1107.
The King, having stayed a while to settle the state of Normandy, returned with his brother into England, whom he sent prisoner to Cardiff Castle, with orders that he should be favourably used, which, for some time, were duly observed; until being accused of attempting to make his escape (whether it were real or feigned) he had his eyes put out with a burning basin, by the King's express commands; in which miserable condition he lived for six-and-twenty years.
It is believed the King would hardly have engaged in this unnatural and invidious war, with so little pretence or provocation, if the Pope had not openly approved and sanctified his cause, exhorting him to it as a meritorious action; which seems to have been but an ill return from the Vicar of CHRIST to a prince who had performed so many brave exploits for the service of the Church, to the hazard of his person, and ruin of his fortune. But the very bigoted monks, who have left us their accounts of those times, do generally agree in heavily taxing the Roman court for bribery and corruption. And the King had promised to remit his right of investing bishops, which he performed immediately after his reduction of Normandy, and was a matter of much more service to the Pope, than all the achievements of Duke Robert in the Holy Land, whose merits, as well as pretensions, were now antiquated and out of date.
1109.
About this time the Emperor Henry V. sent to desire Maud, the King's daughter in marriage, who was then a child about eight years old: that prince had lately been embroiled in a quarrel with the see of Rome, which began upon the same subject of investing bishops, but was carried to great extremities: for invading Italy with a mighty army, he took the Pope prisoner, forced him to yield to whatever terms he thought fit to impose, and to take an oath of fidelity to him between his hands: however, as soon as Henry had withdrawn his forces, the Pope assembling a council, revoked all his concessions, as extorted by compulsion, and raised great troubles in Germany against the Emperor, who, in order to secure himself, sought this alliance with the King.
About this time likewise died Archbishop Anselm, a prelate of great piety and learning, whose zeal for the see of Rome, as well as for his own rights and privileges, should in justice be imputed to the errors of the time, and not of the man. After his death, the King, following the steps of his brother, held the see vacant five years, contenting himself with an excuse, which looked like a jest, That he only waited until he could find another so good a man as Anselm.
In the fourteenth year of this King's reign, the Welsh, after their usual manner, invaded the Marches with great fury and destruction; but the King, hoping to put a final end to those perpetual troubles and vexations given to his kingdom by that unquiet people, went in person against them with a powerful army; and to prevent their usual stratagem of retreating to their woods and mountains, and other fastnesses, he ordered the woods to be cut down, beset all their places of security, and hunting them like wild beasts, made so terrible a slaughter, that at length observing them to fling down their arms, and beg for quarter, he commanded his soldiers to forbear; then receiving their submissions, and placing garrisons where he thought necessary, he returned, in great triumph and satisfaction, to London.
1114.
The Princess Maud being now marriageable, was delivered to the Emperor's ambassador; and for a portion to the young lady a tax was imposed of three shillings upon every hide of land in England, which grew afterwards into a custom,[19] and was in succeeding times confirmed by Acts of Parliament, under the name of "Reasonable Aid for marrying the King's Daughter," although levied after a different manner.
[Footnote 19: This was the first occasion of the feudal tax called scutage being levied in England. [W.S.J.]]
As the institution of Parliaments in England is agreed by several writers to be owing to this King, so the date of the first hath been assigned by some to the fifteenth year of his reign; which however is not to be affirmed with any certainty: for great councils were convoked not only in the two preceding reigns, but for time immemorial by the Saxon princes, who first introduced them into this island, from the same original with the other Gothic forms of government in most parts of Europe. These councils or assemblies were composed according to the pleasure of the prince who convened them, generally of nobles and bishops, sometimes were added some considerable commoners; but they seldom met, except in the beginning of a reign, or in times of war, until this King came to the crown; who being a wise and popular prince, called these great assemblies upon most important affairs of his reign, and ever followed their advice, which, if it proved successful, the honour and advantage redounded to him, and if otherwise, he was free from the blame: thus when he chose a wife for himself, and a husband for his daughter, when he designed his expedition against Robert, and even for the election of an archbishop to the see of Canterbury, he proceeded wholly by the advice of such general assemblies, summoned for the purpose. But the style of these conventions, as delivered by several authors, is very various; sometimes it is comites, barones, et cleri;[20] his marriage was agreed on, consilio majorum natu et magnatum terrae. One author[21] calls it concilium principum, sacerdotum, et reliqui populi. And for the election of an archbishop, the Saxon Chronicle says, That he commanded by letters all bishops, abbots, and thanes to meet him at Gloucester ad procerum conventum. Lastly, some affirm these assemblies to have been an imitation of the three estates in Normandy. I am very sensible how much time and pains have been employed by several learned men to search out the original of Parliaments in England, wherein I doubt they have little satisfied others or themselves. I know likewise that to engage in the same enquiry, would neither suit my abilities nor my subject. It may be sufficient for my purpose, if I be able to give some little light into this matter, for the curiosity of those who are less informed.
[Footnote 20: Brompton. [D.S.]]
[Footnote 21: Polydore Virgil. [D.S.]]
The institution of a state or commonwealth out of a mixture of the three forms of government received in the schools, however it be derided as a solecism and absurdity by some late writers on politics, hath been very ancient in the world, and is celebrated by the gravest authors of antiquity. For although the supreme power cannot properly be said to be divided, yet it may be so placed in three several hands, as each to be a check upon the other; or formed into a balance, which is held by him that has the executive power, with the nobility and people in counterpoise in each scale. Thus the kingdom of Media is represented by Xenophon before the reign of Cyrus; so Polybius tells us, the best government is a mixture of the three forms, regno, optimatium, et populi imperio: the same was that of Sparta in its primitive institution by Lycurgus, made up of reges, seniores, et populus; the like may be asserted of Rome, Carthage, and other states: and the Germans of old fell upon the same model, from whence the Goths their neighbours, with the rest of those northern people, did perhaps borrow it. But an assembly of the three estates is not properly of Gothic institution: for these fierce people, when upon the decline of the Roman Empire they first invaded Europe, and settled so many kingdoms in Italy, Spain, and other parts, were all Heathens; and when a body of them had fixed themselves in a tract of land left desolate by the flight or destruction of the natives, their military government by time and peace became civil; the general was king, his great officers were his nobles and ministers of state, and the common soldiers the body of the people; but these were freemen, and had smaller portions of land assigned them. The remaining natives were all slaves; the nobles were a standing council; and upon affairs of great importance, the freemen were likewise called by their representatives to give their advice. By which it appears, that the Gothic frame of government consisted at first but of two states or assemblies, under the administration of a single person. But after the conversion of these princes and their people to the Christian faith, the Church became endowed with great possessions, as well by the bounty of kings, as the arts and industry of the clergy, winning upon the devotion of their new converts: and power, by the common maxim, always accompanying property, the ecclesiastics began soon to grow considerable, to form themselves into a body, and to call assemblies or synods by their own authority, or sometimes by the command of their princes, who in an ignorant age had a mighty veneration for their learning as well as piety. By such degrees the Church arrived at length, by very justifiable steps, to have her share in the commonwealth, and became a third estate in most kingdoms of Europe; but these assemblies, as we have already observed, were seldom called in England before the reign of this prince, nor even then were always composed after the same manner: neither does it appear from the writers who lived nearest to that age, that the people had any representative at all, beside the barons and other nobles, who did not sit in those assemblies by virtue of their birth or creation, but of the lands or baronies they held. So that the present constitution of the English Parliament hath, by many degrees and alterations, been modelled to the frame it is now in; which alterations I shall observe in the succeeding reigns as exactly as I can discover them by a diligent search into the histories of the several ages, without engaging in the controverted points of law about this matter, which would rather perplex the reader than inform him.
