho found it difficult to defend the settlement, which, with so muchadvantage to themselves, and glory to their nation, they had made inthat country. It is probable, also, that Ethelred, observing the closeconnections thus maintained among all the Danes, however divided ingovernment or situation, was desirous of forming an alliance with thatformidable people. For this purpose, being now a widower, he made hisaddresses to Emma, sister to Richard II. , duke of Normandy, and he soonsucceeded in his negotiation. The princess came over this year {1001. }to England, and was married to Ethelred. [*]

 [* H, Hunting, p. 359. Higden, p. 271. ]

In the end of the ninth and beginning of the tenth century--when thenorth, not yet exhausted by that multitude of people, or rather nations, which she had successively emitted, sent forth a new race, not ofconquerors, as before, but of pirates and ravagers, who infested thecountries possessed by her once warlike sons--lived Rollo, a pettyprince or chieftain in Denmark, whose valor and abilities soon en gaged, the attention of his countrymen. He was exposed in his youth to thejealousy of the king of Denmark, who attacked his small but independentprincipality, and who, being foiled in every assault, had recourse atlast to perfidy for effecting his purpose, which he had often attemptedin vain by force of arms. [**]

 [** Dudo, ex edit. Duchesne, p. 70, 71. Gul. Gemeticenia, lib. Ii, cap. 2, 3. ]

He lulled Rollo into security by an insidious peace and falling suddenlyupon him, murdered his brother and his bravest officers, and forced himto fly for safety into Scandinavia. Here many of his ancient subjects, induced partly by affection to their prince, partly by the oppressionsof the Danish monarch, ranged themselves under his standard, and offeredto follow him in every enterprise. Rollo, instead of attemptingto recover his paternal dominions, where he must expect a vigorousresistance from the Danes, determined to pursue an easier but moreimportant undertaking, and to make rus fortune, in imitation of hiscountrymen, by pillaging the richer and more southern coasts of Europe. He collected a body of troops, which, like that of all those ravagers, was composed of Norwegians, Swedes, Frisians, Danes, and adventurersof all nations, who being accustomed to a roving, unsettled life, tookdelight in nothing but war and plunder. His reputation brought himassociates from all quarters; and a vision, which he pretended to haveappeared to him in his sleep, and which, according to his interpretationof it, prognosticated the greatest successes, proved also a powerfulincentive with those ignorant and superstitious people. [*]

 [* Dudo, p. 71. Gul. Gemet. In epist. Ad Gul. Conq. ]

The first attempt made by Rollo was on England, near the end of Alfred'sreign, when that great monarch, having settled Guthrum and his followersin East Anglia, and others of those freebooters in Northumberland, andhaving restored peace to his harassed country, had established the mostexcellent military, as well as civil, institutions among the English. The prudent Dane, finding that no advantages could be gained over sucha people, governed by such a prince, soon turned his enterprises againstFrance, which he found more exposed to his inroads;[**] and during thereigns of Eudes, a usurper, and of Charles the Simple, a weak prince, hecommitted the most destructive ravages, both on the inland and maritimeprovinces of that kingdom. The French, having no means of defenceagainst a leader who united all the valor of his countrymen withthe policy of more civilized nations, were obliged to submit to theexpedient practised by Alfred, and to offer the invaders a settlement insome of those provinces which they had depopulated by their arms. [***]

 [** Gul Gemet lib. Ii. Cap 6. ]

 [*** Dudo, p. 82. ]

The reason why the Danes, for many years, pursued measures so differentfrom those which had been embraced by the Goths, Vandals, Franks, Burgundians, Lombards, and other northern conquerors, was the greatdifference in the method of attack which was practised by theseseveral nations, and to which the nature of their respective situationsnecessarily confined them. The latter tribes, living in an inlandcountry, made incursions by land upon the Roman empire; and when theyentered far into the frontiers, they were obliged to carry alongwith them their wives and families, whom they had no hopes of soonrevisiting, and who could not otherwise participate of their plunder. This circumstance quickly made them think of forcing a settlement inthe provinces which they had overrun: and these barbarians, spreadingthemselves over the country, found an interest in protecting theproperty and industry of the people whom they had subdued. But the Danesand Norwegians, invited by their maritime situation, and obliged tomaintain themselves in their uncultivated country by fishing, hadacquired some experience of navigation; and, in their militaryexcursions, pursued the method practised against the Roman empire by themore early Saxons. They made descents in small bodies from their ships, or rather boats, and ravaging the coasts, returned with the booty totheir families, whom they could not conveniently carry along with themin those hazardous enterprises. But when they increased their armaments, made incursions into the inland countries, and found it safe to remainlonger in the midst of the enfeebled enemy, they had been accustomed tocrowd their vessels with their wives and children, and having no longerany temptation to return to their own country, they willingly embracedan opportunity of settling in the warm climates and cultivated fields ofthe south. 

Affairs were in this situation with Rollo and his followers, whenCharles proposed to relinquish to them part of the province formerlycalled Neustria, and to purchase peace on these hard conditions. Afterall the terms were fully settled, there appeared only one circumstanceshocking to the haughty Dane: he was required to do homage to Charlesfor this province, and to put himself in that humiliating postureimposed on vassals by the rites of the feudal law. He long refused tosubmit to this indignity; but, being unwilling to lose such importantadvantages for a mere ceremony, he made a sacrifice of his pride to hisinterest, and acknowledged himself, in form, the vassal of the Frenchmonarch. [*] Charles gave him his daughter Gisla in marriage; and, thathe might bind him faster to his interests, made him a donation of aconsiderable territory, besides that which he was obliged to surrenderto him by his stipulation. 

 [* Ypod. Neust. P. 417. ]

When some of the French nobles informed him that, in return for sogenerous a present, it was expected that he should throw himself at theking's feet, and make suitable acknowledgments for his bounty, Rolloreplied, that he would rather decline the present; and it was with somedifficulty they could persuade him to make that compliment by one of hiscaptains. The Dane, commissioned for this purpose, full of indignationat the order, and despising so unwarlike a prince, caught Charles by thefoot, and pretending to carry it to his mouth, that he might kiss it, overthrew him before all his courtiers. The French, sensible of theirpresent weakness, found it prudent to overlook this insult. [*]

 [* Gul. Gemet. Lib. Ii. Cap. 17. ]

Rollo, who was now in the decline of life, and was tired of wars anddepredations, applied himself, with mature counsels to the settlement ofhis new-acquired territory, which was thenceforth called Normandy; andhe parcelled it out among his captains and followers. He followed, in this partition, the customs of the feudal law, which was thenuniversally established in the southern countries of Europe, and whichsuited the peculiar circumstances of that age. He treated the Frenchsubjects, who submitted to him, with mildness and justice; he reclaimedhis ancient followers from their ferocious violence; he established lawand order throughout his state; and after a life spent in tumults andravages, he died peaceably in a good old age, and left his dominions tohis posterity. [**]

 [** Gul. Gemet. Lib. Ii. Cap. 19, 20, 21. ]

William I. , who succeeded him, governed the duchy twenty-five years;and, during that time, the Normans, who were thoroughly intermingledwith the French, had acquired their language, had imitated theirmanners, and had made such progress towards cultivation, that, on thedeath of William, his son Richard, though a minor, [***] inherited hisdominions; a sure proof that the Normans were already somewhat advancedin civility, and that their government could now rest secure on its lawsand civil institutions, and was not wholly sustained by the abilitiesof the sovereign. Richard, after a long reign of fifty-four years, wassucceeded by his son, of the same name, in the year 996, [****] whichwas eighty-five years after the first establishment of the Normansin France. This was the duke who gave his sister Emma in marriage toEthelred, king of England, and who thereby formed connections with acountry which his posterity was so soon after destined to subdue. 

 [*** Order. Vitalis, p. 459. Grl. Geinet, lib. Iv. Cup. 1. ]

 [**** Order. Vitalis, p. 459. ]

The Danes had been established during a longer period in England than inFrance; and though the similarity of their original language to that ofthe Saxons invited them to a more early coalition with the natives, they had hitherto found so little example of civilized manners amongthe English, that they retained all their ancient ferocity, and valuedthemselves only on their national character of military bravery. Therecent, as well as more ancient achievements of their countrymentended to support this idea; and the English princes particularlyAthelstan and Edgar, sensible of that superiority had been accustomedto keep in pay bodies of Danish troops, who were quartered about thecountry, and committed many violences upon the inhabitants. Thesemercenaries had attained to such a height of luxury, according to theold English writers, [*] that they combed their hair once a day, bathedthemselves once a week, changed their clothes frequently; and by allthese arts of effeminacy, as well as by their military character, hadrendered themselves so agreeable to the fair sex, that they debauchedthe wives and daughters of the English, and dishonored many families. But what most provoked the inhabitants was, that instead of defendingthem against invaders, they were ever ready to betray them to theforeign Danes, and to associate themselves with all straggling partiesof that nation. 

The animosity between the inhabitants of English and Danish race, had, from these repeated injuries, risen to a great height, when Ethelred, from a policy incident to weak princes embraced the cruel resolution ofmassacring the latter throughout all his dominions. [**] [4]

 [* Wallingford, p. 547. ]

 [** See note D, at the end of the volume. ]

{1002. }Secret orders were despatched to commence the execution everywhere on the same day, and the festival of St. Brice, which fell ona Sunday, [November 13, ] the day on which the Danes usually bathedthemselves, was chosen for that purpose. It is needless to repeat theaccounts transmitted concerning the barbarity of this massacre: the rageof the populace, excited by so many injuries, sanctioned by authority, and stimulated by example, distinguished not between innocence andguilt, spared neither sex nor age, and was not satiated without thetortures as well as death of the unhappy victims. Even Gunilda, sisterto the king of Denmark, who had married Earl Paling, and had embracedChristianity, was, by the advice of Edric, earl of Wilts, seized andcondemned to death by Ethelred, after seeing her husband and childrenbutchered before her face. This unhappy princess foretold, in theagonies of despair, that her murder would soon be avenged by the totalruin of the English nation. 

{1003. } Never was prophecy better fulfilled; and never did barbarouspolicy prove more fatal to the authors. Sweyn and his Danes, who wantedbut a pretence for invading the English, appeared off the westerncoast, and threatened to take full revenge for the slaughter of theircountrymen. Exeter fell first into their hands, from the negligenceor treachery of Earl Hugh, a Norman, who had been made governor by theinterest of Queen Emma. They began to spread their devastations over thecountry, when the English, sensible what outrages they must now expectfrom their barbarous and offended enemy, assembled more early, andin greater numbers than usual, and made an appearance of vigorousresistance. But all these preparations were frustrated by the treacheryof Duke Alfric, who was intrusted with the command, and who, feigningsickness, refused to lead the army against the Danes, till it wasdispirited, and at last dissipated, by his fatal misconduct. Alfric soonafter died, and Edric, a greater traitor than he, who had married theking's daughter, and had acquired a total ascendant over him, succeededAlfric in the government of Mercia, and in the command of the Englisharmies. A great famine, proceeding partly from the bad seasons, partlyfrom the decay of agriculture, added to all the other miseries of theinhabitants. 

{1007} The country, wasted by the Danes, harassed by the fruitlessexpeditions of its own forces, was reduced to the utmost desolation, andat last submitted to the infamy of purchasing a precarious peace fromthe enemy, by the payment of thirty thousand pounds. 

The English endeavored to employ this interval in making preparationsagainst the return of the Danes, which they had reason soon to expect. Alaw was made, ordering the proprietors of eight hides of land to provideeach a horseman and a complete suit of armor, and those of three hundredand ten hides to equip a ship for the defence of the coast. When thisnavy was assembled, which must have consisted of near eight hundredvessels, [*] all hopes of its success were disappointed by the factions, animosities, and dissensions of the nobility. Edric had impelled hisbrother Brightric to prefer an accusation of treason against Wolfnoth, governor of Sussex, the father of the famous Earl Godwin; and thatnobleman, well acquainted with the malevolence as well as power of hisenemy, found no means of safety Dut in deserting with twenty ships tothe Danes. 

 [* There were two hundred and forty-three thousand six hundred hides in England. Consequently, the ships equipped must be seven hundred and eighty-five. The cavalry was thirty thousand four hundred and fifty men. ]

Brightric pursued him with a fleet of eighty sail; but his ships beingshattered in a tempest, and stranded on the coast, he was suddenlyattacked by Wolfnoth, and all his vessels burnt and destroyed. Theimbecility of the king was little capable of repairing this misfortune. The treachery of Edric frustrated every plan for future defence; andthe English navy, disconcerted, discouraged, and divided, was at lastscattered into its several harbors. 

It is almost impossible, or would be tedious, to relate particularly allthe miseries to which the English were henceforth exposed. We hear ofnothing but the sacking and burning of towns; the devastation of theopen country; the appearance of the enemy in every quarter of thekingdom; their cruel diligence in discovering any corner which hadnot been ransacked by their former violence. The broken and disjointednarration of the ancient historians is here well adapted to the natureof the war, which was conducted by such sudden inroads, as would havebeen dangerous even to a united and well-governed kingdom, but provedfatal where nothing but a general consternation and mutual diffidenceand dissension prevailed. The governors of one province refused to marchto the assistance of another, and were at last terrified from assemblingtheir forces for the defence of their own province. General councilswere summoned; but either no resolution was taken, or none was carriedinto execution. And the only expedient in which the English agreed, wasthe base and imprudent one of buying a new peace from the Danes, by thepayment of forty-eight thousand pounds. 

{1011. } This measure did not bring them even that short interval ofrepose which they had expected from it. The Danes, disregarding allengagements, continued their devastations and hostilities; levied a newcontribution of eight thousand pounds upon the county of Kent alone;murdered the archbishop of Canterbury, who had refused to countenancethis exaction; and the English nobility found no other resource thanthat of submitting everywhere to the Danish monarch, swearing allegianceto him, and delivering him hostages for their fidelity. Ethelred equallyafraid of the violence of the enemy, and the treachery of his ownsubjects, fled into Normandy, {1013} whither he had sent before himQueen Emma, and her two sons, Alfred and Edward. Richard received hisunhappy guests with a generosity that does honor to his memory. 

{1014} The king had not been above six weeks in Normandy, when he heardof the death of Sweyn, who expired at Gainsborough, before he had timeto establish himself in his new-acquired dominions. The English prelatesand nobility, taking advantage of this event, sent over a deputation toNormandy, inviting Ethelred to return to them, expressing a desire ofbeing again governed by their native prince, and intimating their hopesthat, being now tutored by experience, he would avoid all those errorswhich had been attended with such misfortunes to himself and to hispeople. But the misconduct of Ethelred was incurable; and on hisresuming the government, he discovered the same incapacity, indolence, cowardice, and credulity, which had so often exposed him to the insultsof his enemies. His son-in-law Edric, notwithstanding his repeatedtreasons, retained such influence at court, as to instil into the kingjealousies of Sigefert and Morcar, two of the chief nobles of Mercia. Edric allured them into his house, where he murdered them; whileEthelred participated in the infamy of the action, by confiscating theirestates, and thrusting into a convent the widow of Sigefert. She was awoman of singular beauty and merit; and in a visit which was paid her, during her confinement, by Prince Edmond, the king's eldest son, sheinspired him with so violent an affection, that he released her from theconvent, and soon after married her, without the consent of his father. 

Meanwhile the English found in Canute, the son and successor of Sweyn, an enemy no less terrible than the prince from whom death had so latelydelivered them. He ravaged the eastern coast with merciless fury, andput ashore all the English hostages at Sandwich, after having cut offtheir hands and noses. He was obliged, by the necessity of his affairs, to make a voyage to Denmark; but, returning soon after, he continued hisdepredations along the southern coast He even broke into the countiesof Dorset, Wilts, and Somerset where an army was assembled against him, under the command of Prince Edmond and Duke Edric. The latter stillcontinued his perfidious machinations, and after endeavoring in vain togot the prince into his power, he found means to disperse the army, andhe then openly deserted to Canute with forty vessels. {1015. }

Notwithstanding this misfortune, Edmond was not disconcerted; butassembling all the force of England, was in a condition to give battleto the enemy. The king had had such frequent experience of perfidy amonghis subjects, that he had lost all confidence in them: he remained atLondon, pretending sickness, but really from apprehensions that theyintended to buy their peace, by delivering him into the hands of hisenemies. The army called aloud for their sovereign to march at theirhead against the Danes; and, on his refusal to take the field, they wereso discouraged, that those vast preparations became ineffectual forthe defence of the kingdom. Edmond, deprived of all regular supplies tomaintain his soldiers, was obliged to commit equal ravages with thosewhich were practised by the Danes; and, after making some fruitlessexpeditions into the north, which had submitted entirely to Canute'spower, he retired to London, determined there to maintain to the lastextremity the small remains of English liberty. He here found everything in confusion by the death of the king, who expired after anunhappy and inglorious reign of thirty-five years. {1016. } He left twosons by his first marriage, Edmond, who succeeded him, and Edwy, whomCanute afterwards murdered. His two sons by the second marriage, Anredand Edward, were, immediately upon Ethelred's death, conveyed intoNormandy by Queen Emma. 

EDMOND IRONSIDE

This prince, who received the name of _Ironside_ from his hardyvalor, possessed courage and abilities sufficient to have prevented hiscountry from sinking into those calamities, but not to raise it fromthat abyss of misery into which it had already fallen. Among the othermisfortunes of the English, treachery and disaffection had crept inamong the nobility and prelates; and Edmond found no better expedientfor stopping the further progress of these fatal evils, than to leadhis army instantly into the field, and to employ them against thecommon enemy. After meeting with some success at Gillingnam, he preparedhimself to decide, in one general engagement, the fate of his crown:and at Scoerston, in the county of Glocester, he offered battle to theenemy, who were commanded by Canute and Edric. Fortune, in the beginningof the day, declared for him; but Edric, having cut off the head of oneOsmer, whose countenance resembled that of Edmond fixed it on a spear, carried it through the ranks in triumph, and called aloud to theEnglish, that it was time to fly; for, behold! the head of theirsovereign. And though Edmond, observing the consternation of the troops, took off his helmet, and showed himself to them, the utmost he couldgain by his activity and valor was to leave the victory undecided. Edricnow took a surer method to ruin him, by pretending to desert to him; andas Edmond was well acquainted with his power, and probably knew no otherof the chief nobility in whom he could repose more confidence, he wasobliged, notwithstanding the repeated perfidy of the man, to give hima considerable command in the army. A battle soon after ensued atAssington, in Essex; where Edric, flying in the beginning of theday, occasioned the total defeat of the English, followed by a greatslaughter of the nobility. The indefatigable Edmond, however, had stillresources. Assembling a new army at Glocester, he was again in conditionto dispute the field; when the Danish and English nobility, equallyharassed with those convulsions obliged their kings to come to acompromise, and to divide the kingdom between them by treaty. Canutereserved to himself the northern division, consisting of Mercia, EastAnglia, and Northumberland, which he had entirely subdued. The southernparts were left to Edmond. The prince survived the treaty about a month. He was murdered at Oxford by two of his chamberlains, accomplices ofEdric, who thereby made way for the succession of Canute the Dane to thecrown of England. 

CANUTE

{1017. } The English, who had been unable to defend their country, andmaintain their independency, under so active and brave a prince asEdmond, could after his death expect nothing but total subjection fromCanute, who, active and brave himself, and at the head of a great force, was ready to take advantage of the minority of Edwin and Edward, thetwo sons of Edmond. Yet this conqueror, who was commonly so littlescrupulous, showed himself anxious to cover his injustice underplausible pretences. Before he seized the dominions of the Englishprinces, he summoned a general assembly of the states, in order to fixthe succession of the kingdom. He here suborned some nobles to deposethat, in the treaty of Glocester it had been verbally agreed, either toname Canute, in case of Edmond's death, successor to his dominions, ortutor to hit children, (for historians vary in this particular;) andthat evidence, supported by the great power of Canute, determinedthe states immediately to put the Danish monarch in possession of thegovernment. Canute, jealous of the two princes, but sensible thathe should render himself extremely odious if he ordered them to bedespatched in England, sent them abroad to his ally, the king of Sweden, whom he desired, as soon as they arrived at his court, to free him, by their death, from a& farther anxiety. The Swedish monarch was toogenerous to comply with the request; but being afraid of drawing onhimself a quarrel with Canute, by protecting the young princes, hesent them to Solomon, king of Hungary, to be educated in his court. The elder, Edwin, was afterwards married to the sister of the king ofHungary; but the English prince dying without issue, Solomon gave hissister-in-law, Agatha, daughter of the emperor Henry the Second, in marriage to Edward, the younger brother; and she bore him Edgar, Atheling, Margaret, afterwards queen of Scotland, and Christina, whoretired into a convent. 

Canute, though he had reached the great point of his ambition inobtaining possession of the English crown, was obliged at first to makegreat sacrifices to it; and to gratify the chief of the nobility, bybestowing on them the most extensive governments and jurisdictions. Hecreated Thurkill earl or duke of East Anglia, (for these titles werethen nearly of the same import, ) Yric of Northumberland, and Edric ofMercia; reserving only to himself the administration of Wessex. Butseizing afterwards a favorable opportunity, he expelled Thurkill andYric from their governments, and banished them the kingdom; he put todeath many of the English nobility, on whose fidelity he could not rely, and whom he hated on account of their disloyalty to their native prince. And even the traitor Edric, having had the assurance to reproach himwith his services, was condemned to be executed, and his body to bethrown into the Thames; a suitable reward for his multiplied acts ofperfidy and rebellion. 

Canute also found himself obliged, in the beginning of his reign, to load the people with heavy taxes, in order to reward his Danishfollowers: he exacted from them at one time the sum of seventy-twothousand pounds; besides eleven thousand pounds which he levied onLondon alone. He was probably willing, from political motives, to mulctseverely that city, on account of the affection which it had borne toEdmond, and the resistance which it had made to the Danish power in twoobstinate sieges. [*] But these rigors were imputed to necessity, and Canute, like a wise prince, was determined that the English, nowdeprived of all their dangerous leaders, should be reconciled to theDanish yoke, by the justice and impartiality of his administration. Hesent back to Denmark as many of his followers as he could safely spare;he restored the Saxon customs in a general assembly of the states; hemade no distinction between Danes and English in the distribution ofjustice; and he took care, by a strict execution of law, to protectthe lives and properties of all his people. The Danes were graduallyincorporated with his new objects; and both were glad to obtain a littlerespite from those multiplied calamities, from which the one, no lessthan the other, had, in their fierce contest for power, experienced suchfatal consequences. 

The removal of Edmond's children into so distant a country as Hungary, was, next to their death, regarded by Canute as the greatest security tohis government: he had no further anxiety, except with regard to Alfredand Edward, who were protected and supported by their uncle Richard, duke of Normandy. Richard even fitted out a great armament, in order torestore the English princes to the throne of their ancestors; and thoughthe navy was dispersed by a storm, Canute saw the danger to which he wasexposed, from the enmity of so warlike a people as the Normans. In orderto acquire the friendship of the duke, he paid his addresses to QueenEmma, sister of that prince; and promised that he would leave thechildren, whom he should have by that marriage, in possession of thecrown of England. Richard complied with his demand, and sent over Emmato England, where she was soon after married to Canute. [**] The English, though they disapproved of her espousing the mortal enemy of her formerhusband and his family, were pleased to find at court a sovereign towhom they were accustomed, and who had already formed connections withthem; and thus Canute besides securing, by this marriage, the allianceof Normandy gradually acquired, by the same means, the confidence of hisown subjects. [***] The Norman prince did not long survive the marriageof Emma; and he left the inheritance of the duchy to his eldest sonof the same name; who, dying a year after him without children, wassucceeded by his brother Robert, a man of valor and abilities. 

 [* W. Malms, p. 72. In one of these sieges, Canute diverted the coarse of the Thames, and by that means brought his ships above London bridge. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 151. W. Malms, p. 73. ]

 [*** W. Malms, p. 73. Higden, p 275. ]

Canute, having settled his power in England beyond all danger of arevolution, made a voyage to Denmark, in order to resist the attacks ofthe king of Sweden; and he carried along with him a great body of theEnglish, under the command of Earl Godwin. This nobleman had here anopportunity of performing a service, by which he both reconciled theking's mind to the English nation, and gaining to himself the friendshipof his sovereign, laid the foundation of that immense fortune whichhe acquired to his family. He was stationed next the Swedish camp, andobserving a favorable opportunity, which he was obliged suddenlyto seize, he Attacked the enemy in the night, drove them from theirtrenches, threw them into disorder, pursued his advantage, and obtaineda decisive victory over them. Next morning, Canute, seeing the Englishcamp entirely abandoned, imagined that those disaffected troops haddeserted to the enemy: he was agreeably surprised to find that they wereat that time engaged in pursuit of the discomfited Swedes. He was sopleased with this success, and with the manner of obtaining it thathe bestowed his daughter in marriage upon Godwin, and treated him everafter with entire confidence and regard. 

{1028. } In another voyage, which he made afterwards to Denmark, Canuteattacked Norway, and expelling the just but unwarlike Olaus, keptpossession of his kingdom till the death of that prince. He had now byhis conquests and valor attained the utmost height of grandeur: havingleisure from wars and intrigues, he felt the unsatisfactory nature ofall human enjoyments; and equally weary of the glories and turmoilsof this life, he began to cast his view towards that future existence, which it is so natural for the human mind, whether satiated byprosperity or disgusted with adversity, to make the object of itsattention. Unfortunately, the spirit which prevailed in that age gave awrong direction to his devotion: instead of making compensation to thosewhom he had injured by his former acts of violence, he employed himselfentirely in those exercises of piety which the monks represented as themost meritorious. He built churches, he endowed monasteries, he enrichedthe ecclesiastics, and he bestowed revenues for the support of chantriesat Assington and other places; where he appointed prayers to be said forthe souls of those who had there fallen in battle against him. He evenundertook a pilgrimage to Rome, where he resided a considerable time:besides obtaining from the pope some privileges for the English schoolerected there, he engaged all the princes, through whose dominions hewas obliged to pass, to desist from those heavy impositions and tollswhich they were accustomed to exact from the English pilgrims. Bythis spirit of devotion no less than by his equitable and politicadministration, he gained, in a good measure, the affections of hissubjects. 

Canute, the greatest and most powerful monarch of his time, sovereignof Denmark and Norway, as well as of England, could not fail of meetingwith adulation from his courtiers; a tribute which is liberally paideven to the meanest and weakest princes. Some of his flatterers breakingout one day in admiration of his grandeur, exclaimed that every thingwas possible for him; upon which the monarch, it is said, ordered hischair to be set on the sea-shore, while the tide was rising; and as thewaters approached, he commanded them to retire, and to obey the voiceof him who was lord of the ocean. He feigned to sit some time inexpectation of their submission; but when the sea still advanced towardshim, and began to wash him with its billows, he turned to his courtiers, and remarked to them, that every creature in the universe was feeble andimpotent, and that power resided with one being alone, in whose handswere all the elements of nature; who could say to the ocean, "Thus farshalt thou go, and no farther;" and who could level with his nod themost towering piles of human pride and ambition. 

{1031. } The only memorable action which Canute performed after hisreturn from Rome, was an expedition against Malcolm, king of Scotland. During the reign of Ethelred, a tax of a shilling a hide had been imposedon all the lands of England. It was commonly called 'danegelt;' becausethe revenue bar been employed either in buying peace with the Danes, orin making preparations against the inroads of that hostile nation. Thatmonarch had required that the same tax should be paid by Cumberland, which was held by the Scots; but Malcolm a warlike prince, told him, that as he was always able to repulse the Danes by his own power, hewould neither submit to buy peace of his enemies, nor pay others forresisting them. Ethelred, offended at this reply, which contained asecret reproach on his own conduct, undertook an expedition againstCumberland; but though he committed ravages upon the country, he couldnever bring Malcolm to a temper more humble or submissive. Canute, after his accession, summoned the Scottish king to acknowledge himselfa vassal for Cumberland to the crown of England; but Malcolm refusedcompliance, on pretence that he owed homage to those princes only whoinherited that kingdom by right of blood. Canute was not of a temper tobear this insult; and the king of Scotland soon found, that the sceptrewas in very different hands from those of the feeble and irresoluteEthelred. Upon Canute's appearing on the frontiers with a formidablearmy Malcolm agreed that his grandson and heir, Duncan, whom he put inpossession of Cumberland, should make the submissions required, and thatthe heirs of Scotland should always acknowledge themselves vassals toEngland for that province. [*] Canute passed four years in peace afterthis enterprise, and he died at Shaftesbury;[**] leaving three sons, Sweyn, Harold, and Hardicanute. Sweyn, whom he had by his first marriagewith Alfwen, daughter of the earl of Hampshire, was crowned in Norway:Hardicanute, whom Emma had borne him, was in possession of Denmark:Harold, who was of the same marriage with Sweyn, was at that time inEngland. 

 [* W. Malms, p. 74. ]

 [** Chron Sax p. 154. W. Malms, p. 76]

HAROLD HAREFOOT

{1035. } Though Canute, in his treaty with Richard, duke of Normandy, had stipulated that his children by Emma should succeed to the crownof England, he had either considered himself as released from thatengagement by the death of Richard, or esteemed it dangerous to leave anunsettled and newly-conquered kingdom in the hands of so young a princeas Hardicanute: he therefore appointed, by his will, Harold successorto the crown. This prince was besides present, to maintain his claim; hewas favored by all the Danes; and he got immediately possession of hisfather's treasures, which might be equally useful, whether he found itnecessary to proceed by force or intrigue, in insuring his succession. On the other hand, Hardicanute had the suffrages of the English, who, on account of his being from among them of Queen Emma, regarded him astheir countryman; he was favored by the articles of treaty with the dukeof Normandy; and above all, his party was espoused by Earl Godwin, themost powerful nobleman in the kingdom, especially in the province ofWessex, the chief seat of the ancient English. Affairs were likely toterminate in a civil war; when, by the interposition of the nobilityof both parties, a compromise was made; and it was agreed that Haroldshould enjoy, together with London, all the provinces north of theThames, while the possession of the south should remain to Hardicanute:and till that prince should appear and take possession of his dominions, Emma fixed her residence at Winchester, and established her authorityover her son's share of the partition. 

Meanwhile Robert, duke of Normandy, died in a pilgrimage to the HolyLand, and being succeeded by a son, yet a minor, the two Englishprinces, Alfred and Edward, who found no longer any countenance orprotection in that country, gladly embraced the opportunity of paying avisit, with a numerous retinue, to their mother, Emma, who seemed to beplaced in a state of so much power and splendor at Winchester. But theface of affairs soon wore a melancholy aspect. Earl Godwin had beengained by the arts of Harold, who promised to espouse the daughter ofthat nobleman; and while the treaty was yet a secret, these two tyrantslaid a plan for the destruction of the English princes. Alfred wasinvited to London by Harold with many professions of friendship; butwhen he had reached Guilford, he was set upon by Godwin's vassals, aboutsix hundred of his train were murdered in the most cruel manner, hehimself was taken prisoner, his eyes were put out, and he was conductedto the monastery of Ely, where he died soon after. [*] Edward and Emma, apprised of the fate which was awaiting them, fled beyond sea, theformer into Normandy, the latter into Flanders; while Harold, triumphingin his bloody policy, took possession, without resistance, of all thedominions assigned to his brother. 

 [* H. Hunting, p. 365. Ypod. Neust. P. 434. Hoveden, p. 438. Chron. Mailr. P. 156. Higden, p. 277. Chron. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 39. Sim. Dunelm. P. 179. Abbas Rieval. P. 366, 374. Brompton, p. 935. Gul. Gemet. Lib. Vii. Cap. 11. M. West. P. 209 Flor. Wigorn, p. 622. Alured. Beverl. P. 118. ]

This is the only memorable action performed, during a reign of fouryears, by this prince, who gave so bad a specimen of his character, andwhose bodily accomplishments alone are known to us by his appellationof _Harefoot_, which he acquired from his agility in runningand walking. He died on the 14th of April, 1039, little regretted oresteemed by his subjects, and left the succession open to his brotherHardicanute. 

HARDICANUTE

{1039. } Hardicanute, or Canute the hardy, that is, the robust, (forhe top is chiefly known by his bodily accomplishments, ) though, byremaining so long in Denmark, he had been deprived of his share in thepartition of the kingdom, had not abandoned his pretensions; and he haddetermined, before Harold's death, to recover by arms what he had lost, either by his own negligence or by the necessity of his affairs. Onpretence of paying a visit to the queen dowager in Flanders, ne hadassembled a fleet of sixty sail, and was preparing to make a descent onEngland, when intelligence of his brother's death induced him tosail immediately to London, where he was received in triumph, andacknowledged king without opposition. 

The first act of Hardicanute's government afforded his subjects abad prognostic of his future conduct. He was so enraged at Harold fordepriving him of his share of the kingdom, and for the cruel treatmentof his brother Alfred, that in an impotent desire of revenge againstthe dead, he ordered his body to be dug up, and to be thrown into theThames; and when it was found by some fishermen, and buried in London, he ordered it again to be dug up, and to be thrown again into theriver; but it was fished up a second time, and then interred with greatsecrecy. Godwin, equally servile and insolent, submitted to be hisinstrument in this unnatural and brutal action. 

That nobleman knew that he was universally believed to have been anaccomplice in the barbarity exercised on Alfred, and that he was on thataccount obnoxious to Hardicanute; and perhaps he hoped, by displayingthis rage against Harold's memory, to justify himself from having hadany participation in his counsels. But Prince Edward, being invitedover by the king, immediately on his appearance preferred an accusationagainst Godwin for the murder of Alfred, and demanded justice for thatcrime. Godwin, in order to appease the king; made him a magnificentpresent of a galley with a gilt stern, rowed by fourscore men, who woreeach of them a gold bracelet on his arm, weighing sixteen ounces, and were armed and clothed in the most sumptuous manner. Hardicanute, pleased with the splendor of this spectacle, quickly forgot hisbrother's murder; and on Godwin's swearing that he was innocent of thecrime, he allowed him to be acquitted. 

Though Hardicanute before his accession had been called over by thevows of the English, he soon lost the affections of the nation by hismisconduct; but nothing appeared more grievous to them than his renewingthe imposition of danegelt, and obliging the nation to pay a great sumof money to the fleet which brought him from Denmark. The discontentsran high in many places: in Worcester the populace rose, and put todeath two of the collectors. The king, enraged at this opposition, sworevengeance against the city, and ordered three noblemen, Godwin, duke ofWessex, Siward, duke of Northumberland, and Leofric, duke of Mercia, toexecute his menaces with the utmost rigor. They were obliged to set fireto the city, and deliver it up to be plundered by their soldiers; butthey saved the lives of the inhabitants, whom they confined in a smallisland of the Severn, called Beverey, till, by their intercession, theywere able to appease the king, and obtain the pardon of the supplicants. 

This violent government was of short duration. Hardicanute died in twoyears after his accession, at the nuptials of a Danish lord, which hehad honored with his presence. His usual habits of intemperance were sowell known, that, notwithstanding his robust constitution, his suddendeath gave as little surprise as it did sorrow to his subjects. 

EDWARD THE CONFESSOR

{1041. } The English, on the death of Hardicanute, saw a favorableopportunity for recovering their liberty, and for shaking off the Danishyoke, under which they had so long labored. Sweyn, king of Norway, theeldest son of Canute, was absent; and as the two last kings had diedwithout issue, none of that race presented himself, nor any whom theDanes could support as successor to the throne. Prince Edward wasfortunately at court on his brother's demise; and though the descendantsof Edmond Ironside were the true heirs of the Saxon family, yet theirabsence in so remote a country as Hungary, appeared a sufficient reasonfor their exclusion to a people, like the English, so little accustomedto observe a regular order in the succession of their monarchs. Alldelays might be dangerous, and the present occasion must hastily beembraced, while the Danes, without concert, without a leader, astonishedat the present incident, and anxious only for their personal safety, durst not oppose the united voice of the nation. 

But this concurrence of circumstances in favor of Edward might havefailed of its effect, had his succession been opposed by Godwin, whosepower, alliances, and abilities gave him a great influence at all times, especially amidst those sudden opportunities which always attenda revolution of government, and which, either seized or neglected, commonly prove decisive. There were opposite reasons, which dividedmen's hopes and fears with regard to Godwin's conduct. On the one hand, the credit of that nobleman lay chiefly in Wessex, which was almostentirely inhabited by English; it was therefore presumed that he wouldsecond the wishes of that people in restoring the Saxon line, and inhumbling the Danes, from whom he, as well as they, had reason to dread, as they had already felt, the most grievous oppressions. On the otherhand, there subsisted a declared animosity between Edward and Godwin, on account of Alfred's murder; of which the latter had publicly beenaccused by the prince, and which he might believe so deep an offence, ascould never, on account of any subsequent merits, be sincerely pardoned. But their common friends here interposed; and representing the necessityof their good correspondence, obliged them to lay aside all jealousy andrancor, and concur in restoring liberty to their native country. Godwinonly stipulated that Edward, as a pledge of his sincere reconciliation, should promise to marry his daughter Editha; and having fortifiedhimself by this alliance, he summoned a general council at Gillingham, and prepared every measure for securing the succession to Edward. TheEnglish were unanimous and zealous in their resolutions; the Danes weredivided and dispirited: any small opposition, which appeared in thisassembly, was browbeaten and suppressed; and Edward was crowned king, with every Demonstration of duty and affection. 

The triumph of the English upon this signal and decisive advantage, wasat first attended with some insult and violence against the Danes, butthe king, by the mildness of his character, soon reconciled the latterto his administration, and the distinction between the two nationsgradually disappeared. The Danes were interspersed with the Englishin most of the provinces; they spoke nearly the same language; theydiffered little in their manners and laws; domestic dissensions inDenmark prevented, for some years, any powerful invasion from thencewhich might awaken past animosities; and as the Norman conquest, whichensued soon after, reduced both nations to equal subjection, there isno further mention in history of any difference between them. The joy, however, of their present deliverance made such impression on the mindsof the English, that they instituted an annual festival for celebratingthat great event; and it was observed in some counties, even to the timeof Spelman. [*]

 [* Spelm. Glossary in verbo Hocday. ]

The popularity which Edward enjoyed on his accession was not destroyedby the first act of his administration, his resuming all the grants ofhis immediate predecessors; an attempt which is commonly attended withthe most dangerous consequences. The poverty of the crown convinced thenation that this act of violence was become absolutely necessary; and asthe loss fell chiefly on the Danes, who had obtained large grantsfrom the late kings, their countrymen, on account of their servicesin subduing the kingdom, the English were rather pleased to see themreduced to their primitive poverty. The king's severity also towards hismother, the queen dowager, though exposed to some more censure, met notwith very, general disapprobation. He had hitherto lived on indifferentterms with that princess; he accused her of neglecting him and hisbrother during their adverse fortune;[**] he remarked that, as thesuperior qualities of Canute, and his better treatment of her, had madeher entirely indifferent to the memory of Etheldred, she also gavethe preference to her children of the second bed, and always regardedHardicanute as her favorite. 

 [** Anglia Sacra, vol. I. P. 237]

The same reasons had probably made her unpopular in England; and thoughher benefactions to the monks obtained her the favor of that order, thenation was not, in general, displeased to see her stripped by Edwardof immense treasures which she had amassed. He confined her, during theremainder of her life, in a monastery at Winchester; but carried hisrigor against her no farther. The stories of his accusing her ofa participation in her son Alfred's murder, and of a criminalcorrespondence with the bishop of Winchester, and also of her justifyingherself by treading barefoot, without receiving any hurt, over nineburning ploughshares, were the inventions of the monkish historians, andwere propagated and believed from the silly wonder of posterity. [*]

 [* Higden, p. 277. ]

The English flattered themselves that, by the accession of Edward, theywere delivered forever from the dominion of foreigners; but they soonfound that this evil was not yet entirely removed. The king had beeneducated in Normandy, and had contracted many intimacies with thenatives of that country, as well as an affection for their manners. [**]The court of England was soon filled with Normans, who, beingdistinguished both by the favor of Edward, and by a degree ofcultivation superior to that which was attained by the English in thoseages, soon rendered their language, customs, and laws fashionable in thekingdom. The study of the French tongue became general among the people. The courtiers affected to imitate that nation in their dress, equipage, and entertainments; even the lawyers employed a foreign languagein their deeds and papers;[***] but above all, the church felt theinfluence and dominion of those strangers: Ulf and William, two Normans, who had formerly been the king's chaplains, were created bishops ofDorchester and London. Robert, a Norman also, was promoted to the see ofCanterbury, [****] and always enjoyed the highest favor of his master, of which his abilities rendered him not unworthy. And though the king'sprudence, or his want of authority, made him confer almost all the civiland military employments on the natives, the ecclesiastical prefermentsfell often to the share of the Normans; and as the latter possessedEdward's confidence, they had secretly a great influence on publicaffairs, and excited the jealousy of the English, particularly of EarlGodwin. [*****]

 [** Ingulph. P. 62. ]

 [*** Ingulph. P. 62. ]

 [**** Chron. Sax. P. 161. ]

 [***** W. Malms, p. 80. ]

This powerful nobleman, besides being duke or earl of Wessex, had thecounties of Kent and Sussex annexed to his government. His eldest son, Sweyn, possessed the same authority in the counties of Oxford, Berks, Glocester, and Hereford; and Harold, his second son, was duke of EastAnglia, and at the same time governor of Essex. The great authority ofthis family was supported by immense possessions and powerful alliances;and the abilities, as well as ambition of Godwin himself, contributed torender it still more dangerous. A prince of greater capacity and vigorthan Edward would have found it difficult to support the dignity of thecrown under such circumstances; and as the haughty temper of Godwinmade him often forget the respect due to his prince Edward'sanimosity against him was grounded on personal as well as politicalconsiderations, on recent as well as more ancient injuries. The king, inpursuance of his engagements, had indeed married Editha, the daughterof Godwin;[*] but this alliance became a fresh source of enmity betweenthem. Edward's hatred of the father was transferred to that princess-;and Editha, though possessed of many amiable accomplishments, couldnever acquire the confidence and affection of her husband. It is evenpretended, that, during the whole course of her life, he abstained fromall commerce of love with her; and such was the absurd admiration paidto an inviolable chastity during those ages, that his conduct in thisparticular is highly celebrated by the monkish historians, and greatlycontributed to his acquiring the title of saint and confessor[**]{1048. }

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 157. ]

 [** W. Malms, p. 80, Higden, p. 277. Abbae Rieval. P. 366, 377 M. West. P. 221. Chron. Thorn. Wykes, p. 21, Anglia Sacra, vol i. P, 241. ]

The most popular pretence on which Godwin could ground his disaffectionto the king and his administration, was to complain of the influenceof the Normans in the government; and a declared opposition had thencearisen between him and these favorites. It was not long before thisanimosity broke out into action. Eustace, count of Boulogne, having paida visit to the king, passed by Dover in his return: one of his train, being refused entrance to a lodging, which had been assigned him, attempted to make his way by force, and in the contest he wounded themaster of the house. The inhabitants revenged this insult by the deathof the stranger; the count and his train took arms, and murdered thewounded townsman; a tumult ensued; near twenty persons were killed oneach side; and Eustace, being overpowered by numbers, was obliged tosave his life by flight from the fury of the populace. 

He hurried immediately to court, and complained of tne usage he hadmet with: the king entered zealously into the quarrel, and was highlydispleased that a stranger of such distinction, whom he had invitedover to his court, should, without any just cause, as he believed, havefelt so sensibly the insolence and animosity of his people. He gaveorders to Godwin, in whose government Dover lay, to repair immediatelyto the place, and to punish the inhabitants for tne crime; but Godwin, who desired rather to encourage than express the popular discontentsagainst foreigners, refused obedience, and endeavored to throw the wholeblame of the riot on the count of Boulogne and his retinue. [*] Edward, touched in so sensible a point, saw the necessity of exerting theroyal authority; and he threatened Godwin, if he persisted in hisdisobedience, to make him feel the utmost effects of his resentment. 

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 163. W. Malms, p. 81. Higden, p. 279]

The earl, perceiving a rupture to be unavoidable, and pleased to embarkin a cause where it was likely he should be supported by his countrymen, made preparations for his own defence, or rather for an attack onEdward. Under pretence of repressing some disorders on the Welshfrontier, he secretly assembled a great army, and was approaching theking, who resided, without any military force, and without suspicion, atGlocester. [**]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 163. W. Mabus. P. 81. ]

Edward applied for protection to Siward, duke of Northumberland, andLeofric, duke of Mercia, two powerful noblemen, whose jealousy ofGodwin's greatness, as well as their duty to the crown, engaged them todefend the king in this extremity. They hastened to him with such oftheir followers as they could assemble on a sudden; and finding thedanger much greater than they had at first apprehended, they issuedorders for mustering all the forces within their respective governments, and for marching them without delay to the defence of the king'sperson and authority. Edward, meanwhile, endeavored to gain time bynegotiation; while Godwin, who thought the king entirely in his power, and who was willing to save appearances, fell into the snare; and notsensible that he ought to have no further reserve after he had proceededso far, he lost the favorable opportunity of rendering himself master ofthe government. 

The English, though they had no high idea of Edward's vigor andcapacity, bore him great affection on account of his humanity, justice, and piety, as well as the long race of their native kings, from whom hewas descended; and they hastened from all quarters to defend him fromthe present danger. Hia army was now so considerable, that he venturedto take the field; and marching to London, he summoned a great councilto judge of the rebellion of Godwin and his sons. These noblemenpretended at first that they were willing to stand their trial; buthaving in vain endeavored to make their adherents persist in rebellion, they offered to come to London, provided they might receive hostages fortheir safety: this proposal being rejected, they were obliged to disbandthe remains of their forces, and have recourse to flight. Baldwin, earlof Flanders, gave protection to Godwin and his three sons, Gurth, Sweyn, and Tosti, the latter of whom had married the daughter of that prince;Harold and Leofwin, two others of his sons, took shelter in Ireland. Theestates of the father and sons were confiscated; their governments weregiven to others; Queen Editha was confined in a monastery at Warewel;and the greatness of this family, once so formidable, seemed now to betotally supplanted and overthrown But Godwin had fixed his authority ontoo firm a basis, and he was too strongly supported by alliances bothforeign and domestic, not to occasion further disturbances, and make newefforts for his reëstablishment. {1052. } The earl of Flanders permittedhim to purchase and hire ships within his harbors; and Godwin, havingmanned them with his followers, and with freebooters of all nations, putto sea, and attempted to make a descent at Sandwich. The king, informedof his preparations, had equipped a considerable fleet, much superior tothat of the enemy; and the earl hastily, before their appearance, madehis retreat into the Flemish harbors. [*] The English court, allured bythe present security, and destitute of all vigorous counsels, allowedthe seamen to disband, and the fleet to go to decay;[**] while Godwin, expecting this event, kept his men in readiness for action. He put tosea immediately, and sailed to the Isle of Wight, where he was joined byHarold with a squadron, which that nobleman had collected in Ireland. He was now master of the sea; and entering every harbor in the southerncoast, he seized all the ships, [***] and summoned his followers in thosecounties, which had so long been subject to his government, to assisthim in procuring justice to himself his family, and his country, againstthe tyranny of foreigners. 

 [* Sim. Dunelm. P. 186. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 166]

 [*** Chron. Sax. P. 166. ]

Reënforced by great numbers from all quarters, he entered the Thames;and appearing before London, threw every thing into confusion. The kingalone seemed resolute to defend himself to the last extremity; but theinterposition of the English nobility, many of whom favored Godwin'spretensions, made Edward hearken to terms of accommodation; and thefeigned humility of the earl, who disclaimed all intentions of offeringviolence to his sovereign, and desired only to justify himself by afair and open trial, paved the way for his more easy admission. It wasstipulated that he should give hostages for his good behavior, and thatthe primate and all the foreigners should be banished: by this treatythe present danger of a civil war was obviated, but the authority of thecrown was considerably impaired, or rather entirely annihilated. Edward, sensible that he had not power sufficient to secure Godwin's hostages inEngland, sent them over to his kinsman, the young duke of Normandy. 

Godwin's death, which happened soon after, while he was sitting at tablewith the king, prevented him from further establishing the authoritywhich he had acquired, and from reducing Edward to still greatersubjection. [*] [5] He was succeeded in the government of Wessex, Sussex, Kent, and Essex, and in the office of steward of the household, a placeof great power, by his son Harold, who was actuated by an ambitionequal to that of his father, and was superior to him in address, ininsinuation, and in virtue. By a modest and gentle demeanor, he acquiredthe good will of Edward; at least, softened that hatred which the princehad so long borne his family;[**] and gaining every day new partisans byhis bounty and affability, he proceeded, in a more silent, and thereforea more dangerous manner, to the increase of his authority. The king, who had not sufficient vigor directly to oppose his progress, knew ofno other expedient than that hazardous one of raising him a rival in thefamily of Leofric, duke of Mercia, whose son Algar was invested with thegovernment of East Anglia, which, before the banishment of Harold, hadbelonged to the latter nobleman. But this policy, of balancing oppositeparties, required a more steady hand to manage it than that of Edward, and naturally produced faction and even civil broils, among nobles ofsuch mighty and independent authority. 

 [* See note E, at the end of the volume. ]

 [** Brompton, p. 918]

Algar was soon after expelled his government by the intrigues and powerof Harold; but being protected by Griffith, prince of Wales, who hadmarried his daughter, as well as by the power of his father Leofric, heobliged Harold to submit to an accommodation, and was reinstated in thegovernment of East Anglia. This peace was not of long duration: Harold, taking advantage of Leofric's death, which happened soon after, expelledAlgar anew, and banished him the kingdom: and though that noblemanmade a fresh irruption into East Anglia with an army of Norwegians, andoverran the country, his death soon freed Harold from the pretensionsof so dangerous a rival. Edward, the eldest son of Algar, was indeedadvanced to the government of Mercia; but the balance which the kingdesired to establish between those potent families, was wholly lost, andthe influence of Harold greatly preponderated. 

{1055. } The death of Siward, duke of Northumberland, made the way stillmore open to the ambition of that nobleman. Siward, besides his othermerits, had acquired honor to England by his successful conduct in theonly foreign enterprise undertaken during the reign of Edward. Duncan, king of Scotland, was a prince of a gentle disposition, but possessednot the genius requisite for governing a country so turbulent, and somuch infested by the intrigues and animosities of the great. Macbeth, a powerful nobleman, and nearly allied to the crown, not content withcurbing the king's authority, carried still farther his pestilentambition: he put his sovereign to death; chased Malcolm Kenmore, his sonand heir, into England, and usurped the crown. Siward, whose daughterwas married to Duncan, embraced, by Edward's orders, the protection ofthis distressed family: he marched an army into Scotland; and havingdefeated and killed Macbeth in battle, he restored Malcolm to the throneof his ancestors. [*]

 [* W. Malms, p. 79. Hoveden, p. 443. Chron. Mailr. P. 158 Buchanan, p, 115, edit. 1715]. 

This service, added to his former connections with the royal family ofScotland, brought a great accession to the authority of Siward in thenorth; but as he had lost his eldest son, Osberne, in the action withMacbeth, it proved in the issue fatal to his family. His second son, Walthoef, appeared, on his father's death, too young to be intrustedwith the government of Northumberland; and Harold's influence obtainedthat dukedom for his own brother Tosti. 

There are two circumstances related of Siward, which discover his highsense of honor, and his martial disposition. When intelligence wasbrought him of his son Osberne's death, he was inconsolable; till heheard that the wound was received in the breast, and that he hadbehaved with great gallantry in the action. When he found his own deathapproaching, he ordered his servants to clothe him in a complete suitof armor; and sitting erect on the couch, with a spear in his hand, declared, that in that posture, the only one worthy of a warrior, hewould patiently await the fatal moment. 

The king, now worn out with cares and infirmities, felt himself faradvanced in the decline of life; and having no issue himself, began tothink of appointing a successor to the kingdom. He sent a deputation toHungary, to invite over his nephew Edward, son of his elder brother, andthe only remaining heir of the Saxon line. That prince, whose successionto the crown would have been easy and undisputed, came to England withhis children, Edgar, surnamed Atheling, Margaret, and Christina; but hisdeath, which happened a few days after his arrival, threw the king intonew difficulties. He saw that the great power and ambition of Harold hadtempted him to think of obtaining possession of the throne on the firstvacancy, and that Edgar, on account of his youth and inexperience, wasvery unfit to oppose the pretensions of so popular and enterprising arival. The animosity which he had long borne to Earl Godwin, made himaverse to the succession of his son; and he could not, without extremereluctance, think of an increase of grandeur to a family which had risenon the ruins of royal authority, and which, by the murder of Alfred, hisbrother, had contributed so much to the weakening of the Saxon line. Inthis uncertainty, he secretly cast his eye towards his kinsman, Williamduke of Normandy, as the only person whose power, and reputation, andcapacity, could support any destination which he might make in hisfavor, to the exclusion of Harold and his family. [*]

 [* Irgulph. P. 68]

This famous prince was natural son of Robert, duke of Normandy, byHarlotta, daughter of a tanner in Falaise, [**] and was very earlyestablished in that grandeur, from which his birth seemed to have sethim at so great a distance. 

 [** Brompton, p. 910. ]

While he was but nine years of age, his father had resolved to undertakea pilgrimage to Jerusalem; a fashionable act of devotion, which hadtaken place of the pilgrimages to Rome, and which, as it was attendedwith more difficulty and danger, and carried those religious adventurersto the first sources of Christianity, appeared to them more meritorious. Before his departure, he assembled the states of the duchy; and informing them of his design, he engaged them to swear allegiance to hisnatural son, William, whom, as he had no legitimate issue, he intended, in case he should die in the pilgrimage, to leave successor to hisdominions. [*] As he was a prudent prince, he could not but foreseethe great inconveniencies which must attend this journey, and thissettlement of his succession; arising from the perpetual turbulencyof the great, the claims of other branches of the ducal family andthe power of the French monarch; but all these considerations weresurmounted by the prevailing zeal for pilgrimages;[**] and probably themore important they were, the more would Robert exult in sacrificingthem to what he imagined to be his religious duty. 

 [* W. Malms, p. 95. ]

 [** Ypod. Neust. P. 452. ]

This prince, as he had apprehended, died in his pilgrimage; and theminority of his son was attended with all those disorders which werealmost unavoidable in that situation. The licentious nobles, freed fromthe awe of sovereign authority, broke out into personal animositiesagainst each other, and made the whole country a scene of war anddevastation. [***] Roger, count of Toni, and Alain, count of Brittany, advanced claims to the dominion of the state; and Henry the First kingof France, thought the opportunity favorable for reducing the power ofa vassal, who had originally acquired his settlement in so violentand invidious a manner, and who had long appeared formidable to hissovereign. [****] The regency established by Robert encountered greatdifficulties in supporting the government under his complication ofdangers; and the young prince, when he came to maturity, found himselfreduced to a very low condition. But the great qualities which he soondisplayed in the field and in the cabinet, gave encouragement to hisfriends, and struck a terror into his enemies. He opposed himself on allsides against his rebellious subjects, and against foreign invaders; andby his valor and conduct prevailed in every action. 

 [*** Malms, p. 95. Gul. Gemet. Lib. Vii. Cap. 1]

 [**** W. Malms, p. 97. ]

He obliged the French king to grant him peace on reasonable terms; heexpelled all pretenders to the sovereignty; and he reduced his turbulentbarons to pay submission to his authority, and to suspend their mutualanimosities. The natural severity of his temper appeared in a rigorousadministration of justice; and having found the happy effects of thisplan of government, without which the laws in those ages became totallyimpotent, he regarded it as a fixed maxim, that an inflexible conductwas the first duty of a sovereign. 

The tranquillity which he had established in his dominions, had givenWilliam leisure to pay a visit to the king of England, during the timeof Godwin's banishment; and he was received in a manner suitable to thegreat reputation which he had acquired, to the relation by which he wasconnected with Edward, and to the obligations which that prince owed tohis family. [*] On the return of Godwin, and the expulsion of the Normanfavorites, Robert, archbishop of Canterbury, had, before his departure, persuaded Edward to think of adopting William as his successor;a counsel which was favored by the king's aversion to Godwin, hisprepossessions for the Normans, and his esteem of the duke. Thatprelate, therefore, received a commission to inform William of theking's intentions in his favor; and he was the first person that openedthe mind of the prince to entertain those ambitious hopes. [**] ButEdward, irresolute and feeble in his purpose, finding that the Englishwould more easily acquiesce in the restoration of the Saxon line, andin the mean time invited his brother's descendants from Hungary, with aview of having them recognized heirs to the crown. 

 [* Hoveden, p. 442. Ingulph. P, 65. Chron. Mailr. P. 157 Higden, p. 279. ]

 [** Ingulph. P. 68. Gul. Gemet. Lib. Vii. Cap. 31 Order Vitalis. P. 492. ]

The death of his nephew, and the inexperience and unpromising qualitiesof young Edgar, made him resume his former intentions in favor of theduke of Normandy; though his aversion to hazardous enterprises engagedhim to postpone the execution, and even to keep his purpose secret fromall his ministers. 

Harold, meanwhile, proceeded after a more open manner, in increasing hispopularity, in establishing his power, and in preparing the way forhis advancement on the first vacancy; an event which, from the age andinfirmities of the king, appeared not very distant. But there was stillan obstacle, which it was requisite for him previously to overcome. EarlGodwin, when restored to his power and fortune, had given hostages forhis good behavior; and among the rest one son and one grandson, whomEdward, for greater security, as has been related, had consigned to thecustody of the duke of Normandy. Harold, though not aware of the duke'sbeing his competitor, was uneasy that such near relations should bedetained prisoners in a foreign country; and he was afraid lest Williamshould, in favor of Edgar, retain these pledges as a check on theambition of any other pretender. He represented, therefore, to the kinghis unfeigned submission to royal authority, his steady duty to hisprince, and the little necessity there was, after such a uniform trialof his obedience, to detain any longer those hostages, who had beenrequired on the first composing of civil discords. By these topics, enforced by his great power, he extorted the king's consent to releasethem; and in order to effect his purpose, he immediately proceeded, witha numerous retinue, on his journey to Normandy. A tempest drove himon the territory of Guy, count of Ponthieu, who, being informed of hisquality, immediately detained him prisoner, and demanded an exorbitantsum for his ransom. Harold found means to convey intelligence of hissituation to the duke of Normandy; and represented that, while he wasproceeding to his court, in execution of a commission from the kingof England, he had met with this harsh treatment from the mercenarydisposition of the count of Ponthieu. 

William was immediately sensible of the importance of the incident. Heforesaw that, if he could once gain Harold, either by favors or menaces, his way to the throne of England would be open, and Edward would meetwith no further obstacle in executing the favorable intentions which hehad entertained in his behalf. He sent, therefore, a messenger to Guy, in order to demand the liberty of his prisoner; and that nobleman, notdaring to refuse so great a prince, put Harold into the hands of theNorman, who conducted him to Rouen. William received him with everydemonstration of respect and friendship; and after showing himselfdisposed to comply with his desire in delivering up the hostages, he look an opportunity of disclosing to him the great secret of hispretensions to the crown of England, and of the will which Edwardintended to make in his favor. He desired the assistance of Harold inperfecting that design; he made professions of the utmost gratitude inreturn for so great an obligation; he promised that the present grandeurof Harold's family, which supported itself with difficulty under thejealousy and hatred of Edward, should receive new increase from asuccessor, who would be so greatly beholden to him for his advancementHarold was surprised at this declaration of the duke; but being sensiblethat he should never recover his own liberty, much less that of hisbrother and nephew, if he refused the demand, he feigned a compliancewith William, renounced all hopes of the crown for himself, andprofessed his sincere intention of supporting the will of Edward, andseconding the ptetensions of the duke of Normandy. William, to bind himfaster to his interests, besides offering him one of his daughtersin marriage, required him to take an oath that, he would fulfil hispromises; and in order to render the oath more obligatory, he employedan artifice well suited to the ignorance and superstition of the age. Hesecretly conveyed under the altar, on which Harold agreed to swear, therelics of some of the most revered martyrs; and when Harold had takenthe oath, he showed him the relics, and admonished him to observereligiously an engagement which had been ratified by so tremendous asanction. [*] The English nobleman was astonished; but dissembling hisconcern, he renewed the same professions, and was dismissed with all themarks of mutual confidence by the duke of Normandy. 

 [* Wace, p. 459, 460. MS. Penes Carte, p. 354. W. Malms, p. 93 H Hunting, p 366. Hoveden, p. 449. Brompton, p. 947. ]

When Harold found himself at liberty, his ambition suggested casuistrysufficient to justify to him the violation of an oath, which had beenextorted from him by fear, and which, if fulfilled, might be attendedwith the subjection of his native country to a foreign power. Hecontinued still to practise every art of popularity; to increase thenumber of his partisans; to reconcile the minds of the English to theidea of his succession; to revive their hatred of the Normans; and, byan ostentation of his power and influence, to deter the timorous Edwardfrom executing his intended destination in favor of William. Fortune, about this time, threw two incidents in his way, by which he was enabledto acquire general favor, and to increase the character, which he hadalready attained, of virtue and abilities. 

The Welsh, though a less formidable enemy than the Danes, had long beenaccustomed to infest the western borders; and after committing spoilon the low countries, they usually made a hasty retreat into theirmountains, where they were sheltered from the pursuit of their enemies, and were ready to seize the first favorable opportunity of renewingtheir depredations. Griffith, the reigning prince, had greatlydistinguished himself in those incursions; and his name had become soterrible to the English, that Harold found he could do nothing moreacceptable to the public, and more honorable for himself, thanthe suppressing of so dangerous an enemy. He formed the plan of anexpedition against Wales; and having prepared some light-armed foot topursue the natives in their fastnesses, some cavalry to scour the opencountry, and a squadron of ships to attack the sea-coast, he employed atonce all these forces against the Welsh, prosecuted his advantages withvigor, made no intermission in his assaults, and at last reducedthe enemy to such distress, that, in order to prevent their totaldestruction, they made a sacrifice of their prince, whose head theycut off, and sent to Harold; and they were content to receive as theirsovereigns two Welsh noblemen appointed by Edward to rule over them. Theother incident was no less honorable to Harold. 

Tosti, brother of this nobleman, who had been created duke ofNorthumberland, being of a violent, tyrannical temper, had acted withsuch cruelty and injustice, that the inhabitants rose in rebellion, and chased him from his government. Morcar and Edwin, two brothers, who possessed great power in those parts, and who were grandsons ofthe great duke, Leofric, concurred in the insurrection; and the former, being elected duke, advanced with an army to oppose Harold, who wascommissioned by the king to reduce and chastise the Northumbrians. Before the armies came to action, Morcar, well acquainted with thegenerous disposition of the English commander, endeavored to justifyhis own conduct. He represented to Harold, that Tosti had behaved in amanner unworthy of the station to which he was advanced, and no one, noteven a brother, could support such tyranny, without participating, in some degree, of the infamy attending it; that the Northumbrians, accustomed to a legal administration, and regarding it as theirbirthright, were willing to submit to the king, but required a governorwho would pay regard to their rights and privileges; that they had beentaught by their ancestors, that death was preferable to servitude, andhad taken the field determined to perish, rather than suffer a renewalof those indignities to which they had so long been exposed; and theytrusted that Harold, on reflection, would not defend in another thatviolent conduct, from which he himself in his own government, had alwayskept at so great a distance. Thus vigorous remonstrance was accompaniedwith such a detail of facts, so well supported, that Harold found itprudent to abandon his brother's cause; and returning to Edward, hepersuaded him to pardon the Northumbrians, and to confirm Morcar in thegovernment. He even married the sister of that nobleman;[*] and by hisinterest procured Edwin, the younger brother, to be elected into thegovernment of Mercia. Tosti in a rage departed the kingdom, and tookshelter in Flanders with Earl Baldwin, his father-in-law. 

By this marriage, Harold broke all measures with the duke of Normandy, and William clearly perceived that he could no longer rely on the oathsand promises which he had extorted from him. But the English noblemanwas now in such a situation, that he deemed it no longer necessary todissemble. He had, in his conduct towards the Northumbrians, given sucha specimen of his moderation as had gained him the affections of hiscountrymen. He saw that almost all England was engaged in his interests;while he himself possessed the government of Wessex, Morcar that ofNorthumberland, and Edwin that of Mercia. He now openly aspired to thesuccession; and insisted, that since it was necessary, by the confessionof all, to set aside the royal family, on account of the imbecility ofEdgar, the sole surviving heir, there was no one so capable of fillingthe throne, as a nobleman of great power of mature age, of longexperience, of approved courage and abilities, who, being a nativeof the kingdom, would effectually secure it against the dominion andtyranny of foreigners. Edward, broken with age and infirmities, saw thedifficulties too great for him to encounter; and though his inveterateprepossessions kept him from seconding the pretensions of Harold, hetook but feeble and irresolute steps for securing the succession to theduke of Normandy. [**] [6] While he continued in this uncertainty, he wassurprised by sickness, which brought him to his grave on the fifth ofJanuary, 1066, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and twenty-fifth ofhis reign. 

 [* Order. Vitalis, p. 492. ]

 [** See note F, at the end of the volume. ]

This prince, to whom the monks gave the title of Saint and Confessor, was the last of the Saxon line that ruled in England. Though his reignwas peaceable and fortunate, he owed his prosperity less to his ownabilities than to the conjunctures of the times. The Danes, employedin other enterprises, at tempted not those incursions which had beenso troublesome to all his predecessors, and fatal to some of them. Thefacility of his disposition made him acquiesce under the government ofGodwin and his son Harold; and the abilities, as well as the power ofthese noblemen, enabled them, while they were intrusted with authority, to preserve domestic peace and tranquillity. The most commendablecircumstance of Edward's government was his attention to theadministration of justice, and his compiling, for that purpose, a bodyof laws which he collected from the laws of Ethelbert, Ina, and Alfred. This compilation, though now lost, (for the laws that pass underEdward's name were composed afterwards, [*]) was long the object ofaffection to the English nation. 

 [* Spelm. In verbo Belliva. ]

Edward the Confessor was the first that touched for the king's evil: theopinion of his sanctity procured belief to this cure among the people:his successors regarded it as a part of their state and grandeur touphold the same opinion. It has been continued down to our time; andthe practice was first dropped by the present royal family, who observedthat it could no longer give amazement even to the populace, and wasattended with ridicule in the eyes of all men of understanding. 

HAROLD

{1066. } Harold had so well prepared matters before the death of Edward, that he immediately stepped into the vacant throne; and his accessionwas attended with as little opposition and disturbance, as if he hadsucceeded by the most undoubted hereditary title. The citizens of Londonwere his zealous partisans; the bishops and clergy had adopted hiscause; and all the powerful nobility, connected with him by allianceor friendship, willingly seconded his pretensions. The title of EdgarAtheling was scarcely mentioned, much less the claim of the duke ofNormandy; and Harold, assembling his partisans, received the crown fromtheir hands, without waiting for the free deliberation of the states, orregularly submitting the question to their determination. [*] If any wereaverse to this measure, they were obliged to conceal their sentiments;and the new prince, taking a general silence for consent, and foundinghis title on the supposed suffrages of the people, which appearedunanimous, was, on the day immediately succeeding Edward's death, crowned and anointed king, by Aldred, archbishop of York. The wholenation seemed joyfully to acquiesce in his elevation. 

The first symptoms of danger which the king discovered, came fromabroad, and from his own brother, Tosti, who had submitted to avoluntary banishment in Flanders. Enraged at the successful ambition ofHarold, to which he himself had fallen a victim, he filled the courtof Baldwin with complaints of the injustice which he had suffered; heengaged the interest of that family against his brother; he endeavoredto form intrigues with some of the discontented nobles in England hesent his emissaries to Norway, in order to rouse to arms the freebootersof that kingdom, and to excite their hopes of reaping advantage from theunsettled state of affairs on the usurpation of the new king; and, thathe might render the combination more formidable, he made a journey toNormandy, in expectation that the duke, who had married Matilda, anotherdaughter of Baldwin, would, in revenge of his own wrongs, as wellas those of Tosti, second, by his counsels and forces, the projectedinvasion of England. [**]

 [* Gul. Pictavensis, p. 196. Ypod. Neust. P. 486. Order. Vitalis, p. 492. M. West. P. 221. W. Malms, p. 93. Ingulph. P. 68. Brompton, p. 957. Knyghton, p. 2339. H. Hunting, p. 210. Many of the historians say, that Harold was regularly elected by the states; some that Edward left him his successor by will]

 [** Order. Vitalis, p. 492. ]

The duke of Normandy, when he first received intelligence of Harold'sintrigues and accessions, had been moved to the highest pitch ofindignation; but that he might give the better color to his pretensions, he sent an embassy to England, upbraiding that prince with his breachof faith, and summoning him to resign, immediately, possession of thekingdom. Harold replied to the Norman ambassadors, that the oath, withwhich he was reproached, had been extorted by the well-grounded fear ofviolence, and could never, for that reason, be regarded as obligatory;that he had had no commission, either from the late king or the statesof England, who alone could dispose of the crown, to make any tender ofthe succession to the duke of Normandy; and if he, a private person, hadassumed so much authority, and had even voluntarily sworn to support theduke's pretensions, the oath was unlawful, and It was his duty to seizethe first opportunity of breaking it: that he had obtained the crown bythe unanimous suffrages of the people, and should prove himself totallyunworthy of their favor, did he not strenuously maintain those nationalliberties, with whose protection they had intrusted him; and that theduke, if he made any attempt by force of arms, should experience thepower of a united nation, conducted by a prince who, sensible of theobligations imposed on him by his royal dignity, was determined that thesame moment should put a period to his life and to his government. [*]

 [* W. Malms, p. 99. Higden, p. 28, 5. M. West. P. 222. De Gest Angl. , incerto auctore, p. 331. ]

This answer was no other than William expected; and he had previouslyfixed his resolution of making an attempt upon England. Consulting onlyhis courage, his resentment, and his ambition, he overlooked all thedifficulties inseparable from an attack on a great kingdom by suchinferior force, and he saw only the circumstances which would facilitatehis enterprise. He considered that England, ever since the accession ofCanute, had enjoyed profound tranquillity, during a period of near fiftyyears; and it would require time for its soldiers, enervated by longpeace, to learn discipline, and its generals experience. He knew that itwas entirely unprovided with fortified towns, by which it could prolongthe war; but must venture its whole fortune in one decisive action, against a veteran enemy, who, being once master of the field, would bein a condition to overrun the kingdom. He saw that Harold, though he hadgiven proofs of vigor and bravery, had newly mounted a throne which hehad acquired by faction, from which he had excluded a very ancient royalfamily, and which was likely to totter under him by its own instability, much more if shaken by any violent external impulse. And he hoped thatthe very circumstance of his crossing the sea, quitting his own country, and leaving himself no hopes of retreat, as it would astonish theenemy by the boldness of the enterprise, would inspirit his soldiers bydespair, and rouse them to sustain the reputation of the Norman arms. 

The Normans, as they had long been distinguished by valor among all theEuropean nations, had, at this time, attained to the highest pitch ofmilitary glory. Besides acquiring by arms such a noble territory inFrance, besides defending it against continual attempts of the Frenchmonarch and all its neighbors, besides exerting many acts of vigor undertheir present sovereign, they had, about this very time, revived theirancient fame, by the most hazardous exploits, and the moat wonderfulsuccesses, in the other extremity of Europe. A few Norman adventurersin Italy had acquired such an ascendant, not only over the Italiansand Greeks, but the Germans and Saracens, that they expelled thoseforeigners, procured to themselves ample establishments, and laidthe foundation of the opulent kingdom of Naples and Sicily. [*] Theseenterprises of men, who were all of them vassals in Normandy many ofthem banished for faction and rebellion, excited the ambition of thehaughty William, who disdained, after such examples of fortune andvalor, to be deterred from making an Attack on a neighboring country, where he could be supported by the whole force of his principality. 

 [* Gul. Gemet. Lib. Vii. Cap. 30. ]

The situation also of Europe inspired William with hopes that, besideshis brave Normans, he might employ against England the flower of themilitary force which was dispersed in all the neighboring states. France, Germany, and the Low Countries, by the progress of the feudalinstitutions, were divided and subdivided into many principalities andbaronies; and the possessors, enjoying the civil jurisdiction withinthem selves, as well as the right of arms, acted, in many respects, asindependent sovereigns, and maintained their propertied and privileges, less by the authority of laws, than by their own force and valor. Amilitary spirit had universally diffused itself throughout Europe;and the several leaders, whose minds were elevated by their princelysituation, greedily embraced the most hazardous enterprises; and beingaccustomed to nothing, from their infancy, but recitals of the successattending wars and battles, they were prompted by a natural ambition toimitate those adventures which they heard so much celebrated, and whichwere so much exaggerated by the credulity of the age. United, howeverloosely, by their duty to one superior lord, and by their connectionswith the great body of the community to which they belonged, theydesired to spread their fame each beyond his own district and in allassemblies, whether instituted for civil deliberations for militaryexpeditions, or merely for show and entertainment, to outshine eachother by the reputation of strength and prowess. Hence their genius forchivalry; hence their impatience of peace and tranquillity; and hencetheir readiness to embark in any dangerous enterprise, how little soeverinterested in its failure or success. 

William, by his power, his courage, and his abilities, had longmaintained a preeminence among those haughty chieftains; and every onewho desired to signalize himself by his address in military exercises, or his valor in action, had been ambitious of acquiring a reputationin the court and in the armies of Normandy. Entertained with thathospitality and courtesy which distinguished the age, they had formedattachments with the prince, and greedily attended to the prospectsof the signal glory and elevation which he promised them in return fortheir concurrence in an expedition against England. The more grandeurthere appeared in the attempt, the more it suited their romantic spirit;the fame of the intended invasion was already diffused everywhere;multitudes crowded to tender to the duke their service, with that oftheir vassals and retainers;[*] and William found less difficulty incompleting his levies, than in choosing the most veteran forces, and inrejecting the offers of those who were impatient to acquire fame underso renowned a leader. 

Besides these advantages, which William owed to his personal valorand good conduct, he was indebted to fortune for procuring him someassistance, and also for removing many obstacles which it was naturalfor him to expect, in an undertaking in which all his neighbors were sodeeply interested. Conan, count of Brittany, was his mortal enemy:in order to throw a damp upon the duke's enterprise, he chose thisconjuncture for reviving his claim to Normandy itself; and he requiredthat, in case of William's success against England, the possession ofthat duchy should devolve to him. [**] But Conan died suddenly aftermaking this demand; and Hoel, his successor, instead of adopting themalignity, or, more properly speaking, the prudence of his predecessor, zealously seconded the duke's views, and sent his eldest son, AlainFergant, to serve under him with a body of five thousand Bretons. Thecounts of Anjou and of Flanders encouraged their subjects to engage inthe expedition; and even the court of France, though it might justlyfear the aggrandizement of so dangerous a vassal, pursued not itsinterests on this occasion with sufficient vigor and resolution. 

 [* Gul Pict. P. 198. ]

 [** Gul. Gemet. Lib. Vii. Cap. 33]

Philip I. , the reign ing monarch, was a minor; and William, havingcommunicated his project to the council, having desired assistance, andoffered to do homage, in case of his success, for the crown of England, was indeed openly ordered to lay aside all thoughts of the enterprise;but the earl of Flanders, his father-in-law, being at the head of theregency, favored underhand his levies, and secretly encouraged theadventurous nobility to enlist under the standard of the duke ofNormandy. 

The emperor, Henry IV. , besides openly giving all his vassals permissionto embark in this expedition, which so much engaged the attention ofEurope, promised his protection to the duchy of Normandy during theabsence of the prince, and thereby enabled him to employ his whole forcein the invasion of England. [*]

 [* Gul. Pict. P, 198. ]

But the most important ally that William gained by his negotiations, wasthe pope, who had a mighty influence over the ancient barons, no lessdevout in their religious principles than valorous in their militaryenterprises. The Roman pontiff, after an insensible progress duringseveral ages of darkness and ignorance, began now to lift his headopenly above all the princes of Europe; to assume the office of amediator, or even an arbiter, in the quarrels of the greatest monarchs;to interpose in all secular affairs; and lo obtrude his dictates assovereign laws on his obsequious disciples, It was a sufficient motiveto Alexander II. , the reigning pope, for embracing William's quarrel, that he alone had made an appeal to his tribunal, and rendered himumpire of the dispute between him and Harold; but there were otheradvantages which that pontiff foresaw must result from the conquest ofEngland by the Norman arms. That kingdom, though at first convertedby Romish missionaries, though it had afterwards advanced some farthersteps towards subjection to Rome, maintained still a considerableindependence in its ecclesiastical administration; and forming a worldwithin itself, entirely separated from the rest of Europe, it hadhitherto proved inaccessible to those exorbitant claims which supportedthe grandeur of the papacy. Alexander therefore hoped, that the Frenchand Norman barons, if successful in their enterprise, might import intothat country a more devoted reverence to the holy see, and bring theEnglish churches to a nearer conformity with those of the continent. Hedeclared immediately in favor of William's claim; pronounced Harolda perjured usurper; denounced excommunication against him and hisadherents; and the more to encourage the duke of Normandy in hisenterprise, he sent him a consecrated banner, and a ring with one of St. Peter's hairs in it. [*] Thus were all the ambition and violence of thatinvasion covered over safely with the broad mantle of religion. 

The greatest difficulty which William had to encounter in hispreparations, arose from his own subjects in Normandy. The states of theduchy were assembled at Lislebonne; and supplies being demanded for theintended enterprise, which promised so much glory and advantage to theircountry, there appeared a reluctance in many members both to grant sumsso much beyond the common measure of taxes in that age, and to set aprecedent of performing their military service at a distance from theirown country. The duke, finding it dangerous to solicit them in a body, conferred separately with the richest individuals in the province; andbeginning with those on whose affections he most relied, he graduallyengaged all of them to advance the sums demanded. The count ofLongueville seconded him in this negotiation; as did the count ofMortaigne, Odo, bishop of Baieux, and especially William Fitz-Osborne, count of Breteuil, and constable of the duchy. Every person, when hehimself was once engaged, endeavored to bring over others; and at lastthe states themselves, after stipulating that this concession should beno precedent, voted that they would assist their prince to the utmost inhis intended enterprise. [**]

William had now assembled a fleet of three thousand vessels, great andsmall, [***] and had selected an army of sixty thousand men from amongthose numerous supplies, which from every quarter solicited to bereceived into his service. 

 [* Baker, p. 22, edit. 1634. ]

 [** Camden. Introd. Ad Britann. P. 212, 2d edit. Gibs. Verstegan. P. 173]

 [*** Gul. Gemet. Lib. Vii. Cap. 34. ]

The camp bore a splendid, yet a martial appearance, from the disciplineof the men, the beauty and vigor of the horses, the lustre of the arms, and the accoutrements of both; but above all, from the high names ofnobility who engaged under the banners of the duke of Normandy. Themost celebrated were Eustace, count of Boulogne, Aimeri de Thouars, Hughd'Estaples, William d'Evreux, Geoffrey de Rotrou, Roger de Beaumont, William de Warenne, Roger de Montgomery, Hugh de Grantmesnil, CharlesMartel, and Geoffrey Giffard. [*] To these bold chieftains William heldup the spoils of England as the prize of their valor; and pointing tothe opposite shore, called to them that _there_ was the field, on which they must erect trophies to their name, and fix theirestablishments. 

 [* Order. Vitalis, p. 501. ]

While he was making these mighty preparations, the duke, that he mightincrease the number of Harold's enemies, excited the inveterate rancorof Tosti, and encouraged him, in concert with Harold Halfager, king ofNorway, to infest the coasts of England. Tosti, having collected aboutsixty vessels in the ports of Flanders, put to sea; and aftercommitting some depredations on the south and east coasts, he sailed toNorthumberland, and was there joined by Halfager, who came over with agreat armament of three hundred sail. The combined fleets enteredthe Humber, and disembarked the troops, who began to extend theirdepredations on all sides; when Morcar, earl of Northumberland, andEdwin, earl of Mercia, the king's brother-in-law, having hastilycollected some forces, ventured to give them battle. The action ended inthe defeat and flight of these two noblemen. 

Harold, informed of this defeat, hastened with an army to the protectionof his people; and expressed the utmost ardor to show himself worthy ofthe crown, which had been conferred upon him. This prince, though hewas not sensible of the full extent of his danger, from the greatcombination against him, had employed every art of popularity to acquirethe affections of the public; and he gave so many proofs of an equitableand prudent administration, that the English found no reason to repentthe choice which they had made of a sovereign. They flocked from allquarters to join his standard; and as soon as he reached the enemy atStandford, he found himself in condition to give them battle. The actionwas bloody; but the victory was decisive on the side of Harold, andended in the total rout of the Norwegians, together with the death ofTosti and Halfager. Even the Norwegian fleet fell into the handsof Harold, who had the generosity to give prince Olave, the son ofHalfager, his liberty, and allow him to depart with twenty vessels. But he had scarcely time to rejoice for this victory, when he receiveditelligence that the duke of Normandy was landed with a great army inthe south of England. 

The Norman fleet and army had been assembled, early in the summer, atthe mouth of the small river Dive, and all the troops had been instantlyembarked; but the winds proved long contrary, and detained them inthat harbor. The authority, however, of the duke, the good disciplinemaintained among the seamen and soldiers, and the great care insupplying them with provisions, had prevented any disorder, when at lastthe wind became favorable, and enabled them to sail along the coast, till they reached St. Valori. There were, however, several vessels lostin this short passage; and as the wind again proved contrary, thearmy began to imagine that Heaven had declared against them, and that, notwithstanding the pope's benediction, they were destined to certaindestruction. These bold warriors, who despised real dangers, werevery subject to the dread of imaginary ones; and many of them beganto mutiny, some of them even to desert their colors, when the duke, inorder to support their drooping hopes, ordered a procession to bemade with the relics of St. Valori, [*] and prayers to be said for morefavorable weather. 

 [* Higden, p. 285. Order Vitalis, p. 500. M. Paris, edit. Pai anno 1644, p. 2. ]

The wind instantly changed; and as this incident happened on the eve ofthe feast of St. Michael, the tutelar saint of Normandy, thesoldiers, fancying they saw the hand of Heaven in all these concurringcircumstances, set out with the greatest alacrity: they met with noopposition on their passage. A great fleet which Harold had assembled, and which had cruised all summer off the Isle of Wight, had beendismissed on his receiving false intelligence that William, discouragedby contrary winds and other accidents, had laid aside his preparations. The Norman armament, proceeding in great order, arrived, without anymaterial loss, at Pevensey, in Sussex; and the army quietly disembarked. The duke himself, as he leaped on shore, happened to stumble and fall;but had the presence of mind, it is said, to turn the omen to hisadvantage, by calling aloud that he had taken possession of the country. And a soldier, running to a neighboring cottage, plucked some thatch, which, as if giving him seizin of the kingdom, he presented to hisgeneral. The joy and alacrity of William and his whole army was sogreat, that they were nowise discouraged, evan when they heard ofHarold's great victory over the Norwegians. They seemed rather to waitwith impatience the arrival of the enemy. 

The victory of Harold, though great and honorable, had proved in themain prejudicial to his interests, and may be regarded as the immediatecause of his ruin. He lost many of his bravest officers and soldiersin the action, and he disgusted the rest by refusing to distribute theNorwegian spoils among them; a conduct which was little agreeable to hisusual generosity of temper, but which his desire of sparing the people, in the war that impended over him from the duke of Normandy, hadprobably occasioned. He hastened by quick marches to reach this newinvader; but though he was reènforced at London and other places withfresh troops, he found himself also weakened by the desertion of his oldsoldiers, who from fatigue and discontent secretly withdrew from theircolors. His brother Gurth, a man of bravery and conduct, began toentertain apprehensions of the event; and remonstrated with the king, that it would be better policy to prolong the war; at least, to sparehis own person in the action. He urged to him that the desperatesituation of the duke of Normandy made it requisite for that prince tobring matters to a speedy decision, and put his whole fortune on theissue of a battle; but that the king of England, in his own country, beloved by his subjects, provided with every supply, had more certainand less dangerous means of insuring to himself the victory; that theNorman troops, elated on the one hand with the highest hopes, and seeingon the other no resource in case of a discomfiture, would fight tothe last extremity; and being the flower of all the warriors of thecontinent, must be regarded as formidable to the English; that if theirfirst fire, which is always the most dangerous, were allowed to languishfor want of action, if they were harassed with small skirmishes, straitened in provisions, and fatigued with the bad weather and deeproads during the winter season which was approaching, they must fall aneasy and a bloodless prey to their enemy; that if a general action weredelayed, the English, sensible of the imminent danger to which theirproperties, as well as liberties, were exposed from those rapaciousinvaders, would hasten from all quarters to his assistance, and wouldrender his army invincible; that, at least, if he thought it necessaryto hazard a battle, he ought not to expose his own person out reserve, in case of disastrous accidents, some resource to the liberty andindependence of the kingdom; and that having once been so unfortunateas to be constrained to swear, and that upon the holy relics, to supportthe pretensions of the duke of Normandy, it were better that the commandof the army should be intrusted to another, who, not being bound bythose sacred ties, might give the soldiers more assured hopes of aprosperous issue to the combat. 

Harold was deaf to all these remonstrances. Elated with his pastprosperity, as well as stimulated by his native courage, he resolved togive battle in person; and for that purpose he drew near to the Normans, who had removed their camp and fleet to Hastings, where they fixed theirquarters. He was so confident of success, that he sent a message tothe duke, promising him a sum of money if he would depart the kingdomwithout effusion of blood; but his offer was rejected with disdain; andWilliam, not to be behind with his enemy in vaunting, sent him a messageby some monks, requiring him either to resign the kingdom, or to holdit of him in fealty, or to submit their cause to the arbitration of thepope, or to fight him in single combat. Harold replied, that the God ofbattles would soon be the arbiter of all their differences. [*]

The English and Normans now prepared themselves for this importantdecision; but the aspect of things, on the night before the battle, wasvery different in the two camps. The English spent the time in riot, andjollity, and disorder; the Normans, in silence, and in prayer, and inthe other functions of their religion. [**]

 [* Higden, p. 286]

 [** W. Malms, p. 101. De Gest Angl. P. 332]

On the morning, the duke called together the most considerable ofhis commanders, and made them a speech suitable to the occasion. Herepresented to them, that the event which they and he had long wishedfor, was approaching; the whole fortune of the war now depended on theirswords, and would be decided in a single action; that never army hadgreater motives for exerting a vigorous courage, whether theyconsidered the prize which would attend their victory, or the inevitabledestruction which must ensue upon their discomfiture; that if theirmartial and veteran bands could once break those raw soldiers, who hadrashly dared to approach them, they conquered a kingdom at one blow, and were justly entitled to all its possessions as the reward of theirprosperous valor; that, on the contrary, if they remitted in the leasttheir wonted prowess, an enraged enemy hung upon their rear, the seamet them in their retreat, and an ignominious death was the certainpunishment of their imprudent cowardice; that by collecting so numerousand brave a host, he had insured every human means of conquest; andthe commander of the enemy, by his criminal conduct, had given him justcause to hope for the favor of the Almighty, in whose hands alonelay the event of wars and battles; and that a perjured usurper, anathematized by the sovereign pontiff, and conscious of his own breachof faith would be struck with terror on their appearance, and wouldprognosticate to himself that fate which--his multiplied crimes had sojustly merited. [*] The duke next divided his army into three lines: thefirst, led by Montgomery, consisted of archers and light-armed infantry;the second, commanded by Martel, was composed of his bravest battalions, heavy-armed, and ranged in close order; his cavalry, at whose head heplaced himself, formed the third line, and were so disposed, that theystretched beyond the infantry, and flanked each wing of the army. [**] Heordered the signal of battle to be given; and the whole army, movingat once, and singing the hymn or song of Roland, the famous peer ofCharlemagne, [***] advanced, in order and with alacrity, towards theenemy. 

 [* H. Hunting, p. 368. Brompton, p. 959. Gul. Pict. P. 201. ]

 [** Gul. Pict. P. 201. Order. Vitalis, p. 501. ]

 [*** W. Malms, p. 101. Higden, p. 286. M. West. P. 223. Dr Cange's Glossary, in verbo Cantilena Rolandi. ]

Harold had seized the advantage of a rising ground, and having likewisedrawn some trenches to secure his flanks, he resolved to stand upon thedefensive, and to avoid all action with the cavalry, in which he wasinferior. The Kentish men were placed in the van; a post which they hadalways claimed as their due: the Londoners guarded the standard; andthe king himself, accompanied by his two valiant brothers, Gurth andLeofwin, dismounting, placed himself at the head of his infantry, andexpressed his resolution to conquer or to perish in the action. Thefirst attack of the Normans was desperate, but was received with equalvalor by the English; and after a furious combat, which remained longundecided, the former, overcome by the difficulty of the ground, andhard pressed by the enemy, began first to relax their vigor, then toretreat; and confusion was spreading among the ranks; when William, whofound himself on the brink of destruction, hastened, with a select band, to the relief of his dismayed forces. His presence restored the action;the English were obliged to retire with loss; and the duke, ordering hissecond line to advance, renewed the attack with fresh forces and withredoubled courage. Finding that the enemy aided by the advantage ofground, and animated by the example of their prince, still made avigorous resistance, he tried a stratagem which was very delicate inits management, but which seemed advisable in his desperate situation, where, if he gained not a decisive victory, he was totally undone: hecommanded his troops to make a hasty retreat, and to allure the enemyfrom their ground by the appearance of flight. The artifice succeededagainst those unexperienced soldiers, who, heated by the action, andsanguine in their hopes, precipitately followed the Normans into theplain. William gave orders, that at once the infantry should face aboutupon their pursuers, and the cavalry make an assault upon their wings, and both of them pursue the advantage, which the surprise and terrorof the enemy must give them in that critical and decisive moment. TheEnglish were repulsed with great slaughter, and driven back to thehill; where, being rallied by the bravery of Harold, they were able, notwithstanding their loss, to maintain the post and continue thecombat. The duke tried the same stratagem a second time with the samesuccess; but even after this double advantage, he still found a greatbody of the English, who, maintaining themselves in firm array, seemeddetermined to dispute the victory to the last extremity. He ordered hisheavy-armed infantry to make an assault upon them; while his archers, placed behind, should gall the enemy, who were exposed by the situationof the ground, and who were intent in defending themselves against theswords and spears of the assailants. By this disposition he at lastprevailed: Harold was slain by an arrow, while he was combating withgreat bravery at the head of his men; his two brothers shared the samefate; and the English, discouraged by the fall of those princes, gaveground on all sides, and were pursued with great slaughter by thevictorious Normans. A few troops, however, of the vanquished had stillthe courage to turn upon their pursuers; and attacking them in deep andmiry ground, obtained some revenge for the slaughter and dishonor of theday. But the appearance of the duke obliged them to seek their safety byflight; and darkness saved them from any further pursuit by the enemy. 

Thus was gained by William, duke of Normandy, the great and decisivevictory of Hastings, after a battle which was fought from morning tillsunset, and which seemed worthy, by the heroic valor displayed by botharmies and by both commanders, to decide the fate of a mighty kingdom. William had three horses killed under him; and there fell near fifteenthousand men on the side of the Normans: the loss was still moreconsiderable on that of the vanquished, besides the death of the kingand his two brothers. The dead body of Harold was brought to William, and was generously restored without ransom to his mother. The Normanarmy left not the field of battle without giving thanks to Heaven, in the most solemn manner, for their victory: and the prince, havingrefreshed his troops, prepared to push to the utmost his advantageagainst the divided, dismayed, and discomfited English. 

APPENDIX I. 

THE ANGLO-SAXON GOVERNMENT AND MANNERS. 

The government of the Germans, and that of all the northern nations whoestablished themselves on the ruins of Rome, was always extremely free;and those fierce people, accustomed to independence and inured to arms, were more guided by persuasion than authority in the submission whichthey paid to their princes. The military despotism which had taken placein the Roman empire, and which, previously to the irruption of thoseconquerors, had sunk the genius of men, and destroyed every nobleprinciple of science and virtue, was unable to resist the vigorousefforts of a free people; and Europe, as from a new epoch, rekindled herancient spirit, and shook off the base servitude to arbitrary will andauthority under which she had so long labored. The free constitutionsthen established, however impaired by the encroachments of succeedingprinces, still preserve an air of independence and legal administration, which distinguished the European nations; and if that part of the globemaintain sentiments of liberty, honor, equity, and valor superior to therest of mankind, it owes these advantages chiefly to the seeds implantedby those generous barbarians. 

