Part 27

Envy of a better man than themselves was however not the sole cause of their hostility. The office of commander-in-chief of the host fell to Richard’s share in consequence of a catastrophe which altered the whole balance of political parties in Europe. That office had been destined for the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, who for more than thirty years had stood as high above all other Christian princes in political capacity, military prowess, and personal nobility of character, as in titular dignity and territorial power. Frederic set out for Palestine as early as May 1189;[1621] he fought his way through the treacheries of the Greek Emperor and the ambushes of the Turkish sultan of Iconium, only to be drowned in crossing a little river in Asia Minor on June 10, 1190.[1622] These tidings probably met Richard on his arrival at Messina in September. There he had to deal with the consequences of another death which had occurred in the previous November, that of his brother-in-law King William of Sicily.[1623] William was childless; after a vain attempt to induce his father-in-law Henry II. to accept the reversion of his crown,[1624] he had bequeathed it to his own young aunt Constance, who was married to Henry of Germany, the Emperor’s eldest son.[1625] It was, however, seized by Tancred, a cousin of the late king.[1626] Richard’s alliance with Tancred, though on the one hand absolutely necessary to secure the co-operation of Sicily for the crusade, was thus on the other a mortal offence to the new king of Germany, who moreover had already a grudge against England upon another ground:--Henry the Lion had in this very summer extorted from him almost at the sword’s point his restoration to his forfeited estates.[1627] Thus when Richard at last reached Acre in June 1191,[1628] he was already in ill odour with the leaders of the German contingent, the Emperor’s brother Duke Frederic of Suabia and his cousin Duke Leopold of Austria.

[1621] Ansbert (Dobrowsky), p. 21. Most of the English writers give a wrong date.

[1622] See the story of Frederic’s expedition and death in Ansbert (Dobrowsky), p. 21 _et seq._; _Itin. Reg. Ric._ (Stubbs), pp. 43–55; _Gesta Ric._ (Stubbs), pp. 56, 61, 62, 88, 89; Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 358; Monach. Florent., vv. 245–330 (_ib._ vol. iii. app. to pref. pp. cxiv.–cxvii.).

[1623] _Gesta Ric._ (Stubbs), pp. 101, 102.

[1624] “Vidimus, et præsentes fuimus, ubi regnum Palæstinæ, regnum etiam Italiæ patri vestro aut uni filiorum suorum, quem ad hoc eligeret, ab utriusque regni magnatibus et populis est oblatum.” Pet. Blois, Ep. cxiii. (Giles, vol. i. p. 350--to Geoffrey of York). Bishop Stubbs (_Rog. Howden_, vol. ii. pref. p. xciii.) interprets “regnum Italiæ” as representing Sicily.

[1625] _Gesta Ric._ (Stubbs), pp. 102, 202. Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. pp. 29, 164 and note.

[1626] _Gesta Ric._ (Stubbs), p. 102.

[1627] See _ibid._ p. 145 and note.

[1628] _Ib._ p. 169.

This, however, was not all. Isaac, the tyrant of Cyprus, whom Richard had brought with him as a captive, was also connected with the Suabian and Austrian houses;[1629] his capture was another ground of offence. Next, when the siege of Acre, which the united forces of eastern and western Christendom had been pressing in vain for nearly two years, came to an end a month after Richard joined it,[1630] Richard and Leopold quarrelled over their shares in the honour of the victory; Leopold--so the story goes--set up his banner on the wall of the conquered town side by side with that of the English king, and Richard tore it down again.[1631] Besides all this, as Richard’s superior military capacity made him an object of perpetual jealousy to the other princes, so his policy in Holy Land was in direct opposition to theirs. Since the death of Queen Sibyl in October 1189,[1632] they had one and all aimed at transferring the crown from her childless widower Guy of Lusignan to the lord of Tyre, Conrad, marquis of Montferrat. Montferrat was an important fief of the kingdom of Italy; Conrad’s mother was aunt both to Leopold of Austria and to Frederic Barbarossa;[1633] he thus had the whole Austrian and imperial influence at his back; and that of Philip of France was thrown into the same scale, simply because Richard had espoused the opposite cause. Guy of Lusignan, with a fearlessness which speaks volumes in his favour as well as in Richard’s, had thrown himself unreservedly on the generosity and justice of the prince against whom all his race had for so many years been struggling in Aquitaine; his confidence was met as it deserved, and from the hour of their meeting in Cyprus to the break-up of the crusade, Richard and Guy stood firmly side by side. But they stood alone amid the ring of selfish politicians who supported Conrad, and whose intrigues brought ruin upon the expedition. Philip, indeed, went home as soon as Acre was won, to sow the seeds of mischief in a field where they were likely to bring forth a more profitable harvest for his interests than on the barren soil of Palestine. But the whole body of French crusaders whom he left behind him, except Count Henry of Champagne, made common cause with the Germans and the partizans of Conrad in thwarting every scheme that Richard proposed, either for the settlement of the Frank kingdom in Palestine or for the reconquest of its capital. Twice he led the host within eight miles of Jerusalem, and twice, when thus close to the goal, he was compelled to turn away.[1634] Conrad fell by the hand of an assassin in April 1192;[1635] but Guy’s cause, like that of Jerusalem itself, was lost beyond recovery; all that Richard could do for either was to compensate Guy with the gift of Cyprus,[1636] and sanction the transfer of the shadowy crown of Jerusalem to his own nephew, Henry of Champagne.[1637] Harassed by evil tidings from England and forebodings of mischief in Gaul, disappointed in his most cherished hopes and worn out with fruitless labour, sick in body and more sick at heart, he saw that his only chance of ever again striking a successful blow either for east or west was to go home at once. After one last brilliant exploit, the rescue of Joppa from the Turks who had seized it in his absence,[1638] on September 2 he made a truce with Saladin for three years;[1639] on October 9 he sailed from Acre.[1640]

[1629] R. Coggeshall (Stevenson), p. 59. Ansbert (Dobrowsky), p. 114.

[1630] On July 12, 1191. _Itin. Reg. Ric._ (Stubbs), pp. 232, 233. _Gesta Ric._ (Stubbs), p. 178, etc.

[1631] See the different versions of this story in Otto of S. Blaise, c. 36 (Wurstisen, _Germ. Hist. Illustr._, vol. i. p. 216); Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 514; R. Coggeshall (Stevenson), p. 59; Ric. Devizes (Stevenson), p. 52; Rigord (Duchesne, _Hist. Franc. Scriptt._, vol. v.), p. 35; and Mat. Paris, _Chron. Maj._ (Luard), vol. ii. p. 384.

[1632] _Epp. Cant._ cccxlvi. (Stubbs, p. 329).

[1633] Frederic’s father and Leopold’s father were half-brothers, sons of the two marriages of Agnes of Franconia, daughter of the Emperor Henry IV. Conrad’s mother, Judith, was a child of Agnes’s second marriage with Leopold, marquis of Austria. Conrad’s father was the Marquis William of Montferrat who had been one of Henry II.’s allies in his struggle with the Pope (see above, p. 60); and his elder brother had been the first husband of Queen Sibyl. On his own iniquitous marriage, if marriage it is to be called, with her half-sister and heiress, Isabel--an affair which seems to have actually broken the heart of Archbishop Baldwin of Canterbury--see _Itin. Reg. Ric._ (Stubbs), pp. 119–124; _Expugn. Terræ Sanctæ_ (Stevenson, _R. Coggeshall_), p. 256; _Gesta Ric._ (Stubbs), p. 141; Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. pp. 70, 71. Conrad’s antecedents are told by Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. ii. pp. 320, 321. Considering, however, the case of Guy of Lusignan, it is perhaps hardly safe to admit a charge of homicide against any claimant to the throne of Palestine on Roger’s sole authority.

[1634] _Itin. Reg. Ric._ (Stubbs), pp. 285–312, 365–396; Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. pp. 174, 175, 179; R. Coggeshall (Stevenson), pp. 37–40. See also the characteristic and pathetic account of Richard’s distress at the last turning-back, in Ric. Devizes (Stevenson), pp. 75–77.

[1635] _Itin. Reg. Ric._ (Stubbs), pp. 339, 340. R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 104. R. Coggeshall (Stevenson), p. 35. Rog. Howden (as above), p. 181. Will. Newb., l. iv. c. 24 (Howlett, vol. i. p. 363).

[1636] Rigord (Duchesne, _Hist. Franc. Scriptt._, vol. v.), p. 35, makes it a sale; but it is hard to conceive where poor Guy could have found money for the purchase.

[1637] _Itin. Reg. Ric._ (Stubbs), pp. 342, 346, 347. R. Diceto and Rog. Howden as above. R. Coggeshall (Stevenson), pp. 35, 36. Will. Newb. as above, c. 28 (p. 374). Henry of Champagne was son of Count Henry “the Liberal” and Mary, daughter of Louis VII. and Eleanor.

