FALL AND DEATH OF GEOFFREY.
The movements of Geoffrey during the latter half of 1142 are shrouded in
utter darkness. After the surrender of the isle of Ely, we lose sight of
him altogether, save in the glimpse afforded us by the Oxford intrigue.
It is, however, quite possible that we should assign to the period of
the siege of Oxford Castle (September-December, 1142) a charter to
Abingdon Abbey which passed at Oxford.[616] For if we deduct from its
eight witnesses the two local barons (Walter de Bocland and Hugh de
Bolbec), five of the remaining six are found in the Canterbury
charter.[617] In that case, Geoffrey, who figures at their head, must
have been at Oxford, in Stephen's quarters, at some time in the course
of the siege. He would obviously not declare for the Empress till the
time was ripe for the scheme, and, in the meanwhile, it might disarm
suspicion, and secure his safety in the case of the capture or defeat of
the Empress, if he continued outwardly in full allegiance to the king.
It was not till the following year that the crisis at length came.
Stephen, at Mid-Lent, had attended a council at London, at which decrees
were passed against the general disregard of the rights and privileges
of the Church. Her ministers were henceforth to be free from outrage,
and her sanctuaries from violation, under penalty of an excommunication
which only the pope himself could remove.[618]
At some period in the course of the year (1143) after this
council—possibly about the end of September—the king held a court at St.
Albans, to which, it would seem, there came the leading nobles of the
realm.[619] Among them was the Earl of Essex, still at the height of his
power. Of what passed on this occasion we have, from independent
quarters, several brief accounts.[620] Of the main fact there is no
question. Stephen, acting on that sudden impulse which roused him at
times to unwonted vigour, struck at last, and struck home. The mighty
earl was seized and bound, and according to the regular practice
throughout this internecine warfare, the surrender of the castles on
which his strength was based was made the price of his liberty. As with
the arrest of the bishops at Oxford in 1139, so was it now with the
arrest of the great earl at St. Albans, and so it was again to be at
Northampton, with the arrest of the Earl of Chester some three years
later. What it was that decided Stephen to seize this moment for thus
reasserting his authority, it is not so easy to say. William of
Newburgh, who is fullest on the subject, gives us the story, which is
found nowhere else, of the earl's outrage on the king more than three
years before,[621] and tells us that Stephen had been ever since
awaiting an opportunity for revenge.[622] He adds that the height of
power to which the earl had attained had filled the king with dread, and
hints, I think, obscurely at that great conspiracy of which the earl, as
we have seen, was the pivot and the moving spirit.[623] Henry of
Huntingdon plainly asserts that his seizure was a necessity for the
king, who would otherwise have lost his crown through the King-maker's
treacherous schemes.[624] We may, indeed, safely believe that the time
had now come when Stephen felt that it must be decided whether he or
Geoffrey were master.[625] But, as with the arrest of the bishops at
Oxford four years before, so, at this similar crisis, his own feelings
and his own jealousy of a power beneath which he chafed were assiduously
fostered and encouraged by a faction among the nobles themselves. This
is well brought out in the Chronicle of Walden Abbey,[626] and still
more so in the _Gesta_. It is there distinctly asserted that this
faction worked upon the king, by reminding him of Geoffrey's
unparalleled power, and of his intention to declare for the Empress,
urging him to arrest the earl as a traitor, to seize his castles and
crush his power, and so to secure safety for himself and peace for his
troubled realm.[627] It is added that, Stephen hesitating to take the
decisive step, the jealousy of the barons blazed forth suddenly into
open strife, taunts and threats being hurled at one another by the earl
and his infuriated opponents.[628] On the king endeavouring to allay the
tumult, the earl was charged to his face with plotting treason. Called
upon to rebut the charge, he did not attempt to do so, but laughed with
cynical scorn. The king, outraged beyond endurance, at once ordered his
arrest, and his foes rushed upon him.[629]
The actual seizure of the earl appears to have been attended by
circumstances of which we are only informed from a somewhat unexpected
quarter. Mathew Paris, from his connection with St. Albans, has been
able to preserve in his _Historia Anglorum_ the local tradition of the
event. From this we learn, firstly, that there was a struggle; secondly,
that there was a flagrant violation of the right of sanctuary. The
struggle, indeed, was so sharp that the Earl of Arundel, whom we know to
have been an old opponent of Geoffrey (see p. 323), was rolled over,
horse and all, and nearly drowned in "Holywell." The fact that this
tussle took place in the open would seem to imply that the whole of this
highly dramatic episode took place out of doors.[630] As to the other of
these two points, it is clear that there was something discreditable to
Stephen, according to the opinion of the time, in his sudden seizure of
the earl. William of Newburgh observes that he acted "non quidem honeste
et secundum jus gentium, sed pro merito ejus et metu; scilicet, quod
expediret quam quod deceret plus attendens." Henry of Huntingdon
similarly writes that such a step was "magis secundum retributionem
nequitiæ consulis quam secundum jus gentium, magis ex necessitate quam
ex honestate."[631] The Chronicle of Walden, also, complains of the
circumstances of his arrest;[632] and even the panegyrist of Stephen is
anxious to clear his fame by imputing to the barons the suggestion of
what he admits to be a questionable act, and claiming for the king the
credit of reluctance to adopt their advice.[633]
But there was a more serious charge brought against the king than that
of dishonourable behaviour to the earl. He was accused of violating by
his conduct the rights of sanctuary of St. Albans, though he had sworn,
we are told, not to do so, and had taken part so shortly before in that
council of London at which such violations were denounced. The abbot's
knights, indeed, went so far as to resist by force of arms this outrage
on the Church's rights.[634] It is clearly to the contest thus caused,
rather than (as implied by Mathew) to the actual arrest of Geoffrey,
that we must assign the struggle in which the Earl of Arundel was
unhorsed by Walchelin de Oxeai, for Walchelin was one of the abbey's
knights, and was, therefore, fighting in her cause.[635]
Though the friends of the earl interceded on his behalf,[636] the king
had no alternative but to complete what he had begun. After what he had
done there could be no hope of reconciliation with the earl. Geoffrey
was offered the usual choice; either he must surrender his castles, or
he must go to the gallows. Taken to London, he was clearly made,
according to the practice in these cases, to order his own garrison to
surrender to the king. Thus he saw the fortress which he had himself
done so much to strengthen, the source of his power and of his pride,
pass for ever from his grasp. He had also to surrender, before regaining
his freedom, his ancestral Essex strongholds of Pleshy and Saffron
Walden.[637]
The earl's impotent rage when he found himself thus overreached is dwelt
on by all the chroniclers.[638] The king's move, moreover, had now
forced his hand, and the revolt so carefully planned could no longer be
delayed, but broke out prematurely at a time when the Empress was not in
a position to offer effective co-operation.
