STEPHEN.
ACCESSION OF STEPHEN--WAR WITH SCOTLAND.--INSURRECTION IN FAVOUR OF
MATILDA.--STEPHEN TAKEN PRISONER.--MATILDA CROWNED.STEPHEN RELEASED.
--RESTORED TO THE CROWN.--CONTINUATION OF THE CIVIL WARS.--COMPROMISE
BETWEEN THE KING AND PRINCE HENRY.DEATH OF THE KING.
[MN 1135.] In the progress and settlement of the feudal law, the male
succession to fiefs had taken place some time before the female was
admitted; and estates being considered as military benefices, not as
property, were transmitted to such only as could serve in the armies,
and perform in person the conditions upon which they were originally
granted. But when the continuance of rights, during some generations,
in the same family, had in a great measure, obliterated the primitive
idea, the females were gradually admitted to the possession of feudal
property; and the same revolution of principles which procured them
the inheritance of private estates naturally introduced their
succession to government and authority. The failure, therefore, of
male heirs to the kingdom of England and duchy of Normandy seemed to
leave the succession open, without a rival, to the Empress Matilda;
and as Henry had made all his vassals, in both states, swear fealty to
her, he presumed that they would not easily be induced to depart at
once from her hereditary right, and from their own reiterated oaths
and engagements. But the irregular manner in which he himself had
acquired the crown might have instructed him, that neither his Norman
nor English subjects were as yet capable of adhering to a strict rule
of government; and as every precedent of this kind seems to give
authority to new usurpations, he had reason to dread, even from his
own family, some invasion of his daughter's title which he had taken
such pains to establish.
Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror, had been married to Stephen,
Count of Blois, and had brought him several sons, among whom Stephen
and Henry, the two youngest, had been invited over to England by the
late king, and had received great honours, riches, and preferment,
from the zealous friendship which that prince bore to every one that
had been so fortunate as to acquire his favour and good opinion.
Henry, who had betaken himself to the ecclesiastical profession, was
created Abbot of Glastonbury and Bishop of Winchester; and though
these dignities were considerable, Stephen had, from his uncle's
liberality, attained establishments still more solid and durable [a].
The king had married him to Matilda, who was daughter and heir of
Eustace Count of Boulogne, and who brought him, besides that feudal
sovereignty in France, an immense property in England, which, in the
distribution of lands, had been conferred by the Conqueror on the
family of Boulogne. Stephen also by this marriage acquired a new
connexion with the royal family of England; as Mary, his wife's
mother, was sister to David the reigning King of Scotland, and to
Matilda, the first wife of Henry, and mother of the empress. The
king, still imagining that he strengthened the interests of his family
by the aggrandizement of Stephen, took pleasure in enriching him by
the grant of new possessions; and he conferred on him the great estate
forfeited by Robert Mallet in England, and that forfeited by the Earl
of Mortaigne in Normandy. Stephen, in return, professed great
attachment to his uncle; and appeared so zealous for the succession of
Matilda, that when the barons swore fealty to that princess, he
contended with Robert, Earl of Gloucester, the king's natural son, who
should first be admitted to give her this testimony of devoted zeal
and fidelity [b]. Meanwhile he continued to cultivate, by every art
of popularity, the friendship of the English nation; and many virtues,
with which he seemed to be endowed, favoured the success of his
intentions. By his bravery, activity, and vigour, he acquired the
esteem of the barons: by his generosity, and by an affable and
familiar address, unusual in that age among men of his high quality,
he obtained the affections of the people, particularly of the
Londoners [c]. And though he dared not to take any steps towards his
farther grandeur, lest he should expose himself to the jealousy of so
penetrating a prince as Henry; he still hoped that, by accumulating
riches and power, and by acquiring popularity, he might in time be
able to open his way to the throne.
[FN [a] Gul. Neubr. p. 360. Brompton, p. 1023. [b] W. Malm. p. 192.]
