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diff --git a/17037.txt b/17037.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef23062 --- /dev/null +++ b/17037.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8130 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, History of the English People, Volume I (of +8), by John Richard Green + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: History of the English People, Volume I (of 8) + Early England, 449-1071; Foreign Kings, 1071-1204; The Charter, 1204-1216 + + +Author: John Richard Green + + + +Release Date: November 9, 2005 [eBook #17037] +Most recently updated: May 20, 2008 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE, +VOLUME I (OF 8)*** + + +E-text prepared by Paul Murray and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 17037-h.htm or 17037-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/0/3/17037/17037-h/17037-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/0/3/17037/17037-h.zip) + + Readers who are unable to use the fully illustrated html + version of this text may wish to view the individual images, + located within the "images" directory of the html file + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/0/3/17037/17037-h/images). + The image file names have been included with each + illustration caption in this text. + + + The index for the entire 8 volume set of _History of + the English People_ was located at the end of Volume + VIII. For ease in accessibility, it has been removed + and produced as a separate volume + (https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/25533). + + + + + +HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE, VOLUME I + +by + +JOHN RICHARD GREEN, M.A. +Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford + +EARLY ENGLAND, 449-1071 +FOREIGN KINGS, 1071-1204 +THE CHARTER, 1204-1216 + + + + + + + +_First Edition, Demy 8vo, November_ 1877; +_Reprinted December_ 1877, 1881, 1885, 1890. +_Eversley Edition,_ 1895. +London MacMillan and Co. and New York 1895 + + + + +I Dedicate this Book + +TO TWO DEAR FRIENDS +MY MASTERS IN THE STUDY OF ENGLISH HISTORY + +EDWARD AUGUSTUS FREEMAN +AND +WILLIAM STUBBS + + + + +CONTENTS + + Volume I + + Book I--Early England--449-1071 + + Authorities for Book I + + Chapter I--The English Conquest of Britain--449-577 + + Chapter II--The English Kingdoms--577-796 + + Chapter III--Wessex and the Northmen--796-947 + + Chapter IV--Feudalism and the Monarchy--954-1071 + + Book II--England under Foreign Kings--1071-1204 + + Authorities for Book II + + Chapter I--The Conqueror--1071-1085 + + Chapter II--The Norman Kings--1085-1154 + + Chapter III--Henry the Second--1154-1189 + + Chapter IV--The Angevin Kings--1189-1204 + + Book III--The Charter--1204-1307 + + Authorities for Book III + + Chapter I--John--1204-1216 + +LIST OF MAPS + + + Britain and the English Conquest (v1-map-1.png) + + The English Kingdoms in A.D. 600 (v1-map-2.jpg) + + England and the Danelaw (v1-map-3.jpg) + + The Dominions of the Angevins (v1-map-4.jpg) + + Ireland just before the English Invasion (v1-map-5.jpg) + + + + +VOLUME I + + +BOOK I +EARLY ENGLAND +449-1071 + + +AUTHORITIES FOR BOOK I +449-1071 + + +For the conquest of Britain by the English our authorities are scant and +imperfect. The only extant British account is the "Epistola" of Gildas, a +work written probably about A.D. 560. The style of Gildas is diffuse and +inflated, but his book is of great value in the light it throws on the +state of the island at that time, and above all as the one record of the +conquest which we have from the side of the conquered. The English +conquerors, on the other hand, have left jottings of their conquest of +Kent, Sussex, and Wessex in the curious annals which form the opening of +the compilation now known as the "English" or "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," +annals which are undoubtedly historic, though with a slight mythical +intermixture. For the history of the English conquest of mid-Britain or +the Eastern Coast we possess no written materials from either side; and a +fragment of the Annals of Northumbria embodied in the later compilation +("Historia Britonum") which bears the name of Nennius alone throws light +on the conquest of the North. + +From these inadequate materials however Dr. Guest has succeeded by a +wonderful combination of historical and archaeological knowledge in +constructing a narrative of the conquest of Southern and South-Western +Britain which must serve as the starting-point for all future enquirers. + +This narrative, so far as it goes, has served as the basis of the account +given in my text; and I can only trust that it may soon be embodied in +some more accessible form than that of a series of papers in the +Transactions of the Archaeological Institute. In a like way, though +Kemble's "Saxons in England" and Sir F. Palgrave's "History of the +English Commonwealth" (if read with caution) contain much that is worth +notice, our knowledge of the primitive constitution of the English people +and the changes introduced into it since their settlement in Britain must +be mainly drawn from the "Constitutional History" of Professor Stubbs. + +Baeda's "Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum," a work of which I have +spoken in my text, is the primary authority for the history of the +Northumbrian overlordship which followed the Conquest. It is by copious +insertions from Baeda that the meagre regnal and episcopal annals of the +West Saxons have been brought to the shape in which they at present +appear in the part of the English Chronicle which concerns this period. +The life of Wilfrid by Eddi, with those of Cuthbert by an anonymous +contemporary and by Baeda himself, throws great light on the religious and +intellectual condition of the North at the time of its supremacy. But +with the fall of Northumbria we pass into a period of historical dearth. +A few incidents of Mercian history are preserved among the meagre annals +of Wessex in the English Chronicle: but for the most part we are thrown +upon later writers, especially Henry of Huntingdon and William of +Malmesbury, who, though authors of the twelfth century, had access to +older materials which are now lost. A little may be gleaned from +biographies such as that of Guthlac of Crowland; but the letters of +Boniface and Alcwine, which have been edited by Jaffe in his series of +"Monumenta Germanica," form the most valuable contemporary materials for +this period. + +From the rise of Wessex our history rests mainly on the English +Chronicle. The earlier part of this work, as we have said, is a +compilation, and consists of (1) Annals of the Conquest of South Britain, +and (2) Short Notices of the Kings and Bishops of Wessex expanded by +copious insertions from Baeda, and after the end of his work by brief +additions from some northern sources. These materials may have been +thrown together into their present form in AElfred's time as a preface to +the far fuller annals which begin with the reign of AEthelwulf, and which +widen into a great contemporary history when they reach that of AElfred +himself. After AElfred's day the Chronicle varies much in value. Through +the reign of Eadward the Elder it is copious, and a Mercian Chronicle is +imbedded in it: it then dies down into a series of scant and jejune +entries, broken however with grand battle-songs, till the reign of +AEthelred when its fulness returns. + +Outside the Chronicle we encounter a great and valuable mass of +historical material for the age of AElfred and his successors. The life of +AElfred which bears the name of Asser, puzzling as it is in some ways, is +probably really Asser's work, and certainly of contemporary authority. +The Latin rendering of the English Chronicle which bears the name of +AEthelweard adds a little to our acquaintance with this time. The Laws, +which form the base of our constitutional knowledge of this period, fall, +as has been well pointed out by Mr. Freeman, into two classes. Those of +Eadward, AEthelstan, Eadmund, and Eadgar, are like the earlier laws of +AEthelberht and Ine, "mainly of the nature of amendments of custom." Those +of AElfred, AEthelred, Cnut, with those which bear the name of Eadward the +Confessor, "aspire to the character of Codes." They are printed in Mr. +Thorpe's "Ancient Laws and Institutes of England," but the extracts given +by Professor Stubbs in his "Select Charters" contain all that directly +bears on our constitutional growth. A vast mass of Charters and other +documents belonging to this period has been collected by Kemble in his +"Codex Diplomaticus AEvi Saxonici," and some are added by Mr. Thorpe in +his "Diplomatarium Anglo-Saxonicum." Dunstan's biographies have been +collected and edited by Professor Stubbs in the series published by the +Master of the Rolls. + +In the period which follows the accession of AEthelred we are still aided +by these collections of royal Laws and Charters, and the English +Chronicle becomes of great importance. Its various copies indeed differ +so much in tone and information from one another that they may to some +extent be looked upon as distinct works, and "Florence of Worcester" is +probably the translation of a valuable copy of the "Chronicle" which has +disappeared. The translation however was made in the twelfth century, and +it is coloured by the revival of national feeling which was +characteristic of the time. Of Eadward the Confessor himself we have a +contemporary biography (edited by Mr. Luard for the Master of the Rolls) +which throws great light on the personal history of the King and on his +relations to the house of Godwine. + +The earlier Norman traditions are preserved by Dudo of St. Quentin, a +verbose and confused writer, whose work was abridged and continued by +William of Jumieges, a contemporary of the Conqueror. William's work in +turn served as the basis of the "Roman de Rou" composed by Wace in the +time of Henry the Second. The primary authority for the Conqueror himself +is the "Gesta Willelmi" of his chaplain and violent partizan, William of +Poitiers. For the period of the invasion, in which the English +authorities are meagre, we have besides these the contemporary "Carmen de +Bello Hastingensi," by Guy, Bishop of Amiens, and the pictures in the +Bayeux Tapestry. Orderic, a writer of the twelfth century, gossipy and +confused but honest and well-informed, tells us much of the religious +movement in Normandy, and is particularly valuable and detailed in his +account of the period after the battle of Senlac. Among secondary +authorities for the Norman Conquest, Simeon of Durham is useful for +northern matters, and William of Malmesbury worthy of note for his +remarkable combination of Norman and English feeling. Domesday Book is of +course invaluable for the Norman settlement. The chief documents for the +early history of Anjou have been collected in the "Chroniques d'Anjou" +published by the Historical Society of France. Those which are authentic +are little more than a few scant annals of religious houses; but light is +thrown on them by the contemporary French chronicles. The "Gesta +Consulum" is nothing but a compilation of the twelfth century, in which a +mass of Angevin romance as to the early story of the Counts is dressed +into historical shape by copious quotations from these French historians. + +It is possible that fresh light may be thrown on our earlier history when +historical criticism has done more than has yet been done for the +materials given us by Ireland and Wales. For Welsh history the "Brut y +Tywysogion" and the "Annales Cambriae" are now accessible in the series +published by the Master of the Rolls; the "Chronicle of Caradoc of +Lancarvan" is translated by Powel; the Mabinogion, or Romantic Tales, +have been published by Lady Charlotte Guest; and the Welsh Laws collected +by the Record Commission. The importance of these, as embodying a +customary code of very early date, will probably be better appreciated +when we possess the whole of the Brehon Laws, the customary laws of +Ireland, which are now being issued by the Irish Laws Commission, and to +which attention has justly been drawn by Sir Henry Maine ("Early History +of Institutions") as preserving Aryan usages of the remotest antiquity. + +The enormous mass of materials which exists for the early history of +Ireland, various as they are in critical value, may be seen in Mr. +O'Curry's "Lectures on the Materials of Ancient Irish History"; and they +may be conveniently studied by the general reader in the "Annals of the +Four Masters," edited by Dr. O'Donovan. But this is a mere compilation +(though generally a faithful one) made about the middle of the +seventeenth century from earlier sources, two of which have been +published in the Rolls series. One, the "Wars of the Gaedhil with the +Gaill," is an account of the Danish wars which may have been written in +the eleventh century; the other, the "Annals of Loch Ce," is a chronicle +of Irish affairs from the end of the Danish wars to 1590. The "Chronicon +Scotorum" (in the same series) extends to the year 1150, and though +composed in the seventeenth century is valuable from the learning of its +author, Duald Mac-Firbis. The works of Colgan are to Irish church affairs +what the "Annals of the Four Masters" are to Irish civil history. They +contain a vast collection of translations and transcriptions of early +saints' lives, from those of Patrick downwards. Adamnan's "Life of +Columba" (admirably edited by Dr. Beeves) supplies some details to the +story of the Northumbrian kingdom. Among more miscellaneous works we find +the "Book of Rights," a summary of the dues and rights of the several +over-kings and under-kings, of much earlier date probably than the Norman +invasion; and Cormac's "Glossary," attributed to the tenth century and +certainly an early work, from which much may be gleaned of legal and +social details, and something of the pagan religion of Ireland. + + + + + +CHAPTER I +THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF BRITAIN +449-577 + + + +[Sidenote: Old England] + +For the fatherland of the English race we must look far away from England +itself. In the fifth century after the birth of Christ the one country +which we know to have borne the name of Angeln or the Engleland lay +within the district which is now called Sleswick, a district in the heart +of the peninsula that parts the Baltic from the northern seas. Its +pleasant pastures, its black-timbered homesteads, its prim little +townships looking down on inlets of purple water, were then but a wild +waste of heather and sand, girt along the coast with a sunless woodland +broken here and there by meadows that crept down to the marshes and the +sea. The dwellers in this district, however, seem to have been merely an +outlying fragment of what was called the Engle or English folk, the bulk +of whom lay probably in what is now Lower Hanover and Oldenburg. On one +side of them the Saxons of Westphalia held the land from the Weser to the +Rhine; on the other the Eastphalian Saxons stretched away to the Elbe. +North again of the fragment of the English folk in Sleswick lay another +kindred tribe, the Jutes, whose name is still preserved in their district +of Jutland. Engle, Saxon, and Jute all belonged to the same Low-German +branch of the Teutonic family; and at the moment when history discovers +them they were being drawn together by the ties of a common blood, common +speech, common social and political institutions. There is little ground +indeed for believing that the three tribes looked on themselves as one +people, or that we can as yet apply to them, save by anticipation, the +common name of Englishmen. But each of them was destined to share in the +conquest of the land in which we live; and it is from the union of all of +them when its conquest was complete that the English people has sprung. + + +[Sidenote: The English Village] + +Of the temper and life of the folk in this older England we know little. +But from the glimpses that we catch of it when conquest had brought them +to the shores of Britain their political and social organization must +have been that of the German race to which they belonged. In their +villages lay ready formed the social and political life which is round us +in the England of to-day. A belt of forest or waste parted each from its +fellow villages, and within this boundary or mark the "township," as the +village was then called from the "tun" or rough fence and trench that +served as its simple fortification, formed a complete and independent +body, though linked by ties which were strengthening every day to the +townships about it and the tribe of which it formed a part. Its social +centre was the homestead where the aetheling or eorl, a descendant of the +first English settlers in the waste, still handed down the blood and +traditions of his fathers. Around this homestead or aethel, each in its +little croft, stood the lowlier dwellings of freelings or ceorls, men +sprung, it may be, from descendants of the earliest settler who had in +various ways forfeited their claim to a share in the original homestead, +or more probably from incomers into the village who had since settled +round it and been admitted to a share in the land and freedom of the +community. The eorl was distinguished from his fellow villagers by his +wealth and his nobler blood; he was held by them in an hereditary +reverence; and it was from him and his fellow aethelings that +host-leaders, whether of the village or the tribe, were chosen in times of +war. But this claim to precedence rested simply on the free recognition +of his fellow villagers. Within the township every freeman or ceorl was +equal. It was the freeman who was the base of village society. He was the +"free-necked man" whose long hair floated over a neck which had never +bowed to a lord. He was the "weaponed man" who alone bore spear and +sword, and who alone preserved that right of self-redress or private war +which in such a state of society formed the main check upon lawless +outrage. + + +[Sidenote: Justice] + +Among the English, as among all the races of mankind, justice had +originally sprung from each man's personal action. There had been a time +when every freeman was his own avenger. But even in the earliest forms of +English society of which we find traces this right of self-defence was +being modified and restricted by a growing sense of public justice. The +"blood-wite" or compensation in money for personal wrong was the first +effort of the tribe as a whole to regulate private revenge. The freeman's +life and the freeman's limb had each on this system its legal price. "Eye +for eye," ran the rough code, and "life for life," or for each fair +damages. We see a further step towards the modern recognition of a wrong +as done not to the individual man but to the people at large in another +custom of early date. The price of life or limb was paid, not by the +wrong-doer to the man he wronged, but by the family or house of the +wrong-doer to the family or house of the wronged. Order and law were thus +made to rest in each little group of people upon the blood-bond which +knit its families together; every outrage was held to have been done by +all who were linked in blood to the doer of it, every crime to have been +done against all who were linked in blood to the sufferer from it. From +this sense of the value of the family bond as a means of restraining the +wrong-doer by forces which the tribe as a whole did not as yet possess +sprang the first rude forms of English justice. Each kinsman was his +kinsman's keeper, bound to protect him from wrong, to hinder him from +wrong-doing, and to suffer with him and pay for him if wrong were done. +So fully was this principle recognized that even if any man was charged +before his fellow-tribesmen with crime his kinsfolk still remained in +fact his sole judges; for it was by their solemn oath of his innocence or +his guilt that he had to stand or fall. + + +[Sidenote: The Land] + +As the blood-bond gave its first form to English justice, so it gave +their first forms to English society and English warfare. Kinsmen fought +side by side in the hour of battle, and the feelings of honour and +discipline which held the host together were drawn from the common duty +of every man in each little group of warriors to his house. And as they +fought side by side on the field, so they dwelled side by side on the +soil. Harling abode by Harling, and Billing by Billing; and each "wick" +or "ham" or "stead" or "tun" took its name from the kinsmen who dwelled +together in it. In this way the home or "ham" of the Billings was +Billingham, and the "tun" or township of the Harlings was Harlington. But +in such settlements the tie of blood was widened into the larger tie of +land. Land with the German race seems at a very early time to have become +everywhere the accompaniment of full freedom. The freeman was strictly +the free-holder, and the exercise of his full rights as a free member of +the community to which he belonged became inseparable from the possession +of his "holding" in it. But property had not as yet reached that stage of +absolutely personal possession which the social philosophy of a later +time falsely regarded as its earliest state. The woodland and +pasture-land of an English village were still undivided, and every free +villager had the right of turning into it his cattle or swine. The +meadow-land lay in like manner open and undivided from hay-harvest to +spring. It was only when grass began to grow afresh that the common +meadow was fenced off into grass-fields, one for each household in the +village; and when hay-harvest was over fence and division were at an end +again. The plough-land alone was permanently allotted in equal shares +both of corn-land and fallow-land to the families of the freemen, though +even the plough-land was; subject to fresh division as the number of +claimants grew greater or less. + + +[Sidenote: Laet and Slave] + +It was this sharing in the common land which marked off the freeman or +ceorl from the unfree man or laet, the tiller of land which another owned. +As the ceorl was the descendant of settlers who, whether from their +earlier arrival or from kinship with the original settlers of the +village, had been admitted to a share in its land and its corporate life, +so the laet was a descendant of later comers to whom such a share was +denied, or in some cases perhaps of earlier dwellers from whom the land +had been wrested by force of arms. In the modern sense of freedom the laet +was free enough. He had house and home of his own, his life and limb were +as secure as the ceorl's--save as against his lord; it is probable from +what we see in later laws that as time went on he was recognized as a +member of the nation, summoned to the folk-moot, allowed equal right at +law, and called like the full free man to the hosting. But he was unfree +as regards lord and land. He had neither part nor lot in the common land +of the village. The ground which he tilled he held of some freeman of the +tribe to whom he paid rent in labour or in kind. And this man was his +lord. Whatever rights the unfree villager might gain in the general +social life of his fellow villagers, he had no rights as against his +lord. He could leave neither land nor lord at his will. He was bound to +render due service to his lord in tillage or in fight. So long however as +these services were done the land was his own. His lord could not take it +from him; and he was bound to give him aid and protection in exchange for +his services. + +Far different from the position of the laet was that of the slave, though +there is no ground for believing that the slave class was other than a +small one. It was a class which sprang mainly from debt or crime. Famine +drove men to "bend their heads in the evil days for meat"; the debtor, +unable to discharge his debt, flung on the ground his freeman's sword and +spear, took up the labourer's mattock, and placed his head as a slave +within a master's hands. The criminal whose kinsfolk would not make up +his fine became a crime-serf of the plaintiff or the king. Sometimes a +father pressed by need sold children and wife into bondage. In any case +the slave became part of the live stock of his master's estate, to be +willed away at death with horse or ox, whose pedigree was kept as +carefully as his own. His children were bondsmen like himself; even a +freeman's children by a slave mother inherited the mother's taint. "Mine +is the calf that is born of my cow," ran an English proverb. Slave cabins +clustered round the homestead of every rich landowner; ploughman, +shepherd, goatherd, swineherd, oxherd and cowherd, dairymaid, barnman, +sower, hayward and woodward, were often slaves. It was not indeed slavery +such as we have known in modern times, for stripes and bonds were rare: +if the slave was slain it was by an angry blow, not by the lash. But his +master could slay him if he would; it was but a chattel the less. The +slave had no place in the justice court, no kinsmen to claim vengeance or +guilt-fine for his wrong. If a stranger slew him, his lord claimed the +damages; if guilty of wrong-doing, "his skin paid for him" under his +master's lash. If he fled he might be chased like a strayed beast, and +when caught he might be flogged to death. If the wrong-doer were a +woman-slave she might be burned. + +[Sidenote: The Moot] + +With the public life of the village however the slave had nothing, the +last in early days little, to do. In its Moot, the common meeting of its +villagers for justice and government, a slave had no place or voice, +while the last was originally represented by the lord whose land he +tilled. The life, the sovereignty of the settlement resided solely in the +body of the freemen whose holdings lay round the moot-hill or the sacred +tree where the community met from time to time to deal out its own +justice and to make its own laws. Here new settlers were admitted to the +freedom of the township, and bye-laws framed and headman and tithing-man +chosen for its governance. Here plough-land and meadow-land were shared +in due lot among the villagers, and field and homestead passed from man +to man by the delivery of a turf cut from its soil. Here strife of farmer +with farmer was settled according to the "customs" of the township as its +elder men stated them, and four men were chosen to follow headman or +ealdorman to hundred-court or war. It is with a reverence such as is +stirred by the sight of the head-waters of some mighty river that one +looks back to these village-moots of Friesland or Sleswick. It was here +that England learned to be a "mother of Parliaments." It was in these +tiny knots of farmers that the men from whom Englishmen were to spring +learned the worth of public opinion, of public discussion, the worth of +the agreement, the "common sense," the general conviction to which +discussion leads, as of the laws which derive their force from being +expressions of that general conviction. A humourist of our own day has +laughed at Parliaments as "talking shops," and the laugh has been echoed +by some who have taken humour for argument. But talk is persuasion, and +persuasion is force, the one force which can sway freemen to deeds such +as those which have made England what she is. The "talk" of the village +moot, the strife and judgement of men giving freely their own rede and +setting it as freely aside for what they learn to be the wiser rede of +other men, is the groundwork of English history. + +[Sidenote: The Folk] + +Small therefore as it might be, the township or village was thus the +primary and perfect type of English life, domestic, social, and +political. All that England has been since lay there. But changes of +which we know nothing had long before the time at which our history opens +grouped these little commonwealths together in larger communities, +whether we name them Tribe, People, or Folk. The ties of race and kindred +were no doubt drawn tighter by the needs of war. The organization of each +Folk, as such, sprang in all likelihood mainly from war, from a common +greed of conquest, a common need of defence. Its form at any rate was +wholly military. The Folk-moot was in fact the war-host, the gathering of +every freeman of the tribe in arms. The head of the Folk, a head who +existed only so long as war went on, was the leader whom the host chose +to command it. Its Witenagemot or meeting of wise men was the host's +council of war, the gathering of those ealdormen who had brought the men +of their villages to the field. The host was formed by levies from the +various districts of the tribe; the larger of which probably owed their +name of "hundreds" to the hundred warriors which each originally sent to +it. In historic times however the regularity of such a military +organization, if it ever existed, had passed away, and the quotas varied +with the varying customs of each district. But men, whether many or few, +were still due from each district to the host, and a cry of war at once +called town-reeve and hundred-reeve with their followers to the field. + +The military organization of the tribe thus gave from the first its form +to the civil organization. But the peculiar shape which its civil +organization assumed was determined by a principle familiar to the +Germanic races and destined to exercise a vast influence on the future of +mankind. This was the principle of representation. The four or ten +villagers who followed the reeve of each township to the general muster +of the hundred were held to represent the whole body of the township from +whence they came. Their voice was its voice, their doing its doing, their +pledge its pledge. The hundred-moot, a moot which was made by this +gathering of the representatives of the townships that lay within its +bounds, thus became at once a court of appeal from the moots of each +separate village as well as of arbitration in dispute between township +and township. The judgement of graver crimes and of life or death fell to +its share; while it necessarily possessed the same right of law-making +for the hundred that the village-moot possessed for each separate +village. And as hundred-moot stood above town-moot, so above the +hundred-moot stood the Folk-moot, the general muster of the people in +arms, at once war-host and highest law-court and general Parliament of +the tribe. But whether in Folk-moot or hundred-moot, the principle of +representation was preserved. In both the constitutional forms, the forms +of deliberation and decision, were the same. In each the priests +proclaimed silence, the ealdormen of higher blood spoke, groups of +freemen from each township stood round, shaking their spears in assent, +clashing shields in applause, settling matters in the end by loud shouts +of "Aye" or "Nay." + +[Sidenote: Social Life] + +Of the social or the industrial life of our fathers in this older England +we know less than of their political life. But there is no ground for +believing them to have been very different in these respects from the +other German peoples who were soon to overwhelm the Roman world. Though +their border nowhere touched the border of the Empire they were far from +being utterly strange to its civilization. Roman commerce indeed reached +the shores of the Baltic, and we have abundant evidence that the arts and +refinement of Rome were brought into contact with these earlier +Englishmen. Brooches, sword-belts, and shield-bosses which have been +found in Sleswick, and which can be dated not later than the close of the +third century, are clearly either of Roman make or closely modelled on +Roman metal-work. Discoveries of Roman coins in Sleswick peat-mosses +afford a yet more conclusive proof of direct intercourse with the Empire. +But apart from these outer influences the men of the three tribes were +far from being mere savages. They were fierce warriors, but they were +also busy fishers and tillers of the soil, as proud of their skill in +handling plough and mattock or steering the rude boat with which they +hunted walrus and whale as of their skill in handling sword and spear. +They were hard drinkers, no doubt, as they were hard toilers, and the +"ale-feast" was the centre of their social life. But coarse as the revel +might seem to modern eyes, the scene within the timbered hall which rose +in the midst of their villages was often Homeric in its simplicity and +dignity. Queen or Eorl's wife with a train of maidens bore ale-bowl or +mead-bowl round the hall from the high settle of King or Ealdorman in the +midst to the mead benches ranged around its walls, while the gleeman sang +the hero-songs of his race. Dress and arms showed traces of a love of art +and beauty, none the less real that it was rude and incomplete. Rings, +amulets, ear-rings, neck-pendants, proved in their workmanship the +deftness of the goldsmith's art. Cloaks were often fastened with golden +buckles of curious and exquisite form, set sometimes with rough jewels +and inlaid with enamel. The bronze boar-crest on the warrior's helmet, +the intricate adornment of the warrior's shield, tell like the honour in +which the smith was held their tale of industrial art. The curiously +twisted glass goblets, so common in the early graves of Kent, are shewn +by their form to be of English workmanship. It is only in the English +pottery, hand-made, and marked with coarse zigzag patterns, that we find +traces of utter rudeness. + +[Sidenote: Religion] + +The religion of these men was the same as that of the rest of the German +peoples. Christianity had by this time brought about the conversion of +the Roman Empire, but it had not penetrated as yet among the forests of +the north. The common God of the English people was Woden, the war-god, +the guardian of ways and boundaries, to whom his worshippers attributed +the invention of letters, and whom every tribe held to be the first +ancestor of its kings. Our own names for the days of the week still +recall to us the gods whom our fathers worshipped in their German +homeland. Wednesday is Woden's-day, as Thursday is the day of Thunder, +the god of air and storm and rain. Friday is Frea's-day, the deity of +peace and joy and fruitfulness, whose emblems, borne aloft by dancing +maidens, brought increase to every field and stall they visited. Saturday +may commemorate an obscure god Saetere; Tuesday the dark god, Tiw, to meet +whom was death. Eostre, the goddess of the dawn or of the spring, lends +her name to the Christian festival of the Resurrection. Behind these +floated the dim shapes of an older mythology; "Wyrd," the death-goddess, +whose memory lingered long in the "Weird" of northern superstition; or +the Shield-maidens, the "mighty women" who, an old rime tells us, +"wrought on the battle-field their toil and hurled the thrilling +javelins." Nearer to the popular fancy lay deities of wood and fell, or +hero-gods of legend and song; Nicor, the water-sprite who survives in our +nixies and "Old Nick"; Weland, the forger of weighty shields and +sharp-biting swords, who found a later home in the "Weyland's smithy" of +Berkshire; AEgil, the hero-archer, whose legend is one with that of +Cloudesly or Tell. A nature-worship of this sort lent itself ill to the +purposes of a priesthood; and though a priestly class existed it seems at +no time to have had much weight among Englishmen. As each freeman was his +own judge and his own lawmaker, so he was his own house-priest; and +English worship lay commonly in the sacrifice which the house-father +offered to the gods of his hearth. + +[Sidenote: The English Temper] + +It is not indeed in Woden-worship or in the worship of the older gods of +flood and fell that we must look for the real religion of our fathers. +The song of Beowulf, though the earliest of English poems, is as we have +it now a poem of the eighth century, the work it may be of some English +missionary of the days of Baeda and Boniface who gathered in the very +homeland of his race the legends of its earlier prime. But the thin veil +of Christianity which he has flung over it fades away as we follow the +hero-legend of our fathers; and the secret of their moral temper, of +their conception of life breathes through every line. Life was built with +them not on the hope of a hereafter, but on the proud self-consciousness +of noble souls. "I have this folk ruled these fifty winters," sings the +hero-king as he sits death-smitten beside the dragon's mound. "Lives +there no folk-king of kings about me--not any one of them--dare in the +war-strife welcome my onset! Time's change and chances I have abided, +held my own fairly, sought not to snare men; oath never sware I falsely +against right. So for all this may I glad be at heart now, sick though I +sit here, wounded with death-wounds!" In men of such a temper, strong +with the strength of manhood and full of the vigour and the love of life, +the sense of its shortness and of the mystery of it all woke chords of a +pathetic poetry. "Soon will it be," ran the warning rime, "that sickness +or sword-blade shear thy strength from thee, or the fire ring thee, or +the flood whelm thee, or the sword grip thee, or arrow hit thee, or age +o'ertake thee, and thine eye's brightness sink down in darkness." Strong +as he might be, man struggled in vain with the doom that encompassed him, +that girded his life with a thousand perils and broke it at so short a +span. "To us," cries Beowulf in his last fight, "to us it shall be as our +Weird betides, that Weird that is every man's lord!" But the sadness with +which these Englishmen fronted the mysteries of life and death had +nothing in it of the unmanly despair which bids men eat and drink for +to-morrow they die. Death leaves man man and master of his fate. The +thought of good fame, of manhood, is stronger than the thought of doom. +"Well shall a man do when in the strife he minds but of winning longsome +renown, nor for his life cares!" "Death is better than life of shame!" +cries Beowulf's sword-fellow. Beowulf himself takes up his strife with +the fiend, "go the weird as it will." If life is short, the more cause to +work bravely till it is over. "Each man of us shall abide the end of his +life-work; let him that may work, work his doomed deeds ere death come!" + +[Sidenote: English Piracy] + +The energy of these peoples found vent in a restlessness which drove them +to take part in the general attack of the German race on the Empire of +Rome. For busy tillers and busy fishers as Englishmen were, they were at +heart fighters; and their world was a world of war. Tribe warred with +tribe, and village with village; even within the village itself feuds +parted household from household, and passions of hatred and vengeance +were handed on from father to son. Their mood was above all a mood of +fighting men, venturesome, self-reliant, proud, with a dash of hardness +and cruelty in it, but ennobled by the virtues which spring from war, by +personal courage and loyalty to plighted word, by a high and stern sense +of manhood and the worth of man. A grim joy in hard fighting was already +a characteristic of the race. War was the Englishman's "shield-play" and +"sword-game"; the gleeman's verse took fresh fire as he sang of the rush +of the host and the crash of its shield-line. Their arms and weapons, +helmet and mailshirt, tall spear and javelin, sword and seax, the short +broad dagger that hung at each warrior's girdle, gathered to them much of +the legend and the art which gave colour and poetry to the life of +Englishmen. Each sword had its name like a living thing. And next to +their love of war came their love of the sea. Everywhere throughout +Beowulf's song, as everywhere throughout the life that it pictures, we +catch the salt whiff of the sea. The Englishman was as proud of his +sea-craft as of his war-craft; sword in hand he plunged into the sea to +meet walrus and sea-lion; he told of his whale-chase amidst the icy +waters of the north. Hardly less than his love for the sea was the love +he bore to the ship that traversed it. In the fond playfulness of English +verse the ship was "the wave-floater," "the foam-necked," "like a bird" +as it skimmed the wave-crest, "like a swan" as its curved prow breasted +the "swan-road" of the sea. + +Their passion for the sea marked out for them their part in the general +movement of the German nations. While Goth and Lombard were slowly +advancing over mountain and plain the boats of the Englishmen pushed +faster over the sea. Bands of English rovers, outdriven by stress of +fight, had long found a home there, and lived as they could by sack of +vessel or coast. Chance has preserved for us in a Sleswick peat-bog one +of the war-keels of these early pirates. The boat is flat-bottomed, +seventy feet long and eight or nine feet wide, its sides of oak boards +fastened with bark ropes and iron bolts. Fifty oars drove it over the +waves with a freight of warriors whose arms, axes, swords, lances, and +knives, were found heaped together in its hold. Like the galleys of the +Middle Ages such boats could only creep cautiously along from harbour to +harbour in rough weather; but in smooth water their swiftness fitted them +admirably for the piracy by which the men of these tribes were already +making themselves dreaded. Its flat bottom enabled them to beach the +vessel on any fitting coast; and a step on shore at once transformed the +boatmen into a war-band. From the first the daring of the English race +broke out in the secrecy and suddenness of the pirates' swoop, in the +fierceness of their onset, in the careless glee with which they seized +either sword or oar. "Foes are they," sang a Roman poet of the time, +"fierce beyond other foes and cunning as they are fierce; the sea is +their school of war and the storm their friend; they are sea-wolves that +live on the pillage of the world!" + +[Sidenote: Britain] + +Of the three English tribes the Saxons lay nearest to the Empire, and +they were naturally the first to touch the Roman world; at the close of +the third century indeed their boats appeared in such force in the +English Channel as to call for a special fleet to resist them. The piracy +of our fathers had thus brought them to the shores of a land which, dear +as it is now to Englishmen, had not as yet been trodden by English feet. +This land was Britain. When the Saxon boats touched its coast the island +was the westernmost province of the Roman Empire. In the fifty-fifth year +before Christ a descent of Julius Caesar revealed it to the Roman world; +and a century after Caesar's landing the Emperor Claudius undertook its +conquest. The work was swiftly carried out. Before thirty years were over +the bulk of the island had passed beneath the Roman sway and the Roman +frontier had been carried to the Firths of Forth and of Clyde. The work +of civilization followed fast on the work of the sword. To the last +indeed the distance of the island from the seat of empire left her less +Romanized than any other province of the west. The bulk of the population +scattered over the country seem in spite of imperial edicts to have clung +to their old law as to their old language, and to have retained some +traditional allegiance to their native chiefs. But Roman civilization +rested mainly on city life, and in Britain as elsewhere the city was +thoroughly Roman. In towns such as Lincoln or York, governed by their own +municipal officers, guarded by massive walls, and linked together by a +network of magnificent roads which reached from one end of the island to +the other, manners, language, political life, all were of Rome. + +For three hundred years the Roman sword secured order and peace without +Britain and within, and with peace and order came a wide and rapid +prosperity. Commerce sprang up in ports amongst which London held the +first rank; agriculture flourished till Britain became one of the +corn-exporting countries of the world; the mineral resources of the +province were explored in the tin mines of Cornwall, the lead mines of +Somerset or Northumberland, and the iron mines of the Forest of Dean. But +evils which sapped the strength of the whole Empire told at last on the +province of Britain. Wealth and population alike declined under a +crushing system of taxation, under restrictions which fettered industry, +under a despotism which crushed out all local independence. And with +decay within came danger from without. For centuries past the Roman +frontier had held back the barbaric world beyond it, the Parthian of the +Euphrates, the Numidian of the African desert, the German of the Danube +or the Rhine. In Britain a wall drawn from Newcastle to Carlisle bridled +the British tribes, the Picts as they were called, who had been sheltered +from Roman conquest by the fastnesses of the Highlands. It was this mass +of savage barbarism which broke upon the Empire as it sank into decay. In +its western dominions the triumph of these assailants was complete. The +Franks conquered and colonized Gaul. The West-Goths conquered and +colonized Spain. The Vandals founded a kingdom in Africa. The Burgundians +encamped in the border-land between Italy and the Rhone. The East-Goths +ruled at last in Italy itself. + +[Sidenote: Conquests of Jute and Saxon] + +It was to defend Italy against the Goths that Rome in the opening of the +fifth century withdrew her legions from Britain, and from that moment the +province was left to struggle unaided against the Picts. Nor were these +its only enemies. While marauders from Ireland, whose inhabitants then +bore the name of Scots, harried the west, the boats of Saxon pirates, as +we have seen, were swarming off its eastern and southern coasts. For some +thirty years Britain held bravely out against these assailants; but civil +strife broke its powers of resistance, and its rulers fell back at last +on the fatal policy by which the Empire invited its doom while striving +to avert it, the policy of matching barbarian against barbarian. By the +usual promises of land and pay a band of warriors was drawn for this +purpose from Jutland in 449 with two ealdormen, Hengest and Horsa, at +their head. If by English history we mean the history of Englishmen in +the land which from that time they made their own, it is with this +landing of Hengest's war-band that English history begins. They landed on +the shores of the Isle of Thanet at a spot known since as Ebbsfleet. No +spot can be so sacred to Englishmen as the spot which first felt the +tread of English feet. There is little to catch the eye in Ebbsfleet +itself, a mere lift of ground with a few grey cottages dotted over it, +cut off nowadays from the sea by a reclaimed meadow and a sea-wall. But +taken as a whole the scene has a wild beauty of its own. To the right the +white curve of Ramsgate cliffs looks down on the crescent of Pegwell Bay; +far away to the left across grey marsh-levels where smoke-wreaths mark +the sites of Richborough and Sandwich the coast-line trends dimly towards +Deal. Everything in the character of the spot confirms the national +tradition which fixed here the landing-place of our fathers; for the +physical changes of the country since the fifth century have told little +on its main features. At the time of Hengest's landing a broad inlet of +sea parted Thanet from the mainland of Britain; and through this inlet +the pirate boats would naturally come sailing with a fair wind to what +was then the gravel-spit of Ebbsfleet. + +[Illustration: Britain and the English Conquest (v1-map-1t.png)] + +The work for which the mercenaries had been hired was quickly done; and +the Picts are said to have been scattered to the winds in a battle fought +on the eastern coast of Britain. But danger from the Pict was hardly over +when danger came from the Jutes themselves. Their fellow-pirates must +have flocked from the Channel to their settlement in Thanet; the inlet +between Thanet and the mainland was crossed, and the Englishmen won their +first victory over the Britons in forcing their passage of the Medway at +the village of Aylesford. A second defeat at the passage of the Cray +drove the British forces in terror upon London; but the ground was soon +won back again, and it was not till 465 that a series of petty conflicts +which had gone on along the shores of Thanet made way for a decisive +struggle at Wippedsfleet. Here however the overthrow was so terrible that +from this moment all hope of saving Northern Kent seems to have been +abandoned, and it was only along its southern shore that the Britons held +their ground. Eight years later, in 473, the long contest was over, and +with the fall of Lymne, whose broken walls look from the slope to which +they cling over the great flat of Romney Marsh, the work of the first +English conqueror was done. + +The warriors of Hengest had been drawn from the Jutes, the smallest of +the three tribes who were to blend in the English people. But the greed +of plunder now told on the great tribe which stretched from the Elbe to +the Rhine, and in 477 Saxon invaders were seen pushing slowly along the +strip of land which lay westward of Kent between the weald and the sea. +Nowhere has the physical aspect of the country more utterly changed. A +vast sheet of scrub, woodland, and waste which then bore the name of the +Andredsweald stretched for more than a hundred miles from the borders of +Kent to the Hampshire Downs, extending northward almost to the Thames and +leaving only a thin strip of coast which now bears the name of Sussex +between its southern edge and the sea. This coast was guarded by a +fortress which occupied the spot now called Pevensey, the future +landing-place of the Norman Conqueror; and the fall of this fortress of +Anderida in 491 established the kingdom of the South-Saxons. "AElle and +Cissa beset Anderida," so ran the pitiless record of the conquerors, "and +slew all that were therein, nor was there henceforth one Briton left." +But Hengest and AElle's men had touched hardly more than the coast, and +the true conquest of Southern Britain was reserved for a fresh band of +Saxons, a tribe known as the Gewissas, who in 495 landed under Cerdic and +Cynric on the shores of the Southampton Water, and pushed to the great +downs or Gwent where Winchester offered so rich a prize. Nowhere was the +strife fiercer than here; and it was not till 519 that a decisive victory +at Charford ended the struggle for the "Gwent" and set the crown of the +West-Saxons on the head of Cerdic. But the forest-belt around it checked +any further advance; and only a year after Charford the Britons rallied +under a new leader, Arthur, and threw back the invaders as they pressed +westward through the Dorsetshire woodlands in a great overthrow at +Badbury or Mount Badon. The defeat was followed by a long pause in the +Saxon advance from the southern coast, but while the Gewissas rested a +series of victories whose history is lost was giving to men of the same +Saxon tribe the coast district north of the mouth of the Thames. It is +probable however that the strength of Camulodunum, the predecessor of our +modern Colchester, made the progress of these assailants a slow and +doubtful one; and even when its reduction enabled the East-Saxons to +occupy the territory to which they have given their name of Essex a line +of woodland which has left its traces in Epping and Hainault Forests +checked their further advance into the island. + +[Sidenote: Conquests of the Eagle] + +Though seventy years had passed since the victory of Aylesford only the +outskirts of Britain were won. The invaders were masters as yet but of +Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, and Essex. From London to St. David's Head, from +the Andredsweald to the Firth of Forth the country still remained +unconquered: and there was little in the years which followed Arthur's +triumph to herald that onset of the invaders which was soon to make +Britain England. Till now its assailants had been drawn from two only of +the three tribes whom we saw dwelling by the northern sea, from the +Saxons and the Jutes. But the main work of conquest was to be done by the +third, by the tribe which bore that name of Engle or Englishmen which was +to absorb that of Saxon and Jute, and to stamp itself on the people which +sprang from the union of the conquerors as on the land that they won. The +Engle had probably been settling for years along the coast of Northumbria +and in the great district which was cut off from the rest of Britain by +the Wash and the Fens, the later East-Anglia. But it was not till the +moment we have reached that the line of defences which had hitherto held +the invaders at bay was turned by their appearance in the Humber and the +Trent. This great river-line led like a highway into the heart of +Britain; and civil strife seems to have broken the strength of British +resistance. But of the incidents of this final struggle we know nothing. +One part of the English force marched from the Humber over the Yorkshire +wolds to found what was called the kingdom of the Deirans. Under the +Empire political power had centred in the district between the Humber and +the Roman wall; York was the capital of Roman Britain; villas of rich +landowners studded the valley of the Ouse; and the bulk of the garrison +maintained in the island lay camped along its northern border. But no +record tells us how Yorkshire was won, or how the Engle made themselves +masters of the uplands about Lincoln. It is only by their later +settlements that we follow their march into the heart of Britain. Seizing +the valley of the Don and whatever breaks there were in the woodland that +then filled the space between the Humber and the Trent, the Engle +followed the curve of the latter river, and struck along the line of its +tributary the Soar. Here round the Roman Ratae, the predecessor of our +Leicester, settled a tribe known as the Middle-English, while a small +body pushed further southwards, and under the name of "South-Engle" +occupied the oolitic upland that forms our present Northamptonshire. But +the mass of the invaders seem to have held to the line of the Trent and +to have pushed westward to its head-waters. Repton, Lichfield, and +Tamworth mark the country of these western Englishmen, whose older name +was soon lost in that of Mercians, or Men of the March. Their settlement +was in fact a new march or borderland between conqueror and conquered; +for here the impenetrable fastness of the Peak, the mass of Cannock +Chase, and the broken country of Staffordshire enabled the Briton to make +a fresh and desperate stand. + +[Sidenote: Conquests of West-Saxons] + +It was probably this conquest of Mid-Britain by the Engle that roused the +West-Saxons to a new advance. For thirty years they had rested inactive +within the limits of the Gwent, but in 552 their capture of the hill-fort +of Old Sarum threw open the reaches of the Wiltshire downs, and a march +of King Cuthwulf on the Thames in 571 made them masters of the districts +which now form Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Pushing along the upper +valley of Avon to a new battle at Barbury Hill they swooped at last from +their uplands on the rich prey that lay along the Severn. Gloucester, +Cirencester, and Bath, cities which had leagued under their British kings +to resist this onset, became in 577 the spoil of an English victory at +Deorham, and the line of the great western river lay open to the arms of +the conquerors. Once the West-Saxons penetrated to the borders of +Chester, and Uriconium, a town beside the Wrekin which has been recently +brought again to light, went up in flames. The raid ended in a crushing +defeat which broke the West-Saxon strength, but a British poet in verses +still left to us sings piteously the death-song of Uriconium, "the white +town in the valley," the town of white stone gleaming among the green +woodlands. The torch of the foe had left it a heap of blackened ruins +where the singer wandered through halls he had known in happier days, the +halls of its chief Kyndylan, "without fire, without light, without song," +their stillness broken only by the eagle's scream, the eagle who "has +swallowed fresh drink, heart's blood of Kyndylan the fair." + + + + + +CHAPTER II +THE ENGLISH KINGDOMS +577-796 + + + +[Sidenote: Britain becomes England] + +With the victory of Deorham the conquest of the bulk of Britain was +complete. Eastward of a line which may be roughly drawn along the +moorlands of Northumberland and Yorkshire through Derbyshire and the +Forest of Arden to the Lower Severn, and thence by Mendip to the sea, the +island had passed into English hands. Britain had in the main become +England. And within this new England a Teutonic society was settled on +the wreck of Rome. So far as the conquest had yet gone it had been +complete. Not a Briton remained as subject or slave on English ground. +Sullenly, inch by inch, the beaten men drew back from the land which +their conquerors had won; and eastward of the border line which the +English sword had drawn all was now purely English. + +It is this which distinguishes the conquest of Britain from that of other +provinces of Rome. The conquest of Gaul by the Franks or that of Italy by +the Lombards proved little more than a forcible settlement of the one or +the other among tributary subjects who were destined in a long course of +ages to absorb their conquerors. French is the tongue, not of the Frank, +but of the Gaul whom he overcame; and the fair hair of the Lombard is all +but unknown in Lombardy. But the English conquest of Britain up to the +point which we have reached was a sheer dispossession of the people whom +the English conquered. It was not that Englishmen, fierce and cruel as at +times they seem to have been, were more fierce or more cruel than other +Germans who attacked the Empire; nor have we any ground for saying that +they, unlike the Burgundian or the Frank, were utterly strange to the +Roman civilization. Saxon mercenaries are found as well as Frank +mercenaries in the pay of Rome; and the presence of Saxon vessels in the +Channel for a century before the descent on Britain must have +familiarized its invaders with what civilization was to be found in the +Imperial provinces of the West. What really made the difference between +the fate of Britain and that of the rest of the Roman world was the +stubborn courage of the British themselves. In all the world-wide +struggle between Rome and the German peoples no land was so stubbornly +fought for or so hardly won. In Gaul no native resistance met Frank or +Visigoth save from the brave peasants of Britanny and Auvergne. No +popular revolt broke out against the rule of Odoacer or Theodoric in +Italy. But in Britain the invader was met by a courage almost equal to +his own. Instead of quartering themselves quietly, like their fellows +abroad, on subjects who were glad to buy peace by obedience and tribute, +the English had to make every inch of Britain their own by hard fighting. + +This stubborn resistance was backed too by natural obstacles of the +gravest kind. Elsewhere in the Roman world the work of the conquerors was +aided by the very civilization of Rome. Vandal and Frank marched along +Roman highways over ground cleared by the Roman axe and crossed river or +ravine on the Roman bridge. It was so doubtless with the English +conquerors of Britain. But though Britain had long been Roman, her +distance from the seat of Empire left her less Romanized than any other +province of the West. Socially the Roman civilization had made little +impression on any but the townsfolk, and the material civilization of the +island was yet more backward than its social. Its natural defences threw +obstacles in its invaders' way. In the forest belts which stretched over +vast spaces of country they found barriers which in all cases checked +their advance and in some cases finally stopped it. The Kentishmen and +the South-Saxons were brought utterly to a standstill by the +Andredsweald. The East-Saxons could never pierce the woods of their +western border. The Fens proved impassable to the Northfolk and the +Southfolk of East-Anglia. It was only after a long and terrible struggle +that the West-Saxons could hew their way through the forests which +sheltered the "Gwent" of the southern coast. Their attempt to break out +of the circle of woodland which girt in the downs was in fact fruitless +for thirty years; and in the height of their later power they were thrown +back from the forests of Cheshire. + +[Sidenote: Withdrawal of the Britons] + +It is only by realizing in this way the physical as well as the moral +circumstances of Britain that we can understand the character of its +earlier conquest. Field by field, town by town, forest by forest, the +land was won. And as each bit of ground was torn away by the stranger, +the Briton sullenly withdrew from it only to turn doggedly and fight for +the next. There is no need to believe that the clearing of the land meant +so impossible a thing as the general slaughter of the men who held it. +Slaughter there was, no doubt, on the battle-field or in towns like +Anderida whose long resistance woke wrath in their besiegers. But for the +most part the Britons were not slaughtered; they were defeated and drew +back. Such a withdrawal was only made possible by the slowness of the +conquest. For it is not only the stoutness of its defence which +distinguishes the conquest of Britain from that of the other provinces of +the Empire, but the weakness of attack. As the resistance of the Britons +was greater than that of the other provincials of Rome so the forces of +their assailants were less. Attack by sea was less easy than attack by +land, and the numbers who were brought across by the boats of Hengest or +Cerdic cannot have rivalled those which followed Theodoric or Chlodewig +across the Alps or the Rhine. Landing in small parties, and but gradually +reinforced by after-comers, the English invaders could only slowly and +fitfully push the Britons back. The absence of any joint action among the +assailants told in the same way. Though all spoke the same language and +used the same laws, they had no such bond of political union as the +Franks; and though all were bent on winning the same land, each