[1638] _Itin. Reg. Ric._ (Stubbs), pp. 403–424. R. Coggeshall (Stevenson), pp. 41–51. This is really the most splendid of all Richard’s wiking exploits.

[1639] _Itin. Reg. Ric._ (Stubbs), p. 249. R. Coggeshall (Stevenson), p. 52. Rog. Howden (as above), p. 184.

[1640] _Itin. Reg. Ric._ (Stubbs), pp. 441, 442. R. Diceto (as above), p. 106. Rog. Howden (as above), p. 185, makes it a day earlier.

Stormy winds had again parted the king’s ship from the rest of his fleet when, within three days’ sail of Marseille, he learned that Count Raymond of Toulouse was preparing to seize him on his landing,[1641] no doubt in vengeance for the attack made upon Toulouse a few months before by the seneschal of Gascony. Capture by Raymond meant betrayal to Philip of France, and Richard knew Philip far too well to run any needless risk of falling into his hands. Under more favourable conditions, he might have escaped by sailing on through the strait of Gibraltar direct to his island realm; but contrary winds made this impossible, and drove him back upon Corfu, where he landed about Martinmas.[1642] Thence, in his impatience, he set off in disguise with only twenty followers[1643] on board a little pirate-vessel[1644] in which, at imminent risk of discovery, he coasted up the Adriatic till another storm wrecked him at the head of the Gulf of Aquileia.[1645] By this time his German enemies were all on the look-out for him, and whatever his plans on leaving Corfu may have been, he had now no resource but to hurry through the imperial dominions as rapidly and secretly as possible. His geographical knowledge, however, seems to have been at fault, for he presently found himself at Vienna, whither Leopold of Austria had long since returned. In spite of his efforts to disguise himself, Richard was recognized, captured and brought before the duke;[1646] and three days after Christmas the Emperor sent to Philip of France the welcome tidings that their common enemy was a prisoner in Leopold’s hands.[1647]

[1641] R. Coggeshall (Stevenson), p. 53.

[1642] R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 106. _Itin. Reg. Ric._ (Stubbs), p. 442. Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. p. 185. R. Coggeshall as above. The two first supply the dates.

[1643] Rog. Howden as above. The _Itin. Reg. Ric._ (as above) says four, but there were at least nine with him after his landing. See Rog. Howden (as above), p. 195.

[1644] _Itin. Reg. Ric._ as above. R. Coggeshall (Stevenson), pp. 53–54, gives some details highly characteristic of Richard. The pirates began by attacking the king’s ship, whereupon he, “for their praiseworthy fortitude and boldness,” made friends with them, and took his passage in their company. This is authentic, for the writer had it from one of Richard’s companions, the chaplain Anselm. _Ib._ p. 54.

[1645] This is the Emperor’s account, given in a letter to Philip of France; Rog. Howden (as above), p. 195. Cf. Ansbert (Dobrowsky), p. 114; Will. Newb., l. iv. c. 31 (Howlett, vol. i. p. 383); _Itin. Reg. Ric._ (Stubbs), p. 42; R. Diceto as above; R. Coggeshall (Stevenson), p. 54; and Rog. Howden (as above), p. 185 and note 7.

[1646] He was captured December 20, 1192; _Itin. Reg. Ric._ (Stubbs), p. 443; R. Diceto (as above), p. 107. R. Coggeshall (Stevenson), p. 56, makes it a day later. Otto of S. Blaise, c. 38 (Wurstisen, _Germ. Hist. Illustr._, vol. i. p. 217), gives the most detailed account of the capture--an account which looks too characteristic not to be true. According to him, Richard stopped to dine at a little inn just outside Vienna, and to avoid recognition, set to work to broil some meat for himself. He was holding the spit with his own hands, utterly forgetful that one of them was adorned with a magnificent ring, when a servant of the duke chanced to look in, noticed the incongruity, then recognized the king whom he had seen in Palestine, and hurried off to report his discovery; whereupon the duke came in person and seized his enemy on the spot, in the middle of his cooking. The story of R. Coggeshall (Stevenson), pp. 55, 56, is somewhat more dignified. Cf. also Will. Newb., l. iv. c. 31 (Howlett, vol. i. p. 383); Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. pp. 186, 195; and Ansbert (Dobrowsky), p. 114.

[1647] The letter is in Rog. Howden (as above), pp. 195, 196. “Gratissimum illi super aurum et topazion ... nuntium destinavit,” says Will. Newb. as above, c. 32 (p. 384).

Philip at once forwarded the news to John, with a renewal of the proposal which he had made to him a year before. John hurried over sea and formally did homage to the French king for all his brother’s continental dominions; but the seneschal and barons of Normandy refused to acknowledge the transaction, and he hastened back again to try his luck in England.[1648] There he met with no better success. He called the justiciars to a council in London, assured them that the king was dead, and demanded their homage; they refused it; he withdrew in a rage to fortify his castles, and the justiciars prepared to attack them.[1649] Before Easter a French fleet sailed to his assistance, but was repulsed by the English militia assembled at the summons of Archbishop Walter.[1650] While the justiciars laid siege to Windsor, Geoffrey of York fortified Doncaster for the king, and thence went to help his gallant old suffragan and rival, Hugh of Durham, who was busy with the siege of Tickhill.[1651] The castles had all but fallen, and John was on the eve of submission, when the victorious justiciars suddenly grew alarmed at their own success. Richard’s fate was still so uncertain that they dared not humiliate his heir; and at Eleanor’s instigation they made a truce with John, to last until All-Saints’ day.[1652]

[1648] Rog. Howden (as above), p. 204. Cf. R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 106. John’s treaty with Philip is in Rymer, _Fœdera_, vol. i. p. 57; date, February 1193.

[1649] Rog. Howden (as above), pp. 204, 205. Cf. Will. Newb. as above, c. 34 (p. 390).

[1650] Rog. Howden (as above), p. 205. Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. pp. 514, 515.

[1651] Rog. Howden (as above), pp. 206, 208.

[1652] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. p. 207. Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 516, says Michaelmas.

The six months of tranquillity thus gained were spent in negotiations for the king’s release. As soon as the justiciars heard of his capture they had despatched Bishop Savaric of Bath to treat with the Emperor, and the abbots of Boxley and Robertsbridge to open communications, if possible, with Richard himself;[1653] this however was a difficult matter, for of the place of his confinement nothing was known except that it was somewhere in the Austrian dominions, and these were to most Englishmen of that day a wholly undiscovered country. How the captive was first found history does not say. Tradition filled the blank with the beautiful story of the minstrel Blondel, wandering through Europe till he reached a castle where there was said to be a prisoner whose name no one could tell--winning the favour of its lord and thus gaining admittance within its walls--peering about it on every side in a vain effort to catch a glimpse of the mysterious captive, till at last a well-known voice, singing “a song which they two had made between them, and which no one knew save they alone,” fell upon his delighted ear through the narrow prison-window whence Richard had seen and recognized the face of his friend.[1654] It may after all have been Blondel who guided the two abbots to the spot; we only know that they met Richard at Ochsenfurt on his way to be delivered up on Palm Sunday to the Emperor Henry at Speyer.[1655] Thenceforth the negotiations proceeded without intermission; but it took nearly a year to complete them. Personal jealousy, family interest, and pride at finding himself actually arbiter of the fate of the most illustrious living hero in Christendom, all tempted Henry VI. to throw as many obstacles as possible in the way of his captive’s release. Taking advantage of his own position as titular head of western Christendom, he demanded satisfaction for all the wrongs which the various princes of the Empire had received, or considered themselves to have received, at Richard’s hands, and for all his alleged misdoings on the Crusade, from his alliance with Tancred to the death of Conrad of Montferrat, in which it was suggested that he had had a share.[1656] Not one of the charges would bear examination; but they served Henry as an excuse for playing fast and loose with Richard on the one side and Philip of France on the other, and for making endless changes in the conditions required for Richard’s liberation. These were ultimately fixed at a ransom of a hundred and fifty thousand marks, the liberation of Isaac of Cyprus, and the betrothal of Eleanor of Britanny to a son of the Austrian duke.[1657]

[1653] Rog. Howden (as above), pp. 197, 198.

[1654] _Récits d’un ménestrel de Reims_ (ed. N. de Wailly, Soc. de l’Hist. de France), cc. 77–81 (pp. 41–43).

[1655] Rog. Howden (as above), p. 198.

[1656] The charges are summed up in R. Coggeshall (Stevenson), pp. 58, 59. On the death of Conrad see Stubbs, _Itin. Reg. Ric._, pref. pp. xxii, xxiii.

