CONQUEST (600-1o66) With the coming of See also:

• AUGUSTINE, SAINT (354-430)
• AUGUSTINE, SAINT (d. c.613)

No Western author, since the See also:

• DEATH

See also:

• ESSEX
• ESSEX, ARTHUR CAPEL
• ESSEX, EARLS OF
• ESSEX, KINGDOM OF
• ESSEX, ROBERT DEVEREUX
• ESSEX, ROBERT DEVEREUX, 2ND2 EARL OF (1566-1601)
• ESSEX, WALTER DEVEREUX, IST2 EARL OF (1541–1576)

'Ethel-See also:

• FRITH (or FRYTH), JOHN (c. 1503-1533)
• FRITH, WILLIAM POWELL (1818-19og)

The " Bretwaldaship," as The „Bret. the English seem to have called it, was the most waldas.” ephemeral of dignities. This was but natural: See also:

• CON

In the ceaseless strife between the old English kingdoms, therefore, it was the See also:

• PERSONALITY (from Lat. persona, originally an actor's mask, from personare,1 to sound through)

Ellandune (A.D. 823), permanently annexed Kent, to whose See also:

• CROWN

It seems most probable that the actual cause of their sudden activitywas the conquest of the See also:

• SAXONS

And as their crews were trained warriors chosen for their high spirit, contending with a raw militia fresh from the plough, they were generally successful. If the odds' were too great they could always retire to their ships, put to sea, and resume their predatory operations on some other coast three hundred miles away. As long as their enemies were unprovided with a navy they were safe from pursuit and annihilation. The only See also:

• CHANCE (through the O. Fr. cheance, from the Late Lat. cadentia, things happening, from cadere, to fall out, happen; cf. " case ")

For though Wessex had its full See also:

• SHARE (O. Eng. scearu, chiefly in compounds, e.g. land-scearu, a share of land, from sceran to cut; cf. " shear" )

His realm was annexed and partly settled by the conquerors. The See also:

• FATE

But the western half they handed over to " an unwise See also:

• THEGN, or THANE

A few See also:

• WEEKS, EDWIN LORD (1849-1903)

Alfred's enlarged kingdom was far more powerful than any one of the three new Danish states which lay beyond the Lea and Watling Street: it was to be seen, ere another generation was out, that it was stronger than all three together. But Alfred was not to see the happy day when York and Lincoln, See also:

• COLCHESTER
• COLCHESTER, CHARLES ABBOT, 1ST BARON (1757-1829)

But it would seem that the king paid even more attention to another military reform—the increase of the number of the professional fighting class, the thegnhood as it was now called. All the wealthier men, both in the countryside and in the towns, were required to take up the duties as well as the privileges of membership of the military household of the king. They became " of thegnright worthy " by receiving, really or nominally, a place in the royal See also:

• HALL
• HALL (generally known as SCHWABISCH-HALL, tc distinguish it from the small town of Hall in Tirol and Bad-Hall, a health resort in Upper Austria)
• HALL (O.E. heall, a common Teutonic word, cf. Ger. Halle)
• HALL, BASIL (1788-1844)
• HALL, CARL CHRISTIAN (1812–1888)
• HALL, CHARLES FRANCIS (1821-1871)
• HALL, CHRISTOPHER NEWMAN (1816—19oz)
• HALL, EDWARD (c. 1498-1547)
• HALL, FITZEDWARD (1825-1901)
• HALL, ISAAC HOLLISTER (1837-1896)
• HALL, JAMES (1793–1868)
• HALL, JAMES (1811–1898)
• HALL, JOSEPH (1574-1656)
• HALL, MARSHALL (1790-1857)
• HALL, ROBERT (1764-1831)
• HALL, SAMUEL CARTER (5800-5889)
• HALL, SIR JAMES (1761-1832)
• HALL, WILLIAM EDWARD (1835-1894)

The enemy was checked, beaten off, followed up rapidly whenever he changed his base of operation, and hunted repeatedly all across England. The campaigning ranged from Appledore in Kent to Exeter, from Chester to See also:

• SHOEBURYNESS

But now they had possessions of their own to defend, and could not raid at large in Wessex or Mercia without exposing their homes to similar molestation. Moreover, the fleet which Alfred had built, and which his successors kept up, disputed their mastery of the sea, and ended by achieving a clear superiority over them. Unity of See also:

• PLAN
• PLAN (from Lat. planes, flat)

He was helped by his brother-in-law, the Mercian ealdorman "Ethelred, and, after the death of that See also:

• MAGNATE (Late Lat. magnas, a great man)

aided by a See also:

• REBELLION

It was long remembered " how all the kings of this island, both the Welsh and the Scots, eight kings, came to him once upon a time on one day and all bowed to his governance." The eight were See also:

