LAWRANCE HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND 1 DA 28.2 .L-42 V.; UNIV OF MICH B 444262 DUPL ERS M AN N ARTES LIBRARY 18177 VERITAS SCIENTIA OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN TUEBOR MINSUL AND AMENAM UMSPICE TH JE UNIT UNIV NIV OF M ERS HIG AN MIC AN UNI ER DIW UNIV UNIV W MICHIG GAN OF AN UN OF UNIV OF HIG RS SITY UN OF MIC RS AN UN AN UN MIC HIC OF UNIV ERS UNI WIC ERS AN W UNIV UNIV HIG HIG VERSIT AN MI AN UNIC UNI O MI HIG #ན ER Q. C HIG CAN ERSI AN UN # RSI MI MIC M U NIV UNI HIG ER RS SITE GAN UN HIG AN ER UNIVE ER MIC GAN MIC UNI MIC N N K 10. SITY VERS 135 UNID ERSITY NY NIV HIG M AN UN HIC AN => {\ UN! 30 HIG M NIV OF M AN N IV MIC HIG R UNIV AN N ERSI IN HIG OW UNID VERS AN KIND HIG RS AN UN INT "TH AN AIN! CHIG ER SIT AN UN MIC RS NY UNI HIG ER M HIG ERS AN UNIV HIG AN AN NIVER C JAN HIG DAY AN NIVER MIC E M 30 TY AN HIG AN UN N! HIG M C HIG JERS H AN M HIG UNIC W VEI ER. SIH HIG AN W UN OF HIG MIC H RSITY CHIG S AN UNIV JERS HIG GAN M AIN HIG IN CHIC M! NIVE ERS! AN AIN! HIG VERS TH UNIVERSI AN OF HIG RS/ MIC CHI NIVERSIT N NIV CHIC MA OF YERS UNIV OF HIG RSITY HIG AVE CHIC VERS MI ནཱབྷསཾ1༤ ཉནང བ རཱ སཛདཏཿ་་་་ན་པ་བ་་-་ DA 28.2 .442 HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND, FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. BY HANNAH LAWRANCE. LONDON: EDWARD MOXON, DOVER STREET. MDCCCXXXVIII. PRINTED BY NUTTALL AND HODGSON, (Successors to Mr. Ellerton), GOUGH SQUARE, LONDON. PREFACE. In a day distinguished by the publication of so many historical works, and amid the increasing abundance and variety of materials illustrating our national antiquities, the queens of England still remain almost unknown. Women, whose influence extended over a wide and important sphere, and whose maternal counsels so frequently impressed a character of good, or ill, on the reign of the suc- ceeding monarch, have been passed over with scarcely the slightest notice. The land of their birth, the date of their marriage, the day of their death, is often all that the historian records of the wives and mothers of our Plantagenets. Anxious to rescue the memory of these illustrious women from oblivion, the author of the present work determined to seek, from contemporary sources, that information which hitherto she had sought in a iv PREFACE. vain. Nor was her search fruitless. Many of these queens she found were pre-eminent for their princely beneficence; many were munificent patronesses of our early literature; while many adorned their high station by the moral lustre which they shed around them. A series of memoirs, therefore, of these illustrious women, which, in connexion with their biographies, should aim at tracing the progress of the arts, the literature, and the social advancement of England, seemed to the writer yet wanting, and to supply this deficiency the present work was un- dertaken. In the prosecution of her task, the author has sought information chiefly from those voluminous and often rare works, which, although well known to the historian and the antiquary, are for the most part inaccessible to the general reader. For those, therefore, who, unable to pursue extended historical inquiries, are yet anxious to learn more respecting the progress of society and literature in these early days, than the volumes of the general historian can supply, this work is expressly intended. The period at which these Memoirs commence may, by some perhaps, be considered too early; but in a work especially designed to trace the advancing progress of national improvement, it was necessary PREFACE. V to commence at the point from whence that improve- ment can be definitely traced; and that is the commencement of the twelfth century. Compara- tively obscure as the medieval period may be con- sidered, yet in it may be found the elements of all that has made England and her literature what they are; and comparatively remote as this period may appear, yet is it, in its general character, best known of any. Our popular literature has claimed it for her own; and not merely the historical plays of Shak- speare, but the ancient ballad, even the nursery tale, have associated with our earliest recollections the names of our Cœur de Lion, our Henrys, and Edwards; and invested the memories of our Maudes, our Elinors, and our Margarets, with an interest which the queens of a later period often fail to excite. It was the author's intention to have conti- nued the Memoirs in this volume to a much later period but materials which she could not reject, have accumulated in her progress. progress. The poetry of the trouvère, listened to and patronized, both by the beautiful Adelais and Elinor of Aqui- taine, seemed imperatively to claim admission into a work devoted alike to the early literature, and the queens of England; while a view of the arts, at vi PREFACE. a period to which so many of our most beautiful monuments refer, was too delightful a subject to be dismissed with a mere passing notice. Should the present volume receive the approbation of the public, a second, bringing down these His- torical Memoirs to the commencement of the 16th century, will speedily appear. 1 CONTENTS. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER Page 1 MAUDE. CHAPTER II.-Parentage of Maude-Her Education-Notices of the Abbeys of Wilton and Romsey-General View of Female Con- ventual Education-Her Marriage with Beauclerc-State of Lon- don and Westminster-Westminster Abbey-The Royal Court- Anselm-Bishop Roger-Gundulph-De Bigod-Hugh Lupus -Robert Meulan 14 CHAPTER III.-Maude's Patronage of Literature Minstrelsy: Norman, Saxon, Breton-Her Charitable Foundations-St. Giles in the Fields-Priory of the Holy Trinity at Aldgate-Other Foundations-Nunnery of Clerkenwell-Commandery of St. John -General Remarks on these Establishments-Death of Maude 43 ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. • CHAPTER IV. The wreck of the "White Ship "-Parentage of Adelais-Her Marriage with Henry-Her Literary Taste-Royal Progresses-Feud of the Rival Crosses-Henry's Death-State of the People-Second Marriage of Adelais-William de Albini -Her Death. • 64 MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. CHAPTER V.-Accession of Stephen-Parentage of Maude of Bou- logne The Knights Templars-The Battle of the Standard- Maude's Mediation with her Uncle-The Miseries of the War- Characteristic Legends-Battle of Lincoln-Exertions of Maude to procure Stephen's release-Founds Coggeshall Abbey, and the Hospital of St. Katherine-Her Death. 89 viii CONTENTS. 1 MAUDE THE EMPRESS. CHAPTER VI.- Her early Marriage to the Emperor, Henry V.- His Death-Her Return to her Father, and Recognition as future Queen-Marriage with Geoffrey Plantagenet-Separation, and Residence at Rouen-Reconciliation-The Death of her Father -Her Arrival in England-Events there-Final Return to Nor- mandy-Her Religious Foundations-Her Death THE LEARNING OF THE CLOISTER. * CHAPTER VII.-The Abbey of Bec-Herlouin-Lanfranc-Anselm -Convent Schools-Rise of Cambridge - Course of Study in the Twelfth Century-Transcription of Books-Zeal of the Clergy for the diffusion of Learning-The Monkish Chronicles-Early Science-The Monk of Aquitaine's Story ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. • CHAPTER VIII.-Parentage of Elinor-Marriage with Louis VII. of France-The Second Crusade-Her Journey to Palestine- Divorced from Louis-Her Marriage to Henry Plantagenet-Ac- cession to the English Crown-Inauguration of her Son Richard as Duke of Aquitaine-Thomas à Becket-Family Dissensions- Imprisonment of Elinor-Fitz Stephen's Description of London- Plantagenet's Second Contest with his Sons--Ilis death CHAPTER IX.-Elinor liberated by her Son, and appointed to the Regency-State of the Jews in England-Fitz-Ailwyn the first Lord Mayor-Richard's Naval Force for his Crusade-Elinor's Voyage to Cyprus-Berengaria-Elinor's Embassy to the Pope- Richard's Captivity-Elinor's Letters to Celestine-She proceeds to Germany with her Son's Ransom-Richard's Return-Procla- mation of Tournaments-Richard's Death-Elinor's Embassy to Castile-Besieged at Mirabeau-She retires to Fontevraud, and there dies-IIer Character THE "POET-FATHERS OF ENGLAND." CHAPTER X.-"Le Voyage de St. Brandan "-Gaimar-Wace- "Le Brut d'Angleterre "Le Roman du Rou"-Benoit St. More "Le Sermun du Guichart de Beaulieu "-Simon le Fresne 127 159 185 234 CONTENTS. ix "Le dictie du Clerc e de la Philosophie "-Influence of the Anglo-Norman Trouvères-Influence of the Romances of King Arthur . 269 ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. CHAPTER XI.-Parentage of Isabel-Her Marriage with John- Her Dower-Queen's-Gold-General Panic at the commence- ment of the Thirteenth Century-John's "Ways and Means Innocent's Letter-The Interdict-Its Effects-His Encourage- ment of the Navy-Old London Bridge-Magna Charta-Royal Treasure-Death of John-Isabel's second Marriage-Contests respecting her Dower-Treachery of de la Marche-Her Flight to Fontevraud, and Death ELINOR OF PROVENCE. CHAPTER XII.-Henry's Accession-His Coronation Feast-Gene- ral View of Society-Elinor of Provence-Her Parentage-Is contracted to Henry-Arrives in England-Her splendid Coro- nation-Extracts respecting it—Henry's Exactions-The Jews- The City of London-His Procession to Westminster-Com- mencement of Hostilities-Simon de Montfort-Henry's War with his Barons-Re-opening of Westminster Abbey-Elinor's Additions to her Dower-Henry's Death-View of the General Improvements of this Reign-Elinor's Claims of Queen's-Gold- Retires to the Convent of Ambresbury-Her Death • • 303 338 THE ARTS IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. CHAPTER XIII. —Architecture - The Norman Style-Its Cha- racteristics-The Gothic-Theories respecting its Origin-Im- provements in our Cathedrals-Salisbury built-Westminster Abbey built--Improvements in Secular Buildings-Decorative Painting-Introduction of Stained Glass-The Ancient Method of Painting on Glass-Sculpture The Sepulchral Effigy-Statues of this Period-Progress of Gothic Architecture-Engraving- Illuminated Manuscripts-General View ELINOR OF CASTILE. CHAPTER XIV. - Parentage of Elinor Edward's Voyage to Spain, and Marriage - Elinor arrives in England-Her Voyage with Edward to Palestine-Edward wounded by an Assassin- b 382 X CONTENTS. } Their return to Europe-Edward's Tourney with the Count of Chalons - Their arrival in England - Coronation Edward's Round Table in Wales-Death of his eldest Son-Affairs in England-Expulsion of the Jews-Early Science The Mendi- cant Orders-Progress of the English Language-The Earlier English Romances--Death of Elinor-Her splendid Funeral- Edward's Gifts to Westminster Abbey-Her Tomb there—Her Crosses-Conclusion . APPENDIX € 413 449 HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. WHEN the standard of Normandy floated in triumph over the prostrate banner of Hengist, and the might and power of the Saxon dynasty passed away for ever on the field of Hastings, little could our forefathers have believed that the foundation of all the glory and wide renown of our land was laid on that day. Nor, when years passed on, and wit- nessed spoliation succeeding spoliation, and injury heaped on injury; when the indignant Saxon beheld, in place of the open halls where his native thanes held joyous revelry, castles moated, bastioned, bat- tlemented, and walled towns with their rigid munici- pal regulations rising on every side; when he beheld his manners scorned, his language despised, and himself almost an outcast in his father-land, even less could he have imagined "that he was con- quered to his gain, and undone to his advantage; yet so it was; and the Norman invasion, with all B "" 2 INTRODUCTION. its subsequent injustice, and with all its manifold oppressions, was a great, an enduring benefit. In commencing, therefore, these Historical Memoirs, at a period when the advantages of this change of dynasty were just beginning to be recognized, it will be important to take a concise view of the cir- cumstances under which Duke William claimed the crown of England, and of the benefits which his accession conferred on its people. The common view of this revolution is that of a foreign adventurer invading our land, subjugating by the sword a free and generous people, overturn- ing their laws, expunging their language, and erect- ing on the ruins of their free institutions a stern military despotism, which knew, or cherished, no science save that of arms. Now, in this view, it is forgotten that Duke William received the crown. by actual bequest of the weak and superstitious Confessor; and, although the immediate heir was set aside, yet William, in point of hereditary right, had a secondary claim, while Harold had none whatever. The first Stuart held the crown by precisely the same right, the gift of his dying cousin ; and the third William ascended the throne by the express recognition of the principle, that the nearest heir might be set aside, should the exigencies of the state require it. However the sub- sequently tyrannical conduct of William might give colour to the popular tradition, that he reigned by right of conquest, it is important to bear in mind that such right was never asserted by him. The warlike descendant of that Rollo, who boasted as INTRODUCTION. 3 his proudest achievement, that he had won "the good land of Normandy" by his own prowess, never boasted thus when unquestioned lord of a nobler land and possessor of a royal diadem, but was con- tent to affirm that he received the crown by be- quest; and even after a victory which ensured to him the kingdom, he hastened to London to be crowned after the very form of the Saxon monarchs, by whom coronation was considered as the popular recognition of their right. And still viewing him- self as king, by the twofold claim of bequest and election, he next summoned the people, and de- manded "by what laws they would be governed?” and when they replied "by King Edward's," the monarch acquiesced. Willing yet more to follow in the footsteps of his Saxon predecessors he made no alteration in their coinage, he preserved their legal institutions almost unaltered, and even attempted to acquire their language," that he might himself do justice to every man's complaint." ""* But, unfortunately, the first steps of William in England were traced in Saxon blood: and although he came but to contest with an usurper a crown solemnly bequeathed to him by one, who, in the judgment of the age, had the right to do so, still the remembrance of the field of Hastings CC "There is no evidence, and no probability, that he landed with the expectation of subduing England against the will of its inhabitants, or that he took the crown by right of conquest. In some of his charters he expressly states, that he took the crown by right of donation; and Spelman's remark, that " conquerour means purchaseour," is cor- rect-(Turner.) It may also be added here, that in Domesday book, with the exception of one instance in which the word "conquisit " is used, the Conqueror's arrival is always indicated by the phrase, “Post Rer venit" (vide Ruding). See also Note 1, in the Appendix. B 2 4 INTRODUCTION. rankled in the breasts of his new subjects, and forbade their yielding him a willing homage. Un- fortunately, too, the ancient spirit of the Norsemen was not extinguished in his followers. This "goodly land," which William's chaplain represents as sur- passing Gaul in abundance of the precious metals, which for fertility may be termed the garden of Ceres, and for riches the treasury of Arabia," pre- sented allurements too strong for the plunder- loving propensities of the descendants of Bier and Hastings; and in an age when coat-of-mail and trusty brand were stronger than law, they, what- ever were the views of their leader, seem to have felt no reluctance in claiming all England as a legitimate field for plunder. In their train, or invited over by exaggerated reports of the wealth and fertility of the land, Bretons, and even Flem- ings, followed fast; and foreign manners, foreign customs, and a foreign tongue ere long overspread the land. Still, galling and oppressive as this yoke of foreign bondage proved to that generation, each foreign band brought great and enduring benefits. The refinement of the Norman shamed the rudeness of the Saxon; the aspiring energies of the Norman stimulated the sluggish powers of the Saxon; the Fleming brought with him (inestimable boon!) that spirit of commercial enterprize which has placed England chief among the nations; while the Breton bore from his desolate land that precious freight of romantic fiction which taught the haughty Norman to view with pride his adopted country, England, because it was the land of King Arthur. Nor, INTRODUCTION. 5 among the benefits resulting from this important revolution, must we overlook the fresh impulse which almost expiring learning received from the hands of the Norman prelates. While the Saxon, unconscious of the benefits he should ere long derive, saw with indignant feelings the crosiers of the richest sees placed in the hands of these foreign churchmen, little reason had the nation to complain of a measure which gave the learned Osmund to Salisbury, and "William the good bishop," to whose tomb the citizens pressed for so many centuries, to offer grateful homage, to the see of London, and the wise and learned Lanfranc, that illustrious scholar whose fame, from the lowly Abbey of Bec, went forth to the uttermost parts of Europe; him, whose life-long effort it was to found a library in every convent, and a school in every church, to the ecclesiastical supremacy of the land. The earlier years of William's reign were, indeed, characterized by singular liberality: within the pre- cincts of his court the heir to the Saxon crown found a safe and honourable asylum; some of the chief Saxon nobles were elevated to offices of high trust and dignity; the laws of the land were pre- served, and even the general forms of their ad- ministration underwent but slight alteration. Re- peated insurrections, and repeated assassinations, at length proved to William the necessity of a sterner rule; and then commenced those extensive confis- cations of property, those severe and sanguinary laws, and that interference with the peculiar habits and customs of the people, which they found even 6 INTRODUCTION. more onerous than the most oppressive enactment.* Still, even during this period, many beneficial laws were made, and an excuse may be found even for the severest, if we except the Forest code, in the peculiar circumstances of the land. The Saxons were always addicted to riotous affrays, to spolia- tion, and to the indulgence of private revenge; now it was against such offences that the laws of the Conqueror were emphatically directed, and the rigorous infliction of the assigned punishment, in every case, instead of allowing it to be commuted by pecuniary fine, however harsh it might seem to the Saxon in the eleventh century, will surely not appear so to the Englishman of the nineteenth. But the Saxon himself was, ere long, compelled to admit the superior protection which he enjoyed, both in person and property, beneath the stern rule of the Conqueror. The Saxon Chronicle allows the beneficial tendency of those severe enactments which guarded the honour of even the lowest class of women, and in language almost of eulogy, dwells on the good peace he made in the land, so that a man with his bosom full of gold might go over the kingdom unhurt, and no man durst slay another, though he had done ever so much evil against him.” Surely such benefits were most important to the rising interests of a rude and unsettled community. If, however, we wish to do full justice to the character of this gifted man, we must contemplate him in his municipal charters, and in his wider legislative enactments. In those relating to towns, * Vide Note 2, Appendix. INTRODUCTION. 7 great anxiety is evinced for the promotion of trade and commerce, the peculiar rights and form of go- vernment is guaranteed to each burgh or city, the inhabitants are declared "law-worthy "—that is, subject to no jurisdiction save their own; and un- molested residence for a year and a day within its walls, ensured to the hereditary bondsman the pre- cious boon of freedom. To the bondsman, indeed, the memory of the stern Conqueror must have been dear; for other legislative enactments declared that the lords should not deprive them of their lands so long as they did proper service; that they should not do more than that service, and that they should not be sold out of the land. In the Domesday in- quisitions, too, it was one of the legal inquiries, "Whether any of the peasantry had a right of leaving the lands they occupied, and of going whither they pleased; and this right was carefully recorded, that they might not in after-times be deprived of it." Nor did his laws reach only the inferior classes; the power which successfully con- trolled a rude and turbulent population, was efficient to keep in check a haughty and warlike aristocracy. From the profound policy of this gifted man, the feudal system in this country presented, in many important points, a marked distinction from that established in France, and far more in unison with the free institutions of the land. The fiefs of the Anglo-Norman barons were not merely less exten- sive than those of France, but their manors were dispersed through various counties: "Estates so disjoined, however immense in their aggregate, were 8 INTRODUCTION. "" ill calculated for supporting a rebellion." The rights, too, of these nobles were greatly limited; they might have power of "stocks and donjon-keep, but "gallows-tree" was too "royal" a prerogative to be allowed; and except in the counties palatine, and perhaps in a few extreme instances in this and the following century, the English baron could never boast that cherished prerogative of every French noble who possessed a castle, the right of "la haute justice." As another counterbalance to the power of the great feudal nobles, the civil institutions of the land were continued, and their popular forms preserved. "While the conquest changed the pro- prietary body of England, it still left most of its civil institutions undestroyed, or only new-named: the witenagemot survived in the parliament, and the earldermen, the knights, the freemen, the gerefa or mayor, the shire gerefa or sheriff, the hundred, the wapentake, the county court, were all preserved; "* while, in 1085, William, by receiving at Salisbury the fealty of all the landholders in the kingdom, "broke in upon the feudal compact in its most essen- tial attribute, the exclusive dependence of a vassal upon his lord."+ Most advantageous to all classes were those wide and general gatherings of all the vassals through- out the land. In the feudal institutions there is much picturesque grandeur; and the Normans, from that innate poetic feeling which in the following century rendered them the poet-fathers of modern verse, invested all the great festivals of the court * Turner. + Hallam. INTRODUCTION. 9 with a gorgeous magnificence to which modern times afford no parallel. Scarlet-robed heralds went forth forty days before, and at every market-cross pro- claimed with sound of trumpet the royal summons to a feast, not for one, or two, or three days, but for twelve, and in some instances even for forty. All were invited to come;-while the landholder was compelled, on pain of forfeiture, to renew his oath of fealty, the travelling merchant, the burgess of the king's own town, even the houseless wanderer, might be secure of provision and a welcome; for while the mighty feast was spread within the palace hall for hundreds of noble birth, the humble but abundant meal was provided in the court-yard for ten thousand guests.* A splendid spectacle did the royal hall display, when the monarch each year "thrice bare his crown," and received from archbishop, bishop, earl, baron, and knight, assembled from all parts of the land, the accustomed kiss of homage; when, not in rude mail, but in silken vest, and broidered mantle, and cloak of marten skins,† earl met earl, not in hostile battle field, but in free and social in- tercourse; and knight, "in weeds of peace," could challenge knight, not to "three courses with well ground lances," but to the more friendly strifes of chess or the wine-cup; when dames and high-born damsels, with jewel-braided hair, gave beauty to the scene; and when the scholar might invoke the royal patronage for his newly founded school, the mer- chant present his petition for "chartered rights," * Vide the various Rolls of the two following centuries, and the notices of contemporary historians. †The appropriated dress of the earl at this period. 10 INTRODUCTION. the minstrel sing his lay of faerie, and the pilgrim detail, to no inattentive ear, the story of his long and eventful pilgrimage. Surely, when to all these benefits conferred on the land, that most important one, freedom from the incursion of enemies, is added —when it is recollected, that, from the period of the Conqueror's accession, no hostile fleet ever anchored on the shores of England-popular opinion may at length cease to view the Norman invasion as a national calamity. The twelve years of the Red King's reign passed away, nor witnessed any mitigation of the severer of his father's laws, nor any boon conceded by the monarch to the prayer of the still oppressed Saxon. But if the reign of the Red King passed without any alleviation of Saxon wrong, or any encouragement of Norman enterprise, a mighty influence was abroad, which bowed every purpose, and wielded every will, to its own overmastering bidding. The resistless cry-"Remember the Holy Sepulchre❞— had rung throughout Christendom; and nations, the most refined and the most barbarous, the nearest and the most remote, had alike answered spontane- ously to that call, which they deemed the cause of heaven; and the whole chivalry of Christian Europe braced on their mail and dighted their war-steeds for that "land of Prophets, of Apostles, of the Son of God"-heaven-loved but forsaken Palestine. All the energies of the energetic Nor- man were aroused by that potent call; and knight, and noble, and prince gladly flung aside the hunt- ing-spear, to rush lance in hand to rescue "that INTRODUCTION. 11 sweet land over the sea," as the Croise fondly termed it; while the despised Saxon, to whom the land of the East was associated with the most cherished legends of his childhood, pressed forward side by side with the Norman to do battle for the cause of the Holy Sepulchre; and Saxon and Norman, alike bowed beneath the spell of one overmastering feel- ing, almost forgot that they had once been foe- men.* Ere the public mind had recovered from that extasy of joy which pervaded all Christendom, when the news at length arrived that the banner of the Cross waved over the Holy City, the Red King was discovered transfixed by an arrow in the New Forest. His younger brother, regardless of the claims of the chivalrous Robert, who was fighting so bravely in Palestine, hurried with heartless haste to secure the sceptre, and within three days was solemnly crowned at Westminster. Most important to the interests of the nation was Henry's unjust succes- sion. Under the rule of the gallant but reckless Robert, the power of the great barons would most probably have increased; while possessing the crown by an indisputable title, little might the monarch have heeded the complaints or demands of his people. Not so Beauclerc: he knew that his seizure of the crown could be justified neither by the laws of Eng- land or of Normandy, and he also knew that many of the more powerful nobles were warmly attached to his brother; while, independently of these con- For a vivid picture of the enthusiasm of the period, vide the extract from Malmsbury.-Note 3, Appendix. 12 INTRODUCTION. siderations, there was much in his character and views that rendered him distasteful to a fierce and belligerent nobility. The Bras de Fers, the Maule- verers, the Crêvecœurs, could see but little glory in the pacific title of Beauclerc; and he who proudly accepted the proffered epithet of "Lion of Justice," soon taught them that he saw as little enviable dis- tinction in their more warlike titles. Thus was Henry forced to conciliate the people, to counter- balance the hostility of his nobles; and many a precious boon, which equity and benevolence might have demanded in vain, was willingly conceded to the fears of a disputed title. The first act of Beauclerc's reign was the promul- gation of a charter which promised to his Norman subjects alleviation of some of the more galling feudal prerogatives of the crown, and which engaged to restore the laws of Edward the Confessor to the Saxon. Next followed the great charter of Lon- don, which confirmed the privileges granted by his father, which gave to the citizens freedom from toll and custom throughout the whole kingdom, the proud right of choosing their own magistracy, and the baronial privilege of hunting. The debased state of the coinage, next claimed his attention ; severe laws were enacted against coiners, laws which, as they are mentioned in the Saxon Chronicle with peculiar admiration, we may suppose were very beneficial to his Saxon subjects. He also com- menced a vigorous warfare against those of his nobles who refused to submit to his authority, and eventually forced even the powerful and fero- INTRODUCTION. 13 cious Robert de Belesme to yield to the victorious arms of the Scholar-King. All these measures gave to Beauclerc a degree of popularity unpossessed heretofore by Norman; the nation reposed secure from fears of foreign invasion; some of the more pressing grievances had been promptly removed; well grounded hopes were held out for the removal of others; and although three generations were yet to pass away ere the distinctions of Saxon and Nor- man were to merge in the more illustrious name of Englishman, yet that important process had already commenced, which, reviving the Saxon from his lethargy of many years, and stimulating the ener- getic principles of the Norman character to their highest point of development, eventually produced that series of events which placed England foremost in the rank of nations. Such was the state of the land when Beauclerc, heedless of alliances with any of the powerful continental families, as the crowning act of conciliation with his Saxon subjects, proffered his hand to the exiled and unportioned daughter of Malcolm, the obscure denizen of the Abbey of Rom- sey, but the representative of a long and illustrious line of Saxon princes. The joy of the nation knew no bounds; and with feelings of exultation to which the land had long been a stranger did the people hail that Martinmas-day which beheld the crown of England placed by the hands of Anselm on the meek brow of the daughter of "the right royal race"-the "Good Queen Maude." MAUDE. CHAPTER II. Parentage of Maude-Her Education-Notices of the Abbeys of Wilton and Romsey-General View of Female Conventual Education-Iler Marriage with Beauclerc-State of London and Westminster-West- minster Abbey-The Royal Court-Anselm-Bishop Roger-Gun- dulph-De Bigod-Hugh Lupus-Robert Meulan. VERY interesting and romantic is the history of the family and early life of the "Good Queen Maude." In a happy hour, as it seemed to the Saxon race, did her grandfather, Edward, the only brother of the renowned Ironside, return from Hungary to be acknowledged by the feeble and vacillating Confessor as heir to the English crown. Too soon were their hopes destroyed: only a few months elapsed after his arrival in England ere the requiem was sung for him, and he was followed to his noble tomb in St. Paul's by the unavailing regrets of the whole nation. Again the weak-minded monarch yielded to Norman influence the claim of Edgar, Edward's only son, was set aside in favour of Duke William. Harold, on the Confessor's death, clutched the golden circlet: the battle of Hastings was fought, and, too timid to assert his hereditary claim, Edgar "the noble child," as he is fondly termed by the Saxon Chronicle, set sail with his mother and sisters to Scotland. The important results of this voyage cannot be better MAUDE. 15 related than in the precise words of the venerable Saxon Chronicle: < "This summer the child Edgar departed with his mother Agatha, and his two sisters, Margaret and Christina, and many good men with them, and came to Scotland under the protection of Malcolm, who entertained them all. Then began Malcolm to yearn after the child's sister Margaret to wife; but he and all his men long refused, and she also herself was averse, and said she would neither have him nor any one else, if the Supreme Power would grant that she in her maidenhood might please the mighty Lord in this short life in pure continence. The king, however, earnestly urged her brother, till he answered, Yea.' And, indeed, he durst not otherwise, for they were come into his kingdom. So that then it was fulfilled what God had long ere foreshown; and else it could not be, as he himself saith in his Gospel,- Not even a sparrow on the ground may fall without his foreshowing.' The prescient Creator wist long before what he of her would have done, for that she should increase the glory of God in this land, lead the king aright from the path of error, bend him and his people to a bet- ter way, and suppress the bad customs which the nation formerly followed, all of which she afterwards did. The king therefore received her, though against her will, and was well pleased with her man- ners, and thanked God, who of his might had given him such a match." And great and important benefits did the Saxon princess confer alike on her husband and her king- 16 MAUDE. dom. She afforded a secure asylum to those of her countrymen who fled the rigour of the Norman yoke; she welcomed, with magnificent presents, learned men from all parts of the continent; she introduced the Saxon tongue into her dominions; and, both by precept and example, promoted the spread of religion; nor did she consider the civiliza- tion of the people as beneath her care; for she en- couraged a taste for pomp and splendour, patronized the importation of gold and silver plate, of rich and precious foreign stuffs, increased the number of per- sonal attendants on the king, and adopted an un- usual magnificence of apparel. With affectionate admiration did the rude warrior-king behold the splendour and refinements which the taste and intel- ligence of his beloved Margaret had placed around him; and, fascinated by her many talents-talents which in the eyes of the unlettered monarch seemed little short of angelic-he unquestioningly listened to her counsels, and devoutly imitated her religious. duties. Malmsbury tells us how that, when after attending service at Church, she used to feed large companies of the poor, Malcolm was accustomed to stand beside her; while, as the last act of hospitality toward her grateful guests, she poured water on their hands; and her confessor relates with what devotion he used to kiss her prayer-books and missal, and how gorgeously he had them bound, although to him, indeed, sealed volumes; for the far-feared Malcolm Canmore was unable to read a syllable. "When the queen undertook to correct some alleged abuses of the church, Malcolm stood interpreter MAUDE. 17 942.0243 between the fair and royal reformer, and such of the clergy as did not understand English, which he loved because it was the native tongue of Mar- garet."* Six-and-twenty years did this auspicious union continue; and six children attained to years of ma- turity: Edward, who was slain at Alnwick, with his father; Edgar, Alexander, and David, who each in turn wore the crown, (and of whom the admiring chronicler relates, "no history has ever recorded three kings, and at the same time three brothers, who were of equal sanctity, of such severe virtue, and such extensive charity "+); and two daughters, Mary, afterwards married to Eustace earl of Boulogne, and Maude, the subject of the present memoir. In 1093 Malcolm, with his eldest son, lost their lives at the siege of Alnwick and his deeply attached Margaret, "disgusted with life," says Malmsbury, "on the news of his death earnestly entreated of God to die;" a boon soon conceded; for she followed him to the grave within a few months, leaving a character so illustrious for benevolence and piety, as to obtain for her admission into the long bead-roll of mediæval saints, and a memory so dear to a grateful and at- tached people, that from this early period, even to the present day, the Scottish nation have hal- lowed with peculiar fondness the name of Mar- garet. It is probable that the tumults consequent on Malcolm's brother assuming the crown, to the ex- clusion of his three nephews, were the cause of * Southey. C + Malmsbury. 18 MAUDE. Maude, with her sister, being sent to England, and consigned to the care of their aunt Christina, who, in 1085, had taken the veil. Contemporary his- torians concur in representing Wilton and Romsey as the abbeys in which the future queen of England found an asylum. Both of these were Saxon foun- dations; Wilton claimed an origin as early as the year 800, when Wulstan, duke of Wiltshire, founded a chantry which his widow Alburga converted into a nunnery; and which, in after years, became the residence of St. Editha, the fair and pious daughter of a profligate father, King Edgar. An incident related of her by Malmsbury, places her good sense in a very favourable point of view, and corroborates the opinion that convents, in those early times, were not those abodes of stern rule and severe restriction which in modern times they have become. Although the inmate of a convent, Editha chose to dress 66 right royally ;" and the right royal apparel of that age was both splendid and graceful. Her confessor, therefore—and he too was in training for a saint, being afterwards invoked as St. Ethelwold-on one occasion publicly reproved her; the royal maiden bowed not to episcopal rebuke, but replied, "I think a mind may be as pure beneath these rich vestments, as beneath your tattered furs." The good Bishop meekly assented to the truth of this reply, "redden- ing with joy," says Malmsbury, "that he had been thus stigmatized by the sparkling repartee of the damsel." While very young, Editha became abbess of Wilton; and soon after, while Dunstan was celebrating service in her presence, he marked the MAUDE. 19 countenance: (6 deep trance of devotion in which she seemed lost, and the unearthly glow that overspread her beautiful Alas," cried he to the attendant priest, and burst into tears, "soon must this blessed rose wither soon shall this lovely bird take her flight." The prediction was fulfilled within forty days, and Editha, ere she had completed her twenty- third year, slumbered beside the high altar. In accordance with the superstition of the times, her canonization soon followed; and the grateful nuns invoked her, together with our Lady and St. Bar- tholomew, to watch over the abbey of Wilton.* Romsey Abbey, to which Christina, the aunt of Maude, retired, and of which, according to some writers, she became abbess, was built by Edward the elder, and dedicated to the Virgin and St. Elfleda. This abbey was gifted with many great and especial privileges, and amongst them the rare and most anomalous right of "la haute justice," or "gallows tree t;" a privilege, however, of which we have no record that any use was ever made; and to this already wealthy establishment the Norman conquest seems to have brought additional wealth and dignity. In these two convents did Maude receive her edu- cation-an education which, although not strictly literary, yet, according to the concurrent testimony of every contemporary historian, well qualified her to become an enlightened and munificent patroness of letters. * The abbess of this convent was one of the four Lady abbesses who were baronesses in their own right, and, as such, took their places at the King's court. ↑ Vide Monasticon. c ? 20 MAUDE. On many of the most interesting subjects of re- search, the antiquary has occasion to lament the very scanty degree of information with which even the most sedulous inquiry will furnish him; and on few points is our information more scanty, than in all that relates to conventual education at this period. Thus far we know, that while the conventual esta- blishments of the Saxon monks were stigmatized as being the abodes of sloth and gluttony, no syllable of censure is recorded against any one of the Saxon nunneries; and when to this negative testimony the positive proofs derived from the favourable notices of noble and royal Saxon women who must have re- ceived their education in these female conventual establishments are added, we shall be inclined to admit that, although certainly not equal to those later convent schools in which the illustrious daughters of our Plantagenets received instruction, they yet were foundations well adapted for that most important of all the purposes for which con- vents were erected the education of young fe- males. It would be an interesting task to trace the outline of the plan of instruction pursued in these schools. But here we must lament the extreme scantiness of our materials. From some very amusing remarks of Alfred of Rieviesby, a contemporary, we learn that very young children were sometimes admitted, and that the nuns displayed toward them an almost maternal affection.* These children were taught reading, for which purpose many small books were * Vide Fosbroke. MAUDE. 21 kept; and it is probable, in most instances, writing. Music also was an important part of conventual edu- cation, since all the scholars were expected to take their parts in the seven daily services of the church. As musical notation was at this period, and indeed for two centuries after, unknown, the tunes must all have been learned by the ear, and as it is probable that singing in parts was practised, a musical education in those days would present nearly as many difficul- ties as in the present. Among the musical in- struments most used by the Saxons, we find the harp and the organ the last mentioned instru- ment was probably never met with met with except in churches; it was, however, there sometimes played by women; and among Mr. Strutt's useful collection of plates we find one of a female seated at an organ on which she plays with her right hand, while blow- ing a short curved horn, which she holds in her left. To the harp, that favourite instrument of all the northern nations, the Saxons were peculiarly at- tached. For centuries it was the custom among them, on festive occasions, to hand it round; and in their love to it, the conquered natives had one common feeling at least with their more refined victors. To fine needlework the Saxon ladies always paid great attention. In periods long subsequent to this, the convent schools still retained their former cele- brity, and broidered vestments and altar cloths, wrought by the diligent fingers of the convent maiden, were gifts which monarchs might offer, and even the sovereign Pontiff receive. So celebrated, 22 MAUDE. indeed, were our countrywomen for their labours of the loom and of the needle, that the Conqueror's chaplain expressly alludes to their skill, and espe- cially to their exquisite embroidery in gold, in his extravagantly laudatory encomium on the wealth and productions of England. According to the learned Muratori, the fame of this "fine needle- work" extended throughout all Europe, and the phrase "Opera Anglica" was used by every writer to designate works either surpassingly rich or sur- passingly beautiful. To the fair embroiderer of the 19th century, such high commendations of what she would probably consider very inferior work, may appear surprising; and she may point to the rude figures of the men and horses in that most curious relic of the skill of the Saxon embroiderer, the Bayeux tapestry,* and ask to what degree of praise, as a work of art, such a specimen is entitled. It is important, therefore, to remark, that, while every attempt to imitate the human figure, whether in sculpture, in tapestry, or in painting, is most rude and skilless, the arabesques of this period (and it was arabesque patterns that were chiefly employed) are singularly rich and elegant. The capital letters of many a manu- script, the carving of many a column, even the few remains of goldsmith's work which time has spared, display patterns from which the carver or the deco- rator of the present day might not refuse to copy. A general character of high finish, too, pervades these works; and we may well suppose that the fair embroiderer, whose skill was so highly prized, and * Vide Note 4, Appendix. MAUDE. 23 whose fame was so widely extended, did not, in her sphere, rank below her fellow-workmen.* Another important branch of convent education, was a knowledge of medicine and surgery. In an age when "the church" was the grand depository of science and learning, and when so great a portion of the pharmacopoeia consisted of charms derived from texts of holy writ, of invocations, prayers, and exor- cisms, the fair inhabitant of the cloister naturally became, in the eyes of a marvelling people, the appropriate ministering priestess of those rites. The superstition of the northern nations, too, had always invested woman both with prophetic powers and with the gift of healing; no wonder therefore was it, that, when both Pagan and Christian super- stition combined in viewing the nun as skilful in leechcraft, she should sedulously devote herself to its practice. For all those diseases whose seat was in the mind, there was the psalm and the prayer, the aspersion of holy water, or the pilgrimage to the saintly shrine; while for those more active diseases which refused to yield to religious formulæ, the long catalogue of indigenous herbs would, in most cases, afford a medicine, and perhaps a cure; nor is it improbable that many a herb-tea and many a diet-drink, still employed in the more remote parts. of the land, are the venerable remains of conventual medical skill. *From the length of time bestowed on many of these works, we may well imagine the degree of finish bestowed on them. Three and four years for embroidering a mantle was no uncommon time, and the Lady of Shalot" sits seven long years, intent upon her beautiful work, ere the faithless Lancelot, who is to release her from her task, ap- pears. 24 MAUDE. For surgery, the ladies of the middle ages, more especially those devoted to the church, were cele- brated equally with their monastic brethren; and the chroniclers frequently record instances of the skill of the convent maiden, in curing even dangerous wounds. There is an instance, too, of a noble- man, who, breaking his leg while hunting, was con- veyed to the nearest convent, where the limb was carefully set by the prioress, and himself nursed with the kindest assiduity and care. Bleeding, that favourite remedy of our forefathers, was performed- and performed gratuitously-in female convents. In a deed of gift, still extant, the donor stipulates that she and her household shall be bled "as fre- quently as they may desire;" and popular tradi- tion still records the tragic story of bold Robin Hood's fate, who having gone, as was his wont each springtide, to Kirklees Abbey to be bled, met his death through the atrocious perfidy of the prioress, Elizabeth de Staynton, who made use of a poisoned lancet. Nor was this medical and surgical skill entirely confined to the inmates of the cloister: the high- born damsel, profiting by the instructions of the con- vent school, returned to her father's castle able to afford that ready aid which she had seen so kindly and so skilfully given. Romance, fabliau, and lay, those important illustrators of ancient manners, alike bear testimony to the wonders of female leech- craft, and tell of Nicolette, who, when Aucassin 66 leapt the wide fosse" and dislocated his shoulder, tended him with skilful care, and completed the cure; of Nogiva, who healed with "choice bal- MAUDE. 25 sams "the wound of Sir Gugemar; and “Iseult aux blanches mains," who so tenderly watched over the sick bed of Sir Tristrem, all unwitting that another Iseult than herself was his own lady-love. 66 Nurtured amid the many conventional refine- ments of our artificial state of society, the lady may smile at the picture of an abbess preparing a medi- cine, or the damsel, decked with gems and miniver," applying the balsam, or placing the bandage; but to those who reflect on the numerous casualties to which all classes were exposed in these unsettled times, and the difficulty, and often im- possibility, of procuring prompt and efficient medi- cal aid, it will be gratifying to reflect that the mistress of an extensive household was not the mere creature of showy accomplishments, but was quali- fied to be a valuable assistant to those around her. Limited as was the degree of medical knowledge, still, in a marvel-loving age, and amid a devout and all-believing people, many a wondrous cure was performed. Received from the fair hand of the lady, or the holy hand of the nun, the remedy was drank "in full assurance of faith;" and admitted within the hallowed precincts of the cloister, the patient deemed himself secure from all infernal influence, and confidently awaited the ex- pected cure. The wondering churl, and the ad- miring noble, alike joined in proclaiming the skill of the fair physician; and in the popular belief, even the learned graduate of Salerno might veil his hood before the marvels of female leechcraft. Although reading in the vernacular tongue, 26 MAUDE. writing (to which Mr. Fosbroke seems inclined to add drawing), church music, instrumental music, fine needle-work, physic, and surgery, formed the general course of instruction in female conventual establishments; yet we have good authority for believing, that, in some instances, a more strictly literary education was afforded. That Latin, (and not mere monkish Latin) was successfully cul- tivated in Saxon nunneries, those writers who have made the literature of the Saxons their study have abundantly proved. "It was for the use of the abbess Hildelita, and her community, that Ald- helm," who died in 809, "wrote his poem 'De Laudibus Virginitatis,' a poem far from lucid, and requiring for its comprehension a respectable knowledge of the language. To the abbess Eadburga was addressed the extraordinary letter on the damna- tion of King Ceobred, a proof that she could read it. To several English nuns St. Boniface addressed epistles, which are still extant: some of them con- tain allusions to the classical writers of antiquity; and in one of them we have some verses by a young nun, or rather novice, then learning the metrical art under the abbess Eadburga. Nor is this all; the lives of two saints, Willibald and Wunebald, were written by an English nun." From the notices we have-both of the mother of Maude, queen Margaret, and of Editha the wife of the Confessor-there is every reason to believe that the same extended course of learning was pursued in the conventual establishments in which they received their education. When the biographer of the first MAUDE. 27 ; describes the aid she afforded Malcolm in the go- vernment of his kingdom, and the superintendence which she exercised over the affairs of the church, he expresses no wonder at her superior attainments nor, when Ingulphus gives that pleasing picture of the last Saxon Queen of England stopping in the court-yard of her palace to question the delighted schoolboy, and to encourage his progress, does he express any astonishment at a lady's acquaintance either with Latin or logic; but his admiration dwells alone upon the singular progress which she had made in those studies, and the winning condescen- sion which gave such appropriateness to his simile, that she was "the rose of a thorny stem.' Of the degree of instruction which Maude re- ceived in these various branches of education no chronicle affords us any information. That she enjoyed advantages equal to those afforded to her mother seems probable, both from the circumstance of her education being superintended by the sister of that mother, and from the phrase used by Malms- bury, that "she gave her attention to literature; and when, too, we bear in mind that her aunt ear- nestly sought to persuade her to take the veil, we may well believe that no species of instruction was omitted which might qualify her to wield the crosier in the royally endowed abbey of Romsey. At what time, and at what age, she entered either convent, is very uncertain. The period of her father's death (1093) has been fixed on with great appearance of plausibility; but Malmsbury seems inclined to place it earlier: his words are, "She 28 MAUDE. was educated from infancy among the nuns of Wilton and Romsey; wherefore, in order to have a colour for refusing an ignoble alliance, which was more than once offered her by her father, she wore the garb indicative of the holy profession." Another account however states, that her marriage with Beauclerc being in treaty, when Anselm proceeded to examine whether there was indeed any obstacle, she herself confessed, before the council at Lambeth, that, when a very young child, her aunt Christina had forced her, especially when in the presence of strangers, to wear the scapulary, but that, when left to herself, in spite of the menaces and even blows of her aunt, she persisted in throwing off the obnoxious badge, and trampling it under her feet. Con- vinced by this statement, Anselm pronounced sen- tence in favour of the marriage; and on the 13th of November, in the abbey church of Westminster, he crowned and anointed her queen. Little of splendid pageantry met the eye of Maude as she took her way through London to the sumptuous palace of Westminster. No gilded con- duits pouring streams of wine; no tapestry-decked streets; no city-watch with its glittering armour ; no city companies with their quaint but costly pageants; no Lord Mayor, in his robe of scarlet, welcomed her who came to bind Norman and Saxon together in bonds of firm and enduring brother- hood. Those gorgeous observances, and those picturesque processions, which duly graced the en- trance of subsequent queens into the capital of their kingdom, were as yet unknown; for chivalry MAUDE. 29 had but just received a name and a law; and romance, the mother and nurse of every splendid pageant, had scarcely awakened to life; nor had commerce as yet poured into the quays of London that profusion of wealth, that ere long rendered her merchants the rivals of nobles and of princes. Nor did London herself present much to attract or delight the eye. The conventual establishments were few, the churches scanty, as compared with later times; nor did the tall spire, the traceried window, or the richly-carved door-way, contrast in picturesque variety with the rude low houses around. The materials of the churches were mean, and perishable: timber, or rubble, formed the walls; glass windows were but scantily seen; and but one parochial church boasted the unusual splendour of stone arches. This was in St. Mary's in West Cheap, called, from that circumstance, " de arcubus," a name retained to the present day, in its Norman designation "Le Bow." The metropolitan cathe- dral—that venerable structure which in the 14th and 15th centuries stood proudly the most splendid cathedral in the land, without tower or spire, built principally of timber, and yet bearing marks of that fatal and very extensive fire, which in 1082 almost levelled it with the ground-rose unwalled in the midst of a desolate area, looking mournfully on the ruined remains of the palace of her Saxon kings, which occupied the site beyond its southward boundary. Of the form of the private dwellings, and of what materials they were composed, contemporary histo- 30 MAUDE. ; rians afford us no information. As some of the earliest civic enactments are particular in directing that no house shall be thatched, but that each shall be covered with tile or slate, it is probable that straw was the usual covering. They also appear to have been very low-the law respecting party-walls, which was passed full eighty years after (a period during which London had been making rapid ad- vances in wealth and civilisation), expressly enact- ing that they shall be carried to the height of sixteen feet only. It is probable that the roof sloped very much, otherwise no house could be above one story high. We must bear in mind, however, that this rule seems only to apply to the common class of houses since, within fifty years from the time on which we are now writing, handsome stone houses are men- tioned by Fitzstephen as existing in London.* If any such then existed, their number was small; and along the irregular and unpaved street, rude dwell- ings with thatched roofs and wicker-latticed windows would continually meet the eye. Nor did the noble river, at this period spanned only by one fragile wooden bridge, display that forest of masts which have given to London her appropriate designation of the "mo- dern Tyre." Beside the Tower, at the Vintry, and at Edred's-hithe, a few small vessels might be an- chored; and from time to time some tall Norman galley, or some light osier-bound shallop, might glide by; but the broad and spacious quays, with the palace-dwellings of their merchants, the stirring life, the busy crowds, the sounds of never-ceasing activity, *Vide Note 6, Appendix. MAUDE. 31 as yet were not. At either end of the city, and close to the water's edge, arose those equally im- pregnable fortresses, the Tower and Castle Baynard; on the other side of the river, the rude collection of huts marked the site of that general receptacle of thieves and outlaws, the Borough; close beside them rose the house of nuns and lowly church, dedi- cated to the Virgin by the grateful maiden of the ferry, Marie; and far beyond, rising conspicuous from among the green marshes, were the towers of the palace of Lambeth. But a fairer spectacle would meet the eye of the Saxon princess, as she proceeded along the rude and irregular road which led to the palace of Westmin- ster. There the hand of improvement had lavished countless cost, both on church and hall; and the numerous buildings-" framed," as the admiring chronicler relates, "with courses of stone, so cor- rectly laid that the joint deceives the eye, and leads it to imagine it is all one block,"*-undimmed with age, and uninjured by long exposure to the weather, must have indeed appeared dwellings worthy the ruler of all England and Normandy. Of the palace at Westminster, of which the greater part, and particularly the principal hall, was built by Rufus, we have numerous eulogies, but unfortunately no description. It was doubtless constructed on the Norman model, with the circu- lar-headed windows and doorways, and pillars sup- porting circular arches; and the neatness of the masonry, and the great elevation and size of the Malmsbury. 32 MAUDE. various apartments, seem to have excited the admi- ration of every chronicler. The Normans appear to have finished the interior of their houses in a style corresponding to the splendour of the outside; since, from some incidental notices in Malmsbury, we are led to believe that the walls, if not hung with tapes- try, were painted and gilded. One passage in the same author seems also to prove, that the utmost richness of decoration was bestowed on the ceiling; it is when eulogizing Godfrey, that heroic leader of the first crusade, and first king of Jerusalem; and the words are these: "Godfrey, that brilliant mir- ror of Christian nobility, in whom, as in a splendid ceiling, the lustre of every virtue was reflected." A most interesting document would a catalogue of the furniture of this palace of Westminster be, not merely to the antiquary but to the general reader. From incidental notices we learn, that Henry possessed immense wealth, and that in his court, on all occasions, he displayed unusual magni- cence. Suger, who, as chancellor to the king of France, must have been well accustomed to royal magnificence, records with astonishment the splen- dour of the drinking vessels used at the king of England's table, for they were golden cups richly studded with gems; and in the chronicler's descrip- tion of the dresses of Beauclerc's attendant courtiers, gold and silver, furs and silks, pearls and jewels, actually blaze upon his pages. Although our materials for description of the palace at Westminster are so scanty, we can form a tolerably minute picture of St. Peter's Minster, as MAUDE. 33 finished by the Confessor. From that early day when monastic fraud first dictated the gainful legend of the rude timber church of Thorney Island, the appearance of St. Peter to the toiling and disap- pointed fisherman, the words of consecration pro- nounced by the chief of the Apostles himself, amid the blaze of celestial light, and the hallelujahs of the heavenly choir, each succeeding monarch vied with his predecessors in the gifts or immunities granted to this favoured abbey. Right willingly, too, did the fishermen, in full assurance of St. Peter's pro- mise, through many centuries offer their tithe of salmon ;* and right proudly did the monks remind each successive bishop of London of the express assertion of the chief Apostle, that his church should be free from all episcopal jurisdiction. But the patron whose munificence threw that of all preced- ing monarchs into the shade, was the Confessor, who not merely added largely to its already large endowments, and granted a charter which ren- dered its inmates almost an "imperium in imperio," but caused, as almost the last act of his life, the old church to be taken down, and a new one erected on its site. This church, to superintend whose con- struction the most skilful masons were summoned from Normandy, "was the first," says Malmsbury, “erected after that kind of style, which now (1110) all attempt to rival at enormous expense." Camb- This tithe of salmon was paid nearly down to the period of the dis- solution. Sporley mentions that, in 1382, he saw a large fish presented by four fishermen on the high altar. He says also, that the fisherman might demand for it bread and ale of the cellarer, and that he had also a right to sit at the prior's own table.-(Vide Monasticou, vol. i.) D 34 MAUDE. den, from a manuscript of the period, gives the fol- lowing description of it: "The principal nave stood on lofty arches of hewn stone, jointed in the nicest manner, and the vault was covered with a strong double arched roof of stone on both sides. The cross, which embraced the choir, and by its transept supported a high tower in the middle, rose first with a low strong arch, and then swelled out with several winding staircases, to the single wall up to the wooden roof which was carefully covered with lead." This description re- markably coincides with the appearance of this church in the Bayeux tapestry; and if, as seems to be the opinion of the best antiquaries, it is the work of Saxon embroiderers, we may consider it to be an accurate representation. In this tapestry the "lofty arches of hewn stone" are raised on tall pillars, while a range of circular-headed windows are placed above them; the principal doorway is very lofty, and, judging even from this rude picture, the church, as finished by the Confessor, must have appeared to the wondering Saxon a most stately and splendid Not long had the devout king to rejoice in the completion of his work; he fell ill on the Christmas-day; the consecration was fixed for the day after, and, though rapidly sinking, he attended the service; but prayer, and relic, and holy water, were useless-the aid of the chief Apostle was im- plored in vain-Edward closed his eyes on the 5th of January, and the following day saw him consigned to his tomb in the splendid church at whose dedica- tion he had so lately assisted. structure. MAUDE. 35 دو The Norman conquest brought no curtailment of immunities, or diminution of revenue to the monks of Westminster. William, who strictly kept his first promise—“ Paix a Sainct Yglise seems to have regarded the abbey-church of Westminster with peculiar marks of favour. At his first entrance he offered a rich pall on St. Peter's altar and fifty marks of silver, two palls on the place of king Ed- ward's burial (doubtless in gratitude for that royal legacy-a kingdom), and two marks of gold and two palls on the high altar. He also caused himself to be crowned there, granted an additional charter to the convent, and constructed a splendid tomb "of gold and silver," says Malmsbury, to the memory of the Confessor's wife, the fair and learned Editha. Such was the church, whither, surrounded by the great officers of state, Maude was led to receive the crown of England; and around her stood many a prelate and noble of wide renown in that day. An- selm, the primate, the illustrious successor of Lan- franc,-he who, like his teacher, in early life quitted his native Italy, to become a dweller in the lowly abbey of Bec; who successively became its prior and abbot, and then primate of England ;—he, the great theological champion at the council of Barr, whose metaphysical acuteness, and whose zeal for the or- thodox faith, alike astonished the pope and the Greek delegates, and preserved the Latin church from the inroads of the Arian heresy ;* but who, in * The subject of dispute was "the procession of the Holy Ghost." St. Anselm's works are very numerous, and, from their forgotten stores, many D 2 36 MAUDE. his old age, was compelled to quit his cherished studies, to contend alike against a haughty and unyielding king, and a rude and a factious clergy. And beside him stood a churchman of a widely different character, bishop Roger of Sarum, the king's chancellor, the story of whose introduction to royal favour, is equally characteristic of the man and of the times. At the period when Henry was serv- ing under his brother William, with a band of mer- cenaries, they entered a church near Caen, and requested the priest to say a mass as quickly as pos- sible. This priest was Roger, who promptly com- plied with their request, and hurried over the service in so laudable a manner that they unanimously declared that it would be impossible to find a priest more suitable for a soldier's chaplain : "And there- fore," says William of Newborough, "when the royal youth said, 'Follow me!' he adhered as closely as Peter to his heavenly Lord; save that Peter left his vessel to follow the King of kings, while Roger, quitting his church to be chaplain to the prince, became but a blind leader of the blind." In his new office, Roger acquitted himself so well that Henry, on his accession, advanced him to the chancellorship, and to the see of Sarum. His last years afforded a strong proof of the versatility of fortune. After munificently expending immense sums on his cathe- dral at Old Sarum, and upon the rebuilding of an opinion has been derived, which modern writers have brought forth as their own. Ilis metaphysical works, which are many, are considered by competent judges to display great acuteness; while his devotional works possess that character of deep and sincere devotion, which would render a selection from them a valuable boon to the religious world. MAUDE. 37 Malmsbury abbey (which noble church still presents so fine a specimen of the Norman style), and seeing two nephews bishops of Lincoln and Ely, he fell, upon the accession of Stephen, into deep disgrace. "In one day," says Malmsbury, "he saw his most dearly beloved knight slain before his eyes; on the next day he was compelled to flee; one nephew was detained, the other bound in chains, and his castles and treasures all given up ;" and when, in his last illness, he was allowed to retire to Sarum, even his expiring moments were disturbed by plundering foe- men, who carried away the remaining money and jewels which he possessed, and which he had dedi- cated to the completion of his cathedral, even from the high altar, where, vainly trusting to the devo- tional feeling of these fierce soldiers, he had for security placed them. Only one other prelate of this period claims our notice; this is Gundulph, bishop of Rochester, that celebrated architect to whom the construction of the keep of the Tower has been assigned. This prelate, also a Norman, was high in favour with the Conqueror, and was employed by him to erect several castles. His architectural talents were, however, equally dis- played in ecclesiastical buildings; and he is eulogized by contemporary historians for the splendid cathedral which he built at Rochester, and for the many noble churches which he erected throughout his diocese. Of the principal nobles of England and Nor- mandy, not many, perhaps, were present: some were in the land of the East, beneath the banner of the chivalrous Robert; while others remained at 38 MAUDE. their respective castles, sullenly preparing to assert the brother's right to the usurped throne, or to throw off the yoke, alike of Henry or Robert, that they might reign in undisputed sovereignty over their small bands of vassals. Among the nobles who adhered to Henry, from that evening that wit- nessed the death of the Red King, were some, how- ever, distinguished alike for their large possessions, and for their military and statesmanlike skill. There was Roger de Bigod, the bold Norman adventurer, who won his broad lands in Norfolk and Suffolk by his own good sword; who, devoted in his attach- ment to the Conqueror, was equally devoted to his favourite son, but who, old as he then was, in- tended to have braced on his harness and set out for Palestine. Either from increasing infirmity or the dissuasion of his friends, he gave up this intention, and, according to the custom of those days, com- muted his vow by applying the money it would have cost him toward building and endowing the monas- tery of Thetford, where soon after he was laid. Another devoted friend of Henry was the wealthy and powerful earl of Chester, lord of the Welch marches, and appropriately designated Hugh Lupus, who seems to have been the beau ideal of the turbulent, profligate, and ferocious feudal lord. "He was not only abundantly liberal,” says Ordericus Vitalis, "but profusely prodigal; and carried not a family, but an army with him from place to place. He took no account of receipts or disbursements, but daily wasted his estates; delighting more in falconers and huntsmen, than in tillers of the land MAUDE. 39 or heaven's ministers." Unlike his more refined fellow nobles, Hugh the Wolf was addicted to enormous gluttony; and thus, notwithstanding his stirring life, grew so unwieldy, that he could scarcely be lifted upon his horse. The Welch gave him the scoffing title of Hugh the Fat. The enraged Lord Marcher determined to show them that he still had equal right to that of the Wolf, and mounting his war-steed, with a band of fierce vassals he crossed the marches, carrying fire, sword, and desolation where- ever he went. In the midst of all this, Hugh Lupus, now an old man, fell grievously ill; and then he sent a piteous message to Anselm to come and see him. What success followed the worthy Archbishop's exhortations the chroniclers have not informed us; but the richly endowed monastery of St. Werburgh, in the city of Chester, stood for many ages a memorial of Hugh Lupus's grievous illness, and of gratitude for his restoration to health.* But the nobleman who, beyond all others, pos- sessed the king's confidence, and who, from his age, high station, experience, and superior talents, well deserved so, was the celebrated Robert de Meulan, or earl of Mellent. This celebrated man, (of whom Henry of Huntingdon says, "he was in worldly affairs the wisest man between England and Jeru- salem, and of such great power, that he made the kings of France and England friends or foes at his pleasure,") was the son of Roger de Bellamont, Lord of Pont-Audomare. He succeeded his uncle in the carldom of Meulan, and at the battle of Hastings * Vide Ormerod's Cheshire. 40 MAUDE. signalized himself "by charging and breaking in upon the enemy with the force which he commanded. For this effective service he became a large sharer in the spoils with which William rewarded his valiant followers: he possessed sixty-four manors in Lei- cestershire, sixty-four in Warwickshire, besides others in various counties. He seems to have displayed all the haughtiness and overbearing spirit which have been considered characteristic of these great feudal lords. "If displeased with any man," says Henry of Huntingdon, "he forced him to be submissive; if pleased, he advanced him as he chose." In the reign of the Red King he went to Rouen, and de- manded of duke Robert the castle of Ivery. The duke answered, that he had exchanged with his father the castle of Brien for it, which was fully equivalent; but the fierce lord of Meulan replied, "I allow not the bargain; what your father gave my father that will I have." Words grew high, and duke Robert caused him to be imprisoned. He was however soon released, his father paying largely; and this was, probably, the reason of his firm ad- herence to Beauclerc, and the eagerness with which he pursued the war against Robert in Normandy. In 1107 Henry bestowed on his favourite counsellor that splendid fief, the vacant earldom of Liecester. In the government of the borough of this lordship, Robert de Meulan seems to have conducted himself with great moderation: he conceded many privi- leges to the burgesses, one especially of great im- portance; it was, that all pleas should be discussed and decided by a jury of twenty-four townsmen. MAUDE. 41 For this right the burgesses of Leicester agreed to pay him a penny a year for every house in the High Street which had a gabel; the payment therefore re- ceived the name of gavel pence. This record seems strongly to corroborate the statement which we meet in many ancient writers, relative to the great supe- riority of Leicester, both in size and wealth, as compared with most other towns during the middle ages; the High Street must have been long indeed, and the gabel-roofed houses most numerous, to afford a sufficient number of pence, to have paid a price at all equivalent to so important a boon. This rich, and powerful, and influential earl, ex- emplified in his last years the precept of the ancient philosopher, "to call no man happy until his death." He had married Isabel, daughter of Hugh count of Vermandois, a noble who, for his prowess in the crusades, obtained the title of "Great." This lady, who it seems was considerably younger than himself, left him for another, who is supposed to have been the earl of Warren, whom, on her hus- band's death, she married. The faithlessness of this beloved wife caused him in his old age so much sorrow, that he fled to that usual asylum of the worn-out warrior and disappointed man, the cloister. The haughty earl of Mellent and Leicester took the cowl in the abbey of Preux in Normandy, where, in 1118, he died. A favourable estimate of the morals of the female nobility in those days, may be formed from the manner in which the monkish chroniclers relate the faithlessness of Isabel of Vermandois. In their 42 MAUDE. 22 • pages we meet with no parallel instance, and they seem to view her conduct with an indignant wonder, which speaks highly for the general morality of the times. Such were the chief personages, both in Church and State, that assembled around Maude on her day of coronation; and not without feelings acutely painful must she have gazed on that splendid com- pany, as the recollection arose to her mind, that, without one single exception, all were foreigners. --Among the ranks of the black monks of West- minster, among the inferior attendants of the haughty Norman barons, some countryman might find a place; and from among the rude crowd that pressed around to gaze on the gorgeous ceremony, some whisper in that tongue so sweet, because the language of her infancy, might greet her ear; but well did she know, that, within the precincts of her splendid court, she would sit the solitary daughter of a proscribed race, in the midst of those to whom the name and the language of England were alike a scorn and a mockery. What would have been the exultation of the Saxon queen, could some supernatural hand have lifted the veil of futurity, and shewn her the illus- trious descendants of those very Normans proudly boasting the name of Englishman; and could some prophetic voice have whispered in her ear, that that very language, in all its essential elements, should become the vernacular tongue of one-third of the civilized world. MAUDE. 43 CHAPTER III. Maude's Patronage of Literature-Minstrelsy; Norman, Saxon, Breton -Her Charitable Foundations-St. Giles in the Fields-Priory of the Holy Trinity at Aldgate-Other Foundations-Nunnery of Clerken- well-Commandery of St. John-General Remarks on these Establish- ments-Death of Maude. FROM the concurrent testimony of historians, and more especially from the pages of her contempo- rary Malmsbury, we learn that the literary tastes of Maude had ample scope for their gratification in the comparatively intellectual court of Beauclerc. This monarch (who is said to have received his education at Cambridge, and who is also said to have found in the cultivation of letters a delightful solace under the many insults and privations to which his position of youngest brother exposed him,) from the period of his accession to the throne to his death was dis- tinguished as the munificent patron of literary men. And well suited to sympathize with him, in this the most laudable of his tastes, was the Saxon prin- cess. "At all times," says Malmsbury, "crowds of visitants and disours" (I use the Norman term, because the strict English translation, "tale- bearers," gives altogether an incorrect notion,) "were in endless multitudes entering and depart- ing from her superb dwelling" (Westminster); “for this the king's liberality commanded, and her own kindness and affability attracted. She had also a singular pleasure in hearing the service of God, 1 44 MAUDE. amply rewarding those clerks who sang well. Her generosity becoming universally known, crowds of scholars, equally famed for verse and singing, came over; and happy did he account himself who could sooth the ears of the queen by the novelty of his song.' In the present day the picture of a queen amusing herself by listening to the songs of wandering min strels, and seeking eagerly after the simple gratifi- cation of a new lay, may appear homely indeed; but to those who know how far more impressive is oral delivery than any form of printing or writing, -how the living, breathing words come home to the feelings with an emphasis and potency unknown to the pen or to letter-press-they will feel that Queen Maude, as surrounded by her attendant maidens she sate within her splendid palace listening with untired delight to the long tale or wire-drawn allegory, experienced more intense gratification than does the modern patroness of letters, as she list- lessly turns over the page "coleur de rose," graced with the most delicate specimens of fashionable pen- manship. "It is the first and natural privilege of oral delivery" (I gladly press into service the excel.. lent remarks of a late admirable female writer,* when mentioning the powerful effects produced by a wandering improvisatore,)" to lay a stronger hold on the memory than manuscript or printed poems. How greatly have the retentive faculties of nations, as well as individuals, declined, since the invention of printing; and how much is it to be feared that the increasing mass of printed works will even- *The Author of " Rome in the 19th Century: MAUDE, 45 tually sacrifice the end to the means, and crush under its weight the very learning it was intended to assist and preserve.” These remarks naturally lead our attention to that very interesting subject, minstrelsy. Among all the nations of Scandinavian origin, the wandering poet who sang the lays he had himself composed in the courts of the great, and in the public assemblies of the people, was received with an admiring homage yielded to no other class of men. He was an ever- welcome guest in the courts of princes; and, in the words of that wandering bard whose curious song has been handed down to us through twelve cen- turies, could sing : Weary and long has been my way; But I full well, where mead flows free, May boast amid my minstrelsy, And tell how kings, with ample fee, Have paid and cheered the wanderer's lay. And the largess which he received well shewed the estimation in which he was held; for mantles, armour, palfreys, even that ornament exclusively belonging to men of noble birth, "bracelets of the good red gold," were the rewards of successful min- strelsy. Among the Saxon monarchs, this order of men re- ceived liberal patronage; and among the remains of our Saxon literature, many poems are to be found which were sung by the wandering minstrel. Among the dukes of Normandy, too, that love of song, an * Vide "Song of the Traveller," in the late Mr. Conybeare's interest- ing "Illustrations of Saxon Poetry." 46 MAUDE. inheritance no less than that martial and enterpriz- ing spirit bequeathed to them by their fathers, the indomitable Vikingr always found an abode. Duke Richard the First greatly patronized jongleurs and minstrels, and is said to have composed poems him- self; while in succeeding years, among many now forgotten names, we meet with Thibaut de Vernon, who translated some of the lives of the saints into Norman-French verse; Guillaume de Bapaume, who composed a metrical life of St. William of Orange, (which life having become very popular, and the wandering minstrels having altered many facts, Ordericus Vitalis informs us that he re- stored the original reading "after a manuscript of Antony of Winchester"); and the anonymous author of a rude but curious work, still extant, which de- scribes the voyage of Charlemagne to Jerusalem, and which may claim to be the first rough model of the romance of chivalry. When Duke William arrived in England, his minstrel came with him—that Tail- lefer who, on a good steed and bearing the lance and the sword of the vassal of noble birth, Before the duke rode, singing loud Of Charlemagne, and Roland good, And Olivier, and those vassals Who fought and fell at Rouncevals *:" Both Gaimar and Wace represent him as having fallen in the battle; and we have no notice of any other minstrel belonging to the court of our first William, except one "Berdic," who is described in "Le Roman du Rou," par M. Wace. MAUDE. 47 Domesday book as enjoying an estate in Gloucester- shire rent free. From the term used "joculator regis," which seems rather to refer to the Saxon term for minstrel, "gleeman," as well as from his name, it is not improbable that Berdic might have been a Saxon. Tail- That Norman minstrels flocked to the court of Beau- clerc, even at this early period, cannot be doubted; al- though it was to the patronage of his second queen that these trouvères, whose curious poems still remain, exclusively refer. At this period, indeed, the dis- tinction, soon afterwards made between the jong- leur and the trouvère, seems to have existed. lefer performed feats of manual dexterity, accord- ing to Gaimar, even on the field of Hastings; and it seems probable that of a similar class, uniting the professions of juggler and minstrel, was the celebrat- ed Rahere, who giving up his worldly calling, took the monastic habit during this reign, and founded those two noble establishments, the priory of St. Bartholomew the Great, beside Smithfield, and its adjoining hospital. But Beauclerc himself is be- lieved to have composed a poem in French verse. This is a collection of rules for regulating the conduct, a kind of Chesterfield in rhyme, and which bears the title of "Urbanus" in some manuscripts, and of "Le dictie d'Urbain" in others. Except as a literary curiosity, it possesses no merit, and as, unlike most other poems of that early day, the author has not attached his name, but it is first mentioned as Beauclerc's by an anonymous Latin poet of the 48 MAUDE. 12th or 13th century, it may probably have been written by some trouvère at his court.* But minstrels of other lands doubtless also found a home and a liberal reward in the court of the Saxon queen. The troubadour of Provence, just beginning to bask in the smiles of princes, might sing in more polished numbers that profuse gene- rosity which, in the opinion of Malmsbury, formed the only blemish of Maude's otherwise spotless cha- racter. And thither, too, the Breton minstrel might wend, telling those tales of faerie, which in after times made the very name of " Breton lay" famous throughout the land, unconscious that at that very time the bards of Wales were singing the self-same lays in an almost unaltered tongue. Nor can we believe that, while on foreign minstrels patronage was profusely lavished, no "gleeman," with his store of tales and legends, (tales to which she had doubtless listened in her father's court, and in the quiet abbey of Romsey,) crossed the threshold of the magnificent palace of Westminster, to proffer his song and his homage to the Saxon queen. Scorned and rejected as was the vernacular tongue by the haughty baron and his followers, and by the learned clerk, it still was the language of the nation ; nor did Beauclerc himself scorn to use it. The charter of confirmation addressed by him to Anselm's successor is both in the Saxon tongue, and the Saxon character; and he is represented, by testimony * Vide Abbe de la Rue's Work on the Trouvères. + Warton, vol. i. MAUDE. 49 too strong to be disbelieved, to have translated the Latin version of Æsop into that despised tongue. And unabashed might the "gleeman" take his place beside the foreign minstrel; for he brought with him spirited odes, ingenious allegories, and long poems, so perfect in the structure of their fable, and so judi- cious in their development of plot and character, as to approach nearer to the form of epic than any other poems of the day. That spirited ode on the battle of Brunaburgh, that wild and highly poetical Song of the Soul," and that noble poem (almost an epic) "Beowulf," might be listened to with proud exultation by the daughter of Saxon race.* CC : But scholars as well as minstrels enjoyed the pa- tronage of Maude; "learned clerks" are expressly mentioned as the objects of her bounty. To her, Hildebert, the learned bishop of Mans, addressed several Latin poems; an evident proof that she could understand them and Henry of Huntingdon cele- brates her praise in a way that renders it not impro- bable that he partook of her liberality. But it was not her liberal patronage of the wandering minstrel, nor her profuse munificence to clerks and scholars, that gained the Saxon queen that epithet with which her name is always associated, "the good queen Maude; " but that general kindliness of feeling which seems to have rendered her the idol of her de. pendants, that extensive almsgiving, and that strict and willing submission to all those duties, which reli- gion, and not infrequently superstition, enjoined. * All these are in Conybeare's Illustrations. E 50 MAUDE. * When we read that duly each Lent, wearing sackcloth beneath her royal garments, she, bare- footed, trod the thresholds of the churches, we feel inclined to view her but as one of that numerous class of devotees, who have considered mortification in this life, a sure passport to felicity in the world to come. When, however, we read of her charity to the prisoner, the destitute, the maimed, and the leper; of the humility which dressed their wounds, and superintended their table, we perceive that the superstitious observances are attributable but to the age, while the conscientious feeling and sincere devotion were her own. To numerous religious houses, especially those devoted to females, queen Maude was a liberal and active patroness. The nunnery at Stratford, an establishment which for many generations was cele- brated as a school, was frequently visited by her; and the first stone bridge erected in this country is said to have been built by her direction at Bow, in con- sequence of the difficulty she on one occasion found in passing the river Lea † during winter. To the ancient and noble abbey of Barking-that convent whose abbess took precedence of every abbess in the kingdom, and whose crosier was first wielded by St. Ethelburga-queen Maude was peculiarly attached; she added largely to its already large endowments, diligently superintended its affairs, and, on the death of its abbess Elfgiva, took for some time its govern- ment into her own hands. To the monks of West- minster, and to the conventual establishments of + Stowe. * Vide Malmsbury. 1 MAUDE. 51 * London, she was also a liberal benefactress; while the hospital of St. Giles in the Fields, and the priory of the Holy Trinity at Aldgate, remained, for many centuries, monuments of her munificent bounty. The hospital of St. Giles was founded by the queen soon after her marriage. It was by the ori- ginal charter endowed for the maintenance of forty lepers, one chaplain, and one messenger; to which were afterwards added a number of healthful brothers and sisters to take charge of the sick. A large plot of ground was selected, and a church, a hospital, and numerous offices erected; and as the original endowment was only "£3. per annum from the customs of the ripa reginæ, usually called Edreds- hithe," it is supposed that the deficiency was made up by the inmates being permitted every market-day to go to the market with a clap-dish (a wooden dish with a moveable cover, which, during the middle ages, was borne by every class that wished to excite attention to their wants), and there beg corn. Sub- sequently, leprosy having been discovered to be very contagious, lepers were prohibited from going abroad; they were therefore permitted to send a messenger once a-month with a box to the churches and chapels of religious houses, during divine service, to receive gifts and alms from the congregation.* It is not improbable that this hospital of St. Giles was the first establishment of the kind in this kingdom, since, of all the numerous houses for lepers which the charity of this age erected, none date so early. Tra- dition has recorded, and Stowe has adopted, the Vide Parton's "History of St. Giles in the Fields." E 2 52 MAUDE. opinion, that on the site of St. James's palace a hospital for female lepers stood even before the con- quest; but in the absence of direct testimony, this is very questionable; for the introduction of this terrible scourge of the middle ages, has been always assigned by the most competent historians to that era of pilgrimages to Jerusalem-the latter half of the 11th century. Certain is it and it affords a strong corroboration that this loathsome disease was imported from Palestine that all the hospitals throughout the kingdom, for the reception and cure of lepers, were founded during the twelfth cen- tury. In subsequent times the superintendence of all these hospitals was committed to the master and brethren of Burton-Lazars, in Leicestershire; and a system of regular visitation and controul, similar to that exercised by the superiors of the various reli- gious confraternities, was rigidly established. If, in reflecting on the habits and customs of our forefathers, and contrasting many of their rude ar- rangements with the more refined and artificial regulations of modern times, a feeling of undue exultation should arise in our minds, we should do well to mark the sound judgment that superintended the internal management of their hospitals, and the kindly feeling that watched over the inmates. This seems especially the case in respect to the establish- ment of their lazar-houses. There, the leper, cut off by law from all intercourse with general society, felt not himself a precarious dependant on casual benevolence, nor a being whose very existence was a burthen on the community. He was not thrust MAUDE. 53 into some general receptacle of human misery, where his scanty meal was grudgingly and contemptuously doled out; but hospitals of noble and even royal foundation-asylums partaking the dignity and hal- lowed character of monastic establishments-opened their doors expressly to receive him; and there, in the society of his brethren in calamity, exposed to no privation, subjected to no restraints save those of the conventual rule, he might lead his monoto- nous but not unhappy life, and, engaged in the often recurring services of religion, find a solace for the present, and comfort and hope for the time to come. The hospital of St. Giles received, during this and the following centuries, numerous rich and im- portant endowments. Henry the second granted it a charter, and gave an additional £3 per annum to buy its inmates a regular habit. It was at the great gate of this establishment that, towards the close of the 14th century, when the gallows were removed from the Elms to "the north land of the wall belonging to the hospital," that that singular custom was ob- served, the presenting to the criminals, on their way to execution, a large bowl of ale, termed the "St. Giles's bowl." The other establishment which owes its founda- tion to queen Maude, was the priory of the Holy Trinity, for canons of the order of St. Augustine, and which was situated just withinside Aldgate. From Maude's charter, which dates 1108, we learn that it was founded at the instance of archbishop Anselm and Richard de Belmeis, the new and ac- 54 MAUDE, tive bishop of London. She states that she endows. it, with "the gate of Aldgate, with the soc* belong- ing to the same, which was my lordship, and two parts of the revenue of the city of Exeter; and I command that the said canons hold their lands, and all belonging to their church, well and peaceably, honourably and freely." This priory was exempted from all jurisdiction excepting "to the church of St. Paul and the bishop," and became in a few years so popular with the citizens, that gifts and endowments flowed abundantly into its treasury; while, in 1125, "certain burgesses gave unto the church and canons," says Stowe, "all the lands and soc belong- ing to Knighten Guild," now Portsoken. The re- sult of this liberal endowment was, that the prior of Holy Trinity became alderman of that ward; and from that time to the reformation, he "sat in court, and wente with the mayor, clothed in scarlette;"‡ it is, however, added (for the cut of the habit was very important in these times), "saving that the habit was in shape of a spiritual person." The example of the queen seems to have been willingly followed by many of the noble and wealthy, and numerous were the hospitals and religious esta- blishments erected during her reign. Among these, in addition to those already mentioned, may be added. the names of Cirencester, Hyde, and subsequently Reading, all founded by the king, who, although never remarkable for devotional feeling, seems to have found himself obliged, in compliance with the + Vide Monasticon. ↑ Stowe. * Stowe. MAUDE. 