"Et[546] convencionavi eidem Comiti Gaufredo pro posse meâ quod Comes Andegavie dominus meus assecurabit ei manu sua propria illud idem[547] tenendum et Henricus filius meus similiter. Et quod rex Franciæ erit inde[548] obses si facere potero. Et si non potero, faciam quod ipse Rex capiet in manu illud tenendum. Et de hoc debent esse obsides per fidem: Juhel de Moduana,[549] et Robertus de Sabloill et Wido de Sabloill[550] et Pagan' de Clarevall'[551] et Gaufredus de Clarevall' et Andreas de Aluia:[552] et Pipinus de Turon': et Absalon Rumarch'[553] et Reginaldus comes Cornubiæ et Balduinus Comes Devon': et Gislebertus Comes de Penbr': et Comes Hugo de Norff': et Comes Albericus: et Henricus de Essex: et Petrus de Valon':[554] et alii Barones mei quos habere voluerit et ego habere potero, erunt inde obsides similiter. Et quod x'rianitas Angliæ quæ est in potestate meâ capiet in manu istam supradictam conventionem tenendam eidem Comiti[555] Gaufredo et hæredibus suis de me et de hæredibus meis. Apud Oxineford.[556]
"Sub magno sigillo dictæ Matildis Imperatricis."
Let us now, in accordance with the guiding principle on which I have throughout insisted, compare this charter seriatim with those by which it was preceded, with a view to ascertaining what further concessions the unscrupulous earl had won by this last change of front. We shall find that, as we might expect, it marks a distinct advance.
The earlier clauses do little more than specifically confirm the privileges and possessions that he had inherited from his father or had already wrung from the eager rivals for the Crown. This was by no means needless so far as the Empress was concerned, for his desertion of her cause since her previous charter involved, as an act of treason, his forfeiture at her hands. These are followed by a new grant, namely, "totam terram quæ fuit Eudonis Dapiferi in Normannia et Dapiferatum ipsius," with a conditional proposal that Geoffrey should also, in exchange for the grants he had already received, obtain that portion of the Dapifer's fief which lay in England. The large estate which this successful minister had accumulated in the service of the Conqueror and his sons had escheated to the Crown at his death, and is entered accordingly in the Pipe-Roll of 31 Hen. I. This has an important bearing on the noteworthy admission in the charter that Geoffrey is to receive the Dapifer's fief not as a gift, but as his right ("rectum suum"). This expression is referred to by Mr. Eyton in his MSS., as placing beyond doubt the received statement that Geoffrey was maternally a grandson of the Dapifer, whose daughter and heiress Margaret had married his father William. But this statement is taken from Dugdale, who derived it solely from the Historia Fundationis of St. John's Abbey, Colchester, a notoriously inaccurate and untrustworthy document printed in the Monasticon. The fact that this fief escheated to the Crown, instead of passing to the Mandevilles with the Dapifer's alleged daughter, is directly opposed to a story which has no foundation of its own.[557]
The next clause to be noticed is that which refers to Bishop's Stortford. It implies a peculiar antipathy to this castle on the part of Earl Geoffrey, an antipathy explained by the fact of its position, lying as it did on the main road from London to (Saffron) Walden, and thus cutting communications between his two strongholds. We have a curious allusion to this episcopal castle a few years before (1137), when Abbot Anselm of St. Edmund's, who claimed to have been elected to the see, seized and held it.[558]
The next additional grant made in this charter is that of "C libratas terræ de terris eschaetis et servicium X militum" to the earl's son Ernulf. This is followed by what is certainly the most striking clause in the whole charter, that which binds the Empress and her husband "to make no peace and come to no terms with the burgesses (sic) of London, without the permission and assent of the said Earl Geoffrey, because they are his mortal foes." Comment on the character of such a pledge on the part of one who claimed the crown, or on the light it throws on Geoffrey's doings, is surely needless.
The clauses relating to Geoffrey's castles are deserving of special attention on account of the important part which the castle played in this great struggle. The erection of unlicensed ("adulterine") castles and their rapid multiplication throughout the land is one of the most notorious features of the strife, and one for which Stephen's weakness has been always held responsible. It is evident, however, from these charters that the Crown struggled hard against the abdication of its right to control the building of castles, and that even when reduced to sore straits, both Stephen and the Empress made this privilege the subject of special and limited grant. By this charter the earl secures the license of the Empress for a new castle which he had erected on the Lea. He may have built it to secure for himself the passage of the river, it being for him a vital necessity to maintain communication between the Tower of London and his ancestral stronghold in Essex. But the remainder of the passage involves a doubt. The Empress professes to repeat the permission in her former charter that he may construct one permanent castle, in addition to those he has already, anywhere within his fief. Yet a careful comparison of this permission with that contained in her former charter, and that which was granted by Stephen, in his charter between the two, proves that she was really confirming what he, not she, had granted.
| Maud (1141). | Stephen. | Maud (1142). |
|---|---|---|
| "Et præterea concedo illi ut castella sua que habet stent ei et remaneant ad inforciandum ad voluntatem suam." | "Et præterea firmiter ei concessi ut possit firmare quoddam castellum ubicunque voluerit in terra sua, et quod stare possit." | "Concedo etiam ei quod firmet unum castellum ubicunque voluerit in terra sua, sicut ei per aliam cartam meam concessi, et quod stet et remaneat." |
As we can trace, in every other instance, the relation of the various charters without difficulty or question, it would seem that we have here to do with an error, whether or not intentional.
We then come to the clauses in favour of Geoffrey's relatives and friends. This is a novel feature which we cannot afford to overlook. It is directly connected with the question of that important De Vere charter to which we shall shortly come.