CHAPTER IX.

STATE OF IRELAND.--CONQUEST OF THAT ISLAND.--THE KING’S ACCOMMODATION

WITH THE COURT OF ROME.--REVOLT OF YOUNG HENRY AND HIS BROTHERS.--WARS

AND INSURRECTIONS.--WAR WITH SCOTLAND.--PENANCE OF HENRY FOR BECKET'S

MURDER.--WILLIAM, KING OF SCOTLAND, DEFEATED AND TAKEN PRISONER.--THE

KING'S ACCOMMODATION WITH HIS SONS.--THE KING'S EQUITABLE

ADMINISTRATION.--CRUSADES.--REVOLT OF PRINCE RICHARD.--DEATH AND

CHARACTER OF HENRY.--MISCELLANEOUS TRANSACTIONS OF HIS REIGN.

[MN 1172. State of Ireland.]

As Britain was first peopled from Gaul, so was Ireland probably from

Britain; and the inhabitants of all these countries seem to have been

so many tribes of the Celtae, who derive their origin from an

antiquity that lies far beyond the records of any history or

tradition. The Irish, from the beginning of time, had been buried in

the most profound barbarism and ignorance; and as they were never

conquered, or even invaded by the Romans, from whom all the western

world derived its civility, they continued still in the most rude

state of society, and were distinguished by those vices alone, to

which human nature, not tamed by education, or restrained by laws, is

for ever subject. The small principalities into which they were

divided exercised perpetual rapine and violence against each other;

the uncertain succession of their princes was a continual source of

domestic convulsions; the usual title of each petty sovereign was the

murder of his predecessor; courage and force, though exercised in the

commission of crimes, were more honoured than any pacific virtues; and

the most simple arts of life, even tillage and agriculture, were

almost wholly unknown among them. They had felt the invasions of the

Danes and the other northern tribes; but these inroads, which had

spread barbarism in other parts of Europe, tended rather to improve

the Irish; and the only towns which were to be found in the island had

been planted along the coast by the freebooters of Norway and Denmark.

The other inhabitants exercised pasturage in the open country; sought

protection from any danger in their forests and morasses; and being

divided by the fiercest animosities against each other, were still

more intent on the means of mutual injury, than on the expedients for

common or even for private interest.

Besides many small tribes, there were in the age of Henry II. five

principal sovereignties in the island, Munster, Leinster, Meath,

Ulster, and Connaught; and as it had been usual for the one or the

other of these to take the lead in their wars, there was commonly some

prince, who seemed, for the time, to act as monarch of Ireland.

Roderic O'Connor, King of Connaught, was then advanced to this dignity

[a]; but his government, ill obeyed even within his own territory,

could not unite the people in any measures either for the

establishment of order, or for defence against foreigners. The

ambition of Henry had, very early in his reign, been moved by the

prospect of these advantages to attempt the subjecting of Ireland; and

a pretence was only wanting to invade a people who, being always

confined to their own island, had never given any reason of complaint

to any of their neighbours. For this purpose, he had recourse to

Rome, which assumed a right to dispose of kingdoms and empires; and,

not foreseeing the dangerous disputes which he was one day to maintain

with that see, he helped, for present, or rather for an imaginary,

convenience, to give sanction to claims which were now become

dangerous to all sovereigns. Adrian III., who then filled the papal

chair, was by birth an Englishman; and being, on that account, the

more disposed to oblige Henry, he was easily persuaded to act as

master of the world, and to make, without any hazard or expense, the

acquisition of a great island to his spiritual jurisdiction. The Irish

had, by precedent missions from the Britons, been imperfectly

converted to Christianity; and, what the pope regarded as the surest

mark of their imperfect conversion, they followed the doctrines of

their first teachers, and had never acknowledged any subjection to the

see of Rome. Adrian, therefore, in the year 1156, issued a bull in

favour of Henry; in which, after premising that this prince had ever

shown an anxious care to enlarge the church of God on earth, and to

increase the number of his saints and elect in heaven; he represents

his design of subduing Ireland as derived from the same pious motives:

he considers his care of previously applying for the apostolic

sanction as a sure earnest of success and victory; and having

established it as a point incontestable, that all Christian kingdoms

belong to the patrimony of St. Peter, he acknowledges it to be his own

duty to sow among them the seeds of the gospel, which might in the

last day fructify to their eternal salvation: he exhorts the king to

invade Ireland, in order to extirpate the vice and wickedness of the

natives, and oblige them to pay yearly, from every house, a penny to

the see of Rome: he gives him entire right and authority over the

island, commands all the inhabitants to obey him as their sovereign,

and invests with full power all such godly instruments as he should

think proper to employ in an enterprise thus calculated for the glory

of God and the salvation of the souls of men [b]. Henry, though armed

with this authority, did not immediately put his design in execution;

but being detained by more interesting business on the continent,

waited for a favourable opportunity of invading Ireland.

[FN [a] Hoveden, p. 527. [b] M. Paris, p. 67. Girald. Cambr. Spellm.

Concil. vol. ii. p. 51. Rymer, vol. i. p. 15.]

Dermot Macmorrogh, King of Leinster, had, by his licentious tyranny,

rendered himself odious to his subjects, who seized with alacrity the

first occasion that offered of throwing off the yoke, which was become

grievous and oppressive to them. This prince had formed a design on

Dovergilda, wife of Ororic, Prince of Breffny; and taking advantage of

her husband's absence, who, being obliged to visit a distant part of

his territory, had left his wife secure, as he thought, in an island

surrounded by a bog, he suddenly invaded the place and carried off the

princess [c]. This exploit, though usual among the Irish, and rather

deemed a proof of gallantry and spirit [d], provoked the resentment of

the husband; who, having collected forces, and being strengthened by

the alliance of Roderic, King of Connaught, invaded the dominions of

Dermot, and expelled him his kingdom. The exiled prince had recourse

to Henry, who was at this time in Guienne, craved his assistance in

restoring him to his sovereignty, and offered, on that event, to hold

his kingdom in vassalage under the crown of England. Henry, whose

views were already turned towards making acquisitions in Ireland,

readily accepted the offer; but being at that time embarrassed by the

rebellions of his French subjects, as well as by his disputes with the

see of Rome, he declined for the present embarking in the enterprise,

and gave Dermot no farther assistance than letters patent, by which he

empowered all his subjects to aid the Irish prince in the recovery of

his dominions [e]. Dermot, supported by this authority, came to

Bristol; and after endeavouring, though for some time in vain, to

engage adventurers in the enterprise, he at last formed a treaty with

Richard, surnamed Strongbow, Earl of Strigul. This nobleman, who was

of the illustrious house of Clare, had impaired his fortune by

expensive pleasures; and being ready for any desperate undertaking, he

promised assistance to Dermot, on condition that he should espouse

Eva, daughter of that prince, and be declared heir to all his

dominions [f]. While Richard was assembling his succours, Dermot went

into Wales; and meeting with Robert Fitz-Stephens, Constable of

Abertivi, and Maurice Fitz-Gerald, he also engaged them in his

service, and obtained their promise of invading Ireland. Being now

assured of succour, he returned privately to his own state; and

lurking in the monastery of Fernes, which he had founded, (for this

ruffian was also a founder of monasteries,) he prepared every thing

for the reception of his English allies [g].

[FN [c] Girald. Cambr. p. 760. [d] Spencer, vol. vi. [e] Girald.

Cambr. p. 760. [f] Ibid. p. 761. [g] Ibid.]

[MN Conquest of that island.]

The troops of Fitz-Stephens were first ready. That gentleman landed

in Ireland with thirty knights, sixty esquires, and three hundred

archers; but this small body, being brave men, not unacquainted with

discipline, and completely armed, a thing almost unknown in Ireland,

struck a great terror into the barbarous inhabitants, and seemed to

menace them with some signal revolution. The conjunction of Maurice

de Pendergast, who, about the same time, brought over ten knights and

sixty archers, enabled Fitz-Stephens to attempt the siege of Wexford,

a town inhabited by the Danes; and after gaining an advantage, he made

himself master of the place [h]. Soon after, Fitz-Gerald arrived with

ten knights, thirty esquires, and a hundred archers [i]; and being

joined by the former adventurers, composed a force which nothing in

Ireland was able to withstand. Roderic, the chief monarch of the

island, was foiled in different actions; the Prince of Ossory was

obliged to submit, and give hostages for his peaceable behaviour; and

Dermot, not content with being restored to his kingdom of Leinster,

projected the dethroning of Roderic, and aspired to the sole dominion

over the Irish.

[FN [h] Girald. Cambr. p. 761, 762. [i] Ibid. p. 766.]

In prosecution of these views, he sent over a messenger to the Earl of

Strigul, challenging the performance of his promise, and displaying

the mighty advantages which might now be reaped by a reinforcement of

warlike troops from England. Richard, not satisfied with the general

allowance given by Henry to all his subjects, went to that prince,

then in Normandy; and having obtained a cold or ambiguous permission,

prepared himself for the execution of his designs. He first sent over

Raymond, one of his retinue, with ten knights and seventy archers,

who, landing near Waterford, defeated a body of three thousand Irish,

that had ventured to attack him [k]; and as Richard himself, who

brought over two hundred horse, and a body of archers, joined, a few

days after, the victorious English, they made themselves masters of

Waterford, and proceeded to Dublin, which was taken by assault.