1116.
But to return, Louis the Gross King of France, a valiant and active prince, in the flower of his age, succeeding to that crown that Robert was deprived of, Normandy, grew jealous of the neighbourhood and power of King Henry, and begun early to entertain designs either of subduing that duchy to himself, or at least of making a considerable party against the King in favour of William son of Robert, whom for that end he had taken into his protection. Pursuant to these intentions, he soon found an occasion for a quarrel: expostulating with Henry, that he had broken his promise by not doing homage for the Duchy of Normandy, as well as by neglecting to raze the castle of Gisors,[22] which was built on the French side of the river Epte, the common boundary between both dominions.
[Footnote 22: Father Daniel says that for some years past it had been agreed that Gisors "should be sequestered in the hands of a lord called Pagan or Payen, who was to receive into it neither English or Norman, nor French troops; and in case it should fall into the hands of either of the two kings, it was stipulated, that the walls should be razed within the space of forty days" ("Hist. of France," i. 369). [W.S.J.] ]
But an incident soon offered, which gave King Henry a pretext for retaliating almost in the same manner: for it happened that upon some offence taken against his nephew Theobald Count of Blois by the French King, Louis in great rage sent an army to invade and ravage the earl's territories. Theobald defended himself for a while with much valour; but at length in danger to be overpowered, requested aid of his uncle the King of England, who supported him so effectually with men and money, that he was able not only to defend his own country, but very much to infest and annoy his enemy. Thus a war was kindled between the two kings; Louis now openly asserted the title of William the son of Robert, and entering into an alliance with the Earls of Flanders and Anjou, began to concert measures for driving King Henry out of Normandy.
The King having timely intelligence of his enemy's designs, began with great vigour and dispatch to prepare himself for war: he raised, with much difficulty and discontent of his people, the greatest tax that had ever been known in England; and passing over into Normandy with a mighty army, joined his nephew Theobald. The King of France, who had entertained hopes that he should overrun the duchy before his enemy could arrive, advanced with great security towards the frontiers of Normandy; but observing an enemy of equal number and force already prepared to engage him, he suddenly stopped his march. The two armies faced one another for some hours, neither side offering battle; the rest of the day was spent in light skirmishes begun by the French, and repeated for some days following with various success; but the remainder of the year passed without any considerable action.
1119.
At length the violence of the two princes brought it to a battle: for Louis, to give a reputation to his arms, advanced towards the frontiers of Normandy, and after a short siege took Gué Nicaise;[23] there the King met him, and the fight began, which continued with great obstinacy on both sides for nine hours. The French army was divided into two bodies, and the English into three; by which means, that part where the King fought in person, being attacked by a superior number, began to give way; and William Crispin, a Norman baron, singling out the King of England (whose subject he had been, but banished for treason) struck him twice in the head with so much violence, that the blood gushed out of his mouth. The King inflamed with rage and indignation, dealt such furious blows, that he struck down several of his enemies, and Crispin among the rest, who was taken prisoner at his horse's feet. The soldiers encouraged by the valour of their prince, rallied and fell on with fresh vigour, and the victory seemed doubtful, when William the son of King Henry, to whom his father had entrusted the third body of his army, which had not yet engaged, fell on with this fresh reserve upon the enemy, who was already very much harassed with the toil of the day: this quickly decided the matter; for the French, though valiantly fighting, were overcome, with the slaughter of several thousand men; their King quitted the field, and withdrew to Andely; but the King of England recovering Gué Nicaise, returned triumphant to Rouen.
[Footnote 23: At that time reckoned an important fortress on the river Epte. [D.S.]]
This important victory was followed by the defection of the Earl of Anjou to King Henry, and the Earl of Flanders fell in the battle; by which the King of France was at once deprived of two powerful allies. However, by the intercession of the former, a peace was soon after made between both crowns. William the King's son did homage to Louis for the Dukedom of Normandy; and the other William, following the fortunes of his father, was left to his pretensions and complaints.
It is here observable, that from this time until Wales was subdued to the English crown, the eldest sons of England were called Dukes of Normandy, as they are now Princes of Wales.
1120.
The King having stayed some time in Normandy, for the settlement of his duchy after the calamities and confusions of a war, returned to England, to the very great satisfaction of his people and himself. He had enlarged his dominions by the conquest of Normandy; he had subdued all his competitors, and forced even the King of France, their great protector, after a glorious victory, to his own conditions of a peace; he was upon very good terms with the Pope, who had a great esteem and friendship for his person, and made him larger concessions than was usual from that see, and in those ages. At home he was respected by the clergy, reverenced by the nobles, and beloved by the people; in his family he was blessed with a son of much hopes, just growing to years of manhood, and his daughter was an empress; so that he seemed to possess as great a share of happiness as human life is capable to admit. But the felicity of man depends upon a conjunction of many circumstances, which are all subject to various accidents, and every single accident is able to dissolve the whole contexture; which truth was never verified more than in this prince, who by one domestic misfortune, not to be prevented or foreseen, found all the pleasure and content he proposed to himself by his prudence, his industry, and his valour, wholly disappointed and destroyed: for William the young prince having embarked at Barfleur some time after his father, the mariners being all drunk, suffered the ship to run upon a rock, where it was dashed to pieces: the prince made a shift to get into the boat, and was making to the shore, until forced back by the cries of his sister, whom he received into the boat, so many others crowded in at the same time, that it was immediately overturned. There perished, beside the prince, a natural son and daughter of the King's, his niece, and many other persons of quality, together with all their attendants and servants, to the number of a hundred and forty, beside fifty mariners, but one person escaping.
Although the King survived this cruel misfortune many years, yet he could never recover his former humour, but grew melancholy and morose; however, in order to provide better for the peace and settlement of the kingdom after his death, about five months after the loss of his son, his former Queen having died three years before, he married Adeliza, a beautiful young lady of the family of Lorraine,[24] in hopes of issue by her, but never had any.
