Geoffrey de Mandeville: A study of the Anarchy

by John Horace Round

The compact ("pactum") which followed was strictly on the lines of that by means of which Stephen had secured the throne. The Empress, on her part, swore that if the legate would accept her as "domina," he should henceforth have his way in all ecclesiastical matters. And her leading followers swore that this oath should be kept. Thereupon the legate agreed to receive her as "Lady of England," and promised her the allegiance of himself and of his followers so long as she should keep her oath. The whole agreement is most important, and, as such, should be carefully studied.[182]

On the morrow (March 3) the Empress entered Winchester, and was received in state in the cathedral, the legate supporting her on the right, and Bernard of St. David's on the left.[183]

Now, it is most important to have a clear understanding of what really took place upon this occasion.

The main points to keep before us are—(1) that there are two distinct episodes, that of the 2nd and 3rd of March, and that of the 7th and 8th of April, five weeks intervening between them, during which the Empress left Winchester to make her second progress; (2) that the first episode was that of her reception at Winchester, the second (also at Winchester) that of her election.

It is, perhaps, not surprising that our historians are here in woeful confusion. Dr. Stubbs alone is, as usual, right. Writing from the standpoint of a constitutional historian, he is only concerned with the election of the Empress, and to this he assigns its correct date.[184] In his useful and excellent English History, Mr. Bright, on the contrary, ignores the interval, and places the second episode "a few days after" the first.[185] Professor Pearson, whose work is that which is generally used for this period, omits altogether the earlier episode.[186] Mr. Birch, on the other hand, in his historical introduction to his valuable fasciculus of the charters of the Empress, ignores altogether the later episode, though he goes into this question with special care. Indeed, he does more than this; for he transfers the election itself from the later to the earlier occasion, and assigns to the episode of March 2 and 3 the events of April 7 and 8. This cardinal error vitiates his elaborate argument,[187] and, indeed, makes confusion worse confounded. Mr. Freeman, though, of course, in a less degree, seems inclined to err in the same direction, when he assigns to the earlier of the two episodes that importance which belongs to the later.[188]

Rightly to apprehend the bearing of this episode, we must glance back at the preceding reigns. Dr. Stubbs, writing of Stephen's accession, observes that "the example which Henry had set in his seizure and retention of the crown was followed in every point by his successor."[189] But on at least one main point the precedent was older than this. The Conqueror, in 1066, and his heir, in 1087, had both deemed it their first necessity to obtain possession of Winchester. Winchester first, and then London, was a rule that thus enjoyed the sanction of four successive precedents. To secure Winchester with all that it contained, and with all the prestige that its possession would confer, was now, therefore, the object of the Empress. This object she attained by the pactum of the 2nd of March, and with it, as we have seen, the conditional allegiance of the princely bishop of the see.

Now, Henry of Blois was a great man. As papal legate, as Bishop of Winchester, and as brother to the captive king, he possessed an influence, in his triple capacity, which, at this eventful crisis, was probably unrivalled in the land. But there was one thing that he could not do—he could not presume, of his own authority, to depose or to nominate an English sovereign. Indeed the very fact of the subsequent election (April 8) and of his claim, audacious as it was, that that election should be the work of the clergy, proves that he had no thought of the even more audacious presumption to nominate the sovereign himself. This, then, is fatal to Mr. Birch's contention that the Empress was, on this occasion (March 3), elected "domina Angliæ." Indeed, as I have said, it is based on a confusion of the two episodes. The legate, as Mr. Birch truly says, "consented to recognize (sic) the Empress as Domina Angliæ, or Lady, that is, Supreme Governor of England," but, obviously, he could only do so on behalf of himself and of his followers. We ought, therefore, to compare his action with that of Miles of Gloucester in 1139, when, as we have seen, in the words of the Empress—

"Recepit me ut dominam et sicut illam quam justum hæredem regni Angliæ recognovit ... et ibi homagium suum mihi fecit ligie contra omnes homines."[190]

Notice here the identity of expression—the "reception" of the Empress and the "recognition" of her claims. I have termed the earlier episode the "reception," and the later the "election" of the Empress. In these terms is precisely expressed the distinction between the two events. Take for instances the very passages appealed to by Mr. Birch himself:—

"The exact words employed by William of Malmesbury are 'Nec dubitavit Episcopus Imperatricem in Dominam Angliæ recipere' (sic). In another place the same Henry de Blois declares of her, 'In Angliæ Normanniæque Dominam eligimus' (sic). This regular election of Mathildis to the dignity and office of Domina Angliæ took place on Sunday, March 2, A.D. 1141" (p. 378).