Roderic, in revenge, cut off the head of Dermot's natural son, who had

been left as a hostage in his hands; and Richard, marrying Eva, became

soon after, by the death of Dermot, master of the kingdom of Leinster,

and prepared to extend his authority over all Ireland. Roderic, and

the other Irish princes, were alarmed at the danger; and, combining

together, besieged Dublin with an army of thirty thousand men; but

Earl Richard making a sudden sally at the head of ninety knights, with

their followers, put this numerous army to rout, chased them off the

field, and pursued them with great slaughter. None in Ireland now

dared to oppose themselves to the English [l].

[FN [k] Ibid. p. 767. [l] Girald. Cambr. p. 773.]

Henry, jealous of the progress made by his own subjects, sent orders

to recall all the English, and he made preparations to attack Ireland

in person [m]: but Richard, and the other adventurers, found means to

appease him by making him the most humble submissions, and offering to

hold all their acquisitions in vassalage to his crown [n]. That

monarch landed in Ireland at the head of five hundred knights, besides

other soldiers: he found the Irish so dispirited by their late

misfortunes, that, in a progress which he made through the island, he

had no other occupation than to receive the homage of his new

subjects. He left most of the Irish chieftains or princes in

possession of their ancient territories; bestowed some lands on the

English adventurers; gave Earl Richard the commission of Seneschal of

Ireland; and after a stay of a few months, returned in triumph to

England. By these trivial exploits, scarcely worth relating, except

for the importance of the consequences, was Ireland subdued, and

annexed to the English crown.

[FN [m] Ibid. p. 770. [n] Ibid. p. 775.]

The low state of commerce and industry, during those ages, made it

impracticable for princes to support regular armies, which might

retain a conquered country in subjection; and the extreme barbarism

and poverty of Ireland could still less afford means of bearing the

expense. The only expedient, by which a durable conquest could then

be made or maintained, was by pouring in a multitude of new

inhabitants, dividing among them the lands of the vanquished,

establishing them in all offices of trust and authority, and thereby

transforming the ancient inhabitants into a new people. By this

policy, the northern invaders of old, and of late the Duke of

Normandy, had been able to fix their dominions, and to erect kingdoms,

which remained stable on their foundations, and were transmitted to

the posterity of the first conquerors. But the state of Ireland

rendered that island so little inviting to the English, that only a

few of desperate fortunes could be persuaded, from time to time, to

transport themselves thither [o]; and instead of reclaiming the

natives from their uncultivated manners, they were gradually

assimilated to the ancient inhabitants, and degenerated from the

customs of their own nation. It was also found requisite to bestow

great military and arbitrary powers on the leaders, who commanded a

handful of men amidst such hostile multitudes; and law and equity, in

a little time, became as much unknown in the English settlements as

they had ever been among the Irish tribes. Palatinates were erected

in favour of the new adventurers; independent authority conferred; the

natives, never fully subdued, still retained their animosity against

the conquerors; their hatred was retaliated by like injuries; and from

these causes, the Irish, during the course of four centuries, remained

still savage and untractable: it was not till the latter end of

Elizabeth’s reign that the island was fully subdued; nor till that of

her successor that it gave hopes of becoming a useful conquest to the

English nation.

[FN [o] Brompton, p. 1069. Neubrig. p. 403.]

Besides that the easy and peaceable submission of the Irish left Henry

no farther occupation in that island, he was recalled from it by

another incident, which was of the last importance to his interest and

safety. The two legates, Albert and Theodin, to whom was committed

the trial of his conduct in the murder of Archbishop Becket, were

arrived in Normandy; and being impatient of delay, sent him frequent

letters, full of menaces, if he protracted any longer making his

appearance before them [p]. He hastened therefore to Normandy, and

had a conference with them at Savigny, where their demands were so

exorbitant, that he broke off the negotiation, threatened to return to

Ireland, and bade them do their worst against him. They perceived

that the season was now past for taking advantage of that tragical

incident; which, had it been hotly pursued by interdicts and

excommunications, was capable of throwing the whole kingdom into

combustion. But the time which Henry had happily gained had

contributed to appease the minds of men: the event could not now have

the same influence as when it was recent; and as the clergy every day

looked for an accommodation with the king, they had not opposed the

pretensions of his partisans, who had been very industrious in

representing to the people his entire innocence in the murder of the

primate, and his ignorance of the designs formed by the assassins.

The legates, therefore, found themselves obliged to lower their terms;

and Henry was so fortunate as to conclude an accommodation with them.

He declared upon oath, before the relics of the saints, that, so far

from commanding or desiring the death of the archbishop, he was

extremely grieved when he received intelligence of it: but as the

passion which he had expressed on account of that prelate's conduct

had probably been the occasion of his murder, he stipulated the

following conditions, as an atonement for the offence. [MN The king’s

accommodation with the court of Rome.] He promised, that he should

pardon all such as had been banished for adhering to Becket, and

should restore them to their livings; that the see of Canterbury

should be reinstated in all its ancient possessions; that he should

pay the Templars a sum of money for the subsistence of two hundred

knights during a year in the Holy Land; that he should himself take

the cross at the Christmas following, and, if the pope required it,

serve three years against the infidels either in Spain or Palestine;

that he should not insist on the observance of such customs,

derogatory to ecclesiastical privileges, as had been introduced in his

own time; and that he should not obstruct appeals to the pope in

ecclesiastical causes, but should content himself with exacting

sufficient security from such clergymen as left his dominions to

prosecute an appeal, that they should attempt nothing against the

rights of his crown [q]. Upon signing these concessions, Henry

received absolution from the legates, and was confirmed in the grant

of Ireland made by Pope Adrian [r]; and nothing proves more strongly

the great abilities of this monarch, than his extricating himself on

such easy terms from so difficult a situation. He had always insisted

that the laws established at Clarendon contained not any new claims,

but the ancient customs of the kingdom; and he was still at liberty,

notwithstanding the articles of this agreement, to maintain his

pretensions. Appeals to the pope were indeed permitted by that

treaty; but as the king was also permitted to exact reasonable

securities from the parties, and might stretch his demands on this

head as far as he pleased, he had it virtually in his power to prevent

the pope from reaping any advantage by this seeming concession. And

on the whole, the constitutions of Clarendon remained still the law of

the realm; though the pope and his legates seem so little to have

conceived the king's power to lie under any legal limitations, that

they were satisfied with his departing, by treaty, from one of the

most momentous articles of these constitutions, without requiring any

repeal by the states of the kingdom.

[FN [p] Girald. Cambr. p. 778. [q] M. Paris, p. 88. Benedict. Abb.

p. 34. Hoveden, p. 529. Diceto, p 560. Chron. Gerv. p. 1422. [r]

Brompton, p. 1071 Liber Nig. Scac. p. 47.]

Henry, freed from this dangerous controversy with the ecclesiastics

and with the see of Rome, seemed now to have reached the pinnacle of

human grandeur and felicity, and to be equally happy in his domestic

situation and in his political government. A numerous progeny of sons

and daughters gave both lustre and authority to his crown, prevented

the dangers of a disputed succession, and repressed all pretensions of

the ambitious barons. The king's precaution, also, in establishing

the several branches of his family, seemed well calculated to prevent

all jealousy among the brothers, and to perpetuate the greatness of

his family. He had appointed Henry, his eldest son, to be his

successor in the kingdom of England, the duchy of Normandy, and the

counties of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine; territories which lay

contiguous, and which, by that means, might easily lend to each other

mutual assistance, both against intestine commotions and foreign

invasions. Richard, his second son, was invested in the duchy of

Guienne and county of Poictou; Geoffrey, his third son, inherited, in

right of his wife, the duchy of Britany; and the new conquest of

Ireland was destined for the appanage of John, his fourth son. He had

also negotiated, in favour of this last prince, a marriage with

Adelais, the only daughter of Humbert, Count of Savoy and Maurienne;

and was to receive as her dowry considerable demesnes in Piedmont,

Savoy, Bresse, and Dauphiny [s]. But this exaltation of his family

excited the jealousy of all his neighbours, who made those very sons,

whose fortunes he had so anxiously established, the means of

embittering his future life, and disturbing his government.

[FN [s] Ypod. Neust. p. 448. Bened. Abb. p. 38. Hoveden, p. 532.

Diceto, p. 562. Brompton, p. 1081. Rymer, vol. i. p. 33.]

Young Henry, who was rising to man's estate, began to display his

character, and aspire to independence: brave, ambitious, liberal,

munificent, affable; he discovered qualities which give great lustre

to youth; prognosticate a shining fortune; but unless tempered in

mature age with discretion, are the forerunners of the greatest

calamities [t]. It is said, that at the time when this prince

received the royal unction, his father, in order to give greater

dignity to the ceremony, officiated at table as one of the retinue;

and observed to his son, that never king was more royally served. IT

IS NOTHING EXTRAORDINARY, said young Henry to one of his courtiers, IF

THE SON OF A COUNT SHOULD SERVE THE SON OF A KING. This saying, which

might pass only for an innocent pleasantry, or even for an oblique

compliment to his father, was however regarded as a symptom of his

aspiring temper; and his conduct soon after justified the conjecture.

[FN [t] Chron. Gerv. p. 1463.]

Henry, agreeably to the promise which he had given both to the pope

and French king, permitted his son to be crowned anew by the hands of

the Archbishop of Rouen, and associated the Princess Margaret, spouse

to young Henry, in the ceremony [u] [MN 1173.] He afterwards allowed

him to pay a visit to his father-in-law at Paris, who took the

opportunity of instilling into the young prince those ambitious

sentiments, to which he was naturally but too much inclined [w]. [MN

Revolt of young Henry and his brothers.] Though it had been the

constant practice of France, ever since the accession of the Capetian

line, to crown the son during the lifetime of the father, without

conferring on him any present participation of royalty, Lewis

persuaded his son-in-law, that, by this ceremony, which in those ages

was deemed so important, he had acquired a title to sovereignty, and

that the king could not, without injustice, exclude him from immediate

possession of the whole or at least a part of his dominions. In

consequence of these extravagant ideas, young Henry, on his return,

desired the king to resign to him either the crown of England, or the

duchy of Normandy; discovered great discontent on the refusal; spake

in the most undutiful terms of his father; and soon after, in concert

with Lewis, made his escape to Paris, where he was protected and

supported by that monarch.

