The consolidation of the nation was the great work of Henry of Anjou. He brought to it great gifts, sagacity, masterful courage, a legal and judicial mind; while his training, as the prince of widely extending countries, prevented the intrusion of petty local interests into his views for his people’s good. The lessons of the last reign were not lost on him. Before all things he desired a strong government and good order. In pursuing these objects he took for his model his grandfather and great-grandfather, and worked out in greater and more systematic detail the policy they had begun. And though in his efforts to subordinate the Church he may seem to have run counter to the legislation of his great-grandfather, it will be seen that in many points his policy was really the same. In the earlier part of his reign work lay ready to his hand, and the compromise at Winchester had already marked out his line of action. He could not immediately come to England, being detained by an insurrection in Guienne. But when he had settled this, and, by a humility of bearing he knew well how to feign, secured the friendship of Louis VII., he crossed the Channel, and at once proceeded with his reforms.
He renewed the charter of the City of London; fixed a short period during which the Flemish auxiliaries, who had already probably begun to return home, should leave the country; recalled grants of the royal domains which had been made in Stephen’s reign; re-established the old number of limited earldoms; and proceeded to lay hands on both the royal castles which individual barons had appropriated and those private fastnesses with which the country had become covered. Their number is variously estimated, by some it is put as high as 1150. It was not without some opposition that he carried out this work. It was chiefly in the North and West that difficulty occurred. Before the year was over he had received the submission of William of Albemarle, who was nearly independent in Yorkshire. In February of the next year he expelled Peveril, who had been guilty among other things of poisoning the great Earl of Chester, from his Earldom of Nottingham. He followed up his success by compelling the border barons, Roger, son of Milo, Earl of Hereford, and Hugh Mortimer, a descendant of the same family as Robert de Belesme, to surrender their fastnesses. To complete his dominion at home he marched against Malcolm of Scotland, who was occupying the three Northern counties. These he compelled him to resign, obliging him to do homage for the county of Huntingdon, which he claimed as a descendant of the old Earl Waltheof. Throughout all the earlier part of the reign the Scotch King appears as a great English baron, following the King to his wars.
Henry even thus early began to think of curbing the overgrown power of the Church; and Henry of Winchester, in fear of what might happen, thought it better to lay aside his episcopal robes and retire for a time to Clugny, from which, however, he was soon induced to return. An event, indeed, soon occurred which rendered the King’s position with the Church peculiarly strong. In 1154 Nicolas Breakspear ascended the Papal throne, the only Englishman who ever attained that honour. The connection between England and the Papal See, always close since the Conquest, was drawn even closer, and the Pope made a grant of the schismatical country Ireland to the English King; a grant the enjoyment of which Henry postponed till a more convenient season. Henry’s widely spread dominions kept him constantly moving, and in 1156 the affairs of his native county summoned him to France. He left his kingdom in charge of Robert of Leicester, his great justiciary.
The difficulty in Anjou arose from the claim raised by his younger brother Godfrey to that province. This claim rested upon a doubtful will, by which his father was said to have intended Anjou for Godfrey if Henry was called to the throne of England. By force of arms Henry reduced the country; and his brother withdrew on the receipt of certain payments, being shortly after called by the burghers of Nantes to become lord of their town. This affair was scarcely settled when Henry hurried back to England, there to complete his conquest of the Scotch King, by obliging him to surrender his strong castles of Bamborough, Newcastle and Carlisle, and again to do homage for Huntingdon, on which occasion, however, the clause “Salvis omnibus dignitatibus suis” was introduced into his oath. This, with the surrender of castles by Hugh Bigod in Norfolk, and of William, called of Warrenne, son of the late King, and Earl of Surrey, completed the subjugation of the feudal nobles, and rendered him absolute master of England.
