CHARACTER OF HENRY II. 393 the princess Alix, and to acknowledge Richard as his heir. At his own request, a list of the barons who had joined Richard against his father was given in. The first name that met his eye was that of the only son whom he still loved and trusted, earl John. He fell back in his bed, and turned his face to the wall. "Let things henceforth go as they will; I renounce myself and the world." A few days' fever carried him off. He had once caused a picture of four eaglets rending an eagle to be painted on a panel of a chamber at Winchester. The prediction was now literally fulfilled. Henry II. had the features of his mother's family. He was a middle-sized, square man, with a large round head, leonine features, a sanguine complexion, and grey blood-shot eyes. He stooped slightly, and grew fat and gouty as he aged, in spite of moderate diet and frequent exercise. His courage as a soldier was balanced by his timidity as a general. A liberal man in public, he was accused of stinginess in his own household; and his craft as a diplomatist was perpetually undone by the fits of passion which he was powerless to restrain. The seeming inconsistencies of his character are completed by the fact, that the deadly enemy of Becket constantly employed ecclesiastics in preference to laymen about his person. These contrasts are explained by the one fact, that Henry, able and energetic, was wanting in steady principle and character. No man more thoroughly regarded life as a game in which the only stake was success. To bribe God into helping him, and to shuffle oaths like counters, without incurring the direct charge of fraud, were Henry's moral principles. Slender as they were, he did not always adhere to them: his passion constantly mastered his superstition, and in one critical moment of his life he disgusted Louis, who had for once sided with him against Becket, by a wanton breach of faith, that he might punish his revolted subjects in Brittany and Poitou.1 Out of mere anger against his son, he allowed the power of the French 277. After the conference of Montmirail.-Herbert de Bosham, Vita Beck., p. 394 MERITS OF HENRY'S GOVERNMENT. crown to increase, and prepared the way for the loss of Guienne and Normandy. His adulteries were flagrant, and carried on when his hair was grey, and he over sixty. Even the strong justice he administered was not without reproach, and it often degenerated into barbarity. His subjects said that he enforced the rights of his crown unequally; that he plundered orphans of their heritage; that he left his soldiers unpaid; and that his justiciaries were corrupt. The great Ranulf de Glanville has been accused of condemning an innocent man to death, that his own viscount might marry the widow; and Henry, although he remitted the capital sentence, kept the victim of oppression in prison. It is difficult, therefore, to agree with Hume, that Henry's "character, in private as well as in public life, is almost without a blemish." But it had redeeming points. He was singularly learned for his times, a pleasant companion, and a staunch friend. In the great quarrel between church and state, he saw the right side, and fought it out, through much violence and many failures, to a successful end. He reformed the organization of justice, and substituted the grand assize for the duel. The prestige of the English name increased under him. Above all, the country enjoyed a long season of quiet within its borders. The distinction of Norman and Englishman was beginning to disappear, and Henry did nothing to perpetuate it. In a few years after his death, the country began to be studded with free towns. See the vision of Roger Estreby.-Girald. Camb. de Inst. Princ., p. 43. 2 Hoveden; Savile, p. 355. The charge against Glanville derives some probability from the language of Richard of Devizes (p. 7), who calls him "vir Stephano (sc. of Tours) non inferior nisi moribus," &c. RICHARD CŒUR DE LION. RICHARD'S ACCESSION.-MASSACRES OF THE JEWS.-PREPARATIONS FOR THE CRUSADE. SICILY.-CYPRUS.-PALESTINE.-REGENCY OF LONGCHAMP.-QUARREL WITH THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK. LONGCHAMP BESIEGED IN THE TOWER, AND EXPELLED FROM POWER.-RICHARD'S RETURN, AND TREACHEROUS CAPTURE IN GERMANY.-CONDUCT OF EARL JOHN.-RICHARD'S HOMAGE TO THE EMPEROR AND RANSOM.-LAST YEARS OF THE REIGN.-RICHARD'S DEATH.-WILLIAM FITZ-OSBERT.-CHARACTER OF RICHARD I. WHEN Richard met the procession that was bearing the royal bier to the abbey of Fontevraud, it is said that blood gushed from the mouth and nose of the corpse.1 Horror-struck at the sight, and guiltily conscious of a share in his father's death, the new king showed his penitence by at first retaining in place, or promoting, the old servants of the crown. One exception was made against Stephen of Tours, seneschal of Anjou. It was part of his crime that he was low-born. Richard threw him into prison, took away the noble wife of his son, and married her, in defiance of all canons, to a man of her own rank. Generally the new king seemed anxious to conciliate public opinion. He promised to confirm John in the possession of his English estates, and gave his half-brother Geoffrey, the archbishopric of York instead of the chancellorship. Queen Eleanor was released from the prison to which she had been again consigned, and travelled over England, proclaiming acts of grace, and receiving oaths of fealty. There was a general gaol-delivery, by which criminal offences were condoned, while civil debtors were let out under bail for their re-appearance. In August, 1189 A.D., Richard Brompton says (Twysden, 1151) that he was laid out, crowned and sceptred, and with his head uncovered. The account of John of Oxenedes (p. 64) is simpler. 