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Though the election of the Empress, says William of Malmesbury, took place immediately after Easter, it was nearly midsummer before the Londoners would receive her.[248] Hence her otherwise strange delay in proceeding to the scene of her coronation. An incidental allusion leads us to believe that this interregnum was marked by tumult and bloodshed in London. We learn that Aubrey de Vere was killed on the 9th of May, in the course of a riot in the city.[249] This event has been assigned by every writer that I have consulted to the May of the previous year (1140), and this is the date assigned in the editor's marginal note.[250] The context, however, clearly shows that it belongs to 1141. Aubrey was a man of some consequence. He had been actively employed by HenryI. in the capacity of justice and of sheriff, and was also a royal chamberlain. His death, therefore, was a notable event, and one is tempted to associate with it the fact that he was father-in-law to Geoffrey. It is not impossible that, on that occasion, they may have been acting in concert, and resisting a popular movement of the citizens, whether directed against the Empress or against Geoffrey himself.

The comparison of the Empress's advance on London with that of her grandfather, in similar circumstances, is of course obvious. The details, however, of the latter are obscure, and Mr. Parker, we must remember, has gravely impugned the account of it given in the Norman Conquest.[251]

Of the ten weeks which appear to have elapsed between the election of the Empress and her reception in London, we know little or nothing. Early in May she came to Reading,[252] the Continuator's statement to that effect being confirmed by a charter which, to all appearance, passed on this occasion.[253] It is attested by her three constant companions, the Earl of Gloucester, Brian fitz Count, and Miles of Gloucester (acting as her constable), together with John (fitz Gilbert) the marshal, and her brothers Reginald (now an earl)[254] and Robert (fitz Edith).[255] But a special significance is to be found in the names of the five attesting bishops (Winchester, Lincoln, Ely, St. David's, and Hereford). They are, it will be found, the same five who attest the charter to Geoffrey de Mandeville (midsummer), and they are also the five who (with the Bishop of Bath) had attended, in March, the Empress at Winchester. This creates a strong presumption that, in despite of chroniclers' vague assertions, the number of bishops who joined the Empress was, even if not limited to these, at least extremely small.[256]

This is one of the two charters in which the Empress employs the style "Regina." It is probable that the other also should be assigned to this period.[257] These two exceptional cases would thus belong to the interim period during which she was queen elect, though technically only "domina." Here again the fact that, during this period, she adopted, alternatively, both styles ("regina" and "domina"), as well as that which Mr. Birch assigns to his first period, proves how impossible it is to classify these styles by date.

If we reject the statement that from Reading she returned to Oxford,[258] the only other stage in her progress that is named is that of her reception at St. Albans.[259] In this case also the evidence of a charter confirms that of the chronicler.[260] At St. Albans she received a deputation from London, and the terms on which the city agreed to receive her must have been here finally arranged.[261] She then proceeded in state to Westminster,[262] no doubt by the Edgware Road, the old Roman highway, and was probably met by the citizens and their rulers, according to the custom, at Knightsbridge.[263]

Meanwhile, she had been joined in her progress by her uncle, the King of Scots, who had left his realm about the middle of May for the purpose of attending her coronation.[264]

The Empress, according to William of Malmesbury, reached London only a few days before the 24th of June.[265] This is the sole authority we have for the date of her visit, except the statement by Trivet that she arrived on the 21st (or 26th) of April.[266] This latter date we may certainly reject. If we combine the statement that her flight took place on Midsummer Day[267] with that of the Continuator that her visit lasted for "some days,"[268] they harmonize fairly enough with that of William of Malmesbury. If it was, indeed, after a few days that her visit was so rudely cut short, we are able to understand why she left without the intended coronation taking place.