band and +each leader preferred their own separate course of action to any +collective enterprise. + +[Sidenote: The English settlement] + +Under such conditions the overrunning of Britain could not fail to be a +very different matter from the rapid and easy overrunning of such +countries as Gaul. How slow the work of English conquest was may be seen +from the fact that it took nearly thirty years to win Kent alone, and +sixty to complete the conquest of Southern Britain, and that the conquest +of the bulk of the island was only wrought out after two centuries of +bitter warfare. But it was just through the length of the struggle that +of all the German conquests this proved the most thorough and complete. +So far as the English sword in these earlier days had reached, Britain +had become England, a land, that is, not of Britons but of Englishmen. +Even if a few of the vanquished people lingered as slaves round the +homesteads of their English conquerors, or a few of their household words +mingled with the English tongue, doubtful exceptions such as these leave +the main facts untouched. The keynote of the conquest was firmly struck. +When the English invasion was stayed for a while by the civil wars of the +invaders, the Briton had disappeared from the greater part of the land +which had been his own; and the tongue, the religion, the laws of his +English conquerors reigned without a break from Essex to Staffordshire +and from the British Channel to the Firth of Forth. + +[Illustration: The English Kingdoms in A.D. 600 (v1-map-2t.jpg)] + +For the driving out of the Briton was, as we have seen, but a prelude to +the settlement of his conqueror. What strikes us at once in the new +England is this, that it was the one purely German nation that rose upon +the wreck of Rome. In other lands, in Spain or Gaul or Italy, though they +were equally conquered by German peoples, religion, social life, +administrative order, still remained Roman. Britain was almost the only +province of the Empire where Rome died into a vague tradition of the +past. The whole organization of government and society disappeared with +the people who used it. Roman roads indeed still led to desolate cities. +Roman camps still crowned hill and down. The old divisions of the land +remained to furnish bounds of field and farm for the new settlers. The +Roman church, the Roman country-house, was left standing, though reft of +priest and lord. But Rome was gone. The mosaics, the coins which we dig +up in our fields are no relics of our English fathers, but of a world +which our fathers' sword swept utterly away. Its law, its literature, its +manners, its faith, went with it. Nothing was a stronger proof of the +completeness of this destruction of all Roman life than the religious +change which passed over the land. Alone among the German assailants of +Rome the English stood aloof from the faith of the Empire they helped to +overthrow. The new England was a heathen country. Homestead and boundary, +the very days of the week, bore the names of new gods who displaced +Christ. + +As we stand amidst the ruins of town or country-house which recall to us +the wealth and culture of Roman Britain, it is hard to believe that a +conquest which left them heaps of crumbling stones was other than a curse +to the land over which it passed. But if the new England which sprang +from the wreck of Britain seemed for the moment a waste from which the +arts, the letters, the refinement of the world had fled hopelessly away, +it contained within itself germs of a nobler life than that which had +been destroyed. The base of Roman society here as everywhere throughout +the Roman world was the slave, the peasant who had been crushed by +tyranny, political and social, into serfdom. The base of the new English +society was the freeman whom we have seen tilling, judging, or fighting +for himself by the Northern Sea. However roughly he dealt with the +material civilization of Britain while the struggle went on, it was +impossible that such a man could be a mere destroyer. War in fact was no +sooner over than the warrior settled down into the farmer, and the home +of the ceorl rose beside the heap of goblin-haunted stones that marked +the site of the villa he had burned. The settlement of the English in the +conquered land was nothing less than an absolute transfer of English +society in its completest form to the soil of Britain. The slowness of +their advance, the small numbers of each separate band in its descent +upon the coast, made it possible for the invaders to bring with them, or +to call to them when their work was done, the wives and children, the laet +and slave, even the cattle they had left behind them. The first wave of +conquest was but the prelude to the gradual migration of a whole people. +It was England which settled down on British soil, England with its own +language, its own laws, its complete social fabric, its system of village +life and village culture, its township and its hundred, its principle of +kinship, its principle of representation. It was not as mere pirates or +stray war-bands, but as peoples already made, and fitted by a common +temper and common customs to draw together into our English nation in the +days to come, that our fathers left their German home-land for the land +in which we live. Their social and political organization remained +radically unchanged. In each of the little kingdoms which rose on the +wreck of Britain, the host camped on the land it had won, and the +divisions of the host supplied here as in its older home the rough +groundwork of local distribution. The land occupied by the hundred +warriors who formed the unit of military organization became perhaps the +local hundred; but it is needless to attach any notion of precise +uniformity, either in the number of settlers or in the area of their +settlement, to such a process as this, any more than to the army +organization which the process of distribution reflected. From the large +amount of public land which we find existing afterwards it has been +conjectured with some probability that the number of settlers was far too +small to occupy the whole of the country at their disposal, and this +unoccupied ground became "folk-land," the common property of the tribe as +at a later time of the nation. What ground was actually occupied may have +been assigned to each group and each family in the group by lot, and Eorl +and Ceorl gathered round them their laet and slave as in their homeland by +the Rhine or the Elbe. And with the English people passed to the shores +of Britain all that was to make Englishmen what they are. For distant and +dim as their life in that older England may have seemed to us, the whole +after-life of Englishmen was there. In its village-moots lay our +Parliament; in the gleeman of its village-feasts our Chaucer and our +Shakspere; in the pirate-bark stealing from creek to creek our Drakes and +our Nelsons. Even the national temper was fully formed. Civilization, +letters, science, religion itself, have done little to change the inner +mood of Englishmen. That love of venture and of toil, of the sea and the +fight, that trust in manhood and the might of man, that silent awe of the +mysteries of life and death which lay deep in English souls then as now, +passed with Englishmen to the land which Englishmen had won. + + +[Sidenote: The King] + +But though English society passed thus in its completeness to the soil of +Britain, its primitive organization was affected in more ways than one by +the transfer. In the first place conquest begat the King. It seems +probable that the English had hitherto known nothing of kings in their +own fatherland, where each tribe was satisfied in peace time with the +customary government of village-reeve and hundred-reeve and ealdonnan, +while it gathered at fighting times under war leaders whom it chose for +each campaign. But in the long and obstinate warfare which they waged +against the Britons it was needful to find a common leader whom the +various tribes engaged in conquests such as those of Wessex or Mercia +might follow; and the ceaseless character of a struggle which left few +intervals of rest or peace raised these leaders into a higher position +than that of temporary chieftains. It was no doubt from this cause that +we find Hengest and his son AEsc raised to the kingdom in Kent, or AElle in +Sussex, or Cerdic and Cynric among the West Saxons. The association of +son with father in this new kingship marked the hereditary character +which distinguished it from the temporary office of an ealdorman. The +change was undoubtedly a great one, but it was less than the modern +conception of kingship would lead us to imagine. Hereditary as the +succession was within a single house, each successive king was still the +free choice of his people, and for centuries to come it was held within a +people's right to pass over a claimant too weak or too wicked for the +throne. In war indeed the king was supreme. But in peace his power was +narrowly bounded by the customs of his people and the rede of his wise +men. Justice was not as yet the king's justice, it was the justice of +village and hundred and folk in town-moot and hundred-moot and folk-moot. +It was only with the assent of the wise men that the king could make laws +and declare war and assign public lands and name public officers. Above +all, should his will be to break through the free customs of his people, +he was without the means of putting his will into action, for the one +force he could call on was the host, and the host was the people itself +in arms. + +[Sidenote: The Thegn] + +With the new English king rose a new order of English nobles. The social +distinction of the eorl was founded on the peculiar purity of his blood, +on his long descent from the original settler around whom township and +thorpe grew up. A new distinction was now to be found in service done to +the king. From the earliest times of German society it had been the wont +of young men greedy of honour or seeking training in arms to bind +themselves as "comrades" to king or chief. The leader whom they chose +gave them horses, arms, a seat in his mead hall, and gifts from his +hoard. The "comrade" on the other hand--the gesith or thegn, as he was +called--bound himself to follow and fight for his lord. The principle of +personal dependence as distinguished from the warrior's general duty to +the folk at large was embodied in the thegn. "Chieftains fight for +victory," says Tacitus; "comrades for their chieftain." When one of +Beowulf's "comrades" saw his lord hard bested "he minded him of the +homestead he had given him, of the folk right he gave him as his father +had it; nor might he hold back then." Snatching up sword and shield he +called on his fellow-thegns to follow him to the fight. "I mind me of the +day," he cried, "when we drank the mead, the day we gave pledge to our +lord in the beer hall as he gave us these rings, our pledge that we would +pay him back our war-gear, our helms and our hard swords, if need befel +him. Unmeet is it, methinks, that we should bear back our shields to our +home unless we guard our lord's life." The larger the band of such +"comrades," the more power and repute it gave their lord. It was from +among the chiefs whose war-band was strongest that the leaders of the +host were commonly chosen; and as these leaders grew into kings, the +number of their thegns naturally increased. The rank of the "comrades" +too rose with the rise of their lord. The king's thegns were his +body-guard, the one force ever ready to carry out his will. They were his +nearest and most constant counsellors. As the gathering of petty tribes +into larger kingdoms swelled the number of eorls in each realm, and in a +corresponding degree diminished their social importance, it raised in +equal measure the rank of the king's thegns. A post among them was soon +coveted and won by the greatest and noblest in the land. Their service +was rewarded by exemption from the general jurisdiction of hundred-court +or shire-court, for it was part of a thegn's meed for his service that he +should be judged only by the lord he served. Other meed was found in +grants of public land which made them a local nobility, no longer bound +to actual service in the king's household or the king's war-band, but +still bound to him by personal ties of allegiance far closer than those +which bound an eorl to the chosen war-leader of his tribe. In a word, +thegnhood contained within itself the germ of that later feudalism which +was to battle so fiercely with the Teutonic freedom out of which it grew. + + +[Sidenote: The Bernicians] + +But the strife between the conquering tribes which at once followed on +their conquest of Britain was to bring about changes even more momentous +in the development of the English people. While Jute and Saxon and Engle +were making themselves masters of central and southern Britain, the +English who had landed on its northernmost shores had been slowly winning +for themselves the coast district between the Forth and the Tyne which +bore the name of Bernicia. Their progress seems to have been small till +they were gathered into a kingdom in 547 by Ida the "Flame-bearer," who +found a site for his King's town on the impregnable rock of Bamborough; +nor was it till the reign of his fourth son AEthelric that they gained +full mastery over the Britons along their western border. But once +masters of the Britons the Bernician Englishmen turned to conquer their +English neighbours to the south, the men of Deira, whose first King AElla +was now sinking to the grave. The struggle filled the foreign markets +with English slaves, and one of the most memorable stories in our history +shows us a group of such captives as they stood in the market-place at +Rome, it may be in the great Forum of Trajan, which still in its decay +recalled the glories of the Imperial City. Their white bodies, their fair +faces, their golden hair was noted by a deacon who passed by. "From what +country do these slaves come?" Gregory asked the trader who brought them. +The slave-dealer answered "They are English," or as the word ran in the +Latin form it would bear at Rome, "they are Angles." The deacon's pity +veiled itself in poetic humour. "Not Angles but Angels," he said, "with +faces so angel-like! From what country come they?" "They come," said the +merchant, "from Deira." "_De ira!_" was the untranslatable wordplay of +the vivacious Roman--"aye, plucked from God's ire and called to Christ's +mercy! And what is the name of their king?" They told him "AElla," and +Gregory seized on the word as of good omen. "Alleluia shall be sung in +AElla's land," he said, and passed on, musing how the angel-faces should +be brought to sing it. + +While Gregory was thus playing with AElla's name the old king passed away, +and with his death in 588 the resistance of his kingdom seems to have +ceased. His children fled over the western border to find refuge among +the Welsh, and AEthelric of Bernicia entered Deira in triumph. A new age +of our history opens in this submission of one English people to another. +When the two kingdoms were united under a common lord the period of +national formation began. If a new England sprang out of the mass of +English states which covered Britain after its conquest, we owe it to the +gradual submission of the smaller peoples to the supremacy of a common +political head. The difference in power between state and state which +inevitably led to this process of union was due to the character which +the conquest of Britain was now assuming. Up to this time all the +kingdoms which had been established by the invaders had stood in the main +on a footing of equality. All had taken an independent share in the work +of conquest. Though the oneness of a common blood and a common speech was +recognized by all we find no traces of any common action or common rule. +Even in the two groups of kingdoms, the five English and the five Saxon +kingdoms, which occupied Britain south of the Humber, the relations of +each member of the group to its fellows seem to have been merely local. +It was only locally that East and West and South and North English were +grouped round the Middle English of Leicester, or East and West and South +and North Saxons round the Middle Saxons about London. In neither +instance do we find any real trace of a confederacy, or of the rule of +one member of the group over the others; while north of the Humber the +feeling between the Englishmen of Yorkshire and the Englishmen who had +settled towards the Firth of Forth was one of hostility rather than of +friendship. But this age of isolation, of equality, of independence, had +now come to an end. The progress of the conquest had drawn a sharp line +between the kingdoms of the conquerors. The work of half of them was +done. In the south of the island not only Kent but Sussex, Essex, and +Middlesex were surrounded by English territory, and hindered by that +single fact from all further growth. The same fate had befallen the East +Engle, the South Engle, the Middle and the North Engle. The West Saxons, +on the other hand, and the West Engle, or Mercians, still remained free +to conquer and expand on the south of the Humber, as the Englishmen of +Deira and Bernicia remained free to the north of that river. It was +plain, therefore, that from this moment the growth of these powers would +throw their fellow kingdoms into the background, and that with an +ever-growing inequality of strength must come a new arrangement of +political forces. The greater kingdoms would in the end be drawn to +subject and absorb the lesser ones, and to the war between Englishman and +Briton would be added a struggle between Englishman and Englishman. + +[Sidenote: Kent] + +It was through this struggle and the establishment of a lordship on the +part of the stronger and growing states over their weaker and stationary +fellows that the English kingdoms were to make their first step towards +union in a single England. Such an overlordship seemed destined but a few +years before to fall to the lot of Wessex. The victories of Ceawlin and +Cuthwulf left it the most powerful of the English kingdoms. None of its +fellow states seemed able to hold their own against a power which +stretched from the Chilterns to the Severn and from the Channel to the +Ouse. But after its defeat in the march upon Chester Wessex suddenly +broke down into a chaos of warring tribes; and her place was taken by two +powers whose rise to greatness was as sudden as her fall. The first of +these was Kent. The Kentish king AEthelberht found himself hemmed in on +every side by English territory; and since conquest over Britons was +denied him he sought a new sphere of action in setting his kingdom at the +head of the conquerors of the south. The break up of Wessex no doubt +aided his attempt; but we know little of the causes or events which +brought about his success. We know only that the supremacy of the Kentish +king was owned at last by the English peoples of the east and centre of +Britain. But it was not by her political action that Kent was in the end +to further the creation of a single England; for the lordship which +AEthelberht built up was doomed to fall for ever with his death, and yet +his death left Kent the centre of a national union far wider as it was +far more enduring than the petty lordship which stretched over Eastern +Britain. Only three or four years after Gregory had pitied the English +slaves in the market-place of Rome, he found himself as Bishop of the +Imperial City in a position to carry out his dream of winning Britain to +the faith; and an opening was given him by AEthelberht's marriage with +Bertha, a daughter of the Frankish king Charibert of Paris. Bertha like +her Frankish kindred was a Christian; a Christian bishop accompanied her +from Gaul; and a ruined Christian church, the church of St. Martin beside +the royal city of Canterbury, was given them for their worship. The king +himself remained true to the gods of his fathers; but his marriage no +doubt encouraged Gregory to send a Roman abbot, Augustine, at the head of +a band of monks to preach the Gospel to the English people. The +missionaries landed in 597 in the Isle of Thanet, at the spot where +Hengest had landed more than a century before; and AEthelberht received +them sitting in the open air on the chalk-down above Minster, where the +eye nowadays catches miles away over the marshes the dim tower of +Canterbury. The king listened patiently to the long sermon of Augustine +as the interpreters the abbot had brought with him from Gaul rendered it +in the English tongue. "Your words are fair," AEthelberht replied at last +with English good sense, "but they are new and of doubtful meaning." For +himself, he said, he refused to forsake the gods of his fathers, but with +the usual religious tolerance of the German race he promised shelter and +protection to the strangers. The band of monks entered Canterbury bearing +before them a silver cross with a picture of Christ, and singing in +concert the strains of the litany of their Church. "Turn from this city, +O Lord," they sang, "Thine anger and wrath, and turn it from Thy holy +house, for we have sinned." And then in strange contrast came the +jubilant cry of the older Hebrew worship, the cry which Gregory had +wrested in prophetic earnestness from the name of the Yorkshire king in +the Roman market-place, "Alleluia!" + + +[Sidenote: Christian England] + +It was thus that the spot which witnessed the landing of Hengest became +yet better known as the landing-place of Augustine. But the second +landing at Ebbsfleet was in no small measure a reversal and undoing of +the first. "Strangers from Rome" was the title with which the +missionaries first fronted the English king. The march of the monks as +they chaunted their solemn litany was in one sense a return of the Roman +legions who withdrew at the trumpet-call of Alaric. It was to the tongue +and the thought not of Gregory only but of the men whom his Jutish +fathers had slaughtered or driven out that AEthelberht listened in the +preaching of Augustine. Canterbury, the earliest royal city of German +England, became a centre of Latin influence. The Roman tongue became +again one of the tongues of Britain, the language of its worship, its +correspondence, its literature. But more than the tongue of Rome returned +with Augustine. Practically his landing renewed that union with the +Western world which the landing of Hengest had destroyed. The new England +was admitted into the older commonwealth of nations. The civilization, +art, letters, which had fled before the sword of the English conquerors +returned with the Christian faith. The fabric of the Roman law indeed +never took root in England, but it is impossible not to recognize the +result of the influence of the Roman missionaries in the fact that codes +of the customary English law began to be put in writing soon after their +arrival. + +[Sidenote: AEthelfrith] + +A year passed before AEthelberht yielded to the preaching of Augustine. +But from the moment of his conversion the new faith advanced rapidly and +the Kentish men crowded to baptism in the train of their king. The new +religion was carried beyond the bounds of Kent by the supremacy which +AEthelberht wielded over the neighbouring kingdoms. Saeberht, King of the +East-Saxons, received a bishop sent in 604 from Kent, and suffered him to +build up again a Christian church in what was now his subject city of +London, while soon after the East-Anglian king Raedwald resolved to serve +Christ and the older gods together. But while AEthelberht was thus +furnishing a future centre of spiritual unity in Canterbury, the see to +which Augustine was consecrated, the growth of Northumbria was pointing +it out as the coming political centre of the new England. In 593, four +years before the landing of the missionaries in Kent, AEthelric was +succeeded by his son AEthelfrith, and the new king took up the work of +conquest with a vigour greater than had yet been shown by any English +leader. For ten years he waged war with the Britons of Strathclyde, a +tract which stretched along his western border from Dumbarton to +Carlisle. The contest ended in a great battle at Daegsastan, perhaps +Dawston in Liddesdale; and AEthelfrith turned to deliver a yet more +crushing blow on his southern border. British kingdoms still stretched +from Clyde-mouth to the mouth of Severn; and had their line remained +unbroken the British resistance might yet have withstood the English +advance. It was with a sound political instinct therefore that AEthelfrith +marched in 613 upon Chester, the point where the kingdom of Cumbria, a +kingdom which stretched from the Lune to the Dee, linked itself to the +British states of what we now call Wales. Hard by the city two thousand +monks were gathered in one of those vast religious settlements which were +characteristic of Celtic Christianity, and after a three days' fast a +crowd of these ascetics followed the British army to the field. +AEthelfrith watched the wild gestures of the monks as they stood apart +from the host with arms outstretched in prayer, and bade his men slay +them in the coming fight. "Bear they arms or no," said the King, "they +war against us when they cry against us to their God," and in the +surprise and rout which followed the monks were the first to fall. + +With the battle of Chester Britain as a country ceased to exist. By their +victory at Deorham the West-Saxons had cut off the Britons of Dyvnaint, +of our Devon, Dorset, Somerset, and Cornwall, from the general body of +their race. By AEthelfrith's victory at Chester and the reduction of +southern Lancashire which followed it what remained of Britain was broken +into two several parts. From this time therefore the character of the +English conquest of Britain changes. The warfare of Briton and Englishman +died down into a warfare of separate English kingdoms against separate +British kingdoms, of Northumbria against the Cumbrians and Strathclyde, +of Mercia against the Welsh between Anglesea and the British Channel, of +Wessex against the tract of country from Mendip to the Land's End. But +great as was the importance of the battle of Chester to the fortunes of +Britain, it was of still greater importance to the fortunes of England +itself. The drift towards national unity had already begun, but from the +moment of AEthelfrith's victory this drift became the main current of our +history. Masters of the larger and richer part of the land, its +conquerors were no longer drawn greedily westward by the hope of plunder; +while the severance of the British kingdoms took from their enemies the +pressure of a common danger. The conquests of AEthelfrith left him without +a rival in military power, and he turned from victories over the Welsh, +as their English foes called the Britons, to the building up of a +lordship over his own countrymen. + + +[Sidenote: Eadwine] + +The power of AEthelberht seems to have declined with old age, and though +the Essex men still owned his supremacy, the English tribes of +Mid-Britain shook it off. So strong however had the instinct of union now +become, that we hear nothing of any return to their old isolation. +Mercians and Southumbrians, Middle-English and South-English now owned +the lordship of the East-English King Raedwald. The shelter given by +Raedwald to AElla's son Eadwine served as a pretext for a Northumbrian +attack. Fortune however deserted AEthelfrith, and a snatch of northern +song still tells of the day when the river Idle by Retford saw his defeat +and fall. But the greatness of Northumbria survived its king. In 617 +Eadwine was welcomed back by his own men of Deira; and his conquest of +Bernicia maintained that union of the two realms which the Bernician +conquest of Deira had first brought about. The greatness of Northumbria +now reached its height. Within his own dominions, Eadwine displayed a +genius for civil government which shows how utterly the mere age of +conquest had passed away. With him began the English proverb so often +applied to after kings: "A woman with her babe might walk scatheless from +sea to sea in Eadwine's day." Peaceful communication revived along the +deserted highways; the springs by the roadside were marked with stakes, +and a cup of brass set beside each for the traveller's refreshment. Some +faint traditions of the Roman past may have flung their glory round this +new "Empire of the English"; a royal standard of purple and gold floated +before Eadwine as he rode through the villages; a feather tuft attached +to a spear, the Roman tufa, preceded him as he walked through the +streets. The Northumbrian king became in fact supreme over Britain as no +king of English blood had been before. Northward his frontier reached to +the Firth of Forth, and here, if we trust tradition, Eadwine founded a +city which bore his name, Edinburgh, Eadwine's burgh. To the west his +arms crushed the long resistance of Elmet, the district about Leeds; he +was master of Chester, and the fleet he equipped there subdued the isles +of Anglesea and Man. South of the Humber he was owned as overlord by the +five English states of Mid-Britain. The West-Saxons remained awhile +independent. But revolt and slaughter had fatally broken their power when +Eadwine attacked them. A story preserved by Baeda tells something of the +fierceness of the struggle which ended in the subjection of the south to +the overlordship of Northumbria. In an Easter-court which he held in his +royal city by the river Derwent, Eadwine gave audience to Eumer, an envoy +of Wessex, who brought a message from its king. In the midst of the +conference Eumer started to his feet, drew a dagger from his robe, and +rushed on the Northumbrian sovereign. Lilla, one of the king's war-band, +threw himself between Eadwine and his assassin; but so furious was the +stroke that even through Lilla's body the dagger still reached its aim. +The king however recovered from his wound to march on the West-Saxons; he +slew or subdued all who had conspired against him, and returned +victorious to his own country. + +[Sidenote: Conversion of Northumbria] + +Kent had bound itself to him by giving him its King's daughter as a wife, +a step which probably marked political subordination; and with the +Kentish queen had come Paulinus, one of Augustine's followers, whose tall +stooping form, slender aquiline nose, and black hair falling round a thin +worn face, were long remembered in the North. Moved by his queen's +prayers Eadwine promised to become Christian if he returned successful +from Wessex; and the wise men of Northumbria gathered to deliberate on +the new faith to which he bowed. To finer minds its charm lay then as now +in the light it threw on the darkness which encompassed men's lives, the +darkness of the future as of the past. "So seems the life of man, O +king," burst forth an aged ealdorman, "as a sparrow's flight through the +hall when one is sitting at meat in winter-tide with the warm fire +lighted on the hearth but the icy rain-storm without. The sparrow flies +in at one door and tarries for a moment in the light and heat of the +hearth-fire, and then flying forth from the other vanishes into the +darkness whence it came. So tarries for a moment the life of man in our +sight, but what is before it, what after it, we know not. If this new +teaching tell us aught certainly of these, let us follow it." Coarser +argument told on the crowd. "None of your people, Eadwine, have +worshipped the gods more busily than I," said Coifi the priest, "yet +there are many more favoured and more fortunate. Were these gods good for +anything they would help their worshippers." Then leaping on horseback, +he hurled his spear into the sacred temple at Godmanham, and with the +rest of the Witan embraced the religion of the king. + +[Sidenote: Penda] + +But the faith of Woden and Thunder was not to fall without a struggle. +Even in Kent a reaction against the new creed began with the death of +AEthelberht. The young kings of the East-Saxons burst into the church +where the Bishop of London was administering the Eucharist to the people, +crying, "Give us that white bread you gave to our father Saba," and on +the bishop's refusal drove him from their realm. This earlier tide of +reaction was checked by Eadwine's conversion; but Mercia, which had as +yet owned the supremacy of Northumbria, sprang into a sudden greatness as +the champion of the heathen gods. Its king, Penda, saw in the rally of +the old religion a chance of winning back his people's freedom and giving +it the lead among the tribes about it. Originally mere settlers along the +Upper Trent, the position of the Mercians on the Welsh border invited +them to widen their possessions by conquest while the rest of their +Anglian neighbours were shut off from any chance of expansion. Their +fights along the frontier too kept their warlike energy at its height. +Penda must have already asserted his superiority over the four other +English tribes of Mid-Britain before he could have ventured to attack +Wessex and tear from it in 628 the country of the Hwiccas and Magesaetas +on the Severn. Even with this accession of strength however he was still +no match for Northumbria. But the war of the English people with the +Britons seems at this moment to have died down for a season, and the +Mercian ruler boldly broke through the barrier which had parted the two +races till now by allying himself with a Welsh King, Cadwallon, for a +joint attack on Eadwine. The armies met in 633 at a place called the +Heathfield, and in the fight which followed Eadwine was defeated and +slain. + + +[Sidenote: Oswald] + +Bernicia seized on the fall of Eadwine to recall the line of AEthelfrith +to its throne; and after a year of anarchy his second son, Oswald, became +its king. The Welsh had remained encamped in the heart of the north, and +Oswald's first fight was with Cadwallon. A small Northumbrian force +gathered in 635 near the Roman Wall, and pledged itself at the new King's +bidding to become Christian if it conquered in the fight. Cadwallon fell +fighting on the "Heaven's Field," as after times called the field of +battle; the submission of Deira to the conqueror restored the kingdom of +Northumbria; and for seven years the power of Oswald equalled that of +Eadwine. It was not the Church of Paulinus which nerved Oswald to this +struggle for the Cross, or which carried out in Bernicia the work of +conversion which his victory began. Paulinus fled from Northumbria at +Eadwine's fall; and the Roman Church, though established in Kent, did +little in contending elsewhere against the heathen reaction. Its place in +the conversion of northern England was taken by missionaries from +Ireland. To understand the true meaning of this change we must remember +how greatly the Christian Church in the west had been affected by the +German invasion. Before the landing of the English in Britain the +Christian Church stretched in an unbroken line across Western Europe to +the furthest coasts of Ireland. The conquest of Britain by the pagan +English thrust a wedge of heathendom into the heart of this great +communion and broke it into two unequal parts. On one side lay Italy, +Spain, and Gaul, whose churches owned obedience to and remained in direct +contact with the See of Rome, on the other, practically cut off from the +general body of Christendom, lay the Church of Ireland. But the condition +of the two portions of Western Christendom was very different. While the +vigour of Christianity in Italy and Gaul and Spain was exhausted in a +bare struggle for life, Ireland, which remained unscourged by invaders, +drew from its conversion an energy such as it has never known since. +Christianity was received there with a burst of popular enthusiasm, and +letters and arts sprang up rapidly in its train. The science and Biblical +knowledge which fled from the Continent took refuge in its schools. The +new Christian life soon beat too strongly to brook confinement within the +bounds of Ireland itself. Patrick, the first missionary of the island, +had not been half a century dead when Irish Christianity flung itself +with a fiery zeal into battle with the mass of heathenism which was +rolling in upon the Christian world. Irish missionaries laboured among +the Picts of the Highlands and among the Frisians of the northern seas. +An Irish missionary, Columban, founded monasteries in Burgundy and the +Apennines. The canton of St. Gall still commemorates in its name another +Irish missionary before whom the spirits of flood and fell fled wailing +over the waters of the Lake of Constance. For a time it seemed as if the +course of the world's history was to be changed, as if the older Celtic +race that Roman and German had swept before them had turned to the moral +conquest of their conquerors, as if Celtic and not Latin Christianity was +to mould the destinies of the Churches of the West. + +[Sidenote: Aidan] + +On a low island of barren gneiss-rock off the west coast of Scotland an +Irish refugee, Columba, had raised the famous mission-station of Iona. It +was within its walls that Oswald in youth found refuge, and on his +accession to the throne of Northumbria he called for missionaries from +among its monks. The first preacher sent in answer to his call obtained +little success. He declared on his return that among a people so stubborn +and barbarous as the Northumbrian folk success was impossible. "Was it +their stubbornness or your severity?" asked Aidan, a brother sitting by; +"did you forget God's word to give them the milk first and then the +meat?" All eyes turned on the speaker as fittest to undertake the +abandoned mission, and Aidan sailing at their bidding fixed his bishop's +see in the island-peninsula of Lindisfarne. Thence, from a monastery +which gave to the spot its after name of Holy Island, preachers poured +forth over the heathen realms. Aidan himself wandered on foot, preaching +among the peasants of Yorkshire and Northumbria. In his own court the +King acted as interpreter to the Irish missionaries in their efforts to +convert his thegns. A new conception of kingship indeed began to blend +itself with that of the warlike glory of AEthelfrith or the wise +administration of Eadwine, and the moral power which was to reach its +height in AElfred first dawns in the story of Oswald. For after times the +memory of Oswald's greatness was lost in the memory of his piety. "By +reason of his constant habit of praying or giving thanks to the Lord he +was wont wherever he sat to hold his hands upturned on his knees." As he +feasted with Bishop Aidan by his side, the thegn, or noble of his +war-band, whom he had set to give alms to the poor at his gate told him +of a multitude that still waited fasting without. The king at once bade +the untasted meat before him be carried to the poor, and his silver dish +be parted piecemeal among them. Aidan seized the royal hand and blessed +it. "May this hand," he cried, "never grow old." + +Oswald's lordship stretched as widely over Britain as that of his +predecessor Eadwine. In him even more than in Eadwine men saw some faint +likeness of the older Emperors; once indeed a writer from the land of the +Picts calls Oswald "Emperor of the whole of Britain." His power was bent +to carry forward the conversion of all England, but prisoned as it was to +the central districts of the country heathendom fought desperately for +life. Penda was still its rallying-point. His long reign was one +continuous battle with the new religion; but it was a battle rather with +the supremacy of Christian Northumbria than with the supremacy of the +Cross. East-Anglia became at last the field of contest between the two +powers; and in 642 Oswald marched to deliver it from the Mercian rule. +But his doom was the doom of Eadwine, and in a battle called the battle +of the Maserfeld he was overthrown and slain. For a few years after his +victory at the Maserfeld, Penda stood supreme in Britain. Heathenism +triumphed with him. If Wessex did not own his overlordship as it had +owned that of Oswald, its king threw off the Christian faith which he had +embraced but a few years back at the preaching of Birinus. Even Deira +seems to have owned Penda's sway. Bernicia alone, though distracted by +civil war between rival claimants for its throne, refused to yield. Year +by year the Mercian king carried his ravages over the north; once he +reached even the royal city, the impregnable rock-fortress of Bamborough. +Despairing of success in an assault, he pulled down the cottages around, +and piling their wood against its walls fired the mass in a fair wind +that drove the flames on the town. "See, Lord, what ill Penda is doing," +cried Aidan from his hermit cell in the islet of Farne, as he saw the +smoke drifting over the city, and a change of wind--so ran the legend of +Northumbria's agony--drove back the flames on those who kindled them. But +burned and harried as it was, Bernicia still clung to the Cross. Oswiu, a +third son of AEthelfrith, held his ground stoutly against Penda's inroads +till their cessation enabled him to build up again the old Northumbrian +kingdom by a march upon Deira. The union of the two realms was never +henceforth to be dissolved; and its influence was at once seen in the +renewal of Christianity throughout Britain. East-Anglia, conquered as it +was, had clung to its faith. Wessex quietly became Christian again. +Penda's own son, whom he had set over the Middle-English, received +baptism and teachers from Lindisfarne. At last the missionaries of the +new belief appeared fearlessly among the Mercians themselves. Penda gave +them no hindrance. In words that mark the temper of a man of whom we +would willingly know more, Baeda tells us that the old king only "hated +and scorned those whom he saw not doing the works of the faith they had +received." His attitude shows that Penda looked with the tolerance of his +race on all questions of creed, and that he was fighting less for +heathenism than for political independence. And now the growing power of +Oswiu called him to the old struggle with Northumbria. In 655 he met +Oswiu in the field of Winwaed by Leeds. It was in vain that the +Northumbrian sought to avert Penda's attack by offers of ornaments and +costly gifts. "If the pagans will not accept them," Oswiu cried at last, +"let us offer them to One that will"; and he vowed that if successful he +would dedicate his daughter to God, and endow twelve monasteries in his +realm. Victory at last declared for the faith of Christ. Penda himself +fell on the field. The river over which the Mercians fled was swollen +with a great rain; it swept away the fragments of the heathen host, and +the cause of the older gods was lost for ever. + +[Sidenote: Oswiu] + +The terrible struggle between heathendom and Christianity was followed by +a long and profound peace. For three years after the battle of Winwaed +Mercia was governed by Northumbrian thegns in Oswiu's name. The winning +of central England was a victory for Irish Christianity as well as for +Oswiu. Even in Mercia itself heathendom was dead with Penda. "Being thus +freed," Baeda tells us, "the Mercians with their King rejoiced to serve +the true King, Christ." Its three provinces, the earlier Mercia, the +Middle-English, and the Lindiswaras, were united in the bishopric of the +missionary Ceadda, the St. Chad to whom Lichfield is still dedicated. +Ceadda was a monk of Lindisfarne, so simple and lowly in temper that he +travelled on foot on his long mission journeys till Archbishop Theodore +with his own hands lifted him on horseback. The old Celtic poetry breaks +out in his death-legend, as it tells us how voices of singers singing +sweetly descended from heaven to the little cell beside St. Mary's Church +where the bishop lay dying. Then "the same song ascended from the roof +again, and returned heavenward by the way that it came." It was the soul +of his brother, the missionary Cedd, come with a choir of angels to +solace the last hours of Ceadda. + +[Sidenote: Cuthbert] + +In Northumbria the work of his fellow missionaries has almost been lost +in the glory of Cuthbert. No story better lights up for us the new +religious life of the time than the story of this Apostle of the +Lowlands. Born on the southern edge of the Lammermoor, Cuthbert found +shelter at eight years old in a widow's house in the little village of +Wrangholm. Already in youth his robust frame hid a poetic sensibility +which caught even in the chance word of a game a call to higher things, +and a passing attack of lameness deepened the religious impression. A +traveller coming in his white mantle over the hillside and stopping his +horse to tend Cuthbert's injured knee seemed to him an angel. The boy's +shepherd life carried him to the bleak upland, still famous as a +sheepwalk, though a scant herbage scarce veils the whinstone rock. There +meteors plunging into the night became to him a company of angelic +spirits carrying the soul of Bishop Aidan heavenward, and his longings +slowly settled into a resolute will towards a religious life. In 651 he +made his way to a group of straw-thatched log-huts, in the midst of an +untilled solitude, where a few Irish monks from Lindisfarne had settled +in the mission-station of Melrose. To-day the land is a land of poetry +and romance. Cheviot and Lammermoor, Ettrick and Teviotdale, Yarrow and +Annan-water, are musical with old ballads and border minstrelsy. +Agriculture has chosen its valleys for her favourite seat, and drainage +and steam-power have turned sedgy marshes into farm and meadow. But to +see the Lowlands as they were in Cuthbert's day we must sweep meadow and +farm away again, and replace them by vast solitudes, dotted here and +there with clusters of wooden hovels and crossed by boggy tracks, over +which travellers rode spear in hand and eye kept cautiously about them. +The Northumbrian peasantry among whom he journeyed were for the most part +Christians only in name. With Teutonic indifference they yielded to their +thegns in nominally accepting the new Christianity as these had yielded +to the king. But they retained their old superstitions side by side with +the new worship; plague or mishap drove them back to a reliance on their +heathen charms and amulets; and if trouble befell the Christian preachers +who came settling among them, they took it as proof of the wrath of the +older gods. When some log-rafts which were floating down the Tyne for the +construction of an abbey at its mouth drifted with the monks who were at +work on them out to sea, the rustic bystanders shouted, "Let nobody pray +for them; let nobody pity these men; for they have taken away from us our +old worship, and how their new-fangled customs are to be kept nobody +knows." On foot, on horseback, Cuthbert wandered among listeners such as +these, choosing above all the remoter mountain villages from whose +roughness and poverty other teachers turned aside. Unlike his Irish +comrades, he needed no interpreter as he passed from village to village; +the frugal, long-headed Northumbrians listened willingly to one who was +himself a peasant of the Lowlands, and who had caught the rough +Northumbrian burr along the banks of the Tweed. His patience, his +humorous good sense, the sweetness of his look, told for him, and not +less the stout vigorous frame which fitted the peasant-preacher for the +hard life he had chosen. "Never did man die of hunger who served God +faithfully," he would say, when nightfall found them supperless in the +waste. "Look at the eagle overhead! God can feed us through him if He +will"--and once at least he owed his meal to a fish that the scared bird +let fall. A snowstorm drove his boat on the coast of Fife. "The snow +closes the road along the shore," mourned his comrades; "the storm bars +our way over sea." "There is still the way of heaven that lies open," +said Cuthbert. + + +[Sidenote: Caedmon] + +While missionaries were thus labouring among its peasantry, Northumbria +saw the rise of a number of monasteries, not bound indeed by the strict +ties of the Benedictine rule, but gathered on the loose Celtic model of +the family or the clan round some noble and wealthy person who sought +devotional retirement. The most notable and wealthy of these houses was +that of Streoneshealh, where Hild, a woman of royal race, reared her +abbey on the cliffs of Whitby, looking out over the Northern Sea. Hild +was a Northumbrian Deborah whose counsel was sought even by kings; and +the double monastery over which she ruled became a seminary of bishops +and priests. The sainted John of Beverley was among her scholars. But the +name which really throws glory over Whitby is the name of a cowherd from +whose lips during the reign of Oswiu flowed the first great English song. +Though well advanced in years, Caedmon had learned nothing of the art of +verse, the alliterative jingle so common among his fellows, "wherefore +being sometimes at feasts, when all agreed for glee's sake to sing in +turn, he no sooner saw the harp come towards him than he rose from the +board and went homewards. Once when he had done thus, and gone from the +feast to the stable where he had that night charge of the cattle, there +appeared to him in his sleep One who said, greeting him by name, 'Sing, +Caedmon, some song to Me.' 'I cannot sing,' he answered; 'for this cause +left I the feast and came hither.' He who talked with him answered, +'However that be, you shall sing to Me.' 'What shall I sing?' rejoined +Caedmon. 'The beginning of created things,' replied He. In the morning the +cowherd stood before Hild and told his dream. Abbess and brethren alike +concluded 'that heavenly grace had been conferred on him by the Lord.' +They translated for Caedmon a passage in Holy Writ, 'bidding him, if he +could, put the same into verse.' The next morning he gave it them +composed in excellent verse, whereon the abbess, understanding the divine +grace in the man, bade him quit the secular habit and take on him the +monastic life." Piece by piece the sacred story was thus thrown into +Caedmon's poem. "He sang of the creation of the world, of the origin of +man, and of all the history of Israel; of their departure from Egypt and +entering into the Promised Land; of the incarnation, passion, and +resurrection of Christ, and of His ascension; of the terror of future +judgement, the horror of hell-pangs, and the joys of heaven." + +[Sidenote: Synod of Whitby] + +But even while Caedmon was singing the glories of Northumbria and of the +Irish Church were passing away. The revival of Mercia was as rapid as its +fall. Only a few years after Penda's defeat the Mercians threw off +Oswin's yoke and set Wulfhere, a son of Penda, on their throne. They were +aided in their revolt, no doubt, by a religious strife which was now +rending the Northumbrian realm. The labour of Aidan, the victories of +Oswald and Oswin, seemed to have annexed the north to the Irish Church. +The monks of Lindisfarne, or of the new religious houses whose foundation +followed that of Lindisfarne, looked for their ecclesiastical tradition, +not to Rome but to Ireland; and quoted for their guidance the +instructions, not of Gregory, but of Columba. Whatever claims of +supremacy over the whole English Church might be pressed by the see of +Canterbury, the real metropolitan of the Church as it existed in the +North of England was the Abbot of Iona. But Oswiu's queen brought with +her from Kent the loyalty of the Kentish Church to the Roman See; and the +visit of two young thegns to the Imperial City raised their love of Rome +into a passionate fanaticism. The elder of these, Benedict Biscop, +returned to denounce the usages in which the Irish Church differed from +the Roman as schismatic; and the vigour of his comrade Wilfrid stirred so +hot a strife that Oswiu was prevailed upon to summon in 664 a great +council at Whitby, where the future ecclesiastical allegiance of his +realm should be decided. The points actually contested were trivial +enough. Colman, Aidan's successor at Holy Island, pleaded for the Irish +fashion of the tonsure, and for the Irish time of keeping Easter: Wilfrid +pleaded for the Roman. The one disputant appealed to the authority of +Columba, the other to that of St. Peter. "You own," cried the king at +last to Colman, "that Christ gave to Peter the keys of the kingdom of +heaven--has He given such power to Columba?" The bishop could but answer +"No." "Then will I rather obey the porter of heaven," said Oswiu, "lest +when I reach its gates he who has the keys in his keeping turn his back +on me, and there be none to open." The humorous tone of Oswiu's decision +could not hide its importance, and the synod had no sooner broken up than +Colman, followed by the whole of the Irish-born brethren and thirty of +their English fellows, forsook the see of St. Aidan and sailed away to +Iona. Trivial in fact as were the actual points of difference which +severed the Roman Church from the Irish, the question to which communion +Northumbria should belong was of immense moment to the after fortunes of +England. Had the Church of Aidan finally won, the later ecclesiastical +history of England would probably have resembled that of Ireland. Devoid +of that power of organization which was the strength of the Roman Church, +the Celtic Church in its own Irish home took the clan system of the +country as the basis of its government. Tribal quarrels and +ecclesiastical controversies became inextricably confounded; and the +clergy, robbed of all really spiritual influence, contributed no element +save that of disorder to the state. Hundreds of wandering bishops, a vast +religious authority wielded by hereditary chieftains, the dissociation of +piety from morality, the absence of those larger and more humanizing +influences which contact with a wider world alone can give, this is a +picture which the Irish Church of later times presents to us. It was from +such a chaos as this that England was saved by the victory of Rome in the +Synod of Whitby. But the success of Wilfrid dispelled a yet greater +danger. Had England clung to the Irish Church it must have remained +spiritually isolated from the bulk of the Western world. Fallen as Rome +might be from its older greatness, it preserved the traditions of +civilization, of letters and art and law. Its faith still served as a +bond which held together the nations that sprang from the wreck of the +Empire. To fight against Rome was, as Wilfrid said, "to fight against the +world." To repulse Rome was to condemn England to isolation. Dimly as +such thoughts may have presented themselves to Oswiu's mind, it was the +instinct of a statesman that led him to set aside the love and gratitude +of his youth and to link England to Rome in the Synod of Whitby. + +[Sidenote: Theodore] + +Oswiu's assent to the vigorous measures of organization undertaken by a +Greek monk, Theodore of Tarsus, whom Rome despatched in 668 to secure +England to her sway as Archbishop of Canterbury, marked a yet more +decisive step in the new policy. The work of Theodore lay mainly in the +organization of the episcopate, and thus the Church of England, as we +know it to-day, is the work, so far as its outer form is concerned, of +Theodore. His work was determined in its main outlines by the previous +history of the English people. The conquest of the Continent had been +wrought either by races which were already Christian, or by heathens who +bowed to the Christian faith of the nations they conquered. To this +oneness of religion between the German invaders of the Empire and their +Roman subjects was owing the preservation of all that survived of the +Roman world. The Church everywhere remained untouched. The Christian +bishop became the defender of the conquered Italian or Gaul against his +Gothic and Lombard conqueror, the mediator between the German and his +subjects, the one bulwark against barbaric violence and oppression. To +the barbarian, on the other hand, he was the representative of all that +was venerable in the past, the living record of law, of letters, and of +art. But in Britain the priesthood and the people had been driven out +together. When Theodore came to organize the Church of England, the very +memory of the older Christian Church which existed in Roman Britain had +passed away. The first missionaries to the Englishmen, strangers in a +heathen land, attached themselves necessarily to the courts of the kings, +who were their earliest converts, and whose conversion was generally +followed by that of their people. The English bishops were thus at first +royal chaplains, and their diocese was naturally nothing but the kingdom. +In this way realms which are all but forgotten are commemorated in the +limits of existing sees. That of Rochester represented till of late an +obscure kingdom of West Kent, and the frontier of the original kingdom of +Mercia may be recovered by following the map of the ancient bishopric of +Lichfield. In adding many sees to those he found Theodore was careful to +make their dioceses co-extensive with existing tribal demarcations. But +he soon passed from this extension of the episcopate to its organization. +In his arrangement of dioceses, and the way in which he grouped them +round the see of Canterbury, in his national synods and ecclesiastical +canons, Theodore did unconsciously a political work. The old divisions of +kingdoms and tribes about him, divisions which had sprung for the most +part from mere accidents of the conquest, were now fast breaking down. +The smaller states were by this time practically absorbed by the three +larger ones, and of these three Mercia and Wessex were compelled to bow +to the superiority of Northumbria. The tendency to national unity which +was to characterize the new England had thus already declared itself; but +the policy of Theodore clothed with a sacred form and surrounded with +divine sanctions a unity which as yet rested on no basis but the sword. +The single throne of the one Primate at Canterbury accustomed men's minds +to the thought of a single throne for their one temporal overlord. The +regular subordination of priest to bishop, of bishop to primate, in the +administration of the Church, supplied a mould on which the civil +organization of the state quietly shaped itself. Above all, the councils +gathered by Theodore were the first of our national gatherings for +general legislation. It was at a much later time that the Wise Men of +Wessex, or Northumbria, or Mercia learned to come together in the +Witenagemot of all England. The synods which Theodore convened as +religiously representative of the whole English nation led the way by +their example to our national parliaments. The canons which these synods +enacted led the way to a national system of law. + +[Sidenote: Wulfhere] + +The organization of the episcopate was followed by the organization of +the parish system. The mission-station or monastery from which priest or +bishop went forth on journey after journey to preach and baptize +naturally disappeared as the land became Christian. The missionaries +turned into settled clergy. As the king's chaplain became a bishop and +the kingdom his diocese, so the chaplain of an English noble became the +priest and the manor his parish. But this parish system is probably later +than Theodore, and the system of tithes which has been sometimes coupled +with his name dates only from the close of the eighth century. What was +really due to him was the organization of the episcopate, and the impulse +which this gave to national unity. But the movement towards unity found a +sudden check in the revived strength of Mercia. Wulfhere proved a +vigorous and active ruler, and the peaceful reign of Oswiu left him free +to build up again during fifteen years of rule (659-675) that Mercian +overlordship over the tribes of Mid-England which had been lost at +Penda's death. He had more than his father's success. Not only did Essex +again own his supremacy, but even London fell into Mercian hands. The +West-Saxons were driven across the Thames, and nearly all their +settlements to the north of that river were annexed to the Mercian realm. +Wulfhere's supremacy soon reached even south of the Thames, for Sussex in +its dread of West-Saxons found protection in accepting his overlordship, +and its king was rewarded by a gift of the two outlying settlements of +the Jutes--the Isle of Wight and the lands of the Meonwaras along the +Southampton water--which we must suppose had been reduced by Mercian +arms. The industrial progress of the Mercian kingdom went hand in hand +with its military advance. The forests of its western border, the marshes +of its eastern coast, were being cleared and drained by monastic +colonies, whose success shows the hold which Christianity had now gained +over its people. Heathenism indeed still held its own in the wild western +woodlands and in the yet wilder fen-country on the eastern border of the +kingdom which stretched from the "Holland," the sunk, hollow land of +Lincolnshire, to the channel of the Ouse, a wilderness of shallow waters +and reedy islets wrapped in its own dark mist-veil and tenanted only by +flocks of screaming wild-fowl. But in either quarter the new faith made +its way. In the western woods Bishop Ecgwine found a site for an abbey +round which gathered the town of Evesham, and the eastern fen-land was +soon filled with religious houses. Here through the liberality of King +Wulfhere rose the Abbey of Peterborough. Here too, Guthlac, a youth of +the royal race of Mercia, sought a refuge from the world in the solitudes +of Crowland, and so great was the reverence he won, that only two years +had passed since his death when the stately Abbey of Crowland rose over +his tomb. Earth was brought in boats to form a site; the buildings rested +on oaken piles driven into the marsh; a great stone church replaced the +hermit's cell; and the toil of the new brotherhood changed the pools +around them into fertile meadow-land. + + +[Sidenote: Ecgfrith] + +In spite however of this rapid recovery of its strength by Mercia, +Northumbria remained the dominant state in Britain: and Ecgfrith, who +succeeded Oswiu in 670, so utterly defeated Wulfhere when war broke out +between them that he was glad to purchase peace by the surrender of +Lincolnshire. Peace would have been purchased more hardly had not +Ecgfrith's ambition turned rather to conquests over the Briton than to +victories over his fellow Englishmen. The war between Briton and +Englishman which had languished since the battle of Chester had been +revived some twelve years before by an advance of the West-Saxons to the +south-west. Unable to save the possessions of Wessex north of the Thames +from the grasp of Wulfhere, their king, Cenwealh, sought for compensation +in an attack on his Welsh neighbours. A victory at Bradford on the Avon +enabled him to overrun the country near Mendip which had till then been +held by the Britons; and a second campaign in 658, which ended in a +victory on the skirts of the great forest that covered Somerset to the +east, settled the West-Saxons as conquerors round the sources of the +Parret. It may have been the example of the West-Saxons which spurred +Ecgfrith to a series of attacks upon his British neighbours in the west +which widened the bounds of his kingdom. His reign marks the highest +pitch of Northumbrian power. His armies chased the Britons from the +kingdom of Cumbria, and made the district of Carlisle English ground. A +large part of the conquered country was bestowed upon the see of +Lindisfarne, which was at this time filled by one whom we have seen +before labouring as the Apostle of the Lowlands. Cuthbert had found a new +mission-station in Holy Island, and preached among the moors of +Northumberland as he had preached beside the banks of Tweed. He remained +there through the great secession which followed on the Synod of Whitby, +and became prior of the dwindled company of brethren, now torn with +endless disputes against which his patience and good humour struggled in +vain. Worn out at last, he fled to a little island of basaltic rock, one +of the Farne group not far from Ida's fortress of Bamborough, strewn for +the most part with kelp and sea-weed, the home of the gull and the seal. +In the midst of it rose his hut of rough stones and turf, dug down within +deep into the rock, and roofed with logs and straw. But the reverence for +his sanctity dragged Cuthbert back to fill the vacant see of Lindisfarne. +He entered Carlisle, which the king had bestowed upon the bishopric, at a +moment when all Northumbria was waiting for news of a fresh campaign of +Ecgfrith's against the Britons in the north. The Firth of Forth had long +been the limit of Northumbria, but the Picts to the north of it owned +Ecgfrith's supremacy. In 685 however the king resolved on their actual +subjection and marched across the Forth. A sense of coming ill weighed on +Northumbria, and its dread was quickened by a memory of the curses which +had been pronounced by the bishops of Ireland on its king, when his navy, +setting out a year before from the newly-conquered western coast, swept +the Irish shores in a raid which seemed like sacrilege to those who loved +the home of Aidan and Columba. As Cuthbert bent over a Roman fountain +which still stood unharmed amongst the ruins of Carlisle, the anxious +bystanders thought they caught words of ill-omen falling from the old +man's lips. "Perhaps," he seemed to murmur, "at this very hour the peril +of the fight is over and done." "Watch and pray," he said, when they +questioned him on the morrow; "watch and pray." In a few days more a +solitary fugitive escaped from the slaughter told that the Picts had +turned desperately to bay as the English army entered Fife; and that +Ecgfrith and the flower of his nobles lay, a ghastly ring of corpses, on +the far-off moorland of Nectansmere. + +[Sidenote: Mercian greatness] + +The blow was a fatal one for Northumbrian greatness, for while the Picts +pressed on the kingdom from the north AEthelred, Wulfhere's successor, +attacked it on the Mercian border, and the war was only ended by a peace +which left him master of Middle-England and free to attempt the direct +conquest of the south. For the moment this attempt proved a fruitless +one. Mercia was still too weak to grasp the lordship which was slipping +from Northumbria's hands, while Wessex which seemed her destined prey +rose at this moment into fresh power under the greatest of its early +kings. Ine, the West-Saxon king whose reign covered the long period from +688 to 726, carried on during the whole of it the war which Cenwealh and +Centwine had begun. He pushed his way southward round the marshes of the +Parret to a more fertile territory, and guarded the frontier of his new +conquests by a fort on the banks of the Tone which has grown into the +present Taunton. The West-Saxons thus became masters of the whole +district which now bears the name of Somerset. The conquest of Sussex and +of Kent on his eastern border made Ine master of all Britain south of the +Thames, and his repulse of a new Mercian king Ceolred in a bloody +encounter at Wanborough in 715 seemed to establish the threefold division +of the English race between three realms of almost equal power. But able +as Ine was to hold Mercia at bay, he was unable to hush the civil strife +that was the curse of Wessex, and a wild legend tells the story of the +disgust which drove him from the world. He had feasted royally at one of +his country houses, and on the morrow, as he rode from it, his queen bade +him turn back thither. The king returned to find his house stripped of +curtains and vessels, and foul with refuse and the dung of cattle, while +in the royal bed where he had slept with AEthelburh rested a sow with her +farrow of pigs. The scene had no need of the queen's comment: "See, my +lord, how the fashion of this world passeth away!" In 726 he sought peace +in a pilgrimage to Rome. The anarchy which had driven Ine from the throne +broke out in civil strife which left Wessex an easy prey to AEthelbald, +the successor of Ceolred in the Mercian realm. AEthelbald took up with +better fortune the struggle of his people for supremacy over the south. +He penetrated to the very heart of the West-Saxon kingdom, and his siege +and capture of the royal town of Somerton in 733 ended the war. For +twenty years the overlordship of Mercia was recognized by all Britain +south of the Humber. It was at the head of the forces not of Mercia only +but of East-Anglia and Kent, as well as of the West-Saxons, that +AEthelbald marched against the Welsh on his western border. + +[Sidenote: Baeda] + +In so complete a mastery of the south the Mercian King found grounds for +a hope that Northern Britain would also yield to his sway. But the dream +of a single England was again destined to be foiled. Fallen as +Northumbria was from its old glory, it still remained a great power. +Under the peaceful reigns of Ecgfrith's successors, Aldfrith and +Ceolwulf, their kingdom became the literary centre of Western Europe. No +schools were more famous than those of Jarrow and York. The whole +learning of the age seemed to be summed up in a Northumbrian scholar. +Baeda--the Venerable Bede as later times styled him--was born nine years +after the Synod of Whitby on ground which passed a year later to Benedict +Biscop as the site of the great abbey which he reared by the mouth of the +Wear. His youth was trained and his long tranquil life was wholly spent +in an offshoot of Benedict's house which was founded by his friend +Ceolfrid. Baeda never stirred from Jarrow. "I spent my whole life in the +same monastery," he says, "and while attentive to the rule of my order +and the service of the Church, my constant pleasure lay in learning, or +teaching, or writing." The words sketch for us a scholar's life, the more +touching in its simplicity that it is the life of the first great English +scholar. The quiet grandeur of a life consecrated to knowledge, the +tranquil pleasure that lies in learning and teaching and writing, dawned +for Englishmen in the story of Baeda. While still young he became a +teacher, and six hundred monks besides strangers that flocked thither for +instruction formed his school of Jarrow. It is hard to imagine how among +the toils of the schoolmaster and the duties of the monk, Baeda could have +found time for the composition of the numerous works that made his name +famous in the West. But materials for study had accumulated in +Northumbria through the journeys of Wilfrid and Benedict Biscop and the +libraries which were forming at Wearmouth and York. The tradition of the +older Irish teachers still lingered to direct the young scholar into that +path of Scriptural interpretation to which he chiefly owed his fame. +Greek, a rare accomplishment in the West, came to him from the school +which the Greek Archbishop Theodore founded beneath the walls of +Canterbury. His skill in the ecclesiastical chant was derived from a +Roman cantor whom Pope Vitalian sent in the train of Benedict Biscop. +Little by little the young scholar thus made himself master of the whole +range of the science of his time; he became, as Burke rightly styled him, +"the father of English learning." The tradition of the older classic +culture was first revived for England in his quotations of Plato and +Aristotle, of Seneca and Cicero, of Lucretius and Ovid. Virgil cast over +him the same spell that he cast over Dante; verses from the AEneid break +his narratives of martyrdoms, and the disciple ventures on the track of +the great master in a little eclogue descriptive of the approach of +spring. His work was done with small aid from others. "I am my own +secretary," he writes; "I make my own notes. I am my own librarian." But +forty-five works remained after his death to attest his prodigious +industry. In his own eyes and those of his contemporaries the most +important among these were the commentaries and homilies upon various +books of the Bible which he had drawn from the writings of the Fathers. +But he was far from confining himself to theology. In treatises compiled +as textbooks for his scholars, Baeda threw together all that the world had +then accumulated in astronomy and meteorology, in physics and music, in +philosophy, grammar, rhetoric, arithmetic, medicine. But the encyclopaedic +character of his researches left him in heart a simple Englishman. He +loved his own English tongue, he was skilled in English song, his last +work was a translation into English of the Gospel of St. John, and almost +the last words that broke from his lips were some English rimes upon +death. + +But the noblest proof of his love of England lies in the work which +immortalizes his name. In his "Ecclesiastical History of the English +Nation," Baeda was at once the founder of mediaeval history and the first +English historian. All that we really know of the century and a half that +follows the landing of Augustine we know from him. Wherever his own +personal observation extended, the story is told with admirable detail +and force. He is hardly less full or accurate in the portions which he +owed to his Kentish friends, Albinus and Nothelm. What he owed to no +informant was his exquisite faculty of story-telling, and yet no story of +his own telling is so touching as the story of his death. Two weeks +before the Easter of 735 the old man was seized with an extreme weakness +and loss of breath. He still preserved however his usual pleasantness and +gay good-humour, and in spite of prolonged sleeplessness continued his +lectures to the pupils about him. Verses of his own English tongue broke +from time to time from the master's lip--rude rimes that told how before +the "need-fare," Death's stern "must go," none can enough bethink him +what is to be his doom for good or ill. The tears of Baeda's scholars +mingled with his song. "We never read without weeping," writes one of +them. So the days rolled on to Ascension-tide, and still master and +pupils toiled at their work, for Based longed to bring to an end his +version of St. John's Gospel into the English tongue and his extracts +from Bishop Isidore. "I don't want my boys to read a lie," he answered +those who would have had him rest, "or to work to no purpose after I am +gone." A few days before Ascension-tide his sickness grew upon him, but +he spent the whole day in teaching, only saying cheerfully to his +scholars, "Learn with what speed you may; I know not how long I may +last." The dawn broke on another sleepless night, and again the old man +called his scholars round him and bade them write. "There is still a +chapter wanting," said the scribe, as the morning drew on, "and it is +hard for thee to question thyself any longer." "It is easily done," said +Baeda; "take thy pen and write quickly." Amid tears and farewells the day +wore on till eventide. "There is yet one sentence unwritten, dear +master," said the boy. "Write it quickly," bade the dying man. "It is +finished now," said the little scribe at last. "You speak truth," said +the master; "all is finished now." Placed upon the pavement, his head +supported in his scholar's arms, his face turned to the spot where he was +wont to pray, Baeda chanted the solemn "Glory to God." As his voice +reached the close of his song he passed quietly away. + +[Sidenote: Fall of AEthelbald] + +First among English scholars, first among English theologians, first +among English historians, it is in the monk of Jarrow that English +literature strikes its roots. In the six hundred scholars who gathered +round him for instruction he is the father of our national education. In +his physical treatises he is the first figure to which our science looks +back. But the quiet tenor of his scholar's life was broken by the growing +anarchy of Northumbria, and by threats of war from its Mercian rival. At +last AEthelbald marched on a state which seemed exhausted by civil discord +and ready for submission to his arms. But its king Eadberht showed +himself worthy of the kings that had gone before him, and in 740 he threw +back AEthelbald's attack in a repulse which not only ruined the Mercian +ruler's hopes of northern conquest but loosened his hold on the south. +Already goaded to revolt by exactions, the West-Saxons were roused to a +fresh struggle for independence, and after twelve years of continued +outbreaks the whole people mustered at Burford under the golden dragon of +their race. The fight was a desperate one, but a sudden panic seized the +Mercian King. He fled from the field, and a decisive victory freed Wessex +from the Mercian yoke. AEthelbald's own throne seems to have been shaken; +for three years later, in 757, the Mercian king was surprised and slain +in a night attack by his ealdormen, and a year of confusion passed ere +his kinsman Offa could avenge him on his murderers and succeed to the +realm. + +But though Eadberht might beat back the inroads of the Mercians and even +conquer Strathclyde, before the anarchy of his own kingdom he could only +fling down his sceptre and seek a refuge in the cloister of Lindisfarne. +From the death of Baeda the history of Northumbria became in fact little +more than a wild story of lawlessness and bloodshed. King after king was +swept away by treason and revolt, the country fell into the hands of its +turbulent nobles, its very fields lay waste, and the land was scourged by +famine and plague. An anarchy almost as complete fell on Wessex after the +recovery of its freedom. Only in Mid-England was there any sign of order +and settled rule. The crushing defeat at Burford, though it had brought +about revolts which stripped Mercia of all the conquests it had made, was +far from having broken the Mercian power. Under the long reign of Offa, +which went on from 758 to 796, it rose again to all but its old dominion. +Since the dissolution of the temporary alliance which Penda formed with +the Welsh King Cadwallon the war with the Britons in the west had been +the one great hindrance to the progress of Mercia. But under Offa Mercia +braced herself to the completion of her British conquests. Pushing after +779 over the Severn, and carrying his ravages into the heart of Wales, +Offa drove the King of Powys from his capital, which changed its old name +of Pengwern for the significant English title of the Town in the Scrub or +Bush, Scrobbesbyryg, Shrewsbury. Experience however had taught the +Mercians the worthlessness of raids like these and Offa resolved to +create a military border by planting a settlement of Englishmen between +the Severn, which had till then served as the western boundary of the +English race, and the huge "Offa's Dyke" which he drew from the mouth of +Wye to that of Dee. Here, as in the later conquests of the West-Saxons, +the old plan of extermination was definitely abandoned and the Welsh who +chose to remain dwelled undisturbed among their English conquerors. From +these conquests over the Britons Offa turned to build up again the realm +which had been shattered at Burford. But his progress was slow. A +reconquest of Kent in 775 woke anew the jealousy of the West-Saxons; and +though Offa defeated their army at Bensington in 779 the victory was +followed by several years of inaction. It was not till Wessex was again +weakened by fresh anarchy that he was able in 794 to seize East-Anglia +and restore his realm to its old bounds under Wulfhere. Further he could +not go. A Kentish revolt occupied him till his death in 796, and his +successor Cenwulf did little but preserve the realm he bequeathed him. At +the close of the eighth century the drift of the English peoples towards +a national unity was in fact utterly arrested. The work of Northumbria +had been foiled by the resistance of Mercia; the effort of Mercia had +broken down before the resistance of Wessex. A threefold division seemed +to have stamped itself upon the land; and so complete was the balance of +power between the three realms which parted it that no subjection of one +to the other seemed likely to fuse the English tribes into an English +people. + + + + + +CHAPTER III +WESSEX AND THE NORTHMEN +796-947 + + + +[Sidenote: The Northmen] + +The union which each English kingdom in turn had failed to bring about +was brought about by the pressure of the Northmen. The dwellers in the +isles of the Baltic or on either side of the Scandinavian peninsula had +lain hidden till now from Western Christendom, waging their battle for +existence with a stern climate, a barren soil, and stormy seas. It was +this hard fight for life that left its stamp on the temper of Dane, +Swede, or Norwegian alike, that gave them their defiant energy, their +ruthless daring, their passion for freedom and hatred of settled rule. +Forays and plunder raids over sea eked out their scanty livelihood, and +at the close of the eighth century these raids found a wider sphere than +the waters of the northern seas. Tidings of the wealth garnered in the +abbeys and towns of the new Christendom which had risen from the wreck of +Rome drew the pirates slowly southwards to the coasts of Northern Gaul; +and just before Offa's death their boats touched the shores of Britain. +To men of that day it must have seemed as though the world had gone back +three hundred years. The same northern fiords poured forth their +pirate-fleets as in the days of Hengest or Cerdic. There was the same +wild panic as the black boats of the invaders struck inland along the +river-reaches or moored round the river isles, the same sights of horror, +firing of homesteads, slaughter of men, women driven off to slavery or +shame, children tossed on pikes or sold in the market-place, as when the +English themselves had attacked Britain. Christian priests were again +slain at the altar by worshippers of Woden; letters, arts, religion, +government disappeared before these northmen as before the northmen of +three centuries before. + +[Sidenote: Ecgberht] + +In 794 a pirate band plundered the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow, +and the presence of the freebooters soon told on the political balance of +the English realms. A great revolution was going on in the south, where +Mercia was torn by civil wars which followed on Cenwulf's death, while +the civil strife of the West-Saxons was hushed by a new king, Ecgberht. +In Offa's days Ecgberht had failed in his claim of the crown of Wessex +and had been driven to fly for refuge to the court of the Franks. He +remained there through the memorable year during which Charles the Great +restored the Empire of the West, and returned in 802 to be quietly +welcomed as King by the West-Saxon people. A march into the heart of +Cornwall and the conquest of this last fragment of the British kingdom in +the south-west freed his hands for a strife with Mercia, which broke out +in 825 when the Mercian King Beornwulf marched into the heart of +Wiltshire. A victory of Ecgberht at Ellandun gave all England south of +Thames to the West-Saxons, and the defeat of Beornwulf spurred the men of +East-Anglia to rise in a desperate revolt against Mercia. Two great +overthrows at their hands had already spent its strength when Ecgberht +crossed the Thames in 828, and the realm of Penda and Offa bowed without +a struggle to its conqueror. But Ecgberht had wider aims than those of +supremacy over Mercia alone. The dream of a union of all England drew him +to the north. Northumbria was still strong; in learning and arts it stood +at the head of the English race; and under a king like Eadberht it would +have withstood Ecgberht as resolutely as it had withstood AEthelbald. But +the ruin of Jarrow and Wearmouth had cast on it a spell of terror. Torn +by civil strife, and desperate of finding in itself the union needed to +meet the northmen, Northumbria sought union and deliverance in subjection +to a foreign master. Its thegns met Ecgberht in Derbyshire, and owned the +supremacy of Wessex. + +[Sidenote: Conquests of the Northmen] + +With the submission of Northumbria the work which Oswiu and AEthelbald had +failed to do was done, and the whole English race was for the first time +knit together under a single rule. The union came not a moment too soon. +Had the old severance of people from people, the old civil strife within +each separate realm, gone on it is hard to see how the attacks of the +northmen could have been withstood. They were already settled in Ireland; +and from Ireland a northern host landed in 836 at Charmouth in +Dorsetshire strong enough to drive Ecgberht, when he hastened to meet +them, from the field. His victory the year after at Hengestdun won a +little rest for the land; but AEthelwulf who mounted the throne on +Ecgberht's death in 839 had to face an attack which was only beaten off +by years of hard fighting. AEthelwulf fought bravely in defence of his +realm; in his defeat at Charmouth as in a final victory at Aclea in 851 +he led his troops in person against the sea-robbers; and his success won +peace for the land through the short and uneventful reigns of his sons +AEthelbald and AEthelberht. But the northern storm burst in full force upon +England when a third son, AEthelred, followed his brothers on the throne. +The northmen were now settled on the coast of Ireland and the coast of +Gaul; they were masters of the sea; and from west and east alike they +closed upon Britain. While one host from Ireland fell on the Scot kingdom +north of the Firth of Forth, another from Scandinavia landed in 866 on +the coast of East-Anglia under Ivar the Boneless and marched the next +year upon York. A victory over two claimants of its crown gave the +pirates Northumbrian and seizing the passage of the Trent they threatened +an attack on the Mercian realm. Mercia was saved by a march of King +AEthelred to Nottingham, but the peace he made there with the northmen +left them leisure to prepare for an invasion of East-Anglia, whose +under-king, Eadmund, brought prisoner before their leaders, was bound to +a tree and shot to death with arrows. His martyrdom by the heathen made +Eadmund the St. Sebastian of English legend; in later days his figure +gleamed from the pictured windows of church after church along the +eastern coast, and the stately Abbey of St. Edmundsbury rose over his +relics. With him ended the line of East-Anglian under-kings, for his +kingdom was not only conquered, but divided among the soldiers of the +pirate host when in 880 Guthrum assumed its crown. Already the northmen +had turned to the richer spoil of the great abbeys of the Fen. +Peterborough, Crowland, Ely went up in flames, and their monks fled or +lay slain among the ruins. Mercia, though still free from actual attack, +cowered panic-stricken before the Danes, and by payment of tribute owned +them as its overlords. + +[Illustration: England and the Danelaw (v1-map-3t.jpg)] + +[Sidenote: Wessex and the Northmen] + +In five years the work of Ecgberht had been undone, and England north of +the Thames had been torn from the overlordship of Wessex. So rapid a +change could only have been made possible by the temper of the conquered +kingdoms. To them the conquest was simply their transfer from one +overlord to another, and it may be that in all there were men who +preferred the overlordship of the Northman to the overlordship of the +West-Saxon. But the loss of the subject kingdoms left Wessex face to face +with the invaders. The time had now come for it to fight, not for +supremacy, but for life. As yet the land seemed paralyzed by terror. With +the exception of his one march on Nottingham, King AEthelred had done +nothing to save his under-kingdoms from the wreck. But the pirates no +sooner pushed up Thames to Reading in 871 than the West-Saxons, attacked +on their own soil, turned fiercely at bay. A desperate attack drove the +northmen from Ashdown on the heights that overlook the Vale of White +Horse, but their camp in the tongue of land between the Kennet and Thames +proved impregnable. AEthelred died in the midst of the struggle, and his +brother AElfred, who now became king, bought the withdrawal of the pirates +and a few years' breathing-space for his realm. It was easy for the quick +eye of AElfred to see that the northmen had withdrawn simply with the view +of gaining firmer footing for a new attack; three years indeed had hardly +passed before Mercia was invaded and its under-king driven over sea to +make place for a tributary of the invaders. From Repton half their host +marched northwards to the Tyne, while Guthrum led the rest to Cambridge +to prepare for their next year's attack on Wessex. In 876 his fleet +appeared before Wareham, and in spite of a treaty bought by AElfred, the +northmen threw themselves into Exeter. Their presence there was likely to +stir a rising of the Welsh, and through the winter AElfred girded himself +for this new peril. At break of spring his army closed round the town, a +hired fleet cruised off the coast to guard against rescue, and the defeat +of their fellows at Wareham in an attempt to relieve them drove the +pirates to surrender. They swore to leave Wessex and withdrew to +Gloucester. But AElfred had hardly disbanded his troops when his enemies, +roused by the arrival of fresh hordes eager for plunder, reappeared at +Chippenham, and in the opening of 878 marched ravaging over the land. The +surprise of Wessex was complete, and for a month or two the general panic +left no hope of resistance. AElfred, with his small band of followers, +could only throw himself into a fort raised hastily in the isle of +Athelney among the marshes of the Parret, a position from which he could +watch closely the movements of his foes. But with the first burst of +spring he called the thegns of Somerset to his standard, and still +gathering troops as he moved marched through Wiltshire on the northmen. +He found their host at Edington, defeated it in a great battle, and after +a siege of fourteen days forced them to surrender and to bind themselves +by a solemn peace or "frith" at Wedmore in Somerset. In form the Peace of +Wedmore seemed a surrender of the bulk of Britain to its invaders. All +Northumbria, all East-Anglia, all Central England east of a line which +stretched from Thames' mouth along the Lea to Bedford, thence along the +Ouse to Watling Street, and by Watling Street to Chester, was left +subject to the northmen. Throughout this "Danelaw"--as it was called--the +conquerors settled down among the conquered population as lords of the +soil, thickly in northern Britain, more thinly in its central districts, +but everywhere guarding jealously their old isolation and gathering in +separate "heres" or armies round towns which were only linked in loose +confederacies. The peace had in fact saved little more than Wessex +itself. But in saving Wessex it saved England. The spell of terror was +broken. The tide of invasion turned. From an attitude of attack the +northmen were thrown back on an attitude of defence. The whole reign of +AElfred was a preparation for a fresh struggle that was to wrest back from +the pirates the land they had won. + +[Sidenote: AElfred] + +What really gave England heart for such a struggle was the courage and +energy of the King himself. Alfred was the noblest as he was the most +complete embodiment of all that is great, all that is loveable, in the +English temper. He combined as no other man has ever combined its +practical energy, its patient and enduring force, its profound sense of +duty, the reserve and self-control that steadies in it a wide outlook and +a restless daring, its temperance and fairness, its frank geniality, its +sensitiveness to affection, its poetic tenderness, its deep and +passionate religion. Religion indeed was the groundwork of AElfred's +character. His temper was instinct with piety. Everywhere throughout his +writings that remain to us the name of God, the thought of God, stir him +to outbursts of ecstatic adoration. But he was no mere saint. He felt +none of that scorn of the world about him which drove the nobler souls of +his day to monastery or hermitage. Vexed as he was by sickness and +constant pain, his temper took no touch of asceticism. His rare +geniality, a peculiar elasticity and mobility of nature, gave colour and +charm to his life. A sunny frankness and openness of spirit breathes in +the pleasant chat of his books, and what he was in his books he showed +himself in his daily converse. AElfred was in truth an artist, and both +the lights and shadows of his life were those of the artistic +temperament. His love of books, his love of strangers, his questionings +of travellers and scholars, betray an imaginative restlessness that longs +to break out of the narrow world of experience which hemmed him in. At +one time he jots down news of a voyage to the unknown seas of the north. +At another he listens to tidings which his envoys bring back from the +churches of Malabar. And side by side with this restless outlook of the +artistic nature he showed its tenderness and susceptibility, its vivid +apprehension of unseen danger, its craving for affection, its +sensitiveness to wrong. It was with himself rather than with his reader +that he communed as thoughts of the foe without, of ingratitude and +opposition within, broke the calm pages of Gregory or Boethius. "Oh, what +a happy man was he," he cries once, "that man that had a naked sword +hanging over his head from a single thread; so as to me it always did!" +"Desirest thou power?" he asks at another time. "But thou shalt never +obtain it without sorrows--sorrows from strange folk, and yet keener +sorrows from thine own kindred." "Hardship and sorrow!" he breaks out +again, "not a king but would wish to be without these if he could. But I +know that he cannot!" The loneliness which breathes in words like these +has often begotten in great rulers a cynical contempt of men and the +judgements of men. But cynicism found no echo in the large and +sympathetic temper of AElfred. He not only longed for the love of his +subjects, but for the remembrance of "generations" to come. Nor did his +inner gloom or anxiety check for an instant his vivid and versatile +activity. To the scholars he gathered round him he seemed the very type +of a scholar, snatching every hour he could find to read or listen to +books read to him. The singers of his court found in him a brother +singer, gathering the old songs of his people to teach them to his +children, breaking his renderings from the Latin with simple verse, +solacing himself in hours of depression with the music of the Psalms. He +passed from court and study to plan buildings and instruct craftsmen in +gold-work, to teach even falconers and dog-keepers their business. But +all this versatility and ingenuity was controlled by a cool good sense. +AElfred was a thorough man of business. He was careful of detail, +laborious, methodical. He carried in his bosom a little handbook in which +he noted things as they struck him--now a bit of family genealogy, now a +prayer, now such a story as that of Ealdhelm playing minstrel on the +bridge. Each hour of the day had its appointed task, there was the same +order in the division of his revenue and in the arrangement of his court. + +Wide however and various as was the King's temper, its range was less +wonderful than its harmony. Of the narrowness, of the want of proportion, +of the predominance of one quality over another which goes commonly with +an intensity of moral purpose AElfred showed not a trace. Scholar and +soldier, artist and man of business, poet and saint, his character kept +that perfect balance which charms us in no other Englishman save +Shakspere. But full and harmonious as his temper was, it was the temper +of a king. Every power was bent to the work of rule. His practical energy +found scope for itself in the material and administrative restoration of +the wasted land. His intellectual activity breathed fresh life into +education and literature. His capacity for inspiring trust and affection +drew the hearts of Englishmen to a common centre, and began the +upbuilding of a new England. And all was guided, controlled, ennobled by +a single aim. "So long as I have lived," said the King as life closed +about him, "I have striven to live worthily." Little by little men came +to know what such a life of worthiness meant. Little by little they came +to recognize in AElfred a ruler of higher and nobler stamp than the world +had seen. Never had it seen a King who lived solely for the good of his +people. Never had it seen a ruler who set aside every personal aim to +devote himself solely to the welfare of those whom he ruled. It was this +grand self-mastery that gave him his power over the men about him. +Warrior and conqueror as he was, they saw him set aside at thirty the +warrior's dream of conquest; and the self-renouncement of Wedmore struck +the key-note of his reign. But still more is it this height and +singleness of purpose, this absolute concentration of the noblest +faculties to the noblest aim, that lifts AElfred out of the narrow bounds +of Wessex. If the sphere of his action seems too small to justify the +comparison of him with the few whom the world owns as its greatest men, +he rises to their level in the moral grandeur of his life. And it is this +which has hallowed his memory among his own English people. "I desire," +said the King in some of his latest words, "I desire to leave to the men +that come after me a remembrance of me in good works." His aim has been +more than fulfilled. His memory has come down to us with a living +distinctness through the mists of exaggeration and legend which time +gathered round it. The instinct of the people has clung to him with a +singular affection. The love which he won a thousand years ago has +lingered round his name from that day to this. While every other name of +those earlier times has all but faded from the recollection of +Englishmen, that of AElfred remains familiar to every English child. + +[Sidenote: English Literature] + +The secret of AElfred's government lay in his own vivid energy. He could +hardly have chosen braver or more active helpers than those whom he +employed both in his political and in his educational efforts. The +children whom he trained to rule proved the ablest rulers of their time. +But at the outset of his reign he stood alone, and what work was to be +done was done by the King himself. His first efforts were directed to the +material restoration of his realm. The burnt and wasted country saw its +towns built again, forts erected in positions of danger, new abbeys +founded, the machinery of justice and government restored, the laws +codified and amended. Still more strenuous were AElfred's efforts for its +moral and intellectual restoration. Even in Mercia and Northumbria the +pirates' sword had left few survivors of the schools of Ecgberht or Baeda, +and matters were even worse in Wessex which had been as yet the most +ignorant of the English kingdoms. "When I began to reign," said AElfred, +"I cannot remember one priest south of the Thames who could render his +service-book into English." For instructors indeed he could find only a +few Mercian prelates and priests with one Welsh bishop, Asser. "In old +times," the King writes sadly, "men came hither from foreign lands to +seek for instruction, and now if we are to have it we can only get it +from abroad." But his mind was far from being prisoned within his own +island. He sent a Norwegian ship-master to explore the White Sea, and +Wulfstan to trace the coast of Esthonia; envoys bore his presents to the +churches of India and Jerusalem, and an annual mission carried +Peter's-pence to Rome. But it was with the Franks that his intercourse +was closest, and it was from them that he drew the scholars to aid him in +his work of education. Grimbald came from St. Omer to preside over his +new abbey at Winchester; and John, the Old Saxon, was fetched it may be +from the Westphalian abbey of Corbey to rule the monastery that AElfred's +gratitude for his deliverance from the Danes raised in the marshes of +Athelney. The real work however to be done was done, not by these +teachers but by the King himself. AElfred established a school for the +young nobles at his own court, and it was to the need of books for these +scholars in their own tongue that we owe his most remarkable literary +effort. He took his books as he found them--they were the popular manuals +of his age--the Consolation of Boethius, the Pastoral Book of Pope +Gregory, the compilation of "Orosius," then the one accessible handbook +of universal history, and the history of his own people by Baeda. He +translated these works into English, but he was far more than a +translator, he was an editor for his people. Here he omitted, there he +expanded. He enriched "Orosius" by a sketch of the new geographical +discoveries in the North. He gave a West-Saxon form to his selections +from Baeda. In one place he stops to explain his theory of government, his +wish for a thicker population, his conception of national welfare as +consisting in a due balance of the priest, the thegn, and the churl. The +mention of Nero spurs him to an outbreak on the abuses of power. The cold +Providence of Boethius gives way to an enthusiastic acknowledgement of +the goodness of God. As he writes, his large-hearted nature flings off +its royal mantle, and he talks as a man to men. "Do not blame me," he +prays with a charming simplicity, "if any know Latin better than I, for +every man must say what he says and do what he does according to his +ability." But simple as was his aim, AElfred changed the whole front of +our literature. Before him, England possessed in her own tongue one great +poem and a train of ballads and battle-songs. Prose she had none. The +mighty roll of the prose books that fill her libraries begins with the +translations of AElfred, and above all with the chronicle of his reign. It +seems likely that the King's rendering of Baeda's history gave the first +impulse towards the compilation of what is known as the English or +Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was certainly thrown into its present form +during his reign. The meagre lists of the kings of Wessex and the bishops +of Winchester, which had been preserved from older times, were roughly +expanded into a national history by insertions from Baeda: but it is when +it reaches the reign of AElfred that the chronicle suddenly widens into +the vigorous narrative, full of life and originality, that marks the gift +of a new power to the English tongue. Varying as it does from age to age +in historic value, it remains the first vernacular history of any +Teutonic people, and save for the work of Ulfilas who found no successors +among his Gothic people, the earliest and most venerable monument of +Teutonic prose. + +But all this literary activity was only a part of that general upbuilding +of Wessex by which AElfred was preparing for a fresh contest with the +stranger. He knew that the actual winning back of the Danelaw must be a +work of the sword, and through these long years of peace he was busy with +the creation of such a force as might match that of the northmen. A fleet +grew out of the little squadron which AElfred had been forced to man with +Frisian seamen. The national fyrd or levy of all freemen at the King's +call was reorganized. It was now divided into two halves, one of which +served in the field while the other guarded its own burhs and townships +and served to relieve its fellow when the men's forty days of service +were ended. A more disciplined military force was provided by subjecting +all owners of five hides of land to thegn-service, a step which +recognized the change that had now substituted the thegn for the eorl and +in which we see the beginning of a feudal system. How effective these +measures were was seen when the new resistance they met on the Continent +drove the northmen to a fresh attack on Britain. In 893 a large fleet +steered for the Andredsweald, while the sea-king Hasting entered the +Thames. AElfred held both at bay through the year till the men of the +Danelaw rose at their comrades' call. Wessex stood again front to front +with the northmen. But the King's measures had made the realm strong +enough to set aside its old policy of defence for one of vigorous attack. +His son Eadward and his son-in-law AEthelred, whom he had set as Ealdorman +over what remained of Mercia, showed themselves as skilful and active as +the King. The aim of the northmen was to rouse again the hostility of the +Welsh, but while AElfred held Exeter against their fleet, Eadward and +AEthelred caught their army near the Severn and overthrew it with a vast +slaughter at Buttington. The destruction of their camp on the Lea by the +united English forces ended the war; in 897 Hasting again withdrew across +the Channel, and the Danelaw made peace. It was with the peace he had won +still about him that AElfred died in 901, and warrior as his son Eadward +had shown himself, he clung to his father's policy of rest. It was not +till 910 that a fresh rising of the northmen forced AElfred's children to +gird themselves to the conquest of the Danelaw. + +[Sidenote: Eadward the Elder] + +While Eadward bridled East-Anglia his sister AEthelflaed, in whose hands +AEthelred's death left English Mercia, attacked the "Five Boroughs," a +rude confederacy which had taken the place of the older Mercian kingdom. +Derby represented the original Mercia on the upper Trent, Lincoln the +Lindiswaras, Leicester the Middle-English, Stamford the province of the +Gyrwas, Nottingham probably that of the Southumbrians. Each of these +"Five Boroughs" seems to have been ruled by its earl with his separate +"host"; within each twelve "lawmen" administered Danish law, while a +common "Thing" may have existed for the whole district. In her attack on +this powerful league AEthelflaed abandoned the older strategy of battle and +raid for that of siege and fortress-building. Advancing along the line of +Trent, she fortified Tamworth and Stafford on its head-waters; when a +rising in Gwent called her back to the Welsh border, her army stormed +Brecknock; and its king no sooner fled for shelter to the northmen in +whose aid he had risen than AEthelflaed at once closed on Derby. Raids from +Middle-England failed to draw the Lady of Mercia from her prey; and Derby +was hardly her own when, turning southward, she forced the surrender of +Leicester. Nor had the brilliancy of his sister's exploits eclipsed those +of the King, for the son of AElfred was a vigorous and active ruler; he +had repulsed a dangerous inroad of the northmen from France, summoned no +doubt by the cry of distress from their brethren in England, and had +bridled East-Anglia to the south by the erection of forts at Hertford and +Witham. On the death of AEthelflaed in 918 he came boldly to the front. +Annexing Mercia to Wessex, and thus gathering the whole strength of the +kingdom into his single hand, he undertook the systematic reduction of +the Danelaw. South of the Middle-English and the Fens lay a tract watered +by the Ouse and the Nen--originally the district of a tribe known as the +South-English, and now, like the Five Boroughs of the north, grouped +round the towns of Bedford, Huntingdon, and Northampton. The reduction of +these was followed by that of East-Anglia; the northmen of the Fens +submitted with Stamford, the Southumbrians with Nottingham. Eadward's +Mercian troops had already seized Manchester; he himself was preparing to +complete his conquests, when in 924 the whole of the North suddenly laid +itself at his feet. Not merely Northumbria but the Scots and the Britons +of Strathclyde "chose him to father and lord." + +[Sidenote: AEthelstan] + +The triumph was his last. Eadward died in 925, but the reign of his son +AEthelstan, AElfred's golden-haired grandson whom the King had girded as a +child with a sword set in a golden scabbard and a gem-studded belt, +proved even more glorious than his own. In spite of its submission the +North had still to be won. Dread of the northmen had drawn Scot and +Cumbrian to their acknowledgement of Eadward's overlordship, but +AEthelstan no sooner incorporated Northumbria with his dominions than +dread of Wessex took the place of dread of the Danelaw. The Scot King +Constantine organized a league of Scot, Cumbrian, and Welshman with the +northmen. The league was broken by AEthelstan's rapid action in 926; the +North-Welsh were forced to pay annual tribute, to march in his armies, +and to attend his councils; the West-Welsh of Cornwall were reduced to a +like vassalage, and finally driven from Exeter, which they had shared +till then with its English inhabitants, But eight years later the same +league called AEthelstan again to the North; and though Constantine was +punished by an army which wasted his kingdom while a fleet ravaged its +coasts to Caithness the English army had no sooner withdrawn than +Northumbria rose in 937 at the appearance of a fleet of pirates from +Ireland under the sea-king Anlaf in the Humber. Scot and Cumbrian fought +beside the northmen against the West-Saxon King; but his victory at +Brunanburh crushed the confederacy and won peace till his death. His +brother Eadmund was but eighteen at his accession in 940, and the North +again rose in revolt. The men of the Five Boroughs joined their kinsmen +in Northumbria; once Eadmund was driven to a peace which left him king +but south of the Watling Street; and only years of hard fighting again +laid the Danelaw at his feet. + +[Sidenote: Dunstan] + +But policy was now to supplement the work of the sword. The completion of +the West-Saxon realm was in fact reserved for the hands, not of a king or +warrior, but of a priest. Dunstan stands first in the line of +ecclesiastical statesmen who counted among them Lanfranc and Wolsey and +ended in Laud. He is still more remarkable in himself, in his own vivid +personality after eight centuries of revolution and change. He was born +in the little hamlet of Glastonbury, the home of his father, Heorstan, a +man of wealth and brother of the bishops of Wells and of Winchester. It +must have been in his father's hall that the fair, diminutive boy, with +scant but beautiful hair, caught his love for "the vain songs of +heathendom, the trifling legends, the funeral chaunts," which afterwards +roused against him the charge of sorcery. Thence too he might have +derived his passionate love of music, and his custom of carrying his harp +in hand on journey or visit. Wandering scholars of Ireland had left their +books in the monastery of Glastonbury, as they left them along the Rhine +and the Danube; and Dunstan plunged into the study of sacred and profane +letters till his brain broke down in delirium. So famous became his +knowledge in the neighbourhood that news of it reached the court of +AEthelstan, but his appearance there was the signal for a burst of +ill-will among the courtiers. Again they drove him from Eadmund's train, +threw him from his horse as he passed through the marshes, and with the +wild passion of their age trampled him under foot in the mire. The +outrage ended in fever, and Dunstan rose from his sick-bed a monk. But +the monastic profession was then little more than a vow of celibacy and +his devotion took no ascetic turn. His nature in fact was sunny, +versatile, artistic; full of strong affections, and capable of inspiring +others with affections as strong. Quick-witted, of tenacious memory, a +ready and fluent speaker, gay and genial in address, an artist, a +musician, he was at the same time an indefatigable worker alike at books +or handicraft. As his sphere began to widen we see him followed by a +train of pupils, busy with literature, writing, harping, painting, +designing. One morning a lady summons him to her house to design a robe +which she is embroidering, and as he bends with her maidens over their +toil his harp hung upon the wall sounds without mortal touch tones which +the excited ears around frame into a joyous antiphon. + + +[Sidenote: Conquest of the Danelaw] + +From this scholar-life Dunstan was called to a wider sphere of activity +towards the close of Eadmund's reign. But the old jealousies revived at +his reappearance at court, and counting the game lost Dunstan prepared +again to withdraw. The king had spent the day in the chase; the red deer +which he was pursuing dashed over Cheddar cliffs, and his horse only +checked itself on the brink of the ravine at the moment when Eadmund in +the bitterness of death was repenting of his injustice to Dunstan. He was +at once summoned on the king's return. "Saddle your horse," said Eadmund, +"and ride with me." The royal train swept over the marshes to his home; +and the king, bestowing on him the kiss of peace, seated him in the +abbot's chair as Abbot of Glastonbury. Dunstan became one of Eadmund's +councillors, and his hand was seen in the settlement of the north. It was +the hostility of the states around it to the West-Saxon rule which had +roused so often revolt in the Danelaw; but from the time of Brunanburh we +hear nothing more of the hostility of Bernicia, while Cumbria was +conquered by Eadmund and turned adroitly to account in winning over the +Scots to his cause. The greater part of it was granted to their king +Malcolm on terms that he should be Eadmund's "fellow-worker by sea and +land." The league of Scot and Briton was thus finally broken up, and the +fidelity of the Scots secured by their need of help in holding down their +former ally. The settlement was soon troubled by the young king's death. +As he feasted at Pucklechurch in the May of 946, Leofa, a robber whom +Eadmund had banished from the land, entered the hall, seated himself at +the royal board, and drew sword on the cup-bearer when he bade him +retire. The king sprang in wrath to his thegn's aid, and seizing Leofa by +the hair, flung him to the ground; but in the struggle the robber drove +his dagger to Eadmund's heart. His death at once stirred fresh troubles +in the north; the Danelaw rose against his brother and successor, Eadred, +and some years of hard fighting were needed before it was again driven to +own the English supremacy. But with its submission in 954 the work of +conquest was done. Dogged as his fight had been, the Dane at last owned +himself beaten. From the moment of Eadred's final triumph all resistance +came to an end. The Danelaw ceased to be a force in English politics. +North might part anew from South; men of Yorkshire might again cross +swords with men of Hampshire; but their strife was henceforth a local +strife between men of the same people; it was a strife of Englishmen with +Englishmen, and not of Englishmen with Northmen. + + + + + +CHAPTER IV +FEUDALISM AND THE MONARCHY +954-1071 + + + +[Sidenote: Absorption of the Northmen] + +The fierceness of the northman's onset had hidden the real character of +his attack. To the men who first fronted the pirates it seemed as though +the story of the world had gone back to the days when the German +barbarians first broke in upon the civilized world. It was so above all +in Britain. All that tradition told of the Englishmen's own attack on the +island was seen in the northmen's attack on it. Boats of marauders from +the northern seas again swarmed off the British coast; church and town +were again the special object of attack; the invaders again settled on +the conquered soil; heathendom again proved stronger than the faith of +Christ. But the issues of the two attacks showed the mighty difference +between them. When the English ceased from their onset upon Roman +Britain, Roman Britain had disappeared, and a new people of conquerors +stood alone on the conquered land. The Northern storm on the other hand +left land, people, government unchanged. England remained a country of +Englishmen. The conquerors sank into the mass of the conquered, and Woden +yielded without a struggle to Christ. The strife between Briton and +Englishman was in fact a strife between men of different races, while the +strife between northman and Englishman was a strife between men whose +race was the same. The followers of Hengest or of Ida were men utterly +alien from the life of Britain, strange to its arts, its culture, its +wealth, as they were strange to the social degradation which Rome had +brought on its province. But the northman was little more than an +Englishman bringing back to an England which had drifted far from its +origin the barbaric life of its earliest forefathers. Nowhere throughout +Europe was the fight so fierce, because nowhere else were the fighters +men of one blood and one speech. But just for this reason the union of +the combatants was nowhere so peaceful or so complete. The victory of the +house of AElfred only hastened a process of fusion which was already going +on. From the first moment of his settlement in the Danelaw the northman +had been passing into an Englishman. The settlers were few; they were +scattered among a large population; in tongue, in manner, in institutions +there was little to distinguish them from the men among whom they dwelt. +Moreover their national temper helped on the process of assimilation. +Even in France, where difference of language and difference of custom +seemed to interpose an impassable barrier between the northman settled in +Normandy and his neighbours, he was fast becoming a Frenchman. In +England, where no such barriers existed, the assimilation was even +quicker. The two peoples soon became confounded. In a few years a +northman in blood was Archbishop of Canterbury and another northman in +blood was Archbishop of York. + +[Sidenote: The three Northern Kingdoms] + +The fusion might have been delayed if not wholly averted by continued +descents from the Scandinavian homeland. But with Eadred's reign the long +attack which the northman had directed against western Christendom came, +for a while at least, to an end. On the world which it assailed its +results had been immense. It had utterly changed the face of the west. +The empire of Ecgberht, the empire of Charles the Great, had been alike +dashed to pieces. But break and change as it might, Christendom had held +the northmen at bay. The Scandinavian power which had grown up on the +western seas had disappeared like a dream. In Ireland the northman's rule +had dwindled to the holding of a few coast towns. In France his +settlements had shrunk to the one settlement of Normandy. In England +every northman was a subject of the English King. Even the empire of the +seas had passed from the sea-kings' hands. It was an English and not a +Scandinavian fleet that for fifty years to come held mastery in the +English and the Irish Channels. With Eadred's victory in fact the +struggle seemed to have reached its close. Stray pirate boats still hung +off headland and coast; stray wikings still shoved out in springtide to +gather booty. But for nearly half-a-century to come no great pirate fleet +made its way to the west, or landed on the shores of Britain. The +energies of the northmen were in fact absorbed through these years in the +political changes of Scandinavia itself. The old isolation of fiord from +fiord and dale from dale was breaking down. The little commonwealths +which had held so jealously aloof from each other were being drawn +together whether they would or no. In each of the three regions of the +north great kingdoms were growing up. In Sweden King Eric made himself +lord of the petty states about him. In Denmark King Gorm built up in the +same way a monarchy of the Danes. Norway itself was the first to become a +single monarchy. Legend told how one of its many rulers, Harald of +Westfold, sent his men to bring him Gytha of Hordaland, a girl he had +chosen for wife, and how Gytha sent his men back again with taunts at his +petty realm. The taunts went home, and Harald vowed never to clip or comb +his hair till he had made all Norway his own. So every springtide came +war and hosting, harrying and burning, till a great fight at Hafursfiord +settled the matter, and Harald "Ugly-Head," as men called him while the +strife lasted, was free to shear his locks again and became Harald +"Fair-Hair." The Northmen loved no master, and a great multitude fled out +of the country, some pushing as far as Iceland and colonizing it, some +swarming to the Orkneys and Hebrides till Harald harried them out again +and the sea-kings sailed southward to join Guthrum's host in the Rhine +country or follow Hrolf to his fights on the Seine. But little by little +the land settled down into order, and the three Scandinavian realms +gathered strength for new efforts which were to leave their mark on our +after history. + +[Sidenote: England and its King] + +But of the new danger which threatened it in this union of the north +England knew little. The storm seemed to have drifted utterly away; and +the land passed from a hundred years of ceaseless conflict into a time of +peace. Here as elsewhere the northman had failed in his purpose of +conquest; but here as elsewhere he had done a mighty work. In shattering +the empire of Charles the Great he had given birth to the nations of +modern Europe. In his long strife with Englishmen he had created an +English people. The national union which had been brought about for a +moment by the sword of Ecgberht was a union of sheer force which broke +down at the first blow of the sea-robbers. The black boats of the +northmen were so many wedges that split up the fabric of the +roughly-built realm. But the very agency which destroyed the new England +was destined to bring it back again, and to breathe into it a life that +made its union real. The peoples who had so long looked on each other as +enemies found themselves fronted by a common foe. They were thrown +together by a common danger and the need of a common defence. Their +common faith grew into a national bond as religion struggled hand in hand +with England itself against the heathen of the north. They recognized a +common king as a common struggle changed AElfred and his sons from mere +leaders of West-Saxons into leaders of all Englishmen in their fight with +the stranger. And when the work which AElfred set his house to do was +done, when the yoke of the northman was lifted from the last of his +conquests, Engle and Saxon, Northumbrian and Mercian, spent with the +battle for a common freedom and a common country, knew themselves in the +hour of their deliverance as an English people. + +The new people found its centre in the King. The heightening of the royal +power was a direct outcome of the war. The dying out of other royal +stocks left the house of Cerdic the one line of hereditary kingship. But +it was the war with the northmen that raised AElfred and his sons from +tribal leaders into national kings. The long series of triumphs which +wrested the land from the stranger begot a new and universal loyalty; +while the wider dominion which their success bequeathed removed the kings +further and further from their people, lifted them higher and higher +above the nobles, and clothed them more and more with a mysterious +dignity. Above all the religious character of the war against the +northmen gave a religious character to the sovereigns who waged it. The +king, if he was no longer sacred as the son of Woden, became yet more +sacred as "the Lord's Anointed." By the very fact of his consecration he +was pledged to a religious rule, to justice, mercy, and good government; +but his "hallowing" invested him also with a power drawn not from the +will of man or the assent of his subjects but from the will of God, and +treason against him became the worst of crimes. Every reign lifted the +sovereign higher in the social scale. The bishop, once ranked equal with +him in value of life, sank to the level of the ealdorman. The ealdorman +himself, once the hereditary ruler of a smaller state, became a mere +delegate of the national king, with an authority curtailed in every shire +by that of the royal shire-reeves, officers charged with levying the +royal revenues and destined ultimately to absorb judicial authority. +Among the later nobility of the thegns personal service with such a lord +was held not to degrade but to ennoble. "Horse-thegn," and "cup-thegn," +and "border," the constable, butler, and treasurer, found themselves +officers of state; and the developement of politics, the wider extension +of home and foreign affairs were already transforming these royal +officers into a standing council or ministry for the transaction of the +ordinary administrative business and the reception of