THE LOST CHARTER OF THE QUEEN.
It was at the very hour when the Empress seemed to have attained the
height of her triumph that her hopes were dashed to the ground.[353] The
disaster, as is well known, was due to her own behaviour. As Dr. Stubbs
has well observed, "She, too, was on the crest of the wave and had her
little day ... she had not learned wisdom or conciliation, and threw
away opportunities as recklessly as her rival."[354] Indeed, even
William of Malmesbury hints that the fault was hers.[355]
The Queen, having pleaded in vain for her husband, resolved to appeal to
arms. Advancing on Southwark at the head of the forces which she had
raised from Kent, and probably from Boulogne, she ravaged the lands of
the citizens with fire and sword before their eyes.[356] The citizens,
who had received the Empress but grudgingly, and were already alarmed by
her haughty conduct, were now reduced to desperation. They decided on
rising against their new mistress, and joining the Queen in her struggle
for the restoration of the king.[357] There is a stirring picture in the
_Gesta_ of the sudden sounding of the _tocsin_, and of the citizens
pouring forth from the gates amidst the clanging of the bells. The
Empress was taken so completely by surprise that she seems to have been
at table at the time, and she and her followers, mounting in haste, had
scarcely galloped clear of the suburbs when the mob streamed into her
quarters and rifled them of all that they contained. So great, we are
told, was the panic of the fugitives that they scattered in all
directions, regardless of the Empress and her fate. Although the _Gesta_
is a hostile source, the evidence of its author is here confirmed by
that of the Continuator of Florence.[358] William of Malmesbury,
however, writing as a partisan, will not allow that the Empress and her
brother were thus ignominiously expelled, but asserts that they withdrew
in military array.[359]
The Empress herself fled to Oxford, and, afraid to remain even there,
pushed on to Gloucester. The king, it is true, was still her prisoner,
but her followers were almost all dispersed; and the legate, who had
secured her triumph, was alienated already from her cause. Expelled from
the capital, and resisted in arms by no small portion of the kingdom,
her _prestige_ had received a fatal blow, and the moment for her
coronation had passed away, never to return.[360]
Here we may pause to glance for a moment at a charter of singular
interest for its mention of the citizens of London and their faithful
devotion to the king.
"Hugo dei gratia Rothomagensis archiepiscopus senatoribus inclitis
civibus honoratis et omnibus commune London concordie gratiam, salutem
eternam. Deo et vobis agimus gratias pro vestra fidelitate stabili et
certa domino nostro regi Stephano jugiter impensa. Inde per regiones
notæ vestra nobilitas virtus et potestas."[361]
It is tempting to see in this charter—unknown, it would seem, to the
historians of London—a mention of the famous "communa," the "tumor
plebis, timor regni," of 1191. But the term, here, is more probably
employed, as in the "communa liberorum hominum" of the Assize of Arms
(1181), and the "communa totius terre" of the Great Charter (1215). At
the same time, there are two expressions which occur at this very epoch,
and which might support the former view. One is _conjuratio_, which, as
we have seen, the Continuator applies to the action of the Londoners in
1141,[362] and which Richard of Devizes similarly applies to the commune
of 1191.[363] The other is _communio_, which William of Malmesbury
applies to their government in the previous April, and which the keen
eye of Dr. Stubbs noted as "a description of municipal unity which
suggests that the communal idea was already in existence as a basis of
civil organization."[364] But he failed, it would seem, to observe the
passage which follows, and which speaks of "omnes barones, qui in eorum
communionem jamdudum recepti fuerant." For in this allusion we recognize
a distinctive practice of the "sworn commune," from that of Le Mans
(1073),[365] to that of London (1191), "in quam universi regni magnates
et ipsi etiam ipsius provinciæ episcopi jurare coguntur."[366]
Meanwhile, what of Geoffrey de Mandeville? A tale is told of him by