[FN [u] Hoveden, p. 529. Diceto, p. 560. Brompton, p. 1080. Chron.

Gerv. p. 1421. Trivet, p. 58. It appears from Madox's History of the

Exchequer, that silk garments were then known in England, and that the

coronation robes of the young king and queen cost eighty-seven pounds

ten shillings and four pence, money of that age. [w] Girald. Camb. p.

782.]

While Henry was alarmed at this incident, and had the prospect of

dangerous intrigues, or even of a war, which, whether successful or

not, must be extremely calamitous and disagreeable to him, he received

intelligence of new misfortunes, which must have affected him in the

most sensible manner. Queen Eleanor, who had disgusted her first

husband by her gallantries, was no less offensive to her second by her

jealousy; and after this manner carried to extremity, in the different

periods of her life, every circumstance of female weakness. She

communicated her discontents against Henry to her two younger sons,

Geoffrey and Richard; persuaded them that they were also entitled to

present possession of the territories assigned to them; engaged them

to fly secretly to the court of France; and was meditating, herself,

an escape to the same court, and had even put on man's apparel for

that purpose; when she was seized by orders from her husband, and

thrown into confinement. Thus, Europe saw with astonishment the best

and most indulgent of parents at war with his whole family; three

boys, scarcely arrived at the age of puberty, required a great

monarch, in the full vigour of his age and height of his reputation,

to dethrone himself in their favour; and several princes not ashamed

to support them in these unnatural and absurd pretensions.

Henry, reduced to this perilous and disagreeable situation, had

recourse to the court of Rome: though sensible of the danger attending

the interposition of ecclesiastical authority in temporal disputes, he

applied to the pope, as his superior lord, to excommunicate his

enemies, and by these censures to reduce to obedience his undutiful

children, whom he found such reluctance to punish by the sword of the

magistrate [x]. Alexander, well pleased to exert his power in so

justifiable a cause, issued the bulls required of him; but it was soon

found that these spiritual weapons had not the same force as when

employed in a spiritual controversy; and that the clergy were very

negligent in supporting a sentence which was nowise calculated to

promote the immediate interests of their order. The king, after

taking in vain this humiliating step, was obliged to have recourse to

arms, and to enlist such auxiliaries as are the usual resource of

tyrants, and have seldom been employed by so wise and just a monarch.

[FN [x] Epist. Petri Bles. epist. 136. in Biblioth. Patr. tom. xxiv.

p. 1048. His words are, VESTRAE JURISDICTIONIS EST REGNUM ANGLIAE, ET

QUANTUM AD FEUDATORII JURIS OBLIGATIONEM, VOBIS DUNTAXAT OBNOXIUS

TENEOR. The same strange paper is in Rymer, vol. i. p. 35, and

Trivet, vol. i. p. 62.]

The loose government which prevailed in all the states of Europe, the

many private wars carried on among the neighbouring nobles, and the

impossibility of enforcing any general execution of the laws, had

encouraged a tribe of banditti to disturb every where the public

peace, to infest the highways, to pillage the open country, and to

brave all the efforts of the civil magistrate, and even the

excommunications of the church, which were fulminated against them

[y]. Troops of them were sometimes enlisted in the service of one

prince or baron, sometimes in that of another: they often acted in an

independent manner, under leaders of their own: the peaceable and

industrious inhabitants, reduced to poverty by their ravages, were

frequently obliged, for subsistence, to betake themselves to a like

disorderly course of life; and a continual intestine war, pernicious

to industry, as well as to the execution of justice, was thus carried

on in the bowels of every kingdom [z]. Those desperate ruffians

received the name sometimes of Brabancons, sometimes of Routiers or

Cottereaux; but for what reason is not agreed by historians; and they

formed a kind of society or government among themselves, which set at

defiance the rest of mankind. The greatest monarchs were not ashamed,

on occasion, to have recourse to their assistance; and as their habits

of war and depredation had given them experience, hardiness, and

courage, they generally composed the most formidable part of those

armies which decided the political quarrels of princes. Several of

them were enlisted among the forces levied by Henry's enemies [a]; but

the great treasures amassed by that prince enabled him to engage more

numerous troops of them in his service; and the situation of his

affairs rendered even such banditti the only forces on whose fidelity

he could repose any confidence. His licentious barons, disgusted with

a vigilant government, were more desirous of being ruled by young

princes, ignorant of public affairs, remiss in their conduct, and

profuse in their grants [b]; and as the king had ensured to his sons

the succession to every particular province of his dominions, the

nobles dreaded no danger in adhering to those who, they knew, must

some time become their sovereigns. Prompted by these motives, many of

the Norman nobility had deserted to his son Henry; the Breton and

Gascon barons seemed equally disposed to embrace the quarrel of

Geoffrey and Richard. Disaffection had crept in among the English;

and the Earls of Leicester and Chester in particular had openly

declared against the king. Twenty thousand Brabancons, therefore,

joined to some troops which he brought over from Ireland, and a few

barons of approved fidelity, formed the sole force with which he

intended to resist his enemies.

[FN [y] Neubrig. p 413. [z] Chron. Gerv. p. 1461. [a] Petr. Bles.

epist. 47. [b] Diceto, p. 570.]

Lewis, in order to bind the confederates in a close union, summoned at

Paris an assembly of the chief vassals of the crown, received their

approbation of his measures, and engaged them by oath to adhere to the

cause of young Henry. This prince, in return, bound himself by a like

tie never to desert his French allies; and having made a new great

seal, he lavishly distributed among them many considerable parts of

those territories which he purposed to conquer from his father. The

Counts of Flanders, Boulogne, Blois, and Eu, partly moved by the

general jealousy arising from Henry's power and ambition, partly

allured by the prospect of reaping advantage from the inconsiderate

temper and the necessities of the young prince, declared openly in

favour of the latter. William, King of Scotland, had also entered

into this great confederacy; and a plan was concerted for a general

invasion on different parts of the king's extensive and factious

dominions.

Hostilities were first commenced by the Counts of Flanders and

Boulogne on the frontiers of Normandy. Those princes laid siege to

Aumale, which was delivered into their hands by the treachery of the

count of that name: this nobleman surrendered himself prisoner; and,

on pretence of thereby paying his ransom, opened the gates of all his

other fortresses. The two counts next besieged and made themselves

masters of Drincourt; but the Count of Boulogne was here mortally

wounded in the assault; and this incident put some stop to the

progress of the Flemish arms.

[MN Wars and insurrections.]

In another quarter, the King of France, being strongly assisted by his

vassals, assembled a great army of seven thousand knights and their

followers on horseback, and a proportionable number of infantry:

carrying young Henry along with him, he laid siege to Verneuil, which

was vigorously defended by Hugh de Lacy and Hugh de Beauchamp, the

governors. After he had lain a month before the place, the garrison,

being straitened for provisions, were obliged to capitulate; and they

engaged, if not relieved within three days, to surrender the town, and

to retire into the citadel. On the last of these days, Henry appeared

with his army upon the heights above Verneuil. Lewis, dreading an

attack, sent the Archbiship of Sens and the Count of Blois to the

English camp, and desired that next day should be appointed for a

conference, in order to establish a general peace, and terminate the

difference between Henry and his sons. The king, who passionately

desired this accommodation, and suspected no fraud, gave his consent;

but Lewis, that morning, obliging the garrison to surrender, according

to the capitulation, set fire to the place, and began to retire with

his army. Henry, provoked at this artifice, attacked the rear with

vigour, put them to rout, did some execution, and took several

prisoners. The French army, as their time of service was now expired,

immediately dispersed themselves into their several provinces; and

left Henry free to prosecute his advantages against his other enemies.

The nobles of Britany, instigated by the Earl of Chester and Ralph de

Fougeres, were all in arms; but their progress was checked by a body

of Brabancons which the king, after Lewis's retreat, had sent against

them. The two armies came to an action near Dol, where the rebels

were defeated, fifteen hundred killed on the spot, and the leaders,

the Earls of Chester and Fougeres, obliged to take shelter in the town

of Dol. Henry hastened to form the siege of that place, and carried

on the attack with such ardour, that he obliged the governor and

garrison to surrender themselves prisoners. By these vigorous

measures and happy successes the insurrections were entirely quelled

in Britany; and the king, thus fortunate in all quarters, willingly

agreed to a conference with Lewis, in hopes that his enemies, finding

all their mighty efforts entirely frustrated, would terminate

hostilities on some moderate and reasonable conditions.

The two monarchs met between Trie and Gisors; and Henry had here the

mortification to see his three sons in the retinue of his mortal

enemy. As Lewis had no other pretence for war than supporting the

claims of the young princes, the king made them such offers as

children might be ashamed to insist on, and could be extorted from him

by nothing but his parental affection, or by the present necessity of

his affairs [c]. He insisted only on retaining the sovereign

authority in all his dominions; but offered young Henry half the

revenues of England, with some places of surety in that kingdom; or,

if he rather chose to reside in Normandy, half the revenues of that

duchy, with all those of Anjou. He made a like offer to Richard in

Guienne: he promised to resign Britany to Geoffrey; and if these

concessions were not deemed sufficient, he agreed to add to them

whatever the pope's legates, who were present, should require of him

[d]. The Earl of Leicester was also present at the negotiation; and

either from the impetuosity of his temper, or from a view of abruptly

breaking off a conference which must cover the allies with confusion,

he gave vent to the most violent reproaches against Henry, and he even

put his hand to his sword, as if he meant to attempt some violence

against him. This furious action threw the whole company into

confusion, and put an end to the treaty [e].