Wales alone gave him further trouble. Thither, in 1157, he led an army against Owen Gwynneth at the instigation of his fugitive brother Cadwallader. The expedition was not successful; on this, as on subsequent occasions, Henry found it impossible to reduce the Welsh in their mountain strongholds. It is noteworthy, as affording the first instance of scutage, or money payment in exchange for personal service, which was in this instance demanded of knights holding from the clergy; and for the shameful flight of Henry de Essex, the royal standard-bearer, which gave rise afterwards to a remarkable judicial duel. In the year 1163 Robert de Montfort impeached Henry de Essex for cowardice and treachery. The matter came to the ordeal of battle, and Essex being conquered, forfeited all his lands, and retired as a monk to the Abbey of Reading. This, and the confiscation of the property of Peveril, already mentioned, are the only two instances of confiscation during the reign.
It was during this prosperous period of the King’s reign that Thomas à Becket becomes prominent. The son of a citizen of London, his talents had been early seen and employed by Archbishop Theobald. In 1143 he had succeeded in getting for his patron the legatine authority over England, and afterwards that Papal bull which prevented the crowning of King Stephen’s son Eustace. He was richly rewarded by livings in the Dioceses of Oxford, London, and Lincoln, and, in 1154, with the position of Archdeacon of Canterbury. The recommendation of the Primate soon placed him about Henry’s court. He was appointed chancellor, and as such was the chief clerk of the Curia Regis, kept the King’s seal, and had the management of vacant ecclesiastical benefices. He was further intrusted with the guardianship of the Tower of London, and with the castle of Eye in Berkhampstead, thus occupying a position partly secular, partly ecclesiastical. In this situation he exhibited all the splendour of a great noble; kept a magnificent table, followed the sports of the field, and was a proficient in knightly exercises. Henry found much pleasure in his society, and employed him in delicate negotiations. Thus, in the year 1158, he was sent to arrange a match between Margaret of France and Henry’s son Henry. His magnificent embassy dazzled the eyes of the Frenchmen and was completely successful. The object of the arrangement was to win the friendship of Louis, and prevent him from interfering with the King’s plans on Nantes, where he meant to make good his claim as successor to his brother Godfrey, who had lately died. A meeting with Louis was effected on the river Epte. Henry accompanied him back to Paris, and received from him the child princess, whom he intrusted to the care of Robert of Neuburg, Justiciary of Normandy. Strong in this new-formed friendship, Henry found no difficulty in securing Nantes, and thereby a hold upon Brittany.
In spite however of his apparent agreement with Louis he soon found himself at open war with him. Queen Eleanor’s grandfather, on going to the Crusades, had mortgaged the county of Toulouse to Raymond of St. Gilles. The mortgage money had not been repaid, as Raymond of St. Gilles still held the city. This nobleman had married the French King’s sister Constance. When therefore Henry raised the claim of his wife, the French King openly adopted the cause of Raymond.[20] Henry determined to have recourse to arms, and in 1159 raised an army for the purpose. The war is interesting, not so much in itself, as in two or three collateral points connected with it. Thus Malcolm of Scotland came with forty-five ships, and a Welsh prince likewise joined the army. Again, the presence of Becket at the head of an unusually well-equipped body of 700 men is mentioned. He is said to have urged the King to active measures against the French monarch. But Henry—who was surprised at finding his lately made friend in arms against him, and opposing with all his power a claim he had once himself urged, and who by no means wished to drive matters to extremity—showed some scruple in attacking his suzerain, and contented himself with gaining his object by laying waste the country and capturing the castles. At the same time he contracted an engagement between his son Richard and Berengaria, the daughter of Count Raymond of Barcelona, the son-in-law of the King of Aragon,[21] and in fact Governor of that country. But the most important point about the war was the introduction of the habit of money payments in exchange for military service. This measure had been adopted previously with respect to the Church in the war with Wales. On the present occasion the sum is said to have amounted to £180,000.[22] There were many advantages in the change. The King was enabled to hire mercenaries, and dispense with the irregular services of his feudal followers; he got contributions from the Church lands, and was enabled to do without the hated tax of the Danegelt, at the same time that he struck a blow at the military importance of his feudal barons.