• KENNETH

The retirement from public life of Edgar's old See also:

• MINISTER (Lat. minister, servant)

Instead of making a desperate attempt to drive them off, the king bribed them to depart with zo,000 pounds of silver, accepting it is said this cowardly See also:

• ADVICE (Fr. avis, from Lat. ad, to, and visum, viewed)

Some of the local magnates made a desperate defence of their own regions, especially Ulfkytel of East Anglia, a Dane by descent; but the central government was at See also:

• FAULT (Mid. Eng. faute, through the French, from the popular Latin use of fallere, to fail; the originallof the Latin being replaced in English in the 15th century)

But the last engagement, at Assandun (Ashingdon) in Essex went against the English, mainly because Eadric again betrayed the national catise and deserted to the enemy. Edmund was so hard See also:

• HIT

Occasionally he committed a harsh and tyrannical See also:

• ACT (Lat. actus, actum)

A few years of peace and wise administration seem to have restored the realm to' a satisfactory condition. A considerable See also:

• MASS (O.E. maesse; Fr. messe; Ger. Messe; Ital. messa; from eccl. Lat. missa)
• MASS, IN

He reigned, but did not rule, for twenty-four years, though he was well on in See also:

• MIDDLE

Godwine, whose Harold. daughter had wedded the king, was the most forcible and ambitious of the three, but his pre-See also:

• EMINENCE (Lat. eminentia)

Ultimately one of Leofric's grandsons, Edwin, was left as earl of Mercia, and the other, See also:

• MORCAR, EARL (fl. ro66)

Harold accepted the crown without a moment's hesitation, and at once prepared to defend it, for he was aware that the Norman would fight to gain its purpose. He endeavoured to conciliate Edwin and Morcar by marrying their sister Ealdgyth, and trusted that he had bought their loyal support. When the spring came See also:

• ROUND (O. Fr. rond, Lat. rotundus, the Fr. is the source also of Du. rond; Ger., Swed., Dan. and Nor. rond)

At this moment came a sudden and incalculable diversion; Harold's turbulent brother Tostig, banished for his crimes in 1065, was seeking revenge. He had persuaded Harold Hardrada, king of Norway, almost the last of the great viking adventurers, to take him as See also:

• GUIDE (in Mid. Eng. gyde, from the Fr. guide; the earlier French form was guie, English " guy," the d was due to the Italian form guida; the ultimate origin is probably Teutonic, the word being connected with the base seen in O. Eng. witan, to know)

Next See also:

• MORNING

Within twenty years of his accession the disasters and calamities which had preceded his triumph had been forgotten, and the national life was See also:

• RUNNING

But he had won his crown not as of Norman duke of Normandy, but as the head of a band of cosmo- settlepolitan adventurers, who had to be rewarded with land See also:

• MEAT

The risings were sporadic, See also:

• ILL

Even before the Conquest the lands of the magnates were to a large extent held in scattered See also:

• UNITS, DIMENSIONS OF
• UNITS, PHYSICAL

What he really did do was to reconstruct society on the essentially feudal theory that the land was a See also:

• GIFT (a common Teutonic word, cf. Ger. die Gift, gift, das Gift, poison, formed from the Teut. stem gab-, to give, cf. Dutch geven, Ger. geben; in O. Eng. the word appears with initial y, the guttural of later English is due to Scandinavian influence)

But it would be wrong to assert that all traces of the ancient social organization of the realm were swept Domesday. away. The old Saxon customs were not forgotten, though they might in many cases be See also:

• TWISTED

The machinery of the local courts survives for the most part intact. William's dealings with the Church of England were no less important than his dealings with social organization. In the earlier years of his reign he set himself to get rid of the whole of the upper See also:

• HIERARCHY (Gr. iepos, holy, and apxe.v, to rule)

In especial the great monastic revival which had started from the abbey of See also:

• CLUNY, or CLUGNY

He endeavoured to keep on the best terms with the papacy: he welcomed legates and frequently consulted the pope on purely spiritual matters. He even took the hazardous step of separating ecclesiastical courts and lay courts, giving the church leave to establish See also:

• SEPARATE

His rather precarious conquest of the See also:

• COUNTY (through Norm. Fr. comae, cf. O. Fr. cunte, conk', Mod. Fr. comae, from Lat. comitatus, cf. Ital. comitato, Prov. comtat; see COUNT)

William had introduced into his new realm alike the barons, with their personal ambition, and the clerics of the school of Hildebrand, with their intense jealousy for the rights of the church. The See also:

• TALE (O.Eng. talu, number, account, story; the word is common to many Teutonic languages; cf. Ger. Zahl, number, Erzahlung, narrative, Du. taal, speech, language)