We must now return to the doings of Nigel, Bishop of Ely. That prelate
had for a year (1142-43) been peacefully occupied in his see. But at the
council of 1143 his past conduct had been gravely impugned. Alarmed at
the turn affairs were taking, he decided to consult the Empress.[639] He
must, I think, have gone by sea, for we find him, on his way at Wareham,
the port for reaching her in Wiltshire. Here he was surprised and
plundered by a party of the king's men.[640] He succeeded, however, in
reaching the Empress, and then returned to Ely. He had now resolved to
appeal to the pope in person, a resolve quickened, it may be, by the
fact that the legate, who was one of his chief opponents, had gone
thither in November (1143). With great difficulty, and after long
debate, he prevailed on the monks to let him carry off, from among the
remaining treasures of the church, a large amount of those precious
objects without the assistance of which, especially in a doubtful cause,
it would have been but lost labour to appeal to the heir of the
Apostles. As it was Pope Lucius before whom he successfully cleared his
character, and as Lucius was not elected till the March of the following
year (1144), I have placed his departure for Rome subsequent to that of
the legate. He may, of course, have arrived there sooner and applied to
Cœlestine without success, but as that pontiff favoured the Empress,
this is not probable. Indeed, the wording of the narrative is distinctly
opposed to the idea.[641] In any case, my object is to show that the
period of his absence abroad harmonizes well with the London Chronicle,
which places Geoffrey's revolt about the end of the year. For the bishop
had been gone some time when the earl obtained possession of Ely.[642]
Hugh Bigod, the Earl of Norfolk, whose allegiance had ever sat lightly
upon him, appears to have eventually become his ally,[643] but for the
time we hear only of his brother-in-law, William de Say, as actively
embracing his cause.[644] He must, however, have relied on at least the
friendly neutrality of his relatives, the Clares and the De Veres, in
Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, and Essex, as well as on the loyalty of his own
vassals. It is possible, from scattered sources, to trace his plan of
action, and to reconstruct the outline of what we may term the fenland
campaign.
Fordham, in Cambridgeshire, on the Suffolk border, appears to have been
his base of operations. Here supplies could reach him from Suffolk and
North Essex. He was thence enabled to advance to Ely, the bishop being
at this time absent at Rome, and his forces being hard pressed by those
which Stephen had despatched against them. The earl gladly accepted
their appeal to himself for assistance, and was placed by them in
possession of the isle, including its key, Aldreth Castle.[645] He soon
made a further advance, and, pushing on in the same direction, burst
upon Ramsey Abbey on a December[646] morning at daybreak, seized the
monks in their beds, drove them forth clad as they were, and turned the
abbey into a fortified post.[647]
He was probably led to this step by the confusion then reigning among
the brethren. A certain scheming monk, Daniel by name, had induced the
abbot to resign in his favour. The resignation was indignantly
repudiated by the monks and the tenants of the abbey, but Stephen,
bribed by Daniel, had visited Ramsey in person, and installed him by
force as abbot only eighteen days before the earl's attack.[648] It is,
therefore, quite possible that, as stated in the Walden Chronicle,
Daniel may have been privy to this gross outrage. In any case the earl's
conduct excited universal indignation.[649] He stabled his horses in the
cloisters; he plundered the church of its most sacred treasures; he
distributed its manors among his lawless followers, and he then sent
them forth to ravage far and wide. In short, in the words of the pious
chronicler, he made of the church of God a very den of thieves.[650]
But for the time these same enormities enabled the daring earl at once
to increase the number of his followers and to acquire a strategical
position unrivalled for his purpose. The soldiers of fortune and
mercenary troopers who now swarmed throughout the land flocked in crowds
to his standard, and he was soon at the head of a sufficient force to
undertake offensive operations.[651] From his advanced post at Ramsey
Abbey, he was within striking distance of several important points,
while himself comparatively safe from attack. His front and right flank
were covered by the meres and fens; his left was to some extent
protected by the Ouse and its tributaries, and was further strengthened
by a fortified work, erected by his son Ernulf at one of the abbey's
manors, Wood Walton.[652] In his rear lay the isle of Ely, with its
castles in the hands of his men, and its communications with the Eastern
Counties secured by his garrison at Fordham.[653] His positions at Ely
and Ramsey were themselves connected by a garrison, on the borders of
the two counties, at Benwick.[654]
Thus situated, the earl was enabled to indulge his thirst for vengeance,
if not on Stephen himself, at least on his unfortunate subjects. From
his fastness in the fenland he raided forth; his course was marked by
wild havoc, and he returned laden with plunder.[655]
Cambridge, as being the king's town, underwent at his hands the same
fate that Nottingham had suffered in 1140, or Worcester in 1139, at the
hands of the Earl of Gloucester.[656] Bursting suddenly on the town, he
surprised, seized, and sacked it. As at Worcester, the townsmen had
stored in the churches such property as they could; but the earl was
hardened to sacrilege: the doors were soon crashing beneath the axes of
his eager troopers, and when they had pillaged to their hearts' content,
the town was committed to the flames.[657] The whole country round was
the scene of similar deeds.[658] The humblest village church was not
safe from his attack,[659] but the religious houses, from their own
wealth, and from the accumulated treasures which, for safety, were then
stored within their walls, offered the most alluring prize. It is only
from the snatch of a popular rhyme that we learn incidentally the fact
that St. Ives was treated even as the abbey of which it was a
daughter-house. In a MS. of the _Historia Anglorum_ there is preserved
by Mathew Paris the tradition that the earl and his lawless followers
mockingly sang of their wild doings—
"I ne mai a live
For Benoit ne for Ive."[660]
It may not have been observed that this jingle refers to St. Benedict of
Ramsey and its daughter-house of St. Ives.[661]
Emboldened by success, he extended his ravages, till his deeds could no
longer be ignored.[662] Stephen, at length fairly roused, marched in
strength against him, determined to suppress the revolt. But the earl,
skilfully avoiding an encounter in the open field, took refuge in the
depths of the fenland and baffled the efforts of the king. Finding it
useless to prolong the chase, Stephen fell back on his usual policy of
establishing fortified posts to hem the rebels in. In these he placed
garrisons, and so departed.[663]
Geoffrey was now at his worst. Checked in extending his sphere of
plunder, he ravaged, with redoubled energy, the isle itself. His tools,
disguised as beggars, wandered from door to door, to discover those who
were still able to relieve them from their scanty stores. The hapless
victims of this stratagem were seized at dead of night, dragged before
the earl as a great prize, and exposed in turn to every torture that a
devilish ingenuity could devise till the ransom demanded by their
captors had been extorted to the uttermost farthing.[664] I cannot but
think that the terrible picture of the cruelties which have made this
period memorable for ever in our history was painted by the Peterborough
chronicler from life, and that these very doings in his own
neighbourhood inspired his imperishable words.
