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was shared by many others. Indeed, Philip expressed a willingness to respect the tenure of all those who did him homage for their Norman lands before a certain date. "Many tears were afterwards shed by those who did not avail themselves of this opportunity in time." 2 The Picard chronicler who wrote the "History of the Dukes of Normandy," while confirming this statement to some extent, throws a very valuable light upon the state of John's court during these perplexing days. He makes it quite clear that the Marshal's position must have been exceptional and forces us to suspect the statement of his biographer that the king consented to his arrangement with Philip. John was evidently very anxious as well as angry. He had been, so he thought, unjustly and treacherously despoiled of his duchy and now he was faced. by a request from the earl Warenne and other barons that they should be allowed to do homage to the man who had robbed him. The barons, says the chronicler, assured the king that, although their bodies might owe service to their lord of France, their hearts would most certainly be his. "The king said that he would confer on the matter. Accordingly he one day assembled his council, and after laying before them the barons' request, demanded their advice. Baldwin of Béthune, count of Aumâle, spoke first. He was a very valiant gentleman, and a loyal and good knight; but he was so ill with the gout that he was unable to walk, and had to be carried. He had much weight with King John, who had always found him loyal and true. "Is it true, sire," he said, "that they have asked leave to go to the king of France to beg for the lands which they have lost in Normandy, and that, while

1. Bracton, De Legibus, f. 427b (ed. Rolls Series, vi, 374), "sed tamen sunt aliqui Francigenae in Francia, qui sunt ad fidem utriusque [regis], et semper fuerunt ante Normanniam deperditam et post, et qui placitant hic et ibi ea ratione qua sunt ad fidem utriusque, sicut W. comes Marescallus et (sic) manens in Anglia, et M. de Feynes manens in Francia, et alii plures." On the Fiennes lands see Exc. e rotulis Finium, i, 415.

2. Guill. le Maréchal, iii, 176.

their bodies will be for the king of France against you, their hearts are to be for you?" "Yes," said the king; "that is what they ask." Well," the count replied, "I

do not know what you intend to do; but were I in your place, and were their bodies against me and their hearts for me, if the hearts whose bodies were against me came into my hands, I would throw them into the privy." These words caused much laughter and prevailed, so that what had been asked came to nothing. But the king afterwards gave to the earl Warenne, who was his cousin, the town of Stamford-a very fair place in exchange for the land which he had lost in Normandy." 1

Hence the number of those who served two masters was few. Philip proceeded with his policy of confiscation, and the society of the two countries was severed. In 1244 Saint Louis put an end to the slight connection which still survived. 2

A few general considerations, suggested by the foregoing enquiry, may bring this study of Norman politics and society to a close.

Gerald of Wales, in his De principis instructione, describes an interesting conversation which he had with Henry II's great justiciar, Ranulf de Glanvill. Why, Gerald asked, does Normandy defend herself less

1. Histoire des ducs de Normandie et des rois d'Angleterre, ed. Michel, pp. 99-100. The grant to the earl Warenne is referred to in Rot. Pat., 52b, in letters of April 19, 1205: "sciatis quod commisimus dilecto et fideli nostro W. comiti Warenne Graham et Stanford cum pertinenciis habenda quousque recuperavit terram suam Normannie vel quousque ei alibi fecerimus competens excambium. Ita tamen quod non possit talliare homines de Stanford nisi per preceptum nostrum." A note is added after the enrolment "liberate non fuerunt littere iste." The date, it will be noticed, was just before the time fixed by Philip for the Marshal's homage, and probably fixes the date of the decree in which Philip announced the addition of the lands of the earl Warenne and others to his demesne (Cart. Norm., no. 113, p. 20. Above, p. 415). 2. See Appendix II for some of the families which survived in both England and Normandy after 1204.

strenuously than of old? 1 Glanvill gave a historical reason for the change, based upon his reading in the epic literature of the day. The Franks had suffered so much during the wars which had preceded the arrivals of the Normans that their youth had become exhausted. A life and death struggle, such as that between Raoul of Cambrai and the house of Vermandois made many gaps in the ranks. Now, on the contrary,-so Glanvill implied -the balance between Frank and Norman was redressed. Gerald of Wales, after repeating the conversation, adds two other reasons. In the first place, the Normans had suffered from the effects of the conquest of England, for the violent despotism which the dukes had practised as kings of England, had been extended to their Norman subjects, and had been followed by the usual disastrous consequences. And, secondly, the kingdom of France from the time of King Pippin onwards had given a striking proof of the truth, also illustrated by the careers of Alexander and Cæsar, that success in war always accompanies a pursuit of the arts. The French love of learning was a cause of their political victories."

Stripped of its literary extravagance, each of these reasons for the decadence of Normandy contains a profound truth.