But he was cunning, strong-handed and energetic; clearly the "Red King" would be an undesirable master to those who loved feudal anarchy. Hence every turbulent baron in England soon came to the conclusion that Robert was the sovereign whom his heart desired. The greater part of the reign of William II. was taken up with his fight against the feudal danger. Before he had been six months on the throne he was attacked by a league comprising more than half the baronage, and headed by his uncles, bishop See also:

• ODO

It was put down with the same decisive energy that William had shown in 1088, and this time he was merciless; he blinded and mutilated William of Ett, shut up See also:

• MOWBRAY
• MOWBRAY, HARRY SIDDONS (1858– )
• MOWBRAY, ROBERT (d. 1125)

This policy, when pursued with regard to the archbishopric of Canterbury, brought on Rufus the most troublesome of his quarrels. When the wise See also:

• PRIMATE (from Low Lat. primas=one who held the first place, primas partes)

There was much to be said for the theory of the king as to the relations between church and state; he was indeed only carrying on in a harsh See also:

• FORM (Lat. forma)

The king's death was unexpected: he was only in his fortieth year, and men's minds had not even begun to ponder over the question of who would succeed him. The crown of England was left vacant for the boldest kinsman to succHenry ofenry 1. snatch at, if he dared. William had two surviving brothers, beside several nephews. Robert's claim seemed the more likely to succeed, for not only was he the elder, but England was full of barons who desired his accession, and had already taken up arms for him in 1087 or 1095. But he was far away—being at the moment on his return See also:

• JOURNEY (through O. Fr. jornee or journee, mod. Fr. journee, from med. Lat. diurnata, Lat. diurnus, of or belonging to dies, day)

Henry at once issued a See also:

• PROCLAMATION (Lat. proclamare, to make public by announcement)

He was backed by his kinsmen and many other barons, but proved unable to stand before the king, who was loyally supported by the English shire levies. After taking the strong castles of See also:

• ARUNDEL
• ARUNDEL, EARLDOM OF
• ARUNDEL, EARLS OF
• ARUNDEL, THOMAS (1353-1414)

Yet the latter still remained strong enough to constitute a danger to the crown when-ever it should fall to a king less wary and resolute than Henry himself. Henry was by nature more of an administrator and organizer than of a fighting man. He was a competent soldier, but his wish was rather to be a strong king at home than a great conqueror abroad. Nevertheless he was driven by the See also:

• LOGIC (Xoy1K7, sc. rixvrt, the art of reasoning)

He now maintained not only that it was a See also:

• SIN
• SIN (O. Eng. syn: a common Teutonic word, cf. Dutch zonde, Ger. Siinde)

From 1107 onward Henry was freed from both the dangers which had threatened him in his earlier years, and was free to develop his policy as he pleased. He had yet twenty-eight years to reign, for he survived to the age of sixty-seven, an age unparalleled by any of his predecessors, and by all his successors till Edward I. It is to Henry, aided by his great See also:

• JUSTICIAR (med. Lat. justiciarius or justitiarius, a judge)

But there were other developments of the Curia. The justiciar, chancellor and treasurer sat with certain other members of the council as the court of See also:

• EXCHEQUER

He gave charters of a very liberal character to many places, and in especial to London, where the citizens were allowed to choose their own sheriff, and to See also:

• DEAL

Henry's only son William had been drowned at sea in 1120. He had no other child See also:

• BORN, IGNAZ, EDLER VON (1742–1791)

Meanwhile in England another pretender had appeared. Stephen, count of See also:

• BOULOGNE, or BOULLONGNE

Matilda's adherents were already in the field in Normandy; in England their rising was only delayed for a few months. Stephen, though he had shown some enterprise and capacity in his successful snatch at the crown, was a man far below his three predecessors on the throne in the matter of perseverance and foresight. He was a good fighter, a liberal giver, and a faithful friend, but he lacked wisdom, caution and the power to organize. Starting his career as a perjurer, it is curious that he was singularly slow to suspect See also:

• PERJURY (through the Anglo-Fr. perjurie, modern parjure, Lat. perjurium, a false oath, perjurare, to swear falsely)

Unfortunately for England the kingly power was in the hands of an incapable holder, and feudal anarchy found a plausible See also:

• MASK (Fr. masque, apparently from med. Lat. mascus, masca, spectre, through Ital. maschera, Span. mascara)

Moreover, the whole machinery of local government in the realm fell out of See also:

• GEAR (connected with " garb," properly elegance, fashion, especially of dress, and with " gar," to cause to do, only found in Scottish and northern dialects; the root of the word is seen in the Old Tent. garwjan, to make ready)

It was the See also:

• ZENITH (from the Arabic)

But there was this essential difference between the position of the two Henries, that the elder aspired to be no more than king of England and duke of Normandy, while the younger strove all his life for an imperial position in western Europe. Such an ambition was almost forced upon him by the consequences of his descent and his See also:

• MARRIAGE

Nor did this seem impossible; he owned a far broader and wealthier domain beyond the Channel than did his nominal suzerain King Louis VII., and—what was of more importance—he far excelled that prince both in vigour and in capacity.. On succeeding to the English crown, however, he came over at once to take possession of the realm, and abode there for over a year, displaying the most restless energy in setting to rights the governance of the realm. He expelled all Stephen's mercenaries, took back into his hands the royal lands and castles which his predecessor had granted away, and destroyed hundreds of the " adulterine " castles which the barons and knights had built without leave during the years of the anarchy. Hardly a single magnate dared to oppose him—Bridgnorth, now a castle of the Mortimers, was the only place which he had to take by force. His next care was to restore the bureaucracy by which Henry I. had been wont to govern. He handed over the exchequer to See also:

• NIGEL (d. 1168)

16481 was compelled to give up the earldoms of Northumberland and Cumberland, which his father Henry had received from Stephen. He received instead only the earldom of See also:

• HUNTINGDON
• HUNTINGDON, EARLS OF
• HUNTINGDON, SELINA HASTINGS, COUNTESS OF (1707—1791)

Henry developed as far as he was able the system of " See also:

• SCUTAGE

His most difficult task, however, was to come to a settlement with the Church. The lavish grants of Stephen had made an end of the old authority which the Conqueror and Henry I. had exercised over the clergy. Their successor was well aware of the fact, and was resolved to put back the See also:

• CLOCK

While chancellor he was the most zealous servant of the crown, and had seemed rather secular than clerical in his habits and his outlook on life. But no sooner had he been promoted to the archbishopric than he put away his former See also:

• MANNERS, CHARLES (1857– )

The See also:

• SENTENCE (Lat. sententia, a way of thinking, opinion, judgment; vote, sentire, to feel, think)

Church and State were at open war. Henry soon found that Becket's threats had more effect than he liked. Many of the English clergy were naturally on the side of the primate in a dispute which touched their loyalty to the Church and their class feeling. Several bishops declared to the king that, since his ministers had been duly ex-communicated, they did not see how they could avoid regarding them as men placed outside the See also:

• PALE (through Fr. pal, from Lat. palms, a stake, for paglus, from the stem pag- of pangere, to fix; " pole " is from the same original source)

He had wholly misjudged the situation; Becket made neither promises nor threats, but three weeks after he reached Canterbury publicly excommunicated the bishops of London and Salisbury for the part that they had taken in the coronation of the young king, and suspended from their functions the other prelates who had been present at the ceremony. He then proceeded to excommunicate a number of his minor lay enemies. The See also:

• NEWS

Another concession which Henry was forced to make was that the appeals to Rome of litigants in ecclesiastical suits should be freely permitted, provided that they made an oath that they were not contemplating any wrong to the English crown or the English church, a sufficiently easy condition. Such appeals became, and remained, innumerable and vexatious. Pope Alexander also extorted from the king a pledge that he would relinquish any customs prejudicial to the rights of the Church which had been introduced since his accession. To the pope this meant that the Constitutions of Clarendon were disavowed; to the king, who maintained that they were in the main a mere restatement of the customs of William I., it bore no such general interpretation. The points were fought out in detail, and not settled for many years. Practically it became the rule to regard suits regarding land, or presentations to benefices, as pertaining to the king's court, while those regarding See also:

• PROBATE

Henry himself felt so much the invidious position in which he was placed that even after making his submission to the pope's legates at See also:

• AVRANCHES

As in England the vikin s had of I ~ g Ireland. destroyed much of the old civilization; but they had neither succeeded in occupying the whole country nor had they been absorbed by the natives. The state of the island was much like that of England in the days of the See also:

• HEPTARCHY (Gr. 1rra seven, and apxi, rule)

He could not spare attention for the matter, but gave Dermot leave to enlist auxiliaries among the turbulent barons of the South Welsh Marches. The Irish exile enlisted first the services of Maurice See also:

• FITZGERALD
• FITZGERALD, EDWARD (1809–1883)
• FITZGERALD, LORD E
• FITZGERALD, LORD EDWARD (1763-1798)
• FITZGERALD, LORD THOMAS (loth earl of Kildare), (1513-1537)
• FITZGERALD, RAYMOND, or REDMOND (d. ca. 1182)

Accordingly, with a large army at his back, he landed at Water-See also:

• FORD, EDWARD ONSLOW
• FORD, JOHN (r586–c.1640)
• FORD, RICHARD (1796-1858)
• FORD, THOMAS (b. c. 158o)