No sooner had Henry breathed his last, than Stephen, insensible to all
the ties of gratitude and fidelity, and blind to danger, gave full
reins to his criminal ambition, and trusted that, even without any
previous intrigue, the celerity of his enterprise, and the boldness of
his attempt, might overcome the weak attachment which the English and
Normans in that age bore to the law and to the rights of their
sovereign. He hastened over to England; and though the citizens of
Dover, and those of Canterbury, apprized of his purpose, shut their
gates against him, he stopped not till he arrived at London, where
some of the lower rank, instigated by his emissaries, as well as moved
by his general popularity, immediately saluted him king. His next
point was to acquire the good will of the clergy; and by performing
the ceremony of his coronation, to put himself in possession of the
throne, from which he was confident it would not be easy afterwards to
expel him. His brother, the Bishop of Winchester, was useful to him
in these capital articles: having gained Roger, Bishop of Salisbury,
who, though he owed a great fortune and advancement to the favour of
the late king, preserved no sense of gratitude to that prince's
family, he applied, in conjunction with that prelate, to William,
Archbishop of Canterbury, and required him, in virtue of his office,
to give the royal unction to Stephen. The primate, who, as all the
others, had shown fealty to Matilda, refused to perform this ceremony;
but his opposition was overcome by an expedient equally dishonourable
with the other steps by which this revolution was effected. Hugh
Bigod, steward of the household, made oath before the primate, that
the late king, on his deathbed, had shown a dissatisfaction with his
daughter Matilda, and had expressed his intention of leaving the Count
of Boulogne heir to all his dominions [d]. [MN 1135. 22d. Dec.]
William, either believing, of feigning to believe, Bigod's testimony,
anointed Stephen, and put the crown upon his head; and from this
religious ceremony that prince, without any shadow either of
hereditary title, or consent of the nobility or people, was allowed to
proceed to the exercise of sovereign authority. Very few barons
attended his coronation [e]; but none opposed his usurpation, however
unjust or flagrant. The sentiment of religion, which, if corrupted
into superstition, has often little efficacy in fortifying the duties
of civil society, was not affected by the multiplied oaths taken in
favour of Matilda, and only rendered the people obedient to a prince,
who was countenanced by the clergy, and who had received from the
primate the rite of royal unction and consecration [f].
[FN [c] W. Malm. p. 179. Gest. Steph. p. 928. [d] Matt. Paris, p.
51. Diceto, p. 505. Chron. Dunst. p. 23. [e] Brompton, p. 1023.
[f] Such stress was formerly laid on the rite of coronation, that the
monkish writers never give any prince the title of king till he is
crowned; though he had for some time been in possession of the crown,
and exercised all the powers of sovereignty.]
Stephen, that he might farther secure his tottering throne, passed a
charter, in which he made liberal promises to all orders of men: to
the clergy, that he would speedily fill all vacant benefices, and
would never levy the rents of any of them during the vacancy; to the
nobility, that he would reduce the royal forests to their ancient
boundaries, and correct all encroachments; and to the people, that he
would remit the tax of Danegelt, and restore the laws of King Edward
[g]. The late king had a great treasure at Winchester, amounting to a
hundred thousand pounds; and Stephen, by seizing this money,
immediately turned against Henry's family the precaution, which that
prince had employed for their grandeur and security: an event which
naturally attends the policy of amassing treasures. By means of this
money, the usurper ensured the compliance, though not the attachment,
of the principal clergy and nobility; but not trusting to this frail
security, he invited over from the continent, particularly from
Britany and Flanders, great numbers of these bravoes or disorderly
soldiers, with whom every country in Europe, by reason of the general
ill police and turbulent government, extremely abounded [h]. These
mercenary troops guarded his throne by the terrors of the sword; and
Stephen, that he might also overawe all malecontents by new and
additional terrors of religion, procured a bull from Rome, which
ratified his title, and which the pope, seeing this prince in
possession of the throne, and pleased with an appeal to his authority
in secular controversies, very readily granted him [i].
[FN [g] W. Malmes. p. 179. Hoveden, p. 482. [h] W. Malm. p. 179.
[i] Hagulstadt, p. 259, 313.]