Nor was it only the earl that the brethren of Ely had to fear. Stephen,
infuriated at the loss of the isle, laid the blame at their bishop's
door, and seized all those of their possessions which were not within
the earl's grasp. The monks, thus placed "between the devil and the deep
sea," were indeed at their wits' end.[665] A very interesting reference
to this condition of things is found in a communication from the pope to
Archbishop Theobald, stating that Bishop Nigel of Ely has written to
complain that he found on his return from Rome that Earl Geoffrey, in
his absence, had seized and fortified the isle, and ravaged the
possessions of his church within it, while Stephen had done the same for
those which lay without it. As it would seem that this document has not
been printed, I here append the passage:—
"Venerabilis frater noster N. elyensis episcopus per literas suas nobis
significavit quod dum apostolicorum limina et nostram presentiam
visitasset, Gaufridus comes de mandeuilla elyensem insulam ubi sedes
episcopalis est violenter occupavit et quasdam sibi munitiones in ea
parauit. Occupatis autem ab ipso comite interioribus, Stephanus rex
omnes ejusdem ecclesie possessiones exteriores occupavit et pro
voluntate sua illicite distribuit."[666]
This letter would seem to have been written subsequent to Nigel's
return. The bishop, however, had heard while at Rome of these violent
proceedings,[667] and had prevailed on Lucius to write to Theobald and
his fellow-bishops, complaining—
"Quod a quibusdam parrochianis vestris bona et possessiones elyensis
ecclesie, precipue dum ipse ab episcopatu expulsus esset, direpta sunt
et occupata et contra justitiam teneantur. Quidam etiam sub nomine
_tenseriarum_ villas et homines suos spoliant et injustis operationibus
et exaccionibus opprimunt."[668]
But the bishop was not the only sufferer who turned to Rome for help.
When Stephen installed the ambitious Daniel as Abbot of Ramsey in
person, Walter, the late abbot, had sought "the threshold of the
Apostles." Daniel, whether implicated or not in Geoffrey's sacrilegious
deeds, found himself virtually deposed when the abbey became a fortress
of the earl. Alarmed also for the possible consequence of Walter's
appeal to Rome, he resolved to follow his example and betake himself to
the pope, trusting to the treasure that he was able to bring.[669] The
guileless simplicity of Walter, however, carried the day; he found
favour in the eyes of the curia and returned to claim his abbey.[670]
But though he had been absent only three months, the scene was changed
indeed. That which he had left "the House of God," he found, as we have
seen, "a den of thieves." But the "dove" who had pleaded before the
papal court could show himself, at need, a lion. Filled, we are told,
with the Holy Spirit, he entered, undaunted, the earl's camp, seized a
flaming torch, and set fire not only to the tents of his troopers, but
also to the outer gate of the abbey, which they had made the barbican of
their stronghold. But neither this novel adaptation of the orthodox
"tongues of fire," nor yet the more appropriate anathemas which he
scattered as freely as the flames, could convert the mailed sinners from
the error of their unhallowed ways. Indeed, it was almost a miracle that
he escaped actual violence, for the enraged soldiery threatened him with
death and brandished their weapons in his face.[671]
In the excited state of the minds of those by whom such sights were
witnessed, portents would be looked for, and found, as signs of the
wrath of Heaven. Before long it was noised abroad that the very walls of
the abbey were sweating blood, as a mark of Divine reprobation on the
deeds of its impious garrison.[672] Far and wide the story spread; and
men told with bated breath how they had themselves seen and touched the
abbey's bleeding walls. Among those attracted by the wondrous sight was
Henry, Archdeacon of Huntingdon, who has recorded for all time that he
beheld it with his own eyes.[673] And as they spoke to one another of
the miracle, in which they saw the finger of God, the starving peasants
whispered their hopes that the hour of their deliverance was at hand.
The time, indeed, had come. As the now homeless abbot wandered over the
abbey's lands, sick at heart, in weariness and want, the sights that met
his despairing eyes were enough to make him long for death.[674] Barely
a plough remained on all his broad demesnes; all provisions had been
carried off; no man tilled the land. Every lord had now his castle, and
every castle was a robber's nest.[675] In vain he boldly appealed to
Earl Geoffrey himself, warning him to his face that he and his would
remain cut off from the communion of Christians till the abbey was
restored to its owners. The earl listened with impatience, and gave him
a vague promise; but he kept his hold of the abbey.[676] The heart of
the spoiler was hardened like that of Pharaoh of old, and not even
miracles could move him to part with his precious stronghold.[677]
But if Ramsey had thus suffered, what had been the fate of Ely? A bad
harvest, combined with months of systematic plunder, had brought about a
famine in the land. For the space of twenty or even thirty miles,
neither ox nor plough was to be seen; barely could the smallest bushel
of grain he bought for two hundred pence. The people, by hundreds and
thousands, were perishing for want of bread, and their corpses lay
unburied in the fields, a prey to beasts and to fowls of the air. Not
for ages past, as it seemed to the monks, had there been such
tribulation upon earth.[678] Nor were the peasants the only sufferers.
Might was then right, for all classes, throughout the land;[679] the
smaller gentry were themselves seized, and held, by their captors, to
ransom. As they heard of distant villages in flames, as they gazed on
strings of captives dragged from their ravaged homes, the words of the
psalmist were adapted in the mouths of the terrified monks: "They bind
the godly with chains, and the nobles with links of iron."[680] In the
mad orgie of wickedness neither women nor the aged were spared. Ransom
was wrung from the quivering victims by a thousand refinements of
torture. In the groans of the sufferers, in the shrieks of the tortured,
men beheld the fulfilment of the words of St. John the Apostle, "In
those days shall men ... desire to die, and death shall flee from
them."[681]
Again we are tempted to ask if we have not in these very scenes the
actual original from which was drawn the picture in the English
Chronicle, a picture which might thus be literally true of the
chronicler's own district, while not necessarily applicable, as the
latest research suggests, to the whole of Stephen's realm.
It was now that men "said openly that Christ slept, and His saints." The
English chronicler seems to imply, and Henry of Huntingdon distinctly
asserts, that the wicked, emboldened by impunity, said so in scornful
derision; but William of Newburgh assigns the cry to the sufferings of a
despairing people. It is probable enough that both were right, that the
people and their oppressors had reversed the parts of Elijah and the
priests of Baal. For a time there seemed to rise in vain the cry so
quaintly Englished in the paraphrase of John Hopkins:—
"Why doost withdraw thy hand aback,
And hide it in thy lappe?
O pluck it out, and be not slack
To give thy foes a rappe!"
But when night is darkest, dawn is nearest,[682] and the end of the
oppressor was at hand. It was told in after days how even Nature herself
had shown, by a visible sign, her horror of his impious deeds. While
marching to the siege of Burwell on a hot summer's day, he halted at the
edge of a wood, and lay down for rest in the shade. And lo! the very
grass withered away beneath the touch of his unhallowed form![683]
The fortified post which the king's men had now established at Burwell
was a standing threat to Fordham, the key of his line of communications.
He was therefore compelled to attack it. And there he was destined to
die the death of Richard Cœur de Lion. As he reconnoitred the position
to select his point of attack, or as, according to others, he was
fighting at the head of the troops, he carelessly removed his headpiece
and loosened his coat of mail. A humble bowman saw his chance: an arrow
whizzed from the fortress, and struck the unguarded head.[684]
There is a conflict of testimony as to the date of the event. Henry of
Huntingdon places it in August, while M. Paris (_Chron. Maj._, ii. 177)
makes him die on the 14th of September, and the Walden Chronicle on the
16th. Possibly he was wounded in August and lingered on into September,
but, in any case, Henry's date is the most trustworthy.