Dugdale, and accepted without question by Mr. Clark,[367] which, so far
as I can find, must be traced to the following passage in Trivet:—
"Igitur in die Nativitatis Precursoris Domini [June 24], _obsessâ
turri_, fugatur imperatrix de Londoniâ. Turrim autem Galfridus de
Magnavillâ potenter defendit, et egressu facto, Robertum civitatis
episcopum, partis adversæ fautorem, cepit apud manerium de Fulham."[368]
It is quite certain that this tale is untrustworthy as it stands. We
have seen above that Trivet's date for the arrival of the Empress at
London is similarly, beyond doubt, erroneous.[369] That the citizens,
when they suddenly rose against the Empress, may also have blockaded
Geoffrey in his tower, not only as her ally, but as their own natural
enemy, is possible, nay, even probable. But that he ventured forth,
through their ranks, to Fulham, when thus blockaded, is improbable, and
that he captured the bishop as an enemy of the Empress is impossible,
for the Empress herself had just installed him,[370] and we find him at
her court a month later.[371] At the same time Trivet, we must assume,
cannot have invented all this. His story must preserve a confused
version of the facts as told in some chronicle now lost, or, at least,
unknown.[372] On this assumption it may, perhaps, be suggested that
Geoffrey was indeed blockaded in the Tower, but that when he accepted
the Queen's offers, and thus made, as we shall see, common cause with
the citizens, he signalized his defection from the cause of the Empress
by seizing her adherent the bishop,[373] and holding him a prisoner
till, as Holinshed implies, he purchased his freedom, and so became free
to join the Empress at Oxford.[374]
And now let us come to the subject of this chapter, the lost charter of
the Queen.
That this charter was granted is an historical fact hitherto absolutely
unknown. No chronicler mentions the fact, nor is there a trace of any
such document, or even of a transcript of its contents. And yet the
existence of this charter, like that of the planet Neptune, can be
established, in the words of Sir John Herschel, "with a certainty hardly
inferior to ocular demonstration." The discovery, indeed, of that planet
was effected (_magnis componere parva_) by strangely similar means. For
as the perturbations of Uranus pointed to the existence of Neptune, so
the "perturbations" of Geoffrey de Mandeville point to the existence of
this charter.
We know that the departure of the Empress was followed by the arrival of
the Queen, with the result that Geoffrey was again in a position to
demand his own terms. Had he continued to hold the Tower in the name of
the Empress, he would have made it a thorn in the side of the citizens
now that they had declared for her rival. We hear, moreover, at this
crisis, of offers by the Queen to all those whom bribes or concessions
could allure to her side.[375] We have, therefore, the strongest
presumption that Geoffrey would be among the first to whom offers were
made. But it is not on presumption that we depend. Stephen, we shall
find, six months later, refers distinctly to this lost charter ("Carta
Reginæ"),[376] and the Empress in turn, in the following year, refers to
the charters of the king _and of the queen_ ("quas Rex Stephanus
_et Matildis regina_ ei dederunt ... sicut habet inde cartas
ill_orum_").[377] Thus its existence is beyond question. And that it
passed about this time may be inferred, not only from the circumstances
of the case, but also from the most significant fact that, a few weeks
later, at the siege of Winchester, we find Geoffrey supporting the Queen
in active concert with the citizens.[378]
What were the terms of the charter by which he was thus regained to his
allegiance we cannot now tell. To judge, however, from that of Stephen,
which was mainly a confirmation of its terms, it probably represented a
distinct advance on the concessions he had wrung from the Empress.
It is an interesting fact, and one which probably is known to few, if
any, that there is still preserved in the Public Record Office a
solitary charter of the Queen, granted, I cannot but think, at this very
crisis. As it is not long, I shall here quote it as a unique and
instructive record.
"M. Regina Angl[ie] Omnibus fidelibus suis francis et Anglis salutem.