[MN 1136.] Matilda, and her husband Geoffrey, were as unfortunate in
Normandy as they had been in England. The Norman nobility, moved by
an hereditary animosity against the Angevins, first applied to
Theobald, Count of Blois, Stephen's elder brother, for protection and
assistance; but hearing afterwards that Stephen had got possession of
the English crown, and having many of them the same reasons as
formerly for desiring a continuance of their union with that kingdom,
they transferred their allegiance to Stephen, and put him in
possession of their government. Lewis the younger, the reigning King
of France, accepted the homage of Eustace, Stephen's eldest son, for
the duchy; and the more to corroborate his connexions with that
family, he betrothed his sister, Constantia, to the young prince. The
Count of Blois resigned all his pretensions, and received, in lieu of
them, an annual pension of two thousand marks; and Geoffrey himself
was obliged to conclude a truce for two years with Stephen, on
condition of the king's paying him, during that time, a pension of
five thousand [k]. Stephen, who had taken a journey to Normandy,
finished all these transactions in person, and soon after returned to
England.
[FN [k] M. Paris, p. 52.]
Robert, Earl of Gloucester, natural son of the late king, was a man of
honour and abilities; and as he was much attached to the interests of
his sister, Matilda, and zealous for the lineal succession, it was
chiefly from his intrigues and resistance that the king had reason to
dread a new revolution of government. This nobleman, who was in
Normandy when he received intelligence of Stephen's accession, found
himself much embarrassed concerning the measures which he should
pursue in that difficult emergency. To swear allegiance to the
usurper appeared to him dishonourable, and a breach of his oath to
Matilda: to refuse giving this pledge of his fidelity, was to banish
himself from England, and be totally incapacitated from serving the
royal family, or contributing to their restoration [l]. He offered
Stephen to do him homage, and to take the oath of fealty; but with an
express condition, that the king should maintain all his stipulations,
and should never invade any of Robert's rights or dignities: and
Stephen, though sensible that this reserve, so unusual in itself, and
so unbefitting the duty of a subject, was meant only to afford Robert
a pretence for a revolt on the first favourable opportunity, was
obliged, by the numerous friends and retainers of that nobleman, to
receive him on those terms [m]. The clergy, who could scarcely, at
this time, be deemed subjects to the crown, imitated that dangerous
example: they annexed to their oaths of allegiance this condition,
that they were only bound so long as the king defended the
ecclesiastical liberties, and supported the discipline of the church
[n]. The barons, in return for their submission, exacted terms still
more destructive of public peace, as well as of royal authority: many
of them required the right of fortifying their castles, and of putting
themselves in a posture of defence; and the king found himself totally
unable to refuse his consent to this exorbitant demand [o]. All
England was immediately filled with those fortresses, which the
noblemen garrisoned either with their vassals, or with licentious
soldiers, who flocked to them from all quarters. Unbounded rapine was
exercised upon the people for the maintenance of these troops; and
private animosities, which had with difficulty been restrained by law,
now breaking out without control, rendered England a scene of
uninterrupted violence and devastation. Wars between the nobles were
carried on with the utmost fury in every quarter; the barons even
assumed the right of coining money, and of exercising, without appeal,
every act of jurisdiction [p]; and the inferior gentry, as well as the
people, finding no defence from the laws during this total dissolution
of sovereign authority, were obliged for their immediate safety, to
pay court to some neighbouring chieftain, and to purchase his
protection, both by submitting to his exactions, and by assisting him
in his rapine upon others. The erection of one castle proved the
immediate cause of building many others; and even those who obtained
not the king's permission, thought that they were entitled, by the
great principle of self-preservation, to put themselves on an equal
footing with their neighbours, who commonly were also their enemies
and rivals. The aristocratical power, which is usually so oppressive
in the feudal governments, had now risen to its utmost height, during
the reign of a prince, who, though endowed with vigour and abilities,
had usurped the throne without the pretence of a title, and who was
necessitated to tolerate in others the same violence, to which he
himself had been beholden for his sovereignty.
[FN [l] W Malmes. p. 179. [m] Ibid. M. Paris, p. 51. [n] W. Malm,
p. 179. [o] Ibid. p. 180. [p] Trivet, p. 19 Gill. Neub. p. 372.
Chron. Heming. p. 487. Brompton, p. 1035.]