The monks of Ramsey gloried in the fact that their oppressor had
received his fatal wound as he stood on ground which their abbey owned,
as a manifest proof that his fate was incurred by the wrong he had done
to their patron saint.[685] At Waltham Abbey, with equal pride, it was
recorded that he who had refused to atone for the wrong he had done to
its holy cross received his wound in the self-same hour in which its aid
was invoked against the oppressor of its shrine.[686] But all were
agreed that such a death was a direct answer to the prayer of the
oppressed, a signal act of Divine vengeance on one who had sinned
against God and man.[687]
For the wound was fatal. The earl, like Richard in after days, made
light of it at first.[688] Retiring, it would seem, through Fordham,
along the Thetford road, he reached Mildenhall in Suffolk, and there he
remained, to die. The monks of his own foundation believed, and perhaps
with truth, that when face to face with death, he displayed heartfelt
penitence, prayed earnestly that his sins might he forgiven, and made
such atonement to God and man as his last moments could afford. But
there was none to give him the absolution he craved; indeed, after the
action which the Church had taken the year before, it is doubtful if any
one but the pope could absolve so great a sinner.[689]
In the mean time the Abbot of Ramsey heard the startling news, and saw
that his chance had come. The earl might be willing to save his soul at
the cost of restoring the abbey. To Mildenhall he flew in all haste, but
only to find that the earl had already lost consciousness. There awaited
him, however, the fruit of his oppressor's tardy repentance in the form
of instructions from the earl to his son to surrender Ramsey Abbey.
Armed with these, the abbot departed as speedily as he had come.[690]
The tragic end of the great earl must have filled the thoughts of men
with a strange awe and horror. That one who had rivalled, but a year
ago, the king himself in power, should meet an inglorious death at the
hands of a wretched churl, that he who had defied the thunders of the
Church should fall as if by a bolt from heaven, were facts which, in the
highly wrought state of the minds of men at the time, were indeed signs
and wonders.[691] But even more tragic than his death was the fate which
awaited his corpse. Unshriven, he had passed away laden with the curses
of the Church. His soul was lost for ever; and his body no man might
bury.[692] As the earl was drawing his last breath there came upon the
scene some Knights Templar, who flung over him the garb of their order
so that he might at least die with the red cross upon his breast.[693]
Then, proud in the privileges of their order, they carried the remains
to London, to their "Old Temple" in Holborn. There the earl's corpse was
enclosed in a leaden coffin, which was hung, say some, on a gnarled
fruit tree, that it might not contaminate the earth, or was hurled,
according to others, into a pit without the churchyard.[694] So it
remained, for nearly twenty years, exposed to the gibes of the
Londoners, the earl's "deadly foes." But with the characteristic
faithfulness of a monastic house to its founder, the monks of Walden
clung to the hope that the ban of the Church might yet be removed, and
the bones of the great earl be suffered to rest among them. According to
their chronicle, Prior William, who had obtained his post from
Geoffrey's hands, rested not till he had wrung his absolution from Pope
Alexander III.[695] (1159-1181). But the _Ramsey Chronicle_, which
appears to be a virtually contemporary record, assigns the eventual
removal of the ban to Geoffrey's son and namesake, and to the atonement
which he made to Ramsey Abbey on his father's behalf.[696] The latter
story is most precise, but both may well be true. For, although the
Ramsey chronicler would more especially insist on the fact that St.
Benedict had to be appeased before the earl could be absolved, the
absolution itself would be given not by the abbot, but by the pope. The
grant to Ramsey would be merely a condition of the absolution itself
being granted. The nature of the grant is known to us not only from the
chronicle, but also from the primate's charter confirming this final
settlement.[697] As this confirmation is dated at Windsor, April 6,
1163, we thus, roughly, obtain the date of the earl's Christian
burial.[698]
The Prior of Walden had gained his end, and he now hastened to the
Temple to claim his patron's remains. But his hopes were cruelly
frustrated at the very moment of success. Just as the body of the then
earl (1163) was destined to be coveted at his death (1166) by two rival
houses, so now the remains of his father were a prize which the
indignant Templars would never thus surrender. Warned of the prior's
coming, they instantly seized the coffin, and buried it at once in their
new graveyard, where, around the nameless resting-place of the great
champion of anarchy, there was destined to rise, in later days, the home
of English law.[699]
[616] _Chronicle of Abingdon_, ii. 178, 179. Assigned to "probably about
the Christmas of 1135" (p. 542).
[617] See p. 143. They are Earl Geoffrey, Robert de Ver, William of
Ypres, Adam "de Belnaio," and Richard de Luci. The sixth, "Mainfeninus
Brito," we have seen attesting Stephen's first charter to Geoffrey in
1140 (p. 52). Another charter, perhaps, may also be assigned to this
period, namely, that of Stephen (at Oxford) to St. Frideswide's, of
which the original is now preserved in the Bodleian Library. For this,
as for the preceding charter, the date suggested is 1135 (_Calendar of
Charters and Rolls_), but the names of William of Ypres and Richard de
Luci prove that this date is too early. These names, with that of Robert
de Ver, are common to both charters, and if Richard de Luci's earliest
attestation is in the summer of 1140, it is quite possible that this
charter should be assigned to the siege of 1142.
[618] _Rog. Wend._, ii. 233; _Mat. Paris_ (_Hist. Angl._), i. 270; _Hen.
Hunt._, p. 276.
[619] No clue to this date, important though it is for our story, is
afforded by any of the ordinary chroniclers. The London Chronicle,
however, preserved in the _Liber de Antiquis Legibus_ (fol. 35),
carefully dates it "post festum Sancti Michaelis."
[620] _Mon. Ang._, iv. 142; _Mat. Paris_ (_Hist. Angl._), i. 270, 271;
_William of Newburgh_, cap. xi.; _Gesta Stephani_, pp. 103, 104; _Hen.
Hunt._, p. 276.
[621] See p. 47.
[622] "Acceptam ab eo injuriam rex caute dissimulabat, et tempus
opportunum quo se ulcisceretur, observabat."
[623] "Subtili astutia ingentia moliens."
[624] "Nisi enim hoc egisset, perfidia consulis illius regno privatus
fuisset."
[625] Compare the words of the _Gesta_: "Ubique per regnum regis vices
adimplens et in rebus agendis rege avidius exaudiretur et in præceptis
injungendis plus ei quam regi obtemperaretur."
[626] "Tandem vero a quibusdam regni majoribus, stimulante invidia,
iniqua loquentibus, quasi regis proditor ac patriæ dilator erga regem
mendaciter clanculo accusatus est.... Vir autem iste magnanimus subdola
malignantium fraude, ut jam dictum est, delusus" (_Mon. Ang._, iv. 142).
[627] "Tum quia Galfridus, ut videbatur, omnia regni jura sibi callide
usurparat, tum quia regnum ut in ore jam vulgi celebre fuerat, comitissæ
Andegavensi conferre disposuerat, ad hoc regem secreta persuasione
impulerunt, quatinus Galfridum de proditionis infamia notatum caperet,
et redditis quæcunque possederat castellis, et rex post hinc securus, et
regnum ipsius haberetur pacatius" (_Gesta_).
[628] "Rege multo tempore differente, ne regia majestas turpi
proditionis opprobrio infameretur, subito inter Galfridum et barones,
injuriis et minis utrinque protensis, orta seditio" (_ibid._).