[FN [c] Hoveden, p. 538. [d] Ibid. p. 536. Brompton, p. 1088. [e]

Hoveden, p. 536.]

The chief hopes of Henry's enemies seemed now to depend on the state

of affairs in England, where his authority was exposed to the most

imminent danger. One article of Prince Henry's agreement with his

foreign confederates was, that he should resign Kent, with Dover, and

all its other fortresses, into the hands of the Earl of Flanders [f]:

yet so little national or public spirit prevailed among the

independent English nobility, so wholly bent were they on the

aggrandizement each of himself and his own family, that

notwithstanding this pernicious concession, which must have produced

the ruin of the kingdom, the greater part of them had conspired to

make an insurrection, and to support the prince's pretensions. The

king's principal resource lay in the church and the bishops, with whom

he was now in perfect agreement; whether that the decency of their

character made them ashamed of supporting so unnatural a rebellion, or

that they were entirely satisfied with Henry's atonement for the

murder of Becket, and for his former invasion of ecclesiastical

immunities. That prince, however, had resigned none of the essential

rights of his crown in the accommodation; he maintained still the same

prudent jealousy of the court of Rome; admitted no legate into

England, without his swearing to attempt nothing against the royal

prerogatives; and he had even obliged the monks of Canterbury, who

pretended to a free election on the vacancy made by the death of

Becket, to choose Roger, prior of Dover, in the place of that

turbulent prelate [g].

[FN [f] Ibid. p. 533. Brompton, p. 1084. Neubr. p. 508. [g]

Hoveden, p. 537.]

[MN War with Scotland.]

The King of Scotland made an irruption into Northumberland, and

committed great devastations; but being opposed by Richard de Lucy,

whom Henry had left guardian of the realm, he retreated into his own

country, and agreed to a cessation of arms. This truce enabled the

guardian to march southward with his army, in order to oppose an

invasion, which the Earl of Leicester, at the head of a great body of

Flemings, had made upon Suffolk. The Flemings had been joined by Hugh

Bigod, who made them masters of his castle of Framlingham; and

marching into the heart of the kingdom, where they hoped to be

supported by Leicester's vassals, they were met by Lucy, who, assisted

by Humphrey Bohun, the constable, and the Earls of Arundel,

Gloucester, and Cornwall, had advanced to Farnham, with a less

numerous but braver army to oppose them. The Flemings, who were

mostly weavers and artificers, (for manufactures were now beginning to

be established in Flanders,) were broken in an instant, ten thousand

of them were put to the sword, the Earl of Leicester was taken

prisoner, and the remains of the invaders were glad to compound for a

safe retreat into their own country.

[MN 1174.] This great defeat did not dishearten the malecontents;

who, being supported by the alliance of so many foreign princes, and

encouraged by the king's own sons, determined to persevere in their

enterprise. The Earl of Ferrars, Roger de Mowbray, Architel de

Mallory, Richard de Morreville, Hamo de Mascie, together with many

friends of the Earls of Leicester and Chester, rose in arms: the

fidelity of the Earls of Clare and Gloucester was suspected; and the

guardian, though vigorously supported by Geoffrey, Bishop of Lincoln,

the king's natural son by the fair Rosamond, found it difficult to

defend himself on all quarters from so many open and concealed

enemies. The more to augment the confusion, the King of Scotland, on

the expiration of the truce, broke into the northern provinces with a

great army [h] of eighty thousand men; which, though undisciplined and

disorderly, and better fitted for committing devastation than for

executing any military enterprise, was become dangerous from the

present factious and turbulent spirit of the kingdom. Henry, who had

baffled all his enemies in France, and had put his frontiers in a

posture of defence, now found England the seat of danger; and he

determined by his presence to overawe the malecontents, or by his

conduct and courage to subdue them. [MN 8th July. Penance of Henry

for Becket’s murder.] He landed at Southampton; and knowing the

influence of superstition over the minds of the people, he hastened to

Canterbury, in order to make atonement to the ashes of Thomas à

Becket, and tender his submissions to a dead enemy. As soon as he

came within sight of the church of Canterbury, he dismounted, walked

barefoot towards it, prostrated himself before the shrine of the

saint, remained in fasting and prayer during a whole day, and watched

all night the holy relics. Not content with this hypocritical

devotion towards a man whose violence and ingratitude had so long

disquieted his government, and had been the object of his most

inveterate animosity, he submitted to a penance still more singular

and humiliating. He assembled a chapter of the monks, disrobed

himself before them, put a scourge of discipline into the hands of

each, and presented his bare shoulders to the lashes which these

ecclesiastics successively inflicted upon him. Next day he received

absolution; and departing for London, got soon after the agreeable

intelligence of a great victory which his generals had obtained over

the Scots, and which being gained, as was reported, on the very day of

his absolution, was regarded as the earnest of his final

reconciliation with Heaven and with Thomas à Becket.

[FN [h] Heming, p. 501.]

William, King of Scots, though repulsed before the castle of Prudhow,

and other fortified places, had committed the most horrible

depredations upon the northern provinces: but on the approach of Ralph

de Glanville, the famous justiciary, seconded by Bernard de Baliol,

Robert de Stuteville, Odonel de Umfreville, William de Vesci, and

other northern barons, together with the gallant Bishop of Lincoln, he

thought proper to retreat nearer his own country, and he fixed his

camp at Alnwick. He had here weakened his army extremely, by sending

out numerous detachments in order to extend his ravages; and he lay

absolutely safe, as he imagined, from any attack of the enemy. But

Glanville, informed of his situation, made a hasty and fatiguing march

to Newcastle; and, allowing his soldiers only a small interval for

refreshment, he immediately set out towards evening for Alnwick. [MN

13th July.] He marched that night above thirty miles; arrived in the

morning, under cover of a mist, near the Scottish camp; and regardless

of the great numbers of the enemy, he began the attack with his small

but determined body of cavalry. William was living in such supine

security that he took the English, at first, for a body of his own

ravagers, who were returning to the camp; but the sight of their

banners convincing him of his mistake, he entered on the action with

no greater body than a hundred horse in confidence that the numerous

army which surrounded him would soon hasten to his relief. [MN

William, King of Scotlamd, defeated and taken prisoner.] He was

dismounted on the first shock, and taken prisoner; while his troops,

hearing of this disaster, fled on all sides with the utmost

precipitation. The dispersed ravagers made the best of their way to

their own country; and discord arising among them, they proceeded even

to mutual hostilities, and suffered more from each other's sword than

from that of the enemy.

This great and important victory proved at last decisive in favour of

Henry, and entirely broke the spirit of the English rebels. The

Bishop of Durham, who was preparing to revolt, made his submissions;

Hugh Bigod, though he had received a strong reinforcement of Flemings,

was obliged to surrender all his castles, and throw himself on the

king's mercy; no better resource was left to the Earl of Ferrars and

Roger de Mowbray; the inferior rebels imitating the example, all

England was restored to tranquillity in a few weeks; and as the king

appeared to lie under the immediate protection of Heaven, it was

deemed impious any longer to resist him. The clergy exalted anew the

merits and powerful intercession of Becket; and Henry, instead of

opposing this superstition, plumed himself on the new friendship of

the saint, and propagated an opinion which was so favourable to his

interests [i].

[FN [i] Hoveden, p. 539.]

Prince Henry, who was ready to embark at Gravelines, with the Earl of

Flanders and a great army, hearing that his partisans in England were

suppressed, abandoned all thoughts of the enterprise, and joined the

camp of Lewis, who, during the absence of the king, had made an

irruption into Normandy, and had laid siege to Rouen [k]. The place

was defended with great vigour by the inhabitants [l]; and Lewis,

despairing of success by open force, tried to gain the town by a

stratagem, which, in that superstitious age, was deemed not very

honourable. He proclaimed in his own camp a cessation of arms, on

pretence of celebrating the festival of St. Laurence; and when the

citizens, supposing themselves in safety, were so imprudent as to

remit their guard, he proposed to take advantage of their security.

Happily, some priests had, from mere curiosity, mounted a steeple

where the alarm-bell hung; and, observing the French camp in motion,

they immediately rang the bell, and gave warning to the inhabitants,

who ran to their several stations. The French who, on hearing the

alarm, hurried to the assault, had already mounted the walls in

several places; but being repulsed by the enraged citizens, were

obliged to retreat with considerable loss [m]. Next day, Henry, who

had hastened to the defence of his Norman dominions, passed over the

bridge in triumph, and entered Rouen in sight of the French army. The

city was now in absolute safety; and the king, in order to brave the

French monarch, commanded the gates, which had been walled up, to be

opened; and he prepared to push his advantages against the enemy.

Lewis saved himself from this perilous situation by a new piece of

deceit, not so justifiable. He proposed a conference for adjusting

the terms of a general peace, which he knew would be greedily embraced

by Henry; and while the king of England trusted to the execution of

his promise, he made a retreat with his army into France.

[FN [k] Brompton, p. 1096. [l] Diceto, p. 578. [m] Brompton, p.

1096. Neubrig. p. 411. Heming, p. 503.]

There was, however, a necessity on both sides for an accommodation.

