Geoffrey de Mandeville: A study of the Anarchy

by John Horace Round

CONTENTS

Page
CHAPTER I.
The Accession of Stephen		[1]
CHAPTER II.
The First Charter of the King		[37]
CHAPTER III.
Triumph of the Empress		[55]
CHAPTER IV.
The First Charter of the Empress		[81]
CHAPTER V.
The Lost Charter of the Queen		[114]
CHAPTER VI.
The Rout of Winchester		[123]
CHAPTER VII.
The Second Charter of the King		[136]
CHAPTER VIII.
The Second Charter of the Empress		[163]
CHAPTER IX.
Fall and Death of Geoffrey		[201]
CHAPTER X.
The Earldom of Essex		[227]
APPENDICES.
A.	Stephen's Treaty with the Londoners	[247]
B.	The Appeal to Rome in 1136	[250]
C.	The Easter Court of 1136	[262]
D.	The "Fiscal" Earls	[267]
E.	The Arrival of the Empress	[278]
F.	The Defection of Miles of Gloucester	[284]
G.	Charter of the Empress to Roger de Valoines	[286]
H.	The "Tertius Denarius"	[287]
I.	"Vicecomites" and "Custodes"	[297]
J.	The Great Seal of the Empress	[299]
K.	Gervase de Cornhill	[304]
L.	Charter of the Empress to William de Beauchamp	[313]
M.	The Earldom of Arundel	[316]
N.	Robert de Vere	[326]
O.	"Tower" and "Castle"	[328]
P.	The Early Administration of London	[347]
Q.	Osbertus Octodenarii	[374]
R.	The Forest of Essex	[376]
S.	The Treaty of Alliance between the Earls of Hereford and Gloucester	[379]
T.	"Affidatio in manu"	[384]
U.	The Families of Mandeville and De Vere	[388]
V.	William of Arques	[397]
X.	Roger "de Ramis"	[399]
Y.	The First and Second Visits of Henry II. to England	[405]
Z.	Bishop Nigel at Rome	[411]
AA.	"Tenserie"	[414]
BB.	The Empress's Charter to Geoffrey Ridel	[417]
EXCURSUS.
The Creation of the Earldom of Gloucester		[420]
ADDENDA		[437]
INDEX		[441]

CHAPTER I.
THE ACCESSION OF STEPHEN.

Before approaching that struggle between King Stephen and his rival, the Empress Maud, with which this work is mainly concerned, it is desirable to examine the peculiar conditions of Stephen's accession to the crown, determining, as they did, his position as king, and supplying, we shall find, the master-key to the anomalous character of his reign.

The actual facts of the case are happily beyond question. From the moment of his uncle's death, as Dr. Stubbs truly observes, "the succession was treated as an open question."[3] Stephen, quick to see his chance, made a bold stroke for the crown. The wind was in his favour, and, with a handful of comrades, he landed on the shores of Kent.[4] His first reception was not encouraging: Dover refused him admission, and Canterbury closed her gates.[5] On this Dr. Stubbs thus comments:—

"At Dover and at Canterbury he was received with sullen silence. The men of Kent had no love for the stranger who came, as his predecessor Eustace had done, to trouble the land."[6]

But "the men of Kent" were faithful to Stephen, when all others forsook him, and, remembering this, one would hardly expect to find in them his chief opponents. Nor, indeed, were they. Our great historian, when he wrote thus, must, I venture to think, have overlooked the passage in Ordericus (v. 110), from which we learn, incidentally, that Canterbury and Dover were among those fortresses which the Earl of Gloucester held by his father's gift.[7] It is, therefore, not surprising that Stephen should have met with this reception at the hands of the lieutenants of his arch-rival. It might, indeed, be thought that the prescient king had of set purpose placed these keys of the road to London in the hands of one whom he could trust to uphold his cherished scheme.[8]

Stephen, undiscouraged by these incidents, pushed on rapidly to London. The news of his approach had gone before him, and the citizens flocked to meet him. By them, as is well known, he was promptly chosen to be king, on the plea that a king was needed to fill the vacant throne, and that the right to elect one was specially vested in themselves.[9] The point, however, that I would here insist on, for it seems to have been scarcely noticed, is that this election appears to have been essentially conditional, and to have been preceded by an agreement with the citizens.[10] The bearing of this will be shown below.

There is another noteworthy point which would seem to have escaped observation. It is distinctly implied by William of Malmesbury that the primate, seizing his opportunity, on Stephen's appearance in London, had extorted from him, as a preliminary to his recognition, as Maurice had done from Henry at his coronation, and as Henry of Winchester was, later, to do in the case of the Empress, an oath to restore the Church her "liberty," a phrase of which the meaning is well known. Stephen, he adds, on reaching Winchester, was released from this oath by his brother, who himself "went bail" (made himself responsible) for Stephen's satisfactory behaviour to the Church.[11] It is, surely, to this incident that Henry so pointedly alludes in his speech at the election of the Empress.[12] It can only, I think, be explained on the hypothesis that Stephen chafed beneath the oath he had taken, and begged his brother to set him free. If so, the attempt was vain, for he had, we shall find, to bind himself anew on the occasion of his Oxford charter.[13]

At Winchester the citizens, headed by their bishop, came forth from the city to greet him, but this reception must not be confused (as it is by Mr. Freeman) with his election by the citizens of London.[14] His brother, needless to say, met him with an eager welcome, and the main object of his visit was attained when William de Pont de l'Arche, who had shrunk, till his arrival, from embracing his cause, now, in concert with the head of the administration, Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, placed at his disposal the royal castle, with the treasury and all that it contained.[15]

Thus strengthened, he returned to London for coronation at the hands of the primate. Dr. Stubbs observes that "he returned to London for formal election and coronation."[16] His authority for that statement is Gervase (i. 94), who certainly asserts it distinctly.[17] But it will be found that he, who was not a contemporary, is the only authority for this second election, and, moreover, that he ignores the first, as well as the visit to Winchester, thus mixing up the two episodes, between which that visit intervened. Of course this opens the wider question as to whether the actual election, in such cases, took place at the coronation itself or on a previous occasion. This may, perhaps, be a matter of opinion; but in the preceding instance, that of Henry I., the election was admittedly that which took place at Winchester, and was previous to and unconnected with the actual coronation itself.[18] From this point of view, the presentation of the king to the people at his coronation would assume the aspect of a ratification of the election previously conducted. The point is here chiefly of importance as affecting the validity of Stephen's election. If his only election was that which the citizens of London conducted, it was, to say the least, "informally transacted."[19] Nor was the attendance of magnates at the ceremony such as to improve its character. It was, as Dr. Stubbs truly says, "but a poor substitute for the great councils which had attended the summons of William and Henry."[20] The chroniclers are here unsatisfactory. Henry of Huntingdon is rhetorical and vague; John of Hexham leaves us little wiser;[21] the Continuator of Florence indeed states that Stephen, when crowned, kept his Christmas court "cum totius Angliæ primoribus" (p. 95), but even the author of the Gesta implies that the primate's scruples were largely due to the paucity of magnates present.[22] William of Malmesbury alone is precise,[23] possibly because an adversary of Stephen could alone afford to be so, and his testimony, we shall find, is singularly confirmed by independent charter evidence (p. 11).

It was at this stage that an attempt was made to dispel the scruples caused by Stephen's breach of his oath to the late king. The hint, in the Gesta, that Henry, on his deathbed, had repented of his act in extorting that oath,[24] is amplified by Gervase into a story that he had released his barons from its bond,[25] while Ralph "de Diceto" represents the assertion as nothing less than that the late king had actually disinherited the Empress, and made Stephen his heir in her stead.[26] It should be noticed that these last two writers, in their statement that this story was proved by Hugh Bigod on oath, are confirmed by the independent evidence of the Historia Pontificalis.[27]

The importance of securing, as quickly as possible, the performance of the ceremony of coronation is well brought out by the author of the Gesta in the arguments of Stephen's friends when combating the primate's scruples. They urged that it would ipso facto put an end to all question as to the validity of his election.[28] The advantage, in short, of "snatching" a coronation was that, in the language of modern diplomacy, of securing a fait accompli. Election was a matter of opinion; coronation a matter of fact. Or, to employ another expression, it was the "outward and visible sign" that a king had begun his reign. Its important bearing is well seen in the case of the Conqueror himself. Dr. Stubbs observes, with his usual judgment, that "the ceremony was understood as bestowing the divine ratification on the election that had preceded it."[29] Now, the fact that the performance of this essential ceremony was, of course, wholly in the hands of the Church, in whose power, therefore, it always was to perform or to withhold it at its pleasure, appears to me to have naturally led to the growing assumption that we now meet with, the claim, based on a confusion of the ceremony with the actual election itself, that it was for the Church to elect the king. This claim, which in the case of Stephen (1136) seems to have been only inchoate,[30] appears at the time of his capture (1141) in a fully developed form,[31] the circumstances of the time having enabled the Church to increase its power in the State with perhaps unexampled rapidity.

May it not have been this development, together with his own experience, that led Stephen to press for the coronation of his son Eustace in his lifetime (1152)? In this attempted innovation he was, indeed, defeated by the Church, but the lesson was not lost. Henry I., unlike his contemporaries, had never taken this precaution, and Henry II., warned by his example, succeeded in obtaining the coronation of his heir (1170) in the teeth of Becket's endeavours to forbid the act, and so to uphold the veto of the Church.

Prevailed upon, at length, to perform the ceremony, the primate seized the opportunity of extorting from the eager king (besides a charter of liberties) a renewal of his former oath to protect the rights of the Church. The oath which Henry had sworn at his coronation, and which Maud had to swear at her election, Stephen had to swear, it seems, at both, though not till the Oxford charter was it committed, in his case, to writing.[32]

We now approach an episode unknown to all our historians.[33]

The Empress, on her side, had not been idle; she had despatched an envoy to the papal court, in the person of the Bishop of Angers, to appeal her rival of (1) defrauding her of her right, and (2) breach of his solemn oath. Had this been known to Mr. Freeman, he would, it is safe to assert, have been fascinated by the really singular coincidence between the circumstances of 1136 and of 1066. In each case, of the rivals for the throne, the one based his pretensions on (1) kinship, fortified by (2) an oath to secure his succession, which had been taken by his opponent himself; while the other rested his claims on election duly followed by coronation. In each case the election was fairly open to question; in Harold's, because (pace Mr. Freeman) he was not a legitimate candidate; in Stephen's, because, though a qualified candidate, his election had been most informal. In each case the ousted claimant appealed to the papal court, and, in each case, on the same grounds, viz. (1) the kinship, (2) the broken oath. In each case the successful party was opposed by a particular cardinal, a fact which we learn, in each case, from later and incidental mention. And in each case that cardinal became, afterwards, pope. But here the parallel ends. Stephen accepted, where Harold had (so far as we know) rejected, the jurisdiction of the Court of Rome. We may assign this difference to the closer connection between Rome and England in Stephen's day, or we may see in it proof that Stephen was the more politic of the two. For his action was justified by its success. There has been, on this point, no small misconception. Harold has been praised for possessing, and Stephen blamed for lacking, a sense of his kingly dignity. But læsio fidei was essentially a matter for courts Christian, and thus for the highest of them all, at Rome. Again, inheritance, so far as inheritance affected the question, was brought in many ways within the purview of the courts Christian, as, for instance, in the case of the alleged illegitimacy of Maud. Moreover, in 1136, the pope, though circumstances played into his hands, advanced no such pretension as his successor in the days of John. His attitude was not that of an overlord to a dependent fief: he made no claim to dispose of the realm of England. Sitting as judge in a spiritual court, he listened to the charges brought by Maud against Stephen in his personal capacity, and, without formally acquitting him, declined to pronounce him guilty.

Though the king was pleased to describe the papal letter which followed as a "confirmation" of his right to the throne, it was, strictly, nothing of the kind. It was simply, in the language of modern diplomacy, his "recognition" by the pope as king. If Ferdinand, elected Prince of Bulgaria, were to be recognized as such by a foreign power, that action would neither alter his status relatively to any other power, nor would it imply the least claim to dispose of the Bulgarian crown. Or, again, to take a mediæval illustration, the recognition as pope by an English king of one of two rival claimants for the papacy would neither affect any other king, nor constitute a claim to dispose of the papal tiara. Stephen, however, was naturally eager to make the most of the papal action, especially when he found in his oath to the Empress the most formidable obstacle to his acceptance. The sanction of the Church would silence the reproach that he was occupying the throne as a perjured man. Hence the clause in his Oxford charter. To the advantage which this letter gave him Stephen shrewdly clung, and when Geoffrey summoned him, in later years, "to an investigation of his claims before the papal court," he promptly retorted that Rome had already heard the case.[34] He turned, in fact, the tables on his appellant by calling on Geoffrey to justify his occupation of the Duchy and of the Western counties in the teeth of the papal confirmation of his own right to the throne.

We now pass from Westminster to Reading, whither, after Christmas, Stephen proceeded, to attend his uncle's funeral.[35] The corpse, says the Continuator, was attended "non modica stipatus nobilium catervâ." The meeting of Stephen with these nobles is an episode of considerable importance. "It is probable," says Dr. Stubbs, "that it furnished an opportunity of obtaining some vague promises from Stephen."[36] But the learned writer here alludes to the subsequent promises at Oxford. What I am concerned with is the meeting at Reading. I proceed, therefore, to quote in extenso a charter which must have passed on this occasion, and which, this being so, is of great value and interest.[37]

Carta Stephani regis Angliæ facta Miloni Gloec' de honore Gloecestr' et Brekon'.

S. rex Angl. Archiepĩs Epĩs Abbatibus. Com̃. Baroñ. vic. præpositis, Ministris et omnibus fidelibus suis Francis et Anglicis totius Angliæ et Walliæ Saɫ. sciatis me reddidisse et concessisse Miloni Gloecestriæ et hæredibus suis post eum in feoᵭ et hæreditate totum honorem suum de Gloec', et de Brechenion, et omnes terras suas et tenaturas suas in vicecomitatibus et aliis rebus, sicut eas tenuit die quâ rex Henricus fuit vivus et mortuus. Quare volo et præcipio quod bene et honorifice et libere teneat in bosco et plano et pratis et pasturis et aquis et mariscis, in molendinis et piscariis, cum Thol et Theam et infangenetheof, et cum omnibus aliis libertatibus et consuetudinibus quibus unqũ melius et liberius tenuit tempore regis Henrici. Et sciatis q̃m ego ut dñs et Rex, convencionavi ei sicut Baroni et Justiciario meo quod eum in placitum non ponero quamdiu vixero de aliquâ tenatura ꝗ̃ tenuisset die quâ Rex Henricus fuit vivus et mortuus, neq' hæredem suum. T. Arch. Cantuar. et Epõ Wintoñ. et Epõ Sar'. et H. Big̃ et Roᵬ filio Ricardi et Ing̃ de Sai. et W. de Pont̃ et P. filio Joħ. Apud Rading̃.

Sub magno sigillo suo.

The reflections suggested by this charter are many and most instructive. Firstly, we have here the most emphatic corroboration of the evidence of William of Malmesbury. The four first witnesses comprise the three bishops who, according to him, conducted Stephen's coronation, together with the notorious Hugh Bigod, to whose timely assurance that coronation was so largely due. The four others are Robert fitz Richard, whom we shall find present at the Easter court, attesting a charter as a royal chamberlain; Enguerrand de Sai, the lord of Clun, who had probably come with Payne fitz John; William de Pont de l'Arche, whom we met at Winchester; and Payne fitz John. The impression conveyed by this charter is certainly that Stephen had as yet been joined by few of the magnates, and had still to be content with the handful by whom his coronation had been attended.

An important addition is, however, represented by the grantee, Miles of Gloucester, and the witness Payne fitz John. The former was a man of great power, both of himself and from his connection with the Earl of Gloucester, in the west of England and in Wales. The latter is represented by the author of the Gesta as acting with him at this juncture.[38] It should, however, be noted, as important in its bearing on the chronology of this able writer, that he places the adhesion of these two barons (p. 15) considerably after that of the Earl of Gloucester (p. 8), whereas the case was precisely the contrary, the earl not submitting to Stephen till some time later on. Both these magnates appear in attendance at Stephen's Easter court (vide infra), and again as witnesses to his Oxford charter. The part, however, in the coming struggle which Miles of Gloucester was destined to play, was such that it is most important to learn the circumstances and the date of his adhesion to the king. His companion, Payne fitz John, was slain, fighting the Welsh, in the spring of the following year.[39]

It is a singular fact that, in addition to the charter I have here given, another charter was granted to Miles of Gloucester by the king, which, being similarly tested at Reading, probably passed on this occasion. The subject of the grant is the same, but the terms are more precise, the constableship of Gloucester Castle, with the hereditary estates of his house, being specially mentioned.[40] Though both these charters were entered in the Great Coucher (in the volume now missing), the latter alone is referred to by Dugdale, from whose transcript it has been printed by Madox.[41] Though the names of the witnesses are there omitted, those of the six leading witnesses are supplied by an abstract which is elsewhere found. Three of these are among those who attest the other charter—Robert fitz Richard, Hugh Bigod, and Enguerrand de Sai; but the other three names are new, being Robert de Ferrers, afterwards Earl of Derby, Baldwin de Clare, the spokesman of Stephen's host at Lincoln (see p. 148), and (Walter) fitz Richard, who afterwards appears in attendance at the Easter court.[42] These three barons should therefore be added to the list of those who were at Reading with the king.[43]

Possibly, however, the most instructive feature to be found in each charter is the striking illustration it affords of the method by which Stephen procured the adhesion of the turbulent and ambitious magnates. It is not so much a grant from a king to a subject as a convencio between equal powers. But especially would I invite attention to the words "ut dominus et Rex."[44] I see in them at once the symbol and the outcome of "the Norman idea of royalty." In his learned and masterly analysis of this subject, a passage which cannot be too closely studied, Dr. Stubbs shows us, with felicitous clearness, the twin factors of Norman kinghood, its royal and its feudal aspects.[45] Surely in the expression "dominus et Rex" (alias "Rex et dominus") we have in actual words the exponent of this double character.[46] And, more than this, we have here the needful and striking parallel which will illustrate and illumine the action of the Empress, so strangely overlooked or misunderstood, when she ordered herself, at Winchester, to be proclaimed "Domina et Regina."

Henry of Huntingdon asserts distinctly that from Reading Stephen passed to Oxford, and that he there renewed the pledges he had made on his coronation-day.[47] That, on leaving Reading, he moved to Oxford, though the fact is mentioned by no other chronicler, would seem to be placed beyond question by Henry's repeated assertion.[48] But the difficulty is that Henry specifies what these pledges were, and that the version he gives cannot be reconciled either with the king's "coronation charter" or with what is known as his "second charter," granted at Oxford later in the year. Dr. Stubbs, with the caution of a true scholar, though he thinks it "probable," in his great work, that Stephen, upon this occasion, made "some vague promises," yet adds, of those recorded by Henry—

"Whether these promises were embodied in a charter is uncertain: if they were, the charter is lost; it is, however, more probable that the story is a popular version of the document which was actually issued by the king, at Oxford, later in the year 1136."[49]

In his later work he seems inclined to place more credence in Henry's story.

"After the funeral, at Oxford or somewhere in the neighbourhood, he arranged terms with them; terms by which he endeavoured, amplifying the words of his charter, to catch the good will of each class of his subjects.... The promises were, perhaps, not insincere at the time; anyhow, they had the desired effect, and united the nation for the moment."[50]

It will be seen that the point is a most perplexing one, and can scarcely at present be settled with certainty. But there is one point beyond dispute, namely, that the so-called "second charter" was issued later in the year, after the king's return from the north. Mr. Freeman, therefore, has not merely failed to grasp the question at issue, but has also strangely contradicted himself when he confidently assigns this "second charter" to the king's first visit to Oxford, and refers us, in doing so, to another page, in which it is as unhesitatingly assigned to his other and later visit after his return from the north.[51] If I call attention to this error, it is because I venture to think it one to which this writer is too often liable, and against which, therefore, his readers should be placed upon their guard.[52]

It was at Oxford, in January,[53] that Stephen heard of David's advance into England. With creditable rapidity he assembled an army and hastened to the north to meet him. He encountered him at Durham on the 5th of February (the day after Ash Wednesday), and effected a peaceable agreement. He then retraced his steps, after a stay of about a fortnight,[54] and returned to keep his Easter (March 22) at Westminster. I wish to invite special attention to this Easter court, because it was in many ways of great importance, although historians have almost ignored its existence. Combining the evidence of charters with that which the chroniclers afford, we can learn not a little about it, and see how notable an event it must have seemed at the time it was held. We should observe, in the first place, that this was no mere "curia de more": it was emphatically a great or national council. The author of the Gesta describes it thus:—

"Omnibus igitur summatibus regni, fide et jurejurando cum rege constrictis, edicto per Angliam promulgato, summos ecclesiarum ductores cum primis populi ad concilium Londonias conscivit. Illis quoque quasi in unam sentinam illuc confluentibus ecclesiarumque columnis sedendi ordine dispositis, vulgo etiam confuse et permixtim,[55] ut solet, ubique se ingerente, plura regno et ecclesiæ profutura fuerunt et utiliter ostensa et salubriter pertractata."[56]

We have clearly in this great council, held on the first court day (Easter) after the king's coronation, a revival of the splendours of former reigns, so sorely dimmed beneath the rule of his bereaved and parsimonious uncle.[57]

Henry of Huntingdon has a glowing description of this Easter court,[58] which reminds one of William of Malmesbury's pictures of the Conqueror in his glory.[59] When, therefore, Dr. Stubbs tells us that this custom of the Conqueror "was restored by Henry II." (Const. Hist., i. 370), he ignores this brilliant revival at the outset of Stephen's reign. Stephen, coming into possession of his predecessor's hoarded treasure, was as eager to plunge into costly pomp as was Henry VIII. on the death of his mean and grasping sire. There were also more solid reasons for this dazzling assembly. It was desirable for the king to show himself to his new subjects in his capital, surrounded not only by the evidence of wealth, but by that of his national acceptance. The presence at his court of the magnates from all parts of the realm was a fact which would speak for itself, and to secure which he had clearly resolved that no pains should be spared.[60]

If the small group who attended his coronation had indeed been "but a poor substitute for the great councils which had attended the summons of William and Henry," he was resolved that this should be forgotten in the splendour of his Easter court.

This view is strikingly confirmed by the lists of witnesses to two charters which must have passed on this occasion. The one is a grant to the see of Winchester of the manor of Sutton, in Hampshire, in exchange for Morden, in Surrey. The other is a grant of the bishopric of Bath to Robert of Lewes. The former is dated "Apud Westmonasterium in presentia et audientia subscriptorum anno incarnationis dominicæ, 1136," etc.; the latter, "Apud Westmonasterium in generalis concilii celebratione et Paschalis festi solemnitate." At first sight, I confess, both charters have a rather spurious appearance. Their stilted style awakes suspicion, which is not lessened by the dating clauses or the extraordinary number of witnesses. Coming, however, from independent sources, and dealing with two unconnected subjects, they mutually confirm one another. We have, moreover, still extant the charter by which Henry II. confirmed the former of the two, and as this is among the duchy of Lancaster records, we have every reason to believe that the original charter itself was, as both its transcribers assert, among them also. Again, as to the lists of witnesses. Abnormally long though these may seem, we must remember that in the charters of Henry I., especially towards the close of his reign, there was a tendency to increase the number of witnesses. Moreover, in the Oxford charter, by which these were immediately followed, we have a long list of witnesses (thirty-seven), and, which is noteworthy, it is similarly arranged on a principle of classification, the court officers being grouped together. I have, therefore, given in an appendix, for the purpose of comparison, all three lists.[61] If we analyze those appended to the two London charters, we find their authenticity confirmed by the fact that, while the Earl of Gloucester, who was abroad at the time, is conspicuously absent from the list, Henry, son of the King of Scots, duly appears among the attesting earls, and we are specially told by John of Hexham that he was present at this Easter court.[62] Miles of Gloucester and Brian fitz Count also figure together among the witnesses—a fact, from their position, of some importance.[63] It is, too, of interest for our purpose, to note that among them is Geoffrey de Mandeville. The extraordinary number of witnesses to these charters (no less than fifty-five in one case, excluding the king and queen, and thirty-six in the other) is not only of great value as giving us the personnel of this brilliant court, but is also, when compared with the Oxford charter, suggestive perhaps of a desire, by the king, to place on record the names of those whom he had induced to attend his courts and so to recognize his claims. Mr. Pym Yeatman more than once, in his strange History of the House of Arundel, quotes the charter to Winchester as from a transcript "among the valuable collection of MSS. belonging to the Earl of Egmont" (p. 49). It may, therefore, be of benefit to students to remind them that it is printed in Hearne's Liber Niger (ii. 808, 809). Mr. Yeatman, moreover, observes of this charter—

"It contains the names of no less than thirty-four noblemen of the highest rank (excluding only the Earl of Gloucester), but not a single ecclesiastical witness attests the grant, which is perhaps not remarkable, since it was a dangerous precedent to deal in such a matter with Church property, perhaps a new precedent created by Stephen" (p. 286).

To other students it will appear "perhaps not remarkable" that the charter is witnessed by the unusual number of no less than three archbishops and thirteen bishops.[64]

Now, although this was a national council, the state and position of the Church was the chief subject of discussion. The author of the Gesta, who appears to have been well informed on the subject, shows us the prelates appealing to Stephen to relieve the Church from the intolerable oppression which she had suffered, under the form of law, at the hands of Henry I. Stephen, bland, for the time, to all, and more especially to the powerful Church, listened graciously to their prayers, and promised all they asked.[65] In the grimly jocose language of the day, the keys of the Church, which had been held by Simon (Magus), were henceforth to be restored to Peter. To this I trace a distinct allusion in the curious phrase which meets us in the Bath charter. Stephen grants the bishopric of Bath "canonica prius electione præcedente." This recognition of the Church's right, with the public record of the fact, confirms the account of his attitude on this occasion to the Church. The whole charter contrasts strangely with that by which, fifteen years before, his predecessor had granted the bishopric of Hereford, and its reference to the counsel and consent of the magnates betrays the weakness of his position.

This council took place, as I have said, at London and during Easter. But there is some confusion on the subject. Mr. Howlett, in his excellent edition of the Gesta, assigns it, in footnotes (pp. 17, 18), to "early in April." But his argument that, as that must have been (as it was) the date of the (Oxford) charter, it was consequently that of the (London) council, confuses two distinct events. In this he does but follow the Gesta, which similarly runs into one the two consecutive events. Richard of Hexham also, followed by John of Hexham,[66] combines in one the council at London with the charter issued at Oxford, besides placing them both, wrongly, far too late in the year.

Here are the passages in point taken from both writers:—

Richard of Hexham.	John of Hexham.
Eodem quoque anno Innocentius Romanæ sedis Apostolicus, Stephano regi Angliæ litteras suas transmisit, quibus eum Apostolica auctoritate in regno Angliæ confirmavit.... Igitur Stephanus his et aliis modis in regno Angliæ confirmatus, episcopos et proceres sui regni regali edicto in unum convenire præcepit; cum quibus hoc generale concilium celebravit.	Eodem anno Innocentius papa litteris ab Apostolica sede directis eundem regem Stephanum in negotiis regni confirmavit. Harum tenore litterarum rex instructus, generali convocato concilio bonas et antiquas leges, et justos consuetudines præcepit conservari, injustitias vero cassari.

The point to keep clearly in mind is that the Earl of Gloucester was not present at the Easter court in London, and that, landing subsequently, he was present when the charter of liberties was granted at Oxford. So short an interval of time elapsed that there cannot have been two councils. There was, I believe, one council which adjourned from London to Oxford, and which did so on purpose to meet the virtual head of the opposition, the powerful Earl of Gloucester. It must have been the waiting for his arrival at court which postponed the issue of the charter, and it is not wonderful that, under these circumstances, the chroniclers should have made of the whole but one transaction.

The earl, on his arrival, did homage, with the very important and significant reservation that his loyalty would be strictly conditional on Stephen's behaviour to himself.[67]

His example in this respect was followed by the bishops, for we read in the chronicler, immediately afterwards:

"Eodem anno, non multo post adventum comitis, juraverunt episcopi fidelitatem regi quamdiu ille libertatem ecclesiæ et vigorem disciplinæ conservaret."[68]

By this writer the incident in question is recorded in connection with the Oxford charter. In this he must be correct, if it was subsequent to the earl's homage, for this latter itself, we see, must have been subsequent to Easter.

Probably the council at London was the preliminary to that treaty (convencio) between the king and the bishops, at which William of Malmesbury so plainly hints, and of which the Oxford charter is virtually the exponent record. For this, I take it, is the point to be steadily kept in view, namely, that the terms of such a charter as this are the resultant of two opposing forces—the one, the desire to extort from the king the utmost possible concession; the other, his desire to extort homage at the lowest price he could. Taken in connection with the presence at Oxford of his arch-opponent, the Earl of Gloucester, this view, I would venture to urge, may lead us to the conclusion that this extended version of his meagre "coronation charter" represents his final and definite acceptance, by the magnates of England, as their king.

It may be noticed, incidentally, as illustrative of the chronicle-value of charters, that not a single chronicler records this eventful assembly at Oxford. Our knowledge of it is derived wholly and solely from the testing clause of the charter itself—"Apud Oxeneford, anno ab incarnatione Domini MCXXXVI." Attention should also, perhaps, be drawn to this repeated visit to Oxford, and to the selection of that spot for this assembly. For this its central position may, doubtless, partly account, especially if the Earl of Gloucester was loth to come further east. But it also, we must remember, represented for Stephen, as it were, a post of observation, commanding, in Bristol and Gloucester, the two strongholds of the opposition. So, conversely, it represented to the Empress an advanced post resting on their base.

Lastly, I think it perfectly possible to fix pretty closely the date of this assembly and charter. Easter falling on the 22nd of March, neither the king nor the Earl of Gloucester would have reached Oxford till the end of March or, perhaps, the beginning of April. But as early as Rogation-tide (April 26-29) it was rumoured that the king was dead, and Hugh Bigod, who, as a royal dapifer, had been among the witnesses to this Oxford charter, burst into revolt at once.[69] Then followed the suppression of the rebellion, and the king's breach of the charter.[70] It would seem, therefore, to be beyond question that this assembly took place early in April (1136).

I have gone thus closely into these details in order to bring out as clearly as possible the process, culminating in the Oxford charter, by which the succession of Stephen was gradually and, above all, conditionally secured.

Stephen, as a king, was an admitted failure. I cannot, however, but view with suspicion the causes assigned to his failure by often unfriendly chroniclers. That their criticisms had some foundation it would not be possible to deny. But in the first place, had he enjoyed better fortune, we should have heard less of his incapacity, and in the second, these writers, not enjoying the same standpoint as ourselves, were, I think, somewhat inclined to mistake effects for causes. Stephen, for instance, has been severely blamed, mainly on the authority of Henry of Huntingdon,[71] for not punishing more severely the rebels who held Exeter against him in 1136. Surely, in doing so, his critics must forget the parallel cases of both his predecessors. William Rufus at the siege of Rochester (1088), Henry I. at the siege of Bridgnorth (1102), should both be remembered when dealing with Stephen at the siege of Exeter. In both these cases, the people had clamoured for condign punishment on the traitors; in both, the king, who had conquered by their help, was held back by the jealousy of his barons, from punishing their fellows as they deserved. We learn from the author of the Gesta that the same was the case at Exeter. The king's barons again intervened to save those who had rebelled from ruin, and at the same time to prevent the king from securing too signal a triumph.

This brings us to the true source of his weakness throughout his reign. That weakness was due to two causes, each supplementing the other. These were—(1) the essentially unsatisfactory character of his position, as resting, virtually, on a compact that he should be king so long only as he gave satisfaction to those who had placed him on the throne; (2) the existence of a rival claim, hanging over him from the first, like the sword of Damocles, and affording a lever by which the malcontents could compel him to adhere to the original understanding, or even to submit to further demands.

Let us glance at them both in succession.

Stephen himself describes his title in the opening clause of his Oxford charter:—

"Ego Stephanus Dei gratia assensu cleri et populi in regem Anglorum electus, et a Willelmo Cantuariensi archiepiscopo et sanctæ Romanæ ecclesiæ legato consecra tus, et ab Innocentio sanctæ Romanæ sedis pontifice confirmatus."[72]

On this clause Dr. Stubbs observes:—

"His rehearsal of his title is curious and important; it is worth while to compare it with that of Henry I., but it need not necessarily be interpreted as showing a consciousness of weakness."[73]

Referring to the charter of Henry I., we find the clause phrased thus:—

"Henricus filius Willelmi Regis post obitum fratris sui Willelmi, Dei gratia rex Anglorum."[74]

Surely the point to strike us here is that the clause in Stephen's charter contains just that which is omitted in Henry's, and omits just that which is contained in Henry's. Henry puts forward his relationship to his father and his brother as the sole explanation of his position as king. Stephen omits all mention of his relationship. Conversely, the election, etc., set forth by Stephen, finds no place in the charter of Henry. What can be more significant than this contrast? Again, the formula in Stephen's charter should be compared not only with that of Henry, but with that of his daughter the Empress. As the father had styled himself "Henricus filius Willelmi Regis," so his daughter invariably styled herself "Matildis ... Henrici regis [or regis Henrici] filia;" and so her son, in his time, is styled (1142), as we shall find in a charter quoted in this work, "Henricus filius filiæ regis Henrici." To the importance of this fact I shall recur below. Meanwhile, the point to bear in mind is, that Stephen's style contains no allusion to his parentage, though, strangely enough, in a charter which must have passed in the first year of his reign, he does adopt the curious style of "Ego Stephanus Willelmi Anglorum primi Regis nepos," etc.,[75] in which he hints, contrary to his practice, at a quasi-hereditary right.

Returning, however, to his Oxford charter, in which he did not venture to allude to such claim, we find him appealing (a) to his election, which, as we have seen, was informal enough; (b) to his anointing by the primate; (c) to his "confirmation" by the pope. It is impossible to read such a formula as this in any other light than that of an attempt to "make up a title" under difficulties. I do not know that it has ever been suggested, though the hypothesis would seem highly probable, that the stress laid by Stephen upon the ecclesiastical sanction to his succession may have been largely due, as I have said (p. 10), to the obstacle presented by the oath that had been sworn to the Empress. Of breaking that oath the Church, he held, had pronounced him not guilty.

Yet it is not so much on this significant style, as on the drift of the charter itself, that I depend for support of my thesis that Stephen was virtually king on sufferance, or, to anticipate a phrase of later times, "Quamdiu se bene gesserit." We have seen how in the four typical cases, (1) of the Londoners, (2) of Miles of Gloucester, (3) of Earl Robert, (4) of the bishops, Stephen had only secured their allegiance by submitting to that "original contract" which the political philosophers of a later age evolved from their inner consciousness. It was because his Oxford charter set the seal to this "contract" that Stephen, even then, chafed beneath its yoke, as evidenced by the striking saving clause—

"Hæc omnia concedo et confirmo salva regia et justa dignitate meâ."[76]

And, as we know, at the first opportunity, he hastened to break its bonds.[77]

The position of his opponents throughout his reign would seem to have rested on two assumptions. The first, that a breach, on his part, of the "contract" justified ipso facto revolt on theirs;[78] the second, that their allegiance to the king was a purely feudal relation, and, as such, could be thrown off at any moment by performing the famous diffidatio.[79]

This essential feature of continental feudalism had been rigidly excluded by the Conqueror. He had taken advantage, as is well known, of his position as an English king, to extort an allegiance from his Norman followers more absolute than he could have claimed as their feudal lord. It was to Stephen's peculiar position that was due the introduction for a time of this pernicious principle into England. We have seen it hinted at in that charter of Stephen in which he treats with Miles of Gloucester not merely as his king (rex), but also as his feudal lord (dominus). We shall find it acted on three years later (1139), when this same Miles, with his own dominus, the Earl of Gloucester, jointly "defy" Stephen before declaring for the Empress.[80]

Passing now to the other point, the existence of a rival claim, we approach a subject of great interest, the theory of the succession to the English Crown at what may be termed the crisis of transition from the principle of election (within the royal house) to that of hereditary right according to feudal rules.