[629] "Cumque rex habitam inter eos dissensionem, sedatis partibus,
niteretur dirimere, affuerunt quidam, qui Galfridum de proditionis
factione in se et suos machinatâ, libera fronte accusabant. Cumque se de
objecto crimine minime purgaret, sed turpissimam infamiam verbis jocosis
alludendo infringeret, rex et qui præsentes erant Barones Galfridum et
suos repente ceperunt" (_ibid._).
[630] This story, being told by Mathew Paris alone, and evidently as a
matter of tradition, must be accepted with considerable caution. He
makes the singular and careless mistake of speaking of Earl Geoffrey as
William (_sic_) de Mandeville, though he properly terms him, the
following year, "Gaufridus consul de Mandeville." On the other hand, it
is possible to apply a test which yields not unsatisfactory results.
Mathew tells us that the Earl of Arundel was unhorsed "a Walkelino de
Oxeai [_alias_ Oxehaie] milite strenuissimo." Now there was,
contemporary with Mathew himself, a certain Richard "de Oxeya," who held
by knight-service of St. Albans Abbey, and who, in 1245, was jointly
responsible with "Petronilla de Crokesle" for the service of one knight
(_Chron. Majora_, vi. 437). Turning to a list of the abbey's knights,
which is dated by the editor in the Rolls Series as "1258," but which is
quite certainly some hundred years earlier, we find this same knight's
fee held jointly by Richard "de Crokesle" and a certain "Walchelinus."
Here then we may perhaps recognize that very "Walchelinus de Oxeai" who
figures in Mathew's story, a story which Richard "de Oxeya" may have
told him as a family tradition. Indeed, there is evidence to prove that
this identification is correct.
[631] The coincidence of language between these two passages, beginning
respectively "eodem tempore" and "eodem anno," ought to be noticed, for
it has been overlooked by Mr. Howlett in his valuable edition of William
of Newburgh for the Rolls Series, though he notes those on p. 34 before
it, and on p. 48 after it, in his instructive remarks on the
indebtedness of William of Newburgh to others (p. xxvi.).
[632] "Vir iste nobilis, cæteris in pace recedentibus, solus, rege
jubente, fraudulenter comprehensus, et, ne abiret, custodibus
designatis, detentus est" (_Mon. Ang._, iv. 142).
[633] "Ne regia majestas turpi proditionis opprobio infamaretur."
[634] "Milites autem beati Albani, qui tunc, ad ecclesiæ ejus custodiam
et villæ fossatis circumdatæ, ipsum vicum, qui juxta cænobium est,
inhabitabant, ipsi regi in faciem viriliter restiterunt, donec ecclesiæ,
quam quidam ex regiis ædituis violaverant, satisfecisset ipse rex, et
ejus temerarii invasores.... Et hoc fecit rex contra jusjurandum, quod
fecerat apud Sanctum Albanum, et contra statuta concilii nuper, eo
consentiente, celebrati" (Mathew Paris, _Historia Anglorum_, i. 271).
[635] An incidental allusion to this conflict between the followers of
the king and the abbey's knights is to be found, I think, in a curious
passage in the _Gesta Abbatum S. Albani_ (i. 94). We there read of Abbot
Geoffrey (1119-1146): "Tabulam quoque unam ex auro et argento et gemmis
electis artificiose constructam ad longitudinem et latitudinem altaris
Sancti Albani, quam deinde, ingruente maxima necessitate, idem Abbas in
igne conflavit et in massam confregit. Quam dedit Comiti de Warrena et
Willelmo de Ypra et Comiti de Arundel et Willelmo Martel, temporibus
Regis Stephani, _Villam Sancti Albani volentibus concremare_." The
conjunction of William of Ypres with Abbot Geoffrey dates this incident
within the limits 1139-1146, and there is no episode to which it can be
so fitly assigned as this of 1143, especially as the Earl of Arundel
figures in both versions.
[636] "Et licet multi amicorum suorum, talia ei injuste illata ægre
ferentium, pro eo regem interpellarent" (_Mon. Ang._, iv. 142).
[637] "Rex igitur Galfridum, custodiis arctissime adhibitis, Londonias
adducens, ni turrim et quæ miro labore et artificio erexerat castella in
manus ejus committeret, suspendio cruciari paravit; cum salubri amicorum
persuasus consilio, ut imminens inhonestæ mortis periculum, castellis
redditis, devitaret, regis voluntati tandem satisfecit" (_Gesta_, p.
104). "Igitur, ut rex liberaret eum reddidit ei turrim Lundoniæ et
castellum de Waledene et illud de Plaisseiz" (_Hen. Hunt._, p. 276).
"Eique arcem Lundoniensem cum duobus reliquis quæ possidebat castellis
extorsit [rex]" (_W. Newburgh_, i. 45). The castle of (Saffron) Walden,
with the surrounding district, was placed by Stephen in charge of Turgis
d'Avranches, whom we have met with before, and who refused, some two
years later, to admit the king to it (_Gesta_, ed. Howlett, p. 101). Mr.
Howlett appears to have confused it with another castle which Stephen
took "in the Lent of 1139," for Walden was Geoffrey's hereditary seat
and had always been in his hands.
[638] "Regnique totius communem ad jacturam, tali modo liberatus de
medio illorum evasit" (_Gesta_, p. 104). "Quo facto, velut equus validus
et infrænis, morsibus, calcibus quoslibet obvios dilaniare non cessavit"
(_Mon. Ang._, iv. 142).
[639] "Episcopus vero Elyensis pro tam imminenti sibi negotio auxilium
Dominæ Imperatricis et suorum colloquium requirendum putavit" (_Anglia
Sacra_, i. 622).
[640] This might lead us to suppose that the incident belonged to the
latter half of 1142, when Wareham was in the king's hands. The date
(1143), however, cannot be in question.
[641] _Historia Eliensis_, p. 623. Theobald, from his Angevin
sympathies, supported Nigel's cause.
[642] See Appendix Z: "Bishop Nigel at Rome."
[643] "Hugone quoque, cognomente Bigot, viro illustri et in illis
partibus potenti, sibi confœderato" (_Gesta_, p. 106).
[644] _Mon. Ang._, iv. 142.
[645] "Homines regis erga locum fratrum Ely insidias unanimiter
paraverunt, adversum quos cum custodes insulæ non sufficerent rebellare,
Galfridum comitem, tunc adversarium [Stephani regis,] incendiis patriam
et seditione perturbantem, suscipiunt; cui etiam castrum de Ely, atque
Alrehede, ob firmamentum tuitionis, submiserunt" (_Historia Eliensis_,
p. 623).
[646] Here again we are indebted for the date to the London Chronicle
(_Liber de Ant. Leg._, fol. 35), which states that Geoffrey "in adventu
Domini fecit castellum Ecclesiam de Rameseya." Geoffrey's doings may
well have been of special interest to the Londoners.
[647] "Ira humanum excedente modum, ita efferatus est, ut procurantibus
Willelmo de Saye et Daniele quodam falsi nominis ac tonsuræ monacho,
navigio cum suis subvectus Rameseiam peteret, ecclesiam Deo ac beato
patri Benedicto dicatam summo mane ausu temerario primitus invadendo
subintraret, monachosque omnes post divinum nocturnale officium sopori
deditos comprehenderet, et vix habitu simplici indutos expellendo statim
perturbaret, nullaque interveniente mora, ecclesiam illam satis
pulcherrimam, non ut Dei castrum sed sicut castellum, superius ac
inferius, intus ac extra, fortiter munivit" (_Mon. Ang._, iv. 142).