judicial appeals. +Such a ministry, composed of thegns or prelates nominated by the king, +and constituting in itself a large part of the Witenagemot when that +assembly was gathered for legislative purposes, drew the actual control +of affairs more and more into the hands of the sovereign himself. + +[Sidenote: Growth of Feudalism] + +But the king's power was still a personal power. He had to be everywhere +and to see for himself that everything he willed was done. The royal +claims lay still far ahead of the real strength of the Crown. There was a +want of administrative machinery in actual connexion with the government, +responsible to it, drawing its force directly from it, and working +automatically in its name even in moments when the royal power was itself +weak or wavering. The Crown was strong under a king who was strong, whose +personal action was felt everywhere throughout the realm, whose dread lay +on every reeve and ealdorman. But with a weak king the Crown was weak. +Ealdor-men, provincial witenagemots, local jurisdictions, ceased to move +at the royal bidding the moment the direct royal pressure was loosened or +removed. Enfeebled as they were, the old provincial jealousies, the old +tendency to severance and isolation lingered on and woke afresh when the +crown fell to a nerveless ruler or to a child. And at the moment we have +reached the royal power and the national union it embodied had to battle +with fresh tendencies towards national disintegration which sprang like +itself from the struggle with the northman. The tendency towards personal +dependence and towards a social organization based on personal dependence +received an overpowering impulse from the strife. The long insecurity of +a century of warfare drove the ceorl, the free tiller of the soil, to +seek protection more and more from the thegn beside him. The freeman +"commended" himself to a lord who promised aid, and as the price of this +shelter he surrendered his freehold to receive it back as a fief laden +with conditions of military service. The principle of personal allegiance +which was embodied in the very notion of thegnhood, itself tended to +widen into a theory of general dependence. From AElfred's day it was +assumed that no man could exist without a lord. The "lordless man" became +a sort of outlaw in the realm. The free man, the very base of the older +English constitution, died down more and more into the "villein," the man +who did suit and service to a master, who followed him to the field, who +looked to his court for justice, who rendered days of service in his +demesne. The same tendencies drew the lesser thegns around the greater +nobles, and these around the provincial ealdormen. The ealdormen had +hardly been dwarfed into lieutenants of the national sovereign before +they again began to rise into petty kings, and in the century which +follows we see Mercian or Northumbrian thegns following a Mercian or +Northumbrian ealdorman to the field though it were against the lord of +the land. Even the constitutional forms which sprang from the old English +freedom tended to invest the higher nobles with a commanding power. In +the "great meeting" of the Witenagemot or Assembly of the Wise lay the +rule of the realm. It represented the whole English people, as the +wise-moots of each kingdom represented the separate peoples of each; and +its powers were as supreme in the wider field as theirs in the narrower. +It could elect or depose the King. To it belonged the higher justice, the +imposition of taxes, the making of laws, the conclusion of treaties, the +control of wars, the disposal of public lands, the appointment of great +officers of state. But such a meeting necessarily differed greatly in +constitution from the Witan of the lesser kingdoms. The individual +freeman, save when the host was gathered together, could hardly take part +in its deliberations. The only relic of its popular character lay at last +in the ring of citizens who gathered round the Wise Men at London or +Winchester, and shouted their "aye" or "nay" at the election of a king. +Distance and the hardships of travel made the presence of the lesser +thegns as rare as that of the freemen; and the national council +practically shrank into a gathering of the ealdormen, the bishops, and +the officers of the crown. + +[Sidenote: Feudalism and the Monarchy] + +The old English democracy had thus all but passed into an oligarchy of +the narrowest kind. The feudal movement which in other lands was breaking +up every nation into a mass of loosely-knit states with nobles at their +head who owned little save a nominal allegiance to their king threatened +to break up England itself. What hindered its triumph was the power of +the Crown, and it is the story of this struggle between the monarchy and +these tendencies to feudal isolation which fills the period between the +death of Eadred and the conquest of the Norman. It was a struggle which +England shared with the rest of the western world, but its issue here was +a peculiar one. In other countries feudalism won an easy victory over the +central government. In England alone the monarchy was strong enough to +hold feudalism at bay. Powerful as he might be, the English ealdorman +never succeeded in becoming really hereditary or independent of the +Crown. Kings as weak as AEthelred could drive ealdormen into exile and +could replace them by fresh nominees. If the Witenagemot enabled the +great nobles to bring their power to bear directly on the Crown, it +preserved at any rate a feeling of national unity and was forced to back +the Crown against individual revolt. The Church too never became +feudalized. The bishop clung to the Crown, and the bishop remained a +great social and political power. As local in area as the ealdorman, for +the province was his diocese and he sat by his side in the local +Witenagemot, he furnished a standing check on the independence of the +great nobles. But if feudalism proved too weak to conquer the monarchy, +it was strong enough to paralyze its action. Neither of the two forces +could master the other, but each could weaken the other, and throughout +the whole period of their conflict England lay a prey to disorder within +and to insult from without. + +The first sign of these troubles was seen when the death of Eadred in 955 +handed over the realm to a child king, his nephew Eadwig. Eadwig was +swayed by a woman of high lineage, AEthelgifu; and the quarrel between her +and the older counsellors of Eadred broke into open strife at the +coronation feast. On the young king's insolent withdrawal to her chamber +Dunstan, at the bidding of the Witan, drew him roughly back to his seat. +But the feast was no sooner ended than a sentence of outlawry drove the +abbot over sea, while the triumph of AEthelgifu was crowned in 957 by the +marriage of her daughter to the king and the spoliation of the +monasteries which Dunstan had befriended. As the new queen was Eadwig's +kinswoman the religious opinion of the day regarded his marriage as +incestuous, and it was followed by a revolution. At the opening of 958 +Archbishop Odo parted the King from his wife by solemn sentence; while +the Mercians and Northumbrians rose in revolt, proclaimed Eadwig's +brother Eadgar their king, and recalled Dunstan. The death of Eadwig a +few months later restored the unity of the realm; but his successor +Eadgar was only a boy of sixteen and at the outset of his reign the +direction of affairs must have lain in the hands of Dunstan, whose +elevation to the see of Canterbury set him at the head of the Church as +of the State. The noblest tribute to his rule lies in the silence of our +chroniclers. His work indeed was a work of settlement, and such a work +was best done by the simple enforcement of peace. During the years of +rest in which King and Primate enforced justice and order northman and +Englishman drew together into a single people. Their union was the result +of no direct policy of fusion; on the contrary Dunstan's policy preserved +to the conquered Danelaw its local rights and local usages. But he +recognized the men of the Danelaw as Englishmen, he employed northmen in +the royal service, and promoted them to high posts in Church and State. +For the rest he trusted to time, and time justified his trust. The fusion +was marked by a memorable change in the name of the land. Slowly as the +conquering tribes had learned to know themselves, by the one national +name of Englishmen, they learned yet more slowly to stamp their name on +the land they had won. It was not till Eadgar's day that the name of +Britain passed into the name of Engla-land, the land of Englishmen, +England. The same vigorous rule which secured rest for the country during +these years of national union told on the growth of material prosperity. +Commerce sprang into a wider life. Its extension is seen in the complaint +that men learned fierceness from the Saxon of Germany, effeminacy from +the Fleming, and drunkenness from the Dane. The laws of AEthelred which +provide for the protection and regulation of foreign trade only recognize +a state of things which grew up under Eadgar. "Men of the Empire," +traders of Lower Lorraine and the Rhine-land, "Men of Rouen," traders +from the new Norman duchy of the Seine, were seen in the streets of +London. It was in Eadgar's day indeed that London rose to the commercial +greatness it has held ever since. + +[Sidenote: Eadward the Martyr] + +Though Eadgar reigned for sixteen years, he was still in the prime of +manhood when he died in 975. His death gave a fresh opening to the great +nobles. He had bequeathed the crown to his elder son Eadward; but the +ealdorman of East-Anglia, AEthelwine, rose at once to set a younger child, +AEthelred, on the throne. But the two primates of Canterbury and York who +had joined in setting the crown on the head of Eadgar now joined in +setting it on the head of Eadward, and Dunstan remained as before master +of the realm. The boy's reign however was troubled by strife between the +monastic party and their opponents till in 979 the quarrel was cut short +by his murder at Corfe, and with the accession of AEthelred, the power of +Dunstan made way for that of ealdorman AEthelwine and the queen-mother. +Some years of tranquillity followed this victory; but though AEthelwine +preserved order at home he showed little sense of the danger which +threatened from abroad. The North was girding itself for a fresh, onset +on England. The Scandinavian peoples had drawn together into their +kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway; and it was no longer in isolated +bands but in national hosts that they were about to seek conquests in the +South. As AEthelred drew to manhood some chance descents on the coast told +of this fresh stir in the North, and the usual result of the northman's +presence was seen in new risings among the Welsh. + +[Sidenote: AEthelred] + +In 991 ealdorman Brihtnoth of East-Anglia fell in battle with a Norwegian +force at Maldon, and the withdrawal of the pirates had to be bought by +money. AEthelwine too died at this moment, and the death of the two +ealdormen left AEthelred free to act as King. But his aim was rather to +save the Crown from his nobles than England from the northmen. Handsome +and pleasant of address, the young King's pride showed itself in a string +of imperial titles, and his restless and self-confident temper drove him +to push the pretensions of the Crown to their furthest extent. His aim +throughout his reign was to free himself from the dictation of the great +nobles, and it was his indifference to their "rede" or counsel that won +him the name of "AEthelred the Redeless." From the first he struck boldly +at his foes, and AElfric, the ealdorman of Central Wessex, whom the death +of his rival AEthelwine left supreme in the realm, was driven possibly by +fear to desert to a Danish force which he was sent in 992 to drive from +the coast. AEthelred turned from his triumph at home to meet the forces of +the Danish and Norwegian kings, Swein and Olaf, which anchored off London +in 994. His policy through-out was a policy of diplomacy rather than of +arms, and a treaty of subsidy gave time for intrigues which parted the +invaders till troubles at home drew both again to the North. AEthelrod +took quick advantage of his success at home and abroad; the place of the +great ealdormen in the royal councils was taken by court-thegns, in whom +we see the rudiments of a ministry, while the king's fleet attacked the +pirates' haunts in Cumberland and the Cotentin. But in spite of all this +activity the news of a fresh invasion found England more weak and broken +than ever. The rise of the "new men" only widened the breach between the +court and the great nobles, and their resentment showed itself in delays +which foiled every attempt of AEthelred to meet the pirate-bands who still +clung to the coast. + +[Sidenote: Swein] + +They came probably from the other side of the Channel, and it was to +clear them away as well as secure himself against Swein's threatened +descent that AEthelred took a step which brought England in contact with a +land over-sea. Normandy, where the northmen had settled a hundred years +before, was now growing into a great power, and it was to win the +friendship of Normandy and to close its harbours against Swein that +AEthelred in 1002 took the Norman Duke's daughter, Emma, to wife. The same +dread of invasion gave birth to a panic of treason from the northern +mercenaries whom the king had drawn to settle in the land as a fighting +force against their brethren; and an order of AEthelred brought about a +general massacre of them on St. Brice's day. Wedding and murder however +proved feeble defences against Swein. His fleet reached the coast in +1003, and for four years he marched through the length and breadth of +southern and eastern England, "lighting his war-beacons as he went" in +blazing homestead and town. Then for a heavy bribe he withdrew, to +prepare for a later and more terrible onset. But there was no rest for +the realm. The fiercest of the Norwegian jarls took his place, and from +Wessex the war extended over Mercia and East-Anglia. In 1012 Canterbury +was taken and sacked, AEltheah the Archbishop dragged to Greenwich, and +there in default of ransom brutally slain. The Danes set him in the midst +of their husting, pelting him with bones and skulls of oxen, till one +more pitiful than the rest clove his head with an axe. Meanwhile the +court was torn with intrigue and strife, with quarrels between the +court-thegns in their greed of power and yet fiercer quarrels between +these favourites and the nobles whom they superseded in the royal +councils. The King's policy of finding aid among his new ministers broke +down when these became themselves ealdormen. With their local position +they took up the feudal claims of independence; and Eadric, whom AEthelred +raised to be ealdorman of Mercia, became a power that overawed the Crown. +In this paralysis of the central authority all organization and union was +lost. "Shire would not help other" when Swein returned in 1013. The war +was terrible but short. Everywhere the country was pitilessly harried, +churches plundered, men slaughtered. But, with the one exception of +London, there was no attempt at resistance. Oxford and Winchester flung +open their gates. The thegns of Wessex submitted to the northmen at Bath. +Even London was forced at last to give way, and AEthelred fled over-sea to +a refuge in Normandy. + +[Sidenote: Cnut] + +He was soon called back again. In the opening of 1014 Swein died suddenly +at Gainsborough; and the spell of terror was broken. The Witan recalled +"their own born lord," and AEthelred returned to see the Danish fleet +under Swein's son, Cnut, sail away to the North. It was but to plan a +more terrible return. Youth of nineteen as he was, Cnut showed from the +first the vigour of his temper. Setting aside his brother he made himself +king of Denmark; and at once gathered a splendid fleet for a fresh attack +on England, whose king and nobles were again at strife, and where a +bitter quarrel between ealdorman Eadric of Mercia and AEthelred's son +Eadmund Ironside broke the strength of the realm. The desertion of Eadric +to Cnut as soon as he appeared off the coast threw open England to his +arms; Wessex and Mercia submitted to him; and though the loyalty of +London enabled Eadmund, when his father's death raised him in 1016 to the +throne, to struggle bravely for a few months against the Danes, a +decisive overthrow at Assandun and a treaty of partition which this +wrested from him at Olney were soon followed by the young king's death. +Cnut was left master of the realm. His first acts of government showed +little but the temper of the mere northman, passionate, revengeful, +uniting the guile of the savage with his thirst for blood. Eadric of +Mercia, whose aid had given him the Crown, was felled by an axe-blow at +the king's signal; a murder removed Eadwig, the brother of Eadmund +Ironside, while the children of Eadmund were hunted even into Hungary by +his ruthless hate. But from a savage such as this the young conqueror +rose abruptly into a wise and temperate king. His aim during twenty years +seems to have been to obliterate from men's minds the foreign character +of his rule and the bloodshed in which it had begun. + +Conqueror indeed as he was, the Dane was no foreigner in the sense that +the Norman was a foreigner after him. His language differed little from +the English tongue. He brought in no new system of tenure or government. +Cnut ruled in fact not as a foreign conqueror but as a native king. He +dismissed his Danish host, and retaining only a trained band of household +troops or "hus-carls" to serve as a body-guard relied boldly for support +within his realm on the justice and good government he secured it. He +fell back on "Eadgar's Law," on the old constitution of the realm, for +his rule of government; and owned no difference between Dane and +Englishman among his subjects. He identified himself even with the +patriotism which had withstood the stranger. The Church had been the +centre of the national resistance; Archbishop AElfheah had been slain by +Danish hands. But Cnut sought the friendship of the Church; he translated +AElfheah's body with great pomp to Canterbury; he atoned for his father's +ravages by gifts to the religious houses; he protected English pilgrims +even against the robber-lords of the Alps. His love for monks broke out +in a song which he composed as he listened to their chaunt at Ely. +"Merrily sang the monks of Ely when Cnut King rowed by" across the vast +fen-waters that surrounded their abbey. "Row, boatmen, near the land, and +hear we these monks sing." A letter which Cnut wrote after twelve years +of rule to his English subjects marks the grandeur of his character and +the noble conception he had formed of kingship. "I have vowed to God to +lead a right life in all things," wrote the king, "to rule justly and +piously my realms and subjects, and to administer just judgement to all. +If heretofore I have done aught beyond what was just, through headiness +or negligence of youth, I am ready, with God's help, to amend it +utterly." No royal officer, either for fear of the king or for favour of +any, is to consent to injustice, none is to do wrong to rich or poor "as +they would value my friendship and their own well-being." He especially +denounces unfair exactions: "I have no need that money be heaped together +for me by unjust demands." "I have sent this letter before me," Cnut +ends, "that all the people of my realm may rejoice in my well-doing; for +as you yourselves know, never have I spared, nor will I spare, to spend +myself and my toil in what is needful and good for my people." + + +[Sidenote: Cnut and Scotland] + +Cnut's greatest gift to his people was that of peace. With him began the +long internal tranquillity which was from this time to be the keynote of +the national history. Without, the Dane was no longer a terror; on the +contrary it was English ships and English soldiers who now appeared in +the North and followed Cnut in his campaigns against Wend or Norwegian. +Within, the exhaustion which follows a long anarchy gave fresh strength +to the Crown, and Cnut's own ruling temper was backed by the force of +hus-carls at his disposal. The four Earls of Northumberland, Mercia, +Wessex, and East-Anglia, whom he set in the place of the older caldormen, +knew themselves to be the creatures of his will; the ablest indeed of +their number, Godwine, earl of Wessex, was the minister or close +counsellor of the King. The troubles along the Northern border were ended +by a memorable act of policy. From Eadgar's day the Scots had pressed +further and further across the Firth of Forth till a victory of their +king Malcolm over Earl Eadwulf at Carham in 1018 made him master of +Northern Northumbria. In 1031 Cnut advanced to the North, but the quarrel +ended in a formal cession of the district between the Forth and the +Tweed, Lothian as it was called, to the Scot-king on his doing homage to +Cnut. The gain told at once on the character of the Northern kingdom. The +kings of the Scots had till now been rulers simply of Gaelic and Celtic +peoples; but from the moment that Lothian with its English farmers and +English seamen became a part of their dominions it became the most +important part. The kings fixed their seat at Edinburgh, and in the midst +of an English population passed from Gaelic chieftains into the Saxon +rulers of a mingled people. + +[Sidenote: Cnut's Sons] + +But the greatness of Cnut's rule hung solely on the greatness of his +temper, and the Danish power was shaken by his death in 1035. The empire +he had built up at once fell to pieces. He had bequeathed both England +and Denmark to his son Harthacnut; but the boy's absence enabled his +brother, Harald Harefoot, to acquire all England save Godwine's earldom +of Wessex, and in the end even Godwine was forced to submit to him. +Harald's death in 1040 averted a conflict between the brothers, and +placed Harthacnut quietly on the throne. But the love which Cnut's +justice had won turned to hatred before the lawlessness of his +successors. The long peace sickened men of their bloodshed and violence. +"Never was a bloodier deed done in the land since the Danes came," ran a +popular song, when Harald's men seized AElfred, a brother of Eadmund +Ironside, who returned to England from Normandy where he had found a +refuge since his father's flight to its shores. Every tenth man among his +followers was killed, the rest sold for slaves, and AElfred's eyes torn +out at Ely. Harthacnut, more savage than his predecessor, dug up his +brother's body and flung it into a marsh; while a rising at Worcester +against his hus-carls was punished by the burning of the town and the +pillage of the shire. The young king's death was no less brutal than his +life; in 1042 "he died as he stood at his drink in the house of Osgod +Clapa at Lambeth." England wearied of rulers such as these: but their +crimes helped her to free herself from the impossible dream of Cnut. The +North, still more barbarous than herself, could give her no new element +of progress or civilization. It was the consciousness of this and a +hatred of rulers such as Harald and Harthacnut which co-operated with the +old feeling of reverence for the past in calling back the line of AElfred +to the throne. + +[Sidenote: Eadward the Confessor] + +It is in such transitional moments of a nation's history that it needs +the cool prudence, the sensitive selfishness, the quick perception of +what is possible, which distinguished the adroit politician whom the +death of Cnut left supreme in England. Originally of obscure origin, +Godwine's ability had raised him high in the royal favour; he was allied +to Cnut by marriage, entrusted by him with the earldom of Wessex, and at +last made the Viceroy or justiciar of the King in the government of the +realm. In the wars of Scandinavia he had shown courage and skill at the +head of a body of English troops, but his true field of action lay at +home. Shrewd, eloquent, an active administrator, Godwine united +vigilance, industry, and caution with a singular dexterity in the +management of men. During the troubled years that followed the death of +Cnut he did his best to continue his master's policy in securing the +internal union of England under a Danish sovereign and in preserving her +connexion with the North. But at the death of Harthacnut Cnut's policy +had become impossible, and abandoning the Danish cause Godwine drifted +with the tide of popular feeling which called Eadward, the one living son +of AEthelred, to the throne. Eadward had lived from his youth in exile at +the court of Normandy. A halo of tenderness spread in after-time round +this last king of the old English stock; legends told of his pious +simplicity, his blitheness and gentleness of mood, the holiness that +gained him his name of "Confessor" and enshrined him as a saint in his +abbey-church at Westminster. Gleemen sang in manlier tones of the long +peace and glories of his reign, how warriors and wise counsellors stood +round his throne, and Welsh and Scot and Briton obeyed him. His was the +one figure that stood out bright against the darkness when England lay +trodden under foot by Norman conquerors; and so dear became his memory +that liberty and independence itself seemed incarnate in his name. +Instead of freedom, the subjects of William or Henry called for the "good +laws of Eadward the Confessor." But it was as a mere shadow of the past +that the exile really returned to the throne of AElfred; there was +something shadow-like in his thin form, his delicate complexion, his +transparent womanly hands; and it is almost as a shadow that he glides +over the political stage. The work of government was done by sterner +hands. + +[Sidenote: Godwine] + +Throughout his earlier reign, in fact, England lay in the hands of its +three Earls, Siward of Northumbria, Leofric of Mercia, and Godwine of +Wessex, and it seemed as if the feudal tendency to provincial separation +against which AEthelred had struggled was to triumph with the death of +Cnut. What hindered this severance was the greed of Godwine. Siward was +isolated in the North: Leofric's earldom was but a fragment of Mercia. +But the Earl of Wessex, already master of the wealthiest part of England, +seized district after district for his house. His son Swein secured an +earldom in the south-west; his son Harold became earl of East-Anglia; his +nephew Beorn was established in Central England: while the marriage of +his daughter Eadgyth to the king himself gave Godwine a hold upon the +throne. Policy led the earl, as it led his son, rather to aim at winning +England itself than at breaking up England to win a mere fief in it. But +his aim found a sudden check through the lawlessness of his son Swein. +Swein seduced the abbess of Leominster, sent her home again with a yet +more outrageous demand of her hand in marriage, and on the king's refusal +to grant it fled from the realm. Godwine's influence secured his pardon, +but on his very return to seek it Swein murdered his cousin Beorn who had +opposed the reconciliation and again fled to Flanders. A storm of +national indignation followed him over-sea. The meeting of the Wise men +branded him as "nithing," the "utterly worthless," yet in a year his +father wrested a new pardon from the King and restored him to his +earldom. The scandalous inlawing of such a criminal left Godwine alone in +a struggle which soon arose with Eadward himself. The king was a stranger +in his realm, and his sympathies lay naturally with the home and friends +of his youth and exile. He spoke the Norman tongue. He used in Norman +fashion a seal for his charters. He set Norman favourites in the highest +posts of Church and State. Foreigners such as these, though hostile to +the minister, were powerless against Godwine's influence and ability, and +when at a later time they ventured to stand alone against him they fell +without a blow. But the general ill-will at Swein's inlawing enabled them +to stir Eadward to attack the earl, and in 1051 a trivial quarrel brought +the opportunity of a decisive break with him. On his return from a visit +to the court Eustace, Count of Boulogne, the husband of the king's +sister, demanded quarters for his train in Dover. Strife arose, and many +both of the burghers and foreigners were slain. All Godwine's better +nature withstood Eadward when the king angrily bade him exact vengeance +from the town for the affront to his kinsman; and he claimed a fair trial +for the townsmen. But Eadward looked on his refusal as an outrage, and +the quarrel widened into open strife. Godwine at once gathered his forces +and marched upon Gloucester, demanding the expulsion of the foreign +favourites. But even in a just quarrel the country was cold in his +support. The earls of Mercia and Northumberland united their forces to +those of Eadward at Gloucester, and marched with the king to a gathering +of the Witenagemot at London. Godwine again appeared in arms, but Swein's +outlawry was renewed, and the Earl of Wessex, declining with his usual +prudence a useless struggle, withdrew over sea to Flanders. + +[Sidenote: Harold] + +But the wrath of the nation was appeased by his fall. Great as were +Godwine's faults, he was the one man who now stood between England and +the rule of the strangers who flocked to the Court; and a year had hardly +passed when he was strong enough to return. At the appearance of his +fleet in the Thames in 1052 Eadward was once more forced to yield. The +foreign prelates and bishops fled over sea, outlawed by the same meeting +of the Wise men which restored Godwine to his home. But he returned only +to die, and the direction of affairs passed quietly to his son Harold. +Harold came to power unfettered by the obstacles which beset his father, +and for twelve years he was the actual governor of the realm. The +courage, the ability, the genius for administration, the ambition and +subtlety of Godwine were found again in his son. In the internal +government of England he followed out his father's policy while avoiding +its excesses. Peace was preserved, justice administered, and the realm +increased in wealth and prosperity. Its gold work and embroidery became +famous in the markets of Flanders and France. Disturbances from without +were crushed sternly and rapidly; Harold's military talents displayed +themselves in a campaign against Wales, and in the boldness and rapidity +with which, arming his troops with weapons adapted for mountain conflict, +he penetrated to the heart of its fastnesses and reduced the country to +complete submission. With the gift of the Northumbrian earldom on +Siward's death to his brother Tostig all England save a small part of the +older Mercia lay in the hands of the house of Godwine, and as the waning +health of the king, the death of his nephew, the son of Eadmund who had +returned from Hungary as his heir, and the childhood of the AEtheling +Eadgar who stood next in blood, removed obstacle after obstacle to his +plans, Harold patiently but steadily moved forward to the throne. + +[Sidenote: Normandy] + +But his advance was watched by one even more able and ambitious than +himself. For the last half-century England had been drawing nearer to the +Norman land which fronted it across the Channel. As we pass nowadays +through Normandy, it is English history which is round about us. The name +of hamlet after hamlet has memories for English ears; a fragment of +castle wall marks the home of the Bruce, a tiny village preserves the +name of the Percy. The very look of the country and its people seem +familiar to us; the Norman peasant in his cap and blouse recalls the +build and features of the small English farmer; the fields about Caen, +with their dense hedgerows, their elms, their apple-orchards, are the +very picture of an English country-side. Huge cathedrals lift themselves +over the red-tiled roofs of little market towns, the models of stately +fabrics which superseded the lowlier churches of AElfred or Dunstan, while +the windy heights that look over orchard and meadowland are crowned with +the square grey keeps which Normandy gave to the cliffs of Richmond and +the banks of Thames. It was Hrolf the Ganger, or Walker, a pirate leader +like Guthrum or Hasting, who wrested this land from the French king, +Charles the Simple, in 912, at the moment when AElfred's children were +beginning their conquest of the English Danelaw. The treaty of +Clair-on-Epte in which France purchased peace by this cession of the +coast was a close imitation of the Peace of Wedmore. Hrolf, like Guthrum, +was baptized, received the king's daughter in marriage, and became his +vassal for the territory which now took the name of "the Northman's land" +or Normandy. But vassalage and the new faith sat lightly on the Dane. No +such ties of blood and speech tended to unite the northman with the +French among whom he settled along the Seine as united him to the +Englishmen among whom he settled along the Humber. William Longsword, the +son of Hrolf, though wavering towards France and Christianity, remained a +northman in heart; he called in a Danish colony to occupy his conquest of +the Cotentin, the peninsula which runs out from St. Michael's Mount to +the cliffs of Cherbourg, and reared his boy among the northmen of Bayeux +where the Danish tongue and fashions most stubbornly held their own. A +heathen reaction followed his death, and the bulk of the Normans, with +the child Duke Richard, fell away for the time from Christianity, while +new pirate-fleets came swarming up the Seine. To the close of the century +the whole people were still "Pirates" to the French around them, their +land the "Pirates' land," their Duke the "Pirates' Duke." Yet in the end +the same forces which merged the Dane in the Englishman told even more +powerfully on the Dane in France. No race has ever shown a greater power +of absorbing all the nobler characteristics of the peoples with whom they +came in contact, or of infusing their own energy into them. During the +long reign of Duke Richard the Fearless, the son of William Longsword, a +reign which lasted from 945 to 996, the heathen Norman pirates became +French Christians and feudal at heart. The old Norse language lived only +at Bayeux and in a few local names. As the old Northern freedom died +silently away, the descendants of the pirates became feudal nobles and +the "Pirates' land" sank into the most loyal of the fiefs of France. + + +[Sidenote: Duke William] + +From the moment of their settlement on the Frankish coast, the Normans +had been jealously watched by the English kings; and the anxiety of +AEthelred for their friendship set a Norman woman on the English throne. +The marriage of Emma with AEthelred brought about a close political +connexion between the two countries. It was in Normandy that the King +found a refuge from Swein's invasion, and his younger boys grew up in +exile at the Norman court. Their presence there drew the eyes of every +Norman to the rich land which offered so tempting a prey across the +Channel. The energy which they had shown in winning their land from the +Franks, in absorbing the French civilization and the French religion, was +now showing itself in adventures on far-off shores, in crusades against +the Moslem of Spain or the Arabs of Sicily. It was this spirit of +adventure that roused the Norman Duke Robert to sail against England in +Cnut's day under pretext of setting AEthelred's children on its throne, +but the wreck of his fleet in a storm put an end to a project which might +have anticipated the work of his son. It was that son, William the Great, +as men of his own day styled him, William the Conqueror as he was to +stamp himself by one event on English history, who was now Duke of +Normandy. The full grandeur of his indomitable will, his large and +patient statesmanship, the loftiness of aim which lifts him out of the +petty incidents of his age, were as yet only partly disclosed. But there +never had been a moment from his boyhood when he was not among the +greatest of men. His life from the very first was one long mastering of +difficulty after difficulty. The shame of his birth remained in his name +of "the Bastard." His father Robert had seen Arlotta, a tanner's daughter +of the town, as she washed her linen in a little brook by Falaise; and +loving her he had made her the mother of his boy. The departure of Robert +on a pilgrimage from which he never returned left William a child-ruler +among the most turbulent baronage in Christendom; treason and anarchy +surrounded him as he grew to manhood; and disorder broke at last into +open revolt. But in 1047 a fierce combat of horse on the slopes of +Val-es-dunes beside Caen left the young Duke master of his duchy and he +soon made his mastery felt. "Normans" said a Norman poet "must be trodden +down and kept under foot, for he only that bridles them may use them at +his need." In the stern order he forced on the land Normandy from this +hour felt the bridle of its Duke. + +[Sidenote: William and France] + +Secure at home, William seized the moment of Godwine's exile to visit +England, and received from his cousin, King Eadward, as he afterwards +asserted, a promise of succession to his throne. Such a promise however, +unconfirmed by the Witenagemot, was valueless; and the return of Godwine +must have at once cut short the young Duke's hopes. He found in fact work +enough to do in his own duchy, for the discontent of his baronage at the +stern justice of his rule found support in the jealousy which his power +raised in the states around him, and it was only after two great +victories at Mortemer and Varaville and six years of hard fighting that +outer and inner foes were alike trodden under foot. In 1060 William stood +first among the princes of France. Maine submitted to his rule. Britanny +was reduced to obedience by a single march. While some of the rebel +barons rotted in the Duke's dungeons and some were driven into exile, the +land settled down into a peace which gave room for a quick upgrowth of +wealth and culture. Learning and education found their centre in the +school of Bec, which the teaching of a Lombard scholar, Lanfranc, raised +in a few years into the most famous school of Christendom. Lanfranc's +first contact with William, if it showed the Duke's imperious temper, +showed too his marvellous insight into men. In a strife with the Papacy +which William provoked by his marriage with Matilda, a daughter of the +Count of Flanders, Lanfranc took the side of Rome. His opposition was met +by a sentence of banishment, and the Prior had hardly set out on a lame +horse, the only one his house could afford, when he was overtaken by the +Duke, impatient that he should quit Normandy. "Give me a better horse and +I shall go the quicker," replied the imperturbable Lombard, and William's +wrath passed into laughter and good will. From that hour Lanfranc became +his minister and counsellor, whether for affairs in the duchy itself or +for the more daring schemes of ambition which opened up across the +Channel. + +[Sidenote: William and England] + +William's hopes of the English crown are said to have been revived by a +storm which threw Harold, while cruising in the Channel, on the coast of +Ponthieu. Its count sold him to the Duke; and as the price of return to +England William forced him to swear on the relics of saints to support +his claim to its throne. But, true or no, the oath told little on +Harold's course. As the childless King drew to his grave one obstacle +after another was cleared from the earl's path. His brother Tostig had +become his most dangerous rival; but a revolt of the Northumbrians drove +Tostig to Flanders, and the earl was able to win over the Mercian house +of Leofric to his cause by owning Morkere, the brother of the Mercian +Earl Eadwine, as his brother's successor. His aim was in fact attained +without a struggle. In the opening of 1066 the nobles and bishops who +gathered round the death-bed of the Confessor passed quietly from it to +the election and coronation of Harold. But at Eouen the news was welcomed +with a burst of furious passion, and the Duke of Normandy at once +prepared to enforce his claim by arms. William did not claim the Crown. +He claimed simply the right which he afterwards used when his sword had +won it of presenting himself for election by the nation, and he believed +himself entitled so to present himself by the direct commendation of the +Confessor. The actual election of Harold which stood in his way, hurried +as it was, he did not recognize as valid. But with this constitutional +claim was inextricably mingled resentment at the private wrong which +Harold had done him, and a resolve to exact vengeance on the man whom he +regarded as untrue to his oath. The difficulties in the way of his +enterprise were indeed enormous. He could reckon on no support within +England itself. At home he had to extort the consent of his own reluctant +baronage; to gather a motley host from every quarter of France and to +keep it together for months; to create a fleet, to cut down the very +trees, to build, to launch, to man the vessels; and to find time amidst +all this for the common business of government, for negotiations with +Denmark and the Empire, with France, Britanny, and Anjou, with Flanders +and with Rome which had been estranged from England by Archbishop +Stigand's acceptance of his pallium from one who was not owned as a +canonical Pope. + +[Sidenote: Stamford Bridge] + +But his rival's difficulties were hardly less than his own. Harold was +threatened with invasion not only by William but by his brother Tostig, +who had taken refuge in Norway and secured the aid of its king, Harald +Hardrada. The fleet and army he had gathered lay watching for months +along the coast. His one standing force was his body of hus-carls, but +their numbers only enabled them to act as the nucleus of an army. On the +other hand the Land-fyrd or general levy of fighting-men was a body easy +to raise for any single encounter but hard to keep together. To assemble +such a force was to bring labour to a standstill. The men gathered under +the King's standard were the farmers and ploughmen of their fields. The +ships were the fishing-vessels of the coast. In September the task of +holding them together became impossible, but their dispersion had hardly +taken place when the two clouds which had so long been gathering burst at +once upon the realm. A change of wind released the landlocked armament of +William; but before changing, the wind which prisoned the Duke brought +the host of Tostig and Harald Hardrada to the coast of Yorkshire. The +King hastened with his household troops to the north and repulsed the +Norwegians in a decisive overthrow at Stamford Bridge, but ere he could +hurry back to London the Norman host had crossed the sea and William, who +had anchored on the twenty-eighth of September off Pevensey, was ravaging +the coast to bring his rival to an engagement. His merciless ravages +succeeded in drawing Harold from London to the south; but the King wisely +refused to attack with the troops he had hastily summoned to his banner. +If he was forced to give battle, he resolved to give it on ground he had +himself chosen, and advancing near enough to the coast to check William's +ravages he entrenched himself on a hill known afterwards as that of +Senlac, a low spur of the Sussex downs near Hastings. His position +covered London and drove William to concentrate his forces. With a host +subsisting by pillage, to concentrate is to starve; and no alternative +was left to the Duke but a decisive victory or ruin. + +[Sidenote: Battle of Hastings] + +On the fourteenth of October William led his men at dawn along the higher +ground that leads from Hastings to the battle-field which Harold had +chosen. From the mound of Telham the Normans saw the host of the English +gathered thickly behind a rough trench and a stockade on the height of +Senlac. Marshy ground covered their right; on the left, the most exposed +part of the position, the hus-carls or body-guard of Harold, men in full +armour and wielding huge axes, were grouped round the Golden Dragon of +Wessex and the Standard of the King. The rest of the ground was covered +by thick masses of half-armed rustics who had flocked at Harold's summons +to the fight with the stranger. It was against the centre of this +formidable position that William arrayed his Norman knighthood, while the +mercenary forces he had gathered in France and Britanny were ordered to +attack its flanks. A general charge of the Norman foot opened the battle; +in front rode the minstrel Taillefer, tossing his sword in the air and +catching it again while he chaunted the song of Roland. He was the first +of the host who struck a blow, and he was the first to fall. The charge +broke vainly on the stout stockade behind which the English warriors +plied axe and javelin with fierce cries of "Out, out," and the repulse of +the Norman footmen was followed by a repulse of the Norman horse. Again +and again the Duke rallied and led them to the fatal stockade. All the +fury of fight that glowed in his Norseman's blood, all the headlong +valour that spurred him over the slopes of Val-es-dunes, mingled that day +with the coolness of head, the dogged perseverance, the inexhaustible +faculty of resource which shone at Mortemer and Varaville. His Breton +troops, entangled in the marshy ground on his left, broke in disorder, +and as panic spread through the army a cry arose that the Duke was slain. +William tore off his helmet; "I live," he shouted, "and by God's help I +will conquer yet." Maddened by a fresh repulse, the Duke spurred right at +the Standard; unhorsed, his terrible mace struck down Gyrth, the King's +brother; again dismounted, a blow from his hand hurled to the ground an +unmannerly rider who would not lend him his steed. Amidst the roar and +tumult of the battle he turned the flight he had arrested into the means +of victory. Broken as the stockade was by his desperate onset, the +shield-wall of the warriors behind it still held the Normans at bay till +William by a feint of flight drew a part of the English force from their +post of vantage. Turning on his disorderly pursuers, the Duke cut them to +pieces, broke through the abandoned line, and made himself master of the +central ground. Meanwhile the French and Bretons made good their ascent +on either flank. At three the hill seemed won, at six the fight still +raged around the Standard where Harold's hus-carls stood stubbornly at +bay on a spot marked afterwards by the high altar of Battle Abbey. An +order from the Duke at last brought his archers to the front. Their +arrow-flight told heavily on the dense masses crowded around the King and +as the sun went down a shaft pierced Harold's right eye. He fell between +the royal ensigns, and the battle closed with a desperate melly over his +corpse. + +Night covered the flight of the English army: but William was quick to +reap the advantage of his victory. Securing Romney and Dover, he marched +by Canterbury upon London. Faction and intrigue were doing his work for +him as he advanced; for Harold's brothers had fallen with the King on the +field of Senlac, and there was none of the house of Godwine to contest +the crown. Of the old royal line there remained but a single boy, Eadgar +the AEtheling. He was chosen king; but the choice gave little strength to +the national cause. The widow of the Confessor surrendered Winchester to +the Duke. The bishops gathered at London inclined to submission. The +citizens themselves faltered as William, passing by their walls, gave +Southwark to the flames. The throne of the boy-king really rested for +support on the Earls of Mercia and Northumbria, Eadwine and Morkere; and +William, crossing the Thames at Wallingford and marching into +Hertfordshire, threatened to cut them off from their earldoms. The +masterly movement forced the Earls to hurry home, and London gave way at +once. Eadgar himself was at the head of the deputation who came to offer +the crown to the Norman Duke. "They bowed to him," says the English +annalist pathetically, "for need." They bowed to the Norman as they had +bowed to the Dane, and William accepted the crown in the spirit of Cnut. +London indeed was secured by the erection of a fortress which afterwards +grew into the Tower, but William desired to reign not as a Conqueror but +as a lawful king. At Christmas he received the crown at Westminster from +the hands of Archbishop Ealdred amid shouts of "Yea, Yea," from his new +English subjects. Fines from the greater landowners atoned for a +resistance which now counted as rebellion; but with this exception every +measure of the new sovereign showed his desire of ruling as a successor +of Eadward or AElfred. As yet indeed the greater part of England remained +quietly aloof from him, and he can hardly be said to have been recognized +as king by Northumberland or the greater part of Mercia. But to the east +of a line which stretched from Norwich to Dorsetshire his rule was +unquestioned, and over this portion he ruled as an English king. His +soldiers were kept in strict order. No change was made in law or custom. +The privileges of London were recognized by a royal writ which still +remains, the most venerable of its muniments, among the city's archives. +Peace and order were restored. William even attempted, though in vain, to +learn the English tongue that he might personally administer justice to +the suitors in his court. The kingdom seemed so tranquil that only a few +months had passed after the battle of Senlac when leaving England in +charge of his brother, Odo Bishop of Bayeux, and his minister, William +Fitz-Osbern, the King returned in 1067 for a while to Normandy. The peace +he left was soon indeed disturbed. Bishop Odo's tyranny forced the +Kentishmen to seek aid from Count Eustace of Boulogne; while the Welsh +princes supported a similar rising against Norman oppression in the west. +But as yet the bulk of the land held fairly to the new king. Dover was +saved from Eustace; and the discontented fled over sea to seek refuge in +lands as far off as Constantinople, where Englishmen from this time +formed great part of the body-guard or Varangians of the Eastern +Emperors. William returned to take his place again as an English king. It +was with an English force that he subdued a rising in the south-west with +Exeter at its head, and it was at the head of an English army that he +completed his work by marching to the North. His march brought Eadwine +and Morkere again to submission; a fresh rising ended in the occupation +of York, and England as far as the Tees lay quietly at William's feet. + + +[Sidenote: The Norman Conquest] + +It was in fact only the national revolt of 1068 that transformed the King +into a conqueror. The signal for this revolt came from Swein, king of +Denmark, who had for two years past been preparing to dispute England +with the Norman, but on the appearance of his fleet in the Humber all +northern, all western and south-western England rose as one man. Eadgar +the AEtheling with a band of exiles who had found refuge in Scotland took +the head of the Northumbrian revolt; in the south-west the men of Devon, +Somerset, and Dorset gathered to the sieges of Exeter and Montacute; +while a new Norman castle at Shrewsbury alone bridled a rising in the +West. So ably had the revolt been planned that even William was taken by +surprise. The outbreak was heralded by a storm of York and the slaughter +of three thousand Normans who formed its garrison. The news of this +slaughter reached William as he was hunting in the forest of Dean; and in +a wild outburst of wrath he swore "by the splendour of God" to avenge +himself on the North. But wrath went hand in hand with the coolest +statesmanship. The centre of resistance lay in the Danish fleet, and +pushing rapidly to the Humber with a handful of horsemen William bought +at a heavy price its inactivity and withdrawal. Then turning westward +with the troops that gathered round him he swept the Welsh border and +relieved Shrewsbury while William Fitz-Osbern broke the rising around +Exeter. His success set the King free to fulfil his oath of vengeance on +the North. After a long delay before the flooded waters of the Aire he +entered York and ravaged the whole country as far as the Tees. Town and +village were harried and burned, their inhabitants were slain or driven +over the Scottish border. The coast was especially wasted that no hold +might remain for future landings of the Danes. Crops, cattle, the very +implements of husbandry were so mercilessly destroyed that a famine which +followed is said to have swept off more than a hundred thousand victims. +Half a century later indeed the land still lay bare of culture and +deserted of men for sixty miles northward of York. The work of vengeance +once over, William led his army back from the Tees to York, and thence to +Chester and the West. Never had he shown the grandeur of his character so +memorably as in this terrible march. The winter was hard, the roads +choked with snowdrifts or broken by torrents, provisions failed; and his +army, storm-beaten and forced to devour its horses for food, broke out +into mutiny at the order to cross the bleak moorlands that part Yorkshire +from the West. The mercenaries from Anjou and Britanny demanded their +release from service. William granted their prayer with scorn. On foot, +at the head of the troops which still clung to him, he forced his way by +paths inaccessible to horses, often helping the men with his own hands to +clear the road, and as the army descended upon Chester the resistance of +the English died away. + +For two years William was able to busy himself in castle-building and in +measures for holding down the conquered land. How effective these were +was seen when the last act of the conquest was reached. All hope of +Danish aid was now gone, but Englishmen still looked for help to Scotland +where Eadgar the AEtheling had again found refuge and where his sister +Margaret had become wife of King Malcolm. It was probably some assurance +of Malcolm's aid which roused the Mercian Earls, Eadwine and Morkere, to +a fresh rising in 1071. But the revolt was at once foiled by the +vigilance of the Conqueror. Eadwine fell in an obscure skirmish, while +Morkere found shelter for a while in the fen country where a desperate +band of patriots gathered round an outlawed leader, Hereward. Nowhere had +William found so stubborn a resistance: but a causeway two miles long was +at last driven across the marshes, and the last hopes of English freedom +died in the surrender of Ely. It was as the unquestioned master of +England that William marched to the North, crossed the Lowlands and the +Forth, and saw Malcolm appear in his camp upon the Tay to swear fealty at +his feet. + + + + + +BOOK II +ENGLAND UNDER FOREIGN KINGS +1071-1204 + + +AUTHORITIES FOR BOOK II +1071-1204 + + +Among the Norman chroniclers Orderic becomes from this point particularly +valuable and detailed. The Chronicle and Florence of Worcester remain the +primary English authorities, while Simeon of Durham gives much special +information on northern matters. For the reign of William the Red the +chief source of information is Eadmer, a monk of Canterbury, in his +"Historia Noverum" and "Life of Anselm." William of Malmesbury and Henry +of Huntingdon are both contemporary authorities during that of Henry the +First; the latter remains a brief but accurate annalist; the former is +the leader of a new historic school, who treat English events as part of +the history of the world, and emulate classic models by a more +philosophical arrangement of their materials. To these the opening of +Stephen's reign adds the "Gesta Stephani," a record in great detail by +one of the King's clerks, and the Hexham Chroniclers. + +All this wealth of historical material however suddenly leaves us in the +chaos of civil war. Even the Chronicle dies out in the midst of Stephen's +reign, and the close at the same time of the works we have noted leaves a +blank in our historical literature which extends over the early years of +Henry the Second. But this dearth is followed by a vast outburst of +historical industry. For the Beket struggle we have the mass of the +Archbishop's own correspondence with that of Foliot and John of +Salisbury. From 1169 to 1192 our primary authority is the Chronicle known +as that of Benedict of Peterborough, whose authorship Professor Stubbs +has shown to be more probably due to the royal treasurer, Bishop Richard +Fitz-Neal. This is continued to 1201 by Roger of Howden in a record of +equally official value. William of Newburgh's history, which ends in +1198, is a work of the classical school, like William of Malmesbury's. It +is distinguished by its fairness and good sense. To these may be added +the Chronicle of Ralph Niger, with the additions of Ralph of Coggeshall, +that of Gervase of Canterbury, and the interesting life of St. Hugh of +Lincoln. + +But the intellectual energy of Henry the Second's time is shown even more +remarkably in the mass of general literature which lies behind these +distinctively historical sources, in the treatises of John of Salisbury, +the voluminous works of Giraldus Cambrensis, the "Trifles" and satires of +Walter Map, Glanvill's treatise on Law, Richard Fitz-Neal's "Dialogue on +the Exchequer," to which we owe our knowledge of Henry's financial +system, the romances of Gaimar and of Wace, the poem of the San Graal. +But this intellectual fertility is far from ceasing with Henry the +Second. The thirteenth century has hardly begun when the romantic impulse +quickens even the old English tongue in the long poem of Layamon. The +Chronicle of Richard of Devizes and an "Itinerarium Regis" supplement +Roger of Howden for Richard's reign. With John we enter upon the Annals +of Barnwell and are aided by the invaluable series of the Chroniclers of +St. Albans. Among the side topics of the time, we may find much +information as to the Jews in Toovey's "Anglia Judaica"; the Chronicle of +Jocelyn of Brakelond gives us a peep into social and monastic life; the +Cistercian revival may be traced in the records of the Cistercian abbeys +in Dugdale's Monasticon; the Charter Rolls give some information as to +municipal history; and constitutional developement may be traced in the +documents collected by Professor Stubbs in his "Select Charters." + + + + + +CHAPTER I +THE CONQUEROR +1071-1085 + + + +[Sidenote: The Foreign Kings] + +In the five hundred years that followed the landing of Hengest Britain +had become England, and its conquest had ended in the settlement of its +conquerors, in their conversion to Christianity, in the birth of a +national literature, of an imperfect civilization, of a rough political +order. But through the whole of this earlier age every attempt to fuse +the various tribes of conquerors into a single nation had failed. The +effort of Northumbria to extend her rule over all England had been foiled +by the resistance of Mercia; that of Mercia by the resistance of Wessex. +Wessex herself, even under the guidance of great kings and statesmen, had +no sooner reduced the country to a seeming unity than local independence +rose again at the call of the Northmen. The sense of a single England +deepened with the pressure of the invaders; the monarchy of AElfred and +his house broadened into an English kingdom; but still tribal jealousies +battled with national unity. Northumbrian lay apart from West-Saxon, +Northman from Englishman. A common national sympathy held the country +roughly together, but a real national union had yet to come. It came with +foreign rule. The rule of the Danish kings broke local jealousies as they +had never been broken before, and bequeathed a new England to Godwine and +the Confessor. But Cnut was more Englishman than Northman, and his system +of government was an English system. The true foreign yoke was only felt +when England saw its conqueror in William the Norman. + +For nearly a century and a half, from the hour when William turned +triumphant from the fens of Ely to the hour when John fled defeated from +Norman shores, our story is one of foreign masters. Kings from Normandy +were followed by kings from Anjou. But whether under Norman or Angevin +Englishmen were a subject race, conquered and ruled by men of strange +blood and of strange speech. And yet it was in these years of subjection +that England first became really England. Provincial differences were +finally crushed into national unity by the pressure of the stranger. The +firm government of her foreign kings secured the land a long and almost +unbroken peace in which the new nation grew to a sense of its oneness, +and this consciousness was strengthened by the political ability which in +Henry the First gave it administrative order and in Henry the Second +built up the fabric of its law. New elements of social life were +developed alike by the suffering and the prosperity of the times. The +wrong which had been done by the degradation of the free landowner into a +feudal dependant was partially redressed by the degradation of the bulk +of the English lords themselves into a middle class as they were pushed +from their place by the foreign baronage who settled on English soil; and +this social change was accompanied by a gradual enrichment and elevation +of the class of servile and semi-servile cultivators which had lifted +them at the close of this period into almost complete freedom. The middle +class which was thus created was reinforced by the upgrowth of a +corresponding class in our towns. Commerce and trade were promoted by the +justice and policy of the foreign kings; and with their advance rose the +political importance of the trader. The boroughs of England, which at the +opening of this period were for the most part mere villages, were rich +enough at its close to buy liberty from the Crown and to stand ready for +the mightier part they were to play in the developement of our +parliament. The shame of conquest, the oppression of the conquerors, +begot