The Saxons who subdued Britain, as they enjoyed great liberty in theirown country, obstinately retained that invaluable possession in theirnew settlement; and they imported into this island the same principlesof independence which they had inherited from their ancestors. Thechieftains, (for such they were, more properly than kings or princes, )who commanded them in those military expeditions, still possessed a verylimited authority; and as the Saxons exterminated, rather than subdued, the ancient inhabitants, they were indeed transplanted into a newterritory, but preserved unaltered all their civil and militaryinstitutions. The language was pure Saxon; even the names of places, which often remain while the tongue entirely changes, were almost allaffixed by the conquerors; the manners and customs were wholly German;and the same picture of a fierce and bold liberty, which is drawn bythe masterly pencil of Tacitus, will suit those founders of the Englishgovernment. The king, so far from being invested with arbitrary power, was only considered as the first among the citizens; his authoritydepended more on his personal qualities than on his station; he was evenso far on a level with the people, that a stated price was fixed forhis head, and a legal fine was levied upon his murderer, which, thoughproportionate to his station, and superior to that paid for the life ofa subject, was a sensible mark of his subordination to the community. 

It is easy to imagine that an independent people, so little restrainedby law and cultivated by science, would not be very strict inmaintaining a regular succession of their princes. Though they paidgreat regard to the royal family, and ascribed to it an undisputedsuperiority, they either had no rule, or none that was steadilyobserved, in filling the vacant throne; and present convenience, in thatemergency, was more attended to than general principles. We arenot, however, to suppose that the crown was considered as altogetherelective; and that a regular plan was traced by the constitution forsupplying, by the suffrages of the people, every vacancy made by thedemise of the first magistrate. If any king left a son of an age andcapacity fit for government, the young prince naturally stepped into thethrone: if he was a minor, his uncle, or the next prince of the blood, was promoted to the government, and left the sceptre to his posterity:any sovereign, by taking previous measures with the leading men, had itgreatly in his power to appoint his successor: all these changes, andindeed the ordinary administration of government, required the expressconcurrence, or at least the tacit acquiescence of the people; butpossession, however obtained, was extremely apt to secure theirobedience, and the idea of any right, which was once excluded wasbut feeble and imperfect. This is so much the case in all barbarousmonarchies, and occurs so often in the history of the Anglo-Saxons, thatwe cannot consistently entertain any other notion of their government. The idea of an hereditary succession in authority is so natural tomen, and is so much fortified by the usual rule in transmitting privatepossessions, that it must retain a great influence on every society, which does not exclude it by the refinements of a republicanconstitution. But as there is a material difference between gov-**ernment and private possessions, and every man is not as much qualifiedfor exercising the one as for enjoying the other, a people who are notsensible of the general advantages attending a fixed rule are apt tomake great leaps in the succession, and frequently to pass over theperson, who, had he possessed the requisite years and abilities, wouldhave been thought entitled to the sovereignty. Thus these monarchies arenot, strictly speaking, either elective or hereditary; and thoughthe destination of a prince may often be followed in appointing hissuccessor, they can as little be regarded as wholly testamentary. Thestates by their suffrage may sometimes establish a sovereign; but theymore frequently recognize the person whom they find established: a fewgreat men take the lead; the people, overawed and influenced, acquiescein the government; and the reigning prince, provided he be of the royalfamily, passes undisputedly for the legal sovereign. 

It is confessed that our knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon history andantiquities is too imperfect to afford us means of determining withcertainty all the prerogatives of the crown and privileges of thepeople, or of giving an exact delineation of that government. It isprobable, also, that the constitution might be somewhat different hi thedifferent kingdoms of the Heptarchy, and that it changed considerablyduring the course of six centuries, which elapsed from the firstinvasion of the Saxons till the Norman conquest. [*] But most of thesedifferences and changes, with their causes and effects, are unknown tous; it only appears that, at all times and in all the kingdoms, therewas a national council, called a wittenagemot, or assembly of the wisemen, (for that is the import of the term, ) whose consent was requisitefor enacting laws, and for ratifying the chief acts of publicadministration. 

 [* We know of one change, not inconsiderable, in the Saxon constitution. The Saxon Annals (p. 49) inform us, that it was, in early times, the prerogative of the king to name the dukes, earls, aldermen, and sheriffs of the counties. Asser, a contemporary writer, informs us that Alfred deposed all the ignorant aldermen, and appointed men of more capacity in their place: yet the laws of Edward the Confessor (sect. 35) say expressly that the heretoghs, or dukes, and the sheriffs were chosen by the freeholders in the folk-mote, a county court, which was assembled once a year, and where all the freeholders swore allegiance to the king. ]

The preambles to all the laws of Ethelbert, Ina, Alfred, Edward theElder, Athelstan, Edmond, Edgar, Ethelred, and Edward the Confessor;even those to the laws of Canute though a kind of conqueror, put thismatter beyond controversy, and carry proofs every where of a limitedand legal government. But who were the constituent members of thiswittenagemot has not been determined with certainty by antiquaries. Itis agreed that the bishops and abbots[*] were an essential part; andit is also evident, from the tenor of those ancient laws, that thewittenagemot enacted statutes which regulated the ecclesiastical as wellas civil government, and that those dangerous principles, by which thechurch is totally severed from the state, were hitherto unknown to theAnglo-Saxons. [**] It also appears that the aldermen or governors ofcounties, who, after the Danish times, were often called earls, [***] [7]were admitted into this council, and gave their consent to the publicstatutes. But besides the prelates and aldermen, there is also mentionof the wites, or wisemen, as a component part of the wittenagemot; butwho these were is not so clearly ascertained by the laws or the historyof that period. The matter would probably be of difficult discussion, even were it examined impartially; but as our modern parties have chosento divide on this point, the question has been disputed with the greaterobstinacy, and the arguments on both sides have become, on that account, the more captious and deceitful. Our monarchical faction maintain thatthese "wites, " or "sapientes, " were the judges, or men learned inthe law: the popular faction assert them to be representatives of theboroughs, or what we now call the commons. 

The expressions employed by all ancient historians in mentioning thewittenagemot, seem to contradict the latter supposition. The membersare almost always called the "principes, satrapæ, optimates, magnates, proceres;" terms which seem to suppose an aristocracy, and to excludethe commons. The boroughs also, from the low state of commerce, were sosmall and so poor, and the inhabitants lived in such dependence on thegreat men, [****] that it seems nowise probable they would be admitted asa part of the national councils. The commons are well known to have hadno share in the governments established by the Franks, Burgundians, and other northern nations; and we may conclude that the Saxons, whoremained longer barbarous and uncivilized than those tribes, wouldnever think of conferring such an extraordinary privilege on trade andindustry. 

 [* Sometimes abbesses were admitted; at least they often sign the king's charters or grants. Spelm. Gloss. In verbo Parliamentum. ]

 [** Wilkins, passim. ]

 [*** See note G, at the end of the volume. ]

 [**** Brady's Treatise of English Boroughs, p. 3, 4, 5, etc. ]

The military profession alone was honorable among all those conquerors:the warriors subsisted by their possessions in land: they becameconsiderable by their influence over their vassals, retainers, tenants, and slaves: and it requires strong proof to convince us that they wouldadmit any of a rank so much inferior as the burgesses, to share withthem in the legislative authority. Tacitus indeed affirms that, amongthe ancient Germans, the consent of all the members of the communitywas required in every important deliberation; but he speaks not ofrepresentatives; and this ancient practice, mentioned by the Romanhistorian, could only have place in small tribes, where every citizenmight without inconvenience be assembled upon any extraordinaryemergency. After principalities became extensive, after the differenceof property had formed distinctions more important than those whicharose from personal strength and valor, we may conclude that thenational assemblies must have been more limited in their number, andcomposed only of the more considerable citizens. 

But, though we must exclude the burgesses or commons from the Saxonwittenagemot, there is some necessity for supposing that this assemblyconsisted of other members than the prelates, abbots, alderman, andthe judges or privy council. For as all these, excepting some of theecclesiastics, [*] were anciently appointed by the king, had there beenno other legislative authority, the royal power had been, in a greatmeasure, absolute, contrary to the tenor of all the historians, and tothe practice of all the northern nations. 

 [* There is some reason to think that the bishops were sometimes chosen by the wittenagemot, and confirmed by the king. Eddius, cap. 2. The abbots in the monasteries of royal foundation were anciently named by the king; though Edgar gave the monks the election, and only reserved to himself the ratification. This destination was afterwards frequently violated, and the abbots as well as bishops were afterwards all appointed by the king, as we learn from Ingulf, a writer contemporary to the conquest. ]

We may, therefore, conclude that the more considerable proprietors ofland were, without any election, constituent members of the nationalassembly: there is reason to think that forty hides, or between fourand five thousand acres, was the estate requisite for entitling thepossessors to this honorable privilege. We find a passage in an ancientauthor, [*] by which it appears that a person of very noble birth, evenone allied to the crown, was not esteemed a "princeps" (the term usuallyemployed by ancient historians, when the wittenagemot is mentioned) tillhe had acquired a fortune of that amount. Nor need we imagine that thepublic council would become disorderly or confused by admitting so greata multitude. The landed property of England was probably in few handsduring the Saxon times, at least, during the latter part of that period;and, as men had hardly any ambition to attend those public councils, there was no danger of the assembly's becoming too numerous for thedespatch of the little business which was brought before them. 

It is certain that, whatever we may determine concerning the constituentmembers of the wittenagemot, in whom, with the king, the legislatureresided, the Anglo-Saxon government, in the period preceding the Normanconquest, was becoming extremely aristocratical: the royal authoritywas very limited; the people, even if admitted to that assembly, wereof little or no weight and consideration. We have hints given us inhistorians of the great power and riches of particular noblemen; andit could not but happen, after the abolition of the Heptarchy, whenthe king lived at a distance from the provinces, that those greatproprietors, who resided on their estates, would much augment theirauthority over their vassals and retainers, and over all the inhabitantsof the neighborhood. Hence the immeasurable power assumed by Harold, Godwin, Leofric, Siward, Morcar, Edwin, Edric, and Alfric who controlledthe authority of the kings, and rendered themselves quite necessary inthe government. The two latter, though detested by the people on accountof their joining a foreign enemy, still preserved their power andinfluence; and we may therefore conclude that their authority wasfounded, not on popularity, but on family rights and possessions. Thereis one Athelstan, mentioned in the reign of the king of that name, whois called alderman of all England, and is said to be half king; thoughthe monarch himself was a prince of valor and abilities. [**] And we findthat in the later Saxon times, and in these alone, the great officeswent from father to sun, and became in a manner hereditary in thefamilies. [A]

 [* Hist. Eliensis, lib. Ii. Cap 40] [** Hist. Rames. Beet. Iii. P. 387]

The circumstances attending the invasions of the Danes would also servemuch to increase the power of the principal nobility. Those freebootersmade unexpected inroads on all quarters, and there was a necessity thateach county should resist them by its own force, and under the conductof its own nobility and its own magistrates. For the same reason that ageneral war, managed by the united efforts of the whole state commonlyaugments the power of the crown, those private wars and inroads turnedto the advantage of the aldermen and nobles. 

Among that military and turbulent people, so averse to commerce and thearts, and so little inured to industry, justice was commonly very illadministered, and great oppression and violence seem to have prevailed. These disorders would be increased by the exorbitant power of thearistocracy; and would, in their turn, contribute to increase it. Men, not daring to rely on the guardianship of the laws, were obliged todevote themselves to the service of some chieftain, whose orders theyfollowed even to the disturbance of the government, or the injury oftheir fellow-citizens, and who afforded them, in return, protection fromany insult or injustice by strangers. Hence we find, by the extractswhich Dr. Brady has given us from Domesday, that almost all theinhabitants, even of towns, had placed themselves under the clientshipof some particular nobleman, whose patronage they purchased by annualpayments, and whom they were obliged to consider as their sovereign, more than the king himself, or even the legislature. [B]

 [A] Roger Hoveden, giving the reason why William the Conqueror made Cospatric earl of Northumberland, says, "Nam ex materno sanguine attinebat ad eum honor illius comitatus. Erat enim ex matre Algitha, filia Uthredi comitis. " See also Sim. Dunelm. P. 205. We see in those instances the same tendency towards rendering offices hereditary which took place, during a more early period, on the continent; and which had already produced there its full effect. 

 [B] Brady's Treatise of Boroughs, p. 3, 4, 5, etc. The case was the same with the freemen in the country. See Pref. To his Hist. P. 8, 9, 10, etc. 

A client, though a freeman, was supposed so much to belong to hispatron, that his murderer was obliged by law to pay a fine to thelatter, as a compensation for his loss; in like manner as he paid a fineto the master for the murder of his slave. [A] Men who were of a moreconsiderable rank, but not powerful enough each to support himself byhis own independent authority, entered into formal confederacies witheach other, and composed a kind of separate community, which rendereditself formidable to all aggressors. Dr. Hickes has preserved a curiousSaxon bond of this kind, which he calls a "sodalitium, " and whichcontains many particulars characteristical of the manners and customsof the times. [B] All the associates are there said to be gentlemen ofCambridgeshire; and they swear before the holy relics to observe theirconfederacy, and to be faithful to each other: they promise to buryany of the associates who dies, in whatever place he had appointed; tocontribute to his funeral charges, and to attend to his interment; andwhoever is wanting in this last duty, binds himself to pay a measureof honey. When any of the associates is in danger, and calls for theassistance of his fellows, they promise, besides flying to his succor, to give information to the sheriff; and if he be negligent in protectingthe person exposed to danger, they engage to levy a fine of one poundupon him; if the president of the society himself be wanting in thisparticular, he binds himself to pay one pound; unless he has thereasonable excuse of sickness, or of duty to his superior. When anyof the associates is murdered, they are to exact eight pounds from themurderer; and if he refuse to pay it, they are to prosecute him for thesum at their joint expense. If any of the associates, who happens tobe poor, kill a man, the society are to contribute, by a certainproportion, to pay his fine, --a mark apiece, if the fine be sevenhundred shillings; less if the person killed be a clown or ceorle;the half of that sum, again, if he be a Welshman But where any of theassociates kill a man wilfully and without provocation, he must himselfpay the fine. If any of the associates kill any of his fellows in a likecriminal manner, besides paying the usual fine to the relations ofthe deceased, he must pay eight pounds to the society, or renounce thebenefit of it; in which case they bind themselves, under the penalty ofone pound, never to eat or drink with him, except in the presence ofthe king, bishop, or alderman. There are other regulations to protectthemselves and their servants from all injuries, to revenge such as arecommitted, and to prevent their giving abusive language to each other;and the fine which they engage to pay for this last offence is a measureof honey. 

 [A] LL. Edw. Conf. Sect. Viii. Apad Ingulph. 

 [B] Dissert. Epist. P. 21. 

It is not to be doubted but a confederacy of this kind must have been agreat source of friendship and attachment, when men lived in perpetualdanger from enemies, robbers, and oppressors, and received protectionchiefly from their personal valor, and from the assistance of theirfriends and patrons. As animosities were then more violent, connectionswere also more intimate, whether voluntary or derived from blood: themost remote degree of propinquity was regarded; an indelible memory ofbenefits was preserved; severe vengeance was taken for injuries, bothfrom a point of honor and as the best means of future security; and thecivil union being weak, many private engagements were contracted, inorder to supply its place, and to procure men that safety, which thelaws and their own innocence were not alone able to insure to them. 

On the whole, notwithstanding the seeming liberty, or ratherlicentiousness, of the Anglo-Saxons, the great body, even of the freecitizens, in those ages, really enjoyed much less true liberty thanwhere the execution of the laws is the most severe, and where subjectsare reduced to the strictest subordination and dependence on thecivil magistrate. The reason is derived from the excess itself of thatliberty. Men must guard themselves at any price against insults andinjuries; and where they receive not protection from the laws andmagistrates, they will seek it by submission to superiors, and byherding in some private confederacy, which acts under the direction of apowerful leader. And thus all anarchy is the immediate cause of tyranny, if not over the state, at least over many of the individuals. 

Security was provided by the Saxon laws to all members of thewittenagemot, both in going and returning, "except they were notoriousthieves and robbers. "

The German Saxons, as the other nations of that continent, were dividedinto three ranks of men--the noble, the free, and the slaves. [A] Thisdistinction they brought over with them into Britain. 

 [A] Nithard. Hist. Lib. Iv. 

The nobles were called thanes; and were of two kinds, the king's thanesand lesser thanes. The latter seem to have been dependent on the former, and to have received lands, for which they paid rent, services, orattendance in peace and war. [*] We know of no title which raised any oneto the rank of thane, except noble birth and the possession of land. Theformer was always much regarded by all the German nations, even in theirmost barbarous state; and as the Saxon nobility, having little credit, could scarcely burden their estates with much debt, and as the commonshad little trade or industry by which they could accumulate riches'these two ranks of men, even though they were not separated by positivelaws, might remain long distinct, and the noble families continue manyages in opulence and splendor. There were no middle ranks of men, thatcould gradually mix with their superiors, and insensibly procure tothemselves honor and distinction. If, by any extraordinary accident, a mean person acquired riches, a circumstance so singular made himbe known and remarked; he became the object of envy, as well as ofindignation, to all the nobles; he would have great difficulty to defendwhat he had acquired; and he would find it impossible to protecthimself from oppression, except by courting the patronage of some greatchieftain, and paying a large price for his safety. 

There are two statutes among the Saxon laws, which seem calculated toconfound those different ranks of men; that of Athelstan, by which amerchant, who had made three long sea voyages on his own account, wasentitled to the quality of thane;[**] and that of the same prince, bywhich a ceorle, or husbandman, who had been able to purchase five hidesof land, and had a chapel, a kitchen, a hall, and a bell, was raised tothe same distinction. [***] But the opportunities were so few, by which amerchant or ceorle could thus exalt himself above his rank, that the lawcould never overcome the reigning prejudices; the distinction betweennoble and base blood would still be indelible; and the well-born thaneswould entertain the highest contempt for those legal and factitiousones. Though we are not informed of any of these circumstances byancient historians, they are so much founded on the nature of things, that we may admit them as a necessary and infallible consequence of thesituation of the kingdom during those ages. 

 [* Spel. Feus and Tenures, p. 40. ]

 [** Wilkins, p. 71. ]

 [*** Selden, Titles of Honor, p, 515. Wilkins, p. 7. ]

The cities appear by domesday-book to have been, at the conquest littlebetter than villages. [*] York itself, though it was always the second, at least the third[**] city in England, and was the capital of a greatprovince, which never was thoroughly united with the rest, containedthen but one thousand four hundred and eighteen families. [***] Malmsburytells us, [****] that the great distinction between the Anglo-Saxonnobility and the French and Norman, was, that the latter builtmagnificent and stately castles; whereas the former consumed theirimmense fortunes in riot and hospitality, and in mean houses. We maythence infer, that the arts in general were much less advanced inEngland than in France: a greater number of idle servants and retainerslived about the great families; and as these, even in France, werepowerful enough to disturb the execution of the laws, we may judge ofthe authority acquired by the aristocracy in England. When Earl Godwinbesieged the Confessor in London, he summoned from all parts hishuscarles, or houseceorles and retainers, and thereby constrained hissovereign to accept of the conditions which he was pleased to imposeupon him. 

The lower rank of freemen were denominated ceorles among theAnglo-Saxons; and where they were industrious they were chiefly employedin husbandry; whence a ceorle and a husbandman became in a mannersynonymous terms. They cultivated the farms of the nobility, or thanes, for which they paid rent; and they seem to have been removable atpleasure; for there is little mention of leases among the Anglo-Saxons:the pride of the nobility, together with the general ignorance ofwriting, must have rendered those contracts very rare, and must havekept the husbandmen in a dependent condition. The rents of farms werethen chiefly paid in kind. [*****]

 [* Winchester, being the capital of the West Saxon monarchy, was anciently a considerable city. Gul. Pict. P. 210. ]

 [** Norwich contained 738 houses; Exeter, 315; Ipswich, 538; Northampton, 60; Hertford, 146; Canterbury, 262; Bath, 61; Southampton 84; Warwick, 225. See Brady, of Boroughs, p. 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. These are the most considerable he mentions. The account of these is extracted from domesday-book. ]

 [*** Brady's Treatise of Boroughs, p. 10. There were six wards, besides the archbishop's palace; and five of these wards contained the number of families here mentioned, which at the rate of five persons to a family, makes about seven thousand souls. The sixth ward was laid waste. ]

 [**** Page 102. See also de Gest. Angl. P. 333. ]

 [***** LL. Inae, sect. 70. These laws fixed the rents for a hide; but it is difficult to convert it into modern measures. ]

But the most numerous rank by far in the community to have been theslaves or villains, who were the property of their lords, and wereconsequently incapable themselves of possessing any property. Dr. Bradyassures us, from a survey of domesday-book, [*] that, in all the countiesof England, the far greater part of the land was occupied by them, andthat the husbandmen, and still more the socmen, who were tenants that, could not be removed at pleasure, were very few in comparison. This wasnot the case with the German nations, as far as we can collect from theaccount given us by Tacitus. The perpetual wars in the Heptarchy, andthe depredations of the Danes, seem to have been the cause of this greatalteration with the Anglo-Saxons. Prisoners taken in battle, or carriedoff in the frequent inroads, were then reduced to slavery, and became, by right of war, [**] entirely at the disposal of their lords. Great property in the nobles, especially if joined to an irregularadministration of justice, naturally favors the power of thearistocracy; but still more so, if the practice of slavery be admitted, and has become very common. The nobility not only possess the influencewhich always attends riches, but also the power which the laws give themover their slaves and villains. It then becomes difficult, and almostimpossible, for a private man to remain altogether free and independent. 

There were two kinds of slaves among the Anglo-Saxons; household slaves, after the manner of the ancients, and praedial, or rustic, after themanner of the Germans. [***] These latter resembled the serfs, which areat present to be met with in Poland, Denmark, and some parts of Germany. The power of a master over his slaves was not unlimited among theAnglo-Saxons, as it was among their ancestors. If a man beat out hisslave's eye or teeth, the slave recovered his liberty:[****] if hekilled him, he paid a fine to the king, provided the slave died within aday after the wound or blow; otherwise it passed unpunished. [*****] Theselling of themselves or children to slavery, was always thepractice among the German nations, [******] and was continued by theAnglo-Saxons. [*******]

 [* General Preface to his Hist. P. 7, 8, 9, etc. ]

 [** LL. Edg. Sect. 14, apud Spel. Concil. Vol. I. P. 471. ]

 [*** Spel. Gloss, in verbo Servus. ]

 [**** LL. Ælf. Sect. 20]

 [***** LL. Ælf. Sect. 17. ]

 [****** Tacit, de Mor. Germ]

 [******* LL. Inse, sect. 11. LL. Ælf. Sect. 12. ]

The great lords and abbots among the Anglo-Saxons possessed a criminaljurisdiction within their territories, and could punish without appealany thieves or robbers whom they caught there. [*] This institution musthave had a very contrary effect to that which was intended, and musthave procured robbers a sure protection on the lands of such noblemen asdid not sincerely mean to discourage crimes and violence. 

But though the general strain of the Anglo-Saxon government seems tohave become aristocratical, there were still considerable remains ofthe ancient democracy, which were not indeed sufficient to protect thelowest of the people, without the patronage of some great lord, butmight give security, and even some degree of dignity, to the gentry orinferior nobility. The administration of justice, in particular, bythe courts of the decennary, the hundred, and the county, was wellcalculated to defend general liberty, and to restrain the power of thenobles. In the county courts, or shiremotes, all the freeholders wereassembled twice a year, and received appeals from the inferior courts. They there decided all causes, ecclesiastical as well as civil; and thebishop, together with the alderman or earl, presided over them. [**]The affair was determined in a summary manner, without much pleadingformality, or delay, by a majority of voices; and the bishop andalderman had no further authority than to keep order among thefreeholders, and interpose with their opinion. [***] Where justice wasdenied during three sessions by the hundred, and then by the countycourt, there lay an appeal to the king's court;[****] but this was notpractised on slight occasions. The aldermen received a third of thefines levied in those courts;[*****] and as most of the punishmentswere then pecuniary, this perquisite formed a considerable part of theprofits belonging to his office. The two thirds also, which went to theking, made no contemptible part of the public revenue. Any free-holderwas fined who absented himself thrice from these courts. [******]

 [* Higden, lib, i. Cap. 50. LL. Edw. Conf. Sect. 26. Spel. Concil vol. I. P. 415. Gloss, in verbo. Haligemot ot Infangenthefe. ]

 [** LL. Edg. Sect. 5. Wilkins, p. 78. LL. Cantit. Sect. 17. Wilkins. P. 136. ]

 [*** Hickes, Dissert, epist. P. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. ]

 [**** LL. Edg. Sect. 2. Wilkins, p. 77. LL. Canut. Sect. 18, apud Wilkins, p. 136. ]

 [***** LL. Edw. Conf. Sect. 31]. 

 [****** LL. Ethelst. Sect, 20. ]

As the extreme ignorance of the age made deeds and writings very rare, the county or hundred court was the place where the most remarkablecivil transactions were finished, in order to preserve the memory ofthem, and prevent all future disputes. Here testaments were promulgated, slaves manumitted, bargains of sale concluded, and sometimes, forgreater security, the most considerable of these deeds were insertedin the blank leaves of the parish Bible, which thus became a kind ofregister, too sacred to be falsified. It was not unusual to add to thedeed an imprecation on all such as should be guilty of that crime. [*]

 [* Hickes, Dissert, epist. ]

Among a people who lived in so simple a manner as the Anglo-Saxons, thejudicial power is always of greater importance than the legislative. There were few or no taxes imposed by the states; there were fewstatutes enacted; and the nation was less governed by laws, than bycustoms, which admitted a great latitude of interpretation. Though itshould, therefore, be allowed, that the wittenagemot was altogethercomposed of the principal nobility, the county courts, where all thefreeholders were admitted, and which regulated all the dailyoccurrences of life, formed a wide basis for the government, and were nocontemptible checks on the aristocracy. But there is another power stillmore important than either the judicial or legislative; to wit, thepower of injuring or serving by immediate force and violence, for whichit is difficult to obtain redress in courts of justice. In all extensivegovernments, where the execution of the laws is feeble, this powernaturally falls into the hands of the principal nobility; and thedegree of it which prevails, cannot be determined so much by the publicstatutes, as by small incidents in history, by particular customs, andsometimes by the reason and nature of things. The highlands of Scotlandhave long been entitled by law to every privilege of British subjects;but it was not till very lately that the common people could in factenjoy these privileges. 

The powers of all the members of the Anglo-Saxon government are disputedamong historians and antiquaries: the extreme obscurity of the subject, even though faction had never entered into the question, would naturallyhave begotten those controversies. But the great influence of the lordsover their slaves and tenants, the clientship of the burghers, the totalwant of a middling rank of men, the extent of the mon archy, the looseexecution of the laws, the continued disorders and convulsions of thestate, --all these circumstances evince that the Anglo-Saxon governmentbecame at last extremely aristocratical; and the events, during theperiod immediately preceding the conquest, confirm this inference orconjecture. 

Both the punishments inflicted by the Anglo-Saxon courts of judicature, and the methods of proof employed in all causes, appear somewhatsingular, and are very different from those which prevail at presentamong all civilized nations. 

We must conceive that the ancient Germans were little removed from theoriginal state of nature: the social confederacy among them was moremartial than civil: they had chiefly in view the means of attack ordefence against public enemies, not those of protection against theirfellow-citizens: their possessions were so slender and so equal, thatthey were not exposed to great danger; and the natural bravery of thepeople made every man trust to himself and to his particular friends forhis defence or vengeance. This defect in the political union drew muchcloser the knot of particular confederacies: an insult upon any man wasregarded by all his relations and associates as a common injury: theywere bound by honor, as well as by a sense of common interest, to revenge his death, or any violence which he had suffered: theyretaliated on the aggressor by like acts of violence; and if he wereprotected, as was natural and usual, by his own clan, the quarrel wasspread still wider, and bred endless disorders in the nation. 

The Frisians, a tribe of the Germans, had never advanced beyond thiswild and imperfect state of society; and the right of private revengestill remained among them unlimited and uncontrolled. [*] But the otherGerman nations, in the age of Tacitus, had made one step farther towardscompleting the political or civil union. Though it still continued to bean indispensable point of honor for every clan to revenge the death orinjury of a member, the magistrate had acquired a right of interposingin the quarrel, and of accommodating the difference. He obliged theperson maimed or injured, and the relations of one killed, to accept ofa present from the aggressor and his relations, [**] as a compensationfor the injury. [***] and to drop all farther prosecution of revenge. That the accommodation of one quarrel might not be the source of more, this present was fixed and certain according to the rank of the personkilled or injured, and was commonly paid in cattle, the chief propertyof those rude and uncultivated nations. 

 [* LL. Fris. Tit. 2, apud Lindenbrog. P. 491. ]

 [** LL. Æthelb, sect. 23. LL. Ælf. Sect. 27]

 [*** Called by the Saxons "maegbota. "]

A present of this kind gratified the revenge of the injured family bythe loss which the aggressor suffered: it satisfied then pride by thesubmission which it expressed: it diminished their regret for the lossor injury of a kinsman by their acquisition of new property; and thusgeneral peace was for a moment restored to the society. [*]

But when the German nations had been settled some time in the provincesof the Roman empire, they made still another step towards a morecultivated life, and their criminal justice gradually improved andrefined itself. The magistrate, whose office it was to guard publicpeace, and to suppress private animosities, conceived himself to beinjured by every injury done to any of his people; and besides thecompensation to the person who suffered, or to his family, he thoughthimself entitled to exact a fine, called the "fridwit, " as an atonementfor the breach of peace, and as a reward for the pains which he hadtaken in accommodating the quarrel. When this idea, which is so natural, was once suggested, it was willingly received both by sovereign andpeople. The numerous fines which were levied, augmented the revenue ofthe king; and the people were sensible that he would be more vigilantin interposing with his good offices, when he reaped such immediateadvantage from them; and that injuries would be less frequent, when, besides compensation to the person injured, that they were exposed tothis additional penalty. [**]

 [* Tacit, de Mor. Germ. The author says, that the price of the composition was fixed; which must have been by the laws, and the interposition of the magistrates. ]

 [** Besides paying money to the relations of the deceased, and to the king, the murderer was also obliged to pay the master of a slave of vassal a sum, as a compensation for his loss. This was called the "manbote" See Spel. Gloss, in verb. Fredum, Manbot. ]

This short abstract contains the history of the criminal jurisprudenceof the northern nations for several centuries. The state of England inthis particular, during the period of the Anglo-Saxons, may be judged ofby the collection of ancient laws, published by Lambard and Wilkins. The chief purport of these laws is not to prevent or entirely suppressprivate quarrels, which the legislators knew to be impossible, but onlyto regulate and moderate them. The laws of Alfred enjoin, that ifany one know that his enemy or aggressor, after doing him an injury, resolves to keep within his own house _and his own lands_[*] heshall not fight him, till he require compensation for the injury. Ifhe be strong enough to besiege him in his house, he may do it for sevendays without attacking him; and if the aggressor be a willing, duringthat time, to surrender himself and his arms, his, adversary may detainhim thirty days, but is afterwards obliged to restore him safe to hiskindred, "and be content with the compensation. " If the criminal fly tothe temple, that sanctuary must not be violated. Where the assailant hasnot force sufficient to besiege the criminal in his house, he mustapply to the alderman for assistance; and if the alderman refuse aidthe assailant must have recourse to the king; and he is not allowedto assault the house till after this supreme magistrate has refusedassistance. If any one meet with his enemy, and be ignorant that he wasresolved to keep within his own lands he must, before he attack him, require him to surrender him self prisoner, and deliver up his arms; inwhich case he may detain him thirty days; but if he refuse to deliverup his arms it is then lawful to fight him. A slave may fight in hismaster's quarrel: a father may fight in his son's with any one exceptwith his master. [**]

It was enacted by King Ina, that no man should take revenge for aninjury till he had first demanded compensation, and had been refusedit. [***]

 [* The addition of these last words is Italics appears necessary from what follows in the same law. ]

 [** IL. Ælf. Sect. 28. Wilkins, p. 43. ]

 [*** LL. Inae sect. 9]

King Edmond, in the preamble to his laws, mentions the general miseryoccasioned by the multiplicity of private feuds and battles; and heestablishes several expedients for remedying this grievance. He ordainsthat if any one commit murder, he may, with the assistance of hiskindred, pay within a twelvemonth the fine of his crime; and if theyabandon him, he shall alone sustain the deadly feud or quarrel with thekindred of the murdered person: his own kindred are free from the feud, but on condition that they neither converse with the criminal, norsupply him with meat or other necessaries: if any of them, afterrenouncing him, receive him into their house, or give him assistance, they are finable to the king, and are involved in the feud. If thekindred of the murdered person take revenge on any but the criminalhimself, after he is abandoned by his kindred, all their property isforfeited, and they are declared to be enemies to the king and all hisfriends. [*] It is also ordained that the fine for murder shall never beremitted by the king, [**] and that no criminal shall be killed who fliesto the church, or any of the king's towns;[***] and the king himselfdeclares, that his house shall give no protection to murderers, tillthey have satisfied the church by their penance, and the kindred ofthe deceased by making compensation. [****] The method appointed fortransacting this composition is found in the same law. [*****]

These attempts of Edmond, to contract and diminish the feuds, werecontrary to the ancient spirit of the northern barbarians, and were astep towards a more regular administration of justice. By the salic law, any man-night, by a public declaration, exempt himself from his familyquarrels: but then he was considered by the law as no longer belongingto the family; and he was deprived of all right of succession, as thepunishment of his cowardice. [******]

The price of the king's head, or his weregild, as it was then called, was by law thirty thousand thrimsas, near thirteen hundred pounds ofpresent money. The price of the prince's head was fifteen thousandthrimsas; that of a bishop's or alderman's, eight thousand; a sheriff's, four thousand; a thane's or clergyman's, two thousand; a ceorle's, two hundred and sixty-six. These prices were fixed by the laws of theAngles. By the Mercian law, the price of a ceorle's head was two hundredshillings; that of a thane's, six times as much; that of a king's, sixtimes more. [*******] By the laws of Kent, the price of the archbishop'shead was higher than that of the king's. [********] Such respect was thenpaid to the ecclesiastics! It must be understood, that where aperson was unable or unwilling to pay the fine, he was put out of theprotection of law, and the kindred of the deceased had liberty to punishhim as they thought proper. 

Some antiquaries [*********] have thought that these compensations wereonly given for manslaughter, not for wilful murder. 

 [* LL. Edm. Sect, . 1. Wilkins, p. 73. ]

 [** LL. Edm. Sect. 3. ]

 [*** LL. Edm. Sect. 2. ]

 [**** LL. Edm. Sect. 4. ]

 [***** LL. Edm. Sect. 7, ]

 [****** Tit. 63. ]

 [******* Wilkins, p. 71, 72]

 [******** LL. Elthredi, apud Wilkins, p. 110. ]

 [********* Tyrrel, Introduct. Vol. I. P. 120. Carte vol i. P. 366. ]

But no such distinction appears in the laws; and it is contradictedby the practice of all the other barbarous nations, [*] by that of theancient Germans, [**] and by that curious monument above mentioned ofSaxon antiquity, preserved by Hickes. There is indeed a law of Alfred'swhich makes wilful murder capital;[***] but this seems only to have beenan attempt of that great legislator towards establishing a better policein the kingdom, and it probably remained without execution. By the lawsof the same prince, a conspiracy against the life of the king might beredeemed by a fine. [****]

The price of all kinds of wounds was likewise fixed by the Saxon laws: awound of an inch long under the hair was paid with one shilling: one ofa like size in the face, two shillings; thirty shillings for the loss ofan ear; and so forth. [*****] There seems not to have been any differencemade, according to the dignity of the person. By the laws of Ethelbert, any one who committed adultery with his neighbor's wife was obliged topay him a fine, and buy him another wife. [******]

These institutions are not peculiar to the ancient Germans. They seemto be the necessary progress of criminal jurisprudence among every freepeople, where the will of the sovereign is not implicitly obeyed. Wefind them among the ancient Greeks during the time of the Trojan war. Compositions for murder are mentioned in Nestor's speech to Achilles, inthe ninth Iliad, and are called [Greek: apoinai]. The Irish, who neverhad any connections with the German nations, adopted the same practicetill very lately; and the price of a man's head was called among themhis "eric;" as we learn from Sir John Davis. The same custom seems alsoto have prevailed among the Jews. [*******]

Theft and robbery were frequent among the Anglo-Saxons In order toimpose some check upon these crimes, it was ordained, that no manshould sell or buy any thing above twenty pence value, except in openmarket;[********] and every bargain of sale must be executed beforewitnesses. [*********]

 [1: Lindenbrogius, passim. ]

 [2: Tacit, de Mor. Germ. ]

 [3: LL. Ælf. Sect. 12. Wilkins, p. 29. It is probable that by wilful murder Alfred means a treacherous murder, committed by one who has no declared feud with another. ]

 [4: LL. Ælf. Sect. 4. Wilkins, p. 35. ]

 [5: LL. Ælf. Sect. 40. See also LL. Ethelb. Sect. 34, etc. ]

 [6: LL Ethelb. Sect. 32. ]

 [7: Exod. Cap. Xxi. 29, 30. ]

 [8: LL. Æthelst. Sect. 12. ]

 [9: LL. Æthelst. Sect. 10, 12. LL. Edg. Apud Wilkins, p. 80. LL Ethelredi, sect 4, apud Wilkins, p. 103. Hloth. Et Eadm. Sect 16. LL. Canute. Sect. 22. ]

Gangs of robbers much disturbed the peace of the country, and the lawdetermined that a tribe of banditti, consisting of between seven andthirty-five persons, was to be called a "turma, " or troop; any greatercompany was denominated an army. [*] The punishments for this crime werevarious, but none of them capital. [**] If any man could track his stolencattle into another's ground, the latter was obliged to show the tracksout of it, or pay their value. [***]

Rebellion, to whatever excess it was carried, was not capital butmight be redeemed by a sum of money. [****] The legislators, knowingit impossible to prevent all disorders, only imposed a higher fineon breaches of the peace committed in the king's court, or before analderman or bishop. An ale-house, too, seems to have been considered asa privileged place; and any quarrels that arose there were more severelypunished than else where. [*****]

 [* LL. Inæ, sect. 12. ]

 [* LL. Inæ, sect. 37. ]

 [* LL. Æthelst. Sect. 2. Wilkins, p. 63. ]

 [* LL. Ethelredi, apud Wilkins, p. 110. LL. Ælf. Sect. 4. Wilkins, p35. ]

 [* LL. Hloth. Et Eadm. Sect. 12, 13. LL. Ethelr. Apud Wilkins, P 117. ]

If the manner of punishing crimes among the Anglo-Saxons appearsingular, the proofs were not less so; and were also the natural resultof the situation of those people. Whatever we may imagine concerning theusual truth and sincerity of men who live in a rude and barbarous state, there is much more falsehood, and even perjury, among them, than amongcivilized nations: virtue, which is nothing but a more enlarged and morecultivated reason, never flourishes to any degree, nor is foundedon steady principles of honor, except where a good education becomesgeneral; and where men are taught the pernicious consequences of vice, treachery, and immorality. Even superstition, though more prevalentamong ignorant nations, is but a poor supply for the defects inknowledge and education; our European ancestors, who employed everymoment the expedient of swearing on extraordinary crosses and relics, were less honorable in all engagements than their posterity, who fromexperience have omitted those ineffectual securities. This generalproneness to assumed perjury was much increased by the usual want ofdiscernment in judges, who could not discuss an intricate evidence, andwere obliged to number, not weigh, the testimony of the witnesses, [*]Hence the ridiculous practice of obliging men to bring compurgators, who, as they did not pretend to know any thing of the fact, expressedupon oath, that they believed the person spoke true; and thesecompurgators were in some cases multiplied to the number of threehundred. [**] The practice also of single combat was employed by mostnations on the continent as a remedy against false evidence;[***] andthough it was frequently dropped, from the opposition of the clergy, itwas continually revived, from experience of the falsehood attendingthe testimony of witnesses. [****] It became at last a species ofjurisprudence: the cases were determined by law, in which theparty might challenge his adversary or the witnesses, or the judgehimself;[*****] and though these customs were absurd, they were ratheran improvement on the methods of trial which had formerly been practisedamong those barbarous nations, and which still prevailed among theAnglo-Saxons. 

 [* Præf. Nicol. Ad Wilkins, p. 11. ]

 [** LL. Burgund. Cap. 45. LL. Lomb. Lib. Ii. Tit. 55, cap. 34. ]

 [*** LL. Longob. Lib. Ii. Tit. 55, cap. 23, apud Lindenbrog. P. 661]

 [**** See Desfontaines and Beaumanoir. ]

 [***** Sometimes the laws fixed easy general rules for weighing the credibility of witnesses. A man whose life was estimated at a hundred and twenty shillings, counterbalanced six ceorles, each of whose lives was only valued at twenty shillings, and his oath was esteemed equivalent to that of all the six. See Wilkins, p. 72. ]

When any controversy about a fact became too intricate for thoseignorant judges to unravel, they had recourse to what they called thejudgment of God, that is, to fortune. Their methods of consulting thisoracle were various. One of them was the decision by the cross: it waspractised in this manner: When a person was accused of any crime, he first cleared himself by oath, and he was attended by elevencompurgators. He next took two pieces of wood, one of which was markedwith the sign of the cross, and wrapping both up in wool, he placed themon the altar, or on some celebrated relic. After solemn prayers for thesuccess of the experiment, a priest, or in his stead some unexperiencedyouth, took up one of the pieces of wood, and if he happened upon thatwhich was marked with the figure of the cross, the person was pronouncedinnocent; if otherwise, guilty. [*] This practice, as it arose fromsuperstition, was abolished by it in France. 

 [* LL. Prison, tit. 14, apud Lindenbrog. P. 496. Trial, not because it was uncertain, but lest that sacred figure says he, of the cross should be prostituted in common disputes and controversies. ]

The ordeal was another established method of trial among Saxons. Itwas practised either by boiling water or red-hot iron. The former wasappropriated to the common people; the latter to the nobility. Thewater or iron was consecrated by many prayers, masses, fastings, andexorcisms, [*] after which, the person accused either took up a stonesunk in the water[**] to a certain depth, or carried the iron to acertain distance; and his hand being wrapped up, and the covering sealedfor three days, if there appeared, on examining it, no marks of burning, he was pronounced innocent; if otherwise, guilty. [***] The trial by coldwater was different: the person was thrown into consecrated water; if heswam, he was guilty, if he sunk, innocent. [****] It is difficult for usto conceive how any innocent person could ever escape by the one trial, or any criminal be convicted by the other. But there was another usageadmirably calculated for allowing every criminal to escape, who hadconfidence enough to try it. A consecrated cake, called a corsned, was produced, which if the person could swallow and digest, he waspronounced innocent. [******]

The feudal law, if it had place at all among the Anglo-Saxons, which isdoubtful, was not certainly extended over all the landed property, andwas not attended with those consequences of homage, reliefs, [*******]wardship, marriage, and other burdens, which were inseparable from itin the kingdoms of the continent. As the Saxons expelled, or almostentirely destroyed, the ancient Britons, they planted themselves in thisisland on the same footing with their ancestors in Germany, and found nooccasion for the feudal institutions, [********] which were calculatedto maintain a kind of standing army, always in readiness to suppress anyinsurrection among the conquered people. 

 [* Du Cange, in verbo Crux. ]

 [** Spel in verbo Ordealium. Parker, p. 155. Lindenbrog. P, 1299]

 [*** LL. Inæ, sect. 77. ]

 [**** Sometimes the person accused walked barefoot over a red hot iron]

 [***** Spel in verbo Ordealium. ]

 [****** Spel in verbo Corsned. Parker, p. 156. Text. Roffens. P. 33. ]

 [******* On the death of an alderman, a greater or lesser thane, there was a payment made to the king of his best arms; and this was called his heriot; but this was not of the nature of a relief. See Spel. Of Tenures, p. 2. The value of this heriot was fixed by Canute's laws, sect. 69. ]

 [******** Bracton de Acqu. Rer. Domin. Ii. Cap. 16. See more fully Spel of Feus and Tenures, and Q aigius de Jure Feud, lib. I. Dieg. ]

The trouble and expense of defending the state in England lay equallyupon all the land; and it was usual for every five hides to equip aman for the service. The "trinoda necessitas, " as it was called, or theburden of military expeditions, of repairing highways, and of buildingand supporting bridges, was inseparable from landed property, eventhough it belonged to the church or monasteries, unless exempted by aparticular charter. [*] The ceorles, or husbandmen, were provided witharms, and were obliged to take their turn in military duty. [**] Therewere computed to be two hundred and forty-three thousand six hundredhides in England;[***] consequently the ordinary military force of thekingdom consisted of forty-eight thousand seven hundred and twenty men;though, no doubt, on extraordinary occasions, a greater number mightbe assembled. The king and nobility had some military tenants, who werecalled "sithcun-men. "[****] And there were some lands annexed to theoffice of aldermen, and to other offices; but these probably were notof great extent, and were possessed only during pleasure, as in thecommencement of the feudal law in other countries of Europe. 

The revenue of the king seems to have consisted chiefly in his demesnes, which were large; and in the tolls and imposts which he probably leviedat discretion on the boroughs and seaports that lay within his demesnes. He could not alienate any part of the crown lands, even to religioususes, without the consent of the states. [*****] Danegelt was a land-taxof a shilling a hide, imposed by the states, [******] either for paymentof the sums exacted by the Danes, or for putting the kingdom in aposture of defence against those invaders. [*******]

The Saxon pound, as likewise that which was coined for some centuriesafter the conquest, was near three times the weight of our presentmoney. There were forty-eight shillings in the pound, and five pencein a shilling;[********] consequently a Saxon shilling was near afifth heavier than ours, and a Saxon penny near three times asheavy. [*********]

 [* Spel. Concil. Vol. I. P. 256. ]

 [** Inæ, sect. 51. ]

 [*** Spel. Of Feus and Tenures, p. 17. ]

 [**** Spel. Concil. Vol. I. P. 195. ]

 [***** Spel. Concil. Vol. I. P. 340. ]

 [****** Chron. Sax. P. 128. ]

 [******* LL. Edw. Conf. Sect. 12. ]

 [******** LL. Ælf. Sect. 40. ]

 [********* Fleetwood's Chron. Pretiosum, p. 27 28, etc. ]

As to the value of money in those times, compared to commodities, thereare some though not very certain, means of computation. A sheep, of thelaws of Athelstan, was estimated at a shilling; that is, fifteen penceof our money. The fleece was two fifths of the value of the wholesheep, [*] much above its present estimation; and the reason probablywas, that the Saxons, like the ancients, were little acquainted with anyclothing but what was made of wool. Silk and cotton were quite unknown:linen was not much used. An ox was computed at six times the value ofa sheep; a cow at four. [**] If we suppose that the cattle in that age, from the defects in husbandry, were not so large as they are at presentin England, we may compute that money was then near ten times of greatervalue. A horse was valued at about thirty-six shillings of our money, or thirty Saxon shillings;[***] a mare a third less. A man at threepounds. [****] The board-wages of a child the first year was eightshillings, together with a cow's pasture in summer, and an ox's inwinter. [*****] William of Malmsbury mentions it as a remarkably highprice that William Rufus gave fifteen marks for a horse, or about thirtypounds of our present money. [******] Between the years 900 and 1000, Ednoth bought a hide of land for about one hundred and eighteenshillings of present money. [*******] This was little more than ashilling an acre, which indeed appears to have been the usual price, as we may learn from other accounts. [********] A palfrey was sold fortwelve shillings about the year 966. [*********] The value of an ox inKing Ethel ed's[** word?] time was between seven and eight shillings;a cow about six shillings. [*********] Gervas of Tilbury says, that inHenry I's time, bread which would suffice a hundred men for a day wasrated at three shillings, or a shilling of that age: for it is thoughtthat soon after the conquest a pound sterling was divided into twentyshillings. A sheep was rated at a shilling, and so of other things inproportion. In Athelstan's time, a ram was valued at a shilling, orfourpence Saxon. [**********] The tenants of Shireburn were obliged, attheir choice, to pay either sixpence or four hens. [***********]

 [* LL. Inse, sect. 69. ]

 [** Wilkins, p. 126. 

 [*** LL. Inse, sect. 38. ]

 [**** Hist. Eliens. P. 471]

 [***** Wilkins, p. 56. ]

 [****** Wilkins, p. 66. ]

 [******* Wilkins, p. 126. ]

 [******** Page 121. ]

 [********* Hist. Eliens. P. 473. ]

 [********** Wilkins, p. 126. ]

 [*********** Monast. Anglie. Vol. Ii. P. 528. ]

About 1232, the abbot of St. Alban's, going on a journey, hired sevenhandsome, stout horses; and agreed, if any of them died on the road, topay the owner thirty shillings apiece of our present money. [*] It is tobe remarked, that in all ancient times the raising of corn, especiallywheat, being a species of manufactory, that commodity always bore ahigher price, compared to cattle, than it does in our times. [**] TheSaxon Chronicle tells us, [***] that in the reign of Edward the Confessorthere was the most terrible famine ever known; insomuch that a quarterof wheat rose to sixty pennies, or fifteen shillings of our presentmoney. Consequently, it was as dear as if it now cost seven poundsten shillings. This much exceeds the great famine in the end of QueenElizabeth, when a quarter of wheat was sold for four pounds. Money inthis last period was nearly of the same value as in our time. Thesesevere famines are a certain proof of bad husbandry. 

 [* M. Paris]. 

 [** Fleetwood. P. 83, 94, 96. 98]

 [*** Page 157. ]

On the whole, there are three things to be considered, wherever a sum ofmoney is mentioned in ancient times. First, the change of denomination, by which a pound has been reduced to the third part of its ancientweight in silver. Secondly, the change in value by the greater plentyof money, which has reduced the same weight of silver to ten times lessvalue, compared to commodities; and consequently a pound sterling to thethirtieth part of the ancient value. Thirdly, the fewer people and lessindustry which were then to be found in every European kingdom. Thiscircumstance made even the thirtieth part of the sum more difficult tolevy, and caused any sum to have more than thirty times greater weightand influence, both abroad and at home, than in our times; in thesame manner that a sum, a hundred thousand pounds, for instance, is atpresent more difficult to levy in a small state, such as Bavaria, andcan produce greater effects on such a small community than on England. This last difference is not easy to be calculated; but, allowing thatEngland has now six times more industry, and three times more peoplethan it had at the conquest, and for some reigns after that period, we are upon that supposition to conceive, taking all circumstancestogether, every sum of money mentioned by historians, as if it weremultiplied more than a hundred fold above a sum of the same denominationat present. 

In the Saxon times, land was divided equally among all the male childrenof the deceased, according to the custom of gavelkind. The practice ofentails is to be found in those times. [*] Land was chiefly of two kinds, bockland, or land held by book or charter, which was regarded as fullproperty, and descended to the heirs of the possessor; and folkland, orthe land held by the ceorles and common people, who were removable atpleasure, and were, indeed, only tenants during the will of their lords. 

The first attempt which we find in England to separate theecclesiastical from the civil jurisdiction, was that law of Edgar bywhich all disputes among the clergy were ordered to be carried beforethe bishop. [**] The penances were then very severe; but as a man couldbuy them off with money, or might substitute others to perform them, they lay easy upon the rich. [***]

With regard to the manners of the Anglo-Saxons, we can say little, but that they were in general a rude, uncultivated people, ignorant ofletters, unskilled in the mechanical arts, untamed to submission underlaw and government, addicted to intemperance, riot, and disorder. Theirbest quality was their military courage, which yet was not supported bydiscipline or conduct. Their want of fidelity to the prince, or to anytrust reposed in them, appears strongly in the history of their laterperiod; and their want of humanity in all their history. Even the Normanhistorians, notwithstanding the low state of the arts in their owncountry, speak of them as barbarians, when they mention the invasionmade upon them by the duke of Normandy. [****] The conquest put thepeople in a situation of receiving slowly, from abroad, the rudimentsof science and cultivation, and of correcting their rough and licentiousmanners. 

 [* LL. Ælf. Sect. 37, apud Wilkins, p. 43. ]

 [** Wilkins, p. 83. ]

 [*** Wilkins, p. 96, 97. Spel. Concil. P. 473. ]

 [**** Gul, Pict. P. 202. ]

CHAPTER IV. 

[Illustration: 068. Jpg WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. ]

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 

Contemporary Monarchs:

 EMP. OF GERM. K. OF SCOTLAND K. OF FRANCE. Ks. OF SPAIN. Henry IV. Malcolm III. 1093 Philip I. Sancho II. 1072 Alphonso VI. 

 POPES. Alexander II. 1073 Gregory VII. 1085 Victor III. 1087

{1066. } _Nothing_ could exceed the consternation which seized theEnglish when they received intelligence of the unfortunate battle ofHastings, the death of their king, the slaughter of their principalnobility and of their bravest warriors, and the rout and dispersionof the remainder. But though the loss which they had sustained in thatfatal action was considerable, it might have been repaired by a greatnation; where the people were generally armed, and where there residedso many powerful noblemen in every province, who could have assembledtheir retainers, and have obliged the duke of Normandy to divide hisarmy, and probably to waste it in a variety of actions and rencounters. It was thus that the kingdom had formerly resisted for many years itsinvaders, and had been gradually subdued by the continued efforts ofthe Romans, Saxons, and Danes; and equal difficulties might have beenapprehended by William in this bold and hazardous enterprise. But therewere several vices in the Anglo-Saxon constitution, which rendered itdifficult for the English to defend their liberties in so critical anemergency. The people had in a great measure lost all national pride andspirit by their recent and long subjection to the Danes; and as Canutehad, in the course of his administration, much abated the rigors ofconquest, and had governed them equitably by their own laws, theyregarded with the less terror the ignominy of a foreign yoke, anddeemed the inconveniences of submission less formidable than those ofbloodshed, war, and resistance. Their attachment also to the ancientroyal family had been much weakened by their habits of submission tothe Danish princes, and by their late election of Harold or theiracquiescence in his usurpation. And as they had long been accustomedto regard Edgar Atheling, the only heir of the Saxon line, as unfitto govern them even in times of order and tranquillity, they couldentertain small hopes of his being able to repair such great losses asthey had sustained, or to withstand the victorious arms of the duke ofNormandy. 

That they might not, however, be altogether wanting to themselves inthis extreme necessity, the English took some steps towards adjustingtheir disjointed government, and uniting themselves against the commonenemy. The two potent earls, Edwin and Morcar, who had fled to Londonwith the remains of the broken army, took the lead on this occasion: inconcert with Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury, a man possessed of greatauthority and of ample revenues, they proclaimed Edgar, and endeavoredto put the people in a posture of defence, and encourage them toresist the Normans. [*] But the terror of the late defeat, and the nearneighborhood of the invaders, increased the confusion inseparable fromgreat revolutions; and every resolution proposed was hasty, fluctuating, tumultuary; disconcerted by fear or faction; ill planned, and worseexecuted. 

William, that his enemies might have no leisure to recover from theirconsternation or unite their counsels, immediately put himself in motionafter his victory, and resolved to prosecute an enterprise which nothingbut celerity and vigor could render finally successful. His firstattempt was against Rornney, whose inhabitants he severely punished, onaccount of their cruel treatment of some Norman seamen and soldiers, whohad been carried thither by stress of weather, or by a mistake in theircourse;[**] and foreseeing that his conquest of England might still beattended with many difficulties and with much opposition, he deemed itnecessary, before he should advance farther into the country, to makehimself master of Dover, which would both secure him a retreat incast of adverse fortune, and afford him a safe landing-place for suchsupplies as might be requisite for pushing his advantages. 

 [* Gill. Pict. P. 205. Order. Vitaas, p. 502. Hoveden, p. 449 Knygnton, p. 2343. ]

 [** Gul. Pict. P. 204]

The terror diffused by his victory at Hastings was so great that thegarrison of Dover, though numerous and well provided, immediatelycapitulated; and as the Normans, rushing in to take possession of thetown, hastily set fire to some of the houses, William, desirous toconciliate the minds of the English by an appearance of lenity andjustice, made compensation to the inhabitants for their losses. [*]

The Norman army, being much distressed with a dysentery, was obliged toremain here eight days; but the duke, on their recovery, advancedwith quick marches towards London, and by his approach increased theconfusions which were already so prevalent in the English counsels. Theecclesiastics in particular, whose influence was great over the peoplebegan to declare in his favor; and as most of the bishops and dignifiedclergymen were even then Frenchmen or Normans, the pope's bull, by whichhis enterprise was avowed and hallowed, was now openly insisted on as areason for general submission. The superior learning of those prelates, which, during the Confessor's reign, had raised them above the ignorantSaxons, made their opinions be received with implicit faith; and ayoung prince; like Edgar, whose capacity was deemed so mean, was but illqualified to resist the impression which they made on the minds of thepeople. A repulse which a body of Londoners received from five hundredNorman horse, renewed in the city the terror of the great defeat atHastings; the easy submission of all the inhabitants of Kent was anadditional discouragement to them; the burning of Southwark beforetheir eyes made them dread a like fate to their own city; and no manany longer entertained thoughts but of immediate safety ana ofself-preservation. Even the Earls Edwin and Morcar, in despair of makingeffectual resistance, retired with their troops to their own provinces;and the people thenceforth disposed themselves unanimously to yield tothe victor. As soon as he passed the Thames at Wallingford, and reachedBerkhamstead, Stigand, the primate, made submissions to him: beforehe came within sight of the city, all the chief nobility, and EdgarAtheling himself, the new elected king, came into his camp, and declaredtheir intention of yielding to his authority. [**] They requested him tomount their throne, which they now considered as vacant; and declare tohim, that as they had always been ruled by regal power, they desired tofollow, in this particular, the example of their ancestors, and knew ofno one more worthy than himself to hold the reins of government. [***]

 [* Gul. Pict. P. 204. ]

 [** Hoveden, p. 450. Flor. Wigorn. P, 634]

 [*** Gul. Pict. P. 205. Order. Vitalis, p. 503. ]

Though this was the great object to which the duke's enterprise tended, he feigned to deliberate on the offer; and being desirous, at first, ofpreserving the appearance of a legal administration, he wished to obtaina more explicit and formal consent of the English nation;[*] but Aimarof Aquitain, a man equally respected for valor in the field and forprudence in council, remonstrating with him on the danger of delay in socritical a conjuncture, he laid aside all further scruples, and acceptedof the crown which was tendered him. Orders were immediately issued toprepare every thing for the ceremony of his coronation; but as hewas yet afraid to place entire confidence in the Londoners, who werenumerous and warlike, he meanwhile commanded fortresses to be erected, in order to curb the inhabitants, and to secure his person andgovernment. [**]

Stigand was not much in the duke's favor, both because he had intrudedinto the see on the expulsion of Robert the Norman, and because hepossessed such influence and authority over the English[***] as might bedangerous to a new-established monarch. William, therefore, pretendingthat the primate had obtained his pall in an irregular manner from PopeBenedict IX. , who was himself a usurper, refused to be consecratedby him, and conferred this honor on Aldred, arch bishop of York. Westminster Abbey was the place appointed for that magnificentceremony; the most considerable of the nobility, both English andNorman, attended the duke on this occasion; Aldred, in a short speech, asked the former whether they agreed to accept of William as their king;the bishop of Coutance put the same question to the latter; and bothbeing answered with acclamations, [****] Aldred administered to the dukethe usual coronation oath, by which he bound himself to protect thechurch, to administer justice, and to repress violence; he then anointedhim, and put the crown upon his head. [*****] There appeared nothing butjoy in the countenance of the spectators; but in that very moment thereburst forth the strongest symptoms of the jealousy and animosity whichprevailed between the nations, and which continually increased duringthe reign of this prince. 

 [* Gul. Pict. P. 205]. 

 [** Gul. Pict. P. 205. ]

 [*** Eadmer, p. 6. ]

 [**** Order. Vitalis, p. 503. ]

 [***** Malmsbury (p. 271) says, that he also promised to govern the Normans and English by equal laws; and this addition to the usual oath seems not improbable, considering the circumstances of the time!]

The Norman soldiers, who were placed without in order to guard thechurch, hearing the shouts within, fancied that the English wereoffering violence to their duke; and they immediately assaulted thepopulace, and set fire to the neighboring houses. The alarm was conveyedto the nobility who surrounded the prince; both English and Normans, full of apprehensions, rushed out to secure themselves from the presentdanger; and it was with difficulty that William himself was able toappease the tumult. [*]

The king, thus possessed of the throne by a pretended descination ofKing Edward, and by an irregular election of the people, but still moreby force of arms, retired from London to Berking, in Essex, {1067. } andthere received the submissions of all the nobility who had not attendedhis coronation. Edric, surnamed the Forester, grand-nephew to that Edricso noted for his repeated acts of perfidy during the reigns of Ethelredand Edmond; Earl Coxo, a man famous for bravery; even Edwin and Morcar, earls of Mercia and Northumberland; with the other principal noblemenof England, came and swore fealty to him; were received into favor; andwere confirmed in the possession of their estates and dignities. [**]Every thing bore the appearance of peace and tranquillity; and Williamhad no other occupation than to give contentment to the foreigners whohad assisted him to mount the throne, and to his new subjects, who hadso readily submitted to him. 

He had got possession of the treasure of Harold, which was considerable;and being also supplied with rich presents from the opulent men in allparts of England, who were solicitous to gain the favor of their newsovereign, he distributed great sums among his troops, and by thisliberality gave them hopes of obtaining at length those more durableestablishments which they had expected from his enterprise. [***] Theecclesiastics, both at home and abroad, had much forwarded his success;and he failed not, in return, to express his gratitude and devotion inthe manner which was most acceptable to them; he sent Harold'sstandard to the pope, accompanied with many valuable presents; all theconsiderable monasteries and churches in France, where prayers had beenput up for his success, now tasted of his bounty;[****] the Englishmonks found him well disposed to favor their order; and he built anew convent near Hastings, which he called Battle Abbey, and which onpretence of supporting monks to pray lor his own soul, and for that ofHarold, served as a lasting memorial of his victory. [*****]

 [* Gul Pict. P. 206. Order. Vitalis, p. 503. ]

 [** Gul. Pict. P. 208. Order. Vitalis, p. 506. ]

 [*** Gul. Pict. P. 206. ]

 [**** Gul. Pict. P. 205. ]

 [***** Gul. Gemet. P. 288. Chron. Sax. P. 189. M. West. P. 226. M. Paris, p. 9. Diceto, p. 482. This convent was freed by him from all episcopal jurisdiction. Monast. Anglic, tom. I. P. 311, 312. ]

He introduced into England that strict execution of justice, for whichhis administration had been much celebrated in Normandy; and even duringthis violent revolution, every disorder or oppression met with rigorouspunishment. [*]

 [* Gul. Pict. P. 208. Order, Vitalis, p. 506. ]

His army in particular was governed with severe discipline; andnotwithstanding the insolence of victory, care was taken to give aslittle offence as possible to the jealousy of the vanquished. The kingappeared solicitous to unite in an amicable manner the Normans and theEnglish, by intermarriages and alliances; and all his new subjects whoapproached his person were received with affability and regard. No signsof suspicion appeared, not even towards Edgar Atheling, the heir of theancient royal family, whom William confirmed in the honors of earl ofOxford, conferred on him by Harold, and whom he affected to treat withthe highest kindness, as nephew to the Confessor, his great friend andbenefactor. Though he confiscated the estates of Harold, and of thosewho had fought in the battle of Hastings on the side of that prince, whom he represented as a usurper, he seemed willing to admit of everyplausible excuse for past opposition to his pretensions, and he receivedmany into favor who had carried arms against him, He confirmed theliberties and immunities of London and the other cities of England; andappeared desirous of replacing every thing on ancient establishments. In his whole administration, he bore the semblance of the lawful prince, not of the conqueror; and the English began to flatter themselves, thatthey had changed, not the form of their government, but the successiononly of their sovereigns; a matter which gave them small concern. Thebetter to reconcile his new subjects to his authority, William made aprogress through some parts of England; and besides a splendid court andmajestic presence, which overawed the people, already struck with hismilitary fame, the appearance of his clemency and justice gained theapprobation of the wise, attentive to the first steps of their newsovereign. 

But amidst this confidence and friendship which he expressed for theEnglish, the king took care to place all real power in the hands of hisNormans, and still to keep possession of the sword, to which, hewas sensible, he had owed his advancement to sovereign authority. He disarmed the city of London and other places, which appeared mostwarlike and populous; and building citadels in that capital, as well asin Winchester, Hereford, and the cities best situated for commanding thekingdom, he quartered Norman soldiers in all of them, and left nowhereany power able to resist or oppose him. He bestowed the forfeitedestates on the most eminent of hia captains, and established funds forthe payment of his soldiers. And thus, while his civil administrationcarried the face of a legal magistrate, his military institutions werethose of a master and tyrant; at least of one who reserved to himself, whenever he pleased, the power of assuming that character. 

By this mixture, however, of vigor and lenity, he had so soothed theminds of the English, that he thought he might safely revisit hisnative country, and enjoy the triumph and congratulation of his ancientsubjects. He left the administration in the hands of his uterinebrother, Odo, bishop of Baieux, and of William Fitz-Osberne. That theirauthority might be exposed to less danger, he carried over with him allthe most considerable nobility of England, who, while they served tograce his court by their presence and magnificent retinues, were inreality hostages for the fidelity of the nation. Among these were EdgarAtheling, Stigand the primate, the earls Edwin and Morcar, Waltheof, theson of the brave Earl Siward, with others, eminent for the greatnessof their fortunes and families, or for their ecclesiastical and civildignities. He was visited at the abbey of Fescamp, where he residedduring some time, by Rodulph, uncle to the king of France, and by manypowerful princes and nobles, who, having contributed to his enterprise, were desirous of participating in the joy and advantages of its success. His English courtiers, willing to ingratiate themselves with their newsovereign, outvied each other in equipages and entertainments; andmade a display of riches which struck the foreigners with astonishment. William of Poictiers, a Norman historian, [*] who was present, speakswith admiration of the beauty of their persons, the size and workmanshipof their silver plate, the costliness of their embroideries, an art inwhich the English then excelled; and he expresses himself in such terms, as tend much to exalt our idea of the opulence and cultivation of thepeople. [**]

 [* Page 211, 212. ]

 [** As the historian chiefly insists on the siver plate, his panegyric on the English magnificence shows only how incompetent a judge he was of the matter. Silver was then of ten times the value, and was more than twenty times more rare than at present; and consequently of all species of luxury, plate must have been the rarest. ]

But though every thing bure the face of joy and festivity, and Williamhimself treated nia new courtiers with great appearance of kindness, itwas impossible altogether to prevent the insolence of the Normans;and the English nobles derived little satisfaction from thoseentertainments, where they considered themselves as led in triumph bytheir ostentatious conqueror. 

In England affairs took still a worse turn during the absence of thesovereign. Discontents and complaints multiplied every where; secretconspiracies were entered into against the government; hostilitieswere already begun in many places; and every thing seemed to menace arevolution as rapid as that which had placed William on the throne. Thehistorian above mentioned, who is a panegyrist of his master, throws theblame entirely on the fickle and mutinous disposition of the English, and highly celebrates the justice and lenity of Odo's and Fitz-Osborne'sadministration. [**] But other historians, with more probability, imputethe cause chiefly to the Normans; who, despising a people that had soeasily submitted to the yoke, envying their riches, and grudging therestraints imposed upon their own rapine, were desirous of provokingthem to a rebellion, by which they expected to acquire new confiscationsand forfeitures, and to gratify those unbounded hopes which they hadformed in entering on this enterprise. [***]

 [** Page 212. ]

 [*** Order. Vitalis, p. 507]

It is evident that the chief reason of this alteration in the sentimentsof the English must be ascribed to the departure of William, who wasalone able to curb the violence of his captains, and to overawe themutinies of the people. Nothing indeed appears more strange than thatthis prince, in less than three months after the conquest of a great, warlike, and turbulent nation, should absent himself in order to revisithis own country, which remained in profound tranquillity, and was notmenaced by any of its neighbors; and should so long leave his jealoussubjects at the mercy of an insolent and licentious army. Were we notassured of the solidity of his genius, and the good sense displayed inall other circumstances of his conduct, we might ascribe this measure toa vain ostentation, which rendered him impatient to display his pomp andmagnificence among his ancient subjects. It is therefore more natural tobelieve that, in so extraordinary a step, he was guided by a concealedpolicy; and that though he had thought proper at first to allure thepeople to submission by the semblance of a legal administration, hefound that he could neither satisfy his rapacious captains, norsecure his unstable government, without farther exerting the rights ofconquest, and seizing the possessions of the English. In order to havea pretext for this violence, he endeavored without discovering hisintentions, to provoke and allure them into insurrections, which hethought could never prove dangerous, while he detained all the principalnobility in Normandy, while a great and victorious army was quarteredin England, and while he himself was so near to suppress any tumult orrebellion. But as no ancient writer has ascribed this tyrannical purposeto William, it scarcely seems allowable, from conjecture alone, to throwsuch an imputation upon him. 

But whether we are to account for that measure from the king's vanity orfrom his policy, it was the immediate cause of all the calamities whichthe English endured during this and the subsequent reigns, and gave riseto those mutual jealousies and animosities between them and the Normans, which were never appeased till a long tract of time had gradually unitedthe two nations, and made them one people. The inhabitants of Kent, whohad first submitted to the conqueror, were the first that attempted tothrow off the yoke; and in confederacy with Eustace, count of Boulogne, who had also been disgusted by the Normans, they made an attempt, thoughwithout success, on the garrison of Dover. [*] Edric the Forester, whose possessions lay on the banks of the Severn, being provoked atthe depredations of some Norman captains in his neighborhood, formed analliance with Blethyn and Rowallan, two Welsh princes; and endeavored, with their assistance, to repel force by force. [**]

 [* Gul. Gemet. P. 239. Order. Vitalis, p. 508. Anglia Sacra, vol i. P, 245. ]

 [** Hoveden, p 450. M. West, p 226. Sim. Dunelm. P. 197. ]

But though these open hostilities were not very considerable, thedisaffection was general among the English, who had become sensible, though too late, of their defenceless condition, and began already toexperience those insults and injuries, which a nation must always expectthat allows itself to be reduced to that abject situation. A secretconspiracy was entered into, to perpetrate in one day, a generalmassacre of the Normans, like that which had formerly been executed uponthe Danes; and the quarrel was become so general and national, thatthe vassals of Earl Coxo, having desired him to head them in aninsurrection, and finding him resolute in maintaining his fidelity toWilliam, put him to death as a traitor to his country. 

The king, informed of these dangerous discontents, hastened overto England; and by his presence, and the vigorous measures which hepursued, disconcerted all the schemes of the conspirators. Such of themas had been more violent in their mutiny, betrayed their guilt by flyingor concealing themselves; and the confiscation of their estates, whileit increased the number of malecontents, both enabled William to gratifyfarther the rapacity of his Norman captains, and gave them the prospectof new forfeitures and attainders. The king began to regard allhis English subjects as inveterate and irreclaimable enemies; andthenceforth either embraced, or was more fully confirmed in theresolution of seizing their possessions, and of reducing them to themost abject slavery. Though the natural violence and severity of histemper made him incapable of feeling any remorse in the execution ofthis tyrannical purpose, he had art enough to conceal his intention, and to preserve still some appearance of justice in his oppressions. Heordered all the English who had been arbitrarily expelled by the Normansduring his absence, to be restored to their estates;[*] but at the sametime he imposed a general tax on the people, that of danegelt, whichhad been abolished by the Confessor, and which had always been extremelyodious to the nation. [**]

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 173. This fact is a full proof that the Normans had committed great injustice, and were the real cause of the insurrections of the English. ]

 [** Hoveden, p. 450. Sim. Dunelm. P. 197. Alured. Beverl. P. 127]

{1068. } As the vigilance of William overawed the malecontents, theirinsurrections were more the result of an impatient humor in the people, than of any regular conspiracy which could give them a rational hope ofsuccess against the established power of the Normans. The inhabitants ofExeter, instigated by Githa, mother to King Harold, refused to admit aNorman garrison, and, betaking themselves to arms, were strengthenedby the accession of the neighboring inhabitants of Devonshire andCornwall. [*] The king hastened with his forces to chastise the revolt;and on his approach, the wiser and more considerable citizens, sensibleof the unequal contest, persuaded the people to submit, and to deliverhostages for their obedience. A sudden mutiny of the populace broke thisagreement; and William, appearing before the walls, ordered the eyes ofone of the hostages to be put out, as an earnest of that severity whichthe rebels must expect, if they persevered in their revolt. [**]The inhabitants were anew seized with terror, and surrendering atdiscretion, threw themselves at the king's feet, and supplicated hisclemency and forgiveness. William was not destitute of generosity, when his temper was not hardened either by policy or passion: he wasprevailed on to pardon the rebels, and he set guards on all the gates, in order to prevent the rapacity and insolence of his soldiery. [***]

 [* Order. Vitalis, p. 510. ]

 [** Order. Vitalis, p. 510]

 [*** Order. Vitalis, p. 510. ]

Githa escaped with her treasures to Flanders. The malecontents ofCornwall imitated the example of Exeter, and met with like treatment;and the king having built a citadel in that city, which he put underthe command of Baldwin, son of Earl Gilbert, returned to Winchester, anddispersed his army into their quarters. He was here joined by his wife, Matilda, who had not before visited England, and whom he now ordered tobe crowned by Archbishop Aldred. Soon after she brought him an accessionto his family, by the birth of a fourth son, whom he named Henry. His three elder sons, Robert, Richard, and William, still resided inNormandy. 

But though the king appeared thus fortunate both in public and domesticlife, the discontents of his English subjects augmented daily; andthe injuries committed and suffered on both sides rendered the quarrelbetween them and the Normans absolutely incurable. The insolence ofvictorious masters, dispersed throughout the kingdom, seemed intolerableto the natives; and wherever they found the Normans separate orassembled in small bodies, they secretly set upon them, and gratifiedtheir vengeance by the slaughter of their enemies. But an insurrectionin the north drew thither the general attention, and seemed to threatenmore important consequences. Edwin and Morcar appeared at the headof this rebellion; and these potent noblemen, before they took arms, stipulated for foreign succors from their nephew Blethyn, prince ofNorth Wales, from Malcolm, king of Scotland and from Sweyn, king ofDenmark. Besides the general discontent which had seized the English, the two earls were incited to this revolt by private injuries. William, in order to insure them to his interests, had on his accession promisedhis daughter in marriage to Edwin; but either he had never seriouslyintended to perform this engagement, or, having changed his plan ofadministration in England from clemency to rigor, he thought it wasto little purpose if he gained one family, while he enraged the wholenation. When Edwin, therefore, renewed his applications, he gave himan absolute denial;[*] and this disappointment, added to so many otherreasons of disgust, induced that nobleman and his brother to concurwith their incensed countrymen, and to make one general effort for therecovery of their ancient liberties. William knew the importance ofcelerity in quelling an insurrection supported by such powerful leaders, and so agreeable to the wishes of the people; and having his troopsalways in readiness, he advanced by great journeys to the north. On hismarch he gave orders to fortify the castle of Warwick, of which he leftHenry de Beaumont governor, and that of Nottingham, which he committedto the custody of William Peverell, another Norman captain. [**] Hereached York before the rebels were in any condition for resistance, orwere joined by any of the foreign succors which they expected, except asmall reënforcement from Wales;[***] and the two earls found no meansof safety but having recourse to the clemency of the victor. Archil, apotent nobleman in those parts, imitated their example, and deliveredhis son as a hostage for his fidelity;[****] nor were the people, thusdeserted by their leaders, able to make any farther resistance. But thetreatment which William gave the chiefs was very different from thatwhich fell to the share of their followers. He observed religiouslythe terms which he had granted to the former, and allowed them for thepresent to keep possession of their estates; but he extended the rigorsof his confiscations over the latter, and gave away their lands to hisforeign adventurers. 

 [* Order. Vitalis, p. 511. ]

 [** Order. Vitalis, p. 511. ]

 [*** Order. Vitalia, p. 511. ]

 [*** Order. Vitalis, p. 511. ]

These, planted throughout the whole country, and in possession of themilitary power, left Edwin and Morcar, whom he pretended to spare, destitute of all support, and ready to fall whenever he should thinkproper to command their ruin. A peace which he made with Malcolm, whodid him homage for Cumberland, seemed at the same time to deprive themof all prospect of foreign assistance. [*]

The English were now sensible that their final destruction was intended;and that instead of a sovereign, whom they had hoped to gain by theirsubmission, they had tamely surrendered themselves, without resistance, to a tyrant and a conqueror. Though the early confiscation of Harold'sfollowers might seem iniquitous, being inflicted on men who hadnever sworn fealty to the duke of Normandy, who were ignorant of hispretensions, and who only fought in defence of the government which theythemselves had established in their own country, yet were these rigors, however contrary to the ancient Saxon laws, excused on account of theurgent necessities of the prince; and those who were not involved inthe present ruin, hoped that they should thenceforth enjoy, withoutmolestation, their possessions and their dignities. But the successivedestruction of so many other families convinced them that the kingintended to rely entirely on the support and affections of foreigners;and they foresaw new forfeitures, attainders, and acts of violence, asthe necessary result of this destructive plan of administration. Theyobserved that no Englishman possessed his confidence, or was intrustedwith any command or authority; and that the strangers, whom a rigorousdiscipline could have but ill restrained, were encouraged in theirinsolence and tyranny against them. The easy submission of thekingdom on its first invasion had exposed the natives to contempt; thesubsequent proofs of their animosity and resentment had made them theobject of hatred; and they were now deprived of every expedient by whichthey could hope to make themselves either regarded or beloved by theirsovereign. Impressed with the sense of this dismal situation, manyEnglishmen fled into foreign countries, with an intention of passingtheir lives abroad free from oppression, or of returning, on a favorableopportunity, to assist their friends in the recovery of their nativeliberties. [**] Edgar

 [* Order. Vitalis, p. 511. ]

 [** Order. Vitalis, p. 508. M. West. P. 225. M. Paris, p. 4. Sim Dunehn. P. 197. ]

Atheling himself, dreading the insidious caresses of William, was, persuaded by Cospatric, a powerful Northumbrian, to escape with himinto Scotland; and he carried thither his two sisters, Margaret andChristina. They were well received by Malcolm, who soon after espousedMargaret, the elder sister; and partly with a view of strengtheninghis kingdom by the accession of so many strangers, partly in hopesof employing them against the growing power of William, he gave greatcountenance to all the English exiles. Many of them settled there, andlaid the foundation of families which afterwards made a figure in thatcountry. 

While the English suffered under these oppressions, even the foreignerswere not much at their ease; but finding themselves surrounded on allhands by engaged enemies, who took every advantage against them, andmenaced them with still more bloody effects of the public resentment, they began to wish again for the tranquillity and security of theirnative country. Hugh de Grentmesnil and Humphry de Teliol, thoughintrusted with great commands, desired to be dismissed the service;and some others imitated their example; a desertion which was highlyresented by the king, and which he punished by the confiscation of alltheir possessions ii England. [*] But William's bounty to his followerscould not fail of alluring many new adventurers into his service; andthe rage of the vanquished English served only to excite the attentionof the king and those warlike chiefs, and keep them in readiness tosuppress every commencement of domestic rebellion or foreign invasion. 

 [* Order. Vitalis, p. 512]

It was not long before they found occupation for their prowess andmilitary conduct. Godwin, Edmond, and Magnus, three sons of Harold, had, immediately after the defeat at Hastings, sought a retreat in Ireland, where, having met with a kind reception from Dermot and other princes ofthat country, they projected an invasion on England, and they hoped thatall the exiles from Denmark, Scotland, and Wales, assisted by forcesfrom these several countries, would at once commence hostilities, androuse the indignation of the English against their haughty conquerors. They landed in Devonshire; but found Brian, son of the count ofBrittany, at the head of some foreign troops, ready to oppose them; andbeing defeated in several actions, they were obliged to retreat to theirships, and to return with great loss to Ireland. [*] The efforts of theNormans were now directed to the north, where affairs had fallen intothe utmost confusion. The more impatient of the Northumbrians hadattacked Robert de Comyn, who was appointed governor of Durham; andgaining the advantage over him from his negligence, they put him todeath in that city, with seven hundred of his followers. [**] Thissuccess animated the inhabitants of York, who, rising in arms, slewRobert Fitz-Richard, their governor, [***] and besieged in the castleWilliam Mallet, on whom the command now devolved. A little after, theDanish troops landed from three hundred vessels: Osberne, brother toKing Sweyn, was intrusted with the command of these forces, and hewas accompanied by Harold and Canute, two sons of that monarch. EdgarAtheling appeared from Scotland, and brought along with him Cospatric, Waltheof, Siward, Bearne, Merleswain, Adelin, and other leaders, who, partly from the hopes which they gave of Scottish succors, partlyfrom their authority in those parts, easily persuaded the warlike anddiscontented Northumbrians to join the insurrection. Mallet, that hemight better provide for the defence of the citadel of York, set fireto some houses which lay contiguous; but this expedient proved theimmediate cause of his destruction. The flames, spreading into theneighboring streets, reduced the whole city to ashes. The enragedinhabitants, aided by the Danes, took advantage of the confusion toattack the castle, which they carried by assault; and the garrison, to the number of three thousand men, was put to the sword withoutmercy. [****]

This success proved a signal to many other parts of England, and gavethe people an opportunity of showing their malevolence to the Normans. Hereward, a nobleman in East Anglia, celebrated for valor, assembled hisfollowers, and taking shelter in the Isle of Ely, made inroads on allthe neighboring country. [*****] The English in the counties of Somersetand Dorset rose in arms, and assaulted Montacute, the Norman governor;while the inhabitants of Cornwall and Devon invested Exeter, which fromthe memory of William's clemency still remained faithful to him. 

 [* Gul. Gemet. P. 290. Order. Vitalis, p. 513. Anglia Sacra, TO! I. P. 216. ]

 [** Order. Vitalis, p. 512. Chron. De Mailr. P. 116. Hoveden, p. 450. M. Paris, p. 5. Sim. Dunelm. P. 198. ]

 [*** Order. Vitalis, p. 512. ]

 [**** Order. Vitalis, p. 513. Hoveden, p. 451. ]

 [***** Ingulph. P. 71. Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 47. ]

Edric the Forester, calling in the assistance of the Welsh, laid siegeto Shrewsbury, and made head against Earl Brient and Fitz-Osberne, whocommanded in those quarters. [*] The English, everywhere repenting theirformer easy submission, seemed determined to make by concert one greateffort for the recovery of their liberties, and for the expulsion oftheir oppressors. 

William, undismayed amidst this scene of confusion, assembled. Hisforces, and animating them with the prospect of new confiscationsand forfeitures, he marched against the rebels in the north, whom heregarded as the most formidable, and whose defeat, he knew, would strikea terror into all the other malecontents. Joining policy to force, hetried, before his approach, to weaken the enemy, by detaching the Danesfrom them; and he engaged Osberne, by large presents, and by offeringhim the liberty of plundering the sea-coast, to retire withoutcommitting farther hostilities into Denmark. [**] Cospatric also, indespair of success, made his peace with the king, and paying a sum ofmoney as an atonement for his insurrection, was received into favor, and even invested with the earldom of Northumberland. Waltheof, who longdefended York with great courage, was allured with this appearance ofclemency; and as William knew how to esteem valor, even in an enemy, that nobleman had no reason to repent of this confidence. [***] EvenEdric, compelled by necessity, submitted to the conqueror, and receivedforgiveness, which was soon after followed by some degree of trustand favor. Malcolm, coming too late to support his confederates, wasconstrained to retire; and all the English rebels in other parts, exceptHereward, who still kept in his fastnesses, dispersed themselves, andleft the Normans undisputed masters of the kingdom. Edgar Atheling, withhis followers, sought again a retreat in Scotland from the pursuit ofhis enemies. 

 [* Order. Vitalis, p. 514. ]

 [** Hoveden, p. 451. Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 47. Sim Dunelm. P. 199. ]

 [*** W. Malms, p. 104. H. Hunting, p. 369. ]

{1070. } But the seeming clemency of William toward the English leaders, proceeded only from artifice, or from his esteem of individuals: hisheart, was hardened against all compassion towards the people, and hescrupled no measure, however violent or severe, which seemed requisiteto support his plan of tyrannical administration. Sensible of therestless disposition of the Northumbrians, he determined to incapacitatethem even after from giving him disturbance; and he issued orders forlaying entirely waste that fertile country, which, for the extent ofsixty miles, lies between the Humber and the Tees. [*] The houses werereduced to ashes by the merciless Normans; the cattle seized and drivenaway; the instruments of husbandry destroyed; and the inhabitantscompelled either to seek for a subsistence in the southern parts ofScotland, or if they lingered in England, from a reluctance to abandontheir ancient habitations, they perished miserably in the woods fromcold and hunger. The lives of a hundred thousand persons are computed tohave been sacrificed to this stroke of barbarous policy, [**] which, byseeking a remedy for a temporary evil, thus inflicted a lasting wound onthe power and populousness of the nation. 

But William, finding himself entirely master of a people who had givenhim such sensible proofs of their impotent rage and animosity, nowresolved to proceed to extremities against all the natives of England;and to reduce them to a condition in which they should no longer beformidable to his government. The insurrections and conspiracies inso many parts of the kingdom had involved the bulk of the landedproprietors, more or less, in the guilt of treason; and the king tookadvantage of executing against them, with the utmost rigor, the laws offorfeiture and attainder. Their lives were, indeed, commonly spared;but their estates were confiscated, and either annexed to the royaldemesnes, or conferred with the most profuse bounty, on the Normansand other foreigners. [***] While the king's declared intention was todepress, or rather entirely extirpate, the English gentry, [****] [8] itis easy to believe that scarcely the form of justice would be observedin those violent proceedings;[*****] and that any suspicions served asthe most undoubted proofs of guilt against a people thus devoted todestruction. 

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 174. Ingulph. P. 79. W. Malms, p. 103. Hoveden, p. 451. Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 47. M. Paris, p. 5. Sim. Dunelm. P. 199. Brompton, p. 966. Knyghton, p. 2344. Anglia Sacra, vol. I. P, 702. ]

 [** Order. Vitalis, p. 515. ]

 [*** W. Malms, p. 104. ]

 [**** H. Hunting, p. 370. ]

 [***** H See note H, at the end of the volume. ]

It was crime sufficient in an Englishman to be opulent, or noble, orpowerful; and the policy of the king, concurring with the rapacity offoreign adventurers, produced almost a total revolution in the landedproperty of the kingdom. Ancient and honorable families were reduced tobeggary; the nobles themselves were every where treated with ignominyand contempt; they had the mortification of seeing their castles andmanors possessed by Normans of the meanest birth and lowest stations;[*]and they found themselves carefully excluded from every road which ledeither to riches or preferment. [**] [9]

As power naturally follows property, this revolution alone gave greatsecurity to the foreigners; but William, by the new institutions whichhe established, took also care to retain forever the military authorityin those hands which had enabled him to subdue the kingdom. Heintroduced into England the feudal law, which he found established inFrance and Normandy, and which, during that age, was the foundationboth of the stability and of the disorders in most of the monarchicalgovernments of Europe. He divided all the lands of England, withvery few exceptions, beside the royal demesnes, into baronies; and heconferred these, with the reservation of stated services and payments, on the most considerable of his adventurers. These great barons, whoheld immediately of the crown, shared out a great part of their lands toother foreigners, who were denominated knights or vassals, and who paidtheir lord the same duty and submission, in peace and war, which hehimself owed, to his sovereign. The whole kingdom contained aboutseven hundred chief tenants, and sixty thousand two hundred and fifteenknights' fees;[***] and as none of the native English were admitted intothe first rank, the few who retained their landed property were glad tobe received into the second, and, under the protection of some powerfulNorman, to load themselves and their posterity with this grievousburden, for estates which they had received free from theirancestors. [****] The small mixture of English which entered into thiscivil or military fabric, (for it partook of both species, ) was sorestrained by subordination under the foreigners, that the Normandominion seemed now to be fixed on the most durable basis, and to defyall the efforts of its enemies. 

 [* Order. Vitalis, p. 521. M. West, p. 229. ]

 [** See note I, at the end of the volume. ]

 [*** Order. Vitalis, p. 523. Secretum Abbatis, apud Selden. Title of Honor, p. 573. Spel. Gloss, in verbo Feodum. Sir Robert Cotton. ]

 [**** M. West. P. 225. M. Paris, p. 4. Bracton, lib. I. Cap. 11, num. I, Flets, lib, cap. 8, n. 2]

The better to unite the parts of the government, and to bind them intoone system, which might serve both for defence against foreignersand for the support of domestic tranquillity, William reduced theecclesiastical revenues under the same feudal law; and though he hadcourted the church on his invasion and accession, he now subjected it toservices which the clergy regarded as a grievous slavery, and as totallyunbefitting their profession. The bishops and abbots were obliged, whenrequired, to furnish to the king, during war, a number of knights ormilitary tenants, proportioned to the extent of property possessed byeach see or abbey; and they were liable, in case of failure, to thesame penalties which were exacted from the laity. [*] The pope and theecclesiastics exclaimed against this tyranny, as they called it; but theking's authority was so well established over the army, who held everything from his bounty, that superstition itself, even in that age, when it was most prevalent, was constrained to bend under his superiorinfluence. 

But as the great body of the clergy were still natives, the king hadmuch reason to dread the effects of their resentment; he thereforeused the precaution of expelling the English from all the considerabledignities, and of advancing foreigners in their place. The partialityof the Confessor towards the Normans had been so great, that, aided bytheir superior learning, it had promoted them to many of the sees inEngland; and even before the period of the conquest, scarcely more thansix or seven of the prelates were natives of the country. But amongthese was Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury, a man who, by his addressand vigor, by the greatness of his family and alliances, by the extentof his possessions, as well as by the dignity of his office, and hisauthority among the English, gave jealousy to the king. [**] ThoughWilliam had, on his accession, affronted this prelate by employing thearchbishop of York to officiate at his consecration, he was careful, on other occasions, to load him with honors and caresses, and toavoid giving him farther offence till the opportunity should offer ofeffecting his final destruction. [***]

 [* M. Paris, p. 5. Anglia Sacra, vol. I. P. 248. ]

 [** Parker, p. 161. ]

 [*** Parker, p. 164. ]

The suppression of the late rebellions, and the total subjection of theEnglish, made him hope that an attempt against Stigand, however violent, would be covered by his great successes and be overlooked amidst theother important revolutions, which affected so deeply the property andliberty of the kingdom. Yet, notwithstanding these great advantages, he did not think it safe to violate the reverence usually paid to theprimate, but under cover of a new superstition, which he was the greatinstrument of introducing into England. 