For the right view on this subject, we turn, as ever, to Dr. Stubbs, who, with his usual sound judgment, writes thus of the Norman period:—

"The crown then continued to be elective.... But whilst the elective principle was maintained in its fulness where it was necessary or possible to maintain it, it is quite certain that the right of inheritance, and inheritance as primogeniture, was recognized as co-ordinate.... The measures taken by Henry I. for securing the crown to his own children, whilst they prove the acceptance of the hereditary principle, prove also the importance of strengthening it by the recognition of the elective theory.[81]

Mr. Freeman, though writing with a strong bias in favour of the elective theory, is fully justified in his main argument, namely, that Stephen "was no usurper in the sense in which the word is vulgarly used."[82] He urges, apparently with perfect truth, that Stephen's offence, in the eyes of his contemporaries, lay in his breaking his solemn oath, and not in his supplanting a rightful heir. And he aptly suggests that the wretchedness of his reign may have hastened the growth of that new belief in the divine right of the heir to the throne, which first appears under Henry II., and in the pages of William of Newburgh.[83]

So far as Stephen is concerned the case is clear enough. But we have also to consider the Empress. On what did she base her claim? I think that, as implied in Dr. Stubbs' words, she based it on a double, not a single, ground. She claimed the kingdom as King Henry's daughter ("regis Henrici filia"), but she claimed it further because the succession had been assured to her by oath ("sibi juratum") as such.[84] It is important to observe that the oath in question can in no way be regarded in the light of an election. To understand it aright, we must go back to the precisely similar oath which had been previously sworn to her brother. As early as 1116, the king, in evident anxiety to secure the succession to his heir, had called upon a gathering of the magnates "of all England," on the historic spot of Salisbury, to swear allegiance to his son (March 19).[85] It was with reference to this event that Eadmer described him at his death (November, 1120) as "Willelmum jam olim regni hæredem designatum" (p. 290). Before leaving Normandy in November, 1120, the king similarly secured the succession of the duchy to his son by compelling its barons to swear that they would be faithful to the youth.[86] On the destruction of his plans by his son's death, he hastened to marry again in the hope of securing, once more, a male heir. Despairing of this after some years, he took advantage of the Emperor's death to insist on his daughter's return, and brought her with him to England in the autumn of 1126. He was not long in taking steps to secure her recognition as his heir (subject however, as the Continuator and Symeon are both careful to point out, to no son being born to him), by the same oath being sworn to her as, in 1116, had been sworn to his son. It was taken, not (as is always stated) in 1126, but on the 1st of January, 1127.[87] Of what took place upon that occasion, there is, happily, full evidence.[88]

We have independent reports of the transaction from William of Malmesbury, Symeon of Durham, the Continuator of Florence, and Gervase of Canterbury.[89] From this last we learn (the fact is, therefore, doubtful) that the oath secured the succession, not only to the Empress, but to her heirs.[90] The Continuator's version is chiefly important as bringing out the action of the king in assigning the succession to his daughter, the oath being merely an undertaking to secure the arrangement he had made.[91] Symeon introduces the striking expression that the Empress was to succeed "hæreditario jure,"[92] but William of Malmesbury, in the speech which he places in the king's mouth, far outstrips this in his assertion of hereditary right:—

"præfatus quanto incommodo patriæ fortuna Willelmum filium suum sibi surripuisset, cui jure regnum competeret: nunc superesse filiam, cui soli legitima debeatur successio, ab avo, avunculo, et patre regibus; a materno genere multis retro seculis."[93]

Bearing in mind the time at which William wrote these words, it will be seen that the Empress and her partisans must have largely, to say the least, based their claim on her right to the throne as her father's heir, and that she and they appealed to the oath as the admission and recognition of that right, rather than as partaking in any way whatever of the character of a free election.[94] Thus her claim was neatly traversed by Stephen's advocates, at Rome, in 1136, when they urged that she was not her father's heir, and that, consequently, the oath which had been sworn to her as such ("sicut hæredi") was void.

It is, as I have said, in the above light that I view her unvarying use of the style "regis Henrici filia," and that this was the true character of her claim will be seen from the terms of a charter I shall quote, which has hitherto, it would seem, remained unknown, and in which she recites that, on arriving in England, she was promptly welcomed by Miles of Gloucester "sicut illam quam justam hæredem regni Angliæ recognovit."

The sex of the Empress was the drawback to her claim. Had her brother lived, there can be little question that he would, as a matter of course, have succeeded his father at his death. Or again, had Henry II. been old enough to succeed his grandfather, he would, we may be sure, have done so. But as to the Empress, even admitting the justice of her claim, it was by no means clear in whom it was vested. It might either be vested (a) in herself, in accordance with our modern notions; or (b) in her husband, in accordance with feudal ones;[95] or (c) in her son, as, in the event, it was. It may be said that this point was still undecided as late as 1142, when Geoffrey was invited to come to England, and decided to send his son instead, to represent the hereditary claim. The force of circumstances, however, as we shall find, had compelled the Empress, in the hour of her triumph (1141), to take her own course, and to claim the throne for herself as queen, though even this would not decide the point, as, had she succeeded, her husband, we may be sure, would have claimed the title of king.

Broadly speaking, to sum up the evidence here collected, it tends to the belief that the obsolescence of the right of election to the English crown presents considerable analogy to that of canonical election in the case of English bishoprics. In both cases a free election degenerated into a mere assent to a choice already made. We see the process of change already in full operation when Henry I. endeavours to extort beforehand from the magnates their assent to his daughter's succession, and when they subsequently complain of this attempt to dictate to them on the subject. We catch sight of it again when his daughter bases her claim to the crown, not on any free election, but on her rights as her father's heir, confirmed by the above assent. We see it, lastly, when Stephen, though owing his crown to election, claims to rule by Divine right ("Dei gratia"[96]), and attempts to reduce that election to nothing more than a national "assent" to his succession. Obviously, the whole question turned on whether the election was to be held first, or was to be a mere ratification of a choice already made. Thus, at the very time when Stephen was formulating his title, he was admitting, in the case of the bishopric of Bath, that the canonical election had preceded his own nomination of the bishop.[97] Yet it is easy to see how, as the Crown grew in strength, the elections, in both cases alike, would become, more and more, virtually matters of form, while a weak sovereign or a disputed succession would afford an opportunity for this historical survival, in the case at least of the throne, to recover for a moment its pristine strength.

Before quitting the point, I would venture briefly to resume my grounds for urging that, in comparing Stephen with his successor, the difference between their circumstances has been insufficiently allowed for. At Stephen's accession, thirty years of legal and financial oppression had rendered unpopular the power of the Crown, and had led to an impatience of official restraint which opened the path to a feudal reaction: at the accession of Henry, on the contrary, the evils of an enfeebled administration and of feudalism run mad had made all men eager for the advent of a strong king, and had prepared them to welcome the introduction of his centralizing administrative reforms. He anticipated the position of the house of Tudor at the close of the Wars of the Roses, and combined with it the advantages which Charles II. derived from the Puritan tyranny. Again, Stephen was hampered from the first by his weak position as a king on sufferance, whereas Henry came to his work unhampered by compact or concession. Lastly, Stephen was confronted throughout by a rival claimant, who formed a splendid rallying-point for all the discontent in his realm: but Henry reigned for as long as Stephen without a rival to trouble him; and when he found at length a rival in his own son, a claim far weaker than that which had threatened his predecessor seemed likely for a time to break his power as effectually as the followers of the Empress had broken that of Stephen. He may only, indeed, have owed his escape to that efficient administration which years of strength and safety had given him the time to construct.

It in no way follows from these considerations that Henry was not superior to Stephen; but it does, surely, suggest itself that Stephen's disadvantages were great, and that had he enjoyed better fortune, we might have heard less of his defects. It will be at least established by the evidence adduced in this work that some of the charges which are brought against him can no longer be maintained.

[3] Early Plantagenets, p. 13; Const Hist. (1874), i. 319.

[4] Gesta Stephani, p. 3.

[5] "A Dourensibus repulsus, et a Cantuarinis exclusus" (Gervase, i. 94). As illustrating the use of such adjectives for the garrison, rather than the townsfolk, compare Florence of Worcester's "Hrofenses Cantuariensibus ... cædes inferunt" (ii. 23), where the "Hrofenses" are Odo's garrison. So too "Bristoenses" in the Gesta (ed. Hewlett, pp. 38, 40, 41), though rendered by the editor "the people of Bristol," are clearly the troops of the Earl of Gloucester.

[6] Early Plantagenets, p. 14. Compare Const. Hist., i. 319: "The men of Kent, remembering the mischief that had constantly come to them from Boulogne, refused to receive him." Miss Norgate adopts the same explanation (England under the Angevin Kings, i. 277).

[7] There is a curious incidental allusion to the earl's Kentish possessions in William of Malmesbury, who states (p. 759) that he was allowed, while a prisoner at Rochester (October, 1141), to receive his rents from his Kentish tenants ("ab hominibus suis de Cantia"). Stephen, then, it would seem, did not forfeit them.

[8] In the rebellion of 1138 Walchelin Maminot, the earl's castellan, held Dover against Stephen, and was besieged by the Queen and by the men of Boulogne. Curiously enough, Mr. Freeman made a similar slip, now corrected, to that here discussed, when he wrote that "whatever might be the feelings of the rest of the shire, the men of Dover had no mind to see Count Eustace again within their walls" (Norm. Conq., iv. 116), though they were, on the contrary, quite as anxious as the rest of the shire to do so.

[9] "Id quoque sui esse juris, suique specialiter privilegii ut si rex ipsorum quoquo modo obiret, alius suo provisu in regno substituendus e vestigio succederet" (Gesta, p. 3). This audacious claim of the citizens to such right as vested in themselves is much stronger than Mr. Freeman's paraphrase when he speaks of "the citizens of London and Winchester [why Winchester?], who freely exercised their ancient right of sharing in the election of the king who should reign over them" (Norm. Conq., v. 251; cf. p. 856).

[10] "Firmatâ prius utrimque pactione, peractoque, ut vulgus asserebat, mutuo juramento, ut eum cives quoad viveret opibus sustentarent, viribus tutarentur; ipse autem, ad regnum pacificandum, ad omnium eorundem suffragium, toto sese conatu accingeret" (Gesta, p. 4). See Appendix A.

[11] "Spe scilicet captus amplissima quod Stephanus avi sui Willelmi in regni moderamine mores servaret, precipueque in ecclesiastici vigoris disciplinâ. Quapropter districto sacramento quod a Stephano Willelmus Cantuarensis archiepiscopus exegit de libertate reddenda ecclesiæ et conservanda, episcopus Wintoniensis se mediatorem et vadem apposuit. Cujus sacramenti tenorem, postea scripto inditum, loco suo non prætermittam" (p. 704). See Addenda.

[12] "Enimvero, quamvis ego vadem me apposuerim inter eum et Deum quod sanctam ecclesiam honoraret et exaltaret, et bonas leges manuteneret, malas vero abrogaret; piget meminisse, pudet narrare, qualem se in regno exhibuerit," etc. (ibid., p. 746).

[13] The phrase "districto Sacramento" is very difficult to construe. I have here taken it to imply a release of Stephen from his oath, but the meaning of the passage, which is obscure as it stands, may be merely that Henry became surety for Stephen's performance of the oath as in an agreement or treaty between two contracting parties (vide infra passim).

[14] Ante, p. 3.

[15] Gesta, 5, 6; Will. Malms., 703. Note that William Rufus, Henry I., and Stephen all of them visited and secured Winchester even before their coronation.

[16] Const. Hist., i. 319.

[17] "A cunctis fere in regem electus est, et sic a Willelmo Cantuarensi archiepiscopo coronatus."

[18] "The form of election was hastily gone through by the barons on the spot" (Const. Hist., i. 303).

[19] Select Charters, p. 108.

[20] Early Plantagenets, p. 14.

[21] "Consentientibus in ejus promotionem Willelmo Cantuarensi archiepiscopo et clericorum et laicorum universitate" (Sym. Dun., ii. 286, 287).

[22] "Sic profecto, sic congruit, ut ad eum in regno confirmandum omnes pariter convolent, parique consensu quid statuendum, quidve respuendum sit, ab omnibus provideatur" (pp. 6, 7). Eventually he represents the primate as acting "Cum episcopis frequentique, qui intererat, clericatu" (p. 8).

[23] "Tribus episcopis præsentibus, archiepiscopo, Wintoniensi, Salesbiriensi, nullis abbatibus, paucissimis optimatibus" (p. 704). See Addenda.

[24] "Supremo eum agitante mortis articulo, cum et plurimi astarent et veram suorum erratuum confessionem audirent, de jurejurando violenter baronibus suis injuncto apertissime pænituit."

[25] "Quidam ex potentissimis Angliæ, jurans et dicens se præsentem affuisse ubi rex Henricus idem juramentum in bona fide sponte relaxasset."

[26] "Hugo Bigod senescallus regis coram archiepiscopo Cantuariæ sacramento probavit quod, dum Rex Henricus ageret in extremis, ortis quibus inimicitiis inter ipsum et imperatricem, ipsam exhæredavit, et Stephanum Boloniæ comitem hæredem instituit."

[27] "Et hæc juramento comitis (sic) Hugonis et duorum militum probata esse dicebant in facie ecclesie Anglicane" (ed. Pertz, p. 543).

[28] "Cum regis (sic) fautores obnixe persuaderent quatinus eum ad regnandum inungeret, quodque imperfectum videbatur, administrationis suæ officio suppleret" (p. 6).

[29] Const. Hist., i. 146.

[30] See his Oxford Charter.

[31] See the legate's speech at Winchester: "Ventilata est hesterno die causa secreto coram majori parte cleri Angliæ, ad cujus jus potissimum spectat principem eligere, simulque ordinare" (Will. Malms., p. 746).

[32] Henry had sworn "in ipso suæ consecrationis die" (Eadmer), Stephen "in ipsa consecrationis tuæ die" (Innocent's letter). Henry of Huntingdon refers to the "pacta" which Stephen "Deo et populo et sanctæ ecclesiæ concesserat in die coronationis suæ." William of Malmesbury speaks of the oath as "postea [i.e. at Oxford] scripto inditum." See Addenda.

[33] See Appendix B: "The Appeal to Rome in 1136."

[34] See Appendix B.

[35] Hen. Hunt., 258; Cont. Flor. Wig., 95; Will. Malms., 705.

[36] Const. Hist., i. 321.

[37] Lansdowne MS. 229, fol. 109, and Lansdowne MS. 259, fol. 66, both being excerpts from the lost volume of the Great Coucher of the Duchy.

[38] Speaking of the late king's trusted friends, who hung back from coming to court, he writes: "Illi autem, intentâ sibi a rege comminatione, cum salvo eundi et redeundi conductu curiam petiere; omnibusque ad votum impetratis, peracto cum jurejurando liberali hominio, illius sese servitio ex toto mancipârunt. Affuit inter reliquos Paganus filius Johannis, sed et Milo, de quo superius fecimus mentionem, ille Herefordensis et Salopesbiriæ, iste Glocestrensis provinciæ dominatum gerens: qui in tempore regis Henrici potentiæ suæ culmen extenderant ut a Sabrinâ flumine usque ad mare per omnes fines Angliæ et Waloniæ omnes placitis involverent, angariis onerarent" (pp. 15, 16).

[39] Cont. Flor. Wig.

[40] "S. rex Angliæ Archiepĩs etc. Sciatis me reddidisse et concessisse Miloni Gloec̃ et heredibus suis post eum in feodo et hereditate totum honorem patris sui et custodiam turris et castelli Gloecestrie ad tenendum tali forma (sic) qualem reddebat tempore regis Henrici sicut patrimonium suum. Et totum honorem suum de Brechenion et omnia Ministeria sua et terras suas quas tenuit tempore regis Henrici sicut eas melius et honorificentius tenuit die qua rex Henricus fuit vivus et mortuus, et ego ei in convencionem habeo sicut Rex et dominus Baroni meo. Quare precipio quod bene et in honore et in pace et libere teneat cum omnibus libertatibus suis. Testes, W. filius Ricardi, Robertus de Ferrariis, Robertus filius Ricardi, Hugo Bigot, Ingelramus de Sai, Balduinus filius Gisleberti. Apud Radinges" (Lansdowne MS. 229, fols. 123, 124).

[41] History of the Exchequer, p. 135.

[42] I am inclined to believe that in Robert fitz Richard we have that Robert fitz Richard (de Clare) who died in 1137 (Robert de Torigny), being then described as paternal uncle to Richard fitz Gilbert (de Clare), usually but erroneously described as first Earl of Hertford. If so, he was also uncle to Baldwin (fitz Gilbert) de Clare of this charter, and brother to W(alter) fitz Richard (de Clare), another witness. We shall come across another of Stephen's charters to which the house of Clare contributes several witnesses. There is evidence to suggest that Robert fitz Richard (de Clare) was lord, in some way, of Maldon in Essex, and was succeeded there by (his nephew) Walter fitz Gilbert (de Clare), who went on crusade (probably in 1147).

[43] There is preserved among the royal charters belonging to the Duchy of Lancaster, the fragment of one grant of which the contents correspond exactly, it would seem, with those of the above charter, though the witnesses' names are different. This raises a problem which cannot at present be solved.

[44] In the fellow-charter the phrase runs: "sicut Rex et dominus Baroni meo."

[45] "The Norman idea of royalty was very comprehensive; it practically combined all the powers of the national sovereignty, as they had been exercised by Edgar and Canute, with those of the feudal theory of monarchy, which was exemplified at the time in France and the Empire.... The king is accordingly both the chosen head of the nation and the lord paramount of the whole of the land" (Const. Hist., i. 338).

[46] Compare the words of address in several of the Cartæ Baronum (1166): "servitium ut domino;" "vobis sicut domino meo;" "sicut domino carissimo;" "ut domino suo ligio."

[47] "Inde perrexit rex Stephanus apud Oxeneford ubi recordatus et confirmavit pacta quæ Deo et populo et sanctæ ecclesiæ concesserat in die coronationis suæ" (p. 258).

[48] "Cum venisset in fine Natalis ad Oxenefordiam" (ibid.).

[49] Const. Hist., i. 321.

[50] Early Plantagenets, pp. 15, 16.

[51] "The news of this [Scottish] inroad reached Stephen at Oxford, where he had just put forth his second charter" (Norm. Conq., v. 258).

"The second charter ... was put forth at Oxford before the first year of his reign was out. Stephen had just come back victorious from driving back a Scottish invasion (see p. 258)" (ibid., p. 246).

[52] See Mr. Vincent's learned criticism on Mr. Freeman's History of Wells Cathedral: "I detect throughout these pages an infirmity, a confirmed habit of inaccuracy. The author of this book, I should infer from numberless passages, cannot revise what he writes" (Genealogist, (N.S.) ii. 179).

[53] "In fine Natalis" (Hen. Hunt., 258).

[54] Sym. Dun., ii. 287.

[55] The curious words, "vulgo ... ingerente," may be commended to those who uphold the doctrine of democratic survivals in these assemblies. They would doubtless jump at them as proof that the "vulgus" took part in the proceedings. The evidence, however, is, in any case, of indisputable interest.

[56] Ed. Howlett, p. 17.

[57] "Quem morem convivandi primus successor obstinate tenuit, secundus omisit" (Will. Malms.).

[58] "Rediens autem inde rex in Quadragesimâ tenuit curiam suam apud Lundoniam in solemnitate Paschali, quâ nunquam fuerat splendidior in Angliâ multitudine, magnitudine, auro, argento, gemmis, vestibus, omnimodaque dapsilitate" (p. 259).

[59] "[Consuetudo] erat ut ter in anno cuncti optimates ad curiam convenirent de necessariis regni tractaturi, simulque visuri regis insigne quomodo iret gemmato fastigiatus diademate" (Vita S. Wulstani). "Convivia in præcipuis festivitatibus sumptuosa et magnifica inibat; ... omnes eo cujuscunque professionis magnates regium edictum accersiebat, ut exterarum gentium legati speciem multitudinis apparatumque deliciarum mirarentur" (Gesta regum).

[60] See in Gesta (ed. Howlett, pp. 15, 16) his persistent efforts to conciliate the ministers of Henry I., and especially the Marchers of the west.

[61] See Appendix C.

[62] "In Paschali vero festivitate rex Stephanus eundem Henricum in honorem in reverentia præferens, ad dexteram suam sedere fecit" (Sym. Dun., ii. 287).

[63] Dr. Stubbs appears, unless I am mistaken, to imply that they first appear at court as witnesses to the (later) Oxford charter. He writes, of that charter: "Her [the Empress's] most faithful adherents, Miles of Hereford" [recté Gloucester] "and Brian of Wallingford, were also among the witnesses; probably the retreat of the King of Scots had made her cause for the time hopeless" (Const. Hist., i. 321, note).

[64] See Appendix C.

[65] "His autem rex patienter auditis quæcumque postulârant gratuite eis indulgens ecclesiæ libertatem fixam et inviolabilem esse, illius statuta rata et inconcussa, ejus ministros cujuscunque professionis essent vel ordinis, omni reverentiâ honorandos esse præcepit" (Gesta).

[66] John's list of bishops attesting the (London) council is taken from Richard's list of bishops attesting the (Oxford) charter.

[67] "Eodem anno post Pascha Robertus comes Glocestræ, cujus prudentiam rex Stephanus maxime verebatur, venit in Angliam.... Itaque homagium regi fecit sub conditione quadam, scilicet quamdiu ille dignitatem suam integre custodiret et sibi pacta servaret" (Will. Malms., 705, 707).

[68] Ibid., 707.

[69] Hen. Hunt., p. 259.

[70] Ibid., p. 260.

[71] "Vindictam non exercuit in proditores suos, pessimo consilio usus; si enim eam tunc exercuisset, postea contra eum tot castella retenta non fuissent" (Hen. Hunt., p. 259).

[72] Select Charters, 114 (cf. Will. Malms.).

[73] Ibid.

[74] Ibid., 96.

[75] Confirmation Roll, 1 Hen. VIII., Part 5, No. 13 (quoted by Mr. J. A. C. Vincent in Genealogist (N. S.), ii. 271). This should be compared with the argument of his friends when urging the primate to crown him, that he had not only been elected to the throne (by the Londoners), but also "ad hoc justo germanæ propinquitatis jure idoneus accessit" (Gesta, p. 8), and with the admission, shortly after, in the pope's letter, that among his claims he "de præfati regis [Henrici] prosapia prope posito gradu originem traxisse."

[76] Select Charters, 115. But cf. Will. Malms.

[77] As further illustrating the compromise of which this charter was the resultant, note that Stephen retains and combines the formula "Dei gratiâ" with the recital of election, and that he further represents the election as merely a popular "assent" to his succession.

[78] Compare the clause in the Confirmatio Cartarum of 1265, establishing the right of insurrection: "Liceat omnibus de regno nostro contra nos insurgere."

[79] See inter alia, Hallam's Middle Ages, i. 168, 169.

[80] "Fama per Angliam volitabat, quod comes Gloecestræ Robertus, qui erat in Normannia, in proximo partes sororis foret adjuturus, rege tantummodo ante diffidato. Nec fides rerum famæ levitatem destituit: celeriter enim post Pentecosten missis a Normanniâ suis regi more majorum amicitiam et fidem interdixit, homagio etiam abdicato; rationem præferens quam id juste faceret, quia et rex illicite ad regnum aspiraverat, et omnem fidem sibi juratam neglexerat, ne dicam mentitus fuerat" (Will. Malms., 712). So, too, the Continuator of Florence: "Interim facta conjuratione adversus regem per prædictum Brycstowensem comitem et conestabularium Milonem, abnegata fidelitate quam illi juraverant, ... Milo constabularius, regiæ majestati redditis fidei sacramentis, ad dominum suum, comitem Gloucestrensem, cum grandi manu militum se contulit" (pp. 110, 117). Compare with these passages the extraordinary complaint made against Stephen's conduct in attacking Lincoln without sending a formal "defiance" to his opponents, and the singular treaty, in this reign, between the Earls of Chester and of Leicester, in which the latter was bound not to attack the former, as his lord, without sending him the formal "diffidatio" a clear fortnight beforehand.

[81] Const. Hist., i. 338, 340.

[82] Norm. Conq., v. 251.

[83] "In a later stage, when the son of his rival was firm on the throne, the doctrine of female succession took root under a king who by the spindle-side sprang from both William and Cerdic, but who by the spear-side had nothing to do with either. Then it was that men began to find out that Stephen had been guilty not only of breaking his oath, but also of defrauding the heir to the crown of her lawful right" (ibid., p. 252).

[84] "Henrici regis filia, ... vehementer exhilarata utpote regnum sibi juratum ... jam adepta" (Cont. Flor. Wig., 130). But the above duplex character of her claim is best brought out in her formal request that the legate should receive her "tanquam regis Henrici filiam et cui omnis Anglia et Normannia jurata esset."

[85] "Conventio optimatum et baronum totius Angliæ apud Salesbyriam xiv. kalend. Aprilis facta est, qui in præsentiâ regis Henrici homagium filio suo Willelmo fecerunt, et fidelitatem ei juraverunt" (Flor. Wig., ii. 69).

[86] "Normanniæ principes, jubente rege, filio suo Willelmo jam tunc xviii. annorum, hominium faciunt, et fidelitatis securitatem sacramentis affirmant" (Sym. Dun., ii. 258).

[87] Oddly enough, the correct date must be sought from Symeon of Durham, though, at first sight, he is the most inaccurate, as he places the event under 1128 (a date accepted, in the margin, by his editor) instead of 1126, the year given by the other chroniclers. But from him we learn that the Christmas court (i.e. Christmas 1126) was adjourned from Windsor to London, for the new year, "ubi Circumcisione Domini" (January 1) the actual oath was taken. William of Malmesbury dates it, loosely, at Christmas (1126), but the Continuator of Florence, more accurately, "finitis diebus festivioribus" (p. 84), which confirms Symeon's statement.

[88] It is scarcely realized so clearly as it should be that the oath taken on this occasion was that to which reference was always made. Dr. Stubbs (Const. Hist., i. 341) recognizes "a similar oath in 1131" (on the authority of William of Malmesbury), and another in 1133 (on the authority of Roger of Hoveden). But the former is only incidentally mentioned, and is neither alluded to elsewhere, nor referred to subsequently by William himself; and the latter, which is similarly devoid of any contemporary confirmation, is represented as securing the succession, not to Matilda, but to her son. It is strange that so recent and important an oath as this, if it was really taken, should have been ignored in the controversy under Stephen, and the earlier oath, described above, alone appealed to.

[89] Henry of Huntingdon merely alludes to it, retrospectively, at Stephen's accession, as the "sacramentum fidelitatis Anglici regni filiæ regis Henrici" (p. 256).

[90] "Fecit principes et potentes adjurare eidem filiæ suæ et heredibus suis legitimis regnum Angliæ" (i. 93). This is, perhaps, somewhat confirmed by the words which the author of the Gesta places in the primate's mouth (p. 7).

[91] "In filiam suam, sororem scilicet Willelmi, ... regni jura transferebat" (p. 85). The oath to secure her this succession was taken "ad jussum regis" (p. 84). Compare with this expression that of Gervase above, and that (quantum valeat) of Roger Hoveden, viz. "constituit eum regem;" also the "jubente rege" of Symeon in 1120. It was accordingly urged, at Stephen's accession, that the oath had been compulsory, and was therefore invalid.

[92] "Juraverunt ut filiæ suæ imperatrici fide servata regnum Angliæ hæreditario jure post eum servarent" (p. 281). Compare William of Newburgh, on Henry's accession: "Hæreditarium regnum suscepit." These expressions are the more noteworthy because of the contrast they afford to the Conqueror's dying words, "Neminem Anglici constituo heredem ... non enim tantum decus hereditario jure possedi" (Ord. Vit.).

[93] Will. Malms., 691.

[94] That the oath of January 1, 1127, preceding the marriage of the Empress, was, as I have urged, the ruling one seems to be further implied by the passage in William of Malmesbury: "Ego Rogerum Salesbiriensem episcopum sæpe dicentem audivi, 'Solutum se sacramento quod imperatrici fecerat: eo enim pacto se jurasse, ne rex præter consilium suum et cæterorum procerum filiam cuiquam nuptam daret extra regnum,'" etc., etc. (p. 693).

[95] As for instance when Henry II. obtained Aquitaine with his wife. There is, as it happens, a passage in Symeon of Durham, which may have been somewhat overlooked, where it is distinctly stated that in the autumn of the year (1127), Henry conceded, as a condition of the Angevin match, that, in default of his having a son, Geoffrey of Anjou should succeed him ("remque ad effectum perduxit eo tenore ut regi, de legitima conjuge hæredem non habenti, mortuo gener illius in regnum succederet"). That Geoffrey's claim was recognized at the time is clear from the striking passage quoted by Mr. Freeman from his panegyrist ("sceptro ... non injuste aspirante"), and even more so from the explicit statement: "Volente igitur Gaufrido comite cum uxore suâ, quæ hæres erat [here again is an allusion to her hereditary right], in regnum succedere, primores terræ, juramenti sui male recordantes, regem eum suscipere noluerunt, dicentes 'Alienigena non regnabit super nos'" (Select Charters, p. 110).

[96] Compare the style of "Alphonso XIII., by the grace of God constitutional King of Spain."

[97] "Canonica prius electione præcedente."

CHAPTER II.
THE FIRST CHARTER OF THE KING.

Geoffrey de Mandeville was the grandson and heir of a follower of the conqueror of the same name. From Mandeville, a village, according to Mr. Stapleton, near Trevières in the Bessin,[98] the family took its name, which, being Latinized as "De Magnavilla," is often found as "De Magnaville." The elder Geoffrey appears in Domesday as a considerable tenant-in-chief, his estates lying in no less than eleven different counties.[99] On the authority of the Monasticon he is said by Dugdale to have been made constable of the Tower. Dugdale, however, has here misquoted his own authority, for the chronicle printed by him states, not that Geoffrey, but that his son and heir (William) received this office.[100] Its statement is confirmed by Ordericus Vitalis, who distinctly mentions that the Tower was in charge of William de Mandeville when Randulf Flambard was there imprisoned in 1101.[101] This may help to explain an otherwise puzzling fact, namely, that a Geoffrey de Mandeville, who was presumably his father, appears as a witness to charters of a date subsequent to this.[102]

Geoffrey de Mandeville founded the Benedictine priory of Hurley,[103] and we know the names of his two wives, Athelais and Leceline. By the former he had a son and heir, William, mentioned above, who in turn was the father of Geoffrey, the central figure of this work.[104]

The above descent is not based upon the evidence of the Monasticon alone, but is incidentally recited in those royal charters on which my story is so largely based. It is therefore beyond dispute. But though there is no pedigree of the period clearer or better established, it has formed the subject of an amazing blunder, so gross as to be scarcely credible. Madox had shown, in his History of the Exchequer (ii. 400), that Geoffrey "Fitz Piers" (Earl of Essex from 1199 to 1213) was Sheriff of Essex and Herts in 1192-94 (4 & 5 Ric. I.). Now Geoffrey, the son of Geoffrey "Fitz Piers," assuming the surname of "De Mandeville," became his successor in the earldom of Essex, which he held from 1213 to 1216. The noble and learned authors of the Lords' Reports on the Dignity of a Peer began by confusing this Geoffrey with his namesake the earl of 1141, and bodily transferring to the latter the whole parentage of the former. Thus they evolved the startling discovery that the father of our Geoffrey, the earl of 1141, "was Geoffrey Fitz Peter [i.e. the earl of 1199-1213], and probably was son of Peter, the sheriff at the time of the Survey."[105] But not content even with this, they transferred the shrievalty of Geoffrey "Fitz Piers" from 1192-94 (vide supra)[106] to a date earlier than the grant to Geoffrey de Mandeville (his supposed son) in 1141. Now, during that shrievalty the Earls "of Clare" enjoyed the tertius denarius of the county of Hertford. Thus their lordships were enabled to produce the further discovery that the Earls "of Clare" enjoyed it before the date of this grant (1141), that is to say, "either before or early in the reign of King Stephen."[107] The authority of these Reports has been so widely recognized that we cannot wonder at Courthope stating in his Historic Peerage of England (p. 248) that "Richard de Clare ... was Earl of Hertford, and possessed of the third penny of that county, before or early in the reign of King Stephen." Courthope has in turn misled Dr. Stubbs,[108] and Mr. Doyle has now followed suit, stating that Richard de Clare was "created Earl of Hertford (about) 1136."[109] It is therefore something to have traced this error to its original source in the Lords' Reports.

The first mention, it would seem, of the subject of this study is to be found in the Pipe-Roll of 1130, where we read—

"Gaufridus de Mandeville reddit compotum de Dccclxvjli. et xiiis. et iiijd. pro terra patris sui. In thesauro cxxxiiili. et vis. et viiid.

"Et debet Dcc et xxxiijli. et vjs. et viijd." (p. 55).

As he had thus, at Michaelmas, 1130, paid only two-thirteenths of the amount due from him for succession, that is the (arbitrary) "relief" to the Crown, we may infer that his father was but lately dead. He does not again meet us till he appears at Stephen's court early in 1136.[110] From the date of that appearance we pass to his creation as an earl by the first of those royal charters with which we are so largely concerned.[111]

The date of this charter is a point of no small interest, not merely because we have in it the only surviving charter of creation of those issued by Stephen, but also because there is reason to believe that it is the oldest extant charter of creation known to English antiquaries. That distinction has indeed been claimed for the second charter in my series, namely, that which Geoffrey obtained from the Empress Maud. It is of the latter that Camden wrote, "This is the most ancient creation-charter that I ever saw."[112] Selden duly followed suit, and Dugdale echoed Selden's words.[113] Courthope merely observes that it "is presumed to be one of the very earliest charters of express creation of the title of earl;"[114] and Mr. Birch pronounces it "one of the earliest, if not the earliest, example of a deed creating a peerage."[115] In despite, however, of these opinions I am prepared to prove that the charter with which we are now dealing is entitled to the first place, though that of the Empress comes next.

We cannot begin an investigation of the subject better than by seeking the opinion of Mr. Eyton, who was a specialist in the matter of charters and their dates, and who had evidently investigated the point. His note on this charter is as follows:—

"Stephen's earlier deeds of 1136 exhibit Geoffrey de Magnaville as a baron only. There are three such, two of which certainly, and the third probably, passed at Westminster. He was custos of the Tower of London, an office which probably necessitated a constant residence. There are three patents of creation extant by which he became Earl of Essex. Those which I suppose to precede this were by the Empress. The first of them passed in the short period during which Maud was in London, i.e. between June 24 and July 25, 1141. The second within a month after, at Oxford. In the latter she alludes to grants of lands previously made by Stephen to the said Geoffrey, but to no patent of earldom except her own. Selden calls Maud's London patent the oldest on record. It is not perhaps that, but it is older than this, though Dugdale thought not. Having decided that Stephen's patent succeeded Maud's, it follows that it (viz. this charter) passed after Nov. 1, 1141, when Stephen regained his liberty and Geoffrey probably forsook the empress. The king was at London on Dec. 7. In 1142 we are told (Lysons, Camb., 9) that this Geoffrey and Earl Gilbert were sent by Stephen against the Isle of Ely. He is called earl. We shall also have him attesting a charter of Queen Matilda (Stephen's wife).

"In 1143 he was seized in Stephen's court at St. Alban's.

"In 1144 he is in high rebellion against Stephen, and an ally of Nigel, Bishop of Ely. He is killed in Aug., 1144.

"On the whole then it would appear that the Empress first made him an earl as a means of securing London, the stronghold of Stephen's party, but that, on Stephen's release, the earl changed sides and Stephen opposed Maud's policy by a counter-patent (we have usually found counter-charters, however, to be Maud's). We have also a high probability that this charter passed in Dec., 1141, or soon after; for Stephen does not appear at London in 1142, when Geoffrey is earl and in Stephen's employ."[116]

Here I must first clear the ground by explaining as to the "three patents of creation" mentioned in this passage, that there were only two charters (not "patents") of creation—that of the king, which survives in the original, and that of the Empress, which is known to us from a transcript. As to the latter, it certainly "passed in the short period during which Maud was in London," but that period, so far from being "between June 24 and July 25, 1141," consisted only of a few days ending with "June 24, 1141." The main point, however, at issue is the priority of the creation-charters. It will be seen that Mr. Eyton jumped at his conclusion, and then proceeded: "Having decided," etc. This is the more surprising because that conclusion was at variance with what he admits to have been his own principle, namely, that he had "usually found counter-charters to be Maud's."[117] In this case his conclusion was wrong, and his original principle was right. I think that Mr. Eyton's error was due to his ignorance of the second charter granted by the king to Geoffrey.[118] As he was well acquainted with the royal charters in the duchy of Lancaster collection it is not easy to understand how he came to overlook this very long one, which is, as it were, the keystone to the arch I am about to construct.

It is my object to make Geoffrey's charters prove their own sequence. When once arranged in their right order, it will be clear from their contents that this order is the only one possible. We must not attempt to decide their dates till we have determined their order. But when that order has been firmly established, we can approach the question of dates with comparative ease and confidence.

To determine from internal evidence the sequence of these charters, we must arrange them in an ascending scale. That is to say, each charter should represent an advance on its immediate predecessor. Tried by this test, our four main charters will assume, beyond dispute, this relative order.

1. First charter of the king.
2. First charter of the Empress.
3. Second charter of the king.
4. Second charter of the Empress.

The order of the three last is further established by the fact that the grants in the second are specifically confirmed by the third, while the third is expressly referred to in the fourth. The only one, therefore, about which there could possibly be a question is the first, and the fact that the second charter represents a great advance upon it is in this case the evidence. But there is, further, the fact that the place I have assigned it is the only one in the series that it can possibly occupy. Nor could Mr. Eyton have failed to arrive at this conclusion had he included within his sphere of view the second charter of the king.

It is clear that Mr. Eyton was here working from the statements of Dugdale alone. For the three charters he deals with are those which Dugdale gives. The order assigned to these charters by Dugdale and Mr. Eyton respectively can be thus briefly shown:—

Right order	1	2		3	4
Eyton's order		2	4	1
Dugdale'a order	1	4	2

How gravely Mr. Eyton erred in his conclusions will be obvious from this table. But it is necessary to go further still, and to say that of the seven charters affecting Geoffrey de Mandeville, three would seem to have been unknown to him, while of the rest, he assigned three, one might almost say all four, to a demonstrably erroneous date. It may be urged that this is harsh criticism, and the more so as its subject was never published, and exists only in the form of notes. There is much to be said for this view, but the fact remains that rash use is certain to be made of these notes, unless students are placed on their guard. That this should be so is due not only to Mr. Eyton's great and just reputation as a laborious student in this field, but also to the exaggerated estimate of the value and correctness of these notes which was set, somewhat prominently, before the public.[119]

Advancing from the question of position to that of actual date, we will glance at the opinion of another expert, Mr. Walter de Gray Birch. We learn from him, as to the date of this first creation-charter, that—

"The dates of the witnesses appear to range between A.D. 1139 and A.D. 1144.... The actual date of the circumstances mentioned in this document is a matter of question.... He [Geoffrey] was slain on the 14th of September, A.D. 1144, and therefore this document must be prior to that date."[120]

We see now that it is by no means easy to date this charter with exactness. It will be best, in pursuance of my usual practice, to begin by clearing the ground.