The English conquest was incomplete; it failed to introduce either unity or strong governance. After a century and It half it began to recede rather than to advance. Many of the districts which had been overrun in the time of the Angevin kings were lost; many of the Anglo-Norman families intermarried with and became absorbed by the Irish; they grew as careless of their. allegiance to the crown as any of the native chiefs. The " Lordship of Ireland " was never a reality till the times of the Tudors. But as long as Henry II. lived this could not have been foreseen. The first generation of the conquerors pushed their advance with such Vigour that it seemed likely that they would complete the adventure. (See IRELAND: History.) It was in 1173, the year after his return from Ireland and his submission to the papal legates at Avranches, that King Henry became- involved in the first of a series of troublefi Rebellion which were to pursue him for the rest of his life—the of Henry's rebellions of his graceless sons. His wife Eleanor of sons. Aquitaine had See also:

• BORNE, KARL LUDWIG (1786–1837)

Their grudge against their father was sedulously fostered by their mother Eleanor, a See also:

• CLEVER

The justiciar, Richard de See also:

• LUCY, RICHARD DE (d. 1179)

Under Henry II. the circuits of the itinerant justices became regular instead of intermittent; the judicial functions of the Curia Regis were delegated to a permanent See also:

• COMMITTEE (from commute, an Anglo-Fr. past participle of commettre, Lat. committere, to entrust; the modern Fr. equivalent comite is derived from the Eng.)

The death of the younger Henry had made Richard heir to all his father's lands from the Tweed to the Bidassoa save Brittany, f khard t which had fallen to See also:

• ARTHUR (Fr. Arius)
• ARTHUR, CHESTER ALAN (1830 – 1886)

If he had,stayed long in England he would have made himself hated; but he was nearly always absent; it was only as a reckless and spasmodic extorter of taxation, not as a personal tyrant, that he was known on the English side of the Channel. At the opening of his reign Richard had one all-See also:

• ENGROSSING

But he quarrelled with all the other princes of the Crusade, and showed himself as lacking in tact and See also:

• DIPLOMATIC

Nothing of the kind happened between 1190 and 1194. The chancellor William Longchamp made himself odious by his vanity and autocratic behaviour, and was overthrown in 1191 by a general rising, which was headed by Prince John, and approved by Walter, archbishop of Rouen, whom Richard had sent to England with a See also:

• COMMISSION (from Lat. commissio, committere)

John and Philip wrote to the emperor to beg him to detain his captive at all See also:

• COSTS

We may trace back some small beginnings of a constitution to the time of Henry II.—himself an absentee though not on the scale of his son. But the ten years of Richard's reign were much more fruitful in the growth of institutions which were destined to curb the power of the crown. His justiciars, and especially Hubert Walter, were responsible for several innovations which were to have far-spreading results. The most important was an extension of the use of juries into the See also:

• PROVINCE
• PROVINCE (Lat. provincia; perhaps a contraction of providentia)

It was given by Prince John and the ministers, who were then supporting him against the arrogant chancellor, to secure the adherence of London. Richard on his return seems to have allowed it to stand. Lincoln was also given the right of electing its own magistrates in 1194, and many smaller places owe grants of more or less of municipal privilege to Hubert Walter acting in the name of the absent king. The English nation began to have some conception of a regime of fixed custom, in which its rights depended on some other source than the sovereign's personal caprice. The times, it may be remembered, were not unprosperous. There had been no serious civil war since the baronial rising of 1173. Prince John's turbulence had only affected the neighbourhood of a few royal castles. Despite of the frequent and heavy demands for money for the king's service, wealth seems to have been increasing, and prosperity to have been widespread. Strong and regular governance had on the whole prevailed ever since Henry II. triumphed over baronial anarchy. Richard's queen, Berengaria of See also:

• NAVARRE (Span. Navarra)

John as his successor, holding apparently that a See also:

• BAD, BCD

This act offended the English barons, but in choosing a new queen John gave much greater offence abroad; he carried off Isabella of See also:

• ANGOULEME
• ANGOULEME, CHARLES DE VALOIS, DUKE OF (1573-1650)

By John's time there were comparatively few landholders whose interests were fairly divided between the duchy and the kingdom. Such as survived had now to choose between losing the one or the other section of their lands; those whose holding was mainly Norman adhered to Philip; those who had more land in England sacrificed their transmarine estates. For each of the two kings declared the property of the barons who did not support him confiscated to the crown. As to the old Norman theory that England was a conquered land, it had gradually ceased to exist as an operative force, under kings who, like Henry II. or Richard I., were neither Norman nor English in feeling, but Angevin. John did not, and could not, See also:

• APPEAL

Henry I. or Henry II. could run over to his continental dominions in a day or two days; See also:

• DIEPPE

In the end of I205 Hubert papacy. Walter, archbishop of Canterbury, had died. The king announced his intention of procuring the election of John de See also:

• GRAY
• GRAY (or GREY), WALTER DE (d. 1255)
• GRAY, ASA (1810-1888)
• GRAY, DAVID (1838-1861)
• GRAY, ELISHA (1835-1901)
• GRAY, HENRY PETERS (1819-18/7)
• GRAY, HORACE (1828–1902)
• GRAY, JOHN DE (d. 1214)
• GRAY, JOHN EDWARD (1800–1875)
• GRAY, PATRICK GRAY, 6TH BARON (d. 1612)
• GRAY, ROBERT (1809-1872)
• GRAY, SIR THOMAS (d. c. 1369)
• GRAY, THOMAS (1716-1771)

Despising such threats Innocent carried out his See also:

• THREAT

It estranged from the king the hearts of all his French subjects, who were already sufficiently disgusted by many minor acts of brutality, as well as by incessant arbitrary taxation and by the reckless ravages in which John's mercenary troops had been indulging. The French armies met with little or no resistance when they invaded Normandy, Anjou and and extreme See also:

• UNCTION (Lat. unctio, anointing, ungere, unguere, to smear with ointment, to anoint; cf. " ointment," O.Fr. oignement, from oigner, mod. oindre, to anoint)

" Now by God's feet am I for the first time king of England," he exclaimed, when the news reached him. He proceeded to fill the vacancy with a mere, Poitevin adventurer, Peter See also:

• DES

His long-deserved humiliation only began in the winter of 1212-1213, when Innocent III., finding him so utterly callous as to the interdict, took the further step of declaring John does him deposed from the throne for See also:

• CONTUMACY (Lat. contumacia, obstinacy; derived from the root tem-, as in temnere,' t'o_despise, or possibly from the root tum-, as in tumere, to swell, with anger, &c.)

The barons expressed their wish for a peace with France, andwhen summoned to produce their feudal contingents pleaded poverty, and raised a rather shallow theory to the effect that their services could not be asked for wars beyond seas—against which there were conclusive precedents in the reigns of Henry I. - and Henry II. But any plea can be raised against an unpopular king. John found himself obliged to turn back, since hardly a man save his mercenaries had rallied to his standard at See also:

• PORTSMOUTH
• PORTSMOUTH, EARLS OF
• PORTSMOUTH, LOUISE DE

To Langton and the barons the charter of Henry I. seemed to cover all the customs and practices which had grown up under the rule of the bureaucracy which had served Henry II. and Richard I. A correct See also:

• HISTORICAL

• Indirectly See also:

• BOUVINES

Some of the clauses are unimportant concessions to individuals, or deal with matters of trifling importance—such as the celebrated weirs or " kiddies " on Thames and See also:

• MEDWAY

The royal courts are no longer to attend the king's person--a vexatious practice when sovereigns were always on the move, and litigants and witnesses had to follow them from manor to manor—but are to be fixed at Westminster. General rules of indisputable See also:

• EQUITY (Lat. aequitas)

It seems certain that the drafters of the charter were honest in their intentions, and did not purpose to set up a feudal oligarchy in the place of a royal See also:

• AUTOCRACY (Gr. abroepareca, absolute power)

Civil war. Many of the clergy who had hitherto supported the baronial cause drew back in dismay at the pope's attitude. But the laymen were resolute, and 'prepared for open war, which broke out in October 1215. The king, who had already gathered in many mercenaries, gained the first advantage by capturing Rochester Castle before the army of the barons was assembled. So formidable did he appear to them for the moment that they took the deplorable step of inviting the foreign foe to join in the struggle. Declaring John deposed because he had broken his oath to observe the charter, they offered the crown to Louis of France, the son of King Philip, because he had married John's niece See also:

• BLANCHE, JACQUES EMILE (1861– )

Soon after, while marching from See also:

• LYNN

The youth of the king and the good reputation of the earl marshal were a sufficient guaran- tee that, for some years at any rate, an honest attempt would be made to redeem the pledge. Very soon the barons began to return to their allegiance, or at least to slacken in their support of Louis, who had given much offence by his openly displayed distrust of his partisans and his undisguised preference for his French followers. The papal influence was at the same time employed in the cause of King Henry, and Philip of France was forced to abandon open support of his son, though he naturally continued to give him secret help and to send him succours of men and money. The fortune of war, however, did not turn without a battle. At Lincoln, on the loth of May 1217, the marshal completely defeated an Anglo-French army commanded by the count of See also:

• PERCHE

After the departure of Prince Louis and his foreigners the earl marshal had to take up much the same task that had fallen to Henry II. in 1154. Now, as at the death of Stephen, the realm was full of " adulterine castles," of bands of robbers who had cloaked their plundering under the pretence of loyal service to the king or the French prince, and of local magnates who had usurped the prerogatives of See also:

• ROYALTY (0. Fr. realte, reialte, royaulte, from Med. Lat. regalitas, the substantive of regalis, of or belonging to a king, rex)

Yet the England of 1272 was widely different from the England of 1216. The futile and thriftless yet busy and self-important king was one of those sovereigns who irritate their subjects into opposition by injudicious activity. He was not a See also:

• RUFFIAN (Fr. ruffian, It. ruffiano)

Moreover it was a great hindrance to him that he was a consistent friend and supporter of the papacy. He had never forgotten the services of the legates Pandulf and Gualo to himself and his father, and was always ready to lend his aid to the political schemes of the popes, even when it was difficult to see that any English interests were involved in them. His designs, which were always shifting from point to point of the continent, did not appeal in the least to his subjects, who took little interest in Poitou or Touraine, and none whatever in Italy. After the troubled times which had lasted from 1214 to 1224 they desired nothing more than peace, quietness and good governance. They had no wish to furnish their master with taxation for French wars, or to follow his banner to distant Aquitaine. But most of all did they dislike his practice of flooding England with strangers from beyond seas, for whom offices and endowments had to be found. The moment that he had got rid of the honest and capable old justiciar Hubert de Burgh, who had pacified the country during his minority, and set the machinery of government once more in regular order, Henry gave himself over to fostering horde after horde of foreign favourites. There was first his Poitevin chancellor, Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester, with a numerous band of his relations and dependents. As a See also:

• SAMPLE (through the O. Fr. essemple, from Lat. exemplum; a doublet of " example ")

Winchester. Their kinsmen and dependents were equally welcomed. Even more numerous and no less ex-pensive to the realm were the Provencal and Savoyard relatives of Henry's queen, Eleanor of See also:

• PROVENCE (Provincia, Proenza)

He was the grandson of Amicia, countess of Leicester, but his father, Simon the Elder, a magnate whose SMontimont'ort. de French interests were greater than his English, had adhered to the cause of Philip Augustus in the days of King John and the Leicester estates had been confiscated. Simon, reared as a Frenchman, came over in 1230 to See also:

• PETITION (Lat. for " seeking " or " praying ")

The towns were growing fast, and extending their municipal liberties; the necessities of John and the facile carelessness of Henry led to the grant of innumerable charters and privileges. As was to be seen again during the first period of the reign of Charles I., political irritation is not incompatible either with increasing material prosperity or with great intellectual development. The king's futile activity led to ever more frequent gatherings of the Great Council, in which the theory of the constitution was gradually hammered out by countless debates between the sovereign and his subjects. Every time that Henry confirmed the Great Charter, the fact that England was already a limited monarchy became more evident. It is curious to find that—like his father John—he himself contributed unconsciously to advances towards representative government. Been. John's writ of 1213, bidding " discreet men " from each pings of shire to present themselves at Oxford, found its Pariiaparallel in another writ of 1253 which bids four knightly meat. delegates from each county to appear along with the tenantsin-chief, for the purpose of discussing the king's needs. When county members begin to present themselves along with the barons at the national assembly, the conception of parliament is already reached. And indeed we may note that the precise word "parliament" first appears in the chroniclers and in official documents about the middle of Henry's reign. By its end the term is universally acknowledged and employed. We may discern during these same years a great intellectual activity. This was the time of rapid development in the See also:

• UNIVERSITIES

and systematic See also:

• THEOLOGY

The king himself, when rearing the new Westminster Abbey over the See also:

• GRAVE

At the " Mad Parliament,"[1214-1264 which met at Oxford, 1258, the barons informed their master that his misgovernment had grown so hopeless that they were resolved to put him under constitutional • restraints. public dls-They appointed a committee of twenty-four, in which content. Simon de Montfort was the leading spirit, and en- The See also:

• PRO

To conciliate them the barons allowed the " Provisions of Westminster " to be enacted in 1259, in which the power of feudal courts Was considerably restricted, and many classes of suit were transferred to the royal tribunals, a sufficient proof that the king's See also:

• JUDGES, THE BOOK OF

23, 1264), so called from the city at which he dated it, a document which stated that King Henry ought to abide by the terms of Magna Carta, to which he had so often given his assent, but that the Provisions of .Oxford were wholly invalid and derogatory to the royal dignity. " We ordain," he wrote, " that the king shall have full power and free jurisdiction over his realm, as in the days before the said Provisions." The pope shortly afterwards confirmed the French king's See also:

• AWARD (from O. Fr. ewart, or esguart, cf. " reward ")

