A Popular History of England, From the Earliest Times to the Reign of Queen Victoria; Vol. I

by François Guizot

[Footnote 2: So named because he was accustomed to wear in his hat a branch of genet or broom (Planta genista) in blossom.]

Henry had obtained the oaths of all the barons, but he had too much sense and knowledge of human nature not to be aware how precarious the future situation of his daughter must be if his nephew, William FitzRobert, should live to dispute the throne. The young prince appeared, indeed, to be destined to a brilliant future. King Louis had brought about a marriage between him and the sister of his wife, a princess of Savoy, and he had given to her for a portion Pontoise, Chaumont, and the Vexin. Soon afterwards Charles the Good, count of Flanders, was assassinated in the church at the foot of the altar. Louis entered Flanders for the purpose of punishing the murderers, and the count not having left any children, Louis conferred his domains upon William FitzRobert, great grandson of the old Count Baldwin. The young count, who remained in his new territory, had soon a cause of quarrel with a certain number of his subjects, who called the king of England to their aid. The latter supported, as a rival to his nephew, the landgrave Thierry of Alsace, who soon made himself master of Lille, of Ghent, and other important places. The son of Robert Curthose, however, had inherited the military talents of his father and grandfather: he completely defeated his adversary under the walls of Alost; but he had received a wound in the hand from a pike, and this injury, at first regarded as of little importance, turned to gangrene. William was carried to the monastery of St. Omer, where he died on the 27th of July, 1128. He was not yet twenty-six years of age, and he left no issue. His last care had been to recommend to the clemency of his uncle the Norman barons who had served his cause. The king willingly pardoned them, so rejoiced was he to be delivered from the anxieties which his nephew caused him. Duke Robert was still living; but these successes had no more effect than the death of his son upon the dreary captivity of the unfortunate blind prisoner.

The Empress Maud and her husband often gave trouble to King Henry by their quarrels. The birth of their eldest son in 1133 for a moment appeased their dissensions. The child was christened Henry, after his grandfather, and the Normans called him Henry FitzEmpress, to distinguish him from the king, whom they called Henry FitzWilliam Conqueror. Two other sons were born to Count Geoffrey Plantagenet, and the quarrels recommenced. The count claimed Normandy, which the king had promised to relinquish in his favor; but Henry still refused. He was no more disposed than his father had been "to strip himself of his clothing before bedtime." His strength, however, was declining: he was dejected. On the 25th of November, 1135, anxious to dispel his low spirits, he set out for the forest of Lion-la-Forèt, in Normandy. When he returned he was hungry, and at supper he ate greedily of a dish of lampreys, which his physician regarded as unwholesome. His digestion was disordered: he fell ill and died on the 1st of December, at the age of sixty-six, leaving all his domains on both sides of the sea to his daughter Maud and her descendants. He had reigned thirty-five years; and, with the exception of some unimportant expeditions against the French, England had enjoyed peace under his sway. This great blessing had been sullied by many crimes. Neither plighted faith nor natural feeling had ever impeded Henry I. in his ambitious projects; but he had placed the dominion of the Norman race in England on such solid foundations that the troubles which followed upon his death could not shake it; and if success were the test of moral worth Henry FitzWilliam Conqueror might be regarded as a great king.

All his efforts and all his precautions, however, had not enabled him to secure the succession to his daughter. Scarcely had he breathed his last when his nephew Stephen, son of the Count of Blois and of Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror, set sail immediately for England. The king had always treated his nephew with particular favor; he had given him vast fiefs in England. The Count Stephen was very popular among the Normans and the Saxons. His wife, Maud, niece of Matilda, first wife of Henry I., even belonged to the royal Saxon family. Stephen boldly laid claim to the throne, which could not, he said, belong to a woman. He was descended like her from William the Conqueror, and in the same degree. England was not a property which could be bequeathed at pleasure and without respect for the wishes of the people. Many barons were of Stephen's opinion, and the treasure of King Henry, which his brother the Bishop of Winchester yielded up to him, secured to him other adherents. The chief minister of the deceased king, Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, whom Henry had originally remarked and attached to his person as "the readiest priest at saying a mass whom he had ever met with," allowed himself to be won by money. William Corbois, Archbishop of Canterbury, was more scrupulous, but was persuaded that the king, irritated by the conduct of his daughter, had adopted his nephew on his death-bed. Stephen was elected by the barons and prelates, who considered themselves absolved from their oath towards the empress because she had married without their consent; and the coronation took place at Westminster, on the 26th of December, St. Stephen's Day. The pope confirmed the election with the more readiness because Stephen had accepted the oath of the clergy, under the condition imposed by the bishops, of respect for the liberties and discipline of the Church. The barons had obtained new fiefs, with permission to fortify their castles and to construct new ones. Those who were greedy for gain received money, and King Stephen was in such high favor on both sides of the sea that when Geoffrey Plantagenet entered Normandy to claim the rights of his wife, the natural animosity of the Normans against the Angevins broke forth with violence. The count was compelled to retire, and to conclude with Stephen a truce for two years, in consideration of a pension of 3000 marks of silver. The king crossed over into Normandy, and received there the homage of the barons; and Louis VII., surnamed the Young, then king of France, betrothed his young sister, Constance, to the little Eustace, son of Stephen, granting to the child the investiture of Normandy.

