Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

The ftrangene fs of the accident embittered the lofs, and put the fortitude of the father to a terrible proof: but he bore it with the heroifm of a good chriftian and a great king. His grief did not hinder him from immediately think ing of the most proper measures to guard his people and family againft the ill confequences of this unhappy event. For, prefently after wards, Innocent the fecond hold. ing a general council at Rheims, the afflicted monarch brought thither Louis, his fecond fon, who was under thirteen years old, and caused him, in the prefence of all the affembly, to be anointed and crowned king together with himfelf, by the hands of the pope, "in order (fays Suger) to prevent the difturbances which other competitors for the crown might excite :" remarkable words, which fhew the reafon of the practice established in France of crowning the fon during the life of the father, and prove that a regular courfe of hereditary fucceffion was not yet abfolutely fettled in that kingdom, any more than in England.

Character and death of Prince Euface, fon to King Stephen. From the fame.

[blocks in formation]

a fum of money to pay his men: but not obtaining any from them, he fell into a furious rage, and inftantly leaving their houfe, com manded his foldiers, who were in want of fubfiftence, to cut down the ripe corn all round the town, particularly what belonged to the abbey, and bring it into his camp. He had fearce feen this order exe. cuted, when he was feized with a burning fever and frenzy, of which he died in a fhort time. It may well be prefumed that his diftem. per proceeded from the violent agitation his mind had been in, and from the heat of the weather, at that feafon of the year: but the monks did not fail to fuppofe that it was a judgment of heaven upon him, for having facrilegiously plundered their fields. He was of à character to make his lofs re. gretted by none, who had any real concern for the good of the pub lic.

Yet his nature was not utterly void of all virtues; but it was miferably depraved by a bad education. He had been bred, even from his cradle, amidft the licentioufnefs, cruelty, and impiety of a long civil war; without proper care, in those to whofe tuition his youth was committed, to preferve him from the contagion of Tuch peftilent times, by oppofing good inftructions to evil examples. As he grew up, he became diffo. lute, fierce, and intractable. low tafte of pleasure carried him into mean company; fo that he wafted a great part of his time with buffoons, and all the fcum of a loofe court or diforderly camp; which vile fociety debafed his mind, and corrupted his heart. Otherwife he might have been capable of doing great things: for

A

he

he poffeffed, with the activity and courage of his father, a more determined refolution; and difcovered, in the earliest bloom of his youth, fuch talents for war, as gained the admiration even of the oldeft commanders. To his friends he was affable, courteous, and liberal; but his bounty was too often extended to perfons, whofe only merit was ferving his vices. Upon the whole, he feemed made to perpetuate the mifchiefs, that Eng. land endured under the reign of his father, and perhaps to increase them.

[blocks in formation]

of his character. In the field of battle he was a hero, though every where else an ordinary man. But even his military abilities were chiefly confined to the ufe of his fword and battle-axe. The extent of his genius was not proportioned to a great plan of action; his forefight was fhort and imperfect, his difcipline loofe, and his whole conduct in war that of an alert partifan, rather than of a difcreet and judicious commander.

He had in his nature fome amiable virtues, as generofity, clemency, and affability, which, under the direction of wifdom and juftice, would have given him a place among the best of our kings: but for want of thofe lights to guide and rule them, they were unwor thily, weakly, and hurtfully employed. His mind was very active, and always pushing him on to bold undertakings, in which he feldom proved fuccefsful: for fetting out

wrong, and having left the ftrait path of honour and virtue, he got into a labyrinth of perplexed and crooked measures, out of which he never afterwards could extricate himself, either with reputation, ar fafety.

The times and circumstances in which he was placed, required a fteady, calm, and refolute prudence: but he acted only by starts, and from the violent impulfe of fome prefent paffion; always too eager for the object in view, and yet too lightly changing his courfe; too warm in his attachments, and too impetuous in his refent

ments.

The guilt of his ufurpation was aggravated by perjury, and by the blackest ingratitude to his uncle,

received fuch obligations, as, to a mind endued with a right fense of honour, would have been no lefs binding than the oaths he had taken. This was a ftain on his character, which even the merit of a good government could not have effaced: but his was fo bad, that it might have expelled a lawful king from an hereditary throne. Indeed the weakness of his title, and the too great obligations he had to the clergy in his election, were incumbrances that hung very heavy upon him, and the original caufes of all his troubles. Yet againft both thefe difficulties, uneafy as they were, he might have found a refource in the affection of his people. Henry the firft, in the beginning of his reign, was no lefs indebted to the clergy than he, nor was his title more clear: notwithstanding which he main. tained himself in the throne, and kept the church in due obedience,

by

by a government popular without meannefs, and ftrong without violence. But bribes and a standing army of the moft odious foreign mercenaries were the wretched fupports, on which his fucceffor leaned, to fecure a precarious and unnatural power. Inftead of gradually trying to fhake off the fetters, which the church had impofed upon him at his acceffion to the crown, by the proper and legal affiftance of parliament, he was continually weakening the royal authority, by further conceffions to the bishops, in hopes of attaching them more firmly to his interefts; and, when he ventured to quarrel with them, he did it in a manner, which hurt the privileges of his temporal barons no lefs than theirs, and made civil liberty appear to be interefted in their defence. Thus he deftroyed the only ground upon which he could ftand, and changed the nature of the question between him and Matilda, making her caufe, and her fon's, the caufe of the nation, inftead of a perfonal claim of inheritance.