The doctrine which exalted the papacy above all human power, hadgradually diffused itself from the city and court of Rome; and was, during that age, much more prevalent in the southern than in thenorthern kingdoms of Europe. Pope Alexander, who had assisted Williamin his conquests, naturally expected, that the French and Normans wouldimport into England the same reverence for his sacred character withwhich they were impressed in their own country; and would break thespiritual as well as civil independency of the Saxons who had hithertoconducted their ecclesiastical government, with an acknowledgment indeedof primacy in the see of Rome, but without much idea of its title todominion or authority. As soon, therefore, as the Norman prince seemedfully established on the throne, the pope despatched Ermenfloy, bishopof Sion, as his legate into England; and this prelate was the firstthat had ever appeared with that character in any part of the Britishislands. The king, though he was probably led by principle to pay thissubmission to Rome, determined, as is usual, to employ the incident as ameans of serving his political purposes, and of degrading those Englishprelates, who were become obnoxious to him. The legate submitted tobecome the instrument of his tyranny; and thought, that the more violentthe exertion of power, the more certainly did it confirm the authorityof that court from which he derived his commission. He summoned, therefore, a council of the prelates and abbots at Winchester; andbeing assisted by two cardinals, Peter and John, he cited before himStigand, archbishop of Canterbury, to answer for his conduct. Theprimate was accused of three crimes; the holding of the see ofWinchester together with that of Canterbury; the officiating in the pallof Robert, his predecessor; and the having received his own pall fromBenedict IX. , who was afterwards deposed for simony, and for intrusioninto the papacy. [*]

 [* Hoveden, p. 453. Diceto, p. 482. Knyghton, p. 2345. Anglia Sacra, vol. I. P. 5, 6. Ypod. Neust. P. 438. ]

These crimes of Stigand were mere pretences; since the first had been apractice not unusual in England, and was never any where subjected to ahigher penalty than a resignation of one of the sees; the second was apure ceremonial; and as Benedict was the only pope who then officiated, and his acts were never repealed, all the prelates of the church, especially thope who lay at a distance, were excusable for making theirapplications to him. Stigand's ruin, however, was resolved on, andwas prosecuted with great severity. The legate degraded him from hisdignity; the king confiscated his estate, and cast him into prison, where he continued in poverty and want during the remainder of his life. Like rigor was exercised against the other English prelates: Agelric, bishop of Selesey, and Agelmare, of Elmham, were deposed by the legate, and imprisoned by the king. Many considerable abbots shared the samefate: Egelwin, bishop of Durham, fled the kingdom Wulstan, of Worcester, a man of an inoffensive character was the only English prelate thatescaped this general proscription, [*] and remained in possession of hisdignity. Aldred, archbishop of York, who had set the crown on William'shead, had died a little before of grief and vexation, and had left hismalediction to that prince, on account of the breach of his coronationoath, and of the extreme tyranny with which he saw he was determined totreat his English subjects. [**]

It was a fixed maxim in this reign, as well as in some of thesubsequent, that no native of the island should ever be advanced to anydignity, ecclesiastical, civil, or military[***]

 [* Brompton relates, that Wulstan was also deprived by the synod; out refusing to deliver his pastoral staff and ring to any but the person from whom he first received it, he went immediately to King Edward's tomb, and struck the staff so deeply into the stone, that none but himself was able to pull it out; upon which he was allowed to keep his bishopric. This instance may serve, instead of many, as a specimen of the monkish miracles. See also the Annals of Burton, p. 284. ]

 [** W. Malmes de Gest. Pont. P. 154. ]

 [*** Ingulph. P. 70, 71. ]

The king, therefore, upon Stigand's deposition, promoted Lanfranc, aMilanese monk, celebrated for his learning and piety, to the vacant see. This prelate was rigid in defending the prerogatives of his station; andafter a long process before the pope, he obliged Thomas, a Norman monk, who had been appointed to the see of York, to acknowledge the primacy ofthe archbishop of Canterbury. Where ambition can be so happy as to coverits enterprises, even to the person himself, under the appearanceof principle, it is the most incurable and inflexible of all humanpassions. Hence Lanfranc's zeal in promoting the interests ofthe papacy, by which he himself augmented his own authority, wasindefatigable, and met with proportionable success. The devotedattachment to Rome continually increased in England and being favoredby the sentiments of the conquerors, as well as by the monasticestablishments formerly introduced by Edred and by Edgar, it soonreached the same height at which it had, during some time, stood inFrance and Italy. [*] It afterwards went much farther; being favored bythat very remote situation which had at first obstructed its progress;and being less checked by knowledge and a liberal education, which werestill somewhat more common in the southern countries. 

The prevalence of this superstitious spirit became dangerous to someof William's successors, and incommodious to most of them; but thearbitrary sway of this king over the English, and his extensiveauthority over the foreigners, kept him from feeling any immediateinconveniences from it. He retained the church in great subjection, aswell as his lay subjects; and would allow none, of whatever character, to dispute his sovereign will and pleasure. He prohibited his subjectsfrom acknowledging any one for pope whom he himself had not previouslyreceived; he required that all the ecclesiastical canons, voted inany synod, should first be laid before him, and be ratified by hisauthority; even bulls or letters from Rome could not legally beproduced, till they received the same sanction; and none of hisministers or barons, whatever offences they were guilty of, could besubjected to spiritual censures, till he himself had given his consentto their excommunication. [**] These regulations were worthy of asovereign, and kept united the civil and ecclesiastical powers, whichthe principles, introduced by this prince himself, had an immediatetendency to separate. 

But the English had the cruel mortification to find that their king'sauthority, however acquired or however extended, was all employed intheir oppression; and that the scheme of their subjection, attended withevery circumstance of insult and indignity, [***] was deliberately formedby the prince, and wantonly prosecuted by his followers. [****]

 [* M. West, p. 228. Lanfranc wrote in defence of the real presence against Berengarius; and in those ages of stupidity and ignorance, he was greatly applauded for that performance. ]

 [** Eadmer, p. 6]

 [*** Order Vitalis, p. 523. H. Hunting, p. 370. ]

 [**** Ingulph. P. 71]

William had even entertained the difficult project of totally abolishingthe English language; and for that purpose he ordered, that in allschools throughout the kingdom, the youth should be instructed in theFrench tongue; a practice which was continued from custom till afterthe reign of Edward III. , and was never indeed totally discontinuedin England. The pleadings in the supreme courts of judicature were inFrench:[*] the deeds were often drawn in the same language: the lawswere composed in that idiom:[**] no other tongue was used at court:it became the language of all fashionable company; and the Englishthemselves, ashamed of their own country, affected to excel in thatforeign dialect. From this attention of William, and from the extensiveforeign dominions, long annexed to the crown of England, proceeded thatmixture of French which is at present to be found in the English tongue, and which composes the greatest and best part of our language. Butamidst those endeavors to depress the English nation, the king, moved bythe remonstrances of some of his prelates, and by the earnest desiresof the people, restored a few of the laws of King Edward;[***] [11]which, though seemingly of no great importance towards the protection ofgeneral liberty, gave them extreme satisfaction, as a memorial of theirancient government, and an unusual mark of complaisance in theirimperious conquerors. [****]

 [* 36 Ed. III. Cap. 15. Selden. Spicileg. Ad Eadm. P. 189. Fortesque de Laud. Leg. Angl. Cap. 48. ]

 [** Chron. Rothom. A. D. 1066. ]

 [*** Ingulph. P. 88. Brompton, p. 982. Knyghton, p. 2355 Hoveden, p. 600. ]

 [**** See note K, at the end of the volume. ]

{1071. } The situation of the two great earls, Morcar and Edwin, becamenow very disagreeable. Though they had retained their allegiance duringthis general insurrection of their countrymen, they had not gained theking's confidence, and they found themselves exposed to the malignityof the courtiers, who envied them on account of their opulence andgreatness, and at the same time involved them in that general contemptwhich they entertained for the English. Sensible that they had entirelylost their dignity, and could not even hope to remain long in safety, they determined, though too kite, to share the same fate with theircountrymen. While Edwin retired to his estate in the north, with a viewof commencing an insurrection, Morcar took shelter in the Isle of Ely, with the brave Hereward, who, secured by the inaccessible situation ofthe place, still defended himself against the Normans. But this attemptserved only to accelerate the ruin of the few English who had hithertobeen able to preserve their rank or fortune during the past convulsions. William employed all his endeavors to subdue the Isle of Ely; and havingsurrounded it with flat-bottomed boats, and made a causeway through themorasses to the extent of two miles, he obliged the rebels to surrenderat discretion. Hereward alone forced his way, sword in hand, through theenemy; and still continued his hostilities by sea against the Normans, till at last William, charmed with his bravery, received him into favor, and restored him to his estate. Earl Morcar, and Egelwin, bishop ofDurham, who had joined the malecontents, were thrown into prison, andthe latter soon after died in confinement. Edwin, attempting to makehis escape into Scotland, was betrayed by some of his followers, and waskilled by a party of Normans, to the great affliction of the English, and even to that of William, who paid a tribute of generous tears tothe memory of this gallant and beautiful youth. The king of Scotland, in hopes of profiting by these convulsions, had fallen upon the northerncounties; but on the approach of William, he retired; and when the kingentered his country, he was glad to make peace, and to pay the usualhomage to the English crown. To complete the king's prosperity, EdgarAtheling himself, despairing of success, and weary of a fugitivelife, submitted to his enemy; and receiving a decent pension for hissubsistence, was permitted to live in England unmolested. But these actsof generosity towards the leaders were disgraced, as usual, by William'srigor against the inferior malecontents. He ordered ihe hands to belopped off, and the eyes to be put out, of many of the prisoners whomhe had taken in the Isle of Ely; and he dispersed them in that miserablecondition throughout the country, as monuments of his severity. 

{1073. } The province of Maine, in France, had, by the will of Herbert, the last count, fallen under the dominion of William some years beforehis conquest of England; but the inhabitants, dissatisfied with theNorman government, and instigated by Fulk, count of Anjou, who had somepretensions to the succession, now rose in rebellion, and expelled themagistrates whom the king had placed over them. The full settlement ofEngland afforded him leisure to punish this insult on his authority; butbeing unwilling to remove his Norman forces from this island, he carriedover a considerable army, composed almost entirely of English, andjoining them to some troops levied in Normandy, he entered the revoltedprovince. The English appeared ambitious of distinguishing themselves onthis occasion, and of retrieving that character of valor which had longbeen national among them, but which their late easy subjection under theNormans had some what degraded and obscured. Perhaps, too, they hopedthat, by their zeal and activity, they might recover the confidence oftheir sovereign, as their ancestors had formerly, by like means, gainedthe affections of Canute; and might conquer his inveterate prejudicesin favor of his own countrymen. The king's military conduct, secondedby these brave troops, soon overcame all opposition in Maine: theinhabitants were obliged to submit, and the count of Anjou relinquishedhis pretensions. 

{1074. } But during these transactions, the government of England wasgreatly disturbed; and that, too, by those very foreigners who owedevery thing to the king's bounty, and who were the sole object of hisfriendship and regard. The Norman barons, who had engaged with theirduke in the conquest of England, were men of the most independentspirit; and though they obeyed their leader in the field, they wouldhave regarded with disdain the richest acquisitions, had they beenrequired, in return, to submit, in their civil government, to thearbitrary will of one man. But the imperious character of William, encouraged by his absolute dominion over the English, and often impelledby the necessity of his affairs, had prompted him to stretch hisauthority over the Normans themselves beyond what the free genius ofthat victorious people could easily bear. The discontents were becomegeneral among those haughty nobles; and even Roger, earl of Hereford, son and heir of Fitz-Osberne, the king's chief favorite, was stronglyinfected with them. This nobleman, intending to marry his sister toRalph de Guader, earl of Norfolk, had thought, it his duty to inform theking of his purpose, and to desire the royal consent; but meeting witha refusal, he proceeded nevertheless to complete the nuptials, andassembled all his friends, and those of Guader, to attend the solemnity. The two earls, disgusted by the denial of their request, and dreadingWilliam's resentment for their disobedience, here prepared measures fora revolt; and during the gayety of the festival, while the company washeated with wine, they opened the design to their guests. They inveighedagainst the arbitrary conduct of the king; his tyranny over the English, whom they affected on this occasion to commiserate; his imperiousbehavior to his barons of the noblest birth; and his apparent intentionof reducing the victors and the vanquished to a like ignominiousservitude. Amidst their complaints, the indignity of submitting toa bastard[*] was not forgotten; the certain prospect of success in arevolt, by the assistance of the Danes and the discontented English, wasinsisted on; and the whole company, inflamed with the same sentiments, and warmed by the jollity of the entertainment, entered, by a solemnengagement, into the design of shaking off the royal authority. Even Earl Waltheof, who was present, inconsiderately expressed hisapprobation of the conspiracy, and promised his concurrence towards itssuccess. 

This nobleman, the last of the English who for some generationspossessed any power or authority, had, after his capitulation at York, been received into favor by the conqueror; had even married Judith, niece to that prince; and had been promoted to the earldoms ofHuntingdon and Northampton. [**] Cospatric, earl of Northumberland, having, on some new disgust from William, retired into Scotland, wherehe received the earldom of Dunbar from the bounty of Malcolm, Waltheofwas appointed his successor in that important command, and seemed stillto possess the confidence and friendship of his sovereign. [***]

 [* William was so little ashamed of his birth, that he assumed the appellation of Bastard in some of his letters and charters. Spel Gloss. In verbo Bastardus. Camden in Richmondshire. ]

 [** Order. Vitalis, p. 522 Hoveden, p. 454. ]

 [*** Sim, Dunelm. P. 205. ]

But as he was a man of generous principles, and loved his country, it isprobable that the tyranny exercised over the English lay heavy upon hismind, and destroyed all the satisfaction which he could reap from hisown grandeur and advancement. When a prospect, therefore, was opened ofretrieving their liberty, he hastily embraced it; while the fumes of theliquor and the ardor of the company prevented him from reflecting on theconsequences of that rash attempt. But after his cool judgment returned, he foresaw that the conspiracy of those discontented barons was notlikely to prove successful against the established power of William; or, if it did, that the slavery of the English, instead of being alleviatedby that event, would become more grievous under a multitude of foreignleaders, factious and ambitious, whose union and whose discord would beequally oppressive to the people. Tormented with these reflections, heopened his mind to his wife Judith, of whose fidelity he entertainedno suspicion, but who, having secretly fixed her affections on another, took this opportunity of ruining her easy and credulous husband. Sheconveyed intelligence of the conspiracy to the king, and aggravatedevery circumstance which she believed would tend to incense him againstWaltheof, and render him absolutely implacable. [*] Meanwhile the earl, still dubious with regard to the part which he should act, discoveredthe secret in confession to Lanfranc, on whose probity and judgment hehad a great reliance: he was persuaded by the prelate, that he owedno fidelity to those rebellious barons, who had by surprise gainedhis consent to a crime; that his first duty was to his sovereign andbenefactor, his next to himself and his family; and that if he seizednot the opportunity of making atonement for his guilt by revealing it, the temerity of the conspirators was so great, that they would givesome other person the means of acquiring the merit of the discovery. Waltheof, convinced by these arguments, went over to Normandy; butthough he was well received by the king, and thanked for his fidelity, the account previously transmitted by Judith had sunk deep intoWilliam's mind, and had destroyed all the merit of her husband'srepentance. 

 [* Order. Vitalis, p. 536. ]

The conspirators, hearing of Waltheof's departure, immediately concludedtheir design to be betrayed; and they flew to arms before their schemeswere ripe for execution, and before the arrival of the Danes, in whoseaid they placed their chief confidence. The Earl of Hereford was checkedby Walter de Lacy, a great baron in those parts, who, supported by thebishop of Worcester and the abbot of Evesham, raised some forces, andprevented the earl from passing the Severn, or advancing into theheart of the kingdom. The earl of Norfolk was defeated at Fagadun, near Cambridge, by Odo the regent, assisted by Richard de Bienfaite andWilliam de Warrenne, the two justiciaries. The prisoners taken in thisaction had their right foot cut off, as a punishment of their treasonthe earl himself escaped to Norwich, thence to Denmark where theDanish fleet, which had made an unsuccessful attempt upon the coast ofEngland, [*] soon after arrived, and brought him intelligence, that allhis confederates were suppressed, and were either killed, banished, or taken prisoners. [**] Ralph retired in despair to Brittany, where hepossessed a large estate and extensive jurisdictions. 

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 183. M. Paris, p. 7. ]

 [** Many of the fugitive Normans are supposed to have fled into Scotland, where they were protected, as well as the fugitive English, by Malcolm; whence come the many French and Norman families which are found at present in that country. ]

The king, who hastened over to England in order to suppress theinsurrection, found that nothing remained but the punishment of thecriminals, which he executed with great severity. Many of the rebelswere hanged; some had their eyes put out; others their hands cut off. But William, agreeably to his usual maxims, showed more lenity to theirleader, the earl of Hereford, who was only condemned to a forfeiture ofhis estate, and to imprisonment during pleasure. The king seemed evendisposed to remit this last part of the punishment; had not Roger, bya fresh insolence, provoked him to render his confinement perpetual. {1075. } But Waltheof, being an Englishman, was not treated with so muchhumanity; though his guilt, always much inferior to that of the otherconspirators, was atoned for by an early repentance and return to hisduty. William, instigated by his niece, as well as by his rapaciouscourtiers, who longed for so rich a forfeiture, ordered him to be tried, condemned, and executed. The English, who considered this nobleman asthe last resource of their nation, grievously lamented his fate, andfancied that miracles were wrought by his relics, as a testimony of hisinnocence and sanctity. The infamous Judith, falling soon after underthe king's displeasure, was abandoned by all the world, and passed therest of her life in contempt, remorse, and misery. 

Nothing remained to complete William's satisfaction but the punishmentof Ralph de Guader; and he hastened over to Normandy, in order togratify his vengeance on that criminal. But though the contest seemedvery unequal between a private nobleman and the king of England, Ralphwas so well supported both by the earl of Brittany and the king ofFrance that William, after besieging him for some time in Dol, wasobliged to abandon the enterprise, and make with those powerful princesa peace, in which Ralph himself was included England, during hisabsence, remained in tranquillity; and nothing remarkable occurred, except two ecclesiastical synods, which were summoned, one at London, another at Winchester. In the former, the precedency among theepiscopasees was settled, and the seat of some of them was removed fromsmall villages to the most considerable town within the diocese. In thesecond was transacted a business of more importance. 

{1076. } The industry and perseverance are surprising, with which thepopes had been treasuring up powers and pretensions during so many agesof ignorance; while each pontiff employed every fraud for advancingpurposes of imaginary piety, and cherished all claims which might turnto the advantage of his successors, though he himself could not expectever to reap any benefit from them. All this immense storm of spiritualand civil authority was now devolved on Gregory VII. , of the name ofHildebrand, the most enterprising pontiff that had ever filled thatchair, and the least restrained by fear, decency, or moderation. Notcontent with shaking off the yoke of the emperors, who had hithertoexercised the power of appointing the pope on every vacancy, at leastof ratifying his election, he undertook the arduous task of entirelydisjoining the ecclesiastical from the civil power, and of excludingprofane laymen from the right which they had assumed, of filling thevacancies of bishoprics, abbeys, and other spiritual dignities. [*] Thesovereigns, who had long exercised this power, and who had acquiredit, not by encroachments on the church, but on the people, to whom itoriginally belonged, [**] made great opposition to this claim of thecourt of Rome; and Henry IV. , the reigning emperor, defended thisprerogative of his crown with a vigor and resolution suitable to itsimportance. 

 [* L'Abbé Conc. Tom. X. P. 371, 372, com, 2. ]

 [** Padre Paolo sopra Benef. Eccles. P. 30]

The few offices, either civil or military, which the feudal institutionsleft the sovereign the power of bestowing, made the prerogative ofconferring the pastoral ring and staff the most valuable jewel of theroyal diadem: especially as the general ignorance of the age bestowed aconsequence on the ecclesiastical offices, even beyond the great extentof power and property which belonged to them. Superstition, the child ofignorance, invested the clergy with an authority almost sacred; andas they engrossed the little learning of the age, their interpositionbecame requisite in all civil business, and a real usefulness in commonlife was thus superadded to the spiritual sanctity of their character. 

When the usurpations, therefore, of the church had come to such maturityas to embolden her to attempt extorting the right of investitures fromthe temporal power, Europe, especially Italy and Germany, was throwninto the most violent convulsions, and the pope and the emperor wagedimplacable war on each other. Gregory dared to fulminate the sentenceof excommunication against Henry and his adherents, to pronounce himrightfully deposed, to free his subjects from their oath of allegiance;and, instead of shocking mankind by this gross encroachment on thecivil authority, he found the stupid people ready to second his mostexorbitant pretensions. Every minister, servant, or vassal of theemperor, who received any disgust, covered his rebellion under thepretence of principle; and even the mother of this monarch, forgettingall the ties of nature, was seduced to countenance the insolence ofhis enemies. Princes themselves, not attentive to the perniciousconsequences of those papal claims, employed them for their presentpurposes; and the controversy, spreading into every city of Italy, engendered the parties of Guelf and Ghibbelin; the most durable and mostinveterate factions that ever arose from the mixture of ambitionand religious zeal. Besides numberless assassinations, tumults, andconvulsions, to which they gave rise, it is computed that the quarreloccasioned no less then sixty battles in the reign of Henry IV. , andeighteen in that of his successor, Henry V. , when the claims of thesovereign pontiff finally prevailed. [*]

 [* Padre Paolo sopra Eccles. Benef. P. 113. ]

But the bold spirit of Gregory, not dismayed with the vigorousopposition which he met with from the emperor, extended his usurpationsall over Europe; and well knowing the nature of mankind, whoseblind astonishment ever inclines them to yield to the most impudentpretensions, he seemed determined to set no bounds to the spiritual, orrather temporal monarchy which he had undertaken to erect. He pronouncedthe sentence of excommunication against Nicephorus, emperor of the east;Robert Guiscard, the adventurous Norman who had acquired the dominion ofNaples, was attacked by the same dangerous weapon: he degraded Boleslas, king of Poland from the rank of king; and even deprived Poland of thetitle of a kingdom: he attempted to treat Philip, king of France, with the same rigor which he had employed against the emperor;[*] hepretended to the entire property and dominion of Spain; and he parcelledit out amongst adventurers, who undertook to conquer it from theSaracens, and to hold it in vassalage under the see of Rome:[**] eventhe Christian bishops, on whose aid he relied for subduing the temporalprinces, saw that he was determined to reduce them to servitude, and, by assuming the whole legislative and judicial power of the church tocentre all authority in the sovereign pontiff. [***]

William the Conqueror, the most potent, the most haughty, and the mostvigorous prince in Europe, was not, amidst all his splendid successes, secure from the attacks of this enterprising pontiff. Gregory wrote hima letter, requiring him to fulfil his promise in doing homage for thekingdom of England to the see of Rome, and to sent him over that tributewhich all his predecessors had been accustomed to pay to the vicar ofChrist. By the tribute, he meant Peter's pence; which, though at first acharitable donation of the Saxon princes, was interpreted, accordingto the usual practice of the Romish court, to be a badge of subjectionacknowledged by the kingdom. William replied, that the money shouldbe remitted as usual; but that neither had he promised to do homage toRome, nor was it in the least his purpose to impose that servitude onhis state. [****] And the better to show Gregory his independence, heventured, notwithstanding the frequent complaints of the pope, to refuseto the English bishops the liberty of attending a general council, whichthat pontiff had summoned against his enemies. 

 [* Epist. Greg. VII. Epist. 32, 35; lib. Ii. Epist. 5]

 [** Epist. Greg. VII. Lib. I. Epist. 7. ]

 [*** Epist. Greg. VII. Lib. Ii. Epist. 55. ]

 [**** Seldini Spicileg. Ad Eadm. P. 4. ]

But though the king displayed this vigor in supporting the royaldignity, he was infected with the general superstition of the age; andhe did not perceive the ambitious scope of those institutions, whichunder color of strictness in religion, were introduced or promotedby the court of Rome. Gregory, while he was throwing all Europe intocombustion by his violence and impostures, affected an anxious care forthe purity of manners; and even the chaste pleasures of the marriage bedwere inconsistent, in his opinion, with the sanctity of the sacerdotalcharacter. He had issued a decree prohibiting the marriage of priests, excommunicating all clergymen who retained their wives, declaring suchunlawful commerce to be fornication, and rendering it criminal in thelaity to attend divine worship, when such profane priests officiated atthe altar. [*]

 [* Hoveden, p. 455, 457. Flor. Wigorn. P. 638 Spel. Concil fol, 13, A. D. 1078. ]

This point was a great object in the politics of the Roman pontiffs; andit cost them infinitely more pains to establish it than the propagationof any speculative absurdity which they had ever attempted to introduce. Many synods were summoned in different parts of Europe before it wasfinally settled; and it was there constantly remarked, that theyounger clergymen complied cheerfully with the pope's decrees in thisparticular, and that the chief reluctance appeared in those who weremore advanced in years; an event so little consonant to men's naturalexpectations, that it could not fail to be glossed on even in that blindand superstitious age. William allowed the pope's legate to assemble, inhis absence a synod at Winchester, in order to establish the celibacy ofthe clergy; but the church of England could not yet be carried the wholelength expected. The synod was content with decreeing, that the bishopsshould not thenceforth ordain any priests or deacons without exactingfrom them a promise of celibacy; but they enacted that none, exceptthose who belonged to collegiate or cathedral churches, should beobliged to separate from their wives. 

The king passed some years in Normandy; but his long residence therewas not entirely owing to his declared preference of that duchy: hispresence was also necessary for composing those disturbances whichhad arisen in that favorite territory, and which had even originallyproceeded from his own family. Robert, his eldest son, surnamed Gambaronor Courthose, from his short legs, was a prince who inherited allthe bravery of his family and nation; but without that policy anddissimulation by which his father was so much distinguished, and which, no less than his military valor, had contributed to his great successes. Greedy of fame, impatient of contradiction, without reserve in hisfriendships, declared in his enmities, this prince could endure nocontrol even from his imperious father, and openly aspired to thatindependence, to which his temper, as well as some circumstances inhis situation, strongly invited him. [*] When William first received thesubmissions of the province of Maine, he had promised the inhabitantsthat Robert should be their prince; and before he undertook theexpedition against England, he had, on the application of the Frenchcourt, declared him his successor in Normandy, and had obliged thebarons of that duchy to do him homage as their future sovereign. By thisartifice, he had endeavored to appease the jealousy of his neighbors, as affording them a prospect of separating England from his dominionson the continent; but when Robert demanded of him the execution of thoseengagements, he gave him an absolute refusal, and told him, according tothe homely saying, that he never intended to throw off his clothestill he went to bed. [**] Robert openly declared his discontent, and wassuspected of secretly instigating the king of France and the earl ofBrittany to the opposition which they made to William, and which hadformerly frustrated his attempts upon the town of Dol. And as thequarrel still augmented, Robert proceeded to entertain a strong jealousyof his two surviving brothers, William and Henry, (for Richardwas killed, in hunting, by a stag, ) who, by greater submission andcomplaisance, had acquired the affections of their father. In thisdisposition, on both sides, the greatest trifle sufficed to produce arupture between them. 

The three princes, residing with their father in the castle of L'Aigle, in Normandy, were one day engaged in sport together, and after somemirth and jollity, the two younger took a fancy of throwing oversome water on Robert as he passed through the court on leaving theirapartment;[***] a frolic which he would naturally have regarded asinnocent, had it not been for the suggestions of Alberic de Grentmesnil, son of that Hugh de Grentmesnil whom William had formerly deprivedof his fortunes, when that baron deserted him during his greatestdifficulties in England. The young man, mindful of the injury, persuadedthe prince that this action was meant as a public affront, which itbehoved him in honor to resent; and the choleric Robert, drawinghis sword, ran up stairs, with an intention of taking revenge on hisbrothers. [****]

 [* Order. Vitalis, p. 545. Hoveden, p. 457. Flor. Wigorn. P. 639. ]

 [** Chron. De Mailr. P. 160. ]

 [*** Order. Vitalis, p 545]

 [**** Order. Vitalis, p 545]

The whole castle was filled with tumult, which the king himself, whohastened from his apartment, found some difficulty to appease. Buthe could by no means appease the resentment of his eldest son who, complaining of his partiality, and fancying that no proper atonementhad been made him for the insult, left the court that very evening, and hastened to Rouen, with an intention of seizing the citadel of thatplace. [*] But being disappointed in this view by the precautionand vigilance of Roger de Ivery, the governor, he fled to Hugh deNeufchatel, a powerful Norman baron, who gave him protection in hiscastles; and he openly levied war against his father. [**] The popularcharacter of the prince, and a similarity of manners, engaged all theyoung nobility of Normandy and Maine, as well as of Anjou and Brittany, to take part with him: and it was suspected that Matilda, his mother, whose favorite he was, supported him in his rebellion by secretremittances of money; and by the encouragement which she gave hispartisans. 

 [* Order. Vitalis, p. 545. ]

 [** Order. Vitalis, p. 545. Hoveden, 457, Sim. Dunelm. P. 210. Diceto, p. 487]

All the hereditary provinces of William, as well as his family, wereduring several years thrown into convulsions by this war; and he was atlast obliged to have recourse to England, where that species of militarygovernment, which he had established, gave him greater authority thanthe ancient feudal institutions permitted him to exercise in Normandy. He called over an army of English under his ancient captains, who soonexpelled Robert and his adherents from their retreats, and restored theauthority of the sovereign in all his dominions. The young prince wasobliged to take shelter in the castle of Gerberoy, in the Beauvoisis, which the king of France, who secretly fermented all these dissensions, had provided for him. In this fortress he was closely besieged by hisfather, against whom having a strong garrison, he made an obstinatedefence. There passed under the walls of this place many rencounterswhich resembled more the single combats of chivalry than the militaryactions of armies; but one of them was remarkable for its circumstancesand its event. Robert happened to engage the king, who was concealedby his helmet, and, both of them being valiant, a fierce combat ensued, till at last the young prince wounded his father in the arm and unhorsedhim. On his calling out for assistance, his voice discovered him to hisson, who, struck with remorse for his past guilt, and astonished withthe apprehensions of one much greater, which he had so nearly incurred, instantly threw himself at his father's feet, craved pardon for hisoffences, and offered to purchase forgiveness by any atonement. [*]The resentment harbored by William was so implacable, that he did notimmediately correspond to this dutiful submission of his son with liketenderness; but, giving him his malediction, departed for his own camp, on Robert's horse, which that prince had assisted him to mount, He soonafter raised the siege, and marched with his army to Normandy; wherethe interposition of the queen and other common friends brought abouta reconcilement, which was probably not a little forwarded by thegenerosity of the son's behavior in this action, and by the returningsense of his past misconduct. The king seemed so fully appeased that heeven took Robert with him into England, where he intrusted him withthe command of an army, in order to repel an inroad of Malcolm, kingof Scotland, and to retaliate by a like inroad into that country. TheWelsh, unable to resist William's power, were, about the same time, necessitated to pay a compensation for their incursions; and every thingwas reduced to full tranquillity in this island. 

 [* W. Malms, p. 106. H. Hunting, p. 369. Hoveden, p. 457. Flor Wigorn. P. 639. Sim. Dunelm. P. 210. Diceto, p. 287. Knyghton, p. 2351. Alured. Beverl. P. 135. ]

{1081. } This state of affairs gave William leisure to begin and finishan undertaking, which proves his extensive genius and does honor to hismemory; it was a general survey of all the lands in the kingdom, theirextent in each district, their proprietors, tenures, value; the quantityof meadow, pasture, wood, and arable land, which they contained; andin some counties, the number of tenants, cottagers, and slaves of alldenominations, who lived upon them. He appointed commissioners for thispurpose, who entered every particular in their register by the verdictof juries; and after a labor of six years, (for the work was so long infinishing, ) brought him an exact account of all the landed property ofhis kingdom. [*]

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 190. Ingulph. P. 79. Chron. T. Wykes, p. 23. H. Hunting, p. 370. Hoveden, p. 460. M. West. P. 229. Flor Wigorn. P. 641. Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 51. M. Paris p. 8. The more northern counties were not comprehended in this survey; I suppose because of their wild, uncultivated state. ]

This monument, called domesday-book, the most valuable piece ofantiquity possessed by any nation, is still preserved in the exchequer;and though only some extracts of it have hitherto been published, itserves to illustrate to us, in many particulars, the ancient state ofEngland. The great Alfred had finished a like survey of the kingdom inhis time, which was long kept at Winchester, and which probably servedas a model to William in this undertaking. [*]

The king was naturally a great economist; and though no prince had everbeen more bountiful to his officers and servants, it was merely becausehe had rendered himself universal proprietor of England, and had a wholekingdom to bestow. He reserved an ample revenue for the crown; and inthe general distribution of land among his followers, he kept possessionof no less than one thousand four hundred and twenty--two manors indifferent parts of England, [**] which paid him rent either in money, orin corn, cattle, and the usual produce of the soil. An ancient historiancomputes that his annual fixed income, besides escheats, fines, reliefs, and other casual profits to a great value, amounted to near four hundredthousand pounds a year;[***] a sum which, if all circumstances beattended to, will appear wholly incredible. A pound in that age, as wehave already observed, contained three times the weight of silver thatit does at present; and the same weight of silver, by the most probablecomputation, would purchase near ten times more of the necessaries oflife, though not in the same proportion of the finer manufactures. Thisrevenue, therefore, of William, would be equal to at least nine or tenmillions at present; and as that prince had neither fleet nor army tosupport, the former being only an occasional expense, and the latterbeing maintained, without any charge to him, by his military vassals, we must thence conclude that no emperor or prince, in any age or nation, can be compared to the Conqueror for opulence and riches. This leads usto suspect a great mistake in the computation of the historian; though, if we consider that avarice is always imputed to William as one of hisvices, and that, having by the sword rendered himself master of all thelands in the kingdom, he would certainly, in the partition, retain agreat proportion for his own share, we can scarcely be guilty of anyerror in asserting, that perhaps no king of England was ever moreopulent, was more able to support by his revenue the splendor andmagnificence of a court, or could bestow more on his pleasures, or inliberalities to his servants and favorites. [****]

 [* Ingulph. P. 8. ]

 [** West's Inquiry into the Manner of creating Peers, p. 24. ]

 [*** Order. Vitalis, p. 523. He says, one thousand and sixty pounds and some odd shillings and pence a day. ]

 [**** Fortescue, de Dom. Reg. El Politic, cap. 111. ]

There was one pleasure to which William, as well as all the Normans andancient Saxons, was extremely addicted, and that was hunting; but thispleasure he indulged more at the expense of his unhappy subjects, whoseinterests he always disregarded, than to the loss or diminution of hisown revenue. Not content with those large forests which former kingspossessed in all parts of England, he resolved to make a new forest nearWinchester, the usual place of his residence; and for that purpose, he laid waste the country in Hampshire for an extent of thirty miles, expelled the inhabitants from their houses, seized their property, evendemolished churches and convents, and made the sufferers no compensationfor the injury. [*] At the same time, he enacted new laws, by which heprohibited all his subjects from hunting in any of his forests, andrendered the penalties more severe than ever had been inflicted for suchoffences. The killing of a deer or boar, or even a hare, was punishedwith the loss of the delinquent's eyes; and that at a time when thekilling of a man could be atoned for by paying a moderate fine orcomposition. 

 [* W. Malms, p. 3. H. Hunting, p. 731. Anglia Sacra, vol. I. P. 258]

The transactions recorded during the remainder of this reign may beconsidered more as domestic occurrences, which concern the prince, thanas national events, which regard England. Odo, bishop of Baieux, theking's uterine brother, whom he had created earl of Kent, and intrustedwith a great share of power during his whole reign, had amassed immenseriches; and agreeably to the usual progress of human wishes, he beganto regard his present acquisitions but as a step to further grandeur. He had formed the chimerical project of buying the papacy; and thoughGregory, the reigning pope, was not of advanced years, the prelate hadconfided so much in the predictions of an astrologer, that he reckonedupon the pontiff's death, and upon attaining, by his own intrigues andmoney, that envied state of greatness. Resolving, therefore, to remitall his riches to Italy, he had persuaded many considerable barons, andamong the rest Hugh, earl of Chester, to take the same course; in hopesthat, when he should mount the papal throne, he would bestow on themmore considerable establishments in that country. The king, fromwhom all these projects had been carefully concealed, at last gotintelligence of the design, and ordered Odo to be arrested. Hisofficers, from respect to the immunities which the ecclesiastics nowassumed, scrupled to execute the command, till the king himself wasobliged in person to seize him; and when Odo insisted that he was aprelate, and exempt from all temporal jurisdiction, William replied, that he arrested him, not as bishop of Baieux, but as earl of Kent. Hewas sent prisoner to Normandy; and notwithstanding the remonstrances andmenaces of Gregory, was detained in custody during the remainder of thisreign. 

{1083. } Another domestic event gave the king much more concern: it wasthe death of Matilda, his consort, whom he tenderly loved, and forwhom he had ever preserved the most sincere friendship. Three yearsafterwards he passed into Normandy, and carried with him Edgar Atheling, to whom he willingly granted permission to make a pilgrimage to the HolyLand. He was detained on the continent by a misunderstanding which brokeout between him and the king of France, and which was occasioned byinroads made into Normandy by some French barons on the frontiers. {1087. } It was little in the power of princes at that time to restraintheir licentious nobility; but William suspected, that these baronsdurst not have provoked his indignation, had they not been assured ofthe countenance and protection of Philip. His displeasure was increasedby the account he received of some railleries which that monarch hadthrown out against him. William, who was become corpulent, had beendetained in bed some time by sickness; upon which Philip expressedhis surprise that his brother of England should be so long in beingdelivered of his big belly. The king sent him word, that, as soon as hewas up, he would present so many lights at Notre-dame, as would perhapsgive little pleasure to the king of France; alluding to the usualpractice at that time of women after childbirth. Immediately on hisrecovery, he led an army into L'Isle de France, and laid every thingwaste with fire and sword. He took the town of Mante, which he reducedto ashes. But the progress of these hostilities was stopped by anaccident which soon after put an end to William's life. His horsestarting aside of a sudden, he bruised his belly on the pommel of thesaddle; and being in a bad habit of body, as well as somewhat advancedin years, he began to apprehend the consequences, and ordered himselfto be carried in a litter to the monastery of St Gervas. Finding hisillness increase, and being sensible of the approach of death, hediscovered at last the vanity of all human grandeur, and was struck withremorse for those horrible cruelties and acts of violence, which, in theattainment and defence of it, he had committed during the course ofhis reign over England. He endeavored to make atonement by presents tochurches and monasteries; and he issued orders that Earl Morcar, Siward, Bearne, and other English prisoners, should be set at liberty. He waseven prevailed on, though not without reluctance, to consent, with hisdying breath, to release his brother Odo, against whom he was extremelyincensed. He left Normandy and Maine to his eldest son, Robert: hewrote to Lanfranc, desiring him to crown William king of England; hebequeathed to Henry nothing but the possessions of his mother, Matilda;but foretold that he would one day surpass both his brothers in powerand opulence. He expired in the sixty-third year of his age, in thetwenty-first year of his reign over England, and in the fifty-fourth ofthat over Normandy. 

Few princes have been more fortunate than this great monarch, or werebetter entitled to grandeur and prosperity, from the abilities and thevigor of mind which he displayed in all his conduct. His spirit wasbold and enterprising, yet guided by prudence; his ambition, which wasexorbitant, and lay little under the restraints of justice, still lessunder those of humanity, ever submitted to the dictates of sound policy. Born in an age when the minds of men were intractable, and unacquaintedwith submission, he was yet able to direct them to his purposes, and, partly from the ascendant of his vehement character, partly from artand dissimulation, to establish an unlimited authority. Though notinsensible to generosity, he was hardened against compassion; and heseemed equally ostentatious and equally ambitious of show and parade inhis clemency and in his severity. The maxims of his administration wereaustere, but might have been useful, had they been solely employed topreserve order in an established government:[*] they were ill calculatedfor softening the rigors which, under the most gentle management, areinseparable from conquest. 

 [* M. West. P. 230. Anglia Sacra, vol. I. P. 258. ]

His attempt against England was the last great enterprise of the kind, which, during the course of seven hundred years, has fully succeededin Europe, and the force of his genius broke through those limits whichfirst the feudal institutions, chen the refined policy of princes, havefixed to the several states of Christendom. Though he rendered himselfinfinitely odious to his English subjects, he transmitted his powerto his posterity, and the throne is still filled by his descendants; aproof that the foundations which he laid were firm and solid, and that, amidst all his violence, while he seemed only to gratify the presentpassion, he had still an eye towards futurity. 

Some writers have been desirous of refusing to this prince the title ofconqueror, in the sense which that term commonly bears; and on pretencethat the word is sometimes in old books applied to such as make anacquisition of territory by any means, they are willing to rejectWilliam's title, by right of war, to the crown of England. It isneedless to enter, into a controversy, which, by the terms of it, mustnecessarily degenerate into a dispute of words. It suffices to say, thatthe duke of Normandy's first invasion of the island was hostile; thathis subsequent administration was entirely supported by arms; that inthe very frame of his laws he made a distinction between the Normans andEnglish, to the advantage of the former;[*] that he acted in every thingas absolute master over the natives, whose interests and affections hetotally disregarded; and that if there was an interval when he assumedthe appearance of a legal sovereign, the period was very short, and wasnothing but a temporary Sacrifice, which he, as has been the case withmost conquerors, was obliged to make, of his inclination to his presentpolicy. 

 [* Hoveden, p. 600. ]

Scarce any of those revolutions, which, both in history and in commonlanguage, have always been denominated conquests, appear equallyviolent, or were attended with so sudden an alteration both of power andproperty. The Roman state, which spread its dominion over Europe, left the rights of individuals in a great measure untouched; and thosecivilized conquerors, while they made their own country the seat ofempire, found that they could draw most advantage from the subjectedprovinces, by securing to the natives the free enjoyment cf their ownlaws and of their private possessions. The barbarians who subdued theRoman empire, though they settled in the conquered countries, yet beingaccustomed to a rude, uncultivated life, found a part only of the landsufficient to supply all their wants; and they were not tempted to seizeextensive possessions, which they knew neither how to cultivate norenjoy. But the Normans and other foreigners who followed the standard ofWilliam while they made the vanquished kingdom the seat of government, were yet so far advanced in arts as to be acquainted with the advantagesof a large property; and having totally subdued the natives, theypushed the rights of conquest (very extensive in the eyes of avariceand ambition, however narrow in those of reason) to the utmost extremityagainst them. Except the former conquest of England by the Saxonsthemselves, who were induced, by peculiar circumstances, to proceed evento the extermination of the natives, it would be difficult to findin all history a revolution more destructive, or attended with a morecomplete subjection of the ancient inhabitants. Contumely seems evenco have been wantonly added to oppression;[*] and the natives wereuniversally reduced to such a state of meanness and poverty, that theEnglish, name became a term of reproach; and several generations elapsedbefore one family of Saxon pedigree was raised to any considerablehonors, or could so much as attain the rank of baron of the realm. [**]These facts are so apparent from the whole tenor of the English history, that none would have been tempted to deny or elude them, were they noheated by the controversies of faction; while one party was absurdlyafraid of those absurd consequences which they saw the other partyinclined to draw from this event. But it is evident that the presentrights and privileges of the people, who are a mixture of English andNormans, can never be affected by a transaction which passed sevenhundred years ago; and as all ancient authors, [***] [12] who livednearest the time, and best knew the state of the country, unanimouslyspeak of the Norman dominion as a conquest by war and arms, noreasonable man, from the fear of imaginary consequences, will ever betempted to reject their concurring and undoubted testimony. 

 [* H. Hunting, p. 370. Brompton, p. 980. ]

 [** So late as the reign of King Stephen, the earl of Albemarle, before the battle of the Standard, addressed the officers of his army in these terms: "Proceres Angliae clarissimi, et genere Normanni, etc. " Brompton, p. 1026. See, further, Abbas Rieval, p. 339, etc All the barons and military men of England still called themselves Normans. ]

 [*** See note L. At the end of the volume. ]

King William had issue, besides his three sons who survived him, fivedaughters, to wit, first, Cicily, a nun in the monastery of Feschamp, afterwards abbess in the Holy Trinity at Caen, where she died in 1127. Second, Constantia, married to Alan Fergant, earl of Brittany: she diedwithout issue. Third Alice, contracted to Harold. Fourth, Adela, marriedto Stephen, earl of Blois, by whom she had four sons, William, Theobold, Henry, and Stephen; of whom the elder was neglected, on account of theimbecility of his understanding. Fifth, Agatha, who died a virgin; butwas betrothed to the king of Gallicia. She died on her journey thitherbefore she joined her bridegroom. 

CHAPTER V. 

[Illustration: 081. Jpg WILLIAM II. ]

WILLIAM RUFUS. 

_Contemporary Monarchs_

 EMP. OF GERM. KINGS OF SCOTLAND. K. OF FRANCE. K. OF SPAIN. Henry IV. Malcolm III 1093 Philip I. Alphonso VI. Donald Bane, dep 1091 Duncan 1094 Donald Bane 1097 Edgar. 

 POPES. Urban II. 1099 Paschal II. 

{1087. } WILLIAM, surnamed Rufus, or the Red, from the color of his hair, had no sooner procured his father's recommendatory letter to Lanfranc, the primate, than he hastened to take measures for securing to himselfthe government of England. Sensible that a deed so unformal, and solittle prepared, which violated Robert's right of promigeniture, mightmeet with great opposition, he trusted entirely for success to his owncelerity; and having left St. Gervas while William was breathing hislast, he arrived in England before intelligence of his father's deathhad reached that kingdom. [*] Pretending orders from the king, hesecured the fortresses of Dover, Pevensey, and Hastings, whose situationrendered them of the greatest importance; and he got possession of theroyal treasure at Winchester, amounting to the sum of sixty thousandpounds, by which he hoped to encourage and increase his partisans, [**]The primate, whose rank and reputation in the kingdom gave him greatauthority, had been intrusted with the care of his education, and hadconferred on him the honor of knighthood;[***] and being connected withhim by these ties, and probably deeming his pretensions just, declaredthat he would pay a willing obedience to the last will of the Conqueror, his friend and benefactor. Having assembled some bishops and some of theprincipal nobility, he instantly proceeded to the ceremony of crowningthe new king;[****] and by this despatch endeavored to prevent allfaction and resistance. At the same time, Robert, who had been alreadyacknowledged successor to Normandy, took peaceable possession of thatduchy. 

 [* W. Malms, p. 120. M. Paris, p. 10. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 192. Brompton, p. 983. ]

 [*** W. Malms, p. 120. M. Paris, p. 10. Thorn. Rudborne, p. 263]

 [**** Hoveden, p. 461. ]

But though this partition appeared to have been made without anyviolence or opposition, there remained in England many causesof discontent, which seemed to menace that kingdom with a suddenrevolution. The barons, who generally possessed large estates bothin England and in Normandy, were uneasy at the separation of thoseterritories; and foresaw that, as it would be impossible for them topreserve long their allegiance to two masters, they must necessarilyresign either their ancient patrimony or their new acquisitions. [*]

 [* Order. Vitalis, p. 666. ]

Robert's title to the duchy they esteemed incontestable; his claim tothe kingdom plausible; and they all desired that this prince, who alonehad any pretensions to unite these states, should be put in possessionof both. A comparison also of the personal qualities of the two brothersled them to give the preference to the elder. The duke was brave, open, sincere, generous: even his predominant faults, his extreme indolenceand facility, were not disagreeable to those haughty barons, whoaffected independence, and submitted with reluctance to a vigorousadministration in their sovereign. The king, though equally brave, wasviolent, haughty, tyrannical; and seemed disposed to govern more bythe fear than by the love of his subjects. Odo, bishop of Baieux, andRobert, earl of Mortaigne, maternal brothers of the Conqueror, envyingthe great credit of Lanfranc, which was increased by his late servicesenforced all these motives with their partisans, and engaged them in aformal conspiracy to dethrone the king. They communicated their designto Eustace, count of Boulogne Roger, earl of Shrewsbury and Arundel, Robert de Belesme, his eldest son, William, bishop of Durham, Robert deMoubray, Roger Bigod, Hugh de Grentmesnil; and they easily procured theassent of these potent noblemen. The conspirators, retiring to theircastles, hastened to put themselves in a military posture; and expectingto be soon supported by a powerful army from Normandy, they had alreadybegun hostilities in many places. 

The king, sensible of his perilous situation, endeavored to engage theaffections of the native English, As that people were now so thoroughlysubdued that they no longer aspired to the recovery of their ancientliberties, and were content with the prospect of some mitigation in ihetyranny of the Norman princes, they zealously embraced William's cause, upon receiving general promises of good treatment, and of enjoyingthe license of hunting in the royal forests. The king was soon in asituation to take the field; and as he knew the danger of delay, hesuddenly marched into Kent, where his uncles had already seized thefortresses of Pevensey and Rochester. These places he successivelyreduced by famine; and though he was prevailed on by the earl ofChester, William de Warrenne, and Robert Fitz-Hammon, who had embracedhis cause, to spare the lives of the rebels, he confiscated all theirestates, and banished them the kingdom. [*] This success gave authorityto his negotiations with Roger, earl of Shewsbury, whom he detachedfrom the confederates; and as his powerful fleet, joined to the indolentconduct of Robert, prevented the arrival of the Norman succors, all theother rebels found no resource but in flight or submission. Some of themreceived a pardon; but the greater part were attainted; and the kingbestowed their estates on the Norman barons who had remained faithful tohim. 

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 195. Order. Vitalis, p. 668. ]

{1089. } William, freed from the danger of these insurrections, tooklittle care of fulfilling his promises to the English, who still foundthemselves exposed to the same oppressions which they had undergoneduring the reign of the Conqueror, and which were rather augmentedby the violent, impetuous temper of the present monarch. The death ofLanfranc, who retained great influence over him, gave soon after a fullcareer to his tyranny; and all orders of men found reason to complainof an arbitrary and illegal administration. Even the privileges of thechurch, held sacred in those days, were a feeble rampart against hisusurpations. He seized the temporalities of all the vacant bishopricsand abbeys; he delayed the appointing of successors to those dignities, that he might the longer enjoy the profits of their revenue; he bestowedsome of the church lands in property on his captains and favorites;and he openly set to sale such sees and abbeys as he thought proper todispose of. Though the murmurs of the ecclesiastics, which were quicklypropagated to the nation, rose high against this grievance, the terrorof William's authority, confirmed by the suppression of the lateinsurrections, retained everyone in subjection, and preserved generaltranquillity in England. 

{1090. } The king, even thought himself enabled to disturb his brotherin the possession of Normandy. The loose and negligent administrationof that prince had imboldened the Norman barons to affect a greatindependency; and their mutual quarrels and devastations had renderedthat whole territory a scene of violence and outrage. Two of them, Walter and Odo, were bribed by William to deliver the fortresses ofSt. Valori and Albemarle into his hands: others soon after imitatedthe example of revolt, while Philip, king of France, who ought to haveprotected his vassal in the possession of his fief, was, after makingsome efforts in his favor, engaged by large presents to remain neuter. The duke had also reason to apprehend danger from the intrigues of hisbrother Henry. 

This young prince, who had inherited nothing of his father's greatpossessions but some of his money, has furnished Robert, while he wasmaking his preparations against England, with ihe sum of three thousandmarks; and in return for so slender a supply, had been put in possessionof the Cotentin, which comprehended near a third of the duchy ofNormandy. Robert afterwards, upon some suspicion, threw him into prison;but finding himself exposed to invasion from the king of England, inddreading the conjunction of the two brothers against him, he now gaveHenry his liberty, and even made use of his assistance in suppressingthe insurrections of his rebellious subjects. Conan, a rich burgess ofRouen, had entered into a conspiracy to deliver that city to William;but Henry, on the detection of his guilt, carried the traitor up to ahigh tower and with his own hands flung him from the battlements. 

The king appeared in Normandy at the head of an army and affairs seemedto have come to extremity between the brothers, when the nobility onboth sides, strongly connected by interest and alliances, interposed, and meditated an accommodation. The chief advantage of this treatyaccrued to William, who obtained possession of the territory of Eu, thetowns of Aumule, Fescamp, and other places; but in return he promised, that he would assist his brother in subduing Maine, which had rebelled;and that the Norman barons, attainted in Robert's cause, should berestored to their estates in England. The two brothers also stipulated, that, on the demise of either without issue, the survivor should inheritall his dominions; and twelve of the most powerful barons on eachside swore that they would employ their power to insure the effectualexecution of the whole treaty, [*] a strong proof of the greatindependence and authority of the nobles in those ages. 

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 197. W. Malms, p. 121. Hoveden, p. 462. M Paris, p. 11. Annul. Waverl. P. 137. W. Heming. P. 463. Sum Dunelm. P. 216. Brompton, p. 986. ]

Prince Henry, disgusted that so little care had been taken of hisinterests in this accommodation, retired to St. Michael's Mount, astrong fortress on the coast of Normandy, and infested the neighborhoodwith his incursions. Robert and William, with their joint forces, besieged him in this place, and had nearly reduced him by the scarcityof water, when the elder, hearing of his distress, granted himpermission to supply himself, and also sent him some pipes of wine forhis own table. Being reproved by William for this ill-timed generosity, he replied, "What, shall I suffer my brother to die of thirst? Whereshall we find another when he is gone?" The king also, during thissiege, performed an act of generosity which was less suitable to hischaracter. Riding out one day alone, to take a survey of the fortress, he was attacked by two soldiers, and dismounted. One of them drew hissword in order to despatch him, when the king exclaimed, "Hold, knave! Iam the king of England. " The soldier suspended his blow and, raising theking from the ground with expressions of respect, received a handsomereward, and was taken into his service. Prince Henry was soon afterobliged to capitulate; and being despoiled of all his patrimony, wandered about for some time with very few attendants, and often ingreat poverty. 

{1091. } The continued intestine discord among the barons was alone inthat age destructive; the public wars were commonly short and feeble, produced little bloodshed, and were attended with no memorable event. To this Norman war, which was so soon concluded, there succeededhostilities with Scotland, which were not of longer duration. Roberthere Commanded his brother's army, and obliged Malcolm to accept ofpeace, and do homage to the crown of England. This peace was not moredurable. {1093. } Malcolm, two years after, levying an army, invadedEngland; and after ravaging, Northumberland, he laid siege to Alnwick, where, a party of Earl Moubray's troops falling upon him by surprise, a sharp action ensued in which Malcolm was slain. This incidentinterrupted for some years the regular succession to the Scottish crown, Though Malcolm left legitimate sons, his brother Donald, on account ofthe youth of these princes, was advanced to the throne; but keptnot long possession of it. Duncan, natural son of Malcolm, formed aconspiracy against him; and being assisted by William with a smallforce, made himself master of the kingdom. New broils ensued withNormandy. The frank, open, remiss temper of Robert was ill fitted towithstand the interested, rapacious character of William, who, supportedby greater power, was still encroaching on his brother's possessions, and instigating his turbulent barons to rebellion against him. The king, having gone over to Normandy to support his partisans, ordered an armyof twenty thousand men to be levied in England, and to be conducted tothe sea-coast, as if they were instantly to be embarked. {1094. } HereRalph Flambard, the king's minister, and the chief instrument of hisextortions, exacted ten shillings apiece from them, in lieu of theirservice, and then dismissed them into their several counties. This moneywas so skilfully employed by William that it rendered him better servicethan he could have expected from the army. He engaged the French kingby new presents to depart from the protection of Robert; and he dailybribed the Norman barons to desert his service; but was prevented frompushing his advantages by an incursion of the Welsh, which obliged himto return to England, tie found no difficulty in repelling the enemy;but was not able to make any considerable impression on a countryguarded by its mountainous situation. A conspiracy of his own baronswhich was detected at this time, appeared a more serious concern, and engrossed all his attention. {1095. } Robert Moubray, earl ofNorthumberland, was at the head of this combination; and he engaged init the count d'Eu, Richard de Tunbridge, Roger de Lacy, and many others. The purpose of the conspirators was to dethrone the king, and toadvance in his stead Stephen, count of Aumale, nephew to the Conqueror. William's despatch prevented the design from taking effect, anddisconcerted the conspirators. Moubray made some resistance; but beingtaken prisoner, was attainted and thrown into confinement, where he diedabout thirty years after. {1096. } The count d'Eu denied his concurrencein the plot, and to justify himself, fought, in the presence of thecourt at Windsor, a duel with Geoffrey Bainard, who accused him. Butbeing worsted in the combat, he was condemned to be castrated, andto have his eyes put out. William de Alderi, another conspirator, wassupposed to be treated with more rigor when he was sentenced to behanged. 

But the noise of these petty wars and commotions was quite sunk in thetumult of the crusades, which now engrossed the attention of Europe, andhave ever since engaged the curiosity of mankind, as the most signal andmost durable monument of human folly that has yet appeared in any age ornation. After Mahomet had, by means of his pretended revelations, unitedthe dispersed Arabians under one head, they issued forth from theirdeserts in great multitudes; and being animated with zeal for their newreligion, and supported by the vigor of their new government, they madedeep impression on the eastern empire, which was far in the decline withregard both to military discipline and to civil policy. Jerusalem, by its situation, became one of their most early conquests; and theChristians had the mortification to see the holy sepulchre, and theother places consecrated by the presence of their religious founder, fallen into the possession of infidels. But the Arabians or Saracenswere so employed in military enterprises, by which they spread theirempire, in a few years, from the banks of the Ganges to the Straits ofGibraltar, that they had no leisure for theological controversy; andthough the Alcoran, the original monument of their faith, seems tocontain some violent precepts, they were much less infected with thespirit of bigotry and persecution than the indolent and speculativeGreeks, who were continually refining on the several articles of theirreligious system. They gave little disturbance to those zealous pilgrimswho daily flocked to Jerusalem; and they allowed every man, afterpaying a moderate tribute, to visit the holy sepulchre, to perform hisreligious duties, and so return in peace. But the Turcomans or Turks, a tribe of Tartars, who had embraced Mahometanism, having wrested Syriafrom the Saracens, and having in the year 1065 made themselves mastersof Jerusalem, rendered the pilgrimage much more difficult and dangerousto the Christians. The barbarity of their manners, and the confusionsattending their unsettled government, exposed the pilgrims to manyinsults, robberies, and extortions; and these zealots, returning fromtheir meritorious fatigues and sufferings, filled all Christendom withindignation against the infidels, who profaned the holy city by theirpresence, and derided the sacred mysteries in the very place oftheir completion. Gregory VII. , among the other vast ideas which heentertained, had formed the design of uniting all the western Christiansagainst the Mahometans; but the egregious and violent invasions of thatpontiff on the civil power of princes had created him so many enemies, and had rendered his schemes so suspicious, that he was not able to makegreat progress in this undertaking. The work was reserved for a meanerinstrument, whose low condition ir life exposed aim to no jealousy, and whose folly was well calculated to coincide with the prevailingprinciples of the times. 

Peter, commonly called the Hermit, a native of Amiens, in Picardy, hadmade the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Being deeply affected with the dangersto which that act of piety now exposed the pilgrims, as well as with theinstances of oppression under which the eastern Christians labored, heentertained the bold, and, in all appearance, impracticable project ofleading into Asia, from the farthest extremities of the west, armiessufficient to subdue those potent and warlike nations which now heldthe holy city in subjection. [*] He proposed his views to Martin II. , whofilled the papal chair, and who, though sensible of the advantages whichthe head of the Christian religion must reap from a religious war, andthough he esteemed the blind zeal of Peter a proper means for effectingthe purpose, [**] resolved not to interpose his authority till he sawa greater probability of success. He summoned a council at Placentia, which consisted of four thousand ecclesiastics and thirty thousandseculars; and which was so numerous that no hall could contain themultitude, and it was necessary to hold the assembly in a plain. 

 [* Gul. Tyrius, lib. I. Cap. 11 M. Paria, p, 17. ]

 [** Gul. Trrius, lib. I. Cap. 13. ]

The harangues of the pope, and of Peter himself, representing the dismalsituation of their brethren in the East, and the indignity suffered bythe Christian name, in allowing the holy city to remain in the hands ofinfidels, here found the minds of men so well prepared, that the wholemultitude suddenly and violently declared for the war, and solemnlydevoted themselves to perform this service, so meritorious, as theybelieved it, to God and religion. 

But though Italy seemed thus to have zealously embraced the enterprise, Martin knew that, in order to insure success, it was necessary to enlistthe greater and more warlike nations in the same engagement; and havingpreviously exhorted Peter to visit the chief cities and sovereigns ofChristendom, he summoned another council at Clermont, in Auvergne. [*]The fame of this great and pious design being now universally diffused, procured the attendance of the greatest prelates, nobles, and princes;and when the pope and the hermit renewed their pathetic exhortations, the whole assembly, as if impelled by an immediate inspiration, notmoved by their preceeding impressions, exclaimed with one voice, "It isthe will of God, It is the will of God"--words deemed so memorable andso much the result of a divine influence, that they were employed asthe signal of rendezvous and battle in all the future exploits of thoseadventurers. [**] Men of all ranks flew to arms with the utmost ardor;and an exterior symbol too--a circumstance of chief moment, --was herechosen by the devoted combatants. The sign of the cross, which had beenhitherto so much revered among Christians, and which, the more it wasan object of reproach among the pagan world, was the more passionatelycherished by them, became the badge of union, and was affixed totheir right shoulder by all who enlisted themselves in this sacredwarfare. [***]

Europe was at this time sunk into profound ignorance and superstition. The ecclesiastics had acquired the greatest ascendant over the humanmind; the people, who, being little restrained by honor, and less bylaw, abandoned themselves to the worst crimes and disorders, knew of noother expiation than the observances imposed on them by their spiritualpastors; and it was easy to represent the holy war as an equivalent forall penances, [****] and an atonement for every violation of justice andhumanity. 

 [* Concil. Torn. X. Concil. Clarom. M. Paris, p. 16. M. West, p. 233. ]

 [** Historia Bell. Sacri, torn. I. Musaei Ital. ]

 [*** Hist. Bell Sacri, tom. I. Mua. Ital. Order. Vitalis, p. 721. ]

 [**** Order. Vitalis, p. 720. ]

But amidst the abject superstition which now prevailed, the militaryspirit also had universally diffused itself; and though not supportedby art or discipline, was become the general passion of the nationsgoverned by the feudal law. All the great lords possessed the rightof peace and war: they were engaged in perpetual hostilities with eachother: the open country was become a scene of outrage and disorder: thecities, still mean and poor, were neither guarded by walls nor protectedby privileges, and were exposed to every insult: individuals wereobliged to depend for safety on their own force, or their privatealliances; and valor was the only excellence which was held in esteem, or gave one man the preeminence above another. When all the particularsuperstitions, therefore, were here united in one great object, theardor for military enterprises took the same direction; and Europe, impelled by its two ruling passions, was loosened, as it were, from itsfoundations, and seemed to precipitate itself in one united body uponthe East. 

All orders of men, deeming the crusades the only road to heaven, enlisted themselves under these sacred banners, and were impatientto open the way with their sword to the holy city. Nobles, artisans, peasants, even priests, [*] enrolled their names; and to decline thismeritorious service was branded with the reproach of impiety, or, what perhaps was esteemed still more disgraceful, of cowardice andpusillanimity. [**] The infirm and aged contributed to the expedition bypresents and money; and many of them, not satisfied with the merit ofthis atonement, attended it in person, and were determined, if possible, to breathe their last in sight of that city where their Savior had diedfor them. Women themselves, concealing their sex under the disguise ofarmor, attended the camp; and commonly forgot still more the duty oftheir sex, by prostituting themselves without reserve to the army. [***]The greatest criminals were forward in a service which they regardedas a propitiation for all crimes; and the most enormous disorders were, during the course of those expeditions, committed by men inured towickedness, encouraged by example, and impelled by necessity. Themultitude of the adventurers soon became so great, that their moresagacious leaders, Hugh, count of Vermandois, brother to the Frenchking, Raymond, count of Toulouse, Godfrey of Bouillon, prince ofBrabant, and Stephen, count of Blois, [****] became apprehensive lest thegreatness itself of the armament should disappoint its purpose; and theypermitted an undisciplined multitude, computed at three hundred thousandmen, to go before them, under the command of Peter the Hermit, andWalter the Moneyless. [*****]

 [* Order. Vitalis, p. 720. ]

 [** W. Malms, p. 133, ]

 [*** Vertot, Hist. De Chev. De Malte, vol. I. P. 46. ]

 [**** Sim. Dunelm. P. 222]

 [***** M. Paris, p. 17. ]

These men took the road towards Constantinople, through Hungary andBulgaria; and trusting that Heaven, by supernatural assistance, wouldsupply all their necessities, they made no provision for subsistenceon their march. They soon found themselves obliged to obtain by plunderwhat they had vainly expected from miracles; and the enraged inhabitantsof the countries through which they passed, gathering together in arms, attacked the disorderly multitude, and put them to slaughter withoutresistance. The more disciplined armies followed after; and passing thestraits at Constantinople, they were mustered in the plains of Asia, and amounted in the whole to the number of seven hundred thousandcombatants. [*]

Amidst this universal frenzy, which spread itself by contagionthroughout Europe, especially in France and Germany, men were notentirely forgetful of their present interests; and both those who wenton this expedition, and those who stain behind, entertained schemes ofgratifying by its means their avarice or their ambition. The nobles whoenlisted themselves were moved, from the romantic spirit of the age, tohope for opulent establishments in the East, the chief seat of arts andcommerce during those ages; and in pursuit of these chimerical projects, they sold at the lowest price their ancient castles and inheritances, which had now lost all value in their eyes. The greater princes, whoremained at home, besides establishing peace in their dominions bygiving occupation abroad to the inquietude and martial disposition oftheir subjects, took the opportunity of annexing to their crown manyconsiderable fiefs, either by purchase or by the extinction of heirs. The pope frequently turned the zeal of the crusaders from the infidelsagainst his own enemies, whom he represented as equally criminal withthe enemies of Christ. The convents and other religious societies boughtthe possessions of the adventurers; and as the contributions of thefaithful were commonly intrusted to their management, they oftendiverted to this purpose what was intended to be employed against theinfidels. [**] But no one was a more immediate gainer by this epidemicfury than the king of England, who kept aloof from all connections withthose fanatical and romantic warriors. 

 [* M. Paris, p. 20, 21. ]

 [** Padre Paolo, Hist. Delle Benef. Eccles. P. 128]

Robert, duke of Normandy, impelled by the bravery and mistakengenerosity of his spirit, had early enlisted himself in the crusade;but being always unprovided with money, he found that it would beimpracticable for him to appear in a manner suitable to his rankand station, at the head of his numerous vassals and subjects, who, transported with the general rage, were determined to follow him intoAsia. He resolved, therefore, to mortgage, or rather to sell, hisdominions, which he had not talents to govern; and he offered them tohis brother William for the very unequal sum of ten thousand marks. [*]The bargain was soon concluded: the king raised the money by violentextortions on his subjects of all ranks, even on the convents, who wereobliged to melt their plate in order to furnish the quota demanded ofthem[**] he was put in possession of Normandy and Maine; and Robert, providing himself with a magnificent train, set out for the Holy Land, in pursuit of glory, and in full confidence of securing his eternalsalvation. 

The smallness of this sum, with the difficulties which William foundin raising it, suffices alone to refute the account which is heedlesslyadopted by historians, of the enormous revenue of the Conqueror. Is itcredible that Robert would consign to the rapacious hands of his brothersuch considerable dominions, for a sum which, according to that account, made not a week's income of his father's English revenue alone? orthat the king of England could not on demand, without oppressing hissubjects, have been able to pay him the money? The Conqueror, it isagreed, was frugal as well as rapacious, yet his treasure at his deathexceeded not sixty thousand pounds, which hardly amounted to his incomefor two months; another certain refutation of that exaggerated account. 

The fury of the crusades during this age less infected England than theneighboring kingdoms; probably because the Norman conquerors, findingtheir settlement in that kingdom still somewhat precarious, durstnot abandon their homes in quest of distant adventures. The selfish, interested spirit also of the king, which kept him from kindling in thegeneral flame, checked its progress among his subjects; and as he isaccused of open profaneness, [***] and was endued with a sharp wit, [****]it is likely that he made the romantic chivalry of the crusaders theobject of his perpetual raillery. 

 [* W. Malms, p. 123. Chron. T. Wykes, p. 24. Annal. Waverl p. 139. W. Heming. P. 467. Flor. Wigorn. P. 648. Sim. Dunelm, p. 222. Knyghton, p. 2364. ]

 [** Eadmer, p. 35. W. Malms, p. 123. W. Heming. P. 467. ]

 [*** Gul. Newbr. P. 358. Gul. Gemet. P. 292. ]

 [**** W. Malms, p. 122]. 

As an instance of his religion, we are told that he once accepted ofsixty marks from a Jew, whose son had been converted to Christianity, and who engaged him by that present to assist him in bringing back theyouth to Judaism. William employed both menaces and persuasion for thatpurpose; but finding the convert obstinate in his new faith, he sent forthe father, and told him that as he had not succeeded, it was not justthat he should keep the present; but as he had done his utmost, itwas but equitable that he should be paid for his pains; and he wouldtherefore retain only thirty marks of the money. [*] At another time, it is said, he sent for some learned Christian theologians and somerabbies, and bade them fairly dispute the question of their religion inhis presence. He was perfectly indifferent between them; had his earsopen to reason and conviction; and would embrace that doctrinewhich, upon comparison, should be found supported by the most solidarguments. [**] If this story be true, it is probable that he meant onlyto amuse himself by turning both into ridicule; but we must be cautiousof admitting every thing related by the monkish historians to thedisadvantage of this prince. He had the misfortune to be engaged inquarrels with the ecclesiastics, particularly with Anselm, commonlycalled St. Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury; and it is no wonder hismemory should be blackened by the historians of that order. 

After the death of Lanfranc, the king for several years retained inhis own hands the revenues of Canterbury, as he did those of many othervacant bishoprics: but falling into a dangerous sickness, he was seizedwith remorse; and the clergy represented to him, that he was in dangerof eternal perdition, if before his death he did not make atonementfor those multiplied impieties and sacrileges of which he had beenguilty. [***] He resolved, therefore, to supply instantly the vacancy ofCanterbury; and for that purpose he sent for Anselm, a Piedmonteseby birth, abbot of Bee, in Normandy, who was much celebrated for hislearning and piety. The abbot earnestly refused the dignity, fell onhis knees, wept, and entreated the king to change his purpose, [****] andwhen he found the prince obstinate in forcing the pastoral staff uponhim, he kept his fist so fast clinched, that it required the utmostviolence of the bystanders to open it, and force him to receive thatensign of spiritual dignity. [*****]

 [* Eadmer, p. 47. ]

 [** W. Malms, p. 123. ]

 [*** Eadmer, p. 16. Chron. Sax. P. 198, ]

 [**** Eadmer, p. 17. Diceto, p. 494. ]

 [***** Eadmer, p. 18. ]

William soon after recovered; and his passions regaining their wontedvigor, he returned to his former violence and rapine. He detained inprison several persons whom he had ordered to be freed during the timeof his penitence; he still preyed upon the ecclesiastical benefices;the sale of spiritual dignities continued as open as ever; and he keptpossession of a considerable part of the revenues belonging to the seeof Canterbury. [**] But he found in Anselm that persevering oppositionwhich he had reason to expect from the ostentatious humility which thatprelate had displayed in refusing his promotion. 

The opposition made by Anselm was the more dangerous on account of thecharacter of piety which he soon acquired in England by his great zealagainst all abuses, particularly those in dress and ornament. There wasa mode which, in that age, prevailed throughout Europe, both among menand women, to give an enormous length to their shoes, to draw the toe toa sharp point, and to affix to it the figure of a bird's bill, or somesuch ornament, which was turned upwards, and which was often sustainedby gold or silver chains tied to the knee. [***] The ecclesiastics tookexception at this ornament, which, they said, was an attempt to belythe Scripture, where it is affirmed, that no man can add a cubit tohis stature; and they declaimed against it with great vehemence, nay, assembled some synods, who absolutely condemned it. But--such are thestrange contradictions in human nature--though the clergy, at that time, could overturn thrones, and had authority sufficient to send above amillion of men on their errand to the deserts of Asia, they could neverprevail against these long-pointed shoes: on the contrary, that caprice, contrary to all other modes, maintained its ground during severalcenturies; and if the clergy had not at last desisted from theirpersecution of it, it might still have been the prevailing fashion inEurope. 

 [** Eadmer, p. 19, 43. Chron. Sax. P. 199. ]

 [*** Order. Vitalis, p. 082. W. Malms, p. 123. Knyghton, p. 2369]

But Anselm was more fortunate in decrying the particular mode which wasthe object of his aversion, and which probably had not taken such fasthold of the affections of the people. He preached zealously againstthe long hair and curled locks which were then fashionable among thecourtiers; he refused the ashes on Ash-Wednesday to those who wereso accoutred; and his authority and eloquence had such influence, thatthe young men universally abandoned that ornament, and appeared inthe cropped hair which was recommended to them by the sermons of theprimate. The noted historian of Anselm, who was also his companion andsecretary, celebrates highly this effort of his zeal and piety. [*]

When William's profaneness therefore returned to him with his health, hewas soon engaged in controversies with this austere prelate. There wasat that time a schism in the church between Urban and Clement, whoboth pretended to the papacy;[**] and Anselm, who, as abbot of Bee, had already acknowledged the former, was determined, without the king'sconsent, to introduce his authority into England. [***] William, who, imitating his father's example, had prohibited his subjects fromrecognizing any pope whom he had not previously received, was enraged atthis attempt, and summoned a synod at Buckingham, with an intention ofdeposing Anselm; but the prelate's suffragans declared, that, withoutthe papal authority, they knew of no expedient for inflicting thatpunishment on their primate. [****] The king was at last engaged by othermotives to give the preference to Urban's title; Anselm received thepall from that pontiff; and matters seemed to be accommodated betweenthe king and the primate, [*****] when the quarrel broke out afresh froma new cause. William had undertaken an expedition against Wales, andrequired the archbishop to furnish his quota of soldiers for thatservice, but Anselm, who regarded the demand as an oppression on thechurch, and yet durst not refuse compliance, sent them so miserablyaccoutred, that the king was extremely displeased, and threatenedhim with a prosecution. [******] Anselm, on the other hand, demandedpositively that all the revenues of his see should be restored to him;appealed to Borne against the king's injustice;[*******] and affairscame to such extremities, that the primate, finding it dangerous toremain in the kingdom, desired and obtained the king's permission toretire beyond sea. All his temporalities were seized;[********] but hewas received with great respect by Urban, who considered him as a martyrin the cause of religion, and even menaced the king, on account of hisproceedings against the primate and the church with the sentence ofexcommunication. 

 [* Eadmer, p. 23. ]

 [** Hoveden, p. 463]

 [*** Eadmer, p. 25. M. Paris, p. 13. Diceto, p. 494. Spei Concil vol. Ii. P. 16. ]

 [**** Eadmer, p. 30]

 [***** Diceto, p 495. ]

 [****** Eadmer, p. 37, 43. ]

 [******* Eadmer, p. 40. ]

 [******** M. Paris, p. 13. Parker, p. 178. ]

Anselm assisted at the council of Bari, where, besides fixing thecontroversy between the Greek and Latin churches concerning theprocession of the Holy Ghost, [*] the right of election to churchpreferments was declared to belong to the clergy alone, and spiritualcensures were denounced against all ecclesiastics who did homage tolaymen for their sees or benefices, and against all laymen who exactedit. [**] The rite of homage, by the feudal customs, was, that the vassalshould throw himself on his knees, should put his joined hands betweenthose of his superior, and should in that posture swear fealty tohim. [***] But the council declared & execrable that pure hands, which could create God, and could offer him up as a sacrifice for thesalvation of mankind, should be put, after this humiliating manner, between profane hands, which, besides being inured to rapine andbloodshed, were employed day and night in impure purposes and obscenecontacts. [****] Such were the reasonings prevalent in that age;reasonings which, though they cannot be passed over in silence, withoutomitting the most curious and perhaps not the least instructive partof history, can scarcely be delivered with the requisite decency andgravity. 

 [* Eadmer, p. 49. M. Paris, p. 13. Sim. Dunelm, p. 224. ]

 [** M. Paris, p. 14. ]

 [*** Spelman. Du Cange, in verbo Hominium. ]

 [**** W. Hemmg. P. 467. Flor. Wigorn. P. 649. Sim. Dunelm p. 524. Brompton, p. 994. ]

{1097. } The cession of Normandy and Maine by Duke Robert increased theking's territories; but brought him no great increase of power, becauseof the unsettled state of those countries the mutinous disposition ofthe barons, and the vicinity of the French king, who supported them inall their insurrections. Even Helie, lord of La Fleche, a small townin Anjou, was able to give him inquietude; and this great monarchwas obliged to make several expeditions abroad, without being ableto prevail over so petty a baron, who had acquired the confidence andaffections of the inhabitants of Maine. He was, however, so fortunate asat last to take him prisoner in a rencounter, but having released him, at the intercession of the French king and the count of Anjou, he foundthe province of Maine still exposed to his intrigues and incursions. Helie, being introduced by the citizens into the town of Mans, besiegedthe garrison in the citadel, {1099. } William, who was hunting in thenew forest when he received intelligence of this hostile attempt, wasso provoked, that he immediately turned his horse, and galloped to thesea-shore at Dartmouth, declaring that he would not stop a moment tillhe had taken, vengeance for the offence. He found the weather so cloudyand tempestuous, that the mariners thought it dangerous to put to sea:but the king hurried on board, and ordered them to set sail instantly;telling them that they never yet heard of a king that was drowned. [*]By this vigor and celerity he delivered the citadel of Mans from itspresent danger, and pursuing Helie into his own territories, he laidsiege to Majol, a small castle in those parts: {1100. } but a wound whichhe received before this place, obliged him to raise the siege; and hereturned to England. 

The weakness of the greatest monarchs during this age, in theirmilitary expeditions against their nearest neighbors, appears the moresurprising, when we consider the prodigious numbers, which even pettyprinces, seconding the enthusiastic rage of the people, were ableto assemble, and to conduct in dangerous enterprises to the remoteprovinces of Asia. William earl of Poitiers and duke of Guienne, inflamed with the glory and not discouraged by the misfortunes, whichhad attended the former adventurers in the crusades, had put himself atthe head of an immense multitude, computed by some historians to amountto sixty thousand horse, and a much greater number of foot, [**] and hepurposed to lead them into the Holy Land against the infidels. He wantedmoney to forward the preparations requisite for this expedition, and heoffered to mortgage all his dominions to William, without entertainingany scruple on account of that rapacious and iniquitous hand to which heresolved to consign them. [***]

 [* W. Malms, p. 124. H. Hunting, p. 378. M. Paris, p. 33. Ypod. Neust. P. 442. ]

 [** W. Malms, p. 149. The whole is said, by Order. Vitalie (p. 789) to amount to three hundred thousand men. ]

 [*** W. Maims, p. 127. ]

The king accepted the offer; and had prepared a fleet and an army, inorder to escort the money and take possession of the rich provinces ofGuienne and Poictou; when an accident put an end to his life, and to allhis ambitious projects. He was engaged in hunting, the sole amusement, and indeed the chief occupation of princes in those rude times, whensociety was little cultivated and the arts afforded few objects worthyof attention. Walter Tyrrel, a French gentleman, remarkable for hisaddress in archery, attended him in this recreation, of which the newforest was the scene: and as William had dismounted after a chase, Tyrrel, impatient to show his dexterity, let fly an arrow at a stagwhich suddenly started before him. The arrow, glancing from a tree, struck the king in the breast, and instantly slew him;[*] while Tyrrel, without informing any one of the accident, put spurs to his horse, hastened to the sea-shore, embarked for France, and joined the crusadein an expedition to Jerusalem; a penance which he imposed on himself forthis involuntary crime. The body of William was found in the forestby the country people, and was buried without any pomp or ceremony atWinchester. His courtiers were negligent in performing the last dutiesto a master who was so little beloved; and every one was too muchoccupied in the interesting object of fixing his successor, to attendthe funeral of a dead sovereign. 

 [* W. Malms, p. 126. H. Hunting, p. 378. M. Paris, p. 87. Petr. Bles. P. 110]

The memory of this monarch is transmitted to us with little advantageby the churchmen, whom he had offended; and though we may suspect ingeneral that their account of his vices is somewhat exaggerated, hisconduct affords little reason for contradicting the character whichthey have assigned him, or for attributing to him any very estimablequalities. He seems to have been a violent and tyrannical prince;a perfidious, encroaching, and dangerous neighbor; an unkind andungenerous relation. He was equally prodigal and rapacious in themanagement of his treasury; and if he possessed abilities, he lay somuch under the government of impetuous passions, that he made littleuse of them in his administration; and he indulged without reserve thatdomineering policy which suited his temper, and which, if supported, asit was it him, with courage and vigor, proves often more successful indisorderly times, than the deepest foresight and most refined artifice. 

The monuments which remain of this prince in England are the Tower, Westminster Hall, and London Bridge, which he built. The most laudableforeign enterprise which he undertook was the sending of Edgar Atheling, three years before his death, into Scotland, with a small army, torestore Prince Edgar, the true heir of that kingdom, son of Malcolm, and of Margaret, sister of Edgar Atheling; and the enterprise provedsuccessful. It was remarked in that age, that Richard, an elder brotherof William's, perished by an accident in the new forest; Richard, hisnephew, natural son of Duke Robert, lost his life in the same placeafter the same manner; and all men, upon the king's fate, exclaimedthat, as the Conqueror had been guilty of extreme violence in expellingall the inhabitants of that large district to make room for his game, the just vengeance of Heaven was signalized in the same place by theslaughter of his posterity. William was killed in the thirteenth year ofhis reign, and about the fortieth of his age. As he was never married, he left no legitimate issue. 

In the eleventh year of this reign, Magnus, king of Norway, made adescent on the Isle of Anglesea; but was repulsed by Hugh, earl ofShrewsbury. This is the last attempt made by the northern nations uponEngland. That restless people seem about this time to have learned thepractice of tillage, which thenceforth kept them at home, and freed theother nations of Europe from the devastations spread over them bythose piratical invaders. This proved one great cause of the subsequentsettlement and improvement of the southern nations. 

CHAPTER VI. 

[Illustration: 86. Jpg HENRY I. ]

HENRY I. 

{1100. } After the adventurers in the holy war were assembled on thebanks of the Bosphorus, opposite to Constantinople, they proceeded ontheir enterprise; but immediately experienced those difficulties whichtheir zeal had hitherto concealed from them, and for which, even if theyhad foreseen them, it would have been almost impossible to providea remedy. The Greek emperor, Alexis Comnenus, who had applied to thewestern Christians for succor against the Turks, entertained hopes, andthose but feeble ones, of obtaining such a moderate supply as, actingunder his command, might enable him to repulse the enemy; but he wasextremely astonished to see his dominions overwhelmed on a sudden bysuch an inundation of licentious barbarians, who, though they pretendedfriendship, despised his subjects as unwarlike, and detested themas heretical. By all the arts of policy, in which he excelled, heendeavored to divert the torrent; but while he employed professions, caresses, civilities, and seeming services towards the leaders of thecrusade, he secretly regarded those imperious allies as more dangerousthan the open enemies by whom his empire had been formerly invaded. Having effected that difficult point of disembarking them safely inAsia, he entered into a private correspondence with Soliman, emperorof the Turks; and practised every insidious art which his genius, hispower, or his situation enabled him to employ, for disappointing theenterprise, and, discouraging the Latins from making thenceforward anysuch prodigious migrations. His dangerous policy was seconded by thedisorders inseparable from so vast a multitude, who were not unitedunder one head, and were conducted by leaders of the most independent, intractable spirit, unacquainted with military discipline, anddetermined enemies to civil authority and submission. The scarcity ofprovisions, the excess of fatigue, the influence of unknown climates, joined to the want of concert in their operations, and to the sword ofa warlike enemy, destroyed the adventurers by thousands, and would haveabated the ardor of men impelled to war by less powerful motives. Theirzeal, however, their bravery, and their irresistible force still carriedthem forward, and continually advanced them to the great end of theirenterprise. After an obstinate siege, they took Nice, the seat of theTurkish empire; they defeated Soliman in two great battles; they madethemselves masters of Antioch; and entirely broke the force of theTurks, who had so long retained those countries in subjection. Thesoldan of Egypt, whose alliance they had hitherto courted, recovered, onthe fall of the Turkish power, his former authority in Jerusalem; andhe informed them by his ambassadors, that if they came disarmed tothat city, they might now perform their religious vows, and that allChristian pilgrims, who should thenceforth visit the holy sepulchre, might expect the same good treatment which they had ever received fromhis predecessors. The offer was rejected; the soldan was required toyield up the city to the Christians; and on his refusal, the championsof the cross advanced to the siege of Jerusalem, which they regardedas the consummation of their labors. By the detachments which they hadmade, and the disasters which they had undergone, they were diminishedto the number of twenty thousand foot and fifteen hundred horse; butthese were still formidable from their valor, their experience, and theobedience which, from past calamities, they had learned to pay to theirleaders. After a siege of five weeks, they took Jerusalem by assault;and, impelled by a mixture of military and religious rage, they put thenumerous garrison and inhabitants to the sword, without distinction. Neither arms defended the valiant, nor submission the timorous; no ageor sex was spared; infants on the breast were pierced by the same blowwith their mothers, who implored for mercy; even a multitude, to thenumber of ten thousand persons, who had surrendered themselves prisonersand were promised quarter, were butchered in cold blood by thoseferocious conquerors. [*] The streets of Jerusalem were covered with deadbodies;[**] and the triumphant warriors, after every enemy was subduedand slaughtered, immediately turned themselves, with the sentiments ofhumiliation and contrition, towards the holy sepulchre. 

 [* Vertot, vol. I. P. 57. ]

 [** M. Paris, p. 34. Order. ]

They threw aside their arms, still streaming with blood; they advancedwith reclined bodies, and naked feet and heads, to that sacred monument;they sung anthems to their Savior, who had there purchased theirsalvation by his death and agony; and their devotion enlivened by thepresence of the place where he had suffered, so overcame their fury, that they dissolved in tears, and bore the appearance of every soft andtender sentiment. So inconsistent is human nature with itself! and soeasily does the most effeminate superstition ally, both with the mostheroic courage and with the fiercest barbarity!

This great event happened on the fifth of July in the last year ofthe eleventh century. The Christian princes and nobles, after choosingGodfrey of Bouillon king of Jerusalem, began to settle themselves intheir new conquests; while some of them returned to Europe, in orderto enjoy at home that glory which their valor had acquired them in thispopular and meritorious enterprise. Among these was Robert, duke ofNormandy, who, as he had relinquished the greatest dominions of anyprince that attended the crusade, had all along distinguished himselfby the most intrepid courage, as well as by that affable disposition andunbounded generosity which gain the hearts of soldiers, and qualify aprince to shine in a military life. In passing through Italy, he becameacquainted with Sibylla, daughter of the count of Conversana, a younglady of great beauty and merit, whom he espoused: indulging himself inthis new passion, as well as fond of enjoying ease and pleasure afterthe fatigues of so many rough campaigns, he lingered a twelvemonth inthat delicious climate; and though his friends in the north looked everymoment for his arrival, none of them knew when they could with certaintyexpect it. By this delay he lost the kingdom of England, which thegreat fame he had acquired during the crusades, as well as his undoubtedtitle, both by birth and by the preceding agreement with his deceasedbrother, would, had he been present, have infallibly secured to him. 

Prince Henry was hunting with Rufus in the new forest, when intelligenceof that monarch's death was brought him, and being sensible of theadvantage attending the conjuncture he hurried to Winchester, in orderto secure the royal treasure, which he knew to be a necessary implementfor facilitating his designs on the crown. He had scarcely reached theplace when William de Breteuil, keeper of the treasure, arrived, andopposed himself to Henry's pretensions. This nobleman, who had beenengaged in the same party of hunting, had no sooner heard of hismaster's death, than he hastened to take care of his charge; and he toldthe prince, that this treasure, as well as the crown, belonged to hiselder brother, who was now his sovereign; and that he himself, for hispart, was determined, in spite of all other pretensions, to maintainhis allegiance to him. But Henry, drawing his sword, threatened himwith instant death if he dared to disobey him; and as others of the lateking's retinue, who came every moment to Winchester, joined the prince'sparty, Breteuil was obliged to withdraw his opposition, and to acquiescein this violence. [*]

 [* Order. Vitalis, p. 782. ]

Henry, without losing a moment, hastened with the money to London;and having assembled some noblemen and prelates, whom his address, orabilities, or presents, gained to his side, he was suddenly elected, orrather saluted king; and immediately proceeded to the exercise ofroyal authority. In less than three days after his brother's death, theceremony of his coronation was performed by Maurice, bishop of London, who was persuaded to officiate on that occasion;[**] and thus, by hiscourage and celerity, he intruded himself into the vacant throne. 

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 208. Order. ]

No one had sufficient spirit or sense of duty to appear in defenceof the absent prince; all men were seduced or intimidated; presentpossession supplied the apparent defects in Henry's title, which wasindeed founded on plain usurpation; and the barons, as well as thepeople, acquiesced in a claim, which, though it could neither bejustified nor comprehended, could now, they found, be opposed throughthe perils alone of civil war and rebellion. 

But as Henry foresaw that a crown usurped against all rules of justicewould sit unsteady on his head, he resolved, by fair professions atleast, to gain the affections of all his subjects. Besides taking theusual coronation oath to maintain the laws and execute justice, hepassed a charter, which was calculated to remedy many of the grievousoppressions which had been complained of during the reigns of his fatherand brother. [*] He there promised, that, at the death of any bishop orabbot, he never would seize the revenues of the see or abbey during thevacancy, but would leave the whole to be reaped by the successor; andthat he would never let to farm any ecclesiastical benefice, nor disposeof it for money. After this concession to the church, whose favor wasof so great importance, he proceeded to enumerate the civil grievanceswhich he purposed to redress. He promised that, upon the death of anyearl, baron, or military tenant, his heir should be admitted to thepossession of his estate, on paying a just and lawful relief, withoutbeing exposed to such violent exactions as had been usual during thelate reigns: he remitted the wardship of minors, and allowed guardiansto be appointed, who should be answerable for the trust: he promisednot to dispose of any heiress in marriage but by the advice of all thebarons; and if any baron intended to give his daughter sister, niece, or kinswoman in marriage, it should only be necessary for him to consultthe king, who promised to take no money for his consent, nor ever torefuse permission, unless the person to whom it was purposed to marryher should happen to be his enemy: he granted his barons and militarytenants the power of bequeathing by will their money or personalestates; and if they neglected to make a will, he promised that theirheirs should succeed to them: he renounced the right of imposingmoneyage, and of levying taxes at pleasure on the farms which the baronsretained in their own hands:[**] he made some general professions ofmoderating fines: he offered a pardon for all offences; and he remittedall debts due to the crown: he required that the vassals of the baronsshould enjoy the same privileges which he granted to his own barons; andhe promised a general confirmation and observance of the laws of KingEdward. This is the substance of the chief articles contained in thatfamous charter. [***]

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 208. Sim. Dunelm. P. 225. ]

 [** See Appendix II. ]

 [*** Mr Paris, p. 38. Hoveden, p. 468. Brompton, p. 1021. Haguistadt, p. 310. ]

To give greater authenticity to these concessions, Henry lodged a copyof his charter in some abbey of each county, as if desirous thatit should be exposed to the view of all his subjects, and remain aperpetual rule for the limitation and direction of his government: yetit is certain that, after the present purpose was served, he never oncethought, during his reign, of observing one single article of it; andthe whole fell so much into neglect and oblivion, that, in the followingcentury, when the barons, who had heard an obscure tradition of it, desired to make it the model of the Great Charter which they exactedfrom King John, they could with difficulty find a copy of it in thekingdom. But as to the grievances here meant to be redressed, they werestill continued in their full extent; and the royal authority, in allthose particulars, lay under no manner of restriction. Reliefs of heirs, so capital an article, were never effectually fixed till the time ofMagna Charta;[*] and it is evident that the general promise here given, of accepting a just and lawful relief, ought to have been reduced tomore precision, in order to give security to the subject. The oppressionof wardship and marriage was perpetuated even till the reign of CharlesII. ; and it appears from Glanville, [**] the famous justiciary of HenryII. , that in his time, where any man died intestate--an accident whichmust have been very frequent when the art of writing was so littleknown--the king, or the lord of the fief, pretended to seize all themovables, and to exclude every heir, even the children of the deceased;a sure mark of a tyrannical and arbitrary government. 

