A History of England, Period I. Mediæval Monarchy

by J. Franck Bright

Henry presses him with charges.

Becket leaves the court before judgment is given.

Alexander’s position was peculiar, and, as in the case of Anselm, it was too important to him in his present difficulties to retain the friendship of England for him to allow himself to side very strongly with Becket. Throughout the quarrel it is the Archbishop who urges the Pope onward, and not the Pope the Archbishop. Such lukewarmness suited neither party, and Henry summoned another council for 8th of October at Northampton. Two days before the council the Archbishop arrived. He did not receive the kiss of peace, and it was plain that matters were coming to extremities. Again the Archbishop began the attack. He lodged some complaint against a nobleman, and had justice promised him; but was then in his turn charged with delaying justice, in the case of an official of the Treasury called John the Marshall, who demanded a piece of land in his court. Marshall summoned him before the royal court, and he was now told that the case would come on before the council on the following day. On that day therefore the court sat in judgment upon the Archbishop. He was found guilty. The extreme penalty, which would have been the seizure of all his moveables, was remitted, and a heavy fine of £500 substituted. No sooner was this charge finished than a fresh charge was brought against him, and £300 demanded of him, which he had borrowed upon the castles of Eye and Berkhampstead. On the following day a sum of 500 marks, which he had borrowed for the expedition to Toulouse on the King’s security, was demanded. Becket declared it was a gift. He found fresh securities, and retired in dudgeon. He found his hall deserted by the knights and barons. Then followed the final blow. As chancellor he had had the administration of vacant ecclesiastical and baronial benefices; and now he was ordered to account for a sum of not less than 30,000 marks. On accepting the bishopric, he had been discharged from all liability by Prince Henry and Richard de Lucy the Justiciary. The demand was manifestly an unjust one, and the greater part of the bishops appealed against it. The temporal nobles refused to allow the appeal, as it had yet to be proved that the King was a party to the discharge. Sickness kept the Archbishop confined to his house for some days. Meanwhile the bishops attempted to make him yield, and finally for the most part deserted him, and betook themselves to the court. The Archbishop was determined to meet the charge in all the magnificence of his office, and went to the council with his cross and other insignia. The bishops, overawed by this unusual demonstration, which they regarded as a challenge to the King, went to him, leaving the accused Archbishop sitting alone with a few friends. They tried in vain to get the King’s demand lessened, and changed for the fine usual in Kent, which was only forty shillings. Henry, in wrath, merely asked whether the Archbishop had made up his mind to accept the Constitutions. Becket refused to plead upon any charge except that of John the Marshall, and at length openly declared that he placed himself and the Church under the guardianship of the Pope and of God. The disturbance was great. The King wished the bishops to declare the sentence. They earnestly entreated not to be called upon to judge their superior, and finally the duty was left to Robert of Leicester the Justiciary. But the Archbishop would not let him speak. “How can you judge me who appeal to a higher power? And do not thou Earl of Leicester venture to judge thy spiritual father!” He rose, and, leaning on his cross, swept from the hall. As cries of “traitor” arose behind him, his old worldly vehemence got the better of him, and he turned and cried, “Might I but wear weapons, I should soon know how to clear myself of the charge of treason.” As he passed on his way through the streets people knelt and demanded his blessing. A final answer was required of him the following day, but in the night, in the midst of wild weather, he secretly left Northampton, and after a difficult flight, on the 2nd of November contrived to cross to Gravelines.

He is received by the Pope. 1165.

On the very same night, an embassy, consisting of his chief enemies—the Bishops of York, London, Exeter, Chichester and Worcester, together with John of Oxford, the King’s chief adviser in this matter,—crossed to seek the Pope. The Archbishop put himself under the protection of the King of France at Soissons; and the two parties carried their case before the Pope at Sens, where John of Salisbury, Becket’s emissary, had already been winning him friends. The King’s embassy entreated that legates might be sent to finish the case in England. But Alexander, although the Peter’s Pence from England were absolutely necessary to him, refused their request. Upon receipt of this information, the King drove abroad all friends and dependants of the Archbishop, who had succeeded meanwhile in getting a favourable reception from Alexander. Till 1170 he remained abroad, carrying on his struggle with the King.

But Henry refuses to oppose Alexander.

Of course, during that time Henry could not afford to let his other business rest. But it is the quarrel with the Archbishop which gives its complexion to the history of those years. In 1165 the Pope was enabled to return to Italy, but Frederick of Germany, still refusing to acknowledge him, at an Assembly at Wurtzburg caused Cardinal Guido to be elected under the title of Pascal III. in the place of Octavian, who was just dead. Henry seized the opportunity. He had already forbidden all intercourse between England and the Pope, and he now despatched an embassy, headed by John of Oxford and Richard of Winchester, to attempt to act in consort with Frederick. This was in reply to a demand on the part of the Emperor, who had sent his chancellor, Reginald of Cologne, to ask for two of Henry’s daughters in marriage, the one for his son, the other for Henry the Lion of Saxony. The ambassadors declared that there were fifty bishops ready to accept the anti-pope. However, matters did not reach this point: Alexander still temporized. The clergy of England were very averse to deserting the legitimate Pope, and the old policy of the Norman kings had yet a strong hold upon Henry.

Meanwhile he attacks Wales, and secures Brittany. 1166.

Becket excommunicates his enemies.

Meanwhile, leaving the quarrel in abeyance, he again invaded Wales, again without much success. He was more successful in the following year in his designs on Brittany. “He dealt,” says the Chronicler,[27] “with the nobles of the district of Le Mans according to his pleasure, and the region of Brittany, and with their castles....” A treaty of marriage between his son Geoffrey, and Constance, the daughter of Conan of Brittany and Richmond, having been entered into, this Earl made a grant to him of the whole of Brittany, with the exception of Guingamp, which had descended to him from his grandfather. The King received the homage of all the barons of Brittany at Thouars. Thence he came to Rennes, and by taking possession of that city, the capital of Brittany, he became lord of the whole duchy. While thus triumphing, he received news that Becket, weary of the Pope’s procrastination, had gone to the Church at Vezelay, and there, after explaining the Constitutions of Clarendon, had excommunicated John of Oxford, Richard of Ilchester, and Richard de Lucy, the King’s Counsellors, and Joscelin of Balliol, and Ranulph de Broc, who had entered into possession of his confiscated estates. This step caused considerable anxiety, and the bishops and abbots of England met and appealed to the Pope, thus postponing the execution of the excommunication. The Archbishop, in reply, bid them carry the excommunication at once into effect, and at the same time excommunicated Godfrey Ridel, the Archdeacon of Canterbury, for not remitting to him the income of his see. In anger, the King threatened to expel from England the whole Cistercian order, as a punishment for allowing the Archbishop to dwell in their monastery. To avoid this, Becket withdrew to Sens.