Among the barons who had taken the oath of allegiance to Stephen was Robert, earl of Gloucester, a natural son of Henry I., who had renounced all rights to the throne in favor of his sister, the Empress Maud. Like her, he had pretended to yield, but like her he had not abandoned the cause. Maintained in the possession of his large domains through his oath of fidelity, he crossed from Normandy into England, and very soon the tranquillity which had reigned there gave place to a secret agitation. Several partial risings took place; but these were only the precursors of the great insurrection which Gloucester was preparing, and which David, king of Scotland, was about to support as protector of the rights of his sister, the Empress Maud.

The mine was dug. The Earl of Gloucester retired into Normandy, whence he wrote to Stephen solemnly renouncing his allegiance. Other great barons followed his example, and, fortifying themselves in their castles, overwhelmed the king with reproaches, accusing him of having failed to keep his oath towards them. "Ah!" exclaimed Stephen, "the traitors! they made me king, and now they desert me; but, by the Nativity of God! they shall never make me a deposed king!" In this perilous situation Stephen displayed great energy, laying siege to the rebel castles one after the other, and disposing largely of the domains of the crown in favor of the barons who were faithful or who became penitent. Meanwhile the king of Scotland had entered Northumberland at the head of a numerous army from the Highlands and Lowlands, isles and mountains, the regular troops and undisciplined savages, knights clad in iron, the best lances in Europe, and mountaineers half naked, constituting this army of "Scotch emmets," as the English expressed it, covered all the country extending from the Tweed to the north of the county of York, ravaging and pillaging on their way. The king was at a distance, detained by the insurrections of the barons in the South. The northern counties defended themselves. The Normans called to their aid the inhabitants of the country, those English who, though so often oppressed, possessed a vitality which resisted every form of tyranny. They united with their conquerors to defend the country against this attack. The archbishop of York, Toustain or Thurstan, a decrepid old man, sinking under age and infirmities, but full of energy and foresight, caused a search to be made in the churches for the standards of St. John of Beverley, St. Cuthbert of Durham, and St. Wilfred of Ripon, which had remained there since the Conquest. They raised aloft these consecrated banners upon a car similar to the caroccio which bore the standards of the Italian Republics. In the midst of the flags arose a pedestal bearing the tabernacle and the sacred host. The English surrounded the sacred car, with their long-bows in their hands. They halted at Elfertun (now North Allerton), awaiting the arrival of the Scotch. There was a dense mist, and the enemy might have taken the English army by surprise, but for Robert Bruce and Bernard Baliol, who possessed domains in England and Scotland. The former of these two knights approached King David. "O king!" he exclaimed, "do you bear in mind against whom you are going to fight? It is against the Normans and the English, who have so often served you well with counsel and arms, and have succeeded in securing to you the obedience of your people of Celtic race. Remember that it is we who have placed these tribes in your hands, and thence arise? the hatred with which they are animated towards our countrymen." "These are the words of a traitor," exclaimed William, nephew of the King of Scotland. At the same instant Malise, earl of Strathern, was heard to exclaim, "What need have we of this stranger? I have no breastplate, and yet I will advance as far as any among them." The old Norman turned his horse's head. "I retract my oath of fidelity and homage, O king!" he cried, and, spurring his horse, he hastened towards the English, with Bernard Baliol, crying out that the Scotch were following them.

The Bishop of Durham was standing erect upon the sacred car, as representative of the old Archbishop of York. He pronounced absolution in a loud voice, and the English and Normans, who had been kneeling, arose, exclaiming "Amen!" The Scotch were already charging, amidst cries of "Alban, Alban!" the historical name of their country. Their impetuous attack had broken the ranks of the English; but the Norman cavalry, in close order around the car, steadily repulsed the charge. The archers formed again, and began to harass the mountaineers with their shafts; the long pikes of the men of Galloway were broken upon the Norman bucklers; the claymores of the Highlanders could not pierce their breastplates. The fight lasted two hours, and the confusion was terrible. Prince Henry, son of the King of Scotland, had succeeded in cleaving a way up to the standards, but he was repulsed. The lances and the swords were broken. The fury of the attack abated; the retreat soon became a rout, protected only by King David and his corps of knights, who had rallied around him. The Scotch took refuge in Carlisle, where the English did not attack them. The treaty of peace, which was concluded in the following year, even left Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Northumberland in the power of Scotland.

The defeat of the Scots at the battle of the Standard had cooled the ardor of the malcontents. The Empress Maud and the Earl of Gloucester had not yet appeared in England; but King Stephen committed a grave error. He alienated from himself the attachment of the clergy who, up to that time, had been favorable to him, by suddenly casting into prison the Bishop of Salisbury, one of the partisans who had had the greatest share in his elevation, and whom he had up to then loaded with wealth and honors. "By the Nativity of God!" he exclaimed to one of his attendants, "I would give him one-half of England if he asked it. He should grow weary of asking before I would grow weary of giving, until the day when he should be dumb."