Читать книгу Public School History of England and Canada - Graeme Mercer Adam - Страница 11
ОглавлениеTHE CROWN, THE CHURCH, AND THE BARONS.
[The reign of Stephen is remarkable for the sufferings inflicted by the feudal barons on the people. Show that a weak government was the principal cause of this disorder and oppression. The story of Thomas à Becket should be dwelt upon, as illustrating the character of the struggle between the Crown and the Church. The Conquest of Ireland, Henry II.’s legal reforms, and the effect of the Crusades on Europe and England deserve attention. Special prominence should be given to the establishment of law courts, the Grand Assize (the forerunner of the modern jury), and the system of travelling justices. Describe the ordeal of battle. Read with the pupils the “Archery Contest,” from Scott’s Ivanhoe, and “King Richard and the Nubian,” from The Talisman (4th Reader).
References:—Green’s “Short History,” Freeman’s “Norman Conquest,” Johnson’s “Normans in Europe,” Coxe’s “The Crusades,” Tennyson’s and Froude’s “Becket,” and Scott’s Ivanhoe, and The Talisman.]
1. Reign of Stephen of Blois (1135-1154).—On the death of Henry I. there came a long period of confusion. Henry’s daughter, Matilda, though promised the crown, was forestalled in the possession of it by Stephen, Earl of Blois, grandson of William the Conqueror. How Stephen came to be chosen was this: the people, ever fearing the barons, and wanting some one able to oppose them, objected to the rule of a queen. The barons, on the other hand, disliked Matilda, for she had married Geoffrey of Anjou, who, with his following of Angevins, or men of Anjou, was always at war with Normandy. To obtain the throne, Stephen had to make concessions to conciliate those who otherwise might take up the cause of Matilda. The barons taking advantage of this, and spurning the king’s feeble authority, set up a reign of anarchy. They robbed and plundered, and from their Norman castles grievously oppressed and tortured the people. To add to Battle of the Standard, fought at Northallerton, A.D. 1138. the disorder, King David of Scotland, who was related to Matilda, invaded the kingdom; but he was routed at the Battle of the Standard. For fourteen years the country passed through the horrors of civil war. Fortune was fickle in the long contest, for at one time Stephen was captured and Matilda declared queen; at another, Matilda was shut up by Stephen’s forces in Oxford, and to save her life had a romantic escape. The struggle was marked throughout by every kind of outrage, which the hired troops brought from the continent by both parties took a grim pleasure in committing. Finally, Matilda had to withdraw to Normandy. Six years later, however, the quarrel was taken up by her son, Henry of Anjou, whom Stephen was compelled to acknowledge heir to the throne. In the following year Stephen died.
2. Succession of Henry II.—The accession of Henry II. marks the beginning of the rule of the Angevin or Anjou Kings, sometimes called the Plantagenets. The latter title is derived from the Latin name of the common broom of Anjou (the planta genista), a sprig of which Henry’s father, Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, used to wear in his helmet. Henry’s French dominions were Possessions and personal qualities of Henry II. larger than those of the king of France, of whom he was a vassal; for they extended from the English Channel to the Pyrenees. From his mother he inherited Normandy; and from his father, Anjou, Maine, and Touraine; and by marriage with the Duchess Eleanor of Aquitane, the divorced wife of Louis VII. of France, he obtained the great duchy of Guienne. To govern these wide-spread dominions, and to restore peace and prosperity to England, was a heavy task for the young king. But he came well fitted for his work; for he possessed a strong frame and great powers of endurance, together with a natural energy, ambition, and force of character, which enabled him to overcome many difficulties.
3. Political and Legal Reforms of Henry II.—Henry’s special claim to notice, as well as to the gratitude of all English-speaking people, is the care he took of the rights of his subjects, at a time when freedom was well nigh strangled by the tyranny of the barons and the arrogance of the Church. On his accession Henry disbanded the foreign troops which had been used in the Civil War, and cancelled the foolish grants of land and money which Stephen and Matilda had given to those who had fought in their cause. From the barons he took away much of their authority and pulled down their castles. Order was restored by the appointment Judges sent on circuit. of royal commissioners to administer justice. Itinerant justices were regularly sent out through the land to hear complaints, try wrong-doers, and decide points of dispute about the revenue. In his reign was created the Court of King’s Bench, for the trial of criminal causes, and for the control of the lesser courts established under the Saxon kings. Another institution of Henry the Second’s reign was the Grand Assize, a court established to settle disputes about the ownership of land in a more sensible way than the former method, by ordeal of battle. From the establishment of this court has sprung our system of the “Grand Jury”; for it was Henry’s plan to summon by the sheriff four knights of the county, who were to elect twelve others, and the sixteen were to sit and try cases about disputed property, and to decide upon what other cases were to be referred to the king’s travelling justices. In Henry’s reign the Great Council was more frequently summoned and consulted than had previously been the case, though as yet it had no popular, or representative, character.