[1657] Treaty in Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. pp. 215, 216. Roger dates it S. Peter’s day; _ib._ p. 215. R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 110, makes it July 5. Cf. Will. Newb., l. iv. c. 37 (Howlett, vol. i. p. 398).

The duty of superintending the collection of the ransom and the transmission of the hostages required by the Emperor for its payment had been at first intrusted by Richard to his old friend and confidant, the chancellor William of Longchamp. William, however, found it impossible to fulfil his instructions; before the justiciars would allow him to set foot in England at all, they made him swear to meddle with nothing outside his immediate commission; when compelled to meet him in council at S. Albans, Walter of Rouen refused him the kiss of peace, and the queen-mother and the barons all alike refused to trust him with the hostages.[1658] Prompt and vigorous measures were however taken for raising the money. An “aid for the king’s ransom” was one of the three regular feudal obligations, which in strict law fell only upon the tenants-in-chivalry; but all the knights’ fees in Richard’s whole dominions would have been unable to furnish so large a sum as was required in his case. In addition therefore to an aid of twenty shillings on the knight’s fee, the justiciars imposed a wholly new tax: they demanded a fourth part of the revenue and of the moveable goods of every man, whether layman or clerk, throughout the realm. Severe and unprecedented as was this demand, it provoked no opposition, even from the clergy;[1659] it had indeed the active co-operation of the bishops, under the direction of a new primate--Hubert Walter, the bishop of Salisbury, who had been one of Richard’s fellow-crusaders, and was now at Richard’s desire elected to the see of Canterbury.[1660] The nation seems to have responded willingly to the demands made upon it; yet the response proved inadequate, and the deficiency had to be supplied partly by a contribution from the Cistercians and Gilbertines of a fourth part of the wool of the flocks which were their chief source of revenue, and partly by confiscating the gold and silver vessels and ornaments of the wealthier churches.[1661] Similar measures were taken in Richard’s continental dominions, and they were so far successful that when the appointed time arrived for his release, in January 1194, the greater part of the ransom was paid.[1662] For the remainder hostages were given, of whom one was Archbishop Walter of Rouen.[1663] This selection left the chief justiciarship of England practically vacant, and accordingly Richard, before summoning the Norman primate to Germany, superseded him in that office by bestowing it upon the new archbishop of Canterbury, Hubert Walter.[1664]

[1658] Gir. Cambr. _Vita Galfr._, l. ii. c. 17 (Brewer, vol. iv. pp. 415, 416). Cf. Rog. Howden as above, pp. 211, 212.

[1659] Except at York, where the resistance was prompted by spite against the archbishop. Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. p. 222.

[1660] Elected May 29, 1193; R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. ii. pp. 108, 109. Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 518.

[1661] On the ransom, and how it was raised, see Rog. Howden as above, pp. 210, 211, 222, 225; R. Diceto as above, p. 110; Will. Newb. l. iv. c. 38 (Howlett, vol. i. pp. 399, 400); and Bishop Stubbs’s explanations of the matter, in his preface to Rog. Howden, vol. iv. pp. lxxxii–lxxxvi, and _Constit. Hist._, vol. i. p. 501.

[1662] Rog. Howden as above, p. 225.

[1663] _Ib._ p. 233. Will. Newb., l. iv. c. 41 (Howlett, vol. i. p. 404), and R. Diceto as above, p. 113. According to this last, another of the hostages was William the chancellor; but his name does not appear in Rog. Howden’s list. One MS. of Ralf has in its place that of Baldwin Wake. As Baldwin certainly was a hostage on this occasion, perhaps William was selected first, and Baldwin afterwards substituted for him. One at least of the hostages was released before the whole ransom was paid: Archbishop Walter came back to England on May 19. R. Diceto as above, p. 115.

[1664] Rog. Howden as above, p. 226. R. Diceto as above, p. 112. Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 523.

The new justiciar immediately had his hands full of trouble. At the prospect of Richard’s return John grew half frantic with rage and dismay. As early as July 1193, when it became known that Richard and the Emperor had come to terms, Philip had sent warning to John--“Beware, the devil is loose again!” and John, without stopping to reflect that the “devil” could not be really loose till his ransom was paid, had hurried over sea to seek shelter from his brother’s wrath under the protection of the French king. Richard, however, at once made overtures of reconciliation to both;[1665] the terms which he offered to John were indeed so favourable that the Norman constables refused to execute them, and thereby put an end to the negotiation.[1666] In January Philip and John made a last effort to bribe the Emperor either to keep Richard in custody for another year, or actually to sell him into their hands.[1667] When this failed, John in the frenzy of desperation sent a confidential clerk over to England with letters to his adherents there, bidding them make all his castles ready for defence against the king. The messenger’s foolish boasting, however, betrayed him as he passed through London; he was arrested by order of the mayor, his letters were seized, and a council was hurriedly called to hear their contents. Its prompt and vigorous measures were clearly due to the initiative of the new justiciar-archbishop. John was excommunicated and declared disseized of all his English tenements, and the assembly broke up to execute its own decree by force of arms. The old bishop of Durham returned to his siege of Tickhill; the earls of Huntingdon, Chester and Ferrers led their forces against Nottingham; Archbishop Hubert himself besieged Marlborough, and took it in a few days; Lancaster was given up to him by its constable, who happened to be his own brother; and S. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall--a monastery whose site, not unlike that of its great Norman namesake, had tempted one of John’s partizans to drive out the monks and fortify it in his interest--surrendered on the death of its commander, who is said to have died of terror at the news of the king’s approach.[1668] Richard had been set free on February 4.[1669] After a slow progress through Germany and the Low Countries, he embarked at Swine, near Antwerp, and landed at Sandwich on March 13.[1670] Following the invariable practice of his father, he hastened first to the martyr’s shrine at Canterbury;[1671] next day he was met by the victorious archbishop hastening to welcome him home,[1672] and three days later he was solemnly received in London.[1673] As soon as the defenders of Tickhill were certified of his arrival they surrendered to the bishop of Durham.[1674] As Windsor, Wallingford and the Peak had been in the queen-mother’s custody since the truce of May 1193,[1675] only Nottingham now remained to be won. Richard at once marched against it with all his forces; the archbishop followed, Hugh of Durham brought up his men from Tickhill; in three days the castle surrendered, and Richard was once again undisputed master in his realm.[1676]

[1665] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. pp. 216–220.

[1666] _Ib._ pp. 227, 228.

[1667] _Ib._ p. 229. Will. Newb., l. iv. c. 40 (Howlett, vol. i. p. 402).

[1668] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. pp. 236–238.

[1669] _Ib._ p. 233. R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. ii. pp. 112, 113. R. Coggeshall (Stevenson), p. 62, dates it February 2.

[1670] Rog. Howden as above, p. 235; R. Coggeshall as above. Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 524, dates it March 12, and R. Diceto as above, p. 114, March 20.

[1671] Gerv. Cant. as above. R. Coggeshall (Stevenson), p. 63.

[1672] Gerv. Cant. as above, p. 524.

[1673] R. Diceto and R. Coggeshall as above.

[1674] Rog. Howden as above, p. 238.

[1675] _Ib._ p. 207.

[1676] _Ib._ pp. 238–240. R. Diceto and R. Coggeshall as above. Will. Newb., l. iv. c. 42 (Howlett, vol. i. pp. 407, 408).

It must have seemed, to say the least, an ungracious return for the sacrifices which England had made in his behalf, when the king at once demanded from the English knighthood the services of a third of their number to accompany him into Normandy, from the freeholders a contribution of two shillings on every carucate of land, and from the Cistercians the whole of their wool for the current year.[1677] In view of a war with France, of which it was impossible to calculate either the exigencies or the duration, Richard undoubtedly needed money; but his needs pressed heavily upon a country which had already been almost drained to provide his ransom. In justice to him, it must however be added that the “carucage,” as the new land-tax came to be called, seems to have been levied not for his personal profit, but as a supplement to the measures taken by the justiciars in the previous year, to complete the sum still due to Henry VI. It was in reality an old impost revived under a new name, for the carucate or ploughland was in practice reckoned as equivalent to the ancient hide,[1678] and the sum levied upon it was precisely that which the hide had furnished for the Danegeld of earlier times.[1679] Its re-imposition in these circumstances, under a new appellation and for the payment of what the whole nation regarded as a debt of honour, met with no resistance. The Cistercians, however, remonstrated so strongly against the demand for their wool that they were allowed to escape with a money-compensation.[1680] The taxes were imposed in a great council held at Nottingham at the end of March and beginning of April,[1681] where measures were also taken for the punishment of the traitors and the reconstruction of the administrative body. These two objects were accomplished both at once, and both were turned to account for the replenishment of the royal coffers. Except John, Bishop Hugh of Chester, and Gerard de Camville, who were cited before the king’s court on a charge of high treason,[1682] none of the delinquents were even threatened with any worse punishment than dismissal from office. This was inflicted upon most of those who had taken part in the proceedings against the chancellor. Several of the sheriffs indeed were only transferred from one shire to another;[1683] but Gerard de Camville was ejected without compensation from the sheriffdom of Lincolnshire, and Hugh Bardulf, one of the subordinate justiciars who had joined the party of John, from those of Yorkshire and Westmoreland. These three offices Richard at once put up for sale, and, with a strange inconsistency, William of Longchamp, whose well-grounded resistance to the accumulation of sheriffdoms in episcopal hands had been the beginning of his troubles, now sought to buy the two former, and also that of Northamptonshire, for himself. He was however outbid by Archbishop Geoffrey of York, who bought the sheriffdom of Yorkshire for three thousand marks and a promise of a hundred marks annually as increment.[1684] This purchase made Geoffrey the most influential man in the north, for Hugh of Durham, apparently finding himself powerless to hold Northumberland, had resigned it into the king’s hands.[1685] William of Scotland immediately opened negotiations with Richard for its re-purchase, as well as for that of Cumberland, Westmoreland, Lancaster, and the other English lands held by his grandfather David. The barons, however, before whom Richard laid the proposal in a council at Northampton, resented it strongly; Richard’s own military instinct led him to refuse the cession of the castles, and as William would not be satisfied without them, the scheme came to nothing.[1686]

