A History of England, Period I. Mediæval Monarchy

by J. Franck Bright

Wales alone gave him further trouble. Thither, in 1157, he led an army against Owen Gwynneth at the instigation of his fugitive brother Cadwallader. The expedition was not successful; on this, as on subsequent occasions, Henry found it impossible to reduce the Welsh in their mountain strongholds. It is noteworthy, as affording the first instance of scutage, or money payment in exchange for personal service, which was in this instance demanded of knights holding from the clergy; and for the shameful flight of Henry de Essex, the royal standard-bearer, which gave rise afterwards to a remarkable judicial duel. In the year 1163 Robert de Montfort impeached Henry de Essex for cowardice and treachery. The matter came to the ordeal of battle, and Essex being conquered, forfeited all his lands, and retired as a monk to the Abbey of Reading. This, and the confiscation of the property of Peveril, already mentioned, are the only two instances of confiscation during the reign.

It was during this prosperous period of the King’s reign that Thomas à Becket becomes prominent. The son of a citizen of London, his talents had been early seen and employed by Archbishop Theobald. In 1143 he had succeeded in getting for his patron the legatine authority over England, and afterwards that Papal bull which prevented the crowning of King Stephen’s son Eustace. He was richly rewarded by livings in the Dioceses of Oxford, London, and Lincoln, and, in 1154, with the position of Archdeacon of Canterbury. The recommendation of the Primate soon placed him about Henry’s court. He was appointed chancellor, and as such was the chief clerk of the Curia Regis, kept the King’s seal, and had the management of vacant ecclesiastical benefices. He was further intrusted with the guardianship of the Tower of London, and with the castle of Eye in Berkhampstead, thus occupying a position partly secular, partly ecclesiastical. In this situation he exhibited all the splendour of a great noble; kept a magnificent table, followed the sports of the field, and was a proficient in knightly exercises. Henry found much pleasure in his society, and employed him in delicate negotiations. Thus, in the year 1158, he was sent to arrange a match between Margaret of France and Henry’s son Henry. His magnificent embassy dazzled the eyes of the Frenchmen and was completely successful. The object of the arrangement was to win the friendship of Louis, and prevent him from interfering with the King’s plans on Nantes, where he meant to make good his claim as successor to his brother Godfrey, who had lately died. A meeting with Louis was effected on the river Epte. Henry accompanied him back to Paris, and received from him the child princess, whom he intrusted to the care of Robert of Neuburg, Justiciary of Normandy. Strong in this new-formed friendship, Henry found no difficulty in securing Nantes, and thereby a hold upon Brittany.

Nevertheless there is war with France. 1159.

Interesting points in it.

Scotch King serves him.

Introduction of scutage.

In spite however of his apparent agreement with Louis he soon found himself at open war with him. Queen Eleanor’s grandfather, on going to the Crusades, had mortgaged the county of Toulouse to Raymond of St. Gilles. The mortgage money had not been repaid, as Raymond of St. Gilles still held the city. This nobleman had married the French King’s sister Constance. When therefore Henry raised the claim of his wife, the French King openly adopted the cause of Raymond.[20] Henry determined to have recourse to arms, and in 1159 raised an army for the purpose. The war is interesting, not so much in itself, as in two or three collateral points connected with it. Thus Malcolm of Scotland came with forty-five ships, and a Welsh prince likewise joined the army. Again, the presence of Becket at the head of an unusually well-equipped body of 700 men is mentioned. He is said to have urged the King to active measures against the French monarch. But Henry—who was surprised at finding his lately made friend in arms against him, and opposing with all his power a claim he had once himself urged, and who by no means wished to drive matters to extremity—showed some scruple in attacking his suzerain, and contented himself with gaining his object by laying waste the country and capturing the castles. At the same time he contracted an engagement between his son Richard and Berengaria, the daughter of Count Raymond of Barcelona, the son-in-law of the King of Aragon,[21] and in fact Governor of that country. But the most important point about the war was the introduction of the habit of money payments in exchange for military service. This measure had been adopted previously with respect to the Church in the war with Wales. On the present occasion the sum is said to have amounted to £180,000.[22] There were many advantages in the change. The King was enabled to hire mercenaries, and dispense with the irregular services of his feudal followers; he got contributions from the Church lands, and was enabled to do without the hated tax of the Danegelt, at the same time that he struck a blow at the military importance of his feudal barons.

Having reduced the State to order, Henry turns to the Church.

General friendship of England and France with the Pope.

Thus far the course of Henry’s reign had been one of unbroken prosperity. He had settled and increased his dominions both in England and on the Continent, had on the whole gained in his opposition to his suzerain the King of France, and had strengthened himself by prudent marriages for his children. He was henceforward, except for a very few years, to be plunged in disputes and difficulties. It has been mentioned that the Church in England had reached a position of great pre-eminence during the troubled period of Stephen’s reign. The policy of the Norman kings had been always to support the Church to the utmost, to keep on good terms with Rome, but at the same time to make good the supremacy of the power of the king in his own dominions. William the Conqueror, it will be remembered, had entirely separated the spiritual from the temporal jurisdiction. Before the arrival of the Normans, all offences not strictly ecclesiastical had been tried and punished in the County and Hundred courts, where both bishop and aldermen presided side by side. In withdrawing the bishop from the secular courts, William had desired to raise the character of the clergy by confining them more completely to spiritual matters. But an abuse had easily grown up, which produced a directly opposite effect. As the pretensions of the Church rose, not only were spiritual questions to be tried in the spiritual courts, but spiritual men were also withdrawn from the secular jurisdiction, and the doctrine became prevalent that the cleric could be only tried by his ecclesiastical superior.[23] Now ecclesiastical courts could not inflict corporal punishments. Censures, excommunications, and penances were their weapons. Consequently clerks might and did commit every sort of crime without suffering any punishment. To Henry’s love of justice and order this was most repugnant. But at the same time that he wished to curtail the license of the clergy, and to establish the superiority of the royal jurisdiction, he distinctly upheld the policy of his predecessors in supporting the Roman See. It was a critical time for that power. The great Frederick Barbarossa was upon the throne of Germany and attempting to establish with regard to himself and the Pope on a larger scale what Henry was anxious to do in England. With a comprehensive view of the struggle, he had invited the Kings of England and France to join him in united action for the establishment of the supremacy of the secular power. His overtures had not been received; and when, upon the death of Hadrian, in 1159, after a stormy conclave, the Italian party elected Rolando Bandinelli, under the title of Alexander III., and the imperial party Cardinal Octavian, as Victor IV., the two Western kings gave in their adhesion to Alexander. When expelled from Italy, they received him with extreme honour at Chateauroux, where they acted as his grooms, leading his horse between them. He finally found shelter in the French town of Sens.