Henry himself, his brother Richard of Cornwall, and many hundreds of his chief supporters were taken prisoners. His son Prince Edward, who had been victorious on his own flank of the battle, and had not been caught in the rout, gave himself up next morning, wishing to share his father's fate, and not to prolong a civil war which seemed to have become hopeless. On the day that followed his victory Leicester extorted from the captive king the document called the " mise of Lewes," in which Henry promised to abide by all the terms Montfort's of the Provisions of Oxford, as well as to uphold the See also:

• PARA
• PARA (officially BELEM; sometimes BELEM DO PARA)

He himself was too much like a See also:

• DICTATOR (from the Lat. dictare, frequentative of dicere, to speak)

The actual proceedings of this particular assembly had no great importance. Two months later Prince Edward escaped from his confinement, and fled to the earl of Gloucester, who now declared him-self a royalist. They raised an army, which seized the fords of the Severn, in order to prevent de Montfort—who was then at Hereford with the captive king-from getting back to London or the Midlands. The earl, who could only raise a trifling force in the Marches, where the barons were all his enemies, failed in several attempts to force a passage eastward. But his friends raised a considerable host, which marched under his son Simon the Younger and the earl of Oxford, to fall on the See also:

• REAR

But the king was old and broken by his late misfortunes: his son the prince was wise beyond his years, and Gloucester and many other of the present supporters of the crown had originally been friends of reform, and had not abandoned their old views. They had deserted Montfort because he was autocratic and masterful, not because they had altogether disapproved of his policy. Hence we find Gloucester insisting that the remnant of the vanquished party should not be subjected to over heavy. punishment, and even making an armed demonstration, in the spring of 1267, to demand the re-enactment of the Provisions of Oxford. Ultimately the troubles of the realm were ended by the Dictum of Kenilworth (Oct. 31, 1266) and the See also:

• STATUTE

He was now too feeble to indulge in any of his former freaks of foreign policy, and allowed the realm to be governed under his son's He rhy m eye by See also:

• VETERAN

He would have liked to make parliament, no doubt, a mere meeting for the voting of taxation with the smallest possible friction. But he fully realized that this dream was impossible, and was wise enough to give way, whenever opposition grew too strong and bitter. He had not fought through the civil wars of 1263–66 without learning his lesson. There was a point beyond which it was unwise to provoke the baronage or the commons, and, unlike his flighty and thriftless father, he knew where that point came. The constitutional quarrels of his reign were conducted with decency and order, because the king knew his own limitations, and because his subjects trusted to his wisdom and moderation in times of crisis. Edward indeed was a man worthy of respect, if not of See also:

• AFFECTION (Lat. ad, and facere, to do something to, sc. a person)

But at any rate he always endeavoured to See also:

• DISCHARGE (adapted from the O. Fr. discharge, modern decharge, from a med. Lat. discargare, to unload, dis- and earn care, to load, cf. " charge ")

In 1278 followed the Statute of Gloucester, an act empowering the king to make inquiry as to the right by which old royal estates, or exceptional franchises which infringed on the royal See also:

• PREROGATIVE

It was very acceptable to the baronage, who had suffered, on a smaller scale, the same grievance as the king, for when their subtenants transferred estates to the church, they (like their masters) suffered a permanent loss of feudal revenue. A distinct check in the hitherto steady growth of clerical endowments began from this time, though licences in mortmain were by no means impossible to obtain. The great group of statutes that date from Edward's earlier years ends with the legislative enactments of 1285, the Second Statute of Westminster and the Statute of Winchester. second The former contains the clause De Donis Condi- statute of tionalibus, a notable landmark in the history of English West-law, since it favoured the system of entailing estates. minster. Hitherto life-owners of land, holding as subtenants, had possessed large powers of alienating it, to the detriment of their superior lords, who would otherwise have recovered it, when their vassals died heirless, as an " escheat." This custom was primarily harmful to the king—the greatest territorial magnate and the one most prone to distribute rewards in land to his servants. But it was also prejudicial to all tenants-in-chief. By De Donis the tenant for life was prevented from selling his estate, which could only pass to his lawful heir; if he had none, it fell back to his feudal superior. Five years later this legislation was supplemented by the statute Quia Emptores, equally beneficial to king and barons, which provided that subtenants should not be allowed to make over land to other persons, retaining the nominal possession and feudal rights over it, but should be compelled to sell it out and out, so that their successor in title stood to the overlord exactly as the seller had done: Hitherto Constitutional changes. Statutes of Westminster andGioucester. they had been wont to dispose of the whole or parts of their estates while maintaining their feudal rights over it, so that the ultimate landlord could not deal directly with the new occupant, whose reliefs, wardship, &c., fell to the intermediate holder who had sold away the land. The main result of this was that, when a baron parted with any one of his estates, the acquirer became a tenant -in-chief directly dependent on the king, instead of being left a vassal of the person who had passed over the land to him. See also:

• SUBINFEUDATION

As the process of the See also:

• PARTITION