[1677] Rog. Howden as above, p. 242. Cf. Will. Newb., l. v. c. 1 (vol. ii. pp. 416, 417).

[1678] That it was so in the reign of Henry I. seems plain from Orderic’s story about Ralf Flambard re-measuring for William Rufus “omnes carrucatas, quas Angli hidas vocant” (Ord. Vit., Duchesne, _Hist. Norm. Scriptt._, p. 678)--a statement which, whether the story itself be correct or not, shews that Orderic himself was accustomed to hear carucates and hides identified. The settlement of the carucates at a hundred acres in 1198 points to the same identification.

[1679] And seemingly, to the “dona” which took the place of the Danegeld after its abolition _eo nomine_ in 1163. On the carucage of 1194 see Stubbs, pref. to Rog. Howden, vol. iv. pp. lxxxii–lxxxiv and notes, lxxxvi. See also the account of it given by Will. Newb., l. v. c. i (Howlett, vol. ii. p. 416).

[1680] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. p. 242.

[1681] March 30–April 2. _Ib._ pp. 240–243.

[1682] _Ib._ pp. 241, 242. Cf. the account of John’s condemnation in Ann. Margam, a. 1199 (Luard, _Ann. Monast._, vol. i. p. 24).

[1683] Stubbs, _Constit. Hist._, vol. i. p. 503.

[1684] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. p, 241.

[1685] _Ib._ p. 249. Will. Newb., l. v. c. 1 (Howlett, vol. ii. p. 416).

[1686] Rog. Howden as above, pp. 243–245, 249, 250.

Richard meanwhile had been making a progress through Mid-England,[1687] similar to that which he had made before his crowning in 1189, and ending at Winchester, where he solemnly “wore his crown” in the cathedral church on the first Sunday after Easter.[1688] This ceremonial was in itself merely a revival of the old regal practice which Henry II. had formally abandoned in 1158; but its revival on this occasion was prompted by other motives than Richard’s love of pomp and shew. As a concession to the Emperor’s vanity--for we can scarcely conceive any other motive--Richard had accepted from Henry VI. the investiture of the kingdom of Burgundy; “over which,” says a contemporary English writer, “be it known that the Emperor had really no power at all,” but for which, nevertheless, he had received Richard’s homage.[1689] The homage was, of course, as empty as the gift for which it was due; but insular pride, which had always boasted that an English king, alone among European sovereigns, had no superior upon earth, was offended by it none the less; and although the story that Richard had formally surrendered England itself into Henry’s hands and received it back from him as a fief of the Empire[1690] may perhaps be set down as an exaggeration, still it seems to have been felt that the majesty of the island-crown had been so far dimmed by the transactions of his captivity as to require a distinct re-assertion.[1691] As he stood in his royal robes, sceptre in hand and crown on head,[1692] amid the throng of bishops and barons in the “Old Minster” where so many of his English forefathers lay sleeping, past shame was forgotten, and England was ready once again to welcome him as a new king.[1693] But the welcome met with no response. On May 12--just two months after his landing at Sandwich--Richard again sailed for Normandy;[1694] and this time he went to return no more.

[1687] _Ib._ pp. 243–246.

[1688] _Ib._ p. 247. R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 114. R. Coggeshall (Stevenson), p. 64. Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. pp. 524, 525. Will. Newb., l. iv. c. 42 (Howlett, vol. i. p. 408).

[1689] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. p. 226.

[1690] _Ib._ pp. 202, 203. He seems to be the only writer who mentions it.

[1691] See R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 113; and on the whole question of this coronation, Bishop Stubbs’s note to Rog. Howden, vol. iii. p. 247, and his remarks in _Constit. Hist._, vol. i. pp. 504, 561, 562. Richard himself seems to have resented the popular view, for R. Coggeshall (Stevenson, p. 64) says he went through the ceremony “aliquantulum renitens.”

[1692] Rog. Howden (as above), p. 247. See the details of the ceremony in Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. pp. 524–526.

[1693] “Detersâ captivitatis ignominiâ quasi rex novus apparuit.” Will. Newb., l. iv. c. 42 (Howlett, vol. i. p. 408).

[1694] Rog. Howden as above, p. 251. R. Diceto as above, p. 114. Gerv. Cant. as above, p. 527.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE LATER YEARS OF RICHARD.

1194–1199.

The political history of England during the four years which followed Richard’s departure over sea is simply the history of the administration of Hubert Walter. Richard never again interfered in the concerns of his island realm, save for the purpose of obtaining money from it; and even the method whereby the money was to be raised he left, like all other details of administration, wholly to the justiciar’s discretion. Hubert in fact, as justiciar and archbishop, wielded during these years a power even more absolute than that which William of Longchamp had wielded during the king’s absence on crusade. But Richard’s second experiment in governing England by deputy succeeded far otherwise than the first. It was, indeed, attended with far less risk; for the king himself was never really out of reach, and could at any moment have returned to take up the reins of government in person, had there been any need to do so. Moreover, the man whom he now left as viceroy had far other qualifications for the office than William of Longchamp.

Hubert Walter had been trained under the greatest constitutional lawyer and most successful administrator of the age, Ralf de Glanville. He was nephew to Ralf’s wife,[1695] and had been a clerk or chaplain in Ralf’s household until 1186, when he was appointed dean of York.[1696] A few months later he was one of five persons nominated by the York chapter in answer to a royal mandate for election to the vacant see.[1697] King Henry, however, refused all five, and Hubert remained dean of York for three years longer. He seems to have held, besides his deanery, an office at court, either as protonotary or as vice-chancellor under Geoffrey; for during the last few months of Henry’s life he is found in Maine attending upon the king, and apparently charged with the keeping of the royal seal.[1698] Consecrated to Salisbury by Archbishop Baldwin on October 22, 1189,[1699] he immediately afterwards set out with him for Palestine; there he won universal esteem by the zeal and ability with which he exerted himself to relieve the wants of the poorer crusaders;[1700] on Baldwin’s death Hubert virtually succeeded to his place as the chief spiritual authority in the host;[1701] and after Richard’s arrival he made himself no less useful as the king’s best adviser and most trusty diplomatic agent in Palestine.[1702] It was Hubert who headed in Richard’s stead the first body of pilgrims whom the Turks admitted to visit the Holy Sepulchre;[1703] and it seems to have been he, too, who led back the English host from Palestine to Europe after Richard’s departure. He hastened as early as possible to visit the king in his captivity;[1704] and Richard lost no time in sending him to England to be made archbishop, and to help the justiciars in collecting the ransom.[1705] They had refused the help of William of Longchamp, but they could not reject that of Hubert; for they knew that, as a contemporary historian says, “the king had no one so like-minded with himself, whose fidelity, prudence and honesty he had proved in so many changes of fortune.”[1706] Hubert was one of the commissioners appointed to have the custody of the ransom;[1707] and there can be little doubt that the scheme by which it was raised was in part at least devised by his financial genius, and carried into execution by his energy and skill--qualities which he displayed no less effectively in dealing with the revolt which was finally quelled by the return of Richard himself.