But Stephen was not of a disposition to submit long to these
usurpations, without making some effort for the recovery of royal
authority. Finding that the legal prerogatives of the crown were
resisted and abridged, he was also tempted to make his power the sole
measure of his conduct; and to violate all those concessions which he
himself had made on his accession [q], as well as the ancient
privileges of his subjects. The mercenary soldiers, who chiefly
supported his authority, having exhausted the royal treasure,
subsisted by depredations; and every place was filled with the best
grounded complaints against the government. [MN 1137.] The Earl of
Gloucester, having now settled with his friends the plan of an
insurrection, retired beyond sea, sent the king a defiance, solemnly
renounced his allegiance, and upbraided him with the breach of those
conditions which had been annexed to the oath of fealty sworn by that
nobleman [r]. [MN 1138. War with Scotland.] David, King of Scotland,
appeared at the head of an army in defence of his niece's title, and
penetrating into Yorkshire, committed the most barbarous devastations
on that country. The fury of his massacres and ravages enraged the
northern nobility, who might otherwise have been inclined to join
him; and William, Earl of Albemarle, Robert de Ferrers, William
Piercy, Robert de Brus, Roger Moubray, Ilbert Lacey, Walter l'Espec,
powerful barons in those parts, assembled an army with which they
encamped at North-Allerton, and awaited the arrival of the enemy. [MN
22d. Aug.] A great battle was here fought, called the battle of the
STANDARD, from a high crucifix, erected by the English on a waggon,
and carried along with the army as a military ensign. The King of
Scots was defeated, and he himself, as well as his son Henry, narrowly
escaped falling into the hands of the English. This success overawed
the malecontents in England, and might have given some stability to
Stephen's throne, had he not been so elated with prosperity as to
engage in a controversy with the clergy, who were at that time an
overmatch for any monarch.
[FN [q] W. Malm. p. 180. M. Paris, p. 51. [r] W. Malm. p. 180.]
Though the great power of the church, in ancient times, weakened the
authority of the crown, and interrupted the course of the laws, it may
be doubted, whether, in ages of such violence and outrage, it was not
rather advantageous that some limits were set to the power of the
sword, both in the hands of the prince and nobles, and that men were
taught to pay regard to some principles and privileges. The chief
misfortune was, that the prelates on some occasions acted entirely as
barons, employed military power against their sovereign or their
neighbours, and thereby often increased those disorders which it was
their duty to repress. The Bishop of Salisbury, in imitation of the
nobility, had built two strong castles, one at Sherborne, another at
Devizes, and had laid the foundations of a third at Malmesbury: his
nephew, Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, had erected a fortress at
Newark: and Stephen, who was now sensible from experience of the
mischiefs attending these multiplied citadels, resolved to begin with
destroying those of the clergy, who, by their function, seemed less
entitled than the barons to such military securities [s]. [MN 1139.]
Making pretence of a fray which had arisen in court between the
retinue of the Bishop of Salisbury and that of the Earl of Britany, he
seized both that prelate and the Bishop of Lincoln, threw them into
prison, and obliged them by menaces to deliver up those places of
strength which they had lately erected [t].
[FN [s] Gul. Neubr. p. 362. [t] Chron. Sax. p. 238. W. Malmes. p.
181.]
Henry, Bishop of Winchester, the king's brother, being armed with a
legatine commission, now conceived himself to be an ecclesiastical
sovereign, no less powerful than the civil; and, forgetting the ties
of blood which connected him with the king, he resolved to vindicate
the clerical privileges, which, he pretended, were here openly
violated. [MN 30th Aug.] He assembled a synod at Westminster, and
there complained of the impiety of Stephen's measures, who had
employed violence against the dignitaries of the church, and had not
awaited the sentence of a spiritual court, by which alone, he
affirmed, they could lawfully be tried and condemned, if their conduct
had anywise merited censure or punishment. [u]. The synod ventured to
send a summons to the king charging him to appear before them, and to
justify his measures [w]; and Stephen, instead of resenting this
indignity, sent Aubrey de Vere to plead his cause before that
assembly. De Vere accused the two prelates of treason and sedition;
but the synod refused to try the cause, or examine their conduct, till
those castles, of which they had been dispossessed, were previously
restored to them [x]. The Bishop of Salisbury declared that he would
appeal to the pope; and had not Stephen and his partisans employed
menaces, and even shown a disposition of executing violence by the
hands of the soldiery, affairs had instantly come to extremity between
the crown and the mitre [y].
[FN [u] W. Malm. p. 182. [w] Ibid. M Paris, p. 53. [x] W. Malm. p.
183. [y] Ibid.]