Thus far the course of Henry’s reign had been one of unbroken prosperity. He had settled and increased his dominions both in England and on the Continent, had on the whole gained in his opposition to his suzerain the King of France, and had strengthened himself by prudent marriages for his children. He was henceforward, except for a very few years, to be plunged in disputes and difficulties. It has been mentioned that the Church in England had reached a position of great pre-eminence during the troubled period of Stephen’s reign. The policy of the Norman kings had been always to support the Church to the utmost, to keep on good terms with Rome, but at the same time to make good the supremacy of the power of the king in his own dominions. William the Conqueror, it will be remembered, had entirely separated the spiritual from the temporal jurisdiction. Before the arrival of the Normans, all offences not strictly ecclesiastical had been tried and punished in the County and Hundred courts, where both bishop and aldermen presided side by side. In withdrawing the bishop from the secular courts, William had desired to raise the character of the clergy by confining them more completely to spiritual matters. But an abuse had easily grown up, which produced a directly opposite effect. As the pretensions of the Church rose, not only were spiritual questions to be tried in the spiritual courts, but spiritual men were also withdrawn from the secular jurisdiction, and the doctrine became prevalent that the cleric could be only tried by his ecclesiastical superior.[23] Now ecclesiastical courts could not inflict corporal punishments. Censures, excommunications, and penances were their weapons. Consequently clerks might and did commit every sort of crime without suffering any punishment. To Henry’s love of justice and order this was most repugnant. But at the same time that he wished to curtail the license of the clergy, and to establish the superiority of the royal jurisdiction, he distinctly upheld the policy of his predecessors in supporting the Roman See. It was a critical time for that power. The great Frederick Barbarossa was upon the throne of Germany and attempting to establish with regard to himself and the Pope on a larger scale what Henry was anxious to do in England. With a comprehensive view of the struggle, he had invited the Kings of England and France to join him in united action for the establishment of the supremacy of the secular power. His overtures had not been received; and when, upon the death of Hadrian, in 1159, after a stormy conclave, the Italian party elected Rolando Bandinelli, under the title of Alexander III., and the imperial party Cardinal Octavian, as Victor IV., the two Western kings gave in their adhesion to Alexander. When expelled from Italy, they received him with extreme honour at Chateauroux, where they acted as his grooms, leading his horse between them. He finally found shelter in the French town of Sens.
In 1161, Theobald the Archbishop died, and it seemed to Henry that the opportunity had arrived for carrying out his reforming plans. Without difficulty he secured the election of his Chancellor, believing that he would serve him still in that capacity. But such were not the views of Becket. He found himself in a position where he might not only serve but rival the King, and he at once became the ambitious and fanatical ecclesiastic. His manner of life was wholly changed, fasts and penances took the place of his former gaiety; the ostentation which he still exhibited was for others and not for himself; he scarcely touched food while his guests were feasting; and poor saints and beggars took the place of the courtiers who had formerly thronged his hall. He did not wait to be attacked, but himself began the quarrel with the King. He at once insisted on resigning his temporal offices. He then demanded homage from some barons whom he declared to be liegemen of the See of Canterbury and not of the King. He refused in bold outspoken words to pay the usual tax for the sheriff at a court at Woodstock. But these were only slight beginnings. A meeting of the clergy was held at Westminster, and the great subject of ecclesiastical jurisdictions was raised. A very bad instance had just excited the King’s attention. A clerk of the name of Philip Brois had committed a murder and received no punishment. At the assizes of Dunstable, Simon Fitz-Peter, the King’s Justice, had found him guilty of the murder, but Becket insisted on his being withdrawn from the secular jurisdiction, and sentenced him to two years’ loss of his benefice. To Henry this seemed at once an insult to his authority and a mere fostering of crime. He determined upon action, and demanded of the bishops whether they would accept the ancient customs of the country. Many of the clergy Henry knew he could rely upon, such for instance as Becket’s old enemy Roger of York, and Gilbert Foliot, Bishop of London. He did not expect to meet much opposition anywhere. With much persuasion Becket certainly accepted the customs. Henry, determined that there should be no question on this matter, caused these customs to be drawn up in the form of Constitutions, and presented to a great council held at Clarendon. There Becket distinctly broke his word and retracted.