If we could place any trust in the copious chronicle of Walden Abbey, which is printed (in part) in the Monasticon from the Arundel manuscript, our task would be easy enough. For we are there told that Stephen had already created Geoffrey an earl when, in 1136, he founded Walden Abbey.[121] And, in his foundation charter, he certainly styles himself an earl.[122] But, alas for this precious narrative, it brings together at the ceremony three bishops, Robert of London, Nigel of Ely, and William of Norwich, of whom Robert of London was not appointed till 1141, while William of Norwich did not obtain that see till 1146!

Dismissing, therefore, this evidence, we turn to the fact that no creation of an earldom by Stephen is mentioned before 1138. But we have something far more important than this in the occurrence at the head of the witnesses to this creation-charter, of the name of William of Ypres, the only name, indeed, among the witnesses that strikes one as a note of time. Mr. Eyton wrote: "A deed which I have dated 1140 ... is his first known attestation."[123] I have found no evidence contrary to this conclusion. It would seem probable that when the arrest of the bishops "gave," in Dr. Stubbs' words, "the signal for the civil war," Stephen's preparations for the approaching struggle would include the summons to his side of this experienced leader, who had hitherto been fighting in Normandy for his cause. Indeed, we know that it was so, for he was at once despatched against the castle of Devizes.[124]

Happily, however, there remains a writ, which should incidentally, we shall find, prove the key to the problem. This, which is printed among the footnotes in Madox's Baronia Anglica (p. 231), from the muniments of Westminster Abbey, is addressed "Gaufrido de Magnavilla" simply, and is, therefore, previous to his elevation to the earldom. Now, as this writ refers to the death of Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, it must be later than the 11th of December, 1139.[125] Consequently Geoffrey's charter must be subsequent to that date. It must also be previous to the battle of Lincoln (February, 1141), because, as I observed at the outset, it must be previous to the charter of the Empress. We therefore virtually narrow its limit to the year 1140, for Stephen had set out for Lincoln before the close of the year.[126] Let us try and reduce it further still. What was the date of the above writ? Stephen, on the death of Bishop Roger, hastened to visit Salisbury.[127] He went there from Oxford to spend Christmas (1139), and then returned to Reading (Cont. Flor. Wig.). Going and returning he would have passed through Andover, the place at which this writ is tested. Thus it could have been, and probably was, issued at this period (December, 1139). Obviously, if it was issued in the course of 1140, this would reduce still further the possible limit within which Geoffrey's charter can have passed. Difficult though it is to trace the incessant movements of the king throughout this troubled year, he certainly visited Winchester, and (probably thence) Malmesbury. Still we have not, I believe, proof of his presence at Andover.[128] And there are other grounds, I shall now show, for thinking that the earldom was conferred before March, 1140.

William of Newburgh, speaking of the arrest of Geoffrey de Mandeville, assures us that Stephen bore an old grudge against him, which he had hitherto been forced to conceal. Its cause was a gross outrage by Geoffrey, who, on the arrival of Constance of France, the bride of Eustace the heir-apparent, had forcibly detained her in the Tower.[129] We fix the date of this event as February or March, 1140, from the words of the Continuator of Florence,[130] and that date agrees well with Henry of Huntingdon's statement, that Stephen had bought his son's bride with the treasure he obtained by the death of the great Bishop of Salisbury (December 11, 1139).[131]

It would seem, of course, highly improbable that this audacious insult to the royal family would have been followed by the grant of an earldom. We might consequently infer that, in all likelihood, Geoffrey had already obtained his earldom.

We have, however, to examine the movements of Stephen at the time. The king returned, as we saw, to Reading, after spending his Christmas at Salisbury. He was then summoned to the Fen country by the revolt of the Bishop of Ely, and he set out thither, says Henry of Huntingdon, "post Natale" (p. 267). He may have taken Westminster on his way, but there is no evidence that he did. He had, however, returned to London by the middle of March, to take part in a Mid-Lent council.[132] His movements now become more difficult to trace than ever, but it may have been after this that he marched on Hereford and Worcester.[133] Our next glimpse of him is at Whitsuntide (May 26), when he kept the festival in sorry state at the Tower.[134] It has been suggested that it was for security that he sought the shelter of its walls. But this explanation is disposed of by the fact that the citizens of London were his best friends and proved, the year after, the virtual salvation of his cause. It would seem more likely that he was anxious to reassert his impaired authority and to destroy the effect of Geoffrey's outrage, which might otherwise have been ruinous to his prestige.[135]

It was, as I read it, at the close of Whitsuntide, that is, about the beginning of June, that the king set forth for East Anglia, and, attacking Hugh Bigod, took his castle of Bungay.[136]

In August the king again set forth to attack Hugh Bigod;[137] and either to this, or to his preceding East Anglian campaign, we may safely assign his charter, granted at Norwich, to the Abbey of Reading.[138] Now, the first witness to this charter is Geoffrey de Mandeville himself, who is not styled an earl. We learn, then, that, at least as late as June, 1140, Geoffrey had not received his earldom. This would limit the date of his creation to June-December, 1140, or virtually, at the outside, a period of six months.

Such, then, is the ultimate conclusion to which our inquiry leads us. And if it be asked why Stephen should confer an earldom on Geoffrey at this particular time, the reply is at hand in the condition of affairs, which had now become sufficiently critical for Geoffrey to begin the game he had made up his mind to play. For Stephen could not with prudence refuse his demand for an earldom.[139]

The first corollary of this conclusion is that "the second type" of Stephen's great seal (which is that appended to this charter) must have been already in use in the year 1140, that is to say, before his fall in 1141.

Mr. Birch, who, I need hardly say, is the recognized authority on the subject, has devoted one of his learned essays on the Great Seals of the Kings of England to those of Stephen.[140] He has appended to it photographs of the two types in use under this sovereign, and has given the text of nineteen original sealed charters, which he has divided into two classes according to the types of their seals. The conclusion at which he arrived as the result of this classification was that the existence of "two distinctly variant types" is proved (all traces of a third, if it ever existed, being now lost), one of which represents the earlier, and the other the later, portion of the reign.[141] To the former belong nine, and to the latter ten of the charters which he quotes in his paper. The only point on which a question can arise is the date at which the earlier was replaced by the later type. Mr. Birch is of opinion that—

"the consideration of the second seal tends to indicate the alteration of the type subsequent to his liberation from the hands of the Empress, and it is most natural to suppose that this alteration is owing to the destruction or loss of his seal consequent to his own capture and incarceration" (p. 15).

There can be no doubt that this is the most natural suggestion; but if, as I contend, the very first two of the charters adduced by Mr. Birch as specimens of the later type are previous to "his capture and incarceration," it follows that his later great seal must have been adopted before that event. One of these charters is that which forms the subject of this chapter; the other is preserved among the records of the duchy of Lancaster.[142] At the date when the latter was granted, the king was in possession of the temporalities of the see of Lincoln, which he had seized on the arrest of the bishops in June, 1139. As Alexander had regained possession of his see by the time of the battle of Lincoln, this charter must have passed before Stephen's capture, and most probably passed a year or more before. We have then to account for the adoption by Stephen of a new great seal, certainly before 1141, and possibly as early as 1139. Is it not possible that this event may be connected with the arrest of the chancellor and his mighty kinsmen in June, 1139, and that the seal may have been made away with in his and their interest, as on the flight of James II., in order to increase the confusion consequent on that arrest?[143]

And now we come to Geoffrey's charter itself[144]:—

"S. Rex Ang[lorum] Archiepiscopis Episcopis Abbatibus Comitibus Justiciis Baronibus Vicecomitibus et Omnibus Ministris et fidelibus suis francis et Anglis totius Angliæ salutem. Sciatis me fecisse Comitem de Gaufr[ido] de Magnauillâ de Comitatu Essex[e] hereditarie. Quare uolo et concedo et firmiter precipio quod ipse et heredes sui post eum hereditario jure teneant de me et de heredibus meis bene et in pace et libere et quiete et honorifice sicut alii Comites mei de terrâ meâ melius vel liberius vel honorificentius tenent Comitatus suos unde Comites sunt cum omnibus dignitatibus et libertatibus et consuetudinibus cum quibus alii Comites mei prefati dignius vel liberius tenent.

"T[estibus] Will[elm]o de Iprâ et Henr[ico] de Essexâ[145] et Joh[ann]e fil[io] Rob[erti] fil[ii] Walt[eri][146] et Rob[erto] de Nouo burgo[147] et Mainfen[ino] Britoñ[148] et Turg[esio] de Abrinc[is][149] et Will[elm]o de S[an]c[t]o Claro[150] et Will[elm]o de Dammart[in][151] et Ric[ardo] fil[io] Ursi[152] et Will[elm]o de Auco[153] et Ric[ardo] fil[io] Osb[erti][154] et Radulfo de Wiret[155] (sic) et Eglin[o][156] et Will[elm]o fil[io] Alur[edi][157] et Will[elmo] filio Ernald.[158] Apud Westmonasterium."

Taking this, as I believe it to be, as our earliest charter of creation extant or even known, the chief point to attract our notice is its intensely hereditary character. Geoffrey receives the earldom "hereditarie," for himself "et heredes sui post eum hereditario jure." The terms in which the grant is made are of tantalizing vagueness; and, compared with the charters by which it was followed, this is remarkable for its brevity, and for the total omission of those accompanying concessions which the statements of our historians would lead us to expect without fail.[159]

We must now pass from the grant of this charter to the great day of Lincoln (February 2, 1141), where the fortunes of England and her king were changed "in the twinkling of an eye" by the wild charge of "the Disinherited," as they rode for death or victory.[160]

[98] Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniæ, II. clxxxviii. Such was also the opinion of M. Leopold Delisle. The French editors, however, of Ordericus write: "On ne sait auquel des nombreux Magneville, Mandeville, Manneville de Normandie rapporter le berceau de cette illustre maison" (iv. 108).

[99] There is a curious story in the Waltham Chronicle (De Inventione, cap. xiii.) that the Conqueror placed Geoffrey in the shoes of Esegar the staller. The passage runs thus: "Cui [Tovi] successit filius ejus Adelstanus pater Esegari qui stalra inventus est in Angliæ conquisitione a Normannis, cuius hereditatem postea dedit conquisitor terræ, rex Willelmus, Galfrido de Mandevile proavi presentis comitis Willelmi. Successit quidem Adelstanus patri suo Tovi, non in totam quidem possessionem quam possederat pater, sed in eam tantum quæ pertinebat ad stallariam, quam nunc habet comes Willelmus." The special interest of this story lies in the official connection of Esegar [or Ansgar] the staller with London and Middlesex, combined with the fact that Geoffrey occupied the same position. See p. 354, and Addenda.

[100] "Post cujus [i.e. Galfridi] mortem reliquit filium suum hæredem, cui firmitas turris Londoniarum custodienda committitur. Nobili cum Rege magnificé plura gessit patri non immerito in rebus agendis coæqualis" (Monasticon). Dugdale's error, as we might expect, is followed by later writers, Mr. Clark treating Geoffrey as the first "hereditary constable," and his son, whom with characteristic inaccuracy he transforms from "William" into "Walter," as the second (Mediæval Military Architecture, ii. 253, 254). The French editors of Ordericus (iv. 108) strangely imagined that William was brother, not son, of Geoffrey de Mandeville.

[101] "In arce Lundoniensi Guillelmo de Magnavilla custodiendus in vinculis traditus est" (iv. 108).

[102] See for instance Abingdon Cartulary, ii. 73, 85, 116, where he attests charters of circ. 1110-1112.

[103] Monasticon, iii. 433. He founds the priory "pro anima Athelaisæ primæ uxoris meæ, matris filiorum meorum jam defunctæ;" and "Lecelina domina uxor mea" is a witness to the charter.

[104] It is necessary to check by authentic charters and other trustworthy evidence the chronicles printed in the Monasticon under Walden Abbey. One of these was taken from a long and interesting MS., formerly in the possession of the Royal Society, but now among the Arundel MSS. in the British Museum. This, which is only partially printed, and which ought to be published in its entirety, has the commencement wanting, and is, unfortunately, very inaccurate for the early period of which I treat. It is this narrative which makes the wild misstatements as to the circumstances of the foundation, which grossly misdates Geoffrey's death, etc., etc. All its statements are accepted by Dugdale. The other chronicle, which he printed from Cott. MS., Titus, D. 20, is far more accurate, gives Geoffrey's death correctly, and rightly assigns him as wife the sister (not the daughter) of the Earl of Oxford, thus correcting Dugdale's error. It is the latter chronicle which Dugdale has misquoted with reference to the charge of the Tower.

[105] Who was really Peter de Valognes.

[106] "Madox ... has shown ... that Geoffrey Fitzpeter, Earl of Essex, obtained from the Crown Grants of the shrievalty of the Counties of Essex and Hertford when the Earls, commonly called Earls of Clare, were Earls of Hertford, and had the Third Penny of the Pleas of that County" (iii. 69, ed. 1829).

[107] "The County of Hertford appears to have been, at the time of the Survey, in the King's hands, and Peter was then Sheriff; and the Sheriffwick of Hertfordshire was afterwards granted in Fee, by the Empress Maud, to Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, at a rent as his father and grandfather had held it. The father of Geoffrey was Geoffrey Fitz Peter, and probably was son of Peter, the Sheriff at the time of the Survey. The first trace which the Committee has discovered of the title of the Earls of Clare to the Third Penny of the County is in the reign of Henry the Second, subsequent to the grants under which the Earls of Essex claimed the Shrievalty in fee, at a fee-farm rent. But the grant of the Third Penny must have been of an earlier date, as the grant to the Earl of Essex was subject to that charge. The family of Clare must therefore have had the Third Penny either before or early in the Reign of King Stephen" (iii. 125).

[108] Const. Hist., i. 362.

[109] Official Baronage, ii. 175.

[110] See Appendix C.

[111] See Frontispiece.

[112] Degrees of England.

[113] "Note that this is the most ancient creation-charter which hath ever been known." Vide Selden, Titles of Honour, p. 647.

[114] Historic Peerage, p. 178.

[115] Journ. Brit. Arch. Ass., xxxi. 386.

[116] Addl. MSS., 31,943, fol. 97.

[117] Comp. fol. 96: "My position is that where this system of counter-charters between Stephen and the Empress is proved, the former generally is the first in point of date."

[118] See p. 41 ad pedem.

[119] Notes and Queries, 6th Series, v. 83.

[120] On the Great Seal of King Stephen, pp. 19, 20.

[121] "Apud regem Stephanum, ac totius regni majores tanti erat ut nomine comitis et re jampridem dignus haberetur" (Mon. Angl., vol. iv. p. 141).

[122] "Gaufridus de Magnavillâ comes Essexe" (ibid.).

[123] Addl. MSS. 31,943, fol. 85 dors.

[124] Ordericus Vitalis, vol. v. p. 120.

[125] See p. 282, n. 4.

[126] "Protractaque est obsidio [Lincolnie] a diebus Natalis Domini (1140) usque ad Ypapanti Domini" (Will. Newburgh, i. 39).

[127] To this visit may be assigned three charters (Sarum Charters and Documents, pp. 9-11) of interest for their witnesses. Two of them are attested by Philip the chancellor, who is immediately followed by Roger de Fécamp. The latter had similarly followed the preceding chancellor, Roger, in one of Stephen's charters of 1136 (see p. 263), which establishes his official position. Among the other witnesses were Bishop Robert of Hereford, Count Waleran of Meulan, Robert de Ver, William Martel, Robert d'Oilli with Fulk his brother, Turgis d'Avranches, Walter de Salisbury, Ingelram de Say, and William de Pont de l'Arche.

[128] The "P. cancellarius," by whom the writ is tested, was a chancellor of whom, according to Foss, virtually nothing is known. He was, however, Philip (de Harcourt), on whom the king conferred at Winchester, in 1140, the vacant see of Salisbury ("Rex Wintoniam veniens consilio baronum suorum cancellario suo Philippo Searebyriensem præsulatum ... dedit" (Cont. Flor. Wig.)). But the chapter refused to accept him as bishop, and eventually he was provided for by the see of Bayeux. He is likely, with or without the king, to have gone straight to Salisbury after his appointment at Winchester, in which case he would not have been present at Andover, even if Stephen himself was.

[129] "Acceptam ab eo injuriam rex caute dissimulabat, et tempus opportunum quo se ulcisceretur, observabat. Injuria vero quam regi nequam ille intulerat talis erat. Rex ante annos aliquot episcopi, ut dictum est, Salesbiriensis thesauros adeptus, summa non modica regi Francorum Lodovico transmissa, sororem ejus Constantiam Eustachio filio suo desponderat; ... eratque hæc cum socru sua regina Lundoniis. Cumque regina ad alium forte vellet cum eadem nuru sua locum migrare, memoratus Gaufridus arci tunc præsidens, restitit; nuruque de manibus socrus, pro viribus obnitentis, abstracta atque retenta, illam cum ignominia abire permisit. Postea vero reposcenti, et justum motum pro tempore dissimulanti, regi socero insignem prædam ægre resignavit" (ii. 45).

[130] (1140) "Facta est desponsatio illorum mense Februario in transmarinis partibus, matre regina Anglorum præsente" (ii. 725).

[131] "Accipiens thesauros episcopi comparavit inde Constantiam sororem Lodovici regis Francorum ad opus Eustachii filii sui" (p. 265). It is amusing to learn from his champion (the author of the Gesta Stephani) that the king spent this treasure on good and pious works. This matrimonial alliance is deserving of careful attention, for the fact that Stephen was prepared to buy it with treasure which he sorely needed proves its importance in his eyes as a prop to his now threatened throne.

[132] Annals of Waverley (Ann. Mon., ii. 228), where it is stated that, at this council, Stephen gave the see of Salisbury to his chancellor, Philip. According, however, to the Continuator of Florence, he did this not at London, but at Winchester (see p. 47, supra).

[133] See the Continuator of Florence.

[134] Will. Malms.

[135] See p. 81 as to the alleged riot in London and death of Aubrey de Vere, three weeks before.

[136] "Ad Pentecostem ivit rex cum exercitu suo super Hugonem Bigod in Sudfolc" Ann. Wav. (Ann. Mon., ii. 228).

[137] "Item in Augusto perrexit super eum et concordati sunt, sed non diu duravit" (ibid.).

[138] Printed in Archæological Journal, xx. 291. Its second witness is Richard de Luci, whom I have not elsewhere found attesting before Christmas, 1141.

[139] If, as would seem, Hugh Bigod appears first as an earl at the battle of Lincoln, when he fought on Stephen's side, it may well be that the "concordia" between them in August, 1140, similarly comprised the concession by the king of comital rank. On the other hand, there is a noteworthy charter (Harl. Cart., 43, c. 13) of Stephen, which seems to belong to the winter of 1140-1, to which Hugh Bigod is witness, not as an earl, so that his creation may have taken place very shortly before Stephen's fall. As this charter, according to Mr. Birch, has the second type of Stephen's seal, it strengthens the view advanced in the text.

[140] Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, vol. xi., New Series.

[141] Mr. Birch points out the interesting fact that while the earlier type has an affinity to that of the great seal of Henry I., the later approximates to that adopted under Henry II.

[142] Royal Charters, No. 15. See my Ancient Charters, p. 39.

[143] Dr. Stubbs observes that the consequence of the arrest was that "the whole administration of the country ceased to work" (Const. Hist., i. 326).

[144] Cotton Charter, vii. 4. See Frontispiece.

[145] This is the well-known Henry de Essex (see Appendix U), son of Robert (Rot. Pip., 31 Hen. I.), and grandson of Swegen of Essex (Domesday). He witnessed several of Stephen's charters, probably later in the reign, but was also a witness to the Empress's charters to the Earls of Oxford and of Essex (vide post).

[146] A John, son of Robert fitz Walter (sheriff of East Anglia, temp. Hen. I.), occurs in Ramsey Cartulary, i. 149.

[147] Robert de Neufbourg, said to have been a younger son of Henry, Earl of Warwick, occurs in connection with Warwickshire in 1130 (Rot. Pip., 31 Hen. I.). Mr. Yeatman characteristically advances "the idea that Robert de Arundel and Robert de Novoburgo were identical." He was afterwards Justiciary of Normandy (Ord. Vit.), having sided with Geoffrey of Anjou (Rot. Scacc. Norm.). He is mentioned in the Pipe-Rolls of 2 and 4 Henry II. According to Dugdale, he died (on the authority of the Chronicon Normanniæ), in August, 1158, a date followed by Mr. Yeatman. Mr. Eyton, however (Court and Itinerary, p. 47), on the same authority (with a reference also to Gervase, which I cannot verify) makes him die in August, 1159. The true date seems to have been August 30, 1159, when he died at Bec (Robert de Torigni).

[148] The Maenfininus Brito (Mr. Birch reads "Mamseu"), who, in the Pipe-Roll of 1130 (p. 100), was late sheriff of Bucks. and Beds. Probably father of Hamo filius Meinfelini, the Bucks. baron of 1166 (Cartæ). See also p. 201, n. 2.

[149] Turgis d'Avranches appears in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I. as having married the widow of Hugh "de Albertivillâ." We shall find him witnessing Stephen's second charter to the earl (Christmas, 1141).

[150] William de St. Clare occurs in Dorset and Huntingdonshire in 1130 (Rot. Pip., 31 Hen. I.). He was, I presume, of the same family as Hamon de St. Clare, custos of Colchester in 1130 (ibid.), who was among the witnesses to Stephen's Charter of Liberties (Oxford) in 1136.

[151] Odo de Dammartin states in his Carta (1166) that he held one fee (in Norfolk) of the king, of which he had enfeoffed, temp. Hen. I., his brother, William de Dammartin.

[152] Richard fitz Urse is of special interest as the father (see Liber Niger) of Reginald fitz Urse, one of Becket's murderers. He occurs repeatedly in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I. After this charter he reappears at the battle of Lincoln (Feb. 2, 1141):—"Capitur etiam Ricardus filius Ursi, qui in ictibus dandis recipiendisque clarus et gloriosus comparuit" (Hen. Hunt., p. 274). For his marriage to Sybil, daughter of Baldwin de Bollers by Sybil de Falaise (neptis of Henry I.), see Eyton's Shropshire, xi. 127, and Genealogist, N.S., iii. 195. One would welcome information on his connection, if any, with the terrible sheriff, Urse d'Abetot, and his impetuous son; but I know of none.

[153] William de Eu appears as a tenant of four knights' fees de veteri feoffamento under Mandeville in the Liber Niger.

[154] Richard fitz Osbert similarly figures (Liber Niger) as a tenant of four knights' fees de veteri feoffamento. He also held a knight's fee of the Bishop of Ely in Cambridgeshire. An Osbert fitz Richard, probably his son, attests a charter of Geoffrey's son, Earl William, to Walden Abbey.

[155] A Ralph de Worcester occurs in the Cartæ and elsewhere under Henry II.

[156] "Eglino," an unusual name, probably represents "Egelino de Furnis," who attests a charter of Stephen at Eye (Formularium Anglicanum, p. 154).

[157] William fitz Alfred held one fee of Mandeville de novo feoffamento. He also attests the earl's foundation charter of Walden Abbey (Mon. Ang., iv. 149). A William fitz Alfred occurs, also, in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I.

[158] William fitz Ernald similarly held one knight's fee de novo feoffamento. He also attests the above foundation charter just after William fitz Alfred.

[159] See Appendix D, on "Fiscal Earls."

[160] "Acies exhæredatorum, quæ præibat, percussit aciem regalem ... tanto impetu, quod statim, quasi in ictu oculi, dissipata est.

CHAPTER III.
TRIUMPH OF THE EMPRESS.

At the time of this sudden and decisive triumph, the Empress had been in England some sixteen months. With the Earl of Gloucester, she had landed at Arundel,[161] on September 30, 1139,[162] and while her brother, escorted by a few knights, made his way to his stronghold at Bristol, had herself, attended by her Angevin suite, sought shelter with her step-mother, the late queen, in the famous castle of Arundel. Stephen had promptly appeared before its walls, but, either deeming the fortress impregnable or being misled by treacherous counsel,[163] had not only raised his blockade of the castle, but had allowed the Empress to set out for Bristol, and had given her for escort his brother the legate, and his trusted supporter the Count of Meulan.[164] From the legate her brother had received her at a spot appointed beforehand, and had then returned with her to Bristol. Here she was promptly visited by the constable, Miles of Gloucester, who at once acknowledged her claims as "the rightful heir" of England.[165] Escorted by him, she removed to Gloucester, of which he was hereditary castellan, and received the submission of that city, and of all the country round about.[166] The statements of the chroniclers can here be checked, and are happily confirmed and amplified by a charter of the Empress, apparently unknown, but of great historical interest. The following abstract is given in a transcript taken from the lost volume of the Great Coucher of the duchy[167]:—

"Carta Matilde Imperatricis in quâ dicit, quod[168] quando in Angliam venit post mortem H. patris sui[169] Milo de Gloecestrâ quam citius potuit venit ad se[170] apud Bristolliam et recepit me ut dominam et sicut illam quam justum hæredem regni Angliæ recognovit, et inde me secum ad Gloecestram adduxit et ibi homagium suum mihi fecit ligie contra omnes homines. Et volo vos scire quod tunc quando homagium suum apud Gloecestram recepit, dedi ei pro servicio suo in feodo et hereditate sibi et heredibus suis castellum de Sancto Briavel(li) et totam forestam de Dene,"[171] etc., etc.

It was at Gloucester that she received the news of her brother's victory at Lincoln (February 2, 1141), and it was there that he joined her, with his royal captive, on Quinquagesima Sunday (February 9).[172] It was at once decided that the king should be despatched to Bristol Castle,[173] and that he should be there kept a prisoner for life.[174]

In the utter paralysis of government consequent on the king's capture, there was not a day to be lost on the part of the Empress and her friends. The Empress herself was intoxicated with joy, and eager for the fruits of victory.[175] Within a fortnight of the battle, she set out from Gloucester, on what may be termed her first progress.[176] Her destination was, of course, Winchester, the spot to which her eyes would at once be turned. She halted, however, for a while at Cirencester,[177] to allow time for completing the negotiations with the legate.[178] It was finally agreed that, advancing to Winchester, she should meet him in an open space, without the walls, for a conference. This spot a charter of the Empress enables us apparently to identify with Wherwell.[179] Hither, on Sunday, the 2nd of March, a wet and gloomy day,[180] the clergy and people, headed by the legate, with the monks and nuns of the religious houses, and such magnates of the realm as were present, streamed forth from the city to meet her.[181]

The compact ("pactum") which followed was strictly on the lines of that by means of which Stephen had secured the throne. The Empress, on her part, swore that if the legate would accept her as "domina," he should henceforth have his way in all ecclesiastical matters. And her leading followers swore that this oath should be kept. Thereupon the legate agreed to receive her as "Lady of England," and promised her the allegiance of himself and of his followers so long as she should keep her oath. The whole agreement is most important, and, as such, should be carefully studied.[182]

On the morrow (March 3) the Empress entered Winchester, and was received in state in the cathedral, the legate supporting her on the right, and Bernard of St. David's on the left.[183]

Now, it is most important to have a clear understanding of what really took place upon this occasion.

The main points to keep before us are—(1) that there are two distinct episodes, that of the 2nd and 3rd of March, and that of the 7th and 8th of April, five weeks intervening between them, during which the Empress left Winchester to make her second progress; (2) that the first episode was that of her reception at Winchester, the second (also at Winchester) that of her election.

It is, perhaps, not surprising that our historians are here in woeful confusion. Dr. Stubbs alone is, as usual, right. Writing from the standpoint of a constitutional historian, he is only concerned with the election of the Empress, and to this he assigns its correct date.[184] In his useful and excellent English History, Mr. Bright, on the contrary, ignores the interval, and places the second episode "a few days after" the first.[185] Professor Pearson, whose work is that which is generally used for this period, omits altogether the earlier episode.[186] Mr. Birch, on the other hand, in his historical introduction to his valuable fasciculus of the charters of the Empress, ignores altogether the later episode, though he goes into this question with special care. Indeed, he does more than this; for he transfers the election itself from the later to the earlier occasion, and assigns to the episode of March 2 and 3 the events of April 7 and 8. This cardinal error vitiates his elaborate argument,[187] and, indeed, makes confusion worse confounded. Mr. Freeman, though, of course, in a less degree, seems inclined to err in the same direction, when he assigns to the earlier of the two episodes that importance which belongs to the later.[188]

Rightly to apprehend the bearing of this episode, we must glance back at the preceding reigns. Dr. Stubbs, writing of Stephen's accession, observes that "the example which Henry had set in his seizure and retention of the crown was followed in every point by his successor."[189] But on at least one main point the precedent was older than this. The Conqueror, in 1066, and his heir, in 1087, had both deemed it their first necessity to obtain possession of Winchester. Winchester first, and then London, was a rule that thus enjoyed the sanction of four successive precedents. To secure Winchester with all that it contained, and with all the prestige that its possession would confer, was now, therefore, the object of the Empress. This object she attained by the pactum of the 2nd of March, and with it, as we have seen, the conditional allegiance of the princely bishop of the see.

Now, Henry of Blois was a great man. As papal legate, as Bishop of Winchester, and as brother to the captive king, he possessed an influence, in his triple capacity, which, at this eventful crisis, was probably unrivalled in the land. But there was one thing that he could not do—he could not presume, of his own authority, to depose or to nominate an English sovereign. Indeed the very fact of the subsequent election (April 8) and of his claim, audacious as it was, that that election should be the work of the clergy, proves that he had no thought of the even more audacious presumption to nominate the sovereign himself. This, then, is fatal to Mr. Birch's contention that the Empress was, on this occasion (March 3), elected "domina Angliæ." Indeed, as I have said, it is based on a confusion of the two episodes. The legate, as Mr. Birch truly says, "consented to recognize (sic) the Empress as Domina Angliæ, or Lady, that is, Supreme Governor of England," but, obviously, he could only do so on behalf of himself and of his followers. We ought, therefore, to compare his action with that of Miles of Gloucester in 1139, when, as we have seen, in the words of the Empress—

"Recepit me ut dominam et sicut illam quam justum hæredem regni Angliæ recognovit ... et ibi homagium suum mihi fecit ligie contra omnes homines."[190]

Notice here the identity of expression—the "reception" of the Empress and the "recognition" of her claims. I have termed the earlier episode the "reception," and the later the "election" of the Empress. In these terms is precisely expressed the distinction between the two events. Take for instances the very passages appealed to by Mr. Birch himself:—

"The exact words employed by William of Malmesbury are 'Nec dubitavit Episcopus Imperatricem in Dominam Angliæ recipere' (sic). In another place the same Henry de Blois declares of her, 'In Angliæ Normanniæque Dominam eligimus' (sic). This regular election of Mathildis to the dignity and office of Domina Angliæ took place on Sunday, March 2, A.D. 1141" (p. 378).

Now we know, from William of Malmesbury himself, that "the regular election in question" took place on the 8th of April, and that the second of the passages quoted above refers to this later episode,[191] while the other refers to the earlier.[192] I have drawn attention to the two words (recipere and eligimus) which he respectively applies to the "reception" and the "election." The description of this "reception" by William of Malmesbury[193] completely tallies with that which is given by the Empress herself in a charter.[194] It should further be compared with the account by the author of the Gesta Stephani, of the similar reception accorded to Stephen in 1135.[195]

But though the legate could open to the Empress the cathedral and the cathedral city, he had no power over the royal castle. This we saw in the case of Stephen, when his efforts to secure the constable's adherence were fruitless till the king himself arrived. Probably the constable, at this crisis, was the same William de Pont de l'Arche, but, whoever he was, he surrendered to the Empress the castle and all that it contained. In one respect, indeed, she was doomed to be bitterly disappointed, for the royal treasury, which her adventurous rival had found filled to overflowing, was by this time all but empty. One treasure, however, she secured; the object of her desires, the royal crown, was placed in her triumphant hands.[196]

To the one historian who has dealt with this incident it has proved a stumbling-block indeed. Mr. Freeman thus boldly attacks the problem:—

"William of Malmesbury (Hist. Nov., iii. 42) seems distinctly to exclude a coronation; he merely says, 'Honorifica factâ processione, recepta est in ecclesia episcopatus Wintoniæ.' We must, therefore, see only rhetoric when the Continuator says, 'Datur ejus dominio corona Angliæ,' and when the author of the Gesta (75) speaks of 'regisque castello, et regni coronâ, quam semper ardentissime affectârat, ... in deliberationem suam contraditis,' and adds that Henry 'dominam et reginam acclamare præcepit.' The Waverley Annalist, 1141, ventures to say, 'Corona regni est ei tradita.'"[197]

"Only rhetoric." Ah, how easily could history be written, if one could thus dispose of inconvenient evidence! So far from being "rhetoric," it is precisely because these statements are so strictly matter-of-fact that the writer failed to grasp their meaning. Had he known, or remembered, that the royal crown was preserved in the royal treasury, the passage by which he is so sorely puzzled would have proved simplicity itself.[198]

Here again, light is thrown on these events and on the action of the Empress by the precedent in the case of her father (1100), who, on the death of his brother, hastened to Winchester Castle ("ubi regalis thesaurus continebatur"), which was formally handed over to him with all that it contained ("arx cum regalibus gazis filio regis Henrico reddita est").[199]

We have yet to consider the passage from the Gesta, to which Mr. Birch so confidently appeals, and which is dismissed by Mr. Freeman as "rhetoric." The passage runs:—

"In publica se civitatis et fori audientia dominam et reginam acclamare præcepit."[200]

By a strange coincidence it has been misconstrued by both writers independently. Mr. Freeman, as we saw, takes "præcepit" as referring to Henry himself, and so does Mr. Birch.[201] Though the sentence as a whole may be obscure, yet the passage quoted is quite clear. The words are "præcepit se," not "præcepit illam." Thus the proclamation, if made, was the doing of the Empress and not of the legate. Had the legate been indeed responsible, his conduct would have been utterly inconsistent. But as it is, the difficulty vanishes.[202]

To the double style, "domina et regina," I have made reference above. My object now is to examine this assumption of the style "regina" by the Empress. It might perhaps be urged that the author of the Gesta cannot here be implicitly relied on. His narrative, however, is vigorous and consistent; it is in perfect harmony with the character of the Empress; and so far as the assumption of this style is concerned, it is strikingly confirmed by that Oxford charter, to which we are now coming. After her election (April 8), the Empress might claim, as queen elect, the royal title, but if that were excusable, which is granting much, its assumption before her election could admit of no defence. Yet, headstrong and impetuous, and thirsting for the throne, she would doubtless urge that her rival's fall rendered her at once de facto queen. But this was as yet by no means certain. Stephen's brother, as we know, was talked of, and the great nobles held aloof. The Continuator, indeed, asserts that at Winchester (March) were "præsules pene totius Angliæ, barones multi, principes plurimi" (p. 130), but William, whose authority is here supreme, does not, though writing as a partisan of the Empress, make any allusion to their presence.[203] Moreover, the primate was still in doubt, and of the five bishops who were present with the legate, three (St. David's, Hereford, and Bath) came from districts under the influence of the Empress, while the other two (Lincoln and Ely) were still smarting beneath Stephen's action of two years before (1139).

The special interest, therefore, of this bold proclamation at Winchester lies in the touch it gives us of that feminine impatience of the Empress, which led her to grasp so eagerly the crown of England in her hands, and now to anticipate, in this hasty manner, her election and formal coronation.[204]

Within a few days of her reception at Winchester, she retraced her steps as far as Wilton, where it was arranged that she should meet the primate, with whom were certain bishops and some lay folk.[205] Theobald, however, professed himself unable to render her homage until he had received from the king his gracious permission to do so.[206] For this purpose he went on to Bristol, while the Empress made her way to Oxford, and there spent Easter (March 30th).[207] We must probably assign to this occasion her admission to Oxford by Robert d'Oilli.[208] The Continuator, indeed, assigns it to May, and in this he is followed by modern historians. Mr. Freeman, for instance, on his authority, places the incident at that stage,[209] and so does Mr. Franck Bright.[210]

But the movements of the Empress, at this stage, are really difficult to determine. Between her presence at Oxford (March 30)[211] and her presence at Reading (May 5-7),[212] we know nothing for certain. One would imagine that she must have attended her own election at Winchester (April 7, 8), but the chroniclers are silent on the subject, though they, surely, would have mentioned her presence. On the whole, it seems most probable that the Continuator must be in error, when he places the adhesion of Robert d'Oilli so late as May (at Reading) and takes the Empress subsequently to Oxford, as if for the first time.

It was, doubtless, through her "brother" Robert "fitz Edith" that his step-father, Robert d'Oilli, was thus won over to her cause. It should be noted that his defection from the captive king is pointedly mentioned by the author of the Gesta, even before that of the Bishop of Winchester, thus further confirming the chronology advanced above.[213] At Oxford she received the submission of all the adjacent country,[214] and also executed an important charter. This charter Mr. Birch has printed, having apparently collated for the purpose no less than five copies.[215] Its special interest is derived from the fact that not only is it the earliest charter she is known to have issued after Stephen's fall (with the probable exception of that to Thurstan de Montfort), but it is also the only one of her charters in which we find the royal phrases "ecclesiarum regni mei" and "pertinentibus coronæ meæ." Mr. Birch writes of its testing clause ("Apud Oxeneford Anno ab Incarnatione Domini MC. quatragesimo"):

The date of this charter is very interesting, because it is the only example of an actual date calculated by expression of the years of the Incarnation, which occurs among the entire series which I have been able to collect.... Now, as the historical year in these times commenced on the 25th of March, there is no doubt but that this charter was granted to the Abbey of Hulme at some time between the 3rd and the 25th of March, A.D. 1140-41.[216]

Mr. Eyton has also independently discussed it (though his remarks are still in MS.), and detects, with his usual minute care, a difficulty, in one of the three witnesses, to which Mr. Birch does not allude.

