BOOK III. HENRY II'S CONSTITUTION AND POLICY. CHAPTER I. Henry II. of Anjou, 1154-1189. Henry's wise home and 1. To restore order and maintain it was not easy, but the new king was well fitted for the task. He had great natural gifts, was of an energetic and persevering character, and an iron constitution, while he had set his heart on seeing his domains peaceful and prosperous. Directly he was crowned, December 19, 1154, he published a charter, and began carrying out the articles of the Wallingford treaty. The Flemings were sent home to their workshops, or ordered to join their brethren in Wales, the royal farms were restocked, Stephen's foolish grants of land and money annulled, and the great barons of both parties compelled to give up their castles. The rule of law began again; Henry chose Robert, Earl of Leicester, for his Justiciar, and Thomas Beket for Chancellor, appointed fresh judges for his royal court, and put forth a new order allowing disputed criminal cases or suits touching the ownership of land to be decided before a king's judge by inquest [inquiry] of twelve sworn neighbours, freeholders of the shire, instead of ordeal or wager of battle. After defeating his brother Geoffrey's attack on Anjou, Henry further secured his realm by making the King of Scots pay him homage at Chester, and give up the earldoms of Cumberland and Northumberland, which he had received from the late king. In an attack on Wales he was less happy, for in a fight at Consilt Pass, the standard-bearer of England, Henry, Earl of Essex, threw down the royal banner and fled, whereon the English, supposing the king to be slain, turned to flight. However, Owen, the Welsh prince, knowing his foe's power, was glad to make peace. Henry of Essex was afterwards accused of treason, and defeated by Robert of Montfort in trial by battle, but was permitted to become a monk, forfeiting all his lands and goods, but saving his life. Wishing to bring about a lasting peace with the King of France, Henry now sent his Chancellor in great state to France to arrange a marriage between his own little son Henry and Louis' baby daughter Margaret, and himself paid a friendly visit to Paris. But in 1159, when he claimed Toulouse by right of his wife from Raymond of S. Giles, the French king opposed him and war began. By Thomas' advice Henry made his knights pay scutage [shield-money] instead of service-inarms, and by this means hired foreign soldiers who would follow him as long as he could pay them, whereas the knights only owed him forty days' service, and the fyrd could not be ordered abroad. The King of Scots, the Prince of Wales, and Raymond, Earl of Barcelona, joined the English army, and Henry laid siege to Toulouse; but when Louis threw himself into the city, he was unwilling to fight against his suzerain [feudal lord], and though Beket laughed at his scruples, raised the siege and withdrew his troops. Still the two kings did not become friends; for Henry got leave from the Pope to marry the two children, and so, greatly to Louis' disgust, took possession of the Vexin, Margaret's dowry, long before the French king thought of losing it. However, in 1161, the two princes met at Chateauroux to decide which Pope they would acknowledge; for after the death of Adrian IV. (Nicholas Breakspear, Henry's firm friend, the only Englishman who was ever Bishop of Rome) a deadly dispute had arisen between the cardinals, and two rival popes had been chosen. In spite of his friendship for the Emperor Frederick, who favoured Victor, Henry agreed with Louis to stand by Alexander. 2. In 1162 the English bishops, willing to please Henry, chose his friend the Chancellor to fill the vacant see of Canterbury. Thomas Beket was the son of a rich Norman merchant, Gilbert, sometime port-reeve of London, and his wife, Maud of Caen, who had brought him up with great care, sending him to the hall of Richer of L'Aigle, his father's friend, to learn courtly behaviour, and to the office of the wealthy Osbern Eightpenny to be taught business. He was for a time at the University of Paris, and is said to have been a pupil of the famous lawyer Gratian at Bologna. Taken into the house hold of Archbishop Theobald, he had served him skilfully at home and abroad, and, in spite of jealous enemies, such as Roger of Pont l'Evêque, gained his high esteem. With his master he took part in the reforms of 1154, in which year he was made Archdeacon of Canterbury. Henry The struggle soon singled him out as a bold and able man, and with Beket, besides giving him the chancery, promoted him 1164-1170. to other posts of trust. As keeper of the Tower and castellan of Eye, he led 700 knights in the Toulouse war, where he did many deeds of arms, and overcame a French knight, Ingelram of Trie, in single combat. Several well-known stories witness to his close friendship with the king; his kindliness, and the open-handed hospitality, in which he surpassed all his predecessors, assured the favour of the people. Thomas is described as tall and spare, but strong-limbed, dark-haired, pale-cheeked, of pleasing countenance, blithe manners, and quick, frank speech, stammering a little when he was moved. In youth he had been known as a good chess-player, a bold rider, and keen sportsman. He was always a hater of liars and slanderers, and a kind friend to dumb beasts and all poor and helpless folk. Henry looked to his new archbishop for aid in the plans he was now devising for bounding the powers of the Church courts and bettering the law, but Thomas made up his mind to serve the Church as singly and zealously as he had hitherto served the king, and at once gave up the Chancellorship, much to the king's displeasure. He then took measures against some courtiers who were, he believed, defrauding the see of Canterbury, and at the Great Council of Woodstock in 1162 successfully withstood the king to the face, when he