"Hic totus in rabiem invectus Ramesiam, nobile monasterium invadens,
fugata monachorum caterva, custodiam posuit" (_Leland's Collectanea_, i.
600).
[648] _Chronicon Abbatiæ Ramesiensis_, pp. 327-329.
[649] "Monachis expulsis, raptores immisit, et ecclesiam Dei speluncam
fecit latronum" (_Hen. Hunt._, p. 277).
[650] "Vasa autem altaris aurea et argentea Deo sacrata, capas etiam
cantorum lapidibus preciosis ac opere mirifico contextas, casulis cum
albis, et cæteris ecclesiastici decoris ornamentis rapuit, et
quibuslibet eruere volentibus vili satis precio distraxit unde militibus
et satellitibus suis debita largitus est stipendia" (_Mon. Ang._, iv.
142). "Cœnobiumque sancti Benedicti de Rameseiâ non solum, captis
monachorum spoliis, altaribus quoque et sanctorum reliquiis nudatis,
expilavit, sed etiam expulsis incompassive monachis de monasterio,
militibusque impositis castellum sibi adaptavit" (_Gesta_, p. 105). "Cum
manu forti monasterium ipsum occupavit, monachos dispersit, thesaurum et
omnia ecclesiæ ornamenta sacrilega manu surripuit et ex ipso monasterio
stabulum fecit equorum, villas adjacentes commilitonibus pro stipendiis
distribuit" (_Chron. Ram._, p. 329).
[651] "Galfridus igitur, ubique in regno fide sibi et hominio conjuratis
in unum secum cuneum convocatis, gregariæ quoque militiæ sed et
prædonum, qui undecumque devote concurrerant, robustissima manu in suum
protinus conspirata collegium, ignibus et gladio ubique locorum
desævire" (_Gesta_, p. 105). "Crebris eruptionibus atque excursionibus
vicinas infestavit provincias" (_W. Newburgh_, i. 45).
[652] "Castellum quoddam fecerat apud Waltone" (_Chron. Ram._, p. 332).
[653] "Inde recessum habuit per Ely quiete: Fordham quoque contra hostes
sibi cum valida manu firmare usurpavit" (_Historia Eliensis_, p. 623).
[654] "Similiter apud Benewik in transitu aquarum" (_ibid._).
[655] "Omnia adversus regiæ partis consentaneos abripere et consumere,
nudare et destruere" (_Gesta_, p. 105). "Maneria, villas, ceteraque
proprietatem regiam contingentia primitus invasit, igni combussit,
prædasque cum rapinis non minimis inde sublatas commilitonibus suis
larga manu distribuit" (_Monasticon_, iv. 142).
[656] _Cont. Flor. Wig._, ii. 119, 128. Compare the Peterborough
Chronicle: "Ræuedan hi & brendon alle the tunes" (_Ang. Sax. Chron._, i.
382).
[657] _Gesta._
[658] "Talique ferocitate in omnem circumquaque provinciam, in omnibus
etiam, quascunque obviam habebat, ecclesiis immiseranter desæviit;
possessiones cœnobiorum, distractis rebus, depopulatis omnibus in
solitudinem redegit; sanctuaria eorum, vel quæcumque in ærariis
concredita reponebantur sine metu vel pietate ferox abripuit" (_ibid._).
[659] "Locis sacris vel ipsis de ecclesiis nullam deferendo exhibuit
reverentiam" (_Monasticon_, iv. 142).
[660] "Facti enim amentes cantitabat unusquisque Anglice," etc. The
"Anglice" reads oddly. Strange that the sufferings of the people should
be bewailed and made merry over in the same tongue!
[661] Stephen himself behaved no better, to judge from the story in the
_Chronicle of Abingdon_ (ii. 292), where it is alleged that the king,
being informed of a large sum of money stored in the treasury of the
abbey, sent his satellite, William d'Ypres, who, gaining admission on
the plea of prayer, broke open the chest with an axe, and carried off
the treasure.
[662] "Militum suorum numerositate immanior factus, per totam
circumcirca discurrendo provinciam nulli cuicunque pecuniam possidenti
parcere vovit" (_Mon. Ang._, iv. 142).
"Crebris eruptionibus et excursionibus vicinas infestavit provincias.
Deinde sumpta ex successu fiducia longius progrediens, regem Stephanum
acerrimis fatigavit terruitque incursibus" (_Will. Newb._, i. 45).
[663] _Gesta._
[664] "Exploratores vero illius, habitu mutato, more egenorum ostiatim
oberrantes, villanis et cæteris hujusmodi hominibus pecunia a Deo data
abundantibus insidiabantur, quibus taliter compertis intempestæ noctis
silentio, tempore tamen primitus considerato, Sathanæ satellites a
comite transmittebantur qui viros innocuos alto sopore quandoque
detentos raperent raptos vero quasi pro magno munere ei presentarent.
Qui mox immani supplicio, per intervalla tamen, vexabantur et tamdiu per
tormenta varia vicissim sibi succedentia torquebantur, donec pecuniæ eis
impositæ ultimum solverent quadrantem" (_Monasticon_, iv. 142). An
incidental allusion to this system of robbery by ransom is found in an
inquisition (_temp._ John) on the royal manor of Writtle, Essex (_Testa
de Nevill_, p. 270 _b_). It is there recorded that Godebold of Writtle,
who held land at Boreham, was captured by Geoffrey and forced to
mortgage his land to raise the means for his ransom: "Godebold de
Writel' qui eam tenuit captus a comite Galfrido, patre Willelmi de
Mandevilla, tempore regis Stephani, pro redemptione sua versus predictum
comitem acquietanda posuit in vadimonium," etc.
[665] "Propterea Rex Stephanus, irâ graviter accensus, omnia hæc
reputavit ab Episcopo Nigello machinari; et jussit e vestigio
possessiones Ecclesiæ a suis undequaque distrahi in vindictam odiorum
ejus. Succisâ igitur Monachis rerum facultate suarum, nimis ægre
compelluntur in Ecclesiâ, maxime ciborum inedia. Unde non habentes
victuum, gementes et anxii reliquas thesaurorum," etc. (_Historia
Eliensis_, p. 623).
[666] _Cotton. MS._, Tib. A. vi. fol. 117.
[667] "Hæc omnia episcopo, quamvis Romæ longius commoranti, satis
innotuerunt, et gratiâ Domini Papæ sublimiter donatus, his munimentis
tandem roboratus contra deprimentum ingenia, ad domum gaudens rediit"
(_Historia Eliensis_, p. 623).
[668] _Cotton. MS._, Tib. A. vi. fol. 116 _b_. See Appendix AA:
"Tenserie."
[669] _Chronicle of Ramsey_, p. 329.
[670] "Quum autem negotium feliciter ibi consummasset, reversus in
Angliam infra tres menses per judices delegatos abbatiam suam, Rege
super hoc multum murmurante, recuperavit" (_ibid._, p. 330).