"St. Benet of Hulme.

"The date given (1140) seems to combine with another circumstance to lead to error. Matilda's style is 'Matild' Imp. H. regis filia,' not, as usual, 'Anglorum domina.' One might therefore conclude that the deed passed before the battle of Lincoln, and so in 1140. However, this conclusion would be wrong, for though Matᵃ does not style herself Queen, she asserts in the deed Royal rights and speaks of matters pertaining 'coronæ meæ.' But we do not know that Maud was ever in Oxford before Stephen's captivity, nor can we think it. Again, it is certain that Robᵗ de Sigillo did not become Bishop of London till after Easter, 1141, for at Easter, 1142, he expressly dates his own deed 'anno primo pontif' mei.' He was almost certainly appointed when Maud was in London in July, 1141, for he attests Milo's patent of earldom on July 25."[217]

The omission of the style "Anglorum domina" is, however, strictly correct, and not, as Mr. Eyton thought, singular. For it was not till her election on the 8th of April that she became entitled to use this style. As for her assumption of the royal phrases, it is here simply ultra vires. Then, as to the attesting bishop ("R. episcopo Londoniensi"), his presence is natural, as he was a monk of Reading, and his position would seem to be paralleled by that of his predecessor Maurice, who appears as bishop in the Survey, though, probably, only elect. As her father "gave the bishopric of Winchester" the moment he was elected, and before he was crowned,[218] so the Empress "gave," it would seem, the see of London to Robert "of the Seal," even before her formal election—an act, it should be noted, thoroughly in keeping with her impetuous assumption of the regal style. Besides the bishop and the Earl of Gloucester, there is a third witness to this charter—"Reginaldo filio Regis." No one, it seems, has noticed the fact that here alone, among the charters of the Empress, Reginald attests not as an earl, which confirms the early date claimed for this charter. A charter which I assign to the following May is attested by him: "Reginaldo comite filio regis." This would seem to place his creation between the dates of these charters, i.e. circ. April (1141).[219] To sum up, the evidence of this charter is in complete agreement with that of William of Malmesbury, when he states that the Empress spent Easter (March 30) at Oxford; and we further learn from it that she must have arrived there at least as early as the 24th of March.

The fact that Mr. Freeman, in common with others, has overlooked this early visit of the Empress in March, is no doubt the cause of his having been misled, as I have shown, by the Continuator's statement.

The Assembly at Winchester took place, as has been said, on the 7th and 8th of April. William of Malmesbury was present on the occasion, and states that it was attended by the primate "and all the bishops of England."[220] This latter phrase may, however, be questioned, in the light of subsequent charter evidence.

The proceedings of this council have been well described, and are so familiar that I need not repeat them. On the 7th was the private conclave; on the 8th, the public assembly. I am tempted just to mention the curiously modern incident of the legate (who presided) commencing the proceedings by reading out the letters of apology from those who had been summoned but were unable to be present.[221] On the 8th the legate announced to the Assembly the result of the previous day's conclave:—

"filiam pacifici regis ... in Angliæ Normanniæque dominam eligimus, et ei fidem et manutenementum promittimus."[222]

On the 9th, the deputation summoned from London arrived and was informed of the decision; on the 10th the assembly was dissolved.

The point I shall here select for discussion is the meaning of the term "domina Angliæ," and the effect of this election on the position of the Empress.

First, as to the term "domina Angliæ." Its territorial character must not be overlooked. In the charters of the Empress, her style "Ang' domina" becomes occasionally, though very rarely, "Anglor' domina," proving that its right extension is "Anglorum Domina," which differs, as we have seen, from the chroniclers' phrase. The importance of the distinction is this. "Rex" is royal and national; "dominus" is feudal and territorial. We should expect, then, the first to be followed by the nation ("Anglorum"), the second by the territory ("Angliæ"). But, in addition to its normal feudal character, the term may here bear a special meaning.

It would seem that the clue to its meaning in this special sense was first discovered by the late Sir William (then Mr.) Hardy ("an ingenious and diligent young man," as he was at the time described) in 1836. He pointed out that "Dominus Anglie" was the style adopted by Richard I. "between the demise of his predecessor and his own coronation."[223] Mr. Albert Way, in a valuable paper on the charters belonging to Reading Abbey, which appeared some twenty-seven years later,[224] called attention to the styles "Anglorum Regina" and "Anglorum Domina," as used by the Empress.[225] As to the former, he referred to the charter of the Empress at Reading, granting lands to Reading Abbey.[226] As to the latter ("Domina Anglorum"), he quoted Mr. Hardy's paper on the charter of Richard I., and urged that "the fact that Matilda was never crowned Queen of England may suffice to account for her being thus styled" (p. 283). He further quoted from William of Malmesbury the two passages in which that chronicler applies this style to the Empress,[227] and he carefully avoided assigning them both to the episode of the 2nd of March. Lastly, he quoted the third passage, that in the Gesta Stephani.

Mr. Birch subsequently read a paper "On the Great Seals of King Stephen" before the Royal Society of Literature (December 17, 1873), in which he referred to Mr. Way's paper, as the source of one of the charters of which he gave the text, and in which he embodied Mr. Way's observations on the styles "Regina" and "Domina."[228] But instead, unfortunately, of merely following in Mr. Way's footsteps, he added the startling error that Stephen was a prisoner, and Matilda consequently in power, till 1143. He wrote thus:—

"Did the king ever cease to exercise his regal functions? Were these functions performed by any other constitutional sovereign meanwhile? The events of the year 1141 need not to be very lengthily discussed to demonstrate that for a brief period there was a break in Stephen's sovereignty, and a corresponding assumption of royal power by another ruler unhindered and unimpeached by the lack of any formality necessary for its full enjoyment.... William of Malmesbury, writing with all the opportunity of an eye-witness, and moving in the royal court at the very period, relates at full length in his Historia Novella (ed. Hardy, for Historical Society, vol. ii. p. 774[229]), the particulars of the conference held at Winchester subsequent to the capture of Stephen after the battle of Lincoln, in the early part of the year, 4 Non. Feb. A.D. 1141.... This election of Matilda as Domina of England in place of Stephen took place on Sunday, March 2, 1141.... Until the liberation of the king from his incarceration at Bristol, as a sequel to the battle at Winchester in A.D. 1143, so disastrous to the hopes of the Empress, she held her position as queen at London. The narrative of the events of this period, as given by William of Malmesbury in the work already quoted, so clearly points to her enjoyment of all temporal power needed to constitute a sovereign, that we must admit her name among the regnant queens of England" (pp. 12-14).

Two years later (June 9, 1875), Mr. Birch read a paper before the British Archæological Association,[230] in which, in the same words, he advanced the same thesis.

The following year (June 28, 1876), in an instructive paper read before the Royal Society of Literature,[231] Mr. Birch wrote thus:—

"As an example of new lights which the study of early English seals has thus cast upon our history (elucidations, as it were, of facts which have escaped the keen research of every one of our illustrious band of historians and chroniclers for upwards of seven hundred years), an examination into the history of the seal of Mathildis or Maud, the daughter and heiress of King Henry I. (generally known as the Empress Maud, or Mathildis Imperatrix, from the fact of her marriage with the Emperor Henry V. of Germany), has resulted in my being fortunately enabled to demonstrate that royal lady's undisputed right to a place in all tables or schemes of sovereigns of England; nevertheless it is, I believe, a very remarkable fact that her position with regard to the throne of England should have been so long, so universally, and so persistently ignored, by all those whose fancy has led them to accept facts at second hand, or from perfunctory inquiries into the sources of our national history rather than from careful step-by-step pursuit of truth through historical tracks which, like indistinct paths in the primæval forest, often lead the wanderer into situations which at the outset could not have been foreseen. In a paper on this subject which I prepared last year, and which is now published in the Journal of the British Archæological Association, I have fully explained my views of the propriety of inserting the name of Mathildis or Maud as Queen of England into the History Tables under the date of 1141-1143; and as this position has never as yet been impugned, we may take it that it is right in the main; and I have shown that until the liberation of King Stephen from his imprisonment at Bristol, as a sequel to the battle at Winchester in 1143 (so disastrous to the prospects of Mathildis), she held her position as queen, most probably at London....

"Now, I have introduced this apparent digression in this place to point to the importance of the study of historical seals, for my claim to the restoration of this queen's name is not due so much to my own researches as it is to the unaccountable oversight of others."[232]

I fear that, notwithstanding Mr. Birch's criticism on all who have gone before him, a careful analysis of the subject will reveal that the only addition he has made to our previous knowledge on this subject, as set forth in Mr. Way's papers, consists in two original and quite incomprehensible errors: one of them, the assigning of Maud's election to the episode of the 2nd and 3rd of March, instead of to that of the 7th and 8th of April (1141); the other, the assigning of Stephen's liberation to 1143 instead of 1141. When we correct these two errors, springing (may we say, in Mr. Birch's words?) "from perfunctory inquiries into the sources of our national history rather than from careful step-by-step pursuit of the truth," we return to the status quo ante, as set forth in Mr. Way's paper, and find that "the unaccountable oversight," by all writers before Mr. Birch, of the fact that the Empress "held her position as queen," for more than two years, "most probably at London," is due to the fact that her said rule lasted only a few months, or rather, indeed, a few weeks, while in London itself it was numbered by days.

But though it has been necessary to speak plainly on Mr. Birch's unfortunate discovery, one can probably agree with his acceptance of the view set forth by Mr. Hardy, and espoused by Mr. Way, that the style "domina" represents that "dominus" which was used as "a temporary title for the newly made monarch during the interval which was elapsing between the death of the predecessor and the coronation day of the living king."[233] To Mr. Hardy's instance of Richard's style, "Dominus Angl[iæ]," August, 1189, we may add, I presume, that of John, "Dominus Angliæ," April 17th and 29th, (1199).[234] Now, if this usage be clearly established, it is certainly a complete explanation of a style of which historians have virtually failed to grasp the relevance.

But a really curious parallel, which no one has pointed out, is that afforded in the reign immediately preceding this, by the case of the king's second wife. Great importance is rightly attached to "the election of the Empress as 'domina Angliæ'" (as Dr. Stubbs describes it[235]), and to the words which William of Malmesbury places in the legate's mouth;[236] and yet, though the fact is utterly ignored, the very same formula of election is used in the case of Queen "Adeliza," twenty years before (1121)!

The expression there used by the Continuator is this: "Puella prædicta, in regni dominam electa, ... regi desponsatur" (ii. 75). That is to say that before her marriage (January 29) and formal coronation as queen (January 30) she was elected, it would seem, "Domina Angliæ." The phrase "in regni dominam electa" precisely describes the status of the Empress after her election at Winchester, and before that formal coronation at Westminster which, as I maintain, was fully intended to follow. We might even go further still, and hold that the description of Adeliza as "futuram regni dominam,"[237] when the envoys were despatched to fetch her, implies that she had been so elected at that great Epiphany council, in which the king "decrevit sibi in uxorem Atheleidem."[238] But I do not wish to press the parallel too far. In any case, precisely as with the Empress afterwards, she was clearly "domina Angliæ" before she was crowned queen. And, if "electa" means elected, the fact that these two passages, referring to the two elections (1121 and 1141), come from two independent chronicles proves that the terms employed are no idiosyncracy, but refer to a recognized practice of the highest constitutional interest.

Of course the fact that the same expression is applied to the election of Queen "Adeliza" as to that of the Empress herself, detracts from the importance of the latter event, regarded as an election to the throne.

At the same time, I hold that we should remember, as in the case of Stephen, the feudal bearing of "dominus." For herein lies its difference from "Rex." The "dominatus" of the Empress over England is attained step by step.[239] At Cirencester, at Winchester, at Oxford, she becomes "domina" in turn.[240] Not so with the royal title. She could be "lady" of a city or of a man: she could be "queen" of nothing less than England.

I must, however, with deep regret, differ widely from Mr. Birch in his conclusions on the styles adopted by the Empress. These he classes under three heads.[241] The second ("Mathildis Imperatrix Henrici regis filia et Anglorum regina") is found in only two charters, which I agree with him in assigning "to periods closely consecutive," not indeed to the episode of March 2 and 3, but to that of April 7 and 8. Of his remaining twenty-seven charters, thirteen belong to his first class and fourteen to his third, a proportion which makes it hard to understand why he should speak of the latter as "by far the most frequent."

Of the first class ("Mathildis Imperatrix Henrici Regis filia") Mr. Birch writes:—

"It is most probable that these documents are to be assigned to a period either before the death of her father, King Henry I., or at most to the initial years of Stephen, before any serious attempt had been made to obtain the possession of the kingdom."

Now, it is absolutely certain that not a single one of them can be assigned to the period suggested, that not one of them is previous to that 2nd of March (1141) which Mr. Birch selects as his turning-point, still less to "the death of her father" (1135). Nay, on Mr. Birch's own showing, the first and most important of these documents should be dated "between the 3rd of March and the 24th of July, A.D. 1141" (p. 380), and two others (Nos. 21, 28) "must be ascribed to a date between 1149 and 1151" (p. 397 n.). Nor is even this all, for as in two others the son of the Empress is spoken of as "King Henry," they must be as late as the reign of Henry II.

So, also, with the third class ("Mathildis Imperatrix Henrici regis filia et Anglorum domina"), of which we are told that it—

"was in the first instance adopted—I mean used—in those charters which contain the word and were promulgated between A.D. 1135 and A.D. 1141, by reason of the ceremony of coronation not yet having been performed; and with regard to those charters which are placed subsequent to A.D. 1141, either because the ceremony was still unperformed, although she had the possession of the crown, or because of some stipulation with her opponents in power" (p. 383).

Here, again, it is absolutely certain that not a single one of these charters was "promulgated between A.D. 1135 and A.D. 1141." We have, therefore, no evidence that the Empress, in her charters, adopted this style until the election of April 7 and 8 (1141) enabled her justly to do so. But the fact is that Mr. Birch's theory is not only based, as we have seen, on demonstrably erroneous hypotheses, but must be altogether abandoned as opposed to every fact of the case. For the two styles which he thus distinguishes were used at the same time, and even in the same document. For instance, in the very first of Mr. Birch's documents, that great charter to Geoffrey de Mandeville, to which we shall come, in the next chapter, issued at the height of Matilda's power, and on the eve, as we shall see, of her intended coronation, "Anglorum domina" is omitted from her style, and the document is therefore, by Mr. Birch, assigned to the first of his classes. Yet I shall show that in a portion of the charter which has perished, and which is therefore unknown to Mr. Birch, her style is immediately repeated with the addition "Anglorum Domina." It is clear, then, on Mr. Birch's own showing, that this document should be assigned both to his first and to his third classes, and, consequently, that the distinction he attempts to draw has no foundation in fact.

Mr. Birch's thesis would, if sound, be a discovery of such importance that I need not apologize for establishing, by demonstration, that it is opposed to the whole of the evidence which he himself so carefully collected. And when we read of Stephen's "incarceration at Bristol, which was not terminated until the battle of Winchester in A.D. 1143, when the hopes of the Empress were shattered" (p. 378), it is again necessary to point out that her flight from Winchester took place not in 1143, but in September, 1141. Mr. Birch's conclusion is thus expressed:—

"We may, therefore, take it as fairly shown that until the liberation of the king from his imprisonment at Bristol (as a sequel to the battle at Winchester in A.D. 1143, so disastrous to the queen's hopes) she held her position, as queen, most probably at London," etc. (p. 380).

Here, as before, it is needful to remember that the date is all wrong, and that the triumph of the Empress, so far from lasting two years or more, lasted but for a few months of the year 1141, in the course of which she was not at London for more than a few days.

And now let us turn to my remaining point, "the effect of this election on the position of the Empress."

To understand this, we must glance back at the precedents of the four preceding reigns. The Empress, as I have shown, had followed these precedents in making first for Winchester: she had still to follow them in securing her coronation and anointing at Westminster. It is passing strange that all historians should have lost sight of this circumstance. For the case of her own father, in whose shoes she claimed to stand, was the aptest precedent of all. As he had been elected at Winchester, and then crowned at Westminster, so would she, following in his footsteps. The growing importance of London had been recognized in successive coronations from the Conquest, and now that it was rapidly supplanting Winchester as the destined capital of the realm, it would be more essential than ever that the coronation should there take place, and secure not merely the prestige of tradition, but the assent of the citizens of London.[242]

It has not, however, so far as I know, occurred to any writer that it was the full intention of the Empress and her followers that she should be crowned and anointed queen, and that, like those who had gone before her, she should be so crowned at Westminster. It is because they failed to grasp this that Dr. Stubbs and Mr. Freeman are both at fault. The former writes:—

"Matilda became the Lady of the English; she was not crowned, because perhaps the solemn consecration which she had received as empress sufficed, or perhaps Stephen's royalty was so far forth indefeasible."[243]

"No attempt was made to crown the Empress; the legate simply proposes that she should be elected Lady of England and Normandy. It is just possible that the consecration which she had once received as empress might be regarded as superseding the necessity of a new ceremony of the kind, but it is far more likely that, so long as Stephen was alive and not formally degraded, the right conferred on him by coronation was regarded as so far indefeasible that no one else could be allowed to share it."[244]

Dr. Stubbs appears here to imply that we should have expected her coronation to follow her election. And in this he is clearly right. Mr. Freeman, however, oddly enough, seems to have looked for it before her election. This is the more strange in a champion of the elective principle. He writes thus of her reception at Winchester, five weeks before her election:—

"If Matilda was to reign, her reign needed to begin by something which might pass for an election and coronation. But her followers, Bishop Henry at their head, seem to have shrunk from the actual crowning and anointing ceremonies, which—unless Sexburh had, ages before, received the royal consecration—had never, either in England or in Gaul, been applied to a female ruler. Matilda was solemnly received in the cathedral church of Winchester; she was led by two bishops, the legate himself and Bernard of St. David's, as though to receive the crown and unction, but no crowning and no unction is spoken of."[245]

At the same time, he recurs to the subject, after describing the election, thus:—

"Whether any consecration was designed to follow, whether at such consecration she would have been promoted to the specially royal title, we are not told."[246]

But all this uncertainty is at once dispelled when we learn what was really intended. Taken in conjunction with the essential fact that "domina" possessed the special sense of the interim royal title, the intention of the Empress to be crowned at Westminster, and so to become queen in name as well as queen in deed, gives us the key to the whole problem. It explains, moreover, the full meaning of John of Hexham's words, when he writes that "David rex videns multa competere in imperatricis neptis suæ promotionem post Ascensionem Domini (May 8) ad eam in Suth-Anglia profectus est ... plurimosque ex principibus sibi acquiescentes habuit ut ipsa promoveretur ad totius regni fastigium." We shall see how this intention was only foiled by the sudden uprising of the citizens; and in the names of the witnesses to Geoffrey's charter we shall behold those, "tam episcopi quam cinguli militaris viri, qui ad dominam inthronizandam pomposé Londonias et arroganter convenerant."[247]

[161] Will. Malms., p. 724; Gesta Stephani, p. 56.

[162] Will. Malms., p. 724. See Appendix E.

[163] Such are the alternatives presented by Henry of Huntingdon (p. 266). The treacherous counsel alluded to was that of his brother the legate (Gesta Stephani, p. 57). According to John of Hexham (Sym. Dun. ii. 302), Stephen acted "ex indiscretâ animi simplicitate."

[164] Will. Malms., p. 725.

[165] See Appendix F: "The Defection of Miles of Gloucester."

[166] Will. Malms., p. 725; Cont. Flor., p. 118. Here the Continuator's chronology is irreconcilable with that of our other authorities. He states that the Empress removed to Gloucester on October 15, after a stay of two months at Bristol. This is, of course, consistent, it should be noticed, with the date (August 1) assigned by him for her landing.

[167] The text is taken from the transcript in Lansdowne MS. 229, fol. 123, collated with Dugdale's transcript in his MSS. at the Bodleian Library (L. 21). It will be seen that Dugdale transcribed verbatim, while the other transcript begins in narratio obliqua.

[168] "Sciatis quod" (D.).

[169] "Mei" (D.).

[170] "Me" (D.).

[171] These were specially excepted from the grants of royal demesne made by Henry II. to his son, the second earl.

[172] Cont. Flor., p. 129; Will. Malms., p. 712; Gesta, p. 72.

[173] Ibid.; John Hex., p. 308; Hen. Hunt., p. 275.

[174] Gesta, p. 72.

[175] "Ob illiusmodi eventum vehementer exhilarata, utpote regnum sibi juratum, sicut sibi videbatur, jam adepta" (Cont. Flor., p. 130).

[176] Cont. Flor., 130.

[177] "Simul et ejusdem civitatis sumens dominium" (ibid.).

[178] "Ut ipsam tanquam regis Henrici filiam et cui omnis Anglia et Normannia jurata esset, incunctanter in ecclesiam et regnum reciperet" (Will. Malms., p. 743). Compare the writer's description of the oath (1127) that the magnates "imperatricem incunctanter et sine ullâ retractione dominam susciperent" (p. 690).

[179] Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 389. Mr. Howlett asserts that the evidence of William of Malmesbury as to the date (2nd and 3rd of March) "is refuted" by this charter, which places them a fortnight earlier (Introduction to Gesta Stephani, p. xxii.). But I do not think the evidence of the charter is sufficiently strong to overthrow the accepted date.

[180] "Pluvioso et nebuloso die" (Will. Malms., p. 743).

[181] Cont. Flor., p. 130; Will. Malms., p. 743.

[182] "Juravit et affidavit imperatrix episcopo, quod omnia majora negotia in Anglia, precipueque donationes episcopatuum et abbatiarum, ejus nutum spectarent, si eam ipse in sancta ecclesia in dominam reciperet, et perpetuam ei fidelitatem teneret. Idem juraverunt cum ea, et affidaverunt pro ea, Robertus frater ejus comes de Gloecestrâ, et Brianus filius comitis marchio de Walingeford et Milo de Gloecestrâ, postea comes de Hereford, et nonnulli alii. Nec dubitavit episcopus imperatricem in dominam Angliæ recipere et ei cum quibusdam suis affidare, quod, quamdiu ipsa pactum non infringeret, ipse quoque fidem ei custodiret" (Will. Malms., 743, 744). The parallel afforded by the customs of Bigorre, as recorded (it is alleged) in 1097, is so striking as to deserve being quoted here. Speaking of the reception of a new lord, they provide that "antequam habitatorum terræ fidejussores accipiat, fide sua securos eos faciat ne extra consuetudines patrias vel eas in quibus eos invenerit aliquod educat; hoc autem sacramento et fide quatuor nobilium terræ faciat confirmari."

[183] "Crastino, quod fuit quinto nonas Martii, honorifica facta processione recepta est in ecclesia episcopatus Wintoniæ," etc., etc. (ibid.).

[184] Const. Hist., i. 326 (note); Early Plantagenets, 22.

[185] English History for the Use of Public Schools, i. 83. The mistake may have arisen from a confusion with the departure of the Empress from Winchester a few days ("paucis post diebus") after her reception.

[186] History of England during the Early and Middle Ages, i. 478.

[187] Journ. Brit. Arch. Ass., xxxi. 377-380.

[188] Norm. Conq., v. 303. At the same time it is right to add that this is not a question of accuracy, but merely of treatment. In the marginal notes the two episodes are respectively assigned to their correct dates.

[189] Const. Hist., i. 318.

[190] Compare also, even further back, the action, in Normandy, of Gingan Algasil in December, 1135, who, on the appearance of the Empress, "[eam] ut naturalem dominam suscepit, eique ... oppida quibus ut vicecomes, jubente rege præerat, subegit" (Ord. Vit., v. 56).

[191] Will. Malms., p. 747.

[192] Ibid., p. 743.

[193] "Honorifica facta processione recepta est in ecclesia" (p. 744).

[194] "Idem prelatus et cives Wintonie honorifice in ecclesia et urbe Wintonie me receperunt" (Journ. Brit. Arch. Ass., xxxi. 378)

[195] "Præsul Wintonie ... cum dignioribus Wintonie civibus obvius ei advenit, habitoque in communi brevi colloquio, in civitatem, secundam duntaxat regni sedem, honorifice induxit" (p. 5). Note that in each case the "colloquium" preceded the entry.

[196] "Regisque castello, et regni coronâ, quam semper ardentissimé affectârat thesaurisque quos licet perpaucos rex ibi reliquerat, in deliberationem suam contraditis" (Gesta, 75).

[197] Norm. Conquest, v. 804 (note).

[198] As an instance of the crown being kept at Winchester, take the entry in the Pipe-Roll of 4 Hen. II.: "In conducendis coronis Regis ad Wirecestre de Wintoniâ," the crowns being taken out to be worn at Worcester, Easter, 1158. Oddly enough, Mr. Freeman himself alludes, in its place, to a similar taking out of the crown, from the treasury at Winchester, to be worn at York, Christmas, 1069. The words of Ordericus, as quoted by him, are: "Guillelmus ex civitate Guentâ jubet adferri coronam, aliaque ornamenta regalia et vasa" (cf. Dialogus, I. 14).

[199] Ordericus Vitalis.

[200] Gesta, 75; Journ. Brit. Arch. Ass., xxxi. 378.

[201] "He (sic) ordered that she should be proclaimed lady and queen."

[202] The Gesta itself is, on this point, conclusive, for it distinctly states that the Empress "solito severius, solito et arrogantius procedere et loqui, et cuncta cœpit peragere, adeo ut in ipso mox domini sui capite reginam se totius Angliæ fecerit, et gloriata fuerit appellari."

[203] Will. Malms., 744.

[204] To this visit (if the only occasion on which she was at Winchester in the spring) must belong the Empress's charter to Thurstan de Montfort. As it is not comprised in Mr. Birch's collection, I subjoin it in extenso (from Dugdale's MSS.):—

"M. Imperatrix H. Regis filia Rogero Comiti de Warwick et omnibus fidelibus suis Francis et Anglis de Warewicscire salutem. Sciatis me concessisse Thurstino de Monteforti quod habeat mercatum die dominica ad castellum suum de Bellodeserto. Volo igitur et firmiter præcipio quatenus omnes euntes, et stantes, et redeuntes de Mercato prædicto habeant firmam pacem. T. Milone de Glocestria. Apud Wintoniam."

As Milo attests not as an earl, this charter cannot belong to the subsequent visit to Winchester in the summer. The author of the Gesta mentions the Earl of Warwick among those who joined the Empress at once "sponte nulloque cogente."

[205] Cont. Flor. Wig., p. 130.

[206] This he did on the ground that the recognition of Stephen as king by the pope, in 1136, was binding on all ecclesiastics (Historia Pontificalis). Vide infra, p. 69, n. 1.

[207] Will. Malms., p. 744. Oddly enough, Miss Norgate gives this very reference for her statement that in a few days the Archbishop of Canterbury followed the legate's example, and swore fealty to the Empress at Wilton.

[208] "Convenitur ibi ab eadem de principibus unus, vocabulo Robertus de Oileio, de reddendo Oxenfordensi castello; quo consentiente, venit illa, totiusque civitatis et circumjacentis regionis suscepit dominium atque hominium" (Cont. Flor. Wig., p. 131).

[209] "She then made her way to London by a roundabout path. She was received at Oxford by the younger Robert of Oily," etc. (Norm. Conq., v. 306).

[210] English History, I. 83.

[211] Will. Malms.

[212] Cont. Flor. Wig.

[213] "Aliis quoque sponte, nulloque cogente, ad comitissæ imperium conversis (ut Robertus de Oli, civitatis Oxenefordiæ sub rege præceptor, et comes ille de Warwic, viri molles, et deliciis magis quam animi fortitudine affluentes)" (p. 74).

[214] Cont. Flor. Wig. (ut supra).

[215] Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 388, 389. It will also be found in the Monasticon (iii. 87).

[216] Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. p. 379.

[217] Addl. MSS., 31,943, fol. 118.

[218] Ang. Sax. Chron., A.D. 1100.

[219] Relying on the explicit statement of the chronicler (Will. Malms., p. 732), that the Earl of Gloucester "fratrem etiam suum Reinaldum in tanta difficultate temporis comitem Cornubiæ creavit," historians and antiquaries have assigned this creation to 1140 (see Stubbs' Const. Hist., i. 362, n.; Courthope's Historic Peerage; Doyle's Official Baronage). In the version of Reginald's success given by the author of the Gesta, there is no mention of this creation, but that may, of course, be rejected as merely negative evidence. The above charter, however, certainly raises the question whether he had indeed been created earl at the time when he thus attested it. The point may be deemed of some importance as involving the question whether the Empress did really create an earl before the triumph of her cause.

[220] "Concilium archiepiscopi Cantuariæ Thedbaldi, et omnium episcoporum Angliæ" (p. 744). Strange to say, Professor Pearson (I. 478) states that "Theobald remained faithful" to Stephen, though he had now formally joined the Empress. On the other hand, "Stephen's queen and William of Ypres" are represented by him as present, though they were far away, preparing for resistance. An important allusion to the primate's conduct at this time is found (under 1148) in the Historia Pontificalis (Pertz's Monumenta Historica, vol. xx.), where we read "propter obedienciam sedis apostolicæ proscriptus fuerat, quando urgente mandato domni Henrici Wintoniensis episcopi tunc legationem fungentis in Anglia post alios episcopos omnes receperat Imperatricem ... licet inimicissimos habuerit regem et consiliarios suos."

[221] "Si qui defuerunt, legatis et literis causas cur non venissent dederunt.... Egregie quippe memini, ipsâ die, post recitata scripta excusatoria quibus absentiam suam quidem tutati sunt," etc. (Will. Malms., pp. 744, 745). Is it possible that we have, in "legati," a hint at attendance by proxy?

[222] Ibid., p. 746.

[223] Archæologia, xxvii. 110. See the charter in question in the Pipe-Roll Society's "Ancient Charters," Part I., p. 92.

[224] Arch. Journ. (1863), xx. 281-296.

[225] Ibid., p. 283. Mr. Way adopts the extension "Anglorum" throughout.

[226] "The only instances in which we have documentary evidence that she styled herself Queen of England occur in two charters of this period" (ibid.).

[227] Vide supra, pp. 61, 69.

[228] Pp. xi.-xiv. (see footnotes).

[229] The volume closes at p. 769.

[230] "A Fasciculus of the Charters of Mathildis, Empress of the Germans, and an Account of her Great Seal" (Journ. Brit. Arch. Ass., xxxi. 376-398).

[231] "On the Seals of King Henry the Second and of his Son, the so-called Henry the Third" (Transactions, vol. xi. part 2, New Series).

[232] Pp. 2, 3.

[233] Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 383.

[234] Wells Liber Albus, fol. 10 (Hist. MSS. Report on Wells MSS.).

[235] Const. Hist., i. 326, 341, 342.

[236] "In Angliæ Normanniæque dominam eligimus."

[237] Cont. Flor. Wig., ii. 75. See Addenda.

[238] Ibid.

[239] "Pleraque tunc pars Angliæ dominatum ejus suscipiebat" (Will. Malms., p. 749).

[240] "Ejusdem civitatis sumens dominium ... totiusque civitatis suscepit dominium," etc. (Cont. Flor. Wig.).

[241] Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 382, 383.

[242] It is very singular that Mr. Freeman failed to perceive this parallel, since he himself writes of Henry (1100). "The Gemót of election was held at Winchester while the precedents of three reigns made it seem matter of necessity that the unction and coronation should be done at Westminster" (Will. Rufus, ii. 348). Such an admission as this is sufficient to prove my case.

[243] Early Plantagenets, 22.

[244] Const. Hist., i. 339.

[245] Norm. Conq., v. 303, 304. The footnote to this statement ("William of Malmesbury seems distinctly to exclude a coronation," etc., etc.) has been already given (ante, p. 62). Mr. Birch confusing, as we have seen, the reception of the Empress with her election, naturally looks, like Mr. Freeman, to the former as the time when she ought to have been crowned: "The crown of England's sovereigns was handed over to her, a kind of seizin representing that the kingdom of England was under the power of her hands (although it does not appear that any further ceremony connected with the rite of coronation was then performed)" (Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. p. 378). This assumes that the crown was "handed over to her" at a "ceremony" in the cathedral, whereas, as I explained, my own view is that she obtained it with the royal castle.

[246] Norm. Conq., v. p. 305.

[247] Gesta, 79. In the word "inthronizandam," I contend, is to be found the confirmation of my theory, based on comparison and induction, of an intended coronation at Westminster. So far as I know, attention has never been drawn to it before.

CHAPTER IV.
THE FIRST CHARTER OF THE EMPRESS.

Though the election of the Empress, says William of Malmesbury, took place immediately after Easter, it was nearly midsummer before the Londoners would receive her.[248] Hence her otherwise strange delay in proceeding to the scene of her coronation. An incidental allusion leads us to believe that this interregnum was marked by tumult and bloodshed in London. We learn that Aubrey de Vere was killed on the 9th of May, in the course of a riot in the city.[249] This event has been assigned by every writer that I have consulted to the May of the previous year (1140), and this is the date assigned in the editor's marginal note.[250] The context, however, clearly shows that it belongs to 1141. Aubrey was a man of some consequence. He had been actively employed by Henry I. in the capacity of justice and of sheriff, and was also a royal chamberlain. His death, therefore, was a notable event, and one is tempted to associate with it the fact that he was father-in-law to Geoffrey. It is not impossible that, on that occasion, they may have been acting in concert, and resisting a popular movement of the citizens, whether directed against the Empress or against Geoffrey himself.

The comparison of the Empress's advance on London with that of her grandfather, in similar circumstances, is of course obvious. The details, however, of the latter are obscure, and Mr. Parker, we must remember, has gravely impugned the account of it given in the Norman Conquest.[251]

Of the ten weeks which appear to have elapsed between the election of the Empress and her reception in London, we know little or nothing. Early in May she came to Reading,[252] the Continuator's statement to that effect being confirmed by a charter which, to all appearance, passed on this occasion.[253] It is attested by her three constant companions, the Earl of Gloucester, Brian fitz Count, and Miles of Gloucester (acting as her constable), together with John (fitz Gilbert) the marshal, and her brothers Reginald (now an earl)[254] and Robert (fitz Edith).[255] But a special significance is to be found in the names of the five attesting bishops (Winchester, Lincoln, Ely, St. David's, and Hereford). They are, it will be found, the same five who attest the charter to Geoffrey de Mandeville (midsummer), and they are also the five who (with the Bishop of Bath) had attended, in March, the Empress at Winchester. This creates a strong presumption that, in despite of chroniclers' vague assertions, the number of bishops who joined the Empress was, even if not limited to these, at least extremely small.[256]

This is one of the two charters in which the Empress employs the style "Regina." It is probable that the other also should be assigned to this period.[257] These two exceptional cases would thus belong to the interim period during which she was queen elect, though technically only "domina." Here again the fact that, during this period, she adopted, alternatively, both styles ("regina" and "domina"), as well as that which Mr. Birch assigns to his first period, proves how impossible it is to classify these styles by date.

If we reject the statement that from Reading she returned to Oxford,[258] the only other stage in her progress that is named is that of her reception at St. Albans.[259] In this case also the evidence of a charter confirms that of the chronicler.[260] At St. Albans she received a deputation from London, and the terms on which the city agreed to receive her must have been here finally arranged.[261] She then proceeded in state to Westminster,[262] no doubt by the Edgware Road, the old Roman highway, and was probably met by the citizens and their rulers, according to the custom, at Knightsbridge.[263]

Meanwhile, she had been joined in her progress by her uncle, the King of Scots, who had left his realm about the middle of May for the purpose of attending her coronation.[264]

The Empress, according to William of Malmesbury, reached London only a few days before the 24th of June.[265] This is the sole authority we have for the date of her visit, except the statement by Trivet that she arrived on the 21st (or 26th) of April.[266] This latter date we may certainly reject. If we combine the statement that her flight took place on Midsummer Day[267] with that of the Continuator that her visit lasted for "some days,"[268] they harmonize fairly enough with that of William of Malmesbury. If it was, indeed, after a few days that her visit was so rudely cut short, we are able to understand why she left without the intended coronation taking place.

From another and quite independent authority, we obtain the same day (June 24th) as the date of her flight from London, together with a welcome and important glimpse of her doings. The would-be Bishop of Durham, William Cumin, had come south with the King of Scots (whose chancellor he was), accompanied by certain barons of the bishopric and a deputation from the cathedral chapter. Nominally, this deputation was to claim from the Empress and the legate a confirmation of the chapter's canonical right of free election; but, in fact, it was composed of William's adherents, who purposed to secure from the Empress and the legate letters to the chapter in his favour. The legate not having arrived at court when they reached the Empress, she deferred her reply till he should join her. In the result, however, the two differed; for, while the legate, warned from Durham, refused to support William, the Empress, doubtless influenced by her uncle, had actually agreed, as sovereign, to give him the ring and staff, and would undoubtedly have done so, but for the Londoners' revolt.[269] It must be remembered that, for her own sake, the Empress would welcome every opportunity of exercising sovereign rights, as in her prompt bestowal of the see of London upon Robert. And though she lost her chance of actually investing William, she had granted, before her flight, letters commending him for election.[270]

Thus we obtain the date of the charter which is the subject of this chapter. In this case alone was Mr. Eyton right in the dates he assigned to these documents. Nor, indeed, is it possible to be mistaken. For this charter can only have passed on the occasion of this, the only visit that the Empress paid to Westminster. Yet, even here, Mr. Eyton's date is not absolutely correct. For he holds that it "passed in the short period during which Maud was in London, i.e. between June 24 and July 25, 1141";[271] whereas "June 24" is the probable date of her departure, and not of her arrival, which was certainly previous to that day.