Sciatis quod dedi Gervasio Justiciario de Lond[oniâ] x marcatas terræ
in villâ de Gamelingeia pro servicio suo ... donec ei persolvam debitum
quod ei debeo, ut infra illum terminum habeat proficua que exibunt de
villa predictâ ... testibus Com[ite] Sim[one] et Ric[ardo] de Bolon[iâ]
et Sim[one] de Gerardmot[a] et Warn[erio] de Lisor[iis]. apud
Lond[oniam].[379]
The first of the witnesses, Earl Simon (of Northampton), is known to
have been one of the three earls who adhered to the Queen during the
king's captivity.[380] Richard of Boulogne was possibly a brother of her
_nepos_, "Pharamus" of Boulogne, who is also known to have been with
her.[381] Combining the fact of the charter being the Queen's with that
of its subject-matter and that of its place of testing, we obtain the
strongest possible presumption that it passed at this crisis, a
presumption confirmed, as we have seen, by the name of the leading
witness. The endeavour to fix the date of this charter is well worth the
making. For it is not merely of interest as a record unique of its kind.
If it is, indeed, of the date suggested, it is, to all appearance, the
sole survivor of all those charters, such as that to Geoffrey, by which
the Queen, in her hour of need, must have purchased support for the
royal cause. We see her, like the queen of Henry III., like the queen of
Charles I., straining every nerve to succour her husband, and to raise
men and means. And as Henrietta Maria pledged her jewels as security for
the loans she raised, so Matilda is here shown as pledging a portion of
her ancestral "honour" to raise the sinews of war.[382]
But this charter, if the date I have assigned to it be right, does more
for us than this. It gives us, for an instant, a precious glimpse of
that of which we know so little, and would fain know so much—I mean the
government of London. We learn from it that London had then a
"justiciary," and further that his name was Gervase. Nor is even this
all. The Gamlingay entry in the _Testa de Nevill_ and _Liber Niger_
enables us to advance a step further and to establish the identity of
this Gervase with no other than Gervase of Cornhill.[383] The importance
of this identification will be shown in a special appendix.[384]
Among those whom the Queen strove hard to gain was her husband's
brother, the legate.[385] He had headed, as we have seen, the witnesses
to Geoffrey's charter, but he was deeply injured at the failure of his
appeal, on behalf of his family, to the Empress, and was even thought to
have secretly encouraged the rising of the citizens of London.[386] He
now kept aloof from the court of the Empress, and, having held an
interview with the Queen at Guildford, resolved to devote himself, heart
and soul, to setting his brother free.[387]
[353] "Ecce, dum ipsa putaretur omni Anglia statim posse potiri, mutata
omnia" (_Will. Malms._, p. 749).
[354] _Early Plantagenets_, p. 22; _Const. Hist._, i. 330.
[355] "Satisque constat quod si ejus (_i.e._ comitis) moderationi et
sapientiæ a suis esset creditum, non tam sinistrum postea sensissent
aleæ casum" (p. 749).
[356] "Regina quod prece non valuit, armis impetrare confidens,
splendidissimum militantium decus ante Londonias, ex alterâ fluvii
regione, transmisit, utque raptu, et incendio, violentiâ, et gladio, in
comitissæ suorumque prospectu, ardentissime circa civitatem desævirent
præcepit" (_Gesta Stephani_, p. 78). These expressions appear to imply
that she not only wasted the southern bank, but sent over (_transmisit_)
her troops to plunder round the walls of the city itself (_circa
civitatem_). Mr. Pearson strangely assigns this action not to the Queen,
but to the Empress: "Matilda brought up troops, and cut off the trade of
the citizens, and wasted their lands, to punish their disaffection" (p.
478).
[357] The _Annals of Plympton_ (ed. Liebermann, p. 20) imply that the
city was divided on the subject:—"In mense Junio facta est sedicio in
civitate Londoniensi a civibus; sed tamen pars sanior vices imperatricis
agebat, pars vero quedam eam obpugnabat."
[358] "Facta conjuratione adversus eam quam cum honore susceperunt, cum
dedecore apprehendere statuerunt. At illa a quodam civium præmunita,
ignominiosam cum suis fugam arripuit omni sua suorumque supellectili
post tergum relicta."
[359] "Sensim sine tumultu quadam militari disciplina urbe cesserunt."
This is clearly intended to rebut the story of their hurried flight (see
also p. 132, _infra_).
[360] See Appendix J: "The Great Seal of the Empress."
[361] _Harl. MS._ 1708, fo. 113.