55 general taste of the times, to found and endow reli- gious houses. Godstowe, also, afterwards a cele- brated nunnery, was founded about this time. But among those most distinguished for the splen- dor of their foundations, Jordein Brisset, and Muriel his wife, must not be passed over; for to their mu- nificence the northern suburbs of London owed two of their noblest structures. These were the house of the knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and the priory, dedicated to "our Lady and St. James," of the nuns of Clerkenwell. Of this nunnery, which, placed on a command- ing eminence, looked over the north-west portion of London, while it was sheltered to the north-east by the wide forest of Middlesex, little need be said; save that it was not merely endowed by the founder and his wife, who took up their last abode in the church, but by their two daughters; nor was the patronage of monarchs wanting; for Malcolm, king of Scotland and brother to the queen, bestowed on it "seven-score acres of land, a grant of firewood, and pannage for ten hogs at Hangre, near Totten- ham." But the other foundation claims more en- larged notice, since it became the principal establish- ment of this kingdom, of an order that ultimately, as knights of St. John, of Rhodes, and of Malta, "continued to be, for seven centuries, the sword and buckler of Christendom in the Paynim war." Among the many and singular characteristics of the middle ages-characteristics which present so much that is picturesque-those institutions which combined the functions of the priest and the war- 56 MAUDE. rior, and spread over the surcoat of the knight the scapular of the monk, seem most striking. Of these, three, from the celebrity of their members, and their widely spread influence, were pre-emi- nent-the Hospitallers, the Templars, and the Teutonic knights. To the earliest formed of these warrior confraternities, the largest date of political existence was allowed; and the knight of St. John could trace the history of his order, from the year 1050, (when the two small hospitals at Jerusalem, for the reception and succour of Christian pilgrims, were placed under the patronage of St. John the Almoner,) even to the close of the 18th century. Up to the period of the first crusade, the idea of grasping the lance, and unfurling the banner of the White cross, seems never to have occurred to the humble and self-denying brethren of the hospital. In feeding the stranger, re-clothing the naked, tend- ing the sick, consoling the dying, and burying with Christian rites those pilgrims who were to lay their bones in the far-off land of Palestine, their lives were past; nor, until Raymond du Puis "formed the chivalrous project of combining the duties of the monk with those of the soldier, by giving a martial constitution to the establishment," did a dream of power and glory arise to their minds. Previously to their recognition as a military order, Pope Paschal II. had taken the brethren of the hospital under his especial protection, exempting their property from tithes, and conferring on them the privilege of electing their superior, independently of all ecclesiastical or secular jurisdiction. It seems MAUDE. 57 to have been about this period, that delegates from that order arrived in England, where they were received with great respect; Jordein Brisset provid- ing them a house, and adding a rich endowment of lands, and many others following his example. The name of the first master of the Commandery (for so the establishments of the Hospitallers were called) was Gerard de Neapoli; and it is probable that, in the first instance, the brethren as well as the master were all foreigners. These warrior monks, for priests they never were, were divided into three classes, or bands, all differ- ing in birth, rank, and profession. The first class consisted of men of Patrician ancestry and high mili- tary station; the second of priests; and the third of serving brothers. The first class, or knights of justice, were appointed to bear arms, and monopo- lized the dignities of the order. The priests or chaplains performed the offices of religion, both in church and camp, and ministered in the hospital to the sick and destitute. The serjens, or half knights, served either in the field or in the infir- mary, as was required; and, in after-times, they contributed greatly to enhance the glory and power of the order. No_candidate could be received into the first class unless he were of noble extraction; but it was not required of the priests, or serving brothers, to produce proofs of gentilitial descent. The latter, however, enjoyed many honourable pri- vileges in common with the knights; and when their utility became better known, a certain number of Commanderies were especially reserved for them. 58 MAUDE. At his profession each brother took the usual monkish vows of chastity, obedience, and poverty; and the knights farther solemnly engaged to ad- vance the true faith, and defend with their swords the Christian name. Their peculiar dress was a black robe, worn above the mail, with a white cross of eight points fastened on the left breast, and their banner bore the same cross upon a red field. Al- though England never had the honour of seeing a grand master of the order elected from among her knight-hospitallers, yet they were for many cen- turies a powerful and influential body; their estates. were numerous, their establishment at Clerkenwell vied in extent and magnificence with the royal palaces, and the grand prior took his seat in the upper house of parliament. Such were the principal religious foundations which had their origin in the reign of Maude, whose example not improbably stimulated many of her court to imitation, since, during the earlier half of this century, an almost incredible number of con- vents were founded. Whatever objections have been raised against mo- nastic establishments, their claim of having carefully preserved all the learning which the age possessed, is allowed even by their most bitter impugners; while the general benefit they conferred on their immediate neighbourhoods, by the acknowledged superiority of their agriculture, and by the exten- sive aid afforded to the lower classes, are proved, not merely by the testimony of contemporaries, but by the imperative establishment of a system of poor MAUDE. 59 laws, within a short period after the suppression of the monasteries. During these ages, when society was unsettled, and governments liable to constant change, it was only by placing charitable endow ments under the broad shield of ecclesiastical pro- tection, that they could be secured to their original purposes. The baron, whose power none might resist, shrank from laying violent hands on the property of the swordless, unpanoplied church; and he paused, ere he crossed the slight boundary that separated the fertile abbey lands from the wild wastes around, lest a higher power should avenge the wrong. And best suited to the duties required of them, were the monastic orders. The sole depositaries of the learning of the age, to whom could the educa- tion of youth with more propriety be committed? The possessors of almost all the medical skill of the day, to whom could the superintendence of the hos- pital be more fitly entrusted? and where could the traveller or the pilgrim, find so safe a lodging place, or, if need were, a secure and permanent retreat, as within those hallowed walls, which, while the castle might be razed to the ground, and the town itself become a heap of ruins, would stand un- touched, protected by the respect of a superstitious, but yet religious and grateful people. Even in the present day, to the philosopher devoted to his absorbing pursuits; to the aged and solitary man of letters; to the lady, high-born, perchance, but thrust by adverse fortunes from the sphere in which she was destined to move, the abbey, with its no- ble halls, its pleasant cloisters, and its quiet cells, 60 MAUDE. may still appear a vision of peace and repose, on which the mind will linger with feelings of unavail- ing regret. * As it is not intended in this work to encroach upon the province of general history, except in reference to those political events in which the influence of the queen consort may be traced, the state of public affairs, during this period, will require but a short notice. In contests with his archbishop Anselm, respecting the rights of investiture, and with his gallant brother, for the sovereignty of Normandy; in reducing his refractory nobles, and in framing laws which, though characterized by great severity, were perhaps on the whole beneficial, the first years. of Beauclerc's reign was past. But with affairs of state, either directly or indirectly, Maude seems never to have interfered: happy for Beauclerc's conscience, and better for his fame, had her gentle influence, after the decisive battle of Tenchebrai, induced him to have dealt less harshly with his chivalrous brother, and less cruelly toward his hapless cousin Moretoil. But, unlike her mother, Maude was neither the cherished wife, nor the be- loved and respected adviser; and, while from the pages of every chronicler we learn that to the end of her short life all the wealth and honours of royalty were lavishly bestowed on her, we find not the slightest hint that Henry loved her while living, or mourned her when dead. This distaste of Beau- clerc to the society of his queen, is thus clearly, *The reader will bear in mind that these latter remarks have no re- ference to the peculiar religious duties of the monastic orders. MAUDE. 61 though in courtly phrase, alluded to by Malms- bury. After stating, that during the greater part of her reign she resided at Westminster, occupied in deeds of charity and devotion, he continues: "She there remained many years, enduring with compla- cency, when the king was elsewhere employed during the absence of the court; yet was no portion of royal munificence denied her, for so the king's liberality commanded:" a remark which evidently places Maude in the character of a neglected wife. Nor is this surprising, when we call to mind the strict conventual education, and the strong religious feeling of the Saxon princess, and contrast with them the licentious habits, and the fierce and un- scrupulous conduct of Beauclerc. The importance of conciliating his Saxon subjects alone, as we have seen, induced him to form this alliance; and when we learn from Malmsbury, the only chronicler who refers to her personal appearance, that Maude was "not despicable in point of beauty," so cold a re- mark from so courtly an historian, emphatically proves that her claim to personal attraction was in- deed small, and this affords another reason for the neglect of the beauty-loving monarch. That point of state policy, the union of the Saxon and Nor- man lines, having been effected, Beauclerc seems to have left a wife (for whose virtues he felt no admira- tion, and who to beauty could advance no claim,) to pursue her own quiet pleasures, while he, in the so- ciety of his gayer and fairer mistresses, led his splendid court from city to city, or passed over to Normandy, 62 MAUDE. where, on one occasion, he and his court sojourned for more than two years. But not many years of existence were destined for the "good queen Maude." Amid her devotional services, her charitable efforts, and her liberal pa- tronage of letters, "she was snatched away," says Malmsbury, "to the great loss of the people, but her own great advantage." Of the cause of her death, or of the circumstances attending it, no chronicle has left any information. Malmsbury, whose account of her is far more copious than that of any other writer, merely states that "she died willingly, leaving the throne, after a reign of seven- teen years and six months, experiencing the fate of her family, who almost all died in the flower of their age.* In the month of May, 1118, Maude departed, leaving two children-William the Adeling, and Maude, who in 1110, at the tender age of six years, was sent to Germany, where she became the bride of the emperor Henry the Fifth. Whether Beauclerc paid his queen the last empty honour of attendance at her funeral, is not known ;† her obsequies were, however, "splendidly celebrated at Westminster ;" and a noble tomb (for which the London citizens yearly provided a pall, together with oil to burn before the sepulchre of the queen,” ‡ a tribute of respect doubtless from Saxon London to the Saxon princess,) was subequently * She probably died of consumption, since two of her brothers fell victims to that disease. + Probably he did not; Dr. Lingard considers him to have been absent in Normandy from 1116 to the close of 1119. ‡ Vide Pipe Roll 31st Henry I. MAUDE. 63 raised to her memory; but of it no vestige re- mains. The rude tomb, ascribed by tradition to its founder, still meets the eye; the shrine, once blaz- ing with gems and gold, which incloses the remains of the canonized Confessor, still is pointed out to the passer-by; but in that proud receptacle of royal ashes, no sculptured memorial, not even a stone, marks the spot where the remains of the last Saxon princess repose. Yet her memory is not forgotten; for, while every other queen is remembered but by her baptismal name, or at most by the superadded title of her house, the first wife of Beauclerc, alone, is handed down to us, with the affectionate and honourable appellation of the "Good Queen Maude.” ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. CHAPTER IV. The wreck of the "White Ship"-Parentage of Adelais-Her Marriage with Henry-Her Literary Taste-Royal Progresses-Feud of the Rival Crosses-Henry's Death-State of the People-Second Mar- riage of Adelais-William de Albini-Her Death. THE death of Maude, although long lamented by the people, and recorded by every historian as a na- tional calamity, produced no political effect; nor did Henry, engaged in active war against France, and in vigilantly superintending the affairs of England and Normandy, evince any inclination to supply her place with a second queen. The following year- the twentieth of his reign-saw him attain his high- est degree of elevation, and probably the height of his wishes. Over England and Normandy he reigned in undisputed sovereignty; with France he had just concluded an honourable peace; his daughter had been crowned with the diadem of the Cæsars; and his son, to whom he had given the duchy of Normandy, had been very advantageously contracted to the daughter of the powerful Fulke, earl of An- jou, the most illustrious of an illustrious race. This young prince (to whom at the age of fourteen the whole nobility of England had done homage, as heir to the crown, at Shrewsbury) was the eldest child of the "good queen Maude," and his reign was an- ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. 65 man. ticipated with exultation both by Saxon and Nor- Many provinces," says Malmsbury, "looked forward to the government of this youth; and it was said that now the hopes of England, like a tree cut down, would, through this boy, blossom and bring forth fruit, and thus put an end to her sufferings; but God saw otherwise, for this illusion vanished into air, as an early day was hastening him to his fate."* But, unconscious of impending calamity, engaged in affairs of state, and in sanctioning by his presence the festivals which graced the nuptials of the youthful pair, Henry protracted his stay in Nor- mandy until the beginning of winter; nor did his numerous fleet quit Barbefleur until the 26th of No- vember, a day long remembered in the annals of almost every noble house in England, for the fatal wreck of the "White ship," in which three of the king's children, and a large number of the first no- bility of the land, found a grave. The royal fleet, which the hapless master of the fatal "White ship" had attempted to overtake, meanwhile arrived safely at Southampton, and anxiously did Henry await the arrival of his son. At length the melancholy tale was confided to Theobald of Blois; but he, though a nephew, not daring to communicate the sad news to the king, whispered it in the court; nor did Beauclerc learn his calamity, until at length a young page, falling * This young prince is, by some of the chroniclers, represented as most haughty and profligate. Considering the character of many of his com- panions, this is not unlikely; but the story of his hatred of the Saxons- Saxon as he was both by birth and maternal descent-seems altogether untrue. F 1 66 ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. before his footstool, told him how in one moment all his long cherished plans had been blighted. The king, overcome, fell senseless on the floor; but, not deserted even in this extremity by his characteristic duplicity, he talked most learnedly, on his recovery, of "chance and change;" and, as though he had of™" been a saint, discoursed on the duty of resignation to God. But such vain shew of submission to the will of Heaven, in one whose whole life had been spent in opposition to its commands, could not deceive his courtiers. They saw his agony in the sickness that refused food until life had almost given way, and in the deepened furrows of that brow over which no smile ever passed for the long period of sixteen years, even until death released him from his sorrow. Two nephews, and three children (Richard, and the countess of Perche, both illegitimate; and William, the heir to the crown), did the king lose; while scarcely a noble family in England, or Normandy, had not to mourn, in the loss of some son or brother, the disastrous wreck of the "White ship." Destitute of a male heir, the king now deter- mined again to marry; and by the advice of Radulph, archbishop of Canterbury, the successor of Anselm, and his chief counsellors, (but more, it is probable, by the fame of her exquisite beauty,) he sent proposals of marriage to Godfrey Barbatus, duke of Louvain, for the hand of his daughter Adelais. Of the date of birth, or particulars of the education and early life of this "fair girl, the chosen lady of the kingdom," no historian has left ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. 67 us any memorial. From the term used by most of the chroniclers, when recording this marriage, it would appear that she was very young; and from the remark of one of them, that Henry married her for beauty, not for aggrandizement, we may well believe that beauty was her only dower. But, although the daughter of a com- paratively petty German prince, Adelais was as nobly allied as the king of England;-her mother Sophia was daughter of the emperor Henry IV. of Germany (to whose son Henry had espoused his only daughter); and Wido, her father's brother, formerly bishop of Vienna, now wore the papal diadem as pope Calixtus. Toward the close of the year 1120, therefore, a numerous retinue, by com- mand of the king, set out for Louvain, to bring from "those transmarine parts" that "virgin girl, distinguished for her elegance and modest grace, that future lady of the kingdom," who was to fill the royal chair of the "good," but unloved, queen Maude. At the commencement of the year 1121 Adelais arrived in England. She was conducted with great pomp to Windsor, and there, on the feast of Candlemas, married by the bishop of Winchester to Henry. The following day Radulf, the arch- bishop of Canterbury, crowned and anointed her queen at Westminster. The young and beautiful queen soon became a general favourite. Many were the eulogies, and Puella."-(Vide Cont. Flor. Wigorn.) F 2 + Ibid. 68 ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. many were the celebrations of "Aliz la bele;" but scarcely from Anglo-Norman poet (though Gaimar, or even the more poetical narrator of the Voyage of St. Brandan, were among their number) could she receive compliments more graceful than that of Henry of Huntingdon, in his Latin epigram ad- dressed to her. Truly the fairest queen in the present day might not scorn such homage. "What crown would'st choose, O fairest one? why seek for thee the gem ? Jewels will fade upon that brow, nor glow the diadem. That gorgeous clothing, hence away; by Nature thou'rt so drest, That she herself can add no more, but owns thee loveliest: Hence, gems and pearls-aye, hence; sweet queen, their fading lustre see; They add no beauty to that brow, but borrow light from thee." And the fair Adelais had taste sufficient to appre- ciate this elegant compliment; for, in respect to similarity of literary tastes, Henry was remarkably fortunate in both his queens; and the court of Adelais, even more than the court of Maude, became the general resort of every literary cha- racter of the age. The tranquil appearance of affairs in Normandy permitted the uninterrupted residence of Beauclerc in England, for some length of time after his mar- riage with the fair Adelais, to whom he was greatly attached; and he settled on her, in addition to the usual provision for the queen consort, the castle and earldom of Arundel, which at this period included the greater part of Sussex. He gave also to her chaplain, Godfrey of Louvain, the bishopric of ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. 69 Bath, and elevated her chancellor, Simon, to that of Worcester. During this period the royal court seems always to have been on progress. In 1122, Henry kept his Christmas at Norwich, his Easter festival at Northampton, and his Pentecost at Windsor. During the summer he visited London : from thence he proceeded to Durham; then into Northumberland; then he returned to Dunstable; then to Berkhampstead; and finally to Gloucester.* The leading thus about the menaye of a royal court, which consisted of several thousand followers, was a grievous injury to the agricultural population, by whom a royal progress was viewed with almost the same dismay as the advance of a devastating army. The monkish historians of this period, who are always to be found taking part with the poor and oppressed, indignantly record the unbearable extor- tions and the atrocious cruelty of the purveyors of the royal household. To burn the wheat which they could not carry away; to spill on the ground the wine they did not choose to drink; to wash their horses' feet in the beer which they suffered to run to waste; to assault, grievously wound, and sometimes even to kill, those who remonstrated, were incidents of common occurrence among them. At length these disorders arose to so great a height that the king determined to suppress them; and with that prompt decision, which was so eminently his charac- teristic, he appointed a commission. The guiltiest of the purveyors were convicted at its bar, and in the loss of a hand, a foot, or an eye, afforded * Vide Henry of Huntingdon. 70 ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. their companions a stern proof of the determination of the king to award equal justice. It was this punishment, inflicted on his own purveyors, and the equally severe sentence executed some years after, by his express command, on nearly all the mint- masters of the kingdom for debasing the coin, which has caused the name of Beauclerc to appear on the pages of the Saxon Chronicle, with the eulogy of a good man was he." 66 Like his father, Henry seems at each of the three great festivals to have "borne his crown," and this crown seems always to have been imposed by the hands of an archbishop. In the year 1126, at the holy tide of Christmas, king Henry, having sum- moned all his nobles to Windsor, repaired to the altar in the chapel to receive his crown from the hands of William de Corbeil, the archbishop of Canterbury. Here, however, Thurstan, archbishop of York, interposed, asserting the superiority of his see, and demanding that himself should crown the king. Upon this the chronicler relates, that a bitter strife commenced between the two archbishops-a strife which went beyond a mere war of words, since it was only ended by the forcible ejection of Thurstan's accolyte, together with the cross which was carried before him,* out of the king's chapel; * "The pastoral staff of patriarch, or metropolitan, is a processional cross with two transverse bars; that of the pope has three."-(Vide Dr. Milner, vol. i. Archæologia.) Laughable as this contest seems, we must however bear in mind, that the pastoral cross was the badge of spiritual jurisdiction wherever it was carried; and therefore the ejecting of the cross-bearer was a denial of the authority of the owner. This proces- sional cross often played an important part: on state occasions it was borne before the metropolitan by a chaplain, who stood with it beside him if he preached; but, when anathema was pronounced, the prelate took it into his own hand, waved it, and struck it on the ground. ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. 71 "for it was the judgment of divers bishops, and men well informed in ecclesiastical laws; and it was now confirmed, that no metropolitan should be permitted to have his cross borne before him beyond the limits of his own diocese."* In this contest for the pri- macy Henry seems to have taken an active part with Canterbury; for in 1130, at the re-dedication of its cathedral after extensive repairs, he and the queen, and the king of Scotland, attended and made offerings; and on that occasion a new seal was made, in the legend of which it was expressly asserted that Canterbury "was the first chair in England.”† A more peaceable, though in its after effects far more disastrous, cour plenière, was that which Henry held in London at the commencement of 1127, when his daughter Maude (who, on the death of her husband the emperor Henry V. of Germany, had returned to England,) was presented to the assembled nobles, and when they all took the oath of fealty to her, with the saving clause, " except the king should have a son." Soon after, Henry set out for Normandy, apparently for the mere purpose of visiting his continental dominions, but in reality to conclude an alliance with his powerful neighbour the earl of Anjou, whose vicinity ren- dered him either a most advantageous ally, or most - Cont. Flor. Wigorn, p. 1148. The battle of the crosses, notwith- standing this decision, was revived, from time to time, for more than two centuries after; nor, until the reign of Edward III., did the metro- politan of York finally yield the primacy to his brother of Canterbury. The reader, desirous of seeing all the pros and cons of the argument, may consult Drake's "Eboracum." "Sigillum Ecclesiæ Christi Cantuar. primæ sedes Britanniæ."— (Vide Britton's Canterbury.) 72 ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. formidable enemy, to the ruler of Normandy. Soon after, the marriage of his daughter Maude with young Geoffrey Plantagenet, the earl of Anjou's son, was completed; and Henry, unable to foresee the troubles that would arise from that ill assorted union, returned well pleased to England. The concluding years of Henry's reign did not fulfil his expectations. The barons were offended that they, the legitimate counsellors of the crown, had not been consulted on his daughter's marriage; and his gallant nephew, the only son of Robert, so shamefully robbed of his birth right possession (Normandy), was successfully engaged in inciting the Norman barons to resistance. Attempts at con- spiracy were from time to time detected among some of his most confidential servants; and still mourning the loss of his darling son, and a prey to anxiety, suspicion, and the most mournful forebod- ings, the richest and wisest monarch of Christen- dom dragged on a miserable existence; more miserable, perhaps, than those hapless victims of his revenge-Robert, his brother, whom for so many years he immured in Bristol Castle; and his cousin, the haughty Moretoil, whom, blinded and fettered, he kept so long in the Tower, that all men had for- gotten he was living.* Nor did the welcome intel- ligence of the birth of a grandson in 1132, nor the perhaps still more welcome news of the death of his gallant nephew, which gave him undisturbed possession of Normandy, avail: he hurried from * Vide Brompton, whose character of Beauclerc forms an emphatic contrast to that of Malmsbury. ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. 73 place to place, with the vain hope of flying from himself, while such were his fears of assassination, that he every night changed his sleeping room. Of the fair Adelais, during these years, little can be known; and although the complimentary verses of the anonymous author of the "Voyage of St. Brandan" exhibit her as repressing strife in the land, and promoting its prosperity, by her wise counsels ;* yet her history, down to the death of Beauclerc, is rather to be traced in the literary an- nals of the period, than in its political records. The beautiful and idolized queen of the weal- thiest and most literary monarch in Europe, Ade- lais soon drew around her an even more numerous company of minstrels and scholars, than the " good queen Maude" had done. They seem also to have been of a higher order; for about this period that important separation between the trouvère and the mere jongleur became general; and the poem, no longer the rude production of the wandering min- strel, but the carefully finished work of the clerc lisant, who could read Latin, and who had graduated at Oxford or Paris, was copied out in glossy ink, upon snowy vellum, and shone with gold, azure, and vermilion. Of this order of men was Philip du Than, an ecclesiastic, who, at the request of " Aeliz la bele," translated into Norman French a Latin work, of great popularity at this period, entitled "Bestiarius;" a most unpromising work for a poet, * "Par qui creistrat lei de terre, E remandrat tante guerre, Par les armes Henri le rei, E par le cunseil qui est en tei." Cotton Library, Vesp. B. X. 74 ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. stones. it being a treatise on birds, beasts, and precious Another translation of a work, on an equally unpromising subject, was also made by the same hand, the "Liber de Creaturis;" a kind of astronomical treatise, which he however dedicated to his uncle, Humphrey du Than. Of the same order, but possessing far superior talents, was the anonymous author of that "Voyage of St. Bran- dan," already alluded to; and David, another trou- vère, whose works are believed to be lost; both of whom, as well as Geffroi Gaimar, a third, under- took their respective works at the instance and under the express patronage of the fair Adelais. The example of the queen seems to have awak- ened a spirit of literary emulation among the no- bles of her court. Robert, earl of Gloucester, Beauclerc's favourite son, was distinguished greatly for his patronage of literary men; and Walter l'Espec, lord of Hamlake (the afterwards cele- brated hero of the battle of the Standard), and Nicol de Trailli, his son-in-law, are both mentioned by Gaimar as aiding him to complete his history of the British king. And ladies, too, eagerly emu- lated the example of the queen; the lady Cus- tance Fitz Gilbert was the especial assistant of Gaimar. She sent into Yorkshire, to Walter l'Espec, to borrow a precious volume which Gaimar thought necessary to the completion of his undertaking; and she also greatly patronized David, the trouvère before mentioned, who it appears wrote a metrical life of Beauclerc; and this work "Custance la gentil," as he calls her, valued so highly, that she wil- ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. 75 ** lingly gave "a mark of silver, tried and weighed," to obtain its transcription. The lady Alice de Condé, wife of Osbert de Condé, the lord of Horn- castle, was also a liberal patroness of letters: Samp- son de Nanteuil, who probably was an ecclesiastic, undertook, at her express request, a translation of the Proverbs of Solomon, "with a gloss more am- ple than the text," into Norman French verse; and the huge volume still remains a proof of the labo- rious skill, if not of the poetical talents of the trouvère, and a noble specimen of Anglo-Norman calligraphy. Although this list of these Anglo-Norman works, with the single exception of the "Voyage of St. Brandan," presents little to attract the modern reader, we may judge, from that alone, with what eager and importunate longings the awakened mind sought after knowledge, in whatever form it was pre- sented. A general and rapid advancement in intel- lectual pursuits seems indeed to have peculiarly characterized the nation at this period, and these seeds of improvement during Beauclerc's reign were scattered so abundantly and had taken such deep root, that the desolations of the succeeding reign were unable to prevent the future harvest. In the August of 1135 Beauclerc quitted England to visit Normandy; "and the next day, as he lay asleep on the ship," says the venerable Saxon Chro- nicle, the day darkened over all lands, and the * The reader is probably not aware that the mark was never a coin, but a weight (eight ounces.) The silver might be either in pennies, or uncoined, since it was always weighed; and the value in the present day would be about £12. 76 ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. sun was, as it were, a three-nights'-old moon, and the stars about him at mid-day. Men were very much astonished and terrified, and said that some great event should come hereafter; and so it did; " al- though we may consider that the same would have happened even though the sun might not appear like a three-nights'-old moon; but the meaning of the prognostic was soon revealed, when "on the next day after St. Andrew's mass day" king Henry died. The account that his death was occasioned by eating lampreys, contrary to the advice of his physi- cians, is to be found in several of the chroniclers. Whatever were the exciting cause, fever appears to have been the result; and on the third day, giving up all expectation of recovery, he sent to the archbishop of Rouen, and to the earls of Gloster, Surrey, and Leicester, and pronounced to them his last will. By this he bequeathed all his dominions to the empress Maude and her heirs; desired the payment of all his debts, and the wages of all his servants, and that the remainder of his treasure should be distributed to the poor on the seventh day he died. After some delay the royal corpse, rudely embalmed, was transmitted to England; and, according to his ex- press desire, it was placed " in a marble tomb in the principal church of the most blessed and glorious Virgin Mary," in his splendidly endowed abbey of Reading. Most of the nobility attended his obse- quies, and, after the usage of the day, offered libe- rally both to the church, and in alms to "the multi- tudinous number of poor; "while his nephew, ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. 7 Stephen, already the successor to his throne, and the possessor of his treasures, himself aided in sup- porting the royal bier. Whether Adelais were with him in Normandy, or whether she attended the splendid rites that graced the obsequies of Beauclerc at Reading, we have no information; but we find that on the first anniversary of his death she made a donation, to the abbey of Reading, of the manor of Eston in Hertfordshire, (this forming part of her dower,) "for the health of her soul and that of king Henry; also for our lord king Stephen, by the grace of God king of England, his wife Maude, and for all the progeny of the most noble king Henry, and for my father and mother, and all relations living or dead: "—a tolerably comprehensive bead-roll. In this document, it may be observed, that she still calls herself " queen;" and she concludes by declaring, that she has con- firmed the above donation by the gift of a pall which "she herself had placed upon the altar." We also find that subsequently she gave one hundred shillings per annum, from lands at Stanton-Harcourt, to pro- vide "a lamp to burn continually before the tomb."* Ere we pass onward, we may pause to remark upon the great advantages which England derived from the sway of the first Henry. While in his private character we seek in vain for any virtue-in vain, al- most, for any even redeeming quality, in his public character there is much to approve. The principle of equal justice to Saxon and Norman, seems to have been rigidly adhered to in the whole course of his • Monasticon. 78 ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. * , No man durst administration; while the protection which he afford- ed to commerce, directly by charters to various towns, and indirectly by the encouragement which he gave to merchants both foreign and English and the severity with which he visited crimes com- mitted against property, together with the general uprightness of his administration, at a period when bribe-taking seems scarcely to have been considered a crime,† were each most important to the interests of the nation. The simple eulogy of the Saxon Chronicle is very emphatic: "A good man was he, and there was great dread of him. do wrong to another in his day. Peace he made for man and beast; whoso bare his burthen of gold and silver durst no man say him aught but good.‡ In many of his plans Beauclerc, like his father, seems to have been in advance of his age. tronage of those Flemings, who, toward the close of his reign, fled hither in consequence of an inunda- tion, was marked by profound policy. Well know- ing the hostility of his English subjects to foreigners, and yet willing to avail himself of the manufactur- ing skill of these strangers, he placed them, not in English towns, but in the marches on the borders of Pembrokeshire, where they formed an effective barrier against the incursions of the Welch. With similar far-reaching policy, perceiving that the * Vide Pipe Roll, 31st Henry. "" His pa- + Malmsbury relates that if Henry had been prevailed upon to remit the sentence passed against the ninety-four mint-masters for debasing the coin, “he would have been richer by many thousand talents. William of umieges remarks, that the coin was so greatly deteriorated during this reign, that it was two-thirds tin and scarcely one third silver. ↑ Saxon Chronicle (Ingram's), page 364. ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN, 79 diocese of Lincoln, which at this period included that of Ely, was not merely disproportionately large, but in possession of two of the most important strong- holds (the almost impregnable castle of Lincoln, and that natural stronghold, the isle of Ely); and judg- ing how formidable an opponent, even to the crown, a hostile bishop of Lincoln might become, he ob- tained the papal assent for a division of the see, and erected the bishopric of Ely. To the crown ten- ants, at this period a very numerous body, he afforded relief from the vexations of arbitrary pay- ments, by appointing a commission, which, having viewed the lands, devised in lieu a fixed and equit- able rent. The patronage which Beauclerc extend- ed to literature has already been noticed; it may, however, also be stated, that to the man of science, no less than to the man of letters, patronage was given, and that many foreign scientific men were attracted to England by the fame of Beauclerc's munificence.* The arts also received encourage- ment; for in those days the patron of the illuminator and the goldsmith, was the patron of the arts; while to architecture he afforded munificent patronage, by erecting the two noble abbeys of Cirencester and Reading, and the royal palaces of Dunstable, Wind- sor, and Woodstock. At this last mentioned place he enclosed a park, and also formed what was most probably the first Zoological garden ever seen in England. This garden, according to Malmsbury, CC * Beauclerc was a liberal patron of the schools of Oxford. One of his especial favourites, too, was Adelard of Bath, who was a great nomer, and understood Arabic." astro- 80 ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. was seven miles in circumference; it was surrounded by a wall, and contained lions, tigers, and other foreign animals which had been presented to Beau- clerc by his continental allies.* Nor must it be forgotten, that in 1121 he superintended the forma- tion of a canal to unite the rivers Trent and Witham, and thereby render Lincoln a port; a plan which succeeded so well, that in the following century the import and export trade of that ancient city was con- siderable, and continued so, until the canal having warped, the shipping trade was transferred to Gains- borough. Under the protection of so enlightened a mo- narch, no wonder was it that the cities rapidly rose into importance, and that Lincoln herself could well afford to pay "200 silver marks and 4 of gold," that the city "might be held in capite of the of the king."t Many of the cities mentioned as most flourishing at this period have, however, dwindled into mere second-rate towns. Such are Winchester, North- ampton, Reading, Lincoln, Stamford, Grimsby, Boston, and Huntingdon; while others that were even then rising into notice, have maintained their station through seven long and change-bringing centuries. Norwich, even then, was distinguished for its trade; and it is recorded that this was the in- ducement to Herbert Losinga, the first bishop of *In the Pipe Roll, 31st Henry, is an entry, "paid for the park at Woodstock, 30s. 5d. ;" also, "for feeding of the birds in the park, 5s." From another entry in the same roll we find that Henry had a vineyard at Rockingham; for 30s. 5d. is paid to the vine-dresser at Rockingham, and 20s. for procuring vines. ↑ Vide Pipe Roll 31st Henry. ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. 81 Norwich, and the founder of its cathedral, to trans- fer his episcopal chair to it from Thetford. Dover was at this period a flourishing city; so was Exeter; while Bristol (then, and for some centuries after, called "Bristowe,") is celebrated by contemporary historians for the importance of its port and the extent of its foreign trade.* Of London we find scarcely any notice in the contemporary historians; but in the curious Pipe Roll, before referred to, we find many entries which indicate its rising importance. Four persons who have been chosen sheriffs fine two gold marks † each, for leave to vacate the office. One Lawrence, of Rouen, is mentioned as owing to the king 30 ounces of gold; and Godwin Quacheland pays four gold marks "for peace in the plea of coinage." The Jews (many of whom appear, from this curious document, to have resided in London, a sure proof of her commercial prosperity) pay very large sums; one of them gives six marks for the king's aid in the recovery of his debts, and the whole body on one occasion fine £2000.‡ In regard to the general state of the population of these towns, their condition seems to have been that of rapid improvement. Guilds, which in * It may be amusing to the reader to learn for what each of the princi- pal cities was most celebrated during this reign. From some Latin verses of Henry of Huntingdon, we find that London was celebrated for ships, Winchester for wine, Hertford for cattle, Worcester for wheat, Salisbury for game, Canterbury for fish, York for wood, and Exeter for metals. †The gold mark was eight ounces of pure gold, either coined or un- coined, and was estimated at the value of six pounds' weight of silver. ‡ Vide Note 6, Appendix. G 82 ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. Saxon times appear to have partaken greatly of a re- ligious character, seem now to have been generally formed for the purposes of trade. In the before- mentioned roll, Robert, the son of Levestan, pays £16 on account of the weavers' guild in London ; the weavers' guild at Lincoln pay one gold mark; and that of the farriers at Oxford pay five ounces of gold," to have back their guild. Of the London guilds we find none mentioned at this early period, except the before-mentioned weavers and the sad- dlers' company, which boasts an unbroken existence of more than seven centuries. Then, as now, their hall seems to have been near the top of West-Cheap, and among their rules one is found which directs them "to be present with wax tapers, and to offer alms in the church of St. Martin's-le-Grand, on the day of his feast; and also to pay, for tolling the knell of each brother, eight pennies." Although the twelve great companies were not at this period recognized by charter, it is very probable that confraternities similar in character existed; since it is most un- likely that members of so inferior a class as the weavers should be possessed of a guild, and the princely wine and spice merchants, the wealthy dra- pers, and goldsmiths, be destitute of the same privilege. In regard to trade, as far as we are able to judge from the names of the fathers of the city, the enter- prising Normans seem to have taken the lead in commerce; while the Saxons devoted themselves to home manufactures, to the fisheries, and, above all, to their ancient craft, "the art of the goldsmith." In the long list of mint-masters in this reign, which ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. 83 the indefatigable industry of Mr. Ruding has col- lected, nine-tenths of the names are Saxon, while, whenever the monkish chronicler records the name of the artist honoured to construct the shrine, or to chase the delicate chalice, it is also almost invari- ably found to be Saxon. Of the middle classes, not inhabiting towns, (those "small freeholders of Saxon birth, and those Normans who were not noble, but had settled on small estates, ") we have few, indeed scarcely any, notices. They seem to have enjoyed considerable security, and a competent portion of wealth, judging from their frequent grants of fire-wood, cattle, or small portions of land, which we find recorded in the lists of dona- tions to the various newly-founded monasteries. Of the lower classes very little information can be obtained. That slavery, a state in which so many remained at the period of the conqueror's accession, was rapidly decreasing, seems evident, from the very circum- stances in which the bondsman was placed. The walled town willingly opened her gates to receive him; and the wild tracts of forest land proffered him the enjoyment of "all manner of freedom and joyous liberty" within their leafy coverts; while the facilities afforded for escape, and the almost insu- perable difficulties of pursuit, placed freedom al- most within the reach of all. It is very probable, therefore, that the regular bondsmen, the theows of Saxon times, had ceased to exist as such, and had become blended with the territorial villenage during this reign, or before the conclusion of Ste- G 2 84 ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. * phen's. Of that very large class, the villeins, we have even less information; as, however, we shall have again to refer to the general state of the peo- ple before the close of this century, their condition will then be considered. Whither the fair Adelais retired on the death of the king, and how long she remained in widowhood, are equally unknown. When we next meet her name, we find her the wife of William de Albini, lord of Beckenham, in Norfolk, and hereditary cup- bearer to the king. Although unallied to royalty, William de Albini ranked high among the barons of the land. His grandfather was one of those Nor- man adventurers who won his lands by his prowess, at Hastings; his father married the daughter of the powerful de Bigod; and himself, from his early valour, had already acquired the title of "Strong Arm." The occasion which gave him the right to this name, is with ludicrous sobriety related by Dugdale; and although the story is sufficiently apocryphal, it yet deserves notice as the foundation of one of the most favourite incidents in our popu- lar traditions. About this time there was a queen dowager of France, young and very beautiful, who, for the love that she bore to a knight of her court, caused pro- clamation to be made for a tournament to be held at Paris. Thither came many a knight, and among them William de Albini; and marvellous was the prowess he displayed, vanquishing many, and mor- tally wounding one with a lance. The reader of * Vide Sir F. Palgrave's "English Commonwealth." ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. 85 the romances of chivalry will not be surprised to learn, that the stroke which mortally wounded his opponent, was, in a figurative sense, no less "mortal" to the queen. She invited the victor knight to a splendid banquet, presented him rich jewels, and made known to him her preference. But William de Albini refused her gifts, telling her that he was already engaged to another queen dowager, the fair Adelais. "Whereat," says Dugdale in his own matter-of-fact way, "she grew so discontented, that she enticed him into a garden where there was a cave, and in it a fierce lion, unto which she descend- ed, under colour of shewing him the beast; when, having him there, by advantage of a folding door, she thrust him in to the lion." But the valiant knight, though in this sore jeopardy, was not daunted. For his lady-love he had vowed to encounter giants and even dragons, and therefore was not to be turned aside by a "lion in the way." He drew back, folded his arm in his mantle, and as the ferocious beast rushed open-mouthed upon him, he thrust his hand down the throat, and thus "robbed the lion of his heart." Then quietly departing, he presented the lion's heart to one of the queen's maidens as a parting token, and quitted Paris to receive the hand of the fairer and gentler Adelais. "And therefore,” says Dugdale," did he take for his bearing the white lion rampant on a red shield;"* a bearing which, even to the present day, keeps its place among the many quarterings of the ducal shield of the Howards. It is amusing to trace the progress of this very Vide Dugdale's Baronage. 86 ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. popular story. Ere the close of the following cen- tury the tale, fabricated probably by some grateful trouvère, in return for the patronage of de Albini and the fair Adelais, was nearly forgotten; for in the blaze of Coeur de Lion's exploits, the fame of earlier knights waxed dim: and then the tale of de Albini was appropriated to the hero of Ascalon; and in the curious metrical romance which bears his name, we find precisely the same deed assigned to him. But in the lapse of years even Cœur de Lion's memory faded from remembrance, and then a third time was the story told ;-but now neither knight nor monarch was the hero; but the valiant London 'prentice was chief actor in the less chivalrous days of the Stuarts; and the tale, according to its latest "reading" long exiled from the hall, still, with so many other remains of our popular literature, keeps its place in the nursery. More authentic history represents William de Albini as a wise, as well as valiant baron. At the battle of Lincoln he is reported to have behaved with unexampled bravery; and to his powerful argu- ments and vigorous efforts England owed her final release from the miseries of civil war; since it was he who conducted the final negotiations between Stephen and young Plantagenet. On his marriage he took possession of the castle and honour of Arundel, which formed part of Adelais' dower, and assumed the title of its earl. In this castle Adelais seems chiefly to have resided during the troublous period which succeeded; and there, in August 1139, she received the empress Maude, who with her half ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. 87 brother, the earl of Gloster, and a few trusty fol- lowers, had landed on the Sussex coast. According to Malmsbury, this asylum, so kindly proffered at first to the empress, was soon after, "through female inconstancy, withheld; " and he charges Adelais with having broken "the faith which she, by mes- sengers, had repeatedly pledged." This assertion is utterly unsupported by any other chronicler; most of whom relate the circumstances in a way highly honourable to Stephen, and which seem to prove that the empress only took up a temporary abode at the castle of Arundel. According to them, Stephen, when at Marlborough, learning that the empress had landed, set out to Arundel castle, and there demanded her as his prisoner. ever, so pleaded the rights of relationship-and, what was even more in those days, the rights of hospitality -that the generous monarch is reported not only to have permitted the empress to depart, but to have actually provided her with an escort to Bristol. Adelais, how- This is the only instance in which the name of Adelais, after Henry's death, appears in the pages of the chronicler: from the Monasticon we however learn, that she founded the small priory of Pyne- ham in Sussex, and that she contributed very liber- ally toward the building of Chichester cathedral. Leland, in addition, mentions a hospital at Wilton, which it was said was founded by her, and where she was buried; but this is erroneous. How many years passed over the head of the fair Adelais after she had unbound the crown from her brow, no historian relates. By her second marriage 88 ADELAIS OF LOUVAIN. she became the mother of seven children, all of whom, it is believed, survived her. William, the eldest, succeeded his father in the earldom, and be- came greatly distinguished as a statesman in the reign of Plantagenet; Adelais, the next, became the wife of the earl of Auger: of the other five, only their names have been handed down, and these were, Reyner, Henry, Godfrey, Oliva, and Agatha. As the latest notice respecting her occurs in a deed of gift dated 1150, her death has been generally placed about 1151; but this is wholly conjectural : "her time of death I find not," says Sandford; "but she was certainly buried at Reading." · 89 MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. CHAPTER V. Accession of Stephen-Parentage of Maude of Boulogne-The Knights Templars-The Battle of the Standard-Maude's Mediation with her Uncle The Miseries of the War-Characteristic Legends-Battle of Lincoln-Exertions of Maude to procure Stephen's release-Founds Coggeshall Abbey, and the Hospital of St. Katherine-Her Death. THERE is much simple pathos in that short sen- tence of the Saxon Chronicle, which describes the general alarm consequent on the death of Henry. "Then was there quickly great tribulation in the land; for every man that might, soon robbed the other." Nor were these disorders the effects of a mere transient storm, lasting only until the monarch had firmly seized the reins of government; but "such things," (says the same venerable chronicle, after detailing the fearful scenes of anarchy which ensued,) "we suffered nineteen years for our sins." Immediately upon Henry's decease, Stephen of Blois, calculating on the distaste of the nobles to a female reign, and yet more on that general fame which proclaimed him the most popular man in England, with a precipitation which betrayed his anxiety to possess that crown, which to him in- deed proved one of thorns, set sail from Witsand, 90 MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. * and welcomed by lightning, and heralded by thunders-fit omens of his most disastrous reign- landed on the Kentish shore. With instinctive dread, both Dover and Canter- bury closed their gates against him:- but the challenger of a crown, undaunted by these adverse indications, advanced boldly to London, when he saw her gates joyfully thrown open, and heard the myriad voices of her citizens loudly proclaim him king. The citizens of the noble and royal city of Winchester, too, through the agency of his younger brother, their bishop, opened with equal willingness their gates; while William de Pont de la Arche, by placing in the fortunate adventurer's hand the keys of the castle, and of the royal treasury, put him in possession, not merely of one of the strongest for- tresses in the kingdom, but of an inestimable collec- tion of plate and jewels, besides money to the amount of 100,000l., a sum equal in the present day to more than a million and a half. In the mean time Hugh de Bigod, the hereditary seneschal, arrived in England; and, whether influ- enced by hostility to the empress, or by attachment to Stephen, or whether the tale he told were indeed true, declared on oath, before the archbishop of Canterbury, that, subsequently to the dictation of his will, Henry, irritated by some neglect or affront of the empress, had revoked it, and disinheriting "Moreover, it is well known, that, on the day when Stephen landed in England, there was very early in the morning, contrary to the nature of winter, a terrible peal of thunder with most dreadful lightning, so that the world seemed well nigh about to be dissolved."- (Malmsbury.) MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. 91 her and her heirs, had constituted Stephen, earl of Moretoil and Boulogne, his successor. The arch- bishop lent a willing ear to a statement, which, according to the feelings of the age, seemed to afford some pretext for breaking his solemnly ratified vow on behalf of one who had promised most largely to the clergy; and on the 26th of December, the day consecrated to his titular saint, Stephen, amid the acclamations of the Londoners, to whom he had guaranteed the restoration of the “ good and an- cient laws, and just customs of the land," was solemnly crowned in the abbey church of West- minster by the archbishop, assisted by the bishops of Salisbury and Winchester. The queen of Stephen seems to have continued at Boulogne during the winter; for not until the following spring did her coronation take place. Then, on Easter-day, was that proud ceremony again performed in the abbey church of West- minster, and the crown placed on the brow of a second queen Maude,-one who, from her gentle character and extensive benevolence, was hailed as no unworthy successor to that namesake queen, whose memory was still affectionately cherished by the people. Of the early life of the subject of our present memoir, Maude of Boulogne, very little is known. Her father Eustace, count of Boulogne, was early distinguished for his bravery, and accompanied his two brothers, Godfrey and Baldwin, with their gallant army, in that first crusade, when the banner 92 MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. of the cross was planted on the walls of Jerusalem, and his most chivalrous brother hailed by the united voice of the Christian army as alone worthy to be their king. On his return, Eustace (who, in addition to the county of Boulogne, possessed large estates in Essex) was married, by the arrangement of Beauclerc, in 1102, to Mary, the sister of queen Maude, and this daughter was his only child. He seems to have resided principally in England; but on the decease of his brother Baldwin, the second king of Jerusalem, in 1118, an embassy was sent to invite him to accept the crown, already worn by two of his brothers. He set out for Palestine, and had advanced as far as Apulia; when hearing that his cousin, Baldwin de Bourg, had been elected to the vacant throne, he generously returned back, more anxious to preserve the peace of the Christian world, than to encircle his brow with a diadem. The date and circumstances of his decease are un- known. Young Maude, as his only child, became inheritrix both of his English and continental possessions; and the king, anxious to secure these important estates in his family, married her to his favourite nephew, Stephen, the third son of his sister Adela. Although Maude of Boulogne neither by birth nor marriage was entitled to a crown, yet few of the daughters of princes could boast relationship with so many crowned heads. Two of her fa- ther's brothers had swayed the warrior-sceptre of the kingdom of Jerusalem: on her mother's side, her MAUDE OF BOULogne. 93 grandfather, grandmother, and three uncles, wore, successively, the Scottish crown; while her aunt was the queen of England. From the circumstance of her numerous English relations, and her large English possessions, it seems probable that Maude of Boulogne received her education in England. Under the auspices of that aunt, whom in her general character she so greatly resembled, and after whom most pro- bably she had been named. Subsequently to her marriage her residence in London is proved by the burial of her two eldest children in the church of the Holy Trinity beside Aldgate. The accession of Stephen to the throne seems to have been viewed, even by the few partizans of the empress, as an event so consonant to the wishes of the nation, that no hand was raised to oppose it; and in the spring the standard of the empress was raised, not by English or Norman baron, but by David of Scotland, her uncle, who crossed the border, reduced many of the northern towns, and compelled their inhabitants to swear fealty to his niece. Beneath the walls of Durham he was met by Stephen; no battle however took place a peace was concluded; after which Henry, the eldest son of David, did homage to Stephen, in the stead of his father, for his English fiefs in England, which con- sisted of the towns of Carlisle and Doncaster, toge- ther with the town and title of earl of Huntingdon. The period of tranquillity which succeeded, as compared with the many years of warfare, was but the brief pause which so often intervenes between 94 MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. the first slight indications of the coming storm, and its after-fury. Although, by the peace first concluded with Scotland, and yet more by the tardy homage which at length was paid by the earl of Gloster (that most devoted of the empress's partizans), Ste- phen seemed assured in the quiet possession of his throne: still he was soon taught that the power which Henry had so beneficially exerted in quelling the turbulence of the barons, and the rude and law- less habits of their followers, was not his to wield. Naturally mild and yielding-for not one of his opponents ever charged him with cowardice-Ste- phen delayed those sterner measures too long; while unwillingness to originate causes of discontent among a class which stood ready, on the slightest pretext, to transfer their allegiance from him to his rival, gave to his even more vigorous efforts a character of weakness and indecision, which that very class were not slow to perceive. Encouraged, therefore, by the inadequate power of the king, each great feudal lord commenced fortifying his castle, and organising his vassals; and, with coat of mail ready to be braced on, with lance ready to be placed in rest, and with banner ready to fling out its blazonry from the battlements when the first war-trumpet should sound, each awaited, with feverish impatience, the coming of that day, when the battle-field should decide the contest, and the crown of England be the prize of the victor. The events of these two years of comparative tranquillity present little to attract our attention; and the only notice we find respecting the queen MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. 95 - during this time, is of her having, together with the king, been present at the dedication of Godstowe nunnery. But about this time-for the exact year of their settlement has not been ascertained-the Knights Templars first arrived in England. Their founder (Hugo de Payen), toward the close of Henry's reign, had visited England, for the purpose of soliciting the charity of the faithful toward his benevolent project of providing for the pilgrims through Palestine a regular escort; and we learn, both from Malmsbury and the Saxon Chronicle, that in this appeal he was eminently successful. On his return to Palestine, in 1129, he brought with him three hundred knights of the noblest families in Christendom; and, encouraged by this illustrious patronage, and yet more by that of him, whose sanc- tion (if high devotional feeling and lofty Christian attainments, bear any weight) would have been hailed by any Christian community-the abbot of Clairvaux, St. Bernard-he proceeded to organise his followers, and lay the foundation of that proud and wealthy, but most chivalrous order, "the Brethren of the Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem." These knights, in their general rules of govern- ment, and especially in their apparent combination of the chivalrous and priestly character, bore a close resemblance to their elder brethren, the Hos- pitallers. They were, however, more decidedly military, since no hospital duties were required of them; but, like true and right valiant knights, they were expected to keep the lance ever placed in rest, for the protection alike of the unarmed pilgrim, and 96 MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. the "holy and beautiful city," to whose shrines he was bound. By the rule of their order, each knight was allowed one servant to attend him, and three horses these were probably the palfrey, used by knights on ordinary occasions; the destrere, that gallant steed, which was never mounted save on the battle-field; and one of an inferior kind, for the servant. The armour, both of these knights and of their war-horses, was to be good, but plain; no crest was permitted on the helmet, no blazonry on the surcoat; nor were any ornaments, either of gold or silver, allowed on the horse furniture, save one only superfluity, the collar of bells, whose inspiriting chime was considered well suited "to inspire confidence in a knight, and terror in his enemy." Unlike the other orders, either of knights or monks, the Templars suffered their beards to remain uncut uncut; but, like the priestly orders, they were prohibited from hunting and hawking, and generally from those amusements which were considered to partake of a secular character.* Their distinguishing dress was the stainless white mantle, the type of purity, with the red cross blazoned on the left breast, the symbol of glorious martyrdom; and the great banner of the order, the "Beau sceant," was of black and white linen, "parted per pale," expressive of the stern and determined con- test to be maintained by the soldiers of the kingdom of light, against those of the kingdom of darkness. Much misapprehension, in regard to the peculiar character and functions of these military monks, * Statutes of the Templars. MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. 97 has arisen from the circumstance of their being termed, in phraseology more poetical than correct, a "militant priesthood;" and many writers, who have adopted the term without sufficient inquiry, have exhibited the rise of these warlike orders as among the strangest and most startling of the anomalies of a strange and extravagant age. If, however, we take a closer view of the peculiar cha- racter and exigencies of the period, and observe, too, the wide distinction always made in the Roman church between those who took merely the con- ventual vows, and those who took the priestly, much of the apparent anomaly vanishes. The three-fold vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience, was pronounced both by Templar and Hospitaller ; although, unlike the mere monk, they were not tied down to those wearisome repetitions of the daily service, which formed the very business of the conventual orders. But priests they never were ; the White, or the Red cross knight, never stood within the altar's pale, pronouncing benediction over the kneeling congregation; far less did hands that had wielded the mace, or poised the lance, lift the chalice, or present the consecrated wafer. For all these—the peculiar functions of the priesthood— regular chaplains were appointed. The institution of these chivalrous orders seems, therefore, to have originated in the clear and far-reaching views of their founders, in the dictates of a sober judgment, and not in the fancies of an enthusiastic visionary. They felt that, by separating a body of warriors from the common cares, and interests, and relation- H 98 MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. ships of human life, by the obligations of their three-fold vow, they should erect a confraternity whose members, bound to each other more strongly by that very bond which severed them from the rest of the world, and pledged them to a life-long service, should cast the full and undivided weight of their influence into that project, for more than two centuries the fondest wish of Christendom, the rescue of the Holy Land from the sway of the Paynim. The experience of ages had even then shewn Europe how important and formidable a class were the con- ventual orders, although in an age when the sword was expected to decide all controversies, they wielded neither lance nor brand. What, therefore, might not be expected from an order which, separated from worldly interests as wholly as the inhabitant of the cloister, should not, like him, be confined to the same narrow limits, nor restricted, like him, to the mere war of words; but who, combining the honour of knighthood, with the sanctity of the holy vow, should stand forth pledged and devoted to that one service, “the avenging the wrongs of our Lord in his own land." What wonder was it, that, actuated by such views, and impelled by such feelings, at a period too when men acted enthusiastically because they felt strongly, the fame of the unconquered chivalry of the Red and of the White cross struck terror and dismay into the hearts of the Moslem, and forced even the remotest regions of central Asia to quail at the name of Templar and Hospitaller. Never, perhaps, did the world behold such devoted soldiers, (for the praise of unconquered valour was MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. 99 still theirs, long after they had renounced the simple and self-denying principle of their original institu- tion, and stood as princes among the nations pre- eminent in pride and luxury); and never were such deeds of resistless daring performed on the plains of Palestine; for with even more enthusiasm than that of the new-made knight, sworn to follow that lord from whom he had received his gilt spur, did the Templar follow through thickest dangers his holy "Beau Sceant ;" and with as heart-stirring recollec- tions as those of the knight "true and loyal," when the lamentations of his prisoned lady-love struck on his ear, did the knight of St. John gaze on the crescent-surmounted towers of Jerusalem, and re- echo the nightly call of the heralds, "Remember the Holy sepulchre." An order pledged to so holy a service could not but find favour in the eyes of a queen, whose two uncles had successively swayed the warrior-sceptre of the kingdom of Jerusalem, and whose bones had been honoured by enshrinement beneath the very roof of the Holy sepulchre. Maude therefore wel- comed its representatives with every mark of honour, and gave them the manor of Cowley in Oxfordshire, called subsequently, from its becoming one of their preceptories, Temple Cowley. Stephen also be- stowed on them the manor of Cressing, in Essex, which became the first in rank of the sixteen pre- ceptories which belonged to this order in England. The principal house of the Templars, to which all the preceptories were alike subordinate, was, at their first admission into the land, in Holborn; on the Uor M 100 MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. site of what is now Southampton Buildings; their other establishment, which yet bears the name, not having been erected until 1183. Like the Knights of St. John, the Templars seem to have been popu- lar, and to have obtained by gifts and legacies much valuable property; like the Knights of St. John, too, they frequently took part in the political struggles of the following century, and, like them, mostly on the side of the people. The brief season of tranquillity too swiftly passed over, and in February 1138 David of Scotland marched an army, consisting mostly of the then bar- barous natives of Galloway, across the border, and carried fire and sword into almost every town and village throughout Northumberland. The earl of Gloster, too, taking advantage of this declaration of war, sent messengers from Normandy to Stephen, solemnly renouncing his allegiance; while Bristol, Dover, and Leeds, towns of which he was the feudal lord, together with some others held by his partizans, immediately revolted. A second time, as soon as the feast of Easter was past, did the king of Scots re-assemble his army, and again crossing the border, at the head not merely of his regular vassals, but a swarm of barbarians whom love of plunder had brought together, ravaged the northern counties. From the united testimony of contemporary historians, the atrocities of this army far exceeded even those of the ferocious Norsemen every village through which they passed was plundered and set on fire; the majority.of the inhabitants were massacred; and those who from their youth or beauty were spared, MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. 101 were tied together with ropes, and driven onward by lance points, for the purpose of being sold into slavery. But what, even more than all this, excited the horror of the chroniclers, was the peculiar hos- tility this savage multitude seemed to bear to the Christian religion. Churches and monasteries shared the same fate with the villages; and the shud- dering priest beheld the crucifix torn down and broken in pieces on account of the precious metal, the wine of the chalice dashed in his face, and the consecrated wafer trampled under foot. In vain did the northern nobles send supplication to Stephen for aid; his presence was absolutely required in the southern parts of the kingdom, and his army was too feeble to admit of being weakened by division. Thus June and July passed away; while the Scots, encouraged by the inadequate resistance, poured down in almost countless numbers, entered York- shire, and advanced within a few miles of the archi- episcopal city. Again was message sent to the king, but, unable to repair thither himself, he at length determined to commit the defence of the north to the barons of those parts; sending, however, a well appointed company of horse under the conduct of Bertrand de Baliol. Ere this succour arrived, all the northern barons had assembled at York; where, alarmed at the numbers of the enemy, distrusting the fidelity of many of their body, and despairing of succour from the king, they were ready to give up all thoughts of defence; when the venerable Arch- bishop, he who in his earlier days had defended so warmly the claims of his see against the anted power 102 MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. of king and primate, stood up, and demanding their attention, both as king's lieutenant for those parts and as their chief spiritual guide, exhorted them to set forth. Kindling with his subject, the aged pre- late dwelt on the atrocities of this barbarian army; assured them that every parish priest throughout his province, clothed in holy vestments and cross in hand, should form their vanguard; that the prayers of all the faithful would accompany them on their holy warfare; and that he himself would go before them, not with lance or brand, but with the staff of spiri- tual rule and the holy banner of St. Peter. The enthusiastic address of the feeble but high- minded old man, who, unable to walk, had risen from his litter to address them, acted like an electric shock on the desponding company. desponding company. Wholly dis- missing their former fears, they pledged each other instantly to set out and give battle to the enemy; and when, just at this moment of strong excitement, Bertrand de Baliol with his company of horse appear- ed before the city gate, they hailed the unexpected re-inforcement as an omen of happiest augury-as a direct manifestation of the will of Heaven. Determined to keep alive the strong religious impression, archbishop Thurstan appointed a three days' fast, at the close of which he solemnly con- fessed, absolved, and blessed them. Then he caused his litter to be prepared; and understand- ing that the Scottish army was near North Allerton, he assembled the barons and their followers, deter- mined to advance at their head. Not until after much entreaty would the old man be dissuaded from MAUDE OF BOulogne. 103 his purpose. At length, however, he was prevailed upon to remain, and before the altar of his own cathedral offer up those prayers which were con- sidered by the enthusiastic company necessary to the success of their cause. On the 22nd of August the knights and nobles and vassals of that small but gallant army set forth. Among them we find the names of Walter de Gant, Gilbert de Lacy, Richard de Courcy, the literary Walter l'Espec (he who procured the pre- cious volume of Geffrey of Monmouth for the fair Custance la Gentil), and Richard Ferrers earl of Derby, and Bernard de Baliol, and Robert de Bruce, and William earl of Aumerle,—all proud names in their country's annals. Onward they pro- ceeded, the archbishop's chaplain bearing the archi- espiscopal staff before them, while the gallant ban- ner of Aumerle, with its "cross patonce vairy," waved proudly in the van. But banner of earthly noble, however high or however distinguished, was not sacred enough for those who had pledged them- selves to holy church to conquer or to die; they therefore reared the tall mast of a ship upon a wheeled carriage; at the top they placed the silver pyx, with the consecrated wafer, and beneath, the three holy banners of St. John of Beverly, St. Wilfred of Ripon, and St. Peter of York. This was the cele- brated “Standard," whose title has given the dis- tinguishing name to the battle fought under its protecting auspices. The moment it was raised, Walter l'Espec mounted the carriage, and exhorted the good company to behave like men and like 104 MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. Christians. He reminded them that the glorious company of heaven were looking down upon them; "that Christ himself would take up his shield and arise to their aid ;" then turning to Aumerle, the commander, he placed his hand within his, and said, "I faithfully promise thee to conquer the Scots this day or lose my life." Joyfully and man- fully was this solemn pledge of the lord of Ham- lake re-echoed by every knight, noble, and vassal. Robert de Bruce and Bernard de Baliol, as feuda- tories of the Scottish king, sent formal renunciation of their allegiance; and the devoted band drew up in battle array upon Cuton Moor. Ere however the first shaft was loosed from the English bows, a last effort was made by the assem- bled nobles to dissuade David, who was respected by all, from giving battle. Robert de Bruce, a baron who had been bred up in his court, proffered his ser- vices, and advanced to the Scottish side. He was introduced to David; and addressing him with much simple pathos, he shewed him how determined were the nobles, how dreadful would be the carnage, how kindly on a former occasion those very barons had entreated him (having chivalrously aided him but a short time since), and he finally concluded by ex- pressing his sorrow that he should be forced to behold his good and early friend, his most dear and worthy master, either unhappily slain, or worse- disgracefully flying. This chivalrous appeal was broken off by the sobs of the brave knight; Da- vid, overcome, burst also into tears. Nor would he that day have disgracefully fled; nor would MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. 105 the tale of North Allerton plain been recorded by the chronicler, had not his nephew pressed forward, and, rendered vainly confident by his late victory at Clitheroe, given a decided negative to the pacific recommendation of de Bruce, whom he scornfully stigmatized as traitor. All thought of accommoda- tion was now at an end, a second time de Bruce renounced allegiance, and then departed. Scarcely had he regained the English side, when the vanguard of the Scots army advanced with loud and savage yells, and charged upon them with fury. Long did the battle prevail, and right valiantly fought both knight and noble, who with singular determination had dismounted from their destreres, and caused them to be sent to a distance, lest their vassals should think they might seek safety in flight. At length prince William made a violent attack on the English phalanx, and it began to give way; when an English soldier, whose name is unknown, having cut off the head of a body near him, held it up, crying aloud—" The head of the Scottish king!" These words re-animated his companions-a panic seized the Scots, who believed that their king was indeed slain; and to pursue and to slay was all that remained for the victors. David, who had watched the changing fortunes of the day, vainly attempted to rally the flying multitude; and des- perate at this realization of his worst fears, deter- mined to die on the field. A few of his bravest nobles, however, surrounding him, placed him on horse-back, and bore him away. Never was victory more complete; when night closed in, ten thousand 106 MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. Scots lay dead on Cuton Moor, while thousands more, in their flight through Northumberland, fell victims to the vengeance of the exasperated peasan- try; and the victor army, which had lost but one knight and very few common soldiers, returned back in triumph to York, to sing "Te Deum," and record the proud tale of the battle of the Standard.* While these events took place in the North, the town of Dover was sustaining a severe siege, un- dertaken by the queen, with the assistance of her subjects of Boulogne, who brought a powerful fleet to blockade the harbour, and thus prevent the arrival of succours which the empress might send from France. Very frequently has the bio- grapher to lament, that while on subjects of com- parative indifference, ample information can be ob- tained on points which place the character in a new and important light a slight remark, a mere pass- ing notice, is all that can be found. This is pe- culiarly the case in regard to Maude of Boulogne. While the events of many a siege are detailed by the contemporary chroniclers with wearisome minuteness, those far more important, in which she was personally engaged, scarcely receive more than a parenthetical notice. Thus all that we can learn respecting this important contest is, that after sustaining the blockade for some time, Dover at length capitulated. The trumpet of war was now blown; and swiftly The battle of the Standard, although so very characteristic of the spirit of the times, has been passed completely over by most of our popular historians; and it is, therefore, inserted. MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. 107 A did every baron in the land range himself under the banner either of Stephen or of the empress Maude; and the affrighted husbandman, in the trampled harvest and the burning barn, saw but the be- ginning of those troubles which were his lot for nearly fifteen years. A full detail of the events of these disastrous times falls within the province of the historian, rather than of the biographer: those incidents therefore, which are necessary to complete the memoir of Maude of Boulogne, will alone be noticed; while those referring more particularly to the empress will be treated in the following chapter. The next notice that we find of the queen is in the spring of the succeeding year, when David of Scotland having again crossed the border, to main- tain the right of the empress, advanced as far as Durham. Thither the queen went, and by entreaty and persuasion at length prevailed on her uncle to conclude a peace with her husband; which, although considered by Stephen's partizans scarcely so ad- vantageous as had been expected, still relieved for a short season the northern parts of the kingdom from the incursions of a dreaded foe. But although the northern counties were now enjoying a short interval of repose, peace throughout the whole land was a blessing which Stephen did not for many years enjoy. The various towns belonging to the earl of Gloster were all in a state of warlike ac- tivity; while Milo, earl of Hereford, also a warm partizan of the empress, was ravaging with fire and sword the counties of Worcester and Warwickshire. Alarmed at the numerous castles which were rising 108 MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. on every side, indignant at the solemn renunciation of fealty which the earl of Gloster had just before sent, and dreading the influence of the prelates- who, not content with their spiritual power, were taking large bodies of retainers into their pay, and building impregnable castles,-Stephen in an evil hour, forgetful of the advantages he had derived from their convenient time-serving, seized the bishops of Ely, Lincoln, and Salisbury, threw them into prison, and treated them with every indignity, to compel them to give up their castles. Henry his brother, the bishop of Winchester, and the pope's legate, indignant at his brother's conduct, summoned him, the king of England, to appear before a higher tribunal than his royal council, even that of the church, whose power he had in- sulted in the persons of her ministers; and, as legate, commanded a council to be held at Win- chester, on the 29th day of August. Our English histories give full accounts of the proceedings of this council, which broke up without coming to any ultimate decision; but from that day Henry of Blois was no longer the friend of his brother; and when, in the following month, Stephen heard the disastrous intelligence, that the empress Maude and her gallant and devoted half brother had landed, he discovered, too late, the irreparable injury he had done to his own cause, by irritating the self-will, and love of domination, of his arrogant, but most clear-sighted brother. The chivalrous spirit with which the deeply mor- tified king granted safe conduct, from Arundel MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. 109 castle to Bristol, to her who came to contest with him no meaner prize than the crown, is only one among many instances which prove the noble and generous disposition of the unfortunate Stephen. Few characters have been handed down to us with more commendation, both from friend and foe, than his and while his panegyrists are loud in their praises of his unexampled courage, and his most courteous gentleness, even Malmsbury, the partizan of the empress, and bound eulogist of his patron Gloster, could say, "he was a man of great activity, but imprudent, strenuous in war, bold in attempt- ing works of difficulty, mild and compassionate to his enemies, and courteous to all,"-acknowledg- ing, too, that his only fault, as king, was his want of a legal title. The whole of the following year was character- ized by all the miseries of civil war-miseries which in this instance were fearfully increased by the fierce and bitter mode of warfare pursued by the nobles; and by the turbulent and barbarous conduct of the bands of mercenaries, whom Stephen had hired from Flanders to aid him in his efforts to retain possession of the throne. "More than ten thousand of these barbarians," says Ordericus Vita- lis, "were scattered over England, who neither spared holy places nor reverenced religion, but devastated, burnt, and slew, wherever they came. I am unable to trace to its full extent even part of the affliction which the church of God suffered in the persons of her children, who were like sheep daily slaughtered by their cruel sword." Nor were 110 MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. these atrocities committed only by the foreign mer- cenaries; the garrisons of the various castles and strongholds were accustomed to sally forth, drive off from the fields both sheep and oxen, and plunder the husbandmen of their very beds.* Nay more, "the devilish and wicked men," who, the Saxon Chronicle informs us filled these castles, "cruelly tortured men for their money. They laid taxes on towns, and when they had exhausted them of every thing set them on fire. You might travel a day and not find one man living in a town, nor any land tilled. Never did the country suffer greater evils. If two or three men were riding up to a town all its inhabitants fled, taking them for plunderers. The bishops and learned men," continues the venerable Chronicle, "cursed these military robbers continually; but the effect thereof was nothing to them, for they were all foresworn, accursed, and abandoned. To till the ground was to plough the sea; the earth bare no corn, for the land was laid waste by such deeds; and men said openly, that Christ slept, and his saints." After contemplating such a state of things, we feel almost inclined to give credence to the many tales which the chronicles of the period supply, of the sure though often long-delayed judgments which eventually befel these abandoned men. There was Robert Marmyun, a most wicked knight, who plundered churches, and burned monasteries, and at the head of his wicked band spread desolation far * Malmsbury. MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. 111 and near. One morning he set forth to plunder a church somewhere in Lincolnshire, and disdaining to dismount from his destrere, rode even up to the steps of the high altar. There he sat, while his rapacious soldiers tore cross, chalice, paten, and altar-cloth away and then giving the signal to de- part, he turned his head quickly round, and shook his brand menacingly at the affrighted monks :— never again did he turn his head; by the sudden start of his horse his neck was dislocated, and he fell on the pavement a lifeless corpse. There was Geoffrey de Magnaville, too, a powerful baron; for he was earl of Essex, and his aid was alternately courted by and alternately given to both Stephen and the empress. In his earlier day he seems to have been neither inhospitable nor indevout; since he was the founder of the abbey of Walden, the which he richly endowed, and caused it to be built where four roads met, that it might be most convenient for resort of pilgrims and travellers.* But this power- ful earl, having renounced his allegiance to the empress, went over to Stephen; and having soon after quarrelled with Stephen also, his castles were seized, and he was forced to fly. Then did he and his brother-in-law collect together a band of wicked men, and ride at their head, and far and wide spread the fear of that fierce and lawless company. It was he who plundered Ramsey abbey, and scarcely permitted the monks to depart with their lives; and he too it was, who used to send spies in * Dugdale. 112 MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. the garb of beggars into houses, and then, when they discovered any one to have property, they gave notice to their rapacious lord, who came down with his wicked company, and plundered him of all he possessed. But the vengeance of Heaven was at hand; for (soon after the bishop of Ely had solemnly, with tolling bell, closed books, and ex- tinguished taper, pronounced sentence of excommu- nication against him,) one day going on his usual trade of plunder, his horse threw him, and falling against a stone he miserably fractured his skull. There, on the road-side, lay that once powerful baron, praying aid from the passers by, (for all his wicked company had ridden off to secure their plunder); but no aid could he procure, although helpless and dying; until at length some Templars passed by, who, moved with pity for the dying man, sat down beside him, and spread their white mantles over him until he departed. His body was subse- quently conveyed to the house of the Templars in London; but, as he died under sentence of excom- munication, burial was forbidden; so they wrapt the body in lead, and hung it upon a tree in the garden, until, by the prayers and exertions of his family, the sentence was reversed. But the tale, which above all others excited the fear- ful wonder of our forefathers, was that of one Reimer a Poitevin, who came over to England, and joined himself to some one of the many companies of mer- cenaries, solely for the purpose of massacre and plunder. At length, having gained wealth sufficient to satisfy even his craving mind, he, with his wife MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. 