There is but one other document (besides a comparatively insignificant precept[272]) which can be positively assigned to this visit.[273] This consideration alone would invest our charter with interest, but when we add to this its great length, its list of witnesses, and its intrinsic importance, it may be claimed as one of the most instructive documents of this obscure and eventful period.

Of the original, now among the Cottonian Charters (xvi. 27), Mr. Birch, who is exceptionally qualified to pronounce upon these subjects, has given us as complete a transcript as it is now possible to obtain.[274] To this he has appended the following remarks:—

"This most important charter, one of the earliest, if not the earliest example of the text of a deed creating a peerage, does not appear to have been ever published. I cannot find the text in any printed book or MS. Fortunately Sir William Dugdale inspected this charter before it had been injured in the disastrous Cottonian fire, which destroyed so many invaluable evidences of British history. In his account of the Mandevilles, Earls of Essex (Baronage, vol. i. p. 202) he says that 'this is the most antient creation-charter, which hath ever been known, vide Selden's Titles of Honour, p. 647,' and he gives an English rendering of the greater portion of the Latin text, which has enabled me to conjecture several emendations and restorations in the above transcript."

Mr. Birch having thus, like preceding antiquaries, borne witness to the interest attaching to "this most important charter," it is with special satisfaction that I find myself enabled to print a transcript of the entire document, supplying, there is every reason to believe, a complete and accurate text. Nor will it only enable us to restore the portions of the charter now wanting,[275] for it further convicts the great Dugdale of no less serious an error than the omission of two most important witnesses and the garbling of the name of a third.[276]

The accuracy of my authorities can be tested by collation with those portions of the original that are still perfect. This test is quite satisfactory, as is also that of comparing one of the passages they supply with Camden's transcript of that same passage, taken from the original charter. Camden's extract, of the existence of which Mr. Birch was evidently not aware, was printed by him in his Ordines Anglicani,[277] from which it is quoted by Selden in his well-known Titles of Honour.[278] It is further quoted, as from Camden and Selden, at the head of the Patents of Creation appended to the Lords' Reports on the Dignity of a Peer,[279] as also in the Third Report itself (where the marginal reference, however, is wrong).[280] It is specially interesting from Camden's comment: "This is the most ancient creation-charter that I ever saw" (which is clearly the origin of the statement as to its unique antiquity), and from the fact of that great antiquary speaking of it as "now in my hands."

The two transcripts I have employed for the text (D. and A.) are copies respectively found in the Dugdale MSS. (L. fol. 81) and the Ashmole MSS. (841, fol. 3). I have reason to believe that this charter was among those duly recorded in the missing volume of the Great Coucher.

Charter of the Empress to Geoffrey de Mandeville
(Midsummer, 1141).

M. Imperatrix regis Henrici filia Archiepiscopis Episcopis Abbatibus (Comitibus Baronibus Justiciariis Vicecomitibus et ministris et omnibus baronibus et fidelibus) suis Francis et Anglis totius Angliæ et Normanniæ salutem. (Sciatis omnes tam præsentes quam futuri quod Ego Matildis regis Henrici filia et Anglor[um] domina) do et concedo Gaufrido de Magnavillâ (pro servitio suo et heredibus suis post eum hereditabiliter ut sit comes de Essex[iâ] et habeat tertium denarium Vicecomitatus de placitis sicut comes habere debet in comitatu suo[281] in omnibus rebus, et præter hoc reddo illi in feodo et hereditate de me et heredibus meis totam terram quam) tenuit[282] (Gaufridus de Magnavilla avus suus et Serlo de Matom in Angliâ et Normanniâ ita libere et[282]) bene et quiete sicut aliquis antecessorum suorum illam unquam melius (et liberius tenuit, vel ipsemet) postea (aliquo in tempore, sibi dico) et heredibus suis (post eum), et concedo illi et heredibus suis Custodiam turris Londonie (cum parvo Castello quod) fuit Ravengeri in feodo et hereditate de me (et heredibus) meis cum terris et liberationibus et omnibus Consuetudinibus quæ ad (eandem terram[283]) pertinerent, et ut inforciet illa secundum voluntatem suam. (Et similiter[284]) do ei et concedo et heredibus suis C libratas terræ de me et de (heredibus) meis in dominio, videlicet Niweport[285] pro tanto quantum reddere solebat die qua rex H[enricus] pater meus fuit vivus et mortuus, et ad rem(ovend') mercatum de Niweport in Castellum suum de Waldena cum omnibus Consuetudinibus que prius mercato illi melius pertinuerunt in (Thelon[eo] et passag[io][286]) et aliis consuetudinibus, (et) ut vie de Niweport quæ sunt juxta littus aquæ[287] dirigantur ex consuetudine ad Waledenam (sup[er] foris) facturam meam et Mercatum de Waldenâ sit ad diem dominicam et ad diem Jovis et ut feria[288] habeatur apud Waledenam et incipiat in (Vigiliâ Pentecost[289]) et duret per totam hebdomadam pentecostes Et Meldonam[290] ad perficiendum predictas C libratas terræ pro tanto quantum inde reddi solebat die quâ (Rex Henricus fuit) vivus et mortuus cum omnibus Appendiciis et rebus que adjacebant in terrâ et mari ad Burgum illud predicto die mortis Regis Henrici, et (Deopedenam[291]) similiter pro tanto quantum inde reddi solebat die quâ rex Henricus fuit vivus et mortuus cum omnibus Appendiciis suis et Boscum de chatelegâ[292] cum (hominibus pro)[293] xx solidis, et terram de Banhunta[294] pro xl solidis, et si quid defuerit ad C libratas perficiendas perficiam ei in loco competenti in Essexa (aut in Hert)fordescirâ aut in Cantebriggscirâ tali tenore quod si (reddi)dero Comiti Theobaldo totam terram quam (tenebat)[295] in An(gliâ dabo Gaufrido Comiti Essex[ie] escambium suum ad valentiam in his prædictis tribus Comitatibus antequam de) predictis terris dissais(iatur; si etiam reddidero totum honorem et totam terram) heredibus Willelmi peur[elli] de Lond[oniâ][296] dabo similiter ei escambium ad valens antequam dissaisiatur de illâ quæ fuit peurelli et illud (escambium erit) de terrâ que remanebit illi hereditabiliter Et preter hoc do et concedo ei et heredibus suis de me et heredibus meis tenendum feodum (et servicium) xx militum et infra servicium istorum xx militum do ei feodum et servicium terre quam Hasculf[us] de tania[297] tenuit in Angliâ die quâ fuit (vivus et) mortuus, quam tenet Graeleng[us][298] et mater sua pro tanto servicii quantum de feodo illo debent et totum superplus istorum xx militum[299] ei perficiam in (prenomina)tis[300] tribus comitatibus. Et servicium istorum xx militum faciet mihi separatim preter aliud servicium alterius feodi sui. Et preterea concedo (illi ut)[300] castella sua que habet stent et ei remaneant (ad) inforcia(nd[um])[300] ad voluntatem suam Et ut ille et omnes homines sui teneant terras (et tenaturas) suas omnes de quocunque teneant sicut tenuerunt die quâ ipse homo meus effectus est salvo servitio dominorum Et ut ipse et homines sui (sint quieti) de omnibus debitis que debuerunt regi Henrico aut regi Stephano et ut ipse et omnes homines sui per totam Angliam sint quieti de Wastis fores(tariis et) assartis que facta sunt in feodo ipsius Gaufredi usque ad (diem quo) homo meus devenit Et ut a die illo in antea omnia illa ess(arta sint amodo excultibilia et arrabilia sine forisfacto et ut habeat mercatum die Jovis apud Bisseiam[301] et feriam similiter ibidem quoque anno; et incipiat vigiliâ Sancti Jacobi et duret tres dies. Et [preterea] do et concedo ei et heredibus suis in feodo et hereditate ad tenendum de me et heredibus meis vicecomitatum Essex[ie] reddendo inde rectam firmam que inde reddi solebat die quâ rex Henricus pater meus fuit vivus et mortuus, ita quod auferat de summâ firmâ vice)comitatus quantum pertinuerit[302] (ad) Meldonam et Niweport que ei (donavi et) quantum (pertinuerit[303] ad tertium) denarium de placitis Vicecomitatus unde eum feci Comitem, et ut teneat omnia excidamenta mea que mihi exciderint (in com)itatu Essexe reddendo inde firmam rectam quamdiu erunt in Dominio meo Et ut sit capitalis Justicia in Essexâ hereditabiliter mea (et hered[um]) meorum de placitis et forisfactis que pertinuerint ad Coronam meam, ita quod non mittam aliam Justiciam super eum in Comitatu illo nisi[304] (ita sit quod ali)quando mittam aliquem de paribus suis qui audiat cum illo quod placita mea juste tractentur Et ut ipse et omnes homines sui sint (quieti versus) me et versus heredes meos de omni forisfacto et omni malivolentiâ preteritâ ante diem quo meus homo devenit Et ei firmiter concedo et (heredibus s suis) quod bene et in pace et libere et sine placito habeat et[305] teneat hereditabiliter, sicut hæc carta confirmat, omnia tenementa sua (que ei concessi, in terris) et tenaturis et in feodis et firmis et Castellis et libertatibus et in omnibus Conventionibus inter nos factis (sicut aliquis Comes) terre[306] mee melius et quietius et liberius tenet ad modum Comitis in omnibus rebus ita quod ipse vel aliquis hominum suorum non (ponantur[307] in ullo modo) in placitum de aliquo forisfacto quod fecissent antequam homo meus factus esset, nec pro aliquo forisfacto quod facturus sit in (antea ponatur in) placit[um] de feodo vel Castello vel terrâ vel tenurâ quam ei concesserim quamdiu se defendere potuerit de scelere sive (traditione) ad corpus meum pertinente per se aut per unum militem si quis coram venerit qui eum appellare inde voluerit.

(T[estibus] H[enrico] Ep[iscop]o Winton[ensi]) et A[lexandro] Ep[iscop]o Lincoln[ensi] et R[oberto] Ep[iscop]o Heref[ordensi] et N[igello] Ep[iscop]o Ely[ensi] (et B[ernardo] Ep[iscop]o de S[ancto] David et W[illelmo] Cancellario et Com[ite] R[oberto] de Glocestr[iâ] et Com[ite] B[aldewino[308]]) et Com[ite] W[illelmo] de Moion et B[riano] fil[io] Com[itis] (et M[ilone] Glocestr[ie] et R[oberto] Arundell[309]] et R[oberto] Malet[310] et Rad[ulfo] Lovell[311] et Rad[ulfo] Painell[312]) et W[alkelino] Maminot[313] et Rob[erto] fil[io] R[egis][314] et Rob[erto] fil[io] Martin[315] (et Rob[ert]o fil[io] Heldebrand[316] Apud Westmonaster[ium]).[317]

One cannot but be greatly struck by the names of the witnesses to this charter. The legate and his four brother prelates, who had been with the Empress in Winchester, at her reception on March 3, are here with her again at Westminster. So are her three inseparable companions; but where are the magnates of England? Two west-country earls, one of them of her own making,[318] and a few west-country barons virtually complete the list. I do not say that these were, of necessity, the sole constituents of her court; but there is certainly the strongest possible presumption that had she been joined in person by any number of bishops or nobles, we should not have found so important a charter witnessed merely by the members of the entourage that she had brought up with her from the west. We have, for instance, but to compare this list with that of the witnesses to Stephen's charter six months later.[319] Or, indeed, we may compare it, to some disadvantage, with that of the Empress herself a month later at Oxford.[320] Where were the primate and the Bishop of London? Where was the King of Scots? These questions are difficult to answer. It may, however, be suggested that the general disgust at her intolerable arrogance,[321] and her harshness to the king,[322] kept the magnates from attending her court.[323] Her inability to repel the queen's forces, and her instant flight before the Londoners, are alike suggestive of the fact that her followers were comparatively few.

There are several points of constitutional importance upon which this instructive charter sheds some welcome light.

In the first place we should compare it with Stephen's charter (p. 51), to which, in Mr. Eyton's words, it forms the "counter-patent."[324] In the former the words of creation are: "Sciatis me fecisse comitem de Gaufredo," etc. In the charter of the Empress they run thus: "Sciatis ... quod ... do et concedo Gaufredo de Magnavilla ... ut sit Comes," etc. This contrast is in itself conclusive as to the earldom having been first created by Stephen and then recognized by the Empress. This being so, it is the more strange that Mr. Eyton should have arrived at the contrary conclusion, especially as he noticed the stronger form in the charter creating the earldom of Hereford ("Sciatis me fecisse Milonem de Glocestriâ Comitem"), a form corresponding with that in Stephen's charter to Geoffrey. The earldom of Hereford being created by the Empress, as that of Essex had been by Stephen, we find the same formula duly employed by both. The distinction thus established is one of considerable importance.

The special grant of the "tertius denarius" is a point of such extreme interest in its bearing on earls and earldoms that it requires to be separately discussed in a note devoted to the subject.[325]

But without dwelling at greater length upon the peerage aspect of this charter, let us see how it illustrates the ambitious policy pursued in this struggle by the feudal nobles. Dr. Stubbs writes:—

"It is possible that the frequent tergiversations which mark the struggle may have been caused by the desire of obtaining confirmation of the rank [of earl] from both the competitors for the crown."[326]

But it is my contention that Geoffrey and his fellows were playing a deeper game. We find each successive change of side on the part of this unscrupulous magnate marked by a distinct advance in his demands and in the price he obtained. Broadly speaking, he was master of the situation, and he put himself and his fortress up to auction. Thus he obtained from the impassioned rivals a rapid advance at each bid. Compare, for instance, this charter with that he had obtained from Stephen, or, again, compare it with those which are to follow.

The very length of this charter, as compared with Stephen's, is significant enough in itself. But its details are far more so. Stephen's grant had not explicitly included the tertius denarius; the Empress grants him the tertius denarius "sicut comes habere debet in comitatu suo."[327] But what may be termed the characteristic features are to be found in such clauses as those dealing with the license to fortify, and with the grants of lands.[328] These latter, indeed, teem with information, not only for the local, but for the general historian, as in the case of Theobald's forfeiture. But their special information is rather in the light they throw on the nature of these grants, and on the sources from which the Empress, like her rival, strove to gratify the greed of these insatiable nobles.

Foremost among these were those "extravagant grants of Crown lands" spoken of by Dr. Stubbs and by Gneist.[329] Now, in this charter, and in those which follow, we are enabled to trace the actual working of this fatal policy in practice. The Empress begins, in this charter, by granting Geoffrey, for this is its effect, £100 a year in land ("C libratas terræ"). Stephen, we shall find, a few months later, regains him to his side by increasing the bid to £300 a year ("CCC libratas terræ"). But how is the amount made up? It is charged on the Crown lands in his own county of Essex. But observe, for this is an important point, that it is not charged as a lump sum on the entire corpus comitatus (or, to speak more exactly, on the annual firma of that corpus), but on certain specified estates. Here we have a welcome allusion to the practice of the early Exchequer. The charter authorizes Geoffrey, as sheriff, to deduct from the annual ferm of the county, for which he was responsible at the Exchequer (being that recorded on the Rotulus exactorius), that portion of it represented by the annual rents (redditus) of Maldon and Newport, which, as estates of Crown demesne, had till then been included in the corpus.[330] From the earliest Pipe-Rolls now remaining we know that the estates so alienated were usually entered by the sheriff under the head of "Terræ Datæ," with the amount due from each, for which amounts, of course, he claimed allowance in his account. I think we have here at least a suggestion that even at the height of the anarchy and of the struggle, the Exchequer, with all the details of its practice, was recognized as in full existence. I have never been able to reconcile myself to the accepted view, as set forth by Dr. Stubbs, of the "stoppage of the administrative machinery"[331] under Stephen. He holds that on the arrest of the bishops (June, 1139) "the whole administration of the country ceased to work," and that Stephen was "never able to restore the administrative machinery."[332] Crippled and disorganized though it doubtless was, the Exchequer, I contend, must have preserved its existence, because its existence was an absolute necessity. Without an exchequer, the income of the Crown would, obviously, have instantly disappeared. Moreover, the case of William of Ypres, and others to which reference will be made below, will go far to establish the important fact that the Exchequer system remained in force, and that accounts of some kind must have been kept.

The next point to which I would call attention is the expression "pro tanto quantum inde reddi solebat die quâ Rex Henricus fuit vivus et mortuus," which is applied to Maldon and Newport. The Pipe-Rolls, it should be remembered, only took cognizance of the total ferm of the shire. The constituents of that ferm were a matter for the sheriff. At first sight, therefore, these expressions might seem to cause some difficulty. Their explanation, however, is this. Just as I have shown in Domesday Studies[333] that the ferm of a town, as in the case of Huntingdon, was in truth the aggregate of several distinct and separate ferms, so the ferm of a county must have comprised the separate and distinct ferms of each of the royal estates. That ferm would be a customary, that is, fixed, redditus (or, as the charter expresses it, "quantum inde reddi solebat"). A particularly striking case in point is afforded by Hatfield Regis (alias Hatfield Broadoak). When Stephen increased the alienation of Crown demesne to Geoffrey, he granted him Hatfield inter alia "pro quater xx libris," that is, as representing £80 a year. This same estate, after the fall of Geoffrey, was alienated anew to Richard de Luci, and in the early Pipe-Rolls of Henry II. we read, under "Terræ Datæ" in Essex, "Ricardo de Luci quater xx libræ numero in Hadfeld." That is to say, in his annual account, the sheriff claimed to be allowed £80 off the amount of his ferm, in respect of the alienated estate. Now, the Domesday valuation of this manor is fortunately very precise: "Tunc Manerium valuit xxxvi libras. Modo lx. Sed vicecomes recipit inde lxxx libras et c solidos de gersuma" (ii. 2 b). The Domesday redditus of the manor, therefore, had remained absolutely unchanged. In such cases of alienation of demesne, it was, obviously, the object of the grantee that the manor should be valued as low as possible, while that of the sheriff was precisely the reverse. It was on this account doubtless, to prevent dispute, that these charters carefully named the sum at which the manor was to be valued, either in figures, as in the case of Bonhunt,[334] or, as in that of Maldon and Newport, in the formula "quantum inde reddi solebat" at the death of Henry I., this formula probably implying that the earlier ferm had been forced up in the days of the Lion of Justice.

The conclusion I would draw from the above argument is that the sheriff was not at liberty to exact arbitrary sums from the demesne lands of the Crown. A fixed annual render (redditus) was due to him from each, though this, like the firma of the sheriff himself, was liable to revision from time to time.[335]

But it would be difficult to overestimate the importance of evidence which forms a connecting link between Domesday and the period of the Pipe-Rolls, especially if it throws some fresh light on the vexed question of Domesday values. Moreover, we have here an obvious suggestion as to the purpose of the Conqueror in ascertaining values, at least so far as concerned the demesne lands of the Crown, for he was thus enabled to check the sheriffs, by obtaining a basis for calculating the amount of the firma comitatus. With this point we shall have to deal when we come to Geoffrey's connection with the shrievalty of Essex and Herts.

Attention may also be called to the formula of "excambion" (as the Scottish lawyers term it) here employed, for it would seem to be earlier than any of those quoted in Madox's Formularium. But the suggested exchange is specially interesting in the case of Count Theobald, because it gives us an historical fact not elsewhere mentioned, namely, that the Empress, on obtaining the mastery, forfeited his lands at once. Her doing so, we should observe, is in strict accordance with the chroniclers' assertions as to her wholesale forfeitures and her special hostility to Stephen's house. And we can go further still. We can ascertain not only that Count Theobald was forfeited, as we have seen, by the Empress, but also that the land she forfeited had been given him by Stephen himself. In a document which I have previously referred to, we read that Stephen had given him the "manor" of Maldon,[336] being that manor of Crown demesne which the Empress here bestows upon Geoffrey.

Another important though difficult subject upon which this charter bears is that of knight-service. Indeed, considering its early date—a quarter of a century earlier than the returns contained in the Liber Niger—it may, in conjunction with Stephen's charter of some six months later, be pronounced to be among our most valuable evidences for what Dr. Stubbs describes as "a subject on which the greatest obscurity prevails."[337]

Let us first notice that the Empress grants "feodum et servicium XX militum," while Stephen grants "LX milites feudatos ... scilicet servicium" of so and so "pro [LX] militibus." Thus, then, the "milites feudatos" of Stephen equates the "feodum et servicium ... militum" of the Empress. And, further, it repeats the remarkable expression employed by Florence of Worcester when he tells us that the Conqueror instructed the Domesday Commissioners to ascertain "quot milites feudatos" his tenants-in-chief possessed, that is to say, how many knights they had enfeoffed. But the Empress in her charter complicates her grant by adding the special clause: "Et servicium istorum XX militum faciet mihi separatim preter aliud servicium alterius feodi sui." Had it not been for this clause, one might have inferred that the object of the grant was to transfer, to Earl Geoffrey the "servicium" of these twenty knights' fees due, of right, to the Crown, so that he might enjoy all such profits as the Crown would have derived from that "servicium," and, at the same time, have employed these knights as substitutes for those which he was bound to furnish, from his own fief, to the Crown. But the above clause is fatal to such a view. Again, both in the charters of the Empress and of her rival, these special grants of knights and their "servicium" are kept entirely distinct from those of Crown demesne or escheated land, which, moreover, are expressed in terms of the "librata terræ." On the whole I lean strongly to the belief that, although the working of the arrangement may be obscure, the object of Geoffrey was to add to the number of the knights who followed his standard, and thus to increase his power as a noble and the weight that he could throw into the scale. And the special clause referred to above would imply that the Crown was to have a claim on him for twenty knights more than those whom he was bound to furnish from his own fief.

Lastly, we may note the identity of the formula employed for the grant of lands and for that of knights' service. In each case the grant is made "pro tanto,"[338] and in each case the Empress undertakes to make good ("perficere") the balance to him within the limit of the three counties of Essex, Cambridgeshire, and Herts.[339]

With the subject of castles I propose to deal later on. But there is one point on which the evidence of this charter is perhaps more important than on any other, and that is in the retrospective light which it throws on the system of reform introduced by the first Henry.

Incidentally, we have here witness to that system, of which the Pipe-Roll of 1130 is the solitary but vivid exponent, and under which the very name of "plea" became a terror to all men. Every man was liable, on the slightest pretext, to be brought within the meshes of the law, with the object, as it seemed, and at least with the result, of swelling the royal hoard (cf. pp. 11, 12, n. 1). Even to secure one's simplest rights money had always to be paid. Thus, here, Geoffrey stipulates that he and his men are to hold their possessions "sine placito," and "ita quod ... non ponantur in ullo modo in placito de aliquo forisfacto," etc., etc. So again, in his later charter, we find him insisting that he and they shall hold all their possessions "sine placito et sine pecuniæ donatione," and that "Rectum eis teneatur de eorum calumpniis sine pecuniæ donatione." The exactions he dreaded meet us at every turn on the Pipe-Roll of 1130.

But, on the other hand, the charter, broadly speaking, illustrates, by the retrograde concessions it extorts, the cardinal factor in the long struggle between the feudal nobles and their lord the king, namely, their jealousy of that royal jurisdiction by which the Crown strove, and eventually with success, to break their semi-independent power, and to bring the whole realm into uniform subjection to the law.

After the clauses conferring on Geoffrey the hereditary shrievalty of Essex, a matter which I shall discuss further on, there immediately follows this passage, the most significant, as I deem it, in the whole charter:—

"Et ut sit Capitalis Justicia in Essexiâ hereditabiliter mea et heredum meorum de placitis et forisfactis que pertinuerint ad coronam meam, ita quod non mittam aliam justiciam super eum in comitatu illo nisi ita sit quod aliquando mittam aliquem de paribus suis qui audiat cum illo quod placita mea juste tractentur."

The first point to be dealt with here is the phrase "Capitalis Justicia in Essexiâ." Here we have the term "capitalis" applied to the justicia of a single county. On this I would lay some stress, for it has been generally supposed that this style was reserved for the Great Justiciary, the alter ego of the king himself.[340]

In his learned observations on the "obscurities" of the style "justitia or justitiarius," Dr. Stubbs writes that "the capitalis justitia seems to be the only one of the body to whom a determinate position as the king's representative is assigned in formal documents" (i. 389). It was probably the object of Geoffrey, when he secured this particular style, to obtain for himself all the powers vested in "the king's representative," and so to provide against his supersession by a justiciar claiming in that capacity.

Let us now examine the witness of the charter to the differentiation of the sheriff (vicecomes) and the justice (justitia), for that is the development which its terms involve.

Dr. Stubbs points out that, under the Norman kings, "the authority of the sheriff, when he was relieved from the company of the ealdorman, ... would have no check except the direct control of the king" (i. 272); and Gneist similarly observed that "After the withdrawal of the eorl, the Anglo-Saxon shir-gerefa became the regular governor of the county, who was henceforth no longer dependent upon the eorl, but upon the personal orders of the king, and upon the organs of the Norman central administration" (i. 140). And for a period of transition between the two systems, the Anglo-Saxon and the late Norman, the sheriff not only presided, in his court, as its sole lay head, but also in a dual capacity. Dr. Stubbs, it is true, with his wonted caution, does but suggest it as "probable that whilst the sheriff in his character of sheriff was competent to direct the customary business of the court, it was in that of justitia that he transacted special business under the king's writ."[341] But Gneist treats of him, under a separate heading, in his capacity of "royal justiciary" (i. 142). It is from this dual position that there developed, by specialization of function, two distinct officers, the sheriff (vicecomes) and the justice (justicia). This is the development which, as yet, has been somewhat imperfectly apprehended.

The centralizing policy of Henry I., operating through the Curia Regis, has, I need hardly observe, been admirably explained by Dr. Stubbs. He has shown how two methods were employed to attain the end in view: the one, to call up certain pleas from the local courts to the curia; the other, to send down the officers of the curia to sit in the local courts.[342] In the latter case, the royal officer ("justicia") appeared as the representative of the central power of which the Curia Regis was the exponent. Thus, there were, again, for the county court two lay presidents, but they were now the sheriff, as local authority, and the justice, who represented the central. Such an arrangement was, of course, a step in advance for the Crown, which had thus secured for itself, through its justice, a footing in the local courts.[343] But with this arrangement neither side was able to rest satisfied. Broadly speaking, if I may be allowed the expression, the Crown sought to centralize the sheriff, and to exclude the local element; the feudatories would fain have localized the justice, and so have excluded the central. Thus, before the close of Henry's reign, he had actually employed on a large scale the officers of his curia as sheriffs of counties, and "by these means," as Dr. Stubbs observes, "the king and justiciar kept in their hands the reins of the entire judicial administration" (i. 392).[344] The same policy was faithfully followed by his grandson, a generation later, on the occasion of the inquest of sheriffs (1170), when, says Dr. Stubbs, "the sheriffs removed from their offices were most of them local magnates, whose chances of oppression and whose inclination towards a feudal administration of justice were too great. In their place Henry instituted officers of the Exchequer, less closely connected with the counties by property, and more amenable to royal influence, as well as more skilled administrators—another step towards the concentration of the provincial jurisdiction under the Curia Regis."[345]

This passage enables us to see how essentially contrary to the policy of the Crown were the provisions of Geoffrey's charter. It not only feudalized the local shrievalty by placing it in the hands of a feudal magnate, and, further still, making it hereditary, but it seized upon the centralizing office of justice, and made it as purely local, nay, as feudal as the other.

But let us return to the point from which we started, namely, the witness of Geoffrey's charter to the differentiation of the sheriff and the justice. It proves that the sheriff could no longer discharge the functions of "a royal justiciary," without a separate appointment to that distinct office. When we thus learn how Geoffrey became both sheriff and justice of Essex, we can approach in the light of that appointment the writ addressed "Ricardo de Luci Justic' et Vicecomiti de Essexa," on which Madox relies for Richard's tenure of the post of chief justiciary.[346] It may be that Richard's appointment corresponded with that of Geoffrey. But whatever uncertainty there may be on this point, there can be none on the parallel between Geoffrey's charter and that which Henry I. granted to the citizens of London. Indeed, in all municipal charters of the fullest and best type, we find the functions of the sheriff and the justice dealt with in the same successive order. The striking thought to be drawn from this is that the feudatories and the towns, though their interests were opposed inter se, presented to the Crown the same attitude and sought from it the same exemptions. In proof of this I here adduce three typical charters, arranged in chronological order. The first is an extract from that important charter which London obtained from Henry I., the second is taken from Geoffrey's charter, and the third from that of Richard I. to Colchester, which I quote because it contains the same word "justicia," and also because it is, probably, little, if at all, known.

Charter of Henry I. to London.	Charter of the Empress to Geoffrey.	Charter of Richard I. to Colchester.
"Ipsi cives ponent vicecomitem qualem voluerint de se ipsis, et justitiarium qualem voluerint de se ipsis ad custodiendum placita coronæ meæ et eadem placitanda; et nullus alius erit Justitiarius super ipsos homines Londoniarum."	"Concedo ei et heredibus suis ... vicecomitatum Essexie. Et ut sit Capitalis Justicia ... de placitis et forisfactis que pertinuerint ad coronam meam, ita quod non mittam aliam Justiciam super eum in comitatu illo," etc.	"Ipsi ponant de se ipsis Ballivos quoscunque voluerint et Justiciam ad servanda placita Coronæ nostræ et ad placitanda eadem placita infra Burgum suum et quod nullus alius sit inde Justicia nisi quem elegerint."

Here we have the two offices similarly distinct throughout. We have also the ballivi, representing to the town what the vicecomes represents to the shire, a point which it is necessary to bear in mind. The "bailiff," so far as the town was concerned, stood in the sheriff's shoes. So also did the "coroner" (or "coroners") in those of the justice. Indeed, at Colchester, two "coroners" represented the "justice" of the charter. I cannot find that Dr. Stubbs calls attention to the fact of this twin privilege, the fact that exemption from the sheriff and from the justice went, in these charters, hand in hand.

Lastly, we should observe that though, in these charters, the clause relating to the sheriff precedes that which relates to the justice, yet, conversely, in the enumeration of those to whom a charter is directed, "justices" are invariably, I believe, given the precedence of "sheriffs." This, which would seem to have passed unnoticed, may have an important bearing. Ordericus, in a famous passage (xi. 2) describing Henry's ministers, tells us how the king

"favorabiliter illi obsequentes de ignobili stirpe illustravit, de pulvere, ut ita dicam, extulit, dataque multiplici facultate super consules et illustres oppidanos exaltavit.... Illos ... rex, cum de infimo genere essent, nobilitavit, regali auctoritate de imo erexit, in fastigio potestatum constituit, ipsis etiam spectabilibus regni principibus formidabiles effecit."

Observe how vivid a light such a passage as this throws upon the clause in Geoffrey's charter:—

"Non mittam aliam Justiciam super eum in Comitatu illo, nisi ita sit quod aliquando mittam aliquem de paribus suis qui audiat cum illo quod placita mea juste tractentur."

The whole clause breathes the very spirit of feudalism. It betrays the hatred of Geoffrey and his class for those upstarts, as they deemed them, the royal justices, who, clad in all the authority of the Crown, intruded themselves into their local courts and checked them in the exercise of their power. Henceforth, in the courts of the favoured earl, the representative of the Crown was to make his appearance not regularly, but only now and then ("aliquando"); moreover, when he came, he was to figure in court not as the superior ("super eum"), but as the colleague ("cum illo") of the earl; and, lastly, he was not to belong to the upstart ministerial class: he was to be one of his own class—of his "peers" ("de paribus suis").

As an illustrative parallel to this clause, I am tempted to quote a remarkable charter, unnoticed, it would seem, not only by our historians, but even by Mr. Eyton himself. The Assize of Clarendon, a quarter of a century (1166) after the date of our charter to Geoffrey, contained clauses specially aimed against such exemption as he sought. Referring to these clauses, Dr. Stubbs writes:—

"No franchise is to exclude the justices.... In the article which directs the admission of the justices into every franchise may be detected one sign of the anti-feudal policy which the king had all his life to maintain."[347]

But the clauses in question, though their sweeping character fully justifies this description,[348] contrast strangely with the humble, almost apologetic, charter in which Henry II., immediately afterwards, announces that he is only sending his "justicia" into the patrimony of St. Cuthbert "by permission" of the bishop, and as a quite exceptional measure, not to be taken again. It throws, perhaps, some new light on the character and methods of the king, when we find him thus stooping, in form, to gain his point in fact.

"Henricus Rex Angl' et Dux Normann' et Aquitan' et Comes Andegav', justiciariis Vicecomitibus et omnibus ministris suis de Eborac'sir et de Nordhummerlanda salutem. Sciatis quod consilio Baronum meorum,[349] et Episcopi Dunelmensis licencia, mitto hac vice in terram sancti Cuthberti justiciam meam, quæ[350] videat ut fiat justicia secundum assisam meam de latronibus et murdratoribus et roboratoribus;[351] non quia velim ut trahatur in consuetudinem tempore meo vel heredum meorum, sed ad tempus hoc facio, pro prædicta necessitate; quia volo quod terra beati Cuthberti suas habeat libertates et antiquas consuetudines, sicut unquam melius habuit. T. Gavfrido Archiepiscopo [sic] Cant. Ric. Arch. Pictav. Comite Gaufrido, Ricardo de Luci. Apud Wodestoc."[352]

The first charter of the Empress has now been sufficiently discussed. It was, of course, his possession of the Tower that enabled Geoffrey to extort such terms, the command of that fortress being essential to the Empress, to overawe the disaffected citizens.

[248] "Itaque multæ fuit molis Londoniensium animos permulcere posse, ut, cum hæc statim post Pascha (ut dixi) fuerint actitata, vix paucis ante Nativitatem beati Johannis diebus imperatricem reciperent" (p. 748).

[249] "Galfridus de Mandevilla firmavit Turrim Londoniensem. Idibus Maii Albericus de Ver Londoniis occiditur" (M. Paris, Chron. Major., ii. 174).

[250] Ibid.

[251] The Early History of Oxford, cap. x.

[252] "Ad Radingum infra Rogationes veniens, suscipitur cum honoribus, hinc inde principibus cum populis ad ejus imperium convolantibus" (Cont. Flor. Wig., 130).

[253] Add. Chart. (Brit. Mus.), 19,576; Arch. Journ., xx. 289; Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 389.

[254] "Reginaldo comite filio regis." He had attested, as we have seen, an Oxford charter (circ. March 24) as Reginald "filius regis" simply. This would seem to fix his creation to circ. April, 1141 (see p. 68).

[255] "Roberto fratre ejus."

[256] We obtain incidentally, in another quarter, unique evidence on this very point. There is printed in the Cartulary of Ramsey (Rolls Series), vol. ii. p. 254, a precept from Nigel, Bishop of Ely, to William, Prior of Ely, and others, notifying the agreement he has made with Walter, Abbot of Ramsey:—"Sciatis me et Walterum Abbatem de Rameseia consilio et assensu dominæ nostræ Imperatricis et Episcopi Wynton' Apost' sedis legati aliorumque coepiscoporum meorum scilicet Linc', Norwycensis, Cestrensis, Hereford', Sancti Davidis, et Roberti Comitis Gloecestrie, et Hugonis Comitis et Brienni et Milonis ad voluntatem meam concordatos esse. Quapropter mando et præcipio sicut me diligitis," etc., etc. This precept, in the printed cartulary, is dated "1133-1144." These are absurdly wide limits, and a little research would, surely, have shown that it must belong to the period in which the Empress was triumphant, and during which the legate was with her. This fixes it to March-June, 1141. Independent of the great interest attaching to this document as representing a "concordia" in the court of the Empress during her brief triumph, it affords in my opinion proof of the personnel of her court at the time. Five of the seven bishops mentioned were, as observed in the text, in regular attendance at her court, and we may therefore, on the strength of this document, add those of "Chester" and Norwich, as visiting it, at least, on this occasion. So with the laity. Three of the four magnates named (of whom Miles had not yet received the earldom of Hereford) were her constant companions, so that we may safely rely on this evidence for the presence at her court on this occasion of Hugh, Earl of Norfolk.

[257] Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 389. Note that in this case Seffrid, Bishop of Chichester, appears as a witness, doubtless because he had been Abbot of Glastonbury, to which abbey the charter was granted.

[258] See above, p. 66.

[259] "Proficiscitur inde cum exultatione magna et gaudio, et in monasterio Sancti Albani cum processionali suscipitur honore, et jubilo" (Cont. Flor. Wig., 131).

[260] "Apud sanctum Albanum" (Duchy of Lancaster: Royal Charters, No. 16; Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 388).

[261] "Adeunt eam ibi cives multi ex Londoniâ, tractatur ibi sermo multimodus de reddenda civitate" (Cont. Flor. Wig., 131).

[262] "Imperatrix, ut prædiximus, habito tractatu cum Londoniensibus, comitantibus secum præsulibus multis et principibus, secura properavit ad urbem, et apud Westmonasterium cum processionali suscipitur honorificentiâ." (ibid.).