[362] "Conjuratione facta."
[363] "In indulta sibi conjuratione ... quanta quippe mala ex
conjuratione proveniunt" (ed. Howlett, p. 416).
[364] _Const. Hist._, i. 407.
[365] "Facta conspiratione quam _communionem_ vocabant sese omnes
pariter sacramentis adstringunt, et ... ejusdem regionis proceres
quamvis invitos, sacramentis suæ conspirationis obligari compellunt."
[366] _Richard of Devizes_ (ed. Howlett, p. 416).
[367] _Mediæval Military Architecture_, ii. 254.
[368] Trivet's _Annals_ (Eng. Hist. Soc., p. 13).
[369] See p. 84.
[370] "Primo quidem [apud Westmonasterium] quod decuit, sanctæ Dei
Ecclesiæ, juxta bonorum consilium, consulere procuravit. Dedit itaque
Lundoniensis ecclesiæ præsulatum cuidam Radingensi monacho viro
venerabili præsente et jubente reverendo abbate suo Edwardo" (_Cont.
Flor. Wig._, 131).
[371] See p. 123.
[372] We have, indeed, a glimpse of this incident in the _Liber de
Antiquis Legibus_ (fol. 35), where we read: "Anno predicto, statim in
illa estate, _obsessa est Turris Londoniarum a Londoniensibus_, quam
Willielmus (_sic_) de Magnavilla tenebat et firmaverat."
[373] The city, it must be remembered, lay between him and Fulham, so
that, obviously, he is more likely to have made this raid when the city
was no longer in arms against him.
[374] We have a hint that the bishop was disliked by the citizens in the
_Historia Pontificalis_ (p. 532), where we learn (in 1148) that they had
disobeyed the papal authority: "Quando episcopus bone memorie Robertus
expulsus est, cui hanc exhibuere devocionem ut omni diligentia
procurarent ne patri exulanti in aliquo prodessent."
[375] "Regina autem a Londoniensibus suscepta, sexusque fragilitatis,
femineæque mollitiei oblita, viriliter sese et virtuose continere;
invictos ubique coadjutores prece sibi et pretio allicere, regis
conjuratos ubi ubi per Angliam fuerant dispersi ad dominum suum secum
reposcendum constanter sollicitare" (_Gesta Stephani_, 80). "Regina
omnibus supplicavit, omnes pro ereptione mariti sui precibus, promissis,
et obsequiis sollicitavit" (_Sym. Dun._, ii. 310).
[376] See p. 143.
[377] See p. 167.
[378] "Gaufrido de Mandevillâ (_qui jam iterum auxilio eorum cesserat_,
antea enim post captionem regis imperatrici fidelitatem juraverat) et
Londoniensibus maxime annitentibus, nihilque omnino quod possent
prætermittentibus quo imperatricem contristarent" (_Will. Malms._, p.
752).
[379] _Royal Charters_ (Duchy of Lancaster), No. 22. N.B.—The above is
merely an extract from the charter.
[380] Waleran of Meulan, William of Warrenne, and Simon of Northampton
(_Ord. Vit._, v. 130).
[381] See p. 147.
[382] Gamlingay, in Cambridgeshire, had come to the Queen as belonging
to "the honour of Boulogne."
[383] "Gamenegheia valet xxx _li._ Inde tenent ... heredes Gervas[ii] de
Cornhill x _li._" (_Liber Niger_, 395; _Testa_, pp. 274, 275). This
entry also proves that the loan (1141?) to the Queen was not repaid, and
the property, therefore, not redeemed.
[384] See Appendix K: "Gervase de Cornhill."
[385] "Nunc quidem Wintoniensem episcopum, totius Angliæ legatum, ut
fraternis compatiens vinculis ad eum liberandum intenderet, ut sibi
maritum, plebi regem, regno patronum, toto secum nisu adquireret,
viriliter supplicare" (_Gesta_, 80).
[386] _Gesta_, 79.
[387] _Will. Malms._, p. 750; _Cont. Flor. Wig._, 132; _Gesta_, 80;
_Annals of Winchester_.