[671] "Quum vero sæpedictus abbas in possessionem abbatiæ suæ
corporaliter mitti debuisset, invenit sceleratam familiam prædicti
comitis sibi fortiter resistentem. Sed ipse, Spiritu Dei plenus, inter
sagittas et gladios ipsorum sæpius in caput ejus vibratos, accessit
intrepidus, ignem arripuit, et tentoria ipsorum portamque exteriorem
quam incastellaverant viriliter incendit et combussit. Sed nec propter
incendium nec propter anathema quod in eos fuerat sententiatum locum
amatum deserere vel abbati cedere voluerunt. Creditur a multis
miraculose factum esse quod nullus ex insanis prædonibus illis manus in
eum misit dum eorum tecta combureret quamvis lanceis et sagittis, multum
irati, dum hæc faceret, mortem ei cominus intentarent" (_ibid._).
[672] "Aliud etiam illis diebus fertur contigisse miraculum, quod
lapides murorum ecclesiæ Ramesensis, claustri etiam et officinarum quas
prædones inhabitaverant, in magna quantitate guttas sanguinis emiserunt,
unde per totam Angliam rumor abiit admirabilis, et magnæ super hoc
habitæ sunt inter omnes ad invicem collationes. Erat enim quasi
notorium, et omnibus intueri volentibus visu et tactu manifestum"
(_ibid._).
[673] "Dum autem ecclesia illa pro castello teneretur, ebullivit sanguis
a parietibus ecclesie et claustri adjacentis, indignationem divinam
manifestans, exterminationem sceleratorum denuntians; quod multi quidem,
et ipse ego, oculis meis inspexi" (_Hen. Hunt._, p. 277).
[674] "Miserabilis abbas iste post tot labores et ærumnas quietem habere
et domum suam recuperasse sperabat a qua dolens et exspes recessit,
laboribus expensis ita fatigatus ut jam tæderet eum vivere. Non enim
habebat unde modice familiæ suæ equitaturas et sumptus necessarios
posset providere" (_Chron. Ram._, p. 331).
[675] "In omnibus terris dominicis totius abbatiæ unam tantum carucam
reperit et dimidiam, reperit victualium nihil; debitum urgebat; terræ
jacebant incultæ.... Oportuit præfatum abbatem xxiiii castell[?anis]
vel amplius singulis mensibus pro rusticis suis redemptiones seu
tenserias præstare, qui tam per Danielem quam per ipsos malefactores
multum exhausti fuerant, et extenuati" (_Chron. Ram._, 333, 334). This
description, though it is applied to the state of things which awaited
the abbot on Earl Geoffrey's death, is obviously in point here. It is of
importance for its allusion to the plough, which illustrates the
language of Domesday (the plough-teams being always the first to suffer,
and the most serious loss: compare Bishop Denewulf's tenth-century
charter in _Liber de Hyda_), but still more for its mention of the
_tenseriæ_. Here we have the very same word, used at the very same time,
at Peterborough, Ramsey, and Ely. The correction, therefore, of the
English Chronicle is utterly unjustifiable (see Appendix AA). Moreover,
a comparison of this passage with the letter of Pope Lucius (_ante_, p.
215) shows that at Ramsey, as at Ely, the evil effect of this state of
things continued in these _tenseriæ_ even after the bishop and the abbot
had respectively regained possession.
[676] "Suorum tandem consilio fretus, comitem Gaufridum adiit,
monasterii sui detentorem, patenter et audacter ei ostendens tam ipsum
quam totam familiam ipsius, tam ex ipso facto quam apostolica
auctoritate interveniente, a Christianâ communione esse privatos, domum
suam sibi postulans restitui si vellet absolvi. Quod comes vix patienter
audiens, plures ei terminos de reddenda possessione sua constituit, sed
promissum nunquam adimplevit ita ut cum potius deludere videretur quam
ablatam possessionem sibi velle restituere; unde miser abbas
miserabiliter afflictus mortis debitum jam vellet exsolvisse" (_Chron.
Ram._, p. 331).
[677] "Sed prophani milites in sua malitia pertinaces nec sic domum Dei
quam polluerant reddere voluerant; induratum enim erat cor eorum"
(_ibid._, p. 330).
[678] "Oppresserat enim fames omnem regionem; et ægra seges victum omnem
negaverat; per viginti milliaria seu triginta non bos non aratrum est
inventus qui particulam terræ excoleret; vix parvissimus tunc modius emi
poterat ducentis denariis. Tantaque hominum clades de inopiâ panis
sequuta est, ut per vicos et plateas centeni et milleni ad instar uteris
inflati exanimes jacerent: feris et volatilibus cadavera inhumata
relinquebantur. Nam multo retro tempore talis tribulatio non fuit in
cunctis terrarum regnis" (_Historia Eliensis_, p. 623).
[679] "Efferbuit enim per totam Angliam Stephani regis hostilis
tribulatio, totaque insula vi potius quam ratione regebatur" (_Chron.
Ram._, p. 334).
[680] "Potentes, per circuitum late vastando, milites ex rapinâ
conducunt; villas comburunt: captivos de longe ducentes miserabiliter
tractabant; pios alligabant in compedibus et nobiles in manicis ferreis"
(_Historia Eliensis_, p. 623).
[681] "Furit itaque rabies vesana. Invicta lætatur malitia: non sexui
non parcunt ætati. Mille mortis species inferunt, ut ab afflictis
pecuniam excutiant: fit clamor dirus plangentium: inhorruit luctus
ubique mærentium; et constat fuisse completum quod nunciatur in
Apocalypsi Joannis: 'quærent homines mori et fugiet mors ab eis'"
(_ibid._).
[682] "Sed verum est quod vulgariter dicitur: 'Ubi dolor maximus ibi
proxima consolatio'" (_Chron. Ram._, p. 331).
[683] "Herba viridissima emarcuit, ut eo surgente quasi præmortua
videretur, nec toto fere anno viridatis suæ vires recuperavit. Unde
datur intelligi quam detestandum sit consortium excommunicatorum"
(_Gervase_, i. p. 128).
[684] "Accessit paulo post cum exercitu suo ad quoddam castellum
expugnandum quod apud Burewelle de novo fuerat constructum, et quum
elevata casside illud circuiret ut infirmiorem ejus partem eligeret ad
expugnandum, ... quidam vilissimus sagittarius ex hiis qui intra
castellum erant capiti ipsius comitis lethale vulnus impressit" (_Chron.
Ram._, 331, 332).
"Hic, cum ... in obsidione supradicti castelli de Burwelle in scuto et
lancea contra adversarios viriliter decertasset, ob nimium calorem
cassidem deposuit, et loricæ ventilabrum solvit, sicque nudato capite
intrepidus militavit. Æstus quippe erat. Quem cum vidisset quispiam de
castello, et adversarium agnosceret, telo gracili quod ganea dicitur eum
jam cominus positum petiit, que testam capitis ipsius male nudati
perforavit" (_Gervase_, i. 128).
"Dum nimis audax, nimisque prudentiæ suæ innitens regiæ virtutis
castella frequentius circumstreperet, ab ipsis tandem regalibus
circumventus prosternitur" (_Gesta_, p. 106).