wished to turn the Dangeld shire-fees into a regular tax to be newly assessed, declaring that he would not suffer a penny to be paid off his or any other land. At the same time he entirely changed his mode of life, giving up all courtly amusements and worldly business, and spending all his time in the care of his diocese, the relief of the poor and sick, and his religious duties, fasting often, secretly Scourging himself daily for penance, and wearing a haircloth next his skin, though he still dressed richly and kept grand state. In 1163 at a Great Council at Westminster, in consequence of a case in which a clergyman had committed a crime and, being claimed by the Church, escaped capital punishment, the king determined to put an end to this conflict of laws by which evil-doers might profit, and asked the bishops whether for the future they would be willing to abide by the Old Customs of the realm, as settled in his grandfather's day. To this all agreed "saving the rights of their order," whereupon Henry ordered his justiciar, Richard of Lucy, and his clerk, Jocelin of Balliol, to draw up a list of these Old Customs. Sixteen Constitutions or Articles were accordingly set before the bishops in a Great Council at Clarendon, January 1164. By these-1. Bishops were to be chosen by the king's consent, and must do him homage and attend his courts like other barons, save when capital offences were being dealt with. 2. All questions touching Church patronage, land held by lay service (rent or service-in-arms), contracts, capital offences committed by clergymen, and injuries done to the clergy by laymen were to be tried in the king's courts. 3. Lesser offences committed by clergymen against laymen or their fellow-clergy, and suits relating to land held by spiritual service (the performance of Church duties) were to be tried in the Church courts. 4. No layman was to be punished by the Church courts, and no clergyman might leave the realm or appeal to Rome without first getting the king's leave. 5. No serf might be ordained without his lord's leave. Thomas protested that these Constitutions attacked the liberties of the Church, which the king in his coronation oath had sworn to maintain, and was only persuaded to sign them by the prayer of his fellow-bishops. Directly he had signed them he repented, withdrew his signature, and sent to beg forgiveness of the Pope for having wronged the Church. His enemies took care to fan Henry's natural anger at his old friend's opposition, and another Council met at Northampton, 8th October 1164, where the archbishop was accused of denying justice to John the Treasury-Marshal, found guilty, and heavily fined; and further ordered to account for 30,000 marks spent by him while Chancellor. In vain he proved that the Justiciar Richard had set him free of all claims when he laid down his office. The king would not stay the proceedings unless Thomas would agree to the Constitutions. Whereupon the archbishop came into the Council in full robes with the crosier in his hand, and refusing to allow Earl Robert to pass sentence against him, put himself and the Church under the keeping of God and the Pope. There were shouts of anger at his words. Earl Hamelin, the king's brother, and Randulf of Brok cried, "Traitor! traitor!" and others tore up the rushes from the floor and flung them at him. Turning fiercely to the earl, "If I might bear arms," he said, "I would quickly prove on you that you lied." "You, Randulf, look at home [his cousin has lately been hanged for felony] before you accuse the guiltless!" and passed out of the hall. Hopeless of aid from his fellow-bishops, who all sided with the king, he fled in disguise to Flanders that very night. Both parties appealed to Alexander, who was then at Sens. Henry in his anger cruelly banished all Thomas' friends and kinsmen, 400 in number; but the French king, who took up the archbishop's cause warmly, received them and gave them lodging and food in his domains. Knowing that the Emperor Frederick (to whose friend Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, the English king had just betrothed his daughter Margaret) was trying to gain King Henry's help for his new antipope Pascal [Victor's successor], Alexander was lukewarm in backing Thomas' cause, though he could not honestly give it up, and let the case drag on. Meanwhile the English king strengthened himself by getting the hand of Constance, heiress of Richmond and Brittany, for his third son Geoffrey, and went on with his law reforms. Early in 1166 he issued the Assize of Clarendon, instructions for the judges going on circuit; for, copying the plan of his grandfather (who had sent his judges to the county courts to hear and decide revenue cases), he had ordered them to try all important cases, civil or criminal, in the shire courts, thus preventing the feudal lords from setting up private courts of justice of their own, apart from the royal authority, and curbing the sheriffs, who might have used their offices to advance their own power if not checked by the king's judges. This assize obliged all landholders to attend the county courts, restored the old grand jury, fallen into disuse in Stephen's days, and provided that all accused must clear themselves before the king's judges by the inquest of twelve sworn neighbours (our petty jury) or by wager of battle, or else leave the kingdom, even though they could clear themselves by ordeal, for it was now felt that the ordeal was merely a matter of chance. In June, weary of the Pope's delay, Thomas reopened the quarrel by excommunicating the Justiciar Richard and others for upholding the Constitutions, and Randulf of Brok for taking a piece of Church land. They appealed to the Pope against this sentence, and Henry threatened to banish the Cistercians because their brethren were sheltering the archbishop at Pontigny. He therefore moved to Sens |