While this quarrel, joined to so many other grievances, increased the
discontents among the people, the empress, invited by the opportunity,
and secretly encouraged by the legate himself, landed in England with
Robert Earl of Gloucester, and a retinue of a hundred and forty
knights. She fixed her residence at Arundel Castle, whose gates were
opened to her by Adelais, the queen-dowager, now married to William de
Albini, Earl of Sussex; and she excited, by messengers, her partisans
to take arms in every county of England. [MN 1139. 22d Sept.
Insurrection in favour of Matilda.] Adelais, who had expected that
her daughter-in-law would have invaded the kingdom with a much greater
force, became apprehensive of danger; and Matilda, to ease her of her
fears, removed, first to Bristol, which belonged to her brother
Robert, thence to Gloucester, where she remained under the protection
of Milo, a gallant nobleman in those parts, who had embraced her
cause. Soon after Geoffrey Talbot, William Mohun, Ralph Lovel,
William Fitz-John, William Fitz-Alan, Paganell, and many other barons,
declared for her; and her party, which was generally favoured in the
kingdom, seemed every day to gain ground upon that of her antagonist.
Were we to relate all the military events transmitted to us by
contemporary and authentic historians, it would be easy to swell our
accounts of this reign into a large volume: but those incidents, so
little memorable in themselves, and so confused both in time and
place, could afford neither instruction nor entertainment to the
reader. It suffices to say, that the war was spread into every
quarter, and that those turbulent barons, who had already shaken off,
in a great measure, the restraint of government, having now obtained
the pretence of a public cause, carried on their devastations with
redoubled fury, exercised implacable vengeance on each other, and set
no bounds to their oppressions over the people. The castles of the
nobility were become receptacles of licensed robbers; who, sallying
forth day and night, committed spoil on the open country, on the
villages, and even on the cities, put the captives to torture, in
order to make them reveal their treasures; sold their persons to
slavery; and set fire to their houses, after they had pillaged them of
every thing valuable. The fierceness of their disposition, leading
them to commit wanton destruction, frustrated their rapacity of its
purpose; and the property and persons even of the ecclesiastics,
generally so much revered, were at last, from necessity, exposed to
the same outrage which had laid waste the rest of the kingdom. The
land was left untilled; the instruments of husbandry were destroyed or
abandoned; and a grievous famine, the natural result of those
disorders, affected equally both parties, and reduced the spoilers as
well as the defenceless people to the most extreme want and indigence
[z].
[FN [z] Chron. Sax. p. 238. W. Malmes. p. 185. Gest. Steph p. 961.]
[MN 1140.] After several fruitless negotiations and treaties of
peace, which never interrupted these destructive hostilities, there
happened at last an event, which seemed to promise some end of the
public calamities. Ralph, Earl of Chester, and his half-brother,
William de Roumara, partisans of Matilda, had surprised the castle of
Lincoln; but the citizens, who were better affected to Stephen, having
invited him to their aid, that prince laid close siege to the castle,
in hopes of soon rendering himself master of the place, either by
assault or by famine. The Earl of Gloucester hastened with an army to
the relief of his friends; and Stephen, informed of his approach, took
the field with a resolution of giving him battle. [MN 1141. 2d Feb.]
After a violent shock, the two wings of the royalists were put to
flight; and Stephen himself, surrounded by the enemy, was at last,
after exerting great efforts of valour, borne down by numbers, and
taken prisoner. [MN Stephen taken prisoner.] He was conducted to
Gloucester; and though at first treated with humanity was soon after,
on some suspicion, thrown into prison and loaded with irons.
Stephen's party was entirely broken by the captivity of their leader,
and the barons came in daily from all quarters, and did homage to
Matilda. The princess, however, amidst all her prosperity, knew that
she was not secure of success unless she could gain the confidence of
the clergy; and as the conduct of the legate had been of late very
ambiguous, and shown his intentions to have rather aimed at humbling
his brother than totally ruining him, she employed every endeavour to
fix him in her interests. [MN 2d March.] She held a conference with
him in an open plain near Winchester, where she promised, upon oath,
that if he would acknowledge her for sovereign, would recognize her
title as the sole descendant of the late king, and would again submit
to the allegiance which he, as well as the rest of the kingdom, had
sworn to her, he should in return be entire master of the
administration, and, in particular, should, at his pleasure, dispose
of all vacant bishoprics and abbeys. Earl Robert, her brother, Brian
Fitz-Count, Milo of Gloucester, and other great men, became guarantees
for her observing these engagements [a]; and the prelate was at last
induced to promise her allegiance, but that still burdened with the
express condition, that she should, on her part, fulfil her promises.
