municated her as a disturber of the national peace. Matilda gathered her friends to revenge this treachery and insult, and besieged the false prelate in his palace. But the Londoners came to the rescue-a thousand bold citizens in coats of mail, commanded by Stephen's wife, Queen Maud—and in a short time the state of affairs was so completely changed that Matilda found herself besieged in the royal castle by the bishop whom she had come down to besiege.

The capture of the garrison would have settled the dispute at once. For, besides Matilda herself, there were knights and earls of great importance, David king of Scotland, and Gloucester, the general of the army. The furious bishop pushed on his approaches, and the defenders began to despair. Matilda mounted a horse at daybreak of a holiday of the Church, and fled towards the castle of Devizes. The moment her absence was perceived, knights and nobles leaped on horseback to pursue. Gloucester and the warriors of his party threw themselves between the fugitive and her foes, and kept off their assault till they reached Stourbridge. There a fierce combat took place for the purpose of delay, that Matilda might get out of danger. The gallantry of Gloucester was successful in saving the queen, but disastrous to himself. Many fell-many were taken prisoners; Gloucester was seized, and the rest dispersed, and hid themselves in woods and valleys. Their perils, however, were not over, for the peasantry, maddened with sufferings, and starving from the general impoverishment, watched for the foreign accent of the Norman nobles, who had assumed various disguises, and mercilessly slew them. It was safer, in those dreadful times, to trust to the generosity of their feudal enemies than to the compassion of the lower class. A knight might pity a knight, but a peasant had no feeling towards his superiors but implacable bitterness and revenge. Stephen, in his dungeon at Bristol, heard of the captivity of Gloucester in the castle of Rochester.

A.D. 1142.]

FLIGHT OF MATILDA.

169

A treaty was entered into for an exchange of these distinguished captives, and the struggle went on as before.

Matilda was besieged in Oxford Castle, and expected aid from her brother, the Earl of Gloucester, who was reported to be advancing with her young son, Henry. Nearly the whole of Normandy had submitted to Geoffrey of Anjou, the husband of Matilda, when he summoned it to acknowledge the title of his son. The youth was sent over to try the effect of his name in England, and the unconquerable mother anticipated a movement in her favour. A few partisans presented themselves to Gloucester and the prince, but finding their purses nearly empty and their following very small, they retired more rapidly than they came, and it was soon known in the garrison of Oxford that there was no prospect of relief. Hunger was busy among the defenders-the assailants were gaining strength and hope-the snow was on the ground, and the bravest might have thought of a surrender without shame. But Matilda would rather die than be taken. She let herself down from the wall dressed in white, to be less distinguishable in the snow, and walked to Abingdon. Three gentlemen, her attendants, who had also dressed in white, had provided horses in that town, and pushed on to Wallingford, where they found the forces of Gloucester, and the queen was happy in the possession of her son. She took him to Bristol, while the war languished for want of power on both sides, and had him instructed in the learning and accomplishments of the day by Gloucester himself. When the boy was fourteen years of age, she sent him back to his father, Geoffrey, who acted as her representative in Normandy.

If this move was taken in anticipation of a renewal of the active struggle, the queen was disappointed by the death of her wise and gallant brother. When Gloucester was gone, she had no name on her side, either as knight or statesman, to compare with Stephen himself. But success disturbed the

serenity of his mind, and in a short time he offended the nobles by his openly declared resolution to bring them into subjection, and the Church by his quarrel with the Archbishop of Canterbury. The lords combined against him; the archbishop excommunicated his adherents; the populace were taught to consider him a tyrant by the barons, and a heathen by the priests; and in two years he was obliged to reconcile himself to the Church and make terms with the nobility.