113 and child, and all his wickedly-earned spoils, went on board a vessel that was to convey him to his own land. No sooner had the ship reached the mid-sea than a fearful darkness arose, and although the sails were all set, and the wind blew fair, and the rowers plied the oars right manfully, yet the vessel stood still. The affrighted mariners, well assured that some most wicked person was among them, deter- mined to cast lots: this was done; and three times the lots were cast, and three times it fell on Reimer. Then he, horror-stricken, confessed his evil doings; how men had asked mercy of him in vain, and how he had been foremost in all evil; and then the dark- ness still increasing, and the mariners being in such sore jeopardy, they took Reimer and his wife and child, and all his treasure, placed them in a boat, and cut the rope. Instantly the boat with its fatal freight was ingulfed in a whirlpool, while the bark, no longer spell-bound, cut the waves as the falcon cleaves the air, and arrived safe at her destined harbour. Tales such as these may be mere fiction; but they were not without their use in a rude but imagina- tive age. The fierce retainer, whom the thought of the gallows-tree was unavailing to deter from crime, trembled, wept, and perchance repented, when the rude tale of fearful retribution met his ear, and the proud and self-willed baron, whom neither argument or entreaty might stay, stopt in his career of evil, when reminded, by the pious legend, of the thou- sand unexpected ways in which Heaven interposes to avenge the feeble. I 114 MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. With even darker prospect did the succeeding year dawn upon the land; Ranulph, earl of Ches- ter, and his half brother William de Rolmara, had rebelled against Stephen, and had, by fraud, pos- sessed themselves of the strong castle of Lincoln, one of the most important fortresses in the king- dom. Thither, in consequence, went Stephen, and with him a numerous array of native troops and foreign mercenaries; and thither to support the earl of Chester and his brother came earl Robert of Gloster, and a well-appointed army. But fear and distrust prevailed on the king's side; a great eclipse of the sun, which had taken place in the preceding March, had "perplexed men's minds with chance and change," and, according to Malmsbury, had given rise to a saying, that the king would not continue a year in the government; and of this year almost eleven months had now expired. To increase the fears of Stephen and his friends, on the eve of Candlemas day, "while the servants of God were celebrating the vigils of the Purification, and expecting the dawn, there came hail and rain, and a terrible tempest," and an omen of more dread import than the lightning and thunder, "corruscations of appalling light, "*the woe-portending aurora. In the morning, the king and his suite attended so- lemn service in the cathedral; but omens of ill met him even there. Thrice the pyx with the conse- crated wafer fell down upon the altar; and the hal- lowed taper which he bore broke to pieces in his hand. *Ordericus Vitalis. MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. 115 Then came the battle of Lincoln; nor can we be surprised at its result. A general panic seems to have seized the followers of Stephen: Waleran, the brave earl of Mellent, fled away; the earl of Rich- mond and Britany quitted the still contested field with his Breton troops; and even the valliant Wil- liam d'Ypres, chief commander of the Flemish mer- cenaries (and who, for his great services, had scarcely a month before been created earl of Kent), fled like- wise away. Dugdale says, "he fled with purpose to reserve himself for better times;" thus anticipating the Hudibrastic precept. It is far more probable that these appalling and repeated omens of the storm and the aurora, and the falling pyx and the broken taper, impelled these brave and devoted men to their disgraceful flight. The sequel is well known; Ste- phen, after fighting most valiantly during the day, was captured by the earl of Gloster, and after hav- ing been brought before the empress, was "com- mitted close prisoner to the mighty fortress of Bristowe." This melancholy reverse of fortune seems to have rendered Stephen even more than ever the favourite of the people; and all the chronicles record their sorrow and indignation, when the news of his captivity was made known. In what part of the kingdom Maude of Boulogne was, at the period of this fatal battle, no chronicle informs us. It is not improbable that she was in London; since we find that it was not until more than three months after the empress's coronation at Winchester, that she induced her liege subjects, the citizens, to open I ? 116 MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. their gates to receive her. Whether the queen, how- ever, were residing among her faithful and attached citizens of London or not, we find that they took every opportunity of aiding her in the anxious ex- ertions which she now made to obtain her hus- band's release. On the 3rd of March the empress Maude re- ceived that guerdon which compensated her for all her anxieties—the crown, which was placed on her brow by the thrice-perjured bishop of Winchester, Stephen's own brother; and on the 7th of the fol- lowing month a great council was called in that city, to which a deputation of Londoners came, charged with a petition from their fellow-citizens, imploring the release of their king. To this sup- plication a conciliatory answer was made by the bishop of Winchester, who however remonstrated strongly with them; wherefore " they who were considered the chief people of England, and in the light of nobles," should join with those who had deserted their lord in battle, and whose evil coun- sels had caused all the sorrow which had now over- taken him. He also suggested, that the sole reason of Stephen's partizans urging the Londoners to come forward was, "that they might drain them of their money." Then the queen's chaplain, a priest named Christian, arose and presented a petition in her name, praying the whole body of the clergy, and especially him the most powerful of their num- ber, and the king's own brother, to aid in en- deavouring to restore the king to his kingdom, "from whence abandoned men had driven him MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. 117 (even such as were under homage), and had cast him into chains."* From this last expression, it would seem that Stephen, very soon after his arrival at Bristol castle, had been fettered by order of the empress, and not (as has been most generally sup- posed) subsequently to her expulsion from London. This petition was also refused; but Malmsbury informs us that it was a work of great difficulty to sooth the minds of the Londoners, who departed so mortified at their petition being refused, and not improbably hinting a possibility of revenge, that it was not until St. John's day that the empress dared to enter the capital of her kingdom. There, intoxicated with her proud fortune, she determined to make the Londoners feel the weight of her vengeance; she imposed on them a heavy fine, haughtily rejecting their prayer, "to be go- verned according to the laws of Edward the Con- fessor;" and when a deputation from them were admitted to her presence, and petitioned for some remission of their heavy fine, "she, with fierce countenance, her forehead wrinkled into frowns, and all feminine sweetness exiled from her face, drove them away with intolerable indignation," re- minding them that they had been always willing to expend their wealth in the king's service, and in conspiring against her; and that therefore she would neither "spare them in any thing, nor relax in the smallest matter. From this day, "the Londoners, ever suspicious, and murmuring among themselves," says Malmsbury, "broke out into open expressions *Gesta Stephani. + Ibid. 118 MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. of hatred," as indeed they might very naturally. But too self-willed to listen to argument, and too blinded by prosperity to foresee the coming storm, the empress at the same time rejected the second and most earnest supplication of the anxious queen, whose prayer, that her husband might be released on condition of his yielding up the kingdom, and be- coming a voluntary exile with her, in some far dis- tant land (probably that land the scene of her family's proudest triumphs, Palestine,) was met, not only with scornful rejection by the empress, but with "scoffs and taunts, and harsh and injurious re- vilings, "* of her attendant courtiers. While yet more, to fill up the measure of her scornful folly, she refused the most powerful churchman in the kingdom-him whose hand had placed on her head his brother's crown-the trifling boon that Stephen's eldest son Eustace should possess his mother's in- inheritance. Disdaining farther supplication, and depending on the aid of her tried friends the Londoners, Maude of Boulogne now sent summonses to Wil- liam d'Ypres, who was in Kent, to collect an army, and with her son Eustace be prepared to meet her; while she in the mean time "sent over from the opposite side of the river a most gallant array of soldiers;" (these being probably part of her tenantry from the paternal estates in Essex, who crossed over into Kent to join prince Eustace and William d'Ypres); and the united forces commenced a fierce and sanguinary warfare against the friends and ad- * Gesta Stephani. MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. 119 herents of the empress in Surrey. Still, although war was raging on the opposite side of the river, and the hostility of the Londoners was very clearly expressed, the empress thought not of danger; not even until the day when, as she was sitting down to dinner, a loud tumult was heard outside the gates of the castle, where she had taken her residence (probably Baynard's castle), and she was warned by a secret messenger, that unless she saved herself by instant flight, she would fall into the hands of the queen's army. Leaving the table cloth spread on the board, the empress and her suite mounted on the swiftest horses, fled as for their lives, and soon passing the city walls, pursued their way to Oxford, followed by numbers of the citizens, who, but for the extreme swiftness of their flight, would have overtaken and brought them back.* Ere the empress was out of sight, Maude of Boulogne and her army entered London; and the citizens, crowding round this gentle but high-minded woman, spontaneously swore allegiance to her and their captive sovereign. But to have chased away the empress, although from the capital of her king- dom, brought no gladness of heart to Maude of Boulogne, while her husband remained prisoner in the hands of his enemies. She therefore entered into a negotiation with her perjured but most powerful brother-in-law, the bishop of Winchester, and received from him assurances that, disgusted with the haughtiness of the empress, he had deter- mined to throw the weight of his influence again * Gesta Stephani. 120 MAUDE OF BOULOGNÉ. into the cause of Stephen. As the city of Win- chester was at this period considered a place of equal importance with the metropolis, Henry of Winches- ter set himself vigorously to fortify it; more espe- cially as the castle was in the hands of the empress's adherents, who sent to her immediate intelligence of the defection of him, her most powerful ally. Instantly on receiving this unwelcome news, the empress summoned to her standard her brave bro- ther-in-law the earl of Gloster, the numerous barons who still adhered to her cause, and sent a pressing message to her uncle David of Scotland, to repair to her at Winchester, whither she pro- ceeded with her army. Here she was admitted into the castle, and awaited the arrival of her friends. And thither came Robert of Gloster, and Reignold earl of Cornwall, and Milo earl of Hereford, and Ranulph earl of Chester, "and many more, whom it would be tedious to mention," says the author of the Gesta Stephani. But Maude of Boulogne was not inactive: she summoned her brave and trusty William d'Ypres and earl Waleran; and with a numerous company of Londoners she advanced to Winchester, to succour her brother-in-law, whose episcopal palace, situated scarcely an arrow-shot from the castle, was sustain- ing an active siege. Seven weeks did the contest of these rival queens continue; and during this time the wealthy and royal city of Winchester in- curred irreparable injury. By night and by day, fires, caused by the inflammable missiles cast from the castle battlements and the towers of the epis- MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. 121 copal palace against each other, broke out in the city; and ere the long siege concluded, two abbeys and forty churches, besides private dwellings, were consumed. At length success, far more complete than her own hopes, or even the expectations of her warm- est partizans had warranted, crowned the strenu- ous exertions of Maude of Boulogne. The castle yielded; the empress and her whole army fled; while, not merely did many wealthy and powerful nobles fall into the hands of the pursuing victors, but earl Robert of Gloster was made prisoner. The joy of the queen at this last most important advan- tage, knew no bounds; for she now felt assured that her husband's release from captivity was at hand; and anxious to secure this end, for which alone she had laboured so unceasingly for the last six months, she entered into immediate negotiations with her prisoner. In these for some time she was foiled; Gloster objecting to being exchanged for the king, unless his fellow-nobles were set free also; and her followers, who hoped to obtain large sums of mo- ney in ransom for the captive lords, opposing with equal determination her views. Gloster, during these negotiations, was committed to Rochester castle, where the general liberality of his treatment con- trasted strongly and most favourably, with the dis- graceful conduct pursued towards the king. Still, indefatigable in her endeavours to procure the libera- tion of Stephen, Maude of Boulogne pursued her negotiation. She visited Gloster in his prison; and finding bribes, such as a queen alone could offer, 122 MAUDE OF BOulogne. unavailing to gain him over, she had recourse to threats, and assured the captive earl that he should be sent close prisoner over seas to her hereditary town of Boulogne, unless he joined with her in her exertions to obtain the freedom of the king. Gloster is said to have replied, that death was as near in Rochester castle as at Boulogne; and his friend and eulogist, Malmsbury, assures us, that this spirited reply deterred the queen from her purpose. Other writers have given a different and a more probable reason for her leniency; it is, that, if the queen had sent Gloster to Boulogne, his wife, a high spirited woman, and equally devoted to her husband, would retaliate, by immediately sending Stephen over to Ireland. At length, after many fruitless conferences and many long delayed negotiations, Gloster was ex- changed, on All-Saints'-day, for Stephen, who, after a captivity of nine months, was again restored to freedom. From this period to that of her too early death, the history of Maude of Boulogne will be found rather in the pages of the Monasticon, than in the records of the chronicler. Early in the following year, not im- probably from feelings of gratitude to Heaven for the liberation of her husband, she founded and en- dowed the Cistercian abbey of Coggeshall; she also, about this time, like her aunt and namesake, upon the death of the abbess of Barking, took the administration of the affairs of that convent, until the election of a successor, into her own hands. In the year 1146 or 1147, Stephen, now enjoying MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. 123 the blessings of comparative peace, determined to found an abbey; and Maude, desiring to join with him in what was then considered so good a work, offered the manor of Lillechurch, part of her in- heritance, which, together with the king's manor of Middleton, was exchanged with William d'Ypres for his manor of Faversham, which, with other lands, had been granted to him on his creation as earl of Kent. The king and queen then removed the prior Clarembald and twelve monks from the Clugniac priory of Bermondsey, to Faversham, where a noble abbey was swiftly built; and Clarembald being ap- pointed abbot of the new foundation, it was so- lemnly dedicated in the presence of the king and queen, and a great concourse of the nobility, to "the Saviour of the world." So anxious was the queen for the completion of this work, that it is said that, during most of the time it was building, she was accustomed to reside at the abbey of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, to be near at hand to give the necessary orders. The last work of charity and devotion in which Maude of Boulogne engaged, was the foundation of that hospital, which, amid the general wreck of monastic establishments, alone, of all the splendidly endowed charities of the queens of England, even to the present day remains. This was the hospital of St. Katherine near the Tower, which was founded in 1148 for the repose of the souls of Baldwin and Maude, the two eldest children of the queen, both of whom died in infancy. The site, on which there was a mill, she purchased of the priory of the Holy 124 MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. Trinity, to whose superintendence she committed the new foundation. It consisted of a master, bre- thren, sisters, and alms people; and the revenues and endowments were most ample. The queens consort of England are by law perpetual patronesses, this hospital being considered part of their dower; "they nominate, pleno jure, the master, brethren, and sisters; may increase or lessen their number; and remove them, alter the statutes, or make new, at their pleasure." For many centuries did the lowly towers of Saint Katherine attract the gaze, and the prayer of the outward-bound mariner; and through many generations was the topsail lowered in reverence to its tutelar saint, as the well-manned galley, or huge carrack, laden with the precious freights of early commerce, slowly passed along. But those towers have crumbled into dust; and the noble church, erected in later days by a sister queen, has been but as yesterday ruthlessly destroyed of all the establishments founded by the pious gratitude of Maude of Boulogne, not even a nodding arch or a shattered column remains. From the period of the foundation of the hospital of St. Katherine's, to the time of her death, no additional notice of Maude of Boulogne can be found. Although, subsequently to the return of the em- press to Anjou, and the death of her two most powerful supporters, the earl of Gloster and the earl of Hereford, England reposed in comparative peace; still it seemed to be the fate of Stephen, that perfect quiet was to be his, only in the grave. MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. 125 Scarcely was the temporal sword returned to its scabbard, ere he was menaced by the spiritual; for Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, having quar- relled with the haughty legate, the bishop of Win- chester, Stephen was compelled, at the mandate of his too powerful brother, to prohibit his leaving the kingdom. The archbishop, who had been sum- moned to attend a council at Rheims, went; and having on his return been, by the king's direction, refused re-admission into the kingdom, he repaired to Framlingham, where, protected by the powerful earl of Norfolk, he proceeded to lay those counties that adhered to Stephen under interdict. The legate, at length, probably thinking that hostilities had gone to a sufficient length, by some means, not recorded, effected a reconciliation. Ere this was effected, Maude of Boulogne was no more. She died at Hevingham castle, in Essex, on the 3d of May, 1151, leaving three children :-the eldest, Eustace, who was betrothed to Constance, sister of Louis the seventh of France, but who followed his mother to the grave within a year and a half; Mary, who became abbess of Romsey, but fled from thence with Matthew earl of Flanders, whom she married; and William, who, on the accession of Plantagenet, was confirmed in the earldoms of Bou- logne and Moretoil, but who died at the siege of Thoulouse in 1159, leaving no heir. The remains of Maude of Boulogne were con- veyed by her sorrowing family to her favourite abbey of Feversham, where, amid all the imposing ceremonial and splendid rites of the period, they 126 MAUDE OF BOULOGNE. were consigned to that tomb, in which, ere three years had passed away, both husband and eldest son found their last resting place. Through almost four centuries—even until the noble abbey of Feversham, at the mandate of the eighth Henry, bowed her mitred head to the dust-was the prayer daily said, and the requiem sung; and scarcely could prayer be more appropriate than that which implored, for the worn and weary spirits of Maude and Stephen, the boon of eternal repose; or breathed over their moulder- ing remains the simple and most touching supplica- tion, "Requiescant in pace." 127 MAUDE THE EMPRESS. CHAPTER VI. Her early Marriage to the Emperor, Henry V. His death - Her Return to her Father, and Recognition as future Queen-Marriage with Geoffrey Plantagenet Separation, and Residence at Rouen- Reconciliation - The Death of her Father-Her Arrival in En- gland Events there-Final Return to Normandy-Her Religious Foundations-Her Death. ALTHOUGH, in the preceding memoir, the most important period of the empress Maude's life has passed under review, still the history of one who was the most illustrious woman of her day, who was the first queen that wore the crown by hereditary right, and who was the mother of our Plantagenets, presents much to awaken the interest of the reader. Maude the empress, as she is generally termed to distinguish her from her mother and cousin, was born in the fourth year of her father's reign, and was the second child of the "good queen Maude.” Unlike her mother, nurtured to mature age in the quiet seclusion of a convent; unlike her cousin, rising by slow degrees to her regal elevation; the young Maude, soon after she had quitted her cradle, was destined to an imperial diadem. With Beau- clerc (who, from the respect paid to him by the 128 MAUDE THE EMPRESS. continental sovereigns, seems well to have earned the title so commonly given him by the monkish historians, of "most powerful ") the emperor, Henry V. of Germany formed an alliance, and, according to the monk of Jumieges, demanded his infant daughter in marriage. A proposal so flatter- ing to the ambitious mind of Beauclerc, was not to be postponed to a distant and uncertain day ;- accordingly the chosen bride of him who swayed the sceptre of the Cæsars, now between six and seven years of age, at the beginning of April in the year 1110, was committed to the charge "of one Roger, son of Richard, a kinsman of the king;" who, with a royal train of attendants, conveyed her from Daver to Witsand, and from thence to Utrecht, where they were received with every honour by the emperor and his court, who welcomed his infant bride "with the ineffable joy of a second father.”* It is not improbable that the splendid gifts which, "after the royal usage,” Henry sent with his daughter, and her princely marriage portion of 10,000 marks, might have had some effect in producing this "ineffable joy;" for the emperor advanced no claim to imperial contempt of wealth; however, the little Maude was betrothed on the Sunday after Easter, and subse- quently, at the feast of St. James, she was conducted to Mentz, where, amid a splendid assembly of "counts and bishops," the imperial crown was placed on her baby brow by the archbishop of Cologne the archbishop of Treves, during the im- *Simeon of Durham. † Jumieges, p. 573. MAUDE THE EMPRESS. 129 posing ceremony, “most reverently" holding the little empress in his arms. After the coronation young Maude was consigned to the care of the archbishop who had taken such reverend care of her, in order that her education might be com- pleted; and, especially, "that she might be taught the Teutonic tongue, and to comport herself ac- cording to Teutonic usages." Nearly five years after, on the feast of Epiphany, 1115, the young empress was again conducted to Mentz, when the ceremony of marriage took place, and when a second time she was solemnly crowned. Subsequently to this period, for a space of twelve years, we find no notice of her whatever from an answer sent to her by her father many years after, we learn that she accompanied her husband in his journeys to Rome, and, "once and again," was crowned by the pontiff himself. From an incidental notice, too, in Simeon of Durham, it appears that the emperor was much attached to his youthful bride; but these two slight notices comprize the whole of the information which can now be ob- tained. Enough, however, regarding her earlier life is recorded, to palliate very greatly those charges of indomitable pride, and impetuous self-will, which have been brought against the empress by every historian. Creatures of circumstances, as the very best and wisest of human beings in a great mea- sure are, some excuse may surely be found for her who was emancipated from all controul of parents and teachers, at an age when education had scarcely commenced, and who was placed in the very centre K 130 MAUDE THE EMPRESS. of regal splendor, at the most susceptible period of life; for her, on whose infant finger the first po- tentate of Europe had placed the marriage-ring, and whose infant brow had been spanned by the diadem of the Cæsars. Indeed, when we contemplate the injurious influ- ences to which the empress Maude, during the first twenty-three years of her life, was subjected, although we may not be able wholly to vindicate her con- duct, we shall be inclined rather to admire the good qualities which remained undestroyed, than to se- verely censure those evil ones, which, surrounded by such strong temptations to make self the centre, she could not but inevitably contract. Even at the period when the imperial court shone in its most imposing splendor, men looked with un- defined feelings of horror upon the emperor; for they remembered the perjury of the son, and his perfidious counsel to his too confiding father, and the mock judgment of the dignitaries of the Teu- tonic church, which wrested the sceptre from the grasp of that father to place it in the hands of the unnatural son. And popular recollection dwelt on each circumstance of the forced abdication of the hapless Henry IV.; on the feeling of imperial dig- nity which made him array himself in the proud in- signia of his office, and dare the commissioners to deprive him of them; and on that passionate appeal to Heaven, when crown and mantle were alike torn away by the archbishops of Mayence and Cologne, "God all powerful, God of vengeance! do Thou avenge my cause." Surely, in the court of such a MAUDE THE EMPRESS. 131 monarch—one on whom each eye was fixed in an- ticipation of the just retribution of Heaven, and against whom the premature grave, to which grief had consigned the heart-broken father, sent up a voiceless but powerful cry for vengeance * ;-surely, in such a court, and in such companionship, ill could those lessons of moderation, and justice, and mercy be learnt which in after years Maude the em- press so greatly needed. At length, after nineteen years, the long delayed vengeance of Heaven overtook the parricide empe- ror; civil war broke out in the land—a war which, with all his resources, he was unable to quell. Still little might he have heeded outward troubles, had his mind been at ease; but conscience had resumed her long-forsaken empire, and, torn with remorse and unavailing sorrow for the part he had taken against his father, he expired at Utrecht on July 1st, 1125. This simple tale of retribution was not, however, sufficient for the marvel-loving chronicler; and therefore the wild and awful story was told, how one night, "the lights being extinguished, and the attendants away, the emperor arose from the imperial bed, and casting aside the royal gar- ments, and clothing himself in woollen, quitted for ever his treasures, his empress, his empire, and departing barefooted from the palace, was never after seen."t *The account of the infamous deposition of the emperor Henry V., as it is to be found in all the histories of Germany, needs not to be given here. + Iloveden. K 2 132 MAUDE THE EMPRESS. As the emperor, Henry the Fifth, left no heir, he was succeeded by his nephew, Lotharius; and the empress, unable to gain possession of those fortresses which had been awarded to her as her dower, returned to her father, who was then in Nor- mandy, bringing with her some portion of the late emperor's treasure, among which is particularly noticed the imperial crown, and "the incorrupted hand of James the apostle." This "incorrupted" relic Henry devoutly consigned to the convent of Reading; the crown he placed in his own treasury of Winchester. In Normandy the empress seems to have continued the part of the year 1125, and during the following until the close of August, when she accompanied her father to England. About this period we find Hildebert addressing to her some very graceful Latin verses, which may be found in his works.* In them, he eulogizes her person and manners, and exults that although one Maude, "the glory of womanhood" had been con- signed to the grave, yet that her illustrious train of virtues survives in the daughter,-a poetical illusion, which succeeding events soon dispelled. On the 1st of January of the subsequent year, Henry, disappointed in his hopes of a male heir to the crown, summoned a cour plenière at London, and caused all his lords, lay and spiritual, to take an oath of allegiance to his daughter, "unless he should have a son." This object being effected, the king, soon after, set sail to Normandy with his daughter and a few chosen lords; where he imme- diately commenced negotiations with Fulke, count * Page 1334. MAUDE THE EMPRESS. 133 of Anjou, for the marriage of the empress with his eldest son. An alliance with the daughter of Fulke, it will be remembered, had been formed by Henry's only son, William the Adeling, who had been lost in that disastrous wreck of the "White ship;" and the king, anxious to secure the friendly aid of so powerful a neighbour for his Norman possessions, determined, without loss of time, ere Fulke should return to Palestine to receive the hand of the princess Millicent and the reversionary right to the crown of Jerusalem, to complete his daughter's marriage with young Geoffrey Plantagenet. both her marriages, Maude the empress was consi- dered by her father as the mere passive instrument for advancing his ambitious views. All considera- tions of suitability of age were therefore cast aside; and, as in the first instance the child of seven was betrothed to the husband of thirty, in her second marriage the woman of twenty-four was wedded to the boy of fifteen. In Ere this ill-assorted union took place, an agree- ment seems to have been entered into between the king and the count, that young Geoffrey, to whom his father had made over the county of Anjou, should have some share in the government of Nor- mandy immediately upon his marriage with the empress. This agreement, however, was never ful- filled on the part of Henry, and thus foundation. was laid for those jealousies and hostilities on the part of Geoffrey, which embittered the old king's last days. But no sad anticipations of future ill, or of future 134 MAUDE THE EMPRESS. vexation, disturbed the mind of the politic Henry, when at Rouen he met his destined son-in-law; nor did aught but visions of joy and satisfied ambition float before the eyes of the haughty boy, ere long to be so proudly allied, when the splendid festival was proclaimed, and all the barons of Normandy were summoned to witness, as a preparatory step to his marriage, his solemn admission into the order of knighthood. From the account of a contempo- rary chronicler it appears, that on this occasion the young aspirant for the honours of chivalry was provided with splendid armour from the royal trea- sury. The account, with all its minuteness, is in- teresting; particularly so, inasmuch as it seems to determine the question, what were the arms of England at this period, and also the date of ar morial bearings being blazoned upon the shield. They put him on," says the chronicler, "an in- comparable habergeon, composed of double plates of steel, scalloped (scale mail) so that no arrow or lance could penetrate it; boots of iron equally strong, with gilt spurs on his feet. Around his neck they hung a shield, with little lions of gold,* and on his head a helmet glittering with precious stones. They brought him a lance of ash, armed with the steel of Poictou, and a sword from the royal trea- sures, where it had been laid up from the old time, being the workmanship of Galan."t Jousts seem to 66 * The arms of Anjou were a chief urgent on a field gules; an escar- buncle, or, over all. These arms therefore must have been in honour of his bride. † Vide Histoire Litteraire de France, vol. ix. p. 165. MAUDE THE EMPRESS. 135 have been subsequently held; and it may here be remarked, that this is the earliest notice which has hi- therto been discovered respecting them. "Our young aspirant being thus armed," continues the chronicler, "with wondrous agility leapt on his horse, and, without stirrup, flew off with graceful speed. That day being dedicated to the celebration of his novi- ciate, passed wholly away in warlike sports; and the seven subsequent days were likewise devoted to feastings." At the end of this time, and on the octave of Pentecost, amid yet more splendid festi- vals and rejoicings, the reluctant hand of the wi- dowed empress was yielded to that boy, who, in despite of the lowly emblem, the broom, which he had selected as his badge, was the haughtiest of the representatives of what had justly been termed the proudest family in Europe. Three weeks were assigned to the nuptial festivities; and at length Henry (who, fond as he was of splendid festivals, never suffered his gratification to interfere with his interest,) anxious to revisit his English dominions, took leave of his son and daughter, "solemnly, with the kiss of peace," and the new-married pair, with their father the count, departed from Rouen to Mans. At Mans, the chief city of the province of Anjou, the same chronicler relates, that "their new lord and lady were received by all classes with affectionate gratulation; the walls of the churches were adorned with silks and tapestry, and the whole body of the clergy, in white robes and copes, bearing tapers, and crosses, and service-books, advanced to meet them with chant and anthem; and thus," 136 MAUDE THE EMPRESS. says he, "they were received, and thenceforward led their days in happiness." History, which like real life so often puts to flight the visions of romance, will not in this in- stance confirm the too precipitate anticipation of the delighted chronicler. From the period of the mar- riage rejoicings, the empress, who could ill brook her imperial title being merged in that of mere countess of Anjou, began to prove, by her haughty carriage and contemptuous treatment of those around her, how greatly she contemned the alliance into which her father's selfish policy had forced her. But the young earl, although scarcely passed the age of boyhood, met the haughty spirit of the empress with a spirit equally haughty; and after a series of contests (in which, as affection was wholly absent, neither sought, or even heeded conciliation,) the empress, about the beginning of 1129, indignantly quitted Mans, and, according to Simeon of Durham, returned to Rouen, in a manner that strongly con- trasted with the proud array wherewith, not two years before, she had quitted it, "dejected, without state, and with very few attendants." When the news arrived in England, Henry's angry feelings were strongly excited; it does not, however, appear that he took any immediate measures against his son-in-law; but he appointed for his daughter a royal establishment at Rouen, where she continued to reside for more than two years. Soon after her arrival in this her favourite city, Maude the empress fell seriously ill, and for a long time her life was despaired of. "And now," MAUDE THE EMPRESS. 137 says the monk of Jumieges, "greatly did she dis- play her wisdom and piety in the means which she invoked for her recovery. Riches-not only those incomparable and imperial treasures which she brought with her from Italy, but royal wealth, with which paternal munificence supplied her from the inexhaustible treasures of the English" (so early were we celebrated among our continental neigh- bours for our abundant riches);-" all these her de- vout hand distributed among churches, and the reli- gious of divers provinces and of both sexes, and to the poor, to the widow, and to the orphan; neither did she even withhold the silken couch whereon during her sickness she lay, but commanded it to be cut in pieces and sold, and the price to be given to the lepers, that they might pray for her." In these prayers for her recovery, in which almost all the religious houses in Normandy joined, none were so fervent and so incessant, as those of the inmates of the celebrated abbey of Bec. Success, however, does not appear to have immediately crowned the supplications of these holy men; and, for a long time, the empress seemed to have lingered between life and death. While yet without hopes of recovery, she sent messengers to her father to solicit, not a crown or a kingdom, but a grave; and that not in a royally en- dowed cathedral, but in the lowly abbey of Bec. The answer of the haughty father to this touching request was singularly characteristic: he replied by a proud remonstrance to his dying child, demand- ing wherefore she, his daughter, and the wife of an 138 MAUDE THE EMPRESS. ~ emperor; she who "once and again in the Romu- lean city, the head of the whole world, had received the imperial diadem from the hands of the sove- reign pontiff himself; " should ask burial in so mean a place. In conclusion, he bade her give up all hope of being buried there, for that she should lie in the cathedral of Rouen; keeping, even in the grave, high company, "with Rollo and William Long- sword," and the other illustrious progenitors of her race.* But all proud recollections of birth or state had faded from the mind of the once haughty em- press, and her subdued spirit dwelt in grateful recollection of the prayers and services of the monks of Bec, "who, before all, and above all, had laboured for her recovery;" and she felt that a lowly grave, over which their prayers might be daily said, would be more desirable than the proudest monument in the most royally endowed cathedral. She sent another, and a yet more pressing supplica- tion to her father; and Beauclerc, at length relent- ing, conceded the trifling boon. But much was to be done, and there was much for her to do, ere the empress should take up her last abode in the abbey church of Bec. "We firmly be- lieve, and it is most worthy of belief," says the monk of Jumieges, "that the most righteous Judge of all, doth not only in the other world, but in this, recom- pense an hundred-fold those who have been open- handed to his servants;" and he relates that she soon after completely recovered. It is probable that the attention which the em- * Jumicges. MAUDE THE EMPRESS. 139 press received from the religious orders in the city of Rouen, and the grateful affection with which her munificent gifts inspired the inhabitants, laid the foundation of that strong attachment to the capital of Normandy, which thenceforward, even to the day of her death, the empress cherished. During the whole period of her residence there, we find no account of any overtures of reconciliation, either on her side or on the part of her husband; and, on her recovery, she appears to have visited England. In the September of the following year a council was held at Northampton; and Henry a second time caused his barons to swear fealty to the em- press; he also acquainted them that at length the young earl had sent messengers to solicit the return of his wife. To this request the king and his coun- cil assented, and Maude took her departure to Mans, after more than two years' absence. From this time to the year 1138, when she revi- sited England to contest the crown with her cousin Stephen, very little information can be obtained. In March, 1133, her eldest son Henry Plantagenet was born; in the following year her second son Geoffrey; and in the subsequent year, not long be- fore the death of her father, her third and youngest son William. During these years Henry continued much displeased with Geoffrey, although open hos- tility never broke out between them. The young earl was irritated at being still kept from the pos- session of Normandy; and he is accused, by writers favourable to Henry, of taking every opportunity to sow dissentions and sedition there. Henry, on the 140 MAUDE THE EMPRESS. other hand, is accused of having violated his solemn promise of yielding up Normandy; and the empress is charged with having fomented and encouraged these differences, instead of acting as mediatrix. On the correctness of these accusations, at so distant a period as the present day, it is difficult to decide. Not improbably the greater part were true; for (judging from the character of these three celebrated persons, in each of whom indomitable pride and most determinate self-will were so conspicuous), the conduct assigned to each, in the pages of the chro- nicle, is at least perfectly consistent. A third time, on the birth of his first grandchild, did Henry, in the fulness of his joy, demand an oath of allegiance from his barons to his daughter; and in this instance he associated the name of the infant with that of his mother, and swore them to be faithful to Maude and her son. The same oath he caused his Norman subjects to take; and on his death-bed he bequeathed his dominions to his daughter and his darling grandson. In all these arrangements the husband and the father saw himself contemptuously thrust aside. No wonder was it therefore that when the death of Beauclerc offered to the empress the vacant throne, Plantagenet evinced no anxiety to secure it to her; and we may well pardon the pride of the irritated count, which refused to set lance in rest to place a sceptre denied to him in the baby-hand of his son ; or to bind a diadem on the brow of his wife, while he remained content with a mere earl's coro- net. For the Norman possessions of Beauclerc, Plan- MAUDE THE EMPRESS. 141 tagenet felt a strong desire; and rather as an enemy (determined to win the land" by his own good sword," than as the husband of the rightful heir,) did he on the death of his father-in-law enter Nor- mandy. But the Norman barons were bold and brave; they drove him back with great loss, and immediately sent over to Stephen offers of allegi- ance and aid. A vigorous effort to secure Normandy for the empress was made by her devoted brother, Robert of Gloster, immediately upon the decease of the king; and in prosecution of this object he scattered profusely among the various towns the money which had been hoarded up by the late king at the place of his decease. But even golden arguments were in this instance employed in vain. The descendants of the fierce Northmen, accustomed to behold a war- rior king, refused to submit to female sway, and demanded a sovereign who could poise the lance, wield the ponderous battle axe, and, superior in strength as well as station, lead them on against their foemen. The absolute impracticability of maintaining the cause of the empress in Normandy, no less than in England, at length became evident to the mind of her devoted half-brother; and he "earnestly consi- dered," says Malmsbury, "what course he should pursue. If he became subject to Stephen it was contrary to his oath; if opposed to him, he saw that he could in nothing benefit his sister or his nephews, though he must grievously injure himself;" strong proof, and from a most competent witness, a 142 MAUDE THE EMPRESS. of the attachment of the great body of the people to their chosen, though not hereditary king. Glos- ter therefore passed over to England, and did ho- mage to Stephen for his numerous important fiefs; and retiring to his castle at Bristol, awaited, in a kind of armed neutrality, the appearance of a re-ac- tion in favour of the empress and her heirs. The following year Lisieux was attacked by Geoffrey Plantagenet and William duke of Acquitaine; and the Bretons, who were the garrison, seeing no hope of rescue, burned the town;-an act which contri- buted greatly to strengthen that hostility which the Normans had heretofore borne to the house of An- jou. On the arrival of Stephen in Normandy the enemy was driven back; but so anxious was the English king to preserve the peace of Normandy, that he offered a pecuniary compensation to his op- ponent,—a compensation which a valiant knight, and representative of the proudest family in Europe, did not consider degrading to receive. From this event to the time of his death, Geoffrey Plantagenet seems to have given up all thoughts of reclaiming his wife's hereditary dominions, and to have devoted himself wholly to his native subjects, "whom," whom," says his before-quoted eulogist, "he ruled with a rod of equity." But however apparently the empress Maude, by her two years' silent acquiescence in the choice of Stephen, might seem to have given up her claim to the throne, ambition was still active in her mind; and on the first indications of a re-action in her fa- vour, at the summons and under the protection of MAUDE THE EMPRESS. 143 her half brother Gloster, she set sail for England. The subsequent events, up to the decisive battle of Lincoln, have been already detailed in the preced- ing memoir, and we have now to trace her trium- phant journey (after the captive monarch had been introduced to her presence) from Lincoln to Win- chester; and from thence, after some delay, to the metropolis of her newly-gained kingdom. On the second of March the victorious empress met the bishop of Winchester, by arrangement, on a plain near the city; and there, ere permitted to take possession of the castle and the royal treasures, she swore that he should have direction of all the great affairs of the kingdom, and especially all church pa- tronage; the earl of Gloster and the chief lords of her party, after the old Saxon form, becoming pledges for the due performance of her oath. The bishop, in like manner, on his side swore fidelity to the queen, with that excellent saving clause, "so long as she should fulfil her part of the contract." The following morning the exulting empress, now placed at the very summit of her wishes, was re- ceived with royal honours at the castle of Win- chester; when she caused herself to be instantly proclaimed queen in the market-place; and then set out in solemn procession to the cathedral, supported on the one hand by the bishop of Winchester (who, as legate, in the absence of the archbishop of Can- terbury, occupied his place,) and on the left hand by the bishop of St. David's, as primate of Wales. There, amid the acclamations of her fol- lowers, she was solemnly crowned by the own bro- 144 MAUDE THE EMPRESS. ther of that king, whom she had doomed to a dun- geon and fetters. After this, the same worthy prelate, ascending the pulpit, pronounced a blessing upon all her friends, and anathema upon all who might oppose her. From Winchester the empress soon after retired to Wilton; where, after some de- lay, she received the homage of the archbishop of Canterbury, and the rest of the bishops ;-the pri- mate, in this instance, with a scrupulosity that most favourably contrasted with the carelessness of his episcopal brethren, refusing to offer homage to the new occupier of the throne, until released by Ste- phen himself from the oath formerly taken to him. From Wilton, Maude the empress removed to Read- ing, and from Reading to Oxford, where she kept Easter in royal state. But even thus early, ere the crown was firmly placed on her brow, did the empress, by her in- tolerable pride and haughty contempt of the people over whom she bore rule, excite the bitterest hatred of her enemies, and awaken the worst fears of her friends. Although wearing the very crown whose possession had sufficed for the towering ambition of her wise and politic father, she pertinaciously clung, in recollection, to the imperial diadem which had spanned her infant brow, and gloried more in the mere title of empress, than in the substantial dignity of queen of England. In her grants, the title, “ Mathildis Imperatrix," always appears; while on her great seal, in the only instance wherein the Imperatrix" is exchanged for that of "Re- gina," with a strange perversity she seems to have name “ MAUDE THE EMPRESS. 145 been unwilling to acknowledge her own subjects; and on the legend of this important state instru- ment we actually read, "Mathildis Dei gratia Ro- manorum Regina." * Nor were these instances of contempt for the people over whom she was placed, mere indications of passing caprice; her whole conduct toward her own countrymen proved that she considered them rather as vanquished aliens, than as native subjects; and petitions for well-recognized and chartered rights, although presented by the inhabitants of the metropolis, to which she was now hastening, in order to receive that recognition which every Norman sovereign had anxiously pressed to obtain, were re- jected with haughty scorn, and menaces of future punishment. The same extravagant pride which led the em- press to commit the fatal error of irremediably offending the citizens of London, caused her to irri- tate, and eventually to separate from her interests, many of those who had been her warmest and most efficient friends. To these, on occasions when they approached her to solicit any boon, she was accus- tomed to express herself with much haughtiness, and even to suffer them (and the equally haughty bishop of Winchester was among the number) to kneel before her footstool during the whole interview. Her most ill-advised and unjust refusal of this pre- late's moderate request, that his nephew Eustace might possess his mother's hereditary possessions, * Vide the seal in Sandford. L 146 MAUDE THE EMPRESS. was "the last drop poured into the already full cup;" and from thenceforth" the waters of bitter- ness began to flow." Passing over the events which forced her so pre- cipitately to flee from London, we next find her occupying the castle of Winchester, and, supported by all her most powerful adherents, resolutely laying siege to the bishop's palace; while she, on her part, was besieged by Maude of Boulogne, aided by William d'Ypres, with his Flemish auxiliaries, and by a large body of the London citizens. During this long and disastrous siege the rich and extensive abbey of Hyde was destroyed by fire; and the chroniclers, with well-grounded indignation, relate how that Henry of Winchester, having discovered that the large cross belonging to that monastery had been damaged, he stripped it of the gold and jewels with which it had been adorned, and placing the latter among his own treasures, made use of the former to pay his own troops. Seven weeks did the siege continue. At length, on the eve of Holy-Rood-day, a cessation of hosti- lities for eight-and-forty hours, according to the established usage of the church, was proclaimed; and eagerly did both the besieged and the besiegers hail this short interval of repose. At this time great distress, for want of provisions, prevailed in the cas- tle of Winchester; and the haughty empress, yield- ing up all hopes of ultimate victory, now limited her desires to the mere securing a safe retreat. In * It was said to have been the gift of Canute. MAUDE THE EMPRESS. 147 this emergency, her devoted brother-in-law, Gloster, taking advantage of this short truce, hastily sum- moned a chosen company of men-at-arms, on whom he could rely, and placing them under the conduct of David of Scotland and the earl of Cornwall, committed the empress to their care; and bidding them proceed by the road to Gloster, during the darkness of the night, promised to follow them with the remainder of the garrison, and thus cover their retreat. Accordingly, ere break of day, the em- press and her little company cautiously quitted the castle by a postern gate, and proceeded on her way to Gloster. Scarcely had they set out ere the bishop re- ceived intelligence of their flight; and unwilling that so important a prize should escape him, regard- less of the truce proclaimed by himself, he immedi- ately dispatched his garrison in pursuit of them. But Gloster had acted with decisive promptitude, and had already with his whole force quitted the castle. Thus, when the bishop's troops came up with the fugitives, they discovered, not a small company of men-at-arms in attendance on the flying empress, but the formidable earl of Gloster, and the whole of his brave company. It was at Stockbridge that the pursuers overtook the pursued; and there, to allow his sister yet more time to escape, that most devoted of brothers turned to give battle. But his bravest exertions were vain; his followers were nearly all killed, or taken prisoners; and he, ere evening, ex- ulting that the empress had escaped, found himself a captive in the hands of his enemies. L ? 148 MAUDE THE EMPRESS. In the mean time the empress arrived at the castle of Lugdershall; from whence, after but a few hours of repose, she was forced to flee. A second time, as at London, she was saved by the swiftness of her horse, and she gained Devizes. She was not, however, long permitted to remain there, and by some stratagem* she was conveyed to Gloster, where she learned the total ruin of her projects, by the captivity of her valiant and devoted brother. To obtain the release of this all-important auxiliary of her cause, the empress now bent every energy; nor, had it depended merely on the wishes of the rival queens, would nearly three months have elapsed ere their mutual exertions were crowned with success. The empress Maude would have will- ingly acceded to the proposal of exchanging the sovereign for the subject, and the castle of Bristol would soon have given up its royal prisoner in ex- change for its illustrious master, had not the mer- cenary nobles, who adhered to the queen, protested against the unheard-of plan of placing a noble, how- ever powerful, in the balance with a monarch; and anxious to secure high ransoms for those barons whom the last contest had thrown into their hands, they vehemently opposed the proposition, and from different motives seconded the generous objections of the captive earl, who refused to be set at liberty, unless his fellow-prisoners might be free also. At length, on All-Saints'-day, the exchange was * The common story of her being conveyed to Gloster on a bier, as it is neither mentioned by Malmsbury, nor the author of Gesta Stephani, is most probably without foundation. MAUDE THE EMPRESS. 149 made, and the precaution of the empress's party, on this occasion, gave melancholy proof that the prin- ciples of chivalrous honour were but little regarded, even by the chief men of the kingdom. As the earl was confined in Rochester castle, and the king in that of Bristol, it was necessary that one should be released previously to the other, and this advan- tage was accorded to Stephen. Fearing, therefore, that the king's friends, when he was set at liberty, would refuse to fulfil their part of the contract, the earl and his friends not merely exacted oaths from the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of Winchester, which, for further security, were noti- fied, under their own hands and seals, and forwarded to the pope; but the queen and one of her sons actually became hostages for the release of the earl, and remained as such in Bristol castle until he had safely arrived there. But the joy with which the empress welcomed her devoted brother was soon allayed by the recollection that all her anxieties, and all his unremitted exer- tions, had been in vain; Stephen, the darling of the people, was free again, and supported, too, by that powerful prelate, whose representations had induced the empress to come over to England, and whose influence, as it had placed the crown on her brow, had also been effectual to remove it. Still, the em- press was unwilling to relinquish a contest, of which the prize was a kingdom; and again, under their respective leaders, the people rushed to arms. A severe illness, which attacked Stephen early in the spring, revived the hopes of the empress and her party; and, determined to make one more vigorous MAUDE THE EMPRESS. 150 effort, a deputation of her friends went over to solicit the aid of her long neglected husband. But Plan- tagenet, who had been unsummoned to partake in the triumphs of his wife, felt little inclination to leave his hereditary dominions to aid in restoring a crown which had been justly forfeited by her pride; he therefore refused to take any part in the contest, and the disappointed barons returned home. Un- willing to leave any measure untried which could advance the cause of the empress, Gloster, un- derstanding that the count had expressed unwilling- ness to negotiate with any save himself, set out to endeavour to win him to the cause, having first placed the empress with a sufficient garrison in the castle of Oxford. While he, the chief commander, was absent, Ste- phen, now recovered from sickness, appeared before the town, and summoned the inhabitants of the castle to surrender. The city of Oxford seems, from the chronicler's account, to have been at this period entirely surrounded by water; the men at arms, therefore, confiding in this natural bulwark, mounted the battlements of the castle; and while they repelled his approach with showers of arrows, pointed to his heavily-armed cavalry, and insultingly dared them to ford the river. Most ill-judged was their scoff,-for Stephen suddenly recollecting that in one part at least, the river was fordable, reckless of ponderous coat of mail, or of the scale armour of his destrere, plunged into the water, followed by his whole company of gallant horsemen, and made answer to their insulting defiance by breaking open the ill-guarded gates of the town by the blows of his MAUDE THE EMPRESS. 151 weighty battle-axe. In the confusion which followed, Stephen, at the head of his valiant company, entered, driving all who opposed his progress into the town; while the empress found herself, for the third time, in imminent danger of falling into the hands of the enemy. In agonized terror, she now earnestly im- plored the aid of Heaven; but not content unless she secured the protection of her, whose worship unhappily about this time was beginning almost to supersede that of the "one God," she vowed to the Virgin, that if she escaped in safety, a noble and well-endowed abbey should lift its towers in memo- rial alike of her vow and of her deliverance. Most dangerous was the situation of the empress at this time. She could not remain in the castle, for the enemy was even then at the gates; and yet to depart was as perilous, for it was early in spring, and bleak, and snowy, and the nearest asylum which she might reach was Wallingford Castle, which stood full ten miles off. But no time was to be lost the welcome darkness was approaching; and the deli- cately nurtured and haughty empress, stripped off mantle, and broidered robe, every part of her dress which might betray her rank, or impede her flight, and "sans coverchef," according to Langtoft's homely rhymes, and in nothing but her undermost garments, in the midst of a fall of snow, did she who had worn the diadem of the Cæsars, pursue after midnight her wretched flight to Wallingford. Here she arrived in safety; and ere many days had flown by, in the unexpected delight of seeing her faithful brother and her eldest son, from whom she had 152 MAUDE THE EMPRESS. been separated almost four years, the empress Maude enjoyed perhaps an ample compensation for all the hardships she had so lately endured. Faithful to the vow preferred in her need, the empress within the two following years founded and endowed the abbey of "Notre Dame du Vou" at Cherbourg, for monks of the Augustine order—an establishment which subsequently received large additions to its revenue, and a proud charter of privileges, from the munificence of her son when king. From the period of this her most signal escape, the name of the empress Maude disappears from the page of general history. With her darling son she appears to have retired to Gloster, in which city, as well as in most of the western counties, she was still recognized as queen; but it was little more than an empty title that she possessed; the two most important cities, London and Winchester, were firm in their allegiance to Stephen; and the whole eastern line of coast, every maritime town with the excep- tion of Bristol, owned his sway. The continuance of the empress in England was therefore most proba- bly dictated by affection for her son, who was com- mitted for education to his excellent uncle, the earl of Gloster, who, now released from the toils of war, gathered around him at his castle of Bristol, where he resided in almost royal state, every scholar and man of letters of the day. For this most disinte- rested relative, most valiant leader, and most munifi- cent patron of literature, an early death was appoint- ed; and in the year 1147 the empress had to mourn over the grave of a brother, who, nobly superior to MAUDE THE EMPRESS. 153 selfish considerations, fought for five long years, and endured a stern imprisonment, to place that crown which he might have challenged for himself, on the brow of a mere half sister. During the same year Milo the earl of Hereford, another of her firmest and most powerful adherents, having died, the empress, wearied at her eight years' unsuccessful contest, committing her young son (whom not improbably she hoped to see eventually in possession of the English crown,) to the care of her uncle, king David of Scotland, quitted England for ever. From the period of her quitting England to the time of her husband's death, we find no account of her proceedings; nor can we ascertain on what terms this unhappy and long-divided pair passed the later years of their union. In September, 1150, Geoffrey Plantagenet died of fever;-"a comet," according to the usual belief of those days, "fore- showing the count's death." He was followed to his grave by the tears and prayers of his subjects, to whose interests he had ever shewn himself most devoted; and such was their affection toward his memory, that it is asserted that he was the first per- son ever buried within the walls of Mans. His ob- sequies were performed with great solemnity, and his remains were deposited before the cross in the church of St. Julian, where a noble monument, decked with gold and precious stones, "exhibited the revered image of the count," and a pious dis- tich supplicated for him who had ruled so justly 154 MAUDE THE EMPRESS. upon earth the boon of an eternal kingdom, "where the heavenly hosts should reign with him for ever." In 1152, young Henry Plantagenet, who the year preceding had received the accolade of knighthood from his uncle, David of Scotland, at Carlisle, set sail for England, to contest once more with Stephen the crown. Most happily for the nation, worn and wasted by almost eighteen years of civil war, a com- position was entered into, by which Stephen was se- cured possession of the crown during his life, the reversion being guaranteed to young Plantagenet. This arrangement, in which there is every reason to believe that the empress willingly joined, "had," says Sandford, in his own homely manner, "such an effect, that after the death of that king (Stephen,) she lived to see her son in possession of the king- dom of England and other large acquisitions, and is not so much as mentioned by historians after this accommodation till the time of her death; which is much to be wondered at, especially that she being so stirring a woman should be so quiet upon a sud- den as not to have one word spoken of her in all the long time she lived after;" and the worthy Lan- caster Herald, unable to unravel the mystery, de- clares, in conclusion, "that it is a Gordian knot which no writer helps us to untie.” It is indeed a singular instance of moderation, in a mind so haughty and ambitious, to yield up the contest, to which every energy for eight anxious years had been devoted, even at that moment when Heaven, by the death of her husband, by the unexpected decease of Eustace, and by the fast-fail- MAUDE THE EMPRESS. 155 ing health of Stephen, seemed most decidedly to promise success. And yet, although unbroken by age, unsubdued in spirit, and with an intellect in- vigorated and enlightened by more than forty years' experience, she resigned that sceptre to a son scarcely passed the age of boyhood; " and retiring herself to privacy, never, as it seems, casting a re- pentant look on the brilliant possessions she had left behind." It may be fanciful; but might it not be, that, when after her third and most signal escape, cold, and wet, and weary, unattended and half clothed, she stood within the friendly walls of Wallingford castle, a second vow, unbreathed perchance in articulate sounds, arose in the grateful breast of the empress ; and contemplating the fearful loss of life and devas- tation this unhappy conflict had occasioned, and re- flecting on her thrice-repeated defeat, coupled with her thrice-repeated almost miraculous rescue, she might vow never again to contest that crown which Heaven itself seemed determined to snatch from her brow. But although the empress thus disappears from the pages of English history in the records of Normandy, her name will be found associated with every ex- pression of grateful remembrance which her mild and judicious regency demanded. On the accession of her son Henry to the throne of England, she was constituted by him regent of Normandy; and taking up her residence in the favourite city of Rouen, held there the reins of government for nearly four- teen years. During this period she principally dis- 156 MAUDE THE EMPRESS. tinguished herself by works of religion and charity. In compliance with the feelings of the age, in addi- tion to the before-mentioned monastery of "Notre Dame du Vou," she founded that of "St. Mary de la Noue," in the diocese of Evreux, for Cistercians, and that of St. Andrew, in the forest of Gouffre. While she resided in England, and subsequently to the wars which she had occasioned, she also became foundress of the abbey of Bordesley; which is stated in her charter of foundation to be established "for the peace of her father and mother, ancestors, husband, and children, and for the peace and sta- bility of the realm,” and also that of Stanleigh. She gave also to Reading the manor of Blewberry, in Berkshire; and joined with Stephen, in testimony of reconciliation, in founding and endowing the monas- tery of Radmore, in the year 1142. To the city of Rouen she was an especial benefactress. Almost every charitable and religious establishment within its walls testified her munifience; but the most im- portant gift which she bestowed on its citizens was the noble stone bridge across the Seine, which super- seded the mean and inconvenient, but ancient bridge of boats. Although the empress had withdrawn into com- parative retirement, yet her influence was almost as great as when in youth she had worn the diadem of the Caesars, or when in maturer years the crown of England had been placed on her brow. To her councils her son always lent a willing ear, and to the last moment of her life she was consulted on every important occasion. In the unhappy contest MAUDE THE EMPRESS. 157 between Henry and Becket, she took great interest, and endeavoured unceasingly to reconcile them to each other; and in no instance does the intellectual character of this gifted woman so challenge our respect as in the clear-sighted policy which characterized her mediation, a task to which she was appointed by the sovereign Pontiff himself. To the complaints of Becket, that her son "had afflicted the clergy in an intolerable manner, and exacted from them things unheard-of and unaccustomed," she returned a judicious answer, assuring him that mildness and moderation would be most effectual in regaining the king's favour, and expressing her indignation against the episcopal policy of ordaining men without titles, of allowing pluralities, and most especially of per- mitting pecuniary compensations for crime. To the messengers from the king she expressed her great disapprobation of many of the constitutions of Cla- rendon; blamed him for having reduced them to writing, and for having insisted that the bishops should observe them; warned him against the dan- ger of pressing the prerogative farther than his pre- decessors, and earnestly exhorted him to peace. Well had it been for either disputant, had the intel- ligent remonstrances of the empress been successful. But the monarch was proud, and the archbishop un- yielding; and although, to her earnest recommenda- tion of peace, each bent a respectful ear, yet hatred rankled too deeply in each breast to permit a re- conciliation. Ere her peace-making purpose could be effected, the empress Maude was no more;-she died after a 158 MAUDE THE EMPRESS. short illness at Rouen, on the 10th of September, 1167. She was the mother of three sons; one of whom, the eldest, now king of England, alone sur- vived her. Geoffrey the second, to whom his father had bequeathed the earldom of Anjou, did not long survive the violent seizure of his domains by his un- natural brother, but died broken-hearted, in 1157. William, the youngest, of whom scarcely any notice can be found, died at Rouen, in 1163. On the arrival of the intelligence of the empress Maude's death, Henry, whose conduct towards his illustrious mother had always been most respectful, immediately proceeded to Rouen; where, in compli- ance with her last will, he distributed large sums to churches, to convents, to the poor, and to the leper. That duty performed, he then, followed by a nu- merous train, conveyed the remains of this illustrious woman to that abbey church of Bec where, more than thirty years before, she had so anxiously soli- cited a grave. Here she was interred before the altar of the Virgin. A splendid tomb, richly adorned with silver, arose to her memory, and on it was in- scribed the proud epitaph- "Ortu magna, viro major, sed maxima partu, Hic jacet Henrici filia, sponsa, parens." 159 THE LEARNING OF THE CLOISTER. CHAPTER VII. The Abbey of Bec-Horlouin-Lanfranc-Anselm-Convent Schools Rise of Cambridge-Course of Study in the Twelfth Century— Transcription of Books-Zeal of the Clergy for the diffusion of Learning-The Monkish Chronicles-Early Science-The Monk of Aquitaine's Story. Ir is refreshing, after contemplating those fierce and desolating wars, which, for the last eighteen years, were the scourge of England, to direct our attention to the progress of science and literature; and turning aside from the beleaguered castle, and the stern strife of the battle-field, to enter the con- vent school in the silent and peaceful cloister; where, just awakened to the charms of knowledge, the aspiring student pursued his pleasant task with a persevering energy, to which, excepting in that age which witnessed the revival of classical learning, mo- dern times afford no parallel. And very interest- ing is it, to find that, amid all that is generally consi- dered most hostile to the advancement of letters, schools and learning increased with unequalled ra- pidity during the whole of Stephen's disastrous reign. * *"The encouragement given to literature in England, from the happy taste of Henry, his queens, his court and clergy, so diffusely spread 160 THE LEARNING OF The original impulse to this improvement, how- ever, originated neither with Saxon nor Norman ; but a native of the district beyond the Alps, led by distaste of the applause of his own more educated countrymen to quit his native city, traversed France, and at length settled in Normandy, unconscious, that while he only sought the peaceful retirement of an obscure cloister, Heaven was directing his steps to that abbey, which, under his auspices, should prove the nursing mother alike of the Norman and the Saxon mind. Although, by the constitutions of the Benedictine rule, ample provision was made in each convent for the education of youth, yet, during the ninth and the tenth centuries, these constitutions became al- most a dead letter. In Normandy the warlike cha- racter of its dukes, and the infant and unsettled state of the community, alike forbade the progress of let- ters; while, in England, a feeble and inefficient go- vernment, a luxurious and sport-loving nobility, and an indolent and ignorant clergy, by their united in- fluence seemed to threaten the land with a return to its primitive barbarism. Still, although the most important use of monasteries, the preservation and advancement of learning, was all but forgotten, each generation saw new additions to their number rising on every side, where many sincere, but most igno- the desire to attain it, that even the stormy reign of Stephen seems to have been no impediment to its cultivation. Perhaps the military ex- actions and movements confined the clergy to their homes and monas- teries, and made them more studious; but it is certain that this wasteful period of civil war, was the interval in which the Anglo-Norman mind was extensively educating itself.”—(Turner.) THE CLOISTER. 161 rant men, retired from a world for whose cares and duties they were probably well-fitted, into a solitude, which, from the total absence of all intellectual cul- tivation, must have been a solitude indeed. Among many of the well-meaning but mistaken men who then fled from the world, was Herlouin, a noble of the territory of Brionne, who was so determined to fulfil his intention, that, to obtain dismissal from service to his liege lord, he actually counterfeited insanity. At length, after long-continued oppo- sition, he obtained his wish, and retiring to the valley of Bec in Normandy, surrounded by a com- pany of equal enthusiasts, built a lowly church and convent; while, as from their poverty they could obtain no spiritual father who would be willing to quit his pleasant cloister to take the superintendence of this newly gathered flock, Herlouin himself, al- though unable to read, was compelled to become the abbot. But, although the ruling desire of his heart was thus accomplished, sorrow and disappoint- ment pursued the enthusiastic founder, even to his beautiful valley ;-twice was the new convent burnt to the ground, and in the latter conflagration his aged mother lost her life.* Each time of rebuilding, the site was changed; and each time, through the gifts of the faithful, did the abbey rise improved ; and Herlouin, and his humble band, sat down in quiet to enjoy their long deferred repose. *The sincere piety of this ignorant but worthy man, was eminently shewn in his conduct on this occasion. Being reminded that his mother was engaged in works of charity when she met her death, he knelt down, and lifting up his eyes streaming with tears, returned solemn thanks to Heaven that had judged her worthy to be taken from the world, while engaged in the peculiar work of a Christian. M 162 THE LEARNING OF In the mean time a young native of Pavia, who, having lost his parents in early life, had traversed the Italian cities in search of knowledge, and again returned to his native city with a mind so nobly en- dowed by nature, and so richly freighted with learn- ing, that his lectures, and pleadings, and decisions, awakened the admiration of all, from some secret disgust, or strong devotional feeling, quitted the land of his birth and the city of his fame, and cross- ing the Alps never stopped on his journey, until he reached the town of Avranches in Normandy. This young man was the celebrated Lanfranc-his fame soon followed him even to this distant region; and, in the year 1036, the same year in which he quitted his country, he saw himself surrounded by a numerous band of scholars, all eager to imbibe the lessons of wisdom from the lips of the learned Pa- vian. But a cloister was at this period the general asylum of learning as well as piety; and influenced probably by his desire for complete seclusion, Lan- franc bent his footsteps, not to any of the more an- cient and wealthy convents of Normandy, but to the lowly abbey of Bec. It is pleasing to learn that the_unlettered superior, and his illustrious inmate, dwelt together in perfect unity, and that the ad- miring abbot actually set about attempting to learn to read ;-but, although a Lanfranc was the tutor, the task was too great for the aged Herlouin, and he eventually gave it up. Vain had been the attempts of the illustrious scholar to stifle the fame of his talents by flight from his native city, and equally vain was this his second THE CLOISTER. 163 attempt. His retreat was soon discovered; unnum- bered scholars besieged the gates of the obscure and almost unknown convent; and the abbey of Bec, with its unlettered abbot, became the rallying point of all the scholarship of Normandy. On the death of Herlouin, Lanfranc assumed, by unanimous call, the crosier; and, during the years in which he wielded it, no private school ever sent forth so many cele- brated scholars. Among these the monks proudly boasted Ives of Chartres, the restorer of the jus canonicum in France; Anselm, both in the abbey and in the primacy of England, his successor; and pope Alexander the third. But seclusion, after which the anxious spirit of Lanfranc ever thirsted, was never to be his lot; and when William placed himself on the throne of En- gland, he sent an urgent request to the abbot of Bec to resign the crosier of that beloved abbey, that he might assume the patriarchal cross of the see of Canterbury. To this request Lanfranc is reported to have returned an unhesitating denial ;-by some writers it is stated that, appalled at the absolute bar- barism of the people, he refused, feeling the utter impossibility of effecting any good among them. By others (and from what we know of the conscien- tious, though often mistaken opinions, of Lanfranc, it seems the more probable), he assigned as a reason the unwillingness he felt to take office under a sove- reign whose conduct had been marked by so much cruelty toward his English subjects. Whatever were the motives and whatever were the excuse, they were at length overruled; and in the year 1070 • M 2 164 THE LEARNING OF Lanfranc quitted the peaceful shades and pleasant cloisters of Bec, to enter upon the difficult and stormy task of reforming the Anglo-Saxon church. According to the usual custom, the new primate, ere he entered on the duties of his office, proceeded to Rome, to receive that important badge of spi- ritual investiture, (which still maintains its place on the shield of Canterbury), the pall. Most gratify- ing to the feelings of the illustrious teacher must the recollection have been, that he, to whose tribu- nal every cause was brought, and before whose foot- stool even kings had bowed-he, the supreme Pon- tiff, had been his pupil at Bec; and most gratifying to him also must have been the marked and respect- ful homage paid by his grateful scholar; for, at his entrance, the haughty pontiff rose up and greeted him with revered courtesy. Holy father," ex- claimed the astonished attendants, "do you rise up before the archbishop of Canterbury ?" "Not be- cause he is archbishop do I rise up before him," was the grateful answer, "but because I was once his pupil at Bec, and there sat at his feet imbibing all wisdom." 66 On his return to England, Lanfranc proceeded rigorously to reform those abuses which ignorance, sloth, and luxury had induced upon the English church; and the constitutions which are known by his name were agreed to at a general council of ec- clesiastics, held at St. Paul's, in 1075. Disgusted with the gross ignorance of many of the Saxon clergy, the primate unsparingly dismissed them from their parishes, from their convents, and in some in- THE CLOISTer. 165 stances, even from their sees. Among those of the episcopal order, who were summoned to resign their crosiers on charge of incompetency, was Wulstan, the excellent bishop of Worcester, who most pro- bably had been falsely accused by some enemy to his countrymen. The prelate obeyed the summons, and appeared before Lanfranc and the council who were then sitting in the abbey church at Westmin- ster; but when commanded to resign his crosier, he advanced, and addressing the king, who was pre- sent, said, "A better than thou invested me with this office, and to him I return it." Thus saying, he placed the crosier upon the marble slab of the mo- nument erected to the memory of the Confessor ; but the stone, faithful to its trust, (so the admiring chronicler believed,) held firm hold of the pastoral staff, nor could the utmost force dislodge it. The king and the archbishop now bowed to the will of Heaven, thus unequivocally declared, and the wor- thy but unlettered bishop re-assumed his crosier and his see.* In reforming and restoring the Benedictine rule, Lanfranc provided very efficiently for the general promotion of learning; since in every monastery of this order a school and a library were expressly provided. In some of the Saxon abbeys, though unfortunately in very few, a degree of attention was Malmsbury relates that this worthy prelate, as he saw the workmen pulling down the old cathedral, could not refrain from tears; and being asked the reason, he replied—“We destroy the edifices of our ancestors only to get praise to ourselves. That happy age of holy men knew not how to build stately churches, but under any roof they offered them- selves living temples to God, and by their example incited others to do the same; we, neglecting the care of souls, labour only to heap up stones." 166 THE LEARNING OF paid to this rule; and in Ingulphus's account of Croy- land we find that its school, even at the commence- ment of the 11th century, was well supplied with scholars, the children of the neighbouring residents; and its library well-fitted with books. The picture which the abbot of Croyland gives of the venerable Turketul visiting the novices and pupils daily, in- specting their progress, and encouraging the more diligent by little gifts of "figs, dried raisins, nuts, or almonds, or more frequently apples and pears, which an attendant carried for him in a basket, is a pleasing trait, which proves that in these convent schools nothing of the stern and severe discipline of more modern grammar schools was known. The example and vigilant superintendence of Lanfranc soon awakened in these seclusions a gene- ral and energetic spirit of improvement. At St. Albans, the monastery whose abbot took precedence. of every other abbot of the kingdom, the tran- scription of books proceeded rapidly; for Lanfranc furnished copies. In the cathedral library of Exe- ter, about the same period, a collection of books, very extensive for that period, was formed; and among them that valuable MS,* although in the despised language of Saxon-England, found a place. Glastonbury, too, began to boast her library; and Croyland, stimulated to yet farther exertions by the awakening spirit around, made such numerous ad- ditions to its library, that at the period of its fatal fire, in 1091, seven hundred volumes were consumed. * The Exeter Saxon MS., whence the late Mr. Conybeare has made his selections. THE CLOISTER. 167 This most disastrous event was, however, even- tually beneficial to the cause of learning; for, dur- ing the rebuilding of the monastery, Joffrid, who was then abbot, sent "master Gislebert, with three other monks, to the manor of Cottingham, near Cambridge." These four, who were all teachers, went every day over to Cambridge, and there hired a barn, in which they gave public lectures. The barn in a short time overflowed, and the scholars dispersed over the town. The order of the lec- tures was then thus arranged. Early in the morn- ing, brother Odo, an excellent grammarian, gave lectures in grammar; at one, brother Ter- ricus, an acute sophist, read Aristotle's logic; at three, brother William gave lectures on Tully's rhetoric and Quintillian; while master Geslebert, the professor of theology, not understanding En- glish, but well versed in French and Latin, preached to the people. Thus, from the hired barn of the wandering scholar and his three obscure companions, do the lordly towers and palace-colleges of Cam- bridge owe their rise. Until the commencement of the 12th century, we find but few notices of Oxford. That it had long been known as a school, is certain; but little cele- brity seems to have attached to it, before the reign of the scholar king. At this period it appears as a flourishing school; and the important circumstance, that even then it was a place of education for the Jews of the kingdom, proves that at one place in England, a scientific education could be obtained. But still, few of the English scholars desirous of attaining eminence were contented with the advan- 168 THE LEARNING OF tages their native land could afford; but flocked with eager delight to the abbey school of Bec, or to the newly founded university of Paris. John of Salis- bury, who thus quitted England to complete his edu- cation, gives the following account of the course of studies at this period pursued by the students of the university of Paris. "In the year after king Henry died I went to the peripatetic school of Paris, and there studied logic. Afterwards I adhered to master Alberic, and was two years with him and Robert Metridensis, an Englishman; then for the next three I transferred myself to William de Cenobium, for grammar; then Richard, called the bishop, retracing with him what he learnt from others, and the quadrivium; and also heard the German Harduin." He then studied rhetoric; and during this time, being poor, supported himself by teaching the children of the noble. He afterwards prosecuted logic with William of Soissons. Return- ing three years after, he heard master Gilbert on logic and divinity; then Robert Pullen and Simon Periacensis, his only teachers in theology. Thus,' says he, I passed twelve years in these various studies." " Returning to the state of the English schools, we find that the beneficial impulse communicated by Lanfranc did not cease with his death. After three years' opposition on the part of Rufus, Anselm the pupil and successor of Lanfranc in the abbacy of Bec, became also his successor in the chair of Can- terbury. As learned as his predecessor, but possess- ing a mind even of a higher order, Anselm entered fully into the views of Lanfranc, and paid THE CLOISTER. 169 also great attention to the conventual schools. It is amusing, in these days of extensive printing, to read of the watchful care which guarded even the elementary books of instruction from loss or damage. "We forbade," says Ingulphus, "under penalty of excommunication, the lending our books—as well the smaller without pictures, as the larger with them— to distant schools, without the abbot's leave, and his certain knowledge within what time they would be returned. As to the smaller books adapted for the boys, and to the relations of the monks, we forbade them being lent for more than one day, without leave of the prior." Of these "larger books with pictures," we find this period produced many, which, although inferior in design to those of the following century, are yet extremely beautiful, both in their penmanship and illuminations. These valuable books seem to have been even more emphatically guarded than those of Croyland by the powerful thunders of the church. At the end of a missal of this period, which formerly found a place in the abbey Jumieges, the following anathema is written by abbot Robert, who presented it to the monastery. "Whosoever by force, by fraud, or by any other way, shall take this book from this place, let the soul of him who hath so done suffer loss may it be blotted out from the book of life, nor written in the fellowship of the just :"—a fearful sentence for such a crime, but which proves, more than volumes of argument, the solicitous and most ardent care, with which the learned abbot cherished his chiefest trea- sure, the books of the convent library. 170 THE LEARNING OF During the whole of this century the transcrip- tion of books, the natural consequence of the newly awakened thirst for learning, went rapidly on; and exhortation, precept, homily, and legend, alike urged the monk to his pleasant and most honour- able task. Constant occupation was recommended as the most efficient weapon against the snares of Sathanas, and the advice of Ordericus Vitalis, who for this express end told the story of the monk who obtained release from the grasp of the great enemy through the wary arrangement of his better angel, who proposed that each letter, in a volume of extracts from holy Scripture, should stand against each crime, which the penitent had in past years com- mitted, was echoed in many a cloister: "Pray, sing, read, write; for only one devil is allowed to assail him who is employed, but a thousand are at hand to lead the idle into temptation." Abbot Simon therefore made it a rule that every future abbot of St. Albans should always keep one good writer as a constant copyist. The tithes of a rectory were given to the cathedral convent of Win- chester, expressly to defray the expenses of tran- scribing books; and twelve pennies per annum were given by Robert de Paston to Bromholme abbey, to keep their books in repair. In 1160 one Nigel gave the monks of Ely two churches, for the express pur- pose of defraying the charges of transcribing books; bishop Hubert also, towards the close of this cen- tury, gave the church of Halgast, "to find books for the library of Christchurch, Canterbury ;"-many similar donations may be found in the pages of the THE CLOISTER. 171 Monasticon; so that it became a common proverb in the cloister, that "a convent without a library was like a castle without an armoury." A most laudable emulation was thus excited among the monks of various convents, as to who should pro- duce the most beautiful copies of the most approved works. Among these monks, the name of one, a resident in the cathedral convent of Worcester, has been handed down to us-Senanus, who transcribed the beautiful folio Bible which is still preserved in the library of Benet's college, Cambridge. Henry, a monk of Hyde abbey, also, towards the close of this century, completed the transcription of Terence, Boethius, Suetonius, and Claudian; these he bound up in one volume, illuminating the initials, and forming with his own hands the brazen bosses of the cover.* It may here be remarked, that the charge so com- monly brought against the clergy of the middle ages, of using every effort to keep the mass of the people in ignorance, is most unfounded. The convent schools were open to all the neighbouring children; books from the convent library were permitted, as we have seen, to be lent to the relations of the monks; and by the express decree of many a council, the clergy were commanded to make strict inquiry * The list of classical writers, at this period known to the inhabitants of the cloister, is larger than has generally been supposed. "Walter Mapes enumerates the following in a critique upon them: Priscian, Aristotle, Tully, Ptolemy, Boethius, Euclid, Pythagoras, Lucan, Virgil, Ovid, Persius, Statius, Terence."-Vide Turner, and the introductory dissertation of Warton, from whence many of the preceding notices have been taken. 172 THE LEARNING OF into the state of the schools within their respective parishes. The following extract, too, from the proceedings of the General Council of the Lateran, in 1179, shews the care which at this period the Roman church displayed for the education of her children: "And lest the opportunity of reading and improve- ment should be withheld from the poor, who have no paternal wealth to assist them, let a competent maintenance be allowed to a master, in every cathe- dral, who shall teach the ecclesiastics, and also poor scholars gratis; and let no money be exacted for licences to teach." Thus, under the express direction of the highest council of the church, each abbey and cathedral opened its school; and many a young scholar, des- titute of worldly stores, but rich in intellectual wealth, pressed forward to partake its bounty. The despised Saxon too, prepared to run the literary race with the haughty Norman. Robert Pullen, whose lectures on the civil law drew crowds to Ox- ford, and who subsequently attained the dignity of Cardinal; Thomas à Becket, the future primate of England; and Nicholas Brekespear, that friend- less boy who, in the convent school of St. Albans, commenced that career which ended only in the papal chair, were all Saxons. And the grateful affection with which the nursling of the convent school, in after-years, when a celebrated scholar, surrounded by admiring multitudes, looked back to the pleasant days of boyhood spent in these calm retreats, is touchingly expressed in the grace- THE CLOISTER. 