1. The Normans were faced by a state which was steadily increasing in wealth, population and compactness. The resources of Henry II and Richard I were remarkable, and were perhaps greater in the bulk than those of Philip

1. Giraldus Cambrensis, De principis instructione, distinctio iii, c. xii: " Quare se nunc segnius quam olim Normannia defendit." (Opera, viii, 257-9).

2. On the twelfth century poem, Raoul de Cambrai, which is evidently in Glanvill's mind, see Bedier, Les Legendes Epiques, ii, 320 seqq.

3. "Effecti violento dominatu et insulari tyrannide Normannos sicut et Anglos oppresserant" (Opera, viii, 258).

4. Howden (iv, 121) in his account of the dissension between the citizens of Paris and the German scholars, refers to Philip Augustus' desire to keep the scholars in his dominions.

Augustus, but the effective strength of the French monarchy was felt by Richard's ministers to be more than adequate to that which they could command.2 If the barons of Aquitaine and Gascony had been consistently loyal, if the resources of Tours and Le Mans had been unreservedly at their lord's disposal, if the Bretons had never provoked a punitive expedition, and if the counts of Flanders, Boulogne, and Toulouse had never deserted the Angevin alliance, then there would have been no doubt as to Philip's inferiority. Men and treasure could have been diverted as necessity arose from any part of the empire to its threatened and vulnerable points. But these happy conditions did not prevail. The resources of the empire, with the exception of English treasure, were not readily available for general use. Even the wealth of England was very nearly exhausted in 1204. The heavy drain of specie had caused the currency to become seriously debased, so that Henry II's new coinage of 1180 had to be replaced by another in 1205.3 The payment of the thirteenth in 1207 was the last great financial effort of the English people before the chaos of the next ten years. Moreover, in comparing the position of Richard or John with that of Philip, it should be noted that a

1. See, for example, the comparison of their position in the French Chronicle edited by Delisle in the Historiens de France, xxiv, part ii, p. 758.

2. See Archbishop Hubert's speech in 1197 at the Council at Oxford, Vita Magni S. Hugonis, p. 248. Richard, he said, needed money “qui, sumptibus et militantium copiis inferior, contra regem dimicaret potentissimum, ad suam exhaeredationem et perniciem totis nisibus aspirantem."

3. Coggeshall, p. 151; Annals of S. Edmund, ii, 13. Cf. in corroboration of the statement that the coinage was clipped, the following entry in the Rot. de Fin., 271: "Rex mandavit thesaurario et camerario quod liberarent eidem Willelmo [Brewer] DCC marcas de thesauro suo qui fuit apud Wintoniam de grossioribus et fortioribus denariis quas ei comodavit ad redempcionem filii sui.”

4. Above, p. 393.

great deal of the formers' money found its way into the coffers of their enemies or of their very uncertain allies. The payment of Richard's ransom strained the resources of England and Normandy at the very beginning of the great war. Philip received large sums by the treaties of 1193 and 1200.1 Otto and the princes of the Low Countries were maintained by large pensions. Expensive missions to Rome were constantly necessary. Towards the end of the wars the balance of money paid by each side in ransoms turned heavily against the subjects of John. And, lastly, the needs of the Angevin governments of Aquitaine and Gascony diverted a great deal of money from the main scene of conflict. 3

2. Gerald of Wales rightly distinguished the absolutism of the Angevin rule in Normandy as a cause of Norman weakness in the struggle with France. As a strong upholder of the claims of the Welsh to independence, at least in ecclesiastical affairs, he was no doubt impressed by the decay of public spirit in England and Normandy. It was no tyranny of the ordinary kind that had prevailed in Normandy. The strong rule of Henry II was not a novelty, and must have found favour with the great majority of his subjects. He simply applied in more complicated conditions those principles of law and order which inspired the rule of the Conqueror and of Henry I. The chronicles only begin to speak of tyranny in the reign

1. Above, pp. 149, 204.

2. For some of the ransoms paid in 1204-5, see Rot. de Lib., 103; Rot. Pat., 41b (the Constable of Chester; Rot. de Fin., 271; Rot. Pat., 41b-42 (W. Brewer the younger); Salmon, Chroniques de Touraine, p. 150; Rot. Pat., 65 (for Girard of Athée).

3. The culminating point is the enormous payment of 28,000 marks, said by Coggeshall (p. 147) to have been paid to the brother of the archbishop of Bordeaux in 1204 for raising an army in Gascony. The rolls show that money was sent to Gascony (Rot. de Lib., 102; Rot. de Fin., 271). Coggeshall states that the archibishop was hostage in England for the fulfilment of the bargain; and it is true that he was in England in 1204 (e.g., Rot. Chart., 123; Rot. de Lib., 102).

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