From another and quite independent authority, we obtain the same day (June 24th) as the date of her flight from London, together with a welcome and important glimpse of her doings. The would-be Bishop of Durham, William Cumin, had come south with the King of Scots (whose chancellor he was), accompanied by certain barons of the bishopric and a deputation from the cathedral chapter. Nominally, this deputation was to claim from the Empress and the legate a confirmation of the chapter's canonical right of free election; but, in fact, it was composed of William's adherents, who purposed to secure from the Empress and the legate letters to the chapter in his favour. The legate not having arrived at court when they reached the Empress, she deferred her reply till he should join her. In the result, however, the two differed; for, while the legate, warned from Durham, refused to support William, the Empress, doubtless influenced by her uncle, had actually agreed, as sovereign, to give him the ring and staff, and would undoubtedly have done so, but for the Londoners' revolt.[269] It must be remembered that, for her own sake, the Empress would welcome every opportunity of exercising sovereign rights, as in her prompt bestowal of the see of London upon Robert. And though she lost her chance of actually investing William, she had granted, before her flight, letters commending him for election.[270]

Thus we obtain the date of the charter which is the subject of this chapter. In this case alone was Mr. Eyton right in the dates he assigned to these documents. Nor, indeed, is it possible to be mistaken. For this charter can only have passed on the occasion of this, the only visit that the Empress paid to Westminster. Yet, even here, Mr. Eyton's date is not absolutely correct. For he holds that it "passed in the short period during which Maud was in London, i.e. between June 24 and July 25, 1141";[271] whereas "June 24" is the probable date of her departure, and not of her arrival, which was certainly previous to that day.

There is but one other document (besides a comparatively insignificant precept[272]) which can be positively assigned to this visit.[273] This consideration alone would invest our charter with interest, but when we add to this its great length, its list of witnesses, and its intrinsic importance, it may be claimed as one of the most instructive documents of this obscure and eventful period.

Of the original, now among the Cottonian Charters (xvi. 27), Mr. Birch, who is exceptionally qualified to pronounce upon these subjects, has given us as complete a transcript as it is now possible to obtain.[274] To this he has appended the following remarks:—

"This most important charter, one of the earliest, if not the earliest example of the text of a deed creating a peerage, does not appear to have been ever published. I cannot find the text in any printed book or MS. Fortunately Sir William Dugdale inspected this charter before it had been injured in the disastrous Cottonian fire, which destroyed so many invaluable evidences of British history. In his account of the Mandevilles, Earls of Essex (Baronage, vol. i. p. 202) he says that 'this is the most antient creation-charter, which hath ever been known, vide Selden's Titles of Honour, p. 647,' and he gives an English rendering of the greater portion of the Latin text, which has enabled me to conjecture several emendations and restorations in the above transcript."

Mr. Birch having thus, like preceding antiquaries, borne witness to the interest attaching to "this most important charter," it is with special satisfaction that I find myself enabled to print a transcript of the entire document, supplying, there is every reason to believe, a complete and accurate text. Nor will it only enable us to restore the portions of the charter now wanting,[275] for it further convicts the great Dugdale of no less serious an error than the omission of two most important witnesses and the garbling of the name of a third.[276]

The accuracy of my authorities can be tested by collation with those portions of the original that are still perfect. This test is quite satisfactory, as is also that of comparing one of the passages they supply with Camden's transcript of that same passage, taken from the original charter. Camden's extract, of the existence of which Mr. Birch was evidently not aware, was printed by him in his Ordines Anglicani,[277] from which it is quoted by Selden in his well-known Titles of Honour.[278] It is further quoted, as from Camden and Selden, at the head of the Patents of Creation appended to the Lords' Reports on the Dignity of a Peer,[279] as also in the Third Report itself (where the marginal reference, however, is wrong).[280] It is specially interesting from Camden's comment: "This is the most ancient creation-charter that I ever saw" (which is clearly the origin of the statement as to its unique antiquity), and from the fact of that great antiquary speaking of it as "now in my hands."

The two transcripts I have employed for the text (D. and A.) are copies respectively found in the Dugdale MSS. (L. fol. 81) and the Ashmole MSS. (841, fol. 3). I have reason to believe that this charter was among those duly recorded in the missing volume of the Great Coucher.