173 ful verses of Alexander Neckham, who, when the illustrious abbot of Cirencester, re-called with such affectionate remembrance his instructions in the con- vent of St. Albans. "Shrine of the martyred Alban! aye, on thee Rest every peaceful blessing, for 'twas here, Our budding youth sped on so pleasantly, And joyful days linked out each happy year; Those didst our youthful minds with lore imbue, And all our after-fame to thee is due. O blessed Martyr! thou a noble band Of matchless scholars hath sent forth. O bless'd! Most bless'd in scite, but more that constant stand Before thine altars, aye, at Heaven's behest, That holy company, who night and day, In sacred service pass their lives away. Then ever guardian saint! with gentlest eye Watch over him, whoe'er the youth may be, Who seeks thy pleasant shades; since unto thee Many from far shall come, for know they well, That honour at thy gate stands sentinel." * Nor did the clergy of this day confine their at- tention to the schools of learning alone; the epis- tles of the various learned ecclesiastics of the 12th century abound in exhortations to noble, and even royal persons, not merely to patronize literature in others, but to seek after it for themselves. A curious instance of this anxiety for the diffusion of know- ledge among the higher classes, will be found in the 47th letter of Peter of Blois, and which is addressed to Plantagenet, by direction, it would seem, of the bishops. In this, after stating that " they concur * Vide the original in Berrington's "Literary History of the Middle Ages." 174 THE LEARNING OF unanimously that Henry, your son and heir, should apply himself to letters," he proceeds, "since if the commonwealth is to be ruled, if war is to be under- taken, if camps are to be formed, if engines of de- fence are to be erected, if bulwarks are to be set up, or strong-holds built; if freedom is to be se- cured, justice reverenced, laws respected, or friendly intercourse of nations be confirmed, it is books, that teach all these to perfection; for the king with- out learning is like a ship without a rudder, or a bird without wings."* It was not, therefore, the un- willingness of the church to bestow instruction, but the unwillingness of the people to receive it, which caused the diffusion of knowledge to proceed with such tardy steps. Still, during the three subsequent centuries, learning, although but in few instances extended far beyond the cloister, within its walls ad- vanced, if by slow yet with steady progress, and the master spirits of the sixteenth century, were the nurselings and pupils of the convent-school. But what did these schools effect for their own times, may be the scornful inquiry of those who judge but of improvement by the quantity of letter- press which each season produces. We may unhe- * In the conclusion of this letter, Peter of Blois urges the king, both by examples drawn from profane history and from holy writ, to allow his son to receive a literary education; and the reader, accustomed to consider the scriptures at this period as a sealed book, would be sur- prised at the numerous references made to them. Indeed, it may here be remarked, that the religious epistles of this period are abundant in scriptural references. Another epistle of the same writer, addressed to Adelicia, a young lady about to take the veil, is little more than a string of texts. The 14th epistle of Hildebert, and which is addressed to Adelais of Louvain, abounds in scriptural allusions; and proves that the beautiful queen was well acquainted with the scriptures; and, we may hope, loved them. The whole letter, which is on alms-giving, is well worthy transcription; but its length prevents its insertion. THE CLOISTER. 175 sitatingly answer, much real and important good. The middle ages were eras of action, of busy and unceasing employment. Society was emerging from barbarism, and required new laws, new institutions, even new languages; and the benefits of the con- vent-school may be traced, not in folios of refined speculation, and elaborate research, but in the insti- tutions of the land-in our statute books, in our parliamentary enactments, in our Magna Charta. Nor, in a more strictly literary point of view, were these convent-schools deficient: from the cell of the monk came forth many a homily which taught the great truths of religion, and many a chronicle which told the events of past and contemporary times. It has been, until very lately, a fashion to decry the Monkish chronicles ;-to censure their style, to doubt their veracity, and to pour unsparing ridicule on their tales of wonder. A more just and philoso- phical spirit now prevails, and the licence which has always been accorded to the marvels of Livy and Herodotus, has been at length conceded to those of William of Newborough and Brompton. While it cannot be denied that many of the monkish chro- nicles are extremely prosing, and abound much in that species of common-place moral and religious remarks, which more than any thing excites dis- gust; still “their place was but poorly supplied, when the monastic habit of composing them ceased, by those loquacious lay-chroniclers, half romance, at least in their dress, by which they were suc- ceeded." * From these, the prevailing faults of the * Turner. 176 THE LEARNING OF monkish writers, some of their number are remark- ably exempt, and the reader, accustomed to the writings of our modern historians, might find both pleasure and instruction in the pages of many a Monkish chronicle. It would be unjust, too, to close a passing notice of the monkish historians of this period, without a tribute of admiration to that most valuable and most authentic record of our early history, the venerable Saxon Chronicle. The simple pathos, the almost scriptural character of its style, its tone of high moral and religious feeling, render it, independently of its value as an historical record of contemporary events, well deserving the warmest eulogies that have been pronounced on it.* Our inquiry has hitherto been confined to litera- ture; but science, although with faint and feeble rays, had begun to illumine the cell of the solitary recluse, and to pour the brilliant visions of eastern sages before the eyes of her admiring votaries. The light of science, like the light of day, dawned on benighted Europe from the east; and had the reli- gious orders known the witching gifts which they should receive, in after ages, from the hand of the dreaded and hated Paynim, they would scarcely have besieged Heaven with such earnest and united prayers, that the battle-axe of Charles Martel might *No information can be obtained as to the names of the writers of this interesting chronicle. It seems to have been composed by monks in the monastery of Peterborough, and it closes abruptly in the first year of Henry II. It may, therefore, be considered as the latest spe- cimen of pure Saxon. Two excellent English translations exist—the one by a lady, Miss Anna Gurney; the other, with the original text, by the Rev. J. Ingram. THE CLOISTER. 177 stay their advancing progress. Happily for Chris- tian Europe the Pyrenees formed the boundary of Saracen conquest; but Saracen knowledge soon over- passed that ineffectual limit, and from the Jew, and the Paynim of Spain, all the science of the middle ages was derived. "The Moors brought with them, and left behind them, substantial benefits ;- a spirit of inquiry, a love of literature-they invited the most eminent scholars of the East to settle in their new possessions, and they founded those illus- trious Hebrew schools, to which Europe has never repaid her debt of grateful acknowledgment. Then it was that light broke forth from the East; new institutions, new manners, new books, appeared. Civilization and knowledge came forth from their oriental thrones, and marched with the language of Arabia, under the banners of the Moors, into the almost benighted West.”* To refer the introduction of all science that de- served the name, to the settlement of the Jews in England, would appear to the reader, who is ac- quainted with that singular people only in their present state, most strange and improbable. Yet such was the fact; and the first schools which taught experimental philosophy in England were those of the Jews at Oxford. Whatever may be the cha- racter of the Jew in the present day, in those earlier ages, ere a Lanfranc had aroused the intellectual powers of two nations, and ere one Christian uni- versity had raised her head-in the Moorish schools Retrospective Review, No. 6. N 178 THE LEARNING OF of Cordoba and Toledo," the highest chairs of phi- losophy were filled by Jewish Rabbins; and a suc- cession of Hebrew scholars shed lustre on the lite- rary history of Spain."* Oriental in their tastes, as in their origin, the Jews, like the Saracens, espe- cially pursued those studies to which the eastern nations had from earliest times been attached, and to watching "the stars in their courses," to in- quiries into all the hidden mysteries of nature, their attention was almost exclusively directed. Of the precise character of their instruction, when, in the reign of Beauclerc, they occupied three hostels in Oxford, called after the respective names of their owners, Lombard-hall, Moses-hall, and Jacob-hall, we possess no information. That Christian students should resort to these halls in great numbers, merely to attain, according to Antony à Wood, a know- ledge of Hebrew, is most improbable :—surely it was rather to learn the wonders of astrology, the sin- gular powers of that newly discovered Arabian sci- ence of numbers, the profound mysteries of the Ca- bala, that Christian youth flocked to these Hebrew schools, and meekly sat down at the feet of their Jew- ish professors. From other sources we learn that astro- nomy, combined with those wild but beautiful dreams of planetary influence, which have been the belief of successive ages ever since the Chaldean fed his flocks on the plains of Shinar, and the crowned Magian ascended the topmost tower of gorgeous Babylon, to watch the mystic dance of the planets, 48 Retrospective Review, No. 6. THE CLOISTER. 179 was a favourite study of the cloister. Prior Walcher's rhyming epitaph, among other eulogies, expressly records that he was "bonus astrologus ;" and the remark of the chronicler, that the priest, whose tes- timony he quotes to avouch some marvellous fact, was "learned in the stars," seems to be considered sufficient to render his testimony equivalent to that of a whole jury of unlearned men. The exact sci- ences were however also cultivated; and in geome- try, and the higher branches of mathematics, many denizens of the cloister attained celebrity. It was very questionable whether at this early period the witching dreams of alchemy (that un- questionable parent of modern chemistry) were be- lieved by the learned of the day, or even by their Jewish instructors. From a curious story, related by Malmsbury, it would seem that this "art of arts,” as it was fondly termed by its deluded votaries, was unknown. The story shall be given; for the illus- tration it affords of the belief of the times, espe- cially in those two singular articles of the popular creed, that of the transformations of faerie being not real but illusory, and that of the power of wa- ter in dissolving magical spells. Malmsbury has just completed his wonderful ac- count of that wonderful man Gerbert, afterwards Pope Sylvester,-he, who in return for so many singular and important discoveries, was handed down to posterity, by an age that refused to profit by them, as the child and bond servant of Sath- After telling us that Gerbert made a bra- zen head that answered all questions, that he learned anas. N 2 180 THE LEARNING OF the meaning of the flight and language of birds, how to raise spectres from hell, and how he con- structed a golden bridge with golden horses and riders, he proceeds: "probably some may regard all this as a fiction, because the vulgar are accustomed to undermine the fame of scholars, saying that the man who excels in any admirable art holds converse with the devil; I shall therefore relate what I heard, being a boy, from a certain monk of our house, a native of Aquitaine, a man of years, and a physician." This man, when a child of only seven years old, ran away from his father; "and surmount- ing the snowy Alps, went to Italy." One day, playing about with his companions, he discovered a perforated mountain, in which it was said “that the treasures of Octavian were buried." Into this mountain, therefore, he and his companions were determined to go; and with more forethought than children generally possess, they provided them- selves with a ball of thread, one end of which they fastened to a small post at the entrance, and light- ing their lanthorns, set forth on the expedition. For a long time they journeyed on, and beheld, by the faint light of their lanthorns, that the place was strewed with dead bodies. At length, a broad river stopped their progress; but looking narrowly, they perceived that it was spanned by a bridge of brass. The sun, which now they saw shining brightly, shewed them, beyond the bridge, both golden horses and golden riders, and they determined to pass over; but this was no easy task; for no sooner had one THE CLOISTER. 181 of their number put his foot on the bridge, than it immediately sunk down at that end, while the far- ther was raised, "bringing forward a rustic of brass, armed with a club of the same metal, which, dash- ing the waters, so clouded the air that he obscured the day." The moment the foot was withdrawn, the bridge subsided; but, as every time the attempt was made the same results followed, the boys at length despairing of success determined to return ; and guided by the ball of thread, retraced their foot-steps in safety. The next day, they went to a professor " said to know the unutterable name of God," and told him where they had been, and prayed his assist- ance. This man, after he had fasted and con- fessed (for his art was holy), led them to a fountain. Taking some water from it in a silver vessel, he silently traced the unpronounceable name with his fingers, until we understood with our eyes what was unutterable with the tongue." They then all went to the mountain, but found the entrance be- set, "as he believed, with devils, hating the name of God, who was able to destroy their inventions ;" and a second time they disappointedly returned. On the morrow, a Jew came, inquiring into this curious story; and when he heard of their want of success, "Ye shall see how my art can prevail," he replied with loud laughter. Immediately he pro- ceeded toward the mountain, and entered it; soon after, he came out, "bringing as a proof that he had crossed the bridge many things which I had ob- served on the other side, especially some of that 182 THE LEARNING OF most precious dust which turned every thing it touched into gold; not that it was really so, but only retained this appearance until it was touched with water; for nothing effected by necromancy can, when put into water, deceive the beholders."* Here the story abruptly ends; the boys most pro- bably being unwilling to trust themselves in a place which, although it remained firmly closed against Christian prayer and incantation, had opened spon- taneously to the Jew. This wild story incidentally affords strong corrobo- ration of the opinion that the Jews in experimental science far surpassed the most learned of the Chris- tians, and that they were in possession of many a cu- rious and important secret; by means of which, through exciting the fears of the ignorant, they ob- tained that ascendancy, which might vainly have been demanded on the better founded claim of superior knowledge. In tracing the subsequent progress of science and learning, although many a proud name will pass in array before us, still must we turn to render our tri- bute of grateful homage to the memories of Lanfranc and Anselm; nor, while we contemplate the palace halls of Oxford and Cambridge, forget the humble school in the lowly abbey of Bec. It is to the first de- voted followers, the earliest fosterers, the timely pre- servers of literature, that, before all others and beyond all others, our grateful remembrance is due. Inferior in genius, or in learning, as those truly great men may have been, compared with the giant spirits of a * Vide Malmsbury, Rev. J. Sharp's translation, page 205. THE CLOISTER. 183 later age, still, to their fostering care in the forma- tion of libraries and the foundation of schools, those giant spirits owed alike their strength and their greatness. If, in after ages, science no longer needed such retreats, and literature quitted its cloistered shades to walk abroad at will amid the bustle and turmoil of the world, let us not forget their benefits in an age when the convent formed the only calm and secure retreat from the desola- tions of civil war; and when the convent library afforded the only safe asylum for those precious re- mains of ancient learning, which, but for its guar- dian care, had been lost for ever. Because monastic institutions have been found unsuited to modern days, let us not deny them the claim of useful- ness in their own. CC They nourished," says a com- petent judge,* "the improving energies of society, till they were themselves outstripped by that pro- gress, which, though they had contributed to awaken, they could never overtake; "surely those who have placed in our hands the means of surpassing them, deserve at least our gratitude. It is fabled of Rosicrucius, that, after years of intense and wearisome labour, he constructed a lamp that should burn for ever. He closed it in a secret. vault; centuries rolled on, and still the hidden lamp poured forth its ineffectual brightness. At length the vault was unclosed, the lamp discovered, and crowd- ing spectators pressed forward to admire: im- mediately an armed figure started up, and with Sharon Turner. 184 THE LEARNING OF THE CLOISTER. one blow of his club extinguished the lamp, and its light for ever. Like that fabled philosopher did the inhabitants of the cloister feed the lamp of science and learning; and, like him, carefully guard its dying flame through long ages from extinction. But here the parallel ceases; for, more generous than the fabled Rosicrucius, they fostered the dim flame through centuries of storm and tempest, that far distant ages might rejoice in its light. 185 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. CHAPTER VIII. Parentage of Elinor-Marriage with Louis VII. of France-The Second Crusade — Her Journey to Palestine-Divorced from Louis-Her Marriage to Henry Plantagenet-Accession to the English Crown- Inauguration of her Son Richard, as Duke of Aquitaine—Thomas à Becket-Family Dissentions-Imprisonment of Elinor-Fitz Stephen's Description of London-Plantagenet's Second Contest with his Sons- His Death, THE memoirs of few illustrious women, who have worn a crown, present scenes of more romantic and changeful interest than those of the wife of the first Plantagenet, the mother of Cœur de Lion, the beau- tiful heiress of the seven fair provinces of Aqui- taine, that splendid dower which added a third lion to the shield of England-a bearing which retains its place, even to the present day, in the royal arms. Elinor* of Aquitaine was the eldest daughter of William, its tenth duke, the son of that William of * The correct spelling of this name is Alianor; since the French chroniclers, who assert that the subject of this memoir was the first who bore the name, state, that it was a compound of "Alia" and "Enor." A similar spelling is adopted for both the succeeding queens who bore the same name, both by the French and Latin historians. As, however, the name is so completely naturalized among us as Elinor, it seemed mere pedantry to adopt the less common, although certainly the more correct, form. 186 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. Aquitaine, whose name stands first on the list of those warrior-minstrels, who successfully cultivated the "gai saber," and of Enor of Chaterhault. This tenth duke, who, like his troubadour father, seems to have borne a very indifferent character, resolved upon making a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James Compostella; and, ere he set out, he bequeathed his extensive territories to his eldest daughter Elinor, upon condition of a marriage with the heir to the crown of France. This arrangement was eagerly acceded to by king Louis, who sent his son early in 1137 with a splendid suite to Bordeaux, where the marriage was celebrated with great magnificence. The ceremonies of the inauguration of young Louis, as duke of Aquitaine, and of the coronation of Elinor, as future queen of France, were but just completed when the elder Louis died, and the youth- ful pair-Louis who had but just completed his eight- eenth year, and Elinor her thirteenth-were, on the 1st of August 1137, hailed king and queen of France. Of the education which Elinor received, of her conduct or character, during the nine years which preceded her journey to Palestine, not the slightest account can be obtained, excepting the brief notice that she was very beautiful. All the French chro- nicles pass over the high-spirited Elinor as com- pletely as though she had not existed. A conclusion favourable on the whole to her moral character, may be drawn from this absence of all notice re- specting her for so long a period, especially in con- nexion with other circumstances; since, had Elinor ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 187 been so profligate as some of the later French wri- ters have been accustomed to regard her, it is scarcely possible that, for almost ten years, her conduct should have excited no suspicion, and that Louis should so willingly have allowed her to accompany him to Palestine. The circumstances which induced the weak and versatile Louis to set forth as the leader of a second crusade, are briefly these :-The chapter of Bour- ges having, during the year 1146, elected an arch- bishop without the king's permission, Louis, en- raged at this infringement of his prerogative, de- clared that he whom they had chosen should not be archbishop; and commanded them to proceed to a new election. The chapter refused; the Pope sup- ported their cause; and Pierre de la Châtre, retir- ing into the domains of Thibaut, count of Cham- pagne, launched the thunders of the church against the king. A war commenced between Louis and the count; but ere it concluded, a new source of bitterness sprung up. Rudolph, count Vermandois, a relative of the king and his chief minister, had divorced his wife, and had married Petronilla, the sister of the queen. The repudiated wife was sister to the count of Champagne; and he, enraged at this insult, solicited the pope to send a legate into France to review the proceedings. These, the le- gate on his arrival declared to be null; and he charged Rudolph to separate from his second wife, and take back the first. The king, more than ever provoked, made a second incursion into Champagne, where, having taken the town of Vitri, he caused 188 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. the church, in which thirteen hundred persons had taken refuge, to be burnt, and they all perished. This atrocious act, which the chroniclers regard as the effect of sudden exasperation, was followed by immediate and bitter, and (judging from his after conduct) sincere repentance. Louis forthwith made peace with the count of Champagne, admitted the archbishop to his see, and anxiously sought other means by which he might testify the depth and sincerity of his repentance. While under the fresh influence of this feeling, the summons, addressed by the enthu- siastic St. Bernard to the princes and protestants of Christian Europe, to go forth to the now tottering kingdom of Jerusalem, seemed as the call of Hea- ven; and with willing heart did the sorrowing king of France proffer himself to become the leader of a second crusade. "At Easter," says his chronicler, "the glorious king Louis, in whom zeal for the faith thus shone forth and burnt,"* summoned a council of nobles and prelates at Vizila, in Burgundy, for considering the subject, a meeting which was so numerously attended, that the title by which the contemporary French chroniclers designate it is, "Magnum Par- liamentum." To this great council so many re- paired, that no church being large enough to hold the vast assemblage, they met in the open air. air. A platform was erected, from whence St. Bernard and the king, who first solemnly received the cross from the hands of his enthusiastic coadjutor, addressed in *Vita Lud. VII. Vide Recueil des Ilistoriens de France, tome 12. ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 189 turn the assembled multitudes. Soon, before the resistless might of that gifted preacher's warm but most simple eloquence, were the hearts of that vast multitude swayed and bowed, " even as the heart of one man." A simultaneous cry of "Crosses, crosses," burst forth; and band after band pressed for- ward to receive the badge, that pledged them not merely to a long and wearisome pilgrimage, but to a fierce and deadly warfare beneath the burning sun of Palestine. Ladies, the fairest and noblest, stretched forth a joyful hand to receive the scrip and staff of the pilgrim; and when the gifted preacher, having distributed all the crosses which had been prepared, looked anxiously round upon the still crowding company,-in the eager enthusiasm of the moment, vests and mantles were swiftly offered re- gardless of their value, that they might be formed into crosses to supply the demands of the multitude. "It is unnecessary to describe the miracles which took place after this," continues the wondering chronicler; mistaking the wonders which strongly excited feelings have so frequently produced for visible interpositions of Heaven in support of a cause, in which he adds, "it was evidently seen that God was well pleased." If the self-denying mind of that most excellent though often mistaken man, St. Bernard, could have admitted feelings of earthly pride, in the con- templation of the proud list of knights and nobles, and high-born dames, who on the plain of Vizila pledged themselves "to advance the banner of our Lord in his own land," that feeling had found ample 190 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. scope; for on it might be read the names of the king, the queen, the king's mother, the count of Tholouse, the count de Nevers, the counts of Pon- thieu and of Flanders, and many an illustrious scion of the de Coucis, the de Bourbons, the de Lusignans, and the de Courtenayes. From Vizila the king returned to Paris; and at Pentecost, having first visited the various religious houses and hospitals, he proceeded to St. Denis, where, after dining with the monks in the common refectory, and receiving and bestowing on each the kiss of peace, the royal pilgrim proceeded to the church, and received the staff and scrip, sent by pope Eugenius; and that precious banner, beneath whose protecting guidance each king of France deemed himself secure of victory-the "oriflamme."* A king so devout could not but be considered worthy of all success. The united eulogies of every churchman in the kingdom fanned the enthusiastic flame which St. Bernard had first awakened; and never perhaps did Croise brace on his mail with more certain anticipations of victory, than did "the glorious king Louis. Eagerly too, though not so devoutly, did the fair Elinor prepare for her eventful journey. Bands of minstrels and troubadours were summoned to attend her progress; and like some lady of ro- mance, with a splendid train of knights, pages, and attendant damsels, she quitted the "good city of Paris." Nor had the overmastering eloquence of St. Bernard been less successful in other lands: Conrad the Third * Vita Lud. VII. Vide Recueil des IIistoriens de France, tome 12. ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 191 of Germany, with a numerous host, also set forth; and the united forces of the royal leaders of the second crusade, has been estimated at 200,000 men. But the ardent-minded, visionary abbot of Clairvaux was inspired by no spirit of prophecy, when he assured to that vast army abundant success: their bones whitened the mountains of Cappadocia, and the plains of Nice; for the emperor Manuel, although brother-in-law to Conrad, exerted every energy, with a perfidy unexampled save in the annals of the lower empire, to destroy the hapless army. Deleterious ingredients were mixed with their bread, the wells and cisterns were poisoned, and, on their departure from Constantinople, they were placed in the hands of guides, who, instead of leading them into Anatolia, betrayed them in those mountainous passes to the scimetars of the Paynim. Meanwhile, with the characteristic duplicity of the Greek, Manuel successively welcomed both Conrad and Louis with marks of the highest respect; nor, until the wearied and wasted remains of that once splendid French army overtook, on the plains near Nice, the mere handful of the German host, which the treachery of the Greek and the rage of the Turk had spared, was the atrocious perfidy of the Greek emperor revealed. Combining their forces on the banks of the Meander, the small company of the united Croises now gave battle to the infidel, and obtained the victory. But their triumph was not long the Paynim rallied-the Christians were defeated, and had not the friendly towers of Antioch stood near, the worn and exhausted army had been 192 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. annihilated, and Louis had ended his pilgrimage with his life, on an obscure battle-field. Thus, at length, arrived in safety at Antioch, Elinor, to whom the dangers and privations of the way gave new zest to the repose and pleasures of the luxurious court of Antioch, seems to have yield- ed herself up to the full enjoyment of her so greatly changed condition, and, well content with her recep- tion in this the loveliest city of the East, evinced no anxiety to proceed. Far different were the feel- ings of Louis: the kind attentions of the prince of Antioch, who was his wife's uncle, could not prevail with him to forego his determination to march on to Jerusalem, where the emperor Conrad had already arrived; and by the time that his expected succours from Italy had landed, he percmptorily arranged to quit Antioch. This determination was most distasteful to the queen ;-she was naturally un- willing to leave the court of an uncle, who treated her with singular kindness and attention, and a city in which she enjoyed every comfort, and even every luxury, for a second wearisome and perhaps perilous journey; and yet this reluctance, on the part of the fair and haughty Elinor, has been placed by some of the French chroniclers to the account of her having there become attached to another; while the only chronicler, who is specific in his statements, declares, that the queen, having "greatly offended the king in many things, irritated him in this most of all, "that secretly arranging to quit him, she chose to adhere to a certain Turk." The stupid extravagance of this charge is alone sufficient to prove its falsehood. ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 193 a That there was much in Elinor's conduct to excite censure, is very probable; but that attachment to " Turk," or, as some modern writers have advanced, to her uncle, was the cause of dispute, the conduct of Louis himself amply disproves. What can be thought of this "greatly offended king," whose indignation slept for three whole years, during which time Elinor received all the homage of a queen, and who, when at length he sued for a divorce, offered as the reason the convenient plea of consan- guinity.* Meanwhile Louis, irritated at the obstacles which prince Raymond still continued to cast in the way of his advance to Jerusalem, (for the politic prince of Antioch wished to secure the aid of the French army, to forward his ambitious projects), determined to proceed onward without delay; and while Elinor still lingered, unwilling to quit her uncle's court, Louis, with a sudden decision which he had seldom before manifested, seized one of the gates of the city, and taking the queen and her attendants by night from the palace, sent her on before him with a strong escort to Jerusalem, while he followed with his whole army. * Matthew Paris mentions Elinor's "attachment to a certain Turk,” in words almost borrowed from the anonymous French chronicler, and thence he probably derived it. When Louis arrived at Jerusalem, he sent a confidential letter, respecting his differences with Elinor, to his chief minister and adviser, abbot Suger. This letter is probably lost, but the answer is preserved among Suger's epistles, and in it is this pas- sage: "With regard to the queen, your consort, I presume to recommend to you, to conceal the rancour of your mind, if any there be, 'till God shall give you a safe return to your kingdom, when you may take the most pro- per measures in this and other affairs." "Upon the whole," says Lord Lyttelton, in his Life of Henry II., and he is no advocate of Elinor, "it is probable that the jealousy of the king had no other object than prince Raymond himself, and was ill founded." • 0 194 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. The reception of Elinor by king Baldwin the Third, is said to have been most honourable; but the haughty spirit of the queen was too deeply wounded to be soothed by outward shew. Her womanly feelings had been outraged by the preci- pitate step taken by Louis, which seemed to affix a stain on her character; and the towers of the holy and beautiful city, on which so many an eye was fixed with enraptured devotion, arose to her gaze but as the towers of her prison house." With far different feelings did Louis enter that city, which he hoped would soon resound with songs of his triumph over the Paynim; and when the army of Conrad hailed him from afar as the deli- verer of the Holy Land, and the whole population of Jerusalem poured out at the gates, with waving palm branches, and shouts of "blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord," it was indeed the proudest moment of his life. The united army now commenced the siege of Damascus, and during its progress Louis, at the recommendation of Suger, endeavoured, but in vain, a reconciliation with the deeply offended Elinor. An outward reconciliation was however at length effected; but meanwhile the crusade lan- guished; Damascus still held out, while, through the treachery of the Eastern Christians, convoys of provisions intended for the Croises were suffered to fall into the hands of the enemy, and the army was almost reduced to starvation. At length Conrad and Louis raised the siege; and, worn out with these repeated disappointments, they determined to return ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 195 to Europe. In little more than a twelvemonth from the arrival of these royal leaders, did the treacherous eastern Christians behold the monarchs who, at so much expense of wealth, and toil, and human life, had come thither to fight their battles, lay down the sword, and retire from a land where the atrocious perfidy of the Greek and Syrian Christians had proved far more fatal than the open hostility of the Paynim. Soon after, Louis and Elinor embarked at one of the Syrian ports, and, with the wasted remains of that once noble army, returned by the way of Rome, and across the Alps, to their own dominions. The intrigues of his brother, the count of Dreux, and the death soon after of that most upright minis- ter, abbot Suger, occupied the mind of Louis so wholly, that nearly two years elapsed after his return, ere he had leisure to prosecute that design, which probably he had long meditated, his divorce from the queen. At length, at the beginning of 1151, Louis, accompanied by Elinor, who had lately borne a second daughter, "inflamed by a spirit of jealousy," says the chronicle of Tours, "went into Aquitaine, where he destroyed several castles, and reduced their garrisons; and returning, was divorced from the queen on plea of consanguinity." The sentence was pronounced by an assembly of his bishops, on the ground that they were cousins in the fourth degree; and the king restored on this occasion, to Elinor, the seven provinces of Aquitaine, which on her marriage were appended to the crown of France. Immediately as the sentence was ratified by the Pope, the fair and haughty Elinor, with feelings of 02 196 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. exultation, in which, had she possessed the spirit of prophecy, she would have forborne to indulge, pro- ceeded to Blois. But the beautiful heiress of Aqui- taine was now a prize on which each eye was turned, and for whom each bold arm was stretched forth, and many a knight (for the age of chivalry had not yet arrived) stood ready with a well-armed company to seize her, and by a forced marriage possess him- self of her dower. The bold count of Blois, in whose domains she sought refuge, formed a similar plan: it was discovered, and by a precipitate retreat by night from Blois, she evaded the meditated danger. Tours was her next place of refuge, from whence, ere long, Geoffrey Plantagenet, second son of the empress Maude, by aid of an armed company, planned to carry her away to the neighbouring sea- port. Again, by timely notice of her danger, she was supplied with means of escape, and she fled from Tours, nor rested in her flight, until she found her- self secure within her hereditary dominions. Imme- diately on her arrival in Aquitaine, negotiations between Henry Plantagenet and herself, through the agency, it has been stated, of his mother, were entered into; and Elinor, conducted by Arnulph, bishop of Lisieux, one of the prelates who had accompanied her to Palestine, again quitted Aqui- taine; when being met by Henry at Lisieux, she was there married to him, by Arnulph, in his own cathe- dral, ere the sentence of divorce had been six weeks pronounced. The indecorous haste of this marriage certainly affixes a stain on the memory of Elinor, although ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 197 much may be pleaded in extenuation of a fair and wealthy heiress, who, even during that short period, had been twice compelled to fly from a forced mar- riage. But the consternation of Louis, when the intelligence reached him, knew no bounds; for Henry Plantagenet, as duke of Normandy alone, was a for- midable neighbour ;-what would he not be, when, in addition to the reversionary possession of Anjou, the seven fairest provinces of France-Guienne, Poi- tou, Saintonge, Auvergne, Perigord, Anjoumois, and Limousin, should own his sway? But Louis lived to see himself amply avenged-to behold the scorn wherewith the haughty Elinor, in the days of her youth and beauty, had treated him, well repaid to her by the ungrateful Plantagenet; and Planta- genet himself, to whom without stipulation she had yielded up her princely dower, receiving in that very gift a source of filial contentions and deadly hosti- lities, which sank him broken-hearted to the grave. No sad forebodings arose in the breast of Elinor, for no prophet-hand was there to unveil the dark future, when taking up her residence in Normandy, Plantagenet and herself-for they were both munifi- cent patrons of literature-summoned around them as gay, and almost as splendid, a court as that of France, a court to which the most celebrated knights, and the most renowned troubadours, all eagerly pressed. Ere three years passed, the death of Stephen placed the crown of England on the brow of young Plantagenet; and never, perhaps, did Elinor view with such exulting feelings the result of her divorce from Louis, as on that morning when 198 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. she was hailed duchess of Normandy and Aquitaine, and queen of England. Stephen died on the 25th of October, 1154: when the welcome intelligence was communicated to Henry, he was besieging a castle in Normandy; and so careless did he seem, that not until it had surrendered at discretion did he prepare for his voyage. for his voyage. He then proceeded to Rouen, confided the regency of Normandy to his mother; and then, with Elinor, their infant son, William (who soon after died), with his two brothers, and a splendid train of nobility, he repaired to Bar- befleur. There they were detained a whole month by contrary winds, and when at length they were enabled to sail, the weather became so stormy, that the fleet was dispersed, and in danger of wreck. At last, on the 7th of December, the royal ship anchored near Hurst castle, in the New Forest, and the first of the proud line of Plantagenet set his foot as monarch on the shore of England. During the period which intervened between the death of Stephen and Henry's accession, the peace of the kingdom appears to have been singularly preserved. "When the king died," says the Saxon Chronicle, "there was the earl beyond seas; but no man durst do other than good, for the great fear of him." Other writers represent the prudent measures of Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, as the cause of this tranquillity. From Hurst castle, the royal company proceeded to London, where Planta- genet "was received with great worship, and so- lemnly blessed as king, on the Sunday before Mid- winter-day;" when, in the church of Westminster, archbishop Theobald placed the crowns on the ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 199 heads of the second Henry and Elinor of Aqui- taine. In the following February, Henry, the second son, was born; and as the summer advanced, the king and queen made a progress through the north- ern parts of their dominions; during which time Plantagenet, by a judicious combination of mildness and severity, fully established peace in the land; while, by dismissing the Flemish mercenaries, by mitigating the rigor of some of the laws, and above all by destroying those strongholds of cruelty and oppression, the castles of the refractory nobles, he gained a popularity which even surpassed that of his predecessor Stephen. He next, with Elinor, passed over to Normandy; and from thence pro- ceeding into the dominions of Louis, did homage for Anjou, Mans, Tours, all Normandy and Aqui- taine, fiefs so extensive and so important, that the lord and the vassal might have exchanged places. The following fifteen years beheld Plantagenet holding with firm grasp the sceptre of England, and Elinor presiding over a court which for its splen- dour, its wealth, and its liberal patronage of litera- ture, was second to none in Europe; and many a troubadour came from afar with song and homage to the daughter of the warrior minstrel of Aquitaine, and many a trouvère laid his spirited romance, or his metrical history, at the feet of the literary Elinor. * One, who occupied no mean place among them, Bernard de Venta- dour, has left many chansons which breathe so ardent and so admiring a homage, that some writers, unacquainted with the extravagance which characterize the amatory poetry of the langue d'oc, have actually believed that he was her lover. 200 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. During these years, Plantagenet and Elinor seem to have lived quietly, though not happily; for soon did the indignant wife see herself superseded in her husband's affection by a mistress,* and learn the bitter truth that her princely possessions, not her- self, were the charm that won him. Still, during this period, she enjoyed the state and the honours of a queen; nor does Plantagenet appear to have been wanting in outward show of respect, since on more than one occasion during his absence he con- stituted her regent of Normandy and Anjou. To her rising family, therefore, she seems to have turned for that affection which from Plantagenet she had sought in vain; and the mother of three fair daughters and four promising sons, three of whom were heirs of domains so wide that each might almost be termed a kingdom, she appears to have viewed them with pride, and to have watched over them with anxious solicitude. The spring of 1170 was, therefore, a proud sea- son for Elinor. Plantagenet, at her request, had given up the duchy of Aquitaine to her second son Richard; and the royal court proceeded to Poictou, * The name of Plantagenet's earlier mistress, the mother of Geoffrey, archbishop of York, is unknown; she has been considered by some writers to have been the celebrated Rosamond Clifford, but the date of Geoffrey's birth (1159) disproves this opinion, since Brompton, under the year 1173, describes her as a young girl. The same writer mentions her residence at Woodstock, and that Ilenry caused a labyrinth to be erected there, "that the queen might not easily discover her"-the probable foundation of the popular tradition. Ile also relates, that sub- sequently to the imprisonment of Elinor, the king "openly and shame- lessly" brought his beautiful mistress into public notice. So far, there- fore, from fair Rosamond owing her death (for she died soon after), to the vengeance of the queen, it is far more probable that the queen owed her imprisonment to the passion of Henry for Rosamond. ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 201 to witness the inauguration of the boy (now scarcely fourteen years old), who, in after-years, was to gain himself a name beyond every other Christian knight, as duke of his mother's hereditary dominions. The laborious researches of the editors of the "Recueil des Historiens" have discovered the form of prayer appointed for these occasions; and it affords so cha- racteristic a specimen of the combination of war- like and devotional feeling which distinguished those days, when each candidate for knighthood pledged himself to maintain the Christian faith "by the aid of his good sword," and when each symbol of rule or of dignity was received from the hands of the church as the gift of Heaven, that a few extracts shall be inserted. From this form we learn, that, on the appointed day, the bishop of Limoges, in his pontifical vest- ments, followed by the choir wearing silken copes, and bearing texts, incense, and holy water, shall come to the great door of the church of St. Hilary in solemn procession. "And there, before the church door shall the duke stand, the bishop giving him holy water, and clothing him in a silken robe, with this prayer, 'Omnipotent and sempiternal God, Ruler of all things in heaven and earth, who hast thought thy servant worthy of elevation to the duke- dom; grant, we pray thee, that, being freed from the power of the enemy, and the gift of spiritual peace being afforded, we may arrive at the joys of eternal blessedness, through the grace of our Lord." After another prayer the "ring of the blessed Valeria” (she was supposed to have been the first duchess of 202 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. Aquitaine) is placed on the duke's finger by the bishop, with this address: "Take the ring of dignity, and by it recognize the sign of the universal faith- for this day art thou constituted duke and prince of Aquitaine, to the end that, blessed in works and rich in faith, thou mayest finally enjoy glory with the Lord of lords." The circlet (circulum) is next, with an appropriate prayer, placed on the duke's head; and then that knightly symbol, the lance and banner, is put into his hand, with this chivalrous address: "Take the rod of power and equity, by which thou shalt aid the good, affray the reprobate, direct the erring, assist the fallen, scatter the proud, and raise the humble ;-for thou shalt love righteousness, and hate all iniquity." After another prayer, the duke thus adorned with mantle, ring, and coronet, and bearing in his hand the lance with the banner, is led by the bishop into the church, while the choir fol low singing. Before the altar the last and proud- est badge of his high office, the sword, is placed in his hand; and how must the lion-heart of the noble boy have bounded, at the spirited admonition which accompanied its presentation: "Take this sword, divinely appointed for defence of the holy church of God, and be thou mindful of what the psalmist pro- phesied, saying, Gird thy sword on thy thigh, and ride forth, O most mighty! that by this, through Him who is the Lord of lords, thou mayest put forth the strength of righteousness, and valiantly beat down the strongholds of iniquity, and fight for and protect the holy church of God, and all her faithful ones. Nor less, know that by thy faith, thou art bound to exe- ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 203 crate all enemies of the Christian name, and shall de- stroy them; but thou shall clemently assist and defend all widows and orphans, restore the desolate, uphold the repentant, avenge all injustice, and confirm all good things, through the aid of our Lord Jesus Christ." Then the duke, thus invested, took the oath to protect the rights of the church of Limoges, and afterward returned to the choir, where he occu- pied during the service the principal stall, supported on each side by his seneschal and some other illus- trious follower; the seneschal holding upright the unsheathed sword, and the other the lance and ban- ner. Ere the mass was concluded the duke was to return to the altar, and there, kneeling, the bishop so- lemnly pronounced the following benediction: "May the Lord bless and keep thee, and, as He hath willed thee to be duke over this people, may he grant thee in this present life felicity, and eternal blessedness in that which is to come. May he grant thee tri- umphant victory over all enemies of the Christian faith, visible or invisible; and mayest thou become the most blessed bestower of peace and quietness, both far and wide. May thy peeple, so long as thou shalt hold the government of Aquitaine, be subject unto thee, and hold the faith of the Chris- tian name. And, henceforward, we all enjoying peace and tranquillity, when thou shalt be gathered unto the council of good princes, may we be found worthy to receive, together with thee, everlasting felicity and joy." The duke finally takes off the robe, the coronet, the ring and the banner, and with two prayers, in one of which it is supplicated that 204 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. he << may so rule by Thy guidance, that he shall not govern in pride, nor abuse his power; " and in the other, that he may "apprehend right, and dis- cern justice," the whole ceremony concludes. But while Aquitaine resounded with joyful gratu- lation, in England and in Normandy great dissatis- faction prevailed :-the king's seventh year of bitter contest with his haughty archbishop had com- menced, and his eldest son, to whom he had given but the empty title of king, began very naturally to murmur at his studied exclusion from all real power. Nor were other indications wanting, that the storm which his evil passions had for so many years been raising, was at length about to burst on the head of Plantagenet; but, with that pertinacity which he seems to have inherited from both father and mother, he determined by no concessions, by no cautious management, to endeavour to avert it. The conduct and the character of that celebrated man, whose consecrated name superseded that of the Virgin in the first cathedral of the land, and to whose shrine half the monarchs of Europe pressed with gifts and oblations-Becket—although belong- ing rather to the political history of England than to the biography of her queens, are yet, from the nu- merous illustrations which they afford of the spirit and manners of the twelfth century, too important to be passed over, without at least a cursory notice; while the tale of his parents, as related by Brompton, is so romantic, that it seems rather to belong to the lay of the minstrel, than to the Monkish Chronicle. Gilbert à Becket was a goldsmith, rich and pros- ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 205 perous, one of the chief men of London, and held in high estimation by all. But Gilbert was more proud of his Christian name than of his civic prerogatives; and thus when half Europe poured forth her enthu- siastic population, at the summons of Peter the her- mit, upon the shores of Asia, Gilbert quitted his native land, and set forth to fight the Paynim. But sincere devotion will not always command success, and Gilbert à Becket fell prisoner into the hands of his foemen. He was sold as a slave, and, after va- rious vicissitudes, became the property of an emir (a soldan, said the popular version of the tale,) who treated him with great kindness. Nor was the emir the only one who felt pity for the desolate stranger; his fair daughter Mathildis, Paynim though she were, loved the soldier of the cross; and when, at length, the emir set Gilbert à Becket free, because he pined for his native land, the fair Paynim was overwhelmed with sorrow. Meanwhile Gilbert re- turned to England; and Mathildis at length deter- mined to set forth in search of that western land, whither the young stranger had gone. She knew nought of that land, save that it was toward the west; two words were all her English vocabulary, and they were, "London," and "Gilbert;" but Heaven watched over the voyage of the beautiful Paynim, and she arrived safely in London. There she stood on the steps of Queenhithe, a stranger in a strange land; and when the marvelling crowd pressed around and questioned her, the only answers were "London," and "Gilbert." Unable to dis- cover more, they determined to convey her to the 206 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. bishop; when, passing along the Poultry, Gilbert à Becket himself, attracted by the crowd, came forth from his house, and joyfully recognized the fair Ma- thildis. He led her home, caused her to be bap- tized, and married her; and the chapel of St. Thomas of Acre, which for many centuries occupied the site of Gilbert à Becket's house, was believed by our forefathers to indicate both the port whence the fair Paynim set sail, and the saint that watched over her journey. Such is the wild but pleasing legend which gave to the English archbishop a Saracen mother;-a story, which, as Mr. Turner well remarks, "might be classed with tales of romance; but that, after the crusades commenced, human life became a ro- mance, and society was full of wild enterprize and improbable incidents." The education of this celebrated man commenced at Merton; it was completed at Paris; and he was then placed in the palace of the archbishop Theobald, where he distinguished himself by quali- ties which seemed to point him out rather for the honours of knighthood than for the service of the church. While in deacon's orders, he made more than one campaign in France, and took three cas- tles deemed impregnable, and gave proof of his personal courage by dismounting with his lance a French knight in single combat. This military taste, although disapproved by the stricter class of ec- clesiastics, was yet by no means so anomalous in one dedicated to the service of the church in those days, as it would appear in the present age. During the ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 207 whole of the 12th century, belligerent churchmen were by no means uncommon characters; and dur- ing the late contests of Stephen and the empress, even "the bishops-the bishops themselves! I blush to say it," remarks the author of Gesta Stephani, many bound in iron, and completely furnished with arms, were accustomed to mount their war horses, and participate in the prey." But to arch- bishop Theobald, his patron, these warlike propen- sities were most distasteful; for Theobald had been a scholar of the illustrious school of Bec, and since his high appointment had laboured unceasingly in the cause of learning; and to him also had England been indebted for the introduction of the study of civil law;-Vaccarius, the abbot of Bec, having at his solicitation come over to England, to read lec- tures on the Pandects. It is probable, therefore, that his patron's attachment to this branch of science, induced Becket to proceed to the continent, and commence the study of civil law at the very foun- tain head-the university of Bologna. On his in- troduction by his patron to the king, his splendid fortunes commenced, and his rise to the chancellor- ship was so rapid that, but for his acknowledged talents, it would have excited much ill will. In the discharge of this office, the favourite of the sove- reign distinguished himself by his wise and popular measures; he induced the parliament to banish the Flemish mercenaries, to encourage the return of those English whom the late distresses had driven from the land, persuaded the king to destroy the castles, and vigorously to preserve the internal peace 208 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. of the country. So grateful were these salutary measures to the people, that Becket at this period enjoyed the singular good fortune of being alike the favourite of the king and of his subjects. His style of living is recorded by his biographers to have been most splendid; and their notices afford us some curious pictures of his times. Vessels of gold and silver in the utmost profusion decked his table; every delicacy and foreign variety had a place in his banquets; the first nobles of the kingdom were his accustomed guests; and his array, when he rode abroad, was so magnificent, that his palfrey, almost weighed down by his ponderous silver trap- pings, was said to have "carried a treasure in his bit alone." A minute account has been handed down of the almost-royal state in which on one occasion he proceeded to France on an embassy. First, came two hundred boys, singing English songs; next, hounds in couples, with their attendants; then, his huge waggons (said to have been each drawn by three horses, and having a fierce mastiff chained beneath); these contained his wines, plate, chapel, chamber, and kitchen furniture; then the sumpter horses, then the esquires of his knights, bearing shields, and leading their war-steeds; then armour-bearers, pages, falconers and their birds, and cupbearers; next, the knights, riding two and two; then the clergy, also two and two; then the great officers of his household; and, lastly, Becket. Nor was this universal favourite unfitted by personal appearance to form the chief attraction of this long-drawn pro- cession; his tall and commanding figure, his noble ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 209 features, his graceful manners, all combined to point him out to universal notice as one formed by nature to occupy no subordinate station. During the whole period of his holding the chan- cellorship, the attachment of Henry to Becket seems to have surpassed belief; the haughty and ca- pricious Plantagenet hunted, feasted, actually played with his chancellor, on terms of perfect equality. But this friendship of the king was dearly pur- chased, on the part of Becket, by a disgraceful com- pliance with the profligate courses of the monarch, which, although it is believed that he never ac- tually participated in, he had not the principle to protest against. With the death of Theobald, in 1162, and his consequent elevation to the primacy, the fatal con- tests of Becket and the monarch commenced. That he was the aggressor, has been maintained by pro- testant writers, and his precipitate resignation of the chancellorship, has been pointed out by them in proof of his altered feelings toward Henry; while, by writers of the Roman communion, this act has been appealed to, to shew the disinterested and un- secular character of the motives by which, even from the moment of investiture with the sacred pall, henceforward he was actuated; and they dwell upon the rigid fasts and sackcloth garb of the arch- bishop, in proof of his sincere repentance of his pride and luxury when chancellor, and his determi- nation henceforth to live for the church alone. At this distance of time perhaps it is impossible to de- cide with accuracy which was the aggressor. Where P 210 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. feelings of coldness on each side take the place of warm affection, accident most frequently decides by whom the first blow shall be struck. Thus was it most probably in this case. To The particulars of this contest, waged with so much bitterness on either side and for so many years, belong to the political history of the country, and are therefore inadmissible here. It may however, in passing, be remarked, that rather too much stress is laid, by those writers who are favourable to Henry, on the "ingratitude" of the primate toward his benefactor. Now surely Henry's conduct towards Becket scarcely entitles him to so high a term. elevate a man of eminent talents and superior learn- ing, to a station of difficulty and responsibility, can- not be viewed in the light of an alms-deed; and Becket, endowed with qualities that would have secured his elevation in any court of Europe, had no very pressing obligation of gratitude towards the master who chose, and who kept his servant, because he was best adapted to his purpose. Surely the debt of gratitude, if due on either side, was rather from the monarch, whom the judicious counsels of his chancellor had placed so firmly on the throne. But this contest, which had now continued nine years, was soon to receive a tragical termination. After many ineffectual attempts, both on the part of the Pope, and of the king of France, to reconcile the haughty king and the no less haughty arch- bishop, in the autumn of this year an interview finally took place between them, and the words of peace were pronounced by each. But the kiss-that ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 211 most important part of the ceremony, both as a tes- timony of protection from the liege lord, and as a pledge of perfect good will between contending par- ties,—was refused by Henry; and Becket, after his long and painful exile, took his departure for England, with solemn, if not sorrowful forebodings. After When he arrived at Witsand the sky was clear, the sea calm, and some of his fellow exiles, impatient of delay, cried "Holy father, wherefore are we to stand even in sight of the promised land, and yet, like Moses, never enter it?" "Wherefore this haste?" was the foreboding answer of archbishop Thomas; "within forty days after your landing in England, ye will wish yourselves anywhere but there." Being prohibited from landing at Dover, he, on the first of December, arrived at Sandwich, whither the sheriff of Kent hastened with a company of knights, clad in mail under their tunics. an angry discussion, he was suffered to proceed, and he arrived at Canterbury, where he was received with bells ringing, a procession of the clergy, and by the whole population clad in holiday garments. ascended the pulpit, and preached a sermon from the text, "For we have here no continuing city; a sermon which to his admiring clergy seemed to breathe the very atmosphere of Heaven. After eight days' sojourn in that city, Becket sent a mes- senger to young Henry, offering to go to him to do homage; while, in order that he might present a gift which he thought would be acceptable, he selected four remarkably fine war-horses; "for he loved him exceedingly, having had him in his house when a child; He P 2 212 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. and had educated him, while chancellor." Not receiving an answer to his message, he set out for London; and, when he arrived near, three thousand of the clergy, together with the citizens, marched out in solemn procession to receive him, chanting Te Deum. This was his last scene of triumph, yet even here, so said his friends, he did not remain unwarned. Amid these rejoicings, a woman fol- lowed him, crying aloud, "Archbishop, beware of the knife,"-words which were soon after brought to the recollection of his sorrowing disciples with emphatic cogency. In the intention of his visit to London, Becket was foiled:-young Henry refused to see him, sent him a message to return to Canter- bury, and there abide. From that moment the dis- carded favourite looked upon himself as a doomed man; and he turned to his cathedral city, studious rather how he should best meet his coming fate, than anxious to avoid it. In the mean time the three prelates, who had been suspended from their functions by him, pro- ceeded to Normandy, and bitterly complained of the influence which Becket still possessed. The king asked their counsel; this they refused; at length one of them remarked, "While he is alive neither you nor your kingdom will have peace." The king immediately exclaimed that he was most unfortu- nate in having maintained so many cowardly and ungrateful men about him, not one of whom would revenge the many injuries brought upon him by one man. This hint was sufficiently understood by those who stood around; that very night-and it was ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 213 the night on which "peace on earth, and good will toward man," was sung in every church throughout Christendom-on Christmas eve, four ruffians, named Reginald Fitzurse, William de Tracy, Hugo de Morville, and Richard Brito, each bound himself by a solemn oath that he would pass over into England, and forthwith perform Plantagenet's mur- derous bidding. How strictly that vow was performed, needs scarcely be told. The four barons proceeded to Canterbury; where, on the 30th of December, clad in complete mail, they entered the archbishop's palace, and with insulting threats seated themselves at his dining-table, while the armed company which they had brought with them secured the gates. Becket now saw that his hour was come; and with that noble spirit, which must command our admira- tion however we may disapprove his tenets, he determined to die for that cause which he could no longer aid by his life. The hour of vespers approach- ing, he directed the processional cross to be brought; and summoning his affrighted monks, who were, as an eye-witness describes, "driven gently before him like a flock of sheep," he entered the cathedral, and ascended the steps of the high altar, beneath which he found a grave. There he stood, while the four armed men rushed upon him, and aimed a first blow at his neck; a second, from the sword of de Tracy, almost severed the arm of the priest who stood by, and wounded the sentenced archbishop on the head; he turned, and wiping away the blood, said, "Into thy hands I commend my spirit." A third blow 214 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. stretched him at the foot of the altar, enveloped in the folds of his episcopal robe; while a last and needless stroke was inflicted, by Richard Brito, with such murderous force, that the sword broke in the skull; and then, their task completed, the four murderers, untouched, even unchallenged, mounted their steeds and departed. It is melancholy to reflect, that so cold-blooded and atrocious a murder, should have received the approbation of writers who term themselves Chris- tian; and that the assassination of an unarmed ecclesiastic within the walls of his own cathedral, by the cowardly hands of four mail-clad men, should actually have been exulted in, as a triumph of civil and religious liberty! Alas! for that worthy cause, if such were its triumphs. But perhaps scarcely a stronger instance of general ignorance of the charac- ter of this period can be found, than that which is afforded by the popular view of the contest of Henry and Becket. Of religious liberty neither could be the advocate, for no point of their contest had the slightest reference to it; but of civil liberty, Becket, not Plantagenet, was the champion; and the enthu- siasm of the collected multitudes, which made his last journey to London one long triumph, was the grateful expression of popular feeling towards the great advocate of popular rights. * * A sufficient reason for the hostility with which most of the popular historians view the memory of Becket, may be found in their having derived their information respecting him, not from contemporary sources, but from those English chronicles, whence nearly every falsification of our early history dates its origin. The time-serving writers, both lay and ecclesiastical, of the eighth Henry's day, could not resist the desire of exhi- biting the strife of the regal and spiritual powers, in a manner favourable ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 215 The four murderers of Becket, according to Hoveden, immediately proceeded to Knaresborough, where one of their number, Hugh de Morville, pos- sessed a manor. There, what the civil law was in- adequate to do,* was in some measure supplied by the ecclesiastics, and yet more by the feeling of the people. They were solemnly excommunicated; and that so often abused sentence pressed on them with all its unmitigated, but in this instance most. wholesome terrors. They were avoided by every one; nor would the meanest perform even the slightest office for them; and they actually preserved their lives from famishing by eating the fragments that had been cast away. At length the sentence of ex- communication was reversed; and they proceeded to Rome, to receive, from the lips of pope Alexander, the decision respecting their penance: this was, that they should travel on foot in the garb of peni- tence to Jerusalem; and thither they went; where, after several years spent in solitude, they died, and were buried outside the door of the Temple t. When the intelligence reached Plantagenet, the danger of his situation struck him so forcibly, that he rushed from the hall, and remained secluded from company five days. Recovering from the first to royalty; nor did they, in an age which gave to Fisher and More the doom of traitors, dare to stigmatize the fate of Becket as a murder, lest the eighth Henry should imagine that a blow was aimed at him through the person of the second. *Dr. Lingard considers that the reason why Henry took no steps against the murderers was, that to have brought them to trial for what was com- mitted in compliance with his wish, would have been ungenerous, while, to have aided their escape, would have identified himself with them. + Vide Hoveden. 216 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. shock, he sent a most submissive letter to the pope, disclaiming all connivance with the murderers, and declaring that, when he heard that the archbishop was slain," he sorrowed vehemently." It was not an Innocent, who at this period wielded the thunders of the Vatican; the sovereign pontiff, therefore, after some delay, thought proper to be satisfied with even the pretended sorrow of a Plantagenet, and he merely imposed the easy penance of a large pecu- niary donation in aid of the holy war. But although Henry in this arrangement suc- ceeded so much better than his fears had foreboded, evil fortune, which, in the belief of the cloister, was the vengeance of Heaven for the murder of their great patron, tracked his footsteps even to the grave. His ancient enemy, Louis, (with whom he had never been thoroughly reconciled, although his eldest son had married the daughter of that king,) indignant that the promised coronation of his daughter had been so long postponed, invaded Normandy. Nor did the precipitate assent of Henry to this, which without any apparent reason he had so long refused, reconcile the king of France, who in the meanwhile waited but for a more convenient time to recommence hostilities. This time soon arrived. In 1173, Henry for the last time, al- though sixteen years were to elapse ere his death, spent his Christmas at Chinon, in the midst of his family, and then, in company with his eldest son, made a progress through his continental dominions. During this journey, an arrangement having been completed with the earl of Savoy for contracting ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 217 his eldest daughter Alice with Henry's youngest son John, he proposed that the castles of Chinon and Mirabeau, and the tower of London, should be settled on this his favourite son. To this proposal the eldest son very naturally objected, and he vehe- mently remonstrated against the injustice of the youngest son being put in possession of the three most important fortresses of Anjou, Normandy, and England; while he, the heir to the crown, the al- ready twice-crowned king,* together with his wife, daughter of the king of France, had not an acre of land they could call their own. To this remon- strance Plantagenet refused to listen, and he haugh- tily rejected the request of young Henry, that either England, Normandy, or Anjou, might be assigned to him. Indignant at the interests of his youngest brother, a child only eight years of age, being thus unjustly preferred to his, young Henry quitted the castle in which he, together with his father, were so- journing; and from the circumstance of his depar- ture having taken place by night, from its being always termed a flight, and from the remark of Gervase of Canterbury, that it was so secretly ar- * The historian of Leicestershire, in a masterly exposure of Henry's conduct, both toward Becket, and toward his sons, remarks (and he quotes Pere Daniel as his authority), that the reason which induced Henry, in the first instance, to cause his son to be crowned, was not parental affection, but in order to obviate the inconveniences which might arise, had the pope, in supporting Becket, laid the king under interdict. In this case the king's son could have carried on the government until the father might resume it. + Hoveden, who seems remarkably bitter against young Henry, re- marks that "this was done by counsel of the king of France and the earls and barons of England and Normandy, who hated his father." Without seeking farther for reasons to account for Plantagenet's harsh- ness to young Henry, it seems evident from this, that he was a favourite of the nation; a circumstance quite sufficient to account for the father's hostility. 218 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. ranged and carried into effect, that it was scarcely known to the warders, it seems not improbable that it was not merely the escape of a son from his father, but that of a prisoner from his jailer. The flight of young Henry was followed by that of his mother and his two younger brothers, Richard and Geoffrey; while in the defection of many of his English and Norman barons, Plantagenet at length saw his danger, and he forthwith commenced the most active and vigorous measures. He sum- moned a large army to the field, among which were twenty thousand mercenaries, of various nations, afterwards known by the general name of Brabanters s; and anxious to call the spiritual power to his aid, he sent a dolorous letter to the pope, in which he quotes scripture with admirable inappropriateness; he also requested his Norman bishops to address a pastoral epistle to his fugitive queen, urging her, on pain of excommunication, to return with her sons to him.* This letter, which was written by Peter of Blois, and which is the 154th in the col- lection, is very respectful in its style,-it purports to be "from the archbishop of Rouen and his suffra- * The defection of Plantagenet's three sons is, in most of the con- temporary chronicles, attributed to the instigation of Elinor. This was very probably the case; and indignation at the attachment of Henry to that new and beautiful mistress,' (so celebrated in ballad lore), and mor- tification at viewing the unjust treatment of her eldest son, will easily supply reasons for her conduct. That she herself had either received. harsh treatment from Plantagenet, or feared it if she returned, is evident from a passage in the subsequent letter, which assures her, most vainly, of her perfect safety. That she had been already placed under strict surveillance, at least, seems probable from a passage in Gervase, that represents her departing, "having changed her female dress." This writer calls her "an exceedingly wise woman, and of noble race, but inconstant." } ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 219 gans;" and, addressing Elinor as "wisest of wo- men," urges upon her consideration the propriety and duty of returning, by reference to several texts, which, had Plantagenet's conduct and character been different, might have been suitable. The import- ance of the step she had taken, is proved by the urgency with which she is invited to return; and the danger in which Plantagenet felt himself placed, is clearly though covertly expressed in the remark that "childish counsels and a female hand have brought desolation upon one to whom the mightiest kings had submitted their necks ;"—an admirable specimen of hyperbole, since it would be difficult to find any king who had "submitted his neck to Plantagenet. In conclusion, they endeavour to persuade her to reconcliation, by assurances that the king "will exhibit toward you love, and the fullest security for your safety;" and she is finally exhorted to yield to their admonition, "seeing that thou, most pious queen, as well as thine husband, art our parishioner." دو What course was adopted by Elinor on the re- ceipt of this episcopal mandate, is unknown; but ere long we learn, although no chronicle gives any par- ticular, that she fell into the hands of Plantagenet, who gratified his revenge, by consigning her to a close and severe imprisonment, which lasted, with the exception of one short interval, sixteen years. Early in the following year Plantagenet visited Canterbury-a step most probably rendered neces- 220 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. sary by the continued hostility of the people and nobles, who, doubtless, considered his family dis- sensions as a just judgment upon him for the murder of his archbishop. Barefooted, and clad in woollen garments, he proceeded from the church of St. Dunstan, withoutside the city, to the tomb of St. Thomas in the cathedral, and there, kneeling down, (6 was scourged by all the byestanders, bishops, abbots, and the monks of Christchurch, of his own free will." Gervase, who records this, and who was probably an eye-witness, makes no remark, either commending the penitence of the king, or exulting in the honour which he was compelled to pay to the remains of his great opponent; he merely states, that he "joyfully departed from Canterbury ;" and seems to have viewed the whole proceeding, as one of those sacrifices to popular feeling, which, on some occasions, even the most haughty and tyrannical of monarchs are forced to make. The good fortune of Plantagenet, in this struggle against not only his refractory sons, but against the kings of France and Scotland, and his nobles, eventually prevailed; and once more he found himself at peace. But his successes were of no avail in softening his heart; he still seems to have viewed his elder sons with feelings of jealous hos- tility, and he still kept the unhappy Elinor in cap- tivity. But, although domestic peace and good-will were strangers to the palace, the land enjoyed a measure of repose and prosperity which had been unknown ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 221 since the days of Beauclerc,* and which, indeed, far exceeded them. Under the judicious management of Ranulph de Glanville, the chief justiciar, many arrangements calculated to secure and advance the well-being of the kingdom were made. Itinerant judges were constituted; and the land being divided into six circuits, three of these were appointed for each. An assize of arms was also established, by which each person holding a knight's fee was re- quired to keep a coat of mail, a helmet, a shield, and a lance; every freeman possessing in chattels, or rent, ten marks, to have an habergeon (an inferior coat of mail), a chapelle de fer (a flattened steel cap), and a lance; while nearly the same arms were re- quired to be possessed by "the whole community of freemen." As these arms were for the purpose of defending the kingdom, it was enacted, that no man should sell, pledge, lend, or alienate them; nor should the lord by any means take them from his vassal, neither should they be carried out of the kingdom, nor should the Jews be allowed to possess them. * In one important respect, however, Beauclerc stood pre-eminent : this was in the rejection of bribes. From the very curious narrative of Richard de Anesty, it appears that Plantagenet had no scruple in receiving them, and that his example was most laudably followed by every member of the court. "I gave," says he, "in gifts, in the king's courts, gold, silver, and horses, sixteen marks and a half; to Ralph, the king's physician, thirty-six marks; to the king, one hundred marks; and to the queen, one gold mark." The whole narrative (how he was sent from one to another, and how he was obliged to raise money from Vives the Jew of Cambridge," and from "Hakelot the Jew,' at the enormous interest of three pennies per week for the pound," and from a dozen more,) is very characteristic, and forms an emphatic comment on that clause of the great charter," We will not sell, delay, or deny justice." The reader will find the whole narrative in the second volume of Sir F. Palgrave 's " English Commonwealth.” 222 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. A curious picture of the rising prosperity of our capital is presented in the description of London, written about this period, by Fitz Stephen.* From it we learn that London was then surrounded by the wall, of which scarcely a fragment now remains; that it was entered by seven gates, † and defended at either end by a strong castle (the Tower, and castle Baynard); while, along the northern side, turrets at intervals were erected. Withinside, the several tradesmen resided in the streets appropriated to their respective callings, a plan which continued many centuries after. Three principal schools, St. Paul's cathedral-school, the convent-school of St. Martin's le Grand, and that of the Holy Trinity at Aldgate, beside others held " upon good-will and sufferance," were devoted to the instruction of its youthful inhabitants; while thirteen great conven- tual churches, and one hundred and twenty-six pa- rochial, supplied religious services to the citizens, and the dwellers in the suburbs. From the same account we learn, that the suburbs were even at this early day very populous, especially toward the west. "On the west," says he, " is the king's palace-an "is incomparable building, having a wall before it, and bulwarks. It is two miles from the city, and con- tinued with a suburb full of people." "On the * The whole tract, with an English translation, is appended to the second volume of Strype's Stow. These gates were Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Cripplegate, Aldersgate, Newgate, Ludgate, and a Watergate: Moorgate was not opened until the commencement of the fifteenth century. Fitz Stephen mentions, that the walls originally extended along the river-side of the city, but that they were in that part suffered to fall into ruin. ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 223 north side are fields for pasture, and open meadows very pleasant, among which river-waters flow, and turn the wheels of the mills. Very near lies a large forest, in the coverts of which lurk bucks, does, wild boars, and bulls." Nearer the city, he tells us, there are "three fountains, sweet, wholesome, and clear, streaming forth from among the glittering stones (the worthy monk's style is tolerably ornate); "these are Holywell, Clerkenwell, and St. Clement's well, where the youth of the city take the air on summer evenings." More to the east extended the wide moor, which, until within twenty years, gave its name to that portion of the manor of Finsbury. This moor, during the winter season, was appropriated to all manner of sports; especially a rude kind of skat- ing, performed by means of a bone being fastened under the shoe of the skater. He tells us, that ac- cidents very frequently happened on the ice; but that, such was the spirit and determination of the London youth, these were inadequate to restrain them. At Smithfield ("Smoothfield" is Fitz Stephen's term) every Friday, was a horse-market, to which not merely the citizens, but "earls, barons, and knights, were accustomed to resort; and to it, horses of every kind, and from all parts, were sent. >> London, even at this early day, seems well to have deserved her long appropriated title of " pays de cocaigne;" since from the same authority we learn, that good eating and drinking abounded in this fa- voured city; and that, for the accommodation of those who had not means or opportunity of cook- ing various delicacies at home, a range of shops ex- 224 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. CC tended by the river-side, where every kind of food, dressed in the most approved style, might be ob- tained. At these, he tells us, you may call for fish, small or great, ordinary flesh for the poorer sorts, and more dainty, such as venison and fowl, for others;" and he enlarges, in a very housekeeper- like way, on the great convenience of these shops ; for "if a citizen have friends come in, let the ser- vants give them water to wash, and bread to stay their stomachs, and in the mean time run to the water-side," where they would find every thing ne- cessary to furnish a complete and even sumptuous. entertainment. The commerce of the city appears to have been (even making allowances for the inflated diction of this most laudatory of statistical writers,) very ex- tensive. 66 Hither," says he, "the Arabian sends his gold; the Saracen, his frankincense, spices, and oil of palms; Nilus, precious stones; the Seres, purple garments; Norway and Russia, furs, sables, and trout; and the French their wines." That London was, even at this early period, supplied both with spices and other products of the East, is a fact which we learn from other sources, but the medium of supply was the commerce of the Venetians, from whom the travelling merchants of the continent ob- tained them; and through this circuitous route were the riches and delicacies of Asia introduced into England. The " purple garments," subse- quently mentioned, and which Fitz Stephen assigns to the Chinese (Seres), are probably those peculiarly rich silken vestments, which being at this period in ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 225 demand for occasions of the highest solemnity, he might naturally choose to designate by the general term applied to such garments in classical times. That they were sent by the Chinese, or even made of East-Indian silk, is altogether a fiction; the great European silk-mart was Sicily, where, about a hun- dred years previously, Roger Guiscard had esta- blished a most noble and flourishing silk manufac- tory, which about this period contained 2000 looms, and produced not merely the common kinds of silk, but velvets, satins, and brocades of the most splendid quality. The intercourse with the north of Europe had, from the very earliest times, been continued by our forefathers; and the merchants of the free towns of the north of Germany were the first foreign traders who were permitted to be domiciliated in London. Furs were at this time beginning to be in great request for the decoration of dress, but what species of fish the worthy monk means to designate by the name of "trout," it is impossible to imagine. The antiquity of London, he next proceeds to tell us, is," according to the chronicles," higher than Rome; "therefore it uses the same ancient laws and common institutions; for this city, like to that, has wards, sheriffs also answering in dignity to their consuls; aldermen enjoying like honour with their senators, besides inferior magistrates. It hath also common sewers, and channels for water in the streets." Of the population in the city and its suburbs, little can be ascertained; for when he pro- ceeds to tell us, that during the wars of Stephen twenty-thousand horse and sixty thousand foot were Q 226 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. raised there alone, the statement is too extrava- gant to merit a moment's notice. A mistake of the transcriber may perhaps have originated this incred- ible statement; for it is a fact that even centuries after, when the city enjoyed the highest degree of prosperity, her armed force was probably not more than half. The description that Fitz-Steven gives of the amusements of the citizens is highly interesting. The winter's sports on the ice in Moorfields have been already alluded to. At spring-tide river sports commenced. A post was fixed in the midst of the Thames, having a shield suspended from it a small boat without oars was then provided, in which a young man bearing a long lance placed himself. The boat being driven by the current against the post, he endeavoured with his lance to strike the shield; if he struck so firmly that he broke his lance against it without losing his standing, he was consi- dered victorious; if he struck without breaking the lance, or without keeping his standing, he was adjudged a loser, and besides, mostly fell into the water; "the which," says our relator, "caused much laughter to the crowds which stood about." He however takes care to inform us, that boats were always moored close beside, with young men in them, appointed to take these luckless tilters out of the water. During the long evenings of summer, Fitz- Steven also tells us that the maidens of the city were accustomed to lead dances even until moonlight in the streets, while their more elderly neighbours and friends, sate at their doorways looking on. Besides ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 227 these amusements, he mentions public declamations, and scholastic disputations in the schools; miracle plays, of which it is much to be regretted that he gives no description; and exercises in arms, which, from their general similarity, have been mistaken by many historians for actual tournaments. "Every Sunday in Lent," says he, (and so habitual had the licence become, that the writer, though an ecclesi- astic, passes over this profanation of the sabbath without a single remark,)“ immediately after dinner, crowds of noble youths, mounted on war-horses admirably trained to perform all their turnings and evolutions, ride into fields in distinct companies, armed with lances and shields, and exhibit represen- tations of battles, and go through all their martial exercises. Many of the young nobility, who have not yet received the honour of knighthood, issue from the king's court, and from the houses of bishops, earls, and barons, to make trial of their courage, strength, and skill in arms. The hope of victory rouses the spirits of these noble youths; their fiery horses neigh and prance, and champ the foaming bit. At length the signal is given, and the sports begin. The youths, divided into opposite bands, encounter one another. In one place some fly, and others pursue, without being able to overtake them. In another place, one of the bands overtakes and overturns the other." This pompous description, stripped of its high- sounding words, will be found merely to delineate the usual chivalric exercises of the period.—The enclosed space, the surrounding spectators, the Q 2 228 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. regularly marshalled combatants, the presiding judge with his warder, the heralds, the marshals, the ladies-all that gave its peculiar character to the tournament, is wanting here; and the passage, so far from contradicting the assertion of William of New- borough, that tournaments, during the whole of the second Henry's reign, were prohibited throughout England, derives, from this minute description of Fitz-Steven, even additional proof; for surely, had the regular tournament been customary in England, among so many minute delineations of inferior sports and entertainments, that most splendid and most important of all would never have been passed over. It were greatly to be wished that, of the other towns now rapidly rising into eminence, a descrip- tion as minute as this of the metropolis had been given. In the absence of more specific information, we are warranted in believing that the peace which with one short interruption had pervaded the land throughout the thirty-four years of the reign of Plan- tagenet, the comparatively better administration of justice, and the extension of commerce, brought to the various other cities some measure of that pros- perity which London unquestionably enjoyed. In the numerous accounts of the religious and charita- ble endowments of the times, we can perceive the existence of an advancing state of prosperity among the various classes of society; while, in the splendid and expensive structures erected during this reign, the possession of no trifling degree of wealth is indi- cated. ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 229 While the nation was thus advancing in wealth and civilization, Plantagenet and his sons were again, in 1184, engaged in unnatural warfare: a se- cond time did young Henry take up arms against his father, and again both Richard and Geoffrey combined with him. Whatever may be advanced by the apologists of Plantagenet, in regard to his paternal conduct toward his eldest and third sons, no excuse can be made for his conduct toward his second (Richard). He had been contracted at an early age to Alice, another daughter to the king of France, who had been sent over to England to receive her education in that country which was to be her abode. At length, when Richard demanded his bride, his father refused to yield her to him; nor even when, by the unexpected death of young Henry, Richard be- came heir to the crown, would Plantagenet comply. Meanwhile, Louis died, and was succeeded by his son, the celebrated Philip Augustus; who, willing that this long deferred marriage should take place, acceded to the demand of Plantagenet, that the dower which Margaret had received on her mar- riage with young Henry, should be assigned to her sister Alice; this dower was the town of Gisors and the Vexin. Still was the marriage delayed; and at length the indignant son learned the truth, that the father meditated a divorce from his "detested queen," that he might marry Richard's affianced bride. It is not improbable that the short remission of her imprisonment, which, during part of the year 1185, Elinor obtained, proceeded from the anxiety of Plantagenet to induce her to accede to this 230 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. divorce.