 [* Glanv. Lib. Ii. Cap. 36. ]

 [** Lib. Vii. Cap. 15. ]

The Normans, indeed, who domineered in England, were, during this age, so licentious a people, that they may be pronounced incapable of anytrue or regular liberty; which requires such improvement in knowledgeand morals, as can only be the result of reflection and experience, andmust grow to perfection during several ages of settled and establishedgovernment. A people so insensible to the rights of their sovereign, asto disjoint, without necessity, the hereditary succession, and permita younger brother to intrude himself into the place of the elder, whomthey esteemed, and who was guilty of no crime but being absent, couldnot expect that. What is called a relief in the Conqueror's laws, preserved by Ingulf, seems to have been the heriot; since reliefs, aswell as the other burdens of the feudal law, were unknown in the ageof the Confessor, whose laws these originally were. This practice wascontrary to the laws of King Edward, ratified by the Conqueror, aswe learn from Ingulf, p. 91. But laws had at that time very littleinfluence: power and violence governed every thing. Prince would pay anygreater regard to their privileges, or allow his engagements to fetterhis power, and debar him from any considerable interest or convenience. They had indeed arms in their hands, which prevented the establishmentof a total despotism, and left their posterity sufficient power, whenever they should attain a sufficient degree of reason, to assumetrue liberty; but their turbulent disposition frequently prompted themto make such use of their arms, that they were more fitted to obstructthe execution of justice, than to stop the career of violence andoppression. The prince, finding that greater opposition was often madeto him when he enforced the laws than when he violated them, was aptto render his own will and pleasure the sole rule of government; and onevery emergency to consider more the power of the persons whom he mightoffend, than the rights of those whom he might injure. The very form ofthis charter of Henry proves, that the Norman barons (for they, ratherthan the people of England, are chiefly concerned in it, ) were totallyignorant of the nature of limited monarchy, and were ill qualified toconduct, in conjunction with their sovereign, the machine of government. It is an act of his sole power, is the result of his free grace, contains some articles which bind others as well as himself, and istherefore unfit to be the deed of any one who possesses not thewhole legislative power, and who may not at pleasure revoke all hisconcessions. 

Henry, further to increase his popularity, degraded and committedto prison Ralph Flambard, bishop of Durham, who had been the chiefinstrument of oppression under his brother. [*] But this act was followedby another, which was a direct violation of his own charter, and was abad prognostic of his sincere intentions to observe it: he kept thesee of Durham vacant for five years, and during that time retainedpossession of all its revenues. Sensible of the great authority whichAnselm had acquired by his character of piety, and by the persecutionswhich he had undergone from William, he sent repeated messages to him atLyons, where he resided, and invited him to return and take possessionof his dignities. [**] On the arrival of the prelate, he proposed to himthe renewal of that homage which he had done his brother, and which hadnever been refused by any English bishop; but Anslem had acquiredother sentiments by his journey to Rome, and gave the king an absoluterefusal. 

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 208. W. Malms, p. 156. M. Paris, p. 39. Alured. Beverl. P. 144. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 208. Order. Vitalis, p. 783. M. Paris, p. 39 C. Judon, p 273. ]

He objected the decrees of the council of Bari, at which he himselfhad assisted; and he declared, that, so far from doing homage forhis spiritual dignity, he would not so much as communicate with anyecclesiastic who paid that submission, or who accepted of investituresfrom laymen. Henry, who expected, in his present delicate situation, toreap great advantages from the authority and popularity of Anselm, durstnot insist on his demand;[*] he only desired that the controversy mightbe suspended, and that messengers might be sent to Rome, in order toaccommodate matters with the pope, and obtain his confirmation of thelaws and customs of England. 

There immediately occurred an important affair, in which the king wasobliged to have recourse to the authority of Anselm. Matilda, daughterof Malcolm III. , king of Scotland, and niece to Edgar Atheling, had, on her father's death, and the subsequent revolutions in the Scottishgovernment, been brought to England, and educated under her auntChristina, in the nunnery of Rumsey. This princess Henry purposed tomarry; but as she had worn the veil, though never taken the vows, doubtsmight arise concerning the lawfulness of the act; and it behoved him tobe very careful not to shock, in any particular, the religious prejudgesof his subjects. The affair was examined by Anselm, in a council ofthe prelates and nobles, which was summoned at Lambeth; Matilda thereproved, that she had put on the veil, not with a view of entering intoa religious life, but merely in consequence of a custom familiar to theEnglish ladies who protected their chastity from the brutal violence ofthe Normans by taking shelter under that habit, [**] which, amidst thehorrible licentiousness of the times, was yet generally revered. Thecouncil, sensible that even a princess had otherwise no security for herhonor, admitted this reason as valid: they pronounced that Matilda wasstill free to marry;[***] and her espousals with Henry were celebratedby Anselm with great pomp and solemnity. [****] No act of the king'sreign rendered him equally popular with his English subjects, and tendedmore to establish him on the throne. Though Matilda, during the life ofher uncle and brothers, was not heir of the Saxon line, she was becomevery dear to the English on account of her connections with it; and thatpeople, who, before the conquest, had fallen into a kind of indifferencetowards their ancient royal family, had felt so severely the tyrannyof the Normans, that they reflected with extreme regret on their formerliberty, and hoped for a more equal and mild administration, when theblood of their native princes should be mingled with that of their newsovereigns. [*****]

 [* W. Malms, p. 225. ]

 [** Eadmer, p. 57. ]

 [*** Eadmer p. 57. ]

 [**** Hoveden, p. 468. ]

 [***** M. Paris, p. 40. ]

But the policy and prudence of Henry, which, if time had been allowedfor these virtues to produce their full effect, would have secured himpossession of the crown, ran great hazard of being frustrated by thesudden appearance of Robert, who returned to Normandy about a monthafter the death of his brother William. {1101. } He took possession, without opposition, of that duchy; and immediately made preparationsfor recovering England, of which, during his absence, he had, by Henry'sintrigues, been so unjustly defrauded. The great fame which he hadacquired in the East forwarded his pretensions, and the Norman barons, sensible of the consequences, expressed the same discontent at theseparation of the duchy and kingdom, which had appeared on the accessionof William. Robert de Belesme, earl of Shrewsbury and Arundel, Williamde Warrenne, earl of Surrey, Arnulf de Montgomery, Walter Giffard, Robert de Pontefract, Robert de Mallet, Yvo de Grentmesnil, and manyothers of the principal nobility, [*] invited Robert to make an attemptupon England, and promised on his landing to join him with all theirforces. 

 [* Order. Vitalis, p. 785]

Even the seamen were affected with the general popularity of his name, and they carried over to him the greater part of a fleet which had beenequipped to oppose his passage. Henry, in this extremity, began to beapprehensive for his life, as well as for his crown and had recourse tothe superstition of the people, in order to oppose their sentiment ofjustice. He paid diligent court to Anselm, whose sanctity and wisdomhe pretended to revere. He consulted him in all difficult emergencies;seemed to be governed by him in every measure; promised a strict regardto ecclesiastical privileges; professed a great attachment to Rome, anda resolution of persevering in an implicit obedience to the decrees ofcouncils, and to the will of the sovereign pontiff. By these caressesand declarations he entirely gained the confidence of the primate, whoseinfluence over the people, and authority with the barons, were of theutmost service to him in his present situation. Anselm scrupled not toassure the nobles of the king's sincerity in those professions which hemade, of avoiding the tyrannical and oppressive government of his fatherand brother: he even rode through the ranks of the army, recommendedto the soldiers the defence of their prince, represented the dutyof keeping their oaths of allegiance, and prognosticated to them thegreatest happiness from the government of so wise and just a sovereign. By this expedient, joined to the influence of the earls of Warwick andMellent, of Roger Bigod, Richard de Redvers, and Robert Fitz-Hamon, powerful barons, who still adhered to the present government, the armywas retained in the king's interests, and marched, with seeming unionand firmness, to oppose Robert, who had landed with his forces atPortsmouth. 

The two armies lay in sight of each other for some days without comingto action; and both princes, being apprehensive of the event, whichwould probably be decisive, hearkened the more willingly to the counselsof Anselm and the other great men, who mediated an accommodation betweenthem. After employing some negotiation, it was agreed, that Robertshould resign his pretensions to England, and receive, in lieu ofthem, an annual pension of three thousand marks; that, if either of theprinces died without issue, the other should succeed to his dominions;that the adherents of each should be pardoned, and restored to all theirpossessions either in Normandy or England; and that neither Robert norHenry should thenceforth encourage, receive, or protect the enemies ofthe other. [*]

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 209. W. Malms, p. 156. ]

{1102. } This treaty, though calculated so much for Henry's advantage, hewas the first to violate. He restored indeed the estates of all Robert'sadherents; but was secretly determined, that noblemen so powerful andso ill affected, who had both inclination and ability to disturb hisgovernment, should not long remain unmolested in their present opulenceand grandeur. He began with the earl of Shrewsbury, why was watchedfor some time by spies, and then indicted on a charge, consisting offorty-five articles. This turbulent nobleman, knowing his own guilt, aswell as the prejudices of his judges and the power of his prosecutor, had recourse to aims for defence; but being soon suppressed by theactivity and address of Henry, he was banished the kingdom, andhis great estate was confiscated. His ruin involved that of his twobrothers, Arnulf de Montgomery, and Roger, earl of Lancaster. Soon afterfollowed the prosecution and condemnation of Robert de Pontefractand Robert de Mallet, who had distinguished themselves among Robert'sadherents. William de Warrenne was the next victim; {1103. } evenWilliam, earl of Cornwall, son of the earl of Mortaigne, the king'suncle, having given matter of suspicion against him, lost all the vastacquisitions of his family in England. Though the usual violence andtyranny of the Norman barons afforded a plausible pretence for thoseprosecutions, and it is probable that none of the sentences pronouncedagainst these noblemen was wholly iniquitous, men easily saw, orconjectured, that the chief part of their guilt was not the injustice orillegality of their conduct Robert, enraged at the fate of his friends, imprudently ventured to come into England; and he remonstrated with hisbrother, in severe terms, against this breach of treaty; but met with sobad a reception, thai 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 candor procured him respect while at adistance, had no sooner attained the possession of power and enjoymentof peace, than all the vigor of his mind relaxed; and he fell intocontempt among those who approached his person, or were subjected to hisauthority. Alternately abandoned to dissolute pleasures and to womanishsuperstition, he was so remiss, both in the care of his treasure and theexercise of his government, that his servants pillaged his money withimpunity, stole from him his very clothes, and proceeded thence topractise every species of extortion on his defenceless subjects. Thebarons, whom a severe administration alone could have restrained, gave way to their unbounded rapine upon their vassals, and inveterateanimosities against each other; and all Normandy, during the reign ofthis benign prince, was become a scene of violence and depredation. The Normans at last, observing the regular government which Henry, notwithstanding his usurped title, had been able to establish inEngland, applied to him, that he might use his authority for thesuppression of these disorders and they thereby afforded him a pretencefor interposing in the affairs of Normandy. Instead of employing hismediation to render his brother's government respectable, or to redressthe grievances of the Normans, he was only attentive to support hisown partisans, and to increase their number by every art of bribery, intrigue, and insinuation. Having found, in a visit which he made to thatduchy, that the nobility were more disposed to pay submission to himthan to their legal sovereign, he collected, by arbitrary extortions onEngland a great army and treasure, and returned next year to Normandy, in a situation to obtain, either by violence or corruption, the dominionof that province. {1105. } He took Baieux by storm, after an obstinatesiege; he made himself master of Caen, by the voluntary submission ofthe inhabitants; but being repulsed at Falaise, and obliged, by thewinter season, to raise the siege, he returned into England; aftergiving assurances to his adherents, that he would persevere insupporting and protecting them. 

{1106. } Next year he opened the campaign with the siege of Tenchebray;and it became evident, from his preparations and progress, that heintended to usurp the entire possession of Normandy. Robert was at lastroused from his lethargy; and being supported by the earl of Mortaigneand Robert de Belesme, the king's inveterate enemies, he raised aconsiderable army, and approached his brother's camp, with a view offinishing, in one decisive battle, the quarrel between them. He wasnow entered on that scene of action in which alone he was qualified toexcel; and he so animated his troops by his example, that they threw theEnglish into disorder, and had nearly obtained the victory, [*] when theflight of Belesme spread a panic among the Normans, and occasioned theirtotal defeat. Henry, besides doing great execution on the enemy, madenear ten thousand prisoners; among whom was Duke Robert himself, and allthe most considerable barons, who adhered to his interests. [**]

 [* H. Hunting, p. 379. M. Paris, p. 48. Brompton, p. 1002. ]

 [** Eadmer, p, 90. Chron. Sax. P. 214. Order. Vitalis p. 821. ]

This victory was followed by the final reduction of Normandy: Rouenimmediately submitted to the conqueror: Falaise, after some negotiation, opened its gates; and by this acquisition, besides rendering himselfmaster of an important fortress, he got into his hands Prince William, the only son of Robert: he assembled the states of Normandy; and havingreceived the homage of all the vassals of the duchy, having settled thegovernment, revoked his brother's donations, and dismantled the castleslately built, he returned into England and carried along with him theduke as prisoner. That unfortunate prince was detained in custody duringthe 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 whichhe was not qualified either to hold or exercise. Prince William wascommitted to the care of Helie de St. Saen, who had married Robert'snatural daughter, and who, being a man of probity and honor, beyond whatwas usual in those ages, executed the trust with great affection andfidelity, Edgar Atheling, who had followed Robert in the expeditionto Jerusalem, and who had lived with him ever since in Normandy, wasanother illustrious prisoner taken in the battle of Tenchebray. [*] Henrygave him his liberty, and settled a small pension on him, with which heretired; and he lived to a good old age in England, totally neglectedand forgotten. This prince was distinguished by personal bravery; butnothing can be a stronger proof of his mean talents in every otherrespect, than that, notwithstanding he possessed the affections of theEnglish, and enjoyed the only legal title to the throne, he was allowed, during the reigns of so many violent and jealous usurpers, to liveunmolested, and go to his grave in peace. 

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 214. Annal. Waverl. P. 144]

{1107. } A little after Henry had completed the conquest of Normandy, andsettled the government of that province, he finished a controversy whichhad been long depending between him and the pope, with regard to theinvestitures in ecclesiastical benefices; and though he was here obligedto relinquish some of the ancient rights of the crown, he extricatedhimself from the difficulty on easier terms than most princes, who inthat age were so unhappy as to be engaged in disputes with the apostolicsee. The king's situation in the beginning of his reign, obliged him topay great court to Anselm: the advantages which he had reaped from thezealous friendship of that prelate, had made him sensible how pronethe minds of his people were to superstition, and what an ascendant theecclesiastics had been able to assume over them. He had seen, on theaccession of his brother Rufus, that though the rights of primogeniturewere then violated, and the inclinations of almost all the baronsthwarted, yet the authority of Lanfranc, the primate, had prevailedover all other considerations: his own case, which was still moreunfavorable, afforded an instance in which the clergy had more evidentlyshown their influence and authority. These recent examples, while theymade him cautious not to offend that powerful body, convinced him, atthe same time, that it was extremely his interest to retain the formerprerogative of the crown in filling offices of such vast importance, andto check the ecclesiastics in that independence to which they visiblyaspired. The choice which his brother, in a fit of penitence, had madeof Anselm, was so far unfortunate to the king's pretensions, that thisprelate was celebrated for his piety and zeal, and austerity of manners;and though his monkish devotion and narrow principles prognosticated nogreat knowledge of the world or depth of policy, he was, on that veryaccount, a more dangerous instrument in the hands of politicians, andretained a greater ascendant over the bigoted populace. The prudenceand temper of the king appear in nothing more conspicuous than in themanagement of this delicate affair; where he was always sensible thatit had become necessary for him to risk his whole crown, in order topreserve the most invaluable jewel of it. [*]

Anselm had no sooner returned from banishment, than his refusal to dohomage to the king raised a dispute, which Henry evaded at that criticaljuncture, by promising to send a messenger, in order to compound thematter with Pascal II, who then filled the papal throne. The messenger, as was probably foreseen, returned with an absolute refusal of theking's demands;[**] and that fortified by many reasons which were wellqualified to operate on the understandings of men in those ages. Pascalquoted the Scriptures to prove that Christ was the door; and he thenceinferred that all ecclesiastics must enter into the church throughChrist alone, not through the civil magistrate, or any profanelaymen. [***]

 [* Eadmer, p. 56. ]

 [** W Malms, p. 225]

 [*** Eadmer, p. 60. This topic is further enforced in p. 73, 74. See also W. Malms, p. 163. ]

"It is monstrous, " added the pontiff, "that a son should pretend tobeget his father, or a man to create his God: priests are called gods inScripture, as being the vicars of God; and will you, by your abominablepretensions to grant them their investiture, assume the right ofcreating them?"[*]

But how convincing soever these arguments, they could not persuade Henryto resign so important a prerogative; and perhaps, as he was possessedof great reflection and learning, he thought that the absurdity of aman's creating his God, even allowing priests to be gods, was not urgedwith the best grace by the Roman pontiff. But as he desired still toavoid, at least to delay, the coming to any dangerous extremity withthe church, he persuaded Anselm that he should be able, by furthernegotiation, to attain some composition with Pascal; and for thatpurpose he despatched three bishops to Rome, while Anselm senttwo messengers of his own, to be more fully assured of the pope'sintentions. [**] Pascal wrote back letters equally positive and arrogant, both to the king and primate, urging to the former that, by assuming theright of investitures, he committed a kind of spiritual adultery withthe church, who was the spouse of Christ, and who must not admit of sucha commerce with any other person;[***] and insisting with the latter, that the pretension of kings to confer benefices was the source of allsimony; a topic which had but too much foundation in those ages. [****]

Henry had now no other expedient than to suppress the letter addressedto himself, and to persuade the three bishops to prevaricate, andassert, upon their episcopal faith, that Pascal had assured them inprivate of his good intentions towards Henry, and of his resolutionnot to resent any future exertion of his prerogative in grantinginvestitures, though he himself scrupled to give this assurance underhis hand, lest other princes should copy the example and assume a likeprivilege. [*****]

 [* 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 passed current in those ages, and was often quoted by the clergy as the foundation of their power. See Epist. St. Thorn, p. 169. ]

 [** Eadmer, p. 62. W. Malms, p. 225. ]

 [*** Eadmer, p. 63]

 [**** Eadmer, p. 64, 66. ]

 [***** Eadmer, p. 65. W. Malms, p. 225]

Anselm's two messengers, who were monks, affirmed to him that it wasimpossible this story could have any foundation; but their word wasnot deemed equal to that of three bishops; and the king, as if he hadfinally gained his cause, proceeded to fill the sees of Hereford andSalisbury, and to invest the new bishops in the usual manner. [*] ButAnselm, who, as he had good reason, gave no credit to the asseverationof the king's messengers, refused not only to consecrate them, buteven to communicate with them; and the bishops' themselves, finding howodious they were become, returned to Henry the ensigns of their dignity. The quarrel every day increased between the king and the primate. Theformer, notwithstanding the prudence and moderation of his temper, threwout menaces against such as should pretend to oppose him in exertingthe ancient prerogatives of his crown; and Anselm, sensible of his owndangerous situation, desired leave to make a journey to Rome, in orderto lay the case before the sovereign pontiff. Henry, well pleased to ridhimself without violence of so inflexible an antagonist, readily grantedhim permission. The prelate was attended to the shore by infinitemultitudes, not only of monks and clergymen, but people of all ranks, who scrupled not in this manner to declare for their primate againsttheir sovereign, and who regarded his departure as the final abolitionof religion and true piety in the kingdom. [**] The king, however, seizedall the revenues of his see; and sent William de Warelwast to negotiatewith Pascal, and to find some means of accommodation in this delicateaffair. 

The English minister told Pascal, that his master would rather losehis crown than part with the right of granting investitures. "And I, "replied Pascal, "would rather lose my head than allow him to retainit. "[***] Henry secretly prohibited Anselm from returning, unless heresolved to conform himself to the laws and usages of the kingdom; andthe primate took up his residence at Lyons, in expectation that the kingwould at last be obliged to yield the point which was the present objectof controversy between them. Soon after, he was permitted to return tohis monastery at Bec, in Normandy; and Henry, besides restoring to himthe revenues of his see, treated him with the greatest respect, and heldseveral conferences with him, in order to soften his opposition, andbend him to submission. [****]

 [* Eadmer, p. 66. W. Malms, p. 225. Hoveden, p. 469. Sim. Dunelm. P. 228. ]

 [** Eadmer, p. 71. ]

 [*** Eadmer, p. 73 W. Malms, p. 226. M. Paris, p. 40]

 [**** Hoveden, p. 471]

The people of England, who thought all differences now accommodated, were inclined to blame their primate for absenting, himself so longfrom his charge; and he daily received letters from his partisansrepresenting the necessity of his speedy return. The total extinction, they told him, of religion and Christianity was likely to ensue from thewant of his fatherly care: the most shocking customs prevail in England;and the dread of his severity being now removed, sodomy and the practiceof wearing long hair gain ground among all ranks of men, and theseenormities openly appear every where, without sense of shame or fear ofpunishment. [*]

 [* 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 prudenceby which a power, from such slender beginnings, could advance, withoutforce of arms, to establish a universal and almost absolute monarchyin Europe. But the wisdom of so long a succession of men who filledthe papal throne, and who were of such different ages, tempers, andinterests, is not intelligible, and could never have place in nature. The instrument, indeed, with which they wrought, the ignorance andsuperstition of the people, is so gross an engine, of such universalprevalence, and so little liable to accident or disorder, that it may besuccessful even in the most unskilful hands; and scarce any indiscretioncan frustrate its operations. While the court of Rome was openlyabandoned to the most flagrant disorders, even while it was torn withschisms and factions, the power of the church daily made a sensibleprogress in Europe; and the temerity of Gregory and caution of Pascalwere equally fortunate in promoting it. The clergy, feeling thenecessity which they lay under of being protected against the violenceof princes, or rigor of the laws, were well pleased to adhere to aforeign head, who, being removed from the fear of the civil authority, could freely employ the power of the whole church in defending herancient or usurped properties and privileges, when invaded in anyparticular country. The monks, desirous of an independence on theirdiocesans, professed a still more devoted attachment to the triplecrown; and the stupid people possessed no science or reason which theycould oppose to the most exorbitant pretensions. Nonsense passed fordemonstration: the most criminal means were sanctified by the piety ofthe end: treaties were not supposed to be binding, where the interestsof God were concerned: the ancient laws and customs of states had noauthority against a divine right: impudent forgeries were received asauthentic monuments of antiquity: and the champions of holy church, ifsuccessful, were celebrated as heroes; if unfortunate, were worshippedas martyrs; and all events thus turned out equally to the advantage ofclerical usurpations. Pascal himself, the reigning pope, was, in thecourse of this very controversy concerning investitures, involved incircumstances, and necessitated to follow a conduct which wouldhave drawn disgrace and ruin on any temporal prince that had been sounfortunate as to fail into a like situation. His person was seized bythe emperor Henry V. , and he was obliged, by a formal treaty, to resignto that monarch the right of granting investitures, for which theyhad so long contended. [*] In order to add greater solemnity to thisagreement, the emperor and pope communicated together on the samehost; one half of which was given to the prince, the other taken by thepontiff. The most tremendous imprecations were publicly denounced oneither of them who should violate the treaty; yet no sooner did Pascalrecover his liberty, than he revoked all his concessions, and pronouncedthe sentence of excommunication against the emperor, who, in the end, was obliged to submit to the terms required of him, and to yield up allhis pretensions, which he never could resume. [**]

The king of England had very nearly fallen into the same dangeroussituation: Pascal had already excommunicated the earl of Mallent, andthe other ministers of Henry who were instrumental in supportinghis pretensions:[***] he daily menaced the king himself with a likesentence, and he suspended the blow only to give him leisure to preventit by a timely submission. The malecontents waited impatiently forthe opportunity of disturbing his government by conspiracies andinsurrections:[****] the king's best friends were anxious at theprospect of an incident which would set their religious and civil dutiesat variance; and the countess of Blois, his sister, a princess of piety, who had great influence over him, was affrightened with the danger ofher brother's eternal damnation. [*****]

 [* W. Malms, p. 167. ]

 [** Padre Paolo, sopra Benef. Eccles. P. 112. W. Malms, p. 179 Chron. Abb St. Petri de Burgo, p. 63. Sim. Dunelm. P. 233. ]

 [*** Eadmer p. 79. ]

 [**** Eadmer, p. 80. ]

 [***** Eadmer, p. 79. ]

Henry, on the other hand, seemed determined to run all hazards, ratherthan resign a prerogative of such importance, which had been enjoyed byall his predecessors; and it seemed probable from his great prudenceand abilities, that he might be able co sustain his rights, and finallyprevail in the contest. While Pascal and Henry thus stood mutually inawe; of each other, it was the more easy to bring about an accommodationbetween them, and to find a medium in which they might agree. 

Before bishops took possession of their dignities, they had formerlybeen accustomed to pass through two ceremonies: they received from thehands of the sovereign a ring and crosier, as symbols of their office;and this was called their investiture: they also made those submissionsto the prince which were required of vassals by the rites of the feudallaw, and which received the name of homage. And as the king might refuseboth to grant the investiture and to receive the homage, though thechapter had, by some canons of the middle age, been endowed with theright of election, the sovereign had in reality the sole power ofappointing prelates. Urban II. Had equally deprived laymen of the rightsof granting investiture and of receiving homage:[*] the emperors neverwere able, by all their wars and negotiations, to make any distinctionbe admitted between them: the interposition of profane laymen, in anyparticular, was still represented as impious and abominable; and thechurch openly aspired to a total independence on the state. But Henryhad put England, as well as Normandy, in such a situation as gavegreater weight to his negotiations, and Pascal was for the presentsatisfied with his resigning the right of granting investitures, bywhich the spiritual dignity was supposed to be conferred; and heallowed the bishops to do homage for their temporal propertiesand privileges. [**] The pontiff was well pleased to have made thisacquisition, which, he hoped, would in time involve the whole; and theking, anxious to procure an escape from a very dangerous situation, was content to retain some, though a more precarious authority, in theelection of prelates. 

 [* Eadmer, p. 91. W. Malms, p. 163. Sim. Dunelm. P. 230. ]

 [** Eadmer, p. 91. W Malms, p. 164. 227. Hoveden, p. 471, M. Paris, p. 43. T. Rudborne, p. 274. Brompton. P. 1000. Wilkins, p. 303, Chron. Dunst. P. 21. ]

After the principal controversy was accommodated, it was not difficultto adjust the other differences. If the pope allowed Anselm tocommunicate with the prelates who had already received investitures fromthe crown; and he only required of them some submissions for their pastmisconduct. [*] He also granted Anselm a plenary power of remedying everyother disorder, which, he said, might arise from the barbarousness of hecountry. [**] Such was the idea which the popes then entertained of theEnglish; and nothing can be a stronger proof of the miserable ignorancein which that people were then plunged, than that, a man who sat onthe papal throne, and who subsisted by absurdities and nonsense, shouldthink himself entitled to treat them as barbarians. 

During the course of these controversies, a synod was held atWestminster, where the king, intent only on the mam dispute, allowedsome canons of less importance to be enacted, which tended to promotethe usurpations of the clergy. The celibacy of priests was enjoined; apoint which it was still found very difficult to carry into execution;and even laymen were not allowed to marry within the seventh degree ofaffinity. [***] By this contrivance, the pope augmented the profits whichhe reaped from granting dispensations, and likewise those from divorces. For as the art of writing was then rare, and parish registers were notregularly kept, it was not easy to ascertain the degrees of affinityeven among people of rank; and any man, who had money sufficient topay for it, might obtain a divorce, on pretence that his wife was morenearly related to him than was permitted by the canons. The synod alsopassed a vote, prohibiting the laity from wearing long hair. [****] Theaversion of the clergy to this mode was not confined to England. Whenthe king went to Normandy, before he had conquered that province, thebishop of Seeze, in a formal harangue, earnestly exhorted him to redressthe manifold disorders under which the government labored, and to obligethe people to poll their hair in a decent form. Henry, though he wouldnot resign his prerogatives to the church willingly parted with hishair: he cut it in the form which they required of him, and obliged allthe courtiers to imitate his example. [*****]

 [* Eadmer, p. 87. ]

 [** Eadmer, p. 91. ]

 [*** Eadmer, p 67, 68. Spel. Concil. Vol. Ii. P. 22. ]

 [**** Eadmer, p 68. ]

 [***** Order. Vitalis, p 816. ]

The acquisition of Normandy was a great point of Henry's ambition; beingthe ancient patrimony of his family, and the only territory winch, while in his possession, gave him any weight or consideration on thecontinent: but the injustice of his usurpation was the source of greatinquietude, involved him in frequent wars, and obliged him to impose onhis English subjects those many heavy and arbitrary taxes, of which allthe historians of that age unanimously complain. [*] His nephew Williamwas but six years of age when he committed him to the care of Heliede St. Saen; and it is probable that his reason for intrusting thatimportant charge to a man of so unblemished a character, was to preventall malignant suspicions, in case any accident should befall the lifeof the young prince, {1110. } He soon repented of his choice; but whenhe desired to recover possession of William's person, Helie withdrew hispupil, and carried him to the court of Fulk, count of Anjou, who gavehim protection. [**]

 [* Eadmer, p. 83. Chron. Sax. P. 211, 212, 213, 219, 220, 228. H Hunting. P. 380. Hoveden, p. 470. Aimal. Waverl. P. 143. ]

 [** Ordei Vitalis, p 837. ]

In proportion as the prince grew up to man's estate, he discoveredvirtues becoming his birth; and wandering through different courts ofEurope, he excited the friendly compassion of many princes, and raised ageneral indignation against his uncle, who had so unjustly bereaved himof his inheritance. Lewis the Gross son of Philip, was at this time kingof France, a brave and generous prince, who, having been obliged, duringthe lifetime of his father, to fly into England, in order to escape thepersecutions of his step-mother Gertrude, had been protected by Henry, and had thence conceived a personal friendship for him. But theseties were soon dissolved after the accession of Lewis, who found hisinterests to be, in so many particulars opposite to those of the Englishmonarch, and who became sensible of the danger attending the annexationof Normandy to England. He joined, therefore, the counts of Anjou andFlanders in giving disquiet to Henry's government; and this monarch, inorder to defend his foreign dominions, found himself obliged to go overto Normandy, where he resided two years. The war which ensued amongthose princes was attended with no memorable event, and produced onlyslight skirmishes on the frontiers, agreeably to the weak condition ofthe sovereigns in that age, whenever their subjects were not roused bysome great and urgent occasion. Henry, by contracting his eldestson, William, to the daughter of Fulk, detached that prince from thealliance, and obliged the others to come to an accommodation with him. This peace was not of long duration. His nephew William retired to thecourt of Baldwin, earl of Flanders, who espoused his cause; and the kingof France, having soon after, for other reasons, joined the party, a newwar was kindled in Normandy, which produced no event more memorable thanhad attended the former. {1118. } At last the death of Baldwin, who wasslain in an action near Eu, gave some respite to Henry, and enabled himto carry on war with more advantage against his enemies. 

Lewis, finding himself unable to wrest Normandy from the king by forceof arms, had recourse to the dangerous expedient of applying to thespiritual power, and of affording the ecclesiastics a pretence tointerpose in the temporal concerns of princes. {1019. } He carried youngWilliam to a general council, which was assembled at Rheims, by PopeCalixtus II. , presented the Norman prince to them, complained of themanifest usurpation and injustice of Henry, craved the assistance of thechurch for reinstating the true heir in his dominions, and representedthe enormity of detaining in captivity so brave a prince as Robert, one of the most eminent champions of the cross, and who, by that veryquality, was placed under the immediate protection of the holy see. Henry knew how to defend the rights of his crown with vigor, and yetwith dexterity. He had sent over the English bishops to this synod;but at the same time had warned them, that, if any further claims werestarted by the pope or the ecclesiastics, he was determined to adhereto the laws and customs of England and maintain the prerogativestransmitted to him by his predecessors. "Go, " said he to them, "salutethe pope in my name; hear his apostolical precepts; but take care tobring none of his new inventions into my kingdom. " Finding, however, that it would be easier for him to elude than oppose the efforts ofCalixtus, he gave his ambassadors orders to gain the pope and hisfavorites by liberal presents and promises. The complaints of the Normanprince were thenceforth heard with great coldness by the council; andCalixtus confessed, after a conference which he had the same sunaaierwith Henry, and when that prince probably renewed his presents, that, of all men whom he had ever yet been acquainted with, he was, beyondcomparison, 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 receivedintelligence of the design, marched to the relief of the place, andsuddenly attacked the French at Brenneville, as they were advancingtowards it. A sharp conflict ensued, where Prince William behaved withgreat bravery, and the king himself was in the most imminent danger. Hewas wounded in the head by Crispin, a gallant Norman officer, who hadfollowed the fortunes of William;[*] but being rather animated thanterrified by the blow, he immediately beat his antagonist to the ground, and so encouraged his troops by the example, that they put the French tototal rout, and had very nearly taken their king prisoner. The dignityof the persons engaged in this skirmish rendered it the most memorableaction of the war; for in other respects it was not of great importance. There were nine hundred horsemen who fought on both sides, yet werethere only two persons slain. The rest were defended by that heavy armorworn by the cavalry in those times. [**] An accommodation soon afterensued between the kings of France and England, and the interests ofyoung William were entirely neglected in it. 

 [* H. Hunting, p. 381. M. Paris, p 47. Diceto, p. 503. ]

 [** Order. Vitalis, p. 854. ]

{1120. } But this public prosperity of Henry was much overbalanced bya domestic calamity, which befell him. His only son, William, had nowreached his eighteenth year; and the king, from the facility with whichhe himself had usurped the crown, dreading that a like revolution mightsubvert his family, had taken care to have him recognized successor bythe states of the kingdom, and had carried him over to Normandy, that hemight receive the homage of the barons of that duchy. The king, on hisreturn, set sail from Barfleur, and was soon carried by a fair windout of sight of land. The prince was detained by some accident; and hissailors, as well as their captain, Thomas Fitz-Stephens, having spentme interval in drinking, were so flustered, that, being in a hurry tofollow the king, they heedlessly carried the ship on a rock, where sheimmediately foundered. William was put into the long boat, and had gotclear of the ship, when, hearing the cries of his natural sister, thecountess of Perche, he ordered the seamen to row back, in hopes ofsaving her: but the numbers who then crowded in, soon sunk the boat;and the prince with all his retinue perished. Above a hundred and fortyyoung noblemen, of the principal families of England and Normandy, werelost on this occasion. A butcher of Rouen was the only person on boardwho escaped:[*] he clung to the mast, and was taken up next morning byfishermen. Fitz-Stephens also took hold of the mast; but being informedby the butcher that Prince William had perished, he said that hewould not survive the disaster; and he threw himself headlong into thesea. [**] Henry entertained hopes for three days that his son had putinto some distant port of England; but when certain intelligence of thecalamity was brought him, he fainted away; and it was remarked, thathe never after was seen to smile, nor ever recovered his wontedcheerfulness. [***]

The death of William may be regarded, in one respect, as a misfortuneto the English; because it was the immediate source of those civilwars which, after the demise of the king, caused such confusion in thekingdom; but it is remarkable, that the young prince had entertained aviolent aversion to the natives; and had been heard to threaten, thatwhen he should be king he would make them draw the plough, and wouldturn them into beasts of burden. These prepossessions he inherited fromhis father; who, though he was wont, when it might serve his purpose, tovalue himself on his birth, as a native of England, [****] showed, in thecourse of his government, an extreme prejudice against that people. Allhopes of preferment to ecclesiastical as well as civil dignities weredenied them during this whole reign; and any foreigner, howeverignorant or worthless, was sure to have the preference in everycompetition. [*****] As the English had given no disturbance to thegovernment during the course of fifty years, this inveterate antipathyin a prince of so much temper as well as penetration, forms apresumption that the English of that age were still a rude and barbarouspeople even compared to the Normans, and impresses us with no veryfavorable idea of the Anglo-Saxon manners. 

Prince William left no children; and the king had not now any legitimateissue, except one daughter, Matilda, whom, in 1110, he had betrothed, though only eight years of age, [******] to the emperor Henry V. , andwhom he had then sent over to be educated in Germany. [*******] [13]

 [* Sim. Dunelm. P. 242. Alured. Beverl. P. 148. ]

 [** Order. Vitalis, p. 868. ]

 [*** Hoveden, p. 476. Order. Vitalis, p. 869. ]

 [**** Gul. Neubr. Lib. I. Cap, 3. ]

 [***** Eadmer, p 110. ]

 [****** Chron, Sax. P. 215. W. Malms, p. 166. Order. Vitalis, p 83]

 [******* See note M, at the end of the volume. ]

But as her absence from the kingdom, and her marriage into a foreignfamily, might endanger the succession, Henry, who was now a widower, was induced to marry, in hopes of having male heirs; and he made hisaddresses to Adelais, daughter of Godfrey, duke of Lovainc, and nieceof Pope Calixtus, a young princess of an amiable person. [*] {1121. } ButAdelais brought him no children; and the prince who was most likely todispute the succession, and even the immediate possession of the crown, recovered hopes of subverting his rival, who had successively seized allhis patrimonial dominions. William, the son of Duke Robert, was stillprotected in the French court; and as Henry's connections with the countof Anjou were broken off by the death of his son, Fulk joined the partyof the unfortunate prince, gave him his daughter in marriage, and aidedhim in raising disturbances in Normandy. But Henry found the meansof drawing off the count of Anjou, by forming anew with him a nearerconnection than the former, and one more material to the interests ofthat count's family. {1127. } The emperor, his son-in-law, dying withoutissue, he bestowed his daughter on Geoffrey, the eldest son of Fulk, andendeavored to insure her succession, by having her recognized heir toall his dominions, and obliging the barons both of Normandy and Englandto swear fealty to her. He hoped that the choice of this husband wouldbe more agreeable to all his subjects than that of the emperor; assecuring them from the danger of falling under the dominion of a greatand distant potentate, {1128. } who might bring them into subjection, and reduce their country to the rank of a province; but the barons weredispleased that a step so material to national interests had been takenwithout consulting them;[**] and Henry had too sensibly experiencedthe turbulence of their disposition not to dread the effects of theirresentment. 

 [* Chron. Sax. P. 223. W. Malms, p. 165. ]

 [** W. Malms, p. 175. The Annals of (Waverly p. 150) say that the king asked and obtained the consent of all the barons. ]

It seemed probable that his nephew's party might gain force from theincrease of the malecontents; an accession of power, which that princeacquired a little after, tended to render his pretensions still moredangerous. Charles, earl of Flanders, being assassinated during thecelebration of divine service, King Lewis immediately put the youngprince in possession of that county, to which he had pretensions in theright of his grandmother Matilda, wife to the Conqueror. But Williamsurvived a very little time this piece of good fortune, which seemed toopen the way to still further prosperity. He was killed in a skirmishwith the landgrave of Alsace, his competitor for Flanders; and his deathput an end, for the present, to the jealousy and inquietude of Henry. 

The chief merit of this monarch's government consists in the profoundtranquillity which he established and maintained throughout all hisdominions during the greater part of his reign. The mutinous barons wereretained in subjection; and his neighbors, in every attempt which theymade upon him, found him so well prepared that they were discouragedfrom continuing or renewing their enterprises. In order to repress theincursions of the Welsh, he brought over some Flemings in the year1111, and settled them in Pembrokeshire, where they long maintaineda different language, and customs, and manners, from their neighbors. Though his government seems to have been arbitrary in England, it wasjudicious and prudent; and was as little oppressive as the necessityof his affairs would permit. He wanted not attention to the redressof grievances; and historians mention in particular the levying ofpurveyance, which he endeavored to moderate and restrain. The tenantsin the king's demesne lands were at that time obliged to supply, gratis, the court with provisions, and to furnish carriages on the same hardterms, when the king made a progress, as he did frequently, into anyof the counties. These exactions were so grievous, and levied in solicentious a manner, that the farmers, when they heard of the approachof the court, often deserted their houses, as if an enemy had invadedthe country;[*] and sheltered their persons and families in thewoods, from the insults of the king's retinue. Henry prohibited thoseenormities, and punished the persons guilty of them by cutting off theirhands, legs, or other members. [**] But the prerogative was perpetual;the remedy applied by Henry was temporary; and the violence itself ofthis remedy, so far from giving security to the people, was only a proofof the ferocity of the government, and threatened a quick return of likeabuses. 

 [* Eadmer, p. 94. Chron. Sax. , p. 212. ]

 [** Eadmer, p. 94. ]

One great and difficult object of the king's prudence was the guardingagainst the encroachments of the court of Rome, and protecting theliberties of the church of England. The pope, in the year 1101, had sentGuy, archbishop of Vienne, as legate into Britain; and though he was thefirst that for many years had appeared there in that character, andhis commission gave general surprise, [*] the king, who was then in thecommencement of his reign, and was involved in many difficulties, wasobliged to submit to this encroachment on his authority. But in theyear 1116, Anselm, abbot of St. Sabas, who was coming over with a likelegantine commission, was prohibited from entering the kingdom;[**]and Pope Calixtus, who in his turn was then laboring under manydifficulties, by reason of the pretensions of Gregory, an antipope, was obliged to promise that he never would for the future, exceptwhen solicited by the king himself, send any legate into England. [***]Notwithstanding this engagement, the pope, as soon as he had suppressedhis antagonist, granted the cardinal De Crema a legantine commissionover that kingdom; and the king, who, by reason of his nephew'sintrigues and invasions, found himself at that time in adangerous situation, was obliged to submit to the exercise of thiscommission. [****] A synod was called by the legate at London; where, among other canons, a vote passed enacting severe penalties on themarriages of the clergy. [*****] The cardinal, in a public harangue, declared it to be an unpardonable enormity, that a priest should dare toconsecrate and touch the body of Christ immediately after he had risenfrom the side of a strumpet; for that was the decent appellation whichhe gave to the wives of the clergy. But it happened, that the very nextnight the officers of justice, breaking into a disorderly house, foundthe cardinal in bed with a courtesan;[******] an incident which threwsuch ridicule upon him, that he immediately stole out of the kingdom;the synod broke up; and the canons against the marriage of clergymenwere worse executed than ever. [*******]

 [* Eadmer, p. 58. ]

 [** Hoveden, p. 474. ]

 [*** Eadmer, p. 125, 137, 138. ]

 [**** Chron. Sax. P. 229. ]

 [***** Spel. Concil. Vol. Ii. P. 34. ]

 [****** Hoveden, p. 478. M. Paris. P. 48. ]

 [******* M. West. Ad ann 1125. H. Hunting. P. 382. ]

It is remarkable that this last writer, who was a clergyman as well asthe others, makes an apology for using such freedom with the fathers ofthe church; but says, that the fact was notorious, and ought not to beconcealed. 

Henry, in order to prevent this alternate revolution of concessionsand encroachments, sent William, then archbishop of Canterbury, toremonstrate with the court of Rome against those abuses, and to assertthe liberties of the English church. It was a usual maxim with everypope, when he found that he could not prevail in any pretension, togrant princes or states a power which they had always exercised, toresume at a proper juncture the claim which seemed to be resigned, andto pretend that the civil magistrate had possessed the authority onlyfrom a special indulgence of the Roman pontiff. After this manner, the pope, finding that the French nation would not admit his claimof granting investitures, had passed a bull, giving the king thatauthority; and he now practised a like invention to elude the complaintsof the king of England. He made the archbishop of Canterbury his legate, renewed his commission from time to time, and still pretended thatthe rights which that prelate had ever exercised as metropolitan, wereentirely derived from the indulgence of the apostolic see. The Englishprinces, and Henry in particular, who were glad to avoid any immediatecontest of so dangerous a nature, commonly acquiesced by their silencein these pretensions of the court of Rome. [*] [14]

 [* See note N, at the end of the volume. ]

{1131. } As every thing in England remained in tranquillity, Henry tookthe opportunity of paying a visit to Normandy, to which he was invited, as well by his affection for that country as by his tenderness for hisdaughter the empress Matilda, who was always his favorite. Some timeafter, that princess was delivered of a son, {1132. } who received thename of Henry; and the king, further to insure her succession, made allthe nobility of England and Normandy renew the oath of fealty, {1135. }which they had already sworn to her. [*] The joy of this event, andthe satisfaction which he reaped from his daughter's company, whobore successively two other sons, made his residence in Normandy veryagreeable to him;[**] and he seemed determined to pass the remainder ofhis days in that country, when an incursion of the Welsh obliged him tothink of returning into England. He was preparing for the journey, butwas seized with a sudden illness at St. Dennis le Forment, from eatingtoo plentifully of lampreys, a food which always agreed better with hispalate than his constitution. [***]

 [* W. Malms, p. 177. ]

 [** H. Hunting, p. 315. ]

 [*** H. Hunting, p. 385. M. Paris p. 50. ]

He died in the sixty-seventh year of his age and the thirty-fifth yearof his reign, leaving by will his daughter Matilda heir of all hisdominions, without making any mention of her husband, Geoffrey, who hadgiven him several causes of displeasure. [*]

 [* W. Malms, p. 178. ]

This prince was one of the most accomplished that has filled the Englishthrone, and possessed all the great qualities both of body and mind, natural and acquired, which could fit him for the high station to whichhe attained. His person was manly, his countenance engaging, his eyesclear serene, and penetrating. The affability of his address encouragedthose who might be overawed by the sense of his dignity or of hiswisdom; and though he often indulged his facetious humor, he knew how totemper it with discretion, and ever kept at a distance from all indecentfamiliarities with his courtiers. His superior eloquence and judgmentwould have given him an ascendant, even had he been born in a privatestation; and his personal bravery would have procured him respect, though it had been less supported by art and policy. By his greatprogress in literature, he acquired the name of 'Beauclerk, ' or thescholar; but his application to those sedentary pursuits abated nothingof the activity and vigilance of his government; and though the learningof that age was better fitted to corrupt than improve the understanding, his natural good sense preserved itself untainted both from the pedantryand superstition which were then so prevalent among men of letters. Histemper was susceptible of the sentiments as well of friendship as ofresentment; and his ambition, though high, might be deemed moderate andreasonable, had not his conduct towards his brother and nephew showedthat he was too much disposed to sacrifice to it all the maxims ofjustice and equity. But the total incapacity of Robert for governmentafforded his younger brother a reason or pretence for seizing thesceptre both of England and Normandy; and when violence and usurpationare once begun, necessity obliges a prince to continue in the samecriminal course, and engages him in measures which his better judgmentand sounder principles would otherwise have induced him to reject withwarmth and indignation. 

King Henry was much addicted to women; and historians mention no lessthan seven illegitimate sons and six daughters born to him. [*] Huntingwas also one of his favorite amusements; and he exercised great rigoragainst those who encroached on the royal forests, which were augmentedduring his reign, [**] though their number and extent were already toogreat. To kill a stag was as criminal as to murder a man: he made allthe dogs be mutilated which were kept on the borders of his forests; andhe sometimes deprived his subjects of the liberty of hunting on theirown lands, or even cutting their own woods. In other respects heexecuted justice, and that with rigor; the best maxim which a princein that age could follow. Stealing was first made capital in thisreign;[***] false coining, which was then a very common crime, and bywhich the money had been extremely debased, was severely punished byHenry. * Near fifty criminals of this kind were at one time hanged ormutilated; and though these punishments seem to have been exercised ina manner somewhat arbitrary, they were grateful to the people, moreattentive to present advantages than jealous of general laws. There isa code which passes under the name of Henry I. ; but the best antiquarieshave agreed to think it spurious. It is, however, a very ancientcompilation, and may be useful to instruct us in the manners and customsof the times. We learn from it, that a great distinction was then madebetween the English and Normans, much to the advantage of the latter. *The deadly feuds and the liberty of private revenge, which had beenavowed by the Saxon laws, were still continued, and were not yet whollyillegal. [****]

Among the laws granted on the king's accession, it is remarkable thatthe reunion of the civil and ecclesiastical courts, as in the Saxontimes, was enacted. [*****] But this law, like the articles of hischarter, remained without effect, probably from the opposition ofArchbishop Anselm. 

 [Footnonte * Sim. Dunelm. P. 231. Brompton, p. 1000. Flor. Wigorn. P. 653 Hoveden, p. 471. ]

 [Footnonte ** Sim. Dunelm. P. 231. Brompton, p. 1000. Hoveden, p. 471 Annal. Waverl. P. 149. ]

 [Footnonte *** LL. Hen. I. Sect. 18, 75. ]

 [Footnonte **** LL. Hen. I. Sect. 82. ]

 [Footnonte ***** Spel. P. 305. Blackstone, vol. Iii. P. 63. Coke, 2 Inst. 70. ]

Henry, on his accession, granted a charter to London, which seems tohave been the first step towards rendering that city a corporation. Bythis charter, the city was empowered to keep the farm of Middlesex atthree hundred pounds a year, to elect its own sheriff and justiciary, and to bold pleas of the crown; and it was exempted from scot, danegelt, trials by combat, and lodging the king's retinue These, witha confirmation of the privileges of their court of hustings, wardmotes, and common halls, and their liberty of hunting in Middlesex and Surrey, are the chief articles of this charter. [*]

It is said [**] that this prince, from indulgence to his tenants, changed the rents of his demesnes, which were formerly paid in kind, into money, which was more easily remitted to the exchequer. But thegreat scarcity of coin would render that commutation difficult to beexecuted, while at the same time provisions could not be sent to adistant quarter of the kingdom. This affords a probable reason why theancient kings of England so frequently changed their place of abode:they carried their court from one place to another, that they mightconsume upon the spot the revenue of their several demesnes. 

 [Footnonte * Lambardi Archaionomia, ex edit. Twisden. Wilkins, p. 385. ]

 [Footnonte ** Dail. De Scaocario, lib. I. Cap. 7. ]

CHAPTER VII. 

[Illustration: 095. Jpg STEPHEN]

STEPHEN. 

_Contemporary Monarchs. _

 EMP. OF GERM K. OF SCOTLAND. K. OF FRANCE K. OF SPAIN. 

 Lothaire II. 1138 David I. 1143 Louis VI. 1137 Alphonse VIII. Conrad III. 1152 Malcolm IV. Louis VII. Frederic I. Lucius II. 1145

 POPES Innocent II. 1142 Celestin II. 1144 Eugenius III. 1153 Anastasius IV. 

{1135. } IN the progress and settlement of the feudal law, the malesuccession to fiefs had taken place some time before the female wasadmitted; and estates, being considered as military benefices, not asproperty, were transmitted to such only as could serve in the armies, and perform in person the conditions upon which they were originallygranted. But when the continuance of rights, during some generations, in the same family, had, in a great measure, obliterated the primitiveidea, the females were gradually admitted to the possession of feudalproperty; and the same revolution of principles which procured them theinheritance of private estates, naturally introduced their succession togovernment and authority. The failure, therefore, of male heirs to thekingdom of England and duchy of Normandy, seemed to leave the successionopen, without a rival, to the empress Matilda; and as Henry had made allhis vassals in both states swear fealty to her, he presumed that theywould not easily be induced to depart at once from her hereditary right, and from their own reiterated oaths and engagements. But the irregularmanner in which he himself had acquired the crown might have instructedhim, that neither his Norman nor English subjects were as yet capable ofadhering to a strict rule of government; and as every precedent of thiskind seems to give authority to new usurpations, he had reason to dread, even from his own family, some invasion of his daughter's title, whichhe had taken such pains to establish. 

Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror, had been married to Stephen, count of Blois, and had brought him several sons; among whom Stephen andHenry, the two youngest, had been invited over to England by the lateking and had received great honors, riches, and preferment, from thezealous friendship which that prince bore to every one that had beenso fortunate as to acquire his favor and good opinion. Henry, who hadbetaken himself to the ecclesiastical profession, was created abbot ofGlastonbury and bishop of Winchester; and though these dignitieswere considerable, Stephen had, from his uncle's liberality, attainedestablishments still more solid and durable. [*] The king had married himto Matilda, who was daughter and heir of Eustace, count of Boulogne, andwho brought him, besides that feudal sovereignty in France, an immenseproperty in England, which, in the distribution of lands, had beenconferred by the Conqueror on the family of Boulogne. Stephen alsoby this marriage acquired a new connection with the royal family ofEngland, as Mary, his wife's mother, was sister to David, the reigningking of Scotland, and to Matilda, the first wife of Henry, and motherof the empress. The king, still imagining that he strengthened theinterests of his family by the aggrandizement of Stephen, took pleasurein enriching him by the grant of new possessions; and he conferred onhim the great estate forfeited by Robert Mallet in England, and thatforfeited by the earl of Mortaigne in Normandy. Stephen, in return, professed great attachment to his uncle, and appeared so zealous forthe succession of Matilda, that, when the barons swore fealty to thatprincess, he contended with Robert, earl of Glocester, the king'snatural son, who should first be admitted to give her this testimony ofdevoted zeal and fidelity. [**] Meanwhile he continued to cultivate, byevery art of popularity, the friendship of the English nation; and manyvirtues with which he seemed to be endowed, favored the success of hisintentions. By his bravery, activity, and vigor, he acquired theesteem of the barons; by his generosity, and by an affable and familiaraddress, unusual in that age among men of his high quality, he obtainedthe affections of the people, particularly of the Londoners. [***] Andthough he dared not to take any steps towards his further grandeur, lesthe should expose himself to the jealousy of so penetrating a prince asHenry, he still hoped that, by accumulating riches and power, and byacquiring popularity, he might in time be able to open his way to thethrone. 

 [* Gul. Neubr. P. 360. Brompton, p. 1023. ]

 [** W. Malms, p. 192. ]

 [*** W. Malms, p. 179. Gest. Steph. P. 925. ]

No sooner had Henry breathed his last, than Stephen, insensible to allthe ties of gratitude and fidelity, and blind to danger, gave full reinsto his criminal ambition; and trusted that, even without any previousintrigue, the celerity of his enterprise, and the boldness of hisattempt, might overcome the weak attachment which the English andNormans in that age bore to the laws and to the rights of theirsovereign. He hastened over to England, and though the citizens ofDover and those of Canterbury, apprised of his purpose, shut their gatesagainst him, he stopped not till he arrived at London, where some ofthe lower rank, instigated by his emissaries, as well as moved by hisgeneral popularity, immediately saluted him king. His next point was toacquire the good will of the clergy; and by performing the ceremony ofhis coronation, to put himself in possession of the throne, from whichhe was confident it would not be easy afterwards to expel him. Hisbrother, the bishop of Winchester, was useful to him in these capitalarticles; having gained Roger, bishop of Salisbury, who, though he oweda great fortune and advancement to the favor of the late king, preserved no sense of gratitude to that prince's family, he applied, inconjunction with that prelate, to William, archbishop of Canterbury, and required him, in virtue of his office, to give the royal unctionto Stephen. The primate, who, as all the others, had sworn fealtyto Matilda, refused to perform this ceremony; but his opposition wasovercome by an expedient equally dishonorable with the other stepsby which this revolution was effected. Hugh Bigod, steward of thehousehold, made oath before the primate, that the late king, on hisdeath-bed, had shown a dissatisfaction with his daughter Matilda, andhad expressed his intention of leaving the count of Boulogne heir toall his dominions. [*] William, either believing or feigning to believeBigod's testimony, anointed Stephen, and put the crown upon his head;and from this religious ceremony, that prince, without any shadow, either of hereditary title or consent of the nobility or people, wasallowed to proceed to the exercise of sovereign authority. Very fewbarons attended his coronation;[**] but none opposed his usurpation, however unjust or flagrant. 

 [* M. Paris, p. 51. Diccto, p. 505 Chron. Durst. P. 23. ]

 [* Brompton, p. 1023. ]

The sentiment of religion which, if corrupted into superstition, hasoften little efficacy in fortifying the duties of civil society, wasnot affected by the multiplied oaths taken in favor of Matilda, and onlyrendered the people obedient to a prince who was countenanced by theclergy, and who had received from the primate the rite of royal unctionand consecration. [*]

Stephen, that he might further secure his tottering throne passed acharter, in which he made liberal promises to all orders of men; tothe clergy, that he would speedily fill all vacant benefices, and wouldnever levy the rents of any of them during the vacancy; to the nobility, that he would reduce the royal forests to their ancient boundaries, andcorrect all encroachments; and to the people, that he would remit thetax of danegelt, and restore the laws of King Edward. [**] The late kinghad a great treasure at Winchester, amounting to a hundred thousandpounds; and Stephen, by seizing this money, immediately turned againstHenry's family the precaution which that prince had employed for theirgrandeur and security; an event which naturally attends the policy ofamassing treasures. By means of this money, the usurper insured thecompliance, though not the attachment, of the principal clergy andnobility; but not trusting to this frail security, he invited over fromthe continent, particularly from Brittany and Flanders, great numbersof those bravoes, or disorderly soldiers, with whom every country inEurope, by reason of the general ill police and turbulent government, extremely abounded. [***] These mercenary troops guarded his throne bythe terrors of the sword; and Stephen, that he might also overawe allmalecontents by new and additional terrors of religion, procured a bullfrom Rome, which ratified his title, and which the pope, seeing thisprince in possession of the throne, and pleased with an appeal to hisauthority in secular controversies, very readily granted him. [****]

 [* Such stress was formerly laid on the right of coronation, that the monkish, writers never give any prince the title of king till he is crowned, though he had for some time been in possession of the crown, and exercised all the powers of sovereignty. ]

 [** W. Malms, p. 179. Hoveden, p. 482. ]

 [*** W. Malms, p. 179. ]

 [**** Hagulstadt, p. 259, 313. ]

{1136. } Matilda and her husband Geoffrey were as unfortunate in Normandyas they had been in England. The Norman nobility, moved by an hereditaryanimosity against the Angevins, first applied to Theobold, count ofBlois, Stephen's elder brother for protection and assistance; buthearing afterwards that Stephen had got possession of the English crown, and having, many of them, the same reasons as formerly for desiring acontinuance of their union with that kingdom, they transferred theirallegiance to Stephen, and put him in possession of their government. Lewis the younger, the reigning king of France, accepted the homageof Eustace, Stephen's eldest son, for the duchy; and the more tocorroborate his connections with that family, he betrothed his sisterConstantia to the young prince. The count of Blois assigned all hispretensions, and received in lieu of them an annual pension of twothousand marks; and Geoffrey himself was obliged to conclude a truce fortwo years with Stephen, on condition of the king's paying him, duringthat time, a pension of five thousand. [*] Stephen, who had taken ajourney to Normandy, finished all these transactions in person, and soonafter returned to England. 

Robert, earl of Glocester, natural son of the late king, was a man ofhonor and abilities; and as he was much attached to the interests of hissister Matilda, and zealous for the lineal succession, it was chieflyfrom his intrigues and resistance that the king had reason to dread anew revolution of government. This nobleman, who was in Normandy whenhe received intelligence of Stephen's accession, found himself muchembarrassed concerning the measures which he should pursue in thatdifficult emergency. To swear allegiance to the usurper appeared to himdishonorable, and a breach of his oath to Matilda: to refuse givingthis pledge of his fidelity was to banish himself from England, and betotally incapacitated from serving the royal family, or contributing totheir restoration. [**] He offered Stephen to do him homage, and to takethe oath of fealty; but with an express condition, that the king shouldmaintain all his stipulations, and should never invade any of Robert'srights or dignities; and Stephen, though sensible that this reserve, sounusual in itself, and so unbefitting the duty of a subject, was meantonly to afford Robert a pretence for a revolt on the first favorableopportunity, was obliged by the numerous friends and retainers of thatnobleman, to receive him on those terms. [***]

 [* M. Paris, p. 52. ]

 [** W. Malms, p. 170. ]

 [*** W. Malms, p. 179. M Paris, p. 51. ]

The clergy, who could scarcely at this time be deemed subjects to thecrown, imitated that dangerous example: they annexed to their oaths ofallegiance this condition, that they were only bound so long as the kingdefended the ecclesiastical liberties, and supported the discipline ofthe church. [*] The barons, in return for their submission, exacted termsstill more destructive of public peace, as well as of royal authority. Many of them required the right of fortifying their castles, and ofputting themselves in a posture of defence; and the king found himselftotally unable to refuse his consent to this exorbitant demand. [**] AllEngland was immediately filled with those fortresses, which the noblemengarrisoned either with their vassals, or with licentious soldiers, whoflocked to them from all quarters. Unbounded rapine was exercised uponthe people for the maintenance of these troops; and private animosities, which had with difficulty been restrained by law, now breaking outwithout control, rendered England a scene of uninterrupted violence anddevastation. Wars between the nobles were carried on with the utmostfury in every quarter; the barons even assumed the right of coiningmoney, and of exercising, without appeal, every act of jurisdiction;[***] and the inferior gentry, as well as the people, finding no defencefrom the laws during this total dissolution of sovereign authority, wereobliged, for their immediate safety, to pay court to some neighboringchieftain, and to purchase his protection, both by submitting to hisexactions, and by assisting him in his rapine upon others. The erectionof one castle proved the immediate cause of building many others; andeven those who obtained not the king's permission, thought that theywere entitled, by the great principle of self-preservation, to putthemselves on an equal footing with their neighbors, who commonlywere also their enemies and rivals. The aristocratical power, which isusually so oppressive in the Feudal governments, had now risen to itsutmost height, during the reign of a prince who, though endowed withvigor and abilities, had usurped the throne without the pretence of atitle, and who was necessitated to tolerate in others the same violenceto which he himself had been holden for his sovereignty. 

 [* W. Malms, p. 179. ]

 [** W. Malms, p, 180]

 [*** Trivet, p, 19 Gul Neub. P. 372. W. Heming. P. 487. Brompton, p. 1035. ]

But Stephen was not of a disposition to submit long to theseusurpations, without making some effort for the recovery of royalauthority. Finding that the legal prerogatives of the crown wereresisted and abridged, he was also tempted to make his power the solemeasure of his conduct, and to violate all those concessions which hehimself had made on his accession, [*] as well as the ancient privilegesof his subjects. The mercenary soldiers, who chiefly supportedhis authority, having exhausted the royal treasure, subsisted bydepredations; and every place was filled with the best groundedcomplaints against the government. The earl of Glocester, having nowsettled with his friends the plan of an insurrection, retired beyondsea, sent the king a defiance, solemnly renounced his allegiance, andupbraided him with the breach of those conditions which had been annexedto the oath of fealty sworn by that nobleman. [**]

 [* W. Malms, p. 180. M. Paris, p. 5 ]

 [** W. Malms, p. 180. ]

{1137. } David, king of Scotland, appeared at the head of an army indefence of his niece's title, and penetrating into Yorkshire, committedthe most barbarous devastations on that country. {1138. } The fury of hismassacres and ravages enraged the northern nobility, who might otherwisehave been inclined to join him; and William, earl of Albemarle, Robertde Ferrers, William Piercy, Robert de Brus, Roger Moubray, Ilbert Lacy, Walter l'Espee, powerful barons in those parts, assembled an army, withwhich they encamped at North Allerton, and awaited the arrival ofthe enemy. A great battle was here fought, called the battle of theStandard, from a high crucifix, erected by the English on a wagon, andcarried along with the army as a military ensign. The king of Scots wasdefeated; and he himself, as well as his son Henry, narrowly escapedfalling into the hands of the English. This success overawed themalecontents in England, and might have given some stability toStephen's throne, had he not been so elated with prosperity as to engagein a controversy with the clergy, who were at that time an overmatch forany monarch. 

Though the great power of the church, in ancient times, weakened theauthority of the crown, and interrupted the course of the laws, it maybe doubted whether, in ages of such violence and outrage, it was notrather advantageous that some limits were set to the power of the sword, both in the hands of the prince and nobles, and that men were taughtto pay regard to some principles and privileges. {1139. } The chiefmisfortune was, that the prelates, on some occasions, acted entirelyas barons, employed military power against their sovereign or theirneighbors, and thereby often increased those disorders which it wastheir duty to repress. The bishop of Salisbury, in imitation of thenobility, had built two strong castles, one at Sherborne, another atthe Devizes, and had laid the foundations of a third at Malmsbury: hisnephew; Alexander, bishop of Lincoln, had erected a fortress at Newark;and Stephen, who was now sensible from experience of the mischiefsattending these multiplied; citadels, resolved to begin with destroyingthose of the clergy, who by their function seemed less entitled than thebarons to such military securities. [*] Making pretence of a fray, whichhad arisen in court between the retinue of the bishop of Salisbury andthat of the earl of Brittany, he seized both that prelate and the bishopof Lincoln, threw them into prison, and obliged them by menaces todeliver up those places of strength which they had lately erected. [**]

Henry, bishop of Winchester, the king's brother, being armed with alegantine commission, now conceived himself to be an ecclesiasticalsovereign no less powerful than the civil; and forgetting the ties ofblood which connected him with the king, he resolved to vindicate theclerical privileges which, he pretended, were here openly violated. Heassembled a synod at Westminster, and there complained of the impietyof Stephen's measures, who had employed violence against the dignitariesof the church, and had not awaited the sentence of a spiritual court, bywhich alone, he affirmed, they could lawfully be tried and condemned, iftheir conduct had anywise merited censure or punishment. [***] The synod, ventured to send a summons to the king, charging him to appear beforethem, and to justify his measures;[****] and Stephen, instead ofresenting this indignity, sent Aubrey de Vere to plead his causebefore that assembly. De Vere accused; the two prelates of treason andsedition; but the synod refused, to try the cause, or examine theirconduct, till those castles of which they had been dispossessed, werepreviously restored to them. [*****] The bishop of Salisbury declared, that he would appeal to the pope; and had not Stephen and his partisansemployed menaces, and even shown a disposition of executing violenceby the hands of the soldiery, affairs had instantly come to extremitybetween the crown and the mitre. [******]

 [* Gul. Neub. P. 362. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P. 238. W. Malms, p. 181]

 [*** W. Malms p. 182. ]

 [**** W. Malms, p. 182. M. Paris, p. 53, ]

 [***** W. Malms, p 183. ]

 [****** W. Malms p 183. ]

While this quarrel, joined to so many other grievances, increased thediscontents among the people, the empress, invited by the opportunity, and secretly encouraged by the legate himself, landed in England, withRobert, earl of Glocester, and a retinue of a hundred and forty knights. She fixed her residence at Arundel Castle, whose gates were opened toher by Adelais, the queen dowager, now married to William de Albini, earl of Sussex; and she excited, by messengers, her partisans to takearms in every county of England. Adelais, who had expected that herdaughter-in-law would have invaded the kingdom with a much greaterforce, became apprehensive of danger; and Matilda, to ease her of herfears, removed first to Bristol, which belonged to her brother Robert, thence to Glocester, where she remained under the protection of Milo, agallant nobleman in those parts, who had embraced her cause. Soon after, Geoffrey Talbot, William Mohun, Ralph Lovell, William Fitz-John, WilliamFitz-Alan, Paganell, and many other barons, declared for her; and herparty, which was generally favored in the kingdom, seemed every day togain ground upon that of her antagonist. 

Were we to relate all the military events transmitted to us bycontemporary and authentic historians, it would be easy to swell ouraccounts of this reign into a large volume; but those incidents, solittle memorable in themselves, and so confused both in time and place, could afford neither instruction nor entertainment to the reader. Itsuffices to say, that the war was spread into every quarter; and thatthose turbulent barons, who had already shaken off, in a great measure, the restraint of government, having now obtained the pretence ofa public cause, carried on their devastations with redoubled fury, exercised implacable vengeance on each other, and set no bounds to theiroppressions over the people. The castles of the nobility were becomereceptacles of licensed robbers, who, sallying forth day and night, committed spoil on the open country, on the villages, and even on thecities; put the captives to torture, in order to make them reveal theirtreasures; sold their persons to slavery; and set fire to their houses, after they had pillaged them of every thing valuable. The fierceness oftheir disposition, leading them to commit wanton destruction, frustratedtheir rapacity of its purpose; and the property and persons even of theecclesiastics, generally so much revered, were at last, from necessity, exposed to the same outrage which had laid waste the rest of thekingdom. The land was left untilled; the instruments of husbandry weredestroyed or abandoned; and a grievous famine, the natural resultof those disorders, affected equally both parties, and reduced thespoilers, as well as the defenceless people, to the most extreme wantand indigence. [*]

 [* Chron. Sax, p. 238. W. Malms, p. 185. Gest. Steph. P. 961. ]

{1140. } After several fruitless negotiations and treaties of peace, which never interrupted these destructive hostilities, there happened atlast an event which seemed to promise some end of the public calamities. Ralph, earl of Chester, and his half-brother, William de Roumara, partisans of Matilda, had surprised the Castle of Lincoln; but thecitizens, who were better affected to Stephen, having invited him totheir aid, that prince laid close siege to the castle, in hopes of soonrendering himself master of the place, either by assault or by famine. The earl of Glocester hastened with an army to the relief of hisfriends; and Stephen, informed of his approach, took the field with aresolution of giving him battle. {1141. } After a violent shock, thetwo wings of the royalists were put to flight; and Stephen himself, surrounded by the enemy, was at last, after exerting great efforts ofvalor, borne down by numbers and taken prisoner. He was conducted toGlocester; and though at first treated with humanity, was soon after, onsome suspicion, thrown into prison, and loaded with irons. 

Stephen's party was entirely broken by the captivity of their leader, and the barons came in daily from all quarters, and did homage toMatilda. The princess, however, amidst all her prosperity, knew that shewas not secure of success, unless she could gain the confidence ofthe clergy; and as the conduct of the legate had been of late veryambiguous, and showed his intentions to have rather aimed at humblinghis brother, than totally ruining him, she employed every endeavor tofix him in her interests. She held a conference with him in an openplain near Winchester; where she promised upon oath, that if he wouldacknowledge her for sovereign, would recognize her title as the soledescendant of the late king, and would again submit to the allegiancewhich he, as well as the rest of the kingdom, had sworn to her, he should in return be entire master of the administration, and inparticular should, at his pleasure, dispose of all vacant bishoprics andabbeys. Earl Robert, her brother, Brian Fitz-Count, Milo of Glocester, and other great men, became guaranties for her observing theseengagements;[*] and the prelate was at last induced to promise herallegiance, but that still burdened with the express condition, thatshe should on her part fulfil her promises. He then conducted her toWinchester, led her in procession to the cathedral, and with greatsolemnity, in the presence of many bishops and abbots, denounced cursesagainst all those who cursed her, poured out blessings on those whoblessed her granted absolution to such as were obedient to her, andexcommunicated such as were rebellious. [**] Theobald, archbishop ofCanterbury, soon after came also to court, and swore allegiance to theempress. [***]

 [* W. Malms, p. 187. ]

 [** Chron. Sax. P 242. Contin. Flor. Wigorn. P. 676]

 [*** W. Malms, p. 187. ]

Matilda, that she might further insure the attachment of the clergy, waswilling to receive the crown from their hands; and instead of assemblingthe states of the kingdom, the measure which the constitution, had itbeen either fixed or regarded, seemed necessarily to require, she wascontent that the legate should summon an ecclesiastical synod, andthat her title to the throne should there be acknowledged. The legate, addressing himself to the assembly, told them, that in the absence ofthe empress, Stephen, his brother, had been permitted to reign, and, previously to his ascending the throne, had seduced them by many fairpromises, of honoring and exalting the church, of maintaining the laws, and of reforming all abuses; that it grieved him to observe how muchthat prince had in every particular been wanting to his engagements;public peace was interrupted, crimes were daily committed withimpunity, bishops were thrown into prison and forced to surrender theirpossessions, abbeys were put to sale, churches were pillaged andthe most enormous disorders prevailed in the administration; that hehimself, in order to procure a redress of these grievances, had formerlysummoned the king before a council of bishops; but instead of inducinghim to amend his conduct, had rather offended him by that expedient;that, how much soever misguided, that prince was still his brother, and the object of his affections; but his interests, however, must beregarded as subordinate to those of their heavenly Father, who had nowrejected him, and thrown him into the hands of his enemies; that itprincipally belonged to the clergy to elect and ordain kings; he hadsummoned them together for that purpose; and having invoked the divineassistance, he now pronounced Matilda, the only descendant of Henry, their late sovereign, queen of England. The whole assembly, by theiracclamations or silence, gave or seemed to give, their assent to thisdeclaration. [*]

The only laymen summoned to this council, which decided the fate ofthe crown, were the Londoners; and even these were required not to givetheir opinion, but to submit to the decrees of the synod. The deputiesof London, however, were not so passive; they insisted that their kingshould be delivered from prison; but were told by the legate, that itbecame not the Londoners, who were regarded as noblemen in England, to take part with those barons who had basely forsaken their lord inbattle, and who had treated holy church with contumely. It is withreason that the citizens of London assumed so much authority, if it betrue, what is related by Fitz-Stephen, a contemporary author, thatthat city should at this time bring into the field no less than eightythousand combatants. [**]

 [* W. Malms, p. 188. This author, a judicious man, was present, and says that he was very attentive to what passed. This speech therefore, may be regarded as entirely genuine. ]

 [** Were this account to be depended on, London must at that time have contained near four hundred thousand inhabitants, which is above double the number it contained at the death of Queen Elizabeth. But these loose calculations, or rather guesses, deserve very little credit. Peter of Blois, a contemporary writer, and a man of sense, says there were then only forty thousand inhabitants in London, which is much more likely. See epist. 151. What Fitz-Stephen says of the prodigious riches, splendor, and commerce of London, proves only the great poverty of the other towns of the kingdoms and indeed of all the northern parts of Europe. ]

London, notwithstanding its great power, and its attachment to Stephen, was at length obliged to submit to Matilda; and her authority, by theprudent conduct of Earl Robert, seemed to be established over the wholekingdom; but affairs remained not long in this situation. That princess, besides the disadvantages of her sex, which weakened her influence overa turbulent and martial people, was of a passionate, imperious spirit, and knew not how to temper with affability the harshness of a refusal. Stephen's queen, seconded by many of the nobility, petitioned for theliberty of her husband; and offered, that, on this condition, he shouldrenounce the crown, and retire into a convent. The legate desiredthat Prince Eustace, his nephew, might inherit Boulogne and the otherpatrimonial estates of his father. [*] The Londoners applied for theestablishment of King Edward's laws, instead of those of King Henry, which, they said, were grievous and oppressive. [**] All these petitionswere rejected in the most haughty and peremptory manner. 

 [* Brompton, p. 1031. ]

 [** Contin. Flor. Wigorn. P. 677. Gervase, p. 1855]

The legate, who had probably never been sincere in his compliance withMatilda's government, availed himself of the ill humor excited by thisimperious conduct, and secretly instigated the Londoners to a revolt. Aconspiracy was entered into to seize the person of the empress, andshe saved herself from the danger by a precipitate retreat. She fled toOxford: soon after she went to Winchester, whither the legate, desirousto save appearances, and watching the opportunity to ruin her cause, hadretired. But having assembled all his retainers, he openly joined hisforce to that of the Londoners, and to Stephen's mercenary troops, who had not yet evacuated the kingdom; and he besieged Matilda inWinchester. The princess, being hard pressed by famine, made her escape;but in the flight, Earl Robert, her brother, fell into the hands of theenemy. This nobleman, though a subject, was as much the life and soul ofhis own party, as Stephen was of the other: and the empress, sensible ofhis merit and importance, consented to exchange the prisoners on equalterms. The civil war was again kindled with greater fury than ever. 

{1142. } Earl Robert, finding the successes on both sides nearlybalanced, went over to Normandy, which, during Stephen's captivity, hadsubmitted to the earl of Anjou; and he persuaded Geoffrey to allow hiseldest son, Henry, a young prince of great hopes, to take a journeyinto England, and appear at the head of his partisans. {1143. } Thisexpedient, however, produced nothing decisive. Stephen took Oxford aftera long siege: he was defeated by Earl Robert at Wilton; and the empress, though of a masculine spirit, yet being harassed with a variety of goodand bad fortune, and alarmed with continual dangers to her person andfamily, at last retired into Normandy, {1146. } whither she had sent herson some time before. The death of her brother, which happened nearlyabout the same time, would have proved fatal to her interests, hailnot some incidents occurred which checked the course of Stephen'sprosperity. This prince, finding that the castles built by the noblemenof his own party encouraged the spirit of independence, and were littleless dangerous than those which remained in the hands of the enemy, endeavored to extort from them a surrender of those fortresses and healienated the affections of many of them by this equitable demand. Theartillery, also, of the church, which his brother had brought over tohis side, had, after some interval, joined the other party. EugeniusIII. Had mounted the papal throne; the bishop of Winchester was deprivedof the legantine commission, which was conferred on Theobald, archbishopof Canterbury, the enemy and rival of the former legate. That pontiff, also, having summoned a general council at Rheims, in Champagne, insteadof allowing the church of England, as had been usual, to elect its owndeputies, nominated five English bishops to represent that church, andrequired their attendance in the council. Stephen, who, notwithstandinghis present difficulties, was jealous of the rights of his crown, refused them permission to attend;[*] and the pope, sensible of hisadvantage in contending with a prince who reigned by a disputed title, took revenge by laying all Stephen's party under an interdict. [**]{1147. } The discontents of the royalists at being thrown into thissituation, were augmented by a comparison with Matilda's party, whoenjoyed all the benefits of the sacred ordinances; and Stephen was atlast obliged, by making proper submissions to the see of Rome, to removethe reproach from his party. [***]

{1148. } The weakness of both sides, rather than any decrease of mutualanimosity, having produced a tacit cessation of arms in England, many ofthe nobility, Roger de Moubray, William de Warrenne, and others, finding no opportunity to exert their military ardor at home, enlistedthemselves in a new crusade, which, with surprising success after formerdisappointments and misfortunes, was now preached by St. Barnard. [****]But an event soon after happened which threatened a revival ofhostilities in England. Prince Henry, who had reached his sixteenthyear, was desirous of receiving the honor of knighthood; a ceremonywhich every gentleman in that age passed through before he was admittedto the use of arms, and which was even deemed requisite for the greatestprinces. 

 [* Epist. St. Thom, p. 225. ]

 [** Chron. W. Thom, p. 1807. ]

 [*** Epist. St. Thom, p. 226. ]

 [**** Hagulstadt, p. 275, 276. ]

He intended to receive his admission from his great-uncle, David, kingof Scotland; and for that purpose he passed through England with a greatretinue, and was attended by the most considerable of his partisans. He remained some time with the king of Scotland, made incursions intoEngland, and by his dexterity and vigor in all manly exercises, by hisvalor in war, and his prudent conduct in every occurrence, he roused thehopes of his party, and gave symptoms of those great qualities which heafterwards displayed when he mounted the throne of England. {1150. } Soonafter his return to Normandy, he was, by Matilda's consent, invested inthat duchy, and upon the death of his father Geoffrey, which happenedin the subsequent year, he took possession both of Anjou and Maine, andconcluded a marriage which brought him a great accession of power, andrendered him extremely formidable to his rival. Eleanor, the daughterand heir of William, duke of Guienne, and earl of Poictou, had beenmarried sixteen years to Lewis VII. , king of France, and had attendedhim in a crusade which that monarch conducted against the infidels; buthaving there lost the affections of her husband, and even fallenunder some suspicion of gallantry with a handsome Saracen, Lewis, moredelicate than politic, procured a divorce from her, and restored herthose rich provinces, which, by her marriage, she had annexed to thecrown of France. Young Henry, neither discouraged by the inequalityof years, nor by the reports of Eleanor's gallantries, made successfulcourtship to that princess, and espousing her six weeks after herdivorce, got possession of all her dominions as her dowry. {1152. } Thelustre which he received from this acquisition, and the prospect ofhis rising fortune, had such an elect in England, that when Stephen, desirous to insure the crown to his son Eustace, required the archbishopof Canterbury to anoint that prince as his successor, the primaterefused compliance, and made his escape beyond sea, to avoid theviolence and resentment of Stephen. 

{1153. } Henry, informed of these dispositions in the people, madean invasion on England: having gained some advantage over Stephen atMalmsbury, and having taken that place, he proceeded thence to throwsuccors into Wallingford, which the king had advanced with a superiorarmy to besiege. A decisive action was every day expected, when thegreat men of both sides, terrified at the prospect of further bloodshedand confusion, interposed with their good offices, and set on foot anegotiation between the rival princes, The death of Eustace, during thecourse of the treaty, facilitated its conclusion: an accommodation wassettled, by which it was agreed that Stephen should possess the crownduring his lifetime, that justice should be administered in his name, even in the provinces which had submitted to Henry, and that this latterprince should, on Stephen's demise, succeed to the kingdom, and William, Stephen's son, to Boulogne and his patrimonial estate. After all thebarons had sworn to the observance of this treaty, and done homage toHenry, as to the heir of the crown, that prince evacuated the kingdom;and the death of Stephen which happened next year, [October 25, 1154, ]after a short illness, prevented all those quarrels and jealousies whichwere likely to have ensued in so delicate a situation. 

England suffered great miseries during the reign of this prince: buthis personal character, allowing for the temerity and injustice of hisusurpation, appears not liable to any great exception; and he seemsto have been well qualified, had he succeeded by a just title, tohave promoted the happiness and prosperity of his subjects. [*] He waspossessed of industry, activity, and courage, to a great degree; thoughnot endowed with a sound judgment, he was not deficient in abilities;he had the talent of gaining men's affections, and notwithstanding hisprecarious situation, he never indulged himself in the exercise of anycruelty or revenge. His advancement to the throne procured him neithertranquillity nor happiness; and though the situation of Englandprevented the neighboring states from taking any durable advantage ofher confusions, her intestine disorders were to the last degree ruinousand destructive. The court of Rome was also permitted, during thosecivil wars, to make further advances in her usurpations; and appeals tothe pope, which had always been strictly prohibited by the English laws, became now common in every ecclesiastical controversy. 

 [* W. Malms, p. 180. , M. Paris, p. 51 Hagul, p. 312. , H. Hunting. P. 395. ]

CHAPTER VIII. 

[Illustration: 100. Jpg HENRY II. ]

HENRY II. 

{1154. } The extensive confederacies, by which the European potentatesare now at once united and set in opposition to each other, and which, though they are apt to diffuse the least spark of dissension throughoutthe whole, are at least attended with this advantage, that they preventany violent revolutions or conquests in particular states, were totallyunknown in ancient ages; and the theory of foreign politics in eachkingdom formed a speculation much less complicated and involved than atpresent. Commerce had not yet bound together the most distant nationsin so close a chain: wars, finished in one campaign, and often in onebattle, were little affected by the movements of remote states: theimperfect communication among the kingdoms, and their ignorance of eachother's situation, made it impracticable for a great number of them tocombine in one object or effort: and above all, the turbulent spirit andindependent situation of the barons or great vassals in each state, gaveso much occupation to the sovereign, that he was obliged to confine hisattention chiefly to his own state and his own system of government, and was more indifferent about what passed among his neighbors. Religionalone, not politics, carried abroad the views of princes, while iteither fixed their thoughts on the Holy Land, whose conquest and defencewas deemed a point of common honor and interest, or engaged them inintrigues with the Roman pontiff, to whom they had yielded the directionof ecclesiastical affairs, and who was every day assuming more authoritythan they were willing to allow him. 

Before the conquest of England by the duke of Normandy, this islandwas as much separated from the rest of the world in politics as insituation; and except from the inroads of the Danish pirates, theEnglish, happily confined at home, had neither enemies nor allies on thecontinent. The foreign dominions of William connected them with the kingand great vassals of France; and while the opposite pretensions ofthe pope and emperor in Italy produced a continual intercourse betweenGermany and that country, the two great monarchs of France and Englandformed, in another part of Europe, a separate system, and carried ontheir wars and negotiations, without meeting either with opposition orsupport from the others. 

On the decline of the Carlovingian race, the nobles in every province ofFrance, taking advantage of the weakness of the sovereign, and obligedto provide each for his own defence against the ravages of the Normanfreebooters, had assumed, both in civil and military affairs, anauthority almost independent, and had reduced within very narrow limitsthe prerogative of their princes. The accession of Hugh Capet, byannexing a great fief to the crown, had brought some addition tothe royal dignity; but this fief, though considerable for a subject, appeared a narrow basis of power for a prince who was placed at the headof so great a community. The royal demesnes consisted only of Paris, Orleans, Estampes, Compiegne, and a few places scattered over thenorthern provinces: in the rest of the kingdom, the prince's authoritywas rather nominal than real: the vassals were accustomed, nay, entitled, to make war, without his permission, on each other: they wereeven entitled, if they conceived themselves injured, to turn their armsagainst their sovereign: they exercised all civil jurisdiction, withoutappeal, over their tenants and inferior vassals: their common jealousyof the crown easily united them against any attempt on their exorbitantprivileges; and as some of them had attained the power and authorityof great princes, even the smallest baron was sure of immediate andeffectual protection. Besides six ecclesiastical peerages, which, with the other immunities of the church, cramped extremely the generalexecution of justice, there were six lay peerages, Burgundy, NormandyGuienne, Flanders, Toulouse, and Champagne, which formed very extensiveand puissant sovereignties. And though the combination of all thoseprinces and barons could on urgent occasions, muster a mighty power, yet was it very difficult to set that great machine in movement; it wasalmost impossible to preserve harmony in its parts; a sense of commoninterest alone could, for a time, unite them under their sovereignagainst a common enemy; but if the king attempted to turn the forceof the community against any mutinous vassal, the same sense of commoninterest made the others oppose themselves to the success of hispretensions. Lewis the Gross, the last sovereign, marched, at one time, to his frontiers against the Germans at the head of an army of twohundred thousand men; but a petty lord of Corbeil, of Puiset, of Couci, was able, at another period, to set that prince at defiance, and tomaintain open war against him. 

The authority of the English monarch was much more extensive within hiskingdom, and the disproportion much greater between him and the mostpowerful of his vassals. His demesnes and revenue were large, comparedto the greatness of his state: he was accustomed to levy arbitraryexactions on his subjects: his courts of judicature extended theirjurisdiction into every part of the kingdom: he could crush by hispower, or by a judicial sentence, well or ill founded, any obnoxiousbaron: and though the feudal institutions, which prevailed in hiskingdom, had the same tendency, as in other states, to exalt thearistocracy and depress the monarchy, it required in England, accordingto its present constitution, a great combination of the vassals tooppose their sovereign lord, and there had not hitherto arisen any baronso powerful, as of himself to levy war against the prince, and to affordprotection to the inferior barons. 

While such were the different situations of France and England, and thelatter enjoyed so many advantages above the former, the accessionof Henry II. , a prince of great abilities, possessed of so many richprovinces on the continent, might appear an event dangerous, if notfatal to the French monarchy, and sufficient to break entirely thebalance between the states. He was master, in the right of his father, of Anjou and Touraine; in that of his mother, of Normandy and Maine; inthat of his wife, of Guienne, Poictou, Xaintonge, Auvergne, Perigord, Angoumois, the Limousin. He soon after annexed Brittany to his otherstates, and was already possessed of the superiority over that province, which, on the first cession of Normandy to Rollo the Dane, had beengranted by Charles the Simple in vassalage to that formidable ravager. These provinces composed above a third of the whole French monarchy, andwere much superior, in extent and opulence, to those territories whichwere subjected to the immediate jurisdiction and government of the king. The vassal was here more powerful than his liege lord: the situationwhich had enabled Hugh Capet to depose the Carlovingian princes, seemedto be renewed, and that with much greater advantages on the side of thevassal: and when England was added to so many provinces, the French kinghad reason to apprehend, from this conjuncture, some great disaster tohimself and to his family. But, in reality, it was this circumstance, which appeared so formidable, that saved the Capetian race, and, byits consequences, exalted them to that pitch of grandeur which they atpresent enjoy. 

The limited authority of the prince in the feudal constitutions, prevented the king of England from employing with advantage the forceof so many states which were subjected to his government; and thesedifferent members, disjoined in situation, and disagreeing in laws, language, and manners, were never thoroughly cemented into one monarchy. He soon became, both from his distant place of residence and fromthe incompatibility of interests, a kind of foreigner to his Frenchdominions; and his subjects on the continent considered their allegianceas more naturally due to their superior lord, who lived in theirneighborhood, and who was acknowledged to be the supreme head of theirnation. He was always at hand to invade them; their immediate lord wasoften at too great a distance to protect them; and any disorder in anypart of his dispersed dominions gave advantages against him The otherpowerful vassals of the French crown were rather pleased to see theexpulsion of the English, and were not affected with that jealousy whichwould have arisen from the oppression of a co-vassal who was of the samerank with themselves. By this means, the king of France found it moreeasy to conquer those numerous provinces from England than to subdue aduke of Normandy or Guienne, a count of Anjou, Maine, or Poietou. And after reducing such extensive territories, which immediatelyincorporated with the body of the monarchy, he found greater facility inuniting to the crown the other great fiefs which still remained separateand independent. 

But as these important consequences could not be foreseen by humanwisdom, the king of France remarked with terror the rising grandeur ofthe house of Anjou or Plantagenet; and in order to retard its progress, he had ever maintained a strict union with Stephen, and had endeavoredto support the tottering fortunes of that bold usurper. But after thisprince's death, it was too late to think of opposing the succession ofHenry, or preventing the performance of those stipulations which, withthe unanimous consent of the nation, he had made with his predecessor. The English, harassed with civil wars, and disgusted with the bloodshedand depredations which, during the course of so many years, had attendedthem were little disposed to violate their oaths, by excluding thelawful heir from the succession of their monarchy. * Many of the mostconsiderable fortresses were in the hands of his partisans; the wholenation had had occasion to see the noble qualities with which he wasendowed, and to compare them with the mean talents of William, the sonof Stephen; and as they were acquainted with his great power, and wererather pleased to see the accession of so many foreign dominions to thecrown of England, they never entertained the least thoughts of resistinghim. Henry himself, sensible of the advantages attending his presentsituation, was in no hurry to arrive in England; and being engaged inthe siege of a castle on the frontiers of Normandy, when he receivedintelligence of Stephen's death, he made it a point of honor not todepart from his enterprise till he had brought it to an issue. Hethen set out on his journey, and was received in England with theacclamations of all orders of men, who swore with pleasure the oath offealty and allegiance to him. 

{1155. } The first act of Henry's government corresponded to thehigh idea entertained of his abilities, and prognosticated thereestablishment of justice and tranquillity, of which the kingdom hadso long been bereaved. He immediately dismissed all those mercenarysoldiers who had committed great disorders in the nation; and he sentthem abroad, together with William of Ypres, their leader, the friendand confidant of Stephen. He revoked all the grants made by hispredecessor, even those which necessity had extorted from the empressMatilda; and that princess, who had resigned her rights in favor ofHenry, made no opposition to a measure so necessary for supporting thedignity of the crown. He repaired the coin, which had been extremelydebased during the reign of his predecessor; and he took proper measuresagainst the return of a like abuse. He was rigorous in the executionof justice, and in the suppression of robbery and violence; and thathe might restore authority to the laws, he caused all the new erectedcastles to be demolished, which had proved so many sanctuaries tofreebooters and rebels. The earl of Albemarle, Hugh Mortimer, and Rogerthe son of Milo of Glocester, were inclined to make some resistance tothis salutary measure; but the approach of the king with his forces soonobliged them to submit. 

{1156. } Everything being restored to full tranquillity in England, Henrywent abroad in order to oppose the attempts of his brother Geoffrey, who, during his absence, had made an incursion into Anjou and Maine, {1157. } had advanced some pretensions to those provinces, and had gotpossession of a considerable part of them. On the king's appearance, thepeople returned to their allegiance; and Geoffrey, resigning his claimfor an annual pension of a thousand pounds, departed and took possessionof the county of Nantz, which the inhabitants, who had expelled CountIloel, their prince, had put into his hands. Henry returned to Englandthe following year: the incursions of the Welsh then provoked him tomake an invasion upon them; where the natural fastnesses of the countryoccasioned him great difficulties, and even brought him into danger. His vanguard, being engaged in a narrow pass, was put to rout: Henry deEssex, the hereditary standard-bearer, seized with a panic, threw downthe standard, took to flight, and exclaimed that the king was slain; andhad not the prince immediately appeared in person, and led on his troopswith great gallantry, the consequences might have proved fatal to thewhole army. For this misbehavior, Essex was afterwards accused of felonyby Robert de Montfort; was vanquished in single combat; his estate wasconfiscated; and he himself was thrust into a convent. The submissionsof the Welsh procured them an accommodation with England. 