[263] i.e. Hyde Park Corner, as it now is. See, for this custom, the Chronicles of the Mayors of London, which record how, a century later (1257), upon the king approaching Westminster, "exierunt Maior et cives, sicut mos est ad salutandum ipsum usque ad Kniwtebrigge" (p. 31). The Continuator (p. 132) alludes to some such reception by the citizens ("cum honore susceperunt").

[264] "Videns itaque David rex multa competere in imperatricis neptis suæ promotionem, post Ascensionem Domini ad eam in Suthangliam profectus est: ... Venit itaque rex ad neptem suam, plurimosque ex principibus sibi acquiescentes habuit ut ipsa promoveretur ad totius regni fastigium" (Sym. Dun., ii. 309). As he did not join her till after her election, I have taken this latter phrase as referring to her coronation (see p. 80). Cf. p. 5, n. 5.

[265] "Vix paucis ante Nativitatem beati Johannis diebus."

[266] "Cives ... Imperatricem ... favorabiliter susciperunt undecimo [al. Sexto] Kal. Maii."

[267] See the Liber de Antiquis Legibus: "Tandem a Londonensibus expulsa est in die Sancti Johannis Bapt." So also Trivet.

[268] "Ibique aliquantis diebus ... resedit" (p. 131).

[269] "[Legatus] rem exanimans, præscriptam factionem invenit, fautoribusque ipsius dignâ animadversione interdixit ne Willelmum in Episcopum nisi canonicâ electione susciperent. Ipsi quoque Willelmo interdixit omnem ecclesiasticam communionem, si Episcopatum susciperet nisi Canonice promotus. Actum id in die S. Johannis Baptistæ. Pactus erat Willelmus ab Imperatrice baculum et annulum recipere; et data hæc ei essent, nisi, facta a Londoniensibus dissentione, cum omnibus suis discederet ipso die a Londonia Imperatrix."—Continuatio Historiæ Turgoti (Anglia Sacra, i. 711). This passage further proves (though, indeed, there is no reason to doubt it) that the legate remained in London till the actual flight of the Empress. It also illustrates their discordance.

[270] "Literas Imperatricis directas ad Capitulum, quarum summa hæc erat: Quod vellet Ecclesiam nostram de Pastore consultam esse, et nominatim de illo quem Robertus Archidiaconus nominaret, et quod de illo vellet, et de alio omnino nollet. Quæsitum est ergo quis hic esset. Responsum est quod Willelmus" (ibid.). This has, of course, an important bearing on the question of episcopal election. Strong though the terms of her letter appear to have been, the Empress here waives the right, on which her father and her son insisted, of having the election conducted in her presence and in her own chapel, and anticipated the later practice introduced by the charter of John.

[271] Add. MSS., 31,943, fol. 97. So too fol. 115: "After June 24, 1141, when the Empress was received in London; before July 25, when Milo was created Earl of Hereford."

[272] Mandate to Sheriff of Essex in favour of William fitz Otto (Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 387). It is possible that the charter to Christ Church, London (ibid., p. 388), may also belong to this occasion; but, even if so, it is of no importance.

[273] A charter to Roger de Valoines. See Appendix G.

[274] Journ. B. A. A., pp. 384-386.

[275] The portions which are wanting in the charter and which are supplied from my transcript will be found enclosed in brackets.

[276] Robert, Earl of Gloucester, and William the chancellor are omitted altogether, and Ralph Lovell becomes Ralph de London. Dugdale has, of course, misled Mr. Birch.

[277] Appended (as the "Degrees of England") to Gibson's well-known edition of the Britannia (1772), vol. i. p. 125.

[278] Second edition, p. 647.

[279] Appendix V., p. 1 (ed. 1829).

[280] Page 164.

[281] "Ego Matildis filia regis Henrici et Anglorum domina do et concedo Gaufredo de Magnavilla pro servicio suo et heredibus suis post eum hereditabiliter ut sit Comes de Essexia, et habeat tertium denarium Vicecomitatus de placitis sicut Comes habere debet in comitatu suo" (Camden).

[282] Mr. Birch reads "tenuit bene," omitting the intervening words.

[283] Mr. Birch for "eandem terram" (rectius "turrem") conjectures "illam".

[284] Mr. Birch conjectures "Preterea."

[285] Newport (the name hints at a market-town) was ancient demesne of the Crown. It lay about three miles south-west of (Saffron) Walden.

[286] There was still a toll bridge there in the last century. For table of tolls and exemptions, see Morant's Essex.

[287] Apparently, the high road on the left bank, and the way on the right bank, of the Cam.

[288] Neither this market nor this fair are, it would seem, to be traced afterwards.

[289] Mr. Birch conjectures "vigiliam."

[290] This was presumably a grant of the borough of Maldon (i.e. the royal rights in that borough), though Peverel's fee in Maldon was an escheat at the time. The proof of this is not only that it is here described as a "borough" (burgus), but also that its annual value was to be deducted from the sheriff's ferm, which could only be the case if it formed part of the corpus comitatus, i.e. was Crown demesne. In Domesday, Peverel's fee in Maldon was valued at £12, and the royal manor at £16 ("ad pondus"), though it had been £24. It was probably the latter which Henry II. granted to his brother William as representing ("pro") £22 ("numero") (see Pipe-Rolls).

[291] Depden, three miles south of Walden. It had formed part, at the Survey, of the fief of Randulf Peverel.

[292] Catlidge, according to Morant.

[293] Mr. Birch conjectures "tenentibus ibidem pro."

[294] Bonhunt, now part of Wickham Bonhunt, adjoining Newport. It had been held by Saisselinus at the Survey. In 1485 it was held of the honour of Lancaster.

[295] Mr. Birch conjectures "ipse habuit."

[296] This, apparently, refers to Depden, as forming part of Peverel's fief, which had been an escheat, in the king's hands, as early as 1130 (Rot. Pip., 31 Hen. I.).

[297] Hasculf de Tany was ancestor of the Essex family of Tany, of Stapleford-Tany, Theydon Bois, Elmstead, Great Stambridge, Latton, etc. He appears repeatedly in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I. (pp. 53, 56, 58, 60, 99, 152), when he was in litigation with William de Bovill and Rhiwallon d'Avranches.

[298] "Graelengus" is proved to be identical with "Graelandus de Thania," the Essex tenant-in-capite of 1166, by Stephen's second charter (Christmas, 1141), which gives his holding as 7½ fees, the very amount at which he returns it in his Carta (see p. 142). But his contemporary, Graeland "fitz Gilbert" de Tany, on the Pipe-Rolls of Henry II., was probably so styled for distinction, being a son of Gilbert de Tany who figures on the Essex Pipe-Roll of 1158.

[299] Compare the phrase "superplus militum" in Rot. Pip. 31 H. I. (p. 47).

[300] "Predictis;" "ei quod omnia;" "et sint inforciata" (Mr. Birch).

[301] Bushey in Hertfordshire. Part of Mandeville's Domesday fief.

[302] Mr. Birch reads "pertinuerunt."

[303] "Pertinuit"—Mr. Birch's conjecture.

[304] "Quod aliquando"—Mr. Birch's conjecture.

[305] Mr. Birch reads "placito hac teneat."

[306] Mr. Birch reads "tre mee."

[307] Mr. Birch conjectures "ponantur in (placitum)."

[308] Mr. Birch conjectures "Baldewino Comite Devonie."

[309] On Robert Arundell, see Yeatman's History of the House of Arundel, p. 49 (where too early a date is suggested for this charter), and p. 105 (where it is implied that he was a tenant of the Earl of Gloucester). He occurs repeatedly in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I., and again in the Westminster charters (1136) of Stephen. (See Appendix C.)

[310] Robert Malet also was a west-country baron. He figures in connection with Warminster in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I., and is among the witnesses to the Westminster charters (1136), being there styled "Dapifer" (see Appendix C.). The carta of the Abbot of Glastonbury (1166) proves that he was the predecessor of William Malet, dapifer to Henry II.

[311] Another west-country baron. He was one of the rebels of 1138, when he held Castle Carey against the king (Hen. Hunt., p. 261; Ord. Vit., v. 310; Gesta, p. 43). According to Mr. Yeatman, he was son of "William Gouel de Percival, called Lovel," Lord of Ivry (History of the House of Arundel, p. 136). He is however wrongly termed by him "Robert (sic) Lovel" on p. 268. He witnessed an early charter of the Empress to Glastonbury (Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 390).

[312] Ralph Paynell had instigated the Earl of Gloucester's raid on Nottingham the previous September (Cont. Flor. Wig., 128), and was one of the rebels in 1138, when he held Dudley against the king (ibid., 110). He was presumably identical with the "Rad[ulfus] Paen[ellus]" of 1130 (Rot. Pip, 31 Hen. I.). He witnessed the charter to Roger de Valoines (see p. 286), and three other charters of the Empress (Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 391, 395, 398), including the creation of the earldom of Hereford (25 July, 1141).

[313] Walchelin Maminot had been among the witnesses to the above Westminster charters of (Easter) 1136, but had held Dover against the king in 1138 (Ord. Vit., v. 310). when Ordericus (v. 111, 112) speaks of him as a son-in-law of Robert de Ferrers (Earl of Derby). He witnessed the charter to Roger de Valoines (see p. 286), and five other charters of the Empress (Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 388, 391, 394 bis, 398), including the creation of the earldom of Hereford (25 July 1141), and he appears in the Pipe-Rolls and other records under Henry II. from 1155 to 1170.

[314] Robert, natural son of Henry I. by Edith (afterwards married to Robert d'Oilli of Oxford), and uterine brother, as Mr. Eyton observes (Addl. MSS., 31,943, fol. 115), "to Henry d'Oilli of Hook-Norton." He appears in connection with Devonshire in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I., and is probably identical with Robert "brother" of Earl Reginald of Cornwall (vide ante, p. 82). He is mentioned as present (as "Robert fitz Edith") at the siege of Winchester, a few weeks later (Sym. Dun., ii. 310), and he was among the witnesses to the Empress's charters (Oxford, 1142) to the earls of Oxford and of Essex, and to her charter (Devizes) to Geoffrey de Mandeville the younger (vide post). He subsequently witnessed Henry II.'s charter (? 1156) to Henry de Oxenford (Cart. Ant. D., No. 42). See also Liber Niger. Working from misleading copies, Mr. Eyton wrongly identifies this Robert "filius Regis," as a witness to three charters of the Empress, with a Robert fitz Reginald (de Dunstanville) (History of Shropshire, ii. 271).

[315] Robert fitz Martin occurs in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I. in connection with Dorset. Dugdale and Mr. Eyton (Addl. MSS., 31,943, fol. 90) affiliate him as son of a Martin of Tours, who had established himself in Wales. He witnessed two other charters of the Empress (Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 391, 395), both of them at Oxford. A son of his (filius Roberti filii Martini) held five knights' fees of Glastonbury Abbey in 1166.

[316] Robert fitz Hildebrand witnessed the Empress's second charter to Geoffrey with that to the Earl of Oxford (vide post). See for his adultery, treason, and shocking death (? 1143), Gesta Stephani, pp. 95, 96, where he is described as "virum plebeium quidem, sed militari virtute approbatum." He is also spoken of as "vir infimi generis, sed summæ semper malitiæ machinator" (ibid., p. 93). He is affiliated by the editors of Ordericus (Société de l'Histoire de France) as "Robert fils de Herbrand de Sauqueville" (iii. 45, iv. 420), where also we learn that he had refused to embark upon the White Ship. He was perhaps a brother of Richard fitz Hildebrand, who held five fees from the Abbot of Sherborne and five from the Bishop of Salisbury in 1166.

[317] As the closing names vary somewhat in the two transcripts, I give both versions:—

Dugdale MS.	Ashmole MS.
"Rad Lond' et Rad' painel et W. Maminot et Rob' fil. R. et Rob' fil. Martin et Rob' fil Heldebrand' apud Westmonasterium."	"Rad lovell et Rad Painell et W. Maminot et Roberto filio R. et Roberto filio Martin Roberto filio Haidebrandi apud Oxford." The three last words are added in a different hand, and "Oxford" appears to have been substituted for "Westmr" by yet another hand.

[318] William de Moiun (Mohun) had attested eo nomine the charter to Glastonbury (Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 389; Adam de Domerham) which probably passed soon after the election of the Empress (April 8) at Winchester (see p. 83). He now attests, among the earls, as "Comite Willelmo de Moion." This fixes his Creation as April-June, 1141. Courthope gives no date for the creation, and no authority but his foundation charter to Bruton, in which he styles himself "Comes Somersetensis." Dr. Stubbs, following him, gives (under "dates and authorities for the empress's earldoms") no date and no further authority (Const. Hist., i. 362). Mr. Maxwell Lyte, in his learned and valuable monograph on Dunster and its Lords (1882), quotes the Gesta Stephani for the fact "that at the siege of Winchester, in 1140, the empress bestowed on William de Mohun the title of Earl of Dorset" (p. 6). But Winchester was besieged in (August-September) 1141, not in 1140, and though the writer does speak of "Willelmus de Mohun, quem comitem ibi statuit Dorsetiæ" (p. 81), this charter proves that he postdates the creation, as he also does that of Hereford, which he assigns to the same siege (cf. pp. 125, n., 194). Mr. Doyle, with his usual painstaking care, places the creation (on the same authority) "before September, 1141" (which happens, it will be seen, to be quite correct), and assigns his use of the above style ("comes Somersetensis") to 1142. See also, on this point, p. 277 infra.

[319] See p. 143.

[320] The grant of the earldom of Hereford to Miles of Gloucester.

[321] "Erecta est autem in superbiam intolerabilem ... et omnium fere corda a se alienavit" (Hen. Hunt., 275).

[322] "Interpellavit dominam Anglorum regina pro domino suo rege capto et custodiæ ac vinculis mancipato. Interpellata quoque est pro eadem causa et a majoribus seu primoribus Angliæ; ... at illa non exaudivit eos" (Cont. Flor. Wig., 132).

[323] All this, however, is subject to the assumption that this charter passed at Westminster. That assumption rests on Dugdale's transcript and his statement to that effect in his Baronage. There is nothing in the charter (except, of course, the above difficulty) inconsistent with this statement, which is strongly supported by the Valoines charter; but, unfortunately, the transcript I have quoted from gives Oxford as the place of testing. But, then, the word (vide supra) appears to have been added in a later hand, and may have been inserted from confusion with the Empress's second charter to Geoffrey, which did pass at Oxford. Still, there is no actual reason why this charter may not have passed at Oxford, though its subject makes Westminster, perhaps, the more likely place of the two. Personally, I feel no doubt whatever that Westminster was the place.

[324] See p. 42.

[325] See Appendix H: "The Tertius Denarius."

[326] Const. Hist., i. 362.

[327] This, however, raises the question of comital rights, on which see pp. 143, 169, 269, and Appendix H.

[328] Cf. William of Malmesbury: "Hi prædia, hi castella, postremo quæcunque semel collibuisset, petere non verebantur."

[329] See also Mr. S. R. Bird's valuable essay on the Crown Lands in vol. xiii. of the Antiquary. He refers (p. 160) to the "extensive alienations of these lands during the turbulent reign of Stephen, in order to enable that monarch to endow the new earldoms."

[330] "Quod auferat de summâ firma vicecomitatus quantum pertinuerit ad Meldonam et Niweport que ei donavi."

[331] Select Charters.

[332] Const. Hist., i. 326, 327.

[333] Domesday Studies, vol. i. (Longmans), 1887.

[334] It is in this case alone, in the Empress's charter, that we can compare the value with that in Domesday. The charter grants it "pro xl solidis." In Domesday we read "Tunc et post valuit xl solidos. Modo lv" (ii. 93).

[335] See an illustration of this principle, some years later, in the Chronicle of Ramsey (p. 287): "Sciatis me concessisse Abbati de Rameseia ut ad firmam habeat hundredum de Hyrstintan reddendo inde quoque anno quatuor marcas argenti, quicunque sit vicecomes ita ne vicecomes plus ab eo requirat."

[336] "Die quâ dedi Manerium illud [de Meldonâ] Comiti Theobaldo."—Westminster Abbey Charters (Madox's Baronia, p. 232, note).

[337] Const. Hist., i. 260. See my articles on the "Introduction of Knight Service into England" in English Historical Review, July and October, 1891, January, 1892. See also Addenda (p. 439).

[338] The lands were granted "pro tanto quantum inde reddi solebat," and the knights' service (of Graaland de Tany) "pro tanto servicii quantum de feodo illo debent," which amount is given in Stephen's charter as 7½ knights' service (as also in the Liber Niger).

[339] "Et si quid defuerit ad C libratas perficiendas, perficiam ei in loco competenti in Essexiâ aut in Hertfordescirâ aut in Cantebriggscirâ ... et totum superplus istorum xx. militum ei perficiam in prenominatis tribus comitatibus."

[340] Dr. Stubbs writes: "From the reign of Henry I. we have distinct traces of a judicial system, a supreme court of justice, called the Curia Regis, presided over by the king or justiciary, and containing other judges also called justiciars, the chief being occasionally distinguished by the title of 'summus,' 'magnus,' or 'capitalis'" (Const. Hist., i. 377). But, in another place, he points out, of the Great Justiciar, Roger of Salisbury, that "several other ministers receive the same name [justitiarius] even during the time at which he was actually in office; even the title of capitalis justitiarius is given to officers of the Curia Regis who were acting in subordination to him" (i. 350). Of this he gives instances in point (i. 389). On the whole it is safest, perhaps, to hold, as Dr. Stubbs suggested, that the style "capitalis" was not reserved to the Great Justiciar alone till the reign of Henry II. (i. 350).

[341] Const. Hist., i. 389, note.

[342] See Appendix I.

[343] I cannot quite understand Gneist's view that "A better spirit is infused into this portion of the legal administration by the severance of the farm-interest (firma) from the judicial functions, which was effected by the appointment of royal justitiarii in the place of the vicecomes. The reservation of the royal right of interference now develops into a periodical delegation of matters to criminal judges" (i. 180). It is probable that this eminent jurist has a right conception of the change, and that, if it is obscured, it is only by his mode of expression. But, when arguing from the laws of Cnut and of Henry, as to pleas "in firma," he might, if one may venture to say so, have added the higher evidence of Domesday. There are several passages in the Great Survey bearing upon this subject, of which the most noteworthy is, I think, this, which is found in the passage on Shrewsbury:—"Siquis pacem regis manu propria datam scienter infringebat utlagus fiebat. Qui vero pacem regis a vicecomite datam infringebat, C solidos emendabat, et tantundem dabat qui Forestel vel Heinfare faciebat. Has iii forisfacturas habebat in dominio rex E. in omni Angliâ extra firmas" (i. 152).

[344] See Appendix I: "Vicecomites" and "Custodes."

[345] Select Charters, 141.

[346] Foss's Judges, i. 145.

[347] Const. Hist., i. 470.

[348] "Nulli sint in civitate vel burgo vel castello, vel extra, nec in honore etiam de Walingeford, qui vetent vicecomites [sic] intrare in terram suam vel socam suam." Strictly speaking, this refers to sheriffs, but à fortiori it would apply to the king's "justicia."

[349] The Assize of Clarendon describes itself as passed "de consilio omnium baronum suorum."

[350] Notice the "justicia ... quæ videat," as answering to the "aliquis ... qui audiat" in Geoffrey's charter.

[351] These are the words of the Assize itself, which deals throughout with "robatores," "murdratores," and "latrones."

[352] This charter is limited, by the names of the witnesses, to 1163-1166. It can only, therefore, refer to the Assize of Clarendon, which conclusion is confirmed by its language. It must consequently have been granted immediately after it, before the king left England in March. Observe that the two last witnesses are the very justices who were entrusted with the execution of the Assize, and that "Earl Geoffrey," by the irony of fate, was no other than the son and successor of Geoffrey de Mandeville himself.

CHAPTER V.
THE LOST CHARTER OF THE QUEEN.

It was at the very hour when the Empress seemed to have attained the height of her triumph that her hopes were dashed to the ground.[353] The disaster, as is well known, was due to her own behaviour. As Dr. Stubbs has well observed, "She, too, was on the crest of the wave and had her little day ... she had not learned wisdom or conciliation, and threw away opportunities as recklessly as her rival."[354] Indeed, even William of Malmesbury hints that the fault was hers.[355]

The Queen, having pleaded in vain for her husband, resolved to appeal to arms. Advancing on Southwark at the head of the forces which she had raised from Kent, and probably from Boulogne, she ravaged the lands of the citizens with fire and sword before their eyes.[356] The citizens, who had received the Empress but grudgingly, and were already alarmed by her haughty conduct, were now reduced to desperation. They decided on rising against their new mistress, and joining the Queen in her struggle for the restoration of the king.[357] There is a stirring picture in the Gesta of the sudden sounding of the tocsin, and of the citizens pouring forth from the gates amidst the clanging of the bells. The Empress was taken so completely by surprise that she seems to have been at table at the time, and she and her followers, mounting in haste, had scarcely galloped clear of the suburbs when the mob streamed into her quarters and rifled them of all that they contained. So great, we are told, was the panic of the fugitives that they scattered in all directions, regardless of the Empress and her fate. Although the Gesta is a hostile source, the evidence of its author is here confirmed by that of the Continuator of Florence.[358] William of Malmesbury, however, writing as a partisan, will not allow that the Empress and her brother were thus ignominiously expelled, but asserts that they withdrew in military array.[359]

The Empress herself fled to Oxford, and, afraid to remain even there, pushed on to Gloucester. The king, it is true, was still her prisoner, but her followers were almost all dispersed; and the legate, who had secured her triumph, was alienated already from her cause. Expelled from the capital, and resisted in arms by no small portion of the kingdom, her prestige had received a fatal blow, and the moment for her coronation had passed away, never to return.[360]

Here we may pause to glance for a moment at a charter of singular interest for its mention of the citizens of London and their faithful devotion to the king.

"Hugo dei gratia Rothomagensis archiepiscopus senatoribus inclitis civibus honoratis et omnibus commune London concordie gratiam, salutem eternam. Deo et vobis agimus gratias pro vestra fidelitate stabili et certa domino nostro regi Stephano jugiter impensa. Inde per regiones notæ vestra nobilitas virtus et potestas."[361]

It is tempting to see in this charter—unknown, it would seem, to the historians of London—a mention of the famous "communa," the "tumor plebis, timor regni," of 1191. But the term, here, is more probably employed, as in the "communa liberorum hominum" of the Assize of Arms (1181), and the "communa totius terre" of the Great Charter (1215). At the same time, there are two expressions which occur at this very epoch, and which might support the former view. One is conjuratio, which, as we have seen, the Continuator applies to the action of the Londoners in 1141,[362] and which Richard of Devizes similarly applies to the commune of 1191.[363] The other is communio, which William of Malmesbury applies to their government in the previous April, and which the keen eye of Dr. Stubbs noted as "a description of municipal unity which suggests that the communal idea was already in existence as a basis of civil organization."[364] But he failed, it would seem, to observe the passage which follows, and which speaks of "omnes barones, qui in eorum communionem jamdudum recepti fuerant." For in this allusion we recognize a distinctive practice of the "sworn commune," from that of Le Mans (1073),[365] to that of London (1191), "in quam universi regni magnates et ipsi etiam ipsius provinciæ episcopi jurare coguntur."[366]

Meanwhile, what of Geoffrey de Mandeville? A tale is told of him by Dugdale, and accepted without question by Mr. Clark,[367] which, so far as I can find, must be traced to the following passage in Trivet:—

"Igitur in die Nativitatis Precursoris Domini [June 24], obsessâ turri, fugatur imperatrix de Londoniâ. Turrim autem Galfridus de Magnavillâ potenter defendit, et egressu facto, Robertum civitatis episcopum, partis adversæ fautorem, cepit apud manerium de Fulham."[368]

It is quite certain that this tale is untrustworthy as it stands. We have seen above that Trivet's date for the arrival of the Empress at London is similarly, beyond doubt, erroneous.[369] That the citizens, when they suddenly rose against the Empress, may also have blockaded Geoffrey in his tower, not only as her ally, but as their own natural enemy, is possible, nay, even probable. But that he ventured forth, through their ranks, to Fulham, when thus blockaded, is improbable, and that he captured the bishop as an enemy of the Empress is impossible, for the Empress herself had just installed him,[370] and we find him at her court a month later.[371] At the same time Trivet, we must assume, cannot have invented all this. His story must preserve a confused version of the facts as told in some chronicle now lost, or, at least, unknown.[372] On this assumption it may, perhaps, be suggested that Geoffrey was indeed blockaded in the Tower, but that when he accepted the Queen's offers, and thus made, as we shall see, common cause with the citizens, he signalized his defection from the cause of the Empress by seizing her adherent the bishop,[373] and holding him a prisoner till, as Holinshed implies, he purchased his freedom, and so became free to join the Empress at Oxford.[374]

And now let us come to the subject of this chapter, the lost charter of the Queen.

That this charter was granted is an historical fact hitherto absolutely unknown. No chronicler mentions the fact, nor is there a trace of any such document, or even of a transcript of its contents. And yet the existence of this charter, like that of the planet Neptune, can be established, in the words of Sir John Herschel, "with a certainty hardly inferior to ocular demonstration." The discovery, indeed, of that planet was effected (magnis componere parva) by strangely similar means. For as the perturbations of Uranus pointed to the existence of Neptune, so the "perturbations" of Geoffrey de Mandeville point to the existence of this charter.

We know that the departure of the Empress was followed by the arrival of the Queen, with the result that Geoffrey was again in a position to demand his own terms. Had he continued to hold the Tower in the name of the Empress, he would have made it a thorn in the side of the citizens now that they had declared for her rival. We hear, moreover, at this crisis, of offers by the Queen to all those whom bribes or concessions could allure to her side.[375] We have, therefore, the strongest presumption that Geoffrey would be among the first to whom offers were made. But it is not on presumption that we depend. Stephen, we shall find, six months later, refers distinctly to this lost charter ("Carta Reginæ"),[376] and the Empress in turn, in the following year, refers to the charters of the king and of the queen ("quas Rex Stephanus et Matildis regina ei dederunt ... sicut habet inde cartas illorum").[377] Thus its existence is beyond question. And that it passed about this time may be inferred, not only from the circumstances of the case, but also from the most significant fact that, a few weeks later, at the siege of Winchester, we find Geoffrey supporting the Queen in active concert with the citizens.[378]

What were the terms of the charter by which he was thus regained to his allegiance we cannot now tell. To judge, however, from that of Stephen, which was mainly a confirmation of its terms, it probably represented a distinct advance on the concessions he had wrung from the Empress.

It is an interesting fact, and one which probably is known to few, if any, that there is still preserved in the Public Record Office a solitary charter of the Queen, granted, I cannot but think, at this very crisis. As it is not long, I shall here quote it as a unique and instructive record.

"M. Regina Angl[ie] Omnibus fidelibus suis francis et Anglis salutem. Sciatis quod dedi Gervasio Justiciario de Lond[oniâ] x marcatas terræ in villâ de Gamelingeia pro servicio suo ... donec ei persolvam debitum quod ei debeo, ut infra illum terminum habeat proficua que exibunt de villa predictâ ... testibus Com[ite] Sim[one] et Ric[ardo] de Bolon[iâ] et Sim[one] de Gerardmot[a] et Warn[erio] de Lisor[iis]. apud Lond[oniam].[379]

The first of the witnesses, Earl Simon (of Northampton), is known to have been one of the three earls who adhered to the Queen during the king's captivity.[380] Richard of Boulogne was possibly a brother of her nepos, "Pharamus" of Boulogne, who is also known to have been with her.[381] Combining the fact of the charter being the Queen's with that of its subject-matter and that of its place of testing, we obtain the strongest possible presumption that it passed at this crisis, a presumption confirmed, as we have seen, by the name of the leading witness. The endeavour to fix the date of this charter is well worth the making. For it is not merely of interest as a record unique of its kind. If it is, indeed, of the date suggested, it is, to all appearance, the sole survivor of all those charters, such as that to Geoffrey, by which the Queen, in her hour of need, must have purchased support for the royal cause. We see her, like the queen of Henry III., like the queen of Charles I., straining every nerve to succour her husband, and to raise men and means. And as Henrietta Maria pledged her jewels as security for the loans she raised, so Matilda is here shown as pledging a portion of her ancestral "honour" to raise the sinews of war.[382]

But this charter, if the date I have assigned to it be right, does more for us than this. It gives us, for an instant, a precious glimpse of that of which we know so little, and would fain know so much—I mean the government of London. We learn from it that London had then a "justiciary," and further that his name was Gervase. Nor is even this all. The Gamlingay entry in the Testa de Nevill and Liber Niger enables us to advance a step further and to establish the identity of this Gervase with no other than Gervase of Cornhill.[383] The importance of this identification will be shown in a special appendix.[384]

Among those whom the Queen strove hard to gain was her husband's brother, the legate.[385] He had headed, as we have seen, the witnesses to Geoffrey's charter, but he was deeply injured at the failure of his appeal, on behalf of his family, to the Empress, and was even thought to have secretly encouraged the rising of the citizens of London.[386] He now kept aloof from the court of the Empress, and, having held an interview with the Queen at Guildford, resolved to devote himself, heart and soul, to setting his brother free.[387]

[353] "Ecce, dum ipsa putaretur omni Anglia statim posse potiri, mutata omnia" (Will. Malms., p. 749).

[354] Early Plantagenets, p. 22; Const. Hist., i. 330.

[355] "Satisque constat quod si ejus (i.e. comitis) moderationi et sapientiæ a suis esset creditum, non tam sinistrum postea sensissent aleæ casum" (p. 749).

[356] "Regina quod prece non valuit, armis impetrare confidens, splendidissimum militantium decus ante Londonias, ex alterâ fluvii regione, transmisit, utque raptu, et incendio, violentiâ, et gladio, in comitissæ suorumque prospectu, ardentissime circa civitatem desævirent præcepit" (Gesta Stephani, p. 78). These expressions appear to imply that she not only wasted the southern bank, but sent over (transmisit) her troops to plunder round the walls of the city itself (circa civitatem). Mr. Pearson strangely assigns this action not to the Queen, but to the Empress: "Matilda brought up troops, and cut off the trade of the citizens, and wasted their lands, to punish their disaffection" (p. 478).

[357] The Annals of Plympton (ed. Liebermann, p. 20) imply that the city was divided on the subject:—"In mense Junio facta est sedicio in civitate Londoniensi a civibus; sed tamen pars sanior vices imperatricis agebat, pars vero quedam eam obpugnabat."

[358] "Facta conjuratione adversus eam quam cum honore susceperunt, cum dedecore apprehendere statuerunt. At illa a quodam civium præmunita, ignominiosam cum suis fugam arripuit omni sua suorumque supellectili post tergum relicta."

[359] "Sensim sine tumultu quadam militari disciplina urbe cesserunt." This is clearly intended to rebut the story of their hurried flight (see also p. 132, infra).

[360] See Appendix J: "The Great Seal of the Empress."

[361] Harl. MS. 1708, fo. 113.

[362] "Conjuratione facta."

[363] "In indulta sibi conjuratione ... quanta quippe mala ex conjuratione proveniunt" (ed. Howlett, p. 416).

[364] Const. Hist., i. 407.

[365] "Facta conspiratione quam communionem vocabant sese omnes pariter sacramentis adstringunt, et ... ejusdem regionis proceres quamvis invitos, sacramentis suæ conspirationis obligari compellunt."

[366] Richard of Devizes (ed. Howlett, p. 416).

[367] Mediæval Military Architecture, ii. 254.

[368] Trivet's Annals (Eng. Hist. Soc., p. 13).

[369] See p. 84.

[370] "Primo quidem [apud Westmonasterium] quod decuit, sanctæ Dei Ecclesiæ, juxta bonorum consilium, consulere procuravit. Dedit itaque Lundoniensis ecclesiæ præsulatum cuidam Radingensi monacho viro venerabili præsente et jubente reverendo abbate suo Edwardo" (Cont. Flor. Wig., 131).

[371] See p. 123.

[372] We have, indeed, a glimpse of this incident in the Liber de Antiquis Legibus (fol. 35), where we read: "Anno predicto, statim in illa estate, obsessa est Turris Londoniarum a Londoniensibus, quam Willielmus (sic) de Magnavilla tenebat et firmaverat."

[373] The city, it must be remembered, lay between him and Fulham, so that, obviously, he is more likely to have made this raid when the city was no longer in arms against him.

[374] We have a hint that the bishop was disliked by the citizens in the Historia Pontificalis (p. 532), where we learn (in 1148) that they had disobeyed the papal authority: "Quando episcopus bone memorie Robertus expulsus est, cui hanc exhibuere devocionem ut omni diligentia procurarent ne patri exulanti in aliquo prodessent."

[375] "Regina autem a Londoniensibus suscepta, sexusque fragilitatis, femineæque mollitiei oblita, viriliter sese et virtuose continere; invictos ubique coadjutores prece sibi et pretio allicere, regis conjuratos ubi ubi per Angliam fuerant dispersi ad dominum suum secum reposcendum constanter sollicitare" (Gesta Stephani, 80). "Regina omnibus supplicavit, omnes pro ereptione mariti sui precibus, promissis, et obsequiis sollicitavit" (Sym. Dun., ii. 310).

[376] See p. 143.

[377] See p. 167.

[378] "Gaufrido de Mandevillâ (qui jam iterum auxilio eorum cesserat, antea enim post captionem regis imperatrici fidelitatem juraverat) et Londoniensibus maxime annitentibus, nihilque omnino quod possent prætermittentibus quo imperatricem contristarent" (Will. Malms., p. 752).

[379] Royal Charters (Duchy of Lancaster), No. 22. N.B.—The above is merely an extract from the charter.

[380] Waleran of Meulan, William of Warrenne, and Simon of Northampton (Ord. Vit., v. 130).

[381] See p. 147.

[382] Gamlingay, in Cambridgeshire, had come to the Queen as belonging to "the honour of Boulogne."

[383] "Gamenegheia valet xxx li. Inde tenent ... heredes Gervas[ii] de Cornhill x li." (Liber Niger, 395; Testa, pp. 274, 275). This entry also proves that the loan (1141?) to the Queen was not repaid, and the property, therefore, not redeemed.

[384] See Appendix K: "Gervase de Cornhill."

[385] "Nunc quidem Wintoniensem episcopum, totius Angliæ legatum, ut fraternis compatiens vinculis ad eum liberandum intenderet, ut sibi maritum, plebi regem, regno patronum, toto secum nisu adquireret, viriliter supplicare" (Gesta, 80).

[386] Gesta, 79.

[387] Will. Malms., p. 750; Cont. Flor. Wig., 132; Gesta, 80; Annals of Winchester.

CHAPTER VI.
THE ROUT OF WINCHESTER.

The Empress, it will be remembered, in the panic of her escape, on the sudden revolt of the citizens, had fled to the strongholds of her cause in the west, and sought refuge in Gloucester. Most of her followers were scattered abroad, but the faithful Miles of Gloucester was found, as ever, by her side. As soon as she recovered from her first alarm, she retraced her steps to Oxford, acting upon his advice, and made that fortress her head-quarters, to which her adherents might rally.[388]

To her stay at Oxford on this occasion we may assign a charter to Haughmond Abbey, tested inter alios by the King of Scots.[389] But of far more importance is the well-known charter by which she granted the earldom of Hereford to her devoted follower, Miles of Gloucester.[390] With singular unanimity, the rival chroniclers testify to the faithful service of which this grant was the reward.[391] It is an important fact that this charter contains a record of its date, which makes it a fixed point of great value for our story. This circumstance is the more welcome from the long list of witnesses, which enables us to give with absolute certainty the personnel of Matilda's court on the day this charter passed (July 25, 1141), evidence confirmed by another charter omitted from the fasciculus of Mr. Birch.[392] From a comparison of the dates we can assign these documents to the very close of her stay at Oxford, by which time her scattered followers had again rallied to her standard. It is also noteworthy that the date is in harmony with the narrative of the Continuator of Florence. This has a bearing on the chronology of that writer, to which we have now in the main to trust.

William of Malmesbury, who on the doings of his patron is likely to be well informed, tells us that the rumours of the legate's defection led the Earl of Gloucester to visit Winchester in the hope of regaining him to his sister's cause. Disappointed in this, he rejoined her at Oxford.[393] It must have been on his return that he witnessed the charter to Miles of Gloucester.

The Empress, on hearing her brother's report, decided to march on Winchester with the forces she had now assembled.[394] The names of her leading followers can be recovered from the various accounts of the siege.[395]

The Continuator states that she reached Winchester shortly before the 1st of August.[396] He also speaks of the siege having lasted seven weeks on the 13th of September.[397] If he means by this, as he implies, the siege by the queen's forces, he is clearly wrong; but if he was thinking of the arrival of the Empress, this would place that event not later than the 27th of July. We know from the date of the Oxford charter that it cannot well have been earlier. The Hyde Cartulary (Stowe MSS.) is more exact, and, indeed, gives us the day of her arrival, Thursday, July 31 ("pridie kal. Augusti"). According to the Annals of Waverley, the Empress besieged the bishop the next day.[398]

Of the struggle which now took place we have several independent accounts. Of these the fullest are those given by the Continuator, who here writes with a bitter feeling against the legate, and by the author of the Gesta, whose sympathies were, of course, on the other side. John of Hexham, William of Malmesbury, and Henry of Huntingdon have accounts which should be carefully consulted, and some information is also to be gleaned from the Hyde Cartulary (Stowe MSS.).