[Footnote 24: She was daughter of Godfrey Duke of Louvain, or the Lower Lorraine. [D.S.]]
1124.
The death of the prince gave occasion to some new troubles in Normandy; for the Earls of Meulant and Evreux, Hugh de Montfort, and other associates, began to raise insurrections there, which were thought to be privately fomented by the French King, out of enmity to King Henry, and in favour of William the son of Robert, to whom the Earl of Anjou had lately given his daughter in marriage. But William of Tankerville, the King's lieutenant in Normandy, surprising the enemy's forces by an ambush, entirely routed them, took both the earls prisoners, and sent one of them (Meulant) to his master; but the Count d'Evreux made his escape.
1126.
King Henry having now lost hope of issue by his new Queen, brought with him, on his return to England, his daughter Maud, who by the Emperor's death had been lately left a widow and childless; and in a Parliament or general assembly which he had summoned at Windsor, he caused the crown to be settled on her and her children, and made all his nobles take a solemn oath to defend her title. This was performed by none with so much forwardness as Stephen Earl of Boulogne, who was observed to shew a more than ordinary zeal in the matter. This young lord was the King's nephew, being second son of the Earl of Blois by Adela the Conqueror's daughter: he was in high favour with the King his uncle, who had married him to the daughter and heiress of the Earl of Boulogne, given him great possessions in England, and made him indeed too powerful for a subject.
The King having thus fixed the succession of the crown in his daughter by an Act of Settlement and an oath of fealty, looked about to provide her with a second husband, and at length determined his choice in Geoffrey Plantagenet Earl of Anjou, the son of Fulk lately deceased.
This prince, whose dominions confined on France and Normandy, was usually courted for an ally by both Kings in their several quarrels; but having little faith or honour, he never scrupled to change sides as often as he saw or conceived it for his advantage. After the great victory over the French, he closed in with King Henry, and gave his daughter to the young prince William; yet at the same time, by the private encouragement of Louis, he prevailed on the King of England to be easy in the conditions of a peace. Upon the unfortunate loss of the prince, and the troubles in Normandy thereupon, he fell again from the King, gave his other daughter to William the son of Robert, and struck up with France to take that prince again into protection. But dying soon after, and leaving his son Geoffrey to succeed in that earldom, the King was of opinion he could not anywhere bestow his daughter with more advantage, both for the security and enlargement of his dominions, than by giving her to this earl; by which marriage Anjou would become an acquisition to Normandy, and this be a more equal match to so formidable a neighbour as France. In a short time the marriage was concluded; and this Earl Geoffrey had the honour to introduce into the royal family of England the surname of Plantagenet, borne by so many succeeding Kings, which began with Henry II. who was the eldest son of this marriage.
But the King of France was in great discontent at this match: he easily foresaw the dismal consequences to himself and his successors from such an increase of dominion united to the crown of England: he knew what impressions might be made in future times to the shaking of his throne by an aspiring and warlike king, if they should happen in a weak reign, or upon any great discontents in that kingdom. Which conjectures being highly reasonable (and since often verified by events) he cast about to find some way of driving the King of England entirely out of France; but having neither pretext nor stomach in the midst of a peace to begin an open and formal quarrel, there fell out an accident which gave him plausible occasion of pursuing his design.
Charles the Good Earl of Flanders having been lately murdered by some of his subjects, upon private revenge, the King of France went in person to take revenge of the assassins; which he performed with great justice and honour. But the late earl leaving no heir of his body, and several competitors appearing to dispute the succession, Louis rejected some others who seemed to have a fairer title, and adjudged it to William the son of Robert, the better to secure him to his interests upon any design he might engage in against the King of England. Not content with this, he assisted the Earl in person, subdued his rivals, and left him in peaceable possession of his new dominion.
King Henry, on the other side, was very apprehensive of his nephew's greatness, well knowing to what end it was directed; however, he seemed not to regard it, contenting himself to give the Earl employment at home by privately nourishing the discontents of his new subjects, and abetting underhand another pretender: for William had so entirely lost the hearts of his people, by his intolerable avarice and exactions, that the principal towns in Flanders revolted from him, and invited Thierri Earl of Alsace to be their governor. But the King of France generously resolved to appear once more in his defence, and took his third expedition into Flanders for that purpose. He had marched as far as Artois, when he was suddenly recalled to defend his own dominions from the fury of a powerful and provoked invader: for Henry King of England, moved with indignation to see the French King in the midst of a peace so frequently and openly supporting his most dangerous enemy, thought it the best way to divert Louis from kindling a fire against him abroad, by forcing him to extinguish one at home: he therefore entered into the bowels of France, ravaging and laying waste all before him, and quickly grew so formidable, that the French King to purchase a peace was forced to promise never more to assist or favour the Earl of Flanders; however, as it fell out, this article proved to be wholly needless; for the young Earl soon after gave battle to Thierri, and put his whole army to the rout; but pursuing his victory, he received a wound in his wrist, which, by the unskilfulness of a surgeon, cost him his life.[24]
[Footnote 24: The lance passed through or under the ball of his thumb into his wrist. The wound gangrening, he died within five days. [D.S.]]
This one slight inconsiderable accident did, in all probability, put a stop to very great events; for if that young prince had survived his victory, it is hardly to be doubted but through the justness of his cause, the reputation of his valour, and the assistance of the King of France, he would in a little time have recovered Normandy, and perhaps his father's liberty, which were the two designs he had in agitation; nor could he well have missed the crown of England after the King's death, who was now in his decline, when he had so fair a title, and no competitors in view but a woman and an infant.
1129.
Upon the King's return from Normandy, a great council of the clergy was held at London, for the punishing of priests who lived in concubinage, which was the great grievance of the Church in those ages, and had been condemned by several canons. This assembly thinking to take a more effectual course against that abomination, as it was called, decreed severe penalties upon those who should be guilty of breaking it, entreating the King to see the law put in execution; which he very readily undertook, but performed otherwise than was expected, eluding the force of the law by an evasion to his own advantage: for exacting fines of the delinquent priests, he suffered them to keep their concubines without further disturbance. A very unaccountable step in so wise a body for their own concernments, as the clergy of those times is looked upon to have been; and although perhaps the fact be not worth recording, it may serve as a lesson to all assemblies never to trust the execution of a law in the hands of those who will find it more to their interests to see it broken than observed.
1132.
The Empress Maud was now happily delivered of a son, who was afterwards King of England by the name of Henry the Second: and the King calling a Parliament, had the oath of fealty repeated by the nobles and clergy to her and her issue, which in the compass of three years they all broke or forgot.
1134.