{1158. } The martial disposition of the princes in that age engaged themto head their own armies in every enterprise, even the most frivolous;and their feeble authority made it commonly impracticable for them todelegate, on occasion, the command to their generals. Geoffrey, theking's brother, died soon after he had acquired possession of Nantz;though he had no other title to that county than the voluntarysubmission or election of the inhabitants two years before, Henry laidclaim to the territory as devolved to him by hereditary right, and hewent over to support his pretensions by force of arms. Conan, duke orearl of Brittany (for these titles are given indifferently by historiansto those princes) pretended that Nantz had been lately separated byrebellion from his principality, to which of right it belonged; andimmediately on Geoffrey's death, he took possession of the disputedterritory. Lest Lewis, the French king, should interpose in thecontroversy, Henry paid him a visit; and so allured him by caressesand civilities, that an alliance was contracted between them; andthey agreed that young Henry, heir to the English monarchy, should beaffianced to Margaret of France, though the former was only five yearsof age; the latter was still in her cradle. Henry, now secure of meetingwith no interruption on this side, advanced with his army into Brittany;and Conan, in despair of being able to make resistance, delivered upthe county of Nantz to him. The able conduct of the king procuredhim further and more important advantages from this incident. Conan, harassed with the turbulent disposition of his subjects, was desirous ofprocuring to himself the support of so great a monarch; and he betrothedhis daughter and only child, yet an infant, to Geoffrey, the king'sthird son, who was of the same tender years. The duke of Brittany diedabout seven years after; and Henry, being mesne lord and also naturalguardian to his son and daughter-in-law, put himself in possession ofthat principality, and annexed it for the present to his other greatdominions. 

{1159. } The king had a prospect of making still further acquisitions;and the activity of his temper suffered no opportunity of that kind toescape him. Philippa, duchess of Guienne, mother of Queen Eleanor, was the only issue of William IV. , count of Toulouse; and would haveinherited his dominions, had not that prince, desirous of preserving thesuccession in the male line, conveyed the principality to his brotherRaymond de St. Gilles, by a contract of sale which was in that ageregarded as fictitious and illusory. By this means the title to thecounty of Toulouse came to be disputed between the male and femaleheirs; and the one or the other, as opportunities favored them, hadobtained possession. Raymond, grandson of Raymond de St. Gilles wasthe reigning sovereign; and on Henry's reviving his wife's claim, thisprince had recourse for protection to the king of France, who was somuch concerned in policy to prevent the further aggrandizement of theEnglish monarch. Lewis himself, when married to Eleanor, had assertedthe justice of her claim, and had demanded possession of Toulouse; buthis sentiments changing with his interest, he now determined to defend, by his power and authority, the title of Raymond. Henry found thatit would be requisite to support his pretensions against potentantagonists; and that nothing but a formidable army could maintain aclaim which he had in vain asserted by arguments and manifestoes. 

An army composed of feudal vassals was commonly very intractable andundisciplined, both because of the independent spirit of the personswho served in it, and because the commands were not given either by thechoice of the sovereign or from the military capacity and experience ofthe officers. Each baron conducted his own vassals: his rank was greateror less, proportioned to the extent of his property: even the supremecommand under the prince was often attached to birth; and as themilitary vassals were obliged to serve only forty days at their owncharge, though, if the expedition were distant, they were put to greatexpense, the prince reaped little benefit from their attendance. Henry, sensible of these inconveniences, levied upon his vassals in Normandyand other provinces, which were remote from Toulouse, a sum of moneyin lieu of their service; and this commutation, by reason of thegreat distance, was still more advantageous to his English vassals. Heimposed, therefore, a scutage of one hundred and eighty thousand poundson the knights' fees, a commutation to which, though it was unusual, and the first perhaps to be met with in history, [*] [16] the militarytenants willingly submitted; and with this money he levied an army whichwas more under his command, and whose service was more durable andconstant. 

 [* See note P, at the end of the volume. ]

Assisted by Berenger, count of Barcelona, and Trincaval, count ofNismes, whom he had gained to his party, he invaded the county ofToulouse; and after taking Verdun, Castlenau, and other places, hebesieged the capital of the province, and was likely to prevail in theenterprise; when Lewis, advancing before the arrival of his main body, threw himself into the place with a small reenforcement. Henry was urgedby some of his ministers to prosecute the siege, to take Lewis prisoner, and to impose his own terms in the pacification; but he either thoughtit so much his interest to maintain the feudal principles, by which hisforeign dominions were secured, or bore so much respect to his superiorlord, that he declared he would not attack a place defended by him inperson; and he immediately raised the siege. He marched into Normandyto protect that province against an incursion which the count of Dreux, instigated by King Lewis, his brother, had made upon it. War was nowopenly carried on between the two monarchs, but produced no memorableevent: it soon ended in a cessation of arms, and that followed by apeace, which was not, however, attended with any confidence or goodcorrespondence between those rival princes. {1160. } The fortress ofGisors, being part of the dowry stipulated to Margaret of France, hadbeen consigned by agreement to the knights templars, on condition thatit should be delivered into Henry's hands after the celebration ofthe nuptials. The king, that he might have a pretence for immediatelydemanding the place, ordered the marriage to be solemnized betweenthe prince and princess, though both infants; and he engaged the grandmaster of the templars, by large presents, as was generally suspected, to put him in possession of Gisors. [*] {1161. } Lewis, resenting thisfraudulent conduct, banished the templars, and would have made war uponthe king of England, had it not been for the mediation and authorityof Pope Alexander III. , who had been chased from Rome by the antipope, Victor IV. , and resided at that time in France. 

 [* Since the first publication of this History, Lord Lyttleton has published a copy of the treaty between Henry and Lewis, by which it appears, if there was no secret article, that Henry was not guilty of any fraud in this transaction, observe, that the two kings had the year before, met the pope at the castle of Torci on the Loir; and they gave him such marks of respect, that both dismounted to receive him, and holding each of them one of the reins of his bridle, walked on foot by his side, and conducted him in that submissive manner into the castle: "a spectacle, " cries Baronius in an ecstasy, "to God, angels, and men; and such as had never before been exhibited to the world!"]

{1162. } Henry, soon after he had accommodated his differences with Lewisby the pope's mediation, returned to England; where he commenced anenterprise, which, though required by sound policy, and even conductedin the main with prudence, bred him great disquietude, involved him indanger, and was not concluded without some loss and dishonor. 

The usurpations of the clergy, which had at first been gradual, werenow become so rapid, and had mounted to such a height, that the contestbetween the regale and pontificale was really arrived at a crisis inEngland; and it became necessary to determine whether the king or thepriests, particularly the archbishop of Canterbury, should be sovereignof the kingdom. The aspiring spirit of Henry, which gave inquietude toall his neighbors, was not likely long to pay a tame submission tothe encroachments of subjects; and as nothing opens the eyes of menso readily as their interest, he was in no danger of falling, in thisrespect, into that abject superstition which retained his people insubjection. From the commencement of his reign, in the government of hisforeign dominions, as well as of England, he had shown a fixed purposeto repress clerical usurpations, and to maintain those prerogativeswhich had been transmitted to him by his predecessors. During the schismof the papacy between Alexander and Victor, he had determined, for sometime, to remain neuter; and when informed that the archbishop of Rouenand the bishop of Mans had, from their own authority, acknowledgedAlexander as legitimate pope, he was so enraged, that, though he sparedthe archbishop on account of his great age, he immediately issued ordersfor overthrowing the houses of the bishop of Mans and archdeacon ofRouen;[*] [17] and it was not till he had deliberately examined thematter, by those views which usually enter into the councils of princes, that he allowed that pontiff to exercise authority over any of hisdominions. 

 [* See note Q, at the end of the volume. ]

In England, the mild character and advanced years of Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, together with his merits in refusing to putthe crown on the head of Eustace, son of Stephen, prevented Henry, during the lifetime of that primate, from taking any measures againstthe multiplied encroachments of the clergy; but after his death, theking resolved to exert himself with more activity; and that he might besecure against any opposition, he advanced to that dignity Becket, hischancellor, on whose compliance he thought he could entirely depend. 

Thomas à Becket, the first man of English descent who, since the Normanconquest, had, during the course of a whole century, risen to anyconsiderable station, was born of reputable parents in the city ofLondon; and being endowed both with industry and capacity, he earlyinsinuated himself into the favor of Archbishop Theobald, and obtainedfrom that prelate some preferments and offices. By their means he wasenabled to travel for improvement to Italy, where he studied the civiland canon law at Bologna; and on his return he appeared to have madesuch proficiency in knowledge, that he was promoted by his patron to thearchdeaconry of Canterbury, an office of considerable trust and profit. He was afterwards employed with success by Theobald in transactingbusiness at Rome; and on Henry's accession, he was recommended to thatmonarch as worthy of further preferment Henry, who knew that Becket hadbeen instrumental in supporting that resolution of the archbishop, whichhad tended so much to facilitate his own advancement to the throne, wasalready prepossessed in his favor; and finding on further acquaintance, that his spirit and abilities entitled him to any trust he soon promotedhim to the dignity of chancellor, one of the first civil offices in thekingdom. The chancellor, in that age, besides the custody of the greatseal, had possession of all vacant prelacies and abbeys; he was theguardian of all such minors and pupils as were the king's tenants; allbaronies which escheated to the crown were under his administration; hewas entitled to a place in council, even though he were not particularlysummoned; and as he exercised also the office of secretary of state, andit belonged to him to countersign all commissions, writs, and letterspatent, he was a kind of prime minister and was concerned in thedespatch of every business of importance. Besides exercising this highoffice, Becket by the favor of the king or archbishop, was made provostof Beverley, dean of Hastings, and constable of the Tower: he was putin possession of the honors of Eye and Berkham large baronies that hadescheated to the crown; and to complete his grandeur, he was intrustedwith the education of Prince Henry, the king's eldest son, and heirof the monarchy. The pomp of his retinue, the sumptuousness of hisfurniture, the luxury of his table, the munificence of his presents, corresponded to these great preferments; or rather exceeded any thingthat England had ever before seen in any subject. His historian andsecretary, Fitz-Stephens, mentions, among other particulars, that hisapartments were every day in winter covered with clean straw or hay, andin summer with green rushes or boughs, lest the gentlemen who paid courtto him and who could not, by reason of their great number, find a placeat table, should soil their fine clothes by sitting on a dirty floor. [*]A great number of knights were retained in his service; the greatestbarons were proud of being received at his table; his house was a placeof education for the sons of the chief nobility; and the king himselffrequently vouchsafed to partake of his entertainments. As his way oflife was splendid and opulent, his amusements and occupations were gay, and partook of the cavalier spirit, which, as he had only taken deacon'sorders, he did not think unbefitting his character. He employed himselfat leisure hours in hunting, hawking, gaming, and horsemanship; heexposed his person in several military actions; he carried over, athis own charge, seven hundred knights to attend the king in his warsat Toulouse; in the subsequent wars on the frontiers of Normandy, hemaintained, during forty days, twelve hundred knights, and fourthousand of their train; and in an embassy to France, with which he wasintrusted, he astonished that court by the number and magnificence ofhis retinue. 

 [* John Baldwin held the manor of Oterarsfee in Aylesbury of the king in soccage, by the service of finding litter for the king's bed, viz. , in summer, grass or herbs, and two gray geese, and in winter, straw, and three eels, thrice in the year, if the king should come thrice in the year to Aylesbury. Madox, Bar. Anglica, p. 247. ]

Henry, besides committing all his more important business to Becket'smanagement, honored him with his friendship and intimacy; and wheneverhe was disposed to relax himself by sports of any kind, he admitted hischancellor to the party. An instance of their familiarity is mentionedby Fitz-Stephens which, as it shows the manners of the age, it may notbe improper to relate. One day, as the king and the chancellor wereriding together in the streets of London, they observed a beggar, whowas shivering with cold. "Would it not be very praiseworthy, " said theking, "to give that poor man a warm coat in this severe season?" "Itwould, surely, " replied the chancellor; "and you do well, sir, inthinking of such good actions. " "Then he shall have one presently, "cried the king; and seizing the skirt of the chancellor's coat, whichwas scarlet, and lined with ermine, began to pull it violently. Thechancellor defended himself for some time; and they had both of themlike to have tumbled off their horses in the street, when Becket, aftera vehement struggle, let go his coat; which the king bestowed on thebeggar, who, being ignorant of the quality of the persons, was not alittle surprised at the present. 

Becket, who, by his complaisance and good humor, had rendered himselfagreeable, and by his industry and abilities useful, to his master, appeared to him the fittest person for supplying the vacancy made by thedeath of Theobold. As he was well acquainted with the king's intentionsof retrenching, or rather confining within the ancient bounds, allecclesiastical privileges, and always showed a ready disposition tocomply with them, Henry, who never expected any resistance from thatquarter, immediately issued orders for electing him archbishop ofCanterbury. But this resolution, which was taken contrary to the opinionof Matilda, and many of the ministers, drew after it very unhappyconsequences; and never prince of so great penetration appeared, inthe issue, to have so little understood the genius and character of hisminister. 

No sooner was Becket installed in this high dignity, which renderedhim for life the second person in the kingdom, with some pretensionsof aspiring to be the first, than he totally altered his demeanor andconduct, and endeavored to acquire the character of sanctity, of whichhis former busy and ostentatious course of life might, in the eyes ofthe people, have naturally bereaved him. Without consulting the king, he immediately returned into his hands the commission of chancellor;pretending that he must thenceforth detach himself from secular affairs, and be solely employed in the exercise of his spiritual function; but inreality, that he might break off all connections with Henry, and apprisehim that Becket, as primate of England, was now become entirely a newpersonage. He maintained, in his retinue and attendants alone, hisancient pomp and lustre, which was useful to strike the vulgar; inhis own person he affected the greatest austerity and most rigidmortification, which he was sensible would have an equal or a greatertendency to the same end. He wore sackcloth next his skin, which, by hisaffected care to conceal it, was necessarily the more remarked by allthe world: he changed it so seldom, that it was filled with dirtand vermin: his usual diet was bread; his drink water, which he evenrendered further unpalatable by the mixture of unsavory herbs: he torehis back with the frequent discipline which he inflicted on it: hedaily on his knees washed, in imitation of Christ, the feet of thirteenbeggars, whom he afterwards dismissed with presents: he gained theaffections of the monks by his frequent charities to the convents andhospitals: every one who made profession of sanctity, was admitted tohis conversation, and returned full of panegyrics on the humility, aswell as on the piety and mortification, of the holy primate: he seemedto be perpetually employed in reciting prayers and pious lectures, orin perusing religious discourses: his aspect wore the appearance ofseriousness, and mental recollection, and secret devotion; and all menof penetration plainly saw that he was meditating some great design, and that the ambition and ostentation of his character had turned itselftowards a new and a more dangerous object. 

{1163. } Becket waited not till Henry should commence those projectsagainst the ecclesiastical power, which he knew had been formed by thatprince: he was himself the aggressor, and endeavored to overawe the kingby the intrepidity and boldness of his enterprises. He summoned the earlof Clare to surrender the barony of Tunbridge, which, ever since theconquest, had remained in the family of that nobleman, but which, as ithad formerly belonged to the see of Canterbury, Becket pretended hispredecessors were prohibited by the canons to alienate. The earl ofClare, besides the lustre which he derived from the greatness of his ownbirth and the extent of his possessions, was allied to all the principalfamilies in the kingdom; his sister, who was a celebrated beauty, hadfurther extended his credit among the nobility and was even supposed tohave gained the king's affections; and Becket could not better discover, than by attacking so powerful an interest, his resolution of maintainingwith vigor the rights, real or pretended, of his see. 

William de Eynsford, a military tenant of the crown, was patron ofa living which belonged to a manor that held of the archbishop ofCanterbury; but Becket, without regard to William's right, presented, on a new and illegal pretext, one Laurence to that living, who wasviolently expelled by Eynsford. The primate, making himself, as wasusual in spiritual courts, both judge and party, issued in a summarymanner the sentence of excommunication against Eynsford, who complainedto the king, that he, who held "in capite" of the crown, should, contrary to the practice established by the Conqueror, and maintainedever since by his successors, be subjected to that terrible sentencewithout the previous consent of the sovereign. Henry, who had now brokenoff all personal intercourse with Becket, sent him, by a messenger, hisorders to absolve Eynsford; but received for answer, that it belongednot for the king to inform him whom he should absolve and whomexcommunicate; and it was not till after many remonstrances and menacesthat Becket, though with the worst grace imaginable, was induced tocomply with the royal mandate. 

Henry, though he found himself thus grievously mistaken in the characterof the person whom he had promoted to the primacy, determined not todesist from his former intention of retrenching clerical usurpations. Hewas entirely master of his extensive dominions: the prudence and vigorof his administration, attended with perpetual success, had raised hischaracter above that of any of his predecessors: the papacy seemed tobe weakened by a schism which divided all Europe; and he rightly judgedthat, if the present favorable opportunity were neglected, the crownmust, from the prevalent superstition of the people, be in danger offalling into entire subordination under the mitre. 

The union of the civil and ecclesiastical power serves extremely, inevery civilized government, to the maintenance of peace and order; andprevents those mutual encroachments which, as there can be no ultimatejudge between them, are often attended with the most dangerousconsequences Whether the supreme magistrate who unites these powersreceives the appellation of prince or prelate, is not material. The superior weight which temporal interests commonly bear in theapprehensions of men above spiritual, renders the civil part of hischaracter most prevalent; and in time prevents those gross imposturesand bigoted persecutions which, in all false religions, are thechief foundation of clerical authority. But during the progress ofecclesiastical usurpations, the state, by the resistance of the civilmagistrate, is naturally thrown into convulsions; and it behoves theprince, both for his own interest and for that of the public, to providein time sufficient barriers against so dangerous and insidious a rival. This precaution had hitherto been much neglected in England, as well asin other Catholic countries; and affairs at last seemed to have come toa dangerous crisis: a sovereign of the greatest abilities was now onthe throne: a prelate of the most inflexible and intrepid character waspossessed of the primacy: the contending powers appeared to be armedwith their full force and it was natural to expect some extraordinaryevent to result from their conflict. 

Among their other inventions to obtain money, the clergy had inculcatedthe necessity of penance as an atonement for sin; and having againintroduced the practice of paying them large sums as a commutation, orspecies of atonement for the remission of those penances, the sins ofthe people, by these means, had become a revenue to the priests; and theking computed, that by this invention alone they levied more money uponhis subjects than flowed, by all the funds and taxes, into the royalexchequer. That he might ease the people of so heavy and arbitraryan imposition, Henry required that a civil officer of his appointmentshould be present in all ecclesiastical courts, and should, for thefuture, give his consent to every composition which was made withsinners for their spiritual offences. 

The ecclesiastics in that age had renounced all immediate subordinationto the magistrate: they openly pretended to an exemptior, in criminalaccusations, from a trial before courts of justice; and were graduallyintroducing a like exemption in civil causes: spiritual penalties alonecould be inflicted on their offences; and as the clergy had extremelymultiplied in England, and many of them were consequently of very lowcharacters, crimes of the deepest dye--murders, robberies, adulteries, rapes--were daily committed with impunity by the ecclesiastics. Ithad been found, for instance, on inquiry, that no less than a hundredmurders had, since the king's accession, been perpetrated by men of thatprofession, who had never been called to account for these offences; andholy orders were become a full protection for all enormities. A clerkin Worcestershire, having debauched a gentleman's daughter, had, atthis time, proceeded to murder the father; and the general indignationagainst this crime moved the king to attempt the remedy of an abusewhich was become so palpable, and to require that the clerk should bedelivered up, and receive condign punishment from the magistrate. Becketinsisted on the privileges of the church; confined the criminal inthe bishop's prison, lest he should be seized by the king's officers;maintained that no greater punishment could be inflicted on him thandegradation; and when the king demanded that, immediately after he wasdegraded, he should be tried by the civil power, the primate assertedthat it was iniquitous to try a man twice upon the same accusation, andfor the same offence. 

Henry, laying hold of so plausible a pretence, resolved to push theclergy with regard to all their privileges, which they had raised toan enormous height, and to determine at once those controversies whichdaily multiplied between the civil and the ecclesiastical jurisdictions. He summoned an assembly of all the prelates in England; and he putto them this concise and decisive question, whether or not they werewilling to submit to the ancient laws and customs of the kingdom? Thebishops unanimously replied, that they were willing, "saving their ownorder;" a device by which they thought to elude the present urgencyof the king's demand, yet reserve to themselves, on a favorableopportunity, the power of resuming all their pretensions. The king wassensible of the artifice, and was provoked to the highest indignation. He left the assembly with visible marks of his displeasure: he requiredthe primate instantly to surrender the honors and castles of Eye andBerkham: the bishops were terrified, and expected still further effectsof his resentment. Becket alone was inflexible; and nothing but theinterposition of the pope's legate and almoner, Philip, who dreaded abreach with so powerful a prince at so unseasonable a juncture, couldhave prevailed on him to retract the saving clause, and give a generaland absolute promise of observing the ancient customs. 

But Henry was not content with a declaration in these general terms; heresolved, ere it was too late, to define expressly those customs withwhich he required compliance, and to put a stop to clerical usurpations, before they were fully consolidated, and could plead antiquity, as theyalready did a sacred authority, in their favor. The claims of the churchwere open and visible. After a gradual and insensible progress duringmany centuries, the mask had at last been taken off, and severalecclesiastical councils, by their canons, which were pretended to beirrevocable and infallible, had positively defined those privileges andimmunities which gave such general offence, and appeared so dangerousto the civil magistrate. Henry, therefore, deemed it necessary to definewith the same precision the limits of the civil power; to opposehis legal customs to their divine ordinances; to determine the exactboundaries of the rival jurisdictions; and for this purpose he summoneda general council of the nobility and prelates at Clarendon, to whom hesubmitted this great and important question. [15th Jan. 1164. ]

The barons were all gained to the king's party, either by the reasonswhich he urged, or by his superior authority. The bishops were overawedby the general combination against them; and the following laws, commonly called the "Constitutions of Clarendon, " were voted withoutopposition by this assembly. It was enacted, that all suits concerningthe advowson and presentation of churches should be determined in thecivil courts: that the churches, belonging to the king's fee, should notbe granted in perpetuity without his consent; that clerks, accusedof any crime, should be tried in the civil courts: that no person, particularly no clergyman of any rank, should depart the kingdom withoutthe king's license: that excommunicated persons should not be bound togive security for continuing in their present place of abode: that laicsshould not be accused in spiritual courts, except by legal and reputablepromoters and witnesses: that no chief tenant of the crown should beexcommunicated, nor his lands be put under an interdict, except with theking's consent: that all appeals in spiritual causes should be carriedfrom the archdeacon to the bishop, from the bishop to the primate, fromhim to the king; and should be carried no farther without the king'sconsent: that if any lawsuit arose between a layman and a clergymanconcerning a tenant, and it be disputed whether the land be a lay oran ecclesiastical fee, it should first be determined by the verdict oftwelve lawful men to what class it belonged; and if it be found to bea lay fee, the cause should finally be determined in the civilcourts: that no inhabitant in demesne should be excommunicated fornon-appearance in a spiritual court, till the chief officer of theplace where he resides be consulted, that he may compel him by the civilauthority to give satisfaction to the church: that the archbishops, bishops, and other spiritual dignitaries, should be regarded as baronsof the realm; should possess the privileges and be subjected to theburdens belonging to that rank; and should be bound to attend the kingin his great councils, and assist at all trials, till the sentence, either of death or loss of members, be given against the criminal: thatthe revenue of vacant sees should belong to the king; the chapter, orsuch of them as he pleases to summon, should sit in the king's chapeltill they made the new election with his consent, and that the bishopelect should do homage to the crown: that if any baron or tenant "incapite" should refuse to submit to the spiritual courts, the king shouldemploy his authority in obliging him to make such submissions; if anyof them throw off his allegiance to the king, the prelates should assistthe king with their censures in reducing him: that goods forfeited tothe king should not be protected in churches or churchyards: that theclergy should no longer pretend to the right of enforcing payment ofdebts contracted by oath or promise; but should leave these lawsuits, equally with others, to the determination of the civil courts; and thatthe sons of villains should not be ordained clerks, without the consentof their lord. 

These articles, to the number of sixteen, were calculated to prevent thechief abuses which had prevailed in ecclesiastical affairs, and to putan effectual stop to the usurpations of the church, which, graduallystealing on, had threatened the total destruction of the civil power. Henry, therefore, by reducing those ancient customs of the realm towriting, and by collecting them in a body, endeavored to preventall future dispute with regard to them; and by passing so manyecclesiastical ordinances in a national and civil assembly, he fullyestablished the superiority of the legislature above all papal decreesor spiritual canons, and gained a signal victory over the ecclesiastics. But as he knew that the bishops, though overawed by the presentcombination of the crown and the barons, would take the firstfavorable opportunity of denying the authority which had enacted theseconstitutions, he resolved that they should all set their seal to them, and give a promise to observe them. None of the prelates dared to opposehis will, except Becket, who, though urged by the earls of Cornwall andLeicester, the barons of principal authority in the kingdom, obstinatelywithheld his assent. At last, Richard de Hastings, grand prior of thetemplars in England, threw himself on his knees before him, and withmany tears entreated him, if he paid any regard either to his own safetyor that of the church, not to provoke, by a fruitless opposition, theindignation of a great monarch, who was resolutely bent on his purpose, and who was determined to take full revenge on every one that shoulddare to oppose him. Becket, finding himself deserted by all theworld, even by his own brethren, was at last obliged to comply; and hepromised, "legally, with good faith, and without fraud or reserve, "to observe the constitutions; and he took an oath to that purpose. The king, thinking that he had now finally prevailed in this greatenterprise, sent the constitutions to Pope Alexander, who then residedin France; and he required that pontiff's ratification of them; butAlexander, who, though he had owed the most important obligations tothe king, plainly saw that these laws were calculated to establish theindependency of England on the papacy, and of the royal power on theclergy, condemned them in the strongest terms; abrogated, annulled, andrejected them. There were only six articles, the least important, which, for the sake of peace, he was willing to ratify. 

Becket, when he observed that he might hope for support in anopposition, expressed the deepest sorrow for his compliance; andendeavored to engage all the other bishops in a confederacy to adhere totheir common rights, and to the ecclesiastical privileges, in which herepresented the interest and honor of God to be so deeply concerned. Heredoubled his austerities in order to punish himself for his criminalassent to the constitutions of Clarendon: he proportioned his disciplineto the enormity of his supposed offence: and he refused to exercise anypart of his archiepiscopal function, till he should receive absolutionfrom the pope, which was readily granted him. Henry, informed of hispresent dispositions, resolved to take vengeance for this refractorybehavior; and he attempted to crush him by means of that very powerwhich Becket made such merit in supporting. He applied to the popethat he should grant the commission of legate in his dominions to thearchbishop of York; but Alexander, as politic as he, though he grantedthe commission, annexed a clause, that it should not empower the legateto execute any act in prejudice of the archbishop of Canterbury: and theking, finding how fruitless such an authority would prove, sent back thecommission by the same messenger that brought it. 

The primate, however, who found himself still exposed to the king'sindignation, endeavored twice to escape secretly from the kingdom; butwas as often detained by contrary winds: and Henry hastened to makehim feel the effects of an obstinacy which he deemed so criminal. He instigated John, mareschal of the exchequer, to sue Becket in thearchiepiscopal court for some lands, part of the manor of Pageham; andto appeal thence to the king's court for justice. On the day appointedfor trying the cause, the primate sent four knights to represent certainirregularities in John's appeal; and at the same time to excuse himself, on account of sickness, for not appearing personally that day in thecourt. This slight offence (if it even deserve the name) was representedas a grievous contempt; the four knights were menaced, and withdifficulty escaped being sent to prison, as offering falsehoods to thecourt;[*] [18] and Henry, being determined to prosecute Becket to theutmost, summoned at Northampton a great council, which he purposed tomake the instrument of his vengeance against the inflexible prelate. 

[* See note R, at the end of the volume. ]

The king had raised Becket from a low station to the highest offices, had honored him with his countenance and friendship, had trusted to hisassistance in forwarding his favorite project against the clergy; andwhen he found him become of a sudden his most rigid opponent, whileevery one beside complied with his will, rage at the disappointment, andindignation against such signal ingratitude, transported him beyond allbounds of moderation; and there seems to have entered more of passionthan of justice, or even of policy, in this violent prosecution. Thebarons, notwithstanding, in the great council voted whatever sentencehe was pleased to dictate to them; and the bishops themselves, whoundoubtedly bore a secret favor to Becket, and regarded him as thechampion of their privileges, concurred with the rest in the design ofoppressing their primate. In vain did Becket urge that his courtwas proceeding with the utmost regularity and justice in trying themareschal's cause; which, however, he said, would appear, from thesheriff's testimony, to be entirely unjust and iniquitous: that hehimself had discovered no contempt of the king's court; but, on thecontrary, by sending four knights to excuse his absence, had virtuallyacknowledged its authority: that he also, in consequence of the king'ssummons, personally appeared at present in the great council, ready tojustify his cause against the mareschal, and to submit his conduct totheir inquiry and jurisdiction: that even should it be found that hehad been guilty of non-appearance, the laws had affixed a very slightpenalty to that offence; and that as he was an inhabitant of Kent, wherehis archiepiscopal palace was seated, he was by law entitled to somegreater indulgence than usual in the rate of his fine. Notwithstandingthese pleas, he was condemned as guilty of a contempt of the king'scourt, and as wanting in the fealty which he had sworn to his sovereign;all his goods and chattels were confiscated; and that this triumph overthe church might be carried to the utmost, Henry, bishop of Winchester, the prelate who had been so powerful in the former reign, was in spiteof his remonstrances, obliged, by order of the court, to pronounce thesentence against him. The primate submitted to the decree; and all theprelates, except Folliot, bishop of London, who paid court to the kingby this singularity, became sureties for him. It is remarkable, thatseveral Norman barons voted in this council; and we may conclude, withsome probability, that a like practice had prevailed in many of thegreat councils summoned since the conquest. For the contemporaryhistorian, who has given us a full account of these transactions, doesnot mention this circumstance as anywise singular; and Becket, in allhis subsequent remonstrances with regard to the severe treatment whichhe had met with, never founds any objection on an irregularity, which tous appears very palpable and flagrant. So little precision was there atthat time in the government and constitution!

The king was not content with this sentence, however violent andoppressive. Next day he demanded of Becket the sum of three hundredpounds, which the primate had levied upon the honors of Eye and Berkham, while in his possession. Becket, after premising that he was not obligedto answer to this suit, because it was not contained in his summons;after remarking that he had expended more than that sum in the repairsof those castles, and of the royal palace at London, expressed, however, his resolution, that money should not be any ground of quarrel betweenhim and his sovereign; he agreed to pay the sum, and immediately gavesureties for it. In the subsequent meeting, the king demanded fivehundred marks, which, he affirmed, he had lent Becket during the war atToulouse; and another sum to the same amount, for which that prince hadbeen surety for him to a Jew. Immediately after these two claims, hepreferred a third, of still greater importance; he required him to givein the accounts of his administration while chancellor, and to paythe balance due from the revenues of all the prelacies, abbeys, and baronies, which had, during that time, been subjected to hismanagement. [*] Becket observed that, as this demand was totallyunexpected, he had not come prepared to answer it; but he required adelay, and promised in that case to give satisfaction. The king insistedupon sureties; and Becket desired leave to consult his suffragans in acase of such importance. [**]

It is apparent, from the known character of Henry, and from the usualvigilance of his government, that, when he promoted Becket to the seeof Canterbury, he was, on good grounds, well pleased with hisadministration in the former high office with which he had intrustedhim; and that, even if that prelate had dissipated money beyond theincome of his place, the king was satisfied that his expenses were notblamable, and had in the main been calculated for his service. [***] Twoyears had since elapsed; no demand had during that time been madeupon him; it was not till the quarrel arose concerning ecclesiasticalprivileges, that the claim was started, and the primate was, of asudden, required to produce accounts of such intricacy and extent beforea tribunal which had shown a determined resolution to ruin and oppresshim. To find sureties that he should answer so boundless and uncertaina claim, which in the king's estimation amounted to forty-four thousandmarks, [****] was impracticable; and Becket's suffragans were extremelyat a loss what counsel to give him in such a critical emergency. By theadvice of the bishop of Winchester he offered two thousand marks as ageneral satisfaction for all demands; but this offer was rejected by theking, [*****] Some prelates exhorted him to resign his see, on conditionof receiving an acquittal; others were of opinion that he ought tosubmit himself entirely to the king's mercy;[******] but the primate, thus pushed to the utmost, had too much courage to sink underoppression; he determined to brave all his enemies, to trust to thesacredness of his character for protection, to involve his cause withthat of God and religion, and to stand the utmost efforts of royalindignation. 

 [* Hoveden, p. 494. Diceto, p. 537. ]

 [** Fitz-Steph. P. 38]

 [*** Hoveden, p. 495. ]

 [**** Epist. St. Thorn, p. 315]

 [***** Fitz-Steph. P. 38. ]

 [****** Fitz-Steph. P. 39. Gervase, p. 1390. ]

After a few days spent in deliberation Becket went to church, and saidmass, where he had previously ordered that the entroit to the communionservice should begin with these words, "Princes sat and spake againstme;" the passage appointed for the martyrdom of St. Stephen, whom theprimate thereby tacitly pretended to resemble in his sufferings for thesake of righteousness. He went thence to court arrayed in his sacredvestments: as soon as he arrived within the palace gate, he took thecross into his own hands, bore it aloft as his protection, and marchedin that posture into the royal apartments. [*] The king, who was in aninner room, was astonished at this parade, by which the primate seemedto menace him and his court with the sentence of excommunication; andhe sent some of the prelates to remonstrate with him on account ofsuch audacious behavior. These prelates complained to Becket, that, bysubscribing himself to the constitutions of Clarendon, he had seducedthem to imitate his example; and that now, when it was too late, he pretended to shake off all subordination to the civil power, andappeared desirous of involving them in the guilt which must attend anyviolation of those laws, established by their consent and ratified bytheir subscriptions. [**]

 [* Fitz-Steph. P. 40. Hist. Quad. P. 53 Hoveden, p. 404. Gul Neubr. P. 394. Epist. St. Thom. P. 43. ]

 [** Fitz-Steph p. 35]

Becket replied, that he had indeed subscribed the constitutions ofClarendon, "legally, with good faith, and without fraud or reserve;"but in these words was virtually implied a salvo for the rights of theirorder, which, being connected with the cause of God and his church, could never be relinquished by their oaths and engagements: that if heand they had erred in resigning the ecclesiastical privileges, the bestatonement they could now make was to retract their consent, whichin such a case could never Be obligatory, and to follow the pope'sauthority, who had solemnly annulled the constitutions of Clarendon, andhad absolved them from all oaths which they had taken to observe them:that a determined resolution was evidently embraced to oppress thechurch; the storm had first broken upon him; for a slight offence, andwhich too was falsely imputed to him, he had been tyrannically condemnedto a grievous penalty; a new and unheard-of claim was since started, in which he could expect no justice; and he plainly saw that he wasthe destined victim, who, by his ruin, must prepare the way for theabrogation of all spiritual immunities: that he strictly prohibitedthem who were his suffragans from assisting at any such trial, or givingtheir sanction to any sentence against him; he put himself and his seeunder the protection of the supreme pontiff; and appealed to him againstany penalty which his iniquitous judges might think proper to inflictupon him; and that, however terrible the indignation of so great amonarch as Henry, his sword could only kill the body; while that of thechurch, intrusted into the hands of the primate, could kill the soul, and throw the disobedient into infinite and eternal perdition. [*]

Appeals to the pope, even in ecclesiastical causes, had been abolishedby the constitutions of Clarendon, and were become criminal by law butan appeal in a civil cause, such as the king's demand upon Becket, wasa practice altogether new and unprecedented; it tended directly to thesubversion of the government, and could receive no color of excuse, except from the determined resolution, which was but too apparent toHenry and the great council, to effectuate, without justice, but undercolor of law, the total ruin of the inflexible primate. The king, havingnow obtained a pretext so much more plausible for his violence, wouldprobably have pushed the affair to the utmost extremity against him;but Becket gave him no leisure to conduct the prosecution. He refusedso much as to hear the sentence which the barons, sitting apart from thebishops, and joined to some sheriffs and barons of the second rank, [**]had given upon the king's claim; he departed from the palace; askedHenry's immediate permission to leave Northampton; and upon meeting witha refusal, he withdrew secretly, wandered about in disguise for sometime, and at last took shipping and arrived safely at Gravelines. 

 [* Fitz-Steph. P. 42, 44, 45, 46. Hist. Quad. P. 57. Hoveden, p. 495, M. Paris, p. 72. Epist. St. Thorn, p. 45, 195. ]

 [** Fitz-Steph. P. 46. This historian is supposed to mean the more considerable vassals of the chief barons: these had no title to sit in the great council, and the giving them a place there was a palpable irregularity; which, however, is not insisted on in any of Becket's remonstrances: a further proof how little fixed the constitution was at that time. ]

The violent and unjust prosecution of Becket had a natural tendency toturn the public favor on his side, and to make men overlook his formeringratitude towards the king and his departure from all oaths andengagements, as well as the enormity of those ecclesiastical privileges, of which he affected to be the champion. There were many other reasonswhich procured him countenance and protection in foreign countries. Philip, earl of Flanders, [*] and Lewis, king of France, [**] jealous ofthe rising greatness of Henry, were well pleased to give him disturbancein his government; and forgetting that this was the common cause ofprinces, they affected to pity extremely the condition of the exiledprimate; and the latter even honored him with a visit at Soissons, inwhich city he had invited him to fix his residence. [***]

 [* Epist. St Thom. P. 35. ]

 [** Epist. St. Thom. P. 36, 37. ]

 [*** Hist. Quad. P. 76. ]

The pope, whose interests were more immediately concerned in supportinghim, gave a cold reception to a magnificent embassy which Henry sentto accuse him; while Becket himself, who had come to Sens in order tojustify his cause before the sovereign pontiff was received with thegreatest marks of distinction. The king in revenge, sequesteredthe revenues of Canterbury; and by conduct which might be esteemedarbitrary, had there been at that time any regular check on royalauthority, he banished all the primate's relations and domestics, tothe number of four hundred, whom he obliged to swear, before theirdeparture, that they would instantly join their patron. But this policy, by which Henry endeavored to reduce Becket sooner to necessity, lost itseffect; the pope, when they arrived beyond sea, absolved them from theiroath, and distributed them among the convents in Franc? and Flanders;a residence was assigned to Becket himself, in the convent of Pontigny, where he lived for some years in great magnificence, partly froma pension granted him on the revenues of that abbey, partly fromremittances made him by the French monarch. 

{1165. } The more to ingratiate himself with the pope, Becket resignedinto his hands the see of Canterbury, to which, he affirmed, he hadbeen uncanonically elected, by the authority of the royal mandate; andAlexander, in his turn, besides investing him anew with that dignity, pretended to abrogate by a bull, the sentence which the great councilof England had passed against him. Henry, after attempting in vain toprocure a conference with the pope, who departed soon after for Rome, whither the prosperous state of his affairs now invited him, madeprovisions against the consequences of that breach which impendedbetween his kingdom and the apostolic see. He issued orders to hisjusticiaries, inhibiting, under severe penalties, all appeals to thepope or archbishop, forbidding any one to receive any mandates fromthem, or apply in any case to their authority; declaring it treasonableto bring from either of them an interdict upon the kingdom, andpunishable in secular clergymen, by the loss of their eyes and bycastration, in regulars by amputation of their feet, and in laieswith death; and menacing with sequestration and banishment the personsthemselves, as well as their kindred, who should pay obedience to anysuch interdict; and he further obliged all his subjects to swear tothe observance of those orders. [*] These were edicts of the utmostimportance, affected the lives and properties of all the subjects, andeven changed, for the time, the national religion, by breaking off allcommunication with Rome; yet were they enacted by the sole authority ofthe king, and were derived entirely from his will and pleasure. 

The spiritual powers, which, in the primitive church, were, in a greatmeasure, dependent on the civil, had, by a gradual progress, reachedan equality and independence; and though the limits of the twojurisdictions were difficult to ascertain or define, it was notimpossible but, by moderation on both sides, government might still havebeen conducted in that imperfect and irregular manner which attendsall human institutions But as the ignorance of the age encouraged theecclesiastics daily to extend their privileges, and even to advancemaxims totally incompatible with civil government, [**] Henry had thoughtit high time to put an end to their pretensions, and formally, in apublic council, to fix those powers which belonged to the magistrate, and which he was for the future determined to maintain. In this attempthe was led to reestablish customs which, though ancient, were beginningto be abolished by a contrary practice, and which were still morestrongly opposed by the prevailing opinions and sentiments of the age. 

 [* Hist. Quad. P. 88, 167. Hoveden, p. 496. M. Paris, p. 73, ]

 [** "Quis dubitet, " says Becket to the king, "sacerdotes Christi legum et principum omniumque fidelium patres et magistros censeri, " Epist. St. Thom. 97, 148. ]

Principle, therefore, stood on the one side, power on the other; andif the English had been actuated by conscience more than by presentinterest, the controversy must soon, by the general defection of Henry'ssubjects, have been decided against him, Becket, in order to forwardthis event, filled all places with exclamations against the violencewhich he had suffered. He compared himself to Christ, who had beencondemned by a lay tribunal, [*] and who was crucified anew in thepresent oppressions under which his church labored: he took it forgranted, as a point incontestable, that his cause was the cause ofGod:[**] he assumed the character of champion for the patrimony of thedivinity: he pretended to be the spiritual father of the king and allthe people of England:[***] he even told Henry that kings reign solelyby the authority of the church, [****] and though he had thus torn offthe veil more openly on the one side than that prince had on the other, he seemed still, from the general favor borne him by the ecclesiastics, to have all the advantage in the argument. The king, that he mightemploy the weapons of temporal power remaining in his hands, suspendedthe payment of Peter's pence; he made advances towards an alliance withthe emperor Frederic Barbarossa, who was at that time engaged in violentwars with Pope Alexander; he discovered some intentions of acknowledgingPascal III. , the present antipope, who was protected by that emperor;and by these expedients he endeavored to terrify the enterprising thoughprudent pontiff from proceeding to extremities against him. 

{1166. } But the violence of Becket, still more than the nature of thecontroversy, kept affairs from remaining long in suspense betweenthe parties. That prelate, instigated by revenge, and animated by thepresent glory attending his situation, pushed matters to a decision, andissued a censure excommunicating the king's chief ministers by name, and comprehending in general all those who favored or obeyed theconstitutions of Clarendon: these constitutions he abrogated andannulled; he absolved all men from the oaths which they had taken toobserve them; and he suspended the spiritual thunder over Henry himselfonly that the prince might avoid the blow by a timely repentance. [*****]

 [* Epist. St. Thom. P. 63, 105, 194. ]

 [** Epist St. Thom. P. 29, 30, 31, 226. ]

 [*** Fitz-Steph. P. 46. Epist. St. Thom. P. 52, 148. ]

 [**** Brady's Append. No. 56. Epist. St. Thom. P. 94, 95, 97, 99, 197. Roveden, p, 497. ]

 [***** Fitz-Steph. P. 56. Hist. Quad. P. 93. M. Paris, p. 74. Beaulieu. Vie de St. Thom. P. 213. Erzst. St. Thom. P. 149, 229. Hoveden p. 499. ]

The situation of Henry was so unhappy, that he could employ no expedientfor saving his ministers from this terrible censure, but by appealing tothe pope himself, and having recourse to a tribunal whose authority hehad himself attempted to abridge in this very article of appeals, andwhich he knew was so deeply engaged on the side of his adversary. Buteven this expedient was not likely to be long effectual. Becket hadobtained from the pope a legantine commission over England; and invirtue of that authority, which admitted of no appeal, he summoned thebishops of London, Salisbury, and others to attend him, and ordered, under pain of excommunication, the ecclesiastics, sequestered on hisaccount, to be restored in two months to all their benefices. But Johnof Oxford, the king's agent with the pope, had the address to procureorders for suspending this sentence; and he gave the pontiff such hopesof a speedy reconcilement between the king and Becket, that two legates, William of Pavia and Otho, were sent to Normandy, where the king thenresided, and they endeavored to find expedients for that purpose. Butthe pretensions of the parties were as yet too opposite to admit of anaccommodation: the king required that all the constitutions of Clarendonshould be ratified; Becket, that previously to any agreement, he and hisadherents should be restored to their possessions; and as the legateshad no power to pronounce a definite sentence on either side, thenegotiation soon after came to nothing. The cardinal of Pavia also, being much attached to Henry, took care to protract the negotiation;to mitigate the pope by the accounts which he sent of that prince'sconduct, and to procure him every possible indulgence from the seeof Rome. About this time, the king had also the address to obtain adispensation for the marriage of his third son, Geoffrey, with theheiress of Brittany; a concession which, considering Henry's demeritstowards the church, gave great scandal both to Becket, and to hiszealous patron, the king of France. 

{1167. } The intricacies of the feudal law had, in that age, rendered theboundaries of power between the prince and his vassals, and betweenone prince and another, as uncertain as those between the crown and themitre; and all wars took their origin from disputes, which, had therebeen any tribunal possessed of power to enforce their decrees, oughtto have been decided only before a court of judicature. Henry, inprosecution of some controversies in which he was involved with thecount of Auvergne, a vassal of the duchy of Guienne, bad invaded theterritories of that nobleman; who had recourse to the king of France, his superior lord, for protection, and thereby kindled a war betweenthe two monarchs. Bur the war was, as usual, no less feeble in itsoperations than it wail frivolous in its cause and object; and afteroccasioning some mutual depredations, [*] and some insurrections amongthe barons of Poictou and Guienne, was terminated by a peace. The termsof this peace were rather disadvantageous to Henry, and prove thatthat prince had, by reason of his contest with the church, lost thesuperiority which he had hitherto maintained over the crown of France;an additional motive to him for accommodating those differences. 

The pope and the king began at last to perceive that, in the presentsituation of affairs, neither of them could expect a final and decisivevictory over the other, and that they had more to fear than to hope fromthe duration of the controversy. Though the vigor of Henry's governmenthad confirmed his authority in all his dominions, his throne might beshaken by a sentence of excommunication; and if England itself could, by its situation, be more easily guarded against the contagionof superstitious prejudices, his French provinces at least, whosecommunication was open with the neighboring states, would be muchexposed, on that account, to some great revolution or convulsion, He could not, therefore, reasonably imagine that the pope, whilehe retained such a check upon him, would formally recognize theconstitutions of Clarendon, which both put an end to papal pretensionsin England, [**] and would give an example to other states of asserting alike independency. [***]

 [* Hoveden, p. 517. M. Paris, p. 75. Diecto, p. 547 p. 1402, 1403. Robert de Monte. ]

 [** Epist. St. Thom, p. 230. ]

 [*** Epist. St. Thom, p. 276. ]

Pope Alexander, on the other hand, being still engaged in dangerous warswith the emperor Frederic, might justly apprehend that Henry, ratherthan relinquish claims of such importance, would join the party ofhis enemy; and as the trials hitherto made of the spiritual weaponsby Becket had not succeeded to his expectation, and every thing hadremained quiet in all the king's dominions, nothing seemed impossibleto the capacity and vigilance of so great a monarch. The dispositionof minds on both sides, resulting from these circumstances, producedfrequent attempts towards an accommodation; but as both parties knewthat the essential articles of the dispute could not then be terminated, they entertained a perpetual jealousy of each other, and were anxiousnot to lose the least advantage in the negotiation. The nuncios, Gratianand Vivian, having received a commission to endeavor a reconciliation, met with the king in Normandy; and after all differences seemed to beadjusted, Henry offered to sign the treaty, with a salvo to his royaldignity; which gave such umbrage to Becket, that the negotiation in theend became fruitless, and the excommunications were renewed against theking's ministers. Another negotiation was conducted at Montmirail, inpresence of the king of France and the French prelates where Becket alsooffered to make his submissions, with a salvo to the honor of God andthe liberties of the church; which, for a like reason, was extremelyoffensive to the king, and rendered the treaty abortive, {1169. } Athird conference, under the same mediation, was broken off, by Becket'sinsisting on a like reserve in his submissions; and even in a fourthtreaty, when all the terms were adjusted, and when the primate expectedto be introduced to the king, and to receive the kiss of peace, which itwas usual for princes to grant in those times, and which was regardedas a sure pledge of forgiveness, Henry refused him that honor, underpretence that, during his anger, he had made a rash vow to that purpose. This formality served, among such jealous spirits, to prevent theconclusion of the treaty; and though the difficulty was attempted to beovercome by a dispensation which the pope granted to Henry from his vow, that prince could not be pre vailed on to depart from the resolutionwhich he had taken. 

In one of these conferences, at which the French king was present, Henrysaid to that monarch, "There have been many kings of England, some ofgreater, some of less authority than myself: there have also been manyarchbishops of Canterbury, holy and good men, and entitled to every kindof respect: let Becket but act towards me with the same submission whichthe greatest of his predecessors have paid to the least of mine, andthere shall be no controversy between us. " Lewis was so struck withthis state of the case, and with an offer which Henry made to submithis cause to the French clergy, that he could not forbear condemning theprimate, and withdrawing his friendship from him during some time; butthe bigotry of that prince, and their common animosity against Henry, soon produced a renewal of their former good correspondence. 

{1170. } All difficulties were at last adjusted between the parties; andthe king allowed Becket to return, on conditions which may be esteemedboth honorable and advantageous to that prelate. He was not requiredto give up any rights of the church, or resign any of those pretensionswhich had been the original ground of the controversy. It was agreedthat all these questions should be buried in oblivion; but that Becketand his adherents should, without making further submission, be restoredto all their livings, and that even the possessors of such beneficesas depended on the see of Canterbury and had been filled during theprimate's absence, should be expelled, and Becket have liberty to supplythe vacancies. [*] In return for concessions which intrenched so deeplyon the honor and dignity of the crown, Henry reaped only the advantageof seeing his ministers absolved from the sentence of excommunicationpronounced against them, and of preventing the interdict, which, ifthese hard conditions had not been complied with, was ready to be laidon all his dominions. [**] It was easy to see how much he dreaded thatevent, when a prince of so high a spirit could submit to termsso dishonorable, in order to prevent it. So anxious was Henry toaccommodate all differences, and to reconcile himself fully with Becket, that he took the most extraordinary steps to flatter his vanity, andeven on one occasion humiliated himself so far as to hold the stirrup ofthat haughty prelate while he mounted. [***]

 [* Fitz-Steph. P. 68, 69. Hoveden, p. 520. ]

 [** Hist Quad. P. 104. Brompton, p, 1062. Gervase, p. 1408, Epist. St. Thom. 704, 705, 706, 707, 792, 793, 794. Benedict. Abbas p. 70. ]

 [*** Epist. 45, lib. R]

But the king attained not even that temporary tranquillity which he hadhoped to reap from these expedients. During the heat of his quarrel withBecket, while he was every day expecting an interdict to be laid on hiskingdom, and a sentence of excommunication to be fulminated againsthis person, he had thought it prudent to have his son. Prince Henry, associated with him in the royalty, and to make him be crowned king, by the hands of Roger, archbishop of York. By this precaution, he bothinsured the succession of that prince, which, considering the manypast irregularities in that point, could not but be esteemed somewhatprecarious; and he preserved at least his family on the throne, if thesentence of excommunication should have the effect which he dreaded, andshould make his subjects renounce their allegiance to him. Though hisdesign was conducted with expedition and secrecy, Becket, before it wascarried into execution, had got intelligence of it, and being desirousof obstructing all Henry's measures, as well as anxious to prevent thisaffront to himself, who pretended to the sole right, as archbishop ofCanterbury, to officiate in the coronation, he had inhibited all theprelates of England from assisting at this ceremony, had procured fromthe pope a mandate to the same purpose, and had incited the king ofFrance to protest against the coronation of young Henry, unless theprincess, daughter of that monarch, should at the same time receive theroyal unction. There prevailed in that age an opinion which was akinto its other superstitions, that the royal unction was essential to theexercise of royal power: it was therefore natural, both for the king ofFrance, careful of his daughter's establishment and for Becket, jealous of his own dignity, to demand, in the treaty with Henry, somesatisfaction in this essential point. Henry, after apologizing to Lewisfor the omission with regard to Margaret, and excusing it on account ofthe secrecy and despatch requisite for conducting that measure, promisedthat the ceremony should be renewed in the persons both of the princeand princess; and he assured Becket, that besides receiving theacknowledgments of Roger and the other bishops for the seemingaffront put on the see of Canterbury, the primate should, as a furthersatisfaction, recover his rights by officiating in this coronation. Butthe violent spirit of Becket, elated by the power of the church, and bythe victory which he had already obtained over his sovereign, was notcontent with this voluntary compensation, but resolved to make theinjury, which he pretended to have suffered, a handle for taking revengeon all his enemies. On his arrival in England, he met the archbishop ofYork and the bishops of London and Salisbury, who were on their journeyto the king in Normandy. He notified to the archbishop the sentence ofsuspension, and to the two bishops that of excommunication, which, athis solicitation, the pope had pronounced against them. Reginald deWarrenne and Gervase de Cornhill, two of the king's ministers, whowere employed on their duty in Kent, asked him, on hearing of this boldattempt whether he meant to bring fire and sword into the kingdom. Butthe primate, heedless of the reproof, proceeded in the most ostentatiousmanner to take possession of his diocese in Rochester and all thetowns through which he passed, he was received with the shouts andacclamations of the populace. As he approached Southwark, the clergy, the laity, men of all ranks and ages, came forth to meet him, andcelebrated with hymns of joy his triumphant entrance. And though hewas obliged, by order of the young prince, who resided at Woodstock, to return to his diocese, he found that he was not mistaken, when hereckoned upon the highest veneration of the public towards his personand his dignity. He proceeded, therefore, with the more courage todart his spiritual thunders. He issued the sentence of excommunicationagainst Robert de Broc and Nigel de Sackville, with many others, whoeither had assisted at the coronation of the prince, or been activein the late persecution of the exiled clergy. This violent measure, bywhich he, in effect, denounced war against the king himself, is commonlyascribed to the vindictive disposition and imperious character ofBecket; but as this prelate was also a man of acknowledged abilities, weare not in his passions alone to look for the cause of his conduct, whenhe proceeded to these extremities against his enemies. His sagacity hadled him to discover all Henry's intentions; and he proposed, by thisbold and unexpected assault, to prevent the execution of them. 

The king, from his experience of the dispositions of his people, wasbecome sensible that his enterprise had been too bold, in establishingthe constitutions of Clarendon, in defining all the branches of royalpower, and in endeavoring to extort from the church of England, as wellas from the pope, an express avowal of these disputed prerogatives. Conscious also of his own violence in attempting to break or subdue theinflexible primate, he was not displeased to undo that measure which hadgiven his enemies such advantage against him, and he was contented thatthe controversy should terminate in that ambiguous manner, which wasthe utmost that princes, in those ages, could hope to attain in theirdisputes with the see of Rome. Though he dropped for the presentthe prosecution of Becket, he still reserved to himself the right ofmaintaining, that the constitutions of Clarendon, the original groundof the quarrel, were both the ancient customs and the present law ofthe realm; and though he knew that the papal clergy asserted them tobe impious in themselves, as well as abrogated by the sentence of thesovereign pontiff, he intended, in spite of their clamors, steadily toput those laws in execution, and to trust to his own abilities, and tothe course of events, for success in that perilous enterprise. He hopedthat Becket's experience of a six years' exile would, after his pridewas fully gratified by his restoration, be sufficient tc teach him morereserve in his opposition; or if any controversy arose, he expectedthenceforth to engage in a more favorable cause, and to maintain withadvantage, while the primate was now in his power, the ancient andundoubted customs of the kingdom against the usurpations of the clergy. But Becket, determined not to betray the ecclesiastical privileges byhis connivance, and apprehensive lest a prince of such profound policy, if allowed to proceed in his own way, might probably in the end prevail, resolved to take all the advantage which his present victory gave him, and to disconcert the cautious measures of the king, by the vehemenceand rigor of his own conduct. Assured of support from Rome, he waslittle intimidated by dangers which his courage taught him to despise, and which, even if attended with the most fatal consequences, wouldserve only to gratify his ambition and thirst of glory. 

When the suspended and excommunicated prelates arrived at Baieux, wherethe king then resided, and complained to him of the violent proceedingsof Becket, he instantly perceived the consequences; was sensible thathis whole plan of operations was overthrown; foresaw that the dangerouscontest between the civil and spiritual powers, a contest which hehimself had first roused, but which he had endeavored, by all his latenegotiations and concessions, to appease, must come to an immediateand decisive issue; and he was thence thrown into the most violentcommotion. The archbishop of York remarked to him, that so long asBecket lived, he could never expect to enjoy peace or tranquillity. Theking himself, being vehemently agitated, burst forth into an exclamationagainst his servants, whose want of zeal, he said, had so long left himexposed to the enterprises of that ungrateful and imperious prelate. Four gentlemen of his household, Reginald Fitz-Urse, William deTraci, Hugh de Moreville, and Richard Brito, taking these passionateexpressions to be a hint for Becket's death, immediately communicatedtheir thoughts to each other; and swearing to avenge their prince'squarrel secretly withdrew from court. Some menacing expressions whichthey had dropped, gave a suspicion of their design; and the kingdespatched a messenger after them, charging them to attempt nothingagainst the person of the primate; but these orders arrived too lateto prevent their fatal purpose. The four assassins, though they tookdifferent roads to England, arrived nearly about the same time atSaltwoode, near Canterbury; and being there joined by some assistants, they proceeded in a great haste to the archiepiscopal palace. They foundthe primate, who trusted entirely to the sacredness of his character, very slenderly attended; and though they threw out many menaces andreproaches against him, he was so incapable of fear, that, withoutusing any precautions against their violence, he immediately went to St. Benedict's church, to hear vespers. They followed him thither, attackedhim before the altar, and having cloven his head with many blows, retired without meeting any opposition. This was the tragical end ofThomas à Becket, a prelate of the most lofty, intrepid, and inflexiblespirit, who was able to cover to the world, and probably to himself, theenterprises of pride and ambition, under the disguise of sanctity, and of zeal for the interests of religion; an extraordinary personage, surely, had he been allowed to remain in his first station, and haddirected the vehemence of his character to the support of law andjustice; instead of being engaged, by the prejudices of the times, tosacrifice all private duties and public connections to ties which heimagined, or represented, as superior to every civil and politicalconsideration. But no man, who enters into the genius of that age, canreasonably doubt of this prelate's sincerity. The spirit of superstitionwas so prevalent, that it infallibly caught every careless reasoner, much more every one whose interest, and honor, and ambition were engagedto support it. All the wretched literature of the times was enlisted onthat side. Some faint glimmerings of common sense might sometimes piercethrough the thick cloud of ignorance, or, what was worse, the illusionsof perverted science, which had blotted out the sun, and enveloped theface of nature; but those who preserved themselves untainted by thegeneral contagion, proceeded on no principles which they could pretendto justify; they were more indebted to their total want of instructionthan to their knowledge, if they still retained some share ofunderstanding; folly was possessed of all the schools as well as all thechurches; and her votaries assumed the garb of philosophers, togetherwith the ensigns of spiritual dignities. Throughout that largecollection of letters which bears the name of St. Thomas, we find, inall the retainers of that aspiring prelate, no less than in himself, amost entire and absolute conviction of the reason and piety of their ownparty, and a disdain of their antagonists; nor is there less cant andgrimace in their style, when they address each other, than when theycompose manifestoes for the perusal of the public. The spirit ofrevenge, violence, and ambition which accompanied their conduct, insteadof forming a presumption of hypocrisy, are the surest pledges of theirsincere attachment to a cause which so much flattered these domineeringpassions. 

Henry, on the first report of Becket's violent measures, had purposedto have him arrested, and had already taken some steps towards theexecution of that design; but the intelligence of his murder threw theprince into great consternation; and he was immediately sensible ofthe dangerous consequences which he had reason to apprehend from sounexpected an event. An archbishop of reputed sanctity assassinatedbefore the altar, in the exercise of his functions, and on accountof his zeal in maintaining ecclesiastical privileges, must attain thehighest honors of martyrdom; while his murderer would be ranked amongthe most bloody tyrants that ever were exposed to the hatred anddetestation of mankind. Interdicts and excommunications, weapons inthemselves so terrible, would, he foresaw, be armed with double force, when employed in a cause so much calculated to work on the humanpassions, and so peculiarly adapted to the eloquence of popularpreachers and declaimers. In vain would he plead his own innocence, andeven his total ignorance of the fact; he was sufficiently guilty, ifthe church thought proper to esteem him such; and his concurrence inBecket's martyrdom, becoming a religious opinion, would be received withall the implicit credit which belonged to the most established articlesof faith. These considerations gave the king the most unaffectedconcern; and as it was extremely his interest to clear himself from allsuspicion, he took no care to conceal the depth of his affliction. Heshut himself up from the light of day, and from all commerce with hisservants; he even refused, during three days, all food and sustenance;the courtiers, apprehending dangerous effects from his despair wereat last obliged to break in upon his solitude; and they employed everytopic of consolation, induced him to accept of nourishment, and occupiedhis leisure in taking precautions against the consequences which he sojustly apprehended from the murder of the primate. 

{1171. } The point of chief importance to Henry was to convince the popeof his innocence; or rather, to persuade him that he would reap greateradvantages from the submissions of England than from proceeding toextremities against that kingdom. The archbishop of Rouen, the bishopsof Worcester and Evreux, with five persons of inferior quality, wereimmediately despatched to Rome, and orders were given them to performtheir journey with the utmost expedition. Though the name and authorityof the court of Rome were so terrible in the remote countries of Europe, which were sunk in profound ignorance, and were entirely unacquaintedwith its character and conduct, the pope was so little revered at home, that his inveterate enemies surrounded the gates of Rome itself, andeven controlled his government in that city; and the ambassadors, who, from a distant extremity of Europe, carried to him the humble, or ratherabject submissions of the greatest potentate of the age, found theutmost difficulty to make their way to him and to throw themselvesat his feet. It was at length agreed that Richard Barre, one of theirnumber, should leave the rest behind, and run all the hazards of thepassage, in order to prevent the fatal consequences which might ensuefrom any delay in giving satisfaction to his holiness. He found, onhis arrival, that Alexander was already wrought up to the greatest rageagainst the king, that Becket's partisans were daily stimulating him torevenge, that the king of France had exhorted him to fulminate the mostdreadful sentence against England, and that the very mention of Henry'sname before the sacred college, was received with every expression ofhorror and execration. 

The Thursday before Easter was now approaching, when it is customary forthe pope to denounce annual curses against all his enemies; and it wasexpected that Henry should, with all the preparations peculiar to thedischarge of that sacred artillery, be solemnly comprehended in thenumber. But Barre found means to appease the pontiff, and to deter himfrom a measure which, if it failed of success, could not afterwards beeasily recalled: the anathemas were only levelled in general against allthe actors, accomplices and abettors of Becket's murder. The abbot ofValasse, and the archdeacons of Salisbury and Lisieux, with othersof Henry's ministers, who soon after arrived, besides asserting theirprince's innocence, made oath before the whole consistory, that he wouldstand to the pope's judgment in the affair, and make every submissionthat should be required of him. The terrible blow was thus artfullyeluded; the cardinals Albert and Theodin were appointed legates toexamine the cause, and were ordered to proceed to Normandy for thatpurpose; and though Henry's foreign dominions were already laid underan interdict by the archbishop of Sens, Becket's great partisan, and thepope's legate in France, the general expectation that the monarch wouldeasily exculpate himself from any concurrence in the guilt, kept everyone in suspense, and prevented all the bad consequences which might bedreaded from that sentence. 

The clergy, meanwhile, though their rage was happily diverted fromfalling on the king, were not idle in magnifying the sanctity of Becket, in extolling the merits of his martyrdom, and in exalting him above allthat devoted tribe who, in several ages, had, by their blood, cementedthe fabric of the temple. Other saints had only borne testimony by theirsufferings to the general doctrines of Christianity; but Becket hadsacrificed his life to the power and privileges of the clergy; and thispeculiar merit challenged, and not in vain, a suitable acknowledgment tohis memory. Endless were the panegyrics on his virtues; and the miracleswrought by his relics were more numerous, more nonsensical, and moreimpudently attested than those which ever filled the legend of anyconfessor or martyr. Two years after his death, he was canonized by PopeAlexander; a solemn jubilee was established for celebrating his merits;his body was removed to a magnificent shrine, enriched with presentsfrom all parts of Christendom; pilgrimages were performed to obtain hisintercession with Heaven, and it was computed, that in one year abovea hundred thousand pilgrims arrived in Canterbury, and paid theirdevotions at his tomb. It is indeed a mortifying reflection to thosewho are actuated by the love of fame, so justly denominated the lastinfirmity of noble minds, that the wisest legislator and most exaltedgenius that ever reformed or enlightened the world, can never expectsuch tributes of praise an are lavished on the memory of pretendedsaints, whose whole conduct was probably to the last degree odious orcontemptible, and whose industry was entirely directed to the pursuitof objects pernicious to mankind. It is only a conqueror, a personage noless entitled to our hatred, who can pretend to the attainment of equalrenown and glory. 

It may not be amiss to remark, before we conclude this subject of Thomasà Becket, that the king, during his controversy with that prelate, was on every occasion more anxious than usual to express his zeal forreligion, and to avoid all appearance of a profane negligence on thathead. He gave his consent to the imposing of a tax on all his dominions, for the delivery of the Holy Land, now threatened by the famous Saladme: this tax amounted to twopence a pound for one year, and a penny apound for the four subsequent. [*] Almost all the princes of Europelaid a like imposition on their subjects, which received the name ofSaladine's tax. During this period there came over from Germany aboutthirty heretics of both sexes, under the direction of one Gerard, simple, ignorant people, who could give no account of their faith, butdeclared themselves ready to suffer for the tenets of their master. Theymade only one convert in England, a woman as ignorant as themselves; yetthey gave such umbrage to the clergy, that they were delivered over tothe secular arm, and were punished by being burned on the forehead, and then whipped through the streets. They seemed to exult in theirsufferings, and as they went along sung the beatitude, "Blessed are ye, when men hate you and persecute you. "[**]

 [* Gervase, p. 1399. M. Paris, p. 74. ]

 [** Neubr. P. 391. M. Pang, p. 74. Heining. P. 494. ]

After they were whipped, they were thrust out almost naked in the midstof winter, and perished through cold and hunger; no one daring, orbeing willing, to give them the least relief. We are ignorant of theparticular tenets of these people; for it would be imprudent to rely onthe representations left of them by the clergy, who affirm, that theydenied the efficacy of the sacraments and the unity of the church. It isprobable that their departure from the standard of orthodoxy was stillmore subtile and minute. They seem to have been the first that eversuffered for heresy in England. 

As soon as Henry found that he was in no immediate danger from thethunders of the Vatican, he undertook an expedition against Ireland; adesign which he had long projected, and by which he hoped to recover hiscredit, somewhat impaired by his late transactions with the hierarchy. 

CHAPTER IX. 

HENRY II. 

{1172. } As Britain was first peopled from Gaul, so was Ireland probablyfrom Britain; and the inhabitants of all these countries seem to havebeen so many tribes of the Celtae, who derive their origin from anantiquity that lies far beyond the records of any history or tradition. The Irish, from the beginning of time, had been buried in the mostprofound barbarism and ignorance; and as they were never conquered oreven invaded by the Romans, from whom all the western world derived itscivility, they continued still in the most rude state of society, andwere distinguished by those vices alone, to which human nature, nottamed by education or restrained by laws, is forever subject. The smallprincipalities into which they were divided, exercised perpetual rapineand violence against each other: the uncertain succession of theirprinces was a continual source of domestic convulsions; the usual titleof each petty sovereign was the murder of his predecessor; courage andforce, though exercised in the commission of crimes, were more honoredthan any pacific virtues; and the most simple arts of life, even tillageand agriculture, were almost wholly unknown among them. They had feltthe invasions of the Danes and the other northern tribes; but theseinroads, which had spread barbarism in other parts of Europe, tendedrather to improve the Irish; and the only towns which were to be foundin the island, had been planted along the coast by the freebooters ofNorway and Denmark. The other inhabitants exercised pasturage in theopen country, sought protection from any danger in their forests andmorasses, and being divided by the fiercest animosities against eachother, were still more intent on the means of mutual injury than on theexpedients for common or even for private interest. 

Besides many small tribes, there were in the age of Henry II. Fiveprincipal sovereignties in the island, Minister, Leinster Meath, Ulster, and Connaught; and as it had been usual for the one or the other ofthese to take the lead in their wars, there was commonly some prince, who seemed, for the time, to act as monarch of Ireland. RodericO'Connor, king of Connaught, was then advanced to this dignity;[*] buthis government, ill obeyed even within his own territory, could notunite the people in any measures, either for the establishment of order, or for defence against foreigners. 

 [* Hoveden, p. 527]

The ambition of Henry had, very early in his reign, been moved, by theprospect of these advantages, to attempt the subjecting of Ireland;and a pretence was only wanting to invade a people who, being alwaysconfined to their own island, had never given any reason of complaint toany of their neighbors. For this purpose he had recourse to Rome, whichassumed a right to dispose of kingdoms and empires; and not foreseeingthe dangerous disputes which he was one day to maintain with that see, he helped, for present, or rather for an imaginary convenience, to givesanction to claims which were now become dangerous to all sovereigns. Adrian III. , who then filled the papal chair, was by birth anEnglishman; and being on that account the more disposed to oblige Henry, he was easily persuaded to act as master of the world, and to make, without any hazard or expense, the acquisition of a great island to hisspiritual jurisdiction. The Irish had, by precedent missions from theBritons, been imperfectly converted to Christianity; and, what the poperegarded as the surest mark of their imperfect conversion, they followedthe doctrines of their first teachers, and had never acknowledged anysubjection to the see of Rome. Adrian, therefore, in the year 1156issued a bull in favor of Henry; in which, after premising that thisprince had ever shown an anxious care to enlarge the church of God onearth, and to increase the number of his saints and elect in heaven, herepresents his design of subduing Ireland as derived from the same piousmotives: he considers his care of previously applying for theapostolic sanction as a sure earnest of success and victory; and havingestablished it as a point incontestable, that all Christian kingdomsbelong to the patrimony of St. Peter, he acknowledges it to be his ownduty to sow among them the seeds of the gospel, which might in the lastday fructify to their eternal salvation: he exhorts the king to invadeIreland, in order to extirpate the vice and wickedness of the natives, and oblige them to pay yearly, from every house a penny to the see ofRome: he gives him entire right and authority over the island, commandsall the inhabitants to obey him as their sovereign, and invests withfull power all such godly instruments as he should think proper toemploy in an enterprise thus calculated for the glory of God andthe salvation of the souls of men. [*] Henry, though armed with thisauthority, did not immediately put his design in execution; but beingdetained by more interesting business on the continent, waited for afavorable opportunity of invading Ireland. Dermot Macmorrogh, king ofLeinster, had, by his licentious tyranny, rendered himself odious to hissubjects, who seized with alacrity the first occasion that offered ofthrowing off the yoke, which was become grievous and oppressive to them. This prince had formed a design on Dovergilda, wife of Ororic, princeof Breffny; and taking advantage of her husband's absence, who, beingobliged to visit a distant part of his territory, had left his wifesecure, as he thought, in an island surrounded by a bog, he suddenlyinvaded the place, and carried off the princess. [**] This exploit, though usual among the Irish, and rather deemed a proof of gallantryand spirit, [***] provoked the resentment of the husband; who, havingcollected forces, and being strengthened by the alliance of Roderic, king of Connaught, invaded the dominions of Dermot, and expelled him hiskingdom. The exiled prince had recourse to Henry, who was at this timein Guienne, craved his assistance in restoring him to his sovereignty, and offered, on that event, to hold his kingdom in vassalage under thecrown of England. Henry, whose views were already turned towards makingacquisitions in Ireland, readily accepted the offer; but being at thattime embarrassed by the rebellions of his French subjects, as well asby his disputes with the see of Rome, he declined, for the present, embarking in the enterprise, and gave Dermot no further assistance thanletters patent, by which he empowered all his subjects to aid the Irishprince in the recovery of his dominions. [****]

 [* M. Paris, p. 67. Girali. Camltr. Spel. Concil. Vol. Ii. P. 51. Rymer, vol. I. P. 15. ]

 [** Girald. Cambr. P. 760]

 [*** Spencer, vol. Vi. ]

 [**** Girald. Cambr. P. 760]

Dermot, supported by this authority, came to Bristol; and afterendeavoring, though for some time in vain, to engage adventurers in theenterprise, he at last formed a treaty with Richard, surnamed Strongbow, earl of Strigul. This nobleman, who was of the illustrious house ofClare, had impaired his fortune by expensive pleasures; and being readyfor any desperate undertaking, he promised assistance to Dermot, oncondition that he should espouse Eva, daughter of that prince, and bedeclared heir to all his dominions. While Richard was assembling hissuccors, Dermot went into Wales; and meeting with Robert Fitz-Stephens, constable of Abertivi, and Maurice Fitz-Gerald he also engaged them inhis service, and obtained their promise of invading Ireland. Being nowassured of succor, he returned privately to his own state; and lurkingin the monastery of Fernes, which he had founded, (for this ruffianwas also a founder of monasteries, ) he prepared every thing for thereception of his English allies. 

The troops of Fitz-Stephens were first ready. That gentleman landed inIreland with thirty knights, sixty esquires, and three hundred archers;but this small body, being brave men, not unacquainted with discipline, and completely armed, --a thing almost unknown in Ireland, --struck agreat terror into the barbarous inhabitants, and seemed to menace themwith some signal revolution. The conjunction of Maurice de Prendergast, who, about the same time, brought over ten knights and sixty archers, enabled Fitz-Stephens to attempt the siege of Wexford, a town inhabitedby the Danes; and after gaining an advantage, he made himself masterof the place. Soon after, Fitz-Gerald arrived with ten knights, thirty esquires, and a hundred archers; and being joined by the formeradventurers, composed a force which nothing in Ireland was able towithstand. Roderic, the chief monarch of the island, was foiled indifferent actions: the prince of Ossory was obliged to submit, and givehostages for his peaceable behavior; and Dermot, not content withbeing restored to his kingdom of Leinster, projected the dethroning ofRoderic, and aspired to the sole dominion over the Irish. 

In prosecution of these views, he sent over a messenger to the earl ofStrigul, challenging the performance of his promise, and displayingthe mighty advantages which might now be reaped by a reënforcement ofwarlike troops from England. Richard, not satisfied with the generalallowance given by Henry to all his subjects, went to that prince, then in Normandy, and having obtained a cold or ambiguous permission, prepared himself for the execution of his designs. He first sent overRaymond, one of his retinue, with ten knights and seventy archers, who, landing near Waterford, defeated a body of three thousand Irish thathad ventured to attack him, and as Richard himself, who brought overtwo hundred horse and a body of archers, joined, a few days after, the victorious English, they made themselves masters of Waterford, andproceeded to Dublin, which was taken by assault. Roderic, in revenge, cut off the head of Dermot's natural son, who had been left as a hostagein his hands; and Richard, marrying Eva, became soon after, by the deathof Dermot, master of the kingdom of Leinster, and prepared to extend hisauthority over all Ireland. Roderic, and the other Irish princes, werealarmed at the danger; and combining together, besieged Dublin with anarmy of thirty thousand men; but Earl Richard, making a sudden sally atthe head of ninety knights with their followers, put this numerousarmy to rout, chased them off the field, and pursued them with greatslaughter. None in Ireland now dared to oppose themselves to theEnglish. 

Henry, jealous of the progress made by his own subjects, sent orders torecall all the English, and he made preparations to attack Ireland inperson; but Richard and the other adventurers found means to appeasehim, by making him the most humble submissions, and offering to holdall their acquisitions in vassalage to his crown. That monarch landed inIreland at the head of five hundred knights, besides other soldiers;he found the Irish so dispirited by their late misfortunes, that, in aprogress which he made through the island, he had no other occupationthan to receive the homage of his new subjects. He left most of theIrish chieftains or princes in possession of their ancient territories;bestowed some lands on the English adventurers; gave Earl Richard thecommission of seneschal of Ireland; and after a stay of a few months, returned in triumph to England. By these trivial exploits, scarcelyworth relating, except for the importance of the consequences, wasIreland subdued, and annexed to the English crown. 

The low state of commerce and industry during those ages made itimpracticable for princes to support regular armies, which might retaina conquered country in subjection; and the extreme barbarism and povertyof Ireland could still less afford means of bearing the expense. The only expedient by which a durable conquest could then be made ormaintained, was by pouring in a multitude of new inhabitants, dividingamong them the lands of the vanquished, establishing them in all officesof trust and authority, and thereby transforming the ancient inhabitantsinto a new people. By this policy the northern invaders of old, and oflate the duke of Normandy, had been able to fix their dominions, andto erect kingdoms which remained stable on their foundations, and weretransmitted to the posterity of the first conquerors. But the state ofIreland rendered that island so little inviting to the English, thatonly a few of desperate fortunes could be persuaded, from time to time, to transport themselves thither; and instead of reclaiming the nativesfrom their uncultivated manners, they were gradually assimilated tothe ancient inhabitants, and degenerated from the customs of theirown nation. It was also found requisite to bestow great military andarbitrary powers on the leaders, who commanded a handful of men amidstsuch hostile multitudes; and law and equity, in a little time, became asmuch unknown in the English settlements, as they had ever been among theIrish tribes. Palatinates were erected in favor of the new adventurers;independent authority conferred; the natives, never fully subdued, still retained their animosity against the conquerors; their hatred wasretaliated by like injuries; and from these causes the Irish, during thecourse of four centuries, remained still savage and untractable: it wasnot till the latter end of Elizabeth's reign, that the island was fullysubdued; nor till that of her successor, that it gave hopes of becominga useful conquest to the English nation. 

Besides that the easy and peaceable submission of the Irish left Henryno further occupation in that island, he was recalled from it by anotherincident, which was of the last importance to his interest and safety. The two legates, Albert and Theodin, to whom was committed the trialof his conduct in the murder of Archbishop Becket, were arrived inNormandy; and being impatient of delay, sent him frequent letters, fullof menaces, if he protracted any longer making his appearance beforethem. He hastened therefore to Normandy, and had a conference with themat Savigny, where their demands were so exorbitant, that he broke offthe negotiation, threatened to return to Ireland, and bade them dotheir worst against him. They perceived that the season was now pastfor taking advantage of that tragical incident; which, had it been hotlypursued by interdicts and excommunications, was capable of throwingthe whole kingdom into combustion. But the time which Henry had happilygained, had contributed to appease the minds of men; the event couldnot now have the same influence as when it was recent; and as theclergy every day looked for an accommodation with the king, they had notopposed the pretensions of his partisans, who had been very industriousin representing to the people his entire innocence in the murder of theprimate, and his ignorance of the designs formed by the assassins. Thelegates, therefore, found themselves obliged to lower their terms; andHenry was so fortunate as to conclude an accommodation with them. Hedeclared upon oath, before the relics of the saints, that so far fromcommanding or desiring the death of the arch bishop, he was extremelygrieved when he received intelligence of it; but as the passion whichhe had expressed on account of that prelate's conduct, had probably beenthe occasion of his murder, he stipulated the following conditions as anatonement for the offence. He promised, that he should pardon all suchas had been banished for adhering to Becket, and should restore them totheir livings; that the see of Canterbury should be reinstated in allits ancient possessions; that he should pay the templars a sum of moneysufficient for the subsistence of two hundred knights during a year inthe Holy Land; that he should himself take the cross at the Christmasfollowing, and, if the pope required it, serve three years against theinfidels, either in Spain or Palestine; that he should not insist on theobservance of such customs derogatory to ecclesiastical privileges, ashad been introduced in his own time; and that he should not obstructappeals to the pope in ecclesiastical causes, but should content himselfwith exacting sufficient security from such clergymen as left hisdominions to prosecute an appeal, that they should attempt nothingagainst the rights of his crown. Upon signing these concessions, Henryreceived absolution from the legates, and was confirmed in the grant ofIreland made by Pope Adrian; and nothing proves more strongly the greatabilities of this monarch than his extricating himself on such easyterms from so difficult a situation. He had always insisted, that thelaws established at Clarendon contained not any new claims, butthe ancient customs of the kingdom; and he was still at liberty, notwithstanding the articles of this agreement, to maintain hispretensions. Appeals to the pope were indeed permitted by that treaty;but as the king was also permitted to exact reasonable securities fromthe parties, and might stretch his demands on this head as far as hepleased, he had it virtually in his power to prevent the pope fromreaping any advantage by this seeming concession. And on the whole, theconstitutions of Clarendon remained still the law of the realm; thoughthe pope and his legates seem so little to have conceived the king'spower to lie under any legal limitations, that they were satisfied withhis departing, by treaty, from one of the most momentous articles ofthese constitutions, without requiring any repeal by the states of thekingdom. 

Henry, freed from this dangerous controversy with the ecclesiastics andwith the see of Rome, seemed now to have reached the pinnacle of humangrandeur and felicity, and to be equally happy in his domestic situationand in his political government. A numerous progeny of sons anddaughters gave both lustre and authority to his crown, prevented thedanger of a disputed succession, and repressed all pretensions ofthe ambitious barons. The king's precaution also, in establishing theseveral branches of his family, seemed well calculated to prevent alljealousy among the brothers, and to perpetuate the greatness of hisfamily. He had appointed Henry, his eldest son, to be his successorin the kingdom of England, the duchy of Normandy, and the counties ofAnjou, Maine, and Touraine; territories which lay contiguous, and which, by that means, might easily lend to each other mutual assistance bothagainst intestine commotions and foreign invasions. Richard, hissecond son, was invested in the duchy of Guienne and county of Poictou;Geoffrey, his third son, inherited, in right of his wife, the duchy ofBrittany, and the new conquest of Ireland was destined for the appanageof John, his fourth son. He had also negotiated, in favor of this lastprince, a marriage with Adelais, the only daughter of Humbert, countof Savoy and Maurienne; and was to receive as her dowry considerabledemesnes in Piedmont, Savoy, Bresse, and Dauphiny. But this exaltationof his family excited the jealousy of all his neighbors, who made thosevery sons, whose fortunes he had so anxiously established, the means ofimbittering his future life, and disturbing his government. 

Young Henry, who was rising to man's estate, began to display hischaracter, and aspire to independence: brave, ambitious, liberal, munificent, affable: he discovered qualities which give great lustre toyouth; prognosticate a shining fortune; but, unless tempered in matureage with discretion, are the forerunners of the greatest calamities. Itis said that at the time when this prince received the holy unction, hisfather, in order to give greater dignity to the ceremony, officiated attable as one of the retinue; and observed to his son that never king wasmore royally served. "It is nothing extraordinary, " said young Henry toone of his courtiers, "if the son of a count should serve the son of aking. " This saying, which might pass only for an innocent pleasantry, oreven for an oblique compliment to his father, was, however, regarded asa symptom of his aspiring temper; and his conduct soon after justifiedthe conjecture. 

{1173. } Henry, agreeable to the promise which he had given both to thepope and French king, permitted his son to be crowned anew by the handsof the archbishop of Rouen, and associated the Princess Margaret, spouseto young Henry, in the ceremony. [*] He afterwards allowed him to paya visit to his father-in-law at Paris, who took the opportunity ofinstilling into the young prince those ambitious sentiments to which hewas naturally but too much inclined. 

 [* Hoveden, p. 529. Diceto, p. 560. Brompton, p. 1080. Gervase, p. 1421. Trivet, p. 58. It appears from Madox's History of the Exchequer, that silk garments were then known in England, and that the coronation robes of the young king and queen cost eighty-seven pounds ten shillings and fourpence, money of that age. ]

Though it had been the constant practice of France, ever since theaccession of the Capetian line, to crown the son during the lifetimeof the father without conferring on him any present participation ofroyalty; Lewis persuaded his son-in-law, that, by this ceremony, whichin those ages was deemed so important, he had acquired a title tosovereignty, and that the king could not, without injustice, excludehim from immediate possession of the whole, or at least a part of hisdominions. In consequence of these extravagant ideas, young Henry, on his return, desired the king to resign to him either the crown ofEngland or the duchy of Normandy; discovered great discontent on therefusal; spake in the most undutiful terms of his father; and soonafter, in concert with Lewis, made his escape to Paris, where he wasprotected and supported by that monarch. 

While Henry was alarmed at this incident, and had the prospect ofdangerous intrigues, or even of a war, which, whether successful ornot, must be extremely calamitous and disagreeable to him, he receivedintelligence of new misfortunes, which must have affected him in themost sensible manner. Queen Eleanor, who had disgusted her first husbandby her gallantries, was no less offensive to her second by her jealousy;and after this manner carried to extremity, in the different periods ofher life, every circumstance of female weakness. She communicated herdiscontents against Henry to her two younger sons, Geoffrey and Richard;persuaded them that they were also entitled to present possession of theterritories assigned to them; engaged them to fly secretly to the courtof France; and was meditating herself an escape to the same court, andhad even put on man's apparel for that purpose, when she was seized byorders from her husband, and thrown into confinement. Thus Europe sawwith astonishment the best and most indulgent of parents at war withhis whole family; three boys, scarcely arrived at the age of puberty, require a great monarch, in the full vigor of his age and height of hisreputation, to dethrone himself in their favor; and several princes notashamed to support them in these unnatural and absurd pretensions. 

Henry, reduced to this perilous and disagreeable situation, had recourseto the court of Rome. Though sensible of the danger attending theinterposition of ecclesiastical authority in temporal disputes, heapplied to the pope, as his superior lord, to excommunicate his enemies, and by these censures to reduce to obedience his undutiful children, whom he found such reluctance to punish by the sword of themagistrate. [*] Alexander, well pleased to exert his power in sojustifiable a cause, issued the bulls required of him; but it was soonfound, that these spiritual weapons had not the same force as whenemployed in a spiritual controversy; and that the clergy were verynegligent in supporting a sentence which was nowise calculated topromote the immediate interests of their order. The king, after takingin vain this humiliating step, was obliged to have recourse to arms, and to enlist such auxiliaries as are the usual resource of tyrants, andhave seldom been employed by so wise and just a monarch. 

The loose government which prevailed in all the states of Europe, themany private wars carried on among the neighboring nobles, and theimpossibility of enforcing any general execution of the laws, hadencouraged a tribe of banditti to disturb every where the public peace, to infest the highways, to pillage the open country, and to brave allthe efforts of the civil magistrate, and even the excommunications ofthe church, which were fulminated against them. Troops of them weresometimes enlisted in the service of one prince or baron, sometimesin that of another: they often acted in an independent manner, underleaders of their own; the peaceable and industrious inhabitants, reducedto poverty by their ravages, were frequently obliged for subsistence tobetake themselves to a like disorderly course of life; and a continualintestine war, pernicious to industry, as well as to the executionof justice, was thus carried on in the bowels of every kingdom. Thosedesperate ruffians received the name sometimes of Brabançons, sometimesof Routiers or Cottereaux; but for what reason is not agreed byhistorians; and they formed a kind of society or government amongthemselves, which set at defiance the rest of mankind. The greatestmonarchs were not ashamed, on occasion, to have recourse to theirassistance; and as their habits of war and depredation had given themexperience, hardiness, and courage, they generally composed the mostformidable part of those armies which decided the political quarrelsof princes. Several of them were enlisted among the forces levied byHenry's enemies; but the great treasures amassed by that prince enabledhim to engage more numerous troops of them in his service; and thesituation of his affairs rendered even such banditti the only forces onwhose fidelity he could repose any confidence. 

 [* Epist. Petri Bles. Epist. 136, in Biblioth. Patr. Tom. Xxiv. P. 1048. His words are, "Vestrae jurisdictionis est regnum Angliæ, et quantum ad feudatorii juris obligationem, vobis duntaxat obnoxius teneor. " The same strange paper is in Rymer, vol. I. P. 35, and Trivet, vol. I. P. 62. ]

His licentious barons, disgusted with a vigilant government, were more desirous of being ruled by young princes, ignorant of publicaffairs, remiss in their conduct, and profuse in their grants; and asthe king had insured to his sons the succession to every particularprovince of his dominions, the nobles dreaded no danger in adhering tothose who, they knew, must some time become their sovereigns. Promptedby these motives, many of the Norman nobility had deserted to his sonHenry; the Breton and Gascon barons seemed equally disposed to embracethe quarrel of Geoffrey and Richard. Disaffection had crept in among theEnglish; and the earls of Leicester and Chester in particular had openlydeclared against the king. Twenty thousand Brabançons, therefore, joinedto some troops which he brought over from Ireland, and a few baronsof approved fidelity, formed the sole force with which he intended toresist his enemies. 

Lewis, in order to bind the confederates in a closer union, summonedat Paris an assembly of the chief vassals of the crown, received theirapprobation of his measures, and engaged them by oath to adhere to thecause of young Henry. This prince, in return, bound himself by a liketie never to desert his French allies; and having made a new great seal, he lavishly distributed among them many considerable parts of thoseterritories which he purposed to conquer from his father. The counts ofFlanders, Boulogne, Blois, and Eu, partly moved by the general jealousyarising from Henry's power and ambition, partly allured by the prospectof reaping advantage from the inconsiderate temper and the necessitiesof the young prince, declared openly in favor of the latter. William, king of Scotland, had also entered into this great confederacy; anda plan was concerted for a general invasion on different parts of theking's extensive and factious dominions. 

Hostilities were first commenced by the counts of Flanders and Boulogneon the frontiers of Normandy. Those princes laid siege to Aumale, whichwas delivered into their hands by the treachery of the count of thatname: this nobleman surrendered himself prisoner; and on pretence ofthereby paying his ransom, opened the gates of all his other fortresses. The two counts next besieged and made themselves masters of Drincourt;but the count of Boulogne was here mortally wounded in the assault; andthis incident put some stop to the progress of the Flemish arms. 

In another quarter, the king of France, being strongly assisted by hisvassals, assembled a great army of seven thousand knights and theirfollowers on horseback, and a proportionable number of infantry;carrying young Henry along with him he laid siege to Verneuil, whichwas vigorously defended by Hugh de Lacy and Hugh de Beauchamp, thegovernors. After he had lain a month before the place, the garrison, being straitened for provisions, were obliged to capitulate; and theyengaged, if not relieved within three days, to surrender the town, andto retire into the citadel. On the last of these days, Henry appearedwith his army upon the heights above Verneuil. Lewis, dreading anattack, sent the archbishop of Sens and the count of Blois to theEnglish camp, and desired that next day should be appointed for aconference, in order to establish a general peace, and terminate thedifference between Henry and his sons. The king, who passionatelydesired this accommodation, and suspected no fraud, gave his consent;but Lewis, that morning, obliging the garrison to surrender, accordingto the capitulation, set fire to the place, and began to retire with hisarmy. Henry, provoked at this artifice, attacked the rear with vigor, put them to rout, did some execution, and took several prisoners. TheFrench army, as their time of service was now expired, immediatelydispersed themselves into their several provinces, and left Henry freeto prosecute his advantages against his other enemies. 

The nobles of Brittany, instigated by the earl of Chester and Ralph deFougeres, were all in arms; but their progress was checked by a bodyof Brabançons, which the king, after Lewis's retreat, had sent againstthem. The two armies came to an action near Dol, where the rebels weredefeated, fifteen hundred killed on the spot, and the leaders, the earlsof Chester and Fougeres, obliged to take shelter in the town of Dol. Henry hastened to form the siege of that place, and carried on theattack with such ardor, that he obliged the governor and garrison tosurrender themselves prisoners. By these rigorous measures and happysuccesses, the insurrections were entirely quelled in Brittany; and theking, thus fortunate in all quarters, willingly agreed to a conferencewith Lewis, in hopes that his enemies, finding all their mighty effortsentirely frustrated, would terminate hostilities on some moderate andreasonable conditions. 

The two monarchs met between Trie and Gisofs; and Henry had here themortification to see his three sons in the retinue of his mortal enemy. As Lewis had no other pretence for war than supporting the claims ofthe young princes, the king made them such offers as children might beashamed to insist on, and could be extorted from him by nothing but hisparental affection, or by the present necessity of his affairs. [*] Heinsisted only on retaining the sovereign authority in all his dominions;but offered young Henry half the revenues of England, with some placesof surety in that kingdom; or, if he rather chose to reside in Normandy, half the revenues of that duchy, with all those of Anjou. He made a likeoffer to Richard in Guienne; he promised to resign Brittany to Geoffrey;and if these concessions were not deemed sufficient, he agreed to addto them whatever the pope's legates, who were present, should require ofhim. [**] The earl of Leicester was also present at the negotiation; andeither from the impetuosity of his temper, or from a view of abruptlybreaking off a conference which must cover the allies with confusion, hegave vent to the most violent reproaches against Henry, and he even puthis hand to his sword, as if he meant to attempt some violence againsthim. This furious action threw the whole company into confusion, and putan end to the treaty. [***]

The chief hopes of Henry's enemies seemed now to depend oft the state ofaffairs in England, where his authority was exposed to the most imminentdanger. One article of Prince Henry's agreement with his foreignconfederates was, that he should resign Kent, with Dover, and all itsother fortresses, into the hands of ihe earl of Flanders:[****] yet solittle national or public spirit prevailed among the independent Englishnobility, so wholly bent were they on the aggrandizement each of himselfand his own family, that, notwithstanding this pernicious concession, which must have produced the ruin of the kingdom, the greater part ofthem had conspired to make an insurrection, and to support the prince'spretensions. 