Henry could no longer bear to see his three sons in the hands of his

enemy; and Lewis dreaded lest this great monarch, victorious in all

quarters, crowned with glory, and absolute master of his dominions

might take revenge for the many dangers and disquietudes which the

arms, and still more the intrigues of France had, in his disputes both

with Becket and his sons, found means to raise him. After making a

cessation of arms, a conference was agreed on near Tours; where Henry

granted his sons much less advantageous terms than he had formerly

offered, and he received their submissions. [MN The king's

accommodation with his sons.] The most material of his concessions

were some pensions which he stipulated to pay them, and some castles

which he granted them for the place of their residence; together with

an indemnity for all their adherents, who were restored to their

estates and honours [n].

[FN [n] Rymer, vol. i. p. 35. Bened. Abb. p. 88. Hoveden, p. 540.

Diceto, p. 584. Brompton, p. 1098. Heming. p. 505. Chron. Dunst. p.

36.]

Of all those who had embraced the cause of the young princes, William,

King of Scotland, was the only considerable loser by that invidious

and unjust enterprise. Henry delivered from confinement, without

exacting any ransom, about nine hundred knights whom he had taken

prisoners; but it cost William the ancient independency of his crown

as the price of his liberty. He stipulated to do homage to Henry for

Scotland, and all his other possessions; he engaged that all the

barons and nobility of his kingdom should also do homage; that the

bishops should take an oath of fealty; that both should swear to

adhere to the King of England against their native prince, if the

latter should break his engagements; and that the fortresses of

Edinburgh, Stirling, Berwick, Roxburgh, and Jedburgh, should be

delivered into Henry's hands, till the performance of articles [o].

[MN 1175. 10th Aug.] This severe and humiliating treaty was excuted

in its full rigour. William, being released, brought up all his

barons, prelates, and abbots; and they did homage to Henry in the

cathedral of York, and acknowledged him and his successors for their

superior lord [p]. The English monarch stretched still farther the

rigour of the conditions which he exacted. He engaged the king and

states of Scotland to make a perpetual cession of the fortresses of

Berwick and Roxburgh, and to allow the castle of Edinburgh to remain

in his hands for a limited time. This was the first great ascendancy

which England obtained over Scotland; and indeed the first important

transaction which had passed between the kingdoms. Few princes have

been so fortunate as to gain considerable advantages over their weaker

neighbours with less violence and injustice than was practised by

Henry against the King of Scots, whom he had taken prisoner in battle,

and who had wantonly engaged in a war, in which all the neighbours of

that prince, and even his own family, were, without provocation,

combined against him [q].

[FN [o] M. Paris, p. 91. Chron. Dunst. p. 36. Hoveden, p. 545. M.

West. p. 251. Diceto, p. 584. Brompton, p. 1103. Rymer, vol. i. p.

39. Liber Niger Scaccarii, p. 36. [p] Bened. Abb. p. 113. [q] Some

Scotch historians pretend that William paid, besides, 100,000 pounds

of ransom, which is quite incredible. The ransom of Richard I., who,

besides England, possessed so many rich territories in France, was

only 150,000 marks, and yet was levied with great difficulty. Indeed,

two-thirds of it only could he paid before his deliverance.]

[MN 1175. King’s equitable administration.]

Henry having thus, contrary to expectation, extricated himself with

honour from a situation in which his throne was exposed to great

danger, was employed for several years in the administration of

justice, in the execution of the laws, and in guarding against those

inconveniences, which either the past convulsions of his state, or the

political institutions of that age, unavoidably occasioned. The

provisions which he made show such largeness of thought as qualified

him for being a legislator; and they were commonly calculated as well

for the future as the present happiness of his kingdom.

[MN 1176.] He enacted severe penalties against robbery, murder, false

coining, arson; and ordained that these crimes should be punished by

the amputation of the right hand and right foot [r]. The pecuniary

commutation for crimes which has a false appearance of lenity, had

been gradually disused, and seems to have been entirely abolished by

the rigour of these statutes. The superstitious trial by water

ordeal, though condemned by the church [s], still subsisted; but Henry

ordained, that any man accused of murder, or any heinous felony, by

the oath of the legal knights of the county, should, even though

acquitted by the ordeal, be obliged to abjure the realm [t].

[FN [r] Bened. Abb. p. 132. Hoveden, p. 549. [s] Seld. Spicileg. ad

Eadm. p. 204. [t] Bened. Abb. p. 132.]

All advances towards reason and good sense are slow and gradual.

Henry, though sensible of the great absurdity attending the trial by

duel or battle, did not venture to abolish it: he only admitted either

of the parties to challenge a trial by an assize or jury of twelve

freeholders [u]. This latter method of trial seems to have been very

ancient in England, and was fixed by the laws of King Alfred: but the

barbarous and violent genius of the age had of late given more credit

to the trial by battle, which had become the general method of

deciding all important controversies. It was never abolished by law

in England; and there is an instance of it so late as the reign of

Elizabeth; but the institution revived by this king, being found more

reasonable and more suitable to a civilized people, gradually

prevailed over it.

[FN [u] Glanv. lib. 2. cap. 7.]

The partition of England into four divisions, and the appointment of

itinerant justices to go the circuit in each division, and to decide

the causes in the counties, was another important ordinance of this

prince, which had a direct tendency to curb the oppressive barons, and

to protect the inferior gentry and common people in their property

[w]. Those justices were either prelates or considerable noblemen;

who, besides carrying the authority of the king's commission, were

able, by the dignity of their own character, to give weight and credit

to the laws.

[FN [w] Hoveden, p. 590.]

That there might be fewer obstacles to the execution of justice, the

king was vigilant in demolishing all the new-erected castles of the

nobility, in England as well as in his foreign dominions; and he

permitted no fortress to remain in the custody of those whom he found

reason to suspect [x].

[FN [x] Benedict. Abbas, p. 202. Diceto, p. 585.]

But lest the kingdom should be weakened by this demolition of the

fortresses, the king fixed an assize of arms, by which all his

subjects were obliged to put themselves in a situation for defending

themselves and the realm. Every man possessed of a knight's fee was

ordained to have for each fee a coat of mail, a helmet, a shield, and

a lance; every free layman, possessed of goods to the value of sixteen

marks, was to be armed in like manner; every one that possessed ten

marks was obliged to have an iron gorget, a cap of iron, and a lance;

all burgesses were to have a cap of iron, a lance, and a wambais; that

is, a coat quilted with wool, tow, or such like materials [y]. It

appears that archery, for which the English were afterwards so

renowned, had not, at this time, become very common among them. The

spear was the chief weapon employed in battle.

[FN [y] Bened. Abb. p. 305 Annal. Waverl. p. 161.]

The clergy and the laity were, during that age, in a strange situation

with regard to each other, and such as may seem totally incompatible

with a civilized, and, indeed, with any species of government. If a

clergyman were guilty of murder, he could be punished by degradation

only: if he were murdered, the murderer was exposed to nothing but

excommunication and ecclesiastical censures; and the crime was atoned

for by penances and submission [z]. Hence the assassins of Thomas à

Becket himself, though guilty of the most atrocious wickedness, and

the most repugnant to the sentiments of that age, lived securely in

their own houses, without being called to account by Henry himself,

who was so much concerned, both in honour and interest, to punish that

crime, and who professed, or affected on all occasions, the most

extreme abhorrence of it. It was not till they found their presence

shunned by every one as excommunicated persons that they were induced

to take a journey to Rome, to throw themselves at the feet of the

pontiff, and to submit to the penances imposed upon them: after which

they continued to possess, without molestation, their honours and

fortunes, and seemed even to have recovered the countenance and good

opinion of the public. But as the king, by the constitutions of

Clarendon, which he endeavoured still to maintain [a], had subjected

the clergy to a trial by the civil magistrate, it seemed but just to

give them the protection of that power to which they owed obedience;

it was enacted, that the murderers of clergymen should be tried before

the justiciary, in the presence of the bishop or his official; and

besides the usual punishment for murder, should be subjected to a

forfeiture of their estates, and a confiscation of their goods and

chattels [b].

[FN [z] Petri Blessen. epist. 73. apud Bibl. Patr. tom. xxiv. p. 992.

[a] Chron. Gervase, p. 1433. [b] Diceto, p. 592. Chron. Gervase,

1433.]

The king passed an equitable law, that the goods of a vassal should

not be seized for the debt of his lord, unless the vassal be surety

for the debt; and that the rents of vassals should be paid to the

creditors of the lord, not to the lord himself. It is remarkable that

this law was enacted by the king in a council which he held at

Verneuil, and which consisted of some prelates and barons of England,

as well as some of Normandy, Poictou, Anjou, Maine, Touraine, and

Britany; and the statute took place in all these last-mentioned

territories [c], though totally unconnected with each other [d]; a

certain proof how irregular the ancient feudal government was, and how

near the sovereigns, in some instances, approached to despotism,

though in others they seemed scarcely to possess any authority. If a

prince, much dreaded and revered, like Henry, obtained but the

appearance of general consent to an ordinance which was equitable and

just, it became immediately an established law, and all his subjects

acquiesced in it. If the prince was hated or despised; if the nobles

who supported him had small influence; if the humours of the times

disposed the people to question the justice of his ordinance; the

fullest and most authentic assembly had no authority. Thus all was

confusion and disorder; no regular idea of a constitution; force and

violence decided every thing.

[FN [c] Bened. Abb. p. 248. It was usual for the kings of England,

after the conquest of Ireland, to summon barons and members of that

country to the English Parliament. Mollineux's case of Ireland, p.

64, 65, 66. [d] Spellman even doubts whether the law were not also

extended to England. If it were not, it could only be because Henry

did not choose it; for his authority was greater in that kingdom than

in his transmarine dominions.]