I think it may deserve a place in this history to mention the last scene of Duke Robert's life, who, either through the poorness or greatness of spirit, having outlived the loss of his honour, his dominions, his liberty, his eyesight, and his only son, was at last forced to sink under the load of eighty years, and must be allowed for the greatest example either of insensibility or contempt of earthly things, that ever appeared in a sovereign or private person. He was a prince hardly equalled by any in his time for valour, conduct, and courtesy; but his ruin began from the easiness of his nature, which whoever knew how to manage, were sure to be refused nothing they could ask. By such profusion he was reduced to those unhappy expedients of remitting his rights for a pension, of pawning his towns, and multiplying taxes, which brought him into hatred and contempt with his subjects; neither do I think any virtue so little commendable in a sovereign as that of liberality, where it exceeds what his ordinary revenues can supply; where it passes those bounds, his subjects must all be oppressed to shew his bounty to a few flatterers, or he must sell his towns, or basely renounce his rights, by becoming pensioner to some powerful prince in the neighbourhood; all which we have lived to see performed by a late monarch in our own time and country.
1135.
Since the reduction of Normandy to the King's obedience, he found it necessary for his affairs to spend in that duchy some part of his time almost every year, and a little before the death of Robert he made his last voyage there. It was observable in this prince, that having some years past very narrowly escaped shipwreck in his passage from Normandy into England, the sense of his danger had made very deep impressions on his mind, which he discovered by a great reformation in his life, by redressing several grievances, and doing many acts of piety; and to shew the steadiness of his resolutions, he kept them to the last, making a progress through most parts of Normandy, treating his subjects in all places with great familiarity and kindness, granting their petitions, easing their taxes, and, in a word, giving all possible marks of a religious, wise, and gracious prince.
Returning to St. Denys le Ferment from his progress a little indisposed, he there fell into a fever upon a surfeit of lamprey, which in a few days ended his life. His body was conveyed to England, and buried at Reading in the abbey-church himself had founded.
It is hard to affirm anything peculiar of this prince's character; those authors who have attempted it mentioning very little but what was common to him with thousands of other men; neither have they recorded any of those personal circumstances or passages, which only can discover such qualities of the mind as most distinguish one man from another. These defects may perhaps appear in the stories of many succeeding kings; which makes me hope I shall not be altogether blamed for sometimes disappointing the reader in a point wherein I could wish to be the most exact.
As to his person, he is described to be of middle stature; his body strong set and fleshy; his hair black; his eyes large; his countenance amiable, and very pleasant, especially when he was merry. He was temperate in meat and drink, and a hater of effeminacy, a vice or folly much complained of in his time, especially that circumstance of long artificial hair, which he forbade upon severe penalties. His three principal virtues were prudence, valour, and eloquence. These were counterbalanced by three great vices; avarice, cruelty, and lust; of which the first is proved by the frequency of his taxes; the second by his treatment of Duke Robert; and the last was notorious. But the proof of his virtues doth not depend on single instances, manifesting themselves through the whole course of a long reign, which was hardly attended by any misfortune that prudence, justice, or valour could prevent. He came to the crown at a ripe age, when he had passed thirty years, having learned, in his private life, to struggle with hardships, whereof he had his share, from the capriciousness and injustice of both his brothers; and by observing their failures, he had learned to avoid them in himself, being steady and uniform in his whole conduct, which were qualities they both seemed chiefly to want. This likewise made him so very tenacious as he was observed to be in his love and hatred. He was a strict observer of justice, which he seems never to have violated, but in that particular case, which political casuists are pleased to dispense with, where the dispute is about a crown. In that he[25] * * * * * *
[Footnote 25: Here the sentence breaks off short, and is left unfinished. [D.S.]]
Consider him as a private man, he was perhaps the most accomplished person of his age, having a facetious wit, cultivated by learning, and advanced with a great share of natural eloquence, which was his peculiar talent: and it was no doubt the sense he had of this last perfection in himself, that put him so often upon calling together the great councils of the nation, where natural oratory is of most figure as well as use.
THE REIGN OF STEPHEN.
The veneration which people are supposed naturally to pay to a right line, and a lawful title in their kings, must be upheld by a long uninterrupted succession, otherwise it quickly loses opinion, upon which the strength of it, although not the justice, is entirely founded: and where breaches have been already made in the lineal descent, there is little security in a good title (though confirmed by promises and oaths) where the lawful heir is absent, and a popular aspiring pretender near at hand. This, I think, may pass for a maxim, if any consequences drawn from history can pretend to be called so, having been verified successively three times in this kingdom, I mean by the two preceding kings, and by the prince whose reign we are now writing. Neither can this observation be justly controlled by any instances brought of future princes, who being absent at their predecessor's death, have peaceably succeeded, the circumstances being very different in every case, either by the weakness or justice of pretenders, or else by the long establishment of lineal succession.
1135.
Stephen Earl of Boulogne, whose descent hath been already shewn in the foregoing reign, was the second of three brothers, whereof the eldest was Theobald Earl of Blois, a sovereign prince, and Henry the youngest was Bishop of Winchester, and the Pope's legate in England. At the time of King Henry's death, his daughter the Empress was with her husband the Earl of Anjou, a grave and cautious prince, altogether unqualified for sudden enterprises: but Earl Stephen, who had attended the King in his last expedition, made so great dispatch for England,[26] that the council had not time to meet and make any declaration about a successor. When the lords were assembled, the legate had already, by his credit and influence among them, brought over a great party to his brother's interests; and the Earl himself, knowing with what success the like methods were used by his two last predecessors, was very liberal of his promises to amend the laws, support the Church, and redress grievances: for all which the bishop undertook to be guarantee. And thus was Stephen elected by those very persons who had so lately, and in so solemn a manner, more than once sworn fealty to another.
[Footnote 26: Stephen was at Boulogne when he received the news of Henry's death. [D.S.]]
The motives whereby the nobility was swayed to proceed after this manner, were obvious enough. There had been a perpetual struggle between them and their former kings in the defence of their liberties; for the security whereof, they thought a king elected without other title, would be readier to enter into any obligations, and being held in constant dependence, would be less tempted to break them: therefore, as at his coronation they obtained full security by his taking new and additional oaths in favour of their liberties, their oath of fealty to him was but conditional, to be of force no longer than he should be true to those stipulations.
But other reasons were contrived and given out to satisfy the people: they were told it was an indignity for so noble a nation to be governed by a woman; that the late King had promised to marry his daughter within the realm, and by consent of Parliament, neither of which was observed: and lastly, Hugh Bigod, steward to King Henry, took a voluntary oath, before the Archbishop of Canterbury, that his master, in his last sickness, had, upon some displeasure, disinherited his daughter.
He received the crown with one great advantage that could best enable him to preserve it: this was the possession of his uncle's treasures, amounting to one hundred thousand pounds, and reckoned as a prodigious sum in those days; by the help of which, without ever raising one tax upon the people, he defended an unjust title against the lawful heir during a perpetual contest of almost twenty years.