§ 9. Henry Plantagenet, now sixteen years of age, and accomplished beyond the requirements of his time, was at the court of Scotland, in the town of merry Carlisle, where he was solemnly knighted by the princely David. Here he received the adhesion of numberless English gentlemen who had travelled northward to see the rejoicings on so momentous an occasion. Handsome, and winning in demeanour, a good seat on horseback, and a stout holder of the lance, he formed a very favourable contrast to young Eustace, the son of Stephen, who was less prodigally endowed either in body or mind. When time passed on, and it was known in England that Henry was, by the death of his father in 1150, undisputed lord of Anjou and Normandy; and two years afterwards that, by his marriage with the divorced wife of the French king, he was possessor of Poitou, Guienne, and Aquitaine, his appearance in the jousts at Carlisle and his gracious manners were not forgotten by the wearied out partisans both of Stephen and Matilda. When Henry, in addition to all these advantages, appeared on English soil with a reinforcement of a hundred. and forty knights, and three thousand foot, the chances turned so greatly in his favour that hopes of a compromise were generally entertained. No compromise, however, could be agreeable to Eustace, who accordingly left his father's camp, and attempted to raise an insurrection in Suffolk. While the armies of Henry and Stephen lay opposite each other at Wallingford, news was brought to the king that his unhappy son had perished either by a sudden fever, or, as some say, by

A.D. 1152-1154.]

DEATH OF STEPHEN.

171

drowning, whereupon the brave Earl of Arundel said it was intolerable that all England should be oppressed and ruined by the ambition of two men.

The competitors had a private interview from the opposite sides of the Thames, at a very narrow part of the river, and a treaty was soon arranged. Stephen was to retain the crown of England during his life, adopting Henry as his son, and leaving him the kingdom as his heir. On these terms, Henry did homage to Stephen; and, as a foretaste of his royal condition, received at the same time the homage of William, the surviving son of Stephen. Nobles, and bishops, and knights all swore to these articles, which were further ratified by the solemn adhesion of the burghs; and the most miserable years of our history came to a close.

10. Henry and Stephen, side by side, and with every appearance of friendship, visited the great towns, and were received with shows and festivals. But when the young Plantagenet took his departure for the continent, the halfdiscrowned king had little enjoyment in his unlineal throne. He was perhaps meditating some means of recovering the advantages he had lost, but the country was spared the further suffering, if such was his design. He died at Dover, in the fiftieth year of his age, after a reign-if such a troubled existence can be called so―of nineteen years. (25th October, 1154).

172

BOOK VII.

THE PLANTAGENET LINE.

CHAPTER I.

HENRY THE SECOND.

FROM A.D. 1154 TO A.D. 1189.

CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS.

FRANCE-Louis VII. (the Young); Philip II. (Augustus.)
SCOTLAND.-Malcolm IV.; William I.

POPES.-Adrian IV.; Alexander III.; Lucius III.; Urban III.;
Gregory VIII.; Clement III.

§ 1. Accession of Henry II., the first of the Plantagenets. His measures for acquiring popularity.-§ 2. He makes war upon the Welsh. His accessions in the north. Receives a solemn dona-· tion of all Ireland from the Pope.-§ 3. State of the Church, and of the Norman and Saxon races.-§ 4. Thomas à Becket, and his rebellious opposition. Increasing demands of the Church, and its exorbitant powers. § 5. Insolent demands of à Becket.-§ 6. The constitutions of Clarendon for retrenching the powers of the Church. -§ 7. Becket's opposition receives the sanction of the Pope. Bitter contests between Henry and the Archbishop.-§ 8. These dissensions prejudicial to Henry's interests both at home and abroad. His contests with the Welsh.-§ 9. Evils of the contests with à Becket and the priesthood. Charters first granted to cities and towns.-§ 10. Reconciliation between the king and the archbishop.§ 11. Murder of Thomas à Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. Consternation at the deed.-§ 12. Grief and submission of the king. À Becket declared a saint and a martyr.-§ 13. Conquest of Ireland, and submission of the Irish princes.-§ 14. Revolt of Prince Henry and his brothers against the king's authority. Sanguinary contests.

15. Henry does penance at the tomb of à Becket. Capture of the King of Scotland. Conciliation of the king's enemies.—§ 16. The kingdom of Jerusalem. § 17. His measures to weaken the power of the nobility. 18. Prepares for a crusade, which is prevented by the rebellion of his sons.-§ 19. Death of Prince Henry.-§ 20. Rebellion of Richard against his father. Henry dies of a broken heart, and is buried at Fontevraud. His character.

§ 1. THE English hailed the arrival of the new king as a