Bishops and laymen, knowing the King’s character, besought Becket not to risk the fortunes of the Church by further opposition. For a moment he seemed to yield, but the next day, when his final answer was to be given, he again refused to sign them. He stated his objections fully. His arguments were based principally on the Canon law of Gratian[24] and the False Decretals. The Body of Customs, as presented to him, consisted of sixteen clauses. By these, which did not pretend to be new legislation, but a recapitulation of the old practices of the country, the line was sharply drawn between criminal and ecclesiastical cases; the criminal clerk being amenable to the civil jurisdiction: questions with regard to land claimed by the clergy were to be referred to a jury: as also cases of crime where there was no accuser: the King was made the ultimate hearer of appeals, except by his own special leave: bishops were restrained from leaving the country without leave, or from excommunicating the King’s men: elections to bishoprics were to be held in the King’s chapel, in the presence and with the consent of those whom he should summon: and the newly-elected officer was to swear fealty to the King.[25] Other minor matters with regard to the position of the Church were also settled, but it is these chiefly which were to secure the supremacy of the crown. Becket is said to have particularly objected to any subordination of clerks to secular jurisdiction; to have held that one punishment for one offence was enough, and that the Church should look to; and to have regarded with displeasure any restrictions laid upon the right of clerical jurisdiction or excommunication.[26] Ultimately, however, he was certainly induced to accept and to seal them. On retiring from the council he at once began to show signs of repentance, and got absolution for what he had done from the Pope.
Alexander’s position was peculiar, and, as in the case of Anselm, it was too important to him in his present difficulties to retain the friendship of England for him to allow himself to side very strongly with Becket. Throughout the quarrel it is the Archbishop who urges the Pope onward, and not the Pope the Archbishop. Such lukewarmness suited neither party, and Henry summoned another council for 8th of October at Northampton. Two days before the council the Archbishop arrived. He did not receive the kiss of peace, and it was plain that matters were coming to extremities. Again the Archbishop began the attack. He lodged some complaint against a nobleman, and had justice promised him; but was then in his turn charged with delaying justice, in the case of an official of the Treasury called John the Marshall, who demanded a piece of land in his court. Marshall summoned him before the royal court, and he was now told that the case would come on before the council on the following day. On that day therefore the court sat in judgment upon the Archbishop. He was found guilty. The extreme penalty, which would have been the seizure of all his moveables, was remitted, and a heavy fine of £500 substituted. No sooner was this charge finished than a fresh charge was brought against him, and £300 demanded of him, which he had borrowed upon the castles of Eye and Berkhampstead. On the following day a sum of 500 marks, which he had borrowed for the expedition to Toulouse on the King’s security, was demanded. Becket declared it was a gift. He found fresh securities, and retired in dudgeon. He found his hall deserted by the knights and barons. Then followed the final blow. As chancellor he had had the administration of vacant ecclesiastical and baronial benefices; and now he was ordered to account for a sum of not less than 30,000 marks. On accepting the bishopric, he had been discharged from all liability by Prince Henry and Richard de Lucy the Justiciary. The demand was manifestly an unjust one, and the greater part of the bishops appealed against it. The temporal nobles refused to allow the appeal, as it had yet to be proved that the King was a party to the discharge. Sickness kept the Archbishop confined to his house for some days. Meanwhile the bishops attempted to make him yield, and finally for the most part deserted him, and betook themselves to the court. The Archbishop was determined to meet the charge in all the magnificence of his office, and went to the council with his cross and other insignia. The bishops, overawed by this unusual demonstration, which they regarded as a challenge to the King, went to him, leaving the accused Archbishop sitting alone with a few friends. They tried in vain to get the King’s demand lessened, and changed for the fine usual in Kent, which was only forty shillings. Henry, in wrath, merely asked whether the Archbishop had made up his mind to accept the Constitutions. Becket refused to plead upon any charge except that of John the Marshall, and at length openly declared that he placed himself and the Church under the guardianship of the Pope and of God. The disturbance was great. The King wished the bishops to declare the sentence. They earnestly entreated not to be called upon to judge their superior, and finally the duty was left to Robert of Leicester the Justiciary. But the Archbishop would not let him speak. “How can you judge me who appeal to a higher power? And do not thou Earl of Leicester venture to judge thy spiritual father!” He rose, and, leaning on his cross, swept from the hall. As cries of “traitor” arose behind him, his old worldly vehemence got the better of him, and he turned and cried, “Might I but wear weapons, I should soon know how to clear myself of the charge of treason.” As he passed on his way through the streets people knelt and demanded his blessing. A final answer was required of him the following day, but in the night, in the midst of wild weather, he secretly left Northampton, and after a difficult flight, on the 2nd of November contrived to cross to Gravelines.