In order to defend himself against any sudden invasion, which he had cause enough to expect, he gave all men licence to build castles upon their lands, which proved a very mistaken piece of politics, although grounded upon some appearance of reason. The King supposed that no invader would venture to advance into the heart of his country without reducing every castle in his way, which must be a work of much time and difficulty, nor would be able to afford men to block them up, and secure his retreat: which way of arguing may be good enough to a prince of an undisputed title, and entirely in the hearts of his subjects: but numerous castles are ill defenders of an usurpation, being the common retreat of malcontents, where they can fly with security, and discover their affections as they please: by which means the enemy, although beaten in the field, may still preserve his footing in the bowels of a country; may wait supplies from abroad; and prolong a war for many years: nor, while he is master of any castles, can he ever be at mercy by any sudden misfortune; but may be always in a condition of demanding terms for himself. These, and many other effects of so pernicious a counsel, the King found through the whole course of his reign; which was entirely spent in sieges, revolts, surprises, and surrenders, with very few battles, but no decisive action: a period of much misery and confusion, which affords little that is memorable for events, or useful for the instruction of posterity.
1136.
The first considerable enemy that appeared against him was David King of Scots, who having taken the oath of fealty to Maud and her issue, being further engaged by the ties of blood, and stirred up through the persuasions of several English nobles, began to take up arms in her cause; and invading the northern parts, took Carlisle and Newcastle; but upon the King's speedy approach with his forces, a peace was presently made, and the towns restored. However, the Scottish prince would, by no means, renounce his fidelity to the Empress, by paying homage to Stephen; so that an expedient was found to have it performed by his eldest son: in consideration of which the King gave, or rather restored, to him the Earldom of Huntingdon.
Upon his return to London from this expedition, he happened to fall sick of a lethargy, and it was confidently given out that he was dead. This report was, with great industry and artifice, dispersed by his enemies, which quickly discovered the ill inclination of several lords, who, although they never believed the thing, yet made use of it for an occasion or pretext to fortify their castles, which they refused to surrender to the King himself; but Stephen was resolved, as he said, to convince them that he was alive and well; for coming against them before he was expected, he recovered Exeter, Norwich,[27] and other fortified places, although not without much difficulty.
[Footnote 27: Hugh Bigod had seized Norwich Castle. [D.S.]]
It is obvious enough to wonder how a prince of so much valour, and other excellent endowments, elected by the Church and State, after a compliance with all conditions they could impose on him, and in an age when so little regard was had to the lineal descent, lastly confirmed by the Pope himself, should be soon deserted and opposed by those very persons who had been the most instrumental to promote him. But, beside his defective title, and the undistinguished liberty of building castles, there were three circumstances which very much contributed to those perpetual revolts of the nobles against him: first, that upon his coming to the crown he was very liberal in distributing lands and honours to several young gentlemen of noble birth, who came to make their court, whereby he hoped to get the reputation of a generous prince, and to strengthen his party against the Empress: but, by this encouragement, the number of pretenders quickly grew too fast upon him; and when he had granted all he was able, he was forced to dismiss the rest with promises and excuses, who, either out of envy or discontent, or else to mend their fortunes, never failed to become his enemies upon the first occasion that offered. Secondly, when he had reduced several castles and towns which had given the first example of disaffection from him, he hardly inflicted the least punishment on the authors; which unseasonable mercy, that in another prince and another age would have been called greatness of spirit, passed in him for pusillanimity and fear, and is reckoned, by the writers of those times to have been the cause of many succeeding revolts. The third circumstance was of a different kind: for, observing how little good effect he had found by his liberality and indulgence, he would needs try the other extreme, which was not his talent. He began to infringe the articles of his charter; to recall or disown the promises he had made; and to repulse petitioners with rough treatment, which was the more unacceptable by being new and unexpected.
1137.
Mean time the Earl of Anjou, who was not in a condition to assert his wife's title to England, hearing Stephen was employed at home, entered Normandy with small force, and found it no difficult matter to seize several towns. The Normans, in the present distraction of affairs, not well knowing what prince to obey, at last sent an invitation to Theobald Earl of Blois, King Stephen's eldest brother, to accept their dukedom upon the condition of protecting them from the present insults of the Earl of Anjou. But before this matter could come to an issue, Stephen, who, upon reduction of the towns already mentioned, had found a short interval of quiet from his English subjects, arrived with unexpected speed into Normandy; where Geoffrey of Anjou soon fled before him, and the whole duchy came over to his obedience; for the further settlement whereof he made peace with the King of France; constituted his son Eustace Duke of Normandy; and made him swear fealty to that Prince, and do him homage. His brother Theobald, who began to expostulate upon this disappointment, he pacified with a pension of two thousand marks:[28] and even the Earl of Anjou himself, who, in right of his wife, made demands of Stephen for the kingdom of England, finding he was no equal match at present, was persuaded to become his pensioner for five thousand more.[29]
[Footnote 28: The mark of Normandy is to be understood here. Such a pension in that age was equivalent to one of £31,000 sterling in the present. [D.S.]]
[Footnote 29: Five thousand marks of silver coin was, in this reign, of the same value as the sum of £77,500 modern currency, is now. Here again the Norman mark seems to be used. [D.S.]]
Stephen, upon his return to England, met with an account of new troubles from the north; for the King of Scots, under pretence of observing his oath of fealty to the Empress, infested the Borders, and frequently making cruel inroads, plundered and laid waste all before him.
1138.
In order to revenge this base and perfidious treatment, the King, in his march northward, sat down before Bedford, and took it after a siege of twenty days. This town was part of the Earldom of Huntingdon, given by Stephen in the late peace to the eldest son of the Scottish King, for which the young prince did homage to him; and it was upon that account defended by a garrison of Scots. Upon intelligence of this surrender, King David, overcome with fury, entered Northumberland, where, letting loose the rage of his soldiers, he permitted and encouraged them to commit all manner of inhumanities; which they performed in so execrable a manner as would scarce be credible, if it were not attested by almost the universal consent of writers: they ripped up women with child, drew out the infants, and tossed them upon the points of their lances: they murdered priests before the altars; then cutting the heads from off the crucifixes, in their stead put on the heads of those they had murdered: with many other instances of monstrous barbarity too foul to relate: but cruelty being usually attended with cowardice, this perfidious prince, upon the approach of King Stephen, fled into places of security. The King of England, finding no enemy on whom to employ his revenge, marched forward into the country, destroying with fire and sword all the southern parts; and would, in all probability, have made terrible impressions into the heart of Scotland, if he had not been suddenly recalled by a more dangerous fire at home, which had been kindled in his absence, and was now broken out into a flame.