* Many of the French writers attribute her long previous imprisonment to her refusal of a similar demand; and that this temporary liberation was conceded with such a view, derives additional plausibility from the statement of Hoveden, that Henry directed Richard, during this year, to yield up the government of Poictou to his mother. But the mother most probably refused to be the means of inflicting such mortification on her favourite son; and we find her soon after again consigned to her stern captivity. Meanwhile, Richard carried on a fierce warfare against his father, aided by his brother Geoffrey, whom Plantagenet had refused the addi- tion of the county of Maine to his dukedom of Britany. But Geoffrey, like young Henry, was doomed to an early grave: in 1186 he went to Paris, where, being dismounted at a tournament, he was trampled to death. From this period to the year that closed his life, the reign of Plantagenet presents little, save a con- tinuance of contests with his son Richard. Foiled in this attempt to gain Alice for himself, Plantage- net, determined that Richard should not possess her, now demanded that she might be contracted to his son John. This request was peremptorily denied ; reason. * Gervase mentions the king's anxiety to obtain a divorce, although, with the exception of terming her "his detested queen," he gives no He also mentions that she was liberated at the express request of the archbishop of Canterbury (p. 1475). Both reasons may have induced him to liberate Elinor. It is evident that at this time he did not stand on very good terms with the clergy, who seem to have expected that he would have taken a more active part in the crusade, which Heraclius this year came over to preach. According to Brompton, he gave the king a very fair specimen of plain speaking. ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 231 and war commenced between Plantagenet and Phi- lip. At length, after many ineffectual attempts, a truce was concluded between the hostile monarchs, and they met on a plain near Chinon. The sky was clear, the sun shining, and they on horse-back were conversing with each other; suddenly, a loud peal of thunder was heard, and a bolt fell between them. It sank into the ground, and shortly after they again resumed their conversation :-Plantage- net subscribed the articles of peace, and-fatal de- mand—asked for the list of those of his nobles who in the late contest had adhered to Philip. Again, thunder, louder and more fearful, was heard, al- though the sky still retained its brightness; and Plantagenet, overwhelmed with indefinable terror, would have fallen from his horse, but for the aid of the bystanders. The conference ended-the list was duly sent, and first upon it stood the name of John! Overwhelmed with grief and rage, curs- ing the day that he was born, cursing his children, and those around him, Plantagenet sought the castle of Chinon, where he was seized with fever. It was in vain that his bishops and chaplains pressed around him, urging him to revoke those fearful curses; he remained unmoved; and, although life was fast ebbing away, swore he would never revoke them. For some days he lingered, unattended either by wife or child; for Richard, in arms against him, knew not of his danger, and Elinor was in the prison-house, to which his cruelty had consigned her. At length, finding his end approaching, he caused himself to be carried to the adjoining church, "where, con- 232 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. fessing his sins, and receiving the sacraments, and absolution," says Hoveden, "he died on the octave of St. Peter and St. Paul." Immediately on his death, ere the corpse became cold,-ring, bracelet, collar, royal mantle, and vest, were stript away by the attendants; and utterly divested of clothing, the illustrious Plantagenet lay on a table in the church, until a young page, who was passing by, spread his scanty cloak over him. "The greatest of men are liable to this desertion; but it always. proves that the manners or conduct of the prince could have excited no personal regard."* At the time of his father's illness, Richard was in Poictou, and thither the chief men of the court (when Plantagenet's recovery was pronounced hope- less) repaired, to pray him to come, and assume the reins of government. Richard immediately com- plied; but the father's eyes were closed ere the son arrived. The haughty but generous Coeur de Lion superintended his father's obsequies with the most reverend care; the royal corpse, arrayed in silken mantle, broidered gloves, white leather boots, and gilt spurs, with golden circlet on the brow, and with sceptre and sword of state placed in either hand,† was borne to its last resting place, the Nun's church, in the neighbouring abbey of Fontevraud,‡ while Richard, shedding tears, preceded the bier; and "thus," says Hoveden, quaintly, "among the veiled ones was he hidden from sight." The will of Plantagenet, made seven years before, * Turner. + Matthew Paris. ‡ Vide Appendix, Note 7. ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 233 all the provisions of which Coeur de Lion strictly fulfilled, deserves notice, as affording proof of that splendid munificence towards objects of religion and charity, which was so peculiarly the characteristie of the middle ages. * The whole will consists of charitable bequests; 20,000 marks are devoted for the defence of the Holy Land, and to the aid of the charitable establishments there; to the reli- gious houses of England, 5,000; to those of Nor- mandy, 2,000; and to those of Anjou, 1,000 marks are bequeathed, together with 2,000 marks to the abbey of Fontevraud. To the Carthusian order, 3,000 marks; to the Grandmontines, 3,000; to the Clugniac, 2,000; and to the Cistercian, the same sum is left; while 300 gold marks are bequeathed for the marriage portions of "poor free English women who need aid," and the same sum for the same purpose to those of Normandy, and of Anjou. These bequests, with a few small legacies, constitute the whole of the document, and thus nearly £37,000 —a sum, in present value, equal to half a million— was the princely largesse bestowed by the last will of Plantagenet. * A similar display of munificence accompanied the burial of the Conqueror. Then," says the Saxon Chronicle," the king, Rufus, did as his father had commanded him ere he was dead; he distributed trea- sures for his father's soul to each monastery in England: to some ten marks of gold; to others six; to each upland church sixty pence; and into each shire he sent 100/. of money, to distribute among poor men." 234 CHAPTER IX. Elinor liberated by her son, and appointed to the Regency-State of the Jews in England—Fitz-Ailwyn the first Lord Mayor-Richard's Naval Force for his Crusade-Elinor's Voyage to Cyprus-Berengaria-Eli- nor's Embassy to the Pope-Richard's Captivity-Elinor's Letters to Celestine-She proceeds to Germany with her Son's Ransom-Richard's Return-Proclamation of Tournaments-Richard's Death-Elinor's Embassy to Castile-Besieged at Mirabeau-She retires to Fonte- vraud, and there dies-Her Character. THE first step taken by the gallant Cœur de Lion, after receiving the oath of allegiance from his vas- sals of Anjou and Normandy, was to send over to England an order for the release of his mother from her long captivity, and for her appointment as queen regent there, until he should be enabled in person to take charge of the affairs of his kingdom. And "a sadder and a better" woman did the now aged Elinor come forth from her prison towers,* to take the temporary rule of her son's most important here- ditary possession. According to the long-established custom, on the occasion of the accession of a new mo- narch, she commanded the doors of every prison to be set open, and generously enjoined all to offer prayers for the soul of her deceased husband. To this duty she seems to have paid remarkable attention; since it is mentioned by more than one writer that, in her sub- * Later historians mention Winchester as the place; her contempora- ries do not give us the name. ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 235 sequent progress through the kingdom, she distri- buted large sums to the ecclesiastics for the same purpose. son Invested with plenary power, (for her affectionate gave commandment," says Matthew Paris, "to the chief men of the kingdom, that all things should be disposed according to the will of the queen,") Elinor proceeded to make strict inquiry respecting all those who had suffered by the caprice or injustice of the late king,-an office, the chroniclers remark, well suited to one who had experienced in her own person the miseries of captivity, and who could know, by actual feeling, "that most joyful refresh- ment of soul when set free." Accordingly, under her auspices, "whom the father had disinherited, the son restored to their rights; whom the father exiled, those the son recalled; whom the father bound in fetters, those the son set free; and who- ever the father caused to be oppressed with divers penalties, the son most piously comforted."* The forest laws, which under Beauclerc, but espe- cially during the reign of Stephen, had greatly re- laxed their pressure, under the rule of Plantagenet, had been enforced with a rigour so severe-for Henry was "a mighty hunter "—that the prisons were filled with offenders, and the woods with outlaws. conciliate the people, therefore, and to obtain the services of a numerous and active body of men, Eli- nor," above all things," says the chronicler, "gave orders, that all who had been taken for offences in To • Benedict Abbas. 236 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. the forests should be quietly liberated; and that all outlaws of the forest, and all others who had been in custody by the will of the king, or his justiciar, should have full pardon, on swearing fidelity to his lord, Richard king of England."* Rather more than a month from his father's death elapsed ere Richard arrived. Early in Au- gust he landed at Portsmouth, and, immediately proceeding to Winchester, took possession of the royal treasury, and "caused to be weighed and set down" all his father's treasures. These were indeed 66 right royal;" more than ninety thousand pounds of gold and silver, besides plate, jewellery, and an immense collection of precious stones. Here he held his first court, and a council for the general affairs of the kingdom, at which we find Elinor as- sisting. From Winchester he went to Salisbury- the Old Sarum of the present day, a city of remark- able strength—and there he gave, to his brother John, Hawise, the daughter and heiress of the earl of Glo- ster, and the custody of six castles, among which were the important ones of Marlborough and Not- tingham. After proceeding on his progress as far as Nottingham, Richard turned southward, and took his way toward London, toward London, where preparations were making for his immediate coronation. This cere- mony occupies an important place in our histories of England, both on account of its being the first of which the chroniclers have given a full detail, and the unhappy celebrity it has obtained, in consequence * Diceto. ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 237 of that cruel massacre of the Jews, which formed so melancholy a conclusion to its pomp and splendour. Both these are so fully detailed in our popular his- tories of England, that it is unnecessary to do more than refer to them. A few remarks on the state of the Jews at this period will, however, contribute to a better understanding of many of those circum- stances respecting them, which will claim our notice in the subsequent pages. The opinion which assigns the introduction of the Jews into England to the mandate of the Conqueror, has been proved by Dr. Tovey to be erroneous ; and the earliest notice of them which he has been able to discover, is in the "Canonical Excerptions of Eckbright, archbishop of York in 740, where Christians are forbidden to be present at any of the Jewish feasts. Very little is known of them, how- ever, from that time until the conquest, when their numbers were probably greatly increased by arri- vals of their brethren from Normandy; where, at this period, particularly at Rouen, they were both numerous and wealthy. According to Hoveden, the Conqueror enacted, "that they should be under the king's protection; that they should not subject themselves to any other without his leave; that they, and all theirs, should belong to the king; and that if any should detain any of their goods, he might challenge them as his own." And on this miserable pretence of protection were this singular people willing to dwell in England, even until the period of their compulsory exile. During the reign of Rufus, they seem to have enjoyed both quiet and 238 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. security; their illustrious brethren of Spain, as we have seen in a preceding chapter, had opened schools at Oxford, and the king employed them in various money transactions. During the reign of Henry, we have no account of them, except the incidental notices in the Pipe Roll, from which it appears that they were nume- rous in London, and apparently wealthy and pros- perous. In the tenth of Stephen, we find first mention made of the charge, afterwards so frequently brought against them, that of crucifying a child. This was said to have taken place at Norwich ; but it was probably a fiction of their enemies, since Dr. Tovey truly observes, "they are never said to have practised it, but at such times as the kings were manifestly in great want of money." During the wasting wars of this reign, the situa- tion of the Jews must have been most unenviable ; since, by the partizans of Stephen, by the friends of the empress, and no less by the foreign mercenaries, this unfortunate race must have been considered fair objects of plunder. Nothing, however, is mentioned respecting their condition, until the eighteenth of Plantagenet, when we find that he granted them the privilege of having a cemetery adjoining each town in which they resided,—an important boon; for previously to this permission but one spot was re- cognized as a place of sepulture for all the Jews throughout England. This was a piece of ground extending from the northern gate of London to the watch-tower, or Barbican, and termed the Jews' gar- den—a name afterwards changed for its present ap- ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 239 pellation, Jewin street. For this boon, however, they eventually paid rather largely; since, when Plantagenet, contemplating a voyage to the Holy Land, called upon his liege subjects to raise a sub- sidy, while the Christian portion were taxed 70,000l. the small minority of the Jews were taxed 60,000l. This rate of taxation, though exorbitant, is however a proof of the general wealth of the Jewish commu- nity; and as, during this reign, the advancing spirit of commercial enterprize rendered money of far more importance than in earlier periods, when ex- change of commodities almost superseded its use, the Jews, the only money-brokers in the land, must have possessed great facilities for the acquisition of wealth, as especially from Richard de Anesty's narra- tive, we find that they charged an exorbitant rate of interest. In order to afford every security to either party, in these money transactions, Plantagenet di- rected that their property should be registered, and their contracts made before two Jewish lawyers, two Christian lawyers, and two registrars; also, that one copy of the deed should be kept by the Jewish lender, the other in an official chest, with three locks, of which the Jewish lawyers held one of the keys. It has been stated by the chroniclers of the time, that the indications of excessive wealth which the Jews, both in their dress and attendants, as well as in the rich presents intended for the king, dis- played, was the real cause of their cruel massacre at this coronation. The plunder on that occasion was immense; and the Christians of those various towns where the Jews resided, eager to imitate the 240 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. worthy example of their brethren in London, rose upon this hapless race, and threatened a re-action of similar scenes. The authoritative interference of Richard prevented them; and, until that chivalrous monarch set forth on his daring and romantic expe- dition, the Jews seem, for these few short months, to have remained in safety. Ere his departure from his kingdom, Richard is said to have bestowed upon his good city of London the honourable privilege of being under the govern- ment of a mayor, instead of a portreeve as heretofore. It is more probable that this was rather the confirm- ation of a choice made by the citizens full two years before; since the election of Henry Fitz Alwin, the draper of London Stone, as mayor, is always represented in the city records as having taken place in 1189. Nor is it unlikely that, during the period which intervened between the death of Plan- tagenet and the proclamation of Richard in England, the citizens, always bearing themselves proudly as the representatives of the kingdom of Mercia, and deeming themselves an imperium in imperio," should have chosen to elect, after the true Saxon form, a king for the city, and one of true Saxon race.* *That this was the feeling of many of the citizens, we have a curious and characteristic proof in an entry upon the Rolls of the king's court, in his sixth year; where William Fitz Osbert appears against his brother Richard, and charges him with having said, "In recompence for the money taken from me by the chancellor" (this was for Cour de Lion's ransom), "I would lay out forty marks to purchase a chain, in which the king and his chancellor might be hanged." Robert Brand, joined in the loyal wish. always remain where he is," said Jordan. Jordan the tanner, and "Would that the king would "Come what will," they all ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 241 Judging from some enactments made during the earlier years of the mayoralty of this first chief magistrate of London, we may well consider his superintendence to have been greatly beneficial. He provided “that, to appease contentions that might arise among neighbours in cases of enclosure, twelve ealdermen should be chosen in full hustings, and sworn faithfully to perform their duty." By these sworn men orders were to be taken about party walls, building them sixteen feet in height at least, and three feet thick; also to build them of stone for security against fire." He also gave directions respecting gutters to receive and convey water from their houses. All these were to be at common cost, also pits or wells that should be dug for water; and as well they were to inquire into nuisances, such as making windows looking upon the neighbours, and putting girders or beams into the neighbours' walls. How strange must these enactments appear to those who view our forefathers at this period as a mere race of barbarians: the inquest for party walls alone seems to prove some advancement towards a due appreciation of domestic comforts even among the lower classes; but what shall we say to the sensitive and refined taste that prohibited windows overlook- ing the neighbours? A strange and most anomalous, yet picturesque contrast do the refinements and bar This exclaimed, “in London we will never have any other king, except our mayor Henry Fitz Alwyn." Vide "Rolls of the King's Court. William Fitz Osbert, whose loyalty induced him to accuse even his own brother, became subsequently so violent an opponent of kingly and civic rule, that a few years after he raised that serious disturbance in the city, of which Stow gives so large an account, and was eventually hanged at the Elms. R 24.2 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. barisms, the splendour, and rude simplicity of this, the earlier portion of the middle ages, present to us. : * Early in the following spring, Cœur de Lion made his final preparations for that expedition, which, ever since the proclamation of the Crusade by Gregory, had engaged his every thought; and to which not merely the immense wealth, hoarded by his father at Winchester, but all the money, which by every method he could obtain, had been devoted.† The precise number of men who accompanied him to the Holy Land, it is difficult to ascertain of the number of vessels employed to transport them, and of their splendid appearance, Vinesauf, who was present, gives a minute description. There were thirteen large vessels, termed dromonds, a name familiar to the readers of our early metrical romances, and these had a triple spread of sails. There were about fifty armed galleys, and an hundred transports. These were most probably the "huissiers," a name derived from the old French "huis," a door, and were intended for the conveyance of horses. They * Ere passing on, we may remark that Fitz Ailwyn continued "King of the city" from 1189 to 1213. His seal, which is engraved in the "Rolls of the King's Court," confirms the statement of Matthew Paris, that the magistrates of London were considered as barons; since on it he appears, seated on horseback, in itself a token of high birth, and in addi- tion, bearing a falcon, that bird appropriated to the noble alone. "Such tokens of Station," observes the learned editor, "were not assumed with- out due warrant.” In regard to the Saxon descent of Fitz Ailwyn, it must be borne in mind that the French prefix Fitz, is merely used by those who wrote in Norman French, or who translated from it. In these Rolls he is called "Filius Ailwine." The name of "Otho Alwinesune occurs in the Pipe Roll of Henry, and it is probable that by the name of Ailwyn's son he was known to his fellow citizens. Among other means, he restored the castles of Roxburgh and Ber- wick to William of Scotland, with remission of feudal homage, for 10,000 marks. ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 243 were flat-bottomed, with ports in the side, from which bridges were let down to facilitate entrance or egress; and Joinville, who is very minute on the subject, acquaints us, that when the good steeds were put in, the doors "were stopped, like a barrel of wine, because, when the ship was in the sea, the whole door was under water." There were also a hundred and six vessels, which had assembled at Lisbon, coasted round Spain as far as Marseilles, and from thence set sail for Syria, without touching at any other port. All these vessels had oars as well as sails the galleys were decked with pennons, streaming to the wind, and standards fixed in grace- ful order on the points of spears. The rostra or beaks were adorned with painted figures, and at this period were splendidly gilt, while the prows of the vessels shone with the light reflected from the shields placed upon them. These vessels had mostly two tier of oars; some of the galleys were long, slender, and low, and armed with a beam of wood, shod with iron, called a spur, projecting from the head, for piercing the sides of ships. There were also smaller ones, called galleons, which, being shorter and lighter, steered better, and were used for throwing fire. These galleys, at least in the Mediterranean, never lost sight of land; but the ships sometimes steered boldly onward, while, to keep through the night the fleet from dispersing, a lanthorn was hung aloft in the king's ship, which during the whole voyage led the way. Such was the general appearance of a fleet, of which Vinesauf, with pardonable exultation, declares, that "so fine 髓 ​R 2 244 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. and so gallant a sight the people of Messina never before saw, or will ever again see." Of the appointments of the chivalrous Richard and his company little need be said: his inferior vassals probably bore those arms, and wore that armour, which had been determined at the assize of arms of the late king. The superior rank, at this period, still wore the scale or linked mail, with the hood, or a plain iron skull cap, sometimes with the aventaile, and sometimes without; and, as neither the helmet with its graceful plumes, nor the sur- coat with its rich blazonry, nor the bases of velvet or costly silk, were yet adopted; the knights and esquires of Richard's company must have appeared most plain and unadorned, in comparison of those of the eras of Cressy or Agincourt. Still the chivalric equipment was not altogether deficient in splen- dour;—the silken pennon streamed from the lance; the crest, gilded or painted, sometimes surmounted the plain chapelle de fer; and the shield, larger and broader than heretofore, displayed the proud bear- ings of each illustrious family. In both the seals of Richard, which exhibit him in battle array, he is represented in linked or twisted mail; in the one with a conical cap, and that square piece of iron termed a nasal; in the other with a square cap, sur- mounted by his family badge, the broom. In both instances he holds a huge sword :-this, in Dr. Mey- rick's spirited drawing, (which is a copy from the lat- ter seal) has been appropriately exchanged for that weapon so celebrated in his romance, the tremend ous battle-axe; while in his left hand he holds the ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 245 shield bearing the two lions of Normandy and the superadded one of Aquitaine, his face being pro- tected by a visor formed of three rather thick bars. It may be as well to remark here, that the royal motto, "Dieu et mon droit," was first assumed by Richard. The valiant deeds of this chivalrous monarch, at Sicily and at Cyprus; his differences with his less gallant, but more crafty coadjutor; his reckless va- lour on the plains of Ascalon, and beneath the walls of Acre, which made his very name for centuries a word of fear to the Paynim child and the Arab war-horse, belong not to our subject; nor need they, since they have been so well detailed by Tur- ner and by Mills. We shall therefore turn to trace the proceedings of Elinor. The attachment which Richard, in his early years, certainly felt for his betrothed Alice, had long since given place to aversion. Still, even up to the time of his father's death, the contract remains disan- nulled; for while Henry was unwilling to send back the princess, whom he wished rather for a wife than for a daughter-in-law, Richard was even more un- willing to irritate so powerful a rival, and one who might prove so dangerous a neighbour as her brother. At the period of Plantagenet's death, nothing more was done relating to this long deferred marriage; and it then seems to have been understood that it would not take place. Upon Elinor the affectionate son devolved the office of seeking another bride; and upon this embassy did the aged queen mother now set out, having first, according to the French 246 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. writers, done homage to Philip for her possessions in Guienne, which were yielded up to her by Cour de Lion on his accession to the crown. The eye of the politic Elinor was directed to the court of Sancho, fourth king of Navarre, whither she proceeded; and her choice soon fixed upon his fair daughter Berengaria. Of this princess, although bride of the most celebrated monarch of the day, fewer details are known than perhaps of any other royal women. The time of her birth, the day of her death, the place of her residence, from the period of Richard's return from the Holy Land, are unknown. As she never was crowned queen of England, nor ever set her foot in the land, until long after her husband's death,* and then most probably only to obtain the payment of her dower, she can scarcely take her place among the queens of England, and therefore she is passed over. With this princess, whom contemporary writers record as having been both beautiful and accom- * In the Patent Rolls, third year of John, is a precept addressed to the barons of the exchequer, directing 1001 marks to be paid annually to her as dower. In these Rolls, as well as in the Fœdera, there is a letter of safe-conduct for her, dated March, 1206; when she probably first visited England, most probably to demand payment of that dower. There are several subsequent entries in the Patent Rolls respecting it, as though the regular payments were often delayed; and at length, in 1215, we find a second letter of safe-conduct granted to her. Of this, she seems not to have availed herself ; and, in the following year, we find John notify- ing to the Pope that he had granted her the city of Mans. Another letter of safe-conduct occurs soon after; and on the last page of the rolls a dolorous letter will be found, entreating her "to wait for the payment of the money, since, by the craft of the enemy of mankind, and agency of our barous, much disturbance has been wrought." As Mans was secured to her, she probably resided there,—there however she seems to have been buried, and her effigy may be seen in Stothard's Monumental Effigies. These slight notices are all, that with the most diligent inquiry the writer can obtain. ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 247 "" plished, Elinor arrived at Messina, the very day after the king of France had set out, having first released Cœur de Lion from his contract with the princess Alice. There Elinor had the gratification of see- ing her youngest daughter, the queen dowager of Sicily, from whom she had been separated nearly twenty years; and there, according to some writers, although others mention Cyprus as the place, Richard celebrated his marriage with Berengaria. Four days after, Elinor took leave of her son, and daugh- ter, and daughter-in-law, and proceeded towards Rome; having been requested by Richard to seek an interview with the Pope, to solicit that he would "confirm Geoffrey's election to the see of York, and either to consecrate him himself, or permit him to be so by another.' This Geoffrey was the son of Plantagenet's earlier mistress, and consequently illegitimate half brother to the king. While very young, he was made archdeacon of Lincoln; and afterwards resigning this office, he received the chancellorship, which he retained until his father's death. Henry having on his death-bed expressed a wish that this son should be promoted either to the see of York or Winchester, it forms a pleasing trait in the character of Richard, that he should thus interest himself so warmly in behalf of a brother, to whom his father had ever behaved with an attention and affection which he disdained to shew to his legitimate offspring: nor can the sternest impugner of the conduct and character of the queen dowager deny, that her undertaking, at so advanced an age, an additional journey for the purpose of benefiting 248 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. the son of a former rival, proves a degree of kindly feeling, and of Christian forgiveness, not very fre- quently to be found. The mission of Elinor was successful, and Geoffrey was consecrated at Tours the following year. But with what a crowd of over- whelming feelings must the aged queen have gazed on the towers of that city, where, fifty years before, as the young and beautiful queen of France-the nursling of prosperity, she had sojourned. From Rome she soon after departed to England, where she seems to have remained during the time. that Richard was absent in the Holy Land; although she does not appear to have exercised any political authority, the chief justiciaryship having been con- ferred on Longchamp, bishop of Ely, by the king, before his departure. In the subsequent proceed- ings against this hated minister, we find no account of the side which Elinor supported, although, from her attachment to her son, she most probably took part with his favourite minister. A proud year to the exulting mother was that which succeeded; for the fame of Cœur de Lion resounded throughout Europe, and his native land fondly deemed the fabled exploits of Arthur himself, cast into the shade by the deeds of their lion-hearted monarch. But little did Elinor foresee the anxieties and sorrows which she should undergo, ere she would again welcome her illustrious son; for even after the hapless Richard had been consigned to his stern dungeon in the Tyrol, England was still un- conscious of his captivity, eagerly anticipating the arrival of her king. ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 249 It was on the 25th of October, 1192, that Richard, with his wife, his sister, and nobles, embarked for Europe; but fearing lest his unchivalrous enemy, Philip, might attempt to seize him, if he passed through his dominions, he took the fatal step of re- turning through Germany in disguise. He clothed himself in the usual garb of pilgrimage, and conceal- ing that name, "of which all Europe rung from side to side," under the unassuming one of Hugh the Merchant, he set forth with but few attendants. Arrived at Gerity, it was necessary to solicit safe conduct from the chief of that province; and Richard, with his characteristic generosity, sent a ring, in which was ruby worth three hundred bezants to ensure his protection and aid. The chief, astonished at the value of the present, inquired who the pilgrims were; the reply did not satisfy him. These are not the gifts of merchants," said he; and then the far-famed largesse of that most illus- trious of the Croises recurring to his mind, he added, "it must be king Richard." He sent a courteous message; but Richard was alarmed, mounted his horse at midnight, and proceeded to Eisenbach. This town was in the county belonging to the before-mentioned chief, and the news too quickly arrived. The brother sent a confidential knight, with directions to endeavour to discover the king. The knight proceeded from inn to inn, and at length discovered the suspected stranger: but although the knight thus sought him out, it was not his intention to betray him; for he was a Norman knight, and he had married an English woman; so he acquainted 250 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. Richard with his danger, and earnestly, and with tears, entreated him to flee away, offering him a valuable steed. The knight, secure of Richard's escape, returned to his liege lord, pretending that the information was erroneous; but his pretences could not succeed. The lord insisted that Richard was in the town, and he sent armed men to take both him and his company. But Richard was far away; and accompanied only by one knight, and a boy who understood German, he fled, without staying on his road, three days and three nights. Yielding at length to the pressure of hunger, they stopped at a town near Vienna, where the duke of Austria was residing; and they sent the boy into the market for provisions. Again the right royal habits of Richard betrayed him; the boy, in an age when even silver money was scarce, displayed se- veral pieces of gold. The market people, astonished at the unaccustomed sight, gathered around him, marvelling from whence he could be. To their in- quiries, he replied that he was servant to a rich merchant ; and escaping from them, he hastened home, told what had happened, and earnestly prayed Richard not to stay. But the lion-hearted king was faint and weary, and, overcome with the fatigues of the past journey, he refused to listen to the saving counsel. He sought out an obscure cottage, and there, until he had recovered strength, the valiant leader of the third crusade, the mighty opponent of the monarch of the whole East, was content to dwell :—but even here his luckless fortune pursued him. On the 21st of December, the boy was again ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 251 sent out to procure food; when, by that strange fa- tality which sometimes seems to pursue those doomed to misfortune, he unconsciously carried the king's gloves in his girdle. The broidered glove imme- diately betrayed the rank of the master; the story of the rich merchant could no longer be told; and the boy, having been brought before the magistrates, and scourged, at length confessed. That evening the lion-hearted monarch was a prisoner to the duke of Austria, by whom, in the following spring, he was sold to the emperor Henry VI. for 60,000 pounds of silver * No suspicions of Richard's captivity arose in the minds of his nobles, who suffered shipwreck in their homeward passage, until on their arrival in England they inquired after him; and, as it seems not to have been known to his implacable enemy, Philip, until the period of his transference into the hands of the emperor, it is probable that the authen- tic account did not reach England ere the summer. When the intelligence at length arrived, it was received by the people with feelings of sorrow and indignation, and by his mother with broken-hearted grief. She despatched an earnest letter to the sove- reign pontiff, imploring him to put in force that mighty power with which he was invested, against those who, although they professed themselves Christians, had not scrupled to immure the valiant leader of the Croises in their dungeons. "Elinor, by the wrath of God, queen of England," is the for- * Vide Note 8, Appendix. 252 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. cible introduction to this letter, which supplicates aid for a wretched mother, "from him who sitteth vicar of Him the crucified, the successor of Peter, the priest of Christ, even Christ the Lord, the God even of Pharaoh." She reminds him that Ambrose wielded the thunders of the church against Valens; that his predecessor Alexander excommunicated the emperor's father, and urges the exertion of the same power; concluding with an address to Him, "in whose strength alone is the king exalted, and Roman church, which now too culpably slackens in her exertion for his liberation; and not without tears she, (the writer) blushes for her, who refuses to acknowledge, in the midst of so many afflictions, such a son." The letter obtained no reply. The sovereign pontiff, although always willing to summon the chi- valry of Europe to fight for the cause of holy church, was tardy enough in affording them, in re- turn, his aid. Neither wealth, nor accession of power to the Holy See, could be obtained, by plead- ing the cause of the captive Richard; and Europe beheld with astonishment and indignation him, who had so devotedly led forward the soldiers of the Cross, confined in a far distant prison-house, without one single effort to release him. A second letter was sent by the broken-hearted mother,―a letter which, both from the haughty tone it breathes, so different from the spirit of quiet sub- mission which letters from churchmen to their su- periors display, and from its deep feeling, (although written by Peter of Blois,) in whose epistles, ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 253 as well as in the Fœdera, it appears,) seems at least to have been dictated by Elinor herself. In this letter, she complains that "the staff of her age, the light of her eyes," is lost to her. "Mother of pity! look on a mother of so many afflictions!-or if thy son, the exhaustless fount and source of mercy, afflict the son for the sins of the mother, oh, let her, who alone was the cause, endure all! let the guilty be punished; but oh! smile not at the sufferings of the innocent. The younger king, and the earl of Bri- tany, both sleep in death; while their most wretched mother is still compelled to live on, tormented by irremediable recollections of the dead. Two other sons yet remained for my succour, who to-day but re- main for my misery. King Richard is held in fet- ters; while John, brother to the captive, depopulates with the sword, and wastes with fire. The Lord is against me in all things; his wrath fights against me, and therefore do my sons fight against each other." She then, in the language of indignant ex- postulation, addresses Celestine: "Shall the cross of Christ yield to the eagle of the Cæsars? shall the sword of Peter bow to that of Constantine? shall the spiritual power succumb before the temporal? Hath not God given unto thee the power that who- soever thou bindest should be bound? Wherefore thus careless during this long time? why so cruelly deferrest thou to loose my son's fetters? Thou hast the power to release him: let the fear of God displace all human fear. Give back my son to me, man of God—if thou be indeed a man of God, and not a man of blood! for if thou neglectest his libe- 254 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. ration, the Highest will require his blood at thine hand. Alas! alas! thus the chief shepherd turneth all to gain! thus he flieth from the face of the wolf; thus he relinquishes the pastoral rule; thus the chosen leader of the flock of Christ leaves them in the jaws of blood-thirsty savages! Good Shepherd! teach thou other shepherds; teach them not to fly from the wolf, but to lay down their lives for the sheep." After again pathetically alluding to her son's captivity, she concludes: "These things the chief pontiff beholds, and the sword of St. Peter still sleeps in its scabbard: thus the arm of the wicked is exalted, and yet he holds his peace. The time of dispersion is at hand, as the Apostles predicted, when the son of perdition will be revealed the perilous times draw on, when the seamless garment of Christ will be rent, the net of Peter torn, and the strength of catholic unity dissolved. These are the beginnings of evil; we feel heavily, for we fear heavier things. No prophetess, nor the daughter of a prophet, am I; yet grief urges me to say many things; but these words have escaped me, which that grief suggested, and they are written interrupted by sobs, and with a soul absorbed in woe.” * What answer the holy father thought proper to return to this indignant epistle, we have no account. * All the three letters may be seen in the first volume of the Fœdera. In the same volume, a few pages earlier, the letter of Plantagenet, addressed to the pope, will be found, on the subject of the rebellion of his sons; which, in rhetorical quibbles, and strange affectation, forms a striking contrast to these too ornate, but still eloquent, addresses. Had they not been dictated by Elinor, Peter of Blois could have had no excuse for apologizing, in the third, for the offensive expressions of the second. ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 255 That it produced one, seems probable, from an allu- sion in the third and last letter which Elinor sent, and which is dictated in a far more subdued tone. In this she laments that she can hear no account of what is doing for the liberation of her son; she calls on the episcopal world to become "as a ju- dicial bolt" in the hand of the pontiff, and prays him to gird on his powerful sword. This letter is concluded by a solemn and eloquent adjuration to the "Lord God of Sabaoth," and, by an excuse for "words uttered from grief, not from delibera- tion," and an acknowledgment of regret for her former conduct. Whatever might have been the exertions of Ce- lestine, they were tardy and feeble; and the im- prisoned Croise owed his liberation, at length, more to the avarice of the emperor, than to the efforts of his brothers in arms, or to the thunders of the Vatican. At last, after the captivity of his illus- trious prisoner had continued several months,* the emperor acquainted him, that, for the disgrace- fully enormous sum of 100,000 marks, he should be set free. Richard immediately conveyed the intel- ligence to his mother; and she, by the advice of the chief men of the kingdom, forthwith levied a tax of twenty shillings on every knight's fee, while all laymen and clergymen were assessed a fourth part of their rents. This heavy contribution was not, however, raised without great difficulty ;-not that the people expressed any unwillingness to ransom, though at so high a price, their gallant monarch; Matthew Paris. 256 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. since even the monk of St. Albans, that vehement abuser of all taxation, calls this a pious work: but they had been wasted and impoverished by the ser- vants of the crown, who, during the earlier part of this reign, had raised enormous sums of money for their own particular use-a practice which Long- champ, the chief justiciary, pursued to so great an extent, that proceedings were commenced against him, and he was forced to fly for his life. At length, by three successive contributions, to which much church plate was devoted, the immense amount was raised; and the aged Elinor, accompanied by the archbishop of Rouen, set out for Mentz, with a portion of her gallant son's ransom. دو On the feast of the Purification, the emperor and his nobles met the queen and her suite, and, by the hands of the archbishop of Cologne, delivered the royal captive to his anxious mother; stipulating at the same time that the archbishop of Rouen and the bishop of Bath, together with some noblemen, should remain as sureties for the remainder of his ransom; and "also, that he would keep peace with the emperor." "The king being thus liberated, all the bystanders weeping for very joy, they departed, the emperor allowing safe conduct as far the gate of Anvers; and when he came to Cologne, the archbishop received him there right joyfully, and exulting at the king's liberation, celebrated mass himself, and preached from the text-' Now know I truly that the Lord hath sent his angel, and delivered me out of the hands of Herod, and the will of the Jews." proceeded, attended by the And from Cologne he archbishop, to Anvers, ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 257 * where he entered the galley of Alan Trenchemer, and on the first Sunday in March he arrived at Sandwich. According to other writers, it was on the 20th of March, 1194, that Cœur de Lion again set his foot on his native shores; and, with a pleas- ing and laudable feeling of devotion, he immediately proceeded from thence on foot to Canterbury, to return public thanks for his unexpected liberation. From Canterbury he proceeded to Nottingham castle, where he held a council, at which Elinor, together with fifteen prelates and barons, assisted. On the second day, John, and his adviser the bishop of Lincoln, were accused of treason, and summoned to attend. The summons was disregarded; for John was at this time in France, and protected by Philip; and Richard-first, however, returning to Winchester, for the purpose of being a second time crowned-collected an army, and passed over to Normandy. But Elinor, although well aware of the duplicity of John, and of the hostility which he bore toward his generous brother, could not endure to see them armed against each other; and of five sons, the only two now left to her eagerly seeking each other's overthrow. By her judicious manage- ment, therefore, Richard, on his arrival in Nor- mandy, found the brother whom he had expected to meet under the hostile banners of Philip, a peni- tent, suing at his feet, with many tears, for forgive- The lion-hearted monarch was moved; he stretched forth his hand to the kneeling suppliant, with the emphatic words-"I would I might as fully ness. * Hoveden. S 258 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. forget his conduct, as he ere long will my forgive- ness. The same year was distinguished by the intro- duction, by royal authority, of tournaments in Eng- land; and the following proclamation was trans- mitted from Normandy :- :-"Richard, by the grace of God, king of England, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and earl of Anjou,-Know ye, that we have granted tournaments to be held in five places; between Sarum and Wilton, between Warwick and Kenilworth, between Stanford and Warrington, be- tween Brackley and Mixbi, between Blye and Tix- hill. So that the peace of our land shall not be broken, nor the justiciary's power be diminished, nor any damage done to our forests. And an earl who will tourney there shall give us twenty marks; a baron ten; a knight that hath lands, four marks; and a knight who hath no lands, two marks. More- over, no stranger shall tourney there; wherefore, we command, that, at the day of tourneying, ye have there two clerks and two knights of your own, to take oaths of the earls and the barons that they shall pay us the aforesaid money before the tourna- ment begins; and cause to be entered how much, and of whom they have received it. And ye shall take ten marks of this charge to our use, whereof the earls of Sarum, of Clare, and of War- ren, are pledges. Witness my hand at Ville l'Evesch, 22d August, 1194."* In a subsequent order, it is directed that the peace was to be kept by those * Peck's Stanford. ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 259 who went to the tournament in the following man- ner:-" From the time when a knight, earl, baron, or any other tourneyer, shall depart from his own house toward the tournament and from it, he shall take nothing unjustly by the way, without licence or paying for it, whether meat or drink, or any other necessary. Moreover, he shall not in any case do injury to any on the road, whether by himself or servants; nor, to the best of his power, by himself or his attendants, suffer any one to be unjustly mo- lested. And if he shall find any person so offend- ing, and is able himself or by his attendants to cause reparation to be made, he shall accordingly see it done. And if he be not able to cause reparation to be made, let him therewith acquaint the barons, who have sworn to see the peace of the lord and king kept by the tourneyers; and their judgment shall set it right." The unsettled state of the land, and the inadequacy of the laws, are forcibly exempli- fied in the foregoing passage. The character of the knights and nobles too, from the prohibition of their robbing on the king's highways, would seem to be far below the chivalric model. But the concluding paragraph breathes the genuine spirit of chivalry, and proves that, whatever might be the character of his ruder nobles, Richard himself possessed a mind to appreciate, and a heart to feel, all those lofty and generous sentiments which rendered the knight, in the following centuries, the disinterested avenger of all injustice. To these enactments, the form of the oath to be administered to all desirous of tour- neying is appended. It recapitulates the foregoing s 2 260 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. articles, and also binds each tourneyer to "give lawful truce in the tournament" to whatever enemy he may meet on that occasion. It is a subject of regret, that no account has been handed down to us of these the first tournaments ever witnessed in England; and it is the more singular that none of the monkish historians should have recorded their introduction, since these splendid military spectacles had been but lately forbidden by three councils of the continental clergy; in the last of which, so ve- hement was their opposition, that it was enacted, that whoever in these sports lost his life should be denied Christian burial. From the period of Richard's return from cap- tivity to that of his early death, but little informa- tion respecting Elinor can be found. About the year 1194, we find her granting some lands in Kent to the monks of Christ church, Canterbury, in exchange for the port of Sandwich.* In 1195, she was summoned to Fontevraud, to join in the funeral services of her youngest daughter, Joanna, the widow of the king of Sicily, who had accom- panied her brother Richard to Acre, and on her return married the earl of Thoulouse; she died at Rouen, and her body was conveyed to Fontevraud, where, not improbably, the aged queen dowager, during some part of the short remainder of Cœur de Lion's reign, took up her residence.† * Vide "Boy's Collections toward a History of Sandwich." + Some part of this time, however, was spent in England, since, in more than one instance, her name as regent appears in the "Rolls of the King's Court." ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 261 Although it has been computed, from a careful calculation, that, of the ten years of Cœur de Lion's reign, not more than eight months were passed in his native land, still he appears to have been most laudably interested in its welfare, and to have paid more attention to its legislation, than might have been expected from a monarch so devoted to war. In 1194, on occasion of a scarcity, he issued a pro- clamation, prohibiting the exportation of corn, "that England might not suffer from the want of its own abundance."* In 1197, he passed a law for uni- formity of weights and measures, ordering that the measure-lengths should be made of iron, and those of capacity to have rims of the same; and that standard weights and measures should be kept by the sheriffs, and mayors or magistrates of every town. An act relating to woollen cloths, directing that they should measure two yards within the lists, which had been passed in the preceding reign, was renewed. One provision in this act appears in the present day most singular ;—it is, that if any weaver mixed Spanish wool with English, the cloth should be burnt by the chief magistrate.t Nor was Cœur de Lion inattentive to he Jews: he prohibited all secret bargains between them and Christians; and ordered that three copies should be made of every agreement, one of which was to be kept in a public repository. But, in the midst of all his plans of military enterprize, in the full vigour of his years, in the full flower of his fame, Cœur de Lion, in an obscure fortress, but by whose Macpherson's Anuals of Commerce. + Ibid. 262 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. hands it is unknown,* received his fatal wound, and died April 6th, 1100; bequeathing his kingdom, and three-fourths of his treasure (so those who brought the intelligence declared), to his brother John; and directing that his body should be con- veyed to Fontevraud. son. The affliction of the aged Elinor at this most severe and unexpected stroke, must have been over- whelming. Of all her children, Richard seems to have been peculiarly the favourite; and ardently was the attachment of the mother returned by the affectionate For her, when a mere stripling, he advanced the banner of her hereditary dominions against an unjust and tyrannical father. The first act of his government, when advanced to the throne, was to endeavour to compensate for her long exclusion from power, by decreeing "that all should be dis- posed of according to her will." To her, he com- mitted the charge of selecting a suitable bride; and on every occasion his conduct towards her, was marked by the most respectful and devoted atten- tion. From John, the darling of his father, and the cowardly enemy of his chivalrous brother, the sorrowful mother of eight children, of whom but two now remained, seems to have expected but little. His conduct, however, was most praise- worthy, and it deserves to find a place among the very few laudable actions which he performed. Soon * The reader will find a collection of the statements of every contem- porary writer respecting the circumstances of Richard's death in Sir F. Palgrave's interesting Introduction to the "Rolls of the King's Court. From these it appears that the common account is most apocryphal, and that he very probably fell a victim to treachery. ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 263 after his accession, he confirmed "to his most be- loved and venerable mother, to have and to hold, all the days of her life, the whole of Poictou, and all pertaining." She seems also to have held the see of Oleron; for in the same year she grants a charter to the commons of Oleron, confirming their liber- ties and ancient customs, which was also confirmed by John. The following year she is represented, in a letter addressed to John,* as being at Fontevraud, and in bad health. She most probably soon after recovered; since in the same year, at the request of her son, she under- took her last journey, which was to arrange with her son-in-law, Alphonso the Eighth of Castile, the mar- riage of his daughter Blanche with Louis, the heir to the French crown. This mission, Elinor, although now verging on the age of fourscore, performed; and she arrived safely with the young princess at Bourdeaux. After resting there awhile, "exhausted with great age and many trials, the queen trans- ferred herself to the abbey of Fontevraud, and there remained." Not yet, however, did Elinor take her final abode in this, her favourite convent. In 1202, young Arthur of Britany, her grandson, at the instigation of Philip, took up arms to assert his right to the English crown ;-a right which, as a question of primogeniture, certainly belonged to him; but which was contested by John, both on the ground that Richard, according to the custom of the age, which frequently superseded the right of primogeniture, had actually bequeathed the kingdom up * Fœdera, vol. i. + Hoveden, p. 802. 264 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. to him; and also that that bequest had been publicly ratified by the assent of the people at his coronation.* This war, which was carried on with great bitterness on each side, soon came to a termination. Young Arthur, anxious to display his prowess as the leader of an army, and to prove his right to those chival- ric honours which Philip had just conferred on him, led his forces into Poictou; but he most un- chivalrously chose, as his first point of attack, the ill- defended castle of Mirabeau; where, fearing no dan- ger-for on the death of Richard she had renewed to Philip her homage for Guienne-his venerable grandmother Elinor resided. Arthur and his barons attacked it successfully; they soon forced the gates; and his aged grandmother was compelled to retire to the keep but, undismayed at the hostile array, with her accustomed spirit she refused to capitulate; and found means, unperceived by the surrounding forces, to send an instant summons to John. many days passed, he arrived with a numerous and well-appointed army of English and Brabanters. The besiegers were totally vanquished, and all either slain or taken prisoners. Among the latter was the hap- less young Arthur, who is believed soon after to have perished by the hand, or by the orders, of his perfidious uncle, John. Ere From this period Elinor disappears from the page of history. She finally retired to her favourite re- treat, the abbey of Fontevraud; where, after a resi- dence of about a year and a half, she laid down the burthen of a life singularly chequered with vicissi- * See Archbishop Hubert's speech ou that occasion, ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 265 tude, and which had extended to the verge of four- score years. Her death, according to the obituary preserved at Fontevraud until the French Revolu- tion, took place on the 24th of March, 1204 ;* and her remains were deposited in the great, or Nun's church, near those of her second husband, and of her son and daughter; where, until within forty years, her effigy might be seen, wimpled, crowned, and enveloped in the folds of her royal mantle, ex- hibiting a countenance retaining unquestionable remains of her former beauty, and singularly distin- guished by its dignified and intellectual expression. Few illustrious women have been more unfortu- nate in their after-fame than this fair heiress of Aquitaine, who successively wore the crown of France and of England, and who numbered among her progeny three crowned kings of England, and two consorts of continental monarchs. Yet her beauty, her unquestioned talents, and her misfortunes, have all been forgotten; and she is handed down by popular tradition, only as the vindictive fury who tracked to her closely-concealed retreat that beautiful rival, to whom she proffered the murderous alternative of the poison cup or dagger. This idle story is now re- jected by all who have any claim to historical know- * The Chronicle of Mailros, a nearly contemporary authority, places her death in 1204; and an entry in the Patent Rolls confirms it. The same obituary at Fontevraud, records her 'benefactions to it. These were, 100 livres per annum towards the nuns' dresses; 100 ditto for her anniversary, and those of her children; and 50 ditto for various purposes. She also surrounded the abbey with a wall; and presented to the church a gold cross, adorned with jewels, a large gold chalice, and several vessels of gold and silver. From the meanness of the pecuniary bequests, it would seem that she died poor. No account of any gift by her to any English convent can be found, except a chantry in the castle of Tickhill. 266 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. ledge; still the three other apparently better founded charges remain to cast a dark shadow on the memory of Elinor. The first-that of her im- proper conduct in the Holy Land-has been proved, in the foregoing pages, to rest upon the most apo- cryphal authority, and consequently to be unworthy of credit. The second-her inciting her sons to re- bellion against their father-must be viewed in con- nexion with all the preceding circumstances; and then harsh will be the verdict that condemns the injured and insulted wife for quitting a husband, from whom she received injuries instead of protec- tion; or a mother for taking part with her sons against the tyranny and injustice of their father. If it be true that Elinor of Aquitaine. neither possessed the uncomplaining meekness of the first Maude, or the strong conjugal attachment of the second; still, be it remembered, that Beau- clerc paid every respect to his excellent, though unloved, queen; while Stephen's strong attachment to Maude of Boulogne is evident in every page of their history. But Plantagenet repaid Elinor's un- bounded confidence, that yielded up without stipula- tion her princely dower, with neglect and infidelity; and ere age had impressed a wrinkle on her brow, the fair daughter of Aquitaine learned the bitter truth, that her wealth alone had won him. What right had the haughty, and overbearing, and selfish Plantagenet to expect domestic happiness? In the third charge-that of supporting the claims of her son king John, against those of her grandson Arthur, we must remember, that, in so doing, she ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. 267 believed herself fulfilling the last wish of her beloved son Richard. That she took any active part, no chronicle informs us; and that, if besieged by a grandson, she should send to her son for aid, is cer- tainly only natural. With the subsequent fate of Arthur, she could have no concern, since she retired to Fontevraud. In viewing the character of Eli- nor, it would be unjust, as unphilosophical, to over- look the many difficulties and irritating circumstances by which she was surrounded. The absence of temptation, often affords a claim to high moral worth; and freedom from causes of irritation, as frequently gives a title to forbearance and self- denial. But if the defects of this illustrious woman have been stamped so deeply on the page of history, to her better qualities no modern historian has done justice. Her general talents are proved by her assumption of the office of regent, both under Plan- tagenet and Richard; for Plantagenet would not confide authority to one whom he deemed incompe- tent; nor would the English barons have so quietly awaited the arrival of Coeur de Lion, had not the supreme power been placed, at this important crisis, in hands well qualified to wield it. As the con- ductress of important missions, the talents of Elinor seem to have been acknowledged by universal con- sent. To her was committed the charge of selecting a bride for Cœur de Lion; to her was entrusted the mission to the pope, on behalf of Geoffrey; to her was consigned the ransom of her captive son, and the difficult charge of negotiating with the em- 268 ELINOR OF AQUITAINE. peror;-even when bowed down by the weight of almost four-score years, to her, alone, was the em- bassy assigned that was to arrange the marriage of Blanche of Castile, with the heir of the French crown. As a mother, the respectful and devoted attachment of all her children is sufficient eulogy; while the complete silence of every monkish his- torian, to the contrary, proves that among her ser- vants and dependants her conduct must have been exemplary. As the patroness of literature, the name of Elinor of Aquitaine deserves a high station; in her court, the poets of the langue d'oc, and of the langue d'oil, sung in friendly rivalship together; and beneath the sunshine of her smile, chivalric romance burst forth. Nor should the philosopher refuse his praise to that important act of her English regency, which, re- versing the sanguinary provisions of the Forest- laws, summoned every outlaw, from the Trent to the Severn, to repossess his forfeited rights, on the easy terms of taking the oath of allegiance to the new king. Among the most illustrious women of the twelfth century, Elinor of Aquitaine, by her talents, even more than by the proud prerogatives of her birth and station, must be placed; and if, in point of moral pre-eminence, a somewhat lower rank be awarded her, sound wisdom no less than Christian feeling will assign, as the cause, those unhappy inci- dents which embittered her domestic life, and cast a shadow over prospects, which seemed too fair for mortality. 269 THE "POET-FATHERS OF ENGLAND.” CHAPTER X. "Le Voyage de St. Brandan”—Gaimar—Wace—“ Le Brut d'Angle- terre -"Le Roman du Rou"-Benoit St. More-" Le Sermun du Guichart de Beaulieu "-Simon le Fresne-" Le dictie du Clerc e de la Philosophie "-Influence of the Anglo-Norman Trouvères— Influence of the Romances of King Arthur. WHEN We contemplate the "good queen Maude" in her splendid palace of Westminster, listening with untired delight to the songs of her minstrels; or her fairer successor Adelais, repaying with the rich- est gifts, and the brightest smiles, those learned trouvères who laid their more finished works at her feet; or Elinor, welcoming with equal honour the poets of the langue d'oc and of the langue d'oil, and receiving, as the first and most valued gift on her accession, that popular version of the " History of the British Kings," that poem, which unsealed the fountain of romantic fiction to an imaginative people, the "Brut d'Angleterre ; we naturally inquire, what were these works, which received such eager and enthusiastic patronage, not merely from the royal and high-born, but from the whole commu- 270 THE POET-FATHERS nity? Happily for our curiosity, modern research has discovered many of them, and the present chap- ter will be devoted to specimens of the Anglo-Nor- man trouvères of the twelfth century-a class which, both in respect to the place of their birth, and their intrinsic merit, well deserve the name which forms the title of this chapter, "the Poet-fathers of England." Turning from the wearisome prosings of Philip du Than and Sampson de Nanteuil, the amusing and graceful" Voyage de St. Brandan "* stands at the head of our list; a work which, were it not for the internal evidence both of the manuscript itself and of the opening verses, we might be inclined to assign to a later date than that of the reign of Beau- clerc. This poem, of which it is believed only one copy (that in the Cotton Library) exists, seems to have been the production of an ecclesiastic of English parentage, but whose name is altogether unknown. The subject, the Voyage of St. Brandan to the Ter- restrial Paradise, was one of the most popular of the medieval legends; and many a monkish legend- writer beguiled the solitude and dulness of his nar- row cell, by describing those scenes of surpassing beauty, and unearthly horror, through which St. Brandan and his holy company passed. The open- ing of the poem is naïve and flowing. * The writer may as well here state, that in these translations she has been far more anxious to preserve the genuine style of each trou- vère, than to supply any fancied deficiency, or to soften down any sup- posed rudeness, by the laboured phraseology of mere common-place poetic diction; and that in each specimen the original metre has been preserved. OF ENGLAND. 271 "Lady Adelais, who queen By the grace of Heaven hath been Ycrownéd, who this land hath blest With wholesome laws, and peaceful rest ; Both by king Henry's stalwart might, And by thy counsels mild and right ;- For these, their holy benison May the apostles shed—each one— A thousand, thousand times upon thee; And since thy mild command hath won me, To turn this goodly historie Into romanz, and carefully To write it out, and soothly tell What to St. Brandan erst befel,— At thy command, I undertake The task right gladly, but will make No light and silly pleasantrie, Unfit in such grave work to be." The narrator now proceeds to state, that St. Brandan had long made it his prayer that he might behold with his bodily eyes that Paradise from whence Adam was expelled. His prayer is granted; and with a number of the monks of his abbey, he sets sail. Their first adventure is on an uninha- bited island, where they find a "noble castle, large and fair,” abounding with stores of provisions, from which they supply themselves for their voyage. They next touch at another island, where they find sheep as large as stags; they carry off one for their Paschal feast, and anchor on what seems to be an island. Ere their meal is finished, the island ap- pears in motion, and they discover that they have anchored on the back of a whale. Saved from this danger, they next steer toward an island upon which is a wide-spreading tree, with leaves speckled green and red, and covered with birds of white and dazzling beauty. 272 THE POET-FATHERS "At this the abbot stood amazed; And, wondering, on their beauty, gazed; And prayed to Heaven that he might know, Both whence they came, and where they go, And who they were :—when instantly One of those birds, from off the tree, Flew toward him, gently hovering ; While at each stroke of that bright wing, Burst forth such harp-like melody, That tranced in joy and bliss was he. Then mildly to the bird he said, If thou by hand of God wast made To serve Him, swiftly to me tell What isle is this? and what befel Thee, and thy feathered company, That far from all society Of men ye won,-for ye are fair As disembodied spirits are!— "Then sang the bird- Erst we were high, In power and glory in the sky, For angels were we, but we fell When pride cast Sathanas to hell: For we his vassals were, but driven Thus for his haughty pride from heaven, Now exiled for a space we stay Upon this island, till the day That shall restore us to the skies, For we are birds of Paradise.* 'But ye have much,' said he,' to do And bear ere Paradise ye view, And six years' toil must suffer still, Rocked by the winds and waves at will, And aye, each year your Pasch must keep Upon some monster of the deep!' "When thus he said, away he flew Back to his tree, and when the dew And slanting shade, and sun's soft shining, Shewed that the day was fast declining, Those snowy birds, with dulcet throats, Poured in sweet unison their notes; And sang so softly, clearly, sweetly, With voice and heart, aye, so completely * Vide the original of this passage, Note 9, Appendix. OF ENGLAND. 273 Joined in God's praise, that ye might ne'er The solace of that song compare With aught that human song could do, Tho' man might learn a lesson too." After this graceful episode, the poet proceeds to narrate the various perils which St. Brandan and his company meet in their subsequent wanderings. After six months' tossing, they arrive at a splendid abbey, where they meet a friendly welcome; and the description of the convent treasures, which are brought on their arrival, affords a curious picture of the plate and church vestments of the twelfth century; while the remark, that the bread placed before. them was both "white and sweet," proves how early in England a distaste for brown bread pre- vailed. Soon after they enter a "dormante mer;" and here a sea-serpent approaches them-a huge creature, breathing flames, and "full fifteen feet broad." While the pilgrims fear for the safety of their little barque, another appears ; and "Now they close in deadly fight With huge heads reared, a fearful sight! While from their nostrils flames spout high, As are the clouds in the upper sky; Blows with their fins each gives the other, Like clashing shields on one another. With murderous teeth each other biting, Like trenchant swords each other smiting;— Spouted the blood, and gaping wide Were teeth prints in each monster's side, And huge and deadly deep each wound."- At length the strongest tears the other "into three huge pieces," and sinks peaceably into the sea. Next is a fight between a " flaming griffin" and a dra- gon, which is told with much spirit; and, rescued from T 274 THE POET-FATHERS this danger, they next arrive at a beautiful crystal temple, " in the mid sea." Their next adventures are on a dark and stormy ocean, where they see fiends and mountains of fire, and Judas, sitting on a rock, well nigh overwhelmed by the waves. All this portion of the wild narrative is told with much force. At length, their seven years' voyage ended, they en- ter a thick darkness, from whence, after many dan- gers, they emerge: "And see, With joyful hearts, right gratefully, Beyond the cloud, that bright wall rise, That round engirdleth paradise.” The description of it, although largely borrowed from Scripture, is yet no servile copy; and the gracefulness of many parts would render them well worthy of transcription, did the space allow. Here the pilgrims wander about, "Hither and thither, to and fro, For very joyfulness; and now They climb a mountain's lofty brow, And see afar a vision rare Of angels; I may not declare What there they saw, for words could ne'er The meaning tell; and the melodie Of that same heavenly company, For joy that they beheld them there, They heard; but could not bear its sweetness, Unless their natures greater meetness To that celestial place had borne. But they were crushed with joy. Return,' Said they; we may not thus sustain.' Then spake the youth in gentle strain : 'Oh, Brandan! God unto thine eyes Hath granted sight of paradise ; But know, it glories hath more bright, Than e'er hath dazed thy mortal sight; OF ENGLAND. 275 One hundred thousand times more fair Are these abodes,-but thou could'st ne'er The view sustain, nor the ecstasy Its meanest joys would yield to thee; For thou hast in the body come. But when the Lord shall call thee home, Thou, fitted then, a spirit free From weakness and mortality, Shalt aye remain, no fleshy guest, But taking here thine endless rest." The safe return of St. Brandan and his highly- favoured companions, concludes this singularly graceful and amusing narrative; and we lament, on closing the neatly-written volume, that he who has so well sung the wanderings of the holy and an- cient mariner, should have left his own name un- told. Contemporary, or nearly so, was Geoffroi Gaimar, a trouvère, the latter portion of whose work- a me- trical history of the British kings-alone remains. This portion extends merely from the episode of Haveloke to the death of the Red King; and the most curious part is his character of that monarch, whom, contrary to the statements of every monkish chronicler, he represents as wise, valiant, and most generous; and of whose death he gives a remarkably full, and, in some respects, different account. His versification, although easy, cannot be compared with that of the foregoing trouvère; nor has the writer found any of those naïve remarks and graphic touches, which give such spirit to the narratives of Wace. The following description of the attendants in the hall of the Red King, at Westminster, when it was first opened for his mighty feast, affords some TQ 276 THE POET-FATHERS idea of the enormous scale of magnificence on which these feasts were conducted: And now, within his new-built hall, He held a gorgeous festival. And many an earl and duke did fare Thither; and each in mantle rare Of foreign cloth; with vair or gris, Bedecked right well were hundreds three Of ushers, who right courteously Stood at the doors, at hand to lead Each baron up the steps, and then The band of pages came with speed To marshal them, right noble men, With batons in their hands, and they Appointed each his place that day.", Part of his account of the Red King's death merits transcription, from the many characteristic circumstances which, whether true or not, it pre- sents. According to Gaimar, Walter Tyrel not only killed the king, but meditated his death for some months previously, in consequence of a dispute which he had had with him. "And now the king Within the forest stood, with string Fixed in the notch;-'twas marshy ground; And when he saw the fair herd bound Right past, he chose the tallest out, (His barons wandering all about,) And there beside a tree he stood.- Then, Walter Tyrel in the wood : Drew nigh but a saddle's length was he, And leant against an aspen tree; Then, when the tall stag he espied, He bent his bow, and from his side A barbed arrow forth drew he, (Fledged by a fatal destiny,) Which missed the stag, who bounded on, But straight to the king's heart hath gone. OF ENGLAND. 277 I know not who erst bare that bow, But the other archers said, I know, That it was Walter's; like enow That tale appeared, for he had fled When this was done, and the king fell dead.* Beneath four beeches they descried The Red King's corpse, e'en as he died; But 'twas not touched until they found Some monks, who from the neighbouring bound Came nigh-and then a hunter made A bed of fern and flowers, and laid The king thereon." "Now list. The news flew speedily :- Among his barons there are three, Who swiftly to the place have gone, To which Fitz Richard led them on. Earl Gilbert; and Dan Roger too, That valiant knight; and Gilbert, who Was Lord of the Eagle named; and there, They cried aloud, and tore their hair, In unmatched woe, and bitter teen, 'Sure such a king was never seen!' Then all the vassals thither drew, And all the hunters, when they knew The sad mischance; and out they spread Their vests and mantles, and a bed Of fern and beauteous flowers they made :- Then caused two palfreys to be brought, With broidered trappings rich ywrought, And placed the bier on them; and then Fitz Hamon, who, of all his men, Best loved his lord, most tenderly Lifted the corse, and carefully - Spread over all a mantle gay And rich, which but a single day William Muntfichet wore, and there That gris-lined mantle he with care Spread o'er the king." * "Mes ne savom ki li arc sustint, Mes co disaient li altre archer K'ele cissi del arc Walter. Il eschapat, li reis chai." 278 THE POET-FATHERS And thus was he borne to the city of Winches- ter, in whose cathedral, amid a large concourse of barons and clergy, all weeping most sorely, he was consigned to the tomb.* The foregoing passage is interesting, although possessing little poetical merit; not only as giving a very good specimen of the "all, how, and about it " style, in which the earlier trou- vères are very fond of indulging, but as affording what was not improbably the "court version" of the story of the Red King's death; since surely, unless this statement had obtained currency among the higher classes, Gaimar, writing for the express infor- mation both of Custance Fitz-Gilbert, and Adelais, would never have adopted it. Whether the next celebrated trouvère of this period, master Robert Wace, resided at court, and enjoyed the patronage of the fair Adelais, is unknown; that long ere her death he had become celebrated, seems evident from his account of himself, where he remarks, that early in life he had composed many romances, learned and rare." Of these, none have been hitherto found, and the fame of this admirable trouvére now rests chiefly on the two works composed in his middle and later years, the "Brut d'Angleterre," and the "Roman du Rou." Wace, although born in the island of Jersey, may be ** It is impossible to avoid thinking that this statement of Gaimar's was levelled against that of Malmsbury; and that, in the minute parti- cularizing of each honor done to the lifeless corpse, Gaimar had in view the story of the body lying for many hours unfound, and at length, care- lessly thrown upon the charcoal-burner's cart, conveyed in the rudest manner to Winchester. In this statement the reader will observe the details of the "palfreys" with broidered trappings, and the mantle lined with gris, (an undoubted proof of its great cost), which had been worn only a single day, while even the fern and flowers used are described as "beautiful." OF ENGLAND. 279 ranked among the English trouvères, since his father was one of the followers of duke William to England; and a family of that name possessed the lordship of Walkeringham in Nottinghamshire. The earliest of his two poems is the "Brut d'Angleterre," which, as it was presented to Elinor of Aquitaine in 1155, was probably undertaken at her request, while duchess of Normandy. Although it is mainly a free translation from the "History of the British Kings," by Geoffrey of Monmouth, it yet, especially in those parts relating to Arthur and his court, gives so much that may be considered his own, as to render it, in strict phraseology, the first romance of chivalry. The introduction is singularly prosaic; and as there is no allusion to Elinor and her patronage, it is not improbable that the work originally com- menced with a dedication similar to that prefixed to the voyage of St. Brandan, but which subsequent transcribers might not have taken the trouble to copy. "Whoever wishes to hear and know," says he, "aught concerning ancient kings; what they did, from whence they came, and who first of all had rule in England, who was renowned, and who was brave; master Wace has translated this story, and he tells the truth." He then begins with the flight of Eneas from Troy. All the earlier part of his narrative is closely copied in incidents, though by no means in phraseology, from Geoffrey's history ;* The reader, desirous of seeing an excellent epitome of this once far famed history, and a vindication of its supposed author, will find them in the late Mr. G. Ellis's specimens of the early Metrical Ro- mances." เส 280 THE POET-FATHERS and scarcely before we come to the "faictes e gestes" of king Arthur, do we find a passage worthy of translation. It is in his account of that already far famed monarch, that Wace first appears as occu- pying a more important station than that of a mere copyist. His description of Arthur, and his cha- racter of his round table, his knights, and his nu- merous victories, take up nearly two thousand lines; nor is any of this portion borrowed from the history from whence his work is professedly translated, ex- cept the coronation feast. From this part, there- fore, our specimens will be selected, as in them we shall see the first outlines of the pure and lofty creed of chivalry. The following extract gives a vivid picture of the confusion occasioned in a city, by the arrival of the king's court and his attendant nobles; a scene, doubtless, often witnessed by Maistre Wace; and the reader will smile at the simplicity of ancient manners, which assigned to the officer next in rank to the knight himself, the esquire, the menial task of actually providing fodder, and preparing the litter for his good steed. "And now A fair assembly might ye see, And the whole city in a route, With vassals going in and out: Some houses seizing, hostels taking, Some curtains hanging, all things making Yready, and the marshalls there, Appointing each with heedful care Their lodgings; and for those who none Could find, providing them each one, OF ENGLAND. 281 Soleres* or chambers. Order due, Still keeping and providing too Rations for all; and ye might see Many an esquire full heedfully Steeds or destreres to stables guiding, Or posts and ropes for each providing To hold them fast;-litter preparing, And grass and fodder thither bearing. Valets and pages too ye'd see, Throughout the city speedily Yspreading goodly tapestry ;- Or bringing clokes of gris or vair, None ever saw so rich or fair.” The genuine chivalric character is well deline- ated, although more than two centuries earlier than Chaucer's picture of the "veray parfait gentil knight," in the following description of Arthur. "Of Arthur, chiefest, now I'll tell, Nor will I lie, so mark me well; For bravest of all knights was he, And bore himself right manfully ;—— Toward lofty ones he aye was stour, But meek and piteous to the poor; Bold, hardy, conquering was he, Largesse, aye, giving willingly:-+ And ever prompt his friends to aid, For never to them 'Nay' he said. Much loved he deeds of chivalry, And much he hoped his deeds might be Kept in all honoured memorie.— And he was servéd of the best, For of all kings was he valiantest ;- And thus he lived, and thus he reigned, And his right royal state maintained, 'Fore all for true nobility, Largesse, and truth, and courtesie.” * This is the word in the original; it was also used by our forefathers, and means a large room. "E contre orguillus fu orguillus, E contre humble duze pitius, Pruz, hardi, e conqueranz Larges doneres e despendanz." . 282 THE POET-FATHERS Nor were his knights unworthy companions of such a monarch, since,— "For valiant men, and rich also, And noble ones, full many moe, For courtesy and high honour, 'Bove all did England bear the flower; 'Bove all the neighbour realms, the glory Of those brave knights surpassed all story, And gentler, and more courteous far, Unto the poorest peasant* are, That all unrivalled chivalry, And so was every fair ladye. And there was never gallant knight That boasted him for nought in fight; And all were clad alike, and wore The self-same armour, and each bore The self-same arms, and so I ween Was every lovely lady seen In the same dress apparelled. And none of that bright company Might win the love of fair ladye, Until that thrice in battle he Had well approved his valiancy. And thus each knight was stern and fell, And bore himself in the melće well; And worthy these, the ladies all, For they the fairest were in hall, That ere were seen, and chastest too." It was after his splendid coronation at Caerleon, which Master Wace informs us stands on the river Usk, and is a beautiful place, well supplied with “fish and venison," that Arthur constructed his round table: "Then for his noble barons, who, The very least, was bold and true, King Arthur the round table made. (Full many a fable hath been said *Plus erent curteis e vaillant Enteis li pouvre paisant Ke chevalers en altre regne." OF ENGLAND. 283 Of this by Breton bards), and there Were placed in order regular, Each vassal seated by his brother, None first or higher than the other; For all were equal there, and all Were served within King Arthur's hall Alike, that none might vauntingly Claim o'er the others sovereignty; For all was done by courtesy ;- And from all neighbouring ports did come Unnumbered knights, and made their home Within his court, his state to see; For lands king Arthur held in fee From Mongieu, to the western sea. "7 The reader, accustomed to the splendid fictions with which the tale of Arthur has been invested by later poets, will be disappointed at the total absence of all these from the narrative of Wace; even his disappearance after his final battle, is related in that matter-of-fact way, which to the Welch and Breton bards must have been absolutely provoking. No hand rises from the lake to snatch Excalibor, when it falls from Arthur's grasp; no Morgain la fay bears him gently on her white arms from the battle field, or sits in the woody isle of Avalon, watching, age after age, his tranced slumbers; but “Arthur, saith the history, In the heart was striken mortally; And thence to Avalon was borne, That healed his wounds might be; nor mourn There still he wons; the Bretons wait His coming for their lays relate He liveth yet, and still they look :- I, Master Wace, who made this book, Will nought affirm, save that I hold That sooth, which prophet Merlin told.* * "Encore i est, Breton l'atendent Si com il dient, e entendent 284 THE POET-FATHERS He said that Arthur's end should be For aye enwrapt in mystery; And truly saith, that still his fame Should last, and foemen dread his name." Although, in point of spirited description, the "Brut d'Angleterre" falls greatly below his other work, there are yet some passages in his descriptions of battles, which are almost as graphic as those of the Roman du Rou: this is spirited, and bears a strong resemblance to a passage in the excellent English romance of "Kynge Alysaundre :" "So each his good steed took, and then Returned deliverly agen ; With shield at neck, and lance poized low, No farewell took they of the foe, But onward rushed amid the crowd. And then the emperor cried aloud, 'What mean ye thus ? behold them near; Seize, seize your foemen.' Ye might hear The vassal's cry,' Arm ye, arm ye!! To horse, to horse! mount speedily; Swift, swift, come all! ride on, ride on! Strike, strike ere that the day be won.' All lost in tumult was; and ye Might in the wide confusion see, Steeds seizing, saddles placing, then Spears snatching, swords on-girding, Men calling aloud, driving about: The count, amid that furious route, Pressed boldly on; and when he saw These men, against all martial law, Riding about by two and three, De la viendra, encore poet vivre, Meistre Wace ki fist ceste livre, N'en volt plus dire de sa fin, Ki en dist li prophete Merlin." Indeed the caution which Maistre Wace displays on this and similar oc- casions, is quite edifying, and doubtless went far to prove him a great philosofre" among his all-believing hearers at the court of Plantagenet. CC OF ENGLAND. 285 Instead of all one company, He clenched his fist, for wroth was he,— 6 And cried aloud, Stay here, knights, stay! Base churl is he who turns away.' Encouraged by the patronage he received, Wace, in the year 1160, set about his second work, which, it appears, was patronized by Plantagenet,—the Chronicle of the Dukes of Normandy, from the in- vasion of Rollo to the thirty-fourth year of Beau- clerc, and which has been handed down to us under the title of the "Roman du Rou."* In this work, Wace affords us so many characteristic traits, and picturesque details, that it seems rather a collection of spirited ballads, than a metrical chronicle. The first part is composed in the fourteen syllable, or what may be called ballad measure; and ten, twenty, sometimes even a greater number of lines, pre- sent the same termination. In the following ex- tracts, while the rhythm has been preserved, the writer has found it impossible to adopt the other peculiarity, and has therefore rhymed in couplets. The following account, how William Long Espée was scolded into valour, is curious. He is besieged in Rouen by Rioulf:- "Then Duke William was right sorrowful, and strength and power had < none, For he thought that in the battel he should well nigh stand alone; He knew not who would fight for him, or who would prove a foe: Why should we linger here,' quoth he, 'I into France will go.' • Some readers may probably wonder how a chronicle of past events could be called a romance. It is, therefore, as well to remark, that, at this period, the name had reference to the language in which the work was composed; the "langue Romaine," as this branch of the ancient French dialect was frequently called, and not to the subject. The The poem under review is the only one of the list that has ever been printed: it was edited by M. Pluquet, and published at Rouen, in 1825. 286 THE POET-FATHERS Then said Boten-' Duke William, thou hast spoke a coward's word, What, fly away at once? ere thou hast wielded lance or sword! Think'st thou I ere will see thee fly? thou talk'st quite childishly, Summon thy men, prepare for fight, and have good heart in thee; Perjured thy foemen are, and they shall surely vanquished be.' 'Boten,' said William, how can I prepare me for the fight? Rioulf can bring four well armed men, for every single wight I can command-I sure shall die, if I against him go.' < 'That thou'rt a coward,' said Boten, “St. Fiacre well doth know; But, by the faith which firm I hold to the Son of God, I say, Whoe'er should do as thou, deserves sound beating in the fray, For thou wilt neither arm nor fight, but only run away.' 'Mercie!' cried William,' see ye not how Rioulf me sieges here? And my perjured knights are all with him; must it not cost me dear ? And they all hate me unto death, and round encompass me; I never can, by my soul I swear, drive them from this countrie; I must forsake it, and to France right speedily I'll flee.' Then spake Bernart- Duke, know this well, we will not follow thee. Too much of ill these men have wrought, but a day will surely come For payment, and we'll pay them well. When erst we left our home In Denmark, and to this land came, we gained it by our might; But thou to arm thee art afraid, and darest not wage the fight. Go then to France, enjoy thyself, a wretched caitiff wight; No love of honest praise hast thou, no prayer will ere avail thee; O wicked one! why should'st thou fear that God will ever fail thee? Rollo, like bold and hardy chief, this land by his good sword won; And thou would'st do even as he did, wert thou indeed his son!' ( “‹ Bernard,' said William, 'well methinks thou hast reviled me, Offence enow to me hast given, enow of villainye; But thou shalt see me bear myself even as a man right wode, Whoe'er will come and fight with me shall see my will is good. Boten, good friend,' said he,' Bernart, now list to me, I pray, No longer hold me evil one, nor coward, from this day; Call my men unto the battle field, I pledge my word, and know That henceforth, for the strife of swords, ye shall not find me slow.' "Then all did rush to arms, and all with equal spirit came ; And fully armed, thrice haughtily defiance did proclaim To Rioulf and his vassals, who the challenge heard with glee, And flung it back to William, who returned it joyfully. Full harnessed was he now, and toward his foemen blithe he ran, 'God be our aid,' he shouted, and rush'd on like a giant man.