CHAPTER VIII
THE KING AND THE BARONS
I have stated that between the Plantagenet kings of England and theAnglo-Norman barons there existed no particular sympathy; andconsidering who the Plantagenet kings were, and what was their origin,it need not be matter of surprise that they cherished something like anantipathy towards the feudal magnates whose ancestors fought atHastings, and had their names blazoned on the grand roll of BattleAbbey.
It was in the ninth century, when Charles the Bald, one of the heirs ofCharlemagne, reigned over France, that a brave and good man, namedTorquatus, lived within the limits of the French empire, and passed histime chiefly in cultivating his lands and hunting in his woods.Torquatus had every prospect of living and dying in obscurity, withoutmaking his name known to fame. Happening, however, to be summoned toserve his sovereign in war, he gave proofs of such courage and abilitythat he rose high in the king’s favour, and was for his valuableservices rewarded with a forest known as the “Blackbird’s Nest,” andcontinued to serve Charles the Bald so stoutly and faithfully in thewars with the sea kings, that, when living, he won much renown among hiscontemporaries, and, when dead, was distinguished by the monkishchroniclers as “another Cincinnatus.”
Tertullus, the son of Torquatus, inherited his father’s talent andprowess, and did such good work in his day that he was rewarded for hissignal services to Charles the Bald with the hand of Petronella, theking’s kinswoman; and the heirs of Tertullus, ennobled by worthyexploits and by their Carlovingian blood, became Counts of Anjou andhereditary High Stewards of France. In fact, they had risen to a veryhigh position among the princes of Continental Europe when, in 1130,Fulke, Count of Anjou, mourning the loss of a wife whom he had dearlyloved, went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, wedded the heiress of one ofthe Baldwins, and ascended the throne which the early crusaders, underGodfrey of Bouillon, had set up in the holy city. But it was in Englandthat the heirs of Torquatus and Tertullus were to figure mostprominently, and it was with English history that their name was to beassociated even as that of the Pope was with the Church.
Before setting out for the Holy Land, Fulke of Anjou bestowed hishereditary dominions on his son Geoffrey, a bold warrior and anaccomplished gentleman, who, from wearing a sprig of flowering broom inhis hat, instead of a feather, acquired the surname of Plantagenet.Fortune favoured Geoffrey of Anjou, and enabled him to form an alliancewhich made his descendants the greatest sovereigns in Christendom.Having attracted the attention and secured the friendship of HenryBeauclerc, King of England, he espoused Henry’s daughter, Maude, theyoung widow of an Emperor of Germany. Naturally it was supposed thatMaude, as her father’s only surviving child, would succeed to Englandand Normandy on his death. But in that age the laws of succession wereill understood, and when Henry expired, his sister’s son, Stephen, Countof Bouillon, seized the English throne, and, notwithstanding a terriblecivil war, contrived to keep it during his life. All Maude’s efforts tounseat him proved unavailing; and, weary of the struggle, she, about1147, retired to the Continent, and endeavoured to console herself withsovereignty over Normandy.
But meanwhile Maude had become the mother of a son, who, as years passedover, proved a very formidable adversary. Henry Plantagenet was a nativeof Mantz, in Normandy, where he drew his first breath in 1133; but at anearly age he was brought to England to be educated, and while passinghis boyhood at Bristol, was made familiar with the country whosedestinies he was one day to control. It was not, however, till, on thedeath of his father, he had become Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy,and, by his marriage with Eleanor of Guienne, Duke of Aquitaine andPoitou, that, in 1153, he landed in England with the determination ofasserting his rights. At first a sanguinary struggle appeared imminent;but Stephen consented to a compromise, and, excluding his own son,acknowledged Henry as heir to the crown, stipulating, however, that heshould wear it during his lifetime. Next year Stephen breathed his last,and Henry was crowned in the Cathedral of Winchester, which up to thatdate was regarded as the proper constitutional capital of England. Aterrible task was before him.
At the time of Henry’s coronation the condition of England was wretchedin the extreme. Never, even in the worst days of the Norman Conquest,had life and property been so insecure. The laws were utterly impotentto protect the weak against the strong, and the barons set truth,honesty, and humanity at defiance; and, unless history lies, nothingcould have been more outrageous than the conduct of the men whose sonsafterwards, when they perceived that it was expedient to get the nationover to their side, found it convenient to affect so high a regard for“justice and righteousness.”
“All was dissension, and evil, and rapine,” says the Saxon chronicle,speaking of the reign of Stephen. “The great men rose against him. Theyhad sworn oaths, but they maintained no truth. They built castles whichthey held out against him. They cruelly oppressed the wretched people ofthe land with his castle work. They filled their castles with devils andevil men. They seized those whom they supposed to have any goods, andthrew them into prison for their gold and silver, and inflicted on themunutterable tortures. Some they hanged up by the feet. They threw theminto dungeons with adders, and snakes, and toads. They made manythousands perish with hunger. They laid tribute upon tribute on townsand cities.... The land remained untilled, and the poor starved. To tillthe land was to plough the sea.”
Such was the state of affairs with which the early Plantagenets had todeal, and such the men who, after having been cowed by the energy andgenius of Henry and the vigour and courage of Richard, prepared to raisetheir banners and head their feudal array with the object of crushingJohn, whose imprudence and indolence made him a much less formidableadversary than either his father or his brother would have been.Moreover, he stood charged with crimes and follies which made the mostloyal Englishman half ashamed of the royal cause.