Robert Earl of Gloucester, natural son of the late King, came into England some time after the advancement of Stephen to the crown; and, yielding to the necessity of the time, took the oath of fealty upon the same condition used by the other nobles, to be of force so long as the King should keep his faith with him, and preserve his dignity inviolate: but, being in his heart wholly devoted to the interests of the Empress his sister, and moved by the persuasions of several religious men, he had, with great secrecy and application, so far practised upon the levity or discontents of several lords, as to gain them to his party: for the King had, of late, very much alienated the nobles against him; first, by seizing several of their persons, and dispossessing them of their lands; and, secondly, by taking into his favour William d'Ypres, a Flemish commander, of noble birth, but banished by his prince. This man, with many of his followers, the King employed chiefly both in his councils and his armies, and made him Earl of Kent, to the great envy and displeasure of his English subjects. The Earl of Gloucester, therefore, and his accomplices, having prepared all things necessary for an insurrection, it was agreed among them, that while the King was engaged against the Scots, each of them should secure what towns and castles they could, and openly declare for the Empress. Accordingly Earl Robert suddenly fortified himself in Bristol; the rest followed his example; Hereford, Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Dover,[30] and many other places, were seized by several lords, and the defection grew so formidable, that the King, to his great grief, was forced to leave his Scottish expedition unfinished, and return with all possible speed to suppress the rebellion begun by his subjects; having first left the care of the north to Thurstan Archbishop of York; with orders carefully to observe the motions of the Scots.
[Footnote 30: Robert Earl of Gloucester had been entrusted by Stephen with the custody of Dover Castle: but Robert lying now under heavy suspicion, the King sent Matilda his queen to besiege it, in which she was successful. [D.S.]]
Whilst the King was employed in the south in reducing his discontented lords, and their castles, to his obedience, David, presuming upon the distance between them, reentered England with more numerous forces, and greater designs, than before: for, without losing more time than what was necessary to pillage and destroy the country as he marched, he resolved to besiege York, which, if he could force to surrender, would serve as a convenient frontier against the English. To this end, advancing near the city, and having pitched his tents, he sat down before it with his whole army. In the mean time Archbishop Thurstan, having already summoned the nobles and gentry of the shire and parts adjacent, had, by powerful persuasions incited them to defend their country against a treacherous, bloody, and restless enemy: so that before the King of Scotland could make any progress in the siege, the whole power of the north was united against him, under the Earl of Albemarle, and several other nobles. Archbishop Thurstan happening to fall sick, could not go in person to the army, but sent the Bishop of Durham in his stead; by whose encouragements the English, although in number far inferior, advanced boldly towards the enemy, and offered them battle, which was as readily accepted by the Scots, who, sending out a party of horse to secure the rising ground, were immediately attacked by the English, and, after a sharp dispute, entirely defeated. In the heat of the battle the King of Scots, and his son Henry Earl of Huntingdon, gave many proofs of great personal valour. The young prince fell with such fierceness upon a body of the English, that he utterly broke and dispersed them; and was pursuing his victory, when a certain man, bearing aloft the head of an enemy he had cut off, cried out, It was the head of the Scottish King, which being heard and believed on both sides, the English, who had lately fled, rallied again, assaulting their enemies with new vigour; the Scots, on the other side, discouraged by the supposed death of their Prince, began to turn their backs: the King and his son used all endeavours to stop their flight, and made several brave stands against the enemy; but the greatest part of their army being fled, and themselves almost encompassed, they were forced to give way to fortune, and with much difficulty made their escape.
The loss on the English side was inconsiderable; but of Scots, by general consent of writers, ten thousand were slain. And thus ended the War of the Standard, as it was usually called by the authors of that age, because the English, upon a certain engine, raised the mast of a ship, on the top whereof, in a silver box, they put the consecrated wafer, and fastened the standards of St. Peter and other saints: this gave them courage, by remembering they were to fight in the presence of God; and served likewise for a mark where to reassemble when they should happen to be dispersed by any accident or misfortune.
1139
Mean time the King was equally successful against his rebellious lords at home, having taken most of their castles and strong-holds; and the Earl of Gloucester himself, no longer able to make any resistance, withdrew into Normandy, to concert new measures with the Empress his sister. Thus the King had leisure and opportunity for another expedition into Scotland, to pursue and improve his victory, where he met with no opposition: however, he was at length persuaded with much difficulty to accept his own conditions of a peace; and David delivered up to him his eldest son Henry, as hostage for performance of articles between them.
The King, in his return homeward, laid siege to Ludlow Castle, which had not been reduced with the rest: here Prince Henry of Scotland, boiling with youth and valour, and exposing his person upon all occasions, was lifted from his horse by an iron grapple let down from the wall, and would have been hoisted up into the castle, if the King had not immediately flown to his assistance, and brought him off with his own hands by main force from the enemy, whom he soon compelled to surrender the castle.
1140
Stephen having thus subdued his inveterate enemies the Scots, and reduced his rebellious nobles, began to entertain hopes of enjoying a little ease. But he was destined to the possession of a crown with perpetual disturbance; for he was hardly returned from his northern expedition, when he received intelligence that the Empress, accompanied by her brother the Earl of Gloucester, was preparing to come for England, in order to dispute her title to the kingdom. The King, who knew by experience what a powerful party she already had to espouse her interests, very reasonably concluded, the defection from him would be much greater, when she appeared in person to countenance and reward it; he therefore began again to repent of the licence he had granted for building castles, which were now like to prove so many places of security for his enemies, and fortifications against himself; for he knew not whom to trust, vehemently suspecting his nobles ever since their last revolt. He therefore cast about for some artifice to get into his hands as many of their castles as he could: in the strength and magnificence of which kind of structures, the bishops had far outdone the rest, and were upon that, as well as other accounts, very much maligned and envied by the temporal lords, who were extreme jealous of the Church's increasing power, and glad upon all occasions to see the prelates humbled. The King, therefore, having formed his project, resolved to make trial where it would be least invidious, and where he could foresee least danger in the consequences. At a Parliament or assembly of nobles at Oxford, it was contrived to raise a quarrel between the servants of some bishops and those of Alan Count of Dinan in Bretagne, upon a contention of rooms in their inns. Stephen took hold of this advantage, sent for the bishops, taxed them with breaking his peace, and demanded the keys of their castles, adding threats of imprisonment if they dared to disobey. Those whom the King chiefly suspected, or rather who had built the most and strongest castles, were Roger Bishop of Salisbury, with his nephew and natural son the Bishops of Ely and Lincoln, whom the King, by many circumstances of rigour, compelled to surrender, going himself in person to seize the Devizes, then esteemed the noblest structure of Europe, and built by the forementioned Bishop Roger, whose treasure, to the value of forty thousand marks,[31] there likewise deposited, fell, at the same time, into the King's hand, which in a few days broke the bishop's heart, already worn with age and infirmity.