— Ye never saw such heavy blows as Duke William gave that day, For when the sword was in his grasp, scant need of leech had they OF ENGLAND. 287 Who felt its edge, and vain were lance and brand 'gainst him, I trow, For when Duke William struck them down, joy had they never moe; "Twas blithe to see how he bore himself, like a wild bull mid the fight, And drove his foemen left and right, all flying with sore affright, For truly he did pay them off, and with a right good will." The following description of the prowess of duke Richard reads not unlike some of the episodes in the venerable Chronicle of the Cid. "Now at Rouen Richard was, and thro' the town set watch and ward, Then to the minster he repaired, and solemn service heard, When by a byeway hastily, a spy came driving on ;— - Who cried to him aloud, for time for whispering it was none— 'Behold, behold, they're coming on with all their chivalry, The Germans too, in order due, all armed right gallantly, As tho' not only Rouen they'd take, but e'en all Normandie, Already are they at the walls, to withstand them quickly bown.' The Duke when he this message heard, right meekly kneeled down, And prayed the Lord our God, the son of Lady Marié, That he would guard his life, and fame, and grant him victory, And he would found at his own cost, a rich and fair abbaye— Then all his nobles rushed to arms, and cried aloud' Dex aie.' "The Duke had knights the very best that were in all Bretagne, And gallant ones from Paris too, and also Hugh le Maigne, And these he bad go forth against the knights of Germany, And one of his most loved barons, he bade their leader be, Who bore aloft the gonfanon, 'twas of scarlet cloth of Spain, And on their destreres bold they sat, while downward to the plain The Germans from the mountain came, with gallant speed amain (Ay, if the Germans give them fight, they will not there remain,) But many a shield will pierced be, and many a tough lance broken, And on many who blithe to the mélée came, will their vengeance be ywroken. For in warfare still the usage is, and in other things also, Who in one fight is vanquished, from the next may victor go. "Now these German knights were evermore most gallant and most proud, To give defiance blithe were they, tho' ne'er in vaunting loud. And toward Rouen they drest themselves by force to enter there, For the city seemed right good to them, and the country round most fair, 288 THE POET-FATHERS But the Normans could not this endure, and swore with burning zeal, That their good town they would defend, with stout iron and with steel. "Now with the Normans there came forth full many a gallant knight, Well armed, and firm on his destrere, in readiness for the fight; And glad were they, when in fair array the foe appeared in view, And oft they set a turneying; but the Germans backward drew, For turneying was not their way of fight, to them 'twas new ; So close together o'er the plain, towards the gates they prancing went. The Normans then fled backwards, as with sore astonishment, As they would fly away they seemed, and made a goodly feint ;— Then those who in Rouen remained, now hurried boldly out, And hailed their brethren in the fight with many a gladsome shout, And flung abroad their ensigns, that their foemen might them know, Of all the host that rushed out, not one for the fight was slow, Then might ye see the gallant press of the Norman chivalry, And many a shivered lance, and many a glittering brand ye'd see Ybroke, and many a shining helm, and shields both red and brown, And many a foaming steed rush by, with reins all trailing down; And in the fields and highways too, lay many a brave knight dying, Struck down by axes, and by clubs of peasant churls when flying, For all the common folk came forth, their ready aid supplying.” The second part is in the octo-syllabic mea- sure, that most favourite metre of the Anglo- Norman trouvères. Many portions are very spirit- ed; the following will afford a fair specimen of the minute touches of nature which Wace so frequently gives. "At Rouen in his park, e'en now Duke William in his hand his bow Already strung and bended, stood, Taking the pastimes of the wood, When lo! a sergeant hastily, Who straight had come across the sea, Drew nigh the duke. Then swiftly he Flung to a youth who stood beside, His bow, and led the man aside; (For there were many folk about, And knights and squires a numerous route), So therefore led he him apart ;- And then the man with heavy heart, OF ENGLAND. 289 Told that King Edward now was dead, And Harold crownéd king instead. When that the duke this heard, he stood One instant like a man right wode- Then turned to go,-to his menyé, Leaving the sports of veneryé, And oft his mantle tied, and then Untied, then tied it swift again : Nor would he speak to any one ;— To speak or question him dared none; Then in a boat the Seine he past, And to his castle hurried fast ;- And down on the first bench sate he, From time to time right hastily Turning quick round; then o'er his fuce His mantle cast, then changed his place, And on a ledge his head he laid; While all around him stood afraid, And marvelléd what this might be." This chronicle ends very abruptly; Wace appa- rently having been much displeased with the ho- nours bestowed by Plantagenet on Benoit St. More, who was engaged on a similar work; indeed, from a cursory survey of the rival production, it is im- possible to avoid believing that maistre Wace was really ill used; since the wearisome prosings of Benoit, however flowing the style, contrast most unfavourably with his spirited sketches. are so volu- The works of Benoit St. More, which still exist, " and "L'Histoire de la Guerre de Troy; "L'Histoire des Ducs de Normandie; minous a writer was he, that the number of lines. in his two works have been calculated at nearly 46,000! and, as may be well supposed, but little of * This is a singularly beautiful manuscript, and the initial letters display some advances toward a correct delineation of the human face. U 290 THE POET-FATHERS this immense collection of rhymes, deserves rescuing from oblivion. Benoit St. More, however, seems to have prided himself upon his talents, and probably on his extensive learning, since he commences his History of the Dukes of Normandy with an account of the creation; and then proceeds to give a long geographical essay on the three parts of the then known world, and their inhabitants. The following extract, from the conclusion of his first book, shews the high estimation in which he held learned men, and not the least among them himself. (6 Many the studious toils, I wis, And great the care to many is, So large a work as this to write- But it will never me affright. For sure I trust the saints, and Ile Who giveth all most bounteously, Will still be aiding unto me. And truly, those who seek to know The things that happened long ago, If quick they are, and prompt to learn, And eager each fact to discern, May well improve; more wise than he Who in his orchard plants a tree,— (A different task, forsooth, 'twill be!) Then hear, and see, and learn, and do, Mark, retain, and so shall you Find, that save they learning prize, None are worthy, brave, or wise; But they are mild and courteous too, Masters of arts and learning, who, But for the knowledge they have gained, And various reading well retained, What had they been, maugre pretence, But churls, withouten soul or sense?" The next writer that presents himself, although ungraced by royal patronage, advances higher OF ENGLAND. 291 claims to our notice than if he had received the gifts of Plantagenet, or the smiles of Elinor; since in his work we have a specimen, not merely of the religious poetry of the age, but of the form in which religious instruction was conveyed to the populace by the way-side preacher.* The title which this very curious work bears is, "Le Sermun du Gui- chart de Beaulieu ;" and it has been considered, by abbe de la Rue, very plausibly to be the production of some zealous preacher, who, in his youthful days, had been foremost in all evil,-perhaps the leader of a band of plunderers during the disastrous reign of Stephen, but who, in advanced age, had sought the cloister, and become the inmate of Beaulieu, a cell belonging to the abbey of St. Albans, from whence he takes his name.† The introduction of this "Sermun "-a term which, at this period, rather signified an address, than that species of composition which modern times characterizes by that name- proves that it was intended for a popular auditory, for the style is precisely that in which the trouvères commence their tales. * This phrase may appear strange to some readers who are not aware how extensively the practice of itinerant preaching prevailed during the middle ages. Indeed, by a singular but most beneficial anomaly, the Latin church, whilst she insisted on the consecration of every place where the service was to be performed, allowed her preachers to go forth as un- fettered in their great work as the Puritan; and thus, in the market- place, on the sea-shore, or by the way-side, hundreds of earnest and warm- hearted men preached, free from all superstitious adjuncts, the great truths of the Gospel; while, in the scorn with which they were viewed by the higher orders of the clergy, we have testimony to the purity of their doc- trine. + The celebrated abbey of Beaulieu, in the isle of Wight, was not founded until the middle of the thirteenth century. U 2 292 THE POET-FATHERS "Come listen to my lay, ye men of high and low degree, A pleasant tale, and suitable, I'll straightway tell to ye; And goodly lessons 'twill impart to those who love the right, And in the way that God commands are hastening with delight; For there's no controversy here, fable, nor idle word, In any place, I soothly say, better was never heard; Well do I know the Latin tongue, but in Romanz I'll tell This goodly lay, that all of you may understand it well ; Then be not doubting ye, who choice book-learning never knew, For I will heartily avouch that every word is true." He now proceeds to denounce the wickedness of the age, and the folly of men seeking so earnestly after earthly happiness, which, after all, "melts like ice;" but although he says it, they heed not, for "This age, of fierce debate, And spite, and lesings too, is full; each one seeks worldly store; And each in every wicked way rusheth with all his power. Oh! nothing is too hard for them on which their hearts are set, But God's commands are idle words, His precepts they forget; Most fiery eager ill to do, are they, and full of might; For now, who doth most wickedness is deemed the prowest wight, And he who well can lie, and he most skilled in flattery, Yhonoured, and yservéd well, for this he sure shall be; And he shall have both gold and fee, and rich attire beside." This is a graphic picture of the fierce and power- ful baron of the period, and his invisible foeman lurking unseen. "Look well upon this age, when all things promise well, And his riches make a goodly show, then, eager to excel, The man tall houses builds, and plants his vineyards carefully, That he his joy at full may take, and little doubteth he That long he shall enjoy them all; then he seeketh to be known, For he would be the greatest man, and hold his state alone; Then art and cunning both he wields his neighbours to subdue, And by force of arms the rich man robs, and takes from each their due. And when that he hath gainéd alf that his wild heart can crave, Then, that he may be feared around, right royal state he'll have, With flocks, and herds, and wild wood beasts, his wide lands he'll supply, While to his neighing palfreys, his snorting mules reply. OF ENGLAND. 293 Within is harping, sound of lute, and jongleurs' pleasant lay, And then he to his chamber goes, awearied with the day, And gazes on his treasures, hoarded up so secretly ;— Then lays him on his pleasant bed. O little thinketh he One, whom no bribe can win away, is standing close beside ;— Tis Death!" "Now you may wonder," continues he, "where- fore I should so denounce all those things which men seek after, I will, therefore, tell you why : "It is, indeed, no marvel, that earnest I should be; I had a wound, a grievous wound, as I will show to ye; And long time did I hide it, but 'twould no longer hide; That wound was sin, and it, alas! was very deep and wide. Alas! I am a sinner great, so great, I cannot say, For mickle evil did I do, till God e'en turned away From me in wrath. Oh! wicked deeds I did, withouten fear, And His commandments lightly deemed, nor would His precepts hear, And much did I the devil serve, and aye with wicked glee. Oh! such a sinner as I've been, I ne'er can tell to ye. At length o'erwhelmed with fear I was, and in sore jeopardy; And then no other way I found, than e'en myself to throw Upon our dear Lord's mercy, though I had scorned it so ; And only on His grace to leau, for other right I'd none; So I trusted I should mercy have, in holding this alone; Ye ne'er can tell how great that was, but I will show it you, For God is very pitiful, and gracious, and true." He now commences a very complete epitome of the leading incidents in Scripture history; and the following extract gives a very fair specimen of his simple and pleasing style. After narrating that "God his own Son sent," he continues: "Then God a star set forth on high, shining with rays most bright, That nuncio-star,* and o'er the world it shed its joyful light, Telling afar to every one, to men of each degree, That the Ruler of all worlds was come in his humility. L'esteile d'annunciat.” 294 THE POET-FATHERS Three kings there were, in eastern lands, who saw that bright star shining, And all amazed they were, and stood with mickle thought divining What it might mean; then well they deemed this star could only show Unto all men that God himself was come to dwell below; So swift their way these wise men took, yready making them, Without delay, that they might seek their King in Bethlehem. And swiftly are these three wise kings already on their way, And a right royal present do they to Him convey; Good store of incense and of myrrh, and precious fine red gold,* And still that star blazed brightsomely as on their way they hold, E'en till they come to Bethlehem, and the young Babe have found. Then their present they did offer him, and they knelt in awe profound: For there are now four kings, the fourth, the Son of God is he! Oh! joyful were those wise men then, that wondrous sight to see! "'Twas not in castle large and high, nor tower of royal name, That our dear Lord was shelter'd when to this earth he came ; It was within a wretched stall, where hinds their cattle fed, And where their crib aud manger stood, was made His humble bed. No carved couch, nor cradle fair, of gold and ebony, Nor coverlid of marten soft, nor ermine pall had he, But he who all things governeth, aye, he who made them all, Lay as a little infant there, beside the oxen's stall; All meanly clad within the crib, for linen raiment none, Nor thick wrought robe, our ladye had wherewith to wrap her son; But there, 'twixt Joseph and herself, he lieth poor and lone. "Now will I tell you of these kings, how they were lodged there- Well may ye think 'twas new to them such mean array to share, Though they were at the court of him who giveth all things free: And served were right heedfully by the mother of pitye,† Who, between Joseph and herself, placed them with kindly care, But they awearied were, and then repose they sought to share: Nor had they thick wrought coverlid, nor linen soft and rare.— But well might they such ills endure, such mean array sustain, For they on whom God's mercy rests, methinks have mickle gain; And therefore very glad were they, full filled with gladsomeness, Thus slept these kings, for they were faint with utter weariness. And then an angel came to them, and bade them take their way Unto their realms, this wondrous news that they might there display, For love of Him, that little child whose power all things obey." * "Co fud mirre e encens e ruge or esmerć." So early was the phrase "fine red gold," used. + "Ileoc ert Senechal, mere de pitie." So feudal were the expressions OF ENGLAND. 295 Guichard then proceeds to give a short view of the Gospel history, and to insist upon his hearers giving instant attention to its message; and, in a strain of simple and touching pathos, he exhibits its fulness and freeness; then finally, after again warning them of the dangers of the times, he concludes: “Then see ye pray Almighty God, who hath all power and might, Who was, and is, and is to come, to guide your steps aright; And since that on the Cross our Lord His life for sinners gave, That he would guard our bodies well, and our souls from evil save, That we withouten end may in his blessed presence dwell, This mercy may He grant to us, for his pity doth excel; May he who gave for us his flesh and blood so willingly, You bless and save, both now and aye, through all eternity." And thus, "ici, fin le sermun de Guichart de Beaulieu."* While the zealous preacher of Beaulieu was thus scattering "the good seed," by the wayside, right learned clerks were also providing moral, and occasionally religious, instruction for the higher classes; and among these, Simon le Fresne-Simon Ash, as he is called by Leland, who places him in his list of Latin poets of the 12th century-must take no mean place. That this learned man, the friend of Giraldus Cambrensis-who, in some verses addressed to him, speaks of his attainments in the highest terms-should have turned aside from his loftier studies, to adopt, not merely the language of this period. In his description of the judgment day, Guichart tells that it will be" un grant cour pleniere." Although in this curious work there is much occasional tautology, still it is so abundant in simple and characteristic passages, that it is worthy of more extensive transcription. Its singularly Protestant character too is very remarkable. 296 THE POET-FATHERS but the very metre and style of the trouvère, affords a strong proof of the earnestness with which the learned men of this age laboured to diffuse the advantages which they possessed among their con- temporaries. The work in which Simon le Fresne laid aside the character of the Latin scholar, to appear as the trouvère, is a poem which bears the title of "Le Dictie du Clerc e de la Philosophie ;" and is formed upon the model, for it certainly is not a translation, of that very favourite book of our forefathers, Boe- thius' Consolations of Philosophy: the commencing lines are very naïve, and perfectly in the character of the trouvère : Joy 'twill give, and ease from woe, This Romanz to read I trow; Much advantage too 'twill bring, As a work most solacing : For no man, if wise he be, Need lament his poverty, Nor he who gaineth wordly store Be more joyous than before- Fools, they, to whom riches bring Either joy or sorrowing: Whatsoe'er is quickly gone, No wise man sets his heart upou. "Twas a clerk who made his plaint, How, by fortune's fraudful feint, He was raised to wealth amain, And down cast from it again. Then came dame Philosophy, Having in her company Seven fair daughters, (sooth to say, The seven liberal arts are they). She gave demonstration plain, That his plaint was wild and vain ; OF ENGLAND. 297 For what is wealth but idle dreaming, A thing of falsehood and mere seeming, Now it cometh, now it goes, Like the wave that ebbs and flows: Then listen to her, witness well; List, and this Romanz I'll tell." Then commences a long colloquy between the clerk and "lady Philosophy;" the clerk bitterly lamenting the changefulness of fortune, and the lady shewing that he ought to have expected "chance and change," since "What morning gives, eve takes away; After delight, comes swift dismay; And who to Fortune's gifts aspire, But seeketh honey on the briar. Behold the moon, in her you'll see Fortune's confirmed inconstancy : Now in full orbed light she shineth, Now her lustrous light declineth, Now her crescent shineth here, Now there 'tis then obscure, now clear- And thus is fortune." Still the clerk mourns-"There is great benefit in riches," says he, "for the rich man walks abroad, esteemed among his friends." To this lady Phi- losophy replies, that riches often do more harm than good—an argument, however, which she re- marks, never yet deterred any one from seeking after them; besides, "the mere opinion of others is nothing, unless founded upon enlightened judg- ment;" and then follows this poetical passage— "What say you to these jewels bright, Shining with cle r and precious light? Are these by sages thought upon? Do they esteem each high prized stone? 298 THE POET-FATHERS No; for they judge the meanest thing That lives and breathes, more precious far Than richest jewels that e'er king Boasted, however fair they are :— However rare, yet reason's eye A greater value will espy, Even in the meanest butterfly," That disregarded wings the air, Than in a thousand jewels rare. And wherefore is the gem so bright? And whence its pure and lustrous light? The brightness is not in the stone, 'Tis in the mind of man alone; Nor is its color fair to see, Save that he wills it so to be." Still the clerk laments:- "Said he, Hath not man great felicity, When he beholds the flowers in May, The budding leaf, the blossomed spray, And sees in the orchards' flowering Fair promise of the fruit they'll bring? And fresh clothed fields, where the green ear springeth, That hope of future harvest bringeth; Doth not his heart with joy o'erflow When feed his eyes on this fair show? And may not man his riches view With equal joy?" Lady Philosophy replies with the old hackneyed ar- gument, that every thing is subject to change; she, however, afterward takes higher ground, and argues from the shortness of human life, and finally bids her pupil ever bear in mind the doctrine of an over- ruling providence; since- * “ Un papeillum ki tant e vil." OF ENGLAND. 299 "God all doth order, all doth see, For all things move at His decree, Who was, and is, and aye shall be. All things are open to His sight, His prescience guideth all aright. So, therefore, know most certainly, That all, or good, or bad ye see, Is but according to his will, And in His mercy trust ye still." The clerk now goes away right comforted; and with a short address, by lady Philosophy, to the readers, bidding them hold the vain glory and vain pleasures of the age in light estimation, thus con- cludes this very pleasing poem :- "Nor heed ye wealth, or dignity, Or state, for these are vanity ;- Think of the life to which ye tend, That life which never shall have end, Those joys which all the blessed prove, Those joys God grant us all above. Amen." * Appended to this manuscript are four lines, which state that the name of the writer may be found by reference to the first twenty lines of the poem; and we consequently find the initial letters of those lines forming the sentence-" Simun le Fresne me fist;" probably the earliest instance of the acrostic. The foregoing specimens (in all of which close- ness of translation has been sought after rather than high polish) will enable the reader to judge what was the peculiar character of the tales and poems * "Icel ki cest romanz escrist, Sun noum en tele romanz mist, Mis est en vingt primeres vers, Ceo poet veir, ki est clers." 300 THE POET-FATHERS " to which our forefathers at this early day listened with such delighted attention. Often trammelled by a half-formed language, and often forced to sup- ply its deficiencies by newly derived or newly in- vented words, still the singular ease and grace of their versification, the absence of all pretence and affectation, and their vivid perception of the beau- ties of natural scenery, and the force and spirit with which their sterner scenes are drawn, all impress upon the "romanz" of the Anglo-Norman trou- vères the genuine characteristics of English poetry. Standing on the vantage ground of the 19th cen- tury, and looking back through the dim vista of almost six centuries, we may yet hail these so long forgotten bards as the poet-fathers of England. Had the trouvères merely awakened a love of song, and a taste for the mere pleasures of society, their claim to our gratitude had not been small; but they fulfilled a higher duty; and in the moral, and in some instances the religious, instruction which they afforded, they became indeed benefactors to their race. The work which, although not equal to some of its companions in poetical merit, was the most influential of all, the "Brut d'Angleterre," peculiarly deserves this praise; for it became the exemplar of every romance of the Round Table,* * Numbers of these followed the appearance of "le Brut;" and most of them are said to have been the composition of Englishmen. Lucas de Gast, lord of the castle of Gast, near Salisbury, is said to have com- posed a version of "Tristrem," and "Giron le Courtois.” Gautier Map translated from Latin into French the "Sangreal," for "the love of his good king Henry;" he is also said to have written "Launcelot du Lac." Robert and Helis du Bourron also claim the authorship of Sangreal" and "Palamedes ;" while Helis, at the request of young OF ENGLAND. 301 and while each succeeding poet added new and beautiful fables to the original story, the character of king Arthur remained in all unaltered; and in him, and his knights, even from this period to that of the prose romances, we behold that beautiful combination of the sterner and the gentler virtues, which the chivalrous character alone can shew. A wild and a beautiful dream was that of Arthur and his prowess, of his fancied death, but certain existence and re-appearance, wherewith the home- sick exiles of Bretagne beguiled their sorrows, as they looked toward the shores of their father-land; and a beautiful, and even influential, reality it be- came in the hands of the poet. Invested in its garb of fictitious splendour, the obscure king of the Si- lures became the arbiter of every contest in the known world, and the fabled court of Caerleon be- came the centre-to which not only the monarchs of Christendom, but the kings of the farthest East, with the myrrh and frankincense-of admiration and homage. And with a wiser, even a moral feeling, the poet presented his shadowy hero as the very mirror of knightly virtue; the fame of Rollo grew dim before that of Arthur, who, though the sternest on the battle field, was also "meekest to poor men ;" and the memories of Longsword and Henry, wrote the "Morte de Tristan." “Merlin," and "le Chevalier de Lyon," were also composed about this time, but none of all these are believed to remain in their original form. They have probably formed the ground work of the prose romances. However, one However, one "le chevalier de Lyon," which by some has been ascribed to Wace, seems to have been handed down, in an English metrical dress, as "Ywain and Ga- wain." This very excellent tale is in the first volume of Ritson's "Me- trical Romances.' 1) 302 THE POET-FATHERS OF ENGLAND. Richard Fearnought faded away, when the deeds of the minstrel Tristrem, the courteous Gawain, and the gentlest of knights, Sir Launcelot, were sung. But, politically considered, even more influential was "Le Brut d'Angleterre," and its host of knightly romances. From the moment that the deeds of Arthur, and his all unrivalled chivalry, were sung in the hall of the Anglo-Norman baron, the bond which attached him to Normandy was snapped asunder. Caerleon, Camelot, Tintagel, Avalon, each hallowed by the brilliant dreams of romance, became the objects of his eager worship, the scenes of his enthusiastic pilgrimage. Each spot of English ground received a consecration, unknown to the cities and plains of Normandy, and henceforth proudly boasting his British origin, the Anglo-Nor- man knight advanced his banner, and set lance in rest, but to maintain the glory of his adopted land, the native land of king Arthur. 303 ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. CHAPTER XI. Parentage of Isabel-Her Marriage with John-Her Dower-Queen's Gold-General Panic at the commencement of the Thirteenth Century -John's "Ways and Means "-Innocent's Letter-The Interdict-Its Effects-His Encouragement of the Navy-Old London Bridge- Magna Charta-Royal Treasure-Death of John-Isabel's second Marriage - Contests respecting her Dower-Treachery of de la Marche-Her Flight to Fontevraud, and Death. INTERESTING, and most important in a political point of view, as the events of this reign must be considered,—in details relating to the progress of society, of the arts, or of literature, it will be found to be singularly deficient. Of the queen, too, whose name gives the title to this chapter, very few notices, either of the earlier or later portion of her life, can be collected; while, during the compara- tively short period in which she wore the crown as queen consort, scarcely a passing notice respecting her can be found. Isabel of Angoulesme was the only child of Aimar earl of Angoulesme, and Alix de Courtenay; and the circumstances under which, at a very early age, she became queen of England, are creditable neither to her father nor to her future husband. One of the first acts of John, on his accession, was to annul 304 ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. his marriage contracted ten years before with Hawise, daughter and heiress of the duke of Glos- ter. Ere final sentence of divorce was pronounced, attracted by the fame of the beauty of the prin- cess of Portugal, he sent ambassadors thither to obtain her hand; and meanwhile, passing over into Normandy, entered into a treaty with Philip Au- gustus. Here he first saw Isabel, at that period a very young girl, but who had already, at the re- commendation of the late king Richard, been be- trothed to Hugh le Brun, earl of Marche, to whose castle she had already been sent.* Struck with her beauty, the versatile king forgot the prin- cess of Portugal, and demanded Isabel of her father. The earl of Angoulesme, dazzled at the splendid pro.. spect, took her from the castle of Hugh le Brun, and sentence of divorce between John and Hawise having been finally pronounced by the archbishop of Bourdeaux, and the bishops of Poictou and Sain- tonges, he was married by the archbishop to Isabel at Angoulesme. During several months after, John and his young bride remained in Normandy, but in October he returned to England; and on the 8th of October, in the abbey of Westminster, he, for the second time, and Isabel for the first, were crowned by arch- bishop Hubert. The following year, at Easter, they were again crowned at Canterbury, on which occasion the archbishop provided a splendid enter- * Hoveden, p. 803. He states that John's marriage took place at the instigation of Philip; to whom, indeed, on her mother's side, she was re- lated. ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. 305 tainment, and this later coronation has by some historians been mistaken for the first. John, by the Know ye that The importance assigned by our forefathers to this ceremony, not only for their kings but also for their queens, is forcibly expressed in the introduc- tion to the charter which specifies Isabel's dower, and which is dated 1203. The reason of the intro- ductory clause being so strongly worded, may pro- bably be found in the circumstances of the marriage; and it is worthy of remark, that the claim of Isabel to her dower is founded not upon her marriage, but upon her recognition as queen of England, by her coronation. It commences, grace of God, king of England, &c. we have given unto our beloved wife Isabel, by the same grace queen of England, who in England, by common assent, and willing concord of our archbi- shops, bishops, earls, barons, clergy, and people of the whole realm, was crowned queen of England." This form is, in the course of the charter, used a second time; and the modern reader will scarcely repress his astonishment at the long catalogue of broad lands, and large and important towns and cities, which apparently, as matter of course, form the queen's noble dower. The city of Exeter (with its adjacent forests and villages), Ilchester, Wilton, Malmsbury, Belesdun and Wiltershawe, Chichester, Waltham, the honour of Berkhampstead, Rochester, the wharf in London called Queenhithe, and the whole county of Rutland, are assigned her; and, in addition to this splendid portion, the towns of Ca- lais, Damfront, and Bonville, besides "all those X 306 ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. t others that were apportioned to our beloved mother Elinor, as well on this side of the sea, as on the other."* As this is the earliest document hitherto disco- vered relative to the dowry of our queens, it is im- possible to determine whether the towns and lands here specified belonged to the regular provision made for each queen-consort, or whether they were assigned to Isabel by the profuse liberality of John. That the greater part of them formed the usual dower of our queens, is probable, from the circum- stance of Exeter being expressly mentioned by Maude, the wife of Beauclerc, as belonging to her ;† and the same city, together with the honour of Berkhampstead and Queenhithe, being specified in a charter granted by Adelais to the abbey of Read- ing, as also being her property. But a provision for the queen consort, was not only supplied from the extensive domains which formed her dower; another, and most important source of revenue was derived from fines, which under peculiar arrangements were paid into the exchequer, and designated by the name of "queen's- gold." Thanks to the toilsome but most loyal labours of the celebrated Prynne, we are put into possession of a number of very curious facts relating to this celebrated tax, in a tract entitled “Aurum Reginæ," compiled by him for the use of, and dedi- cated to, the unhappy Catherine of Portugal. In this treatise he acquaints us that the claim of * See the whole in the Fœdera, vol. i. + Vide Monasticon-Priory of the Holy Trinity. ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. 307 queen's-gold took its rise from "the frequent media- tions and powerful intercessions of queen consorts to our monarchs, in most grants of honours, offices, licences, franchises, privileges, pardons, &c. to their subjects, which being commonly procured, or their fines moderated, or much abated by their royal mediations, the subjects thereupon for these favours, by way of gratitude and justice, held themselves obliged to present them with so much gold, as amounted to at least one tenth part over and above their entire fines." It seems rather singular, after this clear statement, to find that, "in case of their ungrateful neglect thereof, they were, by custom, justice, and law of the realm, enforced to pay it by legal process:" thus, after all, like the loans and benevolences of a later period, queen's-gold, whatever milder terms might be used to designate it, was a real and direct tax. The reason for enforcing its payment is thus illustrated: "The rather, because in many copyholds the wives or ladies of the land- lords do still claim and receive from the copyholder or tenant, on renewing or changing leases or estates, a gratuity over and above." He next proceeds to inform us on what occasions, and for what species of fines, it was received. These were all fines of ten marks and upward; and for a long list of liber- ties, licenses, grants, immunities, and et ceteras, which fill up two thirds of a quarto page. From the section specifying those payments upon which the superadded tax of queen's-gold could not be claimed, we learn that it was not due "from subsidies of tonnage, or poundage granted by Parliament," X 2 308 ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. nor from aids raised by the clergy for the necessary defence of the realm, or of the Holy Land; nor for fines paid in kind, such as palfreys, hawks, tuns of wine, "because these were not money, and therefore their rates and value were uncertain. This due, he farther states, was so absolutely vested in the queen, that the king's remission of his fine would not remit the superadded tenth due to her, and if the king died ere his fine were paid, "this debt survived to the queen." If, however, the queen died, "all arrears due to her became the king's, and if he meanwhile died, to his successor." When this ancient tax was first imposed, the industry and research of Prynne have not been able to discover. "It was due time out of mind," he says; at the same time acknowledging that he finds no traces of it under our Saxon monarchs, nor any entry in the rolls of the exchequer relating to it, until the reign of the subject of the present chapter. That queen's- gold, both in name and in reality, was known pre- viously to the times of Isabel, is proved, he remarks, by a passage in the curious dialogue on the exche- quer, which states, that one gold mark on this account was due from each fine of one hundred, and two gold marks for each fine of two hundred.* it is not in this dialogue spoken of as a new tax, it seems on the whole most probable that it was a Nor- man custom, and introduced either at the conquest or soon after; and this opinion derives additional As * This dialogue may be found appended to Madox's history of the Exchequer. It was certainly written in the reign of Henry II. and the authorship has been assigned to his justiciary Glanville. ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. 309 support, from the fact that a similar custom prevailed in some parts of France; for we have still extant a precept of Edward the First, commanding his receiver of the duchy of Aquitaine to pay to his consort "those sums which had been accustomed to be paid out of all bailwicks, or lands sold or let to farm, in as ample proportion as had Joan countess of Poictou." The term queen's-gold, it may be added, probably took its rise from the form of pay- ing the fine in gold marks, as above stated, rather than in the more common mode in silver. The first entry relating to this very rich and important source of revenue to our queens, is dated the 1st of John. The next entry dates not until his tenth year; and we there find the abbot of Read- ing paying £4, and others paying various sums, of which the largest is eleven gold marks. There are several entries during the succeeding years; but the net amount is never very large; the highest annual payment not exceeding £100; a small sum when com- pared with the revenue derived from this source alone, by Isabel's successor. It would be difficult to find a reason for this deficiency. John, it is well known, never remitted a fine which he could obtain, nor ever yielded a right which it was possible he could demand either, therefore, eagerly employed in in- creasing his own revenue, he neglected that of his queen, or irritated at her conduct during the latter years of his reign, he made no endeavour to secure for her those privileges, which were considered the inalienable right of each queen consort. Returning to the period of Isabel's first arrival in 310 ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. England, we find that the marriage of John was not more popular than his other actions had been; but the public mind was at this period in a state of anxiety and alarm, that rendered the unpopular measures of this monarch a subject of comparatively little moment. "In that same year," says Hoveden, (the year 1201), "our doctors foretold that the old dragon, which is the devil and Sathanas, was about to be loosed; therefore, said they 'woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth, because he, that old dragon, which is the devil,' (concerning whom the blessed John, who reclined on his Lord's breast during the supper, and from that self-same fount drank the streams of evangelical truth,) said, 'I, John, saw an angel with a great chain to bind the devil for a thousand years.' Now our doctors said that these thousand years were passed away, and that the devil was about to be loosed. Woe to the inha- bitants of the earth therefore! for if the captive devil hath brought so much and so great evil into the world, what and how much may he not do when he shall be unbound?" The worthy chronicler therefore, in a strain of simple and earnest piety, exhorts his contemporaries to keep a watchful guard over their tongues and actions, to abstain from all appearance of evil, to beware of every species of excess, "that when Christ the judge shall come at the end of the age, we may be partakers together of his eternal felicity." Actuated probably by a wish to warn men of these coming judgments, Eustace, abbot of Flay, came over to England about this time, and preached ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. 311 with great success. From the accounts transmitted to us by Hoveden and Matthew Paris, he seems to have aroused a spirit of devotion, and not impro- bably of sincere piety, in the breast of many a hearer; and it is gratifying to find that the principal theme of his discourses was not the miracles of any lately canonized saint, nor the efficacy of any superstitious ceremonial, but the duty of almsgiving, of abstain- ing from usurious contracts, and above all, of a reverential observance of the Sabbath day. "He preached the word of the Lord," says Hoveden, "from city to city, and from place to place; he went also to York, where being well received by the archbishop, he preached and gave absolution to the people, forbidding markets to be held on the Sun- days, and teaching that henceforth they should keep the Sabbath day, and the due feast days, not doing any servile work on the Sabbath, but devoting their time wholly to prayer, and to good works." Nor, according to the general belief of the age, did abbot Eustace want miraculous corroborations of the authority of his mission. "Signs and wonders followed; and thus did the omnipotent God call the people to the keeping of the Sabbath." These miracles are duly recorded both in Hoveden, and in Matthew Paris; and in their character they far more resemble the stories that we meet with in the lives of the earlier reformers, than those which are usually related by the chroniclers of this early day. But marvels were presenting themselves on every side; for men, harassed by oppression and misgo- vernment, and alarmed with vague and mysterious 312 ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. apprehensions of approaching ill, were precisely in that state of feverish excitement, which is sure to invest the commonest and most matter-of-fact events with a character of supernatural agency. Supernumerary moons appeared; the beautiful Aurora displayed her war-portending corruscations, and a horrible tempest, attended by a shower of hail-stones so large that they resembled eggs, deso- lated wide districts of the land.* None of these alarming portents had any bene- ficial influence on the king; and while the whole nation stood breathless with awe, awaiting, as they believed, a coming judgment,-how to exact money in the greatest measure from his subjects, that he might lavish it on his profligate enjoyments, was the sole idea that occupied the mind of John. In the employment of "ways and means," for re-filling his often emptied exchequer, John certainly deserves the praise of considerable ingenuity. One of the first measures of his reign was to force his good citizens of London to pay £3000 for taking out a confirmation of their privileges. This mode of raising supplies worked so well, that the worthy monarch forthwith proceeded to compel his other cities and towns to do the same. He also cast a longing eye on the wealth of the Jews ;-with them, however, he at first proceeded cautiously, merely exacting large sums from the most opulent, on vari. *The most appalling, and certainly the most surprising, feature of this fearful storm was, that "fowls were seen flying in the air, and bearing fiery coals in their bills, wherewith they set houses on fire !! "-- Vide Matthew Paris. ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. 313 ous right royal pretexts. The deteriorated state of the coinage next claimed his attention; and he issued a proclamation directing that if any man or woman, inhabitant of a borough, should have clip- ped money in their possession, they should be held to bail, and their chattels attached to the king's pleasure; while, with admirable attention to his own private interest, he farther enacted that the clipped money should be "seized, bored, and put in a chest for the king's own use." Doubtless the servants of the crown, who were commissioned to make this search, found no lack of clipped monies; the re- blanching of the old pennies* was also forbidden, under pain of heavy amerciament. Still, in despite of rapacious extortion, trade and commerce advanced with steady progress; and in the entry of the quinzieme dues (a tax of a fifteenth paid to the king by every one engaged in trade, whether natives or foreigners,) we find, in 1205, New- castle paying £158. 5s. 11d.; Boston, £780.15s. 3d.; Lynn, £651. 11s. 11d.; Southampton, £712. 3s. 7d.; London, £836. 12s. 10d.† Singular as it may ap- pear, it is to John that the nation owes the first as- sertion of her sovereignty over the seas; for in the year 1200 he published a law at Hastings, by which *The reader will bear in mind that the whole English coinage was silver, and consisted almost entirely of pennies. Indeed, in the rolls of this period, the word denarii is always used to designate money. The great inconvenience of a silver coinage, when large sums were re- quired, must have been greatly felt. In the Patent Rolls there is fre- quent mention of horse-loads of money on one account sixty-six bags, and on another, two barrels of pennies, are directed to be sent to the king. + Vide Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. i. 314 ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. t he claimed dominion over the British seas, and com- manded that all foreign vessels should strike their topsails to his flag, under penalty of capture and confiscation.* It is to John also that the Cinque Ports owe their charter of privileges, which awards to their inhabitants the right of providing vessels for the royal voyages; of taking precedence of every sea-port in the kingdom, except London; and that their chief burgesses should, as barons, support the canopy over the king at his coronation, and dine at a table on his right hand. The attention paid by John to maritime affairs seems to have been most praiseworthy; and the Close Rolls of his reign abound with precepts relative to ship-building. Wil- liam, archdeacon of Taunton, seems to have been the chief superintendant of the royal dock-yards; and, from an entry toward the close of this reign, it would appear that Portsmouth was even then the chief place for the royal shipping. From the same source we learn that the wages of ordinary seamen were 3d. per day, 3s. 9d. present money; and those of the steersman, 7d., or 8s. 9d. per day; a rate of remuneration which shews the high value in which the seaman was held. From a memorandum, on the back of one of these rolls, the number of ves- *Lingard, who quotes Selden. + The following precept shews that the seamen were obliged to hold themselves in instant readiness for the king's service; it is addressed “to all mariners on the coast of Wales." "We forbid you on peril of your lives and goods, to make any voyage to Ireland, or elsewhere; and com- mand you to give credence to Robert Fitz Richard, in what he shall tell you respecting your coming to our service at Ilfracombe, to transport our men to Ireland; and know for certain, that if ye act contrary to this, we will cause you and the masters of your vessels to be hanged.”—Vide Patent Rolls, p. 79. ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. 315 sels belonging to the king seems very small-only fifty-one. From the numerous precepts, however, to various messengers of the king, to provide at the various ports "good and sound ships," to convey his warlike stores, and "ships fit to carry sixteen horses," it is probable that the fifty-one vessels were armed galleys, and that whatever more were need- ful, were pressed with as little ceremony as the carts and wains of the farmer. In the close of the year 1204, we meet with the first specific enumeration of the royal apparel worn on high festivals; and it is curious, from the minute- ness of its description. "On the first day of the moon, before Christmas-day," Alan, preceptor of the new temple, is directed to bring "our golden crown, made at London;" a red satin mantle adorned with sapphires and pearls; a robe of the same; a tunic of white damask; buskins, and slippers of red satin "edged with goldsmiths' work;" a baldrick set with gems; two girdles enamelled and set with garnets and sapphires; white gloves, one with a sapphire and one with an amethyst; and a splendid collection of clasps, adorned with emeralds, turquoise, pearls, and topaz, one of which is desig- nated as "of London work ;" and sceptres, most gorgeously set with jewels, among which we find one with twenty-eight diamonds, the first instance in which the name of this stone is found. It would be very amusing to read as minute a description of the Christmas apparel of the fair Isabel; but al- though the Patent and Close Rolls abound with pre- cepts respecting the king's dress and jewels, the only ones relating to the queen are, for "sixty ells 316 ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. of fine linen cloth," "forty ells of dark green cloth," and a "skin of miniver," for her robe; and "one fur of miniver, one small brass pan, and eight towels, for the lady queen's use," a most house- wife-like entry. But little reason had John to invest himself with the symbols of royalty; for the crown, even at that moment, glittered an empty bauble on his brow, and the sceptre was a mere broken reed. Of all the vast possessions in northern and southern France, bequeathed to him (both by father and mo- ther,) Poictou, Anjou, and Maine, willingly owned the sway of Philip, who had pushed his conquests to the utmost bounds of Normandy; and the lion banner of Plantagenet, waved alone from the towers and castle-keeps of the small province of Guienne. Nor in England could John exult in a more pros- perous aspect of affairs;-here, every heart was yearning after freedom, and every mind nursing its stern determination of resistance. The sword, indeed, was not as yet unsheathed, the banner was not as yet unfurled; but the hand was upon the hilt, the stand- ard bearer stood with uplifted arm; and soon, ere the profligate monarch expected, did the summons come. With the death of Hubert, the archbishop of Can- terbury, and the king's most ill-advised rejection of his successor, the celebrated Stephen Langton, those hostilities-first on the part of the church, and sub- sequently on that of his indignant barons, com- menced-which ceased not until, on the plain of Runymede, the proud charter of our liberties was wrested from the reluctant hand of John. At the ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. 317 commencement of John's contest with the Roman church, Innocent, unwilling, it would seem, imme- diately to adopt severe measures against the refrac- tory monarch, sent him a very conciliatory letter, with an accompanying present of four gold rings. This letter seems greatly to have puzzled some of our historians, who appear to think that a volume of mysterious and important meaning must be folded up both in the gift, and in the hints which are given of the qualities typified by each stone in- serted in the rings. There seems no necessity for this waste of ingenious conjecture; - jewellery formed, during the middle ages, the most common present from one monarch to another, and from the dignitaries of the church to their equals or supe- riors; and rings were the form chiefly used, pro- bably from being so commonly considered to sym- bolize union. The exhortation respecting each stone is unquestionably fanciful, and may be taken as a specimen of that spiritualizing of common objects, which in some ages has been so much approved; and which (in a letter addressed by him who was consi- dered head of the Christian world to a son of the church) formed an ingenious and not ungrateful mode of conveying both reproof and counsel. After informing John that the circular forms of the rings typify eternity, and the number, four, stedfastness of mind, the pontiff proceeds to shew, that the * * Not only were rings used in betrothings, but the king at his coro- nation received a ring. Bishops, abbots, abbesses, and the superiors of priories, each at their induction received a ring; and this was con- sidered so symbolical of union, that the sending back the ring was the form of resigning the office. 318 ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. "fresh green of the emerald signifies faith; the re- pose of the sapphire, hope; the ruddiness of the garnet, charity; and the lustre of the topaz, good works." "Have thou, therefore," he concludes, "in the emerald, what thou shalt believe; in the sap- phire, what thou shalt hope; in the garnet, what thou shalt love; and in the topaz, what thou shalt do; that, thus pressing onward from strength to strength, thou shalt finally appear before the Lord in Zion." During the period we have just reviewed, we find no notice taken by any of the chroniclers of Isabel, except a record of the birth of her first and second sons, Henry and Richard. She appears to have re- sided in England; and as, in the Patent Rolls, we find a precept in 1207 granting safe conduct to Petre de Joigny, her half brother on the mother's side, to come into England to visit her, " as she is very desirous of seeing you, and to which we much entreat you,”—John and his queen, up to this pe- riod at least, seem to have lived in harmony. The events which marked the following years belong to the political historian; and in the pages of Lingard * and Turner, the important struggles of that band of patriot nobles, who obtained the great charter, are detailed at full length. It is sufficient for our object merely to trace the leading points. Irritated at the determined refusal of John to con- firm the election of Stephen Langton by the monks of Canterbury, Innocent at length placed the * Dr. Lingard's remarks, respecting John's resignation of his crown to the papal see, are curious and important.-(Vide vol. iii.) ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. 319 monarch and his kingdom under interdict. On the morrow of Passion Sunday, March 2, 1207, after having in vain warned the king of the consequences, the bishops of London, Ely, and Worcester, pro- nounced the sentence; and then with their brother prelates departed from the realm, leaving only the bishop of Winchester.* Various opinions as to the burthensome pressure of the interdict have been advanced by various writers. According to the popular historians, the land was absolutely unchristianized during its con- tinuance; and poetry has presented us with a pic- ture of its unmitigated horrors, which has been taken by the majority of readers for sober truth. But, although the interdict was certainly viewed with ter- ror by the people, it was on the ecclesiastical body, rather than on them, that its prohibition pressed most heavily. Bells, church ornaments, and the altar service, were directed to be laid aside; but there was no prohibition of the use of the other re- ligious services. Dr. Lingard seems to affirm that the churches were closed; but he expressly states, that the usual offices of religion continued to be performed. His words, which are a quotation from the chronicle of Dunstable, are: "During the interdict, marriages were performed, and women churched at the church door. Sacraments were administered to infants, and to the dying; " for the last, these were the eucharist and extreme unction ; " and on Sundays the people were * Geoffrey of York, John's brother, had nearly two years before quitted England; for, indignant at the rapacity of the royal collectors, "he solemnly cursed them from the altar, and then departed." 320 ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. called together in the churchyards to hear sermons and prayers." To this statement the remark of Peck, in his History of Stanford, may be added, that “ the interdict was not so strictly enforced, but that many places, by licence, still continued Divine worship." It was the splendid altar service, therefore, which, except in these licensed places, was laid aside, not the rites of religion; and the extravagant tales of children remaining without baptism, and of the dead being cast, unhonoured and unattended, into common ground, are wholly without foundation. By a strange short-sightedness of one of the most profound and far-reaching of pontiffs, the people were, in great measure, driven from the gorgeous ceremonial which was the proudest boast of the La- tin church, to a simplicity of religious service, which almost anticipated the desires of the Puritans. The multitudes whom the closed churches sent to the churchyard, or to the market cross, there to listen to the simple homily of the way-side preacher, learned the important truth, that religion is not de- pendent on place or circumstance, on the will of monarch or pontiff. Thus, when John, having reconciled himself to the Papal see, invoked on his own behalf the thunders of the Vatican, the whole nation smiled at the impotent appeal, and pressed firmly on to demand their rights, heedless of ecclesiastical anathema, even though an Innocent pronounced it. Nor does the interdict appear to have produced any change in the conduct of John; he seems to have arrayed himself in his royal apparel, and feasted most ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. 321 sumptuously at Christmas; * led his court from place to place during the summer; and hawked and hunted, as though free from all cause of fear, save, perhaps, that of an exhausted exchequer. During the continuance of the interdict, the people, too, seem to have pursued their various callings as be- fore. The mandate which closed the churches, could not bind up the sweet influences of heaven ; the sun shone, and the grass grew, and the harvest gilded the fields, and industry gained her reward, and commerce extended her range, and the walled towns advanced rapidly into wealth and importance, during the whole six years that the nation lay under the papal ban; of this the entries in the Patent Rolls afford abundant proofs. Yarmouth received an important charter; Newcastle, an accession to her for- mer privileges; Liverpool, a grant, which conceded to it "all the liberties and free customs which other free towns upon the sea have throughout our land ;' and London, the confirmation of her right of choos- ing her chief magistrate from year to Letters year. of safe-conduct for merchants coming from foreign parts, and licences to admit foreign produce, or to export native produce to foreign countries, meet us also on every page; while the numerous pre- cepts presenting livings, prebends, and archdea- دو *The acknowledgment of the receipt of the crown jewels at Clarendon, the first Christmas after the interdict, will be found in the Patent Rolls. In addition to the articles before specified, there are "the great sceptre of the regalia, and the golden rod, with the dove at the top ;"" the sword of Tristrem;" a golden cup, 5 lbs. 6 oz. weight; and a silken canopy," to be borne above the king at his coronation." John therefore seems to have been determined, on this occasion, to array himself in all his accus- tomed state. Y 322 ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. conries to various ecclesiastics, make it difficult for us to believe that the interdict which unchristianized the land was still in full force. In London, during this period, the ditch that encircled the city walls, and which was 240 feet wide, was commenced; and that noble stone bridge-for so many centuries the boast of the citizens-was completed. Various re- ligious houses were also founded, many chapels and chantries endowed, and improvements continued to be made in most of the abbey churches and cathe- drals. Old London bridge, considered by competent judges to have been so admirable a specimen of the difficult art of bridge building, deserves more atten- tion than a mere passing notice. Even before the Conquest, a wooden bridge is believed to have stretched across the river, nearly on the site of the stone one. This, however, was not destined to a long period of continuance; it is said to have been soon after burned; and until the reign of Rufus the river flowed on unimpeded. A second wooden bridge was built by him, which, in 1136, shared the same fate as its predecessor. Again it was rebuilt; and becoming, during the reign of Plantagenet, greatly dilapidated, the plan of erecting a stone bridge was first projected. Peter, the priest of St. Mary Colechurch, a native of London, was the first architect employed, and the expense was defrayed by contributions. Cardinal Hugo de Petraleone, and archbishop Richard of Canterbury, gave each 1,000 marks; while Plantagenet contributed toward the important work in a right royal manner, by ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. 323 imposing a tax on his liege subjects. This tax is said to have been on wool, and hence originated that silly story, that the foundation of London bridge was laid on wool-packs. Full thirty-three years were employed on this noble building. Ere its completion, Peter of Colechurch was gathered to his fathers, and his remains were, with a laudable feel- ing of respect, deposited withinside one of the piers of the bridge, in the beautiful chapel of St. Thomas. Master Isenbert, the clerk and master of the schools of Xaintes, was then appointed by king John; but it seems questionable whether he finally completed it. It was, however, finished in 1209; and "consisted of a stone platform 946 feet long, 40 in breadth, and standing 60 feet above the level of the water. It contained a drawbridge, and 19 pointed arches; with massive piers, varying from 25 to 34 feet in solidity, raised upon strong elm piles, and covered by thick planks bolted together. On the tenth pier, the chapel of St. Thomas was placed; it was 60 feet in length by 20 broad, and stood over the parapet on the eastern side, leaving a pathway on the west, about a quarter of the breadth of the pier in front of the chapel. This building was 40 feet high, having a plain gable, surmounted by a cross; while four buttresses, with crocketed spires, divided the west end into three. The two sides con- tained entrances from the Bridge street, each being ascended by three steps." The interior consisted of two stories—the upper chapel, and the lower— each remarkable for its architectural beauty; in Y 2 324 ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. the lower of these Peter of Colechurch was in- terred.* Meanwhile, the king continued his profligate ex- penditure; and to sustain the cost, not merely of a royal establishment, but of large bands of mercenaries, by whom he was constantly surrounded, and whom he employed to perform his tyrannical commands, his exactions became so enormous, as almost to exceed belief. From the Jews he exacted 66,000 marks; and from the various religious houses in England no less a sum than £140,000! besides confiscating to his own use the lands and other property of many of the wealthiest men, both lay and clerical. But what more than any other part of his conduct excited the most vehement abhorrence, was the story which was told of his having sent an embassy to the emir Al Moumenim, whose conquests in Spain had been so injurious to the Christian cause, with supplication for aid against the pope and his refractory nobles and, Matthew Paris adds, with an offer of his crown. All his efforts were, however, vain his deposition, and the resignation of his crown into the hands of Pandulph, swiftly followed; and, alarmed by the re- fusal of his barons to accompany him into France, with streaming eyes, and expressions of the deepest contrition, he sought, and at length obtained, absolu- tion from the hands of Stephen Langton. It was at Winchester that John met his re-summoned pre- : ; * Vide" The Chronicles of London Bridge." In this curious work, the reader will find views of it during all the different periods of its his- tory. ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. 325 lates; and there, holding the Gospels in his hands, he pronounced a solemn oath that he would defend the church, recal the good laws of Edward the Con- fessor,* and that all his subjects should receive jus- tice. It is needless to detail how soon each article of this solemnly ratified oath was broken. The barons indignantly rushed to arms, and the charter of our liberties was gained. "As this was the first effort towards a legal government, so is it, beyond compa- rison, the most important event of our history, ex- cept that revolution without which its benefits would rapidly have been annihilated. The consti- tution of England has indeed no single date from which its duration is to be reckoned. The institu- tions of positive law, the far more important changes which time has wrought in the order of society, during six hundred years subsequent to the great charter, have undoubtedly lessened its direct applica- tion to our present circumstances. But it is still the key-stone of English liberty. All that has been since obtained is little more than confirmation, and commentary; and if every subsequent law were to be swept away, there would still remain the bold features that distinguish a free, from a despotic mo- narchy. From this period, a new soul was infused into "What these laws were, or more properly, perhaps, these customs, subsisting in the Confessor's age, was not very distinctly understood. So far, however, was clear, that the rigorous feudal servitudes, and the weighty tributes upon poorer freemen, had never prevailed before the Conquest. In claiming the laws of Edward the Confessor, our ances- tors meant but the redress of grievances, which tradition told them had not always existed."-Hallam. 326 ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. the people of England. Her liberties, at the best long in abeyance, became a tangible possession; and those indefinite aspirations for the laws of Edward the Confessor, were changed into a steady regard for the great charter."* The joy that pervaded all England when this charter was conceded is forcibly expressed in the exulting language of Matthew Paris. “ All this being thus finished and agreed to on either hand, all rejoiced, believing that God had merci- fully touched the heart of the king, and had taken from him the heart of stone, and given him an heart of flesh, that in him the wondrous working of His outstretched right hand might be shewn. And all and every one believed that England, which so long had been oppressed as with Egyptian bondage, should now, by the grace of God, be free, as much through the protection of the Roman church, (under whose wings, as under the shield of a divine soldiery, they believed themselves to be shadowed,) as by the welcome yielding of the king, which they trusted would change all things to calmness and peace. وو Shortly after signing the charter, John retired to Winchester, whence he issued a precept to Thomas de Sandford, directing that two barrels of money, from his treasury at Corfe, should be sent to him. This money appears to have been intended to re- deem an immense quantity of plate and jewellery, Hallam, vol. ii. p. 444. This charter was ratified four times by Henry III.; twice by Edward; fifteen times by Edward III.; seven times by Richard II.; six times by Henry IV.; and once by Henry V. -Vide Turner. ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. 327 which the king during his late contest seems to have pledged to various religious houses. The receipts, which are sent to sixteen abbeys and priories, are worthy of notice, as they are among the earliest specifications of the royal treasure. The abbot of Reading returns, ten silver gilt, and thirteeen silver, cups; eight silver basons; and, together with other plate, "a silver coffer, set with onyx and other stones, containing relics; a small ivory coffer, also with re- lics; a red coffer with jewels; and a golden cup, set with pearls, which the lord pope sent to us." The abbot of Waltham sends "thirteen silver cups weigh- ing thirty-four pounds, six clasps set with precious stones," and a number of jewelled girdles. The abbot of Stanley, a large silver cup, seven silver pitchers, ten other large cups; while the other con- vents send a variety, of similar plate and jewellery; among which the abbot of Forde returns a rich col- lection of gold chains and crosses, collars, pendants and reliquaries, together with sceptres and gold combs. Nor were these all the royal treasure; in a receipt given to the "two faithful men at arms of Hugh de Neville, for the plate brought from Marlborough, we find more than four hundred pounds' weight of plate, in cups, vases, candlesticks, and dishes of various sizes.* A mere inventory like the foregoing is of more importance than at first sight may appear ;—from the circumstances under which these seem to have been pledged and re- * Patent Rolls, pp. 145-147. The weight of the silver plate is, in every instance, not specified by ounces and pennyweights, but by marks, ounces, and shillings. 328 ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. deemed, we find that the royal collection of plate was a fund from whence the monarch might at any time raise a supply for his immediate necessities; and we also find that these immense collections of jewellery, which by some writers have been consi- dered as a proof of the frivolous taste of the middle ages, were in reality chiefly prized, as the means by which a large amount of value could be contained in a small and easily convertible form. During all this period we meet with scarcely any notice of Isabel. According to Matthew Paris, her character was very suspicious, and he relates that John revenged himself by hanging her suspected para- mours in her presence; to this statement Matthew of Westminster adds, that "he caused her to be kept in close confinement." This latter statement derives some plausibility from a passage in Ralph of Coggeshall, under the year 1203, which mentions that "the queen was confined at Dunster." In the Patent Rolls we meet with no entry respecting her, from the period of the visit of her brother-in-law in 1207, until June 1214; when a precept is ad- dressed to the abbot of Beaulieu, and two others, directing them to conduct "our lady queen to us, and our treasure, and horses, and our son Richard, and our daughter Joan." In the August following, the precept in the Close Rolls, respecting the "dark green tunic and super- tunic," for her, occurs; but in the December fol- lowing a mandate, in the Patent Rolls, directs The- oderic de Tees, "to go to Gloucester without de- lay, with the lady queen, and there keep her in the ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. 329 chamber in which our daughter Joan was nursed, until we direct otherwise," and which seems to in- timate that she was then placed under restraint. As in the following month there is a precept in the Close Rolls, directing Reginald of Cornhill to provide twenty-seven ells of cloth to make a robe "for our lady queen; " and as in the May following, the very kind direction is given to the constable of Marl- borough, “to fish, on Friday and Saturday, in our fish-ponds, and take for our lady queen's use roach and pike; she may have been conveyed to Glou- cester solely to protect her from the inconveniences arising from the unsettled state of the midland coun- ties. In May, from a precept in the Patent Rolls, she appears to have been at Winchester; and from thence she was conveyed, with her son Henry, to Marlborough. Subsequently to the signing of the charter, there is a precept directed to Isabel, and the before-mentioned Theodoric, directing them to deliver up the brother of the constable of Chester, then in their custody. This proves that John and Isabel were certainly at this period reconciled. The peace for which the nation so earnestly prayed, was indeed of short duration;-the promises extorted from John were swiftly broken, and the in- dignant barons again rushed to arms. After a series of contests, which were concluded only by the death of the king, and during which some of the barons had invited over young Louis of France as a com- petitor for the crown, the royal army, having re- duced Lincoln, arrived on the 9th of October at Lynn, on its progress to Wisbeach. In passing 330 ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. over the Wash, from Cross Keys to the Fossdyke, the long train of horses and carriages laden with the royal treasures, money, and crown jewels,-all were swallowed up in a whirlpool, formed by the tide and current of the Welland; and John, who from the shore witnessed this total ruin of his hopes, in a state of desperation went forward to the Cistercian abbey of Swineshead. Arrived there, from the united effects of long continued anxiety, fatigue, and dis- appointment, he fell into a violent fever, of which, on the ninth day after having proceeded to Newark, he died.* He there committed his children to the guardianship of pope Honorius; and dictated the outline of a will, in which he states, that, "not having sufficient space, in this time of my weakness," to make a regular testament, he assigned the charge of so doing to twelve of his most trusty counsellors. In this document no mention is made of the queen, and the only specific directions are, that he should be interred at Worcester; and that they should en- deavour to secure the crown to his eldest son. Both these directions were fulfilled ;-the corpse of John was conveyed to Worcester cathedral, and on the tenth day after his father's decease, the Third Henry, a child of but ten years of age, was led to the abbey of Gloucester; where, having taken the usual oaths, he was crowned by the legate Gualo, assisted by the bishops of Winchester, Exeter, and Bath; who placed a plain circlet of gold on his head, the royal crown having been lost with the rest of The story of John's being poisoned, is recorded by no contempo- ary; it may therefore be considered as wholly apocryphal. ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. 331 the treasures. The following day a proclamation was issued by the great earl of Pembroke-who was constituted guardian of the kingdom, in the name of his infant sovereign-promising full amnesty for the past, and their lawful liberties for the future, to all who should claim them; and forbidding any person to appear, during the next month, in public, without a white fillet round his head, in honour of the coro- nation. Whether Isabel were with her husband at the time of his decease is very uncertain; most probably she was not. That she was with her son Henry, or soon after joined him, is probable, from the circum- stance of only three days after his coronation a pre- cept appearing in the Close Rolls, directing full pos- session of the city of Exeter, and some places adjacent, to be given her, "as were assigned to her in dower. In December we find a grant to her from her son of the stannaries" in the counties of Devon and Cornwall; and in June, in the following year, a precept to the sheriff of Devon appears in the same collection, directing him to provide, without delay, ships for our lady mother the queen, whence she may be honourably transported to foreign parts: this is signed by the earl of Pembroke. From this period, Isabel of Angoulesme disappears altogether from the history of England. Neither in the superintendence of the education of her four other children,* any more than in that of her eldest * Her children were Henry III.; Richard, who subsequently assumed the title of king of the Romans; and three daughters; Joan, who be- became the first wife of Alexander II. of Scotland; Elinor, married to 332 ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. son, does she appear to have had any concern:—it is even questionable whether she ever again visited England. She, however, soon laid aside the garb of widowhood, and in 1218 again became a bride. The noble, who was thus honoured with the hand of the queen dowager of England, was no other than Hugh the tenth count of Marche, the son and heir to that Hugh le Brun, to whom, when a mere child, she had been contracted by her father, and from whom she had been so arbitrarily taken in order to her marriage with John. This Hugh had been con- tracted to her eldest daughter Joan; but finding it probable that he might obtain the mother, (who, in addition to her royal dower, now possessed the im- portant fief of Angoulesme, as heiress of her father), he very warily broke off his previous contract, and proceeded to conclude a marriage with her who more than eighteen years before had been so near becom- ing his step-mother. Singular as it may appear, the first notice of this marriage seems to have been received at the English court with great approbation; and there is a letter extant, from Henry, expressing his joy and his firm trust, that by this alliance his good friend the count of Marche might become a yet trustier ally; he also requests him to send back his sister Joan, he having about this time formed for her a new alliance with the king of Scotland.* This request, the count of Marche, for what reason it would be difficult to determine, thought proper to the younger earl of Pembroke, and afterwards to Symond de Mont- fort; and Isabel, who, as wife of Frederic II., became empress of Germany. * Fœdera, vol. i. ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. 333 refuse. Henry was, therefore, forced to have re- course to that last resort of monarchs indisposed to war-an appeal to the spiritual power; and he ac- cordingly sent a letter to the sovereign pontiff pray- ing his aid.* In this letter he states, that his late father had contracted his daughter Joan to this Hugh; that he had offered no objection; and yet now, "regardless of his solemn oath, and scorning our sister, he has formed a marriage with our mother: "--so completely did the royal accuser for- get his own former letter of gratulation. He there prays "the most holy paternity” to write to the bishops of Saintoinges and Limoges, to compel his acquiescence by the terrors of the spiritual sword; a similar letter was also addressed to the cardinals. These threats of ecclesiastical discipline appear to have produced the desired effect, for a few months after we find a letter addressed "to our faithful and beloved father Hugh," requesting that Joan might forthwith be placed in the hands of the bishop of Saintoinges, at the town of Rupel; it concludes, however, with an emphatic hint, that as her "far- ther detention would by no means redound to his honour," he had better at once acquiesce. Joan was therefore safely consigned to the care of her friends; and de la Marche, within the two following years, received the reward of his acquiescence in the full grant of Isabel's dower. But de la Marche, although he had delivered up Joan, still kept possession of those castles in Poic- * Fœdera, vol. i. 334 ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. tou, which had been assigned as her portion; and again Henry had recourse to "the holy paternity," who issued an angry bull, charging de la Marche with disobedience to his commands, and Isabel with abetting him; concluding with a menace that, unless due attention was paid to this warning, he should proceed with requisite severity. The warning was rejected; and within a few weeks sentence of ex- communication was promulgated. By what submis- sions de la Marche and Isabella placated the holy see, and regained the favour of the easily persuaded Henry, we have no record; but early in 1224, we find in the Fœdera a letter from Stephen Langton, in which this perfidious noble is styled "the king's most be- loved friend." And willing, truly, might de la Marche be to continue so; for in 1226 he received a confirmation of Isabel's dower, accompanied by a most important charter, which made over to him the city and county of Angoulesme, several castles in Poictou, the isle of Oleron, the cities of Xain- toinges and Santinges, and that royal prerogative— so seldom conceded to a subject-noble-the right of coining money, "which should be equally current with the king's throughout all Poictou." For these munificent gifts, de la Marche broke off his allegi- ance to the French king, and in the succeeding wars fought under the banner of England. But perfidy seems to have been peculiarly his characte- ristic; and ere the contest was brought to a close, we find, from a most dolorous letter addressed by Henry to the emperor of Germany, that the count had behaved in a "most Judas-like manner," and had ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. 335 very nearly betrayed him into the hands of France. A truce was soon after concluded between the two kings; but so powerful was de la Marche, that he alone hindered for some time its completion, by refusing his assent unless he were confirmed in pos- session of the isle of Oleron.* A third time did Henry seek the protection of the holy see; since, as he expresses himself, "without the coercion of the holy apostolic chair, it is impossible to induce the said count to consent." This difference was, however, finally adjusted; and de la Marche resigned Oleron, on condition of receiving £100 yearly. During the ten succeeding years, Henry and his father-in-law remained in amity. At the expiration of this time, de la Marche again commenced his old practices; and, through the agency of the earl of Bretagne, proffered his services to France. These were gladly accepted; and Henry, a third time, and when he least expected, had to bewail the perfidy of his father-in-law. But this thrice-repeated perjury was eventually the ruin of de la Marche; he was viewed with sus- picion by the court of France, and at length accused by the earl of Poictiers of treason. De la Marche, who had never forfeited his claim to personal prowess, now offered to clear himself by the judicial combat, and sent his glove to his accuser; but the earl of Poictiers scornfully sent back the gage, al- leging that his manifold treasons had deprived him of the right of challenge. Meanwhile, the whole * Fœdera, vol. i. p. 162. In this document the dower is stated to be the same as that assigned "to our grandmother Elinor." 336 ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. of Poictou became in a state of insurrection; and Isabel, to whose influence both French and Poictevins attributed her husband's repeated perjuries, was forced precipitately to flee. The abbey of Fonte- vraud offered her an asylum; and thither she went. But with no splendid suite, with no royal treasures, did she, who had been queen of England, seek its walls; but as a terrified fugitive, "conscious to her- self of all the evil she had caused, in a most secret. apartment, and beneath the religious garb, she con- cealed herself, scarcely even then safe, "For," adds the chronicler, "the French and Poictevins, who pur- sued her with inexorable hate, declared, that rather than Isabel, she should have been called the most. impious Jezebel, since she was the chief cause of all these ills."* From this period, Isabel of Angoulesme recedes from history-she died at Fontevraud,† in 1246; and from the slight passing notice of her death, in Matthew Paris, we learn that she was dependent on the bounty of the charitable; her queenly dower, no less than her hereditary possession, Angoulesme, having probably been forfeited, on account of her treason, both toward England and France. Early in the following year, the four children of her se- cond marriage sought an asylum in England, where they were loaded with favours by their royal half- brother, and took place among the first nobility of * Matthew Paris. In the Fœdera, vol. i. is a bull addressed by Innocent "to the queen of England," but with a blank for the name, granting her permission to retire to any nunnery she may choose, accompanied by "ten honest wo- men." As Isabel, notwithstanding her second marriage, still retained the title of queen, it must have been addressed to her. ISABEL OF ANGOULESME. 337 the land. Guy, the eldest, although he repeatedly obtained grants of money, does not seem to have obtained any grant of land; but William de Valence the second, received the governorship of Goderich castle, and the hand of the daughter and heiress of Guarine Monchensy. Athelmar, who was in orders, was recommended by the king to the rich see of Winchester; which, after a long contest with the monks, he finally obtained, but died shortly after; while Alice, the sister, was married to the powerful earl Warren. Her deep poverty and her questionable character, were probably the reasons why Isabel-although a solemnly crowned queen, and mother, by her first marriage, to two kings and two queens-was interred in the church-yard of Fontevraud. But eight years after her death, Henry, in travelling through his continental dominions, stopped at that noble abbey; and sorrowing to see the remains of his mother cast out from fellowship, even in death, with the royal personages whose splendid monuments graced the great church, prevailed on the abbess to allow her remains to be deposited beside them, and with a laudable feeling of filial devotion, erected a noble tomb to her memory. Ꮓ 338 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. CHAPTER XII. Henry's Accession-His Coronation Feast-General View of Society- Elinor of Provence-Her Parentage-Is contracted to Henry-Ar- rives in England-Her splendid Coronation-Extracts respecting it— Henry's Exactions-The Jews-The City of London-IIis Procession. to Westminster-Commencement of Hostilities-Simon de Montfort- Henry's War with his Barons-Re-opening of Westminster Abbey- Elinor's Addition to her Dower-Henry's Death-View of the General Improvements of this Reign-Elinor's Claims of Queen's-Gold— Retires to the Convent of Ambresbury-Her Death. THE history of the longest reign in our annals, although presenting but little to interest the general reader, will be found abundant in characteristic and valuable information to the inquirer into the pro- gress of society. Those fifty-six years which beheld the sceptre of England in the feeble hand of a weak and superstitious monarch, were years of steady and progressive improvement; for the very faults of the third Henry, and the most glaring evils of his mis- government, were sources of enduring advantage to the land. Placed now by charter on the proud vantage ground of a free people, the nation-which, beneath the stern and crushing rule of a Plantage- net, might have seen its just won liberties snatched as swiftly away-beheld, in the vacillating purpose, ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 339 and capricious attempts at tyranny, of a weak. minded monarch, the very kind of opposition, which more than any other impels to successful resistance. While aroused to indignation, they were stimulated to opposition, and the wavering and aimless tyranny of the king was met by the stern and unswerving defiance of a bold and energetic people. Nor were the minor vexations of this reign, so bitterly dwelt upon in the pages of Matthew Paris, without their benefit. The arbitrary and enormous taxations of the monarch urged the chief cities to a more eager pursuit of commerce; the profuse and reckless magnificence of the court awakened among the people that taste for luxury, without which civi lization ever languishes; the miserable superstition of the king, and his abject submission to the papal sway, aroused and cherished, in the hearts of the na- tion, that principle of resistance to ecclesiastical domi- nation, which, long ere the time of Wickliffe, had taken deep root in the land; even the patronage so exclusively bestowed on foreigners, most galling as it was to that age, bound together all ranks and con- ditions more closely by the common tie of English- man. At ten years of age did Henry assume the crown of the Plantagenets; and, under the regency of the wise and excellent earl of Pembroke, the nation might well hope that the young king would learn to respect those liberties for which his guardian had battled; the early death of that illustrious baron threw Henry into other hands, and the lessons of his childhood were speedily forgotten. z 2 340 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. In 1220, Henry was declared of age; and doubts of the validity of his first and hasty coronation hav- ing arisen, he was a second time solemnly crowned at Westminster by Stephen Langton on Whit-Sun- day. The precepts respecting this coronation feast will be found in the Close Rolls, and they afford a curious picture of the extraordinary scale of magnifi- cence which at this period characterized every royal festival. Two thousand ells of linen for table-cloths, forty oxen, two hundred deer, five hundred lambs, five thousand fowls, are part only of the preparations for this gigantic entertainment ;* and the assembled multitudes doubtless looked forward to a reign, that should confirm and extend their liberties. As sixteen years were to elapse ere the crown of England should again be placed on the brow of a queen-consort, the intervening period cannot be more suitably filled up than by an inquiry into the state of "the people ;" an inquiry which, although from the scantiness of authentic materials we shall find diffi- cult to follow out to the extent that might be desired, will yet supply many curious and important hints, toward forming a just estimate of this singularly ill understood period. The title of "the dark ages" having been, with one consent, assigned by modern opinion to the me- diæval period, it became a necessary consequence to view the people of those ages as rude and ignorant barbarians; and on this principle, until but as yes- * There does not appear any precept respecting the quantity of wine to be provided for this mighty feast; as, however, the sheriff of Kent is directed to send " 1000 pitchers, of which each shall contain one gallon," the provision for drinking was doubtless in proportion. ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 341 terday, have the history of these ages been written. Each historian, taking for granted the philosophical correctness of a mere common-place phrase, has turned to this period, prepared to view it as one of unmitigated barbarism; and each has felt, that to seek in it aught of intellectual culture, of civilization, or even of the feeblest advances toward refinement, would be as vain a task as to seek in the winter's sun the warmth and radiance of summer, or roses in the desert. The inadequate supply, if we may not rather say the utter deficiency, of information re- specting the great mass of the people, has contributed to deepen the shadow; and forgetful how little the history of any period involves that of the mass of the nation, they have too hastily concluded that the rea- son why the people seldom find a place in the pages of the chronicler, has been because they were too degraded to merit notice. Happily for the present inquiry, later research has supplied us with some data on which we may rely; and in the lately published Rolls of this period, in the formal precept, the mi- nute inventory, the mere memoranda of the clerks of the king's court, we obtain that knowledge, which, in the more picturesque details of the chronicle, and the metrical tale, we might seek in vain. The two bases, on which emphatically the well. being of the community rests, will, we think, be found to be legal security, and its consequent, the possession of a competent degree of wealth. In each of these, the middle ages have been considered as peculiarly deficient; and while we have been told that money was so scarce, that few below the rank 342 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. ** of nobles possessed aught beyond the barest neces- saries; we have also been told that the life of a pea- sant was considered, not merely by a haughty aristo- cracy, but by the law itself, as scarcely of more value than that of " the good red deer." Little credence is due to such statements, when we find in that very interesting work, the "Rolls of the King's Court, that strict legal inquiry was always made in respect to those who had been found dead in the fields; and even in cases where it is found that the man died through want, the verdict of "murdrum "+ is returned. The entries in these Rolls supply indeed abundant evidence of the care with which the law watched over the lives of each member of the community, and, what might scarcely be believed, over their property too. The number of law-suits,-and these not for grave offences, or preferred by high-born men,-is most remarkable. Thomas de la Marc demands damages from Geffrey de la Mere, for injury done to his house," through digging a certain ditch." Wil- liam the vintner, Henry Basket, and Henry de Tony, are amerced for selling wines contrary to the statute. Golling, the son of Stonard, is charged with selling corn by short measure, and wool by short weight; while Serle, the son of Eustace, sum- mons Roger the smith before the chief justiciary, for * This curious work includes the period from the sixth of Richard to the first of John. + This does not mean murder; it is a technical law term, which in- volved the payment of a fine, by the hundred within which the death took place. The awarding this verdict, in cases of death from starvation, is considered by Sir F. Palgrave as proving the recognition of a legal provi- sion for the poor. ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 343 a mere "beating and bruising." Truly, if legal re- dress was thus brought within the reach of the Essex and Hertford yeomen, Cedric the Saxon needed not to fear the injuries Front de Bœuf could do either to his house or land. Nor, even during the heat of war does the civil power appear to have been that inef- fectual thing which many writers have believed it to be, even in times of comparative quiet. Letters of safe conduct meet us on almost every page of the Patent Rolls; and not merely are these conceded to the wealthy and powerful, who could afford to travel with an efficient escort ;-but Alan, the vintner of Reading, the abbess of Meauling, and Margaret de Modington; the men belonging to Walter de Lascy, "with the cows and horses which were in the forest of Gillingham;" each appear to have found the same security sufficient to enable them to pass safely through the midst of a hostile dis- trict. But if these illustrations of the power of the law, at a period so generally considered to be destitute of it, excite surprise, what shall be said to those indications of wealth and comfort which these curious records present? In the high ransoms demanded for the prisoners who have fallen into the hands of John, during his contest with his barons, we find that the class immediately below the nobility, were in possession of considerable wealth. Fulke d'Oyry pays a fine of almost £5000, present money ; Baldwin the constable of Ermelingham's ransom is £1000, (£15,000 present money); while Reginald de Cornhill's ransom is fixed at 3000 marks, a sum 344 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. equal to £30,000.* have been wealthy; Ralph de Lancel charges Hugh de Stotden, and five others, with breaking into his house, and robbing him of horses, arms, and silver vessels, to the amount of 100 marks (£1000). Philip de Stanes is charged with having carried off "chattels" to the amount of £27, and one mark, (£415,) from a widow named Constantia and the pleadings in this case make it probable that these "chattels" were the lady's plate, jewellery, and apparel.+ On reference to the prices of various articles of absolute luxury, we perceive not only the advancing civilization, but the wealth of the period. Rings of one mark value (£10 present money) seem to have been an ordinary article of dress a gold buckle, value two marks (£20), we find given on one occasion by the monarch: silks and fine cloth are valued at sums varying from £1 to £3 the yard (present value); while the price of spices is enormous.‡ No wonder was it that the de Basings, and Fitz-Marys, and Bukerels, kept such state as London merchants, and challenged respect from the proudest nobles in the land. Still descending in the scale of society, we find The next class, too, appear to * Patent Rolls. + Rolls of the King's Court. ; These prices are most extravagant-cinnamon is 2s. 6d. (£1 17s. 6d.) per lb.; ginger the same; nutmegs 10s. (£7 10s.); mace the same price; while cloves, the highly prized "gariofilium," were actually 20s. (£15) per lb. This list of prices is collected from the precepts in the Close Rolls: we therefore can have no doubt of its correctness. The reader would probably be surprised at the extensive list of foreign luxuries which might be compiled from this work; as well as at the large quantities of each article required for the royal kitchen. Three pounds of ginger, three of cinnamon, two of saffron, fifty pounds of pepper, and one hun- dred weight of almonds, is part of the order to Galfrid the salter, toward the close of each year. ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 345 the various classes possessed of a competent por- tion of wealth. Lucas Brockshewet charges one Walter "with the theft of an ox, and with carrying off Felicia his wife, his seal, and chattels, to the amount of 100 shillings " (£75). Peter Holt charges John Dene with carrying off £15 in pennies (£225) and chattels of the value of 60 marks (£600). Both these men appear but as farmers; money could not therefore have been so very scarce in those days. Descending still lower, we find wayfaring men, with half a mark (£5), and 5s. (£3 15s.) in their pos- session, and charging their cloaks, of which they had been robbed, at 5s. also; few men in their rank of life, even in the present day, could afford to wear a cloak worth £3 15s. Even among the low- est class of farmers, William Norreys complains that his “hamsoke” was robbed of 6s. 6d. (£4 17s. 6s.) in chattels, twenty-four two year old sheep, and his house damaged to the amount of 10s. (£7 10d.) Roger Boss and his family flee away, leaving as chattels, three oxen, three cows, two calves, twelve sheep, two horses, nine geese, and an acre and a half of corn." An additional proof of a diffu- sion of wealth and comfort, far beyond what we have been accustomed to imagine, may be found in the circumstance that, among these classes, household linen is very frequently mentioned, and that sellers of wine are to be found, not merely in the chief towns, but in most of the smaller towns of Essex and Hertford. The popular opinion of the strict division of the higher and lower classes, and the slavish subjection in 346 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. which the latter were held, and their utter destitu- tion of all legal rights, is forcibly disproved by many entries in these "Rolls of the King's Court." Here we find many instances of servants maintaining suits against their lords, and of small freeholders bringing actions against the great landholders of the county, for unjust dispossession. Isabel de Benning- ton boldly summons the celebrated baron Fitz- Walter, the lord of sixty-six knight's fees, for having dispossessed her of her "free tenement," probably little more than a mud cottage; and Eililda, a widow, charges Thomas Fitz-Thomas with similar conduct. In the latter instance Fitz-Thomas vindi- cates his right, by asserting that her two sons were his villeins; this is denied, and although the result of the inquiry cannot be ascertained, it yet affords strong corroboration of the opinion advanced by Sir Francis Palgrave, that villenage was not a state of bondage.* Where might we find an instance of the Russian serf, or the American negro slave, engaged in a legal contest with his master? Another instance. In no * "Although, according to legal language, the villein might be given, bequeathed, or sold, these expressions, which sound so harshly, and seem so inconsistent with any degree of personal liberty, bore a meaning essen- tially different from that which we should now assign them. instance can we find the ceorl or villein separate from his land. He was always a villein appurtenant ; and notwithstanding the language employed, the gift, bequest, or sale, was the disposition of the land and his services."-Vide Sir F. Palgrave's English Commonwealth. Does not the view of this able writer derive confirmation from that very passage in the Annals of Dunstable, so frequently brought forward to prove that slavery then existed; and which records, in the year 1283, that “ we sold our slave by birth, William Pike, and all his family, for one mark." Surely £10 present money would have been altogether inadequate to the purchase of onc person. Is it not therefore evident that this one mark was a mere fine, paid on the transference of the land held by William Pike, and by consequence his services, which were in lieu of rent. ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 347 that the villein was capable of exercising the rights of a freeman, may be found in the case of Ralph Cloer, in which it is adjudged, that he cannot hold the land claimed, "because he is a villein, and that he be amerced for making the claim." Here the first law-officer of the land, Geoffry Fitz-Peter, imposes a pecuniary fine on a member of that class, which we have been told, and by no mean authority, had no legal rights to the possession of money. The bondsman therefore, with his iron collar, which forms so interesting an object in so many a picture of the middle ages, must, in England at least, be placed among those many picturesque embellish- ments, which may "adorn a tale ;" but which cer- tainly cannot be permitted to "point a moral." Turning from the minute and specific information contained in the works from whence the preceding view has been derived, to the more general testimony of the chronicle and metrical tale, we shall find the situation of the lower classes was on the whole com- fortable. In these early times the political economist had not put forth his brutal axiom, that وو mere food and clothing are all that the poor have a right to demand ; but a better and wiser, because a Christian feeling, pervaded the higher classes. The แ The very curious entries in the "Boulden book," which records. the inquisition made by Hugh Pudsey, bishop of Durham, in 1183, corroborate this view of the subject. The villeins of Boldenare held each thirty acres of land, and their payments are partly in service, partly in kind, and partly in money. In Southbydyk the villeins held their ville in farm, and find "eight score men to reap in autumn; thirty-six waggons to carry the corn; and they beside pay 51." Many of the entries in this ancient document are very curious; at harvest time it is determined that the whole household shall turn out to work, exceplá husewifä," and this respectful attention to the mistress of the house is repeated in every entry. 348 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. • great hero of chivalry, Arthur, was pointed out, by the courtly poet himself, as "meek and piteous to the poor." The knight kneeling at the altar's pale, in the same vow that pledged him to be true and loyal to his monarch, and his lady-love, pledged him- self also, "always to maintain the right to destroy all those who would injure widows, poor maidens, and the fatherless; to love poor folk to the utmost of his power, and with all this to love the holy church."* Thus the duty of protecting and aiding the poor was placed side by side with the duties of religion, and while many a romance told how the charity of the knight was returned to him a thousand-fold; the homily and the legend, echoed the same lesson of mercy, and with touching sim- plicity enforced it by the resistless argument, "for our Lord himself was a poor man." That these lessons produced their due effect, nu- merous regulations of the middle ages prove in those days, at times of high festival, none of that morbid horror of the mingling of the higher and lower classes seems to have prevailed. "Cloth of gold" shunned not contact with "cloth of frieze; but the peasant as well as his lord hastened to the tournament, the civic procession, the gorgeous festi- val at the king's palace-secure not only of a place, but of refreshment; for the dole of "white bread" was provided for such, and garments were often given; while, in order that the poor might, on festive occa- "Ysaie le Triste." It may perhaps be objected, that the testimony of mere poetry is of little value; but it should be remembered that it is popular poetry, and that is necessarily the transcript of popular feeling. ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 349 sions, participate in the very luxuries of the higher orders, the conduits poured forth wine. Indeed, looking back even on this early period, and con- templating the kindly feeling which was cherished to- ward the poor and destitute,—the abundant convent dole, which supplied them in times of scarcity, and the noble hospitals, in which age and helplessness found repose; the poor man in the present day, crushed down by "the greedy avarice of civilization," might turn a sorrowful look on the days gone by. During the years which preceded Henry's mar- riage much discontent prevailed in the land. Al- though the refractory nobles had been subdued, and the bands of mercenaries dismissed, still the heavy taxes which were imposed, and the hostility which the young king had already evinced to the great charter, excited the indignation of the people. It was during this period, however, that he solemnly affixed his seal to it, and conceded also that welcome boon, the Forest charter, for which the people paid one fifteenth on all moveables. Mean- while, negotiations for Henry's marriage were no less than four times commenced with four ladies, and as often broken off. With the last of these, Joanna, daughter of the earl of Ponthieu, the nego- tiations had proceeded so far, that the pope was applied to for a dispensation, as they were fourth cousins; and the lady Joanna looked forward to the crown of England, as her undoubted right. But the weak-minded Henry could prove as false to his lady, as any gay and capricious recreant knight: the contract of marriage with Joanna was regarded with 350 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. the same sense of honour, as his oath to maintain the charter had been; and ere his nuncios had com- menced their proceedings at Rome, we find a letter addressed by him to the earl of Savoy,* requesting his kind offices in prosecuting a proposal of mar- riage with one of the daughters of his brother-in- law, Raymond the earl of Provence. This letter is dated June, and in July he sent a letter to his cura- tors at the court of Rome, directing that the nego- tiations be suspended for the present, and concluding by directing them to observe profound secrecy re- specting it. In prosecution of this fifth "purpose of marriage," Henry seems to have aroused himself to extraor- dinary exertions. He despatched letters both to the father and mother of his new lady-love, and sent an embassy consisting of Richard the prior of Hurle, the bishops of Ely and Hereford, and Robert de Sandford, master of the temple, to solicit the hand of their second daughter, who, although she had only completed her twelfth year, was already cele- brated by the title of "Alianora la belle." The family with whom Henry now sought an alliance, was one of the most illustrious in Europe. Its remoter ancestors were counts of Barcelona. It was by Raymond Berenger, the first earl (or king, as he is sometimes called) of Provence, that the foundation of its greatness was laid. After ren- dering himself celebrated both in battle and in council, he died in 1131; and the third Raymond— * Fœdera, vol. i. p. 215. ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 351 who at this period swayed the sceptre, so to say, of Provence-was his great grandson. Very early, from the first dawning of the poetry of the south, was Provence distinguished among the surrounding countries, by her successful cultivation of the "gai saber;" and so willingly were her claims to supe- riority admitted by her rivals, that Provençal became the popular term to distinguish the poetry of the langue d'oc, from that of the langue d'oil. And proudly did the successive counts of Provence wreath the chaplet of poesy in their coronet, and most libe- rally did they welcome and reward each troubadour who sought an asylum at the court of Arles. Indeed so princely had been their gifts to this most favoured race of minstrels, that their munificence had im- poverished their family; and Raymond, who yielded to none of his forefathers in love to the art, or in largesse to its professors, is said to have become almost ruined by the profuse liberality of his expen- diture. As, however, so unwelcome a reward as beggary to so generous a patron, would have told but ill in the lay of the troubadour, a fanciful story was invented to account for his subsequent wealth— a story which, in the following century, under a different name, found a place in that amusing re- ceptacle of religious tales, the "Gesta Romanorum.” While Raymond, almost driven to despair by the sight of his empty coffers, was busying himself with attempting to form some plan for refilling them, a pilgrim, "de fort bon mine," says abbé de Ruffi, to whom we are indebted for the story, came to the palace on his return from a pilgrimage to St. James. 352 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. This stranger, after partaking the hospitality of the count for some days, inquired into the value of his lands, the state of his finances, and finally offered to free him from every difficulty in a short time, pro- vided that he was placed in absolute superintend ence of all his affairs. To this proposal Raymond readily acceded;--and the unknown pilgrim was forthwith placed in supreme authority over the household. And well did the stranger perform his promise ;-ere-long, Raymond was freed from his embarrassments, and in a few years his coffers over- flowed with wealth. But now gratitude began to fade from the fickle mind of the count, and he listened to the suspicious hints of his servants; until, altogether forgetful of the great benefits he had re- ceived at the hands of the unknown pilgrim, he commanded him to render up his accounts. The pilgrim made no objection-he exhibited his state- ments, and proved the integrity of his conduct so fully, that even his bitterest enemies could not answer a word. He then resumed his staff, scrip, and mantle, and, in despite of every entreaty of the repentant count, disappeared. Long, strict, and minute search was made after him; but he was never heard of more. The visit of this friendly pilgrim, we may suppose, was subsequently to Raymond's marriage of his daughter Elinor, since Matthew Paris represents him as an "illustrious and valiant man ; but, through continual wars, almost all he had had vanished from his treasury." The proposal, therefore, of the king of England was peculiarly grateful both to ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 353 Raymond, and to his wife Beatrix of Savoy, whose three brothers looked anxiously, even from the com- mencement of their niece's marriage treaty, to the broad lands and rich church preferment which they anticipated they should soon possess in wealthy but ill-governed England. It was therefore with eager joy that the proposal of Henry was accepted by the needy count; and with equally eager joy, judging from his haste, did the king transmit his instructions for the marriage articles. In these, he assigns to Elinor, as dower, "those cities, lands, and tene- ments, which it has been customary for other kings, our predecessors, to assign to other queens." He then proceeds to state, that if Isabel should survive him, and should have recovered her dower, "then his procurators shall assign to Elinor these towns Gloster, Cambridge, and Huntingdon, and the vil- lages of Wych, Basingstoke, Andover, Chiltham, Gumester, Clynes, Kingston, Ospringe, and Lud- ingland, to hold meanwhile ;" and after Isabel's death, Elinor in that case taking the usual dower, these towns and lands should revert to the king. In respect to Elinor's portion, which is stated to be 20,000 marks, he directs his embassy to agree with the count that the sum shall not be less than that promised; and in a subsequent instrument he grants full power to the procurators to receive it.* In the secret instructions which immediately follow, Henry seems to have apprehended, that if he pressed the count for immediate payment of his daughter's por- Fœdera, vol. i. p. 219 A A 354 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. tion, he might lose this his fifth chance of obtaining a wife. He therefore directs, that, if his procurators cannot fulfil his commands to the very letter, they shall, "over and above every form contained in the aforesaid letters, without the payment of the money appropriated for us, in whatever way ye can, take her with you, and safely and securely bring her to us in England." The "fair damsel The "fair damsel" was accord- ingly placed in the hands of the embassy; and, amidst the rejoicings of the whole kingdom of Provence, she took her way, accompanied by a gallant caval- cade, among which were more than three hundred ladies on horse-back, through Navarre and France, to England. A pleasing trait, and one that shews that the era of chivalry was approaching, if not indeed already commenced, is here recorded by Matthew Paris. The king of Navarre, that minstrel, and most knightly monarch, Thibaut the Seventh-he, whose songs are not even yet forgotten in the province over which, six hundred years ago, he bore sway-no sooner heard that the daughter of the minstrel-loving Ray- mond sought to pass through his territory, than, like a knight of romance, he summoned a goodly array of men at arms, "and joyfully made ready to ac- company them through his lands, for five days; his own innate munificence defraying every expense, both for horses and men," although the royal train amounted to many hundreds. When arrived at the confines of France, they received an hospitable wel- come from the queen dowager and her son, who a short time before had married the elder sister of ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 355 Elinor. The marriage train finally arrived at Do- ver, from whence they proceeded to Canterbury, where Henry was awaiting their coming. There she was married; the service being performed by archbishop Edmund, and the bishops who accom- panied her. Then with a splendid train of prelates and nobles, they set forth for London; when, on the 20th of January, the feast of St. Fabian and St. Sebastian, the king wearing his crown, Elinor, "with incomparable and unheard-of splendour, was crowned at Westminster." The prolix historian then proceeds to describe the gallant array of the royal procession, and the gorgeous appearance which, even at this early pe- riod, was made by the city of London, with a minute- ness which, in spite of his most cumbrous and ridi- culous style, entitles him to the thanks of every antiquary. "There had assembled together so great a multitude of the nobility of both sexes, so great a number of the religious orders, so great a concourse of the populace, so great a variety of players, that the city of London could scarcely contain them in her capacious bosom. Therefore was the whole city adorned with silk hangings, and with banners, crowns, and palls, tapers and lamps, and with cer- tain marvellous ingenuities and wonders; all the streets being cleansed from mud, dirt, and sticks, and every thing offensive. The citizens of London going to meet the king and queen, ornamented and trapped, emulously sported their swift horses. And on the same day, when they went from the city to Westminster, that they might discharge the service A A 2 356 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. of butler to the king in his coronation (which is acknowledged to belong to them of ancient right), they went in well-marshalled array, adorned with silken vestments, wrapped in gold-woven mantles, with fancifully devised garments, sitting on valuable horses, refulgent with new bits and saddles. And they bore 360 golden or silver cups, the king's trumpeters going before, and sounding their trum- pets, so that so wonderful a novelty produced a laudable astonishment in the spectators."* The worthy monk of St. Albans next dilates upon the splendour of the feast, and the order of the ser- vices of the different vassals;-remarking, with great satisfaction, that the abbot of his own convent took precedence, "as of right he is to be preferred," of every other abbot at the dinner. A fuller, and in all probability a more accurate, account has been lately printed from the City Records; and some passages of this earliest account of the coronation of a queen shall be given." In the 20th year of the reign of king Henry, son of king John, queen Elinor, daughter of Hugh earl of Provence, was crowned at Westminster, on the Sunday before the Purification, the king wearing his crown, and the bishops assisting. And these served in order, in that most elegant and unheard-of feast. The bishop of Chichester, the chancellor, with the cup of precious stones, which was one of the ancient rega- lia of the king, clothed in his pontificals, preceded the king; who was clad in royal attire, and wearing * Matthew Paris. This is a mistake for Raymond. ELINOR OF PROVEnce. 357 the crown. Hugh de Patishull, at that time the king's treasurer, walked before with the patine, clothed in a dalmatica; and the earls of Chester, Lincoln, and Warren, bearing the swords, preceded him. But the two renowned knights, Sir Richard Siward and Sir Nicholas de Molis, carried the two royal sceptres before the king; and the square purple cloth of silk, which was supported upon four silver lances, with four little bells of silver gilt, held over the king wherever he walked, was carried by the barons of the Cinque Ports; four being assigned to each lance, from the diversity of ports, that one port should not seem to be preferred before the other. The same in like manner bore a cloth of silk over the queen, walking behind the king, which said cloths they claimed to be theirs by right, and obtained them. And William de Beauchamp of Bedford, who had the office of almoner from times of old, found the striped cloth or burel, which was laid down under the king's feet, as he went from the hall as far as the pulpit of the church of West- minster; and that part of the cloth that was within the church always fell to the sexton, in whatever church the king was crowned; and all that was without the church was distributed among the poor, by the hands of William the almoner. "At the king's table, on the right hand of the king, sat the archbishops, bishops, and certain ab- bots, who wished to be privileged at table; and on the left hand sat the earls, and some barons, although very few; but none claimed their seats by any right. And on that day the office of seneschal was served by Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, to whom 358 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. that office by right belonged; and the office of the napery was that day served by Henry of Hastings, whose office it was of old to serve. Walter de Beauchamp, of Hammerlegh, laid the salt-cellar and the knives; and after the banquet was at an end, he received the knives and the salt-cellar as his right. On that day the earl Warren served the office of butler, in the stead of Hugh de Albiniac, earl of Arundel. Under him, at his side, served master Michael Belot, whose office it was, as secondary, to hold the cup, well replenished with wine, to be handed to the earl of Arundel when the king might require it. Master Michael had the office of butler in the king's house, by ancient right, under the earl. And Andrew,* mayor of the city of London-who came there to serve in the butlery, with 360 cups, because the city of London is held to serve in the butlery to help the chief butler, as is the city of Winchester in the kitchen to help the steward,—claimed master Michael's place of standing before the king; but was repulsed by order of the king, who said that no one ought by right to serve there, but only master Mi- chael; and so the mayor gave way, and served the two bishops at the king's right hand; and after the banquet, the earl butler received the king's cup with which he had served him, as his right; and master Michael received that earl's robe as his right." "William de Beauchamp, on that day, served the office of almoner; and he had that day the whole jurisdiction relative to the disputes and offences of * Andrew Buckerel, who was mayor from 1231 to 1237. ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 359 the poor and the lepers; so that if one leper should strike another with a knife, he could adjudge him to be burnt. After the banquet was finished, he received, as his right, the silver dish for alms that stood before the king; and he claimed to have one tun of wine in right of alms; and on that day, the great chamberlain served the water, as well before as after the banquet-namely, Hugh de Vere, earl of Oxford; and he received, as his right, the basins and the towels wherewith he served. Gilbert, earl marshal, earl of Strigul, served the office of the marshalsea; and it was his duty to appease tumults in the king's house, to give liveries to them, and to guard the entrances to the king's hall; and he re- ceived from every baron who was knighted by the king, and from every earl on that day, a palfrey with a saddle. The head cook of the royal kitchen al- ways at the coronation received the steward's robe as his right; and of the aforesaid offices none. claimed to themselves the right in the queen's house, except G. de Stamford, who said that he, in right of his predecessors, ought to be chamberlain to the queen, and doorkeeper of her chamber on that day, which he there obtained; and had, as his right, all the queen's furniture, as belonged to the office of chamberlain. . . And the cloth which hung be- hind the king at table was claimed, on the one side by the doorkeepers, and on the other by the scul- lions, for themselves." Such were the pomps and splendid observances which graced the marriage festivities of Henry and Elinor of Provence; but although the faithless mo- 360 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. narch was willing to forget his engagement with Joanna of Ponthieu, her indignant father applied to the holy see for the exertion of that power, to which Henry had always bowed. But the calculating pon- tiff chose to take a very different view of the capri- cious monarch's perjury, to that which was expected. Gregory rejoiced that the weak and manageable Henry had fallen into the hands of a family so well qualified to strengthen his superstitious attachment to the Roman see, and his blind devotion to who- ever filled its chair, as the de Berengers; * and setting every moral consideration at defiance, he addressed a bull to the archbishop of Canterbury, and another to the prior of Beverley, expressing his full approbation of Henry's conduct; since his pro- posed marriage with Joanna, "being within the fourth degree of consanguinity, he could not, without injury to his fame and peril of his soul, contract."† But however compliant Henry might find the holy see, he found his own nobles rather less tract- able; for having about this time summoned a parliament to be held at the Tower, they unani- mously refused to attend, alleging that, surrounded as the king was with foreign and inimical counsellors, they could not, with safety, trust themselves in so strong and well garrisoned a fortress: a circumstance * Raymond had early in life given proof of his devotion to the supreme pontiff, in the eagerness with which he took up arms against the reputed heretics of Languedoc. In his zeal for the "holy Catholic faith," he, how- ever, very prudently did not forget his own interest; for immediately on the confiscation of the earl of Tholouse's estates, he put in a claim for them, alleging his praiseworthy efforts; but it was not allowed. + Fœdera, vol. i. p. 231. ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 361 which strongly marks both the unpopularity of his favourites, and the general duplicity of his conduct. On this occasion, however, prudence prevailed over self will; he yielded to his barons; and, returning to his palace at Westminster, there held his Parlia- ment. The succeeding two or three years were unmarked by any remarkable occurrence; and we find no men- tion whatever of Elinor. The power which the pope trusted he should increase by the agency of her family, and especially of herself, was exerted, however, in so shameless a manner, that the whole country indignantly complained. Not content with repeated exactions, under various specious names, from ecclesiastics and the laity, he demanded that three hundred Italians should be preferred to English benefices. In vain did the excellent archbishop of Canterbury, Edmund Rich, protest against the ini- quitous measure. He incurred the displeasure of the king by opposing the will of the pontiff; and he not unwillingly retired from a contest in which jus- tice was overborn by power, to a voluntary exile at Ponteniac, where he died. "Wretched was the state of the church," says the indignant chronicler; "brotherly love expired, and ecclesiastical liberty withered away." Little heeded the monarch these things-exulting in the patronage of the holy see, he reverently fasted, both at Lent and on every Sa- turday throughout the year; feasted right joyfully at Pasch and Christmas tide; and kept the vigil of his tutelar St. Edward most devoutly, clothed in white, and passing the whole night in the church. 362 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. But these goodly observances could neither fill his exhausted exchequer, nor conciliate the good will of his subjects. The people murmured, the nobles were loud in their complaints; but Henry pertinaciously adhered to his foreign counsellors, and invited over many of the queen's relations, on whom he conferred both estates and benefices. In 1243, we find in the Foedera a charter respecting Elinor's dower, from which it appears that the ap- propriated dower of the queens of England was not even at this period assigned her. In this she is assigned the town and castle of Gloster, the cities of Worcester and Bath, the manors of Clyne and Chiltham; and instead of the manors assigned by the first charter, the whole county of Chester, together with Newcastle-under-Line, is granted. This year, Elinor's mother visited England, for the purpose of bringing Senchia, her third daughter, who was affianced to the king's brother, Richard earl of Cornwall. On this occasion, Henry con- firmed to his brother the county of Cornwall, to- gether with the honours of Wallingford and Eye. He also made splendid presents to the bride and her mother; and bestowed on Peter of Savoy, the queen's maternal uncle, the honour of the Eagle, and the title and estates of the earl of Richmond; and on his brother, the archbishopric of Canterbury. But while Henry thus lavished gifts on his queen's relations, he duly, according to orthodox practice, * The marriage was celebrated with much splendour; the king direct- ing that the whole way from London bridge to Westminster should be hung with tapestry and other ornaments. This seems to prove that the comparatively little vacant space could have extended between London and Westminster. ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 363 mulcted the unfortunate Jews. During the same year, writs were directed to the sheriffs of each county, directing them to "return before him at Worcester, upon Quinquagesima Sunday, six of the richest Jews, from every larger town, and two from each smaller," to treat with him as well con- cerning their own as his benefit. This assembly, which Dr. Tovey terms a parliament of the Jews, soon discovered, that while the monarch was anxious to secure his own benefit, he was well content to sacrifice theirs. He informed them that they must raise him 20,000 marks (almost 200,000l.); and when they expressed their astonishment, "liberty of speech," says Dr. Tovey, " was for this one time de- nied in parliament; and they were only commanded to go home again, and get one half of it ready by Mid- summer, and the remainder by Michaelmas."* As, during the same year, Raymond, the queen's father, received 4000 marks, it is not improbable that a portion of this spoil was awarded to him. Henry, in his exactions from the Jews, seems, indeed, to have resembled his father. On two occasions, during his reign, the malignant charge of crucifying a child was brought against them; and, on the one occasion, many of the richest Jews fled away, and the king seized all their property; while, on the other, eighty of the wealthiest Jews of Lincoln were hanged, and sixty-three conveyed to the Tower to undergo a similar fate. Besides these general persecutions, some of their number seem to have been marked out for most extensive spoliation. Aaron Dr. Tovey's "Judaica Anglia." 364 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. of York, declared to Matthew Paris, that no less a sum than 30,000 marks (300,000l.), besides 200 gold marks for the queen, had been extorted from him in seven years; and others were heavily mulcted. Toward London the hostility of Henry was strongly marked, and on various "right royal" pretexts he grievously mulcted the citizens; while his cruel exe- cution of Constantine Fitz Arnulph, whose only crime seems to have been opposition to the over- bearing conduct of the abbot of Westminster, en- couraged an equal hostility in the hearts of the citi- zens; and from henceforward they determinately took their place in the ranks of the king's enemies.* Ere long they obtained a singular triumph. The king, reduced almost to beggary by the swarms of foreign adventurers, who grew rich upon his bounty, was compelled to pledge the crown jewels. In vain did he offer them to wealthy noble, or rich Italian merchant; none could buy; and it was the citizens of London who paid down the stipulated sum; and Henry saw the crown jewels pass into the hands of these the most detested of his subjects. "Those churlish Londoners," cried he, "if the wealth of Octavian were offered for sale, they could find the money." During these years scarcely any notice of Elinor can be found her extreme youth probably incapaci- tating her from any interference with affairs of state; * The whole account may be seen in Stow; and when we read that this unfortunate citizen offered 15,000 marks (£75,000) for his life, we have strong proof of Henry's hatred to London, which could urge so mercenary and so needy a monarch to reject such a ransom. ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 365 nor does her court appear to have been graced either with trouvère or troubadour. One of the former class alone, but the brightest ornament of the langue d'oil, Marie of France, seems to have found patronage at the English court; although, from the circumstance of her addressing the king, in her Introduction to Esop, as a mere youth, it was probably before the arrival of Elinor.* Nor, except- ing Marie, do we find that Henry patronized any trouvère; indeed literature or science received little encouragement from the weak devotee, and capri- cious monarch, whose time was divided between superstitious ceremonials, and plans to refill his exhausted exchequer. In the year 1247 he received a gift from the patriarch of Jerusalem, which he welcomed with unquestioning faith. This was, so said the Pa- triarch, "a portion of the blood of Christ." On receiving this inestimable relic, he commanded the attendance of all the clergy of London and Westminster, with banners, crosses, and tapers, at St. Paul's. Thither the king repaired, and, taking from the treasury the beautiful crystal vase that contained it, "with all honour, and reverence, and fear, he bore it upon its salver, walking on foot, and in mean attire, that is, in a coarse cloak, without a hood, to the church at Westminster; nor," conti- * As Marie of France, although she seems to have resided in England, was not of English parentage, we cannot class her among our early poets. This is to be lamented, since her lays are certainly superior, both in grace and feeling, to those of perhaps any other trouvère. A complete edition of her works has been published by M. Roquefort, but the reader must be warned against judging of the grace and spirit of the original, from the prose version which accompanies it. 366 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. nues the chronicler, "did he cease to bear it in both hands, through all the rugged and miry way, always keeping his his eyes fixed upon it, or elevated towards heaven." He had, however, a canopy held over him, supported by four lances; and an attendant on either hand, guiding him by the arms, lest he should stumble. When he arrived at Westminster, he was met by the whole convent at the church door; but not even then did the king relinquish his precious burthen he went round the church, the chapels, and the adjoining court, and at length presented the vase and its contents "to God and the church of St. Peter." Mass was then sung; and the bishop of Norwich, ascending the pulpit, delivered a sermon to the people, extolling the value of the relic, laud- ing the great devotion of the king, and anathema- tizing all those who hinted doubts of its reality; a forcible proof that, even at this early day, our fore- fathers did not believe all that was told them. This memorable day was closed by the king's feasting sumptuously, and conferring knighthood on his half brother, William de Valence; and the well pleased monk of St. Albans, who was present, records the gratifying circumstance that Henry, seeing him, called him, and prayed him "expressly and fully to record all these things in a well written book.' Nor did this instance of royal condescension fail of its intended effect ;-the whole account is written in a strain of courtesy which contrasts curiously enough with the plain speaking of the rest of the volume; and these two pages stand out from ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 367 the rest of the text, like a laureat's birth-day ode.* But observances like these, however gratifying to the monarch, and however lauded by his dependants, could not avert the evil day that his misgovernment and reckless extravagance were fast hastening on. Among his hostile nobles, there was one, beyond all, whom he feared for his talents, and hated for his popularity this was the celebrated Simon de Mont- fort, earl of Leicester. This nobleman (the third son of that de Montfort who has obtained such disgraceful celebrity in the Crusade against the Al- bigenses), by the death of his elder brothers, became possessor both of his father's estates in France, and those in England which, together with his title, he inherited from his mother; and taking up his residence in England at an early period of Henry's reign, and marrying his sister Elinor, the young widow of the junior earl of Pembroke, he seems from that period to have identified himself with Englishmen, and to have warmly advocated the rights of the people. Making every allowance for the inflated eulogies of his monkish biographers, we may well consider him to have been a most valiant leader, and a wise statesman; while the circumstance of his being a munificent patron of learned men, and the friend of the excellent archbishop Edmund, and the cele- brated Grostête, bishop of Lincoln, proves much in favour of his general character. After many diffe- rences between him and the king, Henry, in 1249, * Vide Matthew Paris, p. 735 to 737. 368 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. anxious to free himself from his hated brother-in-law, sent him into Gascony to reduce the disturbances there. From this thankless office he was relieved in 1252; the king having, at the queen's instigation it is said, appointed his son Edward, although only thirteen years of age, to succeed him. Under the rule of a mere boy, it is not surprising that tumult and disorder increased; and the king sent to de Montfort, praying him to resume the government. This for some time he refused; at length, wrought upon by the entreaties of Grostête, he returned to Gascoigny with a large body of knights, maintained at his own cost, and reduced all to quietness. Meanwhile Henry went on in his accustomed course of reckless expenditure; and in 1257, al- though his debts amounted to more than 600,000%. (9,000,000l.), he seems not to have made any effort to reduce his expenses. In 1252 he married his daughter Margaret, a child of ten years of age, to her cousin, the infant king of Scotland, with great magnificence; and, in the following year, he tried to raise supplies in aid of a "crusade," as it was termed, to place the crown of the two Sicilies on the brow of his second son Edmund, a child nine years old. Twenty thousand marks were wrung from the Lon- don citizens; the nobles and the clergy were mulcted in various ways; and at length, as a last resource to raise supplies, Henry proffered to renew his confir- mation of the charters. On the 18th of May, 1253, the bishops, in the presence of the king and his court at Westminster, for a third time administered the oath of confirmation to the reluctant monarch, ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 369 and bearing lighted tapers, which at the close of the sentence were solemnly extinguished, they pro- nounced excommunication against " all transgressors of the liberties of the ecclesiastical powers and free customs of the kingdom of England, chiefly those contained in the charter of the common liberty of the realm, and the charter of the Forest." * "" دو "No, sire," replied the determined to maintain "But Henry, although a very devout person, as Mr. Hallam justly remarks, "had his own notion of the validity of an oath that affected his power, and indeed passed his life in a series of perjuries. The third oath was therefore kept as strictly as the two former; and when at length he had no other alternative than to call an assembly of his barons, they appeared at Westminster clad in mail. "Am I your prisoner?" said he. earl of Norfolk;" but we are the liberties of the land." The king, alarmed at these hostile indications, now swore, "by the altar and the shrine of St. Edward, that he would yield to his natural people." The barons entered into a league; and, to use, the language of the before- mentioned excellent writer, "who can deny that measures beyond the ordinary course of "the consti- tution were necessary to controul so prodigal and injudicious a sovereign?" Twenty-four barons were appointed to reform the state of the kingdom, and in * Fœdera, vol. i. p. 289, (the last edition, in which it alone appears). The following passage affords a specimen of the precision which charac- terizes this form of excommunication: "by whatever art or device they may seek to violate, infringe, diminish, or alter them, whether secretly or openly, by act, word, or counsel." B B 370 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 1260 the "Oxford provisions * were decreed. These, which are considered to owe their origin chiefly to de Montfort, form an important era in the political history of the land, since in them we find the first distinct recognition of the representation of the commons. To maintain these provisions, Henry, as usual, in due form took an oath; and as usual, soon after sent to the pope, praying to be absolved from them, and, at the same time, prayed assistance from France. The absolution was granted by Urban; but while the king was rejoicing in his success, de Montfort returned from France, and appeared at the great council held by Philip Basset, with a brief from the time-serving pontiff, confirm- ing those very provisions. arms. War now was inevitable; Edward brought to England a large army of Burgundians and French; the king issued writs prohibiting the Oxford pro- visions from being observed, and the nation took up The army assembled by de Montfort, viewed the contest with feelings not dissimilar to those which nerved the arms of the great men of a later period. A religious character was given to the war, and they were urged to "take up the sword for righteousness;" solemn service was performed before entering the battle-field, and the loud hymn gave * These may be seen in the Burton Annals. Among other decrees it is ordained, that three parliaments should be held each year; four knights chosen for every county, to inquire into the grievances of that county, and to lay the same before Parliament; and that a new high sheriff should be elected each year by the votes of the freeholders; that none of the royal wards should be committed to the custody of foreigners; that no new forests or warrens should be created; and that the revenues of each county should not be let to farm. ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 371 notice of their coming. Even a crusading charac- ter was given to this strife for freedom, and at the battle of Lewes each follower of de Montfort bore a white cross on his breast and shoulder. This bat- tle, or mise as it was more generally termed, threw the power of the kingdom into the hands of de Montfort; and the king, although treated with respect, remained a prisoner in his hands. During these years of contest, we meet with more frequent notice of Elinor. In 1257 she had the wardship of William de Canteloupe, and William Long- Espée, the grandson of the celebrated earl of Salis- bury; but the chronicler complains that her exac- tions from the tenants on their lands were so galling, "that they might have drawn tears from the eyes even of foemen." A few years earlier too, she engaged in a contest with the prior and convent of St. Katherine's hospital, and eventually dissolved that establishment; nor, until eighteen years had elapsed, did she restore its charter. On the break- ing out of hostilities between Henry and his barons, she seems to have taken a very active part. Escap- ing with some difficulty from a violent attack of the lower order of citizens, who viewed her as the great source of the evils that afflicted the land, she went over to France to solicit the aid of her brother-in- law, St. Lewis; carrying with her an immense collec- tion of the crown jewels, which were placed in the custody of, or more probably pledged to, the Templars at Paris. She also, by means of immense loans, which her credit enabled her to obtain, raised a large army of mercenaries of various nations, and B B 2 372 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. also prevailed on the legate Ottobone," to come to England with the power of the other sword." But de Montfort meanwhile was not idle; he summoned the whole military force of the kingdom, directing "that every township should send from four to eight men, armed with lances, bows, swords, cross-bows, and pole-axes; and all cities and castles a larger proportion, horse as well as foot;"-the place where they assembled was Barham downs. This decided indication of national feeling seems to have had its due effect; Elinor feared to send a foreign army against a united band of Englishmen. She therefore postponed their sailing, until they, probably doubting whether their pay would be much longer continued, dispersed. Nor, when the legate Ottobone arrived in England, did he find the peo- ple more willing to admit him, than the foreign. mercenaries; the interdict which he threatened to impose was scoffed at, and in the contempt with which he was treated, a strong proof is afforded of the advance which free principles had already made.* But, what the queen with her foreign army, and the legate with his spiritual power, had in vain endea- voured to do, was ere long effected by the jealous rivalries which broke out among the chief barons. At this distance of time, and amid the obscure statements of contemporary chroniclers, it is perhaps impossible accurately to ascertain whether Simon de Montfort, or his companions, were in fault; still, *Matthew of Westminster asserts that the interdict with which the legate was charged, was seized by the people of Dover, torn in pieces, and thrown into the sea. ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 373 from the moderation which on former occasions seems to have marked his conduct, it is probable that his success, rather than his ambition, excited their hostility, and that he, like many other popular leaders, eventually fell a sacrifice to those very talents which had secured his elevation. The power- ful earl of Gloster seceded from alliance with him; and joining with Mortimer and prince Edward, they drew their forces together near Evesham. Here the decisive battle was fought, on August the 4th, 1265; when de Montfort, his eldest son, and his principal friends, laid down their lives, and Henry became once more free. From this period, the reign of Henry presents little to interest either the political inquirer or the general reader. Although the great advocate of popular rights was no longer living, his spirit still survived; and, in the cautious measures adopted by Henry subsequent to the battle of Evesham, we have proof that he dared no longer proceed as here- tofore. In 1269, a gratification of no ordinary kind, was provided for the superstitious monarch; that noble abbey, in which so many of our monarchs and illustrious men repose, after having been more than forty years rebuilding, was on the 18th of October (St. Edward's day) opened; and the body of the Saint-borne most reverently on their shoulders, in the view of the whole church, by the king and his brother, assisted by his two sons, Edward and Ed- mund, and many of the nobility, was deposited in the shrine constructed by Pietro Cavalini, in that chapel which still bears the Confessor's name. Henry 374 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. on this occasion presented rich silken robes to the choristers, and exultingly and unquestioningly list- ened to the pious tale which declared that a clerk of Winchester, and a man from Ireland, had each devils cast out the moment that the chest contain- ing the bones of the canonized Confessor was ele- vated. The following year, his eldest son, Edward, departed for the Holy Land, and the aged king took leave of him not without sorrowful forebodings that he should never see him again. Meanwhile, Elinor seems to have been occupied in obtaining additions to her already queen-like dower. The death of her uncle, Peter of Savoy, put her in pos- session of the honour of Richmond; this she soon after resigned to her son-in-law, the earl of Britany, retaining merely an annuity of fifty marks; but the honour of the Eagle, which had just before been also assigned, she kept. In 1270 there is a precept in the Fœdera, confirming to her use the proceeds of "the tenths of all ecclesiastical benefices in Ireland, which the lord pope, in consideration of our adver- sities and sorrows, granted;" and in addition to this, in the subsequent year, we find another, assigning to her lands in France. In 1272, we find in the same collection an ac- knowledgment of the receipt of those jewels which in 1264 Elinor had conveyed to Paris. The inven- tory is minute and curious; and the jewels, in num- ber and value, actually make the catalogue of king John's appear mean in comparison. There is a great crown, which is specified as "most precious and priceless;" two others, to which a price equal to ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 375 about 5000l. present money is affixed; forty-five gold clasps, set with gems, valued at nearly 3000l.; various wands, on which rings in great numbers seem to have been strung; above eighty girdles, which must have been set with jewels, since they are valued at a sum equal to 16,000l.; and a variety of other jewels and plate, among which are mentioned "two gold peacocks, adorned with gems.' * But ere the close of the year, Henry fell seriously ill at St. Edmund's; a letter was dispatched to his son Edward, urging his immediate return; but long ere the notice reached him, the father had breathed his last. Ere his death, he was conveyed to West- minster, where, on the 16th of November, he died ;† and on the following Sunday, arrayed in royal appa- rel, with a crown on his head, he was borne, by the chief nobility and the templars, to the abbey church of Westminster, and there, in the very coffin which had formerly contained the remains of the Con- fessor, was laid in his chapel, immediately before the high altar. * Matthew Paris, some years earlier, mentions the elegant present which Elinor received from her sister, Margaret of France; this was a peacock of gold and silver, the train of which was adorned with pearls and sapphires, and which was intended for a ewer. From an entry in Madox, Elinor appears in her earlier days to have been characterized by an extravagant love of splendour: her chancellor presents his accounts at the exchequer for various expenses of her court, principally dress and jewellery for herself and her ladies; and the sum amounts to £21,904— above £250,000. Among the entries is one for eleven “ garlands," a kind of lighter crown, adorned with the most expensive gems. ↑ His will, which is inserted in the Fœdera, contains no pecuniary bequests; it merely leaves "a gold cross, a white vestment, and a silver image of the virgin," to the convent of Westminster; and another gold cross, another vestment adorned with jewels, and a golden image of the virgin, to his son Edward; and leaves to the queen, her uncle, the archbishop of Canterbury, and some others, the charge of arranging the "other things not expressed in this testament." 376 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. The altar tomb, which presents a rather heavy appearance, although adorned with rich mosaic, was probably erected soon after his decease; but the ad- mirable brass effigy, which still surmounts it, was not placed there until more than twenty years after. Ere the body was consigned to its tomb, the earl of Glos- ter, who had taken so prominent a part in the late contests, advanced, and laying his hand on the breast of the corpse, solemnly pledged his allegiance to Edward; the assembled nobles, each placing his hand in the same manner, pronounced the same oath; and the lords, who had charge of the govern- ment until his return, instantly caused proclamation to be made, and especially in the city, of " Edward, king of England, lord of Ireland, and duke of Aquitaine." The reign of Henry was unquestionably an era of steady improvement; and, as in the preceding cen- tury, the progress of literature and the extension of legal security, are most prominent; so in this, the advancement of the arts, the extension of trade and commerce, and the progress of those social arrange- ments, which always indicate the growing prosperity of a nation, are equally prominent. Many enact- ments were passed during this reign, which prove the vigilant care which now watched over the in- terests of the community. It was ordained that watch should be kept from sunset to sunrise, be- tween the feasts of St. Michael and the Ascension, in villages, by "four or six stout and good men, armed with bows and arrows; in boroughs, by a company of twelve; and in cities, by six at every ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 377 gate; and if any stranger attempted to enter after watch was set, he was to be arrested, and confined until the following morning. " The travelling mer- chant might require the mayor or bailiff of the town to furnish him with a guard, and if he counted his money in their sight, and was afterwards robbed, he could receive it from the town. Many impor- tant improvements took place in various towns dur- ing this period; and many of our chief cities received charters, confirming or extending their privileges. The lists of murage dues and pontage dues, in many cities during this reign, give a very favourable view of the general comfort of their inhabitants; while the curious lists of provisions sold in the London markets, which the reader will find in Stow, proves that food was both abundant and of moderate price in the metropolis of the land. Notwithstanding her heavy mulcts, London seems to have advanced rapidly. About the middle of this century, the citizens purchased Queenhithe, from Richard, the king's brother, for. a public wharf; and the enterprizing "merchant wine-tunners of Gascoigne," as the vintners were originally called, having taken the wine trade in a great measure from Southampton, brought it to London, and es- tablishing themselves on the Vintry quay, erected their noble stone houses, where they resided in al- most princely state.* The same period, too, wit- nessed the first attempt to supply the metropolis with water; which in 1236 was brought from Ty- * Stow. 378 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. burn, in leaden pipes six inches in diameter, to the conduit in Westcheap; and about the same time, the city watch—a well-appointed body of men, whose splendid appearance was for many centuries the boast of the citizens-was established. For these, and many other instances of improve- ment, the character of Henry has received higher praise than strict justice will allow; and that ad- vancing civilization, which really was the result of national spirit and enterprize, has been too hastily attributed to the enlightened encouragement of the monarch. But looking more clearly into the records of these times, we shall find that every one of these improvements originated with the people; and that the beneficial influence of the monarch was rather the result of his contrary conduct;-of the capricious exactions which stimulated the industry, and the weak efforts of tyranny, which aroused the spirit of the nation to bold and independent exertion. It is uncertain whither Elinor retired after king Henry's death. From the testimony of some writers, which state that she was for nineteen years an inmate of the monastery of Ambresbury, she must have taken up her abode there immediately. This seems, however, unlikely; since we find her engaged in a contest, soon after the king's death, with the lords of the council, respecting her " queen's- gold," which she demanded "from those who, in the late king's lifetime, had granted him a twentieth part of their goods towards relief of the holy land."* * Vide Prynne's “ Aurum Reginæ.” ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 379 During the same In this she was unsuccessful. year we however find, in the Issue Roll 1st Ed- ward, "a daily allowance of ten marks a-day" as- signed her; and from a similar precept in the fourth year, we learn that it was " in aid of her dower until after an extent of her lands should be made, so that the king might calculate her dower." In the third year of her son, we again find her demand- ing arrears of queen's-gold, and prosecuting the bishop of Winchester for a debt due from his pre- decessor of £2,229; but in this suit she was also unsuccessful. Even two years after, we again find her prosecuting another suit, and in this instance against the barons of the Cinque-Ports; but the king for- bade the payment. From this period, we find scarcely any notice of Elinor of Provence; she probably, therefore, soon after retired to Ambresbury, although she did not take the veil there until 1287; and in this convent she continued until her death. Few religious houses have been more celebrated in legend or romance than the abbey of Ambres- bury: there, the legend placed one of the earliest British convents, which was richly endowed, for three hundred monks, by the celebrated king Am- brosius; while there, the romance placed a noble convent of nuns; among whom the repentant Guenore, the faithless wife of king Arthur, found an asylum, and passed her later days in prayer and penitence. But the testimony of legend and ro- mance were equally incorrect, for the abbey of Am- bresbury owed its foundation to a much later period, 380 ELINOR OF PROVENCE. and to a Saxon queen, Elfrida, who founded both that and Wherwell, in the vain hope of propitiating heaven for the murder of king Edward, her son-in- law. Here she is said to have ended her days; and during the Saxon period, the abbey of Ambresbury was among the wealthiest in the land, and it conti- nued an independent foundation until the reign of Plantagenet, when a charge of immorality was made against its inmates, and the monarch suppressed the convent, confiscated its rich endowments, and sub- sequently caused a prioress and twenty-four nuns to be brought from Fontevraud, to fill the now va- cant cloisters. In its new form, however, Ambres- bury received high patronage; Plantagenet granted it three charters of abundant privileges, which John enlarged; and it henceforth seems to have become a favourite convent for wealthy and noble women. In 1241, Elinor, the damsel of Britany, that un- happy sister of the unfortunate Arthur, after under- going a captivity of more than thirty years, was, at her urgent request, here buried; and here, in 1283, her parents' consent having been with difficulty obtained, Mary, the sixth daughter of king Edward, at the instance of her grandmother, the subject of this memoir, although scarcely past the age of childhood, together with thirteen young companions of noble birth, took the veil. In 1287, according to Walsingham, the aged queen, "despising all worldly pomps," also took the veil in the convent of Ambresbury, where she re- mained until her death, which took place about Midsummer, 1291. Of her benefactions to this ELINOR OF PROVENCE. 381 convent we have no specific account; but she ap- pears in the Monasticon as the foundress of the Dominican priory at Guilford, and of the house of the Black Friars at Chichester, which she founded after Henry's death; and she is also recorded as having been a munificent benefactress to the nun- nery of Tarent in Dorsetshire. Her surviving children were, king Edward; Ed- mund, surnamed Crouchback, from the circum- stance of his having taken the cross; Margaret, first wife of Alexander III. of Scotland; and Bea- trix, married to the duke of Britany. When Edward, who was then in Scotland, received the account of his mother's death, he immediately returned; and, proceeding to Ambresbury, he re- spectfully superintended the arrangements for her funeral, which were conducted with great splendour. According to Leland, she was buried in the monas- tery of the Grey Friars at Bedford, where her 66 a image of plaine plate of brass encrounid" was yet to be seen; but the Chronicle of Dunstable, contemporary authority, and Walsingham, concur in stating that she was buried at Ambresbury. 382 THE ARTS IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. CHAPTER XIII. Architecture- The Norman Style-Its Characteristics—The Gothic— Theories respecting its Origin-Improvements in our Cathedrals— Salisbury built-Westminster Abbey built-Improvements in Secu- lar Buildings-Decorative Painting—Introduction of Stained Glass— The Ancient Method of Painting on Glass-Sculpture-The Sepul- chral Effigy Statues of this Period-Progress of Gothic Architecture -Engraving-Illuminated Manuscripts-General View. WHILE the thirteenth century was distinguished by rapid improvement in every department, its pro- gress in the arts was so marked and pre-eminent, that it might almost be called the era of their resur- rection. Then first the graceful saint smiled from her foliaged canopy on the gazing crowd; then first the suppliant effigy adorned the altar-tomb; then first the gorgeous window, with its "glass of thousand colourings," shed its flood of rainbow light upon the kneeling worshipper; and then first did Gothic architecture display all her surpassing beauty, and rear those splendid fabrics, which even to the pre- sent day challenge the admiration of every be- holder. THE ARTS, ETC. 383 The singularly rapid progress of the arts during this age will best be estimated if we take a view of their progress during the two preceding centuries, which witnessed both the rise and the decline of the Norman style of architecture, and the first rude attempts at sculpture. During the five centuries which succeeded the fall of the Roman empire, the arts in western Europe seem to have wholly van- ished from among the natives. Although surrounded by so many monuments of Roman magnificence, no effort, even the rudest, at imitation seems to have been made; and when the stately temples moul- dered away, their place was supplied by buildings of the most barbarous construction and materials. About the close of the tenth, or earliest commence- ment of the eleventh century, a new era in eccle- siastical architecture commenced among the Nor- mans-those regenerators of modern Europe; and the barn-like church was ere long superseded by the imposing Norman cathedral. The characteristics of this style are strongly marked; in the circular arch, the cylindrical and often massive column; and in the small arcades, with their circular arches interlacing each other along the outer walls, and ranging with the numerous tiers round the lofty square towers. The western entrance is generally plain, except the chief door- way, which is often surrounded by many rows of grotesquely carved mouldings. The east end of the church " always terminates in a semicircular apsis, divided into several compartments by slender pillars, and by string courses, into three stories." 384 THE ARTS IN THE To this general outline, a few more minute par- ticulars may be added, which will enable the reader easily to distinguish the remains of the Norman style, from that of the later added Gothic, in many of our cathedrals and churches. The Norman column has no fixed proportions: in some instances, as in the crypts of many of our cathedrals, it is short and massive, as the Tuscan; in others, as in some parts of Canterbury, but espe- cially in the noble twin churches of Caen, of Doric lightness. They are sometimes carved with a spiral groove, sometimes with a series of chevrons, and sometimes of lozenge work; and specimens of each may be seen in Durham and Canterbury cathedrals. On the capitals of these columns, the Norman sculp- tor seems to have allowed full scope to his fancy : from the plain moulding of the earlier period, to the volute and acanthus leaf in St. Peter's at Northampton; and the centaurs and sphinxes of Iffley church, every kind of plant, every species of animal, real or fabulous, find a place. In the spe- cimens of foliage, it is interesting to trace the ad- vancing skill of the artist; and among some of the later specimens, those especially in Canterbury, and which belong to the last period of the Norman style, are graceful combinations of leaf and flower, from which the artist of the present day might not refuse to copy.* But representations, both of the human * * These capitals seem strongly to corroborate the opinion that the Norman owes its origin to the debased Grecian style, which prevailed during the earlier ages of the Lower Empire. If the reader turns to the view of San Paolo-that most ancient of the churches of Rome-he will ! THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 385 figures and animals, are most wretched; and the sculpture, embellishing the chief door-way of the cathedral, actually displays as little skill as the fair embroiderers of the Bayeux tapestry. As the Norman column, in the midst of its abun- dant variety, had still its peculiar characteristics, so had the moulding. The most common of these was what has been called the "dental," or "her- ring-bone," but which Mr. Britton, with far more correctness, terms the "chevron." Perhaps there is scarcely a Norman structure in existence, that does not in some part display this favourite orna- ment; but there were others, which, as they are never used in Gothic architecture, are proofs, wher- ever they are found, of that portion being Norman. There are, according to the same accurate writer, "the embattled fret, the hatched moulding, series of undulating lines, and the cable, or twisted mould- ding." In one instance alone is that strictly Gothic moulding, the quatrefoil, to be found, and that is in St. Giles's at Evreux. Such were the characteristics of the Norman style; such was Westminster, as erected by the Con- fessor; such Roger of Salisbury's noble abbey of Malmsbury; such was the greater part of old St. find both the arch and the column strictly Norman. The same opinion derives additional corroboration from the peculiarity of the ornaments. Where could the Norman sculptor find the sphinx and the centaur, except among the remains of classical antiquity? On one of the columns which support the chapel under the altar at York, we find, alternating with the rudest imitations of the human figure, three separate and well executed copies of the Grecian honeysuckle. The borders which enrich the black marble monumental stone of the countess Gundreda at Southover, pre- sent an elaborately Grecian pattern. These coincidences are too marked to have been fortuitous. с с 386 THE ARTS IN THE Paul's; and such were the various abbeys and churches founded by our kings and queens, during the earlier half of the twelfth century; such too, although of inferior workmanship, and almost spoiled by modern improvements, is that oldest of all the London churches, St. Bartholomew the Great. But this style, which awakened the intensest ad- miration, alike of Norman and Saxon, was, ere the close of that century, to yield to another, which still challenges the homage, not only of civilized Europe, but of the most enlightened architects of the present day-the Gothic. The general characteristics of this beautiful style are too strongly marked, and too well known, to need description;* yet, although possessing such a strongly marked distinctive character, the most la- *The following passage, from " Architectural Remarks on German Churches," will be read with interest :- "The distinctive principle of construction in Gothic architecture, ap- pears to be the admission of oblique pressures, and inclined lines of support. In Grecian architecture the whole edifice consists of horizontal masses, reposing on vertical props. In Gothic buildings, on the con- trary, the pointed arch is always to be considered. as formed by two sides, leaning against the other at the top, and pressing outward at their lower ends. The eye recognizes this statical condition in the lead- ing lines of the edifice, and requires the details to conform to it. We have thus in the Grecian building nothing but rectangular forms and spaces; and horizontal lines with vertical ones subordinate to them..... In Gothic works, on the other hand, the arch is the indispensable and governing feature: it has pillars to support it, and buttresses to resist its lateral pressure; its summit may be carried upwards indefinitely. All the parts agree in this character of indefinite upward pressure." To this the following important remarks of the Rev. Mr. Kerrich may be added: In the archivault of a semicircular arch all the mouldings will still be but concentric semicircles, all exactly similar to the arch itself; but in the Gothic arch it is not so; in this, every moulding on the face of the arch is concentric with its arch, but not similar to it. No two can be alike, for they are respectively composed of different portions of a circle, and each is a different arch. The eye feels the pleasure it is naturally formed to receive from this continued diversity; though very few, if any, of the spectators are at all conscious of the cause." THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 387 borious architectural antiquary finds insuperable difficulties, alike in tracing the first step and the last, of its transition from the Norman style. The same difficulty, too, awaits the admirer of this beautiful school, who would learn from what source it was derived; and three separate theories, each supported by considerable learning and inge- nuity, have been advanced. The first is, that the Gothic was derived from the peculiarly aisle-like appearance of a grove of trees; the second, that it was of oriental, if not of Saracenic, origin; and the third, that it arose from improvements of the Nor- man style. To the first theory, it has been objected that it seems very unlikely, that, after builders had for more than a century worked in stone, they should then begin to take pattern from wood; it is also remarked, that the aisle-like appearance of a grove would have been as likely to have struck architects of an earlier day, as those of the twelfth century. To the second theory, which assigns to this style an oriental origin, and of which the strong- hold is, that the pointed arch certainly exists, both in the mosque of Omar at Damascus, and in the cloisters at Mecca, and that it first appeared in Europe contemporaneously with the Crusades: it has been answered, that, although the pointed arch is to be found in eastern buildings, it is in combina- tion with accessories, that give it altogether a differ- ent character. The pinnacle, the flying buttress, the ranges of niches with figures (that utter abomi- nation to the Mohammedan), the airy and graceful spire, with all its varieties, so different to the plain, cc 2 388 THE ARTS IN THE unrelieved column of the minaret-each seems to stamp the Gothic with a peculiar and underived character. Besides, it has been argued, would the soldiers of the cross, who were pledged to the utter extirpation of the Paynim, have sought in those heathen temples the exemplar of a Christian church? It is also farther remarked, that the ori- ental style was already well known to Europe, even two centuries before, through the medium of the building erected by the victorious Saracens of Spain, and their vanquished brethren of Sicily. The third view, which considers the Gothic as a modification and improvement of the Norman, obtains much plausibility from the fact, that, in some instances, the pointed arch, and the pointed window, are formed by excavating the space within the intersect- ing range of circular arches, of which St. Botolph's priory at Colchester, and St. Cross at Winchester, are specimens. This hypothesis has been opposed on the plea, that "a pointed arch, formed by the intersection of two circular arches, is not a Gothic arch." Still might not this have given the first idea of the beauty of the pointed arch, which succeeding architects carried out to perfection. In the nu- merous examples supplied by our cathedrals, we find the early Gothic and the enriched Norman blended together, with a unity and congruity which seems almost to countenance the theory that the one was the offspring of the other. Still, the question is involved in much obscurity -an obscurity which yet more extended inquiries may perhaps be able to dispel; though, after all, THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 389 except as a subject of curious and interesting in- quiry, is it of great importance from what source the first idea of this noble and most beautiful style was derived? The architects of the thir- teenth century soon made it their own; and as little would it depreciate the genius that presided over those glorious structures-Salisbury, Exeter, Lin- coln, and York-to discover from whence their first faint and shadowy conceptions were derived, as it would lower the high fame of Milton to point out the obscure Italian poem from whence he took the first idea of his mighty epic; or dim the enduring praise of Shakspeare, to exhibit the wild lay, or the rude chronicle, which had formed the ground-work of his inimitable dramas. While the Norman and the earliest Gothic, were mingling together in not unfriendly strife, many of our cathedrals underwent extensive alteration ; and while in many the Norman style, though with some modifications, obtained, in others the tall clustered shaft, the sharply pointed arch, and the lancet win- dow of the early Gothic, prevailed. This may be seen in Wells' cathedral, and Peterborough, which, although not at this time the seat of a bishopric, was one of the richest and most celebrated of the mitred abbeys. At the earliest commencement of the 13th century, Godfrey de Lucy rebuilt the greater part of his cathedral (Winchester), and the close approximation to the Gothic is observable in its "long narrow arches, pointed like a lancet, and its slender detached pillars of Petworth or Purbeck marble." Worcester, which about the same period 390 THE ARTS IN THE was nearly rebuilt, presents similar features; as do also those portions of Durham and Lincoln, which were erected about the same time. Still, no building had as yet been constructed wholly on the Gothic model, until Richard Poore superintended the erec- tion of Salisbury; and from henceforth the triumph of Gothic architecture was complete. "the This noble edifice, remarkable for being most uniform, regular, and systematic, in its arrange- ment and architecture, of any cathedral in England,” owes its erection to the ardent and persevering care of Richard Poore, brother to the former bishop; who, having been translated from the see of Chi- chester to that of Salisbury, in 1217 directed his at- tention to the removal of the cathedral from Sarum, at this period a strongly fortified town, to some more quiet and more eligible site. He sent messengers to Rome to solicit the papal assent, and received from thence a bull granting him the required per- mission; "forasmuch as your church is built within compass of the fortifications of Sarum, it is subject to many inconveniences and oppressions, and that you cannot reside there without great corporeal peril." A spot was therefore fixed on, called Mir- riefield; application was made to the king for a charter to protect the infant city, that was to arise beneath the guardian towers of the cathedral; each of the canons and vicars bound himself to pay one- fourth of his income for seven years; preachers were appointed to visit various places, and collect money; and indulgences were promised to all who by gift or labour contributed to the work. On April 28th, THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 391 1220, bishop Poore, having performed the service, walked in procession-his clergy singing the litany— to the place of foundation; and there laid the first stone for pope Honorius, the second for the arch- bishop of Canterbury, and the third for himself. Then Longespée, the celebrated earl of Salisbury, laid the fourth; the lady Ela, his wife, the fifth; after which many others of the nobility, and each of the officers of the church, followed their example; "the people around weeping for joy, and giving alms with a ready mind." By Michaelmas, 1225, it was so far completed that the bishop consecrated three altars; that at the east end to the Trinity and all Saints, at which the mass of the Virgin was daily to be sung; that at the north to St. Peter, and all Apostles; and that at the south to St. Stephen and all Martyrs. On Michaelmas-day the archbishop of Canterbury consecrated the church, and preached to the people; and on the following Thursday the young king Henry, together with his guardian Hubert de Burgh, came, heard mass, and offered a gold ring with a ruby, a piece of silk, and a gold vase of ten marks' weight; Hubert de Burgh pro- mising at the same time to present a "gold text," (a collection of all the lessons used in the service of the church, and probably written in gold,) set with precious stones and relics. A more important gift was conferred by Henry on the canons, in his grant to the newly-founded city of a fair, to be held each year for eight days. From this period Salisbury rose rapidly into emi- nence; while its beautiful cathedral, which, unlike its 392 THE ARTS IN THE sister edifices, seems "not only to have been con- structed from one original design, but to have remained to this day nearly in the state in which it was left by the builders,"* proudly challenged, and after the lapse of six centuries still challenges, the admiration of all England. Incited, probably, by the example of the spirited bishop of Salisbury, many of the dignified clergy set about restoring or rebuilding their conventual churches; among these, Richard de Berkynge, the abbot of Westminster, eminently distinguished him- self by his exertions in rebuilding the abbey-church in a style of magnificence which should render it a fitting resting place of the monarchs of England. The church, which excited the warm eulogium of Malmsbury, although little more than a century and a half had past since its erection, was, even at the commencement of the 13th century, in a very dilapidated state. No arrangements, however, seem to have been made for its reconstruction, until Richard de Berkynge, in 1222, assumed the convent mitre, and bent his whole attention toward the com- pletion of the work. Among the various methods employed by him to raise the necessary supplies, the establishment of the fourteen days' fair at Westmin- ster has, with great probability, been placed; but the commonly received opinions that Henry not merely superintended its erection, but took on him- self nearly the whole cost, is erroneous. "His own extravagant expenditure and lavish donations to his * Britton's Salisbury. THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 393 foreign kinsmen, frequently bereaved him of all he had obtained by his multiplied extortions;" he, however, gave the goods of a Jewess named Licori cia, and in 1254 the certainly handsome grant of three thousand marks.* Unlike Salisbury, Westminster abbey saw more than forty years pass away in its completion; nor had Richard de Berkyng the proud gratification of beholding the finished work. Still his successor, Crokesley, watched over the slowly advancing build- ing; and when he was removed by death, Richard de Ware, who assumed the relinquished crosier with even greater zeal than his predecessors, devoted him- self to the task of its completion. It was this abbot who went to Rome to obtain from the sovereign pontiff a new charter for the convent, and who brought home with him the celebrated Roman artist Pietro Cavalini to execute the mosaic work of St. Edward's shrine, and the pavement which still remains in his chapel. At length, on the 13th of October, 1269, that church, which, to use the words of a competent judge, "is one of the finest exam- ples of the pointed style of architecture ever raised in this country, and, with the exception of Salisbury, the most complete and perfect that now remains, was consecrated; and on the same day the body of the Confessor was removed, and deposited in its shrine in the chapel. The whole cost of this noble edifice is stated, from a contemporary document, to have been £29,340. 19s. 8d. Brayley's Westminster. >> 394 THE ARTS IN THE ** Nor was it only on ecclesiastical buildings that the increasing taste of the age displayed itself. The monarch expended enormous sums upon his palace of Westminster, and in the endeavour to render the stern keep of the Tower less gloomy and war- like in its interior arrangements. Many of the tur- rets and chambers constructed by his command still remain, and excite the admiration of the modern architect, by the skill and extreme neatness of the masonry. But although Henry was anxious to embellish the interior, he, or his more clear-sighted councillors, did not neglect the exterior fortifications; but in 1239 he surrounded it with an additional line of outworks. This show of distrust toward the inhabitants of his "good city of London" irritated them greatly. It was, according to Matthew Paris, "as a thorn in the eye." However, scarcely were the works completed, ere the foundation gave way, and all, together with a noble portal, on which much expense had been bestowed, fell down. A second time they were built, when singularly enough, on the same night, and at the same hour, they fell down again. So remarkable a coincidence could not, in the opinion of a superstitious age, be the effect of * Henry also caused buildings to be erected for the leopards sent to him by the emperor of Germany, and the white bear, which, in 1252, he received from the king of Norway. There is a precept directing that this white hear be provided with an iron chain, and "a long stout rope to hold him while fishing in the river Thames." In 1254, Henry received the gift of the first elephant ever seen in this country; he was landed at Sandwich, amid the great admiration of the beholders, and was from thence conveyed to London. A precept was thereupon directed to the sheriffs, directing them to cause a house to be constructed for him at the Tower, forty feet long and twenty wide; very properly suggesting "that it be made strong, as such a work ought to be. THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 395 chance; so a priest of Allhallows exultingly told, and the citizens exultingly believed, that St. Thomas of Canterbury, still mindful in heaven of the wrongs of his fellow-citizens, had levelled, with one blow of his archiepiscopal staff, the obnoxious fortifications. The celebrated castle of Kenilworth, which the king subsequently gave to his great opponent, the earl of Leicester, was extensively repaired and im- proved at the commencement of his reign, and ren- dered "a fortress for strength, and a palace for beauty." The wish to reside in more commodious and more splendid apartments than the gloomy and contracted keep of the castle could offer, now that the immediate fear of civil war had passed away, seems to have been very generally felt at this period; and many buildings were erected, which, from the slight notices we meet with, seem rather to have be- longed to the class of mansions than castles. Among these, the noble house of Paul Piper, erected at Teddington, which was built of stone and roofed with lead, and furnished with gardens, orchards, vineyards, and fish ponds, may be placed.* Peter of Savoy also constructed, at great expense, a man- sion on the road to Westminster, to which his de- signation was afterwards given, and which the spot still retains. Several "noble stone houses" were at this period built along this line of road. Among these, the town residences of the bishops of Worcester and Chester were conspicuous; most of the mitred * This mansion is stated to have employed workmen for many years, whose wages amounted to 100 shillings weekly, and sometimes to more than ten marks. 396 THE ARTS IN THE abbots too had houses (inns they were mostly called) in the suburbs. From a short description given of that purchased by abbot William of St. Albans, and stated to be in London, we gain some notion of the character of these mansions. It stood back from the street, and was entered by a court yard; it was "like a palace for size," and besides the usual apart- ments, had a chapel, a kitchen, stables, and “ great apartments;" it was also provided with garden, or- chard, and well. Nor were the citizens content to dwell in mean and inferior houses, while nobles and prelates occupied their tall stone mansions. The wealthy mercers of Westcheap, the enterprizing drapers of Candelwyck, and the princely merchants of the Vintry, erected houses that vied in size and splendour with those of the neighbouring nobles, and exacted an unwilling tribute of admiration from the envious king and his rapacious kinsmen. Even the Jews-hated and persecuted on all occasions by the citizens, and so unmercifully mulcted by the king -obtained permission to construct a noble synagogue in the district assigned to them, the Old Jewry; and build houses that rivalled those of their haughty per- secutors and oppressors. But it was not merely in the more commodious construction of their dwellings, and in the greater attention paid to architectural design, that the ad- vancing taste of the age was conspicuous; the inte. rior decorations were expected to correspond with the splendid exterior; and the weaver, the sculptor, the painter, were summoned to lend their aid. Ho- race Walpole, in his Anecdotes of Painting, seems THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 397 inclined to award to Henry the Third the praise of having first cherished the arts, especially painting; and this seems not improbable. From other sources, we learn that the arts at this period were hailed with enthusiasm in the convent, and that pictorial decora- tions were even before the close of the 12th century a very favourite class of ornament. In Matthew Paris's very minute history of the abbots of St. Albans, we meet with many curious and important notices respecting the progress of the arts. He relates, that toward the close of the 12th century, the church was adorned with "beautiful” paintings of numerous saints and martyrs; and he tells us how master Walter of Colchester-" that incomparable painter and sculptor," and who it ap- pears was also a carver, gilder, enameller, and architect-being about the commencement of this century prevailed upon by a brother of the house to take the habit, adorned the convent and the church with such splendid performances in carving and gilding, and paintings, of the whole history of St. Alban, that the marvelling chronicler can scarcely find superlatives, though sufficienly fond of them on every occasion, to express the admiration they excited. Nor did master Walter confine his skill exclusively to the beautifying of the church; he adorned the abbot's apartments and the great hall with numerous paintings; he both illuminated the missals, and bound them. Truly, the convent of St. Albans had reason to rejoice in the powerful "persuasion and attraction of brother Ralph Go- bion," which induced the gifted master Walter of 398 THE ARTS IN THE Colchester to take up his residence among them. From other incidental notices, we find that cathe- drals, and the higher order of conventual churches, were about this period very generally adorned with paintings; and from the example of St. Albans we may, with great probability, infer that conventual halls and refectories were decorated in a similar manner. For the style of decoration adopted in the apart- ments of the great, our information is derived chiefly from those various precepts issued during this reign, which have been before referred to. The first of these dates in 1228, and in it Henry directs his chamberlains to pay "a certain painter" twenty shillings for painting the great exchequer cham- ber. In 1233, there is a precept addressed to the sheriff of Southampton, "that he shall cause the wainscot of the king's chamber, in the castle of Winchester, to be painted with the same pictures as formerly." In the same year, he also directs the keeper of the palace at Woodstock "to cause the round chapel there to be painted with our Lord, the Evangelists, St. Edmund, and St. Edward. In 1236, the year of his marriage, he directs that his great chamber at Westminster should be painted "of a good green colour, like a curtain, and in the great gabel or front, this motto-" Ke ne dune ke le tine, ne pret ke desire"-" He that gives not what he has, receives not what he may desire ;" a liberal adage, and doubtless often appealed to by the crowd of rapacious foreigners by whom the weak king was constantly surrounded. At the same time, THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 399 directions were given for a picture of the crucifixion, with Mary and John, in the chapel of St. Stephen. In 1241, there is a precept for painting the royal stalls in the "church of St. Peter's, beneath the keep of our tower; also the "little Mary and her Shrine;" and the figures of St. Peter, St. Nicholas, and St. Katherine, of St. Christopher carrying Je- sus; and for painting of "two fair tables of the best colours, with the legends of St. Nicholas and St. Katherine." "Two fair cherubim, with cheerful and pleasant countenances," were to be placed on each side of the great cross; and "a marble font, with marble columns, to be well and decently carved." The minuteness of these directions will excite a smile. Many similar precepts were issued during the following years; in one of them occurs the first notice of a "star chamber; "star chamber;"—it is to "cause the chamber at Winchester to be painted with stars of gold, and of a green colour; "* "it was also to be adorned with histories from the Old and New Testament." In In another we have decisive evidence on the question so warmly contested, the antiquity of oil painting; for the king's treasurer is directed to pay to Odo and Edward "117s. 10d. for oil, varnish, and colours bought by them." We have hitherto seen that all the precepts were * From whatever source it was borrowed, though not improbable from the Saracens, this mode of decoration seems to have been greatly ap- proved. In the illuminations of this period; a blue ground studded with stars is a frequent back ground; in the beautiful little picture too, from the Decameron, engraved in Dibdin, the ceiling is studded with stars. 