COSTUME OF ENGLISH KINGS OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY
Royal MS. B VI.
ANGLO-NORMAN LADIES OF HIGH DEGREE
Royal MS. B VI.
At the first Easter after his coronation, Stephen held his Court at Westminster, where he assembled a National Council, to which were bidden the Bishops and Abbots and the Barons, “cum primis populi.” The Easter celebrations had been gloomy of late years, owing to the sadness which weighed down Henry after the death of his son. This function revived the memory of former splendours—“quâ nunquam fuerat splendidior vestibus.” That this Council was attended by the greatest barons of the realm, is proved by the fact that two Charters there granted are witnessed, one by fifty-five, and the other by thirty-six men, including thirty-four noblemen of the highest rank.
Geoffrey de Mandeville by Mr. J. H. Round is much more than a biography: it is a scholarly—a profound—inquiry into the history of England, and especially London, under King Stephen.
Geoffrey de Mandeville was the son of William de Mandeville, who was Constable of the Tower in 1101; and the grandson of Geoffrey de Mandeville, who appears to have come from the village of Mandeville near Trevières in the Bessin, the name being Latinised into “De Magna villâ.”
The elder Geoffrey founded a Benedictine priory at Hurley.
The younger Geoffrey appears at Stephen’s Court in 1136 as a witness to certain deeds. He was created Earl of Essex in 1140: the date being fixed by Round.
But the Empress was already in England: in 1141 (February 2) her great victory at Lincoln placed her for the time in command of the situation, and made Stephen a prisoner. She repaired to Winchester, where (March 2, 1141) she was elected “Domina Angliae.” She was received by the Legate, the clergy, and the people, the monks and nuns of the religious houses. She also took over the castle, with the crown and the royal treasures.
What follows is a remarkable illustration of the power of London. It is thus described by Sharpe (London and the Kingdom, vol. i. p. 48):—