a moral and religious revival which raised religion into a living +thing; while the close connexion with the Continent which foreign +conquest brought about secured for England a new communion with the +artistic and intellectual life of the world without her. + + +[Sidenote: William the Conqueror] + +In a word, it is to the stern discipline of our foreign kings that we owe +not merely English wealth and English freedom but England herself. And of +these foreign masters the greatest was William of Normandy. In William +the wild impulses of the northman's blood mingled strangely with the cool +temper of the modern statesman. As he was the last, so he was the most +terrible outcome of the northern race. The very spirit of the sea-robbers +from whom he sprang seemed embodied in his gigantic form, his enormous +strength, his savage countenance, his desperate bravery, the fury of his +wrath, the ruthlessness of his revenge. "No knight under heaven," his +enemies owned, "was William's peer." Boy as he was at Val-es-dunes, horse +and man went down before his lance. All the fierce gaiety of his nature +broke out in the warfare of his youth, in his rout of fifteen Angevins +with but five men at his back, in his defiant ride over the ground which +Geoffry Martel claimed from him, a ride with hawk on fist as if war and +the chase were one. No man could bend William's bow. His mace crashed its +way through a ring of English warriors to the foot of the Standard. He +rose to his greatest height at moments when other men despaired. His +voice rang out as a trumpet when his soldiers fled before the English +charge at Senlac, and his rally turned the flight into a means of +victory. In his winter march on Chester he strode afoot at the head of +his fainting troops and helped with his own hand to clear a road through +the snowdrifts. And with the northman's daring broke out the northman's +pitilessness. When the townsmen of Alencon hung raw hides along their +walls in scorn of the "tanner's" grandson, William tore out his +prisoners' eyes, hewed off their hands and feet, and flung them into the +town. Hundreds of Hampshire men were driven from their homes to make him +a hunting-ground and his harrying of Northumbria left Northern England a +desolate waste. Of men's love or hate he recked little. His grim look, +his pride, his silence, his wild outbursts of passion, left William +lonely even in his court. His subjects trembled as he passed. "So stark +and fierce was he," writes the English chronicler, "that none dared +resist his will." His very wrath was solitary. "To no man spake he and no +man dared speak to him" when the news reached him of Harold's seizure of +the throne. It was only when he passed from his palace to the loneliness +of the woods that the King's temper unbent. "He loved the wild deer as +though he had been their father." + +[Sidenote: His rule] + +It was the genius of William which lifted him out of this mere northman +into a great general and a great statesman. The wary strategy of his +French campaigns, the organization of his attack upon England, the +victory at Senlac, the quick resource, the steady perseverance which +achieved the Conquest showed the wide range of his generalship. His +political ability had shown itself from the first moment of his accession +to the ducal throne. William had the instinct of government. He had +hardly reached manhood when Normandy lay peaceful at his feet. Revolt was +crushed. Disorder was trampled under foot. The Duke "could never love a +robber," be he baron or knave. The sternness of his temper stamped itself +throughout upon his rule. "Stark he was to men that withstood him," says +the Chronicler of his English system of government; "so harsh and cruel +was he that none dared withstand his will. Earls that did aught against +his bidding he cast into bonds; bishops he stripped of their bishopricks, +abbots of their abbacies. He spared not his own brother: first he was in +the land, but the King cast him into bondage. If a man would live and +hold his lands, need it were he followed the King's will." Stern as such +a rule was, its sternness gave rest to the land. Even amidst the +sufferings which necessarily sprang from the circumstances of the +Conquest itself, from the erection of castles or the enclosure of forests +or the exactions which built up William's hoard at Winchester, Englishmen +were unable to forget "the good peace he made in the land, so that a man +might fare over his realm with a bosom full of gold." Strange touches too +of a humanity far in advance of his age contrasted with this general +temper of the Conqueror's government. One of the strongest traits in his +character was an aversion to shed blood by process of law; he formally +abolished the punishment of death, and only a single execution stains the +annals of his reign. An edict yet more honourable to his humanity put an +end to the slave-trade which had till then been carried on at the port of +Bristol. The contrast between the ruthlessness and pitifulness of his +public acts sprang indeed from a contrast within his temper itself. The +pitiless warrior, the stern and aweful king was a tender and faithful +husband, an affectionate father. The lonely silence of his bearing broke +into gracious converse with pure and sacred souls like Anselm. If William +was "stark" to rebel and baron, men noted that he was "mild to those that +loved God." + +[Sidenote: William and feudalism] + +But the greatness of the Conqueror was seen in more than the order and +peace which he imposed upon the land. Fortune had given him one of the +greatest opportunities ever offered to a king of stamping his own genius +on the destinies of a people; and it is the way in which he seized on +this opportunity which has set William among the foremost statesmen of +the world. The struggle which ended in the fens of Ely had wholly changed +his position. He no longer held the land merely as its national and +elected King. To his elective right he added the right of conquest. It is +the way in which William grasped and employed this double power that +marks the originality of his political genius, for the system of +government which he devised was in fact the result of this double origin +of his rule. It represented neither the purely feudal system of the +Continent nor the system of the older English royalty: more truly perhaps +it may be said to have represented both. As the conqueror of England +William developed the military organization of feudalism so far as was +necessary for the secure possession of his conquests. The ground was +already prepared for such an organization. We have watched the beginnings +of English feudalism in the warriors, the "companions" or "thegns" who +were personally attached to the king's war-band and received estates from +the folk-land in reward for their personal services. In later times this +feudal distribution of estates had greatly increased as the bulk of the +nobles followed the king's example and bound their tenants to themselves +by a similar process of subinfeudation. The pure freeholders on the other +hand, the class which formed the basis of the original English society, +had been gradually reduced in number, partly through imitation of the +class above them, but more through the pressure of the Danish wars and +the social disturbance consequent upon them which forced these freemen to +seek protectors among the thegns at the cost of their independence. Even +before the reign of William therefore feudalism was superseding the older +freedom in England as it had already superseded it in Germany or France. +But the tendency was quickened and intensified by the Conquest. The +desperate and universal resistance of the country forced William to hold +by the sword what the sword had won; and an army strong enough to crush +at any moment a national revolt was needful for the preservation of his +throne. Such an army could only be maintained by a vast confiscation of +the soil, and the failure of the English risings cleared the ground for +its establishment. The greater part of the higher nobility fell in battle +or fled into exile, while the lower thegnhood either forfeited the whole +of their lands or redeemed a portion by the surrender of the rest. We see +the completeness of the confiscation in the vast estates which William +was enabled to grant to his more powerful followers. Two hundred manors +in Kent with more than an equal number elsewhere rewarded the services of +his brother Odo, and grants almost as large fell to William's counsellors +Fitz-Osbern and Montgomery or to barons like the Mowbrays and the Clares. +But the poorest soldier of fortune found his part in the spoil. The +meanest Norman rose to wealth and power in this new dominion of his lord. +Great or small, each manor thus granted was granted on condition of its +holder's service at the King's call; a whole army was by this means +encamped upon the soil; and William's summons could at any hour gather an +overwhelming force around his standard. + +Such a force however, effective as it was against the conquered English, +was hardly less formidable to the Crown itself. When once it was +established, William found himself fronted in his new realm by a feudal +baronage, by the men whom he had so hardly bent to his will in Normandy, +and who were as impatient of law, as jealous of the royal power, as eager +for an unbridled military and judicial independence within their own +manors, here as there. The political genius of the Conqueror was shown in +his appreciation of this danger and in the skill with which he met it. +Large as the estates he granted were, they were scattered over the +country in such a way as to render union between the great landowners or +the hereditary attachment of great areas of population to any one +separate lord equally impossible. A yet wiser measure struck at the very +root of feudalism. When the larger holdings were divided by their owners +into smaller sub-tenancies, the under-tenants were bound by the same +conditions of service to their lord as he to the Crown. "Hear, my lord," +swore the vassal as kneeling bareheaded and without arms he placed his +hands within those of his superior, "I become liege man of yours for life +and limb and earthly regard; and I will keep faith and loyalty to you for +life and death, God help me!" Then the kiss of his lord invested him with +land as a "fief" to descend to him and his heirs for ever. In other +countries such a vassal owed fealty to his lord against all foes, be they +king or no. By the usage however which William enacted in England each +sub-tenant, in addition to his oath of fealty to his lord, swore fealty +directly to the Crown, and loyalty to the King was thus established as +the supreme and universal duty of all Englishmen. + +[Sidenote: William and England] + +But the Conqueror's skill was shown not so much in these inner checks +upon feudalism as in the counterbalancing forces which he provided +without it. He was not only the head of the great garrison that held +England down, he was legal and elected King of the English people. If as +Conqueror he covered the country with a new military organization, as the +successor of Eadward he maintained the judicial and administrative +organization of the old English realm. At the danger of a severance of +the land between the greater nobles he struck a final blow by the +abolition of the four great earldoms. The shire became the largest unit +of local government, and in each shire the royal nomination of sheriffs +for its administration concentrated the whole executive power in the +King's hands. The old legal constitution of the country gave him the +whole judicial power, and William was jealous to retain and heighten +this. While he preserved the local courts of the hundred and the shire he +strengthened the jurisdiction of the King's Court, which seems even in +the Confessor's day to have become more and more a court of highest +appeal with a right to call up all cases from any lower jurisdiction to +its bar. The control over the national revenue which had rested even in +the most troubled times in the hands of the King was turned into a great +financial power by the Conqueror's system. Over the whole face of the +land a large part of the manors were burthened with special dues to the +Crown: and it was for the purpose of ascertaining and recording these +that William sent into each county the commissioners whose enquiries are +recorded in his Domesday Book. A jury empannelled in each hundred +declared on oath the extent and nature of each estate, the names, number, +and condition of its inhabitants, its value before and after the +Conquest, and the sums due from it to the Crown. These, with the Danegeld +or land-tax levied since the days of AEthelred, formed as yet the main +financial resources of the Crown, and their exaction carried the royal +authority in its most direct form home to every landowner. But to these +were added a revenue drawn from the old Crown domain, now largely +increased by the confiscations of the Conquest, the ever-growing income +from the judicial "fines" imposed by the King's judges in the King's +courts, and the fees and redemptions paid to the Crown on the grant or +renewal of every privilege or charter. A new source of revenue was found +in the Jewish traders, many of whom followed William from Normandy, and +who were glad to pay freely for the royal protection which enabled them +to settle in their quarters or "Jewries" in all the principal towns of +England. + +[Sidenote: The Church] + +William found a yet stronger check on his baronage in the organization of +the Church. Its old dependence on the royal power was strictly enforced. +Prelates were practically chosen by the King. Homage was exacted from +bishop as from baron. No royal tenant could be excommunicated save by the +King's leave. No synod could legislate without his previous assent and +subsequent confirmation of its decrees. No papal letters could be +received within the realm save by his permission. The King firmly +repudiated the claims which were beginning to be put forward by the court +of Rome. When Gregory VII. called on him to do fealty for his kingdom the +King sternly refused to admit the claim. "Fealty I have never willed to +do, nor will I do it now. I have never promised it, nor do I find that my +predecessors did it to yours." William's reforms only tended to tighten +this hold of the Crown on the clergy. Stigand was deposed; and the +elevation of Lanfranc to the see of Canterbury was followed by the +removal of most of the English prelates and by the appointment of Norman +ecclesiastics in their place. The new archbishop did much to restore +discipline, and William's own efforts were no doubt partly directed by a +real desire for the religious improvement of his realm. But the foreign +origin of the new prelates cut them off from the flocks they ruled and +bound them firmly to the foreign throne; while their independent position +was lessened by a change which seemed intended to preserve it. +Ecclesiastical cases had till now been decided, like civil cases, in +shire or hundred-court, where the bishop sate side by side with ealdorman +or sheriff. They were now withdrawn from it to the separate court of the +bishop. The change was pregnant with future trouble to the Crown; but for +the moment it told mainly in removing the bishop from his traditional +contact with the popular assembly and in effacing the memory of the +original equality of the religious with the civil power. + + +[Sidenote: William's death] + +In any struggle with feudalism a national king, secure of the support of +the Church, and backed by the royal hoard at Winchester, stood in +different case from the merely feudal sovereigns of the Continent. The +difference of power was seen as soon as the Conquest was fairly over, and +the struggle which William had anticipated opened between the baronage +and the Crown. The wisdom of his policy in the destruction of the great +earldoms which had overshadowed the throne was shown in an attempt at +their restoration made in 1075 by Roger, the son of his minister William +Fitz-Osbern, and by the Breton, Ralf de Guader, whom the King had +rewarded for his services at Senlac with the earldom of Norfolk. The +rising was quickly suppressed, Roger thrown into prison, and Ralf driven +over sea. The intrigues of the baronage soon found another leader in +William's half-brother, the Bishop of Bayeux. Under pretence of aspiring +by arms to the papacy Bishop Odo collected money and men, but the +treasure was at once seized by the royal officers and the bishop arrested +in the midst of the court. Even at the King's bidding no officer would +venture to seize on a prelate of the Church; and it was with his own +hands that William was forced to effect his arrest. The Conqueror was as +successful against foes from without as against foes from within. The +fear of the Danes, which had so long hung like a thunder-cloud over +England, passed away before the host which William gathered in 1085 to +meet a great armament assembled by king Cnut. A mutiny dispersed the +Danish fleet, and the murder of its king removed all peril from the +north. Scotland, already humbled by William's invasion, was bridled by +the erection of a strong fortress at Newcastle-upon-Tyne; and after +penetrating with his army to the heart of Wales the King commenced its +systematic reduction by settling three of his great barons along its +frontier. It was not till his closing years that William's unvarying +success was troubled by a fresh outbreak of the Norman baronage under his +son Robert and by an attack which he was forced to meet in 1087 from +France. Its king mocked at the Conqueror's unwieldy bulk and at the +sickness which bound him to his bed at Rouen. "King William has as long a +lying-in," laughed Philip, "as a woman behind her curtains." "When I get +up," William swore grimly, "I will go to mass in Philip's land and bring +a rich offering for my churching. I will offer a thousand candles for my +fee. Flaming brands shall they be, and steel shall glitter over the fire +they make." At harvest-tide town and hamlet flaring into ashes along the +French border fulfilled the ruthless vow. But as the King rode down the +steep street of Mantes which he had given to the flames his horse +stumbled among the embers, and William was flung heavily against his +saddle. He was borne home to Rouen to die. The sound of the minster bell +woke him at dawn as he lay in the convent of St. Gervais, overlooking the +city--it was the hour of prime--and stretching out his hands in prayer +the King passed quietly away. Death itself took its colour from the +savage solitude of his life. Priests and nobles fled as the last breath +left him, and the Conqueror's body lay naked and lonely on the floor. + + + + + +CHAPTER II +THE NORMAN KINGS +1085-1154 + + + +[Sidenote: William the Red] + +With the death of the Conqueror passed the terror which had held the +barons in awe, while the severance of his dominions roused their hopes of +successful resistance to the stern rule beneath which they had bowed. +William bequeathed Normandy to his eldest son Robert; but William the +Red, his second son, hastened with his father's ring to England where the +influence of Lanfranc secured him the crown. The baronage seized the +opportunity to rise in arms under pretext of supporting the claims of +Robert, whose weakness of character gave full scope for the growth of +feudal independence; and Bishop Odo, now freed from prison, placed +himself at the head of the revolt. The new King was thrown almost wholly +on the loyalty of his English subjects. But the national stamp which +William had given to his kingship told at once. The English rallied to +the royal standard; Bishop Wulfstan of Worcester, the one surviving +bishop of English blood, defeated the insurgents in the west; while the +King, summoning the freemen of country and town to his host under pain of +being branded as "nithing" or worthless, advanced with a large force +against Rochester where the barons were concentrated. A plague which +broke out among the garrison forced them to capitulate, and as the +prisoners passed through the royal army cries of "gallows and cord" burst +from the English ranks. The failure of a later conspiracy whose aim was +to set on the throne a kinsman of the royal house, Stephen of Albemarle, +with the capture and imprisonment of its head, Robert Mowbray, the Earl +of Northumberland, brought home at last to the baronage their +helplessness in a strife with the King. The genius of the Conqueror had +saved England from the danger of feudalism. But he had left as weighty a +danger in the power which trod feudalism under foot. The power of the +Crown was a purely personal power, restrained under the Conqueror by his +own high sense of duty, but capable of becoming a pure despotism in the +hands of his son. The nobles were at his feet, and the policy of his +minister, Ranulf Flambard, loaded their estates with feudal obligations. +Each tenant was held as bound to appear if needful thrice a year at the +royal court, to pay a heavy fine or rent on succession to his estate, to +contribute aid in case of the king's capture in war or the knighthood of +the king's eldest son or the marriage of his eldest daughter. An heir who +was still a minor passed into the king's wardship, and all profit from +his lands went during the period of wardship to the king. If the estate +fell to an heiress, her hand was at the king's disposal, and was +generally sold by him to the highest bidder. These rights of "marriage" +and "wardship" as well as the exaction of aids at the royal will poured +wealth into the treasury while they impoverished and fettered the +baronage. A fresh source of revenue was found in the Church. The same +principles of feudal dependence were applied to its lands as to those of +the nobles; and during the vacancy of a see or abbey its profits, like +those of a minor, were swept into the royal hoard. William's profligacy +and extravagance soon tempted him to abuse this resource, and so steadily +did he refuse to appoint successors to prelates whom death removed that +at the close of his reign one archbishoprick, four bishopricks, and +eleven abbeys were found to be without pastors. + +Vile as was this system of extortion and misrule but a single voice was +raised in protest against it. Lanfranc had been followed in his abbey at +Bec by the most famous of his scholars, Anselm of Aosta, an Italian like +himself. Friends as they were, no two men could be more strangely unlike. +Anselm had grown to manhood in the quiet solitude of his mountain-valley, +a tenderhearted poet-dreamer, with a soul pure as the Alpine snows above +him, and an intelligence keen and clear as the mountain-air. The whole +temper of the man was painted in a dream of his youth. It seemed to him +as though heaven lay, a stately palace, amid the gleaming hill-peaks, +while the women reaping in the corn-fields of the valley became +harvest-maidens of its king. They reaped idly, and Anselm, grieved at +their sloth, hastily climbed the mountain side to accuse them to their +lord. As he reached the palace the king's voice called him to his feet +and he poured forth his tale; then at the royal bidding bread of an +unearthly whiteness was set before him, and he ate and was refreshed. The +dream passed with the morning; but the sense of heaven's nearness to +earth, the fervid loyalty to the service of his Lord, the tender +restfulness and peace in the Divine presence which it reflected lived on +in the life of Anselm. Wandering like other Italian scholars to Normandy, +he became a monk under Lanfranc, and on his teacher's removal to higher +duties succeeded him in the direction of the Abbey of Bec. No teacher has +ever thrown a greater spirit of love into his toil. "Force your scholars +to improve!" he burst out to another teacher who relied on blows and +compulsion. "Did you ever see a craftsman fashion a fair image out of a +golden plate by blows alone? Does he not now gently press it and strike +it with his tools, now with wise art yet more gently raise and shape it? +What do your scholars turn into under this ceaseless beating?" "They turn +only brutal," was the reply. "You have bad luck," was the keen answer, +"in a training that only turns men into beasts." The worst natures +softened before this tenderness and patience. Even the Conqueror, so +harsh and terrible to others, became another man, gracious and easy of +speech, with Anselm. But amidst his absorbing cares as a teacher, the +Prior of Bec found time for philosophical speculations to which we owe +the scientific inquiries which built up the theology of the Middle Ages. +His famous works were the first attempts of any Christian thinker to +elicit the idea of God from the very nature of the human reason. His +passion for abstruse thought robbed him of food and sleep. Sometimes he +could hardly pray. Often the night was a long watch till he could seize +his conception and write it on the wax tablets which lay beside him. But +not even a fever of intense thought such as this could draw Anselm's +heart from its passionate tenderness and love. Sick monks in the +infirmary could relish no drink save the juice which his hand squeezed +for them from the grape-bunch. In the later days of his archbishoprick a +hare chased by the hounds took refuge under his horse, and his gentle +voice grew loud as he forbade a huntsman to stir in the chase while the +creature darted off again to the woods. Even the greed of lands for the +Church to which so many religious men yielded found its characteristic +rebuke as the battling lawyers in such a suit saw Anselm quietly close +his eyes in court and go peacefully to sleep. + +[Sidenote: William and Anselm] + +A sudden impulse of the Red King drew the abbot from these quiet studies +into the storms of the world. The see of Canterbury had long been left +without a Primate when a dangerous illness frightened the king into the +promotion of Anselm. The Abbot, who happened at the time to be in England +on the business of his house, was dragged to the royal couch and the +cross forced into his hands. But William had no sooner recovered from his +sickness than he found himself face to face with an opponent whose meek +and loving temper rose into firmness and grandeur when it fronted the +tyranny of the king. Much of the struggle between William and the +Archbishop turned on questions such as the right of investiture, which +have little bearing on our history, but the particular question at issue +was of less importance than the fact of a contest at all. The boldness of +Anselm's attitude not only broke the tradition of ecclesiastical +servitude but infused through the nation at large a new spirit of +independence. The real character of the strife appears in the Primate's +answer when his remonstrances against the lawless exactions from the +Church were met by a demand for a present on his own promotion, and his +first offer of five hundred pounds was contemptuously refused. "Treat me +as a free man," Anselm replied, "and I devote myself and all that I have +to your service, but if you treat me as a slave you shall have neither me +nor mine." A burst of the Red King's fury drove the Archbishop from +court, and he finally decided to quit the country, but his example had +not been lost, and the close of William's reign found a new spirit of +freedom in England with which the greatest of the Conqueror's sons was +glad to make terms. His exile however left William without a check. +Supreme at home, he was full of ambition abroad. As a soldier the Red +King was little inferior to his father. Normandy had been pledged to him +by his brother Robert in exchange for a sum which enabled the Duke to +march in the first Crusade for the delivery of the Holy Land, and a +rebellion at Le Mans was subdued by the fierce energy with which William +flung himself at the news of it into the first boat he found, and crossed +the Channel in face of a storm. "Kings never drown," he replied +contemptuously to the remonstrances of his followers. Homage was again +wrested from Malcolm by a march to the Firth of Forth, and the subsequent +death of that king threw Scotland into a disorder which enabled an army +under Eadgar AEtheling to establish Eadgar, the son of Margaret, as an +English feudatory on the throne. In Wales William was less triumphant, +and the terrible losses inflicted on the heavy Norman cavalry in the +fastnesses of Snowdon forced him to fall back on the slower but wiser +policy of the Conqueror. But triumph and defeat alike ended in a strange +and tragical close. In 1100 the Red King was found dead by peasants in a +glade of the New Forest, with the arrow either of a hunter or an assassin +in his breast. + +[Sidenote: Henry the First] + +Robert was at this moment on his return from the Holy Land, where his +bravery had redeemed much of his earlier ill-fame, and the English crown +was seized by his younger brother Henry in spite of the opposition of the +baronage, who clung to the Duke of Normandy and the union of their +estates on both sides the Channel under a single ruler. Their attitude +threw Henry, as it had thrown Rufus, on the support of the English, and +the two great measures which followed his coronation, his grant of a +charter, and his marriage with Matilda, mark the new relation which this +support brought about between the people and their king. Henry's Charter +is important, not merely as a direct precedent for the Great Charter of +John, but as the first limitation on the despotism established by the +Conqueror and carried to such a height by his son. The "evil customs" by +which the Red King had enslaved and plundered the Church were explicitly +renounced in it, the unlimited demands made by both the Conqueror and his +son on the baronage exchanged for customary fees, while the rights of the +people itself, though recognized more vaguely, were not forgotten. The +barons were held to do justice to their undertenants and to renounce +tyrannical exactions from them, the king promising to restore order and +the "law of Eadward," the old constitution of the realm, with the changes +which his father had introduced. His marriage gave a significance to +these promises which the meanest English peasant could understand. Edith, +or Matilda, was the daughter of King Malcolm of Scotland and of Margaret, +the sister of Eadgar AEtheling. She had been brought up in the nunnery of +Romsey where her aunt Christina was a nun; and the veil which she had +taken there formed an obstacle to her union with the King, which was only +removed by the wisdom of Anselm. While Flambard, the embodiment of the +Red King's despotism, was thrown into the Tower, the Archbishop's recall +had been one of Henry's first acts after his accession. Matilda appeared +before his court to tell her tale in words of passionate earnestness. She +had been veiled in her childhood, she asserted, only to save her from the +insults of the rude soldiery who infested the land, had flung the veil +from her again and again, and had yielded at last to the unwomanly +taunts, the actual blows of her aunt. "As often as I stood in her +presence," the girl pleaded, "I wore the veil, trembling as I wore it +with indignation and grief. But as soon as I could get out of her sight I +used to snatch it from my head, fling it on the ground, and trample it +under foot. That was the way, and none other, in which I was veiled." +Anselm at once declared her free from conventual bonds, and the shout of +the English multitude when he set the crown on Matilda's brow drowned the +murmur of Churchman or of baron. The mockery of the Norman nobles, who +nicknamed the king and his spouse Godric and Godgifu, was lost in the joy +of the people at large. For the first time since the Conquest an English +sovereign sat on the English throne. The blood of Cerdic and AElfred was +to blend itself with that of Hrolf and the Conqueror. Henceforth it was +impossible that the two peoples should remain parted from each other; so +quick indeed was their union that the very name of Norman had passed away +in half a century, and at the accession of Henry's grandson it was +impossible to distinguish between the descendants of the conquerors and +those of the conquered at Senlac. + +[Sidenote: Henry and the Barons] + +Charter and marriage roused an enthusiasm among his subjects which +enabled Henry to defy the claims of his brother and the disaffection of +his nobles. Early in 1101 Robert landed at Portsmouth to win the crown in +arms. The great barons with hardly an exception stood aloof from the +king. But the Norman Duke found himself face to face with an English army +which gathered at Anselm's summons round Henry's standard. The temper of +the English had rallied from the panic of Senlac. The soldiers who came +to fight for their king "nowise feared the Normans." As Henry rode along +their lines showing them how to keep firm their shield-wall against the +lances of Robert's knighthood, he was met with shouts for battle. But +king and duke alike shrank from a contest in which the victory of either +side would have undone the Conqueror's work. The one saw his effort was +hopeless, the other was only anxious to remove his rival from the realm, +and by a peace which the Count of Meulan negotiated Robert recognized +Henry as King of England while Henry gave up his fief in the Cotentin to +his brother the Duke. Robert's retreat left Henry free to deal sternly +with the barons who had forsaken him. Robert de Lacy was stripped of his +manors in Yorkshire; Robert Malet was driven from his lands in Suffolk; +Ivo of Grantmesnil lost his vast estates and went to the Holy Land as a +pilgrim. But greater even than these was Robert of Belesme, the son of +Roger of Montgomery, who held in England the earldoms of Shrewsbury and +Arundel, while in Normandy he was Count of Ponthieu and Alencon. Robert +stood at the head of the baronage in wealth and power: and his summons to +the King's Court to answer for his refusal of aid to the king was +answered by a haughty defiance. But again the Norman baronage had to feel +the strength which English loyalty gave to the Crown. Sixty thousand +Englishmen followed Henry to the attack of Robert's strongholds along the +Welsh border. It was in vain that the nobles about the king, conscious +that Robert's fall left them helpless in Henry's hands, strove to bring +about a peace. The English soldiers shouted "Heed not these traitors, our +lord King Henry," and with the people at his back the king stood firm. +Only an early surrender saved Robert's life. He was suffered to retire to +his estates in Normandy, but his English lands were confiscated to the +Crown. "Rejoice, King Henry," shouted the English soldiers, "for you +began to be a free king on that day when you conquered Robert of Belesme +and drove him from the land." Master of his own realm and enriched by the +confiscated lands of the ruined barons Henry crossed into Normandy, where +the misgovernment of the Duke had alienated the clergy and tradesfolk, +and where the outrages of nobles like Robert of Belesme forced the more +peaceful classes to call the king to their aid. In 1106 his forces met +those of his brother on the field of Tenchebray, and a decisive English +victory on Norman soil avenged the shame of Hastings. The conquered duchy +became a dependency of the English crown, and Henry's energies were +frittered away through a quarter of a century in crushing its revolts, +the hostility of the French, and the efforts of his nephew William, the +son of Robert, to regain the crown which his father had lost. + +[Sidenote: Henry's rule] + +With the victory of Tenchebray Henry was free to enter on that work of +administration which was to make his reign memorable in our history. +Successful as his wars had been he was in heart no warrior but a +statesman, and his greatness showed itself less in the field than in the +council chamber. His outer bearing like his inner temper stood in marked +contrast to that of his father. Well read, accomplished, easy and fluent +of speech, the lord of a harem of mistresses, the centre of a gay +court where poet and jongleur found a home, Henry remained cool, +self-possessed, clear-sighted, hard, methodical, loveless himself, and +neither seeking nor desiring his people's love, but wringing from them +their gratitude and regard by sheer dint of good government. His work of +order was necessarily a costly work; and the steady pressure of his +taxation, a pressure made the harder by local famines and plagues during +his reign, has left traces of the grumbling it roused in the pages of the +English Chronicle. But even the Chronicler is forced to own amidst his +grumblings that Henry "was a good man, and great was the awe of him." He +had little of his father's creative genius, of that far-reaching +originality by which the Conqueror stamped himself and his will on the +very fabric of our history. But he had the passion for order, the love of +justice, the faculty of organization, the power of steady and unwavering +rule, which was needed to complete the Conqueror's work. His aim was +peace, and the title of the Peace-loving King which was given him at his +death showed with what a steadiness and constancy he carried out his aim. +In Normandy indeed his work was ever and anon undone by outbreaks of its +baronage, outbreaks sternly repressed only that the work might be +patiently and calmly taken up again where it had been broken off. But in +England his will was carried out with a perfect success. For more than a +quarter of a century the land had rest. Without, the Scots were held in +friendship, the Welsh were bridled by a steady and well-planned scheme of +gradual conquest. Within, the licence of the baronage was held sternly +down, and justice secured for all. "He governed with a strong hand," says +Orderic, but the strong hand was the hand of a king, not of a tyrant. +"Great was the awe of him," writes the annalist of Peterborough. "No man +durst ill-do to another in his days. Peace he made for man and beast." +Pitiless as were the blows he aimed at the nobles who withstood him, they +were blows which his English subjects felt to be struck in their cause. +"While he mastered by policy the foremost counts and lords and the +boldest tyrants, he ever cherished and protected peaceful men and men of +religion and men of the middle class." What impressed observers most was +the unswerving, changeless temper of his rule. The stern justice, the +terrible punishments he inflicted on all who broke his laws, were parts +of a fixed system which differed widely from the capricious severity of a +mere despot. Hardly less impressive was his unvarying success. Heavy as +were the blows which destiny levelled at him, Henry bore and rose +unconquered from all. To the end of his life the proudest barons lay +bound and blinded in his prison. His hoard grew greater and greater. +Normandy, toss as she might, lay helpless at his feet to the last. In +England it was only after his death that men dared mutter what evil +things they had thought of Henry the Peace-lover, or censure the +pitilessness, the greed, and the lust which had blurred the wisdom and +splendour of his rule. + + +[Sidenote: Henry's Administration] + +His vigorous administration carried out into detail the system of +government which the Conqueror had sketched. The vast estates which had +fallen to the crown through revolt and forfeiture were granted out to new +men dependent on royal favour. On the ruins of the great feudatories whom +he had crushed Henry built up a class of lesser nobles, whom the older +barons of the Conquest looked down on in scorn, but who were strong +enough to form a counterpoise to their influence, while they furnished +the Crown with a class of useful administrators whom Henry employed as +his sheriffs and judges. A new organization of justice and finance bound +the kingdom more tightly together in Henry's grasp. The Clerks of the +Royal Chapel were formed into a body of secretaries or royal ministers, +whose head bore the title of Chancellor. Above them stood the Justiciar, +or Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, who in the frequent absence of the +king acted as Regent of the realm, and whose staff, selected from the +barons connected with the royal household, were formed into a Supreme +Court of the realm. The King's Court, as this was called, permanently +represented the whole court of royal vassals which had hitherto been +summoned thrice in the year. As the royal council, it revised and +registered laws, and its "counsel and consent," though merely formal, +preserved the principle of the older popular legislation. As a court of +justice, it formed the highest court of appeal: it could call up any suit +from a lower tribunal on the application of a suitor, while the union of +several sheriffdoms under some of its members connected it closely with +the local courts. As a financial body, its chief work lay in the +assessment and collection of the revenue. In this capacity it took the +name of the Court of Exchequer from the chequered table, much like a +chess-board, at which it sat and on which accounts were rendered. In +their financial capacity its justices became "barons of the Exchequer." +Twice every year the sheriff of each county appeared before these barons +and rendered the sum of the fixed rent from royal domains, the Danegeld +or land tax, the fines of the local courts, the feudal aids from the +baronial estates, which formed the chief part of the royal revenue. Local +disputes respecting these payments or the assessment of the town-rents +were settled by a detachment of barons from the court who made the +circuit of the shires, and whose fiscal visitations led to the judicial +visitations, the "judges' circuits," which still form so marked a feature +in our legal system. + +[Sidenote: The Angevin Marriage] + +Measures such as these changed the whole temper of the Norman rule. It +remained a despotism, but from this moment it was a despotism regulated +and held in check by the forms of administrative routine. Heavy as was +the taxation under Henry the First, terrible as was the suffering +throughout his reign from famine and plague, the peace and order which +his government secured through thirty years won a rest for the land in +which conqueror and conquered blended into a single people and in which +this people slowly moved forward to a new freedom. But while England thus +rested in peace a terrible blow broke the fortunes of her king. In 1120 +his son, William the "AEtheling," with a crowd of nobles accompanied Henry +on his return from Normandy; but the White Ship in which he embarked +lingered behind the rest of the royal fleet till the guards of the king's +treasure pressed its departure. It had hardly cleared the harbour when +the ship's side struck on a rock, and in an instant it sank beneath the +waves. One terrible cry, ringing through the silence of the night, was +heard by the royal fleet; but it was not till the morning that the fatal +news reached the king. Stern as he was, Henry fell senseless to the +ground, and rose never to smile again. He had no other son, and the +circle of his foreign foes closed round him the more fiercely that +William, the son of his captive brother Robert, was now his natural heir. +Henry hated William while he loved his own daughter Maud, who had been +married to the Emperor Henry the Fifth, but who had been restored by his +death to her father's court. The succession of a woman was new in English +history; it was strange to a feudal baronage. But when all hope of issue +from a second wife whom he wedded was over Henry forced priests and +nobles to swear allegiance to Maud as their future mistress, and +affianced her to Geoffry the Handsome, the son of the one foe whom he +dreaded, Count Fulk of Anjou. + +[Sidenote: Anjou] + +The marriage of Matilda was but a step in the wonderful history by which +the descendants of a Breton woodman became masters not of Anjou only, but +of Touraine, Maine, and Poitou, of Gascony and Auvergne, of Aquitaine and +Normandy, and sovereigns at last of the great realm which Normandy had +won. The legend of the father of their race carries us back to the times +of our own AElfred, when the Danes were ravaging along Loire as they +ravaged along Thames. In the heart of the Breton border, in the +debateable land between France and Britanny, dwelt Tortulf the Forester, +half-brigand, half-hunter as the gloomy days went, living in free +outlaw-fashion in the woods about Rennes. Tortulf had learned in his +rough forest school "how to strike the foe, to sleep on the bare ground, +to bear hunger and toil, summer's heat and winter's frost, how to fear +nothing save ill-fame." Following King Charles the Bald in his struggle +with the Danes, the woodman won broad lands along Loire, and his son +Ingelger, who had swept the northmen from Touraine and the land to the +west, which they had burned and wasted into a vast solitude, became the +first Count of Anjou. But the tale of Tortulf and Ingelger is a mere +creation of some twelfth century jongleur. The earliest Count whom +history recognizes is Fulk the Red. Fulk attached himself to the Dukes of +France who were now drawing nearer to the throne, and between 909 and 929 +he received from them in guerdon the county of Anjou. The story of his +son is a story of peace, breaking like a quiet idyll the war-storms of +his house. Alone of his race Fulk the Good waged no wars: his delight was +to sit in the choir of Tours and to be called "Canon." One Martinmas eve +Fulk was singing there in clerkly guise when the French king, Lewis +d'Outremer, entered the church. "He sings like a priest," laughed the +king as his nobles pointed mockingly to the figure of the Count-Canon. +But Fulk was ready with his reply. "Know, my lord," wrote the Count of +Anjou, "that a king unlearned is a crowned ass." Fulk was in fact no +priest, but a busy ruler, governing, enforcing peace, and carrying +justice to every corner of the wasted land. To him alone of his race men +gave the title of "the Good." + +[Sidenote: Fulk the Black] + +Hampered by revolt, himself in character little more than a bold, dashing +soldier, Fulk's son, Geoffry Greygown, sank almost into a vassal of his +powerful neighbours, the Counts of Blois and Champagne. But this +vassalage was roughly shaken off by his successor. Fulk Nerra, Fulk the +Black, is the greatest of the Angevins, the first in whom we can trace +that marked type of character which their house was to preserve through +two hundred years. He was without natural affection. In his youth he +burnt a wife at the stake, and legend told how he led her to her doom +decked out in his gayest attire. In his old age he waged his bitterest +war against his son, and exacted from him when vanquished a humiliation +which men reserved for the deadliest of their foes. "You are conquered, +you are conquered!" shouted the old man in fierce exultation, as Geoffry, +bridled and saddled like a beast of burden, crawled for pardon to his +father's feet. In Fulk first appeared that low type of superstition which +startled even superstitious ages in the early Plantagenets. Robber as he +was of Church lands, and contemptuous of ecclesiastical censures, the +fear of the end of the world drove Fulk to the Holy Sepulchre. Barefoot +and with the strokes of the scourge falling heavily on his shoulders, the +Count had himself dragged by a halter through the streets of Jerusalem, +and courted the doom of martyrdom by his wild outcries of penitence. He +rewarded the fidelity of Herbert of Le Mans, whose aid saved him from +utter ruin, by entrapping him into captivity and robbing him of his +lands. He secured the terrified friendship of the French king by +despatching twelve assassins to cut down before his eyes the minister who +had troubled it. Familiar as the age was with treason and rapine and +blood, it recoiled from the cool cynicism of his crimes, and believed the +wrath of Heaven to have been revealed against the union of the worst +forms of evil in Fulk the Black. But neither the wrath of Heaven nor the +curses of men broke with a single mishap the fifty years of his success. + +At his accession in 987 Anjou was the least important of the greater +provinces of France. At his death in 1040 it stood, if not in extent, at +least in real power, first among them all. Cool-headed, clear-sighted, +quick to resolve, quicker to strike, Fulk's career was one long series of +victories over all his rivals. He was a consummate general, and he had +the gift of personal bravery, which was denied to some of his greatest +descendants. There was a moment in the first of his battles when the day +seemed lost for Anjou; a feigned retreat of the Bretons drew the Angevin +horsemen into a line of hidden pitfalls, and the Count himself was flung +heavily to the ground. Dragged from the medley of men and horses, he +swept down almost singly on the foe "as a storm-wind" (so rang the paean +of the Angevins) "sweeps down on the thick corn-rows," and the field was +won. But to these qualities of the warrior he added a power of political +organization, a capacity for far-reaching combinations, a faculty of +statesmanship, which became the heritage of his race, and lifted them as +high above the intellectual level of the rulers of their time as their +shameless wickedness degraded them below the level of man. His overthrow +of Britanny on the field of Conquereux was followed by the gradual +absorption of Southern Touraine; a victory at Pontlevoi crushed the rival +house of Blois; the seizure of Saumur completed his conquests in the +south, while Northern Touraine was won bit by bit till only Tours +resisted the Angevin. The treacherous seizure of its Count, Herbert +Wakedog, left Maine at his mercy. + + +[Sidenote: Death of Henry] + +His work of conquest was completed by his son. Geoffry Martel wrested +Tours from the Count of Blois, and by the seizure of Le Mans brought his +border to the Norman frontier. Here however his advance was checked by +the genius of William the Conqueror, and with his death the greatness of +Anjou came for a while to an end. Stripped of Maine by the Normans and +broken by dissensions within, the weak and profligate rule of Fulk Rechin +left Anjou powerless. But in 1109 it woke to fresh energy with the +accession of his son, Fulk of Jerusalem. Now urging the turbulent Norman +nobles to revolt, now supporting Robert's son, William, in his strife +with his uncle, offering himself throughout as the loyal supporter of the +French kingdom which was now hemmed in on almost every side by the forces +of the English king and of his allies the Counts of Blois and Champagne, +Fulk was the one enemy whom Henry the First really feared. It was to +disarm his restless hostility that the king gave the hand of Matilda to +Geoffry the Handsome. But the hatred between Norman and Angevin had been +too bitter to make such a marriage popular, and the secrecy with which it +was brought about was held by the barons to free them from the oath they +had previously sworn. As no baron if he was sonless could give a husband +to his daughter save with his lord's consent, the nobles held by a +strained analogy that their own assent was needful to the marriage of +Maud. Henry found a more pressing danger in the greed of her husband +Geoffry, whose habit of wearing the common broom of Anjou, the planta +genista, in his helmet gave him the title of Plantagenet. His claims +ended at last in intrigues with the Norman nobles, and Henry hurried to +the border to meet an Angevin invasion; but the plot broke down at his +presence, the Angevins retired, and at the close of 1135 the old king +withdrew to the Forest of Lions to die. + +[Sidenote: Stephen] + +"God give him," wrote the Archbishop of Rouen from Henry's death-bed, +"the peace he loved." With him indeed closed the long peace of the Norman +rule. An outburst of anarchy followed on the news of his departure, and +in the midst of the turmoil Earl Stephen, his nephew, appeared at the +gates of London. Stephen was a son of the Conqueror's daughter, Adela, +who had married a Count of Blois; he had been brought up at the English +court, had been made Count of Mortain by Henry, had become Count of +Boulogne by his marriage, and as head of the Norman baronage had been the +first to pledge himself to support Matilda's succession. But his own +claim as nearest male heir of the Conqueror's blood (for his cousin, the +son of Robert, had fallen some years before in Flanders) was supported by +his personal popularity; mere swordsman as he was, his good-humour, his +generosity, his very prodigality made Stephen a favourite with all. No +noble however had as yet ventured to join him nor had any town opened its +gates when London poured out to meet him with uproarious welcome. Neither +baron nor prelate was present to constitute a National Council, but the +great city did not hesitate to take their place. The voice of her +citizens had long been accepted as representative of the popular assent +in the election of a king; but it marks the progress of English +independence under Henry that London now claimed of itself the right of +election. Undismayed by the absence of the hereditary counsellors of the +crown its "Aldermen and wise folk gathered together the folk-moot, and +these providing at their own will for the good of the realm unanimously +resolved to choose a king." The solemn deliberation ended in the choice +of Stephen, the citizens swore to defend the king with money and blood, +Stephen swore to apply his whole strength to the pacification and good +government of the realm. It was in fact the new union of conquered and +conquerors into a single England that did Stephen's work. The succession +of Maud meant the rule of Geoffry of Anjou, and to Norman as to +Englishman the rule of the Angevin was a foreign rule. The welcome +Stephen won at London and Winchester, his seizure of the royal treasure, +the adhesion of the Justiciar Bishop Roger to his cause, the reluctant +consent of the Archbishop, the hopelessness of aid from Anjou where +Geoffry was at this moment pressed by revolt, the need above all of some +king to meet the outbreak of anarchy which followed Henry's death, +secured Stephen the voice of the baronage. He was crowned at +Christmas-tide; and soon joined by Robert Earl of Gloucester, a bastard +son of Henry and the chief of his nobles; while the issue of a charter +from Oxford in 1136, a charter which renewed the dead king's pledge of +good government, promised another Henry to the realm. The charter +surrendered all forests made in the last reign as a sop to the nobles, +and conciliated the Church by granting freedom of election and renouncing +all right to the profits of vacant churches; while the king won the +people by a promise to abolish the tax of Danegeld. + + +[Sidenote: Battle of the Standard] + +The king's first two years were years of success and prosperity. Two +risings of barons in the east and west were easily put down, and in 1137 +Stephen passed into Normandy and secured the Duchy against an attack from +Anjou. But already the elements of trouble were gathering round him. +Stephen was a mere soldier, with few kingly qualities save that of a +soldier's bravery; and the realm soon began to slip from his grasp. He +turned against himself the jealous dread of foreigners to which he owed +his accession by surrounding himself with hired knights from Flanders; he +drained the treasury by creating new earls endowed with pensions from it, +and recruited his means by base coinage. His consciousness of the +gathering storm only drove Stephen to bind his friends to him by +suffering them to fortify castles and to renew the feudal tyranny which +Henry had struck down. But the long reign of the dead king had left the +Crown so strong that even yet Stephen could hold his own. A plot which +Robert of Gloucester had been weaving from the outset of his reign came +indeed to a head in 1138, and the Earl's revolt stripped Stephen of Caen +and half Normandy. But when his partizans in England rose in the south +and the west and the King of Scots, whose friendship Stephen had bought +in the opening of his reign by the cession of Carlisle, poured over the +northern border, the nation stood firmly by the king. Stephen himself +marched on the western rebels and soon left them few strongholds save +Bristol. His people fought for him in the north. The pillage and +cruelties of the wild tribes of Galloway and the Highlands roused the +spirit of the Yorkshiremen. Baron and freeman gathered at York round +Archbishop Thurstan and marched to the field of Northallerton to await +the foe. The sacred banners of St. Cuthbert of Durham, St. Peter of York, +St. John of Beverley, and St. Wilfrid of Ripon hung from a pole fixed in +a four-wheeled car which stood in the centre of the host. The first onset +of David's host was a terrible one. "I who wear no armour," shouted the +chief of the Galwegians, "will go as far this day as any one with +breastplate of mail"; his men charged with wild shouts of "Albin, Albin," +and were followed by the Norman knighthood of the Lowlands. But their +repulse was complete; the fierce hordes dashed in vain against the close +English ranks around the Standard, and the whole army fled in confusion +to Carlisle. + +[Sidenote: Seizure of the Bishops] + +Weak indeed as Stephen was, the administrative organization of Henry +still did its work. Roger remained justiciar, his son was chancellor, his +nephew Nigel, the Bishop of Ely, was treasurer. Finance and justice were +thus concentrated in the hands of a single family which preserved amidst +the deepening misrule something of the old order and rule, and which +stood at the head of the "new men," whom Henry had raised into importance +and made the instruments of his will. These new men were still weak by +the side of the older nobles; and conscious of the jealousy and ill-will +with which they were regarded they followed in self-defence the example +which the barons were setting in building and fortifying castles on their +domains. Roger and his house, the objects from their official position of +a deeper grudge than any, were carried away by the panic. The justiciar +and his son fortified their castles, and it was only with a strong force +at their back that the prelates appeared at court. Their attitude was one +to rouse Stephen's jealousy, and the news of Matilda's purpose of +invasion lent strength to the doubts which the nobles cast on their +fidelity. All the weak violence of the king's temper suddenly broke out. +He seized Roger the Chancellor and the Bishop of Lincoln when they +appeared at Oxford in June 1139, and forced them to surrender their +strongholds. Shame broke the justiciar's heart; he died at the close of +the year, and his nephew Nigel of Ely was driven from the realm. But the +fall of this house shattered the whole system of government. The King's +Court and the Exchequer ceased to work at a moment when the landing of +Earl Robert and the Empress Matilda set Stephen face to face with a +danger greater than he had yet encountered, while the clergy, alienated +by the arrest of the Bishops and the disregard of their protests, stood +angrily aloof. + +[Sidenote: Civil War] + +The three bases of Henry's system of government, the subjection of the +baronage to the law, the good-will of the Church, and the organization of +justice and finance, were now utterly ruined; and for the fourteen years +which passed from this hour to the Treaty of Wallingford England was +given up to the miseries of civil war. The country was divided between +the adherents of the two rivals, the West supporting Matilda, London and +the East Stephen. A defeat at Lincoln in 1141 left the latter a captive +in the hands of his enemies, while Matilda was received throughout the +land as its "Lady." But the disdain with which she repulsed the claim of +London to the enjoyment of its older privileges called its burghers to +arms; her resolve to hold Stephen a prisoner roused his party again to +life, and she was driven to Oxford to be besieged there in 1142 by +Stephen himself, who had obtained his release in exchange for Earl Robert +after the capture of the Earl in a battle at Winchester. She escaped from +the castle, but with the death of Robert her struggle became a hopeless +one, and in 1148 she withdrew to Normandy. The war was now a mere chaos +of pillage and bloodshed. The royal power came to an end. The royal +courts were suspended, for not a baron or bishop would come at the king's +call. The bishops met in council to protest, but their protests and +excommunications fell on deafened ears. For the first and last time in +her history England was in the hands of the baronage, and their outrages +showed from what horrors the stern rule of the Norman kings had saved +her. Castles sprang up everywhere. "They filled the land with castles," +say the terrible annals of the time. "They greatly oppressed the wretched +people by making them work at these castles, and when they were finished +they filled them with devils and armed men." In each of these +robber-holds a petty tyrant ruled like a king. The strife for the Crown +had broken into a medley of feuds between baron and baron, for none could +brook an equal or a superior in his fellow. "They fought among themselves +with deadly hatred, they spoiled the fairest lands with fire and rapine; +in what had been the most fertile of counties they destroyed almost all +the provision of bread." For fight as they might with one another, all +were at one in the plunder of the land. Towns were put to ransom. +Villages were sacked and burned. All who were deemed to have goods, +whether men or women, were carried off and flung into dungeons and +tortured till they yielded up their wealth. No ghastlier picture of a +nation's misery has ever been painted than that which closes the English +Chronicle whose last accents falter out amidst the horrors of the time. +"They hanged up men by their feet and smoked them with foul smoke. Some +were hanged up by their thumbs, others by the head, and burning things +were hung on to their feet. They put knotted strings about men's