 [* Hoveden, p. 539. ]

 [** Hoveden, p. 536. Brompton, p. 1085. ]

 [*** Hoveden, p. 536. ]

 [**** Hoveden, p. 533. Brompton, p. 1084. Gal. Neubr. P. 508. ]

The king's principal resource lay in the church and the bishops withwhom he was now in perfect agreement; whether that the decency of theircharacter made them ashamed of supporting so unnatural a rebellion, orthat they were entirely satisfied with Henry's atonement for the murderof Becket and for his former invasion of ecclesiastical immunities. Thatprince, however, had resigned none of the essential rights of his crownin the accommodation: he maintained still the same prudent jealousy ofthe court of Rome; admitted no legate into England, without his swearingto attempt nothing against the royal prerogatives; and he had evenobliged the monks of Canterbury, who pretended to a free election on thevacancy made by the death of Becket, to choose Roger, prior of Dover, inthe place of that turbulent prelate. [*]

 [* Hoveden, p. 537. ]

The king of Scotland made an irruption into Northumberland, andcommitted great devastations; but being opposed by Richard de Lucy, whomHenry had left guardian of the realm, he retreated into his own country, and agreed to a cessation of arms. This truce enabled the guardian tomarch southwards with his army, in order to oppose an invasion whichthe earl of Leicester, at the head of a great body of Flemings, had madeupon Suffolk. The Flemings had been joined by Hugh Bigod, who made themmasters of his castle of Framlingham; and marching into the heart of thekingdom, where they hoped to be supported by Leicester's vassals, theywere met by Lucy, who, assisted by Humphry Bohun, the constable, and theearls of Arundel, Glocester, and Cornwall, had advanced to Farnham witha less numerous, but braver army to oppose them. The Flemings, who weremostly weavers and artificers, (for manufactures were now beginning tobe established in Flanders, ) were broken in an instant, ten thousand ofthem were put to the sword, the earl of Leicester was taken prisoner, and the remains of the invaders were glad to compound for a safe retreatinto their own country. 

{1174. } This great defeat did not dishearten the malecontents; who, being supported by the alliance of so many foreign princes, andencouraged by the king's own sons, determined to persevere in theirenterprise. The earl of Ferrars, Roger de Moubray, Archetil de Mallory, Richard de Moreville, Hamo de Mascie, together with many friends of theearls of Leicester and Chester, rose in arms: the fidelity of theearls of Clare and Glocester was suspected; and the guardian, thoughvigorously supported by Geoffrey, bishop of Lincoln, the king's naturalson by the fair Rosamond, found it difficult to defend himself, on allquarters, from so many open and concealed enemies. The more to augmentthe confusion, the king of Scotland, on the expiration of the truce, broke into the northern provinces with a great army[*] of eightythousand men; which, though undisciplined and disorderly, and betterfitted for committing devastation, than for executing any militaryenterprise, was become dangerous from the present factious and turbulentspirit of the kingdom. 

 [* W. Heming. P. 501. ]

Henry, who had baffled all his enemies in France, and had put hisfrontiers in a posture of defence, now found England the seat of danger;and he determined by his presence to overawe the malecontents, or byhis conduct and courage to subdue them. He lauded at Southampton; andknowing the influence of superstition over the minds of the people, he hastened to Canterbury, in order to make atonement to the ashes ofThomas à Becket, and tender his submissions to a dead enemy. As soon ashe came within sight of the church of Canterbury, he dismounted walkedbarefoot towards it, prostrated himself before the shrine of the saint, remained in fasting and prayer during a whole day, and watched all nightthe holy relics. Not content with this hypocritical devotion towardsa man whose violence and ingratitude had so long disquieted hisgovernment, and had been the object of his most inveterate animosity, hesubmitted to a penance still more singular and humiliating. He assembleda chapter of the monks, disrobed himself before them, put a scourge ofdiscipline into the hands of each, and presented his bare shoulders tothe lashes which these ecclesiastics successively inflicted upon him. Next day he received absolution; and, departing for London, got soonafter the agreeable intelligence of a great victory which his generalshad obtained over the Scots, and which, being gained, as was reported, on the very day of his absolution, was regarded as the earnest of hisfinal reconciliation with Heaven and with Thomas a Becket William, king of Scots, though repulsed before the castle of Prudhow, and otherfortified places, had committed the most horrible depredations uponthe northern provinces; but on the approach of Ralph de Glanville, thefamous justiciary, seconded by Bernard de Baliol, Robert de Stuteville, Odonel de Umfreville, William de Vesci, and other northern baronstogether with the gallant bishop of Lincoln, he thought proper toretreat nearer his own country, and he fixed his camp at Alnwick. He hadhere weakened his army extremely, by sending out numerous detachments inorder to extend his ravages; and he lay absolutely safe, as he imagined, from any attack of the enemy. But Glanville, informed of his situation, made a hasty and fatiguing march to Newcastle; and allowing his soldiersonly a small interval for refreshment, he immediately set out towardsevening for Alnwick. He marched that night above thirty miles; arrivedin the morning, under cover of a mist, near the Scottish camp; andregardless of the great numbers of the enemy, he began the attack withhis small but determined body of cavalry. William was living in suchsupine security that he took the English at first for a body of his ownravagers who were returning to the camp; but the sight of their bannersconvincing him of his mistake, he entered on the action with no greaterbody than a hundred horse, in confidence that the numerous army whichsurrounded him would soon hasten to his relief. He was dismounted onthe first shock, and taken prisoner; while his troops, hearing of thisdisaster, fled on all sides with the utmost precipitation. The dispersedravagers made the best of their way to their own country; and discordarising among them, they proceeded even to mutual hostilities, andsuffered more from each other's sword than from that of the enemy. 

This great and important victory proved at last decisive in favor ofHenry, and entirely broke the spirit of the English rebels. The bishopof Durham, who was preparing to revolt, made his submissions; HughBigod, though he had received a strong reénforcement of Flemings, wasobliged to surrender all his castles, and throw himself on the king'smercy; no better resource was left to the earl of Ferrars and Rogerde Moubray; the inferior rebels imitating the example, all England wasrestored to tranquillity in a few weeks; and as the king appeared tobe under the immediate protection of Heaven, it was deemed impious anylonger to resist him. The clergy exalted anew the merits andpowerful intercession of Becket; and Henry, instead of opposing thissuperstition, plumed himself on the new friendship of the-saint, andpropagated an opinion which was so favorable to his interests. [*]

 [* Hoveden, p. 539. ]

Prince Henry, who was ready to embark at Gravelines with the earl ofFlanders and a great army, hearing that his partisans in England weresuppressed, abandoned all thoughts of the enterprise, and joinedthe camp of Lewis, who, during the absence of the king, had made anirruption into Normandy and had laid siege to Rouen. [*] The place wasdefended with great vigor by the inhabitants;[**] and Lewis, despairingof success by open force, tried to gain the town by a stratagem, which, in that superstitious age, was deemed not very honor able. He proclaimedin his own camp a cessation of arms on pretence of celebrating thefestival of St. Laurence; and when the citizens, supposing themselves insafety, were so imprudent as to remit their guard, he purposed totake advantage of their security. Happily, some priests had, from merecuriosity, mounted a steeple, where the alarm bell hung; and observingthe French camp in motion, they immediately rang the bell, and gavewarning to the inhabitants, who ran to their several stations. TheFrench, who, on hearing the alarm hurried to the assault, had alreadymounted the walls in several places; but being repulsed by the enragedcitizens were obliged to retreat with considerable loss. [***] Next day, Henry, who had hastened to the defence of his Norman dominions, passedover the bridge in triumph; and entered Rouen in sight of the Frencharmy. The city was now in absolute safety; and the king, in order tobrave the French, monarch, commanded the gates, which had been walledup, to be opened; and he prepared to push his advantages against theenemy. Lewis saved himself from this perilous situation by a new pieceof deceit, not so justifiable. He proposed a conference for adjustingthe terms of a general peace, which he knew would be greedily embracedby Henry; and while the king of England trusted to the execution of hispromise, he made a retreat with his army into France. 

 [* Brompton, p. 1096. ]

 [** Diceto, p. 578. ]

 [*** Brompton, p. 1096 Gul. Neubr. P. 411. W. Heming. P, 503]

There was, however, a necessity on both sides for an accommodation. Henry could no longer bear to see his three sons in the hands of hisenemy; and Lewis dreaded lest this great monarch, victorious in allquarters, crowned with glory, and absolute master of his dominions, might take revenge for the many dangers and disquietudes which the arms, and still more the intrigues, of France had, in his disputes both withBecket and his sons, found means to raise him. After making a cessationof arms, a conference was agreed on near Tours; where Henry granted hissons much less advantageous terms than he had formerly offered; and hereceived their submissions. The most material of his concessions weresome pensions which he stipulated to pay them, and some castles whichhe granted them for the place of their residence; together with anindemnity for all their adherents, who were restored to their estatesand honors. [*]

Of all those who had embraced the cause of the young princes, William, king of Scotland, was the only considerable loser by that invidious andunjust enterprise. Henry delivered from confinement, without exactingany ransom, about nine hundred knights, whom he had taken prisoners; butit cost William the ancient independency of his crown as the price ofhis liberty. He stipulated to do homage to Henry for Scotland and allhis other possessions; he engaged that all the barons and nobility ofhis kingdom should also do homage; that the bishops should take anoath of fealty; that both should swear to adhere to the king of Englandagainst their native prince, if the latter should break his engagements;and that the fortresses of Edinburgh, Stirling, Berwick, Roxborough, andJedborough should be delivered into Henry's hands, till the performanceof articles. [**] {1175. } This severe and humiliating treaty was executedin its full rigor. William, being released, brought up all his barons, prelates, and abbots; and they did homage to Henry in the cathedralof York, and acknowledged him and his successors for their superiorlord. [***]

 [* Rymer, vol. I. P. 35. Benedict. Abbas, p. 88. Hoveden, p. 540 Diceto, p. 583. Brompton, p. 1098. W. Heming. P. 505. Chron. Dunst. P. 36. ]

 [** M. Paris, p. 91. Chron. Dunst. P. 36. Hoveden, p. 545. M West. P. 251. Diceto, p. 584. Brompton, p. 1103. Rymer, vol i, p. 39. Liber Nig. Scac. P. 36. ]

 [*** Benedict Abbas, p. 113. ]

The English monarch stretched still further the rigor of the conditionswhich he exacted. He engaged the king and states of Scotland to make aperpetual cession of the fortresses of Berwick and Roxborough, and toallow the castle of Edinburgh to remain in his hands for a limited timeThis was the first great ascendant which England obtained over Scotland;and indeed the first important transaction which had passed between thekingdoms. Few princes have been so fortunate as to gain considerableadvantages over their weaker neighbors with less violence and injusticethan was practised by Henry against the king of Scots, whom he had takenprisoner in battle, and who had wantonly engaged in a war, in which allthe neighbors of that prince, and even his own family, were, withoutprovocation, combined against him. [*]

Henry having thus, contrary to expectation, extricated himself withhonor from a situation in which his throne was exposed to great danger, was employed for several years in the administration of justice, in theexecution of the laws, and in guarding against those inconveniencies, which either the past convulsions of his state, or the politicalinstitutions of that age, unavoidably occasioned. The provisions whichhe made, show such largeness of thought as qualified him for being alegislator; and they were commonly calculated as well for the future asthe present happiness of his kingdom. 

{1176. } He enacted severe penalties against robbery, murder, falsecoining, arson; and ordained that these crimes should be punished bythe amputation of the right hand and right foot. [**] The pecuniarycommutation for crimes, which has a false appearance of lenity, hadbeen gradually disused; and seems to have been entirely abolished by therigor of these statutes. The superstitious trial by water ordeal, thoughcondemned by the church, [***] still subsisted; but Henry ordained, thatany man accused of murder, or any heinous felony, by the oath of thelegal knights of the county, should, even though acquitted by theordeal, be obliged to abjure the realm. [****]

All advances towards reason and good sense are slow and gradual. Henry, though sensible of the great absurdity attending the trial by duel orbattle, did not venture to abolish it: he only admitted either ofthe parties to challenge a trial by an assize or jury of twelvefreeholders. [*****]

 [* Some Scotch historians pretend, that William paid, besides, one hundred thousand pounds of ransom, which is quite incredible. The ransom of Richard I. , who, besides England, possessed so many rich territories in France, was only one hundred and fifty thousand marks, and yet was levied with great difficulty. Indeed, two thirds of it only could be paid before his deliverance. ]

 [** Benedict. Abbas, p. 132. Hoveden, p. 549. ]

 [*** Seldeni Spicileg. Ad Eadm. P. 204, ]

 [**** Benedict. Abbas, p. 132. ]

 [***** Glanv. Lib. Ii. Cap. 7. ]

This latter method of trial seems to have been very ancient in England, and was fixed by the laws of King Alfred: but the barbarous and violentgenius of the age had of late given more credit to the trial bybattle, which had become the general method of deciding all importantcontroversies. It was never abolished by law in England; and there isan instance of it so late as the reign of Elizabeth: but the institutionrevived by this king, being found more reasonable and more suitable to acivilized people, gradually prevailed over it. 

The partition of England into four divisions, and the appointment ofitinerant justices to go the circuit in each division, and to decide thecauses in the counties, was another important ordinance of this prince, which had a direct tendency to curb the oppressive barons, and toprotect the inferior gentry and common people in their property. [*]Those justices were either prelates or considerable noblemen; who, besides carrying the authority of the king's commission, were able, by the dignity of their own character, to give weight and credit tothe laws. 

That there might be fewer obstacles to the execution of justice, theking was vigilant in demolishing all the new erected castles of thenobility, in England as well as in his foreign dominions; and hepermitted no fortress to remain in the custody of those whom he foundreason to suspect. [**]

But lest the kingdom should be weakened by this demolition of thefortresses, the king fixed an assize of arms, by which all his subjectswere obliged to put themselves in a situation for defending themselvesand the realm. Every man possessed of a knight's fee was ordained tohave for each fee, a coat of mail, a helmet, a shield, and a lance;every free layman, possessed of goods to the value of sixteen marks, was to be armed in like manner; every one that possessed ten markswas obliged to have an iron gorget, a cap of iron, and a lance; allburgesses were to have a cap of iron, a lance, and a wambais; that is, a coat quilted with wool, tow, or such like materials. [***] It appearsthat archery, for which the English were afterwards so renowned, hadnot at this time become very common among them. The spear was the chiefweapon employed in battle. 

 [* Hoveden, p. 590]. 

 [** Benedict. Abbas, p. 202. Diceto p. 585. ]

 [*** Benedict, Abbas, p. 305. Annal. Waverl. P. 181. ]

The clergy and the laity were, during that age, in a strange situationwith regard to each other, and such as may seem totally incompatiblewith a civilized, and indeed with any species of government. If aclergyman were guilty of murder, he could be punished by degradationonly: if he were murdered, the murderer was exposed to nothing butexcommunication and ecclesiastical censures; and the crime was atonedfor by penances and submission. [*] Hence the assassins of Thomasà Becket himself, though guilty of the most atrocious wickedness, and themost repugnant to the sentiments of that age, lived securely in theirown houses, without being called to account by Henry himself, who wasso much concerned, both in honor and interest, to punish that crime, andwho professed or affected, on all occasions, the most extreme abhorrenceof it. It was not till they found their presence shunned by every oneas excommunicated persons, that they were induced to take a journey toRome, to throw themselves at the feet of the pontiff, and to submit tothe penances imposed upon them; after which, they continued to possesswithout molestation their honors and fortunes, and seem even to haverecovered the countenance and good opinion of the public. But as theking, by the constitutions of Clarendon, which he endeavored stillto maintain, [**] had subjected the clergy to a trial by the civilmagistrate, it seemed but just to give them the protection of thatpower, to which they owed obedience: it was enacted, that the murderersof clergymen should be tried before the justiciary, in the presence ofthe bishop or his official; and besides the usual punishment for murder, should be subjected to a forfeiture of their estates, and a confiscationof their goods and chattels. [***]

 [* Petri Bles. Epist. 73, apud Bibl. Patr. Torn. Xxiv. P. 992. ]

 [** Gervase, p. 1433. ]

 [*** Diceto, p. 592. Gervase, p. 1433]

The king passed an equitable law, that the goods of a vassal should notbe seized for the debt of his lord, unless the vassal be surety for thedebt; and that the rents of vassals should be paid to the creditors ofthe lord, not to the lord himself. It is remarkable, that this law wasenacted by the king in a council which he held at Verneuil, and whichconsisted of some prelates and barons of England, as well as some ofNormandy, Poictou, Anjou, Maine, Touraine, and Brittany and the statutetook place in all these last-mentioned territories, [*] though totallyunconnected with each other;[**] a certain proof how irregular theancient feudal government was, and how near the sovereigns, in someinstances, approached to despotism, though in others they seemedscarcely to possess any authority. If a prince, much dreaded andrevered like Henry, obtained but the appearance of general consent toan ordinance which was equitable and just, it became immediately anestablished law, and all his subjects acquiesced in it, If the princewas hated or despised; if the nobles, who supported him, had smallinfluence; if the humors of the times disposed the people to questionthe justice of his ordinance; the fullest and most authentic assemblyhad no authority. Thus all was confusion and disorder; no regular ideaof a constitution; force and violence decided every thing. 

The success which had attended Henry in his wars, did not much encouragehis neighbors to form any attempt against him; and his transactions withthem, during several years, contain little memorable. Scotland remainedin that state of feudal subjection to which he had reduced it, andgave him no further inquietude. He sent over his fourth son, John, intoIreland, with a view of making a more complete conquest of the island;but the petulance and incapacity of this prince, by which he enraged theIrish chieftains, obliged the king soon after to recall him. [***]

 [* Benedict. Abbas, p. 248. It was usual for the kings of England, after the conquest of Ireland, to summon barons and members of thai country to the English parliament. Molineux's case of Ireland, p. 64, 65, 66. ]

 [** Spelman even doubts whether the law were not also extended to England. If it were not, it could only be because Henry did not choose it; for his authority was greater in that kingdom than in his transmarine dominions. ]

 [*** Benedict. Abbas, p. 437, etc. ]

The king of France had fallen into an abject superstition; and wasinduced, by a devotion more sincere than that of Henry, to make apilgrimage to the tomb of Becket, in order to obtain his intercessionfor the cure of Philip, his eldest son. He probably thought himselfwell entitled to the favor of that saint, on account of their ancientintimacy; and hoped that Becket, whom he had protected while on earth, would not now, when he was so highly exalted in heaven, forget his oldfriend and benefactor. The monks, sensible that their saint's honor wasconcerned in the case, failed not to publish that Lewis's prayers wereanswered, and that the young prince was restored to health by Becket'sintercession. That king himself was soon after struck with an apoplexy, which deprived him of his understanding: Philip though a youth offifteen, took on him the administration, till his father's death, whichhappened soon after, {1180. } opened his way to the throne; and he provedthe ablest and greatest monarch that had governed that kingdom sincethe age of Charlemagne. The superior years, however, and experience ofHenry, while they moderated his ambition, gave him such an ascendantover this prince, that no dangerous rivalship for a long time arosebetween them. The English monarch, instead of taking advantage ofhis own situation, rather employed his good offices in composingthe quarrels which arose in the royal family of France; and he wassuccessful in mediating a reconciliation between Philip and his motherand uncles. These services were but ill requited by Philip, who, whenhe came to man's estate, fomented all the domestic discords in the royalfamily of England, and encouraged Henry's sons in their ungratefuland undutiful behavior towards him. Prince Henry, equally impatientof obtaining power, and incapable of using it, renewed to the king thedemand of his resigning Normandy; and on meeting with a refusal, he fledwith his consort to the court of France: but not finding Philip atthat time disposed to enter into war for his sake, he accepted of hisfather's offers of reconciliation, and made him submissions. It wasa cruel circumstance in the king's fortune, that he could hope for notranquillity from the criminal enterprises of his sons but by theirmutual discord and animosities, which disturbed his family and threw hisstate into convulsions. Richard, whom he had made master of Guienne, and who had displayed his valor and military genius by suppressing therevolts of his mutinous barons refused to obey Henry's orders, in doinghomage to his elder brother for that duchy; and he defended himselfagainst young Henry and Geoffrey, who, uniting their arms, carried warinto his territories. [**]

 [* Ypod. Neust. P. 451. ]

 [** Benedict. Abbas, p 383. Diceto, p. 617. ]

The king with some difficulty composed this difference; but immediatelyfound his eldest son engaged in conspiracies, and ready to take armsagainst himself. While the young prince was conducting these criminalintrigues, he was seized with a fever at Martel, {1183. } a castle nearTurenne to which he had retired in discontent; and seeing the approachesof death, he was at last struck with remorse for his undutiful behaviortowards his father. He sent a message to the king, who was not fardistant; expressed his contrition for his faults; and entreated thefavor of a visit, that he might at least die with the satisfaction ofhaving obtained his forgiveness. Henry, who had so often experiencedthe prince's ingratitude and violence, apprehended that his sickness wasentirely feigned, and he durst not intrust himself into his son's hands:but when he soon after received intelligence of young Henry's death, and the proofs, of his sincere repentance, this good prince was affectedwith the deepest sorrow; he thrice fainted away; he accused his own hardhearted ness in refusing the dying request of his son; and he lamentedthat he had deprived that prince of the last opportunity of makingatonement for his offences, and of pouring out his soul in the bosom ofhis reconciled father. [*] This prince died in the twenty-eighth year ofhis age. 

The behavior of his surviving children did not tend to give the king anyconsolation for the loss. As Prince Henry had left no posterity, Richardwas become heir to all his dominions; and the king intended that John, his third surviving son and favorite, should inherit Guienne as hisappanage; but Richard refused his consent, fled into that duchy, andeven made preparations for carrying on war, as well against his fatheras against his brother Geoffrey, who was now put in possession ofBrittany. Henry sent for Eleanor, his queen, the heiress of Guienne, andrequired Richard to deliver up to her the dominion of these territories;which that prince, either dreading an insurrection of the Gascons in herfavor, or retaining some sense of duty towards her, readily performed;and he peaceably returned to his father's court. No sooner was thisquarrel accommodated, than Geoffrey, the most vicious perhaps of allHenry's unhappy family, broke out into violence; demanded Anjou to beannexed to his dominions of Brittany; and on meeting with a refusal, fled to the court of France, and levied forces against his father. [**]{1185. } Henry was freed from this danger by his son's death who waskilled in a tournament at Paris. [***]

 [* Benedict. Abbas, p. 393. Hoveden, p. 621. Trivet, vol. I. P. 84, ]

 [** Gul. Neubr. P. 422. ]

 [*** Benedict. Abbas, p. 451. Gervase, p. 1480. ]

The widow of Geoffrey, soon after his decease, was delivered of ason who received the name of Arthur, and was invested in the duchy ofBrittany, under the guardianship of his grandfather, who, is duke ofNormandy, was also superior lord of that territory. Philip, as lordparamount, disputed some time his title to this wardship; but wasobliged to yield to the inclinations of the Bretons, who preferred thegovernment of Henry. 

But the rivalship between these potent princes, and all their inferiorinterests, seemed now to have given place to the general passion forthe relief of the Holy Land and the expulsion of the Saracens. Those infidels, though obliged to yield to the immense inundation ofChristians in the first crusade, had recovered courage after thetorrent was past; and attacking on all quarters the settlements of theEuropeans, had Deduced these adventurers to great difficulties, andobliged them to apply again for succors from the west. A second crusade, under the emperor Conrade, and Lewis VII. , king of France, in whichthere perished above two hundred thousand men, brought them but atemporary relief; and those princes, after losing such immense armies, and seeing the flower of their nobility fall by their side, returnedwith little honor into Europe. But these repeated misfortunes, whichdrained the western world of its people and treasure, were not yetsufficient to cure men of their passion for those spiritual adventures;and a new incident rekindled with fresh fury the zeal of theecclesiastics and military adventurers among the Latin Christians. Saladin, a prince of great generosity, bravery, and conduct, havingfixed himself on the throne of Egypt, began to extend his conquests overthe East; and finding the settlement of the Christians in Palestine aninvincible obstacle to the progress of his arms, he bent the whole forceof his policy and valor to subdue that small and barren, but importantterritory. Taking advantage of dissensions which prevailed among thechampions of the cross, and having secretly gained the count of Tripoli, who commanded their armies, he invaded the frontiers with a mighty powerand, aided by the treachery of that count, gained over them at Tiberiadea complete victory, which utterly annihilated the force of the alreadylanguishing kingdom of Jerusalem {1187. } The holy city itself fell intohis hands after a feeble resistance; the kingdom of Antioch was almostentirely subdued and except some maritime towns, nothing considerableremained of thope boasted conquests, which, near a century before, ithad cost the efforts of all Europe to acquire. 

The western Christians were astonished on receiving this dismalintelligence. Pope Urban III. , it is pretended, died of grief; andhis successor, Gregory VIII. , employed the whole time of his shortpontificate in rousing to arms all the Christians who acknowledged hisauthority. The general cry was, that they were unworthy of enjoying anyinheritance in heaven, who did not vindicate from the dominion of theinfidels the inheritance of God on earth, and deliver from slavery thatcountry which had been consecrated by the foot-steps of their Redeemer. {1188. } William, archbishop of Tyre, having procured a conferencebetween Henry and Philip near Gisors, enforced all these topics; gave apathetic description of the miserable state of the eastern Christians;and employed every argument to excite the ruling passions of theage, superstition, and jealousy of military honor. The two monarchsimmediately took the cross; many of their most considerable vassalsimitated the example; and as the emperor Frederic I. Entered into thesame confederacy, some well-grounded hopes of success were entertained;and men flattered themselves that an enterprise, which had failed underthe conduct of many independent leaders, or of imprudent princes, mightat last, by the efforts of such potent and able monarchs, be brought toa happy issue. 

The kings of France and England imposed a tax, amounting to the tenthof all movable goods, on such as remained at home; but as they exemptedfrom this burden most of the regular clergy, the secular aspired tothe same immunity; pretended that their duty obliged them to assist thecrusade with their prayers alone; and it was with some difficulty theywere constrained to desist from an opposition, which in them who hadbeen the chief promoters of those pious enterprises, appeared with theworst grace imaginable. This backwardness of the clergy is perhaps asymptom that the enthusiastic ardor which had at first seized the peoplefor crusades, was now by time and ill success considerably abated; andthat the frenzy was chiefly supported by the military genius and love ofglory in the monarchs. 

But before this great machine could be put in motion, there were stillmany obstacles to surmount. Philip, jealous of Henry's power, enteredinto a private confederacy with young Richard; and working on hisambitious and impatient temper, persuaded him, instead of supportingand aggrandizing that monarchy which he was one day to inherit, to seekpresent power and independence by disturbing and dismembering it. {1189. }In order to give a pretence for hostilities between the two kings, Richard broke into the territories of Raymond, count of Toulouse, whoimmediately carried complaints of this violence before the king ofFrance, as his superior lord. Philip remonstrated with Henry; butreceived for answer, that Richard had confessed to the archbishop ofDublin, that his enterprise against Raymond had been undertaken by theapprobation of Philip himself, and was conducted by his authority. Theking of France, who might have been covered with shame and confusion bythis detection, still prosecuted his design, and invaded the provincesof Berri and Auvergne, under color of revenging the quarrel of the countof Toulouse. Henry retaliated by making inroads upon the frontiers ofFrance and burning Dreux. As this war, which destroyed all hopes ofsuccess in the projected crusade, gave great scandal, the two kings helda conference at the accustomed place between Gisors and Trie, in orderto find means of accommodating their differences; they separated onworse terms than before; and Philip, to show his disgust, ordered agreat elm, under which the conferences had been usually held, to becut down; as if he had renounced all desire of accommodation, and wasdetermined to carry the war to extremities against the king of England. But his own vassals refused to serve under him in so invidious a cause;and he was obliged to come anew to a conference with Henry, and to offerterms of peace. These terms were such as entirely opened the eyes of theking of England, and fully convinced him of the perfidy of his son, andhis secret alliance with Philip, of which he had before only entertainedsome suspicion. The king of France required that Richard should becrowned king of England in the lifetime of his father, should beinvested in all his transmarine dominions, and should immediatelyespouse Alice, Philip's sister, to whom he had been formerly affianced, and who had already been conducted into England. Henry had experiencedsuch fatal effects, both from the crowning of his eldest son, and fromthat prince's alliance with the royal family of France, that he rejectedthese terms; and Richard, in con sequence of his secret agreement withPhilip, immediately revolted from him, did homage to the king of Francefor all the dominions which Henry held of that crown, and received theinvestitures, as if he had already been the lawful possessor. Severalhistorians assert, that Henry himself had become enamored of youngAlice, and mention this as an additional reason for his refusing theseconditions; but he had so many other just and equitable motives forhis conduct, that it is superfluous to assign a cause, which the greatprudence and advanced age of that monarch render somewhat improbable. 

Cardinal Albano, the pope's legate, displeased with these increasingobstacles to the crusade, excommunicated Richard, as the chief springof discord; but the sentence of excommunication, which, when it wasproperly prepared and was zealously supported by the clergy, had oftengreat influence in that age, proved entirely ineffectual in the presentcase. The chief barons of Poictou, Guienne, Normandy, and Anjou, beingattached to the young prince, and finding that he had now received theinvestiture from their superior lord, declared for him, and made inroadsinto the territories of such as still adhered to the king. Henry, disquieted by the daily revolts of his mutinous subjects, and dreadingstill worse effects from their turbulent disposition, had again recourseto papal authority; and engaged the cardinal Anagni, who had succeededAlbano in the legateship, to threaten Philip with laying an interdicton all his dominions. But Philip, who was a prince of great vigor andcapacity, despised the menace, and told Anagni, that it belonged not tothe pope to interpose in the temporal disputes of princes, much less inthose between him and his rebellious vassal. He even proceeded so faras to reproach him with partiality, and with receiving bribes from theking of England; while Richard, still more outrageous, offered to drawhis sword against the legate, and was hindered by the interpositionalone of the company, from committing violence upon him. 

The king of England was now obliged to defend his dominions by arms, and to engage in a war with France and with his eldest son, a princeof great valor, on such disadvantageous terms. Ferte-Bernard fell firstinto the hands of the enemy; Mans was next taken by assault; and Henry, who had thrown himself into that place, escaped with some difficulty;Amboise, Chaumont, and Château de Loire, opened their gates on theappearance of Philip and Richard: Tours was menaced; and the king, who had retired to Saumur, and had daily instances of the cowardice orinfidelity of his governors, expected the most dismal issue to all hisenterprises. While he was in this state of despondency, the duke ofBurgundy, the earl of Flanders, and the archbishop of Rheims interposedwith their good offices; and the intelligence which he received of thetaking of Tours, and which made him fully sensible of the desperatesituation of his affairs, so subdued his spirit, that he submitted toall the rigorous terms which, were imposed upon him. He agreed thatRichard should marry the princess Alice; that that prince should receivethe homage and oath of fealty of all his subjects both in England andhis transmarine dominions; that he himself should pay twenty thousandmarks to the king of France, as a compensation for the charges of thewar; that his own barons should engage to make him observe this treatyby force, and in case of his violating it should promise to join Philipand Richard against him; and that all his vassals, who had entered intoconfederacy with Richard, should receive an indemnity for the offence. 

But the mortification which Henry, who had been accustomed to give thelaw in most treaties, received from these disadvantageous terms, wasthe least that he met with on this occasion. When he demanded a listof those barons to whom he was bound to grant a pardon for theirconnections with Richard, he was astonished to find, at the headof them, the name of his second son, John; who had always been hisfavorite, whose interests he had ever anxiously at heart, and who hadeven, on account of his ascendant over him, often excited the jealousyof Richard. The unhappy father, already overloaded with cares andsorrows, finding this last disappointment in his domestic tenderness, broke out into expressions of the utmost despair, cursed the day in whichhe received his miserable being, and bestowed on his ungrateful andundutiful children a malediction which he never could be prevailed onto retract. The more his heart was disposed to friendship and affection, the more he resented the barbarous return which his four sons hadsuccessively made to his parental care; and this finishing blow, bydepriving him of every comfort in life, quite broke his spirit, andthrew him into a lingering fever, of which he expired, at the castle ofChinon, near Saumur. His natural son, Geoffrey, who alone hadbehaved dutifully towards him, attended his corpse to the nunnery ofFontervrault; where it lay in state in the abbey church. Next day, Richard, who came to visit the dead body of his father, and who, notwithstanding his criminal conduct, was not wholly destitute ofgenerosity, was struck with horror and remorse at the sight; and as theattendants observed that, at that very instant, blood gushed from themouth and nostrils of the corpse, he exclaimed, agreeably to a vulgarsuperstition, that he was his father's murderer; and he expressed a deepsense, though too late, of that undutiful behavior which had brought hisparent to an untimely grave. 

Thus died, in the fifty-eighth year of his age, and thirty-fifth ofhis reign, the greatest prince of his time for wisdom, virtue, andabilities, and the most powerful in the extent of dominion of all thosethat had ever filled the throne of England. His character in private, as well as in public life, is almost without a blemish; and he seems tohave possessed every accomplishment, both of body and mind, which makesa man either estimable or amiable. He was of a middle stature, strongand well proportioned; his countenance was lively and engaging; hisconversation affable and entertaining; his elocution easy, persuasive, and ever at command. He loved peace, but possessed both bravery andconduct in war; was provident without timidity; severe in the executionof justice without rigor; and temperate without austerity. He preservedhealth, and kept himself from corpulency, to which he was somewhatinclined, by an abstemious diet, and by frequent exercise, particularlyhunting. When he could enjoy leisure, he recreated himself eitherin learned conversation or in reading; and he cultivated his naturaltalents by study above any prince of his time. His affections, as wellas his enmities, were warm and durable; and his long experience ofthe ingratitude and infidelity of men never destroyed the naturalsensibility of his temper, which disposed him to friendship and society. His character has been transmitted to us by several writers, who werehis contemporaries; and it extremely resembles, in its most remarkablefeatures, that of his maternal grandfather, Henry I. ; excepting only, that ambition, which was a ruling passion in both, found not in thefirst Henry such unexceptionable means of exerting itself, and pushedthat prince into measures which were both criminal in themselves, andwere the cause of further crimes, from which his grandson's conduct washappily exempted. 

This prince, like most of his predecessors of the Norman line, exceptStephen, passed more of his time on the continent than in this island:he was surrounded with the English gentry and nobility when abroad: theFrench gentry and nobility attended him when he resided in England: bothnations acted in the government as if they were the same people; and, onmany occasions, the legislatures seem not to have been distinguished. As the king and all the English barons were of French extraction, themanners of that people acquired the ascendant, and were regarded as themodels of imitation. All foreign improvements, therefore, such as theywere, in literature and politeness, in laws and arts, seem now to havebeen, in a good measure, transplanted into England and that kingdom wasbecome little inferior, in all the fashionable accomplishments, to anyof its neighbors on the continent. The more homely but more sensiblemanners and principles of the Saxons, were exchanged for theaffectations of chivalry, and the subtilties of school philosophy: thefeudal ideas of civil government, the Romish sentiments in religion, had taken entire possession of the people: by the former, the sense ofsubmission towards princes was somewhat diminished in the barons; bythe latter, the devoted attachment to papal authority was much augmentedamong the clergy. The Norman and other foreign families established inEngland, had now struck deep root; and being entirely incorporated withthe people, whom at first they oppressed and despised, they no longerthought that they needed the protection of the crown for the enjoymentof their possessions, or considered their tenure as precarious. Theyaspired to the same liberty and independence which they saw enjoyedby their brethren on the continent, and desired to restrain thoseexorbitant prerogatives and arbitrary practices, which the necessitiesof war and the violence of conquest had at first obliged them to indulgein their monarch. That memory also of a more equal government under theSaxon princes, which remained with the English, diffused still furtherthe spirit of liberty, and made the barons both desirous of moreindependence to themselves and willing to indulge it to the people. And it was not long ere this secret revolution in the sentiments ofmen produced, first violent convulsions in the state, then an evidentalteration in the maxims of government. 

The history of all the preceding kings of England since the conquest, gives evident proofs of the disorders attending the feudal institutions;the licentiousness of the barons, their spirit of rebellion against theprince and laws, and of animosity against each other: the conduct of thebarons in the transmarine dominions of those monarchs, afforded perhapsstill more flagrant instances of these convulsions; and the history ofFrance, during several ages, consists almost entirely of narrationsof this nature. The cities, during the continuance of this violentgovernment, could neither be very numerous nor populous; and there occurinstances which seem to evince that, though these are always thefirst seat of law and liberty, their police was in general loose andirregular, and exposed to the same disorders with those by which thecountry was generally infested. It was a custom in London for greatnumbers, to the amount of a hundred or more, the sons and relations ofconsiderable citizens, to form themselves into a licentious confederacy, to break into rich houses and plunder them, to rob and murder thepassengers, and to commit with impunity all sorts of disorder. By thesecrimes it had become so dangerous to walk the streets by night, thatthe citizens durst no more venture abroad after sunset, than if theyhad been exposed to the incursions of a public enemy. The brother of theearl of Ferrars had been murdered by some of those nocturnal rioters;and the death of so eminent a person, which was much more regarded thanthat of many thousands of an inferior station, so provoked the king, that he swore vengeance against the criminals, and became thenceforthmore rigorous in the execution of the laws. 

There is another instance given by historians, which proves to what aheight such riots had proceeded, and how open these criminals were incommitting their robberies. A band of them had attacked the house of arich citizen, with an intention of plundering it; had broken through astone wall with hammers and wedges; and had already entered the housesword in hand, when the citizen, armed cap-á-pie, and supported by hisfaithful servants, appeared in the passage to oppose them: he cut offthe right hand of the first robber that entered, and made such stoutresistance that his neighbors had leisure to assemble and come to hisrelief. The man who lost his hand was taken; and was tempted by thepromise of pardon to reveal his confederates; among whom was one JohnSenex, esteemed among the richest and best-born citizens in London. Hewas convicted by the ordeal; and though he offered five hundred marksfor his life, the king refused the money, and ordered him to be hanged. It appears, from a statute of Edward I. , that these disorders were notremedied even in that reign. It was then made penal to go out at nightafter the hour of the curfew, to carry a weapon, or to walk without alight or lantern. It is said in the preamble to this law, that both bynight and by day there were continual frays in the streets of London. 

Henry's care in administering justice had gained him so great areputation, that even foreign and distant princes made him arbiter, andsubmitted their differences to his judgment. Sanchez, king of Navarre, having some controversies with Alphonso, king of Castile, was contented, though Alphonso had married the daughter of Henry, to choose this princefor a referee; and they agreed each of them to consign three castlesinto neutral hands, as a pledge of their not departing from his award. Henry made the cause be examined before his great council, and gavea sentence, which was submitted to by both parties. These two Spanishkings sent each a stout champion to the court of England, in order todefend his cause by arms, in case the way of duel had been chosen byHenry. 

Henry so far abolished the barbarous and absurd practice of confiscatingships which had been wrecked on the coast, that he ordained if one manor animal were alive in the ship that the vessel and goods should berestored to the owners. 

The reign of Henry was remarkable also for an innovation which wasafterwards carried further by his successors, and was attended with themost important consequences. This prince was disgusted with the speciesof military force which was established by the feudal institutions, andwhich, though it was extremely burdensome to the subject, yet renderedvery little service to the sovereign. The barons, or military tenants, came late into the field; they were obliged to serve only forty days;they were unskilful and disorderly in all their operations; and theywere apt to carry into the camp the same refractory and independentspirit to which they were accustomed in their civil government. Henry, therefore, introduced the practice of making a commutation of theirmilitary service for money; and he levied scutages from his baroniesand knights' fees, instead of requiring the personal attendance of hisvassals. There is mention made, in the history of the exchequer, ofthese scutages in his second, fifth, and eighteenth year; and otherwriters give us an account of three more of them. [*] When the prince hadthus obtained money, he made a contract with some of those adventurersin which Europe at that time abounded; they found him soldiers of thesame character with themselves, who were bound to serve for a stipulatedtime: the armies were less numerous, but more useful, than when composedof all the military vassals of the crown: the feudal institutions beganto relax: the kings became rapacious for money, on which all their powerdepended: the barons, seeing no end of exactions, sought to defend theirproperty, and as the same causes had nearly the same effects in thedifferent countries of Europe, the several crowns either lost oracquired authority, according to their different success in the contest. 

This prince was also the first that levied a tax on the movables orpersonal estates of his subjects, nobles as well as commons. Their zealfor the holy wars made them submit to this innovation; and a precedentbeing once obtained, this taxation became, in following reigns, theusual method of supplying the necessities of the crown. The tax ofdanegelt, so generally odious to the nation, was remitted in this reign. 

 [* Tyrrel, vol. Ii. P. 466, from the records. It was a usual practice of the kings of England to repeat the ceremony of their coronation thrice every year, on assembling the states at the three great festivals. Henry, after the first years of his reign, never renewed this ceremony, which was found to be very expensive and very useless. None of his successors revived it. It is considered as a great act of grace in this prince, that he mitigated the rigor of the forest laws, and punished any transgressions of them, not capitally, but by fines, imprisonments, and other moderate penalties. ]

Since we are here collecting some detached incidents, which show thegenius of the age, and which could not so well enter into the bodyof our history, it may not be improper to mention the quarrel betweenRoger, archbishop of York, and Richard, archbishop of Canterbury. Wemay judge of the violence of military men and laymen, when ecclesiasticscould proceed to such extremities. Cardinal Haguezun, being sent, in1176, as legate into Britain, summoned an assembly of the clergy atLondon; and, as both the archbishops pretended to sit on his right hand, this question of precedency begat a controversy between them. The monksand retainers of Archbishop Richard fell upon Roger, in the presenceof the cardinal and of the synod, threw him to the ground, trampled himunder foot, and so bruised him with blows, that he was taken up halfdead, and his life was with difficulty saved from their violence. Thearchbishop of Canterbury was obliged to pay a large sum of money tothe legate, in order to suppress all complaints with regard to thisenormity. 

We are told by Giraldus Cambrensis, that the monks and prior of St. Swithun threw themselves one day prostrate on the ground and in the mirebefore Henry, complaining, with many tears and much doleful lamentation, that the bishop of Winchester, who was also their abbot, had cut offthree dishes from their table. "How many has he left you?" said theking. "Ten only, " replied the disconsolate monks. "I myself, " exclaimedthe king, "never have more than three; and I enjoin your bishop toreduce you to the same number. "

This king left only two legitimate sons, Richard, who succeeded him, andJohn, who inherited no territory, though his father had often intendedto leave him a part of his extensive dominions. He was thence commonlydenominated Lackland. Henry left three legitimate daughters; Maud, bornin 1156, and married to Henry, duke of Saxony; Eleanor, born in 1162, and married to Alphonso, king of Castile: Joan, born in 1165, andmarried to William, king of Sicily. 

Henry is said by ancient historians to have been of a very amorousdisposition; they mention two of his natural sons by Rosamond, daughterof Lord Clifford; namely, Richard Longespée, or Longsword, (so calledfrom the sword he usually wore, ) who was afterwards married to Ela, thedaughter and heir of the earl of Salisbury; and Geoffrey, first bishopof Lincoln, then archbishop of York. All the other circumstances of thestory commonly told of that lady seem to be fabulous. 

CHAPTER X. 

[Illustration: 123. Jpg RICHARD I. ]

RICHARD I. 

{1189. } The compunction of Richard, for his undutiful behavior towardshis father, was durable, and influenced him in the choice of hisministers and servants after his accession. Those who had seconded andfavored his rebellion, instead of meeting with that trust and honorwhich they expected, were surprised to find that they lay under disgracewith the new king, and were on all occasions hated and despised by him. The faithful ministers of Henry, who had vigorously opposed allthe enterprises of his sons, were received with open arms, and werecontinued in those offices which they had honorably discharged to theirformer master. This prudent conduct might be the result of reflection;but in a prince like Richard, so much guided by passion, and so littleby policy, it was commonly ascribed to a principle still more virtuousand more honorable. 

Richard, that he might make atonement to one parent for his breachof duty to the other, immediately sent orders for releasing the queendowager from the confinement in which she had long been detained; and heintrusted her with the government of England, till his arrival inthat kingdom. His bounty to his brother John was rather profuseand imprudent. Besides bestowing on him the county of Mortaigne, inNormandy, granting him a pension of four thousand marks a year, andmarrying him to Avisa, the daughter of the earl of Glocester, by whom heinherited all the possessions of that opulent family, he increasedthis appanage, which the late king had destined him, by other extensivegrants and concessions. He conferred on him the whole estate of WilliamPeverell, which had escheated to the crown: he put him in possessionof eight castles, with all the forests and honors annexed to them:he delivered over to him no less than six earldoms, Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Nottingham, Dorset, Lancaster and Derby. And endeavoring, byfavors, to fix that vicious prince in his duty, he put it too much inhis power, whenever he pleased, to depart from it. 

The king, impelled more by the love of military glory than bysuperstition, acted, from the beginning of his reign, as if the solepurpose of his government had been the relief of the Holy Land, and therecovery of Jerusalem from the Saracens. This zeal against infidels, being communicated to his subjects, broke out in London on the day ofhis coronation, and made them find a crusade less dangerous and attendedwith more immediate profit. The prejudices of the age had made thelending of money on interest pass by the invidious name of usury: yetthe necessity of the practice had still continued it, and the greaterpart of that kind of dealing fell every where into the hands of theJews, who, being already infamous on account of their religion, had nohonor to lose, and were apt to exercise a profession, odious in itself, by every kind of rigor, and even sometimes by rapine and extortion. Theindustry and frugality of this people had put them in possession of allthe ready money which the idleness and profusion common to the Englishwith other European nations, enabled them to lend at exorbitant andunequal interest. The monkish writers represent it as a great stainon the wise and equitable government of Henry, that he had carefullyprotected this infidel race from all injuries and insults; but the zealof Richard afforded the populace a pretence for venting their animosityagainst them. The king had issued an edict, prohibiting their appearanceat his coronation; but some of them, bringing him large presents fromtheir nation, presumed, in confidence of that merit, to approach thehall in which he dined: being discovered, they were exposed to theinsults of the bystanders; they took to flight; the people pursued them;the rumor was spread that the king had issued orders to massacre all theJews; a command so agreeable was executed in an instant on such as fellinto the hands of the populace; those who had kept at home were exposedto equal danger; the people, moved by rapacity and zeal, broke intotheir houses which they plundered, after having murdered the owners;where the Jews barricadoed their doors, and defended themselves withvigor, the rabble set fire to their houses and made way through theflames to exercise the pillage and violence; the usual licentiousness ofLondon, which the sovereign power with difficulty restrained, brokeout with fury, and continued these outrages; the houses of the richestcitizens, though Christians, were next attacked and plundered; andweariness and satiety at last put an end to the disorder: yet when theking empowered Glanville, the justiciary, to inquire into the authorsof these crimes, the guilt was found to involve so many of the mostconsiderable citizens, that it was deemed more prudent to drop theprosecution; and very few suffered the punishment due to this enormity. But the disorder stopped not at London. The inhabitants of the othercities of England, hearing of this slaughter of the Jews, imitated theexample: in York five hundred of that nation, who had retired into thecastle for safety, and found themselves unable to defend the place, murdered their own wives and children, threw the dead bodies over thewalls upon the populace, and then setting fire to the houses, perishedin the flames. The gentry of the neighborhood, who were all indebted tothe Jews, ran to the cathedral, where their bonds were kept, and madea solemn bonfire of the papers before the altar. The compiler of theAnnals of Waverley, in relating these events, blesses the Almighty forthus delivering over this impious race to destruction. 

The ancient situation of England, when the people possessed littleriches and the public no credit, made it impossible for sovereigns tobear the expense of a steady or durable war, even on their frontiers;much less could they find regular means for the support of distantexpeditions like those into Palestine, which were more the resultof popular frenzy than of sober reason or deliberate policy. Richardtherefore knew that he must carry with him all the treasure necessaryfor his enterprise, and that both the remoteness of his own countryand its poverty, made it unable to furnish him with those continuedsupplies, which the exigencies of so perilous a war must necessarilyrequire. His father had left him a treasure of above a hundred thousandmarks; and the king, negligent of every consideration but his presentobject, endeavored to augment his sum by all expedients, how pernicioussoever ta the public, or dangerous to royal authority. He put to salethe revenues and manors of the crown; the offices of greatest trustand power, even those of forester and sheriff, which anciently were soimportant, [*] became venal; the dignity of chief justiciary, in whosehands was lodged the whole execution of the laws, was sold to Hugh dePuzas, bishop of Durham, for a thousand marks; the same prelate boughtthe earldom of Northumberland for life;[**] many of the champions of thecross, who had repented of their vow, purchased the liberty of violatingit; and Richard, who stood less in need of men than of money, dispensed, on these conditions, with their attendance. Elated with the hopes offame, which in that age attended no wars but those against the infidels, he was blind to every other consideration; and when some of his wiserministers objected to this dissipation of the revenue and power of thecrown, he replied, that he would sell London itself could he find apurchaser. [***] Nothing indeed could be a stronger proof how negligenthe was of all future interests in comparison of the crusade, than hisselling, for so small a sum as ten thousand marks, the vassalage ofScotland, together with the fortresses of Roxborough and Berwick, thegreatest acquisition that had been made by his father during the courseof his victorious reign; and his accepting the homage of William inthe usual terms, merely for the territories which that prince held inEngland. [****] The English of all ranks and stations were oppressed bynumerous exactions: menaces were employed both against the innocent andthe guilty, in order to extort money from them; and where a pretencewas wanting against the rich, the king obliged them, by the fear of hisdispleasure, to lend him sums which he knew it would never be in hispower to repay. 

 [* The sheriff had anciently both the administration of justice and the management of the king's revenue committed to him in the county. See Hale, of Sheriffs' Accounts. ]

 [** M. Paris, p. 109. ]

 [*** W. Hemming, p. 519. Knyghton, p. 2402. ]

 [**** Hoveden, p. 562. Rymer, vol. I. P. 64. M. West. P. 257. ]

But Richard, though he sacrificed every interest and consideration tothe success of this pious enterprise, carried so little the appearanceof sanctity in his conduct, that Fulk curate of Neuilly, a zealouspreacher of the crusade, who from that merit had acquired the privilegeof speaking the boldest truths, advised him to rid himself of hisnotorious vices, particularly his pride, avarice, and voluptuousness, which he called the king's three favorite daughters. "You counsel well, "replied Richard; "and I hereby dispose of the first to the Templars, ofthe second to the Benedictines, and of the third to my prelates. "

Richard, jealous of attempts which might be made on England during hisabsence, laid Prince John, as well as his natural brother Geoffrey, archbishop of York, under engagements, confirmed by their oaths, thatneither of them should enter the kingdom till his return; though hethought proper, before his departure, to withdraw this prohibition. Theadministration was left in the hands of Hugh, bishop of Durham, and ofLongchamp, bishop of Ely, whom he appointed justiciaries and guardiansof the realm. The latter was a Frenchman of mean birth, and of a violentcharacter; who by art and address had insinuated himself into favor, whom Richard had created chancellor, and whom he had engaged the popealso to invest with the legantine authority, that, by centring everykind of power in his person, he might the better insure the publictranquillity. All the military and turbulent spirits flocked about theperson of the king, and were impatient to distinguish themselves againstthe infidels in Asia; whither his inclinations, his engagements, ledhim, and whither he was impelled by messages from the king of France, ready to embark in this enterprise. 

The emperor Frederic, a prince of great spirit and conduct, had alreadytaken the road to Palestine, at the head of one hundred and fiftythousand men, collected from Germany and all the northern states. Havingsurmounted every obstacle thrown in his way by the artifices of theGreeks and the power of the infidels, he had penetrated to the bordersof Syria; when, bathing in the cold river Cydnus, during the greatestheat of the summer season, he was seized with a mortal distemper, whichput an end to his life and his rash enterprise. [*]

 [* Benedict. Abbas, p. 556. ]

His army, under the command of his son Conrade, reached Palestine; butwas so diminished by fatigue famine, maladies, and the sword, that itscarcely amounted to eight thousand men, and was unable to make anyprogress against the great power, valor, and conduct of Saladin. Thesereiterated calamities attending the crusades, had taught the kings ofFrance and England the necessity of trying another road to the Holy Landand they determined to conduct their armies thither by sea, to carryprovisions along with them, and by means of their naval power tomaintain an open communication with then own states, and with thewestern parts of Europe. The place of rendezvous was appointed in theplains of Vezelay, on the borders of Burgundy. [*] {1190. } Philip andRichard, on their arrival there, found their combined army amount toone hundred thousand men;[**] a mighty force, animated with glory andreligion, conducted by two warlike monarchs, provided with every thingwhich their several dominions couid supply, and not to be overcome butby their own misconduct, or by the unsurmountable obstacles of nature. 

 [* Hoveden, p. 660. ]

 [** Vinisnuf, p. 305]

The French prince and the English here reiterated their promises ofcordial friendship, pledged their faith not to invade each other'sdominions during the crusade, mutually exchanged the oaths of all theirbarons and prelates to the same effect, and subjected themselves to thepenalty of interdicts and excommunications, if they should ever violatethis public and solemn engagement. They then separated; Philip took theroad to Genoa, Richard that to Marseilles, with a view of meeting theirfleets, which were severally appointed to rendezvous in these harbors. They put to sea; and nearly about the same time were obliged, by stressof weather, to take shelter in Messina, where they were detained duringthe whole winter. This incident laid the foundation of animosities whichproved fatal to their enterprise. 

Richard and Philip were, by the situation and extent of their dominions, rivals in power; by their age and inclinations, competitors for glory;and these causes of emulation, which, had the princes been employedin the field against the common enemy, might have stimulated themto martial enterprises, soon excited, during the present leisure andrepose, quarrels between monarchs of such a fiery character. Equallyhaughty, ambitious, intrepid, and inflexible, they were irritatedwith the least appearance of injury, and were incapable, by mutualcondescensions, to efface those causes of complaint which unavoidablyrose between them. Richard, candid, sincere, undesigning, impolitic, violent, laid himself open on every occasion to the designs of hisantagonist; who, provident, interested, intriguing, failed not to takeall advantages against him: and thus, both the circumstances oftheir disposition in which they were similar, and those in which theydiffered, rendered it impossible for them to persevere in that harmonywhich was so necessary to the success of their undertaking. 

The last king of Sicily and Naples was William II. , who had marriedJoan, sister to Richard, and who, dying without issue, had bequeathedhis dominions to his paternal aunt Constantia, the only legitimatedescendant surviving of Roger the first sovereign of those states whohad been honored with the royal title. This princess had, in expectationof that rich inheritance, been married to Henry VI. , the reigningemperor;[*] but Tancred, her natural brother, had fixed such an interestamong the barons, that, taking advantage of Henry's absence, he hadacquired possession of the throne, and maintained his claim, by forceof arms, against all the efforts of the Germans. [**] The approach of thecrusaders naturally gave him apprehensions for his unstable government;and he was uncertain whether he had most reason to dread the presenceof the French or of the English monarch. Philip was engaged in a strictalliance with the emperor, his competitor: Richard was disgusted by hisrigors towards the queen dowager, whom the Sicilian prince had confinedin Palermo because she had opposed with all her interest his successionto the crown. Tancred, therefore, sensible of the present necessity, resolved to pay court to both these formidable princes; and he was notunsuccessful in his endeavors. He persuaded Philip that it was highlyimproper for him to interrupt his enterprise against the infidels byany attempt against a Christian state: he restored Queen Joan to herliberty; and even found means to make an alliance with Richard, whostipulated by treaty to marry his nephew Arthur; the young duke ofBrittany, to one of the daughters of Tancred. [***]

 [* Benedict. Abbas, p. 580. ]

 [** Hoveden, p. 663]

 [*** Hoveden, p. 676, 677. Benedict. Abbas, p. 615. ]

But before these terms of friendship were settled. Richard, jealous bothof Tancred and of the inhabitants of Messina, had taken up his quartersin the suburbs, and had possessed himself of a small fort, whichcommanded the harbor; and he kept himself extremely on his guard againsttheir enterprises. The citizens took umbrage. Mutual insults and attackspassed between them and the English: Philip, who had quartered histroops in the town, endeavored to accommodate the quarrel, and held aconference with Richard for that purpose. While the two kings, meetingin the open fields, were engaged in discourse on this subject, a bodyof those Sicilians seemed to be drawing towards them; and Richard pushedforwards in order to inquire into the reason of this extraordinarymovement. [*] The English, indolent from their power, and inflamed withformer animosities, wanted but a pretence for attacking the Messinese:they soon chased them off the field, drove them into the town, andentered with them at the gates. The king employed his authority torestrain them from pillaging and massacring the defenceless inhabitants;but he gave orders, in token of his victory, that the standard ofEngland should be erected on the walls. Philip, who considered thatplace as his quarters, exclaimed against the insult, and ordered someof his troops to pull down the standard: but Richard informed him by amessenger, that though he himself would willingly remove that ground ofoffence, he would not permit it to be done by others; and if the Frenchking attempted such an insult upon him, he should not succeed but by theutmost effusion of blood. Philip, content with this species of haughtysubmission, recalled his orders:[**] the difference was seeminglyaccommodated, but still left the remains of rancor and jealousy in thebreasts of the two monarchs. 

Tancred, who for his own security desired to inflame their mutualhatred, employed an artifice which might have been attended withconsequences still more fatal. {1191. } He showed Richard a letter, signed by the French king, and delivered to him, as he pretended, by theduke of Burgundy; in which that monarch desired Tancred to fall upon thequarters of the English, and promised to assist him in putting themto the sword as common enemies. The unwary Richard gave credit to theinformation; but was too candid not to betray his discontent to Philip, who absolutely denied the letter, and charged the Sicilian prince withforgery and falsehood. Richard either was, or pretended to be, entirelysatisfied. [***]

 [* Benedict. Abbas, p. 608. ]

 [** Hoveden, p. 674. ]

 [*** Hoveden, p. 688. Benedict. Abbas, p. 642, 643. Brompton, p. 1125]

Last these jealousies and complaints should multiply between them, itwas proposed that they should, by a solemn treaty, obviate all futuredifferences, and adjust every point that couid possibly hereafter becomea controversy between them. But this expedient started a new dispute, which might have proved more dangerous than any of the foregoing, andwhich deeply concerned the honor of Philip's family. When Richard, in every treaty with the late king, insisted so strenuously on beingallowed to marry Alice of France, he had only sought a pretence forquarrelling, and never meant to take to his bed a princess suspectedof a criminal amour with his own father. After he became master, heno longer spake of that alliance: he even took measures for espousingBerengaria, daughter of Sanchez, king of Navarre, with whom he hadbecome enamored during his abode in Guienne. [*] Queen Eleanor was dailyexpected with that princess at Messina;[**] and when Philip renewed tohim his applications for espousing his sister Alice, Richard was obligedto give him an absolute refusal. It is pretended by Hoveden and otherhistorians, [***] that he was able to produce such convincing proofs ofAlice's infidelity, and even of her having borne a child to Henry, thather brother desisted from his applications, and chose to wrap up thedishonor of his family in silence and oblivion. It is certain, from thetreaty itself which remains, [****] that, whatever were his motives, hepermitted Richard to give his hand to Berengaria; and having settled allother controversies with that prince, he immediately set sail for theHoly Land. Richard awaited some time the arrival of his mother andbride, and when they joined him, he separated his fleet into twosquadrons, and set forward on his enterprise. Queen Eleanor returned toEngland; but Berengaria, and the queen dowager of Sicily, his sister, attended him on the expedition. [*****]

 [* Vinisauf, p. 316. ]

 [** M. Paris, p. 112. Trivet, p. 102. W. Heming. P. 519. ]

 [*** Hoveden, p. 688. ]

 [**** Bymer, vol. I. P. 69. Chron. Dunst. P. 44. ]

 [***** Benedict. Abbas, p. 644. ]

The English fleet, on leaving the port of Messina, met with a furioustempest; and the squadron on which the two princesses were embarked wasdriven on the coast of Cyprus, and some of the vessels were wreckednear Limisso, in that island. Isaac, prince of Cyprus, who assumed themagnificent title of emperor, pillaged the ships that were stranded, brew the seamen and passengers into prison, and even refused to theprincesses liberty, in their dangerous situation, of entering the harborof Limisso. But Richard, who arrived soon after, took ample vengeance onhim for the injury. He disembarked his troops; defeated the tyrant, whoopposed his landing; entered Limisso by storm; gained next day a secondvictory; obliged Isaac to surrender at discretion; and establishedgovernors over the island. The Greek prince, being thrown into prisonand loaded with irons, complained of the little regard with which he wastreated; upon which Richard ordered silver fetters to be made for him;and this emperor, pleased with the distinction, expressed a sense of thegenerosity of his conqueror. [*] The king here espoused Berengaria, who, immediately embarking, carried along with her to Palestine the daughterof the Cypriot prince; a dangerous rival, who was believed to haveseduced the affections of her husband. Such were the libertine characterand conduct of the heroes engaged in this pious enterprise!

The English army arrived in time to partake in the glory of the siegeof Acre or Ptolemais, which had been attacked for above two years by theunited force of all the Christians in Palestine, and had been defendedby the utmost efforts of Saladin and the Saracens. The remains of theGerman army, conducted by the emperor Frederic, and the separate bodiesof adventurers who continually poured in from the west, had enabled theking of Jerusalem to form this important enterprise;[**] but Saladinhaving thrown a strong garrison into the place under the command ofCaracos, his own master in the art of war, and molesting the besiegerswith continual attacks and sallies, had protracted the success of theenterprise, and wasted the force of his enemies. 

 [* Benedict. Abbas, p. 650 Ann. Waverl. P. 164. Vinisauf, p 328 W. Heming. P. 523. ]

 [** Vinisauf. P 269, 271, 279]

The arrival of Philip and Richard inspired new life into the Christians;and these princes acting by concert, and sharing the honor and dangerof every action, gave hopes of a final victory over the infidels. Theyagreed on this plan of operations: when the French monarch attackedthe town, the English guarded the trenches: next day, when the Englishprince conducted the assault, the French succeeded him in providing forthe safety of the assailants. The emulation between those rival kingsand rival nations produced extraordinary acts of valor: Richard, inparticular animated with a more precipitate courage than Philip, andmore agreeable to the romantic spirit of that age, drew to himself thegeneral attention, and acquired a great and splendid reputation. Butthis harmony was of short duration, and occasions of discord soon arosebetween these jealous and haughty princes. 

The family of Bouillon, which had first been placed on the throne ofJerusalem, ending in a female, Fulk, count of Anjou, grandfatherto Henry II. Of England, married the heiress of that kingdom, andtransmitted his title to the younger branches of his family. The Anjevanrace ending also in a female, Guy de Lusignan, by espousing Sibylla, theheiress, had succeeded to the title; and though he lost his kingdom bythe invasion of Saladin, he was still acknowledged by all the Christiansfor king of Jerusalem. [*] But as Sibylla died without issue during thesiege of Acre, Isabella, her younger sister, put in her claim to thattitular kingdom, and required Lusignan to resign his pretensions to herhusband, Conrade, marquis of Montferrat. Lusignan, maintaining thatthe royal title was unalienable and indefeasible, had recourse tothe protection of Richard, attended on him before he left Cyprus, andengaged him to embrace his cause. [**] There needed no other reason forthrowing Philip into the party of Conrade; and the opposite views ofthese great monarchs brought faction and dissension into the Christianarmy, and retarded all its operations. The templars, the Genoese, andthe Germans, declared for Philip and Conrade; the Flemings, thePisans, the knights of the hospital of St. John, adhered to Richard andLusignan, But notwithstanding these disputes, as the length of the siegehad reduced the Saracen garrison to the last extremity, they surrenderedthemselves prisoners; stipulated, in return for their lives, otheradvantages to the Christians, such as restoring of the Christianprisoners, and the delivery of the wood of the true cross;[***] and thisgreat enterprise, which had long engaged the attention of all Europe andAsia, was at last, after the loss of three hundred thousand men, broughtto a happy period. 

 [* Vinisauf, p. 281. ]

 [** Trivet, p. 104. Vinisauf, p. 342. W. Heming. P. 524. ]

 [*** This true cross was lost in the battle of Tiberiade, to which it had been carried by the crusaders for their protection. Rigord, an author of that age, says, that after this dismal event, all the children who were born throughout all Christendom, had only twenty or twenty-two teeth, instead of thirty or thirty-two, which was their former complement (p. 14. )]

But Philip, instead of pursuing the hopes of further conquest, and ofredeeming the holy city from slavery, being disgusted with the ascendantassumed and acquired by Richard, and having views of many advantageswhich he might reap by his presence in Europe, declared his resolutionof returning to France; and he pleaded his bad state of health asan excuse for his desertion of the common cause. He left however, toRichard ten thousand of his troops, under the command of the duke ofBurgundy; and he renewed his oath never to commence hostilities againstthat prince's dominions during his absence. But he had no sooner reachedItaly than he applied, it is pretended, to Pope Celestine III. Fora dispensation from this vow; and when denied that request, he stillproceeded, though after a covert manner, in a project which the presentsituation of England rendered inviting, and which gratified, in aneminent degree, both his resentment and his ambition. 

Immediately after Richard had left England, and begun his march tothe Holy Land, the two prelates whom he had appointed guardians of therealm, broke out into animosities against each other, and threw thekingdom into combustion. Longchamp, presumptuous in his nature, elatedby the favor which he enjoyed with his master, and armed with thelegantine commission, could not submit to an equality with the bishopof Durham: he even went so far as to arrest his colleague, and to extortfrom him a resignation of the earldom of Northumberland, and of hisother dignities, as the price of his liberty. [*] The king, informed ofthese dissensions, ordered, by letters from Marseilles, that thebishop should be reinstated in his offices; but Longchamp had still theboldness to refuse compliance, on pretence that he himself was betteracquainted with the king's secret intentions. [**] He proceeded togovern the kingdom by his sole authority; to treat all the nobilitywith arrogance; and to display his power and riches with an invidiousostentation. He never travelled without a strong guard of fifteenhundred foreign soldiers, collected from that licentious tribe, withwhich the age was generally infested: nobles and knights were proudof being admitted into his train his retinue wore the aspect of royalmagnificence; and when in his progress through the kingdom, he lodged inany monastery, his attendants, it is said, were sufficient to devour inone night the revenue of several years. [***]

 [* Hoveden, p. 665. Knyghton, p. 2403. ]

 [** W. Heming. P 528, ]

 [*** Hoveden, p. 680. Benedict. Abbas, p. 626, 700. Brompton, p. 1193. ]

The king, who was detained in Europe longer than the haughty prelateexpected, hearing of this ostentation, which exceeded even what thehabits of that age indulged in ecclesiastics; being also informed of theinsolent, tyrannical conduct of his minister, thought proper to restrainhis power: he sent new orders, appointing Walter, archbishop of Rouen, William Mareshal, earl of Strigul, Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, William Briewere, and Hugh Bardolf, counsellors to Longchamp, and commanding him totake no measure of importance without their concurrence and approbation. But such general terror had this man impressed by his violent conduct, that even the archbishop of Rouen and the earl of Strigul durst notproduce this mandate of the king's: and Longchamp still maintained anuncontrolled authority over the nation. But when he proceeded so far asto throw into prison Geoffrey, archbishop of York, who had opposedhis measures, this breach of ecclesiastical privileges excited such auniversal ferment, that Prince John, disgusted with the small share hepossessed in the government, and personally disobliged by Longchamp, ventured to summon at Reading a general council of the nobility andprelates, and cite him to appear before them. Longchamp thought itdangerous to intrust his person in their hands, and he shut himself, up in the tower of London; but being soon obliged to surrender thatfortress, he fled beyond sea, concealed under a female habit, and wasdeprived of his offices of chancellor and chief justiciary, the last ofwhich was conferred on the archbishop of Rouen, a prelate of prudenceand moderation. The commission of legate, however, which had beenrenewed to Longchamp by Pope Celestine, still gave him, notwithstandinghis absence, great authority in the kingdom, enabled him to disturbthe government, and forwarded the views of Philip, who watched everyopportunity of annoying Richard's dominions. {1192. } That monarch firstattempted to carry open war into Normandy: but as the French nobilityrefused to follow him in an invasion of a state which they had sworn toprotect, and as the pope, who was the general guardian of all princesthat had taken the cross, threatened him with ecclesiastical censures, he desisted from his enterprise, and employed against England theexpedient of secret policy and intrigue. He debauched Prince John fromhis allegiance; promised him his sister Alice in marriage; offered togive him possession of all Richard's transmarine dominions; and had notthe authority of Queen Eleanor, and the menaces of the English council, prevailed over the inclinations of that turbulent prince, he was readyto have crossed the seas, and to have put in execution his criminalenterprises. 

The jealousy of Philip was every moment excited by the glory which thegreat actions of Richard were gaining him in the east, and which, beingcompared to his own desertion of that popular cause, threw a doublelustre on his rival. His envy, therefore, prompted him to obscurethat fame which he had not equalled; and he embraced every pretence ofthrowing the most violent and most improbable calumnies on the king ofEngland. There was a petty prince in Asia, commonly called the Old Manof the Mountain, who had acquired such an ascendant over his fanaticalsubjects, that they paid the most implicit deference to his commands;esteemed assassination meritorious when sanctified by his mandate;courted danger, and even certain death, in the execution of his orders;and fancied, that when they sacrificed their lives for his sake, thehighest joys of paradise were the infallible reward of their devotedobedience. [*] It was the custom of this prince, when he imaginedhimself injured, to despatch secretly some of his subjects against theaggressor, to charge them with the execution of his revenge, to instructthem in every art of disguising their purpose; and no precaution wassufficient to guard any man, however powerful, against the attempts ofthese subtle and determined ruffians. The greatest monarchs stood in aweof this prince of the assassins, (for that was the name of his people. Whence the word has passed into most European languages, ) and it was thehighest indiscretion in Conrade, marquis of Montferrat, to offendand affront him. The inhabitants of Tyre, who were governed by thatnobleman, had put to death some of this dangerous people: the princedemanded satisfaction; for as he piqued himself on never beginning anyoffence, [**] he had his regular and established formalities in requiringatonement: Conrade treated his messengers with disdain: the princeissued the fatal orders: two of his subjects, who had insinuatedthemselves in disguise among Conrade's guards, openly, in the streetsof Sidon, wounded him mortally; and when they were seized and put to themost cruel tortures, they triumphed amidst their agonies, and rejoicedthat they had been destined by Heaven to suffer in so just andmeritorious a cause. 

 [* W. Heming. P. 532. Brompton, p. 1243. ]

 [** Rymer vol. I. P. 71. ]

Every one in Palestine knew from what hand the blow came. Richardwas entirely free from suspicion. Though that monarch had formerlymaintained the cause of Lusignan against Conrade, he had become sensibleof the bad effects attending those dissensions, and had voluntarilyconferred on the former the kingdom of Cyprus, on condition that heshould resign to his rival all pretensions on the crown of Jerusalem, [*]Conrade himself, with his dying breath, had recommended his widow to theprotection of Richard;[**] the prince of the assassins avowed the actionin a formal narrative which he sent to Europe; yet, on this foundation, the king of France thought fit to build the most egregious calumnies, and to impute to Richard the murder of the marquis of Montferrat, whose elevation he had once openly opposed. He filled all Europe withexclamations against the crime; appointed a guard for his own person, inorder to defend himself against a like attempt; and endeavored, by theseshallow artifices, to cover the infamy of attacking the dominions of aprince whom he himself had deserted, and who was engaged with so muchglory in a war universally acknowledged to be the common cause ofChristendom. 

 [* Vinisauf, p. 391. ]

 [** Brompton, p. 1248. ]

But Richard's heroic actions in Palestine were the best apology forhis conduct. The Christian adventurers under his command determined, on opening the campaign, to attempt the siege of Ascalon, in orderto prepare the way for that of Jerusalem; and they marched along thesea-coast with that intention. Saladin purposed to intercept theirpassage: and he placed himself on the road with an army, amounting tothree hundred thousand combatants. On this occasion was fought oneof the greatest battles of that age; and the most celebrated, for themilitary genius of the commanders, for the number and valor of thetroops, and for the great variety of events which attended it. Boththe right wing of the Christians, commanded by D'Avesnes, and the leftconducted by the duke of Burgundy, were, in the beginning of the day, broken and defeated; when Richard, who led on the main body, restoredthe battle; attacked the enemy with intrepidity and presence of mind;performed the part both of a consummate general and gallant soldier; andnot only gave his two wings leisure to recover from their confusion, butobtained a complete victory over the Saracens, of whom forty thousandare said to have perished in the field. [*] Ascalon soon after fell intothe hands of the Christians: other sieges were carried on with equalsuccess; Richard was even able to advance within sight of Jerusalem, theobject of his enterprise; when he had the mortification to find that hemust abandon all hopes of immediate success, and must put a stop to hiscareer of victory. The crusaders, animated with an enthusiastic ardorfor the holy wars, broke at first through all regards to safety orinterest in the prosecution of their purpose; and trusting to theimmediate assistance of Heaven, set nothing before their eyes but fameand victory in this world, and a crown of glory in the next. But longabsence from home, fatigue, disease, want, and the variety of incidentswhich naturally attend war, had gradually abated that fury, whichnothing was able directly to withstand; and every one except the king ofEngland, expressed a desire of speedily returning into Europe. TheGermans and the Italians declared their resolution of desisting from theenterprise: the French were still more obstinate in this purpose: theduke of Burgundy, in order to pay court to Philip, took allopportunities of mortifying and opposing Richard:[**] and there appearedan absolute necessity of abandoning for the present all hopes of furtherconquest, and of securing the acquisitions of the Christians by anaccommodation with Saladin, Richard, therefore concluded a truce withthat monarch; and stipulated that Acre, Joppa, and other seaport townsof Palestine, should remain in the hands of the Christians, and thatevery one of that religion should have liberty to perform his pilgrimageto Jerusalem unmolested. This truce was concluded for three years, threemonths, three weeks, three days, and three hours; a magical number, which had probably been devised by the Europeans, and which wassuggested by a superstition well suited to the object of the war. 

 [* Hovelen, p. 698. Benedict. Abbas, p. 677. Diceto, p. 662 Brompton, p. 1214. ]

 [** Vinisauf, p. 380. ]

The liberty in which Saladin indulged the Christians, to perform theirpilgrimages to Jerusalem, was an easy sacrifice on his part; and thefurious wars which he waged in defence of the barren territory of Judea, were not with him, as with the European adventurers, the resultof superstition, but of policy, The advantage indeed of science, moderation, humanity, was at that time entirely on the side of theSaracens; and this gallant emperor, in particular, displayed, duringthe course of the war, a spirit and generosity, which even his bigotedenemies were obliged to acknowledge and admire. Richard, equally martialand brave, carried with him more of the barbarian character, andwas guilty of acts of ferocity which threw a stain on his celebratedvictories. When Saladin refused to ratify the capitulation of Acre, the king of England ordered all his prisoners, to the number of fivethousand, to be butchered; and the Saracens found themselves obliged toretaliate upon the Christians by a like cruelty. [*]

 [* Hoveden, p. 697. Benedict Abbas, p. 673. M. Paris, p. 115. Vinisauf, p. 846. W. Heming. P. 531. ]

Saladin died at Damascus soon after concluding this truce with theprinces of the crusade; it is memorable that, before he expired, heordered his winding-sheet to be carried as a standard through everystreet of the city; while a crier went before, and proclaimed witha loud voice, "This is all that remains to the mighty Saladin, theconqueror of the East. " By his last will, he ordered charities to bedistributed to the poor, without distinction of Jew, Christian, orMahometan. 

There remained, after the truce, no business of importance to detainRichard in Palestine; and the intelligence which he received, concerningthe intrigues of his brother John, and those of the king of France, made him sensible that his presence was necessary in Europe. As hedared not to pass through France, he sailed to the Adriatic; and beingship-wrecked near Aquileia, he put on the disguise of a pilgrim, with apurpose of taking his journey secretly through Germany. Pursued by thegovernor of Istria, he was forced out of the direct road to England, and was obliged to pass by Vienna, where his expenses and liberalitiesbetrayed the monarch in the habit of the pilgrim; and he was arrested byorders of Leopold, duke of Austria. This prince had served under Richardat the siege of Acre; but being disgusted by some insult of that haughtymonarch, he was so ungenerous as to seize the present opportunity ofgratifying at once his avarice and revenge; and he threw the king intoprison. {1193. } The emperor, Henry VI. , who also considered Richard asan enemy, on account of the alliance contracted by him with Tancred, king of Sicily, despatched messengers to the duke of Austria, requiredthe royal captive to be delivered to him, and stipulated a large sum ofmoney as a reward for this service. Thus the king of England, who hadfilled the whole world with his renown, found himself, during the mostcritical state of his affairs, confined in a dungeon, and loaded withirons, in the heart of Germany, [*] and entirely at the mercy of hisenemies, the basest and most sordid of mankind. 

The English council was astonished on receiving this fatal intelligence, and foresaw all the dangerous consequences which might naturally arisefrom that event. The queen dowager wrote reiterated letters to PopeCelestine; exclaiming against the injury which her son had sustained, representing the impiety of detaining in prison the most illustriousprince that had yet carried the banners of Christ into the Holy Land;claiming the protection of the apostolic see, which was due even to themeanest of those adventurers; and upbraiding the pope, that, in a causewhere justice, religion, and the dignity of the church, were so muchconcerned, a cause which it might well befit his holiness himself tosupport by taking in person a journey to Germany, the spiritual thundersshould so long be suspended over those sacrilegious offenders. [**]The zeal of Celestine corresponded not to the impatience of the queenmother; and the regency of England were, for a long time, left tostruggle alone with all their domestic and foreign enemies. 

The king of France, quickly informed of Richard's confinement by amessage from the emperor, [***] prepared himself to take advantage of theincident; and he employed every means of force and intrigue, of war andnegotiation, against the dominions and the person of his unfortunaterival. He revived the calumny of Richard's assassinating the marquis ofMontferrat; and by that absurd pretence he induced his barons to violatetheir oaths, by which they had engaged that, during the crusade, they never would, on any account, attack the dominions of the king ofEngland. He made the emperor the largest offers, if he would deliverinto his hands the royal prisoner, or at least detain him in perpetualcaptivity he even formed an alliance by marriage with the king ofDenmark, desired that the ancient Danish claim to the crown of Englandshould be transferred to him, and solicited a supply of shipping tomaintain it. 

 [* Chron. T. Wykes, p. 35. ]

 [** Rymer, vol. I. P. 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, etc]

 [*** Rymer, vol. I. P. 70. ]

But the most successful of Philip's negotiations was with PrinceJohn, who, forgetting every tie to his brother, his sovereign, and hisbenefactor, thought of nothing but how to make his own advantage of thepublic calamities. That traitor, on the first invitation from the courtof France, suddenly went abroad, had a conference with Philip, and madea treaty, of which the object was the perpetual ruin of his unhappybrother. He stipulated to deliver into Philip's hands a great part ofNormandy:[*] he received, in return, the investiture of all Richard'stransmarine dominions; and it is reported by several historians, that heeven did homage to the French king for the crown of England. 

In consequence of this treaty, Philip invaded Normandy; and by thetreachery of John's emissaries, made himself master, without opposition, of many fortresses--Neufchatel, Neaufle, Gisors, Pacey, Ivrée: hesubdued the counties of Eu and Aumale; and advancing to form the siegeof Rouen, he threatened to put all the inhabitants to the sword if theydared to make resistance. Happily, Robert, earl of Leicester appeared inthat critical moment, a gallant nobleman, who had acquired great honorduring the crusade, and who, being more fortunate than his master infinding his passage homewards, took on him the command in Rouen, andexerted himself, by his exhortations and example, to infuse courage intothe dismayed Normans. Philip was repulsed in every attack; the time ofservice from his vassals expired; and he consented to a truce withthe English regency, received in return the promise of twenty thousandmarks, and had four castles put into his hands as security for thepayment. [**]

 [* Rymer, vol. I. P. 85. ]

 [** Hoveden, p, 730, 731. Rymer, vol. I. P. 81]

Prince John, who, with a view of increasing the general confusion, wentover to England, was still less successful in his enterprises. Hewas only able to make himself master of the castles of Windsor andWallingford; but when he arrived in London, and claimed the kingdomas heir to his brother, of whose death he pretended to have receivedcertain intelligence he was rejected by all the barons, and measureswere taken to oppose and subdue him. [*] The justiciaries, supported bythe general affection of the people, provided so well for the defenceof the kingdom, that John was obliged, after some fruitless efforts, to conclude a truce with them; and before its expiration, he thought itprudent to return into France, where he openly avowed his alliance withPhilip. [**]

Meanwhile the high spirit of Richard suffered in Germany every kind ofinsult and indignity. The French ambassadors, in their master's name, renounced him as a vassal to the crown of France, and declared all hisfiefs to be forfeited to his liege lord. The emperor, that he mightrender him more impatient for the recovery of his liberty, and make himsubmit to the payment of a larger ransom, treated him with the greatestseverity, and reduced him to a condition worse than that of the meanestmalefactor. He was even produced before the diet of the empire at Worms, and accused by Henry of many crimes and misdemeanors; of making analliance with Tancred, the usurper of Sicily; of turning the arms of thecrusade against a Christian prince, and subduing Cyprus; of affrontingthe duke of Austria before Acre; of obstructing the progress of theChristian arms by his quarrels with the king of France; of assassinatingConrade, marquis of Montferrat; and of concluding a truce with Saladin, and leaving Jerusalem in the hands of the Saracen emperor. [***]

 [* Hoveden, p. 724. ]

 [** W Heming. P. 556. ]

 [*** M. Paris, p. 121. W. Heming. P. 536. ]

Richard, whose spirit was not broken by his misfortunes, and whosegenius was rather roused by these frivolous or scandalous imputations, after premising that his dignity exempted him from answering before anyjurisdiction, except that of Heaven, yet condescended, for the sake ofhis reputation, to justify his conduct before that great assembly. Heobserved, that he had no hand in Tancred's elevation, and only concludeda treaty with a prince whom he found in possession of the throne: thatthe king, or rather tyrant, of Cyprus had provoked his indignation bythe most ungenerous and unjust proceedings; and though he chastisedthis aggressor, he had not retarded a moment the progress of his chiefenterprise: that if he had at any time been wanting in civility to theduke of Austria, he had already been sufficiently punished for thatsally of passion; and it better became men, embarked together in so holya cause, to forgive each other's infirmities, than to pursue a slightoffence with such unrelenting vengeance: that it had sufficientlyappeared by the event, whether the king of France or he were mostzealous for the conquest of the Holy Land, and were most likely tosacrifice private passions and animosities to that great object: thatif the whole tenor of his life had not shown him incapable of a baseassassination, and justified him from that imputation in the eyesof his very enemies, it was in vain for him, at present, to make hisapology, or plead the many irrefragable arguments which he could producein his own favor: and that, however he might regret the necessity, hewas so far from being ashamed of his truce with Saladin, that he rathergloried in that event; and thought it extremely honorable that, thoughabandoned by all the world, supported only by his own courage, andby the small remains of his national troops, he could yet obtain suchconditions from the most powerful and most warlike emperor that the Easthad ever yet produced. Richard, after thus deigning to apologize for hisconduct, burst out into indignation at the cruel treatment which hehad met with; that he, the champion of the cross, still wearing thathonorable badge, should, after expending the blood and treasure of hissubjects in the common cause of Christendom, be intercepted by Christianprinces in his return to his own country, be thrown into a dungeon, beloaded with irons, be obliged to plead his cause as if he were asubject and a malefactor, and, what he still more regretted, be therebyprevented from making preparations for a new crusade, which he hadprojected, after the expiration of the truce, and from redeeming thesepulchre of Christ, which had so long been profaned by the dominion ofinfidels. The spirit and eloquence of Richard made such impression onthe German princes, that they exclaimed loudly against the conduct ofthe emperor; the pope threatened him with excommunication; and Henry, who had hearkened to the proposals of the king of France and PrinceJohn, found that it would be impracticable for him to execute his andtheir base purposes, or to detain the king of England any longer incaptivity. He therefore concluded with him a treaty for his ransom, andagreed to restore him to his freedom for the sum of one hundred andfifty thousand marks about three hundred thousand pounds of our presentmoney of which one hundred thousand marks were to be paid beforehe received his liberty, and sixty-seven hostages delivered for theremainder. [*] The emperor, as if to gloss over the infamy of thistransaction, made at the same time a present to Richard of the kingdomof Arles, comprehending Provence, Dauphiny, Narbonne, and other states, over which the empire had some antiquated claims; a present which theking very wisely neglected. 

 [* Rymer, vol. I. P. 84. ]

The captivity of the superior lord was one of the cases provided for bythe feudal tenures; and all the vassals were in that event obliged togive an aid for his ransom. Twenty shillings were therefore levied oneach knight's fee in England; but as this money came in slowly, andwas not sufficient for the intended purpose, the voluntary zeal of thepeople readily supplied the deficiency. The churches and monasteriesmelted down their plate, to the amount of thirty thousand marks; thebishop, abbots, and nobles, paid a fourth of their yearly rent; theparochial clergy contributed a tenth of their tithes; and the requisitesura being thus collected queen Eleanor, and Walter, archbishop ofRouen, set out with it for Germany; {1194. } paid the money to theemperor and the duke of Austria at Mentz; delivered them hostages forthe remainder, and freed. Richard from captivity. His escape was verycritical. Henry had been detected in the assassination of the bishop ofLiege, and in an attempt of a like nature on the duke of Louvaine; andfinding himself extremely obnoxious to the German princes on accountof these odious practices, he had determined to seek support from analliance with the king of France; to detain Richard, the enemy of thatprince, in perpetual captivity; to keep in his hands the money whichhe had already received for his ransom; and to extort fresh sums fromPhilip and prince John, who were very liberal in their offers to him. Hetherefore gave orders that Richard should be pursued and arrested; butthe king, making all imaginable haste, had already embarked at the mouthof the Schelde, and was out of sight of land when the messengers of theemperor reached Antwerp. 

The joy of the English was extreme on the appearance of their monarch, who had suffered so many calamities, who had acquired so much glory, and who had spread the reputation of their name into the farthest east, whither their fame had never before been able to extend. He gave them, soon after his arrival, an opportunity of publicly displaying theirexultation, by ordering himself to be crowned anew at Winchester; as ifhe intended, by that ceremony, to reinstate himself in his throne, andto wipe off he ignominity of his captivity. Their satisfaction wasnot damped, even when he declared his purpose of resuming all thoseexorbitant grants which he had been necessitated to make before hisdeparture for the Holy Land. The barons also, in a great council, confiscated, on account of his treason, all Prince John's possessionsin England and they assisted the king in reducing the fortresses whichstill remained in the hands of his brother's adherents. [*] Richard, having settled every thing in England, passed over with an army intoNormandy; being impatient to make war on Philip, and to revenge himselffor the many injuries which he had received from that monarch. [**] Assoon as Philip heard of the king's deliverance from captivity, he wroteto his confederate John in these terms: "Take care of yourself: thedevil is broken loose. "[***]

 [* Hoveden, p, 737. Ann. Waverl. P. 165. W. Heming. P. 540. ]

 [** Hoveden, p. 740. ]

 [*** Hoveden p. 739]

When we consider such powerful and martial monarchs, inflamed withpersonal animosity against each other, enraged by mutual injuries, excited by rivalship, impelled by opposite interests, and instigated bythe pride and violence of their own temper, our curiosity is naturallyraised, and we expect an obstinate and furious war, distinguished by thegreatest events, and concluded by some remarkable catastrophe. Yet arethe incidents which attended those hostilities so frivolous, that scarceany historian can entertain such a passion for military descriptions asto venture on a detail of them; a certain proof of the extreme weaknessof princes in those ages, and of the little authority they possessedover their refractory vassals The whole amount of the exploits on bothsides, is the taking of a castle, the surprise of a straggling party, arencounter of horse, which resembles more a rout than a battle. Richardobliged Philip to raise the siege of Verneuil; he took Loches, a smalltown in Anjou; he made himself master of Beaumont, and some other placesof little consequence; and after these trivial exploits, the two kingsbegan already to hold conferences for an accommodation. Philip insistedthat, if a general peace were concluded, the barons on each side shouldfor the future be prohibited from carrying on private wars againsteach other; but Richard replied, that this was a right claimed byhis vassals, and he could not debar them from it After this fruitlessnegotiation, there ensued an action between the French and Englishcavalry at Fretteval, in which the former were routed, and the king ofFrance's cartulary and records, which commonly at that time attended hisperson, were taken. But this victory leading to no important advantages, a truce for a year was at last, from mutual weakness, concluded betweenthe two monarchs. 

During this war, Prince John deserted from Philip, threw himself at hisbrother's feet, craved pardon for his offences, and by the intercessionof Queen Eleanor was received into favor. "I forgive him, " said theking, "and hope I shall as easily forget his injuries as he will mypardon. " John was incapable even of returning to his duty withoutcommitting a baseness. Before he left Philip's party, he invited todinner all the officers of the garrison which that prince had placed inthe citadel of Evreux; he massacred them during the entertainment; fell, with the assistance of the townsmen, on the garrison, whom he put to thesword; and then delivered up the place to his brother. 

The king of France was the great object of Richard's resentment andanimosity. The conduct of John, as well as that of the emperor and dukeof Austria, had been so base, and was exposed to such general odium andreproach, that the king deemed himself sufficiently revenged fortheir injuries; and he seems never to have entertained any project ofvengeance against any of them. The duke of Austria, about this time, having crushed his leg by the fall of his horse at a tournament, wasthrown into a fever; and being struck, on the approaches of death, withremorse for his injustice to Richard, he ordered by will all the Englishhostages in his hands to be set at liberty and the remainder of the debtdue to him to be remitted: his son, who seemed inclined to disobey theseorders, was constrained by his ecclesiastics to execute them. [*] {1195. }The emperor also made advances for Richard's friendship, and offered togive him a discharge of all the debt not yet paid to him, provided hewould enter into an offensive alliance against the king of France; aproposal which was very acceptable to Richard, and was greedily embracedby him. The treaty with the emperor took no effect; but it served torekindle the war between France and England before the expiration of thetruce. 

 [* Rymer, vol. I. P. 88, 102. ]

This war was not distinguished by any more remarkable incidents than theforegoing. After mutually ravaging the open country, and taking a fewinsignificant castles, the two kings concluded a peace at Louviers, andmade an exchange of some territories with each other. [*] {1196. } Theirinability to wage war occasioned the peace; their mutual antipathyengaged them again in war before two months expired. Richard imaginedthat he had now found an opportunity of gaining great advantages overhis rival, by forming an alliance with the counts of Flanders, Toulouse, Boulogne, Champagne, and other considerable vassals of the crown ofFrance. [**] But he soon experienced the insincerity of those princes;and; was not able to make any impression on that kingdom, whilegoverned by a monarch of so much vigor and activity as Philip. The mostremarkable incident of this war was the taking prisoner, in battle, thebishop of Beauvais, a martial prelate who was of the family of Dreux, and a near relation of the French king. Richard, who hated that bishop, threw him into prison, and loaded him with irons; and when the popedemanded his liberty, and claimed him as his son, the king sent to hisholiness the coat of mail which the prelate had worn in battle, andwhich was all besmeared with blood; and he replied to him in the termsemployed by Jacob's sons to that patriarch: "This have we found: knownow whether it be thy son's coat or no. "[***] This new war betweenEngland and France, though carried on with such animosity that bothkings frequently put out the eyes of their prisoners, was soon finishedby a truce of five years; and immediately after signing this treaty, the kings were ready, on some new offence, to break out again intohostilities, when the mediation of the cardinal of St. Mary, the pope'slegate, accommodated the difference. [****] This prelate even engaged theprinces to commence a treaty for a more durable peace; but the death ofRichard put an end to the negotiation. 