On the very same night, an embassy, consisting of his chief enemies—the Bishops of York, London, Exeter, Chichester and Worcester, together with John of Oxford, the King’s chief adviser in this matter,—crossed to seek the Pope. The Archbishop put himself under the protection of the King of France at Soissons; and the two parties carried their case before the Pope at Sens, where John of Salisbury, Becket’s emissary, had already been winning him friends. The King’s embassy entreated that legates might be sent to finish the case in England. But Alexander, although the Peter’s Pence from England were absolutely necessary to him, refused their request. Upon receipt of this information, the King drove abroad all friends and dependants of the Archbishop, who had succeeded meanwhile in getting a favourable reception from Alexander. Till 1170 he remained abroad, carrying on his struggle with the King.
Of course, during that time Henry could not afford to let his other business rest. But it is the quarrel with the Archbishop which gives its complexion to the history of those years. In 1165 the Pope was enabled to return to Italy, but Frederick of Germany, still refusing to acknowledge him, at an Assembly at Wurtzburg caused Cardinal Guido to be elected under the title of Pascal III. in the place of Octavian, who was just dead. Henry seized the opportunity. He had already forbidden all intercourse between England and the Pope, and he now despatched an embassy, headed by John of Oxford and Richard of Winchester, to attempt to act in consort with Frederick. This was in reply to a demand on the part of the Emperor, who had sent his chancellor, Reginald of Cologne, to ask for two of Henry’s daughters in marriage, the one for his son, the other for Henry the Lion of Saxony. The ambassadors declared that there were fifty bishops ready to accept the anti-pope. However, matters did not reach this point: Alexander still temporized. The clergy of England were very averse to deserting the legitimate Pope, and the old policy of the Norman kings had yet a strong hold upon Henry.
Meanwhile, leaving the quarrel in abeyance, he again invaded Wales, again without much success. He was more successful in the following year in his designs on Brittany. “He dealt,” says the Chronicler,[27] “with the nobles of the district of Le Mans according to his pleasure, and the region of Brittany, and with their castles....” A treaty of marriage between his son Geoffrey, and Constance, the daughter of Conan of Brittany and Richmond, having been entered into, this Earl made a grant to him of the whole of Brittany, with the exception of Guingamp, which had descended to him from his grandfather. The King received the homage of all the barons of Brittany at Thouars. Thence he came to Rennes, and by taking possession of that city, the capital of Brittany, he became lord of the whole duchy. While thus triumphing, he received news that Becket, weary of the Pope’s procrastination, had gone to the Church at Vezelay, and there, after explaining the Constitutions of Clarendon, had excommunicated John of Oxford, Richard of Ilchester, and Richard de Lucy, the King’s Counsellors, and Joscelin of Balliol, and Ranulph de Broc, who had entered into possession of his confiscated estates. This step caused considerable anxiety, and the bishops and abbots of England met and appealed to the Pope, thus postponing the execution of the excommunication. The Archbishop, in reply, bid them carry the excommunication at once into effect, and at the same time excommunicated Godfrey Ridel, the Archdeacon of Canterbury, for not remitting to him the income of his see. In anger, the King threatened to expel from England the whole Cistercian order, as a punishment for allowing the Archbishop to dwell in their monastery. To avoid this, Becket withdrew to Sens.