[1695] Hubert’s mother and Ralf’s wife were sisters; cf. the Glanville family history in Dugdale, _Monast. Angl._, vol. vi. pt. i., p. 380, and the foundation-charter of Arklow, given by Hubert’s brother Theobald, _ib._ pt. ii. p. 1128. Hubert and his brothers seem to have been brought up by their aunt and her husband; Hubert, when dean of York, founded a Premonstratensian house at West Dereham “pro salute aniniæ meæ, et patris, et matris meæ, et domini Ranulphi de Glanvillâ, et dominæ Bertriæ uxoris ipsius, qui nos nutrierunt.” _Ib._ vol. vi. pt. ii. p. 899.

[1696] _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. 360. Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 310.

[1697] _Gesta Hen._ as above, p. 352.

[1698] See Stubbs, _Rog. Howden_, vol. iv. pref. p. xli. note 1.

[1699] R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 71.

[1700] _Itin. Reg. Ric._ (Stubbs), pp. 134–137. _Gesta Ric._ (Stubbs), p. 145.

[1701] R. Diceto as above, p. 88. The Patriarch Heraclius had become discredited in the eyes of all the right-minded crusaders by his share in the divorce and remarriage of Queen Isabel, which broke Baldwin’s heart.

[1702] Will. Newb., l. iv. c. 29 (Howlett, vol. i. p. 378).

[1703] _Ibid._ _Itin. Reg. Ric._ (Stubbs), pp. 437, 438.

[1704] Will. Newb. as above, c. 33 (p. 388). Cf. Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. p. 209.

[1705] Will. Newb., l. iv. c. 33 (Howlett, vol. i. p. 388). Cf. Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. pp. 516, 517.

[1706] Will. Newb. as above.

[1707] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. p. 212.

Hubert entered upon his vice-royalty--for it was nothing less--under more favourable conditions than William of Longchamp. He came to it not as an upstart stranger, but as an Englishman already of high personal and official standing, thoroughly familiar and thoroughly in sympathy with the people whom he had to govern, intimately acquainted with the principles and the details of the system which he was called upon to administer; his qualifications were well known, and they were universally acknowledged. Moreover, there was now no one capable of heading any serious opposition to his authority, at least in secular affairs. William of Longchamp was still chancellor; but like the royal master to whose side he clave for the rest of his life, he had left England for ever. From John there was also nothing to fear. His intended trial never took place, for he threw himself at Richard’s feet at the first opportunity, and was personally forgiven; but the king was wise enough to leave untouched the sentence of forfeiture passed by the justiciar, and to keep his brother at his own side, a dependent upon his royal bounty, for nearly twelve months;[1708] and then he restored to him nothing but the counties of Mortain and Gloucester and the honour of Eye, but without their castles, giving him in compensation for the latter and for his other estates a yearly pension of eight thousand pounds Angevin.[1709] Even John’s capacities for mischief-making were so far paralyzed by this arrangement that he seems to have made no further attempt to meddle in English politics so long as Richard lived. The one man in whom Hubert saw, or fancied he saw, a possible rival on personal and ecclesiastical grounds, he swept roughly out of his path. The two primates had already quarrelled over the privileges of their respective sees, and nothing but the king’s presence had availed to keep peace between them.[1710] The northern one had been at feud with his own chapter ever since his appointment, and they were now prosecuting an appeal against him at Rome. In June 1194, backed, it can hardly be doubted, by Hubert’s influence, they obtained from the Pope a sentence which practically condemned Geoffrey without trial;[1711] and before these tidings reached England in September, a committee of royal justices, sent by Hubert to deal with the case in its temporal aspect, had already punished Geoffrey’s refusal to acknowledge their jurisdiction by confiscating all his archiepiscopal estates except Ripon.[1712] He went over sea and appealed to the king, but in vain;[1713] and for the next five years there was again but one primate in the land. One northern bishop, however, was still ready to defy Hubert as he had defied William of Longchamp and his own metropolitan. When the newly appointed sheriff of Northumberland, Hugh Bardulf, sought to enter upon his office shortly after Richard’s departure, he found that Hugh of Durham had already made a fresh bargain with the king, whereby he was to retain the county on a payment of two thousand marks. He tried, however, as before, to evade the necessity of payment, and was in consequence forcibly disseized by Richard’s orders.[1714] Still he was unwilling to give up the game; and in the spring of 1195 he made another attempt to regain the territorial influence in the north which Geoffrey’s fall seemed to have placed again within his reach. The story went in Yorkshire that he actually succeeded in once more obtaining from Richard--of course on Richard’s usual terms--a commission as co-justiciar with Hubert.[1715] Such a commission can hardly have been given otherwise than in mockery; yet the aged bishop, untaught by all his experience of the king’s shifty ways, once again set out from York, where he had just been excommunicating some of Geoffrey’s partizans,[1716] to publish his supposed triumph in London. Sickness, however, overtook him on the way; from Doncaster he was compelled to turn back to his old refuge at Howden, and there on March 3 he died.[1717] His palatinate was of course taken into the custody of the royal justiciars.[1718] A fortnight later Celestine III. sent to Archbishop Hubert a commission as legate for all England;[1719] and thenceforth he was undisputed ruler alike in Church and state.

[1708] Cf. Rog. Howden as above, pp. 252 and 286, and also R. Coggeshall (Stevenson), p. 64.

[1709] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. p. 286.

[1710] _Ib._ pp. 246, 247, 250; vol. iv. pref. pp. lix, lx.

[1711] _Ib._ vol. iii. pp. 272, 273, 278–286; vol. iv. pref. pp. lxii, lxiv.

[1712] _Ib._ vol. iii. pp. 261, 262; vol. iv. pref pp. lxi, lxii.

[1713] Richard in November ordered his restoration, but the order was not carried out; the brothers went on quarrelling, and next year Richard again declared the archiepiscopal estates forfeited, and this time finally. _Ib._ vol. iii. pp. 273, 287; vol. iv. pref. pp. lxiv, lxix.

[1714] _Ib._ vol. iii. pp. 260, 261; cf. p. 249.

[1715] Will. Newb., l. v. c. 10 (Howlett, vol. ii. pp. 438, 439).

[1716] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. p. 284.

[1717] _Ibid._ Will. Newb. as above (p. 439).

[1718] Rog. Howden as above, p. 285.

[1719] Dated March 18 [1195]. _Ib._ pp. 290–293. R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. ii. pp. 125–127.

Like most of the higher clergy of Henry’s later years, Hubert was distinctly more of a statesman than a churchman. His pontificate left no mark on the English Church; as primate, his chief occupation was to quarrel with his chapter. No scruples such as had moved Archbishop Thomas to resign the chancellorship, or had made even Bishop Roger of Salisbury seek a papal dispensation before he would venture to undertake a lay office,[1720] held back Hubert Walter from uniting in his own person the justiciarship and the primacy of all England. He was, however, a statesman of the best school of the time, steeped in the traditions of constitutional and administrative reform which had grown up during Henry’s later years under the inspiration of the king himself and the direction of Ralf de Glanville. The task of developing their policy, therefore, could not have fallen to more competent hands; and as Richard was totally destitute of his father’s business capacities, it was well that Hubert was left to fulfil it according to his own judgement and on his own sole responsibility for nearly four years.

[1720] Will. Malm. _Gesta Reg._, l. v. c. 408 (Hardy, p. 637).

