"M. Regina Angl[ie] Omnibus fidelibus suis francis et Anglis salutem. Sciatis quod dedi Gervasio Justiciario de Lond[oniâ] x marcatas terræ in villâ de Gamelingeia pro servicio suo ... donec ei persolvam debitum quod ei debeo, ut infra illum terminum habeat proficua que exibunt de villa predictâ ... testibus Com[ite] Sim[one] et Ric[ardo] de Bolon[iâ] et Sim[one] de Gerardmot[a] et Warn[erio] de Lisor[iis]. apud Lond[oniam].[379]
The first of the witnesses, Earl Simon (of Northampton), is known to have been one of the three earls who adhered to the Queen during the king's captivity.[380] Richard of Boulogne was possibly a brother of her nepos, "Pharamus" of Boulogne, who is also known to have been with her.[381] Combining the fact of the charter being the Queen's with that of its subject-matter and that of its place of testing, we obtain the strongest possible presumption that it passed at this crisis, a presumption confirmed, as we have seen, by the name of the leading witness. The endeavour to fix the date of this charter is well worth the making. For it is not merely of interest as a record unique of its kind. If it is, indeed, of the date suggested, it is, to all appearance, the sole survivor of all those charters, such as that to Geoffrey, by which the Queen, in her hour of need, must have purchased support for the royal cause. We see her, like the queen of Henry III., like the queen of Charles I., straining every nerve to succour her husband, and to raise men and means. And as Henrietta Maria pledged her jewels as security for the loans she raised, so Matilda is here shown as pledging a portion of her ancestral "honour" to raise the sinews of war.[382]
But this charter, if the date I have assigned to it be right, does more for us than this. It gives us, for an instant, a precious glimpse of that of which we know so little, and would fain know so much—I mean the government of London. We learn from it that London had then a "justiciary," and further that his name was Gervase. Nor is even this all. The Gamlingay entry in the Testa de Nevill and Liber Niger enables us to advance a step further and to establish the identity of this Gervase with no other than Gervase of Cornhill.[383] The importance of this identification will be shown in a special appendix.[384]
Among those whom the Queen strove hard to gain was her husband's brother, the legate.[385] He had headed, as we have seen, the witnesses to Geoffrey's charter, but he was deeply injured at the failure of his appeal, on behalf of his family, to the Empress, and was even thought to have secretly encouraged the rising of the citizens of London.[386] He now kept aloof from the court of the Empress, and, having held an interview with the Queen at Guildford, resolved to devote himself, heart and soul, to setting his brother free.[387]
[353] "Ecce, dum ipsa putaretur omni Anglia statim posse potiri, mutata omnia" (Will. Malms., p. 749).
[354] Early Plantagenets, p. 22; Const. Hist., i. 330.
[355] "Satisque constat quod si ejus (i.e. comitis) moderationi et sapientiæ a suis esset creditum, non tam sinistrum postea sensissent aleæ casum" (p. 749).
[356] "Regina quod prece non valuit, armis impetrare confidens, splendidissimum militantium decus ante Londonias, ex alterâ fluvii regione, transmisit, utque raptu, et incendio, violentiâ, et gladio, in comitissæ suorumque prospectu, ardentissime circa civitatem desævirent præcepit" (Gesta Stephani, p. 78). These expressions appear to imply that she not only wasted the southern bank, but sent over (transmisit) her troops to plunder round the walls of the city itself (circa civitatem). Mr. Pearson strangely assigns this action not to the Queen, but to the Empress: "Matilda brought up troops, and cut off the trade of the citizens, and wasted their lands, to punish their disaffection" (p. 478).
[357] The Annals of Plympton (ed. Liebermann, p. 20) imply that the city was divided on the subject:—"In mense Junio facta est sedicio in civitate Londoniensi a civibus; sed tamen pars sanior vices imperatricis agebat, pars vero quedam eam obpugnabat."
[358] "Facta conjuratione adversus eam quam cum honore susceperunt, cum dedecore apprehendere statuerunt. At illa a quodam civium præmunita, ignominiosam cum suis fugam arripuit omni sua suorumque supellectili post tergum relicta."