The appeal however went on, and, to the surprise of every one, the Pope, who had perhaps been bribed, at length appointed legates to examine the dispute. In 1167, John of Oxford, the King’s ambassador, came home in triumph, declaring that the excommunications had been removed. Naturally therefore Becket dreaded the approach of the legates. By means of his influence with the French many obstacles were thrown in their way, and as a fresh declaration that his views were unchanged, he excommunicated Gilbert of London. At length the legates obtained meetings both with Becket and Henry. In neither instance were they satisfactory. Becket refused to withdraw the convenient words “saving our order,” and Henry would hear of no half measures. However, their temper was on the whole conciliatory, and they removed the excommunications conditionally. This friendly feeling on the part of the Pope was still further shown by his suspending the Archbishop for a time from the exercise of his office. In fact, the Pope had just been driven from Rome by Barbarossa, and Henry’s support was indispensable to him. All this made no difference to Becket, who, on Palm Sunday, repeated his excommunications, and contrived at length to get them smuggled over into England, where, with striking effect, Gilbert of London was suddenly suspended in the midst of the celebration of mass in his own church.
The political difficulties under which Henry was at this time struggling may have given fresh courage to the Archbishop, for, both during 1167 and 1168, there was war with Louis of France and with his other neighbours. The Count of Flanders was even threatening a descent on England, while the Counts of Marche, Angoulême, and Limousin, counting on the succour of the French, were laying waste Henry’s southern dominions. This difficulty he left in the hands of his General, Count Patrick of Salisbury, while he himself was called upon to suppress disturbances in Brittany. His fortunes were indeed at a very low ebb. In presence of these difficulties, Henry found it necessary to lower his tone; a peace with his enemies was patched up at Montmirail. There too a commission from the Pope awaited him, and he found himself obliged to consent virtually to the demands of Becket. As however he refused to give his refractory Archbishop the kiss of peace, which was regarded as the only sure sign of reconciliation, the quarrel was not yet terminated. Although the point at issue was a small one, both parties continued obstinate.
Henry, determined to show his authority, caused his son Henry to be crowned in England by the Archbishop of York. This was a distinct invasion of the rights of the Archbishop of Canterbury, for the coronation was performed in the southern province. It produced so great an outcry, that Henry felt he had gone too far, especially as he had neglected to have Henry’s wife, the French princess, crowned with him, which Louis regarded as a great insult. With this feeling against him, Henry consented to a meeting at Fretheval, and there yielded what was required of him, embracing the Archbishop, raising him from the ground, when he knelt before him, and holding his stirrup for him to remount. The quarrel seemed ended, but some slight delays occurred before Becket could return to England, and more than one warning message was sent to him that England was no safe place for him. When he demanded a safe conduct from Henry, it did not promise any true reconciliation that John of Oxford was sent as his escort. He ventured however, but found the feeling in England, among the laity at all events, very strong against him, and was bidden to withdraw to his city of Canterbury. Although conscious of the power of his enemies, he continued his obstinate course, excommunicated the Archbishop of York, De Broc, and other lay holders of the property of the See, whom he found it difficult to dispossess. When the King heard of this conduct, the anger which had been boiling within him, but which circumstances had obliged him to suppress, broke loose, and he accused his courtiers of caring nothing for him since they suffered this audacious priest to live. Four knights took him at his word, hurried across to England, collected followers among his enemies, and proceeding to Canterbury, demanded the immediate removal of the excommunication. The monks in terror hurried the Archbishop to the Cathedral, and wished to shut the doors, believing him then in safe sanctuary, but he would not allow any sign of weakness. Headed by the knights, the armed mob broke in, still demanded the removal of the excommunication, were still refused, and killed him at the altar.
The outcry which rose throughout Europe told Henry that he had lost his cause. He at once declared himself innocent, refused food, took on him all the outward signs of penitence, and despatched a mission to exculpate him at the court of the Pope. Though Alexander was very angry, he was persuaded to send legates for a formal inquiry. Henry did not await their coming, but as a means of employment and retirement, proceeded to carry out an intention he had long had of conquering Ireland.