The justiciar’s first act after his sovereign’s departure was to despatch the judges itinerant upon their annual visitation-tour with a commission[1721] which struck the key-note of his future policy. It was the note which had been struck by Henry II. in the Assizes of Clarendon and Northampton; but the new commission shewed a great advance in the developement of the principles which those measures embodied. The jurisdiction of the justices is defined with greater fulness and extended over a much wider sphere. The “pleas of the Crown” with which they are empowered to deal include, besides those formerly recognized under this head, such various matters as the number and condition of churches in the king’s gift,[1722] escheats, wardships and marriages;[1723] forgers[1724] and defaulters;[1725] the harbouring of malefactors;[1726] the arrears of the ransom;[1727] the use of false measures;[1728] the debts of the murdered Jews; the fines due from their slayers,[1729] from the adherents of John, and from his debtors, as well as from his own forfeited property;[1730] the disposal of the chattels of dead usurers, and also of crusaders who had died before setting out on their pilgrimage;[1731] and the taking of recognitions under the Great Assize concerning land worth not more than five pounds a year.[1732] In all these proceedings the chief object evidently was to procure money for the royal treasury; a tallage which the judges were also directed to assess upon all cities, towns and royal demesnes[1733] being deemed insufficient to supply its needs. The details of this multifarious business are however of less historical importance than the method employed for its transaction. Every item of it was to be dealt with on the presentment of what may now be called the “grand jury”--the jury of sworn recognitors in every shire, whose functions, hitherto confined to the presentment of criminals, were thus extended to all branches of judicial work. This growth in the importance of the jury was marked by the introduction of a new ordinance for its constitution. The Assizes of Clarendon and Northampton simply ordered that the jury should consist of twelve lawful men of every hundred and four of every township, without specifying how they were to be selected. Most probably they were nominated by the sheriff.[1734] The recognitors employed in the civil process known as the Great Assize, however, were from the first appointed in a special manner prescribed in the Assize itself. Four knights of the shire were summoned by the sheriff, and these four elected the twelve recognitors.[1735] By the “Form of proceeding in the pleas of the Crown” delivered to the justices-errant in 1194, this method of election was applied to the jury of presentment in all cases, with a modification which removed the choice yet one step further from the mere nomination of the sheriff. Four knights were first to be chosen out of the whole shire; these were to elect two out of every hundred or wapentake, and these two were to choose ten others, who with them constituted the legal twelve.[1736] Whether or not the choice of the first four was actually, as seems most probable, transferred from the sheriff to the body of the freeholders assembled in the county-court,[1737] still this enactment shews a distinct advance in the principles of election and representation, as opposed to that of mere nomination by a royal officer. Another step in the same direction was the appointment of three knights and a clerk to be “elected in every shire to keep the pleas of the Crown.”[1738] This was the origin of the office afterwards known as that of coroner. It had the effect of depriving the sheriff of a considerable part of his judicial functions; and his importance was at the same time yet further limited by an order that no sheriff should act as justiciar in his own shire, nor in any shire which he had held at any time since the king’s first crowning.[1739] The difficulty of checking the abuse of power in the hands of the sheriffs, which Henry had been unable to overcome, had certainly not been lessened by Richard’s way of distributing the sheriffdoms in his earlier years. It had indeed become so serious that in this very year either the new justiciar, or possibly the king himself, proposed an inquisition similar to that made by Henry in 1170, into the administration of all servants of the Crown, whether justices, sheriffs, constables, or foresters, since the beginning of the reign. When the king was gone, however, it seems to have been felt that such an undertaking would add too heavily to the labours of the judges-errant; and the inquiry was accordingly postponed for an indefinite time by the archbishop’s orders.[1740]

[1721] “Forma qualiter procedendum est in placitis Coronæ Regis.” Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. pp. 262–267; Stubbs, _Select Charters_, pp. 259–263.

[1722] _Forma procedendi_, c. 4 (Stubbs, _Select Charters_, p. 259).

[1723] _Ib._ cc. 3, 5, 6, 23 (pp. 259, 260, 261).

[1724] _Ib._ c. 8 (p. 260).

[1725] _Ib._ c. 19 (as above).

[1726] _Ib._ c. 7 (as above).

[1727] _Ib._ c. 10 (as above).

[1728] _Ib._ c. 16 (as above). Richard had at the beginning of his reign caused all weights and measures to be reduced to one standard; Mat. Paris, _Chron. Maj._ (Luard), vol. ii. p. 351.

[1729] _Forma proced._, c. 9 (as above).

[1730] _Ib._ cc. 11–14 (as above).

[1731] _Ib._ cc. 15, 17 (as above).

[1732] _Ib._ c. 18 (as above).

[1733] _Ib._ c. 22 (p. 261).

[1734] Stubbs, _Rog. Howden_, vol. iv. pref. pp. xcvi, xcvii.

[1735] R. Glanville, _De Legg. Angl._, l. xiii. c. 3.

[1736] _Forma proced._, introductory chap., Stubbs, _Select Charters_, p. 259; Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. p. 262.

[1737] Stubbs, _Rog. Howden_, as above, pp. xcvii–xcix.

[1738] _Forma proced._, c. 20 (Stubbs, _Select Charters_, p. 260).

[1739] _Ib._ c. 21 (as above).

[1740] _Ib._ c. 25 (p. 263).

The principle of co-operation between the government and the people for maintaining order and peace, which underlies all Henry’s reforming measures, and of which the new regulations for election of the grand jury are a further recognition, was again enunciated yet more distinctly in the following year. An edict was published requiring every man above the age of fifteen years to take an oath that he would do all that in him lay for the preservation of the king’s peace; that he would neither be a thief or robber, nor a receiver or accomplice of such persons, but would do his utmost to denounce and deliver them to the sheriff, would join to the uttermost of his power in the pursuit of malefactors when hue and cry was raised against them, and would deliver up to the sheriff all persons who should have failed to perform their share in this duty.[1741] The obligation binding upon every member of the state to lend his aid for the punishment of offences against its peace had been declared, in words which are almost echoed in this edict, as long ago as the reign of Cnut.[1742] The difficulty of enforcing it caused by the disorganized condition of society which had grown up during the civil war was probably the reason which led Henry, in framing his Assizes of Clarendon and Northampton, at once to define it more narrowly and to lay the responsibility of its execution upon a smaller body of men specially appointed for the purpose in every shire. The completeness of organization which the system introduced by these Assizes had now attained, however, gave scope for a wider application of the principle through one of those revivals of older custom in which the enduring character of our ancient national institutions and their capacity for adaptation to the most diverse conditions of national life are so often and so strikingly displayed. The edict of 1195 forms a link between the usage of Cnut’s day and that of modern times. It directed that the oath should be taken before knights assigned for the purpose in every shire; out of the office thus created there seems to have grown that of conservators of the peace; and this again developed in the fourteenth century into that of justices of the peace, which has retained an unbroken existence down to our own age.[1743]

[1741] _Edictum Regium._ Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. pp. 299, 300; Stubbs, _Select Charters_, p. 264.

[1742] “And we will that every man above xii years make oath that he will neither be a thief nor cognizant of theft.” Cnut, Secular Dooms, c. 21, Stubbs, _Select Charters_, p. 74.

[1743] Stubbs, _Select Charters_, p. 263; _Constit. Hist._, vol. i. p. 507; pref. to Rog. Howden, vol. iv. pp. c, ci.

The same year was marked by the only important ecclesiastical act of Hubert’s pontificate. Having received in the spring his commission as legate, he made use of it to hold a visitation of the northern province--now, by Geoffrey’s absence and Hugh of Puiset’s death, deprived of both its chief pastors--and a council in York minster at which fifteen canons were passed[1744] to remedy the general relaxation of Church discipline which had been growing ever since Thomas’s flight. At the close of the year Hubert was again at York, upon a different errand: the negotiation of a fresh treaty with Scotland, on the basis of a marriage between the Scot king’s eldest daughter and Richard’s nephew Otto of Saxony.[1745] The marriage never took place, but the alliance of which it was to be the pledge lasted throughout Richard’s reign; and it is a noteworthy proof at once of the growth of friendly relations between the two countries, and of the success of Hubert’s recent ordinance for the preservation of peace and order in England, that in the following year a similar edict, evidently modelled upon the English one, was issued in Scotland by William the Lion.[1746]

[1744] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. pp. 293–298. Cf. R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. ii. pp. 146–148, and Will. Newb., l. v. c. 12 (Howlett, vol. ii. p. 442).

[1745] William the Lion had been sick almost to death, and having no son, had proposed to leave his crown to his eldest daughter, under the protection of Richard, whose nephew he wished her to marry. The opposition of his barons, and the restoration of his own health, caused him to drop the scheme of bequest (Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. pp. 298, 299). That of the marriage however was still pursued, and accepted by Hubert in Richard’s name, on somewhat singular conditions: Lothian, as the bride’s dowry, was to be given over to Richard’s custody, while Northumberland and the county of Carlisle were to be settled upon Otto and made over to the keeping of the king of Scots. The negotiation, however, dragged on for a year, and was again checked by the hope of an heir to the Scottish crown (_ib._ p. 308); and the fulfilment of this hope in August 1198 led to its abandonment. _Ib._ vol. iv. p. 54.

[1746] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iv. p. 33. He says William issued his proclamation “de bono sumens exemplum.”