heads, +and writhed them till they went to the brain. They put men into prisons +where adders and snakes and toads were crawling, and so they tormented +them. Some they put into a chest short and narrow and not deep and that +had sharp stones within, and forced men therein so that they broke all +their limbs. In many of the castles were hateful and grim things called +rachenteges, which two or three men had enough to do to carry. It was +thus made: it was fastened to a beam and had a sharp iron to go about a +man's neck and throat, so that he might noways sit, or lie, or sleep, but +he bore all the iron. Many thousands they starved with hunger." + +[Sidenote: Religious Revival] + +It was only after years of this feudal anarchy that England was rescued +from it by the efforts of the Church. The political influence of the +Church had been greatly lessened by the Conquest: for pious, learned, and +energetic as the bulk of the Conqueror's bishops were, they were not +Englishmen. Till the reign of Henry the First no Englishman occupied an +English see. This severance of the higher clergy from the lower +priesthood and from the people went far to paralyze the constitutional +influence of the Church. Anselm stood alone against Rufus, and when +Anselm was gone no voice of ecclesiastical freedom broke the silence of +the reign of Henry the First. But at the close of Henry's reign and +throughout the reign of Stephen England was stirred by the first of those +great religious movements which it was to experience afterwards in the +preaching of the Friars, the Lollardism of Wyclif, the Reformation, the +Puritan enthusiasm, and the mission work of the Wesleys. Everywhere in +town and country men banded themselves together for prayer: hermits +flocked to the woods: noble and churl welcomed the austere Cistercians, a +reformed offshoot of the Benedictine order, as they spread over the moors +and forests of the North. A new spirit of devotion woke the slumbers of +the religious houses, and penetrated alike to the home of the noble and +the trader. London took its full share in the revival. The city was proud +of its religion, its thirteen conventual and more than a hundred +parochial churches. The new impulse changed its very aspect. In the midst +of the city Bishop Richard busied himself with the vast cathedral church +of St. Paul which Bishop Maurice had begun; barges came up the river with +stone from Caen for the great arches that moved the popular wonder, while +street and lane were being levelled to make room for its famous +churchyard. Rahere, a minstrel at Henry's court, raised the Priory of St. +Bartholomew beside Smithfield. Alfune built St. Giles's at Cripplegate. +The old English Cnichtenagild surrendered their soke of Aldgate as a site +for the new priory of the Holy Trinity. The tale of this house paints +admirably the temper of the citizens at the time. Its founder, Prior +Norman, built church and cloister and bought books and vestments in so +liberal a fashion that no money remained to buy bread. The canons were at +their last gasp when the city-folk, looking into the refectory as they +passed round the cloister in their usual Sunday procession, saw the +tables laid but not a single loaf on them. "Here is a fine set out," said +the citizens; "but where is the bread to come from?" The women who were +present vowed each to bring a loaf every Sunday, and there was soon bread +enough and to spare for the priory and its priests. + +[Sidenote: Thomas of London] + +We see the strength of the new movement in the new class of ecclesiastics +whom it forced on to the stage. Men like Archbishop Theobald drew +whatever influence they wielded from a belief in their holiness of life +and unselfishness of aim. The paralysis of the Church ceased as the new +impulse bound prelacy and people together, and at the moment we have +reached its power was found strong enough to wrest England out of the +chaos of feudal misrule. In the early part of Stephen's reign his brother +Henry, the Bishop of Winchester, who had been appointed in 1139 Papal +Legate for the realm, had striven to supply the absence of any royal or +national authority by convening synods of bishops, and by asserting the +moral right of the Church to declare sovereigns unworthy of the throne. +The compact between king and people which became a part of constitutional +law in the Charter of Henry had gathered new force in the Charter of +Stephen, but its legitimate consequence in the responsibility of the +crown for the execution of the compact was first drawn out by these +ecclesiastical councils. From their alternate depositions of Stephen and +Matilda flowed the after depositions of Edward and Richard, and the +solemn act by which the succession was changed in the case of James. +Extravagant and unauthorized as their expression of it may appear, they +expressed the right of a nation to good government. Henry of Winchester +however, "half monk, half soldier," as he was called, possessed too +little religious influence to wield a really spiritual power, and it was +only at the close of Stephen's reign that the nation really found a moral +leader in Theobald, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Theobald's ablest agent +and adviser was Thomas, the son of Gilbert Beket, a leading citizen and, +it is said, Portreeve of London, the site of whose house is still marked +by the Mercers' chapel in Cheapside. His mother Rohese was a type of the +devout woman of her day; she weighed her boy every year on his birthday +against money, clothes, and provisions which she gave to the poor. Thomas +grew up amidst the Norman barons and clerks who frequented his father's +house with a genial freedom of character tempered by the Norman +refinement; he passed from the school of Merton to the University of +Paris, and returned to fling himself into the life of the young nobles of +the time. Tall, handsome, bright-eyed, ready of wit and speech, his +firmness of temper showed itself in his very sports; to rescue his hawk +which had fallen into the water he once plunged into a millrace and was +all but crushed by the wheel. The loss of his father's wealth drove him +to the court of Archbishop Theobald, and he soon became the Primate's +confidant in his plans for the rescue of England. + +[Illustration: The Dominions of the Angevins (v1-map-4t.jpg)] + + +[Sidenote: Treaty of Wallingford] + +The natural influence which the Primate would have exerted was long held +in suspense by the superior position of Bishop Henry of Winchester as +Papal Legate; but this office ceased with the Pope who granted it, and +when in 1150 it was transferred to the Archbishop himself Theobald soon +made his weight felt. The long disorder of the realm was producing its +natural reaction in exhaustion and disgust, as well as in a general +craving for return to the line of hereditary succession whose breaking +seemed the cause of the nation's woes. But the growth of their son Henry +to manhood set naturally aside the pretensions both of Count Geoffry and +Matilda. Young as he was Henry already showed the cool long-sighted +temper which was to be his characteristic on the throne. Foiled in an +early attempt to grasp the crown, he looked quietly on at the disorder +which was doing his work till the death of his father at the close of +1151 left him master of Normandy and Anjou. In the spring of the +following year his marriage with its duchess, Eleanor of Poitou, added +Aquitaine to his dominions. Stephen saw the gathering storm, and strove +to meet it. He called on the bishops and baronage to secure the +succession of his son Eustace by consenting to his association with him +in the kingdom. But the moment was now come for Theobald to play his +part. He was already negotiating through Thomas of London with Henry and +the Pope; he met Stephen's plans by a refusal to swear fealty to his son, +and the bishops, in spite of Stephen's threats, went with their head. The +blow was soon followed by a harder one. Thomas, as Theobald's agent, +invited Henry to appear in England, and though the Duke disappointed his +supporters' hopes by the scanty number of men he brought with him in +1153, his weakness proved in the end a source of strength. It was not to +foreigners, men said, that Henry owed his success but to the arms of +Englishmen. An English army gathered round him, and as the hosts of +Stephen and the Duke drew together a battle seemed near which would +decide the fate of the realm. But Theobald who was now firmly supported +by the greater barons again interfered and forced the rivals to an +agreement. To the excited partizans of the house of Anjou it seemed as if +the nobles were simply playing their own game in the proposed settlement +and striving to preserve their power by a balance of masters. The +suspicion was probably groundless, but all fear vanished with the death +of Eustace, who rode off from his father's camp, maddened with the ruin +of his hopes, to die in August, smitten, as men believed, by the hand of +God for his plunder of abbeys. The ground was now clear, and in November +the Treaty of Wallingford abolished the evils of the long anarchy. The +castles were to be razed, the crown lands resumed, the foreign +mercenaries banished from the country, and sheriffs appointed to restore +order. Stephen was recognized as king, and in turn recognized Henry as +his heir. The duke received at Oxford the fealty of the barons, and +passed into Normandy in the spring of 1154. The work of reformation had +already begun. Stephen resented indeed the pressure which Henry put on +him to enforce the destruction of the castles built during the anarchy; +but Stephen's resistance was but the pettish outbreak of a ruined man. He +was in fact fast drawing to the grave; and on his death in October 1154 +Henry returned to take the crown without a blow. + + + + + +CHAPTER III +HENRY THE SECOND +1154-1189 + + + +[Sidenote: Henry Fitz-Empress] + +Young as he was, and he had reached but his twenty-first year when he +returned to England as its king, Henry mounted the throne with a purpose +of government which his reign carried steadily out. His practical, +serviceable frame suited the hardest worker of his time. There was +something in his build and look, in the square stout form, the fiery +face, the close-cropped hair, the prominent eyes, the bull neck, the +coarse strong hands, the bowed legs, that marked out the keen, stirring, +coarse-fibred man of business. "He never sits down," said one who +observed him closely; "he is always on his legs from morning till night." +Orderly in business, careless of appearance, sparing in diet, never +resting or giving his servants rest, chatty, inquisitive, endowed with a +singular charm of address and strength of memory, obstinate in love or +hatred, a fair scholar, a great hunter, his general air that of a rough, +passionate, busy man, Henry's personal character told directly on the +character of his reign. His accession marks the period of amalgamation +when neighbourhood and traffic and intermarriage drew Englishmen and +Normans into a single people. A national feeling was thus springing up +before which the barriers of the older feudalism were to be swept away. +Henry had even less reverence for the feudal past than the men of his +day: he was indeed utterly without the imagination and reverence which +enable men to sympathize with any past at all. He had a practical man's +impatience of the obstacles thrown in the way of his reforms by the older +constitution of the realm, nor could he understand other men's reluctance +to purchase undoubted improvements by the sacrifice of customs and +traditions of bygone days. Without any theoretical hostility to the +co-ordinate powers of the state, it seemed to him a perfectly reasonable +and natural course to trample either baronage or Church under foot to +gain his end of good government. He saw clearly that the remedy for such +anarchy as England had endured under Stephen lay in the establishment of +a kingly rule unembarrassed by any privileges of order or class, +administered by royal servants, and in whose public administration the +nobles acted simply as delegates of the sovereign. His work was to lie in +the organization of judicial and administrative reforms which realized +this idea. But of the currents of thought and feeling which were tending +in the same direction he knew nothing. What he did for the moral and +social impulses which were telling on men about him was simply to let +them alone. Religion grew more and more identified with patriotism under +the eyes of a king who whispered, and scribbled, and looked at +picture-books during mass, who never confessed, and cursed God in wild +frenzies of blasphemy. Great peoples formed themselves on both sides of +the sea round a sovereign who bent the whole force of his mind to hold +together an Empire which the growth of nationality must inevitably +destroy. There is throughout a tragic grandeur in the irony of Henry's +position, that of a Sforza of the fifteenth century set in the midst of +the twelfth, building up by patience and policy and craft a dominion +alien to the deepest sympathies of his age and fated to be swept away in +the end by popular forces to whose existence his very cleverness and +activity blinded him. But whether by the anti-national temper of his +general system or by the administrative reforms of his English rule his +policy did more than that of all his predecessors to prepare England for +the unity and freedom which the fall of his house was to reveal. + +[Sidenote: The Great Scutage] + +He had been placed on the throne, as we have seen, by the Church. His +first work was to repair the evils which England had endured till his +accession by the restoration of the system of Henry the First; and it was +with the aid and counsel of Theobald that the foreign marauders were +driven from the realm, the new castles demolished in spite of the +opposition of the baronage, the King's Court and Exchequer restored. Age +and infirmity however warned the Primate to retire from the post of +minister, and his power fell into the younger and more vigorous hands of +Thomas Beket, who had long acted as his confidential adviser and was now +made Chancellor. Thomas won the personal favour of the king. The two +young men had, in Theobald's words, "but one heart and mind"; Henry +jested in the Chancellor's hall, or tore his cloak from his shoulders in +rough horse-play as they rode through the streets. He loaded his +favourite with riches and honours, but there is no ground for thinking +that Thomas in any degree influenced his system of rule. Henry's policy +seems for good or evil to have been throughout his own. His work of +reorganization went steadily on amidst troubles at home and abroad. Welsh +outbreaks forced him in 1157 to lead an army over the border; and a +crushing repulse showed that he was less skilful as a general than as a +statesman. The next year saw him drawn across the Channel, where he was +already master of a third of the present France. Anjou, Maine, and +Touraine he had inherited from his father, Normandy from his mother, he +governed Britanny through his brother, while the seven provinces of the +South, Poitou, Saintonge, La Marche, Perigord, the Limousin, the +Angoumois, and Gascony, belonged to his wife. As Duchess of Aquitaine +Eleanor had claims on Toulouse, and these Henry prepared in 1159 to +enforce by arms. But the campaign was turned to the profit of his +reforms. He had already begun the work of bringing the baronage within +the grasp of the law by sending judges from the Exchequer year after year +to exact the royal dues and administer the king's justice even in castle +and manor. He now attacked its military influence. Each man who held +lands of a certain value was bound to furnish a knight for his lord's +service; and the barons thus held a body of trained soldiers at their +disposal. When Henry called his chief lords to serve in the war of +Toulouse, he allowed the lower tenants to commute their service for +sums payable to the royal treasury under the name of "scutage," or +shield-money. The "Great Scutage" did much to disarm the baronage, while +it enabled the king to hire foreign mercenaries for his service abroad. +Again however he was luckless in war. King Lewis of France threw himself +into Toulouse. Conscious of the ill-compacted nature of his wide +dominion, Henry shrank from an open contest with his suzerain; he +withdrew his forces, and the quarrel ended in 1160 by a formal alliance +and the betrothal of his eldest son to the daughter of Lewis. + +[Sidenote: Archbishop Thomas] + +Henry returned to his English realm to regulate the relations of the +State with the Church. These rested in the main on the system established +by the Conqueror, and with that system Henry had no wish to meddle. But +he was resolute that, baron or priest, all should be equal before the +law; and he had no more mercy for clerical than for feudal immunities. +The immunities of the clergy indeed were becoming a hindrance to public +justice. The clerical order in the Middle Ages extended far beyond the +priesthood; it included in Henry's day the whole of the professional and +educated classes. It was subject to the jurisdiction of the Church courts +alone; but bodily punishment could only be inflicted by officers of the +lay courts, and so great had the jealousy between clergy and laity become +that the bishops no longer sought civil aid but restricted themselves to +the purely spiritual punishments of penance and deprivation of orders. +Such penalties formed no effectual check upon crime, and while preserving +the Church courts the king aimed at the delivery of convicted offenders +to secular punishment. For the carrying out of these designs he sought an +agent in Thomas the Chancellor. Thomas had now been his minister for +eight years, and had fought bravely in the war against Toulouse at the +head of the seven hundred knights who formed his household. But the king +had other work for him than war. On Theobald's death he forced on the +monks of Canterbury his election as Archbishop. But from the moment of +his appointment in 1162 the dramatic temper of the new Primate flung its +whole energy into the part he set himself to play. At the first +intimation of Henry's purpose he pointed with a laugh to his gay court +attire: "You are choosing a fine dress," he said, "to figure at the head +of your Canterbury monks"; once monk and Archbishop he passed with a +fevered earnestness from luxury to asceticism; and a visit to the Council +of Tours in 1163, where the highest doctrines of ecclesiastical authority +were sanctioned by Pope Alexander the Third, strengthened his purpose of +struggling for the privileges of the Church. His change of attitude +encouraged his old rivals at court to vex him with petty lawsuits, but no +breach had come with the king till Henry proposed that clerical convicts +should be punished by the civil power. Thomas refused; he would only +consent that a clerk, once degraded, should for after offences suffer +like a layman. Both parties appealed to the "customs" of the realm; and +it was to state these "customs" that a court was held in 1164 at +Clarendon near Salisbury. + +[Sidenote: Legal Reforms] + +The report presented by bishops and barons formed the Constitutions of +Clarendon, a code which in the bulk of its provisions simply re-enacted +the system of the Conqueror. Every election of bishop or abbot was to +take place before royal officers, in the king's chapel, and with the +king's assent. The prelate-elect was bound to do homage to the king for +his lands before consecration, and to hold his lands as a barony from the +king, subject to all feudal burthens of taxation and attendance in the +King's Court. No bishop might leave the realm without the royal +permission. No tenant in chief or royal servant might be excommunicated, +or their land placed under interdict, but by the king's assent. What was +new was the legislation respecting ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The +King's Court was to decide whether a suit between clerk and layman, whose +nature was disputed, belonged to the Church courts or the King's. A royal +officer was to be present at all ecclesiastical proceedings in order to +confine the Bishop's court within its own due limits, and a clerk +convicted there passed at once under the civil jurisdiction. An appeal +was left from the Archbishop's court to the King's Court for defect of +justice, but none might appeal to the Papal court save with the king's +leave. The privilege of sanctuary in churches and churchyards was +repealed, so far as property and not persons was concerned. After a +passionate refusal the Primate was at last brought to give his assent to +these Constitutions, but the assent was soon retracted, and Henry's +savage resentment threw the moral advantage of the position into his +opponent's hands. Vexatious charges were brought against Thomas, and he +was summoned to answer at a Council held in the autumn at Northampton. +All urged him to submit; his very life was said to be in peril from the +king's wrath. But in the presence of danger the courage of the man rose +to its full height. Grasping his archiepiscopal cross he entered the +royal court, forbade the nobles to condemn him, and appealed in the teeth +of the Constitutions to the Papal See. Shouts of "Traitor!" followed him +as he withdrew. The Primate turned fiercely at the word: "Were I a +knight," he shouted back, "my sword should answer that foul taunt!" Once +alone however, dread pressed more heavily; he fled in disguise at +nightfall and reached France through Flanders. + +Great as were the dangers it was to bring with it, the flight of Thomas +left Henry free to carry on the reforms he had planned. In spite of +denunciations from Primate and Pope, the Constitutions regulated from +this time the relations of the Church with the State. Henry now turned to +the actual organization of the realm. His reign, it has been truly said, +"initiated the rule of law" as distinct from the despotism, whether +personal or tempered by routine, of the Norman sovereigns. It was by +successive "assizes" or codes issued with the sanction of the great +councils of barons and prelates which he summoned year by year, that he +perfected in a system of gradual reforms the administrative measures +which Henry the First had begun. The fabric of our judicial legislation +commences in 1166 with the Assize of Clarendon, the first object of which +was to provide for the order of the realm by reviving the old English +system of mutual security or frankpledge. No stranger might abide in any +place save a borough and only there for a single night unless sureties +were given for his good behaviour; and the list of such strangers was to +be submitted to the itinerant justices. In the provisions of this assize +for the repression of crime we find the origin of trial by jury, so often +attributed to earlier times. Twelve lawful men of each hundred, with four +from each township, were sworn to present those who were known or reputed +as criminals within their district for trial by ordeal. The jurors were +thus not merely witnesses, but sworn to act as judges also in determining +the value of the charge, and it is this double character of Henry's +jurors that has descended to our "grand jury," who still remain charged +with the duty of presenting criminals for trial after examination of the +witnesses against them. Two later steps brought the jury to its modern +condition. Under Edward the First witnesses acquainted with the +particular fact in question were added in each case to the general jury, +and by the separation of these two classes of jurors at a later time the +last became simply "witnesses" without any judicial power, while the +first ceased to be witnesses at all and became our modern jurors, who are +only judges of the testimony given. With this assize too a practice which +had prevailed from the earliest English times, the practice of +"compurgation," passed away. Under this system the accused could be +acquitted of the charge by the voluntary oath of his neighbours and +kinsmen; but this was abolished by the Assize of Clarendon, and for the +fifty years which followed it his trial, after the investigation of the +grand jury, was found solely in the ordeal or "judgement of God," where +innocence was proved by the power of holding hot iron in the hand or by +sinking when flung into the water, for swimming was a proof of guilt. It +was the abolition of the whole system of ordeal by the Council of Lateran +in 1216 which led the way to the establishment of what is called a "petty +jury" for the final trial of prisoners. + +[Sidenote: Murder of Thomas] + +But Henry's work of reorganization had hardly begun when it was broken by +the pressure of the strife with the Primate. For six years the contest +raged bitterly; at Rome, at Paris, the agents of the two powers intrigued +against each other. Henry stooped to acts of the meanest persecution in +driving the Primate's kinsmen from England, and in confiscating the lands +of their order till the monks of Pontigny should refuse Thomas a home; +while Beket himself exhausted the patience of his friends by his violence +and excommunications, as well as by the stubbornness with which he clung +to the offensive clause "Saving the honour of my order," the addition of +which to his consent would have practically neutralised the king's +reforms. The Pope counselled mildness, the French king for a time +withdrew his support, his own clerks gave way at last. "Come up," said +one of them bitterly when his horse stumbled on the road, "saving the +honour of the Church and my order." But neither warning nor desertion +moved the resolution of the Primate. Henry, in dread of Papal +excommunication, resolved in 1170 on the coronation of his son: and this +office, which belonged to the see of Canterbury, he transferred to the +Archbishop of York. But the Pope's hands were now freed by his successes +in Italy, and the threat of an interdict forced the king to a show of +submission. The Archbishop was allowed to return after a reconciliation +with the king at Freteval, and the Kentishmen flocked around him with +uproarious welcome as he entered Canterbury. "This is England," said his +clerks, as they saw the white headlands of the coast. "You will wish +yourself elsewhere before fifty days are gone," said Thomas sadly, and +his foreboding showed his appreciation of Henry's character. He was now +in the royal power, and orders had already been issued in the younger +Henry's name for his arrest when four knights from the King's Court, +spurred to outrage by a passionate outburst of their master's wrath, +crossed the sea, and on the 29th of December forced their way into the +Archbishop's palace. After a stormy parley with him in his chamber they +withdrew to arm. Thomas was hurried by his clerks into the cathedral, but +as he reached the steps leading from the transept to the choir his +pursuers burst in from the cloisters. "Where," cried Reginald Fitzurse in +the dusk of the dimly-lighted minster, "where is the traitor, Thomas +Beket?" The Primate turned resolutely back: "Here am I, no traitor, but a +priest of God," he replied, and again descending the steps he placed +himself with his back against a pillar and fronted his foes. All the +bravery and violence of his old knightly life seemed to revive in Thomas +as he tossed back the threats and demands of his assailants. "You are our +prisoner," shouted Fitzurse, and the four knights seized him to drag him +from the church. "Do not touch me, Reginald," cried the Primate, "pander +that you are, you owe me fealty"; and availing himself of his personal +strength he shook him roughly off. "Strike, strike," retorted Fitzurse, +and blow after blow struck Thomas to the ground. A retainer of Ranulf de +Broc with the point of his sword scattered the Primate's brains on the +ground. "Let us be off," he cried triumphantly, "this traitor will never +rise again." + +[Sidenote: The Church and Literature] + +The brutal murder was received with a thrill of horror throughout +Christendom; miracles were wrought at the martyr's tomb; he was +canonized, and became the most popular of English saints. The stately +"martyrdom" which rose over his relics at Canterbury seemed to embody the +triumph which his blood had won. But the contest had in fact revealed a +new current of educated opinion which was to be more fatal to the Church +than the reforms of the king. Throughout it Henry had been aided by a +silent revolution which now began to part the purely literary class from +the purely clerical. During the earlier ages of our history we have seen +literature springing up in ecclesiastical schools, and protecting itself +against the ignorance and violence of the time under ecclesiastical +privileges. Almost all our writers from Baeda to the days of the Angevins +are clergy or monks. The revival of letters which followed the Conquest +was a purely ecclesiastical revival; the intellectual impulse which Bee +had given to Normandy travelled across the Channel with the new Norman +abbots who were established in the greater English monasteries; and +writing-rooms or scriptoria, where the chief works of Latin literature, +patristic or classical, were copied and illuminated, the lives of saints +compiled, and entries noted in the monastic chronicle, formed from this +time a part of every religious house of any importance. But the +literature which found this religious shelter was not so much +ecclesiastical as secular. Even the philosophical and devotional impulse +given by Anselm produced no English work of theology or metaphysics. The +literary revival which followed the Conquest took mainly the old +historical form. At Durham Turgot and Simeon threw into Latin shape the +national annals to the time of Henry the First with an especial regard to +northern affairs, while the earlier events of Stephen's reign were noted +down by two Priors of Hexham in the wild border-land between England and +the Scots. + +These however were the colourless jottings of mere annalists; it was in +the Scriptorium of Canterbury, in Osbern's lives of the English saints or +in Eadmer's record of the struggle of Anselm against the Red King and his +successor, that we see the first indications of a distinctively English +feeling telling on the new literature. The national impulse is yet more +conspicuous in the two historians that followed. The war-songs of the +English conquerors of Britain were preserved by Henry, an Archdeacon of +Huntingdon, who wove them into annals compiled from Baeda, and the +Chronicle; while William, the librarian of Malmesbury, as industriously +collected the lighter ballads which embodied the popular traditions of +the English kings. It is in William above all others that we see the new +tendency of English literature. In himself, as in his work, he marks the +fusion of the conquerors and the conquered, for he was of both English +and Norman parentage and his sympathies were as divided as his blood. The +form and style of his writings show the influence of those classical +studies which were now reviving throughout Christendom. Monk as he is, +William discards the older ecclesiastical models and the annalistic form. +Events are grouped together with no strict reference to time, while the +lively narrative flows rapidly and loosely along with constant breaks of +digression over the general history of Europe and the Church. It is in +this change of historic spirit that William takes his place as first of +the more statesmanlike and philosophic school of historians who began to +arise in direct connexion with the Court, and among whom the author of +the chronicle which commonly bears the name of "Benedict of Peterborough" +with his continuator Roger of Howden are the most conspicuous. Both held +judicial offices under Henry the Second, and it is to their position at +Court that they owe the fulness and accuracy of their information as to +affairs at home and abroad, as well as their copious supply of official +documents. What is noteworthy in these writers is the purely political +temper with which they regard the conflict of Church and State in their +time. But the English court had now become the centre of a distinctly +secular literature. The treatise of Ranulf de Glanvill, a justiciar of +Henry the Second, is the earliest work on English law, as that of the +royal treasurer, Richard Fitz-Neal, on the Exchequer is the earliest on +English government. + +[Sidenote: Gerald of Wales] + +Still more distinctly secular than these, though the work of a priest who +claimed to be a bishop, are the writings of Gerald de Barri. Gerald is +the father of our popular literature as he is the originator of the +political and ecclesiastical pamphlet. Welsh blood (as his usual name of +Giraldus Cambrensis implies) mixed with Norman in his veins, and +something of the restless Celtic fire runs alike through his writings and +his life. A busy scholar at Paris, a reforming Archdeacon in Wales, the +wittiest of Court chaplains, the most troublesome of bishops, Gerald +became the gayest and most amusing of all the authors of his time. In his +hands the stately Latin tongue took the vivacity and picturesqueness of +the jongleur's verse. Reared as he had been in classic studies, he threw +pedantry contemptuously aside. "It is better to be dumb than not to be +understood," is his characteristic apology for the novelty of his style: +"new times require new fashions, and so I have thrown utterly aside the +old and dry method of some authors and aimed at adopting the fashion of +speech which is actually in vogue to-day." His tract on the conquest of +Ireland and his account of Wales, which are in fact reports of two +journeys undertaken in those countries with John and Archbishop Baldwin, +illustrate his rapid faculty of careless observation, his audacity, and +his good sense. They are just the sort of lively, dashing letters that we +find in the correspondence of a modern journal. There is the same modern +tone in his political pamphlets; his profusion of jests, his fund of +anecdote, the aptness of his quotations, his natural shrewdness and +critical acumen, the clearness and vivacity of his style, are backed by a +fearlessness and impetuosity that made him a dangerous assailant even to +such a ruler as Henry the Second. The invectives in which Gerald poured +out his resentment against the Angevins are the cause of half the scandal +about Henry and his sons which has found its way into history. His life +was wasted in an ineffectual attempt to secure the see of St. David's, +but his pungent pen played its part in rousing the nation to its later +struggle with the Crown. + +[Sidenote: Romance] + +A tone of distinct hostility to the Church developed itself almost from +the first among the singers of romance. Romance had long before taken +root in the court of Henry the First, where under the patronage of Queen +Maud the dreams of Arthur, so long cherished by the Celts of Britanny, +and which had travelled to Wales in the train of the exile Rhys ap +Tewdor, took shape in the History of the Britons by Geoffry of Monmouth. +Myth, legend, tradition, the classical pedantry of the day, Welsh hopes +of future triumph over the Saxon, the memories of the Crusades and of the +world-wide dominion of Charles the Great, were mingled together by this +daring fabulist in a work whose popularity became at once immense. Alfred +of Beverley transferred Geoffry's inventions into the region of sober +history, while two Norman _trouveurs_, Gaimar and Wace, translated them +into French verse. So complete was the credence they obtained that +Arthur's tomb at Glastonbury was visited by Henry the Second, while the +child of his son Geoffry and of Constance of Britanny received the name +of the Celtic hero. Out of Geoffry's creation grew little by little the +poem of the Table Round. Britanny, which had mingled with the story of +Arthur the older and more mysterious legend of the Enchanter Merlin, lent +that of Lancelot to the wandering minstrels of the day, who moulded it as +they wandered from hall to hall into the familiar tale of knighthood +wrested from its loyalty by the love of woman. The stories of Tristram +and Gawayne, at first as independent as that of Lancelot, were drawn with +it into the whirlpool of Arthurian romance; and when the Church, jealous +of the popularity of the legends of chivalry, invented as a counteracting +influence the poem of the Sacred Dish, the San Graal which held the blood +of the Cross invisible to all eyes but those of the pure in heart, the +genius of a Court poet, Walter de Map, wove the rival legends together, +sent Arthur and his knights wandering over sea and land in quest of the +San Graal, and crowned the work by the figure of Sir Galahad, the type of +ideal knighthood, without fear and without reproach. + +[Sidenote: Walter de Map] + +Walter stands before us as the representative of a sudden outburst of +literary, social, and religious criticism which followed this growth of +romance and the appearance of a freer historical tone in the court of the +two Henries. Born on the Welsh border, a student at Paris, a favourite +with the king, a royal chaplain, justiciary, and ambassador, his genius +was as various as it was prolific. He is as much at his ease in sweeping +together the chitchat of the time in his "Courtly Trifles" as in creating +the character of Sir Galahad. But he only rose to his fullest strength +when he turned from the fields of romance to that of Church reform and +embodied the ecclesiastical abuses of his day in the figure of his +"Bishop Goliath." The whole spirit of Henry and his Court in their +struggle with Thomas is reflected and illustrated in the apocalypse and +confession of this imaginary prelate. Picture after picture strips the +veil from the corruption of the mediaeval Church, its indolence, its +thirst for gain, its secret immorality. The whole body of the clergy from +Pope to hedge-priest is painted as busy in the chase for gain; what +escapes the bishop is snapped up by the archdeacon, what escapes the +archdeacon is nosed and hunted down by the dean, while a host of minor +officials prowl hungrily around these greater marauders. Out of the crowd +of figures which fills the canvas of the satirist, pluralist vicars, +abbots "purple as their wines," monks feeding and chattering together +like parrots in the refectory, rises the Philistine Bishop, light of +purpose, void of conscience, lost in sensuality, drunken, unchaste, the +Goliath who sums up the enormities of all, and against whose forehead +this new David slings his sharp pebble of the brook. + +[Illustration: Ireland just before the English Invasion (v1-map-5t.jpg)] + + +[Sidenote: Invasion of Ireland] + +It would be in the highest degree unjust to treat such invectives as +sober history, or to judge the Church of the twelfth century by the +taunts of Walter de Map. What writings such as his bring home to us is +the upgrowth of a new literary class, not only standing apart from the +Church but regarding it with a hardly disguised ill-will, and breaking +down the unquestioning reverence with which men had till now regarded it +by their sarcasm and abuse. The tone of intellectual contempt which +begins with Walter de Map goes deepening on till it culminates in Chaucer +and passes into the open revolt of the Lollard. But even in these early +days we can hardly doubt that it gave Henry strength in his contest with +the Church. So little indeed did he suffer from the murder of Archbishop +Thomas that the years which follow it form the grandest portion of his +reign. While Rome was threatening excommunication he added a new realm to +his dominions. Ireland had long since fallen from the civilization and +learning which its missionaries brought in the seventh century to the +shores of Northumbria. Every element of improvement or progress which had +been introduced into the island disappeared in the long and desperate +struggle with the Danes. The coast-towns which the invaders founded, such +as Dublin or Waterford, remained Danish, in blood and manners and at feud +with the Celtic tribes around them, though sometimes forced by the +fortunes of war to pay tribute and to accept the overlordship of the +Irish kings. It was through these towns however that the intercourse with +England which had ceased since the eighth century was to some extent +renewed in the eleventh. Cut off from the Church of the island by +national antipathy, the Danish coast-cities applied to the See of +Canterbury for the ordination of their bishops, and acknowledged a right +of spiritual supervision in Lanfranc and Anselm. The relations thus +formed were drawn closer by a slave-trade between the two countries which +the Conqueror and Bishop Wulfstan succeeded for a time in suppressing at +Bristol but which appears to have quickly revived. In the twelfth century +Ireland was full of Englishmen who had been kidnapped and sold into +slavery in spite of royal prohibitions and the spiritual menaces of the +English Church. The slave-trade afforded a legitimate pretext for war, +had a pretext been needed by the ambition of Henry the Second; and within +a few months of that king's coronation John of Salisbury was despatched +to obtain the Papal sanction for an invasion of the island. The +enterprise, as it was laid before Pope Hadrian IV., took the colour of a +crusade. The isolation of Ireland from the general body of Christendom, +the absence of learning and civilization, the scandalous vices of its +people, were alleged as the grounds of Henry's action. It was the general +belief of the time that all islands fell under the jurisdiction of the +Papal See, and it was as a possession of the Roman Church that Henry +sought Hadrian's permission to enter Ireland. His aim was "to enlarge the +bounds of the Church, to restrain the progress of vices, to correct the +manners of its people and to plant virtue among them, and to increase the +Christian religion." He engaged to "subject the people to laws, to +extirpate vicious customs, to respect the rights of the native Churches, +and to enforce the payment of Peter's pence" as a recognition of the +overlordship of the Roman See. Hadrian by his bull approved the +enterprise, as one prompted by "the ardour of faith and love of +religion," and declared his will that the people of Ireland should +receive Henry with all honour, and revere him as their lord. + +The Papal bull was produced in a great council of the English baronage, +but the opposition was strong enough to force on Henry a temporary +abandonment of his designs, and twelve years passed before the scheme was +brought to life again by the flight of Dermod, King of Leinster, to +Henry's court. Dermod had been driven from his dominions in one of the +endless civil wars which devastated the island; he now did homage for his +kingdom to Henry, and returned to Ireland with promises of aid from the +English knighthood. He was followed in 1168 by Robert FitzStephen, a son +of the Constable of Cardigan, with a little band of a hundred and forty +knights, sixty men-at-arms, and three or four hundred Welsh archers. +Small as was the number of the adventurers, their horses and arms proved +irresistible by the Irish kernes; a sally of the men of Wexford was +avenged by the storm of their town; the Ossory clans were defeated with a +terrible slaughter, and Dermod, seizing a head from the heap of trophies +which his men piled at his feet, tore off in savage triumph its nose and +lips with his teeth. The arrival of fresh forces heralded the coming of +Richard of Clare, Earl of Pembroke and Striguil, a ruined baron later +known by the nickname of Strongbow, and who in defiance of Henry's +prohibition landed near Waterford with a force of fifteen hundred men as +Dermod's mercenary. The city was at once stormed, and the united forces +of the earl and king marched to the siege of Dublin. In spite of a relief +attempted by the King of Connaught, who was recognized as overking of the +island by the rest of the tribes, Dublin was taken by surprise; and the +marriage of Richard with Eva, Dermod's daughter, left the Earl on the +death of his father-in-law, which followed quickly on these successes, +master of his kingdom of Leinster. The new lord had soon however to hurry +back to England and appease the jealousy of Henry by the surrender of +Dublin to the Crown, by doing homage for Leinster as an English lordship, +and by accompanying the king in 1171 on a voyage to the new dominion +which the adventurers had won. + +[Sidenote: Revolt of the younger Henry] + +Had fate suffered Henry to carry out his purpose, the conquest of Ireland +would now have been accomplished. The King of Connaught indeed and the +chiefs of Ulster refused him homage, but the rest of the Irish tribes +owned his suzerainty; the bishops in synod at Cashel recognized him as +their lord; and he was preparing to penetrate to the north and west, and +to secure his conquest by a systematic erection of castles throughout the +country, when the need of making terms with Rome, whose interdict +threatened to avenge the murder of Archbishop Thomas, recalled him in the +spring of 1172 to Normandy. Henry averted the threatened sentence by a +show of submission. The judicial provisions in the Constitutions of +Clarendon were in form annulled, and liberty of election was restored in +the case of bishopricks and abbacies. In reality however the victory +rested with the king. Throughout his reign ecclesiastical appointments +remained practically in his hands, and the King's Court asserted its +power over the spiritual jurisdiction of the bishops. But the strife with +Thomas had roused into active life every element of danger which +surrounded Henry, the envious dread of his neighbours, the disaffection +of his own house, the disgust of the barons at the repeated blows which +he levelled at their military and judicial power. The king's withdrawal +of the office of sheriff from the great nobles of the shire to entrust it +to the lawyers and courtiers who already furnished the staff of the royal +judges quickened the resentment of the baronage into revolt. His wife +Eleanor, now parted from Henry by a bitter hate, spurred her eldest son, +whose coronation had given him the title of king, to demand possession of +the English realm. On his father's refusal the boy sought refuge with +Lewis of France, and his flight was the signal for a vast rising. France, +Flanders, and Scotland joined in league against Henry; his younger sons, +Richard and Geoffry, took up arms in Aquitaine, while the Earl of +Leicester sailed from Flanders with an army of mercenaries to stir up +England to revolt. The Earl's descent ended in a crushing defeat near St. +Edmundsbury at the hands of the king's justiciars; but no sooner had the +French king entered Normandy and invested Rouen than the revolt of the +baronage burst into flame. The Scots crossed the border, Roger Mowbray +rose in Yorkshire, Ferrars, Earl of Derby, in the midland shires, Hugh +Bigod in the eastern counties, while a Flemish fleet prepared to support +the insurrection by a descent upon the coast. The murder of Archbishop +Thomas still hung round Henry's neck, and his first act in hurrying to +England to meet these perils in 1174 was to prostrate himself before the +shrine of the new martyr and to submit to a public scourging in expiation +of his sin. But the penance was hardly wrought when all danger was +dispelled by a series of triumphs. The King of Scotland, William the +Lion, surprised by the English under cover of a mist, fell into the hands +of Henry's minister, Ranulf de Glanvill, and at the retreat of the Scots +the English rebels hastened to lay down their arms. With the army of +mercenaries which he had brought over sea Henry was able to return to +Normandy, to raise the siege of Rouen, and to reduce his sons to +submission. + +[Sidenote: Later reforms] + +Through the next ten years Henry's power was at its height. The French +king was cowed. The Scotch king bought his release in 1175 by owning +Henry's suzerainty. The Scotch barons did homage, and English garrisons +manned the strongest of the Scotch castles. In England itself church and +baronage were alike at the king's mercy. Eleanor was imprisoned; and the +younger Henry, though always troublesome, remained powerless to do harm. +The king availed himself of this rest from outer foes to push forward his +judicial and administrative organization. At the outset of his reign he +had restored the King's Court and the occasional circuits of its +justices; but the revolt was hardly over when in 1176 the Assize of +Northampton rendered this institution permanent and regular by dividing +the kingdom into six districts, to each of which three itinerant judges +were assigned. The circuits thus marked out correspond roughly with those +that still exist. The primary object of these circuits was financial; but +the rendering of the king's justice went on side by side with the +exaction of the king's dues, and this carrying of justice to every corner +of the realm was made still more effective by the abolition of all feudal +exemptions from the royal jurisdiction. The chief danger of the new +system lay in the opportunities it afforded to judicial corruption; and +so great were its abuses, that in 1178 Henry was forced to restrict for a +while the number of justices to five, and to reserve appeals from their +court to himself in council. The Court of Appeal which was thus created, +that of the King in Council, gave birth as time went on to tribunal after +tribunal. It is from it that the judicial powers now exercised by the +Privy Council are derived, as well as the equitable jurisdiction of the +Chancellor. In the next century it became the Great Council of the realm, +and it is from this Great Council, in its two distinct capacities, that +the Privy Council drew its legislative, and the House of Lords its +judicial character. The Court of Star Chamber and the Judicial Committee +of the Privy Council are later offshoots of Henry's Court of Appeal. From +the judicial organization of the realm, he turned to its military +organization, and in 1181 an Assize of Arms restored the national fyrd or +militia to the place which it had lost at the Conquest. The substitution +of scutage for military service had freed the crown from its dependence +on the baronage and its feudal retainers; the Assize of Arms replaced +this feudal organization by the older obligation of every freeman to +serve in defence of the realm. Every knight was now bound to appear in +coat of mail and with shield and lance, every freeholder with lance and +hauberk, every burgess and poorer freeman with lance and helmet, at the +king's call. The levy of an armed nation was thus placed wholly at the +disposal of the Crown for purposes of defence. + +[Sidenote: Henry's death] + +A fresh revolt of the younger Henry with his brother Geoffry in 1183 +hardly broke the current of Henry's success. The revolt ended with the +young king's death, and in 1186 this was followed by the death of +Geoffry. Richard, now his father's heir, remained busy in Aquitaine; and +Henry was himself occupied with plans for the recovery of Jerusalem, +which had been taken by Saladin in 1187. The "Saladin tithe," a tax +levied on all goods and chattels, and memorable as the first English +instance of taxation on personal property, was granted to the king at the +opening of 1188 to support his intended Crusade. But the Crusade was +hindered by strife which broke out between Richard and the new French +king, Philip; and while Henry strove in vain to bring about peace, a +suspicion that he purposed to make his youngest son, John, his heir drove +Richard to Philip's side. His father, broken in health and spirits, +negotiated fruitlessly through the winter, but with the spring of 1189 +Richard and the French king suddenly appeared before Le Mans. Henry was +driven in headlong flight from the town. Tradition tells how from a +height where he halted to look back on the burning city, so dear to him +as his birthplace, the king hurled his curse against God: "Since Thou +hast taken from me the town I loved best, where I was born and bred, and +where my father lies buried, I will have my revenge on Thee too--I will +rob Thee of that thing Thou lovest most in me." If the words were +uttered, they were the frenzied words of a dying man. Death drew Henry to +the home of his race, but Tours fell as he lay at Saumur, and the hunted +king was driven to beg mercy from his foes. They gave him the list of the +conspirators against him: at its head was the name of one, his love for +whom had brought with it the ruin that was crushing him, his youngest +son, John. "Now," he said, as he turned his face to the wall, "let things +go as they will--I care no more for myself or for the world." The end was +come at last. Henry was borne to Chinon by the silvery waters of Vienne, +and muttering, "Shame, shame on a conquered king," passed sullenly away. + + + + + +CHAPTER IV +THE ANGEVIN KINGS +1189-1204 + + + +[Sidenote: John and Longchamp] + +The fall of Henry the Second only showed the strength of the system he +had built up on this side the sea. In the hands of the Justiciar, Ranulf +de Glanvill, England remained peaceful through the last stormy months of +his reign, and his successor Richard found it undisturbed when he came +for his crowning in the autumn of 1189. Though born at Oxford, Richard +had been bred in Aquitaine; he was an utter stranger to his realm, and +his visit was simply for the purpose of gathering money for a Crusade. +Sheriffdoms, bishopricks, were sold; even the supremacy over Scotland was +bought back again by William the Lion; and it was with the wealth which +these measures won that Richard made his way in 1190 to Marseilles and +sailed thence to Messina. Here he found his army and a host under King +Philip of France; and the winter was spent in quarrels between the two +kings and a strife between Richard and Tancred of Sicily. In the spring +of 1191 his mother Eleanor arrived with ill news from England. Richard +had left the realm under the regency of two bishops, Hugh Puiset of +Durham and William Longchamp of Ely; but before quitting France he had +entrusted it wholly to the latter, who stood at the head of Church and +State as at once Justiciar and Papal Legate. Longchamp was loyal to the +king, but his exactions and scorn of Englishmen roused a fierce hatred +among the baronage, and this hatred found a head in John. While richly +gifting his brother with earldoms and lands, Richard had taken oath from +him that he would quit England for three years. But tidings that the +Justiciar was striving to secure the succession of Arthur, the child of +his elder brother Geoffry and of Constance of Britanny, to the English +crown at once recalled John to the realm, and peace between him and +Longchamp was only preserved by the influence of the queen-mother +Eleanor. Richard met this news by sending Walter of Coutances, the +Archbishop of Rouen, with full but secret powers to England. On his +landing in the summer of 1191 Walter found the country already in arms. +No battle had been fought, but John had seized many of the royal castles, +and the indignation stirred by Longchamp's arrest of Archbishop Geoffry +of York, a bastard son of Henry the Second, called the whole baronage to +the field. The nobles swore fealty to John as Richard's successor, and +Walter of Coutances saw himself forced to show his commission as +Justiciar, and to assent to Longchamp's exile from the realm. + +[Sidenote: Richard] + +The tidings of this revolution reached Richard in the Holy Land. He had +landed at Acre in the summer and joined with the French king in its +siege. But on the surrender of the town Philip at once sailed home, while +Richard, marching from Acre to Joppa, pushed inland to Jerusalem. The +city however was saved by false news of its strength, and through the +following winter and the spring of 1192 the king limited his activity to +securing the fortresses of southern Palestine. In June he again advanced +on Jerusalem, but the revolt of his army forced him a second time to fall +back, and news of Philip's intrigues with John drove him to abandon +further efforts. There was need to hasten home. Sailing for speed's sake +in a merchant vessel, he was driven by a storm on the Adriatic coast, and +while journeying in disguise overland arrested in December at Vienna by +his personal enemy, Duke Leopold of Austria. Through the whole year John, +in disgust at his displacement by Walter of Coutances, had been plotting +fruitlessly with Philip. But the news of this capture at once roused both +to activity. John secured his castles and seized Windsor, giving out that +the king would never return; while Philip strove to induce the Emperor, +Henry the Sixth, to whom the Duke of Austria had given Richard up, to +retain his captive. But a new influence now appeared on the scene. The +see of Canterbury was vacant, and Richard from his prison bestowed it on +Hubert Walter, the Bishop of Salisbury, a nephew of Ranulf de Glanvill, +and who had acted as secretary to Bishop Longchamp. Hubert's ability was +seen in the skill with which he held John at bay and raised the enormous +ransom which Henry demanded, the whole people, clergy as well as lay, +paying a fourth of their moveable goods. To gain his release however +Richard was forced besides this payment of ransom to do homage to the +Emperor, not only for the kingdom of Arles with which Henry invested him +but for England itself, whose crown he resigned into the Emperor's hands +and received back as a fief. But John's open revolt made even these terms +welcome, and Richard hurried to England in the spring of 1194. He found +the rising already quelled by the decision with which the Primate led an +army against John's castles, and his landing was followed by his +brother's complete submission. + +[Sidenote: Richard and Philip] + +The firmness of Hubert Walter had secured order in England, but oversea +Richard found himself face to face with dangers which he was too +clear-sighted to undervalue. Destitute of his father's administrative +genius, less ingenious in his political conceptions than John, Richard +was far from being a mere soldier. A love of adventure, a pride in sheer +physical strength, here and there a romantic generosity, jostled roughly +with the craft, the unscrupulousness, the violence of his race; but he +was at heart a statesman, cool and patient in the execution of his plans +as he was bold in their conception. "The devil is loose; take care of +yourself," Philip had written to John at the news of Richard's release. +In the French king's case a restless ambition was spurred to action by +insults which he had borne during the Crusade. He had availed himself of +Richard's imprisonment to invade Normandy, while the lords of Aquitaine +rose in open revolt under the troubadour Bertrand de Born. Jealousy of +the rule of strangers, weariness of the turbulence of the mercenary +soldiers of the Angevins or of the greed and oppression of their +financial administration, combined with an impatience of their firm +government and vigorous justice to alienate the nobles of their provinces +on the Continent. Loyalty among the people there was none; even Anjou, +the home of their race, drifted towards Philip as steadily as Poitou. But +in warlike ability Richard was more than Philip's peer. He held him in +check on the Norman frontier and surprised his treasure at Freteval while +he reduced to submission the rebels of Aquitaine. Hubert Walter gathered +vast sums to support the army of mercenaries which Richard led against +his foes. The country groaned under its burdens, but it owned the justice +and firmness of the Primate's rule, and the measures which he took to +procure money with as little oppression as might be proved steps in the +education of the nation in its own self-government. The taxes were +assessed by a jury of sworn knights at each circuit of the justices; the +grand jury of the county was based on the election of knights in the +hundred courts; and the keeping of pleas of the crown was taken from the +sheriff and given to a newly-elected officer, the coroner. In these +elections were found at a later time precedents for parliamentary +representation; in Hubert's mind they were doubtless intended to do +little more than reconcile the people to the crushing taxation. His work +poured a million into the treasury, and enabled Richard during a short +truce to detach Flanders by his bribes from the French alliance, and to +unite the Counts of Chartres, Champagne, and Boulogne with the Bretons in +a revolt against Philip. He won a yet more valuable aid in the election +of his nephew Otto of Saxony, a son of Henry the Lion, to the German +throne, and his envoy William Longchamp knitted an alliance which would +bring the German lances to bear on the King of Paris. + +[Sidenote: Chateau Gaillard] + +But the security of Normandy was requisite to the success of these wider +plans, and Richard saw that its defence could no longer rest on the +loyalty of the Norman people. His father might trace his descent through +Matilda from the line of Hrolf, but the Angevin ruler was in fact a +stranger to the Norman. It was impossible for a Norman to recognize his +Duke with any real sympathy in the Angevin prince whom he saw moving +along the border at the head of Brabancon mercenaries, in whose camp the +old names of the Norman baronage were missing and Merchade, a Provencal +ruffian, held supreme command. The purely military site that Richard +selected for a new fortress with which he guarded the border showed his +realization of the fact that Normandy could now only be held by force of +arms. As a monument of warlike skill his "Saucy Castle," Chateau +Gaillard, stands first among the fortresses of the Middle Ages. Richard +fixed its site where the Seine bends suddenly at Gaillon in a great +semicircle to the north, and where the valley of Les Andelys breaks the +line of the chalk cliffs along its banks. Blue masses of woodland crown +the distant hills; within the river curve lies a dull reach of flat +meadow, round which the