His opportunity there indeed had fully come. The country, divided among petty chieftains, had from time to time been gathered under the command of one chief king. When his authority was at all strong, some little order existed; when he was weak, wild disorder reigned. The present holder of that position was Roderic O’Connor of Connaught. In 1153, Diarmid, or Dermot, King of Leinster, had carried off the wife of O’Ruark, Prince of Breffni, or Leitrim. When O’Connor gained the crown of Tara in 1166, he proceeded to punish the offender who fled to England, and, collecting round him some Welsh adventurers, returned home. Still unable to cope with his enemies, he sought Henry in Guienne, did homage to him, and received leave to collect an army in England. In 1169, the half-brothers Robert Fitz-Stephen and Maurice Fitz-Gerald crossed over to Wexford. This advance-guard was followed by a stronger party of Welshmen under Richard of Clare, Count of Strigul, surnamed Strongbow, who, deeply in debt, had lost his possessions in England, and was glad to seek some elsewhere. He took Waterford, and married Eva, Dermot’s daughter; while Dublin, which belonged to the Danes who had settled in Ireland, was captured by Milo of Cogan. In 1171 Dermot died, and Strongbow succeeded to the crown of Leitrim as his heir. Henry was not pleased with the rapid success of his vassal, and proceeded to deprive him of his English property. In vain were ambassadors sent to the King; he refused them admittance. It was only when the Earl surrendered Waterford, Dublin, and his other castles, to the King, that Henry secured to him his other conquests. Matters were in this condition when Henry determined himself to visit Ireland. After a month spent in preparation, he reached Waterford with a fleet of 400 ships in October. Here Strongbow did homage to him for Leinster, and several Irish princes acknowledged him for their chief. From Roderic O’Connor he had to be contented with such slight acknowledgment as the acceptance of his envoys, De Lacey and William Fitz-Aldelm, might imply. With the Church he was more successful. All the archbishops and bishops took the oath of fealty. At a synod held at Cashel the Roman discipline was introduced; and in 1174, bulls from Rome, authorizing the collection of Peter’s Pence and the conquest of the country, were received and accepted. In a wooden palace, built outside the walls of Dublin, Henry exhibited the splendours of the English crown, and granted out the conquered lands to his vassals. Hugh de Lacey received the Earldom of Meath, and was made Viceroy; Fitz-Bernard received Waterford, De Courcey and others were instructed to carry on the work of conquest; and English colonists were placed in Dublin and other devastated towns. Having made these arrangements, Henry returned to Normandy, where his presence was much required. But his conquest was by no means completed; disturbances arose at once upon his departure; nor was it till 1175 that Roderic was subdued. He then sent delegates to make his submission to the King at a council held at Windsor. A treaty was arranged, which acknowledged him as chief of all the Irish princes, with the exception of Henry and his knights. He consented to pay a yearly tribute. But except in the conquered countries, Irish law (the Brehon law as it was termed) held good throughout Ireland, and English law only within those provinces which had been thoroughly subdued and were called the English Pale.
It was partly to meet the Papal legates that Henry returned from Ireland. He met them at Avranches, and there swore that he had nothing to do with the murder of the Archbishop, and promised adhesion to Pope Alexander in opposition to the German anti-pope, free intercourse with Rome, the abrogation of the Constitutions of Clarendon, and personal attendance at a crusade, either in the East or in Spain, within three years, meanwhile paying the Templars to undertake this duty for him. Although this seemed a complete submission, it in fact left the question of the supremacy of the civil power open.