Neither the renewal of order in the Church, nor the securing of the external tranquillity of the realm by alliance with its neighbour-states, nor the organization of justice and police within its own borders, was however the most laborious part of Hubert’s task. One thing only was required of him by his royal master; but that was precisely the one thing which cost him the most trouble to obtain. From a country which must, as it seems, have been almost drained of its financial resources over and over again during the last ten years, he was perpetually called upon to extract supplies of money such as had never been furnished before to any English king. That he contrived to meet Richard’s ceaseless demands year after year without either plunging the nation into helpless misery or provoking it to open revolt, is the strongest proof not only of his financial genius and tact, but also of the increase in material prosperity and national contentment which had been fostered by Henry’s rule, and of the success of Hubert’s own efforts in carrying out the policy which Henry had begun. By Michaelmas 1194 it seems that the whole of the complicated accounts for the ransom, including the carucage imposed in the spring, were closed.[1747] In the same year the country had borne the additional burthen of a tallage upon the towns. This, however, added to the sums raised by sales of office during the king’s visit and to the proceeds of the judges’ visitation, failed to satisfy the wants of Richard. He therefore resorted to two other methods of raising money, both apparently of his own devising, and both harmonizing very ill with the constitutional policy of his justiciar. Save during the disorderly reign of Stephen, the practice of tournaments had been hitherto unknown in England. Both Henry I. and Henry II. were too serious and practical-minded to encourage vain shews of any kind, far less to countenance the reckless waste of energy and the useless risk of life and limb which these entertainments involved, which had moved Pope after Pope to denounce them as perilous alike to body and soul,[1748] and, in spite of a characteristic protest from Thomas Becket, to exclude those who were slain in them from the privileges of Christian burial.[1749] The Church had indeed been unable to check this obnoxious practice in Gaul; backed, however, by the authority of the Crown, she had as yet succeeded in keeping it out of England. But in 1194 a fresh prohibition, issued by Pope Celestine in the previous year,[1750] was met by Richard with a direct defiance. On August 20 he issued a license for the holding of tournaments in England, on condition that every man who took part in them should pay to the Crown a specified sum, varying according to his rank. Five places were appointed where tournaments might be held, and no one was allowed to enter the lists until he had paid for his license.[1751] The collection of this new item of revenue was evidently looked upon as an important matter, for it was intrusted to the justiciar’s brother Theobald Walter.[1752] Whatever may have been Hubert’s share in this measure, he was clearly in no way responsible for the other and yet more desperate expedient to which Richard, almost at the same time, resorted for the replenishment of his treasury. On pretext of a quarrel with his chancellor, he took away the seal from him, ordered another to be made, and declared all acts passed under the old one to be null and void, till they should have been brought to him for confirmation:[1753] in other words, till they should have been paid for a second time.

[1747] See Stubbs, _Rog. Howden_, vol. iv. pref. pp. lxxxii–lxxxiv and notes.

[1748] Will. Newb., l. v. c. 4 (Howlett, vol. ii. pp. 422, 423).

[1749] Ep. xxiv., Robertson, _Becket_, vol. v. p. 36.

[1750] Rymer, _Fœdera_, vol. i. p. 56.

[1751] Writ in Rymer, as above, p. 65, and in Stubbs, _R. Diceto_, vol. ii., app. to pref. pp. lxxx, lxxxi; this latter copy is dated August 22. Cf. Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. p. 268, Will. Newb., l. v. c. 4 (Howlett, vol. ii. pp. 422, 423), and R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 120.

[1752] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iii. p. 268.

[1753] _Ib._ p. 267. Cf. R. Coggeshall (Stevenson), p. 93. Rog. Howden’s very confused account of the seals is made clear by Bishop Stubbs, _Constit. Hist._, vol. i. p. 506 note.

In the following spring a fit of characteristic Angevin penitence--fervent and absorbing while it lasted, but passing away all too soon--moved the king to make some amends for his extortions as well as for his other sins; he began to replace the church-plate which had been given up for his ransom;[1754] no fresh tax was imposed till late in the year, and then it was only a scutage of the usual amount--twenty shillings on the knight’s fee--for the war in Normandy.[1755] Next year, however, the king’s mood again changed. He was now resolved to carry into effect, with or without Hubert’s assent, the inquiry into the financial administration which Hubert had postponed in 1194. For this purpose he sent over to England Robert, abbot of S. Stephen’s at Caen, who, notwithstanding his monastic profession, had acquired great experience as a clerk of the Norman exchequer, and seems to have there enjoyed a high reputation for knowledge and skill in all matters of finance.[1756] The abbot, accompanied by the bishop-elect of Durham, Philip of Poitiers,[1757] reached London in Lent 1196, and demanded Hubert’s co-operation in fulfilling the royal orders. The justiciar, though displeased and hurt, had no choice but to comply, and an order was issued in the king’s name bidding all sheriffs and officers of the Crown be ready to give an account of their stewardship in London on a certain day--apparently the day of the usual Exchequer-meeting in Easter-week.[1758] Before Easter came, the abbot of Caen himself was gone to his last account; he was seized with illness while dining with Archbishop Hubert on Passion Sunday, and five days later he died.[1759] The intended inquisition never took place; but the mere proposal to conduct it thus through the medium of a stranger from over sea was a direct slight offered to the justiciar by the king;[1760] and it coincided with a disturbance which warned Hubert of a possible danger to his authority from another quarter.

[1754] Rog. Howden as above, p. 290. Cf. _Itin. Reg. Ric._ (Stubbs), pp. 449, 450.

[1755] See Madox, _Hist. Exch._, vol. i. pp. 637, 638. That it was imposed late in the year seems implied by so much of it not being accounted for till the next year; see Stubbs, pref. to Rog. Howden, vol. iv. p. lxxxviii and note 3.

[1756] Will. Newb., l. v. c. 19 (Howlett, vol. ii. p. 464). Cf. Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iv. p. 5.

[1757] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iv. p. 5. He seems to imply that Philip shared in the abbot’s commission; but he evidently made no attempt to act upon it after Robert’s death.

[1758] Will. Newb., l. v. c. 19 (Howlett, vol. ii. p. 465).

[1759] Rog. Howden as above. “Nec cum eis quos evocaverat post Pascha positurus, sed ante Pascha rationem superno Judici de propriis actibus redditurus.” Will. Newb. as above.

[1760] On April 15, four days after the abbot’s death, Richard wrote a sort of apology to the justiciar. See Stubbs, _R. Diceto_, vol. ii. app. to pref. pp. lxxix, lxxx.

Strive as he might to equalize the burthens of taxation, he could not prevent them from pressing upon the poorer classes with a severity which grew at last well-nigh intolerable. The grievance was felt most keenly in London. The substitution of the “commune” for the older shire-organization of London in 1191 was a step towards municipal unity, and thus indirectly towards local independence and self-government; but it had done nothing for the poorer class of citizens. It had placed the entire control of civic administration, including the regulation of trade and the assessment of taxes, in the hands of a governing body consisting of a mayor and aldermen, one of whom presided over each of the wards into which the whole city was divided, the head of them all being the mayor.[1761] This corporation was the representative of the merchant-gild, which had thus absorbed into itself all the powers and privileges of the earlier ruling class of territorial magnates, in addition to its own. As might be expected, the rule of this newly-established oligarchy over the mass of its unenfranchized fellow-citizens was at least as oppressive as that of the sheriffs and “barons of the city” which had preceded it; and it was less willingly borne, owing to the jealousy which always existed between the craftsmen and the merchant-gild. As the taxes grew more burthensome year by year, a suspicion began to spread that they were purposely assessed in such a manner as to spare the well-filled pockets of the assessors, and wring an unfair proportion of the required total from the hard-earned savings of the poor.[1762] Whether the injustice was intentional or not, the grievance seems to have been a real one; and it soon found a spokesman and a champion. William Fitz-Osbert--“William with the Long Beard,” as he was commonly called--was by birth a member of the ruling class in the city.[1763] He seems to have shared with a goldsmith named Geoffrey the leadership of a band of London citizens who in 1190 formed part of the crusading fleet, and did good service, not indeed, so far as we know, in Holy Land, but like their brethren forty-three years earlier, in helping to drive the Moors out of Portugal.[1764] Since his return, whether fired by genuine zeal for the cause of the oppressed, or, as some of his contemporaries thought, moved by the hope of acquiring power and influence which he found unattainable by other means,[1765] he had severed himself from his natural associates in the city to become the preacher and leader of another sort of crusade, for the deliverance of the poorer classes from the tyranny of their wealthy rulers. At every meeting of the governing body he withstood his fellow-aldermen to the face, remonstrating continually against their corrupt fiscal administration. They could not silence and dared not expel him, for they knew that his whispers were stirring up the craftsmen; and although the rumour that he had more than fifty thousand sworn followers at his back must have been an exaggeration, yet there could be no doubt of the existence of a conspiracy sufficiently formidable to excuse, if not to justify, the terror of the civic rulers.[1766] When after a visit to Normandy William began openly to boast of the king’s favour and support, the justiciar thought it time to interfere. He called the citizens together, endeavoured to allay their discontent by reasonings and remonstrances, and persuaded them to give hostages for their good behaviour.[1767] William however set his authority at defiance. Day after day, in the streets and open spaces of the city, and at last even in S. Paul’s itself,[1768] this bold preacher with the tall stately form, singular aspect and eloquent tongue gathered round him a crowd of eager listeners to whom he proclaimed himself as the “king and saviour of the poor.” One of his audience afterwards reported to a writer of the time his exposition of a text from Isaiah: “With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of the Saviour.”[1769] “I,” said William, “am the saviour of the poor. Ye poor who have felt the heavy hand of the rich, ye shall draw from my wells the water of wholesome doctrine, and that with joy, for the time of your visitation is at hand. For I will divide the waters from the waters. The people are the waters; and I will divide the humble and faithful people from the proud and perfidious people. I will divide the elect from the reprobate, as light from darkness.”[1770]

[1761] In the _Liber de Antiquis Legibus_ (a chronicle of the mayors and sheriffs of London, compiled in 1274, and edited by Mr. Stapleton for the Camden Soc.), p. 1, the first mayor, Henry Fitz-Aylwine, is said to have been appointed “anno gratie Mº centesimo lxxxviii, anno primo regni Regis Ricardi;” and the document known as Fitz-Aylwine’s Assize (_ib._ p. 206) purports to have been issued “Anno Domini Mº Cº lxxxix, scilicet primo anno regni illustris Regis Ricardi, existente tunc Henrico filio Aylewini Maiore, qui fuit primus Maiorum Londoniarum.” On this however Bishop Stubbs remarks: “It is improbable that London had a recognized mayor before 1191, in which year the communa was established ... and there is I believe no mention of such an official in a record until some three years later.” Introd. to _Annales Londonienses_ (“Chronicles of Ed. I. and Ed. II.”), p. xxxi.

