CHAPTER XI.
JOHN.
ACCESSION OF THE KING.—HIS MARRIAGE.—WAR WITH FRANCE.MURDER OF ARTHUR, DUKE OF BRITANY.—THE KING EXPELLED THE FRENCH PROVINCES.—THE KING'S QUARREL WITH THE COURT OF ROME.CARDINAL LANGTON APPOINTED ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.—INTERDICT OF THE KINGDOM.—EXCOMMUNICATION OF THE KING.—THE KING'S SUBMISSION TO THE POPE.—DISCONTENTS OF THE BARONS.—INSURRECTION OF THE BARONS.—MAGNA CHARTA.—RENEWAL OF THE CIVIL WARS.PRINCE LEWIS CALLED OVER.—DEATH AND CHARACTER OF THE KING.
[MN 1199. Accession of the king.] The noble and free genius of the ancients, which made the government of a single person be always regarded as a species of tyranny and usurpation, and kept them from forming any conception of a legal and regular monarchy, had rendered them entirely ignorant both of the rights of PRIMOGENITURE, and a REPRESENTATION in succession; inventions so necessary for preserving order in the lines of princes, for obviating the evils of civil discord and of usurpation, and for begetting moderation in that species of government, by giving security to the ruling sovereign. These innovations arose from the feudal law, which, first introducing the right of primogeniture, made such a distinction between the families of the elder and younger brothers, that the son of the former was thought entitled to succeed to his grandfather, preferably to his uncles, though nearer allied to the deceased monarch. But though this progress of ideas was natural, it was gradual. In the age of which we treat, the practice of representation was indeed introduced, but not thoroughly established; and the minds of men fluctuated between opposite principles. Richard, when he entered on the holy war, declared his nephew, Arthur, Duke of Britany, his successor; and by a formal deed he set aside, in his favour, the title of his brother John, who was younger than Geoffrey, the father of that prince [a]. But John so little acquiesced in that destination, that when he gained the ascendant in the English ministry, by expelling Longchamp, the chancellor and great justiciary, he engaged all the English barons to swear that they would maintain his right of succession; and Richard, on his return, took no steps towards restoring or securing the order which he had at first established. He was even careful, by his last will, to declare his brother John heir to all his dominions ; whether that he now thought Arthur, who was only twelve years of age, incapable of asserting his claim against John's faction, or was influenced by Eleanor, the queen-mother, who hated Constantia, mother of the young duke, and who dreaded the credit which that princess would naturally acquire if her son should mount the throne. The authority of a testament was great in that age, even where the succession of a kingdom was concerned; and John had reason to hope that this title, joined to his plausible right in other respects, would ensure him the succession. But the idea of representation seems to have made, at this time, greater progress in France than in England: the barons of the transmarine provinces, Anjou, Maine, and Touraine, immediately declared in favour of Arthur's title, and applied for assistance to the French monarch as their superior lord. Philip, who desired only an occasion to embarrass John, and dismember his dominions, embraced the cause of the young Duke of Britany, took him under his protection, and sent him to Paris to be educated, along with his own son Lewis [c]. In this emergence, John hastened to establish his authority in the chief members of the monarchy; and after sending Eleanor into Poictou and Guienne, where her right was incontestable, and was readily acknowledged, he hurried to Rouen, and having secured the duchy of Normandy, he passed over, without loss of time, to England. Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, William Mareschal, Earl of Strigul, who also passes by the name of Earl of Pembroke, and Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, the justiciary, the three most favoured ministers of the late king, were already engaged on his side [d]; and the submission or acquiescence of all the other barons put him, without opposition, in possession of the throne. [FN [a] Hoveden, p. 677. M Paris, p. 112. Chron. de Dunst. p. 43. Rymer, vol i p. 66, 68. Bened. Abb. p. 619. Hoveden, p. 791. Trivet, p. 138. [c] Hoveden, p. 792. M. Paris, p. 137. M. West. p. 263. Knyghton, p. 2414. [d] Hoveden, p. 793. M. Paris, p. 137.]
The king soon returned to France, in order to conduct the war against Philip, and to recover the revolted provinces from his nephew Arthur. The alliances which Richard had formed with the Earl of Flanders [e], and other potent French princes, though they had not been very effectual, still subsisted, and enabled John to defend himself against all the efforts of his enemy. In an action between the French and Flemings, the elect Bishop of Cambray was taken prisoner by the former; and when the Cardinal of Capua claimed his liberty, Philip, instead of complying, reproached him with the weak efforts which he had employed in favour of the Bishop of Beauvais, who was in a like condition. The legate, to show his impartiality, laid, at the same time, the kingdom of France and the duchy of Normandy under an interdict; and the two kings found themselves obliged to make an exchange of these military prelates. [FN [e] Rymer, vol. i. p. 114. Hoveden, p. 794. M. Paris, p. 138.]