Seine, broken with green islets and dappled with +the grey and blue of the sky, flashes like a silver bow on its way to +Rouen. The castle formed part of an entrenched camp which Richard +designed to cover his Norman capital. Approach by the river was blocked +by a stockade and a bridge of boats, by a fort on the islet in mid +stream, and by a fortified town which the king built in the valley of the +Gambon, then an impassable marsh. In the angle between this valley and +the Seine, on a spur of the chalk hills which only a narrow neck of land +connects with the general plateau, rose at the height of three hundred +feet above the river the crowning fortress of the whole. Its outworks and +the walls which connected it with the town and stockade have for the most +part gone, but time and the hand of man have done little to destroy the +fortifications themselves--the fosse, hewn deep into the solid rock, with +casemates hollowed out along its sides, the fluted walls of the citadel, +the huge donjon looking down on the brown roofs and huddled gables of Les +Andelys. Even now in its ruin we can understand the triumphant outburst +of its royal builder as he saw it rising against the sky: "How pretty a +child is mine, this child of but one year old!" + +[Sidenote: Richard's death] + +The easy reduction of Normandy on the fall of Chateau Gaillard at a later +time proved Richard's foresight; but foresight and sagacity were mingled +in him with a brutal violence and a callous indifference to honour. "I +would take it, were its walls of iron," Philip exclaimed in wrath as he +saw the fortress rise. "I would hold it, were its walls of butter," was +the defiant answer of his foe. It was Church land and the Archbishop of +Rouen laid Normandy under interdict at its seizure, but the king met the +interdict with mockery, and intrigued with Rome till the censure was +withdrawn. He was just as defiant of a "rain of blood," whose fall scared +his courtiers. "Had an angel from heaven bid him abandon his work," says +a cool observer, "he would have answered with a curse." The twelve +months' hard work, in fact, by securing the Norman frontier set Richard +free to deal his long-planned blow at Philip. Money only was wanting; for +England had at last struck against the continued exactions. In 1198 Hugh, +Bishop of Lincoln, brought nobles and bishops to refuse a new demand for +the maintenance of foreign soldiers, and Hubert Walter resigned in +despair. A new justiciar, Geoffry Fitz-Peter, Earl of Essex, extorted +some money by a harsh assize of the forests; but the exchequer was soon +drained, and Richard listened with more than the greed of his race to +rumours that a treasure had been found in the fields of the Limousin. +Twelve knights of gold seated round a golden table were the find, it was +said, of the Lord of Chalus. Treasure-trove at any rate there was, and in +the spring of 1199 Richard prowled around the walls. But the castle held +stubbornly out till the king's greed passed into savage menace. He would +hang all, he swore--man, woman, the very child at the breast. In the +midst of his threats an arrow from the walls struck him down. He died as +he had lived, owning the wild passion which for seven years past had kept +him from confession lest he should be forced to pardon Philip, forgiving +with kingly generosity the archer who had shot him. + +[Sidenote: Loss of Normandy] + +The Angevin dominion broke to pieces at his death. John was acknowledged +as king in England and Normandy, Aquitaine was secured for him by its +duchess, his mother Eleanor; but Anjou, Maine, and Touraine did homage to +Arthur, the son of his elder brother Geoffry, the late Duke of Britanny. +The ambition of Philip, who protected his cause, turned the day against +Arthur; the Angevins rose against the French garrisons with which the +French king practically annexed the country, and in May 1200 a treaty +between the two kings left John master of the whole dominion of his +house. But fresh troubles broke out in Poitou; Philip, on John's refusal +to answer the charges of the Poitevin barons at his Court, declared in +1202 his fiefs forfeited; and Arthur, now a boy of fifteen, strove to +seize Eleanor in the castle of Mirebeau. Surprised at its siege by a +rapid march of the king, the boy was taken prisoner to Rouen, and +murdered there in the spring of 1203, as men believed, by his uncle's +hand. This brutal outrage at once roused the French provinces in revolt, +while Philip sentenced John to forfeiture as a murderer, and marched +straight on Normandy. The ease with which the conquest of the Duchy was +effected can only be explained by the utter absence of any popular +resistance on the part of the Normans themselves. Half a century before +the sight of a Frenchman in the land would have roused every peasant to +arms from Avranches to Dieppe. But town after town surrendered at the +mere summons of Philip, and the conquest was hardly over before Normandy +settled down into the most loyal of the provinces of France. Much of this +was due to the wise liberality with which Philip met the claims of the +towns to independence and self-government, as well as to the overpowering +force and military ability with which the conquest was effected. But the +utter absence of opposition sprang from a deeper cause. To the Norman his +transfer from John to Philip was a mere passing from one foreign master +to another, and foreigner for foreigner Philip was the less alien of the +two. Between France and Normandy there had been as many years of +friendship as of strife; between Norman and Angevin lay a century of +bitterest hate. Moreover, the subjection to France was the realization in +fact of a dependence which had always existed in theory; Philip entered +Rouen as the overlord of its dukes; while the submission to the house of +Anjou had been the most humiliating of all submissions, the submission to +an equal. In 1204 Philip turned on the south with as startling a success. +Maine, Anjou, and Touraine passed with little resistance into his hands, +and the death of Eleanor was followed by the submission of the bulk of +Aquitaine. Little was left save the country south of the Garonne; and +from the lordship of a vast empire that stretched from the Tyne to the +Pyrenees John saw himself reduced at a blow to the realm of England. + + + + + +BOOK III +THE CHARTER +1204-1307 + + +AUTHORITIES FOR BOOK III +1204-1307 + + +A Chronicle drawn up at the monastery of Barnwell near Cambridge, and +which has been embodied in the "Memoriale" of Walter of Coventry, gives +us a contemporary account of the period from 1201 to 1225. We possess +another contemporary annalist for the same period in Roger of Wendover, +the first of the published chroniclers of St. Albans, whose work extends +to 1235. Though full of detail Roger is inaccurate, and he has strong +royal and ecclesiastical sympathies; but his chronicle was subsequently +revised in a more patriotic sense by another monk of the same abbey, +Matthew Paris, and continued in the "Greater Chronicle" of the latter. + +Matthew has left a parallel but shorter account of the time in his +"Historia Anglorum" (from the Conquest to 1253). He is the last of the +great chroniclers of his house; for the chronicles of Rishanger, his +successor at St. Albans, and of the obscurer annalists who worked on at +that Abbey till the Wars of the Roses are little save scant and lifeless +jottings of events which become more and more local as time goes on. The +annals of the abbeys of Waverley, Dunstable, and Burton, which have been +published in the "Annales Monastici" of the Rolls series, add important +details for the reigns of John and Henry III. Those of Melrose, Osney, +and Lanercost help us in the close of the latter reign, where help is +especially welcome. For the Barons' war we have besides these the +royalist chronicle of Wykes, Rishanger's fragment published by the Camden +Society, and a chronicle of Bartholomew de Cotton, which is contemporary +from 1264 to 1298. Where the chronicles fail however the public documents +of the realm become of high importance. The "Royal Letters" (1216-1272) +which have been printed from the Patent Rolls by Professor Shirley (Rolls +Series) throw great light on Henry's politics. + +Our municipal history during this period is fully represented by that of +London. For the general history of the capital the Rolls series has given +us its "Liber Albus" and "Liber Custumarum," while a vivid account of its +communal revolution is to be found in the "Liber de Antiquis Legibus" +published by the Camden Society. A store of documents will be found in +the Charter Rolls published by the Record Commission, in Brady's work on +"English Boroughs," and in the "Ordinances of English Gilds," published +with a remarkable preface from the pen of Dr. Brentano by the Early +English Text Society. For our religious and intellectual history +materials now become abundant. Grosseteste's Letters throw light on the +state of the Church and its relations with Rome; those of Adam Marsh give +us interesting details of Earl Simon's relation to the religious movement +of his day; and Eceleston's tract on the arrival of the Friars is +embodied in the "Monumenta Franciscana." For the Universities we have the +collection of materials edited by Mr. Anstey under the name of "Munimenta +Academica." + +With the close of Henry's reign our directly historic materials become +scantier and scantier. The monastic annals we have before mentioned are +supplemented by the jejune entries of Trivet and Murimuth, by the +"Annales Anglic et Scotias," by Rishanger's Chronicle, his "Gesta Edwardi +Primi," and three fragments of his annals (all published in the Rolls +Series). The portion of the so-called "Walsingham's History" which +relates to this period is now attributed by Mr. Riley to Rishanger's +hand. For the wars in the north and in the west we have no records from +the side of the conquered. The social and physical state of Wales indeed +is illustrated by the "Itinerarium" which Gerald de Barri drew up in the +twelfth century, but Scotland has no contemporary chronicles for this +period; the jingling rimes of Blind Harry are two hundred years later +than his hero, Wallace. We possess however a copious collection of State +papers in the "Rotuli Scotiae," the "Documents and Records illustrative of +the History of Scotland" which were edited by Sir F. Palgrave, as well as +in Rymer's Foedera. For the history of our Parliament the most noteworthy +materials have been collected by Professor Stubbs in his Select Charters, +and he has added to them a short treatise called "Modus Tenendi +Parliamentum," which may be taken as a fair account of its actual state +and powers in the fourteenth century. + + + + + +CHAPTER I +JOHN +1204-1216 + + + +[Sidenote: England and the Conquest] + +The loss of Normandy did more than drive John from the foreign dominions +of his race; it set him face to face with England itself. England was no +longer a distant treasure-house from which gold could be drawn for wars +along the Epte or the Loire, no longer a possession to be kept in order +by wise ministers and by flying visits from its foreign king. Henceforth +it was his home. It was to be ruled by his personal and continuous rule. +People and sovereign were to know each other, to be brought into contact +with each other as they had never been brought since the conquest of the +Norman. The change in the attitude of the king was the more momentous +that it took place at a time when the attitude of the country itself was +rapidly changing. The Norman Conquest had given a new aspect to the land. +A foreign king ruled it through foreign ministers. Foreign nobles were +quartered in every manor. A military organization of the country changed +while it simplified the holding of every estate. Huge castles of white +stone bridled town and country; huge stone minsters told how the Norman +had bridled even the Church. But the change was in great measure an +external one. The real life of the nation was little affected by the +shock of the Conquest. English institutions, the local, judicial, and +administrative forms of the country were the same as of old. Like the +English tongue they remained practically unaltered. For a century after +the Conquest only a few new words crept in from the language of the +conquerors, and so entirely did the spoken tongue of the nation at large +remain unchanged that William himself tried to learn it that he might +administer justice to his subjects. Even English literature, banished as +it was from the court of the stranger and exposed to the fashionable +rivalry of Latin scholars, survived not only in religious works, in +poetic paraphrases of gospels and psalms, but in the great monument of +our prose, the English Chronicle. It was not till the miserable reign of +Stephen that the Chronicle died out in the Abbey of Peterborough. But the +"Sayings of AElfred" show a native literature going on through the reign +of Henry the Second, and the appearance of a great work of English verse +coincides in point of time with the return of John to his island realm. +"There was a priest in the land whose name was Layamon; he was the son of +Leovenath; may the Lord be gracious to him! He dwelt at Earnley, a noble +church on the bank of Severn (good it seemed to him!) near Radstone, +where he read books. It came to mind to him and in his chiefest thought +that he would tell the noble deeds of England, what the men were named +and whence they came who first had English land." Journeying far and wide +over the country, the priest of Earnley found Baeda and Wace, the books +too of St. Albin and St. Austin. "Layamon laid down these books and +turned the leaves; he beheld them lovingly; may the Lord be gracious to +him! Pen he took with finger and wrote a book-skin, and the true words +set together, and compressed the three books into one." Layamon's church +is now that of Areley, near Bewdley in Worcestershire; his poem was in +fact an expansion of Wace's "Brut" with insertions from Baeda. +Historically it is worthless; but as a monument of our language it is +beyond all price. In more than thirty thousand lines not more than fifty +Norman words are to be found. Even the old poetic tradition remains the +same. The alliterative metre of the earlier verse is still only slightly +affected by riming terminations; the similes are the few natural similes +of Caedmon; the battle-scenes are painted with the same rough, simple joy. + +[Sidenote: English Patriotism] + +Instead of crushing England, indeed, the Conquest did more than any event +that had gone before to build up an English people. All local +distinctions, the distinction of Saxon from Mercian, of both from +Northumbrian, died away beneath the common pressure of the stranger. The +Conquest was hardly over when we see the rise of a new national feeling, +of a new patriotism. In his quiet cell at Worcester the monk Florence +strives to palliate by excuses of treason or the weakness of rulers the +defeats of Englishmen by the Danes. AElfred, the great name of the English +past, gathers round him a legendary worship, and the "Sayings of AElfred" +embody the ideal of an English king. We see the new vigour drawn from +this deeper consciousness of national unity in a national action which +began as soon as the Conquest had given place to strife among the +conquerors. A common hostility to the conquering baronage gave the nation +leaders in its foreign sovereigns, and the sword which had been sheathed +at Senlac was drawn for triumphs which avenged it. It was under William +the Red that English soldiers shouted scorn at the Norman barons who +surrendered at Rochester. It was under Henry the First that an English +army faced Duke Robert and his foreign knighthood when they landed for a +fresh invasion, "not fearing the Normans." It was under the same great +king that Englishmen conquered Normandy in turn on the field of +Tenchebray. This overthrow of the conquering baronage, this union of the +conquered with the king, brought about the fusion of the conquerors in +the general body of the English people. As early as the days of Henry the +Second the descendants of Norman and Englishman had become +indistinguishable. Both found a bond in a common English feeling and +English patriotism, in a common hatred of the Angevin and Poitevin +"foreigners" who streamed into England in the wake of Henry and his sons. +Both had profited by the stern discipline of the Norman rule. The +wretched reign of Stephen alone broke the long peace, a peace without +parallel elsewhere, which in England stretched from the settlement of the +Conquest to the return of John. Of her kings' forays along Norman or +Aquitanian borders England heard little; she cared less. Even Eichard's +crusade woke little interest in his island realm. What England saw in her +kings was "the good peace they made in the land." And with peace came a +stern but equitable rule, judicial and administrative reforms that +carried order and justice to every corner of the land, a wealth that grew +steadily in spite of heavy taxation, an immense outburst of material and +intellectual activity. + +[Sidenote: The Universities] + +It was with a new English people therefore that John found himself face +to face. The nation which he fronted was a nation quickened with a new +life and throbbing with a new energy. Not least among the signs of this +energy was the upgrowth of our Universities. The establishment of the +great schools which bore this name was everywhere throughout Europe a +special mark of the impulse which Christendom gained from the crusades. A +new fervour of study sprang up in the West from its contact with the more +cultured East. Travellers like Adelard of Bath brought back the first +rudiments of physical and mathematical science from the schools of +Cordova or Bagdad. In the twelfth century a classical revival restored +Caesar and Virgil to the list of monastic studies, and left its stamp on +the pedantic style, the profuse classical quotations of writers like +William of Malmesbury or John of Salisbury. The scholastic philosophy +sprang up in the schools of Paris. The Roman law was revived by the +imperialist doctors of Bologna. The long mental inactivity of feudal +Europe broke up like ice before a summer's sun. Wandering teachers such +as Lanfranc or Anselm crossed sea and land to spread the new power of +knowledge. The same spirit of restlessness, of enquiry, of impatience +with the older traditions of mankind either local or intellectual that +drove half Christendom to the tomb of its Lord, crowded the roads with +thousands of young scholars hurrying to the chosen seats where teachers +were gathered together. A new power sprang up in the midst of a world +which had till now recognized no power but that of sheer brute force. +Poor as they were, sometimes even of servile race, the wandering scholars +who lectured in every cloister were hailed as "masters" by the crowds at +their feet. Abelard was a foe worthy of the threats of councils, of the +thunders of the Church. The teaching of a single Lombard was of note +enough in England to draw down the prohibition of a king. + +[Sidenote: Oxford] + +Vacarius was probably a guest in the court of Archbishop Theobald where +Thomas of London and John of Salisbury were already busy with the study +of the Civil Law. But when he opened lectures on it at Oxford he was at +once silenced by Stephen, who was at that moment at war with the Church +and jealous of the power which the wreck of the royal authority was +throwing into Theobald's hands. At this time Oxford stood in the first +rank among English towns. Its town church of St. Martin rose from the +midst of a huddled group of houses, girded in with massive walls, that +lay along the dry upper ground of a low peninsula between the streams of +Cherwell and the Thames. The ground fell gently on either side, eastward +and westward, to these rivers; while on the south a sharper descent led +down across swampy meadows to the ford from which the town drew its name +and to the bridge that succeeded it. Around lay a wild forest country, +moors such as Cowley and Bullingdon fringing the course of Thames, great +woods of which Shotover and Bagley are the relics closing the horizon to +the south and east. Though the two huge towers of its Norman castle +marked the strategic importance of Oxford as commanding the river valley +along which the commerce of Southern England mainly flowed, its walls +formed the least element in the town's military strength, for on every +side but the north it was guarded by the swampy meadows along Cherwell or +by an intricate network of streams into which the Thames breaks among the +meadows of Osney. From the midst of these meadows rose a mitred abbey of +Austin Canons, which with the older priory of St. Frideswide gave Oxford +some ecclesiastical dignity. The residence of the Norman house of the +D'Oillis within its castle, the frequent visits of English kings to a +palace without its walls, the presence again and again of important +Parliaments, marked its political weight within the realm. The settlement +of one of the wealthiest among the English Jewries in the very heart of +the town indicated, while it promoted, the activity of its trade. No +place better illustrates the transformation of the land in the hands of +its Norman masters, the sudden outburst of industrial effort, the sudden +expansion of commerce and accumulation of wealth which followed the +Conquest. To the west of the town rose one of the stateliest of English +castles, and in the meadows beneath the hardly less stately abbey of +Osney. In the fields to the north the last of the Norman kings raised his +palace of Beaumont. In the southern quarter of the city the canons of St. +Frideswide reared the church which still exists as the diocesan +cathedral, while the piety of the Norman Castellans rebuilt almost all +its parish churches and founded within their new castle walls the church +of the Canons of St. George. + + +[Sidenote: Oxford Scholars] + +We know nothing of the causes which drew students and teachers within the +walls of Oxford. It is possible that here as elsewhere a new teacher +quickened older educational foundations, and that the cloisters of Osney +and St. Frideswide already possessed schools which burst into a larger +life under the impulse of Vacarius. As yet however the fortunes of the +University were obscured by the glories of Paris. English scholars +gathered in thousands round the chairs of William of Champeaux or +Abelard. The English took their place as one of the "nations" of the +French University. John of Salisbury became famous as one of the Parisian +teachers. Thomas of London wandered to Paris from his school at Merton. +But through the peaceful reign of Henry the Second Oxford quietly grew in +numbers and repute, and forty years after the visit of Vacarius its +educational position was fully established. When Gerald of Wales read his +amusing Topography of Ireland to its students the most learned and famous +of the English clergy were to be found within its walls. At the opening +of the thirteenth century Oxford stood without a rival in its own +country, while in European celebrity it took rank with the greatest +schools of the Western world. But to realize this Oxford of the past we +must dismiss from our minds all recollections of the Oxford of the +present. In the outer look of the new University there was nothing of the +pomp that overawes the freshman as he first paces the "High" or looks +down from the gallery of St. Mary's. In the stead of long fronts of +venerable colleges, of stately walks beneath immemorial elms, history +plunges us into the mean and filthy lanes of a mediaeval town. Thousands +of boys, huddled in bare lodging-houses, clustering round teachers as +poor as themselves in church porch and house porch, drinking, +quarrelling, dicing, begging at the corners of the streets, take the +place of the brightly-coloured train of doctors and Heads. Mayor and +Chancellor struggled in vain to enforce order or peace on this seething +mass of turbulent life. The retainers who followed their young lords to +the University fought out the feuds of their houses in the streets. +Scholars from Kent and scholars from Scotland waged the bitter struggle +of North and South. At nightfall roysterer and reveller roamed with +torches through the narrow lanes, defying bailiffs, and cutting down +burghers at their doors. Now a mob of clerks plunged into the Jewry and +wiped off the memory of bills and bonds by sacking a Hebrew house or two. +Now a tavern squabble between scholar and townsman widened into a general +broil, and the academical bell of St. Mary's vied with the town bell of +St. Martin's in clanging to arms. Every phase of ecclesiastical +controversy or political strife was preluded by some fierce outbreak in +this turbulent, surging mob. When England growled at the exactions of the +Papacy in the years that were to follow the students besieged a legate in +the abbot's house at Osney. A murderous town and gown row preceded the +opening of the Barons' war. "When Oxford draws knife," ran an old rime, +"England's soon at strife." + +[Sidenote: Edmund Rich] + +But the turbulence and stir was a stir and turbulence of life. A keen +thirst for knowledge, a passionate poetry of devotion, gathered thousands +round the poorest scholar and welcomed the barefoot friar. Edmund Rich-- +Archbishop of Canterbury and saint in later days--came about the time we +have reached to Oxford, a boy of twelve years old, from a little lane at +Abingdon that still bears his name. He found his school in an inn that +belonged to the abbey of Eynsham where his father had taken refuge from +the world. His mother was a pious woman of the day, too poor to give her +boy much outfit besides the hair shirt that he promised to wear every +Wednesday; but Edmund was no poorer than his neighbours. He plunged at +once into the nobler life of the place, its ardour for knowledge, its +mystical piety. "Secretly," perhaps at eventide when the shadows were +gathering in the church of St. Mary and the crowd of teachers and +students had left its aisles, the boy stood before an image of the +Virgin, and placing a ring of gold upon its finger took Mary for his +bride. Years of study, broken by a fever that raged among the crowded, +noisome streets, brought the time for completing his education at Paris; +and Edmund, hand in hand with a brother Robert of his, begged his way as +poor scholars were wont to the great school of Western Christendom. Here +a damsel, heedless of his tonsure, wooed him so pertinaciously that +Edmund consented at last to an assignation; but when he appeared it was +in company of grave academical officials who, as the maiden declared in +the hour of penitence which followed, "straightway whipped the offending +Eve out of her." Still true to his Virgin bridal, Edmund on his return +from Paris became the most popular of Oxford teachers. It is to him that +Oxford owes her first introduction to the Logic of Aristotle. We see him +in the little room which he hired, with the Virgin's chapel hard by, his +grey gown reaching to his feet, ascetic in his devotion, falling asleep +in lecture time after a sleepless night of prayer, but gifted with a +grace and cheerfulness of manner which told of his French training and a +chivalrous love of knowledge that let his pupils pay what they would. +"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust," the young tutor would say, a touch of +scholarly pride perhaps mingling with his contempt of worldly things, as +he threw down the fee on the dusty window-ledge whence a thievish student +would sometimes run off with it. But even knowledge brought its troubles; +the Old Testament, which with a copy of the Decretals long formed his +sole library, frowned down upon a love of secular learning from which +Edmund found it hard to wean himself. At last, in some hour of dream, the +form of his dead mother floated into the room where the teacher stood +among his mathematical diagrams. "What are these?" she seemed to say; and +seizing Edmund's right hand, she drew on the palm three circles +interlaced, each of which bore the name of a Person of the Christian +Trinity. "Be these," she cried, as the figure faded away, "thy diagrams +henceforth, my son." + +[Sidenote: The University and Feudalism] + +The story admirably illustrates the real character of the new training, +and the latent opposition between the spirit of the Universities and the +spirit of the Church. The feudal and ecclesiastical order of the old +mediaeval world were both alike threatened by this power that had so +strangely sprung up in the midst of them. Feudalism rested on local +isolation, on the severance of kingdom from kingdom and barony from +barony, on the distinction of blood and race, on the supremacy of +material or brute force, on an allegiance determined by accidents of +place and social position. The University on the other hand was a protest +against this isolation of man from man. The smallest school was European +and not local. Not merely every province of France, but every people of +Christendom had its place among the "nations" of Paris or Padua. A common +language, the Latin tongue, superseded within academical bounds the +warring tongues of Europe. A common intellectual kinship and rivalry took +the place of the petty strifes which parted province from province or +realm from realm. What Church and Empire had both aimed at and both +failed in, the knitting of Christian nations together into a vast +commonwealth, the Universities for a time actually did. Dante felt +himself as little a stranger in the "Latin" quarter round Mont St. +Genevieve as under the arches of Bologna. Wandering Oxford scholars +carried the writings of Wyclif to the libraries of Prague. In England the +work of provincial fusion was less difficult or important than elsewhere, +but even in England work had to be done. The feuds of Northerner and +Southerner which so long disturbed the discipline of Oxford witnessed at +any rate to the fact that Northerner and Southerner had at last been +brought face to face in its streets. And here as elsewhere the spirit of +national isolation was held in check by the larger comprehensiveness of +the University. After the dissensions that threatened the prosperity of +Paris in the thirteenth century, Norman and Gascon mingled with +Englishmen in Oxford lecture-halls. Irish scholars were foremost in the +fray with the legate. At a later time the rising of Owen Glyndwr found +hundreds of Welshmen gathered round its teachers. And within this +strangely mingled mass society and government rested on a purely +democratic basis. Among Oxford scholars the son of the noble stood on +precisely the same footing with the poorest mendicant. Wealth, physical +strength, skill in arms, pride of ancestry and blood, the very grounds on +which feudal society rested, went for nothing in the lecture-room. The +University was a state absolutely self-governed, and whose citizens were +admitted by a purely intellectual franchise. Knowledge made the "master." +To know more than one's fellows was a man's sole claim to be a regent or +"ruler" in the schools. And within this intellectual aristocracy all were +equal. When the free commonwealth of the masters gathered in the aisles +of St. Mary's all had an equal right to counsel, all had an equal vote in +the final decision. Treasury and library were at their complete disposal. +It was their voice that named every officer, that proposed and sanctioned +every statute. Even the Chancellor, their head, who had at first been an +officer of the Bishop, became an elected officer of their own. + + +[Sidenote: The Universities and the Church] + +If the democratic spirit of the Universities' threatened feudalism, their +spirit of intellectual enquiry threatened the Church. To all outer +seeming they were purely ecclesiastical bodies. The wide extension which +mediaeval usage gave to the word "orders" gathered the whole educated +world within the pale of the clergy. Whatever might be their age or +proficiency, scholar and teacher alike ranked as clerks, free from lay +responsibilities or the control of civil tribunals, and amenable only to +the rule of the Bishop and the sentence of his spiritual courts. This +ecclesiastical character of the University appeared in that of its head. +The Chancellor, as we have seen, was at first no officer of the +University itself, but of the ecclesiastical body under whose shadow it +had sprung into life. At Oxford he was simply the local officer of the +Bishop of Lincoln, within whose immense diocese the University was then +situated. But this identification in outer form with the Church only +rendered more conspicuous the difference of spirit between them. The +sudden expansion of the field of education diminished the importance of +those purely ecclesiastical and theological studies which had hitherto +absorbed the whole intellectual energies of mankind. The revival of +classical literature, the rediscovery as it were of an older and a +greater world, the contact with a larger, freer life whether in mind, in +society, or in politics introduced a spirit of scepticism, of doubt, of +denial into the realms of unquestioning belief. Abelard claimed for +reason a supremacy over faith. Florentine poets discussed with a smile +the immortality of the soul. Even to Dante, while he censures these, +Virgil is as sacred as Jeremiah. The imperial ruler in whom the new +culture took its most notable form, Frederick the Second, the "World's +Wonder" of his time, was regarded by half Europe as no better than an +infidel. A faint revival of physical science, so long crushed as magic by +the dominant ecclesiasticism, brought Christians into perilous contact +with the Moslem and the Jew. The books of the Rabbis were no longer an +accursed thing to Roger Bacon. The scholars of Cordova were no mere +Paynim swine to Adelard of Bath. How slowly indeed and against what +obstacles science won its way we know from the witness of Roger Bacon. +"Slowly," he tells us, "has any portion of the philosophy of Aristotle +come into use among the Latins. His Natural Philosophy and his +Metaphysics, with the Commentaries of Averroes and others, were +translated in my time, and interdicted at Paris up to the year of grace +1237 because of their assertion of the eternity of the world and of time +and because of the book of the divinations by dreams (which is the third +book, De Somniis et Vigiliis) and because of many passages erroneously +translated. Even his logic was slowly received and lectured on. For St. +Edmund, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was the first in my time who read +the Elements at Oxford. And I have seen Master Hugo, who first read the +book of Posterior Analytics, and I have seen his writing. So there were +but few, considering the multitude of the Latins, who were of any account +in the philosophy of Aristotle; nay, very few indeed, and scarcely any up +to this year of grace 1292." + +[Sidenote: The Town] + +If we pass from the English University to the English Town we see a +progress as important and hardly less interesting. In their origin our +boroughs were utterly unlike those of the rest of the western world. The +cities of Italy and Provence had preserved the municipal institutions of +their Roman past; the German towns had been founded by Henry the Fowler +with the purpose of sheltering industry from the feudal oppression around +them; the communes of Northern France sprang into existence in revolt +against feudal outrage within their walls. But in England the tradition +of Rome passed utterly away, while feudal oppression was held fairly in +check by the Crown. The English town therefore was in its beginning +simply a piece of the general country, organized and governed precisely +in the same manner as the townships around it. Its existence witnessed +indeed to the need which men felt in those earlier times of mutual help +and protection. The burh or borough was probably a more defensible place +than the common village; it may have had a ditch or mound about it +instead of the quickset-hedge or "tun" from which the township took its +name. But in itself it was simply a township or group of townships where +men clustered whether for trade or defence more thickly than elsewhere. +The towns were different in the circumstances and date of their rise. +Some grew up in the fortified camps of the English invaders. Some dated +from a later occupation of the sacked and desolate Roman towns. Some +clustered round the country houses of king and ealdorman or the walls of +church and monastery. Towns like Bristol were the direct result of trade. +There was the same variety in the mode in which the various town +communities were formed. While the bulk of them grew by simple increase +of population from township to town, larger boroughs such as York with +its "six shires" or London with its wards and sokes and franchises show +how families and groups of settlers settled down side by side, and +claimed as they coalesced, each for itself, its shire or share of the +town-ground while jealously preserving its individual life within the +town-community. But strange as these aggregations might be, the +constitution of the borough which resulted from them was simply that of +the people at large. Whether we regard it as a township, or rather from +its size as a hundred or collection of townships, the obligations of the +dwellers within its bounds were those of the townships round, to keep +fence and trench in good repair, to send a contingent to the fyrd, and a +reeve and four men to the hundred court and shire court. As in other +townships, land was a necessary accompaniment of freedom. The landless +man who dwelled in a borough had no share in its corporate life; for +purposes of government or property the town consisted simply of the +landed proprietors within its bounds. The common lands which are still +attached to many of our boroughs take us back to a time when each +township lay within a ring or mark of open ground which served at once as +boundary and pasture land. Each of the four wards of York had its common +pasture; Oxford has still its own "Port-meadow." + +[Sidenote: Towns and their lords] + +The inner rule of the borough lay as in the townships about it in the +hands of its own freemen, gathered in "borough-moot" or "portmanni-mote." +But the social change brought about by the Danish wars, the legal +requirement that each man should have a lord, affected the towns as it +affected the rest of the country. Some passed into the hands of great +thegns near to them; the bulk became known as in the demesne of the king. +A new officer, the lord's or king's reeve, was a sign of this revolution. +It was the reeve who now summoned the borough-moot and administered +justice in it; it was he who collected the lord's dues or annual rent of +the town, and who exacted the services it owed to its lord. To modern +eyes these services would imply almost complete subjection. When +Leicester, for instance, passed from the hands of the Conqueror into +those of its Earls, its townsmen were bound to reap their lord's +corn-crops, to grind at his mill, to redeem their strayed cattle from his +pound. The great forest around was the Earl's, and it was only out of his +grace that the little borough could drive its swine into the woods or +pasture its cattle in the glades. The justice and government of a town +lay wholly in its master's hands; he appointed its bailiffs, received the +fines and forfeitures of his tenants, and the fees and tolls of their +markets and fairs. But in fact when once these dues were paid and these +services rendered the English townsman was practically free. His rights +were as rigidly defined by custom as those of his lord. Property and +person alike were secured against arbitrary seizure. He could demand a +fair trial on any charge, and even if justice was administered by his +master's reeve it was administered in the presence and with the assent of +his fellow-townsmen. The bell which swung out from the town tower +gathered the burgesses to a common meeting, where they could exercise +rights of free speech and free deliberation on their own affairs. Their +merchant-gild over its ale-feast regulated trade, distributed the sums +due from the town among the different burgesses, looked to the due +repairs of gate and wall, and acted in fact pretty much the same part as +a town-council of to-day. + +[Sidenote: The Merchant Gild] + +The merchant-gild was the outcome of a tendency to closer association +which found support in those principles of mutual aid and mutual +restraint that lay at the base of our old institutions. Gilds or clubs +for religious, charitable, or social purposes were common throughout the +country, and especially common in boroughs, where men clustered more +thickly together. Each formed a sort of artificial family. An oath of +mutual fidelity among its members was substituted for the tie of blood, +while the gild-feast, held once a month in the common hall, replaced the +gathering of the kinsfolk round their family hearth. But within this new +family the aim of the gild was to establish a mutual responsibility as +close as that of the old. "Let all share the same lot," ran its law; "if +any misdo, let all bear it." A member could look for aid from his +gild-brothers in atoning for guilt incurred by mishap. He could call on +them for assistance in case of violence or wrong. If falsely accused they +appeared in court as his compurgators, if poor they supported, and when +dead they buried him. On the other hand he was responsible to them, as +they were to the State, for order and obedience to the laws. A wrong of +brother against brother was also a wrong against the general body of the +gild and was punished by fine or in the last resort by an expulsion which +left the offender a "lawless" man and an outcast. The one difference +between these gilds in country and town was this, that in the latter case +from their close local neighbourhood they tended inevitably to coalesce. +Under AEthelstan the London gilds united into one for the purpose of +carrying out more effectually their common aims, and at a later time we +find the gilds of Berwick enacting "that where many bodies are found side +by side in one place they may become one, and have one will, and in the +dealings of one with another have a strong and hearty love." The process +was probably a long and difficult one, for the brotherhoods naturally +differed much in social rank, and even after the union was effected we +see traces of the separate existence to a certain extent of some one or +more of the wealthier or more aristocratic gilds. In London for instance +the Cnighten-gild which seems to have stood at the head of its fellows +retained for a long time its separate property, while its Alderman--as +the chief officer of each gild was called--became the Alderman of the +united gild of the whole city. In Canterbury we find a similar gild of +Thanes from which the chief officers of the town seem commonly to have +been selected. Imperfect however as the union might be, when once it was +effected the town passed from a mere collection of brotherhoods into a +powerful community, far more effectually organized than in the loose +organization of the township, and whose character was inevitably +determined by the circumstances of its origin. In their beginnings our +boroughs seem to have been mainly gatherings of persons engaged in +agricultural pursuits; the first Dooms of London provide especially for +the recovery of cattle belonging to the citizens. But as the increasing +security of the country invited the farmer or the landowner to settle +apart in his own fields, and the growth of estate and trade told on the +towns themselves, the difference between town and country became more +sharply defined. London of course took the lead in this new developement +of civic life. Even in AEthelstan's day every London merchant who had made +three long voyages on his own account ranked as a Thegn. Its "lithsmen," +or shipmen's-gild, were of sufficient importance under Harthacnut to +figure in the election of a king, and its principal street still tells of +the rapid growth of trade in its name of "Cheap-side" or the bargaining +place. But at the Norman Conquest the commercial tendency had become +universal. The name given to the united brotherhood in a borough is in +almost every case no longer that of the "town-gild," but of the +"merchant-gild." + +[Sidenote: Emancipation of Towns] + +This social change in the character of the townsmen produced important +results in the character of their municipal institutions. In becoming a +merchant-gild the body of citizens who formed the "town" enlarged their +powers of civic legislation by applying them to the control of their +internal trade. It became their special business to obtain from the crown +or from their lords wider commercial privileges, rights of coinage, +grants of fairs, and exemption from tolls, while within the town itself +they framed regulations as to the sale and quality of goods, the control +of markets, and the recovery of debts. It was only by slow and difficult +advances that each step in this securing of privilege was won. Still it +went steadily on. Whenever we get a glimpse of the inner history of an +English town we find the same peaceful revolution in progress, services +disappearing through disuse or omission, while privileges and immunities +are being purchased in hard cash. The lord of the town, whether he were +king, baron, or abbot, was commonly thriftless or poor, and the capture +of a noble, or the campaign of a sovereign, or the building of some new +minster by a prior, brought about an appeal to the thrifty burghers, who +were ready to fill again their master's treasury at the price of the +strip of parchment which gave them freedom of trade, of justice, and of +government. In the silent growth and elevation of the English people the +boroughs thus led the way. Unnoticed and despised by prelate and noble +they preserved or won back again the full tradition of Teutonic liberty. +The right of self-government, the right of free speech in free meeting, +the right to equal justice at the hands of one's equals, were brought +safely across ages of tyranny by the burghers and shopkeepers of +the towns. In the quiet quaintly-named streets, in town-mead and +market-place, in the lord's mill beside the stream, in the bell that +swung out its summons to the crowded borough-mote, in merchant-gild, and +church-gild and craft-gild, lay the life of Englishmen who were doing +more than knight and baron to make England what she is, the life of their +home and their trade, of their sturdy battle with oppression, their +steady, ceaseless struggle for right and freedom. + +[Sidenote: London] + +London stood first among English towns, and the privileges which its +citizens won became precedents for the burghers of meaner boroughs. Even +at the Conquest its power and wealth secured it a full recognition of all +its ancient privileges from the Conqueror. In one way indeed it profited +by the revolution which laid England at the feet of the stranger. One +immediate result of William's success was an immigration into England +from the Continent. A peaceful invasion of the Norman traders followed +quick on the invasion of the Norman soldiery. Every Norman noble as he +quartered himself upon English lands, every Norman abbot as he entered +his English cloister, gathered French artists, French shopkeepers, French +domestics about him. Round the Abbey of Battle which William founded on +the site of his great victory "Gilbert the Foreigner, Gilbert the Weaver, +Benet the Steward, Hugh the Secretary, Baldwin the Tailor," dwelt mixed +with the English tenantry. But nowhere did these immigrants play so +notable a part as in London. The Normans had had mercantile +establishments in London as early as the reign of AEthelred, if not of +Eadgar. Such settlements however naturally formed nothing more than a +trading colony like the colony of the "Emperor's Men," or Easterlings. +But with the Conquest their number greatly increased. "Many of the +citizens of Rouen and Caen passed over thither, preferring to be dwellers +in this city, inasmuch as it was fitter for their trading and better +stored with the merchandise in which they were wont to traffic." The +status of these traders indeed had wholly changed. They could no longer +be looked upon as strangers in cities which had passed under the Norman +rule. In some cases, as at Norwich, the French colony isolated itself in +a separate French town, side by side with the English borough. But in +London it seems to have taken at once the position of a governing class. +Gilbert Beket, the father of the famous Archbishop, was believed in later +days to have been one of the portreeves of London, the predecessors of +its mayors; he held in Stephen's time a large property in houses within +the walls, and a proof of his civic importance was preserved in the +annual visit of each newly-elected chief magistrate to his tomb in a +little chapel which he had founded in the churchyard of St. Paul's. Yet +Gilbert was one of the Norman strangers who followed in the wake of the +Conqueror; he was by birth a burgher of Rouen, as his wife was of a +burgher family from Caen. + +[Sidenote: Freedom of London] + +It was partly to this infusion of foreign blood, partly no doubt to the +long internal peace and order secured by the Norman rule, that London +owed the wealth and importance to which it attained during the reign of +Henry the First. The charter which Henry granted it became a model for +lesser boroughs. The king yielded its citizens the right of justice; each +townsman could claim to be tried by his fellow-townsmen in the town-court +or hustings whose sessions took place every week. They were subject only +to the old English trial by oath, and exempt from the trial by battle +which the Normans introduced. Their trade was protected from toll or +exaction over the length and breadth of the land. The king however still +nominated in London as elsewhere the portreeve, or magistrate of the +town, nor were the citizens as yet united together in a commune or +corporation. But an imperfect civic organization existed in the "wards" +or quarters of the town, each governed by its own alderman, and in the +"gilds" or voluntary associations of merchants or traders which ensured +order and mutual protection for their members. Loose too as these bonds +may seem, they were drawn firmly together by the older English traditions +of freedom which the towns preserved. The London burgesses gathered in +their town-mote when the bell swung out from the bell-tower of St. Paul's +to deliberate freely on their own affairs under the presidency of their +alderman. Here, too, they mustered in arms if danger threatened the city, +and delivered the town-banner to their captain, the Norman baron +Fitz-Walter, to lead them against the enemy. + +[Sidenote: Early Oxford] + +Few boroughs had as yet attained to such power as this, but the instance +of Oxford shows how the freedom of London told on the general advance of +English towns. In spite of antiquarian fancies it is certain that no town +had arisen on the site of Oxford for centuries after the withdrawal of +the Roman legions from the isle of Britain. Though the monastery of St. +Frideswide rose in the turmoil of the eighth century on the slope which +led down to a ford across the Thames, it is long before we get a glimpse +of the borough that must have grown up under its walls. The first +definite evidence for its existence lies in a brief entry of the English +Chronicle which recalls its seizure by Eadward the Elder, but the form of +this entry shows that the town was already a considerable one, and in the +last wrestle of England with the Dane its position on the borders of +Mercia and Wessex combined with its command of the upper valley of the +Thames to give it military and political importance. Of the life of its +burgesses however we still know little or nothing. The names of its +parishes, St. Aldate, St. Ebbe, St. Mildred, St. Edmund, show how early +church after church gathered round the earlier town-church of St. Martin. +But the men of the little town remain dim to us. Their town-mote, or the +"Portmannimote" as it was called, which was held in the churchyard of St. +Martin, still lives in a shadow of its older self as the Freeman's Common +Hall--their town-mead is still the Port-meadow. But it is only by later +charters or the record of Domesday that we see them going on pilgrimage +to the shrines of Winchester, or chaffering in their market-place, or +judging and law-making in their hustings, their merchant-gild regulating +trade, their reeve gathering his king's dues of tax or money or +marshalling his troop of burghers for the king's wars, their boats paying +toll of a hundred herrings in Lent-tide to the Abbot of Abingdon, as they +floated down the Thames towards London. + + +[Sidenote: Oxford and the Normans] + +The number of houses marked waste in the survey marks the terrible +suffering of Oxford in the Norman Conquest: but the ruin was soon +repaired, and the erection of its castle, the rebuilding of its churches, +the planting of a Jewry in the heart of the town, showed in what various +ways the energy of its new masters was giving an impulse to its life. It +is a proof of the superiority of the Hebrew dwellings to the Christian +houses about them that each of the later town-halls of the borough had, +before their expulsion, been houses of Jews. Nearly all the larger +dwelling houses in fact which were subsequently converted into academic +halls bore traces of the same origin in names such as Moysey's Hall, +Lombard's Hall, or Jacob's Hall. The Jewish houses were abundant, for +besides the greater Jewry in the heart of it, there was a lesser Jewry +scattered over its southern quarter, and we can hardly doubt that this +abundance of substantial buildings in the town was at least one of the +causes which drew teachers and scholars within its walls. The Jewry, a +town within a town, lay here as elsewhere isolated and exempt from the +common justice, the common life and self-government of the borough. On +all but its eastern side too the town was hemmed in by jurisdictions +independent of its own. The precincts of the Abbey of Osney, the wide +"bailey" of the Castle, bounded it narrowly on the west. To the north, +stretching away beyond the little church of St. Giles, lay the fields of +the royal manor of Beaumont. The Abbot of Abingdon, whose woods of Cumnor +and Bagley closed the southern horizon, held his leet-court in the hamlet +of Grampound beyond the bridge. Nor was the whole space within the walls +subject to the self-government of the citizens. The Jewry had a rule and +law of its own. Scores of householders, dotted over street and lane, were +tenants of castle or abbey and paid no suit or service at the borough +court. + +[Sidenote: Oxford and London] + +But within these narrow bounds and amidst these various obstacles the +spirit of municipal liberty lived a life the more intense that it was so +closely cabined and confined. Nowhere indeed was the impulse which London +was giving likely to tell with greater force. The "bargemen" of Oxford +were connected even before the Conquest with the "boatmen," or shippers, +of the capital. In both cases it is probable that the bodies bearing +these names represented what is known as the merchant-gild of the town. +Royal recognition enables us to trace the merchant-gild of Oxford from +the time of Henry the First. Even then lands, islands, pastures belonged +to it, and amongst them the same Port-meadow which is familiar to Oxford +men pulling lazily on a summer's noon to Godstow. The connexion between +the two gilds was primarily one of trade. "In the time of King Eadward +and Abbot Ordric" the channel of the Thames beneath the walls of the +Abbey of Abingdon became so blocked up that boats could scarce pass as +far as Oxford, and it was at the joint prayer of the burgesses of London +and Oxford that the abbot dug a new channel through the meadow to the +south of his church. But by the time of Henry the Second closer bonds +than this linked the two cities together. In case of any doubt or contest +about judgements in their own court the burgesses of Oxford were +empowered to refer the matter to the decision of London, "and whatsoever +the citizens of London shall adjudge in such cases shall be deemed +right." The judicial usages, the municipal rights of each city were +assimilated by Henry's charter. "Of whatsoever matter the men of Oxford +be put in plea, they shall deraign themselves according to the law and +custom of the city of London and not otherwise, because they and the +citizens of London are of one and the same custom, law, and liberty." + +[Sidenote: Life of the Town] + +A legal connexion such as this could hardly fail to bring with it an +identity of municipal rights. Oxford had already passed through the +earlier steps of her advance towards municipal freedom before the +conquest of the Norman. Her burghers assembled in their own +Portmannimote, and their dues to the crown were assessed at a fixed sum +of honey or coin. But the formal definition of their rights dates, as in +the case of London, from the time of Henry the First. The customs and +exemptions of its townsmen were confirmed by Henry the Second "as ever +they enjoyed them in the time of Henry my grandfather, and in like manner +as my citizens of London hold them." By this date the town had attained +entire judicial and commercial freedom, and liberty of external commerce +was secured by the exemption of its citizens from toll on the king's +lands. Complete independence was reached when a charter of John +substituted a mayor of the town's own choosing for the reeve or bailiff +of the crown. But dry details such as these tell little of the quick +pulse of popular life that beat in the thirteenth century through such a +community as that of Oxford. The church of St. Martin in the very heart +of it, at the "Quatrevoix" or Carfax where its four streets met, was the +centre of the city life. The town-mote was held in its churchyard. +Justice was administered ere yet a townhall housed the infant magistracy +by mayor or bailiff sitting beneath a low pent-house, the "penniless +bench" of later days, outside its eastern wall. Its bell summoned the +burghers to council or arms. Around the church the trade-gilds were +ranged as in some vast encampment. To the south of it lay Spicery and +Vintnery, the quarter of the richer burgesses. Fish-street fell noisily +down to the bridge and the ford. The Corn-market occupied then as now the +street which led to Northgate. The stalls of the butchers stretched along +the "Butcher-row," which formed the road to the bailey and the castle. +Close beneath the church lay a nest of huddled lanes, broken by a stately +synagogue, and traversed from time to time by the yellow gaberdine of the +Jew. Soldiers from the castle rode clashing through the narrow streets; +the bells of Osney clanged from the swampy meadows; processions of +pilgrims wound through gates and lane to the shrine of St. Frideswide. +Frays were common enough; now the sack of a Jew's house; now burgher +drawing knife on burgher; now an outbreak of the young student lads who +were growing every day in numbers and audacity. But as yet the town was +well in hand. The clang of the city bell called every citizen to his +door; the call of the mayor brought trade after trade with bow in hand +and banners flying to enforce the king's peace. + +[Sidenote: St. Edmundsbury] + +The advance of towns which had grown up not on the royal domain but +around abbey or castle was slower and more difficult. The story of St. +Edmundsbury shows how gradual was the transition from pure serfage to an +imperfect freedom. Much that had been plough-land here in the Confessor's +time was covered with houses by the time of Henry the Second. The +building of the great abbey-church drew its craftsmen and masons to +mingle with the ploughmen and reapers of the Abbot's domain. The troubles +of the time helped here as elsewhere the progress of the town; serfs, +fugitives from justice or their lord, the trader, the Jew, naturally +sought shelter under the strong hand of St. Edmund. But the settlers were +wholly at the Abbot's mercy. Not a settler but was bound to pay his pence +to the Abbot's treasury, to plough a rood of his land, to reap in his +harvest-field, to fold his sheep in the Abbey folds, to help bring the +annual catch of eels from the Abbey waters. Within the four crosses that +bounded the Abbot's domain land and water were his; the cattle of the +townsmen paid for their pasture on the common; if the fullers refused the +loan of their cloth the cellarer would refuse the use of the stream and +seize their cloths wherever he found them. No toll might be levied from +tenants of the Abbey farms, and customers had to wait before shop and +stall till the buyers of the Abbot had had the pick of the market. There +was little chance of redress, for if burghers complained in folk-mote it +was before the Abbot's officers that its meeting was held; if they +appealed to the alderman he was the Abbot's nominee and received the +horn, the symbol of his office, at the Abbot's hands. Like all the +greater revolutions of society, the advance from this mere serfage was a +silent one; indeed its more galling instances of oppression seem to have +slipped unconsciously away. Some, like the eel-fishing, were commuted for +an easy rent; others, like the slavery of the fullers and the toll of +flax, simply disappeared. By usage, by omission, by downright +forgetfulness, here by a little struggle, there by a present to a needy +abbot, the town won freedom. + +[Sidenote: The Towns and Justice] + +But progress was not always unconscious, and one incident in the history +of St. Edmundsbury is remarkable, not merely as indicating the advance of +law, but yet more as marking the part which a new moral sense of man's +right to equal justice was to play in the general advance of the realm. +Rude as the borough was, it possessed