[1762] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iv. p. 5. Mat. Paris, _Chron. Maj._ (Luard), vol. ii. p. 418. Will. Newb., l. v. c. 20 (Howlett, vol. ii. p. 466).

[1763] “Willelmus cum Barbâ,” Rog. Howden as above, pp. 5, 6; “agnomen habens a barbâ prolixâ,” Will. Newb. (as above); “cognomento cum-Barbâ,” “dictus Barbatus vel Barba,” Mat. Paris (as above), pp. 418, 419. Will. Newb. thinks he wore the unusual appendage simply to make himself conspicuous; Mat. Paris explains “cujus genus avitum ob indignationem Normannorum radere barbam contempsit,” on which see Freeman, _Norm. Conq._, vol. v. p. 900.

[1764] _Gesta Ric._ (Stubbs), pp. 116–118.

[1765] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iv. pp. 5, 6, and Mat. Paris, _Chron. Maj._ (Luard), vol. ii. pp. 418, 419, represent the former view; Will. Newb., l. v. c. 20 (Howlett, vol. ii. pp. 467, 468), and R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 143, the latter.

[1766] Will. Newb. as above (p. 468).

[1767] _Ib._ (pp. 468, 469).

[1768] R. Diceto as above.

[1769] “Of salvation,” A. V.; “de fontibus Salvatoris,” Vulg. Is. xii. 3.

[1770] Will. Newb., l. v. c. 20 (Howlett, vol. ii. p. 469).

Powerless to deal with these assemblies within the city, Hubert determined at least to check the spread of such teaching as this, and issued orders that any citizen of the lower class found outside the walls should be arrested as an enemy to king and kingdom. Some chapmen from London were accordingly arrested at Mid-Lent at Stamford fair.[1771] A day or two afterwards--the justiciar’s fears being perhaps quickened by the arrival of the abbot of Caen, which William might easily interpret as the effect of his own remonstrances with the king--an attempt was made to call William himself to account for his seditious proceedings. The bearer of the summons found him surrounded by such a formidable array of followers that he dared not execute his commission, and a forcible arrest was decided on. Guided by two citizens who undertook to catch him at unawares, a party of armed men was sent to seize him;[1772] one of the guides was felled with a blow of a hatchet by William himself, the other was slain by his friends; William, with a few adherents, took sanctuary in the church of S. Mary-at-Bow. The justiciar, after surrounding the church with soldiers, ordered it to be set on fire,[1773] and William, driven out by the smoke and the flames, was stabbed on the threshold by the son of the man whom he had killed an hour before.[1774] The wound however was not immediately fatal; the soldiers seized him and carried him to the Tower for trial before the justiciars, who at once condemned him to death; he was stripped, tied to a horse’s tail, thus dragged through the city, and hanged with eight of his adherents.[1775] The rest of the malcontents were so overawed by this spectacle that they at once made complete submission.[1776] The justiciar had triumphed; but his triumph was dearly bought at the cost of what little still remained to him of personal popularity and ecclesiastical repute. The common people persisted in reverencing William Longbeard as a martyr;[1777] the clergy were horrified at the sacrilege involved in the violation of the right of sanctuary and the firing of a church, a sacrilege all the more unpardonable because committed by an archbishop; while his own chapter seized upon it as the crowning charge in the already long indictment which they were preparing against their primate.[1778] Thus overwhelmed with obloquy on all sides, Hubert in disgust for a moment threw up the justiciarship, but resumed it as soon as he was once more assured of Richard’s confidence.[1779] For two more years he toiled on at his thankless task. The budget of 1196 was made up by the safe expedient of another scutage.[1780] Next year the sole legislative act ventured upon by the justiciar was an attempt to enforce uniformity of weights and measures throughout the kingdom by means of an Assize,[1781] whose provisions however turned out to be so impracticable that, like a similar ordinance issued earlier in the reign, it seems to have remained inoperative, and six years later was abolished altogether.[1782] In the autumn Hubert went over to Normandy, where he was occupied for some weeks in diplomatic business for the king.[1783] A month after his return the crisis came.

[1771] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iv. p. 6.

[1772] Will. Newb. as above (p. 470).

[1773] _Ibid._ Rog. Howden as above; Mat. Paris, _Chron. Maj._ (Luard) vol. ii. p. 419. R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 143, makes William himself fire the church, but this seems nonsense, as he clearly had no intention of dying in it.

[1774] Will. Newb. as above. Cf. Rog. Howden as above.

[1775] Will. Newb., l. v. c. 20 (Howlett, vol. ii. p. 471) says nine. Eight is the number given by Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iv. p. 6. Cf. R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 143; Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. pp. 533, 534; and Mat. Paris, _Chron. Maj._ (Luard), vol. ii. p. 419. Gervase calls the place of execution “ad ulmos,” Mat. Paris “ad Ulmetum” [“the Elms in Smithfield” notes Mr. Luard in the margin]. R. Diceto calls it Tyburn; the other writers give it no name at all. We are indebted to Gervase (as above, p. 533) for the date of this affair; Saturday, April 6--the day before the abbot of Caen fell sick; see above, p. 344.

[1776] Rog. Howden and R. Diceto, as above.

[1777] See Will. Newb. as above, c. 21 (pp. 471, 472). Mat. Paris (as above) heartily shared in their opinion.

[1778] Rog. Howden as above, p. 48.

[1779] _Ib._ pp. 12, 13.

[1780] Stubbs, _Rog. Howden_, vol. iv. pref. p. lxxxviii and note 3. Madox, _Hist. Exch._, vol. i. pp. 637, 638.

[1781] Rog. Howden as above, pp. 33, 34.

[1782] _Ib._ p. 172. Stubbs, _Constit. Hist._, vol. i. p. 509.

[1783] R. Diceto as above, p. 158. Gerv. Cant. as above, pp. 544, 545. The dates do not exactly agree.

Richard, at the height of his struggle with Philip of France, found himself short not only of money but of men,[1784] at any rate of men whom he could trust. He called upon Hubert to send him over from England either a force of three hundred knights to serve him at their own charges for a year, or a sum which would enable him to enlist the same number of mercenaries for the same period, at the rate of three English shillings a day.[1785] For some reason or other it seems that Hubert, somewhat unwisely, at once decided to ignore the second alternative; in a great council held at Oxford on December 7[1786] he simply proposed, in his own name and that of his colleagues in the government, that the barons of England, among whom the bishops were to be reckoned, should come to the rescue of their distressed sovereign by supplying him with three hundred knights to serve him at their own cost for a year. Hubert himself, in his character of archbishop, declared his readiness to take his share of the burthen; so did the bishop of London, Richard Fitz-Nigel the treasurer. The bishop of Lincoln, Hugh of Avalon, was then asked for his assent. “O ye wise and noble men here present,” said the Burgundian saint, “ye know that I came to this land as a stranger, and from the simplicity of a hermit’s life was raised to the office of a bishop. When therefore my inexperience was called to rule over the church of our Lady, I set myself carefully to learn its customs and privileges, its duties and burthens; and for thirteen years I have not strayed from the path marked out by my predecessors, in preserving the one and fulfilling the other. I know that the church of Lincoln is bound to do the king military service, but only in this land; outside the boundaries of England she owes him no such thing. Wherefore I deem it meeter for me to go back to my native land and my hermit’s cell, rather than, while holding a bishopric here, to bring upon my church the loss of her ancient immunities and the infliction of unwonted burthens.”[1787]

[1784] _Magna Vita S. Hugonis_ (Dimock), p. 248.

[1785] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iv. p. 40.

[1786] Cf. Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 549, and _Mag. Vita S. Hug._ (Dimock), p. 251.

[1787] _Mag. Vita S. Hug._ (Dimock), pp. 249, 250.