[Footnote 31: This prelate's treasure is doubtless computed by the smaller or Saxon mark; the use of which still prevailed in England: and even thus computed, it amounts to a vast sum, equal to about £116,350 of modern money. [D.S.]]
It may, perhaps, not be thought a digression to say something of the fortunes of this prelate, who, from the lowest beginnings, came to be, without dispute, the greatest churchman of any subject in his age. It happened that the late King Henry, in the reign of his brother, being at a village in Normandy, wanted a priest to say mass before him and his train, when this man, who was a poor curate thereabouts, offered his service, and performed it with so much dexterity and speed, that the soldiers who attended the prince recommended him to their master, upon that account, as a very proper chaplain for military men; but it seems he had other talents; for having gotten into the prince's service, he soon discovered great application and address, much order and economy in the management of his master's fortunes, which were wholly left to his care. After Henry's advancement to the crown, this chaplain grew chief in his favour and confidence; was made Bishop of Salisbury, Chancellor of England, employed in all his most weighty affairs, and usually left vicegerent of the realm while the King was absent in Normandy. He was among the first that swore fealty to Maud and her issue; and among the first that revolted from her to Stephen, offering such reasons in council for setting her aside, as, by the credit and opinion of his wisdom, were very prevalent. But the King, in a few years, forgot all obligations, and the bishop fell a sacrifice in his old age to those treasures he had been so long heaping up for its support. A just reward for his ingratitude towards the Prince that raised him, to be ruined by the ingratitude of another, whom he had been so very instrumental to raise.
But Henry Bishop of Winchester, the Pope's legate, not able to endure this violation of the Church, called a council of all the prelates to meet at Winchester, where the King being summoned, appeared by his advocate, who pleaded his cause with much learning; and the Archbishop of Rouen coming to the council, declared his opinion, That although the canons did allow the bishops to possess castles, yet in dangerous times they ought to deliver them up to the King. This opinion Stephen followed very steadily, not yielding a tittle, although the legate his brother used all means, both rough and gentle, to work upon him.
The council of bishops broke up without other effect than that of leaving in their minds an implacable hatred to the King, in a very opportune juncture for the interests of Maud, who, about this time, landed at Portsmouth with her brother Robert Earl of Gloucester. The whole force she brought over for this expedition consisted but of one hundred and forty knights;[32] for she trusted altogether in her cause and her friends. With this slender attendance she went to Arundel, and was there received into the castle by the widow of the late King; while Earl Robert, accompanied only by twenty men, marched boldly to his own city of Gloucester, in order to raise forces for the Empress, where the townsmen turned out the King's garrison as soon as they heard of his approach.
[Footnote 32: In these times none served on horseback but gentlemen or knights, in right of their fiefs, or their representatives, called Men-at-arms; and each of these was attended by at least two servants or retainers mounted and armed. [D.S.]]
King Stephen was not surprised at the news of the Empress's arrival, being a thing he had always counted upon, and was long preparing himself against. He was glad to hear how ill she was provided, and resolved to use the opportunity of her brother's absence; for, hasting down to Arundel with a sufficient strength, he laid siege to the castle, in hopes, by securing her person, to put a speedy end to the war.
But there wanted not some very near about the King, who, favouring the party of Maud, had credit enough to prevail with him not to venture time and reputation against an impregnable fortress, but rather, by withdrawing his forces, permit her to retire to some less fortified place, where she might more easily fall into his hands. This advice the King took against his own opinion; the Empress fled out of Arundel by night; and, after frequent shifting her stages through several towns, which had already declared in her favour, fixed herself at last at Lincoln; where, having all things provided necessary for her defence, she resolved to continue, and expect either a general revolt of the English to her side, or the decision of war between the King and her brother.
But Stephen, who had pursued the Empress from place to place, hearing she had shut herself up in Lincoln, resolved to give her no rest; and to help on his design, it fell out that the citizens in hatred to the Earl of Chester, who commanded there for the Empress, sent a private invitation to the King, with promise to deliver the town and their governor into his hands. The King came accordingly, and possessed himself of the town; but Maud and the Earl made their escape a few days before. However, many great persons of Maud's party remained prisoners to the King, and among the rest the Earl of Chester's wife, who was daughter to the Earl of Gloucester. These two Earls resolving to attempt the relief of their friends, marched with all their forces near Lincoln, where they found the enemy drawn up and ready to receive them.
The next morning, after battle offered by the lords, and accepted by the King, both sides made ready to engage. The King having disposed his cavalry on each wing, placed himself at the head of his foot, in whom he reposed most confidence. The army of the lords was divided in three bodies; those whom King Stephen had banished were placed in the middle, the Earl of Chester led the van, and the Earl of Gloucester commanded the rear. The battle was fought at first with equal advantage, and great obstinacy on both sides; at length the right wing of the King's horse, pressed by the Earl of Chester, galloped away, not without suspicion of treachery; the left followed the example. The King beheld their flight, and encouraging those about him, fell with undaunted valour upon the enemy; and being for some time bravely seconded by his foot, did great execution. At length overpowered by numbers, his men began to disperse, and Stephen was left almost alone with his sword in his hand, wherewith he opposed his person against a whole victorious army, nor durst any be so hardy to approach him; the sword breaking, a citizen of Lincoln put into his hands a Danish battle-axe,[33] with which he struck to the ground the Earl of Chester,[34] who presumed to come within his reach. But this weapon likewise flying in pieces with the force of those furious blows he dealt on all sides, a bold knight of the Empress's party, named William de Keynes, laid hold on his helmet, and immediately cried out to his fellows, "I have got the King." Then the rest ran in, and he was taken prisoner.[35]
[Footnote 33: Sim. Dunelmensis. [D.S.]]
[Footnote 34: The Earl of Chester lived nevertheless to fight other battles, and died twelve years afterwards by poison. [D.S.]]
[Footnote 35: Gervase. [D.S.]]
The King being thus secured, was presented to the Empress, then at Gloucester, and by her orders conveyed to Bristol, where he continued in strict custody nine months, although with honourable treatment for some time, until either upon endeavouring to make his escape, or in malice to the Londoners, who had a great affection for their King, he was, by express command from the Empress, laid in irons, and used with other circumstances of severity.
This victory was followed by a general defection of almost the whole kingdom; and the Earl of Anjou, husband to the Empress, upon the fame of the King's defeat and imprisonment, reduced without any difficulty the whole Duchy of Normandy to his obedience.
The legate himself, although brother to King Stephen, received her at Winchester with great solemnity, accepted her oath for governing with justice, redressing grievances, and supporting the rights of the Church, and took the old conditional one of fealty to her; then in an assembly of bishops and clergy convoked for the purpose, he displayed the miscarriages of his brother, and declared his approbation of the Empress to be Queen; to which they unanimously agreed. To complete all, he prevailed by his credit with the Londoners, who stood out the last of any, to acknowledge and receive her into the city, where she arrived at length in great pomp, and with general satisfaction.