All his dominions seemed now at peace, but a great danger was brewing. His son Henry, since his coronation, had already, at the instigation of the French King, his father-in-law, demanded the actual possession of some portion at least of his kingdom, and this combination caused him well-grounded apprehension. He took the opportunity of the general peace of his kingdom to negotiate a marriage for his son John with the daughter of Count Humbolt of Savoy, and promised to give with him as her dowry Chinon, Loudon, and Mirabeau. The young king Henry protested against this treaty, and suddenly disappearing from court, took refuge with Louis VII. at St. Denis. The old king understood only too well what this meant. Shortly, there was a universal insurrection throughout all his dominions. It is not difficult to understand. His domestic relations were not happy, although he was very fond of his children; his wife was constantly urging them to disobedience. His dominions were widespread, and consisted of various races; his hand was heavy upon the feudal nobility, when the English nobles had not yet forgotten the charms of the late reign; while the defeat which the King had sustained in his quarrel with Becket gave a false impression of his weakness. The discontent was very general. While Louis recognized the young Henry as the rightful king, and entered into his quarrel in company with the Counts of Blois, Boulogne, Flanders, and others, the nobles of Aquitaine rose in insurrection, the princes Richard and Geoffrey made common cause with the insurgents, William the Lion of Scotland was engaged to take part with them, and the great Earls of the middle and north of England, Leicester, Ferrars of Derby, Chester, and Bigod, joined in the general alliance. Henry, though alarmed, did not despair. His policy had led him to trust much to his auxiliaries, and with these he determined to withstand the feudal malcontents. Leaving his generals to resist the attack from Flanders and France, he won a great battle before Dol in Brittany, took the great Earl of Chester prisoner, and re-established his power in that province. Meanwhile, Leicester had been besieged by Lucy, his justiciary in England; the efforts of William the Lion, who demanded Northumberland and refused homage for Huntingdon, were thwarted by the brave defence of the border castles; and an invasion of Flemings from the East, headed by the Earl of Leicester, was defeated at Farnham, near Bury St. Edmunds. But the existing truce with France terminated at Easter; the king of that country was able to enter actively into the war; and Henry’s successes, and the large offers he made his sons, seemed alike unavailing. Hostilities began again, and Henry was obliged to take the command in person in his hereditary provinces, Maine and Anjou, where he was received with enthusiasm. The troops of his son Richard were conquered; while in England the King’s natural son, Geoffrey Plantagenet, and Richard de Lucy, made head against the nobles in the East and a fresh invasion from Scotland; but were still so pressed, that messengers were sent in haste to summon Henry across the Channel. It was indeed a moment of great danger. Philip of Flanders and his allies, to whom Kent had been promised, were assembling a fleet at Whitsand; the Scotch invaders had reached Alnwick. Henry hastened home. But before he proceeded to active measures, in deference to the popular feeling, which attributed his difficulties to the Divine anger at Becket’s death, he made a pilgrimage and did penance at the shrine of the martyr. Immediately after this while still in anxious doubt as to the fate of his kingdom, news was brought him that Ranulf de Glanvill had surprised the Scotch at Alnwick, and that William the Lion and many of his nobility were prisoners. A few days afterwards the town of Huntingdon was taken, and Hugh, the Bishop of Durham, who had joined the insurgents, conquered. By July all the English nobles had returned to their allegiance, and Prince David had withdrawn the Scotch troops. The same rapidity which saved England saved Normandy also. The sudden arrival of the King before Rouen raised the siege of that place, which had been hard pressed, and before long a peace between Henry and Louis was made, by which all the French conquests were restored, and the young King Henry’s dependants had to abjure the fealty which they had taken to him. The great insurrection which for a moment had threatened the existence of Henry’s monarchy was thus over. To his sons Henry was merciful. To Richard he granted two castles in Poitou, with half its revenues; to Geoffrey, similar terms in Brittany. They were required to renew their allegiance. William of Scotland was forced to content himself with harder terms. He was only released upon condition of appearing at York in the following year with all his barons, and swearing fealty to Henry as his suzerain. He and his brother did homage for Scotland, for Galloway, and for their English possessions; while the Scotch clergy acknowledged the supremacy of the Archbishop of York. In the following year the young Henry left his French patron and reconciled himself completely with his father.
This outbreak may be regarded as a consequence of Henry’s defeat in his dispute with Becket. The King had shown how little that defeat had weakened his real power in temporal matters. His appointments to the vacant bishoprics, which were a necessary consequence of the termination of that quarrel, prove how little he had really lost even in influence. Of the six bishoprics which were filled up, three were given to avowed partisans of the King. Winchester fell to Richard of Ilchester; Ely, to Godfrey Ridel, Becket’s great opponent; and Lincoln to Geoffrey Plantagenet; while, shortly after, the Bishopric of Norwich was given to John of Oxford, who had been Henry’s chief agent throughout the Becket difficulty. Such disputes as still existed in the Church ceased to have political meaning, and assumed the form of quarrels between the monks and the secular clergy. It was thus that Richard, the Prior of Dover, a man in the royal interests, was elected to succeed Becket after a lengthened dispute between the monks of the Holy Trinity at Canterbury, who claimed the right of election, and the other bishops of the province. Henry’s influence was naturally employed in favour of the episcopal candidate, but he contrived to confine the dispute within the limits of the ecclesiastical body.