400 THE ARTS IN THE for painting religious subjects; but, in 1242, one occurs directing the queen's chamber in the castle of Nottingham "to be painted all round with the history of Alexander." A few years later, Richard de Sandforde is commanded to deliver to Henry of the wardrobe "a certain great book, which is in his house at London, written in the French language, in which are contained the gestes of the king at Antioch, and of the other kings." This great book Mr. Weber conjectured to have been the French romance of Richard Cœur de Lion, to which the curious English romance refers as its guide; and there is little doubt that it was sent for, to enable some artist to execute a series of paintings on the subject, to decorate one of the apartments in the palace at Westminster-that one probably which was afterwards known by the title of the Antioch Chamber. It is a subject of regret to the inquirer, that not a vestige of any of these curious paintings now re- mains. Judging from illuminations of the same period, we may believe that, while in brilliancy of colouring, they might vie with any modern decora- tive painting in neatness of execution, and in gene- ral correctness of design, they would be found to approach nearer to the perfection of modern arts than many a modern inquirer would believe. From the very curious accounts which the industry of the late Mr. Smith and Mr. Brayley, in their descrip- tions of the ancient palace of Westminster, have collected, we find that the painters, during the 13th THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 401 century, were well supplied with materials, and that their rate of wages was rather higher than that of the present day. To the middle of this century, the introduction into England of that most imposing and splendid species of decorative painting, stained glass, may be assigned. The mere art of colouring glass, and combining detached pieces of various forms and colours, in a kind of mosaic, seems to have been adopted very early. According to Muratori, even in the ninth century, one of the popes decorated the windows of a church "with glass of divers co- lours." But the beautiful art of painting subjects upon glass was not known until the twelfth century, and not long before its close. Where it first origi- nated, or who was its inventor, are alike unknown; but among, perhaps, the earliest specimens of painted glass, those in the windows of St. Denis, near Paris, may be placed. It has been said that these were painted by order of its abbot, the celebrated Suger; but a later date has, by most writers on the subject, been assigned to them. About the commencement of the thirteenth century, this beautiful art rose ra- pidly into favour; and the aid of the painter on *The prices of some of these articles may amuse the reader. White lead is 24d. per lb., red lead 2d., green paint 54d.; but azure 4s. There is an entry of another azure, charged as high as 8s. (this was pro- bably ultramarine.) Sinople is 4s., vermillion Is. 8d., and verdigris 1s. 94d. In Stevenson's Supplement to Bentham's Ely, entries for simi- lar materials will be found. These date about twenty years later; the prices, however, are very nearly the same. The wages of the men are from 3d. to 7d. per day, while the superintendant receives 14d. per day. All these prices must be multiplied by fifteen, to bring them to their present rate. D D 402 THE ARTS IN THE glass was always invoked to give additional splendour to those noble edifices of the new order, which were rising on every side. The first notice of stained- glass windows, in England, occurs in a precept of Henry, 1241, in which, directing various repairs and improvements to be made in the chapel of St. John the Evangelist, within the Tower, he com- mands "that they shall cause to be made three glass windows; that in the northern part with a little Mary, holding her Son; the next, in the southern part, with the Trinity; and the third, also in the southern part, with St. John." Nor, even at this early period, does this splendid art appear to have been em- ployed only in ecclesiastical buildings; in a precept, dated in his 36th year, we find Henry directing that "a window of white glass, with the history of Dives and Lazarus thereon," be placed in his castle at Northampton. No specimens of stained-glass of this period are now remaining in any of our cathe- drals; but, most singularly, windows which were painted within a few years of the date of Henry's first precept, are still remaining in the chancel of an obscure country church-that of Chetwood in Buckinghamshire--which, with its adjoining priory, was founded by Sir Ralph de Norwich, for Augus- tine friars, in 1244. These windows, which exhi- bit a striking resemblance, both in their pattern and colouring, to a rich tessellated pavement, are en- graved in Lysons' Buckinghamshire; and from the form of the letters of an inscription, and the figure of the royal arms, their early date is incontestibly proved. THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 403 The method adopted by the artists of the middle ages, of transferring the design to the glass, was, ac- cording to Mons. le Noir, by tracing out the gene- ral design of the proper size and colour, upon a whited table, or thick papers joined together. This surface was then divided into as many parts as there were pieces of glass, each part numbered, and the corresponding number put on each corresponding piece of glass; nothing then remained for the prin- cipal artist than to see that each subordinate work- man neatly traced the outline from the pattern un- derneath, and coloured it according to the copy. The substances used for colouring were, according to the same writer, similar to those used by our ena- mellers; they were applied in the same manner, only the tints were laid on stronger, and in the more shaded parts, on both sides.* The pieces of glass were then placed in the oven, in order that the co- lours might melt into the very substance, and thus be rendered proof against time or change; and after the last and deepest touches were added, they were again passed through the fire. According to Ste- venson, in his Supplement to Ely, they were then cooled with beer. While painting, fostered and patronized alike in the convent and the palace, made such rapid ad- vances, the sister art of sculpture proceeded even more rapidly toward perfection; and the first im- *These colours were wholly metallic; cobalt formed the blue; manga- nese, the purple; silver, the yellow; copper, the green; iron, the red and brown; and a most brilliant purple was obtained from gold. Such is the infinite divisibility of this precious metal, that “one single grain is capable of colouring strongly 400 panes of glass."-Vide le Noir. DD 2 404 THE ARTS IN THE pulse to its improvement, was probably the custom which, towards the close of the twelfth century, ob- tained of placing the monumental effigy upon the tomb. While the precise period of the introduction of this subsequently universal custom cannot be as- certained, it is certain that an earlier date than the middle of the twelfth century cannot possibly be assigned to it. All the undoubted monuments of an earlier period are of a singularly plain character: mostly, the high-ridged stone coffin itself, half sunk in the ground; and if adorned with sculpture, it is only of the cross, surrounded with scroll-work or foliage, or an arabesque border, enclosing or divid- ing the lines of the inscription. Toward the close of this century, the stone coffin was often placed upon the ground, instead of being partly sunk below; and then, first, the monumental effigy seems to have been placed above it. And with what pathos and beauty did the sculptor of the middle ages invest that effigy! Each distinction of age, of character, of office, is preserved ;-the knight is helmed, and mail-clad ; the crosier rests beside the prelate; the high-born lady is wimpled ; the monarch wears his crown; for so were they known among men. But the day of earthly distinction had passed away; and, therefore, are all alike outstretched in the helplessness of death;-all, with clasped hands and uplifted eyes, implore the "common salva- tion." The earliest effigies in England are probably those in the Temple church; next in order may be placed that of John at Worcester. The execution THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 405 of all these is very flat; and the first effigies on which the eye of the artist can rest with complacency, are those at Fontevraud. Although, in a foreign land, these effigies may take their place in a chapter devoted to the progress of the arts in England, since they were erected at English cost, and under English superintendence. The exact period of their execution it is difficult to ascertain, since we can scarcely believe that the noble effigy of Elinor of Aquitaine was executed even earlier than that of John, to which it is so greatly superior. To that of Isabel of Angoulesme, we can assign the exact date, 1254, from the testimony of Matthew Paris ; and it is very probable that the four effigies of Plantagenet, Cœur de Lion, Elinor, and Isabel, were executed nearly at the same time. indeed toward the middle of this century, that sculp- ture, especially of the human figure, made such rapid advances, and not improbably these rapid advances may be traced to the results of the siege of Constan- tinople in 1221, by the united band of the Croises. The same fortune of war, which gave the horses of Lysippus to grace the arsenal of Venice, scattered among the natives of northern and western Europe many a precious gem of classic art, and the genius of ancient sculpture revived again, to deck the sepulchral chapel, and to adorn the cathedral. It was A peculiarly classical character indeed pervades the effigies of this period: the noble effigy of Elinor, with her lofty regal brow, and the full folds of her mantle so gracefully gathered up beneath the girdle, and from thence flowing to her feet, might be placed 406 THE ARTS IN THE in a collection of Grecian sculpture, nor excite sur- prise. The effigy of Isabel too, though a woman of a far inferior style of beauty, is yet distinguished by much grace and elegance; and the drapery, which is very full and light, is chiselled with great freedom and delicacy. Nor is it only to the effigies at Fonte- vraud that we must turn; the effigy of Edith Astley, the graceful female figure in Bedale church; that of Edmund Crouchback, and that beautiful, though so greatly mutilated effigy of his first wife, Aveline de Fortibus, both in Westminster, are proud monuments of the skill of the artist, at a rather later period. The classical character, just before alluded to, is singularly heightened by the graceful female dress of this period. The robe flowing in ample folds to the feet, the mantle, some- times fastened by rich ornaments on the shoulders, and sometimes flung loosely across the figure, and the plainly banded hair just seen beneath the deli- cate wimple, give these effigies a close resemblance to the remains of classical antiquity; while the knight in his sleeveless surcoat, open at the side, and its ample folds confined by the sword-belt, wears the very counterpart of the Grecian tunic. It has been asserted by some writers, that the sepulchral effigy is an undoubted portrait-this seems correct. In the four effigies at Fontevraud,* there is so much variety and peculiarity of feature in each, that it is difficult to account for it, save upon the belief of each being an actual portrait. The effigy of Beren- * All these may be seen in the late Charles Stothard's beautiful work, the "Monumental Effigies." THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 407 garia at Mans, too, displays so singular a cast of feature, that the artist must have copied from a real face. The features of Coeur de Lion and John bear a striking resemblance to those on their great seals, and a similar likeness of Cœur de Lion we also find in an almost contemporary illumination. The reader will probably be surprised to learn, that the pure marble had no charms for our fore- fathers, but that the effigy was always painted.* This work (of supererogation as we might be inclin- ed to call it,) was however performed in the most careful and delicate manner; the colouring was laid on as thin as possible; the minute details of dress and ornament finished like enamel; while the tints of the face were worked in with so much delicacy, as almost to rival the paintings of the Flemish school. In his interesting account of the effigies at Fonte- vraud, the late Mr. Charles Stothard informs us, that the painting, which still remained on the face of Plantagenet, presented the appearance of a minia- ture. These paintings were always executed in oil; and so excellent were the colours, and so admirable was the ancient artist's method of using them, that the delicate little figures which grace the tomb of Edmund Crouchback, if divested of their coat of dirt, will be found, after the lapse of almost five hundred and fifty years, to retain alike the freshness * Many parts of the churches also, at this period as well as at an earlier, seem to have been painted. The arch, leading to the Chapter House at Westminster, still displays minute traces of painting and gilding: in the east cloister too, immediately below the capitals of the small figures, are remains of a fillet of gold, three inches in breadth. The screen in the Confessor's chapel was also gilded and painted.-(Vide Brayley.) Similar remains of painting and gilding are found in other churches. 408 THE ARTS IN THE of their colouring and the brightness of their gilding. But it was not upon the sepulchral effigy only, that the sculptor of the thirteenth century displayed his skill; his aid began to be invoked for the long ranges of mitred prelates, and crowned confessors, and those gracefully veiled virgin saints, which deck the west fronts of our cathedrals, and the arches of their choirs. In these, even better than in the effigy, we can mark the rapid progress of improvement. In the western front of Peterborough, one of the ear- liest in the adoption of figures, the statues appear very flat and rude; those which adorn the west front of Wells, and which date toward the close of this century, are singularly noble and spirited;— while the beautiful figures which still remain in the presbytery at Lincoln, and the choir of Exeter, and the noble heads which adorn the chapter house of York, all of which may be referred to a similar date, have wrested an admiring eulogy, even from artists, brought up in the "very straitest sect" of the classical school. During the middle period, and especially toward the close of this century, Gothic architecture con- tinued to advance in grandeur and beauty; and, while it began to display a greater degree of orna- ment, the ornaments had not as yet encumbered the general design. In all their accessories the Gothic architects seem to have been guided by the most de- licate perception of beauty. No strange and start- ling combinations of bird and beast, of the human figure with animals or foliage, meet us in the pure THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 409 up Gothic; the human figure, when introduced either gracefully and naturally, occupies the niche, or fills the spandril; or the head alone, wimpled, crowned, or with flowing hair, forms the bracket of the arch, But in foliage the taste of the Gothic architect ab- solutely revelled every leaf, -rose, thistle, straw- berry, ivy, every one from the simple trefoil to the elaborate acanthus, from the light and graceful convolvulus to the richest oak, find a place :- and almost every flower too,-lilies, marigolds, delicately drooping bell-flowers, and rich clusters, which re- semble the hydrangea, and roses of every kind, from the formal heraldic rose to the simplest hedge- row, or the many leaved rose of Provins-all, deli- cate and natural, as though by sudden magic they had been frozen to marble, clasp the graceful shaft, adorn the moulding, or enrich the ponderous key-stone.* The close of this century was distinguished, too, by the erection of those numerous chapter-houses of unrivalled beauty; and by those additions to our cathedrals, which many judges have considered to be the most exquisite parts of the whole. This, too, was the era of the graceful market cross, and of those unrivalled sepulchral crosses, which, amid their mouldering desolation, still exhibit so much grace and beauty. Nor was the progress of the arts, during this period, confined to their three grand divisions; the very seals of the middle of this century exhibit much *To the plates of those beautiful works, the late Mr. Charles Wild's Lincoln and Worcester, and Mr. Britton's cathedrals, the writer has been indebted for the illustrations of this interesting subject. 410 THE ARTS IN THE beauty of execution. The great seal of Henry III. is a noble specimen of engraving; and both the armed equestrian figure, and the crowned and robed sitting figure, display singular grace and spirit. Many seals of the nobles, also, present simi- lar indications of rapid improvement; that of the lady Ela of Salisbury, with her ample robe and merlin on wrist, is a beautiful specimen of seal- engraving; and the contemporary seal of the earl of Albermarle exhibits a design of almost classical character.* In the beautiful art of illuminating manuscripts, equal improvement is visible. The initial letters, instead of the intricate arabesques of the preceding century, often display well executed minatures, surrounded by elegant borders. Light foliage some- times encompasses the page; and when single whole- length figures are introduced, we can readily per- ceive that the illuminator took his idea from the graceful figures that adorned the niches of his church. The same elegance and spirit which characterize the sculpture of this period may be traced (more faintly indeed) in its illuminations; some of which, although mere pen and ink outlines, slightly shaded with green and purple, display the ease and perfect command of hand which delight us in the sketch book of an * The great seal of IIenry is well engraved in the Record edition of the Fœdera. It may here be as well to warn the reader against forming his judgment of the seals of this or of a later period, from the copies in Sandford; these are so coarsely drawn, and so rudely engraved, as to give no notion of the merit of the original. THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 411 artist.* Although the illuminations of this century cannot compete in beauty, and exquisitely high finish, with those of the two following centuries we may yet distinctly trace in them the dawn of that purer taste and better style, which the 14th century beheld in its perfection. The taste which thus adorned the pages of the manuscript equally dis- played itself on the cover. This was sometimes silk, adorned with appropriate ornaments of "gold- smiths' work," but more commonly of oak, richly carved, and often inlaid with brass or ivory; while the smaller books frequently had covers of delicately wrought ivory, in which gems, and sometimes even relics, were inserted. From some incidental notices, it would appear that gold itself was occasionally em- ployed as a covering, and the thin plate elaborately chased, formed the splendid binding. All the works in gold and silver, during this century, appear to have been very beautiful; and the London gold- smiths still retained the pre-eminence which was assigned them in Saxon times. During Henry's reign, he commissioned them to make a splendid gold cross; this they executed with such taste and skill, that it was said the richness of the material was wholly lost sight of in the surpassing beauty of the work. Many small figures in gold and silver, Among other manuscripts illuminated in this manner, queen Mary's Psalter, in the Royal library, merits particular notice for the ease and spirit with which the countless variety of figures of every kind, from the most grotesque demon to the most lovely saint, are drawn. Dr. Dibdin in his Decameron has given two copies of figures from the Register of the Abbey of Abingdon of this period, which illustrate the remarks on the grace and spirit with which the human figure is often delineated. 412 THE ARTS IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. of most delicate workmanship, were executed about this time; while for the rich altar plate-the chalice, the paten, the censer, the alms-dish, the candelabrum, -the classical remains of antiquity seem to have been the models. Never was any age in England characterized by such rapid advancement in the arts. The century which at its commencement witnessed but the first efforts of the architect to point the arch, or to give the massive column greater lightness, and which placed the rude attempt at monumental sculpture among the proudest boasts of art, saw ere its close the unrivalled Gothic established in undis- puted pre-eminence; and noble monuments, and exquisite statues, adorning those glorious struc- tures, which filled the whole land with beauty. We must conclude, although much more might be added; but well pleased will the writer be, if these remarks should in the slightest degree awaken, even in one mind, a taste for the study of those beautiful monuments which have survived through so many change-bringing centuries, or contribute to foster that enlightened interest, which alone can preserve their remains from speedy and irretriev- able ruin. 413 ELINOR OF CASTILE. CHAPTER XIV. Parentage of Elinor-Edward's Voyage to Spain, and Marriage-Elinor arrives in England—Her Voyage with Edward to Palestine-Edward wounded by an Assassin—Their return to Europe-Edward's Journey with the Count of Chalons-Their arrival in England-Coronation— Edward's Arrangements for Elinor's Dower-The Improved Coinage -Statutes protecting Property -Wolves in England- Edward's Round Table in Wales-Death of his eldest Son-Affairs in Eng- land-Expulsion of the Jews-Early Science-The Mendicant Or- ders—Progress of the English Language The Earlier English Ro- -Death of Elinor-Her splendid Funeral-Edward's Gifts Westminster Abbey-Her Tomb there-Her Crosses-Conclusion. By a singular coincidence, the queen, whose me- moirs close the present volume, like her with whom its pages commence, has obtained a traditionary fame, far more extended than that which the histo- rian could give. The beautiful and excellent queen, to whose memory thirteen noble crosses once arose, and whose many virtues well deserved that unri- valled tribute, is still on the fame of an apocryphal story, celebrated throughout the land; and the un- lettered peasant still pauses to gaze on the graceful 414 ELINOR OF CASTILE. effigy that adorns her mouldering cross, and blesses the memory of queen Elinor. Elinor of Castile, the wife of our first Edward, was the only daughter of Ferdinand the Third, king of Castile and Leon, and of Joanna, daughter and heiress of John, earl of Ponthieu-that lady with whom Henry had so capriciously broken off his contract of marriage. On the death of her father, she remained under the protection of her half brother, Alphonso, who succeeded to the crown, until the year 1254, when she was married to Ed- ward, and accompanied him to England. Of the reasons that induced Henry to seek an alliance with the king of Castile, we have no account; but it might have been relationship, since king Ferdi- nand was second cousin to the English king: how- ever, early in 1254, Edward being just fifteen, and Elinor about the same age, negotiations were com- menced; and from a document in the Fœdera, we find that Edward, by the sanction of his father, as- signed "in dower to the illustrious damsel Elinor," the castle and village of Tickhill," with all apper- taining; Stamford and Grantham, with all apper- taining; and the village of Peak;" declaring that the dower should be proportionably increased, when she became queen. These preliminaries being set- tled, Edward prepared for his voyage; and while the "men of Winchelsea" provided some very su- perior vessels to convey the queen; "the men of Yarmouth" built so large and beautiful a vessel for the use of the heir to the crown, that it excited the ELINOR OF CASTILE. 415 admiration of all: but the men of Winchelsea, stung with unworthy jealousy, attacked her, and killed some of her men. * The king and queen, however, proceeded to Gas- cony, and Edward to Spain; where, having been received with great honour by Alphonso, who con- ferred on him the honour of knighthood, he was married to Elinor with great pomp at Bures, and then returned, with his young bride, to England. Some years subsequent to their marriage, Edward and Elinor seem to have resided with the king and queen. There is a precept about the period of this marriage, directing that an apartment at Guilford should be fitted up with dais, fire-place, and ward- robe, having a chapel at the upper end, enclosed with glass windows, "for the use of Elinor of Cas- tile." In 1257, Henry gave to Edward, Gascony, Ireland, and the city of Bristol; we find, however, no notice of Elinor, except that a short period pre- viously to her voyage to the holy land, the annals of Dunstable record a visit made by the queen and * The violent, and almost piratical, conduct of the "barons of the Cinque Ports," was indeed of frequent occurrence. In the subsequent contests between Henry and his barons, taking advantage of their mari- time situation, and the unsettled state of the country, they fitted out a large fleet, which scoured the four seas, seizing every ship they met, and murdering their crews. In consequence, Wikes informs us that, in 1264, all foreign goods became so scarce, that they were six times dearer than theretofore; and this was probably the foundation of the great hostility which London always displayed toward those royally protected sea-ports. The great prevalence of piracy during these early ages of commerce, how- ever rendered the English merchant-seaman as gallant an opponent on the seas, as the English archer was on land; for the merchant vessel was always well armed; and being so frequently exposed to the attacks of enemies, her crew became as accustomed to maritime warfare, as though it had been their exclusive profession. 416 ELINOR OF CASTILE. herself thither, when, in gratitude for her recovery from a severe illness, the queen offered "a rich pall of the kind called baudekin." Elinor, therefore, most probably resided with her mother-in-law; and it affords strong proof of the excellence of her disposi- tion, that exposed at so susceptible an age to the influence of a woman distinguished for her rapacious exactions and hostility to the English, Elinor of Castile, although equally a foreigner, should have become so remarkable for her benevolence, and attachment to the people. In 1267, peace being re-established, tournaments were celebrated throughout different parts of Eng- land; and Edward, who, from his skill in the various chivalric exercises, and his love of all the splendours of romance, was always foremost in these festivals, is represented as having been one of their chief or- naments. But he was soon to exchange the gay trappings of the tournament for the scrip and mantle of the Croise, and to set forth to the almost hopeless task, not of rescuing the holy land, for that had long been in the grasp of the Paynim,-but the few towns on its frontier, which alone remained trophies of that warfare, which for almost two centuries had drained Europe alike of her treasure and her blood. In 1268, the ninth, and last crusade was preached; and although no longer did myriads respond to the call, still Louis, the brave and most excellent king of France, the heir of the English crown, his brother Edmund, and many of the French and Eng- lish nobles, promptly answered the summons. To meet the necessary expenses, Edward pledged Gas- ELINOR OF CASTILE. 417 cony to Louis for 70,000 livres tournois, which, with cautious minuteness, he says in his agreement, are " "for horses, for ships, for meat, and for our pas- sage, which this our business may require." Pre- viously to leaving England, he made his will at Win- chester, and directed that the guardianship of his infant children should be consigned to his uncle Richard, king of the Romans; and that of his castles and lands to archbishop Walter of York, Philip Basset, and Roger Mortimer: he then, accompa- nied by Elinor, set sail from Southampton, with a company of about a thousand men, and arrived, in the spring of 1271, at Acre. The arrival of a Plantagenet, although with so small band, revived the hopes of the Syrian Christians, and the fear of the Paynim, to whom the name of Cœur de Lion was still a watchword of terror. The sultan of Egypt withdrew his Mamelukes from the vicinity of Acre; and the English prince, his little company now re-inforced by some thousands of the Latin chivalry, pursued him to Nazareth. Here, the sul- tan sustained a total defeat; and Edward, entering the doomed city, ferociously put men, women, and children to the sword. Indeed, Edward, although a lover of the chivalric romances, and a devoted imita- tor of the warlike qualities of their heroes, was un- fortunately forgetful of the gentler virtues which those herocs ever displayed; and Nazareth pre- sented but the foreshadowing of what his after course in Wales and Scotland should be. His severe mea- sures toward the Venetian merchants, who sold E E 418 ELINOR OF CASTILE. weapons and armour to the enemy, was but strict justice; and in the vigilance with which he watched the commercial arrangements at Acre, we have also the promise of that wise and judicious policy, which, in after years, encouraged the commerce of Eng- land. But Edward was unable to push his conquest farther; and soon after he nearly paid with his life the penalty of his cruel massacre. Enfeebled by sickness, with which a large portion of his army had been also attacked, as he lay on his couch in the heat of the afternoon, a youth, charged with letters from the emir of Joppa, appeared. As the attendants were in a distant part of the room, and as the youth came from an emir who had distinguished himself by his friendship, he drew nigh unsuspected; but while apparently searching his belt for other letters, he suddenly drew forth a poisoned dagger, and struck at Edward's side. The blow was received on the arm; and Edward, dashing his assailant to the ground, killed him with the self-same weapon. It is on this occasion, that the widely believed story of Elinor's sucking the poison from the wound is told; a story, which however is wholly without foundation, since it is neither mentioned by contem- porary chroniclers, nor by Walsingham. Hemingford, who is most minute in his account, scribes the master of the Temple as superin- tending the surgeons who dressed the wound, and as directing Elinor, who refused to quit her hus- band, to be forced out of the room, when the excision of the blackened flesh became neces- ELINOR OF CASTILE. 419 * sary. Still, although this pleasing story is without foundation, the excellence of a whole life, and the conjugal devotion of thirty-six years, afford a better claim to that respect in which the memory of Elinor of Castile, during more than five centuries, has been held, than a single act of transient, though devoted affection. The recovery of Edward seems to have been slow and weary of lingering in a land where no renown was to be gained, he at length concluded a truce of ten years with the sultan ; and with Elinor, and an infant, who from the place of her birth was named Joan of Acre, set forth on his return. At Sicily, he was received with honours due to the champion of the cross, by its king; and proceeding towards Rome he was met by the cardinals, who accompanied him to the pontiff, and his subsequent journey through Italy was marked with all the honours of a triumph. On the borders of Savoy he found himself hailed, by the waiting prelates and nobles, as monarch of England; and the many tears which Edward shed, when informed of a death that placed the crown on his brow, were honourable alike to father and son. Indeed, whatever censure we may pass on the public conduct of Henry or Edward, we most willingly allow, that in the domes- tic relations their characters were without a stain. Hemingford says that Elinor was told, it was better that she should weep for the pain that Edward would suffer, than that the whole nation should mourn for his death. The common story is first to be found in a Spanish historian, Roderic Santius, who did not write until two hundred years after. EE 2 420 ELINOR OF CASTILE. A singular instance of Edward's unconquerable love for chivalric sports, was displayed during this homeward journey. The count of Chalons sent him a challenge to meet at an approaching tournament: it was in vain that Edward was urged, and even by papal authority, to decline it, since as a king he was bound to only receive the challenge of monarchs. But Edward rejected the papal counsel; and, followed by a thousand men at arms, and archers on horse and on foot, rushed to the tourney. The count of Chalons, however, met him with a double number of combatants, and the "play of lances" soon became a deadly fray. But Edward and his company bore themselves right bravely; at length he and his op- ponent met. Their lances shivered; and Chalons, unlike a courteous knight, who would have retired to the other end of the lists, seized a new lance, which also broke, and, enraged at his failure, threw himself upon Edward. At this moment Edward's steed bounded forward, and the count was thrown to the ground. He now cried for mercy, which Edward granted; but, indignant at his unknightly conduct, he struck him with the flat part of his sword, and compelled him to surrender to a person of inferior birth. At length, in August 1274, Edward and Elinor arrived in England; and, on the Sunday after the Assumption, made their entrance into the city. On this occasion, the chronicler,* probably one of the *Wikes. ELINOR OF CASTILE. 421 spectators, dilates upon the splendour with which the city was adorned, and the gorgeous dresses of its citizens; while an anonymous writer in Leland, adds, that the London merchants showered gold and silver from their windows upon Edward, as he passed along. On the following Sunday, the coronation of Edward and Elinor took place at Westminster- Robert Kilwardby, the archbishop of Canterbury, presiding and amidst a splendid company, among whom were the queen mother, the king's brother, and his brother-in-law the duke of Brittany. The king of Scotland was also there, accompanied by a hundred knights, all mounted on noble palfreys richly trapped; and having dismounted, he displayed the extravagant liberality of turning his horse loose, with those of his knights, to be the prize of the com- mons. This right royal example, the writer tells us, was followed by many of the English nobles; and the extravagance of the gift may be estimated, when we find that the price of a good steed-and such these must have been-varied at this period from 20 to 30 marks (£200 to £300), exclusive of their very expensive trappings. The coronation service was performed amid the loudest acclamations; and when the king, "fair of aspect, of lofty stature, and graceful form," stood resplendent with all the symbols of kingly rule, and his beautiful queen "shone with her most glorious crown" beside him, the exulting chronicler declares that neither tongue or pen could adequately describe the scene; and he addresses to the beautiful Elinor the verses appropriated to the service for female saints, and exclaims: "specie tuâ, 422 ELINOR OF CASTILE. et pulchritudine tua, intende, prospere, procede, et regna."* tr One of Edward's earliest measures, as king, was to augment the dower of his beloved Elinor; the queen mother having been secured in the posses- sion of that, which by custom seems to have belonged to the queens of England. He therefore assigned lands, to the value of £4,500; and probably with a view of raising her dower yet nearer to an equality with that of his mother, gave those strict directions which Prynne has recorded, respecting the queen's gold being collected for every fine for which it was due. From the same account, we find that she ap- pointed Bennet of Winchester-a Jew-" to keep her gold, and dispatch her other business in the ex- chequer." In Edward's eighth year, a mandate to his seneschal of Aquitaine appears, directing that queen's gold should be there paid "in as ample proportion as to Joan, countess of Poictiers and Thoulouse, that Elinor, a duchess and a queen, might not be worse than the countess." These mandates seem to have produced their intended effects, for the revenue from this source appears very much increased; in one year alone, Elinor re- ceives no less than £4,430. During the subse- quent years of his reign, the affection of Edward is displayed by large additions to her dower. In his tenth year he assigns her Longwood chace, Rughey chace, and Chute forest, with the right of selling the oaks. In his eleventh year he gave her all the goods and chattels of the Jews, which had been for- * Wikes. + Prynne's Aurum Reginæ. ELINOR OF CASTILE. 423 feited; and in his eighteenth year, the manors of Havering, Kingston, and Cookham, with the privi- lege of three fairs every year at Sandwich. A strong proof of the attachment of Edward, is also afforded in a mandate in the Fœdera, addressed to the keeper of his mint, in 1286; in which, after directing that de Farendone, the king's goldsmith, should receive "six score pounds of white silver, to make a vase;” this gigantic bowl, though probably to be placed among the royal treasures, is yet spe- cified as being "for the use of the king, and his dearest consort Elinor, queen of England." It is gratifying to find that every addition made to the dower of Elinor increased her beneficial influence. No chronicle records the exactions of the queen of Edward the First, nor the oppressions of her numer- ous tenantry; for that "no one was injured in her times through royal claims; nor was there any op- pression, if by any means even the slightest complaint of it reached her ears," is the eulogy of Elinor of Castile. The first years of Edward's reign were employed in reducing Wales, and incorporating it with Eng- land; but while we willingly allow the tale of his massacre of the Welch bards to be mere fiction, suf- ficient proofs of his cruelty, both toward the people and their native princes, may be found, to render the poet's designation, "ruthless king," most appro- priate. Strange was it, that the lover of chivalry should not have paused in his sanguinary career, while standing amid the very scenes of king Ar- thur's prowess, and among a people by whom his 424 ELINOR OF CASTILE. memory was cherished, long ere Saxon-England knew aught of his fame. But in England, the better qualities of Edward displayed themselves; and these years were distinguished by many important mea- sures. One of them, and most beneficial to trade, was the new coinage of 1279.* Previously to this period, the coinage had been wholly in pennies; and when for purposes of trade a smaller sum was required, the thin coin was cut through one part of the cross that always marked the reverse, and the two pieces became half-pennies; while if a yet smaller sum were required, the half was again divided through the other section of the cross, and it became a "feorthling." The facilities which this rude plan afforded for clipping," is evident; and consequently, the people were continually complaining that the half never exhibited its fair proportions, and that the quarter might in strict parlance rather be termed the sixth. In the new coinage, therefore, half-pennies and far- things were coined like the pennies, and the old cut money carefully called in. 66 In 1283, Edward summoned the representatives of cities to his parliament, at Acton Burnel, and it is probable that, through their agency, the important * On one occasion, toward the close of Henry the Third's reign, he coined gold. This was, however, in a very small quantity; each coin was to weigh two pennies, and pass for 20d. According to Carte, the citizens remonstrated (he does not tell us why,) against it, and the king was obliged to call it in. Probably the citizens feared that a gold coin- age might be easier debased than a silver, and therefore preferred their ancient bezants. Some have doubted the fact of this early gold coinage, because no specimens remain; this is however sometimes the case, even with the ordinary silver coinage; for although some of Richard's Aquitaine coins remain, no one of his English are in existence, nor any of his brother John's. Vide Ruding. ELINOR OF CASTILE. 425 act called the Statute of Merchants was passed. It was in this enacted, that the buyer should appear before the mayor of one of the principal cities, "and acknowledge his debt, and day of payment, which should be registered, and the debtor affix his seal to the bill drawn by the mayor's clerk, who should also affix the king's seal."* Two years after, a very im- portant statute was also passed, which bore the name of the statute of Winton. This directs that the "highways were to be cleared of trees and underwood, for two hundred feet on each side; that hue and cry should be made upon commission of a robbery, in which every man should be compelled to join; and that each should keep arms, according to his station, in readiness to join the sheriff in the pursuit." A statute was also passed in reference to London, enacting that all men found in the streets with sword and buckler, or other arms, after the curfew was rung at St. Martin's le grand, except lords and men of good reputation, should be committed to prison, and the next day carried before the magistrates; while taverns were ordered to be closed as soon as the same bell had rung.† Many other protective acts were passed during Edward's reign; among them the important statute of coroners, which is still in force, must not be passed over; nor that which has been viewed as the first blow aimed at ecclesiastical supremacy-the statute of mortmain. In the Fœdera, about this period, we find two precepts which will surprise readers acquainted Macpherson, vol. 1. + Ibid. 426 ELINOR OF CASTILE. with the early history of our country, only through the medium of our popular historians; these are the commissions to destroy wolves. The doctrine that wolves were utterly extirpated in England by Edgar, (who, in the tenth century, and when so large a portion of the land was covered with forests, effected what France, even in the nineteenth century, has as yet been unable to do, and which has taken its place among the many undoubted facts which more extended research has proved to be without foundation,) has arisen from a mistranslation of the passage in Malmsbury. But whatever might have been the intention of Edgar, in imposing this tri- bute of wolves-though probably it was for their skins and however this partial destruction of them in Wales, might have reduced their numbers, the fact that they existed in England even down to the close of the 14th century, is as well authenticated as any point in our history. The unsettled state of the country during the wars of Henry's reign, and * Although wolves are not mentioned by name, they are evidently alluded to in the Saxon Chronicle, when it states, during Stephen's reign, that if the people go into the woods "they are devoured by wild beasts; if into towns, they meet men more fierce than they." The chronicle of Jorvaulx abbey, about the same period, states that earl Conan, returning to his estates in Richmondshire, was sorely wroth with his seneschal “be- cause he suffered the wolves to multiply." In the dialogue appended to Maddox's Exchequer, it is expressly stated that queen's-gold was paid "for liberty to hunt the fox, wolf, or badger." In the Misa. Roll, 13th of John, 5s. is given to the groom of Ernald de Auckland, "for a wolf caught by his master's dogs at Freemantle." Next in order come the two commissions; while in the earliest English work on hunting, and which dates toward the close of the 14th century, the wolf is placed among the four great beasts of the chace, and directions are given how the horn is to be winded when the wolf is taken; how the young hunter a herde of hartes, a bevy of roes, and a route of wolves;" while the period for chasing "the grey beast of the woods" is expressly stated to be from Christmas to Lady day. is to say, (C ELINOR OF CASTILE. 427 the depopulation of the Welch marches, during Edward's sanguinary contest, was probably the cause of that great increase of these ferocious animals, which rendered a royal commission necessary to ensure their destruction. The first of these appoints John Giffard, "to chase wolves through all our forests in England, with dogs, or by nets, or any other way ;" and directs, that if his dogs should by any chance break loose and take the deer, he shall incur no damage. The second, which dates March 1287, appoints Peter Corbett, "in all our forests, parks, and other places within our counties of Glou- cester, Worcester, Hereford, Salop, and Stafford, where wolves may be found, to take them with men, dogs, and engines, and destroy them in every way.' This precept, which is addressed to his bailiffs, also directs that they "be aiding and assisting to him, wherever he shall come. Macpherson considers it not unlikely, that these precepts were issued by the king, in consequence of their depredations on the large flocks of sheep, whose wool, during the whole of this century, formed so valuable an article of our export trade; this is probable, for Edward watched with most laudable care over our infant commerce. دو During these years we find many indications of that greater splendour of living among the nobles, which is always a sign of advancing civilization. Tournaments were frequently held in different parts of the kingdom, and the baron Mortimer, we are * Fœdera, vol. I. p. 591. 428 ELINOR OF CASTILE. CC In told, in 1279, held jousts at the noble castle of Kenil- worth, to which he proceeded from London, accom- panied by a gallant train, among whom were a hun. dred knights in fair armour, accompanied by a hun- dred ladies, and the gay cavalcade is described as journeying onward, singing joyful songs." 1284, Edward, probably on the occasion of the birth of his son Edward at Caernarvon Castle,* "held a round table in the utmost bounds of Snow- don:" the chronicler tells us that this was most numerously attended, not only by English knights, but by many from foreign parts; and that the pomp and magnificence of this festival was unrivalled. Such accounts seem to anticipate the chivalrous era of the third Edward ;-would that the thirteenth century had possessed a Froissart, to have painted with equal brilliancy the gorgeous scenes at Kenil- worth and Caernarvon, and to have delineated, with the same minuteness, the virtues of an equally excel- lent, but lovelier queen. During the same year, soon after this gallant fes- tival, Edward and Elinor were called to sustain severe bereavement in the death of their eldest son Alphonso, who, past the age of boyhood, had already become distinguished for his estimable qualities, and whose death, the chronicler declares, "all England lamented beyond all measure, because of his great * There does not appear any foundation for the story, that Edward conveyed Elinor to Caernarvon, that her child might be born in Wales. She seems merely to have been there in consequence of her always accompanying Edward on his journeys. The infant prince did not receive his title until some years after, and then Walsingham says the Welch rejoiced, remembering he was born among them. ELINOR OF CASTILE. 429 beauty and worth.” body was conveyed to Westminster, where it was interred with great pomp ; and his sorrowing mother directed his heart to be sent to the church of her favourite order, the Friars preachers at London. He died at Windsor, and his The attachment which Elinor, it is said, displayed toward the mendicant orders, together with the total absence of any record of gift, or endowment bestowed on church or convent, by a queen distinguished for her liberality as for her wealth, renders it not improbable that Elinor of Castile, the native of a land, which at this period was viewed with suspicion by the Holy See, cherished opinions in religion, which in the succeeding age might have made her the patroness of Wickliffe. The Franciscans were, during this century, determined in their opposition to the established priesthood; and while in science they could boast a Roger Bacon, in theology they could also boast many, who were as bold and inde- pendent in their inquiries as he. The Dominicans, by their exertions among the lower orders, and their continual preaching, from whence their title, Friars- preachers was derived, also contributed greatly to awaken a spirit of inquiry; and when we find them, in 1284, denounced by the archbishop of Canter- bury for impugning the dogma of transubstantiation, and censured for not yielding "faith to the authority of the pope, or Gregory or Austin, but only to the authority of the bible, and necessary reason," we must allow, whatever the subsequent errors of these two influential orders might be, that at this period they "fought the good fight" of a reformed faith. 4.30** ELINOR OF CASTILE. Returning to the subject of this memoir, we find that in 1286 Elinor accompanied Edward to France, whither he went to make arrangements with the French king respecting Gascony; and where she met her brother Alphonso. In 1288 Walsingham relates a singular escape of the king and queen. They were sitting together on a couch, conversing, when a thunderbolt entered at the window, which was just behind, and passing between them, without doing the slightest injury, killed two pages who were standing in their presence. The chronicler does not inform us whether it was in gratitude for this escape, that Edward in the following year "took the cross in Gascony, and expelled all the Jews, those enemies to the cross. But it is most probable, that this expulsion of the Jews, from his continen- tal domains, as well as from England, was a sacrifice submitted to by a wise and politic prince, to a feeling which he found too strong to be resisted. دو During the thirteenth century, the Jews, among most of the nations of Europe, were subjected to con- tinual and unrelenting persecution: the alarm which the fears of heresy had awakened, might partly be the cause; but their wealth, which advancing commerce had aided to increase, as it was the more visible, so was it probably also the most influential cause. During this period too, in England, the Jews were considered by the people as protected against popu- lar dislike by the monarch himself; and although the Jews could feelingly tell, and, as we find from Matthew Paris did tell, how heavily they paid for that inadequate protection, still the people viewed ELINOR OF CASTILE. 431 them as assistants, perhaps even as counsellors of the king, in each act of rapacious exaction; and with every aspiration after freedom, they cherished a deeper hatred of the Jews. It were forgetting the circumstances of the age, did we sternly censure our forefathers for this injustice. Keenly alive to their wrongs, and well assured that injury originated from some source; when they saw the Jew, not merely a foreigner, but an alien from the Christian faith, increasing in wealth, and ostensibly receiving from the monarch, marks of favour often denied to his Christian subjects, what wonder was it, that they should view him as the source of the most galling evils of which they complained, and believe that the welfare of the land imperatively demanded his expulsion. The hostility of the clergy aided this opposition of the laity, and rendered it more formidable. About this period, too, the mercantile interest-if such a phrase may be allowed in reference to the commerce of so early a day-began to find the high rate of interest charged by the Jews, very oppressive.* The London goldsmiths also, even at this period a * As appears from the narrative before alluded to, of Richard de Anesty, the usual rate of interest charged by the Jews, was "two pennies per week for a pound." This rate is enormous, yet Matthew Paris states, that, in this century, sometimes even sixty per cent. was paid, although, during the same period in Italy, interest of money seems to have ranged between twelve and twenty per cent. No wonder was it therefore that the rich Jew could fine nearly half a million in a few years, and yet not become a beggar; and no wonder was it that the populace, who knew that they must undergo a whole day's toil to obtain only" two pennies,” grudged the Jew the shining bezants that poured into his coffers, for the easy labour of mere paying and receiving them. It may also be remarked, that the professed money-lender has in all ages been an object of hatred. 432 ELINOR OF CASTILE. wealthy and chartered company, began, like their brethren in the Italian cities, to advance money on pledges; and they naturally clamoured for the expulsion of a race whose profession they were ready to adopt. The first indication of hostile feeling toward the Jews, during this reign, was in 1270, when great numbers throughout every part of England, were imprisoned on charges of clipping the coin, and many were hanged. Of the causes which led to their expulsion from Gascony, or of the circumstances attending it, no chronicler makes any mention; they however state, that when Edward returned from Gascony, he was received in solemn procession both by the clergy and the people; so gratifying had this last act of his continental government been to them. It was then probably, that Edward finally determined the expulsion of the Jews from England. Conscious that he was unable, especially in the more remote parts of the kingdom, to afford them efficient protection against the increasing hostility, both of clergy and laity, he might judge not unwisely, that expulsion was preferable to exposing them to the danger of massacre, and the land to all the evils of popular tumult. Accordingly, in his precept to the Cinque Ports, respecting the final conveyance of this persecuted race, there is no evidence of vindic- tive or bigoted feeling. While the time of their final departure is fixed for November, the letter bears the date of July; and in it the "barons, bai- liffs, and mariners' are strictly enjoyned, "that, see ing we have settled a certain term for all the Jews of ELINOR OF CASTILE. 433 our realm to depart, we forbid that any one, mean- while, should injure them in person or goods." And therefore, when the Jews and their families and goods, should arrive at any of these ports, secure and speedy conveyance was to be afforded them. It is also enjoined that free passage be given to Jews unable to pay; the rate of passage for the others is to be demanded in proportion to their means; the mariners are strictly forbidden, on pain of heavy amerciament, to cause any injury, molestation, loss, or impediment; or to hinder their departure by unjust or unreasonable demands.* and That, in so far as the power of Edward extended, he compelled attention to this precept, is likely, judging from the justice which he awarded to the master of a vessel, who put some Jews on the sands, at low water, and then, refusing to allow them to re-enter, drowned them. This man he very pro- perly hanged; but a nearly contemporary historian, Hemingford, who exultingly relates the story, unac- quainted with the final result, actually assures his readers that the man was both commended and re- warded by the monarch himself:—that a chronicler should think a man deserving of reward for such a deed, affords strong proof of the spirit of deadly hos- tility which Edward had to contend against. Some writers have attributed the expulsion of the Jews to the influence of the queen-mother; but we have no reason to believe that she ever exercised any influence over her son-that the gentle counsels of Fœdera, vol. i. p. 736. F F 434 ELINOR OF CASTILE. Elinor of Castile induced him to mitigate, as far as possible, their compulsory exile, is far more probable. On the first of November, 1290, this persecuted people finally quitted England, taking all their pro- perty with them, except bonds; and their number has been estimated at 16,500. The expulsion of the Jews at an earlier period, might have been alike injurious to our literature and our commerce ;—at the close of the 13th cen- tury it was probably injurious to neither. The merchant, secure of a market for his produce, no longer incurred that risk which rendered the aid of the Jew necessary; while science, now the inhabitant of the chartered university, and the cherished asso- ciate of the Christian professor, no longer needed the friendly shelter which the outcast of Israel had afforded her. During the whole of the 13th cen- tury, the learning and the science of the cloister, if not with such rapid steps as in the preceding cen- tury, still steadily advanced; and the numbers of English students that flocked to the universities, both of this land, of France, and even of Spain, proved how intense was the general thirst for learn- ing. In encouraging and directing the newly awak- ened powers of these young and ardent students, the mendicant orders, almost from the period of their establishment, took the lead. Founded for the very purpose of rebuking the luxury of the esta- blished clergy, and of stimulating their indolence to exertion-however these orders might, in their own. luxurious habits, during the following age, have forgot- ten their first duty, they never neglected the second. ELINOR OF CASTILE. 435 Dividing, as though by common consent, the two grand departments of science, physical and mental, between them, the Dominicans, or Friars-preachers, became the most acute and subtile of metaphysicians; while the Franciscans, or Grey-friars, although many of their number successfully cultivated metaphysics, more generally devoted their powers to physical science, and became the "philosophers" of the mid- dle ages. But the beneficial influence of these powerful orders, in preaching incessantly to the populace in their vernacular tongue, must not be overlooked, since this may be placed among the chief causes which contributed, during this century, to foster and encourage the infant progress of our language. The friar, whatever were his attainments, was compelled to learn the language of the people; for it was to them that his mission was chiefly to be addressed; and while he entered the college hall to dispute with the most acute framer of syllogisms, he also, with equal willingness, sought the market place, to preach in their own tongue to "borel folke." Thus, there was at length an educated class, to whom the native language of England was no foreign tongue. According to those writers who have made the progress of the English language their study, its transition from the Saxon was very gradual; and while, in some measure, this change was effected by the incorporation of many Norman words, it was far more by the adoption of that "unaffected, plain, and comprehensible diction," which characterized so emphatically the Norman French, and which F F 2 436 ELINOR OF CASTILE. placed it in such strong contrast to the inverted phraseology of the Saxon. Although the idle tale of the Conqueror having abolished the Saxon lan- guage, is no longer believed; still general opinion seems to view that despised tongue as wholly pro- scribed for more than two centuries, except among the very lowest of the community. This opinion has probably arisen from the belief that all proceed- ings in our law courts were in French, but an able writer has shewn this to be an error, since, "before the reign of Henry III. we cannot discover a deed or a law drawn or composed in French. Instead of prohibiting the English, it was employed by the Conqueror and his successors in their charters, until the reign of Henry II., when it was superseded, not by the French but by the Latin."* And in his pre- face to the Rolls of the King's courts, he points out instances where the clerk has inserted the Saxon word—and in the Saxon character too-where his Latin did not supply him with its synonym. Although the Saxon was probably understood, and perhaps occasionally spoken by most, except those of the highest class, it was still viewed as the language of the lower orders; and while the church- man wrote his homily in Latin, for the learned, the poet composed his "Roman" in Norman French, for the high-born. But the tale of the Anglo- Norman trouvère was so delightful, and its interest so enchaining, that the Saxon, ere long, yearned to hear the story which awakened such attention in * Sir F. Palgrave's English Commonwealth, p. 56. ELINOR OF CASTILE. 437 the castle-hall; and thus, at the very threshold that separates the Saxon from the English language, stands the Brut of Layamon. The interest which we learn that the Saxon, equally with the Norman, felt in the story of king Arthur, naturally stimu- lated the "gleeman" to other efforts. In translat- ing, we necessarily imbibe somewhat of the character of the language from whence we translate; and the Saxon, probably ere he was aware, imitated the natural order and easy flow of the Norman French, and copying its very form of versification, gave to England her two most popular forms of verse, the octosyllabic and the ballad measure. Still, the pro- ductions in the native tongue were mostly transla- tions, and, with the exception of the admirable romance of Hornchild, now acknowledged to be of Saxon origin, it is difficult to find any metrical tales in this, or the earlier part of the following century, which have not a Norman origin. These originals, however, it must be remembered, were the produc- tions mostly of English authors, writing for the amusement of the higher classes, in French; and, therefore, the reproach which Ritson has so pertina- ciously affixed on our early poets, that they were incapable of originating a single work of fiction, falls to the ground. Among the earliest specimens of what may be termed English poetry, Mr. Warton places the translations of the Psalms which exist in the Bod- leian library, and a collection of saintly legends, from which he gives specimens. These, it is thought, may be assigned to the earliest part of this century. 438 ELINOR OF CASTILE. "Cockayne "—a satire on the clergy, and which is singularly distinguished by its light and flowing ver- şification, and to which he has assigned an even earlier period—must, however, be placed about the middle of this century, when the established orders, by their violent abuse of the friars, and the friars, by their bitter vituperations of the Benedictines, exposed themselves equally to the satire of the poet, who spared neither the one nor the other. But the first specimens of English, to which we can authorita- tively assign a date, are a proclamation by Henry III. in 1257, and which is the first specimen of English prose; and a scoffing ballad, addressed to the Commons, on the victory at Lewes, in 1264—a ballad which must have been composed at that very time; since the victors of Lewes were the next years the vanquished at Evesham. Both these spe- cimens are very intelligible English; and from their style we may feel less scruple in assigning to several metrical romances almost as early a date. Among these, Merlin, Richard Cœur de Lion, Sir Tristrem, and Havelok, may be placed; and as specimens of the language, and as affording many curious and spirited passages, they are worthy notice. But the reader must be warned not to take them as transcripts of the manners and feelings of the higher classes. Whether free adaptations of French ori- ginals, or compositions of the wandering minstrel, the tales are well suited to the class for whom they were intended, the "lewed men," the rude and ig- norant, "who can Frenshe none," as the author of Cœur de Lion expressly says; and from whom, pre- ELINOR OF CASTILE. 439 وو viously to commencing his story, the author of Havelok prays "a cuppe of fulle gode ale; -sure proof that he sought not entrance to the castle-hall. Those incidents, in that very spirited tale of "Cœur de Lion," which have awakened the surprise of writers on chivalry, if we view them but as marvels invented to arouse the attention of the vulgar, seem not so strange. The monarch killing with one blow of his fist the emperor's son, and then rushing on the lion, and after tearing out his heart, pro- ceeding to the emperor's table, and actually eating it, seemed to the guests, at the alehouse, but mar- vellous exploits of strength and valour. So, too, that cannibal repast on the head of a Sarrazin young and fat," detailed in all its extravagant cir- cumstances with so much glee, might appear but as a goodly proof of Richard's unquenchable hatred of the Paynim, to the attendants at a village fair; who, unconscious that swines-flesh was an abomination. to the refined classes, might consider it very likely that the monarch of England should ask, as his homely dinner, the remains of the "pig's head," on which the night before he had supped so heartily, and laugh aloud when the Saracen's head met his eye. In Merlin, when we read that his mother was in- duced by her companions to visit the alehouse, we immediately perceive that this was no romance to which the high-born lady would lend her ear; nor when, in Sir Tristrem, we meet with so many coarse expressions; and, in Havelok, the description of a vanquished knight being dragged by his feet, and by a 440 ELINOR OF CASTILE. wretched horse, full two miles to the gallows tree, we feel assured that such tales can never be taken as pictures of the manners of the higher classes.* That these earliest English romances should have been thus coarse and rude, need not however excite surprise. That language which now boasts the widest extension of any, was then only slowly rising into notice; still proscribed by the court, still exiled from more refined literature, it put forth its infant strength among a rude but vigorous people; and probably obtained from thence a force and a spirit, which the palace-cradled language of Provence never attained. Toward the close of this century-for the exact period has not been ascertained-the first attempt at supplying the people with historical knowledge, through that medium by which they would alone re- ceive it, rhyme, was made by Robert of Gloucester; and his curious work still remains a valuable spe- cimen of the language of the period. But little, if any, of poetry, in the higher and more correct sense of the term, can however be found among these wri- ters; and it is to the following century, when England was engaged in almost unceasing war with France, that the rise of English poetry must be assigned. Then, many most graceful and spirited romances The versions of Havelok the Dane, published by Sir F. Madden, are very valuable on this account. In the French version, we see the story adapted to the higher classes; in the English, to the lower. Thus, while the usurper in the French romance is slain in battle, the "vul- gar taste for horrors" leads the English minstrel to describe his drawing and hanging. The great injustice of taking these rude tales as pictures of the manners of the higher classes, will appear yet more strongly if we compare them with the lays of Marie, and the French romance of Yppomedon. ELINOR OF CASTILE. 441 were composed; and, ere its close, Gower, Chaucer, and Occleve, adorned the poetical literature of our land. In the spring of 1290, Elinor's daughter, Joan of Acre, was married to the earl of Gloster, and the marriage festival was kept with great splendour, at Clerkenwell. In the following July, Margaret, her third daughter, was married to John, duke of Brabant; and toward the autumn, Edward set out for Scotland, to reduce the disorders which agitated that country, in consequence of the death of its young queen, Margaret, better known in Scottish history by her title of the "Maiden of Norway." From a precept in the Fœdera, we find that Edward, in the middle of October, was at King's Clipstone, in Nottinghamshire, where he had a palace, and where he was probably awaiting the arrival of Eli- nor, who was about to accompany him on his journey. But Elinor was never to reach the palace of King's Clipstone she was seized with violent fever at Herdby, a village about twenty miles to the eastward; and her fast increasing illness pro- bably not allowing her removal, she expired there, "at the house of one William Weston," according to Sandford, on the 29th of November. The grief of the king, of her family, and of her dependants, at this great and not improbably unex- pected loss, was unbounded; while by the whole people the death of Elinor of Castile was viewed as a national calamity; "for," says Walsingham, and he echoes the testimony of every contemporary 442 ELINOR OF CASTILE. historian, "she was pious, virtuous, merciful, a friend to all the English, and as a pillar of the realm. In her day no foreigner dared to oppress England; neither was any native ever injured through regal exactions, if to her ears even the slightest complaint of wrong ever came. And, therefore, everywhere was there sorrowing, because her high station gave good promise to the sad that they should be comforted; and because as far as she might, every cause of discord she reduced to peace." After this warm eulogy, we shall not be surprised at the splendour which marked the obsequies of this beloved queen, nor the homage which after ages paid to her memory.* Determined to pay the last sad but yet consoling tribute to the remains of her who for thirty-six years had been his inseparable companion, Edward gave up his intended journey, and accompanied the funeral procession to London. From an incidental notice in the chronicle of Dunstable, it appears that the body, laid on a hearse, was conveyed, accompa- nied by all the royal suite, a certain distance each day, and that each night the funeral train took up their lodging in the town appointed for them, while the body was reverently borne to the principal church, and there, being placed before the high altar, the service for the dead was chanted by officiating * Elinor's surviving children were, Edward the Second; Elinor, coun- tess of Barr; Joan, countess of Gloster; Margaret, duchess of Brabant; Elizabeth, countess of IIolland; and Mary, who took the veil at Am- bresbury. There is a letter in the Fœdera, addressed to queen Elinor on this occasion, by "Margaret, the most humble abbess of Fontev- raud," which seems intended to overcome the reluctance of the mother to this sacrifice of her almost infant daughter. ELINOR OF CASTILE. 343 priests during the whole night. In this manner were the remains of Elinor conveyed from Herdby to Lincoln, from thence to Grantham, and along the ancient high north road, by thirteen stages, to London. Gifts were bestowed by the king on the various convents along the line of road. These seem to have been wax lights and altar-cloths; since the chronicle of Dunstable states that "two precious cloths, called Baudekin, and more than fourscore pounds of wax," they received on that occasion. This chronicle also states, that the hearse remained in the market-place until a bier was prepared; when the chancellor, and the attendant nobles accompa- nied the body to the church; and that it was on the spot where the hearse had stood that the cross was afterwards erected. At St. Albans, the funeral procession was met at the gates by the whole con- vent, who reverently bore the corpse to the abbey church, placed it before the high altar, and watched it through the whole night, ceaselessly singing the ser- vice. Tradition has also recorded, that on the proces- sion arriving in London, the lord mayor and the city companies went forth to meet it, and that the body was borne to the cathedral; from whence, it is pro- bable, ere its conveyance to Westminster, Elinor's heart, was sent to the church of her favourite order, the Dominicans. At length, on the 17th of December, Elinor of Castile, amid the abundant tears of her husband, her numerous family, and the whole community, was consigned to that tomb in St. Edward's chapel, 444 ELINOR OF CASTILE. Westminster, which her beautiful brass effigy still adorns. The gifts which, in compliance with the usage of the day, Edward bestowed on the convent of West- minster, were right royal. The manors of Bird- brooke in Kent, of Westerham in Essex, and of Hendon in Middlesex, together with Eton-bridge, Arden's Grafton, Langdon, and lands in Warwick- shire and Buckinghamshire, were assigned, on con- dition that the abbot, prior, and convent, each eve of St. Andrew, the anniversary of her death, "should sing the Placebo, and Dirige, and the nine lessons; " that they should provide one hundred wax candles, each of twelve pounds' weight, to burn about her tomb, from the eve until the morrow of St. Andrew: that all the bells should toll, and all the convent should sing the service of the dead; and that a penny each should be given to seven score poor people, who should then attend.* Thirty wax tapers were, throughout the year, to burn about the tomb; and even in the time of Fabian-more than two hundred years after he remarks, that "two waxe tapers are brennynge upon her tumbe, bothe daye and nighte, whiche so hath contynued syne the daye of her burynge to this present daye." But Edward was not content with securing the prayers of the convent of Westminster; he, there- fore, early in January, addressed a touching letter to the abbot of Clugny, in which, after stating that * Vetusta Monumenta, vol. iii. ELINOR OF CASTILE. 445 "God, the founder and creator of all things-who, in the unfathomed depths of His heavenly counsel, ordains, calls, recalls, and disposes, in His provi- dence, all his subject creatures, hath called hence, as seemed good unto Him, our most illustrious con- sort Elinor," he therefore entreats the prayers of the abbot and his convent for her, "whom as while living we so dearly loved, we cannot cease to love now dead, that if aught of stain may perchance, in any way, still continue, it may, through the pleni- tude of Divine mercy, be cleansed away."* Would that the sorrowing monarch had been taught a more consolatory faith. The attention of the king was next directed to the erection of the beautiful tomb in Westminster, and those noble sepulchral crosses, which ere long arose on each spot where each night the body rested on its long journey to London. From an entry in the Liberate Roll, we find that the beau- tiful brass effigy of Elinor was cast in the adjoin- ing churchyard, together with that of king Henry; since Hugh de Kendal receives 11s. 4d. " for building a house in the burial-ground of the abbot of Westminster, in which the statues of king Henry and Elinor queen of England, late consort of the king, were being made." We have no record, how- ever of the artist. Both these effigies are of excel- lent workmanship; that of Elinor is especially worthy of notice; and the beautiful features, which tradition asserted became, in the following century, the model for those of "our ladye" herself, bear so close a resemblance to those of the statues which Fœdera, vol. i. p. p. 741. 446 ELINOR OF CASTILE. still grace her remaining crosses, that we can have little doubt but they were modelled from life. The effigy, richly gilt, was formerly surmounted by an appropriate canopy; this has long since been removed, and the present tasteless covering is the work of a far later day; from the appearance of the edges of the robe, Mr. Blore is inclined to consider that ornamental studs, probably of valuable jewellery, were formerly inserted; these, however, have long since been torn away, together with the sceptre, which originally was held in the right hand. Of the beautiful crosses, those proud memorials of affection which no other queen, save Elinor of Castile, ever received, and which no other country can boast, our information is less specific. While many chronicles record their erection, not one gives the name of the architect; and while the name and parentage of many a mere worker in gold and silver is duly celebrated, the artist, who so ably seconded the devoted affection of Edward, has passed wholly into oblivion. Thirteen of these beautiful monuments at Herdby, Lincoln, Gran- tham, Stamford, Geddington, Northampton, Stoney Stratford, Dunstable, St. Alban's Waltham, West- cheap, and Charing Cross,* formerly adorned the land; but time, the injuries of civil war, and the fury of the zealot, have levelled the greater num- ber; and only three, those of Geddington, North- * In this enumeration Peck has been followed, since his order places the crosses in the direct line of road, and allows on an average about twenty miles a day for the funeral procession. The authors of Vetusta Monumenta add two other crosses, one at Newark and one at Leicester, but both these places are out of the road. ELINOR OF CASTILE. 447 ampton, and Waltham, now remain. Each of these displays great architectural elegance and great deli- cacy of execution; and each, although different, presents many similar features. In each, the lower arches display shields of the armorial bearings of the queen of Edward; while above, in deeply recessed niches, surmounted by rich and graceful foliaged canopies, four delicate effigies of Elinor of Castile, robed as a queen, and with crown, orb, and sceptre, smile in meek beauty on the passer-by. From the day which consigned his beloved queen to the tomb, Edward in the council and in battle sought refuge from his sorrow; and nine years passed away ere the crown was again worn by a queen consort. With the excellent and long-lamented Elinor of Castile, the history of the thirteenth century closes; and here, ere the fourteenth century, with its chivalric splendours and its host of pic- turesque incidents, opens to our view, we close the first period of these Historical Memoirs. 449 APPENDIX. NOTE 1, p. 11. It is worthy of remark that the two popular Norman versions of this im- portant point of history-the Bayeux tapestry, and the metrical chronicle of Wace—both coincide in this view. The tapestry commences with Harold's embassy to William, and in a subsequent picture he is represented with his hand on the relics, solemnly swearing fealty to him. In Wace, we are expressly told that Edward nominated William as his successor, and that William, after liberating Harold, at his own cost, from captivity, caused him to swear that, in the event of Edward's death, he would, "as seneschal," secure the kingdom to him. When William addresses his men at the battle of Hastings, Wace represents him as saying,- "For truly, on this very land, This very day I take my stand, But to avenge the felonies, The treasons great, the injuries These men have done us." And after the battle, William proceeds to London, to be "elected" by the barons and clergy, and there asks "les Engleis" by what laws they will be governed. NOTE 2, p. 6. No instance of Norman cruelty has made so deep an impression on the popular mind as the establishment of the Curfew. This has probably arisen from unacquaintedness with the singularly early hours at which our forefathers commenced and finished the labours of the day. The matin service of the church at this period, and for centuries after, was five o'clock; and at this early hour, we find that not merely the com- mon people, but high-born, and even royal women, were accustomed to G G 450 APPENDIX. attend. Iligh mass was at nine, and dinner immediately followed. At four the work of the labouring man ceased, and at five the pleasant chime of the even-song bell told that the labours of the day were over. The interval between the even-song, or vesper service, and complin, was devoted to various sports; and at seven, the officiating priest pronounced from the altar that final benediction, so emphatic in those unsettled times, a good night, and quiet rest. One hour elapsed ere the Curfew was rung; and thus it really indicated the period when the whole population were accustomed to retire to rest. The story that candles were after this time prohibited in private houses, is wholly apocryphal; and the silly notion that fires were put out, is disproved by the very phrase couvre-feu," which evidently alludes to the custom still followed in the northern parts of England, of covering up the fire with a turf or slow-burning coal. The curfew was rung in London as a signal for the apprentices to return home, and for houses of entertainment to be closed, even down to the period of the Reformation. cr NOTE 3, p. 11. After describing the eagerness with which the people listened to the preaching of the crusade, Malmsbury continues, "They hungered and thirsted after Jerusalem alone. Joy attended those that set out, grief oppressed such as remained. But why do I say remained? You might see the husband departing with his wife-indeed, with all his family. You would smile to see the whole household laden on a cart, about to proceed on their journey. The road was too narrow for the passengers ; the path too confined for the travellers; so thickly were they thronged with endless multitudes. Doubtless, never did so immense a people subject their unruly passions to one, or almost to no, direction. For the strangest wonder to behold was, that such a countless multitude marched gradually through various Christian countries without plundering, though there was none to restrain them." NOTE 4, p. 22. This curious and unique specimen of needlework, is a series of pic- tures illustrating the treachery of Ilarold, and the invasion of England, worked on canvass with coloured worsted, in a kind of long cross-stitch. By some antiquaries it has been assigned to the time of the empress Maude's regency; while, by others, and apparently with more correctness, it has been placed as early as the time of the Conqueror, and is supposed to have been the work of his wife Matilda, and her attendant maidens. The canvass is about eighteen inches in breadth; each picture is divided APPENDIX. 451 from the other by what is intended to be a tree, and a border of rude arabesques and small figures is carried along the edges. Each picture is described in a short Latin sentence, worked in large letters at the top; and where the new abbey church of Westminster appears, the fair em- broiderer, doubtless from admiration of its beauty, has worked, in addi- tion to the inscription, a large hand pointing it out to particular notice. As may well be imagined, the designs are of the rudest character; still as authentic representations of the dresses, armour, and furniture, of the period, they are most valuable. But the colouring is singularly extrava- gant. Westminster Abbey has a blue and yellow roof, and red pillars; the planks of the ships are red, green, and purple. King Edward dis- plays a blue and yellow beard, and Harold bears on his wrist a falcon of the same colours. The gallant steeds in the battle make a marvellously brilliant appearance: bishop Odo is very appropriately mounted on an episcopal purple charger; a goodly sky-blue horse is placed right across the canvass, as though he were hung up by the tail; and William prances gallantly forth on a noble green steed with three legs, one of them red with a yellow hoof. Some part of this tapestry has been en- graved in Montfaucon ; but the censure so justly bestowed on most of the plates in that learned antiquary's valuable works, applies even more strongly here. The artist has so improved his copy, that it ceases to bear the slightest resemblance to the original. It is in the coloured plates, published by the Society of Antiquaries, from the accurate draw- ings of the late Mr. Charles Stothard, that the reader can alone form an idea of this curious and ancient work. NOTE 5, p. 30. It is a very singular fact, that while in illuminations we meet with almost every variety of dress and furniture, we find no representations of the ancient dwelling-house. What, therefore, these were, is left almost to conjecture, and some writers have taken Hollingshed's description of the very rude dwelling-houses of the fifteenth century for their guide in judging what the dwelling-house at a still earlier period must have been. But the stone houses inhabited by our merchants at the close of this and during the following century, must have been of a far superior cha- racter; for we know that in the extent of their households, they emulated the state of the nobles. From the frequent mention of the gable, it is probable that all these houses had very high slanting roofs; and if the reader turns to the plates of some of the ancient chateaux in Normandy, it is probable that the very pattern of these ancient dwelling-houses will meet his eye. In regard to the question respecting chimneys, they cer- 452 APPENDIX. tainly were in use at a much earlier period than is generally supposed. Mr. Britton has a drawing of part of a dwelling-house, in Norfolk, to which he affixes a date as early as the era of queen Maude, and each room exhihits a depressed arch scarcely larger than the modern fire-place, enclosing the chimney. NOTE 6, p. 81. In calculating the present value of these fines, it must always be borne in mind that the pound weight of silver was coined into twenty shillings; consequently that each shilling was three times the weight and value of the modern one. This, in the first instance, trebles the value: but in consequence of the scarcity of money, the pound weight of silver would purchase much more than it would in the present day. For the thir- teenth century, Mr. Hardy (vide his Introduction to the Close Rolls) considers that the shilling would purchase five times as much; conse- quently we must multiply by fifteen. In regard to this century, as money was unquestionably scarcer, the rate must be higher; still, it is difficult to believe that the shilling was, as some writers have told us, equal to thirty modern ones. Many entries in this Pipe Roll seem to disprove so high a rate and probably from twenty, to perhaps twenty-four, might be nearer the correct standard. NOTE 7, p. 232. The abbey of Fontevraud was situated in the province of Anjou, and was founded towards the close of the eleventh century by Robert d'Ar- brissel, a Breton priest, who had been commissioned by Urban II. to preach the first crusade. Having performed this mission, he wandered about preaching the duty of forsaking the world. Soon surrounded by a multitude of enthusiasts, he selected the forest of Fontevraud for his residence, and the first indication of this wealthy and noble establish- ment was the collection of rude huts in which the superior and his disci- ples were content to dwell. Wealth, however, soon poured in: gifts of land and building materials accumulated; a lady, named Eremburgh, gave them the valley in which the great church was erected; the lords of Montreuil and Radegonde, the lands of Born, and the forest; princes and nobles offered largely; and soon three hundred women, of the higher classes, took possession of their noble convent. Besides these, one hundred women of bad character, but who were desirous of reforming, dwelt in a convent dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene; one hundred of the sick and leprous were placed in a hospital dedicated to St. Lazarus ; and a number of monks occupied another convent near, and were chaplains to the different institutions. The ladies of Fontevraud, as the APPENDIX. 453 nuns were named, were distinguished by a singularly becoming dress, which they wore from the period of their foundation to that of their dis- persion in 1793; this was a vest of fine white linen with lawn sleeves delicately plaited; a black stomacher and belt, a thin black veil thrown over the head, and a large black mantle falling from the shoulders. The founder lived to see his establishment become one of the most illustrious in Europe. Toward the end of his life, he gave up his rule, and invested the beautiful Petronilla de Chemille as abbess, submitting himself, and all the convents, to the supremacy of a female head; and this singular arrangement was always adhered to in every convent that fol- lowed the rule of Fontevraud. In 1117, Robert d'Arbrissel died, leav- ing so questionable a character, that the attempt which was made soon after to obtain his canonization failed. Whatever were the faults of its founder, no censure has ever attached to his foundation. For many cen- turies it formed a safe and honourable asylum to many of the noblest women in Europe; and many of its abbesses, chosen from among the most illustrious families in France and the adjoining provinces, were distinguished for their literary attainments. Even in the present day, not a few noble and royal women on the continent, casting an anxious look toward the lowering future, may well lament that the ruined abbey of Fontevraud can no longer open its friendly gates to receive them. NOTE 8.-p 251. Richard is said to have borne his captivity with greater equanimity than might perhaps have been expected. IIe beguiled his time by occasional trials of skill and strength with his warders, in which his great muscular power excited their astonishment. He also solaced himself with song; but it is very uncertain whether any lays of the royal troubadour are yet in existence. One, said to have been composed by him toward the close of his imprisonment, may be found in Sismondi, and from its characteris- tic spirit, may, not improbably, be the genuine composition of Cœur de Lion. This very pleasing The lines referred to words: NOTE 9. p. 272. legend is in the Cotton library, Vespasian, B. X. in the text are curious, from the mixture of Latin "L'oisel respunt angeli sumus Benz en ciel, jadis fuimus E chaimez de halt si bas Od orguilleuse." 454 APPENDIX. The whole of this poem, like that of Guichart de Beaulieu, is remarkable for its Protestant character. The extracts from Gaimar are copied from the manuscript in the Royal library, 13 A. XXI. The extracts from the "Brut d'Angleterre," are also from the before-mentioned manuscript, and from that in the Cotton library, Vitellius A. X. Benoit St. More's "Estoire de Ducs de Normandie," is in the Harleian collection, No. 1717. "Le Sermun de Guichart de Beaulieu," is also in the Harleian collection, No. 4388; and “le Dictie du Clerc e de la Philosophie "” is in the Royal library, 20 B. XIV. CORRIGENDA. ") Page 61, line 6 from the top, dele "during "-p. 69, line 10 from the top, for " menaye" read "menyé "—p. 78, note, supply I."-p. 263, I. line 4 from top, for " read see isle "-p. 301, line 14, for "six read seven;" line 20, insert "pressed "—p. 300, line 17, for “mere” read “ more refined"-p. 385, line 23, insert "the work of "-p. 388, line 10, for "building" read "buildings; last line, supply and dele "? 13 " "nor," for " though," Printed by Nuttall and Hodgson (Successors to Mr. Ellerton), Gough Square, London. TY UNIVER AN UN MIC RSITY AN EAR ERSIT CHIG W MI ان AN AN IN UN MIC MIC HIG NIVE ERSITY HIG H AN AN VE MIC NIVER GAN SHIG MIC BAIN H HIGAN U NIL VER AN HIG ISHTAIN GAN MICHIC AIND MO UN MIC UNIVERS, AN RS! ・NIVER AN MIC M INIVER, MICHIGAN HIG AN UNIV VERSITY AN ER. 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