He then conducted her to Winchester, led her in procession to the
cathedral, and with great solemnity, in the presence of many bishops
and abbots, denounced curses against all those who cursed her, poured
out blessings on those who blessed her, granted absolution to such as
were obedient to her, and excommunicated such as were rebellious [b].
Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, soon after came also to court, and
swore allegiance to the empress [c].
[FN [a] W. Malm. p. 187. [b] Chron. Sax. p. 242. Contin. Flor. Wig.
p. 676. [c] W. Malmes p. 187.]
[MN Matilda crowned.] Matilda, that she might farther ensure the
attachment of the clergy, was willing to receive the crown from their
hands; and instead of assembling the states of the kingdom, the
measure which the constitution, had it been either fixed or regarded,
seemed necessarily to require, she was content that the legate should
assemble an ecclesiastical synod, and that her title to the throne
should there be acknowledged. The legate, addressing himself to the
assembly, told them, that in the absence of the empress, Stephen, his
brother, had been permitted to reign, and, previously to his ascending
the throne, had induced them by many fair promises, of honouring and
exalting the church, of maintaining the laws, and of reforming all
abuses: that it grieved him to observe how much that prince had, in
every particular, been wanting to his engagements; public peace was
interrupted, crimes were daily committed with impunity, bishops were
thrown into prison and forced to surrender their possessions, abbeys
were put to sale, churches were pillaged, and the most enormous
disorders prevailed in the administration: that he himself, in order
to procure a redress of these grievances, had formerly summoned the
king before a council of bishops; but, instead of inducing him to
amend his conduct, had rather offended him by that expedient: that,
how much soever misguided, that prince was still his brother, and the
object of his aflections; but his interests, however, must be regarded
as subordinate to those of their heavenly Father, who had now rejected
him, and thrown him into the hands of his enemies: that it principally
belonged to the clergy to elect and ordain kings; he had summoned them
together for that purpose and having invoked the divine assistance; he
now pronounced Matilda, the only descendant of Henry, the late
sovereign, Queen of England. The whole assembly by their acclamations
or silence, gave, or seemed to give, their assent to this declaration
[d].
[FN [d] W. Malmes. p. 188. This author, a judicious man, was present,
and says, that he was very attentive to what passed. This speech,
therefore, may he regarded as entirely genuine.]
The only laymen summoned to this council, which decided the fate of
the crown, were the Londoners; and even these were required not to
give their opinion but to submit to the decrees of the synod. The
deputies of London, however, were not so passive: they insisted that
their king should be delivered from prison; but were told by the
legate, that it became not the Londoners, who were regarded as
noblemen in England, to take part with those barons, who had basely
forsaken their lord in battle, and who had treated the holy church
with contumely [e]: it is with reason that the citizens of London
assumed so much authority, if it be true, what is related by
Fitz-Stephen, a contemporary author, that that city could at this time
bring into the field no less than eighty thousand combatants [f].
[FN [e] W. Malmes. p. 188. [f] P. 4. Were this account to be depended
on, London must at that time have contained near four hundred thousand
inhabitants, which is above double the number it contained at the
death of Queen Elizabeth. But these loose calculations, or rather
guesses, deserve very little credit. Peter of Blois, a contemporary
writer, and a man of sense, says there were then only forty thousand
inhabitants in London, which is much more likely. See Epist. 151.
What Fitz-Stephen says of the prodigious riches, splendour, and
commerce of London, proves only the great poverty of the other towns
of the kingdom, and indeed of all the northern parts of Europe.]
London, notwithstanding its great power, and its attachment to
Stephen, was at length obliged to submit to Matilda; and her
authority, by the prudent conduct of Earl Robert, seemed to be
established over the whole kingdom: but affairs remained not long in
this situation. That princess, besides the disadvantages of her sex,
which weakened her influence over a turbulent and martial people, was
of a passionate, imperious spirit, and knew not how to temper with
affability the harshness of a refusal. Stephen's queen, seconded by
many of the nobility, petitioned for the liberty of her husband; and
offered that, on this condition, he should renounce the crown and
retire into a convent. The legate desired that Prince Eustace, his
nephew, might inherit Boulogne and the other patrimonial estates of
his father [g]: the Londoners applied for the establishment of King
Edward's laws, instead of those of King Henry, which, they said, were
grievous and oppressive [h]. All these petitions were rejected in the
most haughty and peremptory manner.