the right of meeting in full +assembly of the townsmen for government and law. Justice was administered +in presence of the burgesses, and the accused acquitted or condemned by +the oath of his neighbours. Without the borough bounds however the system +of Norman judicature prevailed; and the rural tenants who did suit and +service at the Cellarer's court were subjected to the trial by battle. +The execution of a farmer named Ketel who came under this feudal +jurisdiction brought the two systems into vivid contrast. Ketel seems to +have been guiltless of the crime laid to his charge; but the duel went +against him and he was hung just without the gates. The taunts of the +townsmen woke his fellow farmers to a sense of wrong. "Had Ketel been a +dweller within the borough," said the burgesses, "he would have got his +acquittal from the oaths of his neighbours, as our liberty is"; and even +the monks were moved to a decision that their tenants should enjoy equal +freedom and justice with the townsmen. The franchise of the town was +extended to the rural possessions of the Abbey without it; the farmers +"came to the toll-house, were written in the alderman's roll, and paid +the town-penny." A chance story preserved in a charter of later date +shows the same struggle for justice going on in a greater town. At +Leicester the trial by compurgation, the rough predecessor of trial by +jury, had been abolished by the Earls in favour of trial by battle. The +aim of the burgesses was to regain their old justice, and in this a +touching incident at last made them successful. "It chanced that two +kinsmen, Nicholas the son of Acon and Geoffrey the son of Nicholas, waged +a duel about a certain piece of land concerning which a dispute had +arisen between them; and they fought from the first to the ninth hour, +each conquering by turns. Then one of them fleeing from the other till he +came to a certain little pit, as he stood on the brink of the pit and was +about to fall therein, his kinsman said to him 'Take care of the pit, +turn back, lest thou shouldest fall into it.' Thereat so much clamour and +noise was made by the bystanders and those who were sitting around that +the Earl heard these clamours as far off as the castle, and he enquired +of some how it was there was such a clamour, and answer was made to him +that two kinsmen were fighting about a certain piece of ground, and that +one had fled till he reached a certain little pit, and that as he stood +over the pit and was about to fall into it the other warned him. Then the +townsmen being moved with pity, made a covenant with the Earl that they +should give him threepence yearly for each house in the High Street +that had a gable, on condition that he should grant to them that the +twenty-four jurors who were in Leicester from ancient times should from +that time forward discuss and decide all pleas they might have among +themselves." + +[Sidenote: Division of Labour] + +At the time we have reached this struggle for emancipation was nearly +over. The larger towns had secured the privilege of self-government, the +administration of justice, and the control of their own trade. The reigns +of Richard and John mark the date in our municipal history at which towns +began to acquire the right of electing their own chief magistrate, the +Portreeve or Mayor, who had till then been a nominee of the crown. But +with the close of this outer struggle opened an inner struggle between +the various classes of the townsmen themselves. The growth of wealth and +industry was bringing with it a vast increase of population. The mass of +the new settlers, composed as they were of escaped serfs, of traders +without landed holdings, of families who had lost their original lot in +the borough, and generally of the artizans and the poor, had no part in +the actual life of the town. The right of trade and of the regulation of +trade in common with all other forms of jurisdiction lay wholly in the +hands of the landed burghers whom we have described. By a natural process +too their superiority in wealth produced a fresh division between the +"burghers" of the merchant-gild and the unenfranchised mass around them. +The same change which severed at Florence the seven Greater Arts or +trades from the fourteen Lesser Arts, and which raised the three +occupations of banking, the manufacture and the dyeing of cloth, to a +position of superiority even within the privileged circle of the seven, +told though with less force on the English boroughs. The burghers of the +merchant-gild gradually concentrated themselves on the greater operations +of commerce, on trades which required a larger capital, while the meaner +employments of general traffic were abandoned to their poorer neighbours. +This advance in the division of labour is marked by such severances as we +note in the thirteenth century of the cloth merchant from the tailor or +the leather merchant from the butcher. + + +[Sidenote: Trade-Gilds] + +But the result of this severance was all-important in its influence on +the constitution of our towns. The members of the trades thus abandoned +by the wealthier burghers formed themselves into Craft-gilds which soon +rose into dangerous rivalry with the original Merchant-gild of the town. +A seven years' apprenticeship formed the necessary prelude to full +membership of these trade-gilds. Their regulations were of the minutest +character; the quality and value of work were rigidly prescribed, the +hours of toil fixed "from day-break to curfew," and strict provision made +against competition in labour. At each meeting of these gilds their +members gathered round the Craft-box which contained the rules of their +Society, and stood with bared heads as it was opened. The warden and a +quorum of gild-brothers formed a court which enforced the ordinances of +the gild, inspected all work done by its members, confiscated unlawful +tools or unworthy goods; and disobedience to their orders was punished by +fines or in the last resort by expulsion, which involved the loss of a +right to trade. A common fund was raised by contributions among the +members, which not only provided for the trade objects of the gild but +sufficed to found chantries and masses and set up painted windows in the +church of their patron saint. Even at the present day the arms of a +craft-gild may often be seen blazoned in cathedrals side by side with +those of prelates and of kings. But it was only by slow degrees that they +rose to such a height as this. The first steps in their existence were +the most difficult, for to enable a trade-gild to carry out its objects +with any success it was first necessary that the whole body of craftsmen +belonging to the trade should be compelled to join the gild, and secondly +that a legal control over the trade itself should be secured to it. A +royal charter was indispensable for these purposes, and over the grant of +these charters took place the first struggle with the merchant-gilds +which had till then solely exercised jurisdiction over trade within the +boroughs. The weavers, who were the first trade-gild to secure royal +sanction in the reign of Henry the First, were still engaged in a contest +for existence as late as the reign of John when the citizens of London +bought for a time the suppression of their gild. Even under the House of +Lancaster Exeter was engaged in resisting the establishment of a tailors' +gild. From the eleventh century however the spread of these societies +went steadily on, and the control of trade passed more and more from the +merchant-gilds to the craft-gilds. + +[Sidenote: Greater and Lesser Folk] + +It is this struggle, to use the technical terms of the time, of the +"greater folk" against the "lesser folk," or of the "commune," the +general mass of the inhabitants, against the "prudhommes," or "wiser" +few, which brought about, as it passed from the regulation of trade to +the general government of the town, the great civic revolution of the +thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. On the Continent, and especially +along the Rhine, the struggle was as fierce as the supremacy of the older +burghers had been complete. In Koeln the craftsmen had been reduced to all +but serfage, and the merchant of Brussels might box at his will the ears +of "the man without heart or honour who lives by his toil." Such social +tyranny of class over class brought a century of bloodshed to the cities +of Germany; but in England the tyranny of class over class was restrained +by the general tenor of the law, and the revolution took for the most +part a milder form. The longest and bitterest strife of all was naturally +at London. Nowhere had the territorial constitution struck root so +deeply, and nowhere had the landed oligarchy risen to such a height of +wealth and influence. The city was divided into wards, each of which was +governed by an alderman drawn from the ruling class. In some indeed the +office seems to have become hereditary. The "magnates," or "barons," of +the merchant-gild advised alone on all matters of civic government or +trade regulation, and distributed or assessed at their will the revenues +or burthens of the town. Such a position afforded an opening for +corruption and oppression of the most galling kind; and it seems to have +been a general impression of the unfair assessment of the dues levied on +the poor and the undue burthens which were thrown on the unenfranchised +classes which provoked the first serious discontent. In the reign of +Richard the First William of the Long Beard, though one of the governing +body, placed himself at the head of a conspiracy which in the +panic-stricken fancy of the burghers numbered fifty thousand of the +craftsmen. His eloquence, his bold defiance of the aldermen in the +town-mote, gained him at any rate a wide popularity, and the crowds who +surrounded him hailed him as "the saviour of the poor." One of his +addresses is luckily preserved to us by a hearer of the time. In mediaeval +fashion he began with a text from the Vulgate, "Ye shall draw water with +joy from the fountain of the Saviour." "I," he began, "am the saviour of +the poor. Ye poor men who have felt the weight of rich men's hands, draw +from my fountain waters of wholesome instruction and that with joy, for +the time of your visitation is at hand. For I will divide the waters from +the waters. It is the people who are the waters, and I will divide the +lowly and faithful folk from the proud and faithless folk; I will part +the chosen from the reprobate as light from darkness." But it was in vain +that he strove to win royal favour for the popular cause. The support of +the moneyed classes was essential to Richard in the costly wars with +Philip of France; and the Justiciar, Archbishop Hubert, after a moment of +hesitation issued orders for William Longbeard's arrest. William felled +with an axe the first soldier who advanced to seize him, and taking +refuge with a few adherents in the tower of St. Mary-le-Bow summoned his +adherents to rise. Hubert however, who had already flooded the city with +troops, with bold contempt of the right of sanctuary set fire to the +tower. William was forced to surrender, and a burgher's son, whose father +he had slain, stabbed him as he came forth. With his death the quarrel +slumbered for more than fifty years. But the movement towards equality +went steadily on. Under pretext of preserving the peace the +unenfranchised townsmen united in secret frith-gilds of their own, and +mobs rose from time to time to sack the houses of foreigners and the +wealthier burgesses. Nor did London stand alone in this movement. In all +the larger towns the same discontent prevailed, the same social growth +called for new institutions, and in their silent revolt against the +oppression of the Merchant-gild the Craft-gilds were training themselves +to stand forward as champions of a wider liberty in the Barons' War. + +[Sidenote: The Villein] + +Without the towns progress was far slower and more fitful. It would seem +indeed that the conquest of the Norman bore harder on the rural +population than on any other class of Englishmen. Under the later kings +of the house of AElfred the number of absolute slaves and the number of +freemen had alike diminished. The pure slave class had never been +numerous, and it had been reduced by the efforts of the Church, perhaps +by the general convulsion of the Danish wars. But these wars had often +driven the ceorl or freeman of the township to "commend" himself to a +thegn who pledged him his protection in consideration of payment in a +rendering of labour. It is probable that these dependent ceorls are the +"villeins" of the Norman epoch, the most numerous class of the Domesday +Survey, men sunk indeed from pure freedom and bound both to soil and +lord, but as yet preserving much of their older rights, retaining their +land, free as against all men but their lord, and still sending +representatives to hundred-moot and shire-moot. They stood therefore far +above the "landless man," the man who had never possessed even under the +old constitution political rights, whom the legislation of the English +kings had forced to attach himself to a lord on pain of outlawry, and who +served as household servant or as hired labourer or at the best as +rent-paying tenant of land which was not his own. The Norman knight or +lawyer however saw little distinction between these classes; and the +tendency of legislation under the Angevins was to blend all in a single +class of serfs. While the pure "theow" or absolute slave disappeared +therefore the ceorl or villein sank lower in the social scale. But though +the rural population was undoubtedly thrown more together and fused into +a more homogeneous class, its actual position corresponded very +imperfectly with the view of the lawyers. All indeed were dependents on a +lord. The manor-house became the centre of every English village. The +manor-court was held in its hall; it was here that the lord or his +steward received homage, recovered fines, held the view of frank-pledge, +or enrolled the villagers in their tithing. Here too, if the lord +possessed criminal jurisdiction, was held his justice court, and without +its doors stood his gallows. Around it lay the lord's demesne or +home-farm, and the cultivation of this rested wholly with the "villeins" +of the manor. It was by them that the great barn was filled with sheaves, +the sheep shorn, the grain malted, the wood hewn for the manor-hall fire. +These services were the labour-rent by which they held their lands, and +it was the nature and extent of this labour-rent which parted one class +of the population from another. The "villein," in the strict sense of the +word, was bound only to gather in his lord's harvest and to aid in the +ploughing and sowing of autumn and Lent. The cottar, the bordar, and the +labourer were bound to help in the work of the home-farm throughout the +year. + +But these services and the time of rendering them were strictly limited +by custom, not only in the case of the ceorl or villein but in that of +the originally meaner "landless man." The possession of his little +homestead with the ground around it, the privilege of turning out his +cattle on the waste of the manor, passed quietly and insensibly from mere +indulgences that could be granted or withdrawn at a lord's caprice into +rights that could be pleaded at law. The number of teams, the fines, the +reliefs, the services that a lord could claim, at first mere matter of +oral tradition, came to be entered on the court-roll of the manor, a copy +of which became the title-deed of the villein. It was to this that he +owed the name of "copy-holder" which at a later time superseded his older +title. Disputes were settled by a reference to this roll or on oral +evidence of the custom at issue, but a social arrangement which was +eminently characteristic of the English spirit of compromise generally +secured a fair adjustment of the claims of villein and lord. It was the +duty of the lord's bailiff to exact their due services from the villeins, +but his coadjutor in this office, the reeve or foreman of the manor, was +chosen by the tenants themselves and acted as representative of their +interests and rights. A fresh step towards freedom was made by the +growing tendency to commute labour-services for money-payments. The +population was slowly increasing, and as the law of gavel-kind which was +applicable to all landed estates not held by military tenure divided the +inheritance of the tenantry equally among their sons, the holding of each +tenant and the services due from it became divided in a corresponding +degree. A labour-rent thus became more difficult to enforce, while the +increase of wealth among the tenantry and the rise of a new spirit of +independence made it more burthensome to those who rendered it. It was +probably from this cause that the commutation of the arrears of labour +for a money payment, which had long prevailed on every estate, gradually +developed into a general commutation of services. We have already +witnessed the silent progress of this remarkable change in the +case of St. Edmundsbury, but the practice soon became universal, and +"malt-silver," "wood-silver," and "larder-silver" gradually took the +place of the older personal services on the court-rolls. The process of +commutation was hastened by the necessities of the lords themselves. The +luxury of the castle-hall, the splendour and pomp of chivalry, the cost +of campaigns drained the purses of knight and baron, and the sale of +freedom to a serf or exemption from services to a villein afforded an +easy and tempting mode of refilling them. In this process even kings took +part. At a later time, under Edward the Third, commissioners were sent to +royal estates for the especial purpose of selling manumissions to the +king's serfs; and we still possess the names of those who were +enfranchised with their families by a payment of hard cash in aid of the +exhausted exchequer. + + +[Sidenote: England] + +Such was the people which had been growing into a national unity and a +national vigour while English king and English baronage battled for rule. +But king and baronage themselves had changed like townsman and ceorl. The +loss of Normandy, entailing as it did the loss of their Norman lands, was +the last of many influences which had been giving through a century and a +half a national temper to the baronage. Not only the "new men," the +ministers out of whom the two Henries had raised a nobility, were bound +to the Crown, but the older feudal houses now owned themselves as +Englishmen and set aside their aims after personal independence for a +love of the general freedom of the land. They stood out as the natural +leaders of a people bound together by the stern government which had +crushed all local division, which had accustomed men to the enjoyment of +a peace and justice that imperfect as it seems to modern eyes was almost +unexampled elsewhere in Europe, and which had trained them to something +of their old free government again by the very machinery of election it +used to facilitate its heavy taxation. On the other hand the loss of +Normandy brought home the king. The growth which had been going on had +easily escaped the eyes of rulers who were commonly absent from the realm +and busy with the affairs of countries beyond the sea. Henry the Second +had been absent for years from England: Richard had only visited it twice +for a few months: John had as yet been almost wholly occupied with his +foreign dominions. To him as to his brother England had as yet been +nothing but a land whose gold paid the mercenaries that followed him, and +whose people bowed obediently to his will. It was easy to see that +between such a ruler and such a nation once brought together strife must +come: but that the strife came as it did and ended as it did was due +above all to the character of the king. + +[Sidenote: John] + +"Foul as it is, hell itself is defiled by the fouler presence of John." +The terrible verdict of his contemporaries has passed into the sober +judgement of history. Externally John possessed all the quickness, the +vivacity, the cleverness, the good-humour, the social charm which +distinguished his house. His worst enemies owned that he toiled steadily +and closely at the work of administration. He was fond of learned men +like Gerald of Wales. He had a strange gift of attracting friends and of +winning the love of women. But in his inner soul John was the worst +outcome of the Angevins. He united into one mass of wickedness their +insolence, their selfishness, their unbridled lust, their cruelty and +tyranny, their shamelessness, their superstition, their cynical +indifference to honour or truth. In mere boyhood he tore with brutal +levity the beards of the Irish chieftains who came to own him as their +lord. His ingratitude and perfidy brought his father with sorrow to the +grave. To his brother he was the worst of traitors. All Christendom +believed him to be the murderer of his nephew, Arthur of Britanny. He +abandoned one wife and was faithless to another. His punishments were +refinements of cruelty, the starvation of children, the crushing old men +under copes of lead. His court was a brothel where no woman was safe from +the royal lust, and where his cynicism loved to publish the news of his +victims' shame. He was as craven in his superstition as he was daring in +his impiety. Though he scoffed at priests and turned his back on the mass +even amidst the solemnities of his coronation, he never stirred on a +journey without hanging relics round his neck. But with the wickedness of +his race he inherited its profound ability. His plan for the relief of +Chateau Gaillard, the rapid march by which he shattered Arthur's hopes at +Mirebeau, showed an inborn genius for war. In the rapidity and breadth of +his political combinations he far surpassed the statesmen of his time. +Throughout his reign we see him quick to discern the difficulties of his +position, and inexhaustible in the resources with which he met them. The +overthrow of his continental power only spurred him to the formation of a +league which all but brought Philip to the ground; and the sudden revolt +of England was parried by a shameless alliance with the Papacy. The +closer study of John's history clears away the charges of sloth and +incapacity with which men tried to explain the greatness of his fall. The +awful lesson of his life rests on the fact that the king who lost +Normandy, became the vassal of the Pope, and perished in a struggle of +despair against English freedom, was no weak and indolent voluptuary but +the ablest and most ruthless of the Angevins. + +[Sidenote: Innocent the Third] + +From the moment of his return to England in 1204 John's whole energies +were bent to the recovery of his dominions on the Continent. He +impatiently collected money and men for the support of those adherents of +the House of Anjou who were still struggling against the arms of France +in Poitou and Guienne, and in the summer of 1205 he gathered an army at +Portsmouth and prepared to cross the Channel. But his project was +suddenly thwarted by the resolute opposition of the Primate, Hubert +Walter, and the Earl of Pembroke, William Marshal. So completely had both +the baronage and the Church been humbled by his father that the attitude +of their representatives revealed to the king a new spirit of national +freedom which was rising around him, and John at once braced himself to a +struggle with it. The death of Hubert Walter in July, only a few weeks +after his protest, removed his most formidable opponent, and the king +resolved to neutralize the opposition of the Church by placing a creature +of his own at its head. John de Grey, Bishop of Norwich, was elected by +the monks of Canterbury at his bidding, and enthroned as Primate. But in +a previous though informal gathering the convent had already chosen its +sub-prior, Reginald, as Archbishop. The rival claimants hastened to +appeal to Rome, and their appeal reached the Papal Court before +Christmas. The result of the contest was a startling one both for +themselves and for the king. After a year's careful examination Innocent +the Third, who now occupied the Papal throne, quashed at the close of +1206 both the contested elections. The decision was probably a just one, +but Innocent was far from stopping there. The monks who appeared before +him brought powers from the convent to choose a new Primate should their +earlier nomination be set aside; and John, secretly assured of their +choice of Grey, had promised to confirm their election. But the bribes +which the king lavished at Rome failed to win the Pope over to this plan; +and whether from mere love of power, for he was pushing the Papal claims +of supremacy over Christendom further than any of his predecessors, or as +may fairly be supposed in despair of a free election within English +bounds, Innocent commanded the monks to elect in his presence Stephen +Langton to the archiepiscopal see. + +[Sidenote: The Interdict] + +Personally a better choice could not have been made, for Stephen was a +man who by sheer weight of learning and holiness of life had risen to the +dignity of Cardinal, and whose after career placed him in the front rank +of English patriots. But in itself the step was an usurpation of the +rights both of the Church and of the Crown. The king at once met it with +resistance. When Innocent consecrated the new Primate in June 1207, and +threatened the realm with interdict if Langton were any longer excluded +from his see, John replied by a counter-threat that the interdict should +be followed by the banishment of the clergy and the mutilation of every +Italian he could seize in the realm. How little he feared the priesthood +he showed when the clergy refused his demand of a thirteenth of movables +from the whole country and Archbishop Geoffry of York resisted the tax +before the Council. John banished the Archbishop and extorted the money. +Innocent however was not a man to draw back from his purpose, and in +March 1208 the interdict he had threatened fell upon the land. All +worship save that of a few privileged orders, all administration of +Sacraments save that of private baptism, ceased over the length and +breadth of the country: the church-bells were silent, the dead lay +unburied on the ground. Many of the bishops fled from the country. The +Church in fact, so long the main support of the royal power against the +baronage, was now driven into opposition. Its change of attitude was to +be of vast moment in the struggle which was impending; but John recked +little of the future; he replied to the interdict by confiscating the +lands of the clergy who observed it, by subjecting them in spite of their +privileges to the royal courts, and by leaving outrages on them +unpunished. "Let him go," said John, when a Welshman was brought before +him for the murder of a priest, "he has killed my enemy." In 1209 the +Pope proceeded to the further sentence of excommunication, and the king +was formally cut off from the pale of the Church. But the new sentence +was met with the same defiance as the old. Five of the bishops fled over +sea, and secret disaffection was spreading widely, but there was no +public avoidance of the excommunicated king. An Archdeacon of Norwich who +withdrew from his service was crushed to death under a cope of lead, and +the hint was sufficient to prevent either prelate or noble from following +his example. + +[Sidenote: The Deposition] + +The attitude of John showed the power which the administrative reforms of +his father had given to the Crown. He stood alone, with nobles estranged +from him and the Church against him, but his strength seemed utterly +unbroken. From the first moment of his rule John had defied the baronage. +The promise to satisfy their demand for redress of wrongs in the past +reign, a promise made at his election, remained unfulfilled; when the +demand was repeated he answered it by seizing their castles and taking +their children as hostages for their loyalty. The cost of his fruitless +threats of war had been met by heavy and repeated taxation, by increased +land tax and increased scutage. The quarrel with the Church and fear of +their revolt only deepened his oppression of the nobles. He drove De +Braose, one of the most powerful of the Lords Marchers, to die in exile, +while his wife and grandchildren were believed to have been starved to +death in the royal prisons. On the nobles who still clung panic-stricken +to the court of the excommunicate king John heaped outrages worse than +death. Illegal exactions, the seizure of their castles, the preference +shown to foreigners, were small provocations compared with his attacks on +the honour of their wives and daughters. But the baronage still +submitted. The financial exactions indeed became light as John filled his +treasury with the goods of the Church; the king's vigour was seen in the +rapidity with which he crushed a rising of the nobles in Ireland, and +foiled an outbreak of the Welsh; while the triumphs of his father had +taught the baronage its weakness in any single-handed struggle against +the Crown. Hated therefore as he was the land remained still. Only one +weapon was now left in Innocent's hands. Men held then that a king, once +excommunicate, ceased to be a Christian or to have any claims on the +obedience of Christian subjects. As spiritual heads of Christendom, the +Popes had ere now asserted their right to remove such a ruler from his +throne and to give it to a worthier than he; and it was this right which +Innocent at last felt himself driven to exercise. After useless threats +he issued in 1212 a bull of deposition against John, absolved his +subjects from their allegiance, proclaimed a crusade against him as an +enemy to Christianity and the Church, and committed the execution of the +sentence to the king of the French. John met the announcement of this +step with the same scorn as before. His insolent disdain suffered the +Roman legate, Cardinal Pandulf, to proclaim his deposition to his face at +Northampton. When Philip collected an army for an attack on England an +enormous host gathered at the king's call on Barham Down; and the English +fleet dispelled all danger of invasion by crossing the Channel, by +capturing a number of French ships, and by burning Dieppe. + + +[Sidenote: John's Submission] + +But it was not in England only that the king showed his strength and +activity. Vile as he was, John possessed in a high degree the political +ability of his race, and in the diplomatic efforts with which he met the +danger from France he showed himself his father's equal. The barons of +Poitou were roused to attack Philip from the south. John bought the aid +of the Count of Flanders on his northern border. The German king, Otto, +pledged himself to bring the knighthood of Germany to support an invasion +of France. But at the moment of his success in diplomacy John suddenly +gave way. It was in fact the revelation of a danger at home which shook +him from his attitude of contemptuous defiance. The bull of deposition +gave fresh energy to every enemy. The Scotch king was in correspondence +with Innocent. The Welsh princes who had just been forced to submission +broke out again in war. John hanged their hostages, and called his host +to muster for a fresh inroad into Wales, but the army met only to become +a fresh source of danger. Powerless to oppose the king openly, the +baronage had plunged almost to a man into secret conspiracies. The +hostility of Philip had dispelled their dread of isolated action; many +indeed had even promised aid to the French king on his landing. John +found himself in the midst of hidden enemies; and nothing could have +saved him but the haste--whether of panic or quick decision--with which +he disbanded his army and took refuge in Nottingham Castle. The arrest of +some of the barons showed how true were his fears, for the heads of the +French conspiracy, Robert Fitzwalter and Eustace de Vesci, at once fled +over sea to Philip. His daring self-confidence, the skill of his +diplomacy, could no longer hide from John the utter loneliness of his +position. At war with Rome, with France, with Scotland, Ireland, and +Wales, at war with the Church, he saw himself disarmed by this sudden +revelation of treason in the one force left at his disposal. With +characteristic suddenness he gave way. He endeavoured by remission of +fines to win back his people. He negotiated eagerly with the Pope, +consented to receive the Archbishop, and promised to repay the money he +had extorted from the Church. + +[Sidenote: John becomes vassal of Rome] + +But the shameless ingenuity of the king's temper was seen in his resolve +to find in his very humiliation a new source of strength. If he yielded +to the Church he had no mind to yield to the rest of his foes; it was +indeed in the Pope who had defeated him that he saw the means of baffling +their efforts. It was Rome that formed the link between the varied +elements of hostility which combined against him. It was Rome that gave +its sanction to Philip's ambition and roused the hopes of Scotch and +Welsh, Rome that called the clergy to independence, and nerved the barons +to resistance. To detach Innocent by submission from the league which +hemmed him in on every side was the least part of John's purpose. He +resolved to make Rome his ally, to turn its spiritual thunders on his +foes, to use it in breaking up the confederacy it had formed, in crushing +the baronage, in oppressing the clergy, in paralyzing--as Rome only could +paralyze--the energy of the Primate. That greater issues even than these +were involved in John's rapid change of policy time was to show; but +there is no need to credit the king with the foresight that would have +discerned them. His quick versatile temper saw no doubt little save the +momentary gain. But that gain was immense. Nor was the price as hard to +pay as it seems to modern eyes. The Pope stood too high above earthly +monarchs, his claims, at least as Innocent conceived and expressed them, +were too spiritual, too remote from the immediate business and interests +of the day, to make the owning of his suzerainty any very practical +burthen. John could recall a time when his father was willing to own the +same subjection as that which he was about to take on himself. He could +recall the parallel allegiance which his brother had pledged to the +Emperor. Shame indeed there must be in any loss of independence, but in +this less than any, and with Rome the shame of submission had already +been incurred. But whatever were the king's thoughts his act was +decisive. On the 15th of May 1213 he knelt before the legate Pandulf, +surrendered his kingdom to the Roman See, took it back again as a +tributary vassal, swore fealty and did liege homage to the Pope. + +[Sidenote: Its Results] + +In after times men believed that England thrilled at the news with a +sense of national shame such as she had never felt before. "He has become +the Pope's man" the whole country was said to have murmured; "he has +forfeited the very name of king; from a free man he has degraded himself +into a serf." But this was the belief of a time still to come when the +rapid growth of national feeling which this step and its issues did more +than anything to foster made men look back on the scene between John and +Pandulf as a national dishonour. We see little trace of such a feeling in +the contemporary accounts of the time. All seem rather to have regarded +it as a complete settlement of the difficulties in which king and kingdom +were involved. As a political measure its success was immediate and +complete. The French army at once broke up in impotent rage, and when +Philip turned on the enemy John had raised up for him in Flanders, five +hundred English ships under the Earl of Salisbury fell upon the fleet +which accompanied the French army along the coast and utterly destroyed +it. The league which John had so long matured at once disclosed itself. +Otto, reinforcing his German army by the knighthood of Flanders and +Boulogne as well as by a body of mercenaries in the pay of the English +king, invaded France from the north. John called on his baronage to +follow him over sea for an attack on Philip from the south. + +[Sidenote: Geoffry Fitz-Peter] + +Their plea that he remained excommunicate was set aside by the arrival of +Langton and his formal absolution of the king on a renewal of his +coronation oath and a pledge to put away all evil customs. But the barons +still stood aloof. They would serve at home, they said, but they refused +to cross the sea. Those of the north took a more decided attitude of +opposition. From this point indeed the northern barons begin to play +their part in our constitutional history. Lacies, Vescies, Percies, +Stutevilles, Bruces, houses such as those of de Ros or de Vaux, all had +sprung to greatness on the ruins of the Mowbrays and the great houses of +the Conquest, and had done service to the Crown in its strife with the +older feudatories. But loyal as was their tradition they were English to +the core; they had neither lands nor interest over sea, and they now +declared themselves bound by no tenure to follow the king in foreign +wars. Furious at this check to his plans John marched in arms northwards +to bring these barons to submission. But he had now to reckon with a new +antagonist in the Justiciar, Geoffry Fitz-Peter. Geoffry had hitherto +bent to the king's will; but the political sagacity which he drew from +the school of Henry the Second in which he had been trained showed him +the need of concession, and his wealth, his wide kinship, and his +experience of affairs gave his interposition a decisive weight. He seized +on the political opportunity which was offered by the gathering of a +Council at St. Albans at the opening of August with the purpose of +assessing the damages done to the Church. Besides the bishops and barons, +a reeve and his four men were summoned to this Council from each royal +demesne, no doubt simply as witnesses of the sums due to the plundered +clergy. Their presence however was of great import. It is the first +instance which our history presents of the summons of such +representatives to a national Council, and the instance took fresh weight +from the great matters which came to be discussed. In the king's name the +Justiciar promised good government for the time to come, and forbade all +royal officers to practise extortion as they prized life and limb. The +king's peace was pledged to those who had opposed him in the past; and +observance of the laws of Henry the First was enjoined upon all within +the realm. + +[Sidenote: Stephen Langton] + +But it was not in Geoffry Fitz-Peter that English freedom was to find its +champion and the baronage their leader. From the moment of his landing in +England Stephen Langton had taken up the constitutional position of the +Primate in upholding the old customs and rights of the realm against the +personal despotism of the kings. As Anselm had withstood William the Red, +as Theobald had withstood Stephen, so Langton prepared to withstand and +rescue his country from the tyranny of John. He had already forced him to +swear to observe the laws of Edward the Confessor, in other words the +traditional liberties of the realm. When the baronage refused to sail for +Poitou he compelled the king to deal with them not by arms but by process +of law. But the work which he now undertook was far greater and weightier +than this. The pledges of Henry the First had long been forgotten when +the Justiciar brought them to light, but Langton saw the vast importance +of such a precedent. At the close of the month he produced Henry's +charter in a fresh gathering of barons at St. Paul's, and it was at once +welcomed as a base for the needed reforms. From London Langton hastened +to the king, whom he reached at Northampton on his way to attack the +nobles of the north, and wrested from him a promise to bring his strife +with them to legal judgement before assailing them in arms. With his +allies gathering abroad John had doubtless no wish to be entangled in a +long quarrel at home, and the Archbishop's mediation allowed him to +withdraw with seeming dignity. After a demonstration therefore at Durham +John marched hastily south again, and reached London in October. His +Justiciar at once laid before him the claims of the Councils of St. +Alban's and St. Paul's; but the death of Geoffry at this juncture freed +him from the pressure which his minister was putting upon him. "Now, by +God's feet," cried John, "I am for the first time King and Lord of +England," and he entrusted the vacant justiciarship to a Poitevin, Peter +des Roches, the Bishop of Winchester, whose temper was in harmony with +his own. But the death of Geoffry only called the Archbishop to the +front, and Langton at once demanded the king's assent to the charter of +Henry the First. In seizing on this charter as a basis for national +action Langton showed a political ability of the highest order. The +enthusiasm with which its recital was welcomed showed the sagacity with +which the Archbishop had chosen his ground. From that moment the baronage +was no longer drawn together in secret conspiracies by a sense of common +wrong or a vague longing for common deliverance: they were openly united +in a definite claim of national freedom and national law. + + +[Sidenote: Bouvines] + +John could as yet only meet the claim by delay. His policy had still to +wait for its fruits at Rome, his diplomacy to reap its harvest in +Flanders, ere he could deal with England. From the hour of his submission +to the Papacy his one thought had been that of vengeance on the barons +who, as he held, had betrayed him; but vengeance was impossible till he +should return a conqueror from the fields of France. It was a sense of +this danger which nerved the baronage to their obstinate refusal to +follow him over sea: but furious as he was at their resistance, the +Archbishop's interposition condemned John still to wait for the hour of +his revenge. In the spring of 1214 he crossed with what forces he could +gather to Poitou, rallied its nobles round him, passed the Loire in +triumph, and won back again Angers, the home of his race. At the same +time Otto and the Count of Flanders, their German and Flemish knighthood +strengthened by reinforcements from Boulogne as well as by a body of +English troops under the Earl of Salisbury, threatened France from the +north. For the moment Philip seemed lost: and yet on the fortunes of +Philip hung the fortunes of English freedom. But in this crisis of her +fate, France was true to herself and her king. From every borough of +Northern France the townsmen marched to his rescue, and the village +priests led their flocks to battle with the Church-banners flying at +their head. The two armies met at the close of July near the bridge of +Bouvines, between Lille and Tournay, and from the first the day went +against the allies. The Flemish knights were the first to fly; then the +Germans in the centre of the host were crushed by the overwhelming +numbers of the French; last of all the English on the right of it were +broken by a fierce onset of the Bishop of Beauvais who charged mace in +hand and struck the Earl of Salisbury to the ground. The news of this +complete overthrow reached John in the midst of his triumphs in the +South, and scattered his hopes to the winds. He was at once deserted by +the Poitevin nobles; and a hasty retreat alone enabled him to return in +October, baffled and humiliated, to his island kingdom. + +[Sidenote: Rising of the Baronage] + +His return forced on the crisis to which events had so long been +drifting. The victory at Bouvines gave strength to his opponents. The +open resistance of the northern barons nerved the rest of their order to +action. The great houses who had cast away their older feudal traditions +for a more national policy were drawn by the crisis into close union with +the families which had sprung from the ministers and councillors of the +two Henries. To the first group belonged such men as Saher de Quinci, the +Earl of Winchester, Geoffrey of Mandeville, Earl of Essex, the Earl of +Clare, Fulk Fitz-Warin, William Mallet, the houses of Fitz-Alan and Gant. +Among the second group were Henry Bohun and Roger Bigod, the Earls of +Hereford and Norfolk, the younger William Marshal, and Robert de Vere. +Robert Fitz-Walter, who took the command of their united force, +represented both parties equally, for he was sprung from the Norman house +of Brionne, while the Justiciar of Henry the Second, Richard de Lucy, had +been his grandfather. Secretly, and on the pretext of pilgrimage, these +nobles met at St. Edmundsbury, resolute to bear no longer with John's +delays. If he refused to restore their liberties they swore to make war +on him till he confirmed them by Charter under the king's seal, and they +parted to raise forces with the purpose of presenting their demands at +Christmas. John, knowing nothing of the coming storm, pursued his policy +of winning over the Church by granting it freedom of election, while he +embittered still more the strife with his nobles by demanding scutage +from the northern nobles who had refused to follow him to Poitou. But the +barons were now ready to act, and early in January in the memorable year +1215 they appeared in arms to lay, as they had planned, their demands +before the king. + +[Sidenote: John deserted] + +John was taken by surprise. He asked for a truce till Easter-tide, and +spent the interval in fevered efforts to avoid the blow. Again he offered +freedom to the Church, and took vows as a Crusader against whom war was a +sacrilege, while he called for a general oath of allegiance and fealty +from the whole body of his subjects. But month after month only showed +the king the uselessness of further resistance. Though Pandulf was with +him, his vassalage had as yet brought little fruit in the way of aid from +Rome; the commissioners whom he sent to plead his cause at the +shire-courts brought back news that no man would help him against the +charter that the barons claimed: and his efforts to detach the clergy +from the league of his opponents utterly failed. The nation was against +the king. He was far indeed from being utterly deserted. His ministers +still clung to him, men such as Geoffrey de Lucy, Geoffrey de Furnival, +Thomas Basset, and William Briwere, statesmen trained in the +administrative school of his father and who, dissent as they might from +John's mere oppression, still looked on the power of the Crown as the one +barrier against feudal anarchy: and beside them stood some of the great +nobles of royal blood, his father's bastard Earl William of Salisbury, +his cousin Earl William of Warenne, and Henry Earl of Cornwall, a +grandson of Henry the First. With him too remained Ranulf, Earl of +Chester, and the wisest and noblest of the barons, William Marshal the +elder, Earl of Pembroke. William Marshal had shared in the rising of the +younger Henry against Henry the Second, and stood by him as he died; he +had shared in the overthrow of William Longchamp and in the outlawry of +John. He was now an old man, firm, as we shall see in his after-course, +to recall the government to the path of freedom and law, but shrinking +from a strife which might bring back the anarchy of Stephen's day, and +looking for reforms rather in the bringing constitutional pressure to +bear upon the king than in forcing them from him by arms. + +[Sidenote: John yields] + +But cling as such men might to John, they clung to him rather as +mediators than adherents. Their sympathies went with the demands of the +barons when the delay which had been granted was over and the nobles +again gathered in arms at Brackley in Northamptonshire to lay their +claims before the King. Nothing marks more strongly the absolutely +despotic idea of his sovereignty which John had formed than the +passionate surprise which breaks out in his reply. "Why do they not ask +for my kingdom?" he cried. "I will never grant such liberties as will +make me a slave!" The imperialist theories of the lawyers of his father's +court had done their work. Held at bay by the practical sense of Henry, +they had told on the more headstrong nature of his sons. Richard and John +both held with Glanvill that the will of the prince was the law of the +land; and to fetter that will by the customs and franchises which were +embodied in the barons' claims seemed to John a monstrous usurpation of +his rights. But no imperialist theories had touched the minds of his +people. The country rose as one man at his refusal. At the close of May +London threw open her gates to the forces of the barons, now arrayed +under Robert Fitz-Walter as "Marshal of the Army of God and Holy Church." +Exeter and Lincoln followed the example of the capital; promises of aid +came from Scotland and Wales; the northern barons marched hastily under +Eustace de Vesci to join their comrades in London. Even the nobles who +had as yet clung to the king, but whose hopes of conciliation were +blasted by his obstinacy, yielded at last to the summons of the "Army of +God." Pandulf indeed and Archbishop Langton still remained with John, but +they counselled, as Earl Ranulf and William Marshal counselled, his +acceptance of the Charter. None in fact counselled its rejection save his +new Justiciar, the Poitevin Peter des Roches, and other foreigners who +knew the barons purposed driving them from the land. But even the number +of these was small; there was a moment when John found himself with but +seven knights at his back and before him a nation in arms. Quick as he +was, he had been taken utterly by surprise. It was in vain that in the +short respite he had gained from Christmas to Easter he had summoned +mercenaries to his aid and appealed to his new suzerain, the Pope. +Summons and appeal were alike too late. Nursing wrath in his heart, John +bowed to necessity and called the barons to a conference on an island in +the Thames, between Windsor and Staines, near a marshy meadow by the +river side, the meadow of Runnymede. The king encamped on one bank of the +river, the barons covered the flat of Runnymede on the other. Their +delegates met on the 15th of June in the island between them, but the +negotiations were a mere cloak to cover John's purpose of unconditional +submission. The Great Charter was discussed and agreed to in a single +day. + +[Sidenote: The Great Charter] + +Copies of it were made and sent for preservation to the cathedrals and +churches, and one copy may still be seen in the British Museum, injured +by age and fire, but with the royal seal still hanging from the brown, +shrivelled parchment. It is impossible to gaze without reverence on the +earliest monument of English freedom which we can see with our own eyes +and touch with our own hands, the great Charter to which from age to age +men have looked back as the groundwork of English liberty. But in itself +the Charter was no novelty, nor did it claim to establish any new +constitutional principles. The Charter of Henry the First formed the +basis of the whole, and the additions to it are for the most part formal +recognitions of the judicial and administrative changes introduced by +Henry the Second. What was new in it was its origin. In form, like the +Charter on which it was based, it was nothing but a royal grant. In +actual fact it was a treaty between the whole English people and its +king. In it England found itself for the first time since the Conquest a +nation bound together by common national interests, by a common national +sympathy. In words which almost close the Charter, the "community of the +whole land" is recognized as the great body from which the restraining +power of the baronage takes its validity. There is no distinction of +blood or class, of Norman or not Norman, of noble or not noble. All are +recognized as Englishmen, the rights of all are owned as English rights. +Bishops and nobles claimed and secured at Runnymede the rights not of +baron and churchman only but those of freeholder and merchant, of +townsman and villein. The provisions against wrong and extortion which +the barons drew up as against the king for themselves they drew up as +against themselves for their tenants. Based too as it professed to be on +Henry's Charter it was far from being a mere copy of what had gone +before. The vague expressions of the old Charter were now exchanged for +precise and elaborate provisions. The bonds of unwritten custom which the +older grant did little more than recognize had proved too weak to hold +the Angevins; and the baronage set them aside for the restraints of +written and defined law. It is in this way that the Great Charter marks +the transition from the age of traditional rights, preserved in the +nation's memory and officially declared by the Primate, to the age of +written legislation, of Parliaments and Statutes, which was to come. + +Its opening indeed is in general terms. The Church had shown its power of +self-defence in the struggle over the interdict, and the clause which +recognized its rights alone retained the older and general form. But all +vagueness ceases when the Charter passes on to deal with the rights of +Englishmen at large, their right to justice, to security of person and +property, to good government. "No freeman," ran a memorable article that +lies at the base of our whole judicial system, "shall be seized or +imprisoned, or dispossessed, or outlawed, or in any way brought to ruin: +we will not go against any man nor send against him, save by legal +judgement of his peers or by the law of the land." "To no man will we +sell," runs another, "or deny, or delay, right or justice." The great +reforms of the past reigns were now formally recognized; judges of assize +were to hold their circuits four times in the year, and the King's Court +was no longer to follow the king in his wanderings over the realm but to +sit in a fixed place. But the denial of justice under John was a small +danger compared with the lawless exactions both of himself and his +predecessor. Richard had increased the amount of the scutage which Henry +the Second had introduced, and applied it to raise funds for his ransom. +He had restored the Danegeld, or land-tax, so often abolished, under the +new name of "carucage," had seized the wool of the Cistercians and the +plate of the churches, and rated movables as well as land. John had again +raised the rate of scutage, and imposed aids, fines, and ransoms at his +pleasure without counsel of the baronage. The Great Charter met this +abuse by a provision on which our constitutional system rests. "No +scutage or aid [other than the three customary feudal aids] shall be +imposed in our realm save by the common council of the realm"; and to +this Great Council it was provided that prelates and the greater barons +should be summoned by special writ, and all tenants in chief through the +sheriffs and bailiffs, at least forty days before. The provision defined +what had probably been the common usage of the realm; but the definition +turned it into a national right, a right so momentous that on it rests +our whole Parliamentary life. Even the baronage seem to have been +startled when they realized the extent of their claim; and the provision +was dropped from the later issue of the Charter at the outset of the next +reign. But the clause brought home to the nation at large their +possession of a right which became dearer as years went by. More and more +clearly the nation discovered that in these simple words lay the secret +of political power. It was the right of self-taxation that England fought +for under Earl Simon as she fought for it under Hampden. It was the +establishment of this right which established English freedom. + +The rights which the barons claimed for themselves they claimed for the +nation at large. The boon of free and unbought justice was a boon for +all, but a special provision protected the poor. The forfeiture of the +freeman on conviction of felony was never to include his tenement, or +that of the merchant his wares, or that of the countryman, as Henry the +Second had long since ordered, his wain. The means of actual livelihood +were to be left even to the worst. The seizure of provisions, the +exaction of forced labour, by royal officers was forbidden; and the +abuses of the forest system were checked by a clause which disafforested +all forests made in John's reign. The under-tenants were protected +against all lawless exactions of their lords in precisely the same terms +as these were protected against the lawless exactions of the Crown. The +towns were secured in the enjoyment of their municipal privileges, their +freedom from arbitrary taxation, their rights of justice, of common +deliberation, of regulation of trade. "Let the city of London have all +its old liberties and its free customs, as well by land as by water. +Besides this, we will and grant that all other cities, and boroughs, and +towns, and ports, have all their liberties and free customs." The +influence of the trading class is seen in two other enactments by which +freedom of journeying and trade was secured to foreign merchants, and an +uniformity of weights and measures was ordered to be enforced throughout +the realm. + +[Sidenote: Innocent annuls the Charter] + +There remained only one question, and that the most difficult of all; the +question how to secure this order which the Charter established in the +actual government of the realm. It was easy to sweep away the immediate +abuses; the hostages were restored to their homes, the foreigners +banished by a clause in the Charter from the country. But it was less +easy to provide means for the control of a king whom no man could trust. +By the treaty as settled at Runnymede a council of twenty-five barons +were to be chosen from the general body of their order to enforce on John +the observance of the Charter, with the right of declaring war on the +king should its provisions be infringed, and it was provided that the +Charter should not only be published throughout the whole country but +sworn to at every hundred-mote and town-mote by order from the king. +"They have given me five-and-twenty over-kings," cried John in a burst of +fury, flinging himself on the floor and gnawing sticks and straw in his +impotent rage. But the rage soon passed into the subtle policy of which +he was a master. After a few days he left Windsor; and lingered for +months along the southern shore, waiting for news of the aid he had +solicited from Rome and from the Continent. It was not without definite +purpose that he had become the vassal of the Papacy. While Innocent was +dreaming of a vast Christian Empire with the Pope at its head to enforce +justice and religion on his under-kings, John believed that the Papal +protection would enable him to rule as tyrannically as he would. The +thunders of the Papacy were to be ever at hand for his protection, as the +armies of England are at hand to protect the vileness and oppression of a +Turkish Sultan or a Nizam of Hyderabad. His envoys were already at Rome, +pleading for a condemnation of the Charter. The after action of the +Papacy shows that Innocent was moved by no hostility to English freedom. +But he was indignant that a matter which might have been brought before +his court of appeal as overlord should have been dealt with by armed +revolt, and in this crisis both his imperious pride and the legal +tendency of his mind swayed him to the side of the king who submitted to +his justice. He annulled the Great Charter by a bull in August, and at +the close of the year excommunicated the barons. + +[Sidenote: Landing of Lewis] + +His suspension of Stephen Langton from the exercise of his office as +Primate was a more fatal blow. Langton hurried to Rome, and his absence +left the barons without a head at a moment when the very success of their +efforts was dividing them. Their forces were already disorganized when +autumn brought a host of foreign soldiers from over sea to the king's +standard. After starving Rochester into submission John found himself +strong enough to march ravaging through the Midland and Northern +counties, while his mercenaries spread like locusts over the whole face +of the land. From Berwick the king turned back triumphant to coop up his +enemies in London while fresh Papal excommunications fell on the barons +and the city. But the burghers set Innocent at defiance. "The ordering of +secular matters appertaineth not to the Pope," they said, in words that +seem like mutterings of the coming Lollardism; and at the advice of Simon +Langton, the Archbishop's brother, bells swung out and mass was +celebrated as before. Success however was impossible for the +undisciplined militia of the country and the towns against the trained +forces of the king, and despair drove the barons to listen to Fitz-Walter +and the French party in their ranks, and to seek aid from over sea. +Philip had long been waiting the opportunity for his revenge upon John. +In the April of 1216 his son Lewis accepted the crown in spite of +Innocent's excommunications, and landed soon after in Kent with a +considerable force. As the barons had foreseen, the French mercenaries +who constituted John's host refused to fight against the French sovereign +and the whole aspect of affairs was suddenly reversed. Deserted by the +bulk of his troops, the king was forced to fall rapidly back on the Welsh +Marches, while his rival entered London and received the submission of +the larger part of England. Only Dover held out obstinately against +Lewis. By a series of rapid marches John succeeded in distracting the +plans of the barons and in relieving Lincoln; then after a short stay at +Lynn he crossed the Wash in a fresh movement to the north. In crossing +however his army was surprised by the tide, and his baggage with the +royal treasures washed away. Fever seized the baffled tyrant as he +reached the Abbey of Swineshead, his sickness was inflamed by a +gluttonous debauch, and on the 19th of October John breathed his last at +Newark. + +END OF VOL. 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