[MN 1200.] Nothing enabled the king to bring this war to a happy issue so much as the selfish intriguing character of Philip, who acted in the provinces that had declared for Arthur, without any regard to the interests of that prince. Constantia, seized with a violent jealousy that he intended to usurp the entire dominion of them [f], found means to carry off her son secretly from Paris: she put him into the hands of his uncle; restored the provinces which had adhered to the young prince; and made him do homage for the duchy of Britany, which was regarded as a rerefief of Normandy. From this incident, Philip saw that he could not hope to make any progress against John; and being threatened with an interdict on account of his irregular divorce from Ingelburga, the Danish princess whom he had espoused, he became desirous of concluding a peace with England. After some fruitless conferences, the terms were at last adjusted; and the two monarchs seemed in this treaty to have an intention, besides ending the present quarrel, of preventing all future causes of discord, and of obviating every controversy which could thereafter arise between them. They adjusted the limits of all their territories, mutually secured the interests of their vassals; and, to render the union more durable, John gave his niece, Blanche of Castile, in marriage to Prince Lewis, Philip's eldest son, and with her the baronies of Issoudun and Gracai, and other fiefs in Berri. Nine barons of the King of England, and as many of the King of France, were guarantees of this treaty; and all of them swore that if their sovereign violated any article of it, they would declare themselves against him, and embrace the cause of the injured monarch [g]. [FN [f] Hoveden, p.795. [g] Norman Duchesnii, p. 1055. Rymer, vol. i. p. 117, 118, 119. Hoveden, p. 814. Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 47.]
John, now secure, as he imagined, on the side of France, indulged his passion for Isabella, the daughter and heir of Aymar Tailleffer, Count of Angouleme, a lady with whom he had become much enamoured. His queen, the heiress of the family of Gloucester, was still alive: Isabella was married to the Count de la Marche, and was already consigned to the care of that nobleman; though, by reason of her tender years, the marriage had not been consummated. The passion of John made him overlook all these obstacles: he persuaded the Count of Angouleme to carry off his daughter from her husband; and having, on some pretence or other, procured a divorce from his own wife, he espoused Isabella; [MN The kings marriage.] regardless both of the menaces of the pope, who exclaimed against these irregular proceedings, and of the resentment of the injured count, who soon found means of punishing his powerful and insolent rival.
[MN 1201.] John had not the art of attaching his barons either by affection or by fear. The Count de la Marche, and his brother, the Count d'Eu, taking advantage of the general discontent against him, excited commotions in Poictou and Normandy, and obliged the king to have recourse to arms, in order to suppress the insurrection of his vassals. He summoned together the barons of England, and required them to pass the sea under his standard, and to quell the rebels: he found that he possessed as little authority in that kingdom as in his transmarine provinces. The English barons unanimously replied, that they would not attend him on this expedition, unless he would promise to restore and preserve their privileges [h]: the first symptom of a regular association and plan of liberty among those noblemen! but affairs were not yet fully ripe for the revolution projected. John, by menacing the barons, broke the concert; and both engaged many of them to follow him into Normandy, and obliged the rest who stayed behind to pay him a scutage of two marks on each knight's fee, as the price of their exemption from the service. [FN [h] Annal. Burton, p. 262.]
The force which John carried abroad with him, and that which joined him in Normandy, rendered him much superior to his malecontent barons; and so much the more as Philip did not publicly give them any countenance, and seemed as yet determined to persevere steadily in the alliance which he had contracted with England. But the king, elated with his superiority, advanced claims which gave an universal alarm to his vassals, and diffused still wider the general discontent. As the jurisprudence of those times required that the causes in the lords' court should chiefly be decided by duel, he carried along with him certain bravos, whom he retained as champions, and whom he destined to fight with his barons, in order to determine any controversy which he might raise against them . The Count de la Marche, and other noblemen, regarded this proceeding as an affront, as well as an injury; and declared that they would never draw their swords against men of such inferior quality. The king menaced them with vengeance; but he had not vigour to employ against them the force in his hands, or to prosecute the injustice, by crushing entirely the nobles who opposed it. [FN Ibid.]
[MN War with France.] This government, equally feeble and violent, gave the injured barons courage, as well as inclination, to carry farther their opposition; they appealed to the King of France; complained of the denial of justice in Johns court; demanded redress from him as their superior lord; and entreated him to employ his authority, and prevent their final ruin and oppression. [MN 1202.] Philip perceived his advantage, opened his mind to great projects, interposed in behalf of the French barons, and began to talk in a high and menacing style to the King of England. John, who could not disavow Philip's authority, replied, that it belonged to himself first to grant them a trial by their peers in his own court; it was not till he failed in this duty that he was answerable to his peers in the supreme court of the French king [k]; and he promised, by a fair and equitable judicature, to give satisfaction to his barons. When the nobles, in consequence of this engagement, demanded a safe conduct, that they might attend his court, he at first refused it; upon the renewal of Philip's menaces, he promised to grant their demand; he violated this promise; fresh menaces extorted from him a promise to surrender to Philip the fortresses of Tillieres and Boutavant, as a security for performance; he again violated his engagement; his enemies, sensible both of his weakness and want of faith, combined still closer in the resolution of pushing him to extremities; and a new and powerful ally soon appeared to encourage them in their invasion of this odious and despicable government. [FN [k] Philipp. lib. vi.]