A History of England, Period I. Mediæval Monarchy

by J. Franck Bright

In July 1205, had died Hubert of Canterbury, whose influence as minister of the crown had been paramount during this and the preceding reign. The right of election to the metropolitan See had been constantly disputed between the monks of the cathedral and the suffragan bishops of the province. The younger monks thought to steal a march upon their rivals, and, even before the Archbishop had been buried, had elected Reginald, the sub-prior. Without waiting for the King’s approval, which had been invariably required during the reigns of the Norman kings, they hurried the Archbishop elect abroad, binding him not to disclose his election till he reached Rome. His vanity got the better of his wisdom; he boasted of his good fortune. A rumour of what had been done reached the ears of the King. The elder monks took fright, betook themselves to John, and received orders from him, in complete disregard of the claims of the bishops, to elect John de Grey, Bishop of Norwich, one of his ministers. He was elected, invested with the temporalities, and messengers stating the fact were at once sent to Rome. It was now the turn of the bishops to complain. In point of fact, the last three archbishops had been elected by the common consent of the bishops and monks, and with the approval of the crown. The older right was decidedly with the bishops, and they too despatched messengers to the Papal Court. A claim raised by three distinct parties, and brought to his court to settle, was exactly the opportunity Innocent desired. There was much in the position of England and the English Church which he would have wished to see changed. The election of bishops and archbishops, under whatever forms it had been carried on, had been virtually in the hands of the crown. Many of these appointments had been given to Churchmen, who had devoted their chief time to the great administrative system which Henry II. had perfected.[33] The mixture of lay and ecclesiastical elements was very objectionable to the Pope; while if there was one thing more than another which he was desirous of suppressing, it was the independence of national churches as represented by their bishops. Innocent, therefore, now ruled that the bishops had not the slightest voice in the matter, that the monks alone had from time immemorial possessed the right of election, although it had accidentally fallen into abeyance. He thus robbed both king and bishops of their share in the election, and then declaring that the election of Reginald in the present instance had been irregular, bade the monks, a considerable number of whom had come to Rome, proceed at once to the election of his old friend and fellow-student, Stephen Langton, cardinal priest of St. Chrysagonus. He so far acknowledged the existence of John as to write him several letters pressing him to receive the Archbishop. On the rejection of these overtures, foreseeing that he was entering on an important struggle, he arranged a peace with Philip of Swabia, the rival of Otho the Guelph, the Papal candidate for the throne of Germany, and proceeded to consecrate the new archbishop with his own hands at Viterbo.

John’s violence.

Interdict and flight of bishops. 1208.

Excommunication. 1209.

John had already quarrelled with the bishops, because they had refused, at a council held at St. Albans, to give him a contribution which he had required, for the assistance of this same Otho, who was his nephew. The news therefore of the consecration at Viterbo at once moved him to violence. The monks of Canterbury were driven from their monastery, and when, in the following year, an interdict which the Pope had intrusted to the Bishops of London, Ely and Worcester, was published, his hostility to the Church became so extreme, that almost all the bishops fled; the Bishops of Winchester, Durham and Norwich, two of whom belonged to the ministerial body, being the only prelates left in England. The interdict was of the severest form; all services of the Church, with the exception of Baptism and extreme unction, being forbidden, while the burial of the dead was allowed only in unconsecrated ground; its effect was however weakened by the conduct of some of the monastic orders, who claimed exemption from its operation, and continued their services. The King’s anger knew no bounds. The clergy were put beyond the protection of the law; orders were issued to drive them from their benefices, and lawless acts committed at their expense met with no punishment. While publishing the interdict, the Pope had threatened still further measures, and the King, conscious of his unpopularity among the barons, sought to secure himself from the effects of the threatened excommunication by seizing their sons as hostages. Nevertheless, though acting thus violently, John showed the weakness of his character by continued communication with the Pope, and occasional fitful acts of favour to the Church; so much so, that, in the following year, Langton prepared to come over to England, and upon the continued obstinacy of the King, Innocent, feeling sure of his final victory, did not shrink from issuing his threatened excommunication. John had hoped to be able to exclude the knowledge of this step from the island, as his father Henry had done; but the rumour of it soon got abroad, and its effect was great. The fidelity even of the ministers was shaken, and one of them rose from the council table, asserting that it was unsafe for a beneficed clergyman any longer to hold intercourse with the excommunicated King.

Attack on the other insular nations, Scotland.

In a state of nervous excitement, and mistrusting his nobles, the King himself perpetually moved to and fro in his kingdom, seldom staying more than a few days in one place. None the less did he continue his old line of policy. Sums of money were still frequently demanded, and sent out of the kingdom to support the cause of Otho, who, having procured the assassination of his rival, was again making head in Germany. Nor did he refrain from carrying out a policy which in any other king would have been accepted as national and good. The loss of the French provinces had thrown England back upon itself, and the country now seemed inclined to seek a surer foundation for its power in the more complete subjection of the immediately surrounding nations. Thus William the Lion of Scotland was compelled, by the advance of an English army, to make a treaty which was in fact a complete submission to England. He was obliged to pay a large sum of money, and to give up into the hands of John his daughters Margaret and Isabella, as well as hostages drawn from the noblest families of the country; while some years later, in 1212, his son Alexander appeared in London, and was knighted and swore fealty to the King.

Ireland.

Wales.

Disaffection of the Northern barons.