 [* Rymer, vol. I. P. 91]

 [** W. Heming, p. 549. Brompton, p. 1273. Rymer, vol i. P. 94. ]

 [*** Genesis, chap, xxxvii. Ver. 32. M. Paris, p; 128. Brompton, p. 1273]

 [**** Rymer, vol. I. P. 109, 110. ]

{1199. } Vidomar, viscount of Limoges, a vassal of the king, had found atreasure, of which he sent part to that prince as a present. Richard, assuperior lord, claimed the whole; and, at the head of some Brabançons, besieged the viscount in the castle of Chalus, near Limoges, in order tomake him comply with his demand. [*] The garrison offered to surrender;but the king replied, that since he had taken the pains to come thitherand besiege the place in person, he would take it by force, and wouldhang every one of them. The same day Richard, accompanied by Marcadée, leader of his Brabançons, approached the castle in order to survey it, when one Bertrand de Gourdon, an archer, took aim at him, and piercedhis shoulder with an arrow. The king, however, gave orders for theassault, took the place, and hanged all the garrison, except Gourdon, who had wounded him, and whom he reserved for a more deliberate and morecruel execution. [**]

The wound was not in itself dangerous; but the unskilfulness of thesurgeon made it mortal; he so rankled Richard's shoulder in pulling outthe arrow, that a gangrene ensued; and that prince was now sensible thathis life was drawing towards a period. He sent for Gourdon, and askedhim, "Wretch, what have I ever done to you, to oblige you to seek mylife?" "What have you done to me?" replied coolly the prisoner: "youkilled with your own hands my father, and my two brothers; and youintended to have hanged myself: I am now in your power, and you may takerevenge by inflicting on me the most severe torments; but I shall endurethem all with pleasure, provided I can think that I have been so happyas to rid the world of such a nuisance, "[***] Richard, struck with thereasonableness of this reply, and humbled by the near approach of death, ordered Gourdon to be set at liberty, and a sum of money to be givenhim; but Marcadée, unknown to him, seized the unhappy man, flayed himalive, and then hanged him. Richard died in the tenth year of his reign, and the forty-second of his age; and he left no issue behind him. 

 [* Hoveden, p. 791. Knyghton, p. 2413. ]

 [** Hoveden, p. 791. Knyghton, p. 2413. ]

 [*** Hoveden, p. 791. Brompton, p. 1277 Knyghton, p. 2413. ]

The most shining part of this prince's character are his militarytalents. No man, even in that romantic age, carried personal courageand intrepidity to a greater height, and this quality gained him theappellation of the Lion-hearted, "Coeur de Lion. " He passionately lovedglory, chiefly military glory; and as his conduct in the field was notinferior to his valor, he seems to have possessed every talentnecessary for acquiring it. His resentments also were high; his prideunconquerable; and his subjects, as well as his neighbors, had thereforereason to apprehend, from the continuance of his reign, a perpetualscene of blood and violence. Of an impetuous and vehement spirit, he wasdistinguished by all the good, as well as the bad, qualities incident tothat character; he was open, frank, generous, sincere, and brave; hewas revengeful, domineering, ambitious, haughty, and cruel; and was thusbetter calculated to dazzle men by the splendor of his enterprises, thaneither to promote their happiness, or his own grandeur, by a sound andwell-regulated policy. As military talents make great impression on thepeople, he seems to have been much beloved by his English subjects; andhe is remarked to have been the first prince of the Norman line thatbore any sincere regard to them. He passed, however, only four months ofhis reign in that kingdom; the crusade employed him near three years; hewas detained about fourteen months in captivity; the rest of his reignwas spent either in war or preparations for war against France; and hewas so pleased with the fame which he had acquired in the East, thathe determined, notwithstanding his past misfortunes, to have furtherexhausted his kingdom, and to have exposed himself to new hazards, byconducting another expedition against the infidels. 

Though the English pleased themselves with the glory which the king'smartial genius procured them, his reign was very oppressive, andsomewhat arbitrary, by the high taxes which he levied on them, and oftenwithout consent of the states or great council. In the ninth year of hisreign, he levied five shillings on each hide of land; and becausethe clergy refused to contribute their share, he put them out of theprotection of law, and ordered the civil courts to give them no sentencefor any debts which they might claim. [*] Twice in his reign he orderedall his charters to be sealed anew, and the parties to pay fees for therenewal. [**]

 [* Hoveden, p. 743. Tyrrel, vol. Ii. P, 563. ]

 [** Pryrnne's Chronol. Vindic. Tom. I. P. 1133. ]

{1133. } It is said that Hubert, his justiciary, sent him over to France, in the space of two years, no less a sum than one million one hundredthousand marks, besides bearing all the charges of the government inEngland. But this account is quite incredible, unless we suppose thatRichard made a thorough dilapidation of the demesnes of the crown, which it is not likely he could do with any advantage after his formerresumption of all grants. A king who possessed such a revenue, couldnever have endured fourteen months' captivity for not paying one hundredand fifty thousand marks to the emperor, and be obliged at last to leavehostages for a third of the sum. The prices of commodities in this reignare also a certain proof that no such enormous sum could be levied onthe people. A hide of land, or about a hundred and twenty acres, wascommonly let at twenty shillings a year, money of that time. As therewere two hundred and forty-three thousand six hundred hides in England, it is easy to compute the amount of all the landed rents of the kingdom. The general and stated price of an ox was four shillings; of a laboringhorse, the same; of a sow, one shilling; of a sheep with fine wool, tenpence with coarse wool, sixpence. [*] These commodities seem not tohave advanced in their prices since the conquest, [**] [19] and to havestill been ten times cheaper than at present. 

Richard renewed the severe laws against transgressors in his forests, whom he punished by castration and putting out their eyes, as in thereign of his great-grandfather. He established by law one weight andmeasure throughout his kingdom;[***] a useful institution, which themercenary disposition and necessities of his successor engaged him todispense with for money. 

 [* Hoveden, p. 745. ]

 [** See note S, at the end of the volume. ]

 [*** M. Paris, p. 109, 134. Trivet, p. 127. Ann. Waverl. P. 165. Hoveden, p. 7. ]

The disorders in London, derived from its bad police, had risen to agreat height during this reign; and in the year 1196, there seemed tobe formed so regular a conspiracy among the numerous malefactors, asthreatened the city with destruction. There was one William Fitz-Osbert, commonly called Longbeard, a lawyer, who had rendered himself extremelypopular among the lower rank of citizens; and by defend ing-them on alloccasions, had acquired the appellation of the advocate or savior ofthe poor. He exerted his authority by injuring and insulting the moresubstantial citizens, with whom he lived in a state of hostility, andwho were every moment exposed to the most outrageous violences fromhim and his licentious emissaries. Murders were daily committed in thestreets; houses were broken open and pillaged in daylight; and it ispretended, that no less than fifty-two thousand persons had entered intoan association, by which they bound themselves to obey all the ordersof this dangerous ruffian. Archbishop Hubert, who was then chiefjusticiary, summoned him before the council to answer for his conduct;but he came so well attended, that no one durst accuse him, or giveevidence against him; and the primate, finding the impotence of law, contented himself with exacting from the citizens hostages for theirgood behavior. He kept, however, a watchful eye on Fitz-Osbert, andseizing a favorable opportunity, attempted to commit him to custody;but the criminal, murdering one of the public officers, escaped with hisconcubine to the church of St. Mary le Bow, where he defended himselfby force of arms. He was at last forced from his retreat, condemned, andexecuted, amidst the regrets of the populace, who were so devoted to hismemory, that they stole his gibbet, paid the same veneration to it as tothe cross, and were equally zealous in propagating and attesting reportsof the miracles wrought by it. [*] But though the sectaries of thissuperstition were punished by the justiciary, [**] it received so littleencouragement from the established clergy whose property was endangeredby such seditious practices, that it suddenly sunk and vanished. 

 [* Hoveden, p 765. Diceto, p. 691. Neub. P 192, 498]

 [** Gervase, p. 1551. ]

It was during the crusades that the custom of using coats of arms wasfirst introduced into Europe. The knights, cased up in armor, had noway to make themselves be known and distinguished in battle, but bythe devices on their shields; and these were gradually adopted bytheir posterity and families, who were proud of the pious and militaryenterprises of their ancestors. 

King Richard was a passionate lover of poetry: there even remainsome poetical works of his composition: and he bears a rank amongthe Provençal poets or Trobadores, who were the first of the modernEuropeans that distinguished themselves by attempts of that nature. 

CHAPTER XI. 

[Illustration: 132. Jpg JOHN]

JOHN. 

{1199. } THE noble and free genius of the ancients, which made thegovernment of a single person be always regarded as a species of tyrannyand usurpation, and kept them from forming any conception of a legal andregular monarchy, had rendered them entirely ignorant both of the rightsof primogeniture and a representation in succession; inventions sonecessary for preserving order in the lines of princes, for obviatingthe evils of civil discord and of usurpation, and for begettingmoderation in that species of government, by giving security to theruling sovereign. These innovations arose from the feudal law; which, first introducing the right of primogeniture, made such a distinctionbetween the families of he elder and younger brothers, that the sonof the former was thought entitled to succeed to his grandfather, preferably to his uncles, though nearer allied to the deceased monarch. But though this progress of ideas was natural, it was gradual. Inthe age of which we treat, the practice of representation was indeedintroduced, but not thoroughly established; and the minds of menfluctuated between opposite principles. Richard, when he entered on theholy war, declared his nephew Arthur, duke of Brittany, his successor;and by a formal deed he set aside, in his favor, the title of hisbrother John, who was younger than Godfrey, the father of thatprince. [*]

 [* Hoveden, p. 677. ]

But John so little acquiesced in that destination that when he gainedthe ascendant in the English ministry by expelling Longchamp, thechancellor and great justiciary, he engaged all the English barons toswear that they would maintain his right of succession; and Richard, onhis return, took no steps towards restoring or securing the order whichhe had at first established. He was even careful, by his last will, todeclare his brother John heir to all his dominions; whether, that he nowthought Arthur, who was only twelve years of age, incapable of assertinghis claim against John's faction, or was influenced by Eleanor, thequeen mother, who hated Constantia, mother of the young duke, and whodreaded the credit which that princess would naturally acquire if herson should mount the throne. The authority of a testament was great inthat age, even where the succession of a kingdom was concerned; and Johnhad reason to hope, that this title, joined to his plausible rightin other respects, would insure him the succession. But the idea ofrepresentation seems to have made, at this time, greater progress inFrance than in England; the barons of the transmarine provinces Anjou, Maine, and Touraine, immediately declared in favor of Arthur's title, and applied for assistance to the French monarch as their superior lord. Philip, who desired only an occasion to embarrass John, and dismemberhis dominions, embraced the cause of the young duke of Brittany, tookhim under his protection, and sent him to Paris to be educated alongwith his own son Lewis. In this emergency, John hastened to establishhis authority in the chief members of the monarchy; and after sendingEleanor into Poictou and Guienne, where her right was incontestable, andwas readily acknowledged, he hurried to Rouen, and having secured theduchy of Normandy, he passed over, without loss of time, to England. Hubert, archbishop of Canterbury, William Mareschal, earl of Strigul, who also passes by the name of earl of Pembroke, and GeoffreyFitz-Peter, the justiciary, the three most favored ministers of thelate king, were already engaged on his side; and the submission oracquiescence of all the other barons put him, without opposition, inpossession of the throne. 

The king soon returned to France, in order to conduct the war againstPhilip, and to recover the revolted provinces from his nephew Arthur. The alliances which Richard had formed with the earl of Flanders, andother potent French princes, though they had not been very effectual, still subsisted, and enabled John to defend himself against all theefforts of his enemy. In an action between the French and Flemings, theelect bishop of Cambray was taken prisoner by the former; and when thecardinal of Capua claimed his liberty, Philip, instead of complying, reproached him with the weak efforts which he had employed in favor ofthe bishop of Beauvais, who was in a like condition. The legate, to showhis impartiality, laid at the same time the kingdom of France and theduchy of Normandy under an interdict; and the two kings found themselvesobliged to make an exchange of these military prelates. 

{1200. } Nothing enabled the king to bring this war to a happy issue somuch as the selfish, intriguing character of Philip, who acted, inthe provinces that had declared for Arthur, without any regard to theinterests of that prince. Constantia, seized with a violent jealousythat he intended to usurp the entire dominion of them, found means tocarry off her son secretly from Paris: she put him into the hands of hisuncle; restored the provinces which had adhered to the young prince; andmade him do homage for the duchy of Brittany, which was regarded as arere-fief of Normandy. From this incident, Philip saw that he could nothope to make any progress against John; and being threatened with aninterdict on account of his irregular divorce from Ingelburga, theDanish princess whom he had espoused, he became desirous of concluding apeace with England. After some fruitless conferences, the terms wereat last adjusted; and the two monarchy seemed in this treaty to have anintention, besides ending the present quarrel, of preventing all futurecauses of discord, and of obviating every controversy which couldhereafter arise between them. They adjusted the limits of all theirterritories; mutually secured the interests of their vassals, and, torender the union more durable, John gave his niece, Blanche of Castile, in marriage to Prince Lewis, Philip's eldest son, and with her thebaronies of Issoudun and Graçai, and other fiefs in Berri. Ninebarons of the king of England, and as many of the king of France, were guaranties of this treaty; and all of them swore, that, if theirsovereign violated any article of it, they would declare themselvesagainst him, and embrace the cause of the injured monarch. John, nowsecure, as he imagined, on the side of France indulged his passion forIsabella, the daughter and heir of Aymar Tailleffer, count of Angouleme, a lady with whom he had become much enamored. His queen, the heiress ofthe family of Glocester, was still alive: Isabella was married tothe count de la Marche, and was already consigned to the care of thatnobleman; though, by reason of her tender years, the marriage hadnot been consummated. The passion of John made him overlook all theseobstacles: he persuaded the count of Angouleme to carry off his daughterfrom her husband; and having, on some pretence or other, procured adivorce from his own wife, he espoused Isabella; regardless both of themenaces of the pope, who exclaimed against these irregular proceedings, and of the resentment of the injured count, who soon found means ofpunishing his powerful and insolent rival. 

{1201. } John had not the art of attaching his barons either by affectionor by fear. The count de la Marche, and his brother, the count d'Eu, taking advantage of the general discontent against him, excitedcommotions in Poictou and Normandy, and obliged the king to haverecourse to arms, in order to suppress the insurrection of his vassals. He summoned together the barons of England, and required them to passthe sea under his standard, and to quell the rebels: he found that hepossessed as little authority in that kingdom as in his transmarineprovinces. The English barons unanimously replied, that they would notattend him on this expedition, unless he would promise to restore andpreserve their privileges; the first symptom of a regular associationand plan of liberty among those noblemen. But affairs were not yet fullyripe for the revolution projected. John, by menacing the barons, brokethe concert; and both engaged many of them to follow him into Normandy, and obliged the rest, who staid behind, to pay him a scutage of twomarks on each knight's fee, as the price of their exemption from theservice. 

The force which John carried abroad with him, and that which joined himin Normandy, rendered him much superior to his malecontent barons; andso much the more, as Philip did not publicly give them any countenance, and seemed as yet determined to persevere steadily in the alliancewhich he had contracted with England. But the king, elated with hissuperiority, advanced claims which gave a universal alarm to hisvassals, and diffused still wider the general discontent. As thejurisprudence of those times required that the causes in the lord'scourt should chiefly be decided by duel, he carried along with himcertain bravos, whom he retained as champions, and whom he destined tofight with his barons, in order to determine any controversy which hemight raise against them. The count de la Marche and other noblemenregarded this proceeding as an affront, as well as an injury; anddeclared, that they would never draw their swords against men of suchinferior quality. The king menaced them with vengeance; but he had notvigor to employ against them the force in his hands, or to prosecute theinjustice, by crushing entirely the nobles who opposed it. 

This government, equally feeble and violent, gave the injured baronscourage, as well as inclination, to carry further their opposition: theyappealed to the king of France; complained of the denial of justicein John's court; demanded redress from him as their superior lord; andentreated him to employ his authority, and prevent their final ruin andoppression. Philip perceived his advantage, opened his mind to greatprojects, interposed in behalf of the French barons, and began to talkin a high and menacing style to the king of England. {1202. } John, who could not disavow Philip's authority, replied, that it belonged tohimself first to grant them a trial by their peers in his own court; itwas not till he failed in this duty, that he was answerable to his peersin the supreme court of the French king; and he promised, by a fairand equitable judicature, to give satisfaction to his barons. When thenobles, in consequence of this engagement, demanded a safe conduct, thatthey might attend his court, he at first refused it: upon the renewalof Philip's menaces, he promised to grant their demand; he violatedthis promise: fresh menaces extorted from him a promise to surrenderto Philip the fortresses of Tillíeres and Boutavant, as a security forperformance; he again violated this engagement: his enemies, sensibleboth of his weakness and want of faith combined still closer in theresolution of pushing him to extremities; and a new and powerful allysoon appeared to encourage them in their invasion of this odious anddespicable government. 

{1203. } The young duke of Brittany, who was now rising to man's estate, sensible of the dangerous character of his uncle, determined toseek both his security and elevation by a union with Philip andthe malecontent barons. He joined the French army which had begunhostilities against the king of England: he was received with greatmarks of distinction by Philip; was knighted by him; espoused hisdaughter Mary; and was invested not only in the duchy of Brittany, butin the counties of Anjou and Maine, which he had formerly resignedto his uncle. Every attempt succeeded with the allies. Tillieres andBoutavant were taken by Philip, after making a feeble defence: Mortimarand Lyons fell into his hands almost without resistance. That princenext invested Gournai; and opening the sluices of a lake which lay inthe neighborhood, poured such a torrent of water into the place, thatthe garrison deserted it, and the French monarch, without striking ablow, made himself master of that important fortress. The progress ofthe French arms was rapid, and promised more considerable success thanusually in that age attended military enterprises. In answer to everyadvance which the king made towards peace, Philip still insisted thathe should resign all his transmarine dominions to his nephew and restcontented with the kingdom of England; when an event happened, whichseemed to turn the scales in favor of John, and to give him a decisivesuperiority over his enemies. 

Young Arthur, fond of military renown, had broken into Poictou at thehead of a small army; and passing near Mirebeau, he heard that hisgrandmother, Queen Eleanor, who had always opposed his interests, waslodged in that place and was protected by a weak garrison and ruinousfortifications. He immediately determined to lay siege to the fortress, and make himself master of her person; but John, roused from hisindolence by so pressing an occasion, collected an army of English andBrabançons, and advanced from Normandy with hasty marches to the reliefof the queen mother. He fell on Arthur's camp, before that prince wasaware of the danger; dispersed his army; took him prisoner together withthe count de la Marche, Geoffrey de Lusignan, and the most considerableof the revolted barons, and returned in triumph to Normandy. Philip, who was lying before Arques, in that duchy, raised the siege and retiredupon his approach. The greater part of the prisoners were sent over toEngland, but Arthur was shut up in the castle of Falaise. 

The king had here a conference with his nephew; represented to himthe folly of his pretensions; and required him to renounce the Frenchalliance, which had encouraged him to live in a state of enmity with allhis family; but the brave, though imprudent youth, rendered more haughtyfrom misfortunes, maintained the justice of his cause; asserted hisclaim, not only to the French provinces, but to the crown of England;and, in his turn, required the king to restore the son of his elderbrother to the possession of his inheritance; John, sensible, from thesesymptoms of spirit, that the young prince, though now a prisoner, mighthereafter prove a dangerous enemy, determined to prevent all futureperil by despatching his nephew; and Arthur was never more heard of. The circumstances which attended this deed of darkness were, nodoubt, carefully concealed by the actors, and are variously related byhistorians; but the most probable account is as follows: The king, itis said, first proposed to William de la Braye, one of his servants, to despatch Arthur; but William replied that he was a gentleman, nota hangman; and he positively refused compliance. Another instrument ofmurder was found, and was despatched with proper orders to Falaise; butHuber de Bourg, chamberlain to the king, and constable of the castle, feigning that he himself would execute the king's mandate, sent back theassassin, spread the report that the young prince was dead, and publiclyperformed all the ceremonies of his interment; but finding that theBretons vowed revenge for the murder, and that all the revolted baronspersevered more obstinately in their rebellion, he thought it prudent toreveal the secret, and to inform the world that the duke of Brittanywas still alive, and in his custody. This discovery proved fatal to theyoung prince: John first removed him to the castle of Rouen; and comingin a boat, during the night time, to that place, commanded Arthur tobe brought forth to him. The young prince, aware of his danger, and nowmore subdued by the continuance of his misfortunes, and by the approachof death, threw himself on his knees before hia uncle, and begged formercy: but the barbarous tyrant, making no reply, stabbed him with hisown hands; and fastening a stone to the dead body, threw it into theSeine. 

All men were struck with horror at this inhuman deed; and from thatmoment the king, detested by his subjects, retained a very precariousauthority over both the people and the barons in his dominions. TheBretons, enraged at this disappointment in their fond hopes, wagedimplacable war against him; and fixing the succession of theirgovernment, put themselves in a posture to revenge the murder of theirsovereign. John had got into his power his niece, Eleanor, sister toArthur, commonly called 'the damsel of Brittany, ' and carrying her overto England, detained her ever after in captivity:[*] but the Bretons, indespair of recovering this princess, chose Alice for their sovereign;a younger daughter of Constantia, by her second marriage with Guide Thouars; and they intrusted the government of the duchy to thatnobleman. The states of Brittany meanwhile carried their complaintsbefore Philip as their liege lord, and demanded justice for the violencecommitted by John on the person of Arthur, so near a relation, who, notwithstanding the homage which he did to Normandy, was alwaysregarded as one of the chief vassals of the crown. Philip received theirapplication with pleasure; summoned John to stand a trial before him;and on his non-appearance, passed sentence, with the concurrence of thepeers, upon that prince; declared him guilty of felony and parricide;and adjudged him to forfeit to his superior lord all his seigniories andfiefs in France. [**]

 [* Trivet, p. 143. T. Wykes, p. 36. Ypod. Neust. P. 469. ]

 [** W. Heming. P. 455. M. West. P. 264. Knyghton, p. 2420]

The king of France, whose ambitious and active spirit had been hithertoconfined, either by the sound policy of Henry, or the martial geniusof Richard, seeing now the opportunity favorable against this base andodious prince, embraced the project of expelling the English, or ratherthe English king, from France, and of annexing to the crown so manyconsiderable fiefs, which, during several ages, had been dismemberedfrom it. Many of the other great vassals, whose jealousy might haveinterposed, and have obstructed the execution of this project, were notat present in a situation to oppose it; and the rest either lookedon with indifference or gave their assistance to this dangerousaggrandizement of their superior lord. The earls of Flanders and Bloiswere engaged in the holy war: the count of Champagne was an infant, andunder the guardianship of Philip: the duchy of Brittany, enraged at themurder of their prince, vigorously promoted all his measures: and thegeneral defection of John's vassals made every enterprise easy andsuccessful against him. Philip, after taking several castles andfortresses beyond the Loire, which he either garrisoned or dismantled, received the submissions of the count of Alençon, who deserted John, anddelivered up all the places under his command to the French; upon whichPhilip broke up his camp, in order to give the troops some repose afterthe fatigues of the campaign. John, suddenly collecting some forces, laid siege to Alençon; and Philip, whose dispersed army could notbe brought together in time to succor it, saw himself exposed to thedisgrace of suffering the oppression of his friend and confederate. But his active and fertile genius found an expedient against this evil. There was held at that very time a tournament at Moret, in the Gatinois;whither all the chief nobility of France and the neighboring countrieshad resorted, in order to signalize their prowess and address. Philippresented himself before them; craved their assistance in his distress;and pointed out the plains of Alençon, as the most honorable field inwhich they could display their generosity and martial spirit. Thosevalorous knights vowed that they would take vengeance on the baseparricide, the stain of arms and of chivalry; and putting themselves, with all their retinue, under the command of Philip, instantly marchedto raise the siege of Alençon. John, hearing of their approach, fledfrom before the place; and in the hurry, abandoned all his tents, machines, and baggage to the enemy. 

This feeble effort was the last exploit of that slothful and cowardlyprince for the defence of his dominions. He thenceforth remained intotal inactivity at Rouen; passing ill his time with his young wife inpastimes and amusements, as if his state had been in the most profoundtranquillity, or his affairs in the most prosperous condition. If heever mentioned war, it was only to give himself vaunting airs, which, inthe eyes of all men, rendered him still more despicable and ridiculous. "Let the French go on, " said he; "I will retake in a day what it hascost them years to acquire. "[*] His stupidity and indolence appeared soextraordinary that the people endeavored to account for the infatuationby sorcery, and believed that he was thrown into this lethargy by somemagic or witchcraft. The English barons, finding that their time waswasted to no purpose, and that they must suffer the disgrace of seeing, without resistance, the progress of the French arms, withdrew from theircolors, and secretly returned to their own country, [**] No one thoughtof defending a man who seemed to have deserted himself; and his subjectsregarded his fate with the same indifference, to which in this pressingexigency, they saw him totally abandoned. 

 [* M. Paris, p. 146. M. West. P. 266. ]

 [** M. Paris, p. 146. M. West. P. 264, ]

John, while he neglected all domestic resources, had the meanness tobetake himself to a foreign power, whose protection he claimed: heapplied to the pope, Innocent III. , and entreated him to interpose hisauthority between him and the French monarch. Innocent, pleased withany occasion of exerting his superiority, sent Philip orders to stop theprogress of his arms, and to make peace with the king of England. Butthe French barons received the message with indignation; disclaimed thetemporal authority assumed by the pontiff; and vowed that they would, to the uttermost, assist their prince against all his enemies; Philip, seconding their ardor, proceeded, instead of obeying the pope's envoys, to lay siege to Chateau Gaillard, the most considerable fortress whichremained to guard the frontiers of Normandy. 

{1204. } Chateau Gaillard was situated partly on an island in theRiver Seine, partly on a rock opposite to it; and was secured by everyadvantage which either art or nature could bestow upon it. The lateking, having cast his eye on this favorable situation, had spared nolabor or expense in fortifying it; and it was defended by Roger de Laci, constable of Chester, a determined officer, at the head of a numerousgarrison. Philip, who despaired of taking the place by force proposedto reduce it by famine; and that he might cut off its communication withthe neighboring country, he threw a bridge across the Seine, while hehimself, with his army blockaded it by land. The earl of Pembroke, theman of greatest vigor and capacity in the English court, formed a planfor breaking through the French intrenchments, and throwing relief intothe place. He carried with him an army of four thousand infantry andthree thousand cavalry, and suddenly attacked, with great success, Philip's camp in the night time; having left orders that a fleet ofseventy flat-bottomed vessels should sail up the Seine, and fall at thesame instant on the bridge. But the wind and the current of the river, by retarding the vessels, disconcerted this plan of operations; and itwas morning before the fleet appeared; when Pembroke, though successfulin the beginning of the action, was already repulsed with considerableloss, and the king of France had leisure to defend himself against thesenew assailants, who also met with a repulse. After this misfortune, Johnmade no further efforts for the relief of Château Gaillard: and Philiphad all the leisure requisite for conducting and finishing the siege. Roger de Laci defended himself for a twelvemonth with great obstinacy;and having bravely repelled every attack, and patiently borne all thehardships of famine, he was at last overpowered by a sudden assault inthe night time, and made prisoner of war, with his garrison. [*] Philip, who knew how to respect valor, even in an enemy, treated him withcivility, and gave him the whole city of Paris for the place of hisconfinement. 

 [* Trivet p. 144. Gul. Britto, lib. Vii. Ann. Waverl, p. 168. ]

When this bulwark of Normandy was once subdued, all the province layopen to the inroads of Philip; and the king of England despaired ofbeing any longer able to defend it. He secretly prepared vessels for ascandalous flight; and, that the Normans might no longer doubt of hisresolution to abandon them, he ordered the fortifications of Pont del'Arche, Moulineux, and Monfort l'Amauri to be demolished. Not daringto repose confidence in any of his barons whom he believed to beuniversally engaged in a conspiracy against him, he intrusted thegovernment of the province to Arenas Martin and Lupicaire, two mercenaryBrabançons, whom he had retained in his service. Philip, now secureof his prey, pushed his conquests with vigor and success againstthe dismayed Normans. Falaise was first besieged; and Lupicare, whocommanded in this impregnable fortress, after surrendering the place, enlisted himself with his troops in the service of Philip, and carriedon hostilities against his ancient master. Caen, Coutance, Seez, Evreux, Baieux, soon fell into the hands of the French monarch, and allthe lower Normandy was reduced under his dominion! To forward hisenterprises on the other division of the province, Gui de Thouars, atthe head of the Bretons, broke into the territory, and took Mount St. Michael, Avranches, and all the other fortresses in that neighborhood. The Normans, who abhorred the French yoke and who would have defendedthemselves to the last extremity, if their prince had appeared toconduct them, found no resource but in submission; and every city openedits gates as soon as Philip appeared before it. Rouen alone, Arques, and Verneuil determined to maintain their liberties; and formed aconfederacy for mutual defence. {1205. } Philip began with the siege ofRouen: the inhabitants were so inflamed with hatred to France, that onthe appearance of his army, they fell on all the natives of that countrywhom they found within their walls, and put tham to death. But after theFrench king had begun his operations with success, and had taken some oftheir outworks, the citizens, seeing no resource, offered to capitulate;and demanded only thirty days to advertise their prince of their danger, and to require succors against the enemy. Upon the expiration of theterm, as no supply had arrived, they opened their gates to Philip;[*]and the whole province soon after imitated the example, and submitted tothe victor. Thus was this important territory reunited to the crown ofFrance, about three centuries after the cession of it by Charles theSimple to Rollo, the first duke; and the Normans, sensible that thisconquest was probably final, demanded the privilege of being governedby French laws; which Philip, making a few alterations on the ancientNorman customs, readily granted them. But the French monarch had toomuch ambition and genius to stop in his present career of success. Hecarried his victorious army into the western provinces; soon reducedAnjou, Maine, Touraine, and part of Poictou;[**] and in this manner theFrench crown, during the reign of one able and active prince, receivedsuch an accession of power and grandeur, as, in the ordinary course ofthings, it would have required several ages to attain. 

John, on his arrival in England, that he might cover the disgrace of hisown conduct, exclaimed loudly against his barons, who, he pretended, haddeserted his standard in Normandy; and he arbitrarily extorted from thema seventh of all their movables, as a punishment for the offence. [***]

 [* Trivet, p. 147. Ypod. Neust. P. 469. ]

 [** Trivet, p 149]

 [*** M. Paris, p. 146. M. West. P. 265. ]

Soon after he forced them to grant him a scutage of two marks and a halfon each knights' fee for an expedition into Normandy; but he did notattempt to execute the service for which he pretended to exact it. Nextyear, he summoned all the barons of his realm to attend him on thisforeign expedition, and collected ships from all the seaports; butmeeting with opposition from some of his ministers, and abandoninghis design, he dismissed both fleet and army, and then renewed hisexclamations against the barons for deserting him. He next put to seawith a small army, and his subjects believed that he was resolved toexpose himself to the utmost hazard for the defence and recovery of hisdominions; but they were surprised, after a few days, to see himreturn again into harbor, without attempting anything. {1206. } In thesubsequent season, he had the courage to carry his hostile measuresa step farther. Gui de Thouars, who governed Brittany, jealous of therapid progress made by his ally, the French king, promised to join theking of England with all his forces; and John ventured abroad with aconsiderable army, and landed at Rochelle. He marched to Angers, whichhe took and reduced to ashes. But the approach of Philip with an armythrew him into a panic; and he immediately made proposals for peace, andfixed a place of interview with his enemy; but instead of keepingthis engagement, he stole off with his army, embarked at Rochelle, and returned, loaded with new shame and disgrace, into England. Themediation of the pope procured him at last a truce for two yearswith the French monarch;[*] almost all the transmarine provinceswere ravished from him; and his English barons, though harassed witharbitrary taxes and fruitless expeditions, saw themselves and theircountry baffled and affronted in every enterprise. 

 [* Rymer, vol. I. P. 141. ]

In an age when personal valor was regarded as the chief accomplishment, such conduct as that of John, always disgraceful, must be exposed topeculiar contempt; and he must thenceforth have expected to rule histurbulent vassals with a very doubtful authority. But the governmentexercised by the Norman princes had wound up the royal power to so higha pitch, and so much beyond the usual tenor of the feudal constitutions, that it still behoved him to be debased by new affronts and disgraces, ere his barons could entertain the view of conspiring against him inorder to retrench his prerogatives. 

The church, which at that time declined not a contest with the mostpowerful and most vigorous monarchs, took first advantage of John'simbecility; and, with the most aggravating circumstances of insolenceand scorn, fixed her yoke upon him. 

{1207. } The papal chair was then filled by Innocent III. , who, havingattained that dignity at the age of thirty-seven years, and beingendowed with a lofty and enterprising genius gave full scope tohis ambition, and attempted, perhaps more openly than any of hispredecessors, to convert that superiority which was yielded him by allthe European princes, into a real dominion over them. The hierarchy, protected by the Roman pontiff, had already carried to an enormousheight its usurpations upon the civil power; but in order to extend themfarther, and render them useful to the court of Rome, it was necessaryto reduce the ecclesiastics themselves under an absolute monarchy, andto make them entirely dependent on their spiritual leader. For thispurpose, Innocent first attempted to impose taxes at pleasure upon theclergy; and in the first year of this century, taking advantage of thepopular frenzy for crusades, he sent collectors over all Europe, wholevied by his authority the fortieth of all ecclesiastical revenues forthe relief of the Holy Land, and received the voluntary contributionsof the laity to a like amount. [*] The same year, Hubert, archbishop ofCanterbury, attempted another innovation, favorable to ecclesiasticaland papal power: in the king's absence, he summoned, by his legantineauthority, a synod of all the English clergy, contrary to the inhibitionof Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, the chief justiciary; and no proper censure wasever passed on this encroachment, the first of the kind, upon the royalpower. But a favorable incident soon after happened, which enabled soaspiring a pontiff as Innocent to extend still farther his usurpationson so contemptible a prince as John. 

 [* Rymer, vol. I. P. 119. ]

Hubert, the primate, died in 1205; and as the monks or canons ofChrist-church, Canterbury, possessed a right of voting in the electionof their archbishop, some of the juniors of the order, who lay in waitfor that event, met clandestinely the very night of Hubert's death;and without any congé d'élire from the king, chose Reginald, theirsub-prior, for the successor; installed him in the archiepiscopal thronebefore midnight; and having enjoined him the strictest secrecy, senthim immediately to Rome, in order to solicit the confirmation of hiselection. [*] The vanity of Reginald prevailed over his prudence; and heno sooner arrived in Flanders than he revealed to every one the purposeof his journey, which was immediately known in England. [**] The kingwas enraged at the novelty and temerity of the attempt, in filling soimportant an office without his knowledge or consent: the suffraganbishops of Canterbury, who were accustomed to concur in the choice oftheir primate, were no less displeased at the exclusion given them inthis election: the senior monks of Christ-church were injured by theirregular proceedings of their juniors: the juniors themselves, ashamedof their conduct, and disgusted with the levity of Reginald, whohad broken his engagements with them, were willing to set aside hiselection:[***] and all men concurred in the design of remedying thefalse measures which had been taken. But as John knew that this affairwould be canvassed before a superior tribunal, where the interpositionof royal authority in bestowing ecclesiastical benefices was veryinvidious; where even the cause of suffragan bishops was not sofavorable as that of monks; he determined to make the new electionentirely unexceptionable, he submitted the affair wholly to thecanons of Christ-church; and departing from the right claimed by hispredecessors, ventured no farther than to inform them, privately, thatthey would do him an acceptable service if they chose John de Gray, bishop of Norwich, for their primate. [****]

 [* M. Paris, p 148. M. West. P. 266. ]

 [** M. Paris, p. 148. M. West. P. 266. ]

 [*** M. West. P. 266. ]

 [**** M. Paris, p. 149. M. West. P. 266. ]

The election of that prelate was accordingly made without acontradictory vote; and the king, to obviate all contests, endeavoredto persuade the suffragan bishops not to insist on their claim ofconcurring in the election; but those prelates, persevering in theirpretensions, sent an agent to maintain their cause before Innocent;while the king, and the convent of Christ-church, despatched twelvemonks of that order to support, before the same tribunal, the electionof the bishop of Norwich. 

Thus there lay three different claims before the pope, whom all partiesallowed to be the supreme arbiter in the contest The claim of thesuffragans, being so opposite to the usual maxims of the papal court, was soon set aside: the election of Reginald was so obviously fraudulentand irregular, that there was no possibility of defending it: butInnocent maintained, that though this election was null and invalid, itought previously to have been declared such by the sovereign pontiff, before the monks could proceed to a new election; and that the choiceof the bishop of Norwich was of course as uncanonical as that of hiscompetitor. [*] Advantage was, therefore taken of this subtlety forintroducing a precedent, by which the see of Canterbury, the mostimportant dignity, in the church after the papal throne, should everafter be at the disposal of the court of Rome. 

While the pope maintained so many fierce contests, in order to wrestfrom princes the right of granting investitures, and to exclude laymenfrom all authority in conferring ecclesiastical benefices, he wassupported by the united influence of the clergy; who, aspiring toindependence, fought, with all the ardor of ambition, and all the zealof superstition, under his sacred banners. But no sooner was this point, after a great effusion of blood, and the convulsions of many states, established in some tolerable degree, than the victorious leader as isusual, turned his arms against his own community, and aspired to centreall power in his person. By the invention of reserves, provisions, commendams, and other devices, the pope gradually assumed the rightof filling vacant benefices; and the plenitude of his apostolic power, which was not subject to any limitations, supplied all defects of titlein the person on whom he bestowed preferment. The canons which regulatedelections were purposely rendered intricate and involved: frequentdisputes arose among candidates: appeals were every day carried toRome: the apostolic see, besides reaping pecuniary advantages from thesecontests, often exercised the power of setting aside both the litigants, and, on pretence of appeasing faction, nominated a third person, whomight be more acceptable to the contending parties. 

The present controversy about the election to the see of Canterburyafforded Innocent an opportunity of claiming this right; and he failednot to perceive and avail himself of the advantage. He sent for thetwelve monks deputed by the convent to maintain the cause of the bishopof Norwich; and commanded them, under the penalty of excommunication, tochoose for their primate, Cardinal Langton, an Englishman by birth, buteducated in France, and connected, by his interests and attachments, with the see of Rome. [**]

 [* M. Paris, p. 155. Chron. De Mailr. P. 182. ]

 [** M. Paris, p 155. Ann. Waverl. P. 169. W. Heming. P. 553 Knyghton, p. 2415. ]

In vain did the monks represent, that they had received from theirconvent no authority for this purpose; that an election without aprevious writ from the king, would be deemed highly irregular and thatthey were merely agents for another person, whose right they had nopower or pretence to abandon. None of them had the courage to perseverein this opposition, except one, Elias de Brantefield: all the rest, overcome by the menaces and authority of the pope, complied with hisorders, and made the election required of them. 

Innocent, sensible that this flagrant usurpation would be highlyresented by the court of England, wrote John a mollifying letter;sent him four golden rings set with precious stones; and endeavored toenhance the value of the present, by informing him of the many mysteriesimplied in it. He begged him to consider seriously the form of therings, their number, their matter, and their color. Their form, he said, being round, shadowed out eternity, which had neither beginning nor end;and he ought thence to learn his duty of aspiring from earthly objectsto heavenly, from things temporal to tilings eternal. The number four, being a square, denoted steadiness of mind, not to be subverted eitherby adversity or prosperity, fixed forever on the firm basis of the fourcardinal virtues. Gold, which is the matter, being the most preciousof metals, signified wisdom, which is the most valuable of allaccomplishments, and justly preferred by Solomon to riches, power, andall exterior attainments. The blue color of the sapphire representedfaith; the verdure of the emerald, hope; the redness of the ruby, charity; and the splendor of the topaz, good works. [*] By theseconceits, Innocent endeavored to repay John for one of the mostimportant prerogatives of his crown, which he had ravished from him;conceits probably admired by Innocent himself. For it is easily possiblefor a man, especially in a barbarous age, to unite strong talents forbusiness with an absurd taste for literature and the arts. 

John was inflamed with the utmost rage when he heard of this attemptof the court of Rome;[**] and he immediately vented his passion on themonks of Christ-church, whom he found inclined to support the electionmade by their fellows at Rome. 

 [* Rymer, vol. I. P. 139. M. Paris, p. 155]

 [** Rymer, vol. I. P. 143. ]

He sent Fulk de Cantelupe, and Henry de Cornhulle, two knights of hisretinue, men of violent tempers and rude manners, to expel them theconvent, and take possession of their revenues. These knights enteredthe monastery with drawn swords, commanded the prior and the monks todepart the kingdom, and menaced them, that in case of disobediencethey would instantly burn them with the convent. [*] Innocent, prognosticating, from the violence and imprudence of these measures, that John would finally sink in the contest, persevered the morevigorously in his pretensions, and exhorted the king not to oppose Godand the church any longer, nor to persecute that cause for which theholy martyr St. Thomas had sacrificed his life, and which had exaltedhim equal to the highest saints in heaven;[**] a clear hint to John toprofit by the example of his father, and to remember the prejudices andestablished principles of his subjects, who bore a profound venerationto that martyr, and regarded his merits as the subject of their chiefglory and exultation. 

Innocent, finding that John was not sufficiently tamed to submission, sent three prelates, the bishops of London, Ely, and Worcester, tointimate, that, if he persevered in his disobedience, the sovereignpontiff would be obliged to lay the kingdom under an interdict. [***]All the other prelates threw themselves on their knees before him, andentreated him, with tears in their eyes, to prevent the scandal of thissentence, by making a speedy submission to his spiritual father, byreceiving from his hands the new elected primate, and by restoring themonks of Christ-church to all their rights and possessions. He burst outinto the most indecent invectives against the prelates; swore by God'steeth, his usual oath, that, if the pope presumed to lay his kingdomunder an interdict, he would send to him all the bishops and clergy ofEngland, and would confiscate all their estates; and threatened that, if thenceforth he caught any Romans in his dominions, he would put outtheir eyes, and cut off their noses, in order to set a mark upon them, which might distinguish them from all other nations. [****]

 [* M. Paris, p. 156. Trivet, p. 151. Ann. Waverl. P. 169. ]

 [** M. Paris, p. 157. ]

 [*** M. Paris, p. 157. ]

 [**** M. Paris, p. 157. ]

Amidst all this idle violence, John stood on such bad terms with hisnobility, that he never dared to assemble the states of the kingdom, who, in so, just a cause, would probably have adhered to any othermonarch, and have defended with vigor the liberties of the nationagainst these palpable usurpations of the court of Rome. Innocent, therefore, perceiving the king's weakness, fulminated at last thesentence of interdict which he had for some time held suspended overhim. [*]

The sentence of interdict was at that time the great instrument ofvengeance and policy employed by the court of Rome; was denouncedagainst sovereigns for the lightest offences; and made the guilt of oneperson involve the ruin of millions, even in their spiritual and eternalwelfare. The execution of it was calculated to strike the senses inthe highest degree, and to operate with irresistible force on thesuperstitious minds of the people. The nation was of a sudden deprivedof all exterior exercise of its religion: the altars were despoiled oftheir ornaments: the crosses, the relics, the images, the statues of thesaints were laid on the ground; and as if the air itself were profaned, and might pollute them by its contact, the priests carefully coveredthem up, even from their own approach and veneration. The use of bellsentirely ceased in all the churches: the bells themselves were removedfrom the steeples, and laid on the ground with the other sacredutensils. Mass was celebrated with shut doors; and none but thepriests were admitted to that holy institution. The laity partook of noreligious rite, except baptism to new-born infants, and the communion tothe dying: the dead were not interred in consecrated ground: they werethrown into ditches, or buried in common fields; and their obsequieswere not attended with prayers or any hallowed ceremony Marriage wascelebrated in the churchyards;[**] and that every action in life mightbear the marks of this dreadful situation, the people were prohibitedthe use of meat, as in Lent, or times of the highest penance; weredebarred from all pleasures and entertainments; and were forbidden evento salute each other, or so much as to shave their beards, and give anydecent attention to their person and apparel. Every circumstance carriedsymptoms of the deepest distress, and of the most immediate apprehensionof divine vengeance and indignation. 

The king, that he might oppose the temporal to their spiritual terrors, immediately, from his own authority, confiscated the estates of all theclergy who obeyed the interdict;[***] banished the prelates, confinedthe monks in their convents, and gave them only such a small allowancefrom their own estates, as would suffice to provide them with food andraiment. 

 [* M. Paris, p. 157. Trivet, p. 152. Ann. Waverl. P. 170. M. West. P. 268. ]

 [** Chron. Dunst. Vol. I. P. 51. ]

 [*** Ann. Waverl. P. 170]

He treated with the utmost rigor all Langton's adherents, and every onethat showed any disposition to obey the commands of Rome: and in orderto distress the clergy in the tenderest point, and at the same timeexpose them to reproach and ridicule, he threw into prison all theirconcubines, and required high fines as the price of their liberty. [*]

After the canons which established the celibacy of the clergy were, bythe zealous endeavors of Archbishop Anselrn, more rigorously executed inEngland, the ecclesiastics gave, almost universally and avowedly, intothe use of concubinage and the court of Rome, which had no interest inprohibiting this practice, made very slight opposition to it. The customwas become so prevalent, that, in some cantons of Switzerland, beforethe reformation, the laws not only permitted, but, to avoid scandal, enjoined the use of concubines to the younger clergy;[**] and it wasusual every where for priests to apply to the ordinary, and obtain fromhim a formal liberty for this indulgence. The bishop commonly tookcare to prevent the practice from degenerating into licentiousness: heconfined the priest to the use of one woman, required him to be constantto her bed, obliged him to provide for her subsistence and that of herchildren; and, though the offspring was, in the eye of the law, deemedillegitimate, this commerce was really a kind of inferior marriage, suchas is still practised in Germany among the nobles; and may be regardedby the candid, as an appeal from the tyranny of civil and ecclesiasticalinstitutions, to the more virtuous and more unerring laws of nature. 

 [* M. Paris, p. 158. Ann. Waverl. P. 170. ]

 [** Padre Paolo, Hist. Cone. Prid. Lib. I. ]

The quarrel between the king and the see of Rome continued for someyears; and though many of the clergy, from the fear of punishment, obeyed the orders of John, and celebrated divine service, they compliedwith the utmost reluctance, and were regarded, both by themselves andthe people, as men who betrayed their principles, and sacrificed theirconscience to temporal regards and interests. During this violentsituation, the king, in order to give a lustre to his government, attempted military expeditions against Scotland, against Ireland, against the Welsh:[*] and he commonly prevailed, more from the weaknessof his enemies than from his own vigor or abilities. Meanwhile, thedanger to which hia government stood continually exposed from thediscontents of the ecclesiastics, increased his natural propension totyranny; and he seems to have even wantonly disgusted all orders ofmen, especially his nobles, from whom alone he could reasonably expectsupport and assistance. He dishonored their families by his licentiousamours; he published edicts, prohibiting them from hunting featheredgame, and thereby restrained them from their favorite occupation andamusement;[**] he ordered all the hedges and fences near his forests tobe levelled, that his deer might have more ready access into thefields for pasture; and he continually loaded the nation with arbitraryimpositions. 

 [* W. Heming. P. 556. Ypod. Neust p. 450. Knyghton, p. 2420 M. West p. 268. ]

{1208. } Conscious of the general hatred which he had incurred, herequired his nobility to give him hostages for security of theirallegiance; and they were obliged to put in his hands their sons, nephews, or near relations. When his messengers came with like ordersto the castle of William de Braouse, a baron of great note, the ladyof that nobleman replied, that she would never intrust her son into thehands of one who had murdered his own nephew, while in his custody. Herhusband reproved her for the severity of this speech; but, sensibleof his danger, he immediately fled with his wife and son into Ireland, where he endeavored to conceal himself. Tha king discovered the unhappyfamily in their retreat; seized the wife and son, whom he starved todeath in prison; and the baron himself narrowly escaped, by flying intoFrance. 

{1209. } The court of Rome had artfully contrived a gradation ofsentences; by which it kept offenders in awe; still afforded them anopportunity of preventing the next anathema by submission; and, in caseof their obstinacy, was able to refresh the horror of the people againstthem, by new denunciations of the wrath and vengeance of Heaven. As thesentence of interdict had not produced the desired effect on John, and as his people, though extremely discontented had hitherto beenrestrained from rising in open rebellion against him, he was soonto look for the sentence of excommunication; and he had reason toapprehend, that, notwithstanding all his precautions, the most dangerousconsequences might ensue from it. He was witness of the other sceneswhich at that very time were acting in Europe, and which displayed theunbounded and uncontrolled power of the papacy. Innocent, far from beingdismayed at his contests with the king of England, had excommunicatedthe emperor Otho, John's nephew;[*] and soon brought that powerfuland haughty prince to submit to his authority. He published a crusadeagainst the Albigenses, a species of enthusiasts in the south of France, whom he denominated heretics; because, like other enthusiasts, theyneglected the rites of the church, and opposed the power and influenceof the clergy: the people from all parts of Europe, moved by theirsuperstition and their passion for wars and adventures, flocked to hisstandard: Simon de Montfort, the general of the crusade, acquired tohimself a sovereignty in these provinces: the count of Toulouse, whoprotected, or perhaps only tolerated, the Albigenses, was stripped ofhis dominions: and these sectaries themselves, though the most innocentand inoffensive of mankind, were exterminated with all the circumstancesof extreme violence and barbarity. Here were therefore both an army anda general, dangerous from their zeal and valor, who might be directedto act against John; and Innocent, after keeping the thunder longsuspended, gave at last authority to the bishops of London, Ely, andWorcester, to fulminate the sentence of excommunication againsthim. [**] These prelates obeyed; though their brethren were deterred frompublishing, as the pope required of them, the sentence in the severalchurches of their dioceses. 

No sooner was the excommunication known, than the effects of itappeared. Geoffrey, archdeacon of Norwich, who was intrusted with aconsiderable office in the court of exchequer, being informed of itwhile sitting on the bench observed to his colleagues the danger ofserving under an excommunicated king; and he immediately left his chair, and departed the court. John gave orders to seize him, to throw himinto prison, to cover his head with a great leaden cope, and by this andother severe usage, he soon put an end to his life:[***] nor was thereany thing wanting to Geoffrey, except the dignity and rank of Becket, toexalt him to an equal station in heaven with that great and celebratedmartyr. 

 [* M. Paris, p. 160. Trivet, p. 154. M, West. P. 269. ]

 [** M. Paris, p. 159. M. West. P. 270. ]

 [*** M. Paris, p. 159. ]

Hugh de Wells, the chancellor, being elected by the king's appointmentbishop of Lincoln, upon a vacancy in that see, desired leave to goabroad, in order to receive consecration from the archbishop of Rouen;but he no sooner reached France, than he hastened to Pontigny, whereLangton then resided, and paid submissions to him as his primate. Thebishops, finding themselves exposed either to the jealousy of the kingor hatred of the people, gradually stole out of the kingdom; and atlast there remained only three prelates to perform the functions of theepiscopal office. [*] Many of the nobility, terrified by John's tyranny, and obnoxious to him on different accounts, imitated the example ofthe bishops; and most of the others, who remained, were with reasonsuspected of having secretly entered into a confederacy against him. [**]John was alarmed at his dangerous situation; a situation which prudence, vigor, and popularity might formerly have prevented, but which novirtues or abilities were now sufficient to retrieve. He desired aconference with Langton at Dover; offered to acknowledge him as primate, to submit to the pope, to restore the exiled clergy, even to pay thema limited sum as a compensation for the rents of their confiscatedestates. But Langton, perceiving his advantage, was not satisfied withthese concessions: he demanded that full restitution and reparationshould be made to all the clergy; a condition so exorbitant, that theking, who probably had not the power of fulfilling it, and who foresawthat this estimation of damages might amount to an immense sum, finallybroke off the conference. [***]

{1212. } The next gradation of papal sentences was to absolve John'ssubjects from their oaths of fidelity and allegiance, and to declareevery one excommunicated who had any commerce with him, in public orin private; at his table, in his council, or even in privateconversation:[****] and this sentence was accordingly, with allimaginable solemnity, pronounced against him. But as John stillpersevered in his contumacy, there remained nothing but the sentence ofdeposition; which, though intimately connected with the former had beendistinguished from it by the artifice of the court of Rome; and Innocentdetermined to dart this last thunderbolt against the refractory monarch. 

 [* Ann. Waverl. P. 170. Ann. Marg. P. 14. ]

 [** M. Paris, p. 162. M. West p. 270, 271. ]

 [*** Ann. Waverl. P. 171. ]

 [**** M. Paris, p. 161. M. West. P. 270. ]

But as a sentence of this kind required an armed force to execute it, the pontiff, casting his eyes around, fixed at last on Philip, king ofFrance, as the person into whose powerful hand he could most properlyintrust that weapon, the ultimate resource of his ghostly authority. And he offered the monarch, besides the remission of all his sins, andendless spiritual benefits, the property and possession of the kingdomof England, as the reward of his labor. [*]

{1213. } It was the common concern of all princes to oppose theseexorbitant pretensions of the Roman pontiff, by which they themselveswere rendered vassals, and vassals totally dependent, of the papalcrown: yet even Philip, the most able monarch of the age, was seduced bypresent interest, and by the prospect of so tempting a prize, to acceptthis liberal offer of the pontiff, and thereby to ratify that authoritywhich, if he ever opposed its boundless usurpations, might next daytumble him from the throne. He levied a great army; summoned all thevassals of the crown to attend him at Rouen; collected a fleet of onethousand seven hundred vessels, great and small, in the seaports ofNormandy and Picardy; and partly from the zealous spirit of the age, partly from the personal regard universally paid him, prepared a forcewhich seemed equal to the greatness of his enterprise. The king, onthe other hand, issued out writs, requiring the attendance of all hismilitary tenants at Dover, and even of all able-bodied men, to defendthe kingdom in this dangerous extremity. A great number appeared; andhe selected an army of sixty thousand men; a power invincible, had theybeen united in affection to their prince, and animated with a becomingzeal for the defence of their native country. [**]

 [* M. Paris, p. 162. M. West, p. 271. ]

 [** M. Paris, p. 162. M. West, p. 271. ]

But the people were swayed by superstition, and regarded their king withhorror, as anathematized by papal censures: the barons, besides lyingunder the same prejudices, were all disgusted by his tyranny, and were, many of them, suspected of holding a secret correspondence with theenemy: and the incapacity and cowardice of the king himself, ill fittedto contend with those mighty difficulties, made men prognosticate themost fatal effects from the French invasion. 

Pandolf, whom the pope had chosen for his legate, and appointed tohead this important expedition, had, before he left Rome, applied fora secret conference with his master, and had asked him, whether, if theking of England, in this desperate situation, were willing to submitto the apostolic see, the church should, without the consent of Philip, grant him any terms of accommodation. [*] Innocent, expecting from hisagreement with a prince so abject both in character and fortune, moreadvantages than from his alliance with a great and victorious monarch, who, after such mighty acquisitions, might become too haughty to bebound by spiritual chains, explained to Pandolf the conditions on whichhe was willing to be reconciled to the king of England. The legate, therefore, as soon as he arrived in the north of France, sent over twoknights templars to desire an interview with John at Dover, whichwas readily granted: he there represented to him in such strong, andprobably in such true colors, his lost condition, the disaffection ofhis subjects, the secret combination of his vassals against him, themighty armament of France, that John yielded at discretion, [**] andsubscribed to all the conditions which Pandolf was pleased to imposeupon him. He promised, among other articles, that he would submithimself entirely to the judgment of the pope; that he would acknowledgeLangton for primate; that he would restore all the exiled clergy andlaity who had been banished on account of the contest; that he wouldmake them full restitution of their goods, and compensation for alldamages, and instantly consign eight thousand pounds, in part ofpayment; and that every one outlawed or imprisoned for his adherence tothe pope, should immediately be received into grace and favor. [***] Fourbarons swore, along with the king, to the observance of this ignominioustreaty. [****]

 [* M. Paris, p. 162. ]

 [** M. West. P. 271. ]

 [*** Rymer, vol. I. P. 166. M. Paris, p. 163. Annal Burt. P. 288. ]

 [**** Rymer, vol. I p. 170. M. Paris, p. 163. ]

But the ignominy of the king was not yet carried to its full height. Pandolf required him, as the first trial of obedience, to resign hiskingdom to the church; and he persuaded him, that he could nowise soeffectually disappoint the French invasion, as by thus putting himselfunder the immediate protection of the apostolic see. John, lying underthe agonies of present terror, made no scruple of submitting to thiscondition He passed a charter, in which he said, that, not constrainedby fear, but of his own free will, and by the common advice and consentof his barons, he had, for remission of hia own sins and those of hisfamily, resigned England and Ireland to God, to St. Peter and St. Paul, and to Pope Innocent and his successors in the apostolic chair: heagreed to hold these dominions as feudatory of the church of Rome, bythe annual payment of a thousand marks; seven hundred for England, threehundred for Ireland: and he stipulated, that, if he or his successorsshould ever presume to revoke or infringe this charter, they shouldinstantly, except upon admonition they repented of their offence, forfeit all right to their dominions. [*]

 [* Rymer, vol. I. P. 176. M. Paris, p. 165. ]

In consequence of this agreement, John did homage to Pandolf as thepope's legate, with all the submissive rites which the feudal lawrequired of vassals before their liege lord and superior. He camedisarmed into the legate's presence, who was seated on a throne; heflung himself on his knees before him; he lifted up his joined hands, and put them within those of Pandolf; he swore fealty to the pope;and he paid part of the tribute which he owed for his kingdom as thepatrimony of St. Peter. The legate, elated by this supreme triumph ofsacerdotal power, could not forbear discovering extravagant symptoms ofjoy and exultation: he trampled on the money, which was laid at his feetas an earnest of the subjection of the kingdom; an insolence of which, however offensive to all the English, no one present, except thearchbishop of Dublin, dared to take any notice. But though Pandolf hadbrought the king to submit to these base conditions, he still refusedto free him from the excommunication and interdict, till an estimationshould be taken of the losses of the ecclesiastics, and fullcompensation and restitution should be made them. 

John, reduced to this abject situation under a foreign power, stillshowed the same disposition to tyrannize over his subjects, which hadbeen the chief cause of all his misfortunes. One Peter of Pomfret, ahermit, had foretold that the king, this very year, should lose hiscrown; and for that rash prophecy, he had been thrown into prison inCorfe castle. Johfi now determined to bring him to punishment as animpostor; and though the man pleaded that his prophecy was fulfilled, and that the king had lost the royal and independent crown which heformerly wore, the defence was supposed to aggravate his guilt: he wasdragged at horses' tails to the town of Warham, and there hanged on agibbet with his son. [*]

When Pandolf, after receiving the homage of John, returned to France, he congratulated Philip on the success of his pious enterprise; andinformed him that John, moved by the terror of the French arms, had nowcome to a just sense of his guilt; had returned to obedience underthe apostolic see; had even consented to do homage to the pope forhis dominions; and having thus made his kingdom a part of St. Peter'spatrimony, had rendered it impossible for any Christian prince, withoutthe most manifest and most flagrant impiety, to attack him. [**] Philipwas enraged on receiving this intelligence: he exclaimed, that having, at the pope's instigation, undertaken an expedition which had cost himabove sixty thousand pounds sterling, he was frustrated of his purpose, at the time when its success was become infallible: he complained thatall the expense had fallen upon him; all the advantages had accrued toInnocent: he threatened to be no longer the dupe of these hypocriticalpretences: and assembling his vassals, he laid before them the illtreatment which he had received, exposed the interested and fraudulentconduct of the pope, and required their assistance to execute hisenterprise against England, in which he told them, that notwithstandingthe inhibitions and menaces of the legate, he was determined topersevere. The French barons were in that age little less ignorant andsuperstitious than the English: yet, so much does the influence of thosereligious principles depend on the present dispositions of men! theyall vowed to follow their prince on his intended expedition, and wereresolute not to be disappointed of that glory and those riches whichthey had long expected from this enterprise. The earl of Flanders alone, who had previously formed a secret treaty with John, declaringagainst the injustice and impiety of the undertaking, retired with hisforces;[***] and Philip, that he might not leave so dangerous an enemybehind him, first turned his arms against the dominions of that prince. 

 [* M. Paris, p. 165. Chron. Dunst. Vol. I. P. 56. ]

 [** Trivet, p. 160. ]

 [*** M. Paris, p. 166. ]

Meanwhile the English fleet was assembled under the earl of Saltsbury, the king's natural brother; and, though inferior in number, receivedorders to attack the French in their harbors. Salisbury performed thisservice with so much success that he took three hundred ships; destroyeda hundred more;[*] and Philip, finding it impossible to prevent the restfrom falling into the hands of the enemy, set fire to them himself, andthereby rendered it impossible for him to proceed any farther in hisenterprise. 

John, exulting in his present security, insensible to his past disgrace, was so elated with this success, that he thought of no less thaninvading France in his turn, and recovering all those provinces whichthe prosperous arms of Philip had formerly ravished from him. Heproposed this expedition to the barons, who were already assembledfor the defence of the kingdom. But the English nobles both hated anddespised their prince: they prognosticated no success to any enterpriseconducted by a such a leader: and, pretending that their time of servicewas elapsed, and all their previsions exhausted, they refused tosecond his undertaking. [**] The king, however, resolute in his purpose, embarked with a few followers, and sailed to Jersey, in the foolishexpectation that the barons would at last be ashamed to staybehind. [***] But finding himself disappointed, he returned to England;and raising some troops, threatened to take vengeance on all his noblesfor their desertion and disobedience. The archbishop of Canterbury, whowas in a confederacy with the barons here interposed; strictly inhibitedthe king from thinking of such an attempt; and threatened him with arenewal of the sentence of excommunication if he pretended to levy warupon any of his subjects before the kingdom were freed from the sentenceof interdict. [****]

 [* M. Paris, p. 166. Chron. Dunst. Vci i. P. 59. Trivet, p. 157]

 [** M. Paris, p. 166. ]

 [*** M. Paris, p. 166. ]

 [**** M. Paris, p. 167. ]

The church had recalled the several anathemas pronounced against John, by the same gradual progress with which she had at first issued them. By receiving his homage, and admitting him to the rank of a vassal, his deposition had been virtually annulled, and his subjects wereagain bound by their oaths of allegiance. The exiled prelates had thenreturned in great triumph, with Langton at their head; and the king, hearing of their approach, went forth to meet them, and throwinghimself on the ground before them, he entreated them with tears to havecompassion on him and the kingdom of England. [*] The primate, seeingthese marks of sincere penitence, led him to the chapter-house ofWinchester, and there administered an oath to him, by which he againswore fealty and obedience to Pope Innocent and his successors; promisedto love, maintain, and defend holy church and the clergy; engaged thathe would reestablish the good laws of his predecessors, particularlythose of St. Edward, and would abolish the wicked ones; andexpressed his resolution of maintaining justice and right in all hisdominions. [**] The primate next gave him absolution in the requisiteforms, and admitted him to dine with him, to the great joy of all thepeople. The sentence of interdict, however, was still upheld against thekingdom. A new legate, Nicholas, bishop of Frescati, came into Englandin the room of Pandolf; and he declared it to be the pope's intentionsnever to loosen that sentence till full restitution were made to theclergy of every thing taken from them, and ample reparation for alldamages which they had Sustained. He only permitted mass to be saidwith a low voice in the churches, till those losses and damages couldbe estimated to the satisfaction of the parties. Certain barons wereappointed to take an account of the claims; and John was astonishedat the greatness of the sums to which the clergy made their losses toamount. No less than twenty thousand marks were demanded by the monks ofCanterbury alone; twenty-three thousand for the see of Lincoln; and theking, finding these pretensions to be exorbitant and endless, offeredthe clergy the sum of a hundred thousand marks for a final acquittal, The clergy rejected the offer with disdain; but the pope, willing tofavor his new vassal, whom he found zealous in his declarations offealty, and regular in paying the stipulated tribute to Rome, directedhis legate to accept of forty thousand. The issue of the whole was, thatthe bishops and considerable abbots got reparation beyond what theyhad any title to demand; the inferior clergy were obliged to sit downcontented with their losses: and the king, after the interdict was takenoff, renewed, in the most solemn manner, and by a new charter sealedwith gold, his professions of homage and obedience to the see of Rome. 

 [* M. Paris, p. 166. Ann. Waverl. P. 178. ]

 [** M. Paris, p. 166. ]

{1214. } When this vexatious affair was at last brought to a conclusion, the king, as if he had nothing further to attend but triumphsand victories, went over to Poictou, which still acknowledged hisauthority;[*] and he carried war into Philip's dominions. 

 [* Queen Eleanor died in 1203 or 1204. ]

He besieged a castle near Angiers; but the approach of Prince Lewis, Philip's son, obliged him to raise the siege with such precipitation, that he left his tents, machines, and baggage behind him; and hereturned to England with disgrace. About the same time, he heard of thegreat and decisive victory gained by the king of France at Bovines overthe emperor Otho, who had entered France at the head of one hundred andfifty thousand Germans; a victory which established forever the gloryof Philip, and gave full security to all his dominions. John could, therefore, think henceforth of nothing further than of ruling peaceablyhis own kingdom; and his close connections with the pope, which he wasdetermined at any price to maintain, insured him, as he imagined thecertain attainment of that object. But the last and most grievous sceneof this prince's misfortunes still awaited him; and he was destined topass through a series of more humiliating circumstances than had everyet fallen to the lot of any other monarch. 

The introduction of the feudal law into England by William the Conquerorhad much infringed the liberties, however imperfect, enjoyed by theAnglo-Saxons in their ancient government, and had reduced the wholepeople to a state of vassalage under the king or barons, and even thegreater part of them to a state of real slavery, the necessity, also, of intrusting great power in the hands of a prince, who was to maintainmilitary dominion over a vanquished nation, had engaged the Normanbarons to submit to a more severe and absolute prerogative than thatto which men of their rank, in other feudal governments, were commonlysubjected. The power of the crown, once raised to a high pitch, was noteasily reduced; and the nation, during the course of a hundred and fiftyyears, was governed by an authority unknown, in the same degree, to allthe kingdoms founded by the northern conquerors. Henry I. , that he mightallure the people to give an exclusion to his elder brother Robert, had granted them a charter, favorable in many particulars to theirliberties; Stephen had renewed the grant; Henry II. Had confirmed it:but the concessions of all these princes had still remained withouteffect; and the same unlimited, at least in regular authority, continuedto be exercised both by them and their successors. The only happinesswas, that arms were never yet ravished from the hands of the barons andpeople: the nation, by a great confederacy, might still vindicate itsliberties: and nothing was more likely than the character, conduct, andfortunes of the reigning prince, to produce such a general combinationagainst him. Equally odious and contemptible, both in public andprivate life, he affronted the barons by his insolence, dishonored theirfamilies by his gallantries, enraged them by his tyranny, andgave discontent to all ranks of men by his endless exactions andimpositions. [*] The effect of these lawless practices had alreadyappeared in the general demand made by the barons of a restoration oftheir privileges; and after he had reconciled himself to the pope, by abandoning the independence of the kingdom, he appeared to all hissubjects in so mean a light, that they universally thought they mightwith safety and honor insist upon their pretensions. 

But nothing forwarded this confederacy so much as the concurrence ofLangton, archbishop of Canterbury; a man whose memory, though he wasobtruded on the nation by a palpable encroachment of the see of Rome, ought always to be respected by the English. This prelate, whether hewas moved by the generosity of his nature and his affection to publicgood; or had entertained an animosity against John, on account of thelong opposition made by that prince to his election; or thought that anacquisition of liberty to the people would serve to increase and securethe privileges of the church; had formed the plan of reforming thegovernment, and had prepared the way for that great innovation, byinserting those singular clauses above mentioned, in the oath which headministered to the king, before he would absolve him from the sentenceof excommunication. Soon after, in a private meeting of some principalbarons at London, he showed them a copy of Henry I. 's charter, which, he said, he had happily found in a monastery; and he exhorted them toinsist on the renewal and observance of it: the barons swore thatthey would sooner lose their lives than depart from so reasonable ademand. [**]

 [* Chron. Mailr. P. 188. T. Wykes, p. 36. Ann. Waverl. P. 181 W. Heming. P. 657. ]

 [** M. Paris, p. 167. ]

The confederacy began now to spread wider, and to comprehend almost allthe barons in England; and a new and more numerous meeting was summonedby Langton at St. Edmondsbury, under color of devotion. He againproduced to the assembly the old charter of Henry; renewed hisexhortations of unanimity and vigor in the prosecution of their purpose;and represented in the strongest colors the tyranny to which they hadso long been subjected, and from which it now behoved them to freethemselves and their posterity. [*] The barons, inflamed by hiseloquence, incited by the sense of their own wrongs, and encouraged bythe appearance of their power and numbers, solemnly took an oath, beforethe high altar, to adhere to each other, to insist on their demands, andto make endless war on the king till he should submit to grant them. [**]They agreed that, after the festival of Christmas, they would prefer ina body their common petition; and in the mean time they separated, after mutually engaging that they would put themselves in a postureof defence, would enlist men and purchase arms, and would supply theircastles with the necessary provisions. 

{1215. } The barons appeared in London on the day appointed, and demandedof the king, that, in consequence of his own oath before the primate, as well as in deference to their just rights, he should grant thema renewal of Henry's charter, and a confirmation of the laws of St. Edward. The king, alarmed with their zeal and unanimity, as well as withtheir power, required a delay; promised that, at the festival of Easter, he would give them a positive answer to their petition; and offeredthem the archbishop of Canterbury, the bishop of Ely, and the earlof Pembroke, the mareschal, as sureties for his fulfilling thisengagement. [***] The barons accepted of the terms, and peaceablyreturned to their castles. 

 [* M. Paris, p. 175. ]

 [** M. Paris, p. 176, ]

 [*** M Paris, p 176. M. West. P. 273]

During this interval, John, in order to break or subdue the league ofhis barons, endeavored to avail himself of the ecclesiastical power, ofwhose influence he had, from his own recent misfortunes, had such fatalexperience. He granted to the clergy a charter, relinquishing foreverthat important prerogative for which his father and all his ancestorshad zealously contended; yielding to them the free election on allvacancies; reserving only the power to issue a conge d'élire and tosubjoin a confirmation of the election; and declaring that, if either ofthese were withheld, the choice should nevertheless be deemed justand valid. [*] He made a vow to lead an army into Palestine against theinfidels, and he took on him the cross, in hopes that he should receivefrom the church that protection which she tendered to every one that hadentered into this sacred and meritorious engagement. [**] And he sentto Rome his agent, William de Mauclere, in order to appeal to the popeagainst the violence of his barons, and procure him a favorable sentencefrom that powerful tribunal. [***] The barons, also, were not negligenton their part in endeavoring to engage the pope in their interests: theydespatched Eustace de Vescie to Rome; laid their case before Innocentas their feudal lord; and petitioned him to interpose his authoritywith the king, and oblige him to restore and confirm all their just andundoubted privileges. [****]

Innocent beheld with regret the disturbances which had arisen inEngland, and was much inclined to favor John in his pretensions. He hadno hopes of retaining and extending his newly-acquired superiority overthat kingdom, but by supporting so base and degenerate a prince, who waswilling to sacrifice every consideration to his present safety: and heforesaw, that if the administration should fall into the hands of thosegallant and high-spirited barons, they would vindicate the honor, liberty, and independence of the nation, with the same ardor which theynow exerted in defence of their own. He wrote letters, therefore, tothe prelates, to the nobility, and to the king himself. He exhorted thefirst to employ their good offices in conciliating peace between thecontending parties, and putting an end to civil discord: to the secondhe expressed his disapprobation of their conduct in employing force toextort concessions from their reluctant sovereign: the last lie advisedto treat his nobles with grace and indulgence, and to grant them such oftheir demands as should appear just and reasonable. 

 [* Rymer, vol. I. P. 197. ]

 [** Rymer, vol. I. P. 200. Trivet, p. 162. T. Wykes, p. 37. M West. P. 273. ]

 [*** Rymer, vol i. P. 184]

 [**** Rymer, vol i. P. 184]

The barons easily saw, from the tenor of these letters, that they mustreckon on having the pope, as well as the king, for their adversary; butthey had already advanced too far to recede from their pretensions, andtheir passions were so deeply engaged, that it exceeded even the powerof superstition itself any longer to control them. They also foresaw, that the thunders of Rome, when not seconded by the efforts of theEnglish ecclesiastics, would be of small avail against them and theyperceived that the most considerable of the prelates, as well as allthe inferior clergy, professed the highest approbation of their cause. Besides that these men were seized with the national passion for lawsand liberty, blessings of which they themselves expected to partake, there concurred very powerful causes to loosen their devoted attachmentto the apostolic see. It appeared, from the late usurpations of theRoman pontiff, that he pretended to reap alone all the advantagesaccruing from that victory, which under his banners, though at their ownperil, they had every where obtained over the civil magistrate. Thepope assumed a despotic power over all the churches; their particularcustoms, privileges, and immunities were treated with disdain; even thecanons of general councils were set aside by his dispensing power; thewhole administration of the church was centred in the court of Rome;all preferments ran, of course, in the same channel; and the provincialclergy saw, at least felt, that there was a necessity for limiting thesepretensions. The legate, Nicholas, in filling those numerous vacancieswhich had fallen in England during an interdict of six years, hadproceeded in the most arbitrary manner; and had paid no regard, inconferring dignities, to personal merit, to rank, to the inclination ofthe electors, or to the customs of the country. The English church wasuniversally disgusted; and Langton himself, though he owed his elevationto an encroachment of the Romish see, was no sooner established in hishigh office, than he became jealous of the privileges annexed to it, andformed attachments with the country subjected to his jurisdiction. Thesecauses, though they opened slowly the eyes of men, failed not to producetheir effect: they set bounds to the usurpations of the papacy; the tidefirst stopped, and then turned against the sovereign pontiff; and it isotherwise inconceivable, how that age, so prone to superstition, and sosunk in ignorance, or rather so devoted to a spurious erudition, couldhave escaped falling into an absolute and total slavery under the courtof Rome. 

About the time that the pope's letters arrived in England, Themalevolent barons, on the approach of the festival of Easter, when theywere to expect the king's answer to their petition, met by agreement atStamford; and they assembled a force, consisting of above two thousandknights, besides then retainers and inferior persons without number. Elated with their power, they advanced in a body to Brackley, withinfifteen miles of Oxford, the place where the court then resided; andthey there received a message from the king, by the archbishop ofCanterbury and the earl of Pembroke, desiring to know what thoseliberties were which they so zealously challenged from their sovereign. They delivered to these messengers a schedule, containing the chiefarticles of their demands; which was no sooner shown to the king, thanhe burst into a furious passion, and asked why the barons did not alsodemand of him his kingdom; swearing that he would never grant them suchliberties as must reduce himself to slavery. [*]

No sooner were the confederated nobles informed of John's reply, thanthey chose Robert Fitz-Walter their general, whom they called "themareschal of the army of God and of holy church;" and they proceededwithout further ceremony to levy war upon the king. They besieged thecastle of Northampton during fifteen days, though without success:[**]the gates of Bedford castle were willingly opened to them by WilliamBeauchamp, its owner: they advanced to Ware in their way to London, where they held a correspondence with the principal citizens: they werereceived without opposition into that capital: and finding now the greatsuperiority of their force, they issued proclamations, requiring theother barons to join them, and menacing them, in case of refusal ordelay, with committing devastation on their houses and estates. [***] Inorder to show what might be expected from their prosperous arms, they made incursions from London, and laid waste the king's parks andpalaces; and all the barons, who had hitherto carried the semblanceof supporting the royal party, were glad of this pretence for openlyjoining a cause which they always had secretly favored. The king wasleft at Odiham, in Hampshire, with a poor retinue of only seven knights;and after trying several expedients to elude the blow, after offering torefer all differences to the pope alone, or to eight barons, four to bechosen by himself, and four by the confederates, [****] he found himselfat last obliged to submit at discretion. 

 [* M. Paris, p. 176. ]

 [** M. Paris, p. 177. ]

 [*** M. Paris, p. 177. ]

 [**** Rymer, vol. I. P. 200. ]

A conference between the king and the barons was appointed at Runnemede, between Windsor and Staines; a place which has ever since been extremelycelebrated on account of this great event. The two parties encampedapart, like open enemies; and after a debate of a few days, the king, with a facility somewhat suspicious, signed and sealed the charterwhich was required of him. This famous deed, commonly called the_Great Charter_, either granted or secured very important liberties andprivileges to every order of men in the kingdom; to the clergy, to thebarons, and to the people. 

The freedom of elections was secured to the clergy: the former charterof the king was confirmed, by which the necessity of a royal conged'élire and confirmation was superseded: all check upon appeals to Romewas removed, by the allowance granted every man to depart the kingdomat pleasure: and the fines to be imposed on the clergy, for any offence, were ordained to be proportional to their lay estates, not to theirecclesiastical benefices. 

The privileges granted to the barons were either abatements in the rigorof the feudal law, or determinations in points which had been leftby that law, or had become, by practice, arbitrary and ambiguous. Thereliefs of heirs succeeding to a military fee were ascertained;an earl's and baron's at a hundred marks, a knight's at a hundredshillings. It was ordained by the charter that, if the heir be a minor, he shall, immediately upon his majority, enter upon his estate, withoutpaying any relief: the king shall not sell his wardship; he shall levyonly reasonable profits upon the estate, without committing waste, orhurting the property: he shall uphold the castles, houses, mills, parks, and ponds, and if he commit the guardianship of the estate to thesheriff or any other, he shall previously oblige them to find surety tothe same purpose. During the minority of a baron, while his lands arein wardship, and are not in his own possession, no debt which he owesto the Jews shall bear any interest. Heirs shall be married withoutdisparagement; and before the marriage be contracted, the nearestrelations of the person shall be informed of it. A widow, without payingany relief, shall enter upon her dower, the third part of her husband'srents: she shall not be compelled to marry, so long as she chooses tocontinue single; she shall only give security never to marry without herlord's consent. The king shall not claim the wardship of any minor whoholds lands by military tenure, of a baron, on pretence that he alsoholds lands of the crown, by soccage or any other tenure. Scutages shallbe estimated at the same rate as in the time of Henry I. ; and no scutageor aid, except in the three general feudal cases, the king's captivity, the knighting of his eldest son, and the marrying of his eldestdaughter, shall be imposed but by the great council of the kingdom;the prelates, earls, and great barons, shall be called to this greatcouncil, each by a particular writ; the lesser barons by a generalsummons of the sheriff. The king shall not seize any baron's land for adebt to the crown if the baron possesses as many goods and chattels asare sufficient to discharge the debt. No man shall be obliged to performmore service for his fee than he is bound to by his tenure. No governoror constable of a castle shall oblige any knight to give money forcastle guard, if the knight be willing to perform the service inperson, or by another able-bodied man; and if the knight be in the fieldhimself, by the king's command, he shall be exempted from all otherservice of this nature. No vassal shall be allowed to sell so much ofhis land as to incapacitate himself from performing his service to hislord. 

These were the principal articles, calculated for the interest ofthe barons; and had the charter contained nothing further, nationalhappiness and liberty had been very little promoted by it, as it wouldonly have tended to increase the power and independence of an order ofmen who were already too powerful, and whose yoke might have becomemore heavy on the people than even that of an absolute monarch. But thebarons, who alone drew and imposed on the prince this memorable charter, were necessitated to insert in it other claused of a more extensive andmore beneficent nature: they could not expect the concurrence of thepeople without comprehending, together with their own, the interest ofinferior ranks of men; and all provisions, which the barons, fortheir own sake, were obliged to make, in order to insure the free andequitable administration of justice, tended directly to the benefit ofthe whole community. The following were the principal clauses of thisnature. 

It was ordained that all the privileges and immunities above mentioned, granted to the barons against the king, should be extended by the baronsto their inferior vassals. The king bound himself not to grant any writ, empowering a baron to levy aids from his vassals, except in the threefeudal cases. One weight and one measure shall be established throughoutthe kingdom. Merchants shall be allowed to transact all business withoutbeing exposed to any arbitrary tolls and impositions; they and allfree men shall be allowed to go out of the kingdom and return to itat pleasure: London, and all cities and burghs, shall preserve theirancient liberties, immunities, and free customs: aids shall not berequired of them but by the consent of the great council: no towns orindividuals shall be obliged to make or support bridges but by ancientcustom: the goods of every freeman shall he disposed of according to hiswill: if he die intestate, his heirs shall succeed to them. No officerof the crown shall take any horses, carts, or wood, without the consentof the owner. The king's courts of justice shall be stationary, andshall no longer follow his person: they shall be open to every one; andjustice shall no longer be sold, refused, or delayed by them. Circuitsshall be regularly held every year: the inferior tribunals of justice, the county court, sheriff's turn, and court-leet shall meet at theirappointed time and place: the sheriffs shall be incapacitated to holdpleas of the crown; and shall not put any person upon his trial, fromrumor or suspicion alone, but upon the evidence of lawful witnesses. No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or dispossessed of his freetenement and liberties, or outlawed, or banished, or anywise hurt orinjured, unless by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the law of theland; and all who suffered otherwise in this or the two former reigns, shall be restored to their rights and possessions. Every freeman shallbe fined in proportion to his fault; and no fine shall be levied on himto his utter ruin; even a villain or rustic shall not by any fine bebereaved of his carts, ploughs, and implements of husbandry. This wasthe only article calculated for the interests of this body of men, probably at that time the most numerous in the kingdom. 

It must be confessed that the former articles of the Great Chartercontain such mitigations and explanations of the feudal law as arereasonable and equitable; and that the latter involve all the chiefoutlines of a legal government, and provide for the equal distributionof justice, and free enjoyment of property; the great objects for whichpolitical society was at first founded by men, which the people havea perpetual and unalienable right to recall, and which no time, norprecedent, nor statute, nor positive institution, ought to deter themfrom keeping ever uppermost in their thoughts and attention. Though theprovisions made by this charter might, conformably to the genius of theage, be esteemed too concise, and too bare of circumstances to maintainthe execution of its articles, in opposition to the chicanery oflawyers, supported by the violence of power, time gradually ascertainedthe sense of all the ambiguous expressions; and those generous barons, who first extorted this concession, still held their swords in theirhands, and could turn them against those who dared, on any pretence, todepart from the original spirit and meaning of the grant. We may now, from the tenor of this charter, conjecture what those laws were ofKing Edward which the English nation, during so many generations, stilldesired, with such an obstinate perseverance, to have recalled andestablished. They were chiefly these latter articles of Magna Charta;and the barons who, at the beginning of these commotions, demandedthe revival of the Saxon laws, undoubtedly thought that they hadsufficiently satisfied the people by procuring them this concession, which comprehended the principal objects to which they had so longaspired. But what we are most to admire is, the prudence and moderationof those haughty nobles themselves, who were enraged by injuries, inflamed by opposition, and elated by a total victory over theirsovereign. They were content, even in this plenitude of power, to departfrom some articles of Henry I. 's charter, which they made the foundationof their demands, particularly from the abolition of wardships, a matterof the greatest importance; and they seem to have been sufficientlycareful not to diminish too far the power and revenue of the crown. Ifthey appear, therefore, to have carried other demands to too greata height, it can be ascribed only to the faithless and tyrannicalcharacter of the king himself, of which they had long had experience, and which they foresaw would, if they provided no further security, lead him soon to infringe their new liberties, and revoke his ownconcessions. This alone gave birth to those other articles, seeminglyexorbitant, which were added as a rampart for the safeguard of the GreatCharter. 

The barons obliged the king to agree that London should remain in theirhands, and the Tower be consigned to the custody of the primate, till the 15th of August ensuing, or till the execution of the severalarticles of the Great Charter. The better to insure the same end, heallowed them to choose five-and-twenty members from their own body, as conservators of the public liberties; and no bounds were set to theauthority of these men either in extent or duration. If any complaintwere made of a violation of the charter, whether attempted by the king, justiciaries, sheriffs, or foresters, any four of these barons mightadmonish the king to redress the grievance: if satisfaction were notobtained, they could assemble the whole council of twenty-five; who, in conjunction with the great council, were empowered to compel him toobserve the charter, and, in case of resistance, might levy war againsthim, attack his castles, and employ every kind of violence, exceptagainst his royal person, and that of his queen and children. All menthroughout the kingdom were bound, under the penalty of confiscation, toswear obedience to the twenty-five barons; and the freeholders of eachcounty were to choose twelve knights, who were to make report of suchevil customs as required redress, conformably to the tenor of the GreatCharter. [*] The names of those conservators were, the earls of Clare, Albemarle, Glocesteer, Winchester, Hereford, Roger Bigod, earl ofNorfolk, Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford, William Mareschal the younger, Robert Fitz-Walter, Gilbert de Clare, Eustace de Vescey, GilbertDelaval, William de Moubray, Geoffrey de Say, Roger de Mombezon, Williamde Huntingfield, Robert de Ros, the constable of Chester, William deAubenie, Richard de Perci, William Malet, John Fitz-Robert, William deLanvalay, Hugh de Bigod, and Roger de Montfichet. These men were, bythis convention, really invested with the sovereignty of the kingdom:they were rendered coordinate with the king, or rather superior to him, in the exercise of the executive power; and as there was no circumstanceof government which, either directly or indirectly, might not bear arelation to the security or observance of the Great Charter, there couldscarcely occur any incident in which they might not lawfully interposetheir authority. 

 [* This seems a very strong proof that the house of commons was not then in being; otherwise the knights and burgesses from the several counties could have given in to the lords a list of grievances, without so unusual an election. ]

John seemed to submit passively to all these regulations, howeverinjurious to majesty: he sent writs to all the sheriffs, ordering themto constrain every one to swear obedience to the twenty-five barons: hedismissed all his foreign force; he pretended, that his government wasthenceforth to run in a new tenor, and be more indulgent to the libertyand independence of his people. But he only dissembled till he shouldfind a favorable opportunity for annulling all his concessions. Theinjuries and indignities which he had formerly suffered from the popeand the king of France, as they came from equals or superiors, seemedto make but small impression on him; but the sense of this perpetualand total subjection under his own rebellious vassals, sunk deep in hismind; and he was determined, at all hazards, to throw off so ignominiousa slavery. He grew sullen, silent, and reserved: he shunned the societyof his courtiers and nobles: he retired into the Isle of Wight, asif desirous of hiding his shame and confusion; but in this retreat hemeditated the most fatal vengeance against all his enemies. He secretlysent abroad his emissaries to enlist foreign soldiers, and to invite therapacious Brabançons into his service, by the prospect of sharingthe spoils of England, and reaping the forfeitures of so many opulentbarons, who had incurred the guilt of rebellion, by rising in armsagainst him. And he despatched a messenger to Rome, in order to laybefore the pope the Great Charter, which he had been compelled to sign, and to complain, before that tribunal, of the violence which had beenimposed upon him. 

Innocent, considering himself as feudal lord of the kingdom, wasincensed at the temerity of the barons, who, though they pretended toappeal to his authority, had dared, without waiting for his consent, toimpose such terms on a prince, who, by resigning to the Roman pontiffhis crown and independence, had placed himself immediately under thepapal protection. He issued, therefore, a bull, in which, from theplenitude of his apostolic power, and from the authority which God hadcommitted to him, to build and destroy kingdoms, to plant and overthrow, he annulled and abrogated the whole charter, as unjust in itself, as obtained by compulsion, and as derogatory to the dignity of theapostolic see. He prohibited the barons from exacting the observance ofit: he even prohibited the king himself from paying any regard to it:he absolved him and his subjects from all oaths which they had beenconstrained to take to that purpose; and he pronounced a generalsentence of excommunication against every one who should persevere inmaintaining such treasonable and iniquitous pretensions. 

The king, as his foreign forces arrived along with this bull nowventured to take off the mask; and, under sanction of the pope's decree, recalled all the liberties which he had granted to his subjects, andwhich he had solemnly sworn to observe. But the spiritual weapon wasfound upon trial to carry less force with it than he had reason fromhis own experience to apprehend. The primate refused to obey the popein publishing the sentence of excommunication against the barons; andthough he was cited to Rome, that he might attend a general councilthere assembled, and was suspended, on account of his disobedience tothe pope, and his secret correspondence with the king's enemies; thougha new and particular sentence of excommunication was pronounced by nameagainst the principal barons; John still found that his nobility andpeople, and even his clergy, adhered to the defence of their liberties, and to their combination against him: the sword of his foreignmercenaries was all he had to trust to for restoring his authority. 

The barons, after obtaining the Great Charter, seem to have been lulledinto a fatal security, and to have taken no rational measures, in caseof the introduction of a foreign force, for reassembling their armies. The king was, from the first, master of the field; and immediately laidsiege to the castle of Rochester, which was obstinately defended byWilliam de Albiney, at the head of a hundred and forty knights withtheir retainers, but was at last, reduced by famine. John, irritatedwith the resistance, intended to have hanged the governor and all thegarrison; but on the representation of William de Mauleon, who suggestedto him the danger of reprisals, he was content to sacrifice, in thisbarbarous manner, the inferior prisoners only. The captivity of Williamde Albiney, the best officer among the confederated barons, wasan irreparable loss to their cause; and no regular opposition wasthenceforth made to the progress of the royal arms. The ravenous andbarbarous mercenaries, incited by a cruel and enraged prince were letloose against the estates, tenants, manors, houses, parks of the barons, and spread devastation over the face of the kingdom. Nothing was tobe seen but the flames of villages, and castles reduced to ashes, theconsternation and misery of the inhabitants, tortures exercised by thesoldiery to make them reveal their concealed treasures, and reprisals noless barbarous, committed by the barons and their partisans on the royaldemesnes, and on the estates of such as still adhered to the crown. The king, marching through the whole extent of England, from Dover toBerwick, laid the provinces waste on each side of him; and consideredevery estate, which was not his immediate property, as entirely hostile, and the object of military execution. The nobility of the north inparticular, who had shown greatest violence in the recovery of theirliberties, and who, acting in a separate body, had expressed theirdiscontent even at the concessions made by the Great Charter, as theycould expect no mercy, fled before him with their wives and families, and purchased the friendship of Alexander, the young king of Scots, bydoing homage to him. 

The barons, reduced to this desperate extremity, and menaced withthe total loss of their liberties, their properties, and their lives, employed a remedy no less desperate; and making applications to thecourt of France, they offered to acknowledge Lewis, the eldest son ofPhilip, for their sovereign, on condition that he would afford themprotection from the violence of their enraged prince. Though the senseof the common rights of mankind, the only rights that are entirelyindefeasible, might have justified them in the deposition of their king, they declined insisting before Philip on a pretension which is commonlyso disagreeable to sovereigns, and which sounds harshly in their royalears. They affirmed that John was incapable of succeeding to the crown, by reason of the attainder passed upon him during his brother's reign;though that attainder had been reversed, and Richard had even, by hislast will, declared him his successor. They pretended, that he wasalready legally deposed by sentence of the peers of France, on accountof the murder of his nephew; though that sentence could not possiblyregard any thing but his transmarine dominions, which alone he held invassalage to that crown. On more plausible grounds, they affirmed, thathe had already deposed himself by doing homage to the pope, changing thenature of his sovereignty, and resigning an independent crown for a feeunder a foreign power. And as Blanche of Castile, the wife of Lewis, was descended by her mother from Henry II. , they maintained, though manyother princes stood before her in the order of succession, that theyhad not shaken off the royal family, in choosing her husband for theirsovereign. 

Philip was strongly tempted to lay hold on the rich prize whichwas offered to him. The legate menaced him with interdicts andexcommunications, if he invaded the patrimony of St. Peter, or attackeda prince who was under the immediate protection of the holy see; but asPhilip was assured of the obedience of his own vassals, his principleswere changed with the times, and he now undervalued as much all papalcensures, as he formerly pretended to pay respect to them. His chiefscruple was with regard to the fidelity which he might expect from theEnglish barons in their new engagements, and the danger of intrustinghis son and heir into the hands of men who might, on any caprice ornecessity, make peace with their native sovereign, by sacrificinga pledge of so much value. He therefore exacted from the baronstwenty-five hostages of the most noble birth in the kingdom; and havingobtained this security, he sent over first a small army to the reliefof the confederates; then more numerous forces, which arrived with Lewishimself at their head. 