The success which had attended Henry in his wars did not much

encourage his neighbours to form any attempt against him; and his

transactions with them during several years, contain little memorable.

Scotland remained in that state of feudal subjection to which he had

reduced it, and gave him no farther inquietude. He sent over his

fourth son, John, into Ireland, with a view of making a more complete

conquest of the island; but the petulance and incapacity of this

prince, by which he enraged the Irish chieftains, obliged the king

soon after to recall him [e]. The King of France had fallen into an

abject superstition; and was induced, by a devotion more sincere than

that of Henry, to make a pilgrimage to the tomb of Becket, in order to

obtain his intercession for the cure of Philip, his eldest son. He

probably thought himself well entitled to the favour of that saint on

account of their ancient intimacy; and hoped that Becket, whom he had

protected while on earth, would not now, when he was so highly exalted

in heaven, forgot his old friend and benefactor. The monks, sensible

that their saint's honour was concerned in the case, failed not to

publish that Lewis's prayers were answered, and that the young prince

was restored to health by Becket's intercession. That king himself

was soon after struck with an apoplexy, which deprived him of his

understanding: Philip, though a youth of fifteen, took on him the

administration, till his father's death, which happened soon after,

opened his way to the throne; and he proved the ablest and greatest

monarch that had governed that kingdom since the age of Charlemagne.

The superior years, however, and experience of Henry, while they

moderated his ambition, gave him such an ascendant over this prince,

that no dangerous rivalship, for a long time, arose between them. [MN

1180.] The English monarch, instead of taking advantage of his own

situation, rather employed his good offices in composing the quarrels

which arose in the royal family of France; and he was successful in

mediating a reconciliation between Philip and his mother and uncles.

These services were but ill requited by Philip, who, when he came to

man's estate, fomented all the domestic discords in the royal family

of England, and encouraged Henry's sons in their ungrateful and

undutiful behaviour towards him.

[FN [e] Bened. Abb. p. 437, &c.]

Prince Henry, equally impatient of obtaining power, and incapable of

using it, renewed to the king the demand of his resigning Normandy;

and on meeting with a refusal, he fled with his consort to the court

of France: but not finding Philip at that time disposed to enter into

war for his sake, he accepted of his father's offers of

reconciliation, and made him submissions. It was a cruel circumstance

in the king's fortune, that he could hope for no tranquillity from the

criminal enterprises of his sons but by their mutual discord and

animosities, which disturbed his family, and threw his state into

convulsions. Richard, whom he had made master of Guienne, and who had

displayed his valour and military genius by suppressing the revolts of

his mutinous barons, refused to obey Henry's orders, in doing homage

to his elder brother for that duchy, and he defended himself against

young Henry and Geoffrey, who, uniting their arms, carried war into

his territories [f]. The king, with some difficulty, composed this

difference; but immediately found his eldest son engaged in

conspiracies, and ready to take arms against himself. While the young

prince was conducting these criminal intrigues, he was seized with a

fever at Martel, [MN 1183.] a castle near Turenne, to which he had

retired in discontent; and seeing the approaches of death, he was at

last struck with remorse for his undutiful behaviour towards his

father. He sent a message to the king, who was not far distant;

expressed his contrition for his faults; and entreated the favour of a

visit, that he might at least die with the satisfaction of having

obtained his forgiveness. Henry, who had so often experienced the

prince's ingratitude and violence, apprehended that his sickness was

entirely feigned, and he durst not intrust himself into his son's

hands: but when he soon after received intelligence of young Henry's

death, [MN 11th June. Death of young Henry.] and the proofs of his

sincere repentance, this good prince was affected with the deepest

sorrow; he thrice fainted away; he accused his own hard-heartedness in

refusing the dying request of his son; and he lamented that he had

deprived that prince of the last opportunity of making atonement for

his offences, and of pouring out his soul in the bosom of his

reconciled father [s]. This prince died in the twenty-eighth year of

his age.

[FN [f] Ypod. Neust. p. 451. Bened. Abb. p. 383. Diceto, p. 617.

[g] Bened. Abb. p. 393. Hoveden, p. 621. Trivet, vol. i. p. 84.]

The behaviour of his surviving children did not tend to give the king

any consolation for the loss. As Prince Henry had left no posterity,

Richard was become heir to all his dominions; and the king intended

that John, his third surviving son and favourite, should inherit

Guienne as his appanage; but Richard refused his consent, fled into

that duchy, and even made preparations for carrying on war, as well

against his father as against his brother Geoffrey, who was now put in

possession of Britany. Henry sent for Eleanor his queen, the heiress

of Guienne, and required Richard to deliver up to her the dominion of

these territories; which the prince, either dreading an insurrection

of the Gascons in her favour, or retaining some sense of duty towards

her, readily performed; and he peaceably returned to his father's

court. No sooner was this quarrel accommodated, than Geoffrey, the

most vicious perhaps of all Henry's unhappy family, broke out into

violence; demanded Anjou to be annexed to his dominions of Britany;

and on meeting with a refusal, fled to the court of France, and levied

forces against his father [h]. [MN 1185.] Henry was freed from this

danger by his son's death, who was killed in a tournament at Paris

[i]. The widow of Geoffrey, soon after his decease, was delivered of

a son, who received the name of Arthur, and was invested in the duchy

of Britany, under the guardianship of his grandfather, who, as Duke of

Normandy, was also superior lord of that territory. Philip, as lord

paramount, disputed some time his title to this wardship; but was

obliged to yield to the inclinations of the Bretons, who preferred the

government of Henry.

[FN [h] Neubrig. p. 422. [i] Bened. Abb. p. 451 Chron. Gervase, p.

1480.]

[MN Crusades.]

But the rivalship between these potent princes, and all their inferior

interests, seemed now to have given place to the general passion for

the relief of the Holy Land, and the expulsion of the Saracens. Those

infidels, though obliged to yield to the immense inundation of

Christians in the first crusade, had recovered courage after the

torrent was past; and attacking on all quarters the settlements of the

Europeans, had reduced these adventurers to great difficulties, and

obliged them to apply again for succours from the West. A second

crusade, under the Emperor Conrade and Lewis VII., King of France, in

which there perished above two hundred thousand men, brought them but

a temporary relief; and those princes, after losing such immense

armies, and seeing the flower of their nobility fall by their side,

returned with little honour into Europe. But these repeated

misfortunes, which drained the western world of its people and

treasure, were not yet sufficient to cure men of their passion for

those spiritual adventures; and a new incident rekindled with fresh

fury the zeal of the ecclesiastics and military adventurers among the

Latin Christians. Saladin, a prince of great generosity, bravery, and

conduct, having fixed himself on the throne of Egypt, began to extend

his conquests over the East; and finding the settlement of the

Christians in Palestine an invincible obstacle to the progress of his

arms, he bent the whole force of his policy and valour to subdue that

small and barren, but important territory. Taking advantage of

dissensions which prevailed among the champions of the cross, and

having secretly gained the Count of Tripoli, who commanded their

armies, he invaded the frontiers with a mighty power; and, aided by

the treachery of that count, gained over them at Tiberiade a complete

victory, which utterly annihilated the force of the already

languishing kingdom of Jerusalem. The holy city itself fell into his

hands, after a feeble resistance; the kingdom of Antioch was almost

entirely subdued; and except some maritime towns, nothing considerable

remained of those boasted conquests, which, near a century before, it

had cost the efforts of all Europe to acquire [k].

[FN [k] M. Paris, p. 100.]

[MN 1187.] The western Christians were astonished on receiving this

dismal intelligence. Pope Urban III, it is pretended, died of grief,

and his successor, Gregory VIII., employed the whole time of his short

pontificate in rousing to arms all the Christians who acknowledged his

authority. The general cry was, that they were unworthy of enjoying

any inheritance in heaven, who did not vindicate from the dominion of

the infidel the inheritance of God on earth, and deliver from slavery

that country which had been consecrated by the footsteps of their

Redeemer. [MN 1188. 21st Jan.] William, Archbishop of Tyre, having

procured a conference between Henry and Philip near Gisors, enforced

all these topics; gave a pathetic description of the miserable state

of the eastern Christians, and employed every argument to excite the

ruling passions of the age, superstition and jealousy of military

honour [l]. The two monarchs immediately took the cross; many of

their most considerable vassals imitated the example [m]; and as the

Emperor Frederick I. entered into the same confederacy, some

well-grounded hopes of success were entertained; and men flattered

themselves that an enterprise which had failed under the conduct of

many independent leaders, or of impruddent princes, might, at last, by

the efforts of such potent and able monarchs, be brought to a happy

issue.

[FN [l] Bened. Abb. p. 531. [m] Neubrig. p. 435. Heming, p. 512.]

The kings of France and England imposed a tax, amounting to the tenth

of all moveable goods on such as remained at home [n]; but as they

exempted from this burden most of the regular clergy, the secular

aspired to the same immunity; pretended that their duty obliged them

to assist the crusade with their prayers alone; and it was with some

difficulty they were constrained to desist from an opposition, which

in them who had been the chief promoters of those pious enterprises,

appeared with the worst grace imaginable [o]. This backwardness of

the clergy is perhaps a symptom, that the enthusiastic ardour which

had at first seized the people for crusades, was now by time and ill

success considerably abated; and that the frenzy was chiefly supported

by the military genius and love of glory in the monarchs.

[FN [n] Bened. Abb. p. 498. [o] Petri Blessen. epist. 112.]