[FN [g] Brompton, p. 1031. [h] Contin. Flor. Wig. p. 577. Gervase,
p. 1355.]
The legate, who had probably never been sincere in his compliance with
Matilda's government, availed himself of the ill-humour excited by
this imperious conduct, and secretly instigated the Londoners to a
revolt. A conspiracy was entered into to seize the person of the
empress; and she saved herself from the danger by a precipitate
retreat. She fled to Oxford: soon after she went to Winchester;
whither the legate, desirous to save appearances, and watching the
opportunity to ruin her cause, had retired. But having assembled all
his retainers, he openly joined his force to that of the Londoners,
and to Stephen's mercenary troops, who had not yet evacuated the
kingdom; and he besieged Matilda in Winchester. The princess, being
hard pressed by famine, made her escape; but in the flight, Earl
Robert, her brother, fell into the hands of the enemy. This nobleman,
though a subject, was as much the life and soul of his own party, as
Stephen was of the other; [MN Stephen released.] and the empress,
sensible of his merit and importance, consented to exchange the
prisoners on equal terms. The civil war was again kindled with
greater fury than ever.
[MN 1142.] Earl Robert, finding the successes on both sides nearly
balanced, went over to Normandy, which, during Stephen's captivity,
had submitted to the Earl of Anjou; and he persuaded Geoffrey to allow
his eldest son, Henry, a young prince of great hopes, to take a
journey into England, and appear at the head of his partisans. This
expedient, however, produced nothing decisive. Stephen took Oxford
after a long siege [MN 1143.]: he was defeated by Earl Robert at
Wilton: and the empress, though of a masculine spirit, yet being
harassed with a variety of good and bad fortune, and alarmed with
continual dangers to her person and family, at last retired into
Normandy, whither she had sent her son some time before. [MN 1146.
Continuation of the civil wars.] The death of her brother, which
happened nearly about the same time, would have proved fatal to her
interests, had not some incidents occurred which checked the course of
Stephen's prosperity. This prince, finding that the castles built by
the noblemen of his own party encouraged the spirit of independence,
and were little less dangerous than those which remained in the hands
of the enemy, endeavoured to extort from them a surrender of those
fortresses; and he alienated the affections of many of them by this
equitable demand. The artillery also of the church, which his brother
had brought over to his side, had, after some interval, joined the
other party. Eugenius III. had mounted the papal throne; the Bishop
of Winchester was deprived of the legatine commission, which was
conferred on Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, the enemy and rival
of the former legate. That pontiff also, having summoned a general
council at Rheims, in Champaigne, instead of allowing the church of
England, as had been usual, to elect its own deputies, nominated five
English bishops to represent that church, and required their
attendance in the council. Stephen, who, notwithstanding his present
difficulties, was jealous of the rights of his crown, refused them
permission to attend [i]; and the pope, sensible of his advantage in
contending with a prince who reigned by a disputed title, took revenge
by laying all Stephen's party under an interdict [k]. [MN 1147.] The
discontents of the royalists, at being thrown into this situation,
were augmented by a comparison with Matilda's party, who enjoyed all
the benefits of the sacred ordinances; and Stephen was at last
obliged, by making proper submissions to the see of Rome, to remove
the reproach from his party [l].
[FN [i] Epist. St. Thom. p. 225. [k] Chron. W. Thorn. p. 1807. [l]
Epist St. Thom. p. 226.]