It is John of Hexham alone who mentions that the bishop himself had commenced operations by besieging the royal castle, which was held by a garrison of the Empress.[399] It was in this castle, says the Continuator, that she took up her quarters on her arrival.[400] She at once summoned the legate to her presence, but he, dreading that she would seize his person, returned a temporizing answer, and eventually rode forth from the city (it would seem, by the east gate) just as the Empress entered it in state.[401]

Though the Continuator asserts that the Empress, on her arrival, found the city opposed to her, William of Malmesbury, whose sympathies were the same, asserts, on the contrary, that the citizens were for her.[402] Possibly, the former may only have meant that she had found the gates of the city closed against her by the legate. In any case, she now established herself, together with her followers, within the walls, and laid siege to the episcopal palace, which was defended by the legate's garrison.[403] The usual consequence followed. From the summit of the keep its reckless defenders rained down fire upon the town, and a monastery, a nunnery, more than forty (?) churches, and the greater part of the houses within the walls are said to have been reduced to ashes.[404]

Meanwhile, the legate had summoned to his aid the Queen and all the royal party. His summons "was promptly obeyed;[405] even the Earl of Chester, "who," says Dr. Stubbs, "was uniformly opposed to Stephen, but who no doubt fought for himself far more than for the Empress,"[406] joined, on this occasion, the royal forces, perhaps to maintain the balance of power. But his assistance, naturally enough, was viewed with such deep suspicion that he soon went over to the Empress,[407] to whom, however, his tardy help was of little or no value.[408] From London the Queen received a well-armed contingent, nearly a thousand strong;[409] but Henry of Huntingdon appears to imply that their arrival, although it turned the scale, did not take place till late in the siege.[410]

The position of the opposing forces became a very strange one. The Empress and her followers, from the castle, besieged the bishop's palace, and were in turn themselves besieged by the Queen and her host without.[411] It was the aim of the latter to cut off the Empress from her base of operations in the west. With this object they burnt Andover,[412] and harassed so successfully the enemy's convoys, that famine was imminent in the city.[413] The Empress, moreover, was clearly outnumbered by the forces of the Queen and legate. It is agreed on all hands that the actual crisis was connected with an affair at Wherwell, but John of Hexham and the author of the Gesta are not entirely in accord as to the details. According to the latter, who can hardly be mistaken in a statement so precise, the besieged, now in dire straits, despatched a small force along the old Icknield Way, to fortify Wherwell and its nunnery, commanding the passage of the Test, in order to secure their line of communication.[414] John of Hexham, on the contrary, describing, it would seem, the same incident, represents it as merely the despatch of an escort, under John the Marshal and Robert fitz Edith, to meet an expected convoy.[415] In any case, it is clear that William of Ypres, probably the Queen's best soldier, burst upon the convoy close to Wherwell, and slew or captured all but those who sought refuge within the nunnery walls.[416] Nor are the two accounts gravely inconsistent.

On the other hand, the Continuator of Florence appears at first sight to imply that the Marshal and his followers took refuge at Wherwell in the course of the general flight,[417] and this version is in harmony with the Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal.[418] But putting aside William of Malmesbury, whose testimony is ambiguous on the point, I consider the balance to be clearly in favour of the Gesta and John of Hexham, whose detailed accounts must be wholly rejected if we embrace the other version, whereas the Continuator's words can be harmonized, and indeed better understood, if we take "ad monasterium Warewellense fugientem" as referring to John taking refuge in the nunnery (as described in the other versions) when surprised with his convoy. Moreover, the evidence (vide infra) as to the Empress leaving Winchester by the west instead of the north gate, appears to me to clinch the matter. As to the Marshal poem, on such a point its evidence is of little weight. Composed at a later period, and based on family tradition, its incidents, as M. Meyer has shown, are thrown together in wrong order, and its obvious errors not a few. I may add that the Marshal's position is unduly exalted in the poem, and that Brian fitz Count (though it is true that he accompanied the Empress in her flight) would never have taken his orders from John the Marshal.[419] Its narrative cannot be explained away, but it is the one that we are most justified in selecting for rejection.

To expel the fugitives from their place of safety, William and his troopers fired the nunnery. A furious struggle followed in the church, amidst the shrieks of the nuns and the roar of the flames; the sanctuary itself streamed with blood; but John the Marshal stood his ground, and refused to surrender to his foes.[420] "Silence, or I will slay thee with mine own hands," the undaunted man is said to have exclaimed, as his last remaining comrade implored him to save their lives.[421]

On receiving intelligence of this disaster, the besieged were seized with panic, and resolved on immediate retreat.[422] William of Malmesbury, as before, is anxious to deny the panic,[423] and the Continuator accuses the legate of treachery.[424] The account, however, in the Gesta appears thoroughly trustworthy. According to this, the Empress and her forces sallied forth from the gates in good order, but were quickly surrounded and put to flight. All order was soon at an end. Bishops, nobles, barons, troopers, fled in headlong rout. With her faithful squire by her side the Empress rode for her life.[425] The Earl of Gloucester, with the rear-guard, covered his sister's retreat, but in so doing was himself made prisoner, while holding, at Stockbridge, the passage of the Test.[426]

The mention of Stockbridge proves that the besieged must have fled by the Salisbury road, their line of retreat by Andover being now barred at Wherwell. After crossing the Test, the fugitive Empress must have turned northwards, and made her way, by country lanes, over Longstock hills, to Ludgershall. So great was the dread of her victorious foes, now in full pursuit, that though she had ridden more than twenty miles, and was overwhelmed with anxiety and fatigue, she was unable to rest even here, and, remounting, rode for Devizes, across the Wiltshire downs.[427] It was not, we should notice, thought safe for her to make straight for Gloucester, through Marlborough and Cirencester; so she again set her face due west, as if making for Bristol. Thus fleeing from fortress to fortress, she came to her castle at Devizes. So great, however, was now her terror that even in this celebrated stronghold[428] she would not, she feared, be safe. She had already ridden some forty miles, mainly over bad country, and what with grief, terror, and fatigue, the erst haughty Empress was now "more dead than alive" (pene exanimis). It was out of the question that she should mount again; a litter was hurriedly slung between two horses, and, strapped to this, the unfortunate Lady was conveyed in sorry guise (sat ignominiose) to her faithful city of Gloucester.[429]

On a misunderstanding, as I deem it, of the passage (and especially of the word feretrum), writers have successively, for three centuries, represented the Continuator as stating that the Empress, "to elude the vigilance of her pursuers," was "laid out as a corpse!" Lingard, indeed, while following suit, gravely doubts if the fact be true, as it is recorded by the Continuator alone; but Professor Pearson improves upon the story, and holds that the versatile "Lady" was in turn "a trooper" and a corpse.[430]

On the 1st of November the king was released, and a few days later the Earl of Gloucester, for whom he had been exchanged, reached Bristol.[431] Shortly after, it would seem, there were assembled together at Bristol, the Earl, the Empress, and their loyal adherents, Miles, now Earl of Hereford, Brian fitz Count, and Robert fitz Martin.[432]

[388] "Porro fugiens domina per Oxenefordiam venit ad Glavorniam, ubi cum Milone ex-constabulario consilio inito statim cum eodem ad Oxenefordensem revertitur urbem, ibi præstolatura seu recuperatura suum dispersum militarem numerum" (Cont. Flor. Wig., 132).

[389] The other witnesses were Robert, Bishop of London, Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, William the chancellor, R[ichard] de Belmeis, archdeacon, G[ilbert?], archdeacon, Reginald, Earl of Cornwall, William Fitz Alan and Walter his brother, Alan de Dunstanville (Harl. MS., 2188, fol. 123). The two bishops and the King of Scots also witnessed the charter to Miles.

[390] Fœdera, N.E., i. 14.

[391] "Et quia ejusdem Milonis præcipue fruebatur consilio et fovebatur auxilio, utpote quæ eatenus nec unius diei victum nec mensæ ipsius apparatum aliunde quam ex ipsius munificentiâ sive providentiâ acceperat sicut ex ipsius Milonis ore audivimus, ut eum suo arctius vinciret ministerio, comitatum ei Herefordensem tunc ibi posita pro magnæ remunerationis contulit præmio" (Cont. Flor. Wig., 133). Comp. Gesta, 81: "Milo Glaornensis, quem ibi cum gratiâ et favore omnium comitem præfecit Herefordiæ."

[392] See Appendix L: "Charter of the Empress to William de Beauchamp."

[393] "Ad hos motus, si possit, componendos comes Gloecestrensis non adeo denso comitatu Wintoniam contendit; sed, re infecta, ad Oxeneford rediit, ubi soror stativâ mansione jamdudum se continuerat" (p. 751). The "jamdudum" should be noticed, as a hint towards the chronology.

[394] "Ipsa itaque, et ex his quæ continue audiebat et a fratre tunc cognovit nihil legatum molle ad suas partes cogitare intelligens, Wintoniam cum quanto potuit apparatu venit" (ibid.).

[395] They were her uncle, the King of Scots;* her three brothers, the Earls of Gloucester* and of Cornwall,* and Robert fitz Edith; the Earls of Warwick and Devon ("Exeter"), with their newly created fellows, the Earls of Dorset (or Somerset) and Hereford; Humphrey de Bohun,* John the Marshal,* Brien fitz Count,* Geoffrey Boterel (his relative), William fitz Alan, "William" of Salisbury, Roger d'Oilli, Roger "de Nunant," etc. The primate* was also of the company. N.B.—Those marked with an asterisk attested the above charter to Miles de Gloucester.

[396] "Inde [i.e. from Oxford] jam militum virtute roborata et numero, appropinquante festivitate Sancti Petri, quæ dicitur ad Vincula" [August 1] (Cont. Flor. Wig., 133).

[397] "Septem igitur septimanis in obsidione transactis" (ibid.).

[398] "Die kalendarum Augusti" (Ann. Mon., ii. 229).

[399] "Imperatrix, collectis viribus suis, cum rege Scotiæ et Rodberto comite ascendit in Wintoniam, audiens milites suos inclusos in regia munitione expugnari a militibus legati qui erant in mœnibus illius" (Sym. Dun., ii. 310).

[400] "Ignorante fratre suo, comite Bricstowensi (i.e. Earl Robert), Wintoniensem venit ad urbem, sed eam a se jam alienatam inveniens, in castello suscepit hospitium" (p. 133). It seems impossible to understand what can be meant by the expression "ignorante fratre suo." So too Will. Malms.: "intra castellum regium sine cunctatione recepta."

[401] Will. Malms., p. 751; Gesta, p. 80; Cont. Flor. Wig., 133. The Gesta alone represents the Empress as hoping to surprise the legate, which is scarcely probable.

[402] "Wintonienses porro vel tacito ei favebant judicio, memores fidei quam ei pacti fuerant cum inviti propemodum ab episcopo ad hoc adacti essent" (p. 752).

[403] There is some confusion as to what the Empress actually besieged. The Gesta says it was "(1) castellum episcopi, quod venustissimo constructum schemate in civitatis medio locarat, sed et (2) domum illius, quam ad instar castelli fortiter et inexpugnabiliter firmarat." We learn from the Annals of Winchester (p. 51) that, in 1138, the bishop "fecit ædificare domum quasi palatium cum turri fortissima in Wintonia," which would seem to be Wolvesey, with its keep, at the south-east angle of the city. Again, Giraldus has a story (vii. 46) that the bishop built himself a residence from the materials of the Conqueror's palace: "Domos regios apud Wintoniam ecclesie ipsius atrio nimis enormiter imminentes, ... funditus in brevi raptim et subito ... dejecit, et ... ex dirutis ædificiis et abstractis domos episcopales egregias sibi in eadem urbe construxit." On the other hand, the Hyde Cartulary assigns the destruction of the palace to the siege (vide infra.).

[404] "Interea ex turre pontificis jaculatum incendium in domos burgensium (qui, ut dixi, proniores erant imperatricis felicitati) comprehendit et combussit abbatiam totam sanctimonialium intra urbem, simulque cænobium quod dicitur ad Hidam extra" (Will. Malms., p. 752). "Qui intus recludebantur ignibus foras emissis majorem civitatis partem sed et duas abbatias in favillas penitus redegerunt" (Gesta, p. 83). "Siquidem secundo die mensis Augusti ignis civitati immissis, monasterium sanctimonialium cum suis ædificiis, ecclesias plus XL cum majori seu meliori parte civitatis, postremo cænobium monachorum Deo et Sancto Grimbaldo famulantium, cum suis ædibus redegit in cineres" (Cont. Flor. Wig., p. 133). It is from this last writer that we get the date (August 2), which we should never have gathered from William of Malmesbury (who mentions this fire in conjunction with the burning of Wherwell Abbey, at the close of the siege) or from the Gesta. M. Paris (Chron. Maj., ii. 174) assigns the fire, like William of Malmesbury, to the end of the siege, but his version, "Destructa est Wintonia XVIII kal. Oct., et captus est R. Comes Glovernie die exaltationis Sancte Crucis," is self-stultifying, the two dates being one and the same. The Continuator's date is confirmed by the independent evidence of the Hyde Cartulary (among the Stowe MSS.), which states that on Saturday, the 2nd of August ("Sabbato IIII. non. Augusti"), the city was burned by the bishop's forces, "et eodem die dicta civitas Wyntonie capta est et spoliata." From this source we further obtain the interesting fact that the Conqueror's palace in the city ("totum palatium cum aula sua") perished on this occasion. Allusion is made to this fact in the same cartulary's account of a council held by Henry of Winchester in the cathedral, in November, 1150, where the parish of St. Laurence is assigned the site "super quam aulam suam et palacium edificari fecit (Rex Willelmus)," which palace "in adventu Roberti Comitis Gloecestrie combustum fuit." The Continuator (more suo) assigns the fire to the cruelty of the bishop; but it was the ordinary practice in such cases. As from the tower of Le Mans in 1099 (Ord. Vit.), as from the tower of Hereford Cathedral but a few years before this (Gesta Stephani), so now at Winchester the firebrands flew: and so again at Lewes, in far later days (1264), where on the evening of the great battle there blazed forth from the defeated Royalists, sheltered on the castle height, a mad shower of fire.

[405] "Statimque propter omnes misit quos regi fauturos sciebat. Venerunt ergo fere omnes comites Angliæ; erant enim juvenes et leves, et qui mallent equitationum discursus quam pacem" (Will. Malms., p. 751). Cf. Hen. Hunt., p. 275, and Gesta, pp. 81, 82.

[406] Early Plantagenets, p. 25. Compare Const. Hist., i. 329: "The Earl of Chester, although, whenever he prevailed on himself to act, he took part against Stephen, fought rather on his own account than on Matilda's."

[407] Sym. Dun., ii. 310.

[408] "Reinulfus enim comes Cestrie tarde et inutiliter advenit" (Will. Malms., p. 751).

[409] "Invictâ Londoniensium catervâ, qui, fere mille, cum galeis et loricis ornatissime instructi convenerant" (Gesta, p. 82).

[410] "Venit tandem exercitus Lundoniensis, et aucti numerose qui contra imperatricem contendebant, fugere eam compulerunt" (p. 275).

[411] Gesta, p. 82. The Annals of Winchester (p. 52) strangely reverse the respective positions of the two: "Imperatrix cum suis castellum tenuit regium et orientalem (sic) partem Wintonie et burgenses cum ea; legatus cum suis castrum suum cum parte occidentali" (sic).

[412] Will. Malms., p. 752.

[413] Ibid.; Gesta, p. 83.

[414] "Provisum est igitur, et communi consilio provisé, ut sibi videbatur, statutum, quatinus penes abbatiam Werwellensem, quæ a Ventâ civitate VI. milliariis distabat, trecentis (sic) ibi destinatis militibus, castellum construerent, ut scilicet inde et regales facilius arcerentur, et ciborum subsidia competentius in urbe dirigerentur" (p. 83).

[415] "Emissi sunt autem ducenti (sic) milites, cum Rodberto filio Edæ et Henrici regis notho et Johanne Marascaldo, ut conducerent in urbem eos qui comportabant victualia in ministerium imperatricis et eorum qui obsessi fuerant" (Sym. Dun., ii. 310).

[416] "Quos persecuti Willelmus Dipre et pars exercitus usque ad Warewella (ubi est congregatio sanctimonialium) et milites et omnem apparatum, qui erat copiosus, abduxerunt" (ibid). "Subito et insperaté, cum intolerabili multitudine Werwellam advenerunt, fortiterque in eos undique irruentes captis et interemptis plurimis, cedere tandem reliquos et in templum se recipere compulerunt" (Gesta, p. 83).

[417] Vide infra. Since the above was written Mr. Howlett, in his edition of the Gesta (p. 82, note), has noted the contradiction in the narrative, but seems to lean to the latter version as being supported by the Marshal poem.

[418] As has been duly pointed out by its accomplished editor, M. Paul Meyer (Romania, vol. xi.), who will shortly, it may be hoped, publish the entire poem.

[419]

"Li Mareschals de son afaire

Ne sout que dire ne que feire,

N'i vit rescose ne confort.

A Brien de Walingofort

Commanda a mener la dame,

E dist, sor le peril de s'alme

Q'en nul lieu ne s'aresteiisent,

Por nul besoing que il eiisent,

N'en bone veie ne en male,

De si qu'a Lothegaresale;

E cil tost e hastivement

En fist tot son commandement" (Lines 225-236).

[420] "Cumque vice castelli ad se defendendos templo uterentur, alii, facibus undique injectis, semiustulatos eos e templo prodire, et ad votum suum se sibi subdere coegerunt. Erat quidem horrendum," etc. (Gesta, p. 83). "Johannem etiam, fautorem eorum, ad monasterium Warewellense fugientem milites episcopi persequentes, cum exinde nullo modo expellere valuissent, in ipsâ die festivitatis Exaltationis Sanctæ Crucis [Sept. 14], immisso igne ipsam ecclesiam Sanctæ Crucis cum sanctimonialium rebus et domibus cremaverunt, ... prædictum tamen Johannem nec capere nec expellere potuerunt" (Cont. Flor. Wig., p. 135). So also Will. Malms. (p. 752): "Combusta est etiam abbatia sanctimonialium de Warewellâ a quodam Willelmo de Iprâ homine nefando, qui nec Deo nec hominibus reverentiam observaret, quod in eâ quidam imperatricis fautores se contutati essent."

[421]

"Li Mareschas el guié s'estut,

A son poer les contrestut.

Tute l'ost sur lui descarcha

Qui si durement le charcha

Que n'i pont naint plus durer;

Trop lui fui fort a endurer,

Einz s'enbati en un mostier;

N'ont o lui k'un sol chevaler.

Quant li real les aperçurent

Qu'el mostier enbatu se furent:

'Or ça, li feus!' funt il, 'or sa,

Li traitres ne li garra.'

Quant li feus el moster se prist,

En la vis de la tor se mist.

Li chevaliers li dist: 'Beau sire,

Or ardrum ci a grant martire:

Ce sera pecchiez e damages.

Rendom nos, si ferom que sages.'

Cil respundi mult cruelment:

N'en parler ja, gel te defent;

Ke, s'en diseies plus ne mains,

Ge t'occirreie de mes mains.'

Por le grant feu qui fu entor

Dejeta li pluns de la tor,

Si que sor le vis li chaï,

Dunt leidement li meschaï,

K'un de ses elz i out perdu

Dunt molt se tint a esperdu,

Mais, merci Dieu, n'i murust pas.

E li real en es le pas

Por mort e por ars le quiderent;

A Vincestre s'en returnerent,

Mais n'i fu ne mors ne esteinz" (Lines 237-269).

[422] "Ubi lacrymabilem præfati infortunii audissent eventum de obsidione diutius ingerendâ ex toto desperati, fugæ quammaturé inire præsidium sibi consuluere" (Gesta, pp. 83, 84). "Qui jam non in concertatione sed in fuga spem salutis gerentes egressi sunt, ne forte victores cum Willelmo d'Ipre ad socios regressi, sumptâ fiduciâ ex quotidianis successibus, aliquid subitum in eos excogitarent" (Sym. Dun., ii. 310).

[423] "[Comes] cedendum tempori ratus, compositis ordinibus discessionem paravit" (p. 753).

[424] P. 134. His strong bias against the legate makes this somewhat confused charge unworthy of credit.

[425]

"La fist tantost metre a la voie

Tot dreit a Lotegaresale.

Ne[l] purrent suffrir ne atendre

Cil qui o l'empereriz erent:

Al meiz ku'il purent s'en alerent,

Poingnant si que regne n'i tindrent

[J]esque soz Varesvalle vindrent;

Mès forment les desavancha

L'empereriz qui chevacha

Cumme femme fait en seant:

Ne sembla pas buen ne seant

Al Marechal, anceis li dist:

'Dame, si m'ait Jesucrist,

L'em ne puet pas eu seant poindre;

Les jambes vos covient desjoindre

E metre par en son l'arçun.'

El le fist, volsist ele ou non,

Quer lor enemis le grevoient

Qui de trop près les herdoient" (Lines 198, 199, 208-224).

The quaint detail here given is confirmed, as M. Meyer notes, by the Continuator's phrase (vide infra, note 2).

[426] "In loco qui Stolibricge dicitur a Flammensibus cum comite Warrennensi captus" (Cont. Flor. Wig., p. 135). Cf. p. 134, and Will. Malms. (pp. 753, 758, 759), Gesta (p. 84), Sym. Dun. (ii. 311), Hen. Hunt. (p. 275). As in Matilda's flight from London, so in her flight from Winchester, the author of the Gesta appears to advantage with his descriptive and spirited account.

[427] "Hæc audiens domina, vehementer exterrita atque turbata, ad castellum quo tendebat de Ludkereshala tristis ac dolens advenit, sed ibi locum tutum quiescendi, propter metum episcopi, non invenit. Unde, hortantibus suis, equo iterum usu masculino supposita, atque ad Divisas perducta" (Cont. Flor. Wig., p. 134).

[428] "Castellum quod vocatur Divise, quo non erat aliud splendidius intra fines Europæ" (Hen. Hunt., p. 265). "Castellum ... multis et vix numerabilibus sumptibus, non (ut ipse præsul dictabat) ad ornamentum, sed (ut se rei veritas habet) ad ecclesiæ detrimentum, ædificatum" (Will. Malms., pp. 717, 718). It had been raised by the Bishop of Salisbury, and it passed, at his fall, into Stephen's hands. It is then described by the author of the Gesta (p. 66) as "castellum regis, quod Divisa dicebatur, ornanter et inexpugnabiliter muratum." It was subsequently surprised by Robert fitz Hubert, who held it for his own hand till his capture, when the Earl of Gloucester tried hard to extort its surrender from him. In this, however, he failed. Robert was hanged, and, soon after, his garrison sold it to Stephen, by whom it was entrusted to Hervey of Brittany, whom he seems to have made Earl of Wilts. But on Stephen's capture, the peasantry rose, and extorted its surrender from Hervey. Thenceforth, it was a stronghold of the Empress (see for this the Continuator and the Gesta).

[429] "Cum nec ibi secure se tutari posse, ob insequentes, formidaret, jam pene exanimis feretro invecta, et funibus quasi cadaver ligata, equis deferentibus, sat ignominiose ad civitatem deportatur Glaornensem" (Cont. Flor. Wig., 134). The author of the Gesta (p. 85) mentions her flight to Devizes ("Brieno tantum cum paucis comite, ad Divisas confugit"), and incidentally observes (p. 87) that she was "ex Wintoniensi dispersione quassa nimis, et usque ad defectum pené defatigata" (i.e. "tired to death;" cf. supra). John of Hexham merely says: "Et imperatrix quidem non sine magno conflictu et plurima difficultate erepta est" (Sym. Dun., ii. 310).

[430] Camden, in his Britannia, gives the story, but Knighton (De eventibus Angliæ, lib. ii., in Scriptores X.) seems to be the chief offender. Dugdale follows with the assertion that "she was necessitated ... for her more security to be put into a coffin, as a dead corps, to escape their hands" (i. 537 b). According to Milner (History of Winchester, p. 162), "she was enclosed like a corpse in a sheet of lead, and was thus suffered to pass in a horse-litter as if carried out for interment, through the army of her besiegers, a truce having been granted for this purpose." Even Edwards, in his introduction to the Liber de Hyda (p. xlviii.), speaks of "the raising of the siege; a raising precipitated, if we accept the accounts of Knighton and some other chroniclers who accord with him, by the strange escape of the Empress Maud from Winchester Castle concealed in a leaden coffin." Sic crescit eundo.

[431] Will. Malms., p. 754.

[432] See donation of Miles (Monasticon, vi. 137), stated to have been made in their presence, and in the year 1141, in which he speaks of himself as "apud Bristolium positus, jamque consulatus honorem adeptus." Brian had escorted the Empress in her flight, but Miles, intercepted by the enemy, had barely escaped with his life ("de solâ vita lætus ad Glaornam cum dedecore fugiendo pervenit lassus, solus, et pene nudus."—Cont. Flor. Wig., p. 135).

CHAPTER VII.
THE SECOND CHARTER OF THE KING.

The liberation of the king from his captivity was hailed with joy by his adherents, and not least, we may be sure, in his loyal city of London. The greatness of the event is seen, perhaps, in the fact that it is even mentioned in a private London deed of the time, executed "Anno MCXLI., Id est in exitu regis Stephani de captione Roberti filii regis Henrici."[432]

In spite of his faults we may fairly assume that the king's imprisonment had aroused a popular reaction in his favour, as it did in the case of Charles I., five centuries later. The experiences also of the summer had been greatly in his favour. For, however unfit he may have been to fill the throne himself, he was able now to point to the fact that his rival had been tried and found wanting.

He would now be eager to efface the stain inflicted on his regal dignity, to show in the sight of all men that he was again their king, and then to execute vengeance on those whose captive he had been. The first step to be taken was to assemble a council of the realm that should undo the work of the April council at Winchester, and formally recognize in him the rightful possessor of the throne. This council met on the 7th of December at Westminster, the king himself being present.[433] The ingenious legate was now as ready to prove that his brother, and not the Empress, should rightly fill the throne, as, we saw, he was in April to prove the exact reverse. The two grounds on which he based his renunciation were, first, that the Empress had failed to fulfil her pledges to the Church;[434] second, that her failure implied the condemnation of God.[435]

A solemn coronation might naturally follow, to set, as it were, the seal to the work of this assembly. Perhaps the nearest parallel to this second coronation is to be found in that of Richard I., in 1194, after his captivity and humiliation.[436] I think we have evidence that Stephen himself looked on this as a second coronation, and as no mere "crown-wearing," in a precept in favour of the monks of Abingdon, in which he alludes incidentally to the day of his first coronation.[437] This clearly implies a second coronation since; and as the precept is attested by Richard de Luci, it is presumably subsequent to that second coronation, to which we now come.

It cannot be wondered that this event has been unnoticed by historians, for it is only recorded in a single copy of the works of a single chronicler. We are indebted to Dr. Stubbs and his scholarly edition of the writings of Gervase of Canterbury for our knowledge of the fact that in one, and that comparatively imperfect, of the three manuscripts on which his text is based, we read of a coronation of Stephen, at Canterbury, "placed under 1142." We learn from him that in this MS. "it is probably inserted in a wrong place," as indeed is evident from the fact that at Christmas, 1142, Stephen was at Oxford. Here is the passage in question:—

"Deinde rex Stephanus una cum regina et nobilitate procerum ad Natale Domini gratiosus adveniens, in ipsa solempnitate in ecclesiâ Christi a venerabili Theobaldo ejusdem ecclesiæ archiepiscopo coronatus est; ipsa etiam regina cum eo ibidem coronam auream gestabat in capite" (Gervase, i. 123).

It should perhaps be noticed that, while the Queen is merely said to have worn her crown, Stephen is distinctly stated to have been crowned. I cannot but think that this must imply a distinction between them, and supports the view that this coronation was due to the captivity of the king.

My contention is that the date of this event was Christmas, 1141, and that the choice, for its scene, of the Kentish capital was a graceful compliment to that county which, in the darkest hour of the king's fortunes, had remained faithful to his cause, and to the support of which his restoration had been so largely due.[438]

I further hold that the second charter granted to Geoffrey de Mandeville was executed on this occasion, and that in its witnesses we have the list of that "nobilitas procerum" by which, according to Gervase, this coronation was attended.

This charter, when rightly dated, is indeed the keystone of my story. For without it we could not form that series on which the sequence of events is based. It is admittedly subsequent to the king's liberation, for it refers to the battle of Lincoln. It must also be previous to Geoffrey's death in 1144. These are the obvious limits given in the official calendar.[439] But it must further be previous to Geoffrey's fall in 1143. Lastly, it must be previous to the Oxford, or second, charter of the Empress, in which we shall find it is referred to. As that charter cannot be later than the summer of 1142, our limit is again narrowed. Now the charter is tested at Canterbury. Stephen cannot, it seems, have been there in the course of 1142. This accordingly leaves us, as the only possible date, the close of 1141; and this is the very date of the king's coronation at Canterbury. When we add to this train of reasoning the fact that the number of earls by whom the charter is witnessed clearly points to some great state ceremonial, we cannot feel the slightest doubt that the charter must, as I observed, have passed on this occasion. With this conclusion its character will be found in complete accordance, for it plainly represents the price for which the traitor earl consented to change sides again, and to place at the disposal of his outraged king that Tower of London, its citadel and its dread, the possession of which once more enabled him to dictate his own terms.

Those terms were that, in the first place, he should forfeit nothing for his treason in having joined the cause of the Empress, and should be confirmed in his possession of all that he held before the king's capture. But his demands far exceeded the mere status quo ante. Just as he had sold his support to the Empress when she gave him an advance on Stephen's terms, so the Queen must have brought him back by offering terms, at the crisis of the struggle, in excess even of those which he had just wrung from the Empress. He would now insist that these great concessions should be confirmed by the king himself. Such is the explanation of the strange character of this Canterbury charter.

Charter of the King to Geoffrey de Mandeville
(Christmas, 1141).

S. rex Angl[orum] Archiepiscopis Episcopis Abbatibus Comitibus Justic[iariis] Vicecomitibus Baronibus et Omnibus Ministris et fidelibus suis francis et Anglis totius Anglie salutem. Sciatis me reddidisse et firmiter concesisse Gaufr[ido] Comiti de Essexâ omnia sua tenementa que tenuit, de quocunque illa tenuerit, die quâ impeditus fui apud Linc[olniam] et captus. Et præter hoc dedi ei et concessi ccc libratas terræ scilicet Meldonam[440] et Neweport et Depedenam et Banhunte et Ingam et Phingriam[441] et Chateleam cum omnibus suis Appendiciis pro c libris. Et Writelam[442] pro vi.xx libris. Et Hadfeld[443] pro quater.xx libris cum omnibus appendiciis illorum Maneriorum. Et præter hec dedi ei et concessi in feodo et hereditate de me et de meis hæredibus sibi et suis heredibus c libratas terræ de terris excaatis, scilicet totam terram Roberti de Baentona[444] quam tenuit in Essexâ, videlicet Reneham[445] et Hoilandam,[446] Et Amb[er]denam[447] et Wodeham[448] et Eistan',[449] quam Picardus de Danfront[450] tenuit. Et Ichilintonam[451] cum omnibus eorum appendiciis pro c libris. Et præterea dedi ei et firmiter concessi in feodo et hereditate c libratas terræ ad opus Ernulfi de Mannavilla de ipso Comite Gaufredo tenendas, scilicet Anastiam,[452] et Braching,[453] et Hamam[454] cum omnibus eorum appendiciis. Et c solidatas terræ in Hadfeld ad præfatas c libratas terræ perficiend[um]. Et præterea dedi ei et concessi custodiam turris Lond[oniæ] cum Castello quod ei subest habend[um] et tenendum sibi et suis hæredibus de me et de meis heredibus cum omnibus rebus et libertatibus et consuetudinibus prefate turri pertinentibus. Et Justicias et Vicecomitat' de Lond[oniâ] et de Middlesexâ in feodo et hereditate eadem firma qua Gaufridus de Mannavilla avus suus eas tenuit, scilicet pro ccc libris. Et Justitias et Vicecomitat' de Essexâ et de Heortfordiscirâ eâdem firmâ quâ avus ejus eas tenuit, ita tamen quod dominica que de prædictis Comitatibus data sunt ipsi Comiti Gaufredo aut alicui alii a firmâ præfatâ subtrahantur et illi et hæredibus suis ad scaccarium combutabuntur. Et præterea firmiter ei concessi ut possit firmare quoddam castellum ubicunque voluerit in terrâ suâ et quod stare possit. Et præterea dedi eidem Comiti Gaufr[edo] et firmiter concessi in feodo et hereditate sibi et hæredibus suis de me et de meis heredibus lx milites feudatos, de quibus Ernulfus de Mannavillâ tenebit x in feodo et hereditate de patre suo, scilicet servicium Graalondi de Tania[455] pro vii militibus et dimidio Et servicium Willelmi filii Roberti pro vii militibus Et servicium Brient[ii] filii Radulfi[456] pro v militibus Et servicium Roberti filii Geroldi pro xi militibus Et servicium Radulfi filii Geroldi pro i milite Et servicium Willelmi de Tresgoz[457] pro vi militibus Et servicium Mauricii de Chic[he] pro v militibus et servicium Radulfi Maled[octi] pro ii militibus Et servicium Goisb[erti] de Ing[â] pro i milite Et servicium Willelmi filii Heru[ei] pro iii militibus Et servicium Willelmi de Auco pro j milite et dimidio Et servicium Willelmi de Bosevillâ[458] pro ii militibus Et servicium Mathei Peur[elli][459] pro iiij militibus Et servicium Ade de Sum[er]i de feodo de Elmedonâ[460] pro iij militibus Et servicium Rann[ulfi] Briton[is][461] pro i milite. Et præterea quicquid Carta Regine testatur ei dedi et concessi. Omnia autem hec prædicta tenementa, scilicet in terris et dominiis et serviciis militum et in Custodia turris Lon[doniæ] et Castelli quod turri subest et in Justiciis et Vicecomitatibus et omnibus prædictis rebus et consuetudinibus et libertatibus, dedi ei et firmiter concessi Comiti Gaufredo in feodo et hereditate de me et de meis heredibus sibi et heredibus suis pro servicio suo. Quare volo et firmiter præcipio quod ipse et heredes sui post eum habeant et teneant omnia illa tenementa et concessiones adeo libere et quiete et honorifice sicut aliquis omnium Comitum totius Angliæ aliquod suum tenementum tenet vel tenuit liberius et honorificentius et quietius et plenius.

T[estibus] M. Regina et H[enrico] Ep[iscop]o Wint[onensi] et W[illelmo] Com[ite] Warenn[a] et Com[ite] Gisl[eberto] de Pembroc et Com[ite] Gisl[eberto] de heortford et W[illelmo] Com[ite] de Albarm[arlâ] et Com[ite] Sim[one] et Comite Will[elmo] de Sudsexâ et Com[ite] Alan[o] et Com[ite] Rob[erto] de Ferrers et Will[elmo] de Ip[râ] et Will[elmo] Mart[el] et Bald[wino] fil[io] Gisl[eberti] et Rob[erto] de V[er] et Pharam[o] et Ric[ardo] de Luci et Turg[isio] de Abrincis et Ada de Belum. Apud Cantuar[iam].[462]

It will at once be seen that this charter is one of extraordinary interest.

The first point to strike one, on examining the list of witnesses, is the presence of no less than eight earls and of no more than one bishop. To these, indeed, we may add perhaps, though by no means of necessity, the Earl of Essex himself. Though the evidence is, of course, merely negative, it is probable, to judge from similar cases, that had other bishops been present, they would appear among the witnesses to the charter. The absence of their names, therefore, is somewhat difficult to explain, unless (if present) they were at enmity with Geoffrey.

Another point deserving of notice is that this great gathering of earls enables us to draw some important conclusions as to the origin and development of their titles. We may, for instance, safely infer that when a Christian name was borne by one earl alone, he used for his style that name with the addition of "Comes" either as a prefix or as a suffix. Thus we have in this instance "Comes Alanus" and "Comes Simon." But when two or more earls bore the same Christian name, they had to be distinguished by some addition. Thus we have "Comes Gislebertus de Pembroc" and "Comes Gislebertus de Heortford," or "Comes Robertus de Ferrers," as distinguished from Earl Robert "of Gloucester." The addition of "de Essexa" to Earl Geoffrey himself, which is found in this and other charters (see pp. 158, 183), can only, it would seem, be intended to distinguish him from Count Geoffrey of Anjou. But here the striking case is that of "Willelmo Comite Warenna," "Willelmo Comite de Albarmarlâ," and "Comite Willelmo de Sudsexâ." These examples show us how perfectly immaterial was the source from which the description was taken. "Warenna" is used as if a surname; "Albarmarla" is "Aumâle," a local name; and "Sudsexa" needs no comment. The same noble who here attests as Earl of "Albarmarla" elsewhere attests as Earl "of York," while the Earl "of Sussex" is elsewhere a witness as Earl "of Chichester" or "of Arundel." In short, the "Comes" really belongs to the Christian name alone. The descriptive suffix is distinct and immaterial. But the important inference which I draw from the conclusion arrived at above is that where we find such descriptive suffix employed, we may gather that there was in existence at the time some other earl or count with the same Christian name.[463]

Among the earls, we look at once, but we look in vain, for the name of Waleran of Meulan. But his half-brother, William de Warenne, one, like himself, of the faithful three,[464] duly figures at the head of the list. He is followed by their brother-in-law, the Earl of Pembroke, whose nephew and namesake, the Earl of Hertford, and brother, Baldwin fitz Gilbert, are also found among the witnesses. With them is another of the faithful three, Earl Simon of Northampton. There too is Earl Alan of Richmond, and the fortunate William of Albini, now Earl William of Sussex. Robert of Ferrers and William of Aumâle, both of them heroes of the Battle of the Standard, complete the list of earls.[465]

It would alone be sufficient to make this charter of importance that it affords the earliest record evidence of the existence of two famous earldoms, that of Hertford or Clare, and that of Arundel or Sussex.[466] Indeed I know of no earlier mention in any contemporary chronicler. We further learn from it that William of Ypres was not an earl at the time, as has been persistently stated. Nor have I ever found a record in which he is so styled. Lastly, we have here a noteworthy appearance of one afterwards famous as Richard de Luci the Loyal, who was destined to play so great a part as a faithful and trusted minister for nearly forty years to come.[467] His appearance as an attesting witness at least as early as this (Christmas, 1141) is a fact more especially deserving of notice because it must affect the date of many other charters. Mr. Eyton thought that "his earliest attestation yet proved is 1146,"[468] and hence found his name a difficulty, at times, as a witness. William Martel was another official in constant attendance on Stephen. He is described in the Gesta (p. 92) as "vir illustris, fide quoque et amicitiâ potissimum regi connexus." At the affair of Wilton, with its disgraceful surprise and rout of the royal forces, he was made prisoner and forced to give Sherborne Castle as the price of his liberty (ibid.). By his wife "Albreda" he was father of a son and heir, Geoffrey.[469]

Of the remaining witnesses, Pharamus (fitz William) de Boulogne was nepos of the queen. In 1130 he was indebted £20 to the Exchequer "pro placitis terre sue [Surrey] et ut habeat terram suam quam Noverca sua tenet" (Rot. Pip., 31 Hen. I., p. 50). In the present year (1141) he had been in joint charge of the king's familia during his captivity:—"Rexit autem familiam regis Stephani Willelmus d'Ipre, homo Flandrensis et Pharamus nepos reginæ Matildis, et iste Bononiensis" (Sym. Dun., ii. 310). His ravages—"per destructionem Faramusi"—are referred to in the Pipe-Roll of 1156 (p. 15), but he retained favour under Henry II., receiving £60 annually from the royal dues in Wendover and Eton. In May, 1157, he attested, at Colchester, the charter of Henry II. to Feversham Abbey (Stephen's foundation). He held six fees of the honour of Boulogne. His grandfather, Geoffrey, is described as a nepos of Eustace of Boulogne. With his daughter and heiress Sibyl, his lands passed to the family of Fiennes.