But before this great machine could be put in motion, there were still

many obstacles to surmount. Philip, jealous of Henry's power, entered

into a private confederacy with young Richard; and, working on his

ambitious and impatient temper, persuaded him, instead of supporting

and aggrandizing that monarchy which he was one day to inherit, to

seek present power and independence by disturbing and dismembering it.

[MN 1189. Revolt of Prince Richard.] In order to give a pretence for

hostilities between the two kings, Richard broke into the territories

of Raymond, Count of Toulouse, who immediately carried complaints of

this violence before the King of France as his superior lord. Philip

remonstrated with Henry; but received for answer, that Richard had

confessed to the Archbishop of Dublin, that his enterprise against

Raymond had been undertaken by the approbation of Philip himself, and

was conducted by his authority. The King of France, who might have

been covered with shame and confusion by this detection, still

prosecuted his design, and invaded the provinces of Berri and

Auvergne, under colour of revenging the quarrel of the Count of

Toulouse [p]. Henry retaliated by making inroads upon the frontiers

of France, and burning Dreux. As this war, which destroyed all hopes

of success in the projected crusade, gave great scandal, the two kings

held a conference at the accustomed place between Gisors and Trie, in

order to find means of accommodating their differences: they separated

on worse terms than before; and Philip, to show his disgust, ordered a

great elm, under which the conferences had been usually held, to be

cut down [q]; as if he had renounced all desire of accommodation, and

was determined to carry the war to extremities against the King of

England. But his own vassals refused to serve under him in so

invidious a cause [r]; and he was obliged to come anew to a conference

with Henry, and to offer terms of peace. These terms were such as

entirely opened the eyes of the King of England, and fully convinced

him of the perfidy of his son, and his secret alliance with Philip, of

which he had before only entertained some suspicion. The King of

France required that Richard should be crowned King of England in the

lifetime of his father, should be invested in all his transmarine

dominions, and should immediately espouse Alice, Philip's sister, to

whom he had formerly been affianced, and who had already been

conducted into England [s]. Henry had experienced such fatal effects

both from the crowning of his eldest son, and from that prince's

alliance with the royal family of France, that he rejected these

terms; and Richard, in consequence of his secret agreement with

Philip, immediately revolted from him [t], did homage to the King of

France for all the dominions which Henry held of that crown, and

received the investitures as if he had already been the lawful

possessor. Several historians assert, that Henry himself had become

enamoured of young Alice and mention this as an additional reason for

his refusing these conditions: but he had so many other just and

equitable motives for his conduct, that it is superfluous to assign a

cause, which the great prudence and advanced age of that monarch

rendered somewhat improbable.

[FN [p] Bened. Abb. p. 508. [q] Bened. Abb. p. 517, 532. [r] Ibid.

p. 519. [s] Ibid. p. 521. Hoveden, p. 652. [t] Brompton, p. 114.

Neubrig. p. 437.]

Cardinal Albano, the pope's legate, displeased with these increasing

obstacles to the crusade, excommunicated Richard, as the chief spring

of discord: but the sentence of excommunication, which, when it was

properly prepared, and was zealously supported by the clergy, had

often great influence in that age, proved entirely ineffectual in the

present case. The chief barons of Poictou, Guienne, Normandy, and

Anjou, being attached to the young prince, and finding that he had now

received the investiture from their superior lord, declared for him,

and made inroads into the territories of such as still adhered to the

king. Henry, disquieted by the daily revolts of his mutinous

subjects, and dreading still worse effects from their turbulent

disposition, had again recourse to papal authority; and engaged the

Cardinal Anagni, who had succeeded Albano in the legateship, to

threaten Philip with laying an interdict on all his dominions. But

Philip, who was a prince of great vigour and capacity, despised the

menace, and told Anagni, that it belonged not to the pope to interpose

in the temporal disputes of princes, much less in those between him

and his rebellious vassal. He even proceeded so far as to reproach

him with partiality, and with receiving bribes from the king of

England [u]; while Richard, still more outrageous, offered to draw his

sword against the legate, and was hindered by the interposition alone

of the company from committing violence upon him [w].

[FN [u] M. Paris, p. 104. Bened. Abb. p. 542. Hoveden, p. 652. [w]

M. Paris, p. 104.]

The King of England was now obliged to defend his dominions by arms,

and to engage in a war with France, and with his eldest son, a prince

of great valour, on such disadvantageous terms. Ferté-Barnard fell

first into the hands of the enemy: Mans was next taken by assault; and

Henry, who had thrown himself into that place, escaped with some

difficulty [x]: Amboise, Chaumont, and Chateau de Loire, opened their

gates on the appearance of Philip and Richard: Tours was menaced; and

the king, who had retired to Saumur, and had daily instances of the

cowardice or infidelity of his governors, expected the most dismal

issue to all his enterprises. While he was in this state of

despondency, the Duke of Burgundy, the Earl of Flanders, and the

Archbishop of Rheims, interposed with their good offices; and the

intelligence which he received of the taking of Tours, and which made

him fully sensible of the desperate situation of his affairs, so

subdued his spirit that he submitted to all the rigorous terms which

were imposed upon him. He agreed that Richard should marry the

Princess Alice; that that prince should receive the homage and oath of

fealty of all his subjects both in England and his transmarine

dominions; that he himself should pay twenty thousand marks to the

King of France as a compensation for the charges of the war; that his

own barons should engage to make him observe this treaty by force, and

in case of his violating it, should promise to join Philip and Richard

against him; and that all his vassals who had entered into confederacy

with Richard, should receive an indemnity for the offence [y].

[FN [x] Ibid. p. 105. Bened. Abb. p. 543. Hoveden, p. 653. [y] M.

Paris, p. 106. Bened. Abb. p. 545. Hoveden, p. 653.]

But the mortification which Henry, who had been accustomed to give the

law in most treaties, received from these disadvantageous terms, was

the least that he met with on this occasion. When he demanded a list

of those barons, to whom he was bound to grant a pardon for their

connexions with Richard, he was astonished to find at the head of them

the name of his second son John [z]; who had always been his

favourite, whose interests he had ever anxiously at heart, and who had

even, on account of his ascendant over him, often excited the jealousy

of Richard [a]. The unhappy father, already overloaded with cares and

sorrows, finding this last disappointment in his domestic tenderness,

broke out into expressions of the utmost despair, cursed the day in

which he received his miserable being, and bestowed on his ungrateful

and undutiful children a malediction which he never could be prevailed

on to retract [b]. The more his heart was disposed to friendship and

affection, the more he resented the barbarous return which his four

sons had successively made to his parental care; and this finishing

blow, by depriving him of every comfort in life, quite broke his

spirit and threw him into a lingering fever, of which he expired at

the Castle of Chinon, near Saumur. [MN 1189. 6th July. Death,] His

natural son Geoffrey, who alone had behaved dutifully towards him,

attended his corpse to the nunnery of Fontevrault; where it lay in

state in the abbey church. Next day Richard, who came to visit the

dead body of his father, and who, notwithstanding his criminal

conduct, was not wholly destitute of generosity, was struck with

horror and remorse at the sight; and as the attendants observed, that,

at that very instant, blood gushed from the mouth and nostrils of the

corpse [c], he exclaimed, agreeably to a vulgar superstition, that he

was his father's murderer; and he expressed a deep sense, though too

late, of that undutiful behaviour which had brought his parent to an

untimely grave [d].

[FN [z] Hoveden. p. 654. [a] Bened. Abb. p. 541. [b] Hoveden, p.

654. [c] Bened. Abb. p. 547. Brompton, p. 1151. [d] M. Paris, p.

107.]

[MN and character of Henry.] Thus died, in the fifty-eighth year of

his age, and thirty-fifth of his reign, the greatest prince of his

time, for wisdom, virtue, and abilities, and the most powerful in

extent of dominion of all those that had ever filled the throne of

England. His character, in private as well as in public life, is

almost without a blemish; and he seems to have possessed every

accomplishment, both of body and mind, which makes a man either

estimable or amiable. He was of a middle stature, strong and well

proportioned; his countenance was lively and engaging; his

conversation affable and entertaining; his elocution easy, persuasive,

and ever at command. He loved peace, but possessed both bravery and

conduct in war; was provident without timidity; severe in the

execution of justice without rigour; and temperate without austerity.

He preserved health, and kept himself from corpulency, to which he was

somewhat inclined, by an abstemious diet and by frequent exercise,

particularly hunting. When he could enjoy leisure, he recreated

himself either in learned conversation or in reading; and he

cultivated his natural talents by study, above any prince of his time.

His affections, as well as his enmities, were warm and durable; and

his long experience of the ingratitude and infidelity of men never

destroyed the natural sensibility of his temper, which disposed him to

friendship and society. His character has been transmitted to us by

several writers who were his contemporaries [e]; and it extremely

resembles, in its most remarkable features, that of his maternal

grandfather Henry I.: excepting only that ambition, which was a ruling

passion in both, found not in the first Henry such unexceptionable

means of exerting itself, and pushed that prince into measures which

were both criminal in themselves, and were the cause of farther

crimes, from which his grandson’s conduct was happily exempted.

[FN [e] Petri Bles. epist. 46, 47. in Bibliotheca Patrum, vol. xxiv.

p. 985, 986, &c. Girald. Camb. p. 783, &c.]

[MN Miscellaneous transactions of this reign.]