[MN 1148.] The weakness of both sides, rather than any decrease of
mutual animosity, having produced a tacit cessation of arms in
England, many of the nobility, Roger de Moubray, William de Warenne,
and others, finding no opportunity to exert their military ardour at
home, enlisted themselves in a new crusade, which, with surprising
success, after former disappointments and misfortunes, was now
preached by St. Bernard [m]. But an event soon after happened which
threatened a revival of hostilities in England. Prince Henry, who had
reached his sixteenth year, was desirous of receiving the honour of
knighthood; a ceremony which every gentleman in that age passed
through before he was admitted to the use of arms, and which was even
deemed requisite for the greatest princes. He intended to receive his
admission from his great-uncle, David, King of Scotland; and for that
purpose he passed through England with a great retinue, and was
attended by the most considerable of his partisans. He remained some
time with the King of Scotland; made incursions into England; and by
his dexterity and vigour in all manly exercises, by his valour in war,
and his prudent conduct in every occurrence, he roused the hopes of
his party, and gave symptoms of those great qualities which he
afterwards displayed when he mounted the throne of England. [MN
1150.] Soon after his return to Normandy, he was, by Matilda's
consent, invested in that duchy; and upon the death of his father,
Geoffrey, which happened in the subsequent year, he took possession
both of Anjou and Maine, and concluded a marriage, which brought him a
great accession of power, and rendered him extremely formidable to his
rival. Eleanor, the daughter and heir of William, Duke of Guienne and
Earl of Poictou, had been married sixteen years to Lewis VII. King of
France, [MN 1152.] and had attended him in a crusade, which that
monarch conducted against the infidels; but having there lost the
affections of her husband, and even fallen under some suspicion of
gallantry with a handsome Saracen, Lewis, more delicate than politic,
procured a divorce from her, and restored her those rich provinces,
which by her marriage she had annexed to the crown of France. Young
Henry, neither discouraged by the inequality of years, nor by the
reports of Eleanor's gallantries, made successful courtship to that
princess, and, espousing her six weeks after her divorce, got
possession of all her dominions as her dowry. The lustre which he
received from this acquisition, and the prospect of his rising
fortune, had such an effect in England, that, when Stephen, desirous
to ensure the crown to his son Eustace, required the Archbishop of
Canterbury to anoint that prince as his successor, the primate refused
compliance, and made his escape beyond sea, to avoid the violence and
resentment of Stephen.
[FN [m] Hagulst. p. 275, 276.]
[MN 1153.] Henry, informed of these dispositions in the people, made
an invasion on England. Having gained some advantage over Stephen at
Malmesbury, and having taken that place, he proceeded thence to throw
succours into Wallingford, which the king had advanced with a superior
army to besiege. A decisive action was every day expected; when the
great men of both sides, terrified at the prospect of farther
bloodshed and confusion, interposed with their good offices, and set
on foot a negotiation between the rival princes. The death of
Eustace, during the course of the treaty, facilitated its conclusion;
[MN Compromise between the king and Prince Henry.] an accommodation
was settled, by which it was agreed, that Stephen should possess the
crown during his lifetime, that justice should be administered in his
name, even in the provinces which had submitted to Henry, and that
this latter prince should, on Stephen's demise, succeed to the
kingdom, and William, Stephen's son, to Boulogne and his patrimonial
estate. After all the barons had sworn to the observance of this
treaty, and done homage to Henry, as to the heir of the crown, that
prince evacuated the kingdom; [MN Death of the king, Oct. 25, 1154.]
and the death of Stephen, which happened the next year, after a short
illness, prevented all those quarrels and jealousies which were likely
to have ensued in so delicate a situation.
England suffered great miseries during the reign of this prince: but
his personal character, allowing for the temerity and injustice of his
usurpation, appears not liable to any great exception; and he seems to
have been well qualified, had he succeeded by a just title, to have
promoted the happiness and prosperity of his subjects [n]. He was
possessed of industry, activity, and courage, to a great degree;
though not endowed with a sound judgment, he was not deficient in
abilities; he had the talent of gaining men's affections; and
notwithstanding his precarious situation, he never indulged himself in
the exercise of any cruelty or revenge [o]. His advancement to the
throne procured him neither tranquillity nor happiness; and though the
situation of England prevented the neighbouring states from taking any
durable advantage of her confusions, her intestine disorders were to
the last degree ruinous and destructive. The court of Rome was also
permitted, during those civil wars, to make farther advances in her
usurpations; and appeals to the pope, which had always been strictly
prohibited by the English laws, became now common in every
ecclesiastical controversy [p].
[FN [n] W. Malm. p. 180. [o] M. Paris, p. 51. Hagul. p. 312. [p] H.
Hunt. p. 395.]