But it was the misfortune of this Princess to possess many weaknesses that are charged to the sex, and very few of its commendable qualities: she was now in peaceable possession of the whole kingdom, except the county of Kent, where William d'Ypres pretended to keep up a small party for the King; when by her pride, wilfulness, indiscretion, and a disobliging behaviour, she soon turned the hearts of all men against her, and in a short time lost the fruits of that victory and success which had been so hardly gained by the prudence and valour of her excellent brother. The first occasion she took to discover the perverseness of her nature, was in the treatment of Maud, the wife of King Stephen, a lady of great virtue, and courage above her sex, who, coming to the Empress an humble suitor in behalf of her husband, offered, as a price of his liberty, that he should resign all pretensions to the crown, and pass the rest of his life in exile, or in a convent: but this request was rejected with scorn and reproaches; and the Queen finding all entreaties to no purpose, writ to her son Eustace to let him understand the ill success of her negotiation, that no relief was to be otherwise hoped for than by arms, and therefore advised him to raise immediately what forces he could for the relief of his father.
Her next miscarriage was towards the Londoners, who presented her a petition for redressing certain rigorous laws of her father, and restoring those of Edward the Confessor. The Empress put them off for a time with excuses, but at last discovered some displeasure at their importunity. The citizens, who had with much difficulty been persuaded to receive her against their inclinations, which stood wholly for the King, were moved with indignation at her unreasonable refusal of their just demands, and entered into a conspiracy to seize her person. But she had timely notice of their design, and leaving the city by night in disguise, fled to Oxford.
A third false step the Empress made,[36] was in refusing her new powerful friend the legate a favour he desired in behalf of Eustace, the King's son, to grant him the lands and honours held by his father before he came to the crown. She had made large promises to this prelate, that she would be directed in all things by his advice, and to be refused upon his first application a small favour for his own nephew, stung him to the quick; however, he governed his resentments a while, but began at the same time to resume his affection for his brother. These thoughts were cultivated with great address by Queen Maud, who prevailed at last so far upon the legate, that private measures were agreed between them for restoring Stephen to his liberty and crown. The bishop took leave of the Empress, upon some plausible pretence, and retired to Winchester, where he gave directions for supplying with men and provisions several strong castles he had built in his diocese, while the Queen with her son Eustace prevailed with the Londoners and men of Kent to rise in great numbers for the King; and a powerful army was quickly on foot, under the command of William d'Ypres Earl of Kent.
[Footnote 36: William of Malmesbury. [D.S.]]
In the mean time the Empress began to be sensible of the errors she had committed; and in hope either to retrieve the friendship of the legate, or take him prisoner, marched with her army to Winchester, where being received and lodged in the castle, she sent immediately for the legate, spoke much in excuse of what was past, and used all endeavours to regain him to her interests. Bishop Henry, on the other side, amused her with dubious answers, and kept her in suspense for some days; but sent privately at the same time to the King's army, desiring them to advance with all possible speed; which was executed with so much diligence, that the Empress and her brother had only time with their troops to march a back way out of the town. They were pursued by the enemy so close in the rear, that the Empress had hardly time, by counterfeiting herself dead, to make her escape; in which posture she was carried as a corpse to Gloucester; but the Earl her brother, while he made what opposition he could, with design to stop her pursuers, was himself taken prisoner, with great slaughter of his men. After the battle, the Earl was in his turn presented to Queen Maud, and by her command sent to Rochester to be treated in the same manner with the King.
Thus the heads of both parties were each in the power of his enemy, and Fortune seemed to have dealt with great equality between them. Two factions divided the whole kingdom, and, as it usually happens, private animosities were inflamed by the quarrel of the public; which introduced a miserable face of things throughout the land, whereof the writers of our English story give melancholy descriptions, not to be repeated in this history; since the usual effects of civil war are obvious to conceive, and tiresome as well as useless to relate. However, as the quarrel between the King and Empress was grounded upon a cause that in its own nature little concerned the interests of the people, this was thought a convenient juncture for transacting a peace, to which there appeared an universal disposition. Several expedients were proposed; but Earl Robert would consent upon no other terms than the deposing of Stephen, and immediate delivery of the crown to his sister. These debates lasted for some months, until the two prisoners, weary of their long constraint, by mutual consent were exchanged for each other, and all thoughts of agreement laid aside.
The King, upon recovery of his freedom, hastened to London, to get supplies of men and money for renewing the war. He there found that his brother of Winchester had, in a council of bishops and abbots, renounced all obedience to the Empress, and persuaded the assembly to follow his example. The legate, in excuse for this proceeding, loaded her with infamy, produced several instances wherein she had broken the oath she took when he received her as Queen, and upon which his obedience was grounded; said, he had received information that she had a design upon his life.[37]
[Footnote 37: William of Malmesbury. [D.S.]]
It must be confessed that oaths of fealty in this Prince's reign were feeble ties for binding the subject to any reasonable degree of obedience; and the warmest advocates for liberty cannot but allow, from those examples here produced, that it is very possible for people to run upon great extremes in this matter, that a monarch may be too much limited, and a subject too little; whereof the consequences have been fully as pernicious for the time as the worst that can be apprehended from arbitrary power in all its heights, although not perhaps so lasting or so hard to be remedied; since all the miseries of this kingdom, during the period we are treating of, were manifestly owing to that continual violation of such oaths of allegiance, as appear to have been contrived on purpose by ambitious men to be broken at pleasure, without the least apprehension of perjury, and in the mean time keep the prince in a continual slavish dependence.
The Earl of Gloucester, soon after his release, went over into Normandy, where he found the Earl of Anjou employed in completing the conquest of that duchy; there he delivered him the sons of several English noblemen, to be kept as hostages for their fathers' fidelity to the Empress, and used many arguments for persuading him to come over in person with an army to her assistance: but Geoffrey excused himself by the importance of other affairs, and the danger of exposing the dominions he had newly acquired to rebellions in his absence. However, he lent the Earl of Gloucester a supply of four hundred men, and sent along with him his eldest son Henry, to comfort his mother, and be shewn to the people.
During the short absence of the Earl of Gloucester, the Empress was closely besieged in Oxford by the King; and provisions beginning to fail, she was in cruel apprehensions of falling into his hands. This gave her occasion to put in practice the only talent wherein she seemed to excel, which was that of contriving some little shift or expedient to secure her person upon any sudden emergency. A long season of frost had made the Thames passable upon the ice, and much snow lay on the ground; Maud with some few attendants clad all in white, to avoid being discovered from the King's camp, crossed the river at midnight on foot, and travelling all night, got safe to Wallingford Castle, where her brother and young son Henry, newly returned from France, arrived soon after, to her great satisfaction: but Oxford, immediately upon the news of her flight, surrendered to the King.