This prince, like most of his predecessors of the Norman line, except

Stephen, passed more of his time on the continent than in this island:

he was surrounded with the English gentry and nobility, when abroad:

the French gentry and nobility attended him when he resided in

England: both nations acted in the government as if they were the same

people: and, on many occasions, the legislatures seem not to have been

distinguished. As the king and all the English barons were of French

extraction, the manners of that people acquired the ascendant, and

were regarded as the models of imitation. All foreign improvements,

therefore, such as they were, in literature and politeness, in laws

and arts, seem now to have been, in a good measure, transplanted into

England; and that kingdom was become little inferior, in all the

fashionable accomplishments, to any of its neighbours on the

continent. The more homely but more sensible manners and principles

of the Saxons were exchanged for the affectations of chivalry, and the

subtleties of school philosophy: the feudal ideas of civil government,

the Romish sentiments in religion, had taken entire possession of the

people: by the former, the sense of submission towards princes was

somewhat diminished in the barons; by the latter the devoted

attachment to papal authority was much augmented among the clergy.

The Norman and other foreign families established in England had now

struck deep root; and being entirely incorporated with the people,

whom at first they oppressed and despised, they no longer thought that

they needed protection of the crown for the enjoyment of their

possessions, or considered their tenure as precarious. They aspired

to the same liberty and independence which they saw enjoyed by their

brethren on the continent, and desired to restrain those exorbitant

prerogatives and arbitrary practices, which the necessities of war and

the violence of conquest had at first obliged them to indulge in their

monarch. That memory also of a more equal government under the Saxon

princes, which remained with the English, diffused still farther the

spirit of liberty, and made the barons both desirous of more

independence to themselves, and willing to indulge it to the people.

And it was not long ere this secret revolution in the sentiments of

men produced, first violent convulsions in the state, then an evident

alteration in the maxims of government.

The history of all the preceding Kings of England since the Conquest

gives evident proofs of the disorders attending the feudal

institutions; the licentiousness of the barons, their spirit of

rebellion against the prince and laws, and of animosity against each

other: the conduct of the barons in the transmarine dominions of those

monarchs afforded perhaps still more flagrant instances of these

convulsions; and the history of France, during several ages, consists

almost entirely of narrations of this nature. The cities, during the

continuance of this violent government, could neither be very numerous

nor populous; and there occur instances which seem to evince, that

though these are always the first seat of law and liberty, their

police was in general loose and irregular, and exposed to the same

disorders with those by which the country was generally infested. It

was a custom in London for great numbers, to the amount of a hundred

or more, the sons and relations of considerable citizens, to form

themselves into a licentious confederacy, to break into rich houses

and plunder them, to rob and murder the passengers, and to commit with

impunity all sorts of disorder. By these crimes, it had become so

dangerous to walk the streets by night, that the citizens durst no

more venture abroad after sunset than if they had been exposed to the

incursions of a public enemy. The brother of the Earl of Ferrars had

been murdered by some of those nocturnal rioters; and the death of so

eminent a person, which was much more regarded than that of many

thousands of an inferior station, so provoked the king, that he swore

vengeance against the criminals and became thenceforth more rigorous

in the execution of the laws [f].

[FN [f] Bened. Abb. p. 196.]

There is another instance given by historians, which proves to what a

height such riots had proceeded, and how open these criminals were in

committing their robberies. A band of them had attacked the house of

a rich citizen, with an intention of plundering it; had broken through

a stone wall with hammers and wedges; and had already entered the

house sword in hand; when the citizen armed cap-a-pie, and supported

by his faithful servants, appeared in the passage to oppose them; he

cut off the right hand of the first robber that entered; and made such

stout resistance, that his neighbours had leisure to assemble, and

come to his relief. The man who lost his hand was taken; and was

tempted by the promise of pardon to reveal his confederates; among

whom was one John Senex, esteemed among the richest and best-born

citizens in London. He was convicted by the ordeal; and though he

offered five hundred marks for his life, the king refused the money,

and ordered him to be hanged [g]. It appears from a statute of Edward

I. that these disorders were not remedied even in that reign. It was

then made penal to go out at night after the hour of the curfew, to

carry a weapon, or to walk without a light or lantern [h]. It is said

in the preamble to this law, that, both by night and by day, there

were continual frays in the streets of London.

[FN [g] Ibid. p. 197, 198. [h] Observations on the ancient Statutes,

p. 216.]

Henry's care in administering justice had gained him so great a

reputation, that even foreign and distant princes made him arbiter,

and submitted their differences to his judgment. Sanchez, King of

Navarre, having some controversies with Alphonso, King of Castile, was

contented, though Alphonso had married the daughter of Henry, to

choose this prince for a referee; and they agreed each of them to

consign three castles into neutral hands as a pledge of their not

departing from his award. Henry made the cause be examined before

his great council, and gave a sentence, which was submitted to by both

parties. These two Spanish kings sent each a stout champion to the

court of England, in order to defend his cause by arms, in case the

way of duel had been chosen by Henry [i].

[FN [i] Rymer, vol. iv. p. 43. Bened. Abb. p. 172. Diceto, p. 597.

Brompton, p. 1120.]

Henry so far abolished the barbarous and absurd practice of

confiscating ships which had been wrecked on the coast, that he

ordained, if one man or animal were alive in the ship, that the vessel

and goods should be restored to the owners [k].

[FN [k] Rymer, vol. i. p. 36.]

The reign of Henry was remarkable also for an innovation which was

afterwards carried farther by his successors, and was attended with

the most important consequences. This prince was disgusted with the

species of military force which was established by the feudal

institutions, and which, though it was extremely burdensome to the

subject, yet rendered very little service to the sovereign. The

barons, or military tenants, came late into the field; they were

obliged to serve only forty days; they were unskilful and disorderly

in all their operations; and they were apt to carry into the camp the

same refractory and independent spirit, to which they were accustomed

in their civil government. Henry, therefore, introduced the practice

of making a commutation of their military service for money; and he

levied scutages from his baronies and knights' fees, instead of

requiring the personal attendance of his vassals. There is mention

made, in the History of the Exchequer, of these scutages in his

second, fifth, and eighteenth year [l]; and other writers give us an

account of three more of them [m]. When the prince had thus obtained

money, he made a contract with some of those adventurers in which

Europe at that time abounded: they found him soldiers of the same

character with themselves, who were bound to serve for a stipulated

time: the armies were less numerous, but more useful, than when

composed of all the military vassals of the crown: the feudal

institutions began to relax: the kings became rapacious for money, on

which all their power depended: the barons, seeing no end of

exactions, sought to defend their property: and as the same causes had

nearly the same effects in the different countries of Europe, the

several crowns either lost or acquired authority, according to their

different success in the contest.

[FN [l] Madox, p. 435, 436, 437, 438. [m] Tyrrel, vol. ii. p. 466,

from the records.]

This prince was also the first that levied a tax on the moveables or

personal estates of his subjects, nobles as well as commons. Their

zeal for the holy wars made them submit to this innovation; and a

precedent being once obtained, this taxation became, in following

reigns, the usual method of supplying the necessities of the crown.

The tax of Danegelt, so generally odious to the nation, was remitted

in this reign.

It was a usual practice of the Kings of England to repeat the ceremony

of their coronation thrice every year, on assembling the states at the

three great festivals. Henry, after the first years of his reign,

never renewed this ceremony, which was found to be very expensive and

very useless. None of his successors revived it. It is considered as

a great act of grace in this prince, that he mitigated the rigour of

the forest laws, and punished any transgressions of them, not

capitally, but by fines, imprisonments, and other more moderate

penalties.

Since we are here collecting some detached incidents which show the

genius of the age, and which could not so well enter into the body of

our history, it may not be improper to mention the quarrel between

Roger, Archbishop of York, and Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury. We

may judge of the violence of military men and laymen, when

ecclesiastics could proceed to such extremities. Cardinal Haguezun

being sent, in 1176, as legate into Britain, summoned an assembly of

the clergy at London; and as both the archbishops pretended to sit on

his right hand, this question of precedency begat a controversy

between them. The monks and retainers of Archbishop Richard fell upon

Roger, in the presence of the cardinal and of the synod, threw him to

the ground, trampled him under foot, and so bruised him with blows

that he was taken up half dead, and his life was with difficulty saved

from their violence. The Archbishop of Canterbury was obliged to pay

a large sum of money to the legate, in order to suppress all

complaints with regard to this enormity [n].

[FN [n] Bened. Abb. p. 138, 139. Brompton, p. 1109. Chron Gerv. p.

1433. Neubrig. p. 413.]

We are told by Giraldus Cambrensis, that the monks and prior of St.

Swithun threw themselves one day prostrate on the ground and in the

mire before Henry, complaining, with many tears and much doleful

lamentation, that the Bishop of Winchester, who was also their abbot,

had cut off three dishes from their table. How many has he left you?

said the king. Ten only, replied the disconsolate monks. I myself,

exclaimed the king, never have more than three; and I enjoin your

bishop to reduce you to the same number [o].

[FN [o] Gir. Camb. cap. 5. in Anglia Sacra, vol. ii.]

This king left only two legitimate sons, Richard who succeeded him,

and John who inherited no territory, though his father had often

intended to leave him a part of his extensive dominions. He was

thence commonly denominated LACKLAND. Henry left three legitimate

daughters: Maud, born in 1156, and married to Henry, Duke of Saxony;

Eleanor, born in 1162, and married to Alphonso, King of Castile; Joan,

born in 1165, and married to William, King of Sicily [p].

[FN [p] Diceto, p. 616.]

Henry is said by ancient historians to have been of a very amorous

disposition: they mention two of his natural sons by Rosamond,

daughter of Lord Clifford; namely, Richard Longespee, or Longsword,

(so called from the sword he usually wore,) who was afterwards married

to Ela, the daughter and heir of the Earl of Salisbury; and Geoffrey,

first Bishop of Lincoln, then Archbishop of York. All the other

circumstances of the story, commonly told of that lady, seem to be

fabulous.