"Post hujusmodi tandem excessibus aliisque multis his similibus publicam
anathematis non immerito incurrit sententiam, in qua apud quoddam
oppidulum in Burwella lethaliter in capite vulneratus est" (_Mon. Ang._,
iv. 142).
"Inter acies suorum confertas, a quodam pedite vilissimo solus sagitta
percussus est. Et ipse, vulnus ridens, post dies tamen ex ipso vulnere
excommunicatus occubuit" (_Hen. Hunt._, 276).
[685] "In quodam prædio consisteret quod ... ad Ramesense monasterium
pertinebat, et pertinet usque in hodiernum diem.... Quod iccirco in
fundo beati Benedicti factum fuisse creditur ut omnes intelligere
possent quod Deus ultionum dominus hoc fecerat in odium et vindictam
injuriarum quas monasterio beati Benedicti sacrilegus comes intulerat"
(_Chron. Ram._, p. 331).
[686] "Cum nollet satisfacere, placuit fratribus ibidem Deo servientibus
in transgressionis huius vindictam Crucem deponere si forte dives ille
compunctus hoc facto vellet rescipiscere. Tradunt autem qui hiis
inquirendis diligentiam adhibuerunt eadem depositionis hora Comitem
illum ante castrum de Burewelle ad quod expugnandum diligenter operam
dabat letale vulnus suscepisse et eo infra xl dies viam universe Carnis
ingressum fuisse" (_Harl. MS._, 3776). See also Appendix M.
[687] "Verum tantarum tamque immanium persecutionum, tam crudelium
quoque, quas in omnes ingerebat, calamitatum justissimus tandem
respector Deus dignum malitiæ suæ finem imposuit" (_Gesta_, p. 106).
"Quia igitur improbi dixerunt Deum dormitare, excitatus est Deus, et in
hoc signo, et in significato" (_Hen. Hunt._, p. 277).
[688] "Letiferum sui capitis vulnus deridens nec sic a suo cessavit
furore" (_Gervase_, i. 128, 129).
[689] "Pœnitens itaque valde et Deo cum magna cordis contritione pro
peccatis suis supplicans, quantum taliter moriens poterat, Deo et
hominibus satisfecit, licet a præsentibus absolvi non poterat" (_Mon.
Ang._, iv. 142). Cf. p. 202, _supra_.
[690] "Quum igitur apud Mildehale mortis angustia premeretur, hoc
audiens præfatus abbas ad eum citissime convolavit. Quo cum venisset,
nec erat in ipso comite vox neque sensus, familiares tamen ipsius,
domino suo multum condolentes, eum benigne receperunt et cum literis
ipsius comitis eum ad filium suum scilicet Ernaldum de Magna Villa ...
statim miserunt ut sine mora cœnobium suum sibi restitueret" (_Chron.
Ram._, p. 332).
[691] "Gaufridus de Magna Villa regem validissime vexavit et in omnibus
gloriosus effulsit. Mense autem Augusti miraculum justitia sua dignum
Dei splendor exhibuit" (_Hen. Hunt._, p. 277).
[692] "Et sicut, dum viveret, ecclesiam confudit, terram turbavit, sic,
ad eum confundendum tota Angliæ conspiravit ecclesia; quia et
anathematis gladio percussus et inabsolutus abscessit, et terræ
sacrilegum dari non licuit" (_Gesta_, p. 106).
[693] "Illo autem, in discrimine mortis, ultimum trahente spiritum,
quidam supervenere Templarii qui religionis suæ habitum cruce rubea
signatum ei imposuerunt" (_Mon. Ang._, _ut supra_). But the red cross is
said not to have been assumed by the order till the time of Pope Eugene
(1145). See _Monasticon Ang._, ii. 815, 816.
[694] "Ac deinde jam mortuum secum tollentes, et in pomerio suo, veteris
scilicet Templi apud London' canali inclusum plumbeo in arbore torva
suspenderunt" (_Mon. Ang._, iv. 142).
"Corpus vero defuncti comitis in trunco quodam signatum, et propter
anathema quo fuerat innodatus Londoniis apud Vetus Templum extra
cimiterium in antro quodam projectum est" (_Chron. Ram._, p. 332). This
would seem to be the earliest mention of the Old Temple. _Pomerium_ in
Low Latin is, of course, an orchard, and not, as Mr. Freeman so
strangely imagines (at Nottingham, in Domesday), a town wall.
[695] "Post aliquod vero tempus industria et expensis Willelmi quem jam
pridem in Waldena constituerat priorem, a papa Alexandro, more taliter
decedentium meruit absolvi, inter Christianos recipi, et pro eo divina
celebrari" (_Mon. Ang._, iv. 142).
[696] "Ibique jacuit toto tempore Regis Stephani magnaque parte Regis
Henrici Secundi, donec Gaufridus filius ejus, Comes Essexie, vir
industrius et justitiarius Domini Regis jam factus Dominum Willelmum
abbatem cæpit humiliter interpellare pro patre suo defuncto offerens
satisfactionem, et quum ab eo benignum super hoc responsum accepisset,
statuta die convenerunt ambo sub præsentia domini Cantuarensis, scilicet
beati Thomæ martyris, super hoc tractaturi.... Quo facto, pater ipsius
comitis Christianæ traditus est sepulturæ."
The earl's grant runs as follows:—
"Gaufridus de Magna Villa Comes Essexie, omnibus amicis suis et
hominibus et universis sanctæ Ecclesiæ filiis salutem.
"Satis notum est quanta damna pater meus, Comes Gaufridus, tempore
guerrarum monasterio de Rameseia irrogaverit.
"Et quia tanta noxia publico dinoscitur indigere remedio, ego tam pro eo
quam pro suis satisfacere volens, consilio sanctæ Ecclesiæ cum Willelmo
Abbate monachisque suprascripti cœnobii in hanc formam composui.... Et
quia constat sepedictum patrem meum in irrogatione damnorum memoratæ
ecclesiæ bona thesauri in cappis, et textis, et hujusmodi plurimum
delapidasse, ad eorundem reparationem ad ecclesiæ ornatum dignum duxi
redditum istum assignari" (_Cart. Ram._, i. 197). Compare p. 276, _n._
3, and p. 415.
[697] _Chron. Ram._, pp. 306, 333. The king was probably at Windsor at
the time, and the date is a useful one for Becket's movements.
[698] A curious archæological question is raised by this date. According
to the received belief, the Templars did not remove to the New Temple
till 1185, but, according to this evidence, they already had their
churchyard there consecrated in 1163, and had therefore, we may presume,
begun their church. The church of the New Temple was consecrated by
Heraclius on his visit in 1185, but may have been finished sooner.
[699] "Cumque Prior ille corpus defunctum deponere et secum Waldenam
deferre satageret, Templarii illi caute premeditati statim illud
tollentes, et in cimiterio novi templi ignobili satis tradiderunt
sepulturæ" (_Mon. Ang._, iv. 142). It was generally believed that his
effigy was among those remaining at the Temple, but this supposition is
erroneous, as has been shown by Mr. J. G. Nichols in an elaborate
article on "The Effigy attributed to Geoffrey de Magnaville, and the
Other Effigies in the Temple Church" (_Herald and Genealogist_ (1866),
iii. 97, _et seq._).