It was in the midst of his struggles with Philip Augustus that John wasfirst involved in disputes with the barons, on account of their positiverefusal to accompany him to the Continent. On this point the baronsappear to have been somewhat unreasonable; and John treated them withsuch hauteur that they announced his bearing quite intolerable.Gradually matters grew worse; and when John was in the midst of hisquarrel with the Pope, the barons, believing that the time forretaliation had arrived, espoused the papal cause, and formed aconspiracy for seizing the king, and giving the crown to Simon deMontfort, a French nobleman who afterwards gained an unenviablenotoriety as leader of the crusade against the unfortunate Albigenses.Moreover, the barons took great credit with the Pope for having forcedJohn to surrender his crown to the legate. But no sooner did Innocentsignify his intention of supporting the king on his throne than thebarons changed their tone, and made what political capital they couldout of the humiliation which the king had brought upon England when heconsented to become the vassal of Rome. Nor were other charges of ascandalous nature wanting to embitter the dispute and add to theexasperation. Almost every baron, in fact, had some complaint to make,and in particular the chiefs of the house of Braose, Fitzwalter, and DeVesci.
William de Braose was an Angevin noble of high rank, and Lord ofBramber, who unfortunately involved himself in a dispute with the crownabout a debt which he would not or could not pay. At first De Braose wasexiled to Ireland; but, having obtained the king’s sanction to travelthrough the country to make up the sum, which was forty thousand marks,he availed himself of his liberty to escape to the Continent. His wifeand children, however, were not so fortunate. While at Galway,endeavouring to embark for Scotland, they were arrested, brought asprisoners to Windsor, and confined in the castle. While in captivity thewhole family died, and it was generally rumoured that they had beeninhumanly starved to death.
Robert Fitzwalter was one of the proudest nobles in England, and Lordof Baynard’s Castle, in London; and he had a daughter so celebrated forher beauty that she was called Maude the Fair. On this damsel John casthis eyes with evil intent. His advances were repelled. Maude the Fairdied soon
after, and the king was accused of having caused poison to begiven to her in a poached egg.
Among Anglo-Norman barons, hardly one was more powerful than Eustace deVesci, Lord of Alnwick, where he maintained great feudal state. Eustacehad wedded Margery, daughter of William the Lion, King of Scots, and theLady de Vesci was famous for her grace and beauty. Hearing of herperfections, the king contrived to get possession of her husband’s ringand sent it with a message that she was immediately to repair to courtif she wished to see her lord alive. Not having the slightest suspicion,the lady at once set out in haste; but, when on her journey, sheaccidentally met her husband, and, with the utmost surprise on hercountenance, told him of the ring and the message she had received.Comprehending the whole, De Vesci sent his lady home, and took suchmeasures that the king in a violent rage vowed vengeance, and theNorthern baron, fearing for his life, fled from London.
Naturally enough, such scandals tended to deepen the resentment whichthe barons of England felt towards their king; and when affairsapproached a crisis, the foremost and most resolute among John’s enemieswere Robert Fitzwalter and Eustace de Vesci.
It was in the summer of 1213 that matters began to assume such an aspectthat the wise and prudent shook their heads and predicted a civil war.At that time John, bent on retrieving his disasters on the Continent,embarked for Jersey, after summoning the barons to follow. Instead ofobeying, they assembled in London, and held a meeting at St. Paul’s withthe primate, who was devoted to their interests. On this occasionStephen Langton produced the charter which Henry Beauclerc had promisedto grant at his coronation, and which was understood to embody the lawspopularly known as “The Laws of King Edward.”
“My lords,” said the primate, “I have found a charter of King Henry, bywhich, if you choose, you may recall the liberties of England to theirformer state.”
Langton then read the document, and the barons responded withacclamations.
“Never,” exclaimed they with one voice, “has there been a fitter timethan this for restoring the ancient laws.”
“For my part,” said Langton, “I will aid you to the uttermost of mypower.”
And the primate having administered an oath by which they boundthemselves to conquer or die, they dispersed.
Meanwhile John, having learnt what had taken place, landed from Jersey,and, with characteristic imprudence, began to ravage the lands of themalcontents with fire and sword. On reaching Northampton, however, hewas overtaken by Langton, who protested loudly against the king’sconduct, and threatened him with retaliation.
“Archbishop, begone!” said John, sternly. “Rule you the Church, andleave me to govern the State.”
And, heedless of the warning, he carried the work of destruction as faras Nottingham.
But ere long events occurred which made John somewhat less confident.The defeat of his ally, the Emperor of Germany, at Bovines, ruined allhis projects for recovering the ground he had lost on the Continent; andhe was fain to conclude a peace with Philip Augustus on terms thereverse of flattering to his vanity, and return to England, where hisenemies were every day becoming more determined to bring all disputes toa decisive issue.
No sooner, indeed, had the Christmas of 1214 passed, and the year 1215begun its course, than the barons came to London with a strong militaryforce, and demanded an interview with the king. At first John wasinclined to ride the high horse, and refuse them an audience; but,learning that they were strongly attended, he deemed it politic totemporise, and met them at the house of the Knights of the Temple. Onfinding himself face to face with his adversaries, and on being handed apetition embodying their demands, which were by no means trifling inextent, John attempted to intimidate them; but finding that his attemptswere ineffectual, he asked them to allow the business on which they hadcome to lie over till Easter, that he might have time to give it hisdeliberate consideration. The barons hesitated. At length, however, theyconsented to the delay on condition that Archbishop Langton and theEarl of Pembroke were sureties for the king’s good faith. The primateand the earl pledged themselves as was wished; and the king and thebarons parted, each party distrusting the other, and vowing in theirinmost souls never, while they had life and breath, to bate one jot ortittle of their pretensions.
Runnymede and Lincoln Fair: A Story of the Great Charter Page 10