The first effect of the young prince's appearance in England wasthe desertion of John's foreign troops, who, being mostly levied inFlanders, and other provinces of France, refused to serve against theheir of their monarchy. The Gascons and Poictevins alone, who werestill John's subjects, adhered to his cause; but they were too weak tomaintain that superiority in the field which they had hitherto supportedagainst the confederated barons. Many considerable noblemen desertedJohn's party, the earls of Salisbury, Arundel, Warrenne, Oxford, Albemarle, and William Mareschal the younger: his castles fell dailyinto the hands of the enemy; Dover was the only place which, from thevalor and fidelity of Hubert de Burgh, the governor, made resistanceto the progress of Lewis; and the barons had the melancholy prospectof finally succeeding in their purpose, and of escaping the tyranny oftheir own king, by imposing on themselves and the nation a foreign yoke. But this union was of short duration between the French and Englishnobles; and the imprudence of Lewis, who on every occasion showed toovisible a preference to the former, increased that jealousy which it wasso natural for the latter to entertain in their present situation. Theviscount of Melun, too, it is said, one of his courtiers, fell sick atLondon; and finding the approaches of death, he sent for some of hisfriends among the English barons, and warning them of their danger, revealed Lewis's secret intentions of exterminating them and theirfamilies as traitors to their prince, and of bestowing their estatesand dignities on his native subjects, in whose fidelity he could morereasonably place confidence. This story, whether true or false, was universally reported and believed; and, concurring with othercircumstances, which rendered it credible, did great prejudice to thecause of Lewis. The earl of Salisbury and other noblemen desertedagain to John's party; and as men easily change sides in a civil war, especially where their power is founded on an hereditary and independentauthority, and is not derived from the opinion and favor of the people, the French prince had reason to dread a sudden reverse of fortune. Theking was assembling a considerable army, with a view of fighting onegreat battle for his crown; but passing from Lynne to Lincolnshire, hisroad lay along the sea-shore, which was overflowed at high water; andnot choosing the proper time for his journey, he lost in the inundationall his carriages, treasure, baggage, and regalia. The affliction forthis disaster, and vexation from the distracted state of his affairs, increased the sickness under which he then labored; and though hereached the castle of Newark, he was obliged to halt there, and hisdistemper soon after put an end to his life, in the forty-ninth yearof his age, and eighteenth of his reign; and freed the nation fromthe dangers to which it was equally exposed by his success or by hismisfortunes. 

The character of this prince is nothing but a complication of vices, equally mean and odious; ruinous to himself and destructive tohis people. Cowardice, inactivity, folly, levity licentiousness, ingratitude, treachery, tyranny, and cruelty all these qualities appeartoo evidently in the several incidents of his life, to give us room tosuspect that the disagreeable picture has been anywise overcharged bythe prejudices of the ancient historians. It is hard to say whether hisconduct to his father, his brother, his nephew, or his subjects, wasmost culpable; or whether his crimes, in these respects, were not evenexceeded by the baseness which appeared in his transactions with theking of France, the pope, and the barons. His European dominions, whenthey devolved to him by the death of his brother, were more extensivethan have ever, since his time, been ruled by any English monarch: buthe first lost by his misconduct the flourishing provinces in France, theancient patrimony of his family: he subjected his kingdom to a shamefulvassalage under the see of Rome: he saw the prerogatives of his crowndiminished by law, and still more reduced by faction; and he died atlast, when in danger of being totally expelled by a foreign power, andof either ending his life miserably in prison, or seeking shelter as afugitive from the pursuit of his enemies. 

The prejudices against this prince were so violent, that he was believedto have sent an embassy to the Miramoulin, or emperor of Morocco, andto have offered to change his religion and become Mahometan, in order topurchase the protection of that monarch. But though this story is toldus, on plausible authority, by Matthew Paris, * it is in itself utterlyimprobable; except that there is nothing so incredible but may bebelieved to proceed from the folly and wickedness of John. 

The monks throw great reproaches on this prince for his impiety, andeven infidelity; and as an instance of it, they tell us that, havingone day caught a very fat stag, he exclaimed, "How plump and well fedis this animal! and yet I dare swear he never heard mass. " This sally ofwit upon the usual corpulency of the priests, more than all his enormouscrimes and iniquities, made him pass with them for an atheist. 

John left two legitimate sons behind him, Henry, born on the first ofOctober, 1207, and now nine years of age; and Richard, born on thesixth of January, 1209; and three daughters, Jane, afterwards marriedto Alexander, king of Scots; Eleanor, married first to William Mareschalthe younger, earl of Pembroke, and then to Simon Mountfort earl ofLeicester; and Isabella, married to the emperor Frederic II. All thesechildren were born to him by Isabella of Angouleme, his second wife. His illegitimate children were numerous; but none of them were anywisedistinguished. 

It was this king who, in the ninth year of his reign, first gave bycharter to the city of London, the right of electing annually a mayorout of its own body, an office which was till now held for life. He gavethe city also power to elect and remove its sheriffs at pleasure, andits common-council men annually. London bridge was finished in thisreign: the former bridge was of wood. Maud, the empress, was the firstthat built a stone bridge in England. 

APPENDIX II. 

THE FEUDAL AND ANGLO-NORMAN GOVERNMENT AND MANNERS. 

The feudal law is the chief foundation both of the political governmentand of the jurisprudence established by the Normans in England. Oursubject therefore requires that we should form a just idea of this law, in order to explain the state, as well of that kingdom, as of all otherkingdoms of Europe, which during those ages were governed by similarinstitutions. And though I am sensible that I must here repeat manyobservations and reflections which have been communicated by others, yetas every book, agreeably to the observation of a great historian, shouldbe as complete as possible within itself, and should never refer forany thing material to other books, it will be necessary in this placeto deliver a short plan of that prodigious fabric, which for severalcenturies preserved such a mixture of liberty and oppression, order andanarchy, stability and revolution, as was never experienced in any otherage or any other part of the world. 

After the northern nations had subdued the provinces of the Romanempire, they were obliged to establish a system of government whichmight secure their conquests, as well against the revolt of theirnumerous subjects who remained in the provinces, as from the inroadsof other tribes, who might be tempted to ravish from them their newacquisitions. The great change of circumstances made them here departfrom those institutions which prevailed among them while they remainedin the forests of Germany; yet was it still natural for them to retain, in their present settlement, as much of their ancient customs as wascompatible with their new situation. 

The German governments, being more a confederacy of independent warriorsthan a civil subjection, derived their principal force from manyinferior and voluntary associations which individuals formed under aparticular head or chieftain, and which it became the highest pointof honor to maintain with inviolable fidelity. The glory of the chiefconsisted in the number, the bravery, and the zealous attachment of hisretainers; the duty of the retainers required that they should accompanytheir chief in all wars and dangers, that they should fight and perishby his side, and that they should esteem his renown or his favor asufficient recompense for all their services. [*] The prince himself wasnothing but a great chieftain, who was chosen from among the rest onaccount of his superior valor or nobility; and who derived his powerfrom the voluntary association or attachment of the other chieftains. 

 [* Tacit. De Mor. Germ. ]

When a tribe, governed by these ideas, and actuated by these principles, subdued a large territory, they found that, though it was necessary tokeep themselves in a military posture, they could neither remain unitedin a body, nor take up their quarters in several garrisons, and thattheir manners and institutions debarred them from using these expedientsthe obvious ones, which, in a like situation, would have been employedby a more civilized nation. Their ignorance in the art of finances, and perhaps the devastations inseparable from such violent conquests, rendered it impracticable for them to levy taxes sufficient for the payof numerous armies; and their repugnance to subordination, with theirattachment to rural pleasures, made the life of the camp or garrison, if perpetuated during peaceful times, extremely odious and disgustful tothem. They seized, therefore, such a portion of the conquered lands asappeared necessary; they assigned a share for supporting the dignityof their prince and government; they distributed other parts, under thetitle of fiefs, to the chiefs; these made a new partition among theirretainers; the express condition of all these grants was, that theymight be resumed at pleasure, and that the possessor, so long as heenjoyed them, should still remain in readiness to take the field for thedefence of the nation. And though the conquerors immediately separated, in order to enjoy their new acquisitions, their martial disposition madethem readily fulfil the terms of their engagement: they assembled onthe first alarm; their habitual attachment to the chieftain made themwillingly submit to his command; and thus a regular military forcethough concealed was always ready to defend, on any emergency, theinterest and honor of the community. 

We are not to imagine, that all the conquered lands were seized bythe northern conquerors, or that the whole of the land thus seized wassubjected to those military services. This supposition is confuted bythe history of all the nations on the continent. Even the idea given usof the German manners by the Roman historian, may convince us, thatthat bold people would never have been content with so precarious asubsistence, or have fought to procure establishments which were onlyto continue during the good pleasure of their sovereign. Though thenorthern chieftains accepted of lands which, being considered as a kindof military pay, might be resumed at the will of the king or general, they also took possession of estates which, being hereditary andindependent, enabled them to maintain their native liberty, and support, without court favor, the honor of their rank and family. 

But there is a great difference, in the consequences, between thedistribution of a pecuniary subsistence, and the assignment of landsburdened with the condition of military service. The delivery of theformer, at the weekly, monthly, or annual terms of payment, stillrecalls the idea of a voluntary gratuity from the prince, and remindsthe soldier of the precarious tenure by which he holds his commission. But the attachment, naturally formed with a fixed portion of land, gradually begets the idea of something like property, and makes thepossessor forget his dependent situation, and the condition which wasat first annexed to the grant. It seemed equitable, that one who hadcultivated and sowed a field, should reap the harvest: hence fiefs, which were at first entirely precarious were soon made annual. A manwho had employed his money in building, planting, or other improvements, expected to reap the fruits of his labor or expense: hence they werenext granted during a term of years. It would be thought hard to expel aman from his possessions who had always done his duty, and performed theconditions on which he originally received them: hence the chieftains, in a subsequent period, thought themselves entitled to demand theenjoyment of their feudal lands during life. It was found, that a manwould more willingly expose himself in battle, if assured that hisfamily should inherit his possessions, and should not be left by hisdeath in want and poverty; hence fiefs were made hereditary in families, and descended, during one age to the son, then to the grandson, next tothe brothers, and afterwards to more distant relations. [*] The idea ofproperty stole in gradually upon that of military pay; and each centurymade some sensible addition to the stability of fiefs and tenures. 

 [* Lib. Feud. Lib. I. Tit. I. ]

In all these successive acquisitions, the chief was supported by hisvassals; who, having originally a strong connection with him, augmentedby the constant intercourse of good offices, and by the friendshiparising from vicinity and dependence, were inclined to follow theirleader against all his enemies, and voluntarily, in his privatequarrels, paid him the same obedience to which, by their tenure, theywere bound in foreign wars. While he daily advanced new pretensions tosecure the possession of his superior fief, they expected to find thesame advantage in acquiring stability to their subordinate ones;and they zealously opposed the intrusion of a new lord, who would beinclined, as he was fully entitled, to bestow the possession of theirlands on his own favorites and retainers. Thus the authority of thesovereign gradually decayed; and each noble, fortified in his ownterritory by the attachment of his vassals, became too powerful to beexpelled by an order from the throne; and he secured by law what he hadat first acquired by usurpation. 

During this precarious state of the supreme power, a difference wouldimmediately be experienced between those portions of territory whichwere subjected to the feudal tenures, and those which were possessed byan allodial or free title. Though the latter possessions had at firstbeen esteemed much preferable, they were soon found, by the progressivechanges introduced into public and private law, to be of an inferiorcondition to the former. The possessors of a feudal territory, united bya regular subordination under one chief, and by the mutual attachmentsof the vassals, had the same advantages over the proprietors of theother, that a disciplined army enjoys over a dispersed multitude; andwere enabled to commit with impunity all injuries on their defencelessneighbors Every one, therefore, hastened to seek that protection whichhe found so necessary; and each allodial proprietor, resigning hispossessions into the hands of the king, or of some nobleman respectedfor power or valor, received them back with the condition of feudalservices, [*] which, though a burden somewhat grievous, brought, himample compensation, by connecting him with the neighboring proprietors, and placing him under the guardianship of a potent chieftain. The decayof the political government thus necessarily occasioned the extension ofthe feudal: the kingdoms of Europe were universally divided intobaronies, and these into inferior fiefs; and the attachment of vassalsto their chief, which was at first an essential part of the Germanmanners, was still supported by the same causes from which it at firstarose; the necessity of mutual protection, and the continuedintercourse, between the head and the members, of benefits and services. 

 [* Marculf. Form. 47, apud lindenbr. P. 1238, ]

But there was another circumstance, which corroborated these feudaldependencies, and tended to connect the vassals with their superior lordby an indissoluble bond of union. The northern conquerors, as wellas the more early Greeks and Romans, embraced a policy, which isunavoidable to all nations that have made slender advances inrefinement: they every where united the civil jurisdiction with themilitary power. Law, in its commencement, was not an intricate science, and was more governed by maxims of equity, which seem obvious to commonsense, than by numerous and subtile principles, applied to a varietyof cases by profound reasonings from analogy. An officer, though hehad passed his life in the field, was able to determine all legalcontroversies which could occur within the district committed to hischarge; and his decisions were the most likely to meet with a prompt andready obedience, from men who respected his person, and were accustomedto act under his command. The profit arising from punishments, Whichwere then chiefly pecuniary, was another reason for his desiring toretain the judicial power; and when his fief became hereditary, thisauthority, which was essential to it, was also transmitted to hisposterity. The counts and other magistrates, whose power was merelyofficial, were tempted, in imitation of the feudal lords, whom theyresembled in so many particulars, to render their dignity perpetualand hereditary; and in the decline of the regal power, they found nodifficulty in making good their pretentions. After this manner the vastfabric of feudal subordination became quite solid and comprehensive; itformed every where an essential part of the political constitution; andthe Norman and other barons, who followed the fortunes of William, wereso accustomed to it, that they could scarcely form an idea of any otherspecies of civil government. [*]

The Saxons who conquered England, as they exterminated the ancientinhabitants, and thought themselves secured by the sea against newinvaders, found it less requisite to maintain themselves in a militaryposture: the quantity of land which they annexed to offices seems tohave been of small value; and for that reason continued the longer inits original situation, and was always possessed during pleasure bythose who were intrusted with the command. These conditions were tooprecarious to satisfy the Norman barons, who enjoyed more independentpossessions and jurisdictions in their own country; and William wasobliged, in the new distribution of land, to copy the tenures whichwere now become universal on the continent. England of a sudden became afeudal kingdom, [**] and received all the advantages, and was exposed toall the inconveniences, incident to that species of civil polity. 

According to the principles of the feudal law, the king wa the supremelord of the landed property: all possessors, who enjoyed the fruits orrevenue of any part of it, held those privileges, either mediately orimmediately, of him; and their property was conceived to be, in somedegree, conditional. [***] The land was still apprehended to be a speciesof benefice, which was the original conception of a feudal property; andthe vassal owed, in return for it, stated services to his baron, as thebaron himself did for his land to the crown. The vassal was obliged todefend his baron in war; and the baron, at the head of his vassal, wasbound to fight in defence of the king and kingdom. But besides thesemilitary services, which were casual, there were others imposed of acivil nature, which were more constant and durable. 

 [* The ideas of the feudal government were so rooted, that even lawyers in those ages could not form a notion of any either constitution. Regnum (says Braeton, lib. Ii. Cap. 34) quod ex comitatibus et baronibus dicitur esse constitutum. ]

 [** Coke, Comm. On Lit. P. 1, 2, ad sect. 1. ]

 [*** Somner of Gavelk. P. 109, Smith de Rep. Lib. Iii. Cap. 10. ]

The northern nations had no idea that any man trained up to honor andinured to arms, was ever to be governed, without his own consent, by theabsolute will of another; or that the administration of justice was everto be exercised by the private opinion of any one magistrate, withoutthe concurrence of some other persons, whose interest might induce themto check his arbitrary and iniquitous decisions. The king, therefore, when he found it necessary to demand any service of his barons or chieftenants, beyond what was due by their tenures, was obliged to assemblethem, in order to obtain their consent; and when it was necessary todetermine any controversy which might arise among the barons themselves, the question must be discussed in their presence, and be decidedaccording to their opinion or advice. In these two circumstances ofconsent and advice, consisted chiefly the civil services of the ancientbarons; and these implied all the considerable incidents of government. In one view, the barons regarded this attendance as their principalprivilege; in another, as a grievous burden. That no momentous affairscould be transacted without their consent and advice, was in generalesteemed the great security of their possessions and dignities; but asthey reaped no immediate profit from their attendance at court, and wereexposed to great inconvenience and charge by an absence from theirown estates, every one was glad to exempt himself liom each particularexertion of this power; and was pleased both that the call for that dutyshould seldom return upon him, and that others should undergo the burdenin his stead. The king, on the other hand, was usually anxious, forseveral reasons, that the assembly of the barons should be full at everystated or casual meeting: this attendance was the chief badge of theirsubordination to his crown, and drew them from that independence whichthey were apt to affect in their own castles and manors; and where themeeting was thin or ill attended, its determinations had less authority, and commanded not so ready an obedience from the whole community. 

The case was the same with the barons in their courts, as with the kingin the supreme council of the nation. It was requisite to assemble thevassals, in order to determine by their vote any question which regardedthe barony; and they sat along with the chief in all trials, whether civil or criminal, which occurred within the limits of theirjurisdiction. They were; bound to pay suit and service at the courtof their baron; and as their tenure was military, and consequentlyhonorable, they were admitted into his society, and partook of hisfriendship. Thus, a kingdom was considered only as a great barony, anda barony as a small kingdom. The barons were peers to each other in thenational council, and in some degree companions to the king; the vassalswere peers to each other in the court of barony, and companions to theirbaron. [*]

 [* Du Cange, Gloss, in verb. Par. Cujac. Commun. In Lib, Feud lib. I, tit i. P. 18, Spelm. Gloss, in verb. ]

But though this resemblance so far took place, the vassals by thenatural course of things, universally, in the feudal constitutions, fellinto a greater subordination under the baron, than the baron himselfunder his sovereign; and these governments had a necessary andinfallible tendency to augment the power of the nobles. The great chief, residing in his country seat, which he was commonly allowed to fortify, lost, in a great measure, his connection or acquaintance with theprince, and added every day new force to his authority over thevassals of the barony. They received from him education in all militaryexercises; his hospitality invited them to live and enjoy society in hishall; their leisure, which was great, made them perpetual retainers onhis person, and partakers of his country sports and amusements; theyhad no means of gratifying their ambition but by making a figure inhis train; his favor and countenance was their greatest honor; hisdispleasure exposed them to contempt and ignominy; and they felt everymoment the necessity of his protection, both in the controversies whichoccurred with other vassals, and, what was more material, in the dailyinroads and injuries which were committed by the neighboring barons. During the time of general war, the sovereign, who marched at the headof his armies, and was the great protector of the state, always acquiredsome accession to his authority, which he lost during the intervalsof peace and tranquillity; but the loose police incident to the feudalconstitutions, maintained a perpetual, though secret hostility, betweenthe several members of the state; and the vassals found no means ofsecuring themselves against the injuries to which they were continuallyexposed, but by closely adhering to their chief, and falling into asubmissive dependence upon him. 

If the feudal government was so little favorable to the true libertyeven of the military vassal, it was still more destructive of theindependence and security of the other members of the state, or what ina proper sense we call the people. A great part of them were serfs, and lived in a state of absolute slavery or villainage; the otherinhabitants of the country paid then rent in services, which were in agreat measure arbitrary; and they could expect no redress of injuries ina court of barony from men who thought they had a right to oppress andtyrannize over them: the towns were situated either within the demesnesof the king, or the lands of the great barons, and were almost entirelysubjected to the absolute will of their master. The languishing state ofcommerce kept the inhabitants poor and contemptible; and the politicalinstitutions were calculated to render that poverty perpetual. Thebarons and gentry, living in rustic plenty and hospitality, gaveno encouragement to the arts, and had no demand for any of the moreelaborate manufactures: every profession was held in contempt butthat of arms; and if any merchant or manufacturer rose by industry andfrugality to a degree of opulence, he found himself but the more exposedto injuries, from the envy and avidity of the military nobles. 

These concurring causes gave the feudal governments so strong a biastowards aristocracy, that the royal authority was extremely eclipsedin all the European states; and, instead of dreading the growth ofmonarchical power, we might rather expect, that the community wouldevery where crumble into so many independent baronies, and lose thepolitical union by which they were cemented. In elective monarchies, the event was commonly answerable to this expectation; and the barons, gaining ground on every vacancy of the throne, raised themselves almostto a state of sovereignty, and sacrificed to their power both the rightsof the crown and the liberties of the people. But hereditary monarchieshad a principle of authority which was not so easily subverted; andthere were several causes which still maintained a degree of influencein the hands of the sovereign. 

The greatest baron could never lose view entirely of those principles ofthe feudal constitution which bound him, as, a vassal, to submission andfealty towards his prince; because he was every moment obliged to haverecourse to those principles, in exacting fealty and submission from hisown vassals The lesser barons, finding that the annihilation of royalauthority left them exposed without protection to the insults andinjuries of more potent neighbors, naturally adhered to the crown, andpromoted the execution of general and equal laws. The people had still astronger interest to desire the grandeur of the sovereign; and the king, being the legal magistrate, who suffered by every internal convulsion oroppression, and who regarded the great nobles as his immediate rivals, assumed the salutary office of general guardian or protector of thecommons. Besides the prerogatives with which the law invested him, hislarge demesnes and numerous retainers rendered him, in one sense, thegreatest baron in his kingdom; and where he was possessed of personalvigor and abilities, (for his situation required these advantages, ) hewas commonly able to preserve his authority, and maintain his station ashead of the community, and the chief fountain of law and justice. 

The first kings of the Norman race were favored by another circumstance, which preserved them from the encroachments of their barons. Theywere generals of a conquering army, which was obliged to continue ina military posture, and to maintain great subordination under theirleader, in order to secure themselves from the revolt of the numerousnatives, whom they had bereaved of all their properties and privileges. But though this circumstance supported the authority of William and hisimmediate successors, and rendered them extremely absolute, it was lostas soon as the Norman barons began to incorporate with the nation, toacquire a security in their possessions, and to fix their influence overtheir vassals, tenants, and slaves. And the immense fortunes which theConqueror had bestowed on his chief captains, served to support theirindependence, and make them formidable to the sovereign. 

He gave, for instance, to Hugh de Abrincis, his sister's son, the wholecounty of Chester, which he erected into a palatinate, and rendered byhis grant almost independent of the crown. [*] Robert, earl of Mortaigne, had nine hundred and seventy-three manors and lordships: Allan, earlof Brittany and Richmond, four hundred and forty-two: Odo, bishop ofBaieux, four hundred and thirty-nine:[**] Geoffrey, bishop of Coutance, two hundred and eighty:[***] Walter Giffard, earl of Buckingham, onehundred and seven. 

 [* Camd. In Chesh. Spel. Gloss, in verb. Comes Palatinus. ]

 [** Brady's Hist. P. 198, 200. ]

 [*** Order Vitalia. ]

William, earl Warrenne, two hundred and ninety-eight, besidestwenty-eight towns or hamlets in Yorkshire: Todenei, eighty-one: RogerBigod, one hundred and twenty-three: Robert, earl of Eu, one hundred andnineteen: Roger Mortimer, one hundred and thirty-two, besides severalhamlets: Robert de Stafford, one hundred and thirty: Walter de Eurus, earl of Salisbury, forty-six Geoffrey de Mandeville, one hundredand eighteen Richard de Clare, one hundred and seventy-one: Hugh deBeauchamp, forty-seven: Baldwin de Rivers, one hundred and sixty-four:Henry de Ferrers, two hundred and twenty? two: William de Percy, onehundred and nineteen:[*] Norman d'Arcy, thirty-three. [**] Sir HenrySpelman computea that, in the large county of Norfolk, there were not, in the Conqueror's time, above sixty-six proprietors of land. [***] Menpossessed of such princely revenues and jurisdictions could not longbe retained in the rank of subjects. The great Earl Warrenne, in asubsequent reign, when he was questioned concerning his right to thelands which he possessed, drew his sword, which he produced as histitle; adding, that William the bastard did not conquer the kingdomhimself; but that the barons, and his ancestor among me rest, were jointadventurers in the enterprise. [****]

 [* Dugdale's Baronage, from Domesday-book, vol. I. P. 60, 74; iii. 112, 132, 136, 138, 156, 174, 200, 207, 223, 254, 257, 269. ]

 [** Ibid. P. 319. It is remarkable that this family of D'Arcy seema to be the only male descendants of any of the Conqueror's barons now remaining among the peers. Lord Holdernesse is the heir of that family. ]

 [*** Spel. Gloss, hi verb. Domesday. ]

 [**** Dug. Bar. Vol. I. P. 79. Ibid. Origines Juridicales p. 13, ]

 [***** Spel. Glos. It verb. Baro. ] in parliament before the king had made him restitution of his temporalities; and during the vacancy of a see, the guardian of the spiritualities was summoned to attend along with the bishops. 

The supreme legislative power of England was lodged in the king andgreat council, or what was afterwards called the parliament. It is notdoubted but the archbishops, bishops, and most considerable abbots wereconstituent members of this council. They sat by a double title: byprescription, as having always possessed that privilege, through thewhole Saxon period, from the first establishment of Christianity; andby their right of baronage, as holding of the king in capite bymilitary service. These two titles of the prelates were never accuratelydistinguished. When the usurpations of the church had risen to such aheight, as to make the bishops affect a separate dominion, and regardtheir seat in parliament as a degradation of their episcopal dignity, the king insisted that they were barons, and, on that account, obliged, by the general principles of the feudal law, to attend on him in hisgreat councils. Yet there still remained some practices, which supposedtheir title to be derived merely from ancient possession. 

The barons were another constituent part of the great council of thenation These held immediately of the crown by a military tenure: theywere the most honorable members of the state, and had a right to beconsulted in all public deliberations: they were the immediate vassalsof the crown, and owed as a service their attendance in the court oftheir supreme lord. A resolution taken without their consent was likelyto be but ill executed: and no determination of any cause or controversyamong them had any validity, where the vote and advice of the body didnot concur. The dignity of earl or count was official and territorial, as well as hereditary; and as ali the earls were also barons, theywere considered as military vassals of the crown, were admitted in thatcapacity into the general council, and formed the most honorable andpowerful branch of it. 

But there was another class of the immediate military tenants of thecrown, no less, or probably more numerous than the barons, the tenantsin capite by knights' service and these, however inferior in power orproperty, held by a tenure which was equally honorable with that of theothers. A barony was commonly composed of several knightsr fees:and though the number seems not to have been exactly defined, seldomconsisted of less than fifty hides of land:[*] but where a man held ofthe king only one or two knight's fees, he was still an immediate vassalof the crown, and as such had a title to have a seat in the generalcouncils. But as this attendance was usually esteemed a burden, andone too great for a man of slender fortune to bear constantly, it isprobable that, though he had a title, if he pleased, to be admitted, he was not obliged by any penalty, like the barons, to pay a regularattendance. 

 [* Four hides made one knight's fee: the relief of a barony was twelve times greater than that of a knight's fee; whence we may conjecture its usual value. Spel. Gloss, in verb. Feodum. There were two hundred and forty-three thousand six hundred hides in England, and sixty thousand two hundred and fifteen knights' fees; whence it is evident that there were a little more than four hides in each knight's fee. ]

All the immediate military tenants of the crown amounted not fully toseven hundred, when Domesday-book was framed; and as the membeirs werewell pleased, on any pretext, to excuse themselves from attendance, theassembly was never likely to become too numerous for the despatch ofpublic business. 

So far the nature of a general council or ancient parliament isdetermined without any doubt or controversy, The only question seems tobe with regard to the commons, or the representatives of counties andboroughs; whether they were also, in more early times, constituent partsof parliament. This question was once disputed in England with greatacrimony; but such is the force of time and evidence, that they cansometimes prevail even over faction; and the question seems, by generalconsent, and even by their own, to be at last determined against theruling party. It is agreed, that the commons were no part of the greatcouncil till some ages after the conquest; and that the military tenantsalone of the crown composed that supreme and legislative assembly. 

The vassals of a baron were by their tenure immediately dependent onhim, owed attendance at his court, and paid all their duty to the king, through that dependence which their lord was obliged by his tenure toacknowledge to his sovereign and superior. Their land, comprehended inthe barony, was represented in parliament by the baron himself, who wassupposed, according to the fictions of the feudal law, to possess thedirect property of it; and it would have been deemed incongruous to giveit any other representation. They stood m the same capacity to him, thathe and the other barons did to the king: the former were peers of thebarony; the latter were peers of the realm: the vassals possessed asubordinate rank within their district: the baron enjoyed a superiordignity in the great assembly: they were in some degree his companionsat home; he the king's companion at court: and nothing can bemore evidently repugnant to all feudal ideas, and to that gradualsubordination which was essential to those ancient institutions, than toimagine that the king would apply either for the advice or consent ofmen who were of a rank so much inferior, and whose duty was immediatelypaid to the mesne lord that was interposed between them and thethrone. [*]

 [* Spel. Gloss, in verb. Baro. ]

If it be unreasonable to think that the vassals of a barony, thoughtheir tenure was military, and noble, and honorable, were ever summonedto give their opinion in national councils, much less can it be supposedthat the tradesmen or inhabitants of boroughs, whose condition was somuch inferior, would be admitted to that privilege. It appears fromDomesday, that the greatest boroughs were, at the time of the conquest, scarcely more than country villages; and that the inhabitants livedin entire dependence on the king or great lords, and were of astation little better than servile. [*] They were not then so much asincorporated; they formed no community; were not regarded as a bodypolitic; and being really nothing but a number of low, dependenttradesmen, living, without any particular civil tie, in neighborhoodtogether, they were incapable of being represented in the states of thekingdom. Even in France, a country which made more early advances inarts and civility than England, the first corporation is sixty yearsposterior to the conquest under the duke of Normandy; and the erectingof these communities was an invention of Lewis the Gross, in orderto free the people from slavery under the lords, and to givethem protection by means of certain privileges and a separatejurisdiction. [**] An ancient French writer calls them a new and wickeddevice, to procure liberty to slaves, and encourage them in shaking offthe dominion of their masters. [***] The famous charter, as it is called, of the Conqueror to the city of London, though granted at a time when heassumed the appearance of gentleness and lenity, is nothing but a letterof protection, and a declaration that the citizens should not be treatedas slaves. [****] By the English feudal law, the superior lordwas prohibited from marrying his female ward to a burgess or avillain;[*****] so near were these two ranks esteemed to each other, and so much inferior to the nobility and gentry. Besides possessing theadvantages of birth, riches, civil powers and privileges, the noblesand gentlemen alone were armed a circumstance which gave them a mightysuperiority, in an age when nothing but the military professionwas honorable, and when the loose execution of laws gave so muchencouragement to open violence, and rendered it so decisive in alldisputes and controversies. [*****]

 [* "Liber homo" anciently signified a gentleman: for scarce any one beside was entirely free. Spel. Gloss, in verbo. ]

 [** Du Gauge's Gloss, in verb. Commune, Communitas. ]

 [*** Guibertus, de vita sua, lib. Iii. Cap. 7. ]

 [**** Stat. Of Merton, 1235, esp. 6. ]

 [***** Holingshed. Vol. Iii. P. 15. ]

 [****** Madox, Baron. Angl. P. 19. ]

The great similarity among the feudal governments of Europe is wellknown to every man that has any acquaintance with ancient history: andthe antiquaries of all foreign countries, where the question was neverembarrassed by party disputes, have allowed that the commons came verylate to be admitted to a share in the legislative power. In Normandyparticularly, whose constitution was most likely to be William'smodel in raising his new fabric of English government, the states wereentirely composed of the clergy and nobility; and the first incorporatedboroughs or communities of that duchy were Rouen and Falaise, whichenjoyed their privileges by a grant of Philip Augustus in the year1207. [**] All the ancient English historians, when they mention thegreat council of the nation, call it an assembly of the baronage, nobility, or great men; and none of their expressions, though severalhundred passages might be produced, can, without the utmost violence, be tortured to a meaning which will admit the commons to be constituentmembers of that body. [***]

 [** Norman, du Chesnil, p. 1066. Du Cange, Gloss, in verb. Commune. ]

 [*** Sometimes the historians mention the people, "populus, " as a part of the parliament; but they always mean the laity, in opposition to the clergy. Sometimes the word "communitas" is found; but it always means "communitas baronagii. " These points are clearly proved by Dr. Brady. There is also mention sometimes made of a crowd or multitude that thronged into the great council on particular interesting occasions; but as deputies from boroughs are never once spoken of, the proof that they had not then any existence becomes the more certain and undeniable. These never could make a crowd, as they must have had a regular place assigned them if they had made a regular part of the legislative body. There were only one hundred and thirty boroughs who received writs of summons from Edward I. It is expressly said in Gesta Reg. Steph. P. 932, that it was usual for the populace, "vulgus, " to crowd into the great councils; where they were plainly mere spectators, and could only gratify their curiosity. ]

If in the long period of two hundred years, which elapsed betweenthe conquest and the latter end of Henry III. , and which aboundedin factions, revolutions, and convulsions of all kinds, the house ofcommons never performed one single legislative act so considerable asto be once mentioned by any of the numerous historians of that age, theymust have been totally insignificant: and in that case, what reason canbe assigned for their ever being assembled? Can it be supposed that menof so little weight or importance possessed a negative voice against theking and the barons? Every page of the subsequent histories discoverstheir existence; though these histories are not written with greateraccuracy than the preceding ones, and indeed scarcely equal them in thatparticular. The Magna Charta of King John provides that no scutage oraid should be imposed, either on the land or towns, but by consentof the great council; and for more security it enumerates the personsentitled to a seat in that assembly, the prelates and immediate tenantsof the crown, without any mention of the commons; an authority so full, certain, and explicit, that nothing but the zeal of party could everhave procured credit to any contrary hypothesis. 

It was probably the example of the French barons, which first imboldenedthe English to require greater independence from their sovereign: itis also probable that the boroughs and corporations of England wereestablished in imitation of those of France. It may, therefore, beproposed as no unlikely conjecture, that both the chief privileges ofthe peers in England and the liberty of the commons were originally thegrowth of that foreign country. 

In ancient times, men were little solicitous to obtain a place inthe legislative assemblies; and rather regarded their attendance asa burden, which was not compensated by any return of profit orhonor, proportionate to the trouble and expense. The only reason forinstituting those public councils was, on the part of the subject, thatthey desired some security from the attempts of arbitrary power; and onthe part of the sovereign, that he despaired of governing men of suchindependent spirits without their own consent and concurrence. But thecommons, or the inhabitants of boroughs, had not as yet reached such adegree of consideration, as to desire security against their prince, orto imagine that, even if they were assembled in a representative body, they had power or rank sufficient to enforce it. The only protectionwhich they aspired to, was against the immediate violence and injusticeof their fellow-citizens; and this advantage each of them looked forfrom the courts of justice, or from the authority of some great lord, towhom, by law or his own choice, he was attached. On the other hand, thesovereign was sufficiently assured of obedience in the whole communityif he procured the concurrence of the nobles; nor had he reason toapprehend that any order of the state could resist his and their unitedauthority. The military sub-vassals could entertain no idea of opposingboth their prince and their superiors: the burgesses and tradesmencould much legs aspire to such a thought: and thus, even if history weresilent on the head, we have reason to conclude, from the known situationof society during those ages, that the commons were never admitted asmembers of the legislative body. 

The executive power of the Anglo-Norman government was lodged in theking. Besides the stated meetings of the national council at thethree great festivals of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, [*] he wasaccustomed, on any sudden exigence to summon them together. He could athis pleasure command the attendance of his barons and their vassals, in which consisted the military force of the kingdom; and could employtitem, during forty days, either in resisting a foreign enemy, orreducing his rebellious subjects. And what was of great importance, thewhole judicial power was ultimately in his bands, and was exercised byofficers and ministers of his appointment. 

The general plan of the Anglo-Norman government was, that the court ofbarony was appointed to decide such controversies as arose between theseveral vassals or subjects of the same barony: the hundred court andcounty court, which were still continued as during the Saxon times, [**]to judge between the subjects of different baronies;[***] and thecuria regis, or king's court, to give sentence among the baronsthemselves. [****]

 [* Dugd. Orig. Jurid, p. 1. 5 Spel. Gloss, in verbo Parliamentum. ]

 [** Ang. Sacra, vol. I. , p. 334, etc. Dugd. Orig. Jurid. , p. 27, 29. Madox, Hist, of the Exch. , p. 75, 76. Spel. Gloss, in verbo Hundred:]

 [*** None of the feudal governments in Europe had such institutions as the county courts, which the great authority of the Conqueror still retained from the Saxon customs. All the freeholders of the county, even the greatest barons, were obliged to attend the sheriff in these courts, and to assist them in the administration of justice. By this means they received frequent and sensible admonitions of their dependence on the king or supreme magistrate: they formed a kind of community with their fellow-barons and freeholders; they were often drawn from their individual and independent state, peculiar to the feudal system, and were made members of a political body: and perhaps this institution of county courts in England has had greater effects on the government than has yet been distinctly pointed out by historians, or traced by antiquaries. The barons were never able to free themselves from this attendance on the sheriffs and itinerant justices till the reign of Henry III. ]

 [**** Brady, Tref. P. 143. ]

Circumstances which, being derived from a very extensive authorityassumed by the conqueror, contributed to increase the royal prerogative;and, as long as the state was not disturbed by arms, reduced every orderof the community to some degree of dependence and subordination. 

The king himself often sat in his court, which always attended hisperson:[**] he there heard causes and pronounced judgment;[***] andthough he was assisted by the advice of the other members, it is not tobe imagined that a decision could easily be obtained, contrary to hisinclination or opinion. In his absence the chief justiciary presided, who was the first magistrate in the state, and a kind of viceroy, onwhom depended all the civil affairs of the kingdom. [****] The otherchief officers of the crown, the constable, mareschal, seneschalchamberlain, treasurer, and chancellor, [*****] were members, togetherwith such feudal barons as thought proper to attend, and the barons ofthe exchequer, who at first were also feudal barons appointed by theking. [******] This court, which was sometimes called the king's court, sometimes the court of exchequer, judged in all causes, civil andcriminal, and comprehended the whole business which is now shared outamong four courts the chancery, the king's bench, the common pleas, andthe exchequer. [*******]

Such an accumulation of powers was itself a great source of authority, and rendered the jurisdiction of the court formidable to all thesubjects; but the turn which judicial trials took soon after theconquest, served still more to increase its authority, and to augmentthe royal prerogatives. William, among the other violent changeswhich he attempted and effected, had introduced the Norman law intoEngland, [********] had ordered all the pleadings to be in that tongue, and had interwoven with the English jurisprudence all the maxims andprinciples which the Normans, more advanced in cultivation and naturallylitigious, were accustomed to observe in the distribution of justice. 

 [** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 103. ]

 [*** Bracton, lib. Iii. Cap. 9, sect. 1; cap. 10, sect. 1. ]

 [**** Spel. Gloss, in verbo Justiciarii. ]

 [***** Madox, Hist. Exch. P. 27, 29, 83, 38, 41, 54. The Normans introduced the practice of sealing charters; and the chancellor's office was to keep the great seal. Ingulph. Dugd. P. 33, 34. ]

 [****** Madox, Hist, of the Exch. P. 134, 135. Gerv. Dorob. P, 1387, ]

 [******* Madox. Hist. Of the Exch. P. 56, 70. ]

 [******** Dial, de Scac. P. 30, apud Madox, Hist, of the Exch. ]

Law now became a science, which at first fell entirely into the hands ofthe Normans; and which, even after it was communicated to the English, required so much study and application, that the laity in those ignorantages were incapable of attaining it, and it was a mystery almost solelyconfined to the clergy, and chiefly to the monks[*] The great officersof the crown, and the feudal barons, who were military men, foundthemselves unfit to penetrate into those obscurities; and though theywere entitled to a seat in the supreme judicature, the business of thecourt was wholly managed by the chief justiciary and the law barons, whowere men appointed by the king, and entirely at his disposal. [**] Thisnatural course of things was forwarded by the multiplicity of businesswhich flowed into that court, and which daily augmented by the appealsfrom all the subordinate judicatures of the kingdom. 

In the Saxon times, no appeal was received in the king's court, exceptupon the denial or delay of justice by the inferior courts; and the samepractice was still observed in most of the feudal kingdoms of Europe. But the great power of the Conqueror established at first in England anauthority which the monarchs in France were not able to attain till thereign of St. Lewis, who lived near two centuries after: he empowered hiscourt to receive appeals both from the courts of barony and thecounty courts, and by that means brought the administration of justiceultimately into the hands of the sovereign. [***] And, lest the expenseor trouble of a journey to court should discourage suitors, and makethem acquiesce in the decision of the inferior judicatures, itinerantjudges were afterwards established, who made their circuits throughoutthe kingdom, and tried all causes that were brought before them. [****]

 [* Malms, lib. Iv. P. 123. ]

 [** Dugd. Orig. Jurid. P. 25. ]

 [*** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch, p. 65. Glanv. Lib. Xii. Cap. 1, 7. LL. Hen. I. Sect. 31, apud Wilkins, p. 248. Fitz-Stephens, p. 36. Coke's Comment, on the Statute of Mulbridge, cap. 20. ]

 [**** Madox, Hist, of the Exch. P. 83, 84, 100. Gerv. Dorob. P. 1410 What made the Anglo-Norman barons more readily submit to appeals from their court to the king's court of exchequer, was their being accustomed to like appeals in Normandy to the ducal court of exchequer. See Gilbert's History of the Exchequer, p. 1, 2; though the author thinks it doubtful whether the Norman court was not rather copied from English. (p. 6. )]

By this expedient the courts of barony were kept in awe: and if theystill preserved some influence, it was only from the apprehensions whichthe vassals might entertain of disobliging their superior, by appealingfrom his jurisdiction. But tha county courts were much discredited; andas the freeholders were found ignorant of the intricate principles andforms of the new law, the lawyers gradually brought all businessbefore the king's judges, and abandoned the ancient simple and popularjudicature. After this manner the formalities of justice, which, thoughthey appear tedious and cumbersome, are found requisite to the supportof liberty in all monarchical governments, proved at first, by acombination of causes, very advantageous to royal authority in England. 

The power of the Norman kings was also much supported by a greatrevenue; and by a revenue that was fixed, perpetual, and independentof the subject. The people, without betaking themselves to arms, had nocheck upon the king, and no regular security for the due administrationof justice. In those days of violence, many instances of oppressionpassed unheeded; and soon after were openly pleaded as precedents, whichit was unlawful to dispute or control. Princes and ministers weretoo ignorant to be themselves sensible of the advantages attendingan equitable administration; and there was no established council orassembly which could protect the people, and, by withdrawing supplies, regularly and peaceably admonish the king of his duty, and insure theexecution of the laws. 

The first branch of the king's stated revenue was the royal demesnes, orcrown lands, which were very extensive, and comprehended, beside agreat number of manors, most of the chief cities of the kingdom. It wasestablished by law, that the king could alienate no part of his demesne, and that he himself, or his successor, could at any time resume suchdonations:[*] but this law was never regularly observed; which happilyrendered, in time, the crown somewhat more dependent. 

 [* [*Feta], lib. I. Cap. 8, sect. 17; lib. Iii. Cap. 6, sect. 3. Bracton, lib ii. Cap. 5. ]

The rent of the crown-lands, considered merely as so much riches, was asource of power: the influence of the king over his tenants and theinhabitants of his towns increased this power: but the other numerousbranches of his revenue, besides supplying his treasury, gave, by theirvery nature, a great latitude to arbitrary authority, and were a supportof the prerogative; as will appear from an enumeration of them. 

The king was never content with the stated rents, but levied heavytalliages at pleasure on the inhabitants both of town and, country wholived within his demesne. All bargains of sale, in order to preventtheft, being prohibited, except in boroughs and public markets, [*] hepretended to exact tolls on all goods whist were there sold. [**] Heseized two hogsheads, one before and one behind the mast, from everyvessel that imported wine. All goods paid to his customs a proportionalpart of their value:[***] passage over bridges and on rivers was loadedwith tolls at pleasure:[****] and though the boroughs by degrees boughtthe liberty of farming these impositions, yet the revenue profitedby these bargains, new sums were often exacted for the renewal andconfirmation of their Charters, [*****] and the people were thus held inperpetual dependence. 

Such was the situation of the inhabitants within the royal demesnes. Butthe possessors of land, or the military tenants, though they were betterprotected, both by law and by the great privilege of carrying arms, were, from the nature of their tenures, much exposed to the inroads ofpower, and possessed not what we should esteem in our age a very durablesecurity. The Conqueror ordained that the barons should be obliged topay nothing beyond their stated services, [******] except a reasonableaid to ransom his person if he were taken in war, to make his eldestson a knight, and to marry his eldest daughter. What should on theseoccasions be deemed a reasonable aid, was not determined; and thedemands of the crown were so far discretionary. 

The king could require in war the personal attendance of his vassals, that is, of almost all the landed proprietors; and if they declined theservice, they were obliged to pay him a composition in money, whichwas called a scutage. The sum was, during some reigns, precarious anduncertain; it was sometimes levied without allowing the vassal theliberty of personal service;[*******] and it was a usual artifice of theking's to pretend an expedition, that he might be entitled to levy thescutage from his military tenants. 

 [* LL. Will. I. Cap. 61. ]

 [** Madox, p. 530. ]

 [*** Madox, p. 529. This author says a fifteenth. But it is not easy to reconcile this account to other authorities. ]

 [**** Madox, p. 529. ]

 [***** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 275, 276, 277, etc. ]

 [****** LL. Will. Conq. Sect. 55. ]

 [******* Gervase de Tilbury, p. 25. ]

Danegelt was another species of land-tax levied by the early Normankings, arbitrarily, and contrary to the laws of the Conqueror. [*]Moneyage was also a general land-tax of the same nature, levied by thetwo first Norman kings, and abolished by the charter of Henry I. [**] Itwas a shilling paid every three years by each hearth, to induce the kingnot to use his prerogative in debasing the coin. Indeed, it appears fromthat charter, that though the Conqueror had granted his military tenantsan immunity from all taxes and talliages, he and his son William hadnever thought themselves bound to observe that rule, but had leviedimpositions at pleasure on all the landed estates of the kingdom. Theutmost that Henry grants is, that the land cultivated by the militarytenant himself shall not be so burdened; but he reserves the power oftaxing the farmers: and as it is known that Henry's charter was neverobserved in any one article, we may be assured that this prince and hissuccessors retracted even this small indulgence, and levied arbitraryimpositions on all the lands of all their subjects. These taxes weresometimes very heavy; since Malmsbury tells us that, in the reign ofWilliam Rufus, the farmers, on account of them, abandoned tillage, and afamine ensued. [***]

 [* Madox, Hist, of the Exch. P. 475. ]

 [** M. Paris, p. 38. ]

 [*** So also Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 55. Knyghton, p. 2366. ]

The escheats were a great branch both of power and of revenue, especially during the first reigns after the conquest. In default ofposterity from the first baron, his land reverted to the crown, andcontinually augmented the king's possessions. The prince had indeed bylaw a power of alienating these escheats; but by this means he had anopportunity of establishing the fortunes of his friends and servants, and thereby enlarging his authority. Sometimes he retained them in hisown hands; and they were gradually confounded with the royal demesnes, and became difficult to be distinguished from them. This confusion isprobably the reason why the king acquired the right of alienating hisdemesnes. 

But besides escheats from default of heirs, those which ensued fromcrimes or breach of duty towards the superior lord were frequent inancient times. If the vassal, being thrice summoned to attend hissuperior's court, and do fealty, neglected or refused obedience, heforfeited all title to his land. [*] If he denied his tenure, or refusedhis service, he was exposed to the same penalty. [**] If he sold hisestate without license from his lord, [***] or if he sold it upon anyother tenure or title than that by which he himself held it, [****]he lost all right to it. The adhering to his lord's enemies, [*****]deserting him in war, [******] betraying his secrets, [*******] debauchinghis wife or his near relations, [********] or even using indecentfreedoms with them, [*********] might be punished by forfeiture. Thehigher crimes, rapes, robbery, murder, arson, etc. , were called felony;and being interpreted want of fidelity to his lord, made him lose hisfief. [**********] Even where the felon was vassal to a baron, though hisimmediate lord enjoyed the forfeiture, the king might retain possessionof his estate during a twelvemonth, and had the right of spoilingand destroying it, unless the baron paid him a reasonablecomposition. [***********] We have not here enumerated all the speciesof felonies, or of crimes by which forfeiture was incurred: we have saidenough to prove that the possession of feudal property was ancientlysomewhat precarious, and that the primary idea was never lost, of itsbeing a kind of fee or benefice. 

 [* Hottom. De Feud. Disp. Cap. 38, col. 886. ]

 [** Lib. Feud. Lib. Iii. Tit. 1; lib. Iv. Tit. 21, 39. ]

 [*** Lib. Feud. Lib. I. Tit. 21. ]

 [**** Lib. Feud. Lib. Iv. Tit. 44. ]

 [***** Lib. Feud. Lib. Iii. Tit. 1. ]

 [****** Lib. Feud. Lib. Iv. Tit. 14, 21]

 [******* Lib. Feud. Lib. Iv. Tit. 14. ]

 [******** Lib. Feud. Lib. I. Tit. 14, 21. ]

 [********* Lib. Feud. Lib. I. Tit. 1. ]

 [********** Spel. Gloss, in verbo Felonia]

 [*********** Spel. Glos. Glanville, lib. Vii. Cap. 17. ]

When a baron died, the king immediately took possession of the estate;and the heir, before he recovered his right, was obliged to makeapplication to the crown, and desire that he might be admitted to dohomage for his land, and pay a composition to the king. This compositionwas not at first fixed by law, at least by practice: the king was oftenexorbitant in his demands, and kept possession of the land till theywere complied with. 

If the heir were a minor, the king retained the whole profit of theestate till his majority; and might grant what sum he thought proper forthe education and maintenance of the young baron. This practice was alsofounded on the notion that a fief was a benefice, and that, while theheir could not perform his military services, the revenue devolved tothe superior, who employed another in his stead. It is obvious that agreat proportion of the landed property must, by means of this device, be continually in the hands of the prince, and that all the noblefamilius were thereby held in perpetual dependence. When the kinggranted the wardship of a rich heir to any one, he had the opportunityof enriching a favorite or minister: if he sold it, he thereby levieda considerable sum of money. Simon de Mountfort paid Henry III. Tenthousand marks, an immense sum in those days, for the wardship ofGilbert de Umfreville. [*] Geoffrey de Mandeville paid to the same princethe sum of twenty thousand marks, that he might marry Isabel, countessof Glocester, and possess all her lands and knights' fees. This sumwould be equivalent to three hundred thousand, perhaps four hundredthousand pounds in our time. [**]

If the heir were a female, the king was entitled to offer her anyhusband of her rank he thought proper; and if she refused him, sheforfeited her land. Even a male heir could not marry without the royalconsent; and it was usual for men to pay large sums for the liberty ofmaking their own choice in marriage. [**] No man could dispose of hisland, either by sale or will, without the consent of his superior. Thepossessor was never considered as full proprietor; he was still a kindof beneficiary; and could not oblige his superior to accept of anyvassal that was not agreeable to him. 

Fines, amerciaments, and oblatas, as they were called, were anotherconsiderable branch of the royal power and revenue. The ancient recordsof the exchequer, which are still preserved, give surprising accounts ofthe numerous fines anc amerciaments levied in those days, [****] and ofthe strange inventions fallen upon to exact money from the subject. 

 [* Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 223. ]

 [** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 322. ]

 [*** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 320. ]

 [**** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 272. ]

It appears that the ancient kings of England put themselves entirely onthe footing of the barbarous Eastern princes, whom no man must approachwithout a present, who sell all their good offices, and who intrudethemselves into every business, that they may have a pretence forextorting money. Even justice was avowedly bought and sold; the king'scourt itself, though the supreme judicature of the kingdom, was opento none that brought not presents to the king; the bribes given for theexpedition, delay, [*] suspension, and, doubtless, for the perversion ofjustice, were entered in the public registers of the royal revenue, andremain as monuments of the perpetual iniquity and tyranny of the times. The barons of the exchequer, for instance, the first nobility of thekingdom, were not ashamed to insert, as an article in their records, that the county of Norfolk paid a sum that they might be fairly dealtwith;[**] the borough of Yarmouth, that the king's charters, which theyhave for their liberties, might not be violated;[***] Richard, sonof Gilbert, for the king's helping him to recover his debt from theJews;[****] Serlo, son of Terlavaston, that he might be permitted tomake his defence, in case he were accused of a certain homicide;[*****]Waiter de Burton, for free law, if accused of wounding another;[******]Robert de Essart, for having an Liquest to find whether Roger thebutcher, and Wace and Humphrey, accused him of robbery and theft outof envy and ill will, or not;[*******] William Buhurst, for having aninquest to find whether he were accused of the death of one Goodwinout of ill will, or for just cause. [********] I have selected these fewinstances from a great number of a like kind, which Madox had selectedfrom a still greater number, preserved in the ancient rolls of theexchequer. [*********]

Sometimes the party litigant offered the king a certain portion, a half, a third, a fourth, payable out of the debts which he, as the executorof justice, should assist him in recovering. [**********] Theophania deWestland agreed to pay the half of two hundred and twelve marks, thatshe might recover that sum against James de Fughleston;[*] Solomon theJew engaged to pay one mark out of every seven that he should recoveragainst Hugh dè la Hose;[************] Nicholas Morrel promised to paysixty pounds, that the earl of Flanders might be distrained to pay himthree hundred and forty-three pounds, which the earl had taken fromhim; and these sixty pounds were to be paid out of the first money thatNicholas should recover from the earl. [*************]

 [* Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 274, 309. ]

 [** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 295]

 [*** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 295. ]

 [**** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 296. He paid two hundred marks, a great sum in those days. ]

 [***** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 296. ]

 [****** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 296. ]

 [******* Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P 298. ]

 [******** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 302. ]

 [********* Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. Chap. Xii. ]

 [********** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 311. ]

 [*********** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 311. ]

 [************ Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 79, 312. ]

 [************* Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 312. ]

As the king assumed the entire power over trade, he was to be paid for apermission to exercise commerce or industry of any kind. [**] Hugh Oiselpaid four hundred marks for liberty to trade in England:[***] Nigel deHavene gave fifty marks for the partnership in merchandise which hehad with Gervase de Hanton:[****] the men of Worcester paid one hundredshillings, that they might have the liberty of selling and buyingdyed cloth, as formerly;[*****] several other towns paid for a likeliberty. [******] The commerce indeed of the kingdom was so much underthe control of the king, that he erected guilds, corporations, andmonopolies wherever he pleased; and levied sums for these exclusiveprivileges. [*******]

There were no profits so small as to be below the king's attention. Henry, son of Arthur, gave ten dogs, to have a recognition againstthe countess of Copland for one knight's fee. [********] Roger, son ofNicholas, gave twenty lampreys and twenty shads for an inquest to findwhether Gilbert, son of Alured, gave to Roger two hundred muttons toobtain his confirmation for certain lands, or whether Roger tookthem from him by violence;[*********] Geoffrey Fitz-Pierre, the chiefjusticiary, gave two good Norway hawks, that Walter le Madine mighthave leave to export a hundred weight of cheese out ot the king'sdominions. [**********]

It is really amusing to remark the strange business in which the kingsometimes interfered, and never without a present; the wife of Hughde Nevile gave the king two hundred hens, that she might lie with herhusband one night;[***********] and she brought with her two sureties, who answered each for a hundred hens. 

 [** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 323. ]

 [*** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 323. ]

 [**** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 323. ]

 [***** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 324. ]

 [****** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 324. ]

 [******* Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 232, 233, etc. ]

 [******** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 298. ]

 [********* Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 305. ]

 [*0: Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 325. ]

 [*1: Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 326 ]

 [*2: Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P 326]

It is probable that her husband was a prisoner, which debarred her fromhaving access to him. The abbot of Rucford paid ten marks for leaveto erect houses and place men upon his land near Welhang, in order tosecure his wood there from being stolen; Hugh, archdeacon of Wells, gaveone tun of wine for leave to carry six hundred summs of corn whither hewould; Peter de Perariis gave twenty marks for leave to salt fishes asPeter Chevalier used to do. 

It was usual to pay high fines, in order to gain the king's good willor mitigate his anger. In the reign of Henry II. , Gilbert, the son ofFergus, fines in nine hundred and nineteen pounds nine shillings, toobtain that prince's favor; William de Chataignes, a thousand marks, that he would remit his displeasure. In the reign of Henry III. , thecity of London fines in no less a sum than twenty thousand pounds on thesame account. 

The king's protection and good offices of every kind were bought andsold. Robert Grislet paid twenty marks of silver, that the king wouldhelp him against the earl of Mortaigne in a certain plea: Robert deCundet gave thirty marks of silver, that the king would bring him to anaccord with the bishop of Lincoln; Ralph de Bréckham gave a hawk, thatthe king would protect him; and this is a very frequent reason forpayments; John, son of Ordgar, gave a Norway hawk, to have the king'srequest to the king of Norway to let him have his brother Godard'schattels; Richard de Neville gave twenty palfreys to obtain the king'srequest to Isolda Bisset, that she should take him for a husband; RogerFitz-Walter gave three good palfreys to have the king's letter to RogerBertram's mother, that she should marry him; Eling the dean paid onehundred marks, that his whore and his children might be let out uponbail; the bishop of Winchester gave one tun of good wine for his notputting the king in mind to give a girdle to the countess of Albemarle;Robert de Veaux gave five of the best palfreys, that the king wouldhold his tongue about Henry Pinel's wife. There are in the records ofexchequer many other singular instances of a like nature. [*] It will, however, be just to remark, that the same ridiculous practices anddangerous abuses prevailed in Normandy, and probably in all the otherstates of Europe. [**] England was not in this respect more barbarousthan its neighbors. 

These iniquitous practices of the Norman kings were so well known, that, on the death of Hugh Bigod, in the reign of Henry II. , the best and mostjust of these princes, the eldest son and the widow of this noblemancame to court, and strove, by offering large presents to the king, eachof them to acquire possession of that rich inheritance. The king was soequitable as to order the cause to be tried by the great council!But, in the mean time, he seized all the money and treasure of thedeceased, [***] Peter, of Blois, a judicious, and even an elegant writer, for that age, gives a pathetic description of the reign of Henry; and hescruples not to complain to the king himself of these abuses. [****]

 [* We shall gratify the reader's curiosity by subjoining a few more instances from Madox, p. 332. Hugh Oisel was to give the king two robes of a good green color, to have the king's letters patent to the merchants of Flanders with a request to render him one thousand marks, which he lost in Flanders. The abbot of Hyde paid thirty marks, to have the king's letters of request to the archbishop of Canterbury, to remove certain monks that were against the abbot. Roger de Trihanton paid twenty marks and a palfrey, to have the king's request to Richard de Umfreville to give him his sister to wife, and to the sister that she would accept of him for a husband; William de Cheveringworth paid five marks, to have the king's letter to the abbot of Perfore, to let him enjoy peaceably his tithes as formerly; Matthew de Hereford, clerk, paid ten marks for a letter of request to the bishop of Llandaff, to let him enjoy peaceably his church of Schenfrith; Andrew Neuhm gave three Flemish caps, for the king's request to the prior of Chikesand, for performance of an agreement made between them; Henry de Fontibus gave a Lombardy horse of value, to have the king's request to Henry Fitz-Hervey, that he would give him his daughter to wife; Roger, son of Nicholas, promised all the lampreys he could get, to have the king's request to Earl William Mareschal, that he would grant him the manor of Langeford at Ferm. The burgesses of Glocester promised three hundred lampreys, that they might not be distrained to find the prisoners of Poictou with necessaries, unless they pleased. Madox, p. 352. Jordan, sen of Reginald, paid twenty marks, to have the king's request to William Panier, that he would grant him the land of Mill Nierenuit, and the custody of his heirs; and if Jordan obtained the same, he was to pay the twenty marks, otherwise not. Madox, p. 333, ]

 [** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P, 359. ]

 [*** Benedict. Abbas, p. 180, 181. ]

 [**** Petri Bless. Epist. 95, apud Bibl. Patrum, tom. 24, p. 2014. ]

We may judge what the case would be under the government of worseprinces. The articles of inquiry concerning the conduct of sheriffs, which Henry promulgated in 1170, show the great power as well as thelicentiousness of these officers. [**]

Amerciaments or fines for crimes and trespasses were an etherconsiderable branch of the royal revenue. [***] Most crimes were atonedfor by money; the fines imposed were not limited by any rule or statute;and frequently occasioned the total ruin of the person, even for theslightest trespasses. The forest laws, particularly, were a great sourceof oppression The king possessed sixty-eight forests, thirteenchases, and seven hundred and eighty-one parks, in different parts ofEngland;[****] and, considering the extreme passion of the English andNormans for hunting, these were so many snares laid for the people, bywhich they were allured into trespasses and brought within the reach ofarbitrary and rigorous laws, which the king had thought proper to enactby his own authority. 

But the most barefaced acts of tyranny and oppression were practisedagainst the Jews, who were entirely out of the protection of law, wereextremely odious from the bigotry of the people, and were abandoned tothe immeasurable rapacity of the king and his ministers. Besides manyother indignities to which they were continually exposed, it appearsthat they were once all thrown into prison, and the sum of sixty-sixthousand marks exacted for their liberty:[*****] at another time, Isaacthe Jew paid, alone, five thousand one hundred marks[******] Brim, threethousand marks;[*******] Jurnet, two thousand; Bennet, five hundred: atanother, Licorica, widow of David the Jew, of Oxford, was required topay six thousand marks; and she was delivered over to six of therichest and discreetest Jews in England, who were to answer for thesum. [********]

 [** Hoveden, Chron. Gerv. P. 1410. ]

 [*** Madox, chap. Xiv. ]

 [**** Spel. Gloss, in verbo Forests. ]

 [***** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 151. This happened in the reign of King John. ]

 [****** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch, p. 151]

 [******* Madox, Hist. Of the Exch, p. 153. ]

 [******** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch, p, 168. ]

Henry III borrowed five thousand marks from the earl of Cornwall; andfor his repayment consigned over to him all the Jews in England. Therevenue arising from exactions upon this nation was so considerable, that there was a particular court of exchequer set apart for managingit. 

We may judge concerning the low state of commerce among the English, when the Jews, notwithstanding these oppressions, could still findtheir account in trading among them, and lending them money. And asthe improvements of agriculture were also much checked by the immensepossessions of the nobility, by the disorders of the times, and by theprecarious state of feudal property, it appears that industry of no kindcould then have place in the kingdom. 

It is asserted by Sir Harry Spelman, [*] as an undoubted truth, that, during the reigns of the first Norman princes, every edict of the king, issued with the consent of his privy council, had the full force oflaw. But the barons surely were not so passive as to intrust a power, entirely arbitrary and despotic, into the hands of the sovereign. Itonly appears, that the constitution had not fixed any precise boundariesto the royal power; that the right of issuing proclamations on anyemergence, and of exacting obedience to them, --a right which was alwayssupposed inherent in the crown, --is very difficult to be distinguishedfrom a legislative authority; that the extreme imperfection of theancient laws, and the sudden exigencies which often occurred in suchturbulent governments, obliged the prince to exert frequently thelatent powers of his prerogative; that he naturally proceeded, from theacquiescence of the people, to assume, in many particulars of moment, an authority from which he had excluded himself by express statutes, charters, or concessions, and which was, in the main, repugnant to thegeneral genius of the constitution; and that the lives; the personalliberty, and the properties of all his subjects were less secured by lawagainst the exertion of his arbitrary authority than by the independentpower and private connections of each individual. 

 [* We learn from the extracts given us of Domesday by Brady in his Treatise of Boroughs, that almost all the boroughs of England had suffered in the shock of the conquest, and had extremely decayed between the death of the Confessor and the time when Domesday was framed. * Gross. In verb. Justicium Dei. The author of the Miroir des Justices complains that ordinances are only made by the king and his clerks, and by aliens and others, who dare not contradict the king, but study to please him. Whence, he concludes, laws are oftener dictated by will than founded on right. ]

It appears from the Great Charter itself, that not only John, atyrannical prince, and Richard, a violent one, but their father, Henry, under whose reign the prevalence of gross abuses is the least to besuspected, were accustomed, from their sole authority, without processof law, to imprison, banish, and attaint the freemen of their kingdom. 

A great baron, in ancient times, considered himself as a kind ofsovereign within his territory; and was attended by courtiers anddependants more zealously attached to him than the ministers of stateand the great officers were commonly o their sovereign. He oftenmaintained in his court the parade of royalty, by establishinga justiciary, constable, mareschal, chamberlain, seneschal, andchancellor, and assigning to each of these officers a separateprovince and command He was usually very assiduous in exercising hisjurisdiction, and took such delight in that image of sovereignty, thatit was found necessary to restrain his activity, and prohibit him by lawfrom holding courts too frequently. [*] It is not to be doubted but theexample set him by the prince, of a mercenary and sordid extortion, would be faithfully copied; and that all his good and bad offices, hisjustice and injustice, were equally put to sale. He had the power, withthe king's consent, to exact talliages even from the free citizens wholived within his barony; and as his necessities made him rapacious, hisauthority was usually found to be more oppressive and tyrannical thanthat of the sovereign. [**] He was ever engaged in hereditary orpersonal animosities or confederacies with his neighbors, and oftengave protection to all desperate adventurers and criminals, who could beuseful in serving his violent purposes. He was able alone, in timesof tranquillity, to obstruct the execution of justice within histerritories; and by combining with a few malecontent barons of high rankand power, he could throw the state into convulsions. And, on the whole, though the royal authority was confined within bounds, and often withinvery narrow ones, yet the check was Irregular, and frequently the sourceof great disorders; nor was it derived from the liberty of the people, but from the military power of many petty tyrants, who were equallydangerous to the prince and oppressive to the subject. 

 [* Dugd. Jurid. Orig. P. 26. ]

 [** Madox, Hist. Of the Exch. P. 520. ]

The power of the church was another rampart against royal authority; butthis defence was also the cause of many mischiefs and inconveniencies. The dignified clergy, perhaps, were not so prone to immediate violenceas the barons; but as they pretended to a total independence on thestate, and could always cover themselves with the appearances ofreligion, they proved, in one respect, an obstruction to the settlementof the kingdom, and to the regular execution of the laws. The policyof the Conqueror was in this particular liable to some exception. Heaugmented the superstitious veneration for Rome, to which that age wasso much inclined, and he broke those bands of connection which, in theSaxon times, had preserved a union between the lay and the clericalorders. He prohibited the bishops from sitting in the county courts; heallowed ecclesiastical causes to be tried in spiritual courts only;[**]and he so much exalted the power of the clergy, that of sixty thousandtwo hundred and fifteen knights' fees, into which he divided England, he placed no less than twenty-eight thousand and fifteen under thechurch. [**]

The right of primogeniture was introduced with the feudal law; aninstitution which is hurtful by producing and maintaining an unequaldivision of private propeny; but is advantageous in another respect, byaccustoming the people to a preference in favor of the eldest son, andthereby preventing a partition or disputed succession in the monarchy. The Normans introduced the use of surnames, which tend to preserve theknowledge of families and pedigrees. They abolished none of the old, absurd methods of trial by the cross or ordeal; and they added a newabsurdity--the trial by single combat--[***] which became a regularpart of jurisprudence, and was conducted with all the order, method, devotion, and solemnity imaginable. [****] The ideas of chivalry alsoseem to have been imported by the Normans: no traces of those fantasticnotions are to be found among the plain and rustic Saxons. 

 [* Char. Will, apud Wilkms, p. 230. Spel. Concil. Vol. Ii p. 14. ]

 [** Spel. Gloss, in verb. Manus mortua. We are not to imagine, as some have done, that the church possessed lands in this proportion, but only that they and their vassals enjoyed such a proportionable part of the landed property. ]

 [*** LL. Will. Cap. 68. ]

 [**** Spel. Gloss, in verbo Campus. The last instance of these duels was in the 16th of Eliz. So long did that absurdity remain. ]

The feudal institutions, by raising the military tenants to a kind ofsovereign dignity, by rendering personal strength and valor requisite, and by making every knight and baron his own protector and avenger, begat that martial pride and sense of honor which, being cultivatedand embellished by the poets and romance writers of the age, ended inchivalry. The virtuous knight fought not only in his own quarrel, but inthat of the innocent, of the helpless, and, above all, of the fair, whomhe supposed to be forever under the guardianship of his valiant arm. The uncourteous knight who, from his castle, exercised robbery ontravellers, and committed violence on virgins, was the object of hisperpetual indignation; and he put him to death, without scruple, ortrial, or appeal, wherever he met with him. The great independenceof men made personal honor and fidelity the chief tie among them, and rendered it the capital virtue of every true knight, or genuineprofessor of chivalry. The solemnities of single combat, as establishedby law, banished the notion of every thing unfair or unequal inrencounters, and maintained an appearance of courtesy between thecombatants till the moment of their engagement. The credulity of theage grafted on this stock the notion of giants, enchanters, dragons, spells, [*] and a thousand wonders, which still multiplied during thetimes of the crusades; when men, returning from so great a distance, used the liberty of imposing every fiction on their believing audience. These ideas of chivalry infected the writings, conversation, andbehavior of men, during some ages; and even after they were, in a greatmeasure, banished by the revival of learning, they left modern gallantryand the point of honor, which still maintain their influence, and arethe genuine off-spring of those ancient affectations. 

 [* In all legal single combats, it was part of the champion's oath, that he carried not about him any herb, spell, or enchantment, by which he might procure victory. Dugd. Orig. Jurid. P. 82. ]

The concession of the Great Charter, or rather its full establishment, (for there was a considerable interval of time between the one andthe other, ) gave rise, by degrees, to a new species of government, andintroduced some order and justice into the administration. The ensuingscenes of our history are therefore somewhat different from thepreceding. Yet the Great Charter contained no establishment of newcourts magistrates, or senates, nor abolition of the old. It introducedno new distribution of the powers of the common-wealth, and noinnovation in the political or public law of the kingdom. It onlyguarded, and that merely by verbal clauses, against such tyrannicalpractices as are incompatible with civilized government, and, ifthey become very frequent, are incompatible with all government. The barbarous license of the kings, and perhaps of the nobles, wasthenceforth somewhat more restrained: men acquired some more securityfor their properties and their liberties; and government approached alittle nearer to that end for which it was originally instituted--thedistribution of justice, and the equal protection of the citizens. Actsof violence and iniquity in the crown, which before were only deemedinjurious to individuals, and were hazardous chiefly in proportion tothe number, power, and dignity of the persons affected by them, were nowregarded, in some degree, as public injuries, and as infringements of acharter calculated for general security. And thus the establishment ofthe Great Charter, without seeming anywise to innovate in thedistribution of political power, became a kind of epoch in theconstitution. 

NOTES. 

[Footnote 1: NOTE A, p. 9. This question has been disputed With as greatzeal, and even acrimony, between the Scotch and Irish antiquaries, as ifthe honor of their respective countries were the most deeply concernedin the decision. We shall not enter into any detail on so uninterestinga subject, but shall propose our opinion in a few words. It appears morethan probable, from the similitude of language and manners, that Britaineither was originally peopled, or was subdued, by the migration ofinhabitants from Gaul, and Ireland from Britain: the position of theseveral countries is an additional reason that favors this conclusion. It appears also probable, that the migrations of that colony of Gaulsor Celts, who peopled or subdued Ireland, was originally made from thenorth-west parts of Britain; and this conjecture (if it do not merita higher name) is founded both on the Irish language which is a verydifferent dialect from the Welsh, and from the language ancientlyspoken in South Britain, and on the vicinity of Lancashire, Cumberland, Galloway, and Argyleshire, to that island. These events, as they passedalong before the age of history and records, must be known by reasoningalone, which, in this case, seems to be pretty satisfactory. Caesar andTacitus, not to mention a multitude of other Greek and Roman authors, were guided by like inferences. But, besides these primitive facts, whichlie in a very remote antiquity, it is a matter of positive and undoubtedtestimony, that the Roman province of Britain, during the time of thelower empire, was much infested by bands of robbers or pirates, whomthe provincial Britons called Scots or Scuits; a name which was probablyused as a term of reproach, and which these bandits themselves did notacknowledge or assume. We may infer, from two passages in Claudian, and from one in Orosius, and another in Isidore, that the chief seatof these Scots was in Ireland. That some part ot the Irish freebootersmigrated back to the north-west parts of Britain, whence their ancestorshad probably been derived in a more remote age, is positively assertedby Bede, and implied in Gildas. I grant, that neither Bede nor Gildasare Caesars or Tacituses; but such as they are, they remain the soletestimony on the subject, and therefore must be relied on for want ofbetter: happily, the frivolousness of the question corresponds to theweakness of the authorities. Not to mention, that, if any part of thetraditional history of a barbarous people can be relied on, it is thegenealogy of nations, and even sometimes that of families. It is in vainto argue against these facts, from the supposed warlike disposition ofthe Highlanders, and unwarlike of the ancient Irish. Those arguments arestill much weaker than the authorities. Nations change very quicklyin these particulars. The Britons were unable to resist the Picts andScots, and invited over the Saxons for their defence, who repelled thoseinvaders; yet the same Britons valiantly resisted, for one hundredand fifty years, not only this victorious band of Saxons, but infinitenumbers more, who poured in upon them from all quarters. Robert Bruce, in 1322, made a peace, in which England, after many defeats, wasconstrained to acknowledge the independence of his country; yet in nomore distant period than ten years after, Scotland was totally subduedby a small handful of English, led by a few private noblemen. Allhistory is full of such events. The Irish Scots, in the course of two orthree centuries, might find time and opportunities sufficient to settlein North Britain, though we can neither assign the period nor causesof that revolution. Their barbarous manner of life rendered them muchfitter than the Romans for subduing these mountaineers. And, in aword, it is clear, from the language of the two countries, that theHighlanders and the Irish are the same people, and that the one are acolony from the other. We have positive evidence, which, though fromneutral persons, is not perhaps the best that may be wished for, thatthe former, in the third or fourth century, sprang from the latter; wehave no evidence at all that the latter sprang from the former. I shalladd, that the name of Erse, or Irish, given by the low country Scotsto the language of the Scotch Highlanders, is a certain proof of thetraditional opinion delivered from father to son, that the latter peoplecame originally from Ireland. ]

[Footnote 2: NOTE B, p. 90. There is a seeming contradiction in ancienthistorians with regard to some circumstances in the story of Edwy andElgiva. It is agreed, that this prince had a violent passion for hissecond or third cousin, Elgiva, whom he married, though within thedegrees prohibited by the canons. It is also agreed, that he wasdragged from a lady on the day of his coronation, and that the lady wasafterwards treated with the singular barbarity above mentioned. The onlydifference is, that Osborne and some others call her his strumpet, nothis wife, as she is said to be by Malmsbury. But this difference iseasily reconciled for if Edwy married her contrary to the canons, themonks would be sure to deny her to be his wife, and would insist thatshe could be nothing but his strumpet: so that, on the whole, we mayesteem this representation of the matter as certain; at least, as by farthe most probable. If Edwy had only kept a mistress, it is well known, that there are methods of accommodation with the church, which wouldhave prevented the clergy from proceeding to such extremities againsthim: but his marriage, contrary to the canons, was an insult on theirauthority, and called for their highest resentment. ]

[Footnote 3: NOTE C, p. 91. Many of the English historians make Edgar'sships amount to an extravagant number, to three thousand or threethousand six hundred. See Hoveden, p. 426. Flor. Wigorn, p. 607. AbbasRieval, p. 360. Brompton (p. 869) says that Edgar had four thousandvessels. How can these accounts be reconciled to probability, and tothe state of the navy in the time of Alfred? W. Thorne makes the wholenumber amount only to three hundred, which is more probable. The fleetof Ethelred, Edgar's son, must have been short of a thousand ships; yetthe Saxon Chronicle (p. 137) says it was the greatest navy that ever hadbeen seen in England. ]

[Footnote 4: NOTE D, p. 109. Almost all the ancient historians speak ofthis massacre of the Danes as if it had been universal, and as if everyindividual of that nation throughout England had been put to death. But the Danes were almost the sole inhabitants in the kingdoms ofNorthumberland and East Anglia, and were very numerous in Mercia. Thisrepresentation, therefore, of the matter is absolutely impossible. Greatresistance must have been made, and violent wars ensued; which was notthe case. This account given by Wallingford, though he stands single, must be admitted as the only true one. We are told that the nameLurdane, Lord Dane, for an idle, lazy fellow, who lives at otherpeople's expense, came from the conduct of the Danes who were put todeath. But the English princes had been entirely masters for severalgenerations, and only supported a military corps of that nation. Itseems probable, therefore, that it was these Danes only that were put todeath. ]

[Footnote 5: NOTE E, p. 129. The ingenious author of the article Godwin, in the Biographia Britannica, has endeavored to clear the memory ofthat nobleman, upon the supposition that all the English annals had beenfalsified by the Norman historians after the conquest. But that thissupposition has not much foundation appears hence, that almost all thesehistorians have given a very good character of his son Harold, whom itwas much more the interest of the Norman cause to blacken. ]

[Footnote 6: Note F, p. 137. The whole story of the transactions betweenEdward, Harold, and the duke of Normandy, is told so differently by theancient writers, that there are few important passages of the Englishhistory liable to so great uncertainty. I have followed the accountwhich appeared to me the most consistent and probable. It does not seemlikely that Edward ever executed a will in the duke's favor; much lessthat he got it ratified by the states of the kingdom, as is affirmed bysome. The will would have been known to all, and would have been pro-**duced by the Conqueror, to whom it gave so plausible, and really sojust, a title; but the doubtful and ambiguous manner in which he seemsalways to have mentioned it, proves that he could only plead the knownintentions of that monarch in his favor, which he was desirous to calla will. There is indeed a charter of the Conqueror preserved by Dr. Hickes, (vol. I. ) where he calls himself "rex hereditarius, " meaningheir by will; but a prince possessed of so much power, and attended withso much success, may employ what pretence he pleases; it is sufficientto refute his pretences to observe, that there is a great differenceand variation among historians with regard to a point which, had it beenreal, must have been agreed upon by all of them. 

Again, some historians, particularly Malmsbury and Matthew ofWestminster, affirm that Harold had no intention of going over toNormandy, but that taking the air in a pleasure boat on the coast, hewas driven over by stress of weather to the territories of Guy, count ofPonthieu: but besides that this story is not probable in itself, and iscontradicted by most of the ancient historians, it is contradicted by avery curious and authentic monument lately discovered. It is a tapestry, preserved in the ducal palace of Rouen, and supposed to have beenwrought by orders of Matilda, wife to the emperor; at least it isof very great antiquity. Harold is there represented as taking hisdeparture from King Edward, in execution of some commission, andmounting his vessel with a great train. The design of redeeming hisbrother and nephew, who were hostages, is the most likely cause that canbe assigned; and is accordingly mentioned by Eadmer, Hoveden, Brompton, and Simeon of Durham. For a further account of this piece of tapestry, see Histoire de l'Académie de Littérature, tom. Ix. P. 535. ]

[Footnote 7: NOTE G, p. 155. It appears from the ancient translations ofthe Saxon annals and laws, and from King Alfred's translation ofBede, as well as from all the ancient historians, that comes in Latin, alderman in Saxon, and earl in Dano-Saxon, were quite synonymous. Thereis only a clause in a law of King Athetetan's, (see Spel. Concil. P. 406, ) which has stumbled some antiquaries, and has made them imaginethat an earl was superior to an alderman. The weregild, or the price ofan earl's blood, is there fixed at fifteen thousand thrimsas, equal tothat of an archbishop; whereas that of a bishop and alderman is onlyeight thousand thrimsas. To solve this difficulty, we must have recourseto Selden's conjecture, (see his Titles of Honor, chap. V. P. 603, 604, )that the term of earl was in the age of Athelstan just beginning to bein use in England, and stood at that time for the atheling or prince ofthe blood, heir to the crown. This he confirms by a law of Canute, sect. 55, where an atheling and an archbishop are put upon the same footing. In another law of the same Athelstan, the weregild of the prince oratheling, is said to be fifteen thousand thrimsas. See Wilkins, p. 71 Heis therefore the same who is called earl in the former law. ]

[Footnote 8: NOTE H, p. 194. There is a paper or record of the familyof Slarneborne, which pretends that that family, which was Saxon, wasrestored upon proving their innocence, as well as other Saxon familieswhich were in the same situation. Though this paper was able to imposeon such great antiquaries as Spelman (see Gloss, in verbo Drenges) andDugdale, (see Baron, vol. I. P. 118, ) it is proved by Dr. Brady (seeAnswer to Petyt, p. 11, 12) to have been a forgery; and is allowed assuch by Tyrrel, though a pertinacious defender of his party notions:(see his history, vol. Ii. Introd. P. 51, 73. ) Ingulf (p. 70) tells us, that very early Hereward, though absent during the time of the conquest, was turned out of all his estate, and could not obtain redress, Williameven plundered the monasteries. Flor. Wigorn. P. 636 Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 48. M. Paris, p. 5. Sim. Dun p. 200. Diceto, p. 482. Brompton, p. 967. Knyghton, p. 2344. Alured. Beverl. P. 130. We are toldby Ingulf, that Ivo de Taillebois plundered the monastery of Croylaud ofa great part of its land, and no redress could be obtained. ]

[Footnote 9: NOTE I, p. 195. The obliging of all the inhabitants toput out their fires and lights it certain hours, upon the sounding of abell, called the Courfeu, is represented by Polydore Virgil, lib. Ix. , as a mark of the servitude of the English. But this was a law of police, which William had previously established in Normandy. See Du Moulin, Hist de Normandie, p. 160. The same law had place in Scotland. LL. Burgor. Cap. 86. ]

[Footnote 11: NOTE K, p. 200. What these laws were of Edward theConfessor, which the English, every reign during a century and ahalf, desire so passionately to have restored, is much disputed byantiquaries, and our ignorance of them seems one of the greatest defectsin the ancient English history. The collection of laws in Wilkins, whichpass under the name of Edward, are plainly a posterior and an ignorantcompilation. Those to be found in Ingulf are genuine; but so imperfect, and contain so few clauses favorable to the subject, that we see nogreat reason for their contending for them so vehemently. It is probablethat the English meant the common law, as it prevailed during thereign of Edward; which we may conjecture to have been more indulgent toliberty than the Norman institutions. The most material articles of itwere afterwards comprehended in Magna Charta. ]

[Footnote 12: NOTE L, p. 218. Ingulf p. 70. H. Hunt. P. 370, 372. M. West. P. 225. Gul. Neub. P. 357. Alured. Beverl. P. 124. De Gest, Angl. P. 333. M Paris, p. 4. Sim. Dun. P. 206. Brompton, p. 962, 980, 1161. Gervase. Lib. I. Cap. 16. Textus Roffensis apud Seld. Spieileg. Ad Eadm. P. 197. Gul. Pict. P. 206. Ordericus Vitalis, p. 521, 666, 853. , Epist. St. Thom, p. 801. Gul. Malms, p. 52, 57. Knyghton, p. 2354. Eadmer, p. 110. Thorn. Rudborne in Ang. Sacra, vol. I p. 248. Monach. Roff. In Ang. Sacra, vol. Ii. P. 276. Girald. Camb. In eadem, vol. Ii. P. 413. Hist. Elyensis, p. 516. 

The words of this last historian, who is very ancient, are remarkable, and worth transcribing. Rex itaque factus, Willielmus, quid in principesAnglorum, qui tantæ cladi superesse poterant, fecerit, dicere, cum nihilprosit, omitto. Quid enim prodesset, si nec unum in toto regno deillis dicerem pristina potestate uti permissum, sed omnes aut in gravempaupertatis ærumnam detrusos, aut exhæredatos, patria pulsos, auteffossia, oculis, vel cæteris amputatis membris, opprobrium hominumfactos, aut certe miserrime afflictos, vita privatos. Simili modoutilitate carere existimo dicere quid in minorem populum, non solum abesed[**] a suis actum sit, cum id dictu sciamus difficile et ob immanemcrudelitatem fortassis incredibile. ]

[Footnote 13: NOTE M, p. 263 Henry, by the feudal customs, was entitledto levy a tax for the marrying of his eldest daughter, and he exactedthree shillings a hide on all England. H. Hunting, p. 379. Somehistorians (Brady, p. 270, and Tyrrel, vol. Ii. P. 182) heedlessly makethis sum amount to above eight hundred thousand pounds of our presentmoney; but it could not exceed one hundred and thirty-five thousand. Five hides, sometimes less, made a knight's fee, of which there wereabout sixty thousand in England, consequently near three hundredthousand hides; and at the rate of three shillings a hide, the sum wouldamount to forty-five thousand pounds, or one hundred and thirty-fivethousand of our present money. See Rudborne, p. 257. In the Saxontimes there were only computed two hundred and forty-three thousand sixhundred hides in England. ]

[Footnote 14: NOTE N, p. 266. The legates a latere, as they were called, were a kind of delegates, who possessed the full power of the popein all the provinces committed to their charge, and were very busyin extending, as well as exercising it. They nominated to all vacantbenefices, assembled synods, and were anxious to maintain ecclesiasticalprivileges, which never could be fully protected without encroachmentson the civi[**] power. If there were the least concurrence oropposition, it was always supposed that the civil power was to giveway; every deed, which had the least pretence of holding of any thingspiritual, as marriages, testaments, promissory oaths, were broughtinto the spiritual court, and could not be canvassed before a civilmagistrate. These were the established laws of the church; and where alegate was sent immediately from Rome, he was sure to maintain the papalclaims with the utmost rigor; but it was an advantage to the kingto have the archbishop of Canterbury appointed legate, because theconnections of that prelate with the kingdom tended to moderatehis measures. William of Newbridge, p. 383, (who is copied by laterhistorians), asserts that Geoffrey had some title to the counties ofMaine and Anjou. He pretends that Count Geoffrey, his father, had lefthis these dominions by a secret will, and had ordered that his bodyshould not be buried till Henry should swear to the observance of it, which he, ignorant of the contents, was induced to do. But besides thatthis story is not very likely in itself, and savers of monkish fiction, it is found in no other ancient writer, and is contradicted by some ofthem, particularly the monk of Marmoutier, who had better opportunitiesthan Newbridge of knowing the truth. See Vita Gauf Duc. Norman, p. 103. ]

[Footnote 16: NOTE P, p. 293. The sum scarcely appears credible; as itwould amount to much above half the rent of the whole land. Gervase isindeed a contemporary author; but churchmen are often guilty of strangemistakes of that nature, and are commonly but little acquainted withthe public revenues. This sum would make five hundred and forty thousandpounds of our present money. The Norman Chronicle (p. 995) lays, thatHenry raised only sixty Angevin shillings on each knight's fee in hisforeign dominions: this is only a fourth of the sum which Gervase sayshe levied on England, an inequality nowise probable. A nation may bydegrees be brought to bear a tax of fifteen shillings in the pound; buta sudden and precarious tax can never be imposed to that amount withouta very visible necessity, especially in an age so little accustomed totaxes. In the succeeding reign the rent of a knight's fee was computedat four pounds a year. There were sixty thousand knights fees inEngland. ]

[Footnote 17: NOTE Q, p. 295. Fitz-Stephen, p. 18. This conduct appearsviolent and arbitrary; but was suitable to the strain of administrationin those days. His father Geoffrey, though represented as a mild prince, set him an example of much greater violence. When Geoffrey was master ofNormandy, the chapter of Sens presumed, without his consent, to proceedto the election of a bishop; upon which he ordered all of them with thebishop elect, to be castrated, and made all their testicles be broughthim in a platter. Fitz-Steph. P. 44. In the war of Toulouse, Henry laida heavy and an arbitrary tax on all the churches within his dominions. See Epist. St. Thom. P. 232. ]

[Footnote 18: NOTE R, p. 307. I follow here the narrative ofFitz-Stephens, who was secretary to Becket; though, no doubt, he may besuspected of partiality towards his patron. Lord Lyttleton chooses tofollow the authority of a manuscript letter, or rather manifesto ofFolliot, bishop of London, which is addressed to Becket himself; atthe time when the bishop appealed to the pope from the excommunicationpronounced against him by his primate. My reasons why I give thepreference to Fitz-Stephens are, 1. If the friendship of Fitz-Stephensmight render him partial to Becket even after the death of that prelate, the declared enmity of the bishop must, during his lifetime, haverendered him more partial on the other side. 2. The bishop was movedby interest, as well as enmity, to calumniate Becket. He had himselfto defend against the sentence of excommunication, dreadful to all, especially to a prelate; and no more effectual means than to throw allthe blame on his adversary. 3. He has actually been guilty of palpablecalumnies in that letter. Among these, I reckon the following. Heaffirms that when Becket subscribed the Constitutions of Clarendon, hesaid plainly to all the bishops of England, "It is my master's pleasure, that I should forswear myself, and at present I submit to it, and doresolve to incur a perjury, and repent afterwards as I may. " Howeverbarbarous the times, and however negligent zealous churchmen were thenof morality, these are not words which a primate of great sense and ofmuch seeming sanctity would employ in an assembly of his suffragans: hemight act upon these principles, but never surely would publicly avowthem. Folliot also says, that all the bishops were resolved obstinatelyto oppose the Constitutions of Clarendon, but the primate himselfbetrayed them from timidity, and led the way to their subscribing. This is contrary to the testimony of all the historians, and directlycontrary to Beeket's character, who surely was not destitute either ofcourage or of zeal for ecclesiastical immunities. 4. The violence andinjustice of Henry, ascribed to him by Fitz-Stephens, is of a piecewith the rest of the prosecution. Nothing could be more iniquitous than, after two years' silence, to make a sudden and unprepared demand uponBecket to the amount of forty-four thousand marks, (equal to a sum ofnear a million in our time, ) and not allow him the least interval tobring in his accounts. If the king was so palpably oppressive in onearticle, he may be presumed to be equally so in the rest. 5. ThoughFolliot's letter, or rather manifesto, be addressed to Becket himself, it does not acquire more authority on that account. We know not whatanswer was made by Becket; the collection of letters cannot be supposedquite complete. But that the collection was not made by one (whoeverhe were) very partial to that primate, appears from the tenor of them, where there are many passages very little favorable to him, insomuchthat the editor of them at Brussels, a Jesuit, thought proper to publishthem with great omissions, particularly of this letter of Folliot's. Perhaps Becket made no answer at all, as not deigning to write to ahexcommunicated person, whose very commerce would contaminate him; andthe bishop, trusting to this arrogance of his primate, might calumniatehim the more freely. 6. Though the sentence pronounced on Becket by thegreat council, implies that he had refused to make any answer to theking's court, this does not fortify the narrative of Folliot. For if hisexcuse was rejected as false and frivolous, it would be treated as noanswer. Becket submitted so far to the sentence of confiscation of goodsand chattels, that he gave surety, which is a proof that he meant not atthat time to question the authority of the king's courts. 7. It may beworth observing, that both the author of Historia Quadrapartita, Gervase, contemporary writers, agree with Fitz-Stephens; and the latter is notusually very partial to Becket. All the ancient historians give the sameaccount. ]

[Footnote 19: NOTE S, p. 392. Madox, in his Baronia Anglica, (cap. 14, )tells us, that in the thirtieth year of Henry II. , thirty-three cows andtwo bulls cost but eight pounds seven shillings, money of that age; fivehundred sheep, twenty-two pounds ten shillings, or about tenpence threefarthings per sheep; sixty-six oxen, eighteen pounds three shillings;fifteen breeding mares, two pounds twelve shillings and sixpence; andtwenty-two hogs, one pound two shillings. Commodities seem then to havebeen about ten times cheaper than at present; all except the sheep, probably on account of the value of the fleece. The same author, in hisFormulare Anglicanum, (p. 17, ) says, that in the tenth year of RichardI. , mention is made of ten per cent, paid for money; but the Jewsfrequently exacted much higher interest. ]