396 MASSACRES OF THE JEWS. landed; took the usual oaths to preserve the liberties of church and state, and was crowned sumptuously. Unhappily his presence inflamed the crusading spirit, which was already fierce in the nation. Although debarred from civil rights, the Jews of England had hitherto multiplied and grown rich: aliens and infidels as they were, they had high and low in their power. Strongbow was probably one out of many nobles who had been bound to them; their claim over St. Edmund's monastery was so strong, that they once lived with their wives and families within its walls. All the more were men generally anxious to revenge themselves on a race, which they hated and feared. Some Jews who pressed in to see the king's coronation, were driven back with blows. A riot ensued, and the Jews' quarter was plundered. A day clapsed before the king's troops could restore order, and then only three rioters were punished, for damage done to Christians. Thus encouraged, or allowed, the frensy of persecution spread over the land. Generally it was the country people who were setting out as pilgrims for Palestine, who began the crusade at home, while the cities interposed to preserve the king's peace. But the rumour that the unbelievers were accustomed to crucify a Christian boy at Easter, had hardened men's hearts against them. The cause of murder and rapine prevailed in Dunstaple, Stamford, and Lincoln. At York, the viscount allowed five hundred Jews to take refuge in the castle. Fearing, in spite of this, to be given up, they closed the gates against the king's officers. They were now besieged by the townsmen, under orders of the viscount, and the defence of men untrained to arms and without artillery, lay only in the strength of the walls. They offered to ransom their lives, but the crowd thirsted for blood. Then a rabbi rose up and addressed his countrymen. "Men of Israel, hear my words: it is better for us to die for our law, than to fall into the hands of those who hate it; and our law pre 1 Newburgh, vol. i., p. 161. For the case of Richard of Anesty, see Palgrave's Eng. Com., pp. xxiv.-xxvii; Chron. Joc. de Brak., p. 8. 2 "Ubicunque reperti sunt Judai manibus peregrinantium percussi sunt, nisi qui municipalium eruebantur auxilio."-Diceto; Twysden, 651. PREPARATIONS FOR THE CRUSADE. 397 scribes this." Then every man slew his wife and children, and hurled the corpses over the battlements. The survivors shut themselves up with their treasures in the royal chamber, and set fire to it. The crowd indemnified themselves by sacking the Jews' quarter, and burning the schedules of their debts, which were kept for safety in the cathedral. But this was an offence against the exchequer, to which, by the theory of the law, all Jewish property belonged. Royal officers were therefore sent down to York, and the town called to account for its disorders; a fine was levied, but the murderers escaped punishment.1 The chivalrous part of Richard's reign is in itself of little importance for English history. But its indirect results changed the face of the country. Among them, the purchase of charters by the municipalities may be classed in the first order. Richard once said that he would sell London itself, if he could find a purchaser. The sheriffs and their officers were removed throughout the kingdom, that their places might be sold. If it be true that the great justiciary, Glanville, was imprisoned, and forced to ransom himself for three thousand pounds, the act may be regarded as one of extortion rather than of justice; for Glanville's offences under Henry were condoned by his continued employment under Richard. This indignity did not prevent the aged legist from joining the crusade, and he was among its victims. The chancellorship of the kingdom was sold for three thousand marks to William Longchamp, bishop of Ely, a Frenchman risen from the ranks, whom Richard trusted. The regency of the kingdom during 1 Benedict and Joss, two of the Jews at York, had built houses like royal palaces in the city, and lived there like "tyrants over the Christians."-Newburgh, vol. ii., p. 19. 2 Ric. Div., p. 7. William of Newbury, however, states that he gave up his office, disgusted by Richard's government.-Vol. ii., p. 9. He had been employed to see justice done for the massacre of the Jews in London.—Brompton; Twysden, p. 1160. It is possible that although the justiciary was removable by a new king, his authority did not necessarily cease with the life of the sovereign from whom it was derived.-Palgrave's Rot. Cur., vol. i., |