4. The Story of Thomas à Becket.—The conflict between the Crown and the Barons was now to extend to a conflict between the Crown and the Church. Under Henry II. the latter had a firm assertor of its rights, who was to give the king much trouble. This was Thomas à Becket, who for the first six years of Henry’s reign was his chief adviser, the chancellor of his kingdom, and his bosom friend. Becket was a man of great ability and of iron will. He was liked by the Church, and was also a favourite with the nobles, for he was skilled in all learned and knightly accomplishments and courtly arts. On the death of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Henry, thinking to get better control of the clergy, appointed Becket to the vacant See. But Becket, as soon as he was made primate, changed his manner of life and would acknowledge no sovereign but the Pope. Presently a dispute arose over the question whether clergymen who had broken the law should be tried by the civil courts or by those of the Church. Becket claimed the right to judge the offenders; while Henry insisted that they should be brought before the King’s Courts. To settle the matter the king summoned a council, at Clarendon. The result of this Council Constitutions of Clarendon, Jan. A.D. 1164. was the passing of certain laws which affirmed the king’s power over offending priests; and to these laws Becket, though he at first refused, subsequently assented. Before long, however, he repented of what he had done, and sought and obtained from the Pope absolution for his offence. Meanwhile, thinking his life in danger, the Archbishop fled to France, and for six years remained in exile. At length a reconciliation was brought about; and, though the cause of quarrel was left unsettled, he returned to England. But no sooner was Becket back than he began to exercise his clerical authority. He deposed several bishops for consenting to crown Henry, the king’s eldest son, claiming that none but the Archbishop of Canterbury had a right to crown the king. Hearing of this, the king, in a fit of anger, cried, “Is there no one in my kingdom who will rid me of this turbulent priest?” Next day four knights left the king’s court, Murder of Thomas à Becket, Dec. 29, A.D. 1170. which was at the time in Normandy, crossed to England, and murdered the Archbishop in the Cathedral at Canterbury. The murder horrified all Europe, and the king himself was grief-stricken over the result of his hasty words. Afterwards, indeed, he thought it necessary to do penance at the murdered prelate’s tomb, and to ask the forgiveness of the Pope; for his sons and nobles rose in rebellion; his wife, Eleanor, embittered his life; the King of Scotland invaded his kingdom; and Louis VII. of France sought to overthrow his power in Normandy. But, though Henry triumphed over the enemies of his country, the unnatural conduct of his sons brought him constant trouble and finally broke his heart.
5. The Conquest of Ireland (1171).—Before the death of Becket, Henry had given permission to some of his subjects, notably to the Earl of Pembroke (commonly called Strongbow), to engage in military adventure in Ireland, which was then distracted by the rivalries of some of its native princes. The island had been peopled by the same Keltic race as had settled in England; and, like England, it had been repeatedly ravaged by the Norsemen. In the time of Henry it was divided into five petty kingdoms, whose chieftains waged cruel war with one another. At the request of Dermot, King of Leinster, “Strongbow,” and two other Norman knights, had come over with a force from the West of England and helped Dermot to conquer parts of the island and put down his enemies. “Strongbow” married Dermot’s daughter, and on his father-in-law’s death succeeded to his possessions. But Henry, who was jealous of “Strongbow’s” successes in Ireland, went over with an army and landed at Waterford. Here many of the chiefs made submission, and he took possession of the lands that had been won. With this formal possession of the island, Henry returned to England, and left it to the misrule of his Norman barons. For centuries afterwards Ireland was a prey to lawlessness and crime.
6. Richard I. [Cœur-de-Lion,] (1189-1199).—Henry II. in the last year of his life, was forced by his sons, Richard and John, into a war with France, and obliged to make a humiliating peace. Grief at his troubles brought on a fever, of which he died in Normandy, with a curse on his lips for his rebellious children. Henry’s eldest surviving son, Richard, who, for his bravery, was called Cœur-de-Lion, or “Lion Heart,” succeeded him. Richard was little of an Englishman, for of his ten years reign he did not spend more than six months in England. During nearly the whole of this period he was either absent in the Third Crusade, or engaged in profitless wars in France. Richard was more soldier than king, and as his ambition was to win glory in the Holy Land, he drained his kingdom of money to gratify his object. His urgent need for money was, indeed, the means of advancing the people; for to raise funds he sold all manner of offices; gave permission to his barons to make transfers of land; and allowed the now growing towns to purchase municipal rights and other privileges. Richard’s expedition to Palestine, though marked by notable acts of skill and bravery, cost him so much blood and treasure that he was fain to return home, with but a sight of Jerusalem, and with nothing to repay England for her outlay but the advantages obtained from contact with the civilization of the East. On the way back to England Richard was taken prisoner in an Austrian city and confined for over a year by the Emperor of Germany, who released him only after the payment by the English of an enormous ransom. The remainder of his reign was marked by a revolt in England against heavy taxation and the overstraining of the power of the Crown; by strife with his brother, John; and by a petty war with Philip of France, in which he lost his life. In an attack on the Castle of Chaluz the king was slain by an archer, and the crown passed to his brother, John.
[1. What is noteworthy in the reign of Stephen? Explain fully.
2. Who was the first Plantagenet king? What is the origin of the word “Plantagenet”?
3. What did Henry II. do to make the government of England better and stronger?
4. Tell the story of the Conquest of Ireland.
5. Why did a dispute arise between Henry II. and Thomas à Becket? How did it end?
6. Point out any effects of the Crusades on England.]