Robert de V(er) would be naturally taken for the younger brother of Aubrey the chamberlain, slain in 1141.[470] This might seem so obvious that to question it may appear strange. Yet there is reason to believe that his identity was wholly different. I take him to be Robert (fitz Bernard) de Vere, who is presumably the "Robert de Vere" who figures as an Essex landowner in the Pipe-Roll of 1130, for he is certainly the "Robert de Vere" who is entered in that same roll as acquiring lands in Kent, with his wife, for whom he had paid the Crown £210, at that time a large sum. She was an heiress, (sister of Robert and) daughter of Hugh de Montfort, a considerable landowner in Kent and in the Eastern Counties. With her he founded, on her Kentish estate, the Cluniac priory of Monks Horton, and in the charters relating to that priory he is spoken of as a royal constable. As such he attested the Charter of Liberties issued by Stephen at Oxford in 1136. I am therefore of opinion that he is the witness who attests this Canterbury charter, the Oxford charter of about a year later,[471] and some others in the course of this reign.[472] He had also witnessed some charters towards the close of the preceding reign, and would seem to be the Robert de Ver who was among those who took charge of the body of Henry I. at his death.[473]

Baldwin fitz Gilbert occurs repeatedly in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I. He was a younger son of Gilbert de Clare, a brother of Gilbert, afterwards Earl of Pembroke, and uncle of Gilbert, Earl of Hertford. He appears, as early as January, 1136, in attendance on Stephen, at Reading, where he witnessed one of the charters to Miles of Gloucester. He was then sent by the king into Wales to avenge the death of his brother Richard (de Clare); but, on reaching Brecknock, turned back in fear (Gesta, p. 12). At the battle of Lincoln (February 2, 1141), he acted as spokesman on the king's behalf, and was captured by the forces of the Empress, after he had been covered with wounds.[474]

Turgis of Avranches (the namesake of its bishop) we have met with as a witness to Stephen's former charter to Geoffrey. He seems to have been placed, on Geoffrey's fall (1143), in charge of his castle of Walden, and, apparently, of the whole property. Though Stephen had raised him, it was said, from the ranks and loaded him with favours, he ended by offering him resistance, but was surprised by him, in the forest, when hunting, and forced to surrender (Gesta, p. 110).

Passing now from the witnesses to the subject-matter of the charter, we have first the clause replacing Geoffrey in the same position as he was before the battle of Lincoln, in despite of his treason to the king's cause. The next clause illustrates the system of advancing bids. Whereas the Empress had granted Geoffrey £100 a year, charged on certain manors of royal demesne in Essex, Stephen now increased that grant to £300 a year, by adding the manors of Writtle (£120) and Hatfield (£80). He further granted him another £100 a year payable from lands which had escheated to the Crown. And lastly, he granted to his son Ernulf £100 a year, likewise charged on land.

The next clause grants him, precisely as in the charter of the Empress, the constableship of the Tower of London and of its appendant "castle,"[475] with the exception that the Empress uses the term "concedo" where Stephen has "dedi et concessi." The latter expression is somewhat strange in view of the fact that Geoffrey had been in full possession of the Tower before the struggle had begun, and, indeed, by hereditary right.

We then return to what I have termed the system of advancing bids. For where the Empress had granted Geoffrey the office of justice and sheriff of Essex alone, Stephen makes him justice and sheriff, not merely of Essex, but of Herts and of London and Middlesex to boot. Nor is even this all; for, whereas the Empress had allowed him to hold Essex to farm for the same annual sum which it had paid at her father's death,[476] Stephen now leases it to him at the annual rent which his grandfather had paid.[477] The fact that in the second charter of the Empress she adopts, we shall find, the original rental,[478] instead of, as before, that which was paid at the time of her father's death, proves that, in this Canterbury charter, Stephen had outbid her, and further proves that Henry I. had increased, after his wont, the sum at which the sheriff held Essex of the Crown. This, indeed, is clear from the Pipe-Roll of 1130, which records a firma far in excess of the £300 which, according to these charters, Geoffrey's grandfather had paid.[479] It may be noted that while Stephen's charter gives in actual figures the "ferm" which had been paid by Geoffrey's grandfather, and which Geoffrey himself was now to pay for London and Middlesex, it merely provides, in the case of Essex and Hertfordshire, that he was to pay what his grandfather had paid, without mentioning what that sum was. Happily, we obtain the information in the subsequent charter of the Empress, and we are tempted to infer from the silence of this earlier charter on the point, that while the ancient firma of London and Middlesex was a sum familiar to men, that of Essex and Herts could only be ascertained by research, pending which the Crown declined to commit itself to the sum.

It is scarcely necessary that I should insist on the extraordinary value of this statement and formal admission by the Crown that London and Middlesex had been held to farm by the elder Geoffrey de Mandeville—that is, towards the close of the eleventh century, or, at latest, in the beginning of the twelfth—and that the amount of the firma was £300 a year. One cannot understand how such a fact, of which the historical student cannot fail to grasp the importance, can have been overlooked so long, when it has virtually figured in Dugdale's Baronage for more than two centuries. The only writer, so far as I know, who has ventured on an estimate of the annual render from London at the time of Domesday arrives at the conclusion that "we can hardly be wrong in putting the returns at ... about £850 a year."[480] We have seen that, on the contrary, the rental, even later than Domesday, was £300 a year, and this not for London only, but for London and Middlesex together.[481]

Nothing, indeed, could show more plainly the necessity for such a work as I have here undertaken, and the new light which the evidence of these charters throws upon the history of the time, than a comparison of the results here obtained with the statements in Mr. Loftie's work,[482] published under the editorship of Professor Freeman, which, though far less inaccurate than his earlier and larger work, contains such passages as this:—

"Matilda had one chance of conciliating the citizens, and she threw it away. The immemorial liberties which had been enjoyed for generations, and confirmed by William and Henry, were taken from the city, which for the first and last time in its history was put 'in demesne.' The Earl of Essex, Geoffrey de Mandeville, whose father is said by Stow to have been portreeve, was given Middlesex 'in farm' with the Tower for his castle, and no person could hold pleas either in city or county without his permission. The feelings of the Londoners were fully roused. Though Stephen was actually a prisoner, and Matilda's fortunes never seemed brighter, her cause was lost.... The citizens soon saw that her putting them in demesne was no mistake committed in a hasty moment in times of confusion, but was part of a settled policy. This decided the waverers and doubled the party of Stephen.... Stephen was exchanged for the Earl of Gloucester, the Tower was surrendered, the dominion was removed, and London had its liberty once more; but after such an experience it is not wonderful that the citizens held loyally to Stephen during the short remainder of his life" (pp. 36, 37).[483]

A more complete travesty of history it would not be possible to conceive. "The immemorial liberties" were no older than the charter wrung from Henry a few years before, and so far from the city being "put 'in demesne'" (whatever may be meant by this expression),[484] "for the first and last time in its history," the Empress, had she done what is here charged to her, would have merely placed Geoffrey in the shoes of his grandfather and namesake.[485] But the strange thing is that she did nothing of the kind, and that the facts, in Mr. Loftie's narrative, are turned topsy-turvey. It was not by Matilda in June, but by Stephen in December, that London and Middlesex were placed in Geoffrey's power. The Empress did not do that which she is stated to have done; and Stephen did do what he is said to have undone. The result of his return to power, so far as London was concerned, was that the Tower was not surrendered, but, on the contrary, confirmed to Geoffrey, and that so far from "the dominion" (an unintelligible expression) being "removed," or London regaining its liberty, it was now deprived of its liberty by being placed, as even the Empress had refrained from placing it, beneath the yoke of Geoffrey. Thus it was certainly not due to his conduct on this occasion "that the citizens of London held loyally to Stephen during the short remainder of his life." Nor, it may be added, is it possible to understand what is meant by that "short remainder," for these events happened early in Stephen's reign, not a third of which had elapsed at the time.

But the important point is this. Here was Stephen anxious on the one hand to reward the Londoners for their allegiance, and, on the other, to punish Geoffrey for his repeated offences against himself, and yet compelled by the force of circumstances actually to reward Geoffrey at the cost of the Londoners themselves. We need no more striking illustration of the commanding position and overwhelming power which the ambitious earl had now obtained by taking advantage of the rival claims, and skilfully holding the balance between the two parties, as was done by a later king-maker in the strife of Lancaster and York.

Passing over for the present the remarkable expressions which illustrate my theory of the differentiation of the offices of justice and sheriff, I would invite attention to Geoffrey's claim to be placed in the shoes of his grandfather, as an instance of the tendency, in this reign, of the magnates to advance quasi-hereditary claims, often involving, as it were, the undoing of the work of Henry I. William de Beauchamp was anxious to be placed in the shoes of Robert le Despenser; the Beaumont Earl of Leicester in those of William Fitz Osbern; the Earl of Oxford in those of William of Avranches; and Geoffrey himself, we shall find, in those of "Eudo Dapifer."

A point of great importance awaits us in the reference which, in this charter, is made to the Exchequer. I expressed a doubt, when dealing with the first charter of the Empress,[486] as to the supposed total extinction of the working of the Exchequer under Stephen. The author of the Dialogus, though anxious to emphasize its re-establishment under Henry II., goes no further than to speak of its system being "pene prorsus abolitam" in the terrible time of the Anarchy (I. viii.). Now here, in 1141, at the very height, one might say, of the Anarchy, we not only find the Exchequer spoken of as in full existence, but, which is most important to observe, we have the precise Exchequer formulæ which we find under Henry II. The "Terræ datæ," or alienated Crown demesnes, are represented here by the "dominia que de predictis comitatibus data sunt," and the provision that they should be subtracted from the fixed ferm ("a firma subtrahantur") is a formula found in use subsequently, as is, even more, the phrase "ad scaccarium computabuntur."[487]

The next clause deals with castles, that great feature of the time. Here again the accepted view as to Stephen's laxity on the subject is greatly modified by this evidence that even Geoffrey de Mandeville, great as was his power, deemed it needful to secure the royal permission before erecting a castle, and that this permission was limited to a single fortress.[488]

In the next clause we return to the system of counter-bids. As the king had trebled the grants of Crown demesne made to Geoffrey by the Empress, and trebled also the counties which had been placed in his charge by her, so now he trebled the number of enfeoffed knights ("milites feudatos"). The Empress had granted twenty; Stephen grants sixty. Of these sixty, ten were to be held of Geoffrey by his son Ernulf. Here, as before,[489] the question arises: what was the nature of the benefits thus conferred on the grantee? They were, I think, of two kinds. In the first place, Geoffrey became entitled to what may be termed the feudal profits, such as reliefs, accruing from these sixty fees. In the second, he secured sixty knights to serve beneath his banner in war. This, in a normal state of affairs, would have been of no consequence, as he would only have led them to serve the Crown. But in the then abnormal condition of affairs, and utter weakness of the crown, such a grant would be equivalent to strengthening pro tanto the power of the earl as arbiter between the two rivals for the throne.

Independently, however, of its bearing at the time, this grant has a special interest, as placing at our disposal a list of sixty knights' fees, a quarter of a century older than the "cartæ" of the Liber Niger.[490]

At the close of all these specified grants comes a general confirmation of the lost charter of the Queen ("Carta Regine").

Our ignorance of the actual contents of that charter renders it difficult to speak positively as to whether Geoffrey obtained from Stephen all the concessions he had wrung from the Empress, or had to content himself, on some points, with less, while on most he secured infinitely more. Thus, in the matter of "the third penny," which was specially granted him by the Empress, we find this charter of Stephen as silent as had been the former.[491] And the omission of a clause authorizing the earl to deduct it from the ferm of the county virtually implies that he did not receive it. He gained, however, infinitely more by the great reduction in the total ferm. The grant by the Empress of a market at Bushey, and her permission that the market at Newport should be transferred to his castle at Walden, are not repeated in this charter; nor does the king, as his rival had done, grant the earl permission to fortify the Tower at his will, or to retain and strengthen the castles he already possessed. On the other hand, he allowed him, by a fresh concession, to raise an additional stronghold. It may also be mentioned, to complete the comparison, that the curious reference to appeal of treason is not found in the king's charter.

We will now turn from this charter to the movements by which it was followed.

At the close of the invaluable passage from Gervase alluded to above, we read:—

"Rex Stephanus a Cantuariâ recedens vires suas reparare studuit, quo severius et acrius imperatricem et omnes ipsius complices debellaret."[492]

His first step in this direction was to make a progress through his realm, or at least through that portion over which he reigned supreme. William of Malmesbury writes of his movements after Christmas:—

"Utræque partes imperatricis et regis se cum quietis modestiâ egerunt a Natale usque ad Quadragesimam; magis sua custodire quam aliena incursare studentes: rex in superiores regiones abscessit nescio quæ compositurus" (p. 763).

This scrupulous reluctance of the writer to relate events of which he had no personal knowledge is evidently meant to confirm his assurance, just above, that he had the greatest horror of so misleading posterity.[493] The thread of the narrative, however, which he drops is taken up by John of Hexham, who tells us that "after Easter" (April 19) the king and queen arrived at York, put a stop to a projected tournament between the two great Yorkshire earls, and endeavoured to complete the preparations for the king's revenge upon his foes.[494]

Before proceeding, I would call attention to two charters which must, it seems, have passed between the king's visit to Canterbury (Christmas, 1141), and his appearance with the queen in Yorkshire (Easter, 1142). I do so, firstly, because their witnesses ought to be compared with those by whom the Canterbury charter was attested; secondly, because one of them is a further instance of how, as in the case of the Canterbury charter, chronicles and charters may be made to confirm and explain each other.

The first of these charters is the confirmation by Stephen of the foundation, by his constable Robert de Vere, of Monks Horton Priory, Kent.[495] If we eliminate from its eleven witnesses those whose attendance was due to the special contents of the charter, namely, the Count of Eu and two Kentish barons,[496] there remain eight names, every one of which appears in the Canterbury charter, one as grantee and seven as witnesses. Here is the list:

"Testibus Comite Gaufrido de Essex et Willelmo Comite de Warrenne ... Et Comite Gilleberto de Penbroc et Willelmo de Iprâ et Willelmo Mart[el] et Turgisio de Abrincis et Ricardo de Luci et Adam de Belu[n] ... apud Gipeswic."

Here then we have what might be described as King Stephen's Restoration Court, or at least the greater portion of its leading members; and this charter is therefore evidence that Stephen must have visited the Eastern Counties early in 1142. It is also evidence that Earl Geoffrey was with him on that occasion, and thus throws a gleam of light on the earl's movements at the time.

The other charter is known to us only from a transcript in the Great Coucher (vol. ii. fol. 445), and is strangely assigned in the official calendar to 1135-37.[497] The grantee is William, Earl of Lincoln, and the list of witnesses is as follows:—

"T. Com. Rann. et Com. Gisl. de Pembroc* et Com. Gisl. de hertf.* et Com. Sim.* et Com. R. de Warwic' et Com. R. de Ferr.* et W. mart.* et Bald. fil. Gisl.* et W. fil. Gisl. et Ric. de Camvill et Ric. fil. Ursi* et E[ustachio] fil. John' et Rad. de Haia et h' Wac' et W. de Coleuill apud Stanf'."

Of these fifteen witnesses at least five are local men, and of the remaining ten no fewer than seven (here distinguished by an asterisk) had attested the Canterbury charter. But further evidence of the close connection, in date, between these two charters is found in yet another quarter. This is the English Chronicle. We there read that after the release of Stephen from his captivity, "the king and Earl Randolf agreed at Stamford and swore oaths and plighted troth, that neither of them should prove traitor to the other." For this is the earliest occasion to which that passage can refer. Stephen would pass through Stamford on his northward progress to York, and here, clearly, at his entrance into Lincolnshire, he was met by the two local magnates, William, Earl of Lincoln, and Randolf, Earl of Chester. Their revolt at Lincoln, at the close of 1140, had led directly to his fall, but it was absolutely needful for the schemes he had in view that he should now secure their support, and overlook their past treason. He therefore came to terms with the two brother earls, and, further, bestowed on the Earl of Lincoln the manor of Kirton-in-Lindsey ("Chircheton"), and confirmed him in possession of his castle of Gainsborough and his bridge over Trent, "libere et quiete tenendum omnibus liberis consuetudinibus cum quibus aliquis comes Anglie tenet castella sua,"—a formula well deserving attention as bearing on the two peculiar features of this unhappy time, its earls and its castles.

Lastly, we should observe the family relationship between the grantee and the witnesses of this charter. The first witness was his half-brother, Earl Randolf of Chester, who was uncle of Earl Gilbert of Hertford, who was nephew of Earl Gilbert of Pembroke, who was brother of W(alter) fitz Gilbert and Baldwin fitz Gilbert, of whom the latter's daughter married H(ugh) Wac (Wake). Of the other witnesses, Ralph de Haye was of the family which then, and Richard de Camville of that which afterwards, held the constableship of Lincoln Castle. Earl R(oger) of Warwick (a supporter of the Empress) should be noticed as an addition to the Canterbury list of earls, and the descriptive style "de Warwicâ" may perhaps be explained as inserted here to distinguish him from Earl R(obert) "de Ferrers."

Gervase of Canterbury and John of Hexham alike lay stress on the fact that the king, eager for revenge, was bent on renewing the strife. William of Malmesbury echoes the statement, but tells us that the king was struck down just as he was about, we gather, to march south. As it was at Northampton that this took place he must have been following the very same road as he had done at this same time of year in 1138.[498] Nor can we doubt that his objective was Oxford, now again the head-quarters of his foe.[499] So alarming was his illness that his death was rumoured, and the forces he had gathered were dismissed to their homes.[500]

But, meanwhile, where was Earl Geoffrey? We have seen that early in the year he was present with Stephen at Ipswich.[501] If we turn to the Ely History, printed in Wharton's Anglia Sacra, we shall find evidence that he was, shortly after, despatched with Earl Gilbert of Pembroke, who had been with him at Ipswich, to Ely.[502] When Stephen had successfully attacked Ely two years before (1140), the bishop had fled, with three companions, to the Empress at Gloucester. His scattered followers had now reassembled, and it was to expel them from their stronghold in the isle that Stephen despatched the two earls. Geoffrey soon put them to flight, doubtless at Aldreth, and setting his prisoners on horseback, with their feet tied together, led them in triumph to Ely.[503] To the monks, who came forth to meet him with their crosses and reliquaries, he threatened plunder and death, and their possessions were at once seized into the king's hands. But, meanwhile, their bishop's envoy to the pope, "a man skilled in the use of Latin, French, and English," had returned from Rome with letters to the primates of England and Normandy, insisting that Nigel should be restored to his see. The monks, also, had approached Stephen and obtained from him a reversal of Geoffrey's violent action. Nigel, therefore, returned to Ely, to the joy, we are told, of his monks and people; and the two earls delivered into his hands the isle and Aldreth, its key.[504]

The point to insist upon, for our own purpose, is that the Earls Geoffrey and Gilbert were both concerned in this business, and that their names will again be found in conjunction in the records of that intrigue with the Empress which is the subject of the next chapter.

[432] Ninth Report Hist. MSS., App. i. p. 62 b.

[433] "Regem ipsum in concilium introisse" (Will. Malms., 755).

[434] "Ipsam quæcunque pepigerat ad ecclesiarum jus pertinentia obstinate fregisse" (ibid.).

[435] "Deum, pro sua clementia, secus quam ipsa sperasset vertisse negotia" (ibid.).

[436] Dr. Stubbs well observes of this coronation of Richard: "His second coronation was understood to have an important significance. He had by his captivity in Germany ... impaired or compromised his dignity as a crowned king. The Winchester coronation was not intended to be a reconsecration, but a solemn assertion that the royal dignity had undergone no diminution" (Const. Hist., i. 504).

[437] "Die qua primum coronatus fui" (Cartulary of Abingdon, ii. 181).

[438] "Cantia quam solam casus non flexerat regius" (Will. Newburgh, i. 41).

[439] Thirty-first Report of Deputy Keeper, p. 3 (based on the late Sir William Hardy's register of these charters). Mr. Birch, in his learned paper on the seals of King Stephen, also assigns these limits to the charter.

[440] "Meldona." This manor, and those which follow are the same, with the addition of 'Inga' and 'Phingria,' as had been granted Geoffrey by the Empress to make up his £100 a year. Thus these two manors represent the "si quid defuerit ad c libratas perficiendas" of the Empress's charters. Maldon itself had, we saw (p. 102), been held by Stephen's brother Theobald, forfeited by the Empress on her triumph, and granted by her to Geoffrey. Theobald's possession is further proved by a writ among the archives of Westminster (printed in Madox's Baronia Anglica, p. 232), in which Stephen distinctly states (1139) that he had given it him. Thus, in giving it to Geoffrey, he had to despoil his own brother.

[441] The "Phenge" and "Inga" of Domesday (ii. 71 b, 72 a), which were part of the fief of Randulf Peverel ("of London").

[442] Writtle was ancient demesne of the Crown (Pipe-Roll, 31 Hen. I.). Its redditus, at the Survey, was "c libras ad pondus et c solidos de gersumâ."

[443] Hatfield Broadoak, alias Hatfield Regis. This also was ancient demesne, its redditus, at the Survey, being "lxxx libras et c solidos de gersumâ." Here the Domesday redditus remained unchanged, an important point to notice.

[444] Robert de Baentonâ was lord of Bampton, co. Devon. He occurs in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I. (p. 153, 154). He is identical with the Robert "de Bathentona" whose rebellion against Stephen is narrated at some length in the Gesta. His lands were forfeited for that rebellion, and consequently appear here as an escheat (see my note on him in English Historical Review, October, 1890).

[445] Rainham, on the Thames, in South Essex. It had formed part of the Domesday (D. B., ii. 91) barony of Walter de Douai, to whose Domesday fief Robert de Baentonâ had succeeded.

[446] Great Holland, in Essex, adjacent to Clacton-on-Sea. It had similarly formed part of the Domesday barony of Walter de Douai.

[447] Amberden, in Depden, with which it had been held by Randulf Peverel at the Survey.

[448] Woodham Mortimer, Essex. This also had been part of the fief of Randulf Peverel.

[449] Easton, Essex. Geoffrey de Mandeville had held land, at the Survey in (Little) Easton.

[450] Picard de Domfront occurs in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I. as a landowner in Wilts and Essex (pp. 22, 53).

[451] Ickleton, Cambridgeshire, on the borders of Essex, the "Ichilintone" of Domesday (in which it figures), was Terra Regis. In the Liber Niger (special inquisition), however (p. 394), it appears as part of the honour of Boulogne.

[452] Anstey, Herts, the "Anestige" of Domesday, part of the honour of Boulogne.

[453] Braughing, Herts, the "Brachinges" of Domesday. Also part of the honour of Boulogne.

[454] Possibly that portion of Ham (East and West Ham), Essex, which formed part of the fief of Randulf Peverel.

[455] On Graaland de Tany, see p. 91.

[456] Brien fitz Ralf may have been a son of the Ralf fitz Brien who appears in Domesday as an under-tenant of Randulf Peverel. According to the inquisition on the honour of Peverel assigned to 13th John, "Brien filius Radulfi" held five fees of the honour, the very number here given.

[457] William de Tresgoz appears in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I. as a landowner in Essex (where the family held Tolleshunt Tregoz of the honour of Peverel) and elsewhere. He was then fermor of the honour of Peverel. In the above inquisition "William de Tregoz" holds six fees of the honour.

[458] William "de Boevilla" (sic) appears in the same roll as a landowner in Essex (pp. 53, 60), and William "de Bosevill" (sic) is found in (Hearne's) Liber Niger (p. 229) as a tenant of the Earl of Essex (1½ fees de vet. fef.). But what is here granted is the manor of Springfield Hall, which William de Boseville held of the honour of Peverel "of London," by the service of two knights. Mathew Peverel, the Tresgoz family, and the Mauduits were all tenants of the same honour.

[459] Mathew Peverel similarly appears in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I. as holding land in Essex and Norfolk. In the above inquisition William Peverel holds five fees of the honour.

[460] Elmdon (Essex) had been held of Eustace of Boulogne at the Survey by Roger de Someri, ancestor of the family of that name seated there. Stephen was of course entitled to their servicium in right of his wife. Adam de Sumeri held seven fees of the Earl of Essex in 1166.

[461] Possibly the Ralph Brito who appears in the Pipe-Rolls of Hen. II. as holding terræ datæ "in Chatelegâ," and who also figures as "Ralph le Bret," under Essex, in the Liber Niger (p. 242), and as Radulfus Brito, a tenant of Robert de Helion (ibid., p. 240).

[462] Duchy of Lancaster, Royal Charters, No. 18.

[463] This same principle is well illustrated by two cartæ which follow one another in the pages of the Liber Niger. They are those of "Willelmus filius Johannis de Herpetreu" and "Willelmus filius Johannis de Westona." Here the suffix (which in such cases is rather a crux to genealogists) clearly distinguishes the two Williams, and is not the appellation of their respective fathers (as it sometimes is). This leads us to such styles as "Beauchamp de Somerset" and "Beauchamp de Warwick," "Willoughby d'Eresby" and "Willoughby de Beke." Many similar instances are to be found in writs of summons, and, applying the above principle, we see that, in all cases, the suffix must originally have been added for the sake of distinction only.

[464] See p. 120.

[465] Of the absentees, the Earl of Chester and his half-brother the Earl of Lincoln will be found accounted for below, as will also the Earl of Warwick; the Earl of Leicester was absent, like his brother the Count of Meulan, but he generally, as here, held aloof; the Earls of Gloucester, Cornwall, Devon, and Hereford were, of course, with the Empress. Thus, with the nine mentioned in the charter, we account for some eighteen earls.

[466] See Appendix M, on the latter earldom.

[467] See p. 49, n. 4.

[468] Add. MSS., 31,943, fol. 85 dors.

[469] Colchester Cartulary (Stowe MSS.). See also p. 406.

[470] As by Mr. Eyton (Addl. MSS., 31,943, fol. 96). The said Robert appears in the latter part of this reign as "Robertus filius Alberici de Ver" (Report on MSS. of Wells Cathedral, p. 133), and sent in his carta in 1166 as "Robertus filius Alberici Camerarii," not as Robert de Vere.

[471] Abingdon Cartulary, ii. 179.

[472] See Appendix N, on "Robert de Vere."

[473] See Ord. Vit., v. 52 (where the French editors affiliate him wrongly).

[474] "Tunc, quia rex Stephanus festivâ carebat voce, Baldewino filio Gilleberti, magnæ nobilitatis viro et militi fortissimo, sermo exhortatorius ad universum cœtum injunctus est.... Capitur etiam Baldewinus qui orationem fecerat persuasoriam, multis confossus vulneribus, multis contritus ictibus, ubi egregie resistendo gloriam promeruit sempiternam" (Hen. Hunt., pp. 271, 274).

[475] See Appendix O: "Tower and Castle."

[476] "Reddendo mihi rectam firmam que inde reddi solebat die quâ rex Henricus pater meus fuit vivus et mortuus." Perhaps this indefinite phrase was due to the fact that Essex and Herts had a joint firma at the time (see Rot. Pip., 31 Hen. I.).

[477] "Eadem firma qua avus ejus ... tenuit."

[478] "Pro CCC libris sicut idem Gaufredus avus ejus tenuit."

[479] The firma of Essex with Herts, in 1130, was £420 3s. "ad pensum," plus £26 17s. "numero," plus £86 19s. 9d. "blancas," whereas Geoffrey secured the two for £360. The difference between this sum and the joint firma of 1130 curiously approximates that at London (see Appendix, p. 366, n.).

[480] Pearson's History of England during the Early and Middle Ages, i. 664 ("County Rentals in Domesday").

[481] See Appendix P: "The Early Administration of London."

[482] Historic Towns: London (1887).

[483] The two omitted portions amount to but a few lines. There is, however, an error in each. The first implies that the charter to Geoffrey was granted before the Empress reached, or was even invited to, London. The second contains the erroneous statement that the Empress, on her flight from London, "withdrew towards Winchester," and that her brother was captured by the Londoners in pursuit, whereas he was not captured till after the siege of Winchester, later in the year, and under different circumstances.

[484] It looks much as if Mr. Loftie had here again attempted to separate London from Middlesex, and to treat the former as granted "in demesne," and the latter "in farm." Such a conception is quite erroneous.

[485] It was his grandfather and not (as Mr. Loftie writes) his "father" who "is said by Stow to have been portreeve."

[486] See p. 99.

[487] "Et computabitur tibi ad scaccarium" is the regular form found in the precepts of Henry II. (Dialogus, ii. 8).

[488] See also, for Stephen's attitude towards the "adulterine" castles, the Gesta Stephani (p. 66): "Plurima adulterina castella, alia solâ adventus sui famâ vacuata, alia viribus virtuose adhibitis conquisita subvertit: omnesque circumjacentes provincias, quas castella inhabitantes intolerabili infestatione degravabant, purgavit tunc omnino, et quietissima reddidit" (1140).

[489] See p. 103.

[490] Note here the figures 60, 20, 10, as confirming the theory advanced by me in the English Historical Review (October, 1891) as to knight-service being grouped in multiples of ten (the constabularia).

[491] See Appendix H.

[492] Gervase of Canterbury, i. 123.

[493] "Semper quippe horrori habui aliquid ad posteros transmittendum stylo committere, quod nescirem solidâ veritate subsistere. Ea porro, quæ de præsenti anno dicenda, hoc habebunt principium."

[493] "Post Pascha Stephanus, prosequente eum reginâ suâ Mathilde, venit Eboracum militaresque nundinas a Willelmo comite Eboraci et Alano comite de Richemunt adversus alterutrum conductas solvit; habuitque in votis pristinas suas injurias ultum ire, et regnum ad antiquam dignitatem et integritatem reformare" (Sym. Dun., ii. 312). Notice that John of Hexham always speaks of Alan as Earl "of Richmond" and William as Earl "of York." He is probably the first writer to speak of an Earl "of Richmond," and this early appearance of the title was clearly unknown to the Lords' committee when they drew up their elaborate account of its origin and descent (Third Report on the Dignity of a Peer). If, as I believe, no county could, at this period, have two earls, it follows that either Alan "Comes" did not hold an English earldom, and was merely described as of Richmond because that was his seat; or, that "Richmondshire" was, at that time, treated as a county of itself. One or other of these alternatives must, I think, be adopted. But see also p. 290, n. 2.

[495] Harl. MS., 2044, fol. 55 b; Addl. MSS., 5516, No. 9, p. 7 (printed in Archæologia Cantiana, x. 272, but not in Dugdale's Monasticon).

[496] Robert de Crevecœur and William de Eynsford. The Count of Eu was a benefactor to the priory.

[497] Thirty-first Report of Deputy Keeper, p. 2.

[498] He held a council at Northampton on his way south in Easter week, 1138.

[499] William of Malmesbury writes: "In ipsis Paschalibus feriis regem quædam (ut aiunt) dura meditantem gravis incommodum morbi apud Northamptunam detinuit, adeo ut in tota propemodum Angliâ sicut mortuus conclamaretur" (p. 763). There is a discrepancy of date between this statement and that of John of Hexham, who states that Stephen did not reach York till "post Pascha." William's chronology seems the more probable.

[500] "Præventus vero infirmitate copias militum quas contraxerat remisit ad propria" (Sym. Dun., ii. 312).

[501] Supra, p. 158.

[502] "Dirigitur enim in Ely a rege Stephano cum militari manu in armis strenuus Comes Gaufridus de Mannavillâ, associante ei Comite Gileberto, ut homines episcopi, qui tunc latenter affugerent, inde abigeret, aut gladiis truncaret" (Anglia Sacra, i. 621). Earl Gilbert was uncle to Earl Geoffrey's wife.

[503] "Qui festinus adveniens, hostilem turbam fugavit; milites vero teneri jussit; et equis impositos pedes eorum sub equis ligatos spectante populo usque in Ely perduxit" (ibid.).

[504] See Appendix Z: "Bishop Nigel at Rome."

CHAPTER VIII.
THE SECOND CHARTER OF THE EMPRESS.

We left, it may be remembered, the Empress and her supporters assembled at Bristol, apparently towards the close of the year 1141. Their movements are now somewhat obscure, and the hopes of the Empress had been so rudely shattered, that for a time her party were stunned by the blow. We gather, however, from William of Malmesbury that Oxford became her head-quarters,[504] and it was at Oxford that she granted the charter which forms the subject of this chapter.

From internal evidence it is absolutely certain that this charter is subsequent to that dealt with in the last chapter. That is to say, it must be dated subsequent to Christmas, 1141. But it is also certain, from the fact that the Earl of Gloucester is a witness, that it must have passed previous to his departure from England at the end of June, 1142.[505]

It may, at first sight, excite surprise that, after having extorted such concessions from Stephen, Geoffrey should so quickly turn to his rival, more especially when Stephen appeared triumphant, and the chances of his rival desperate. But, on the one hand, in accordance with his persistent policy, he hoped, by the offer of a fresh treason, to secure from the Empress an even higher bid than that which he had wrung from Stephen; and, on the other, the very weakness of the Empress, he must have seen, would place her more completely at his mercy. In short, he now virtually aspired to the rôle of "the king-maker" himself.[506]

Even he, however, strong though he was, could scarcely have attempted to stem the tide, while the flood of reaction was at its height. He watched, no doubt, for the first signs of an ebb in Stephen's triumph. It was not long before this ebb came in the form of that illness by which the king, as we saw, was struck down about the end of April, on his way south, at Northampton.[507] The dismissal of the host he had so eagerly collected was followed by a rumour of his death.[508] No one, it would seem, has ever noticed the strange parallel between this illness and that of 1136. In each case it was about the end of April that the king was thus seized, and in each case his seizure gave rise to a widespread rumour of his death.[509] On the previous occasion that rumour had been followed by an outburst of treason and revolt,[510] and it is surely, to say the least, not improbable that it now gave the sign for which Geoffrey was watching, and led to the extraordinary charter with which we have here to deal.

The movements of the Empress have also to be considered in their bearing on the date of the charter. We learn from William of Malmesbury that she held two councils at Devizes, one about the 1st of April (Mid-Lent), and one at Whitsuntide (7-14 June). The latter council was held on the return of the envoys who had been despatched, after the former one, to request Geoffrey of Anjou to come to his wife's assistance. Geoffrey had replied that the Earl of Gloucester must first come over to him, and the earl accordingly sailed from Wareham about the end of June. It is most probable that he went there straight from Devizes, in which case he was not at Oxford after the beginning of June. In this case, that is the latest date at which the charter can have passed.

Although the original of this charter cannot, like its predecessor of the previous year, be traced down to this very day, we have the independent authorities of Dugdale and of another transcriber for the fact that it was duly recorded in the Great Coucher of the duchy.[511] If the missing volume, or volumes, of that work should come to light, I cannot entertain the slightest doubt that this charter will be found there entered. Collateral evidence in its favour is forthcoming from another quarter, for the record with which, as I shall show, it is so closely connected that the two form parts of one whole, has its existence proved by cumulative independent evidence.

I have taken for my text, in this instance, the fine transcript from the Great Coucher in Lansd. MS. 229 (fol. 109), with which I have collated Dugdale's transcript, among his MSS. at Oxford (L. 19), "ex magno registro in officio Ducatus Lancastrie." I have also collated another transcript which is among the Dodsworth MSS. (xxx. 113), and which was made in 1649. It is, unfortunately, incomplete. Yet another transcriber began to copy the charter, but stopped almost at once.[512] I have given in the notes the variants (which are slight) in the Dodsworth and Dugdale transcripts.