_Who accompanied him (as he afterwards did King John) into Ireland, A.
D. 1172_.
Henry II., king of England, was of a very good colour, but somewhat red;
his head great and round, his eyes were fiery, red, and grim, and his
face very high coloured; his voice or speech was shaking, quivering, or
trembling; his neck short, his breast broad and big; strong armed; his
body was gross, and his belly somewhat big, which came to him rather by
nature than by any gross feeding or surfeiting; for his diet was very
temperate, and to say the truth, thought to be more spare than comely,
or for the state of a prince; and yet to abate his grossness, and to
remedy this fault of nature, he did, as it were, punish his body with
continual exercise, and keep a continual war with himself. For in the
times of his wars, which were for the most part continual to him, he had
little or no rest at all; and in times of peace he would not grant unto
himself any peace at all, nor take any rest: for then did he give
himself wholly unto hunting; and to follow the same, he would very early
every morning be on horseback, and then go into the woods, sometimes
into the forests, and sometimes into the hills and fields, and so would
he spend the whole day until night. In the evening when he came home, he
would never, or very seldom, sit either before or after supper; for
though he were never so weary, yet still would he be walking and going.
And, forasmuch as it is very profitable for every man in his lifetime
that he do not take too much of any one thing, for medicine itself,
which is appointed for man’s help and remedy, is not absolutely perfect
and good to be always used, even so it befell and happened to this
prince; for, partly by his excessive travels, and partly by divers
bruises in his body, his legs and feet were swollen and sore. And,
though he had no disease at all, yet age itself was a breaking
sufficient unto him. He was of a reasonable stature, which happened to
none of his sons; for his two eldest sons were somewhat higher, and his
two younger were somewhat lower and less than he was. If he were in a
good mood, and not angry, then would he be very pleasant and eloquent:
he was also (which was a thing very rare in those days) very well
learned; he was also very affable, gentle, and courteous; and besides,
so pitiful, that when he had overcome his enemy, yet would he be
overcome with pity towards him. In war he was most valiant, and in peace
he was as provident and circumspect. And in the wars, mistrusting and
doubting of the end and event thereof, he would (as Terence writeth) try
all the ways and means he could devise, rather than wage the battle. If
he lost any of his men in the fight, he would marvellously lament his
death, and seem to pity him more being dead, than he did regard or
account of him being alive; more bewailing the dead, than favouring the
living.
In times of distress no man was more courteous; and when all things were
safe, no man more cruel. Against the stubborn and unruly, no man more
sharp, yet to the humble no man more gentle; hard towards his own men
and household, but liberal to strangers; bountiful abroad, but sparing
at home; whom he once hated, he would never or very hardly love; and
whom he once loved, he would not lightly be out with him, or forsake
him. He had great pleasure and delight in hawking and hunting:--would to
God he had been as well bent and disposed unto good devotion![301]
It was said, that after the displeasure grown between the king and his
sons, by the means and through the enticing of the queen their mother,
he never was accounted to keep his word and promise, but, without any
regard or care, was a common breaker thereof. And true it is, that, of a
certain natural disposition, he was light and inconstant of his word;
and if the matter were brought to a narrow strait or pinch, he would not
stick rather to cover his word, than to deny his deed. And for this
cause, in all his doings, he was very provident and circumspect, and a
very upright and severe minister of justice, although he did therein
grieve and make his friends to smart. His answers, for the most part,
were perverse and froward. And, albeit, for profit and lucre all things
are set to sale, and do bring great gains, as well to the clergy as the
laity, yet they are no better to a man’s heirs and executors, than were
the riches of Gehasi, whose greedy doings turned himself to utter ruin
and destruction.
He was a great peace-maker, and careful keeper thereof himself; a
liberal alms-giver, and a special benefactor to the Holy Land; he loved
humility, abhorred pride, and much oppressed his nobility. The hungry
he refreshed, the rich he regarded not. The humble he would exalt, but
the mighty he disdained. He usurped much upon the holy church; and of a
certain kind of zeal, but not according to knowledge, he did intermingle
and conjoin profane with holy things; for why? _He would be all in all
himself._ He was the child of the holy mother church, and by her
advanced to the sceptre of his kingdom; and yet he either dissembled or
utterly forgot the same; for he was slack always in coming to the church
unto the divine service, and at the time thereof he would be busied and
occupied rather with councils and in conference about the affairs of his
commonwealth, than in devotion and prayer. The livelihoods belonging to
any spiritual promotion, he would, in time of their vacation, confiscate
to his own treasury, and assume that to himself which was due unto
Christ. When any new troubles or wars did grow, or come upon him, then
would he lavish and pour out all that ever he had in store or treasury,
and liberally bestow that upon a soldier, which ought to have been given
unto the priest. He had a very prudent and forecasting wit, and thereby
foreseeing what things might or were like to ensue, he would accordingly
order or dispose either for the performance or for the prevention
thereof; notwithstanding which, many times the event happened to the
contrary, and he was disappointed of his expectation: and commonly there
happened no ill unto him, but he would foretell thereof to his friends
and familiars.
He was a marvellous natural father to his children, and loved them
tenderly in their childhood and young years; but they being grown to
some age and ripeness, he was as a father-in-law, and could scarcely
brook any of them. And, notwithstanding they were very handsome, comely,
and noble gentlemen, yet, whether it were that he would not have them
prosper too fast, or whether they had evil deserved of him, he hated
them; and it was full much against his will that they should be his
successors, or heirs to any part of his inheritance. And such is the
prosperity of man, that as it cannot be perpetual, no more can it be
perfect and assured: for why?--such was the secret malice of fortune
against this king, that where he should have received much comfort,
there had he most sorrow; where quietness and safety--there unquietness
and peril; where peace--there enmity; where courtesy--there ingratitude;
where rest--there trouble. And whether this happened by the means of
their marriages, or for the punishment of the father’s sins, certain it
is, there was no good agreement, neither between the father and the
sons, nor yet among the sons themselves.
But at length, when all his enemies and the disturbers of the common
peace were suppressed, and his brethren, his sons, and all others his
adversaries, as well at home as abroad, were reconciled; then all things
happened and befell unto him (though it were long first) after and
according to his own will and mind. And would to God he had likewise
reconciled himself unto God, and by amendment of his life, had in the
end also procured his favour and mercy! Besides this, which I had almost
forgotten, he was of such a memory, that if he had seen and known a man,
he would not forget him: neither yet whatsoever he had heard, would he
be unmindful thereof. And hereof was it, that he had so ready a memory
of histories which he had read, and a knowledge and a manner of
experience in all things. To conclude, if he had been chosen of God, and
been obsequious and careful to live in his fear and after his laws, he
had excelled all the princes of the world; for in the gifts of nature,
no one man was to be compared unto him.[302]
[301] Giraldus here alludes to his quarrel with Thomas à Becket.
[302] Extracted (from lord Mountmorris’s History of the Irish
Parliament, vol. i. page 33, et infra) by “THE VEILED SPIRIT.”
* * * * *