His private life was better by far than his public conduct. He was a good husband and kind father but to his children, as well as to his friends, he was too kind, and took no care to reftrain the vices of their youth; a fault, which is indeed very blameable in a king, because of the mifchiefs it may afterwards bring upon his people.

He was remarkably free from fuperftition; a merit uncommon in that ignorant age, and feeming to indicate a ftrength of underftanding, which did not belong to him in any other refpects. There

is a ftrange inconfiftency in human nature! The greatest minds often fall into weakneffes, which the loweft would be afhamed of; and perfons of mean parts are exempt from certain follies, which very wife ones are enflaved to! Nor did this fuperiority in Stephen produce fuch effects on his government, as might have been naturally expected from it. The weakest bigot that ever reigned could not have facrificed more of the rights of the ftate to a falfe fenfe of religion, than he did to falfe notions of intereft and ambition.

Confidering him in the moft favourable light, we fhall find him unfit for a throne. If he had been only an earl of Montagne and Boulogne, he might, perhaps, by his courage, liberality, and goodnature, have fupported that rank with a very fair reputation. But no great idea can be formed of a monarch, whofe whole conduct broke every rule of good and true policy: who having gained his crown by the love of the nation, governed by foreign minifters, and foreign arms; yet, at the fame time, gave way to innovations which rendered his fubjects formidable to him; then, by all the means of abfolute defpotifm, without regard to law or juftice, endeavoured to fubdue the power he had raised; and after having made his whole reign a long civil war, purchased at laft a difhonourable and joyless peace, by excluding his fon from the fucceffion to the crown, adopting his enemy, and leaving himself little more than the vain pageantry and name of a king.

Cha

Character of Siward, Earl of Northumberland. From the fame.

whom

ferior to either of them in valour. But no force of magnanimity or natural courage in a nation can enable it to refift a fuperior difciof war.

THE Englishman, a greater art

and favoured moft, was Waltheof, eldeft fon to Siward earl of Northumberland, famous for his vic

tory over the tyrant of Scotland, Character of Henry the Second. From

Macbeth.

'This Siward was one of the most

extraordinary men who lived in those times. H. of Huntington fays, he was almost a giant in ftature, and had a ftrength of mind not inferior to that of his body. In the battle against Macbeth he loft his fon, and we are told, that, when he was informd of his death, he asked the meffenger, "Whether he had received the mortal wound "before or behind?" Being anfwered, that it was before," he faid; ໄ I greatly rejoice; for I "efteem no other death worthy of "me, or my fon." Another writer relates, that, feeling himself ready to expire from the violence of a bloody flux, he said, "It was afhame "for a warrior, who had ineffectu"ally fought death in fo many bat"tles, to die now like a beaft," and therefore he commanded his fervants to clothe him in a complete fuit of armour, took his battleaxe in his right hand, his fhield in his left, and in that martial habit and pofture gave up the ghost.

This was exactly in the fpirit of the ancient Goths or Celts: and one should have thought that a great kingdom, the nobility of which had thefe fentiments, was in no danger of being conquered a few years afterwards, by foreign arms. The fon of Siward, Earl Waltheof, did not degenerate from his father: nor was Hereward in VOL. X.

the fame.

while they are ftruggling COME monarchs, great in war,

ог

with the ftorms of adverfity, fink, in tranquillity, into an effeminate and negligent indolence, which feems to unnerve all the vigour of their minds. But Henry Plantagenet was not one of those. Peace did not lay his virtues afleep; it only gave them a different exercise. His courage and magnanimity were then exerted in correcting the abufes of government, and bringing the ftate of the whole kingdom as near to perfection as the times would permit. How far he had gone, before, in this arduous work, the reader has feen. But a wife prince will never think of endeavouring to reform all evils at once; much lefs fuch as are covered under refpectable names. Where he has not only faction but prejudice. to contend with, he will proceed. with great caution, wait for proper feafons, and be fure, by other trials, that his authority is too trong to be eafily baffled. Nay, he will be patient till he has brought the voice of the public to declare itself loudly in favour of the reformation he meditates. Henry did thus, with regard to the independency on the civil power, which, in Stephen's reign, the English clergy had arrogated to themfelves, and ftill continued to

[blocks in formation]

cl m. But before I enter upon ths subject, I think it will be proper to give fome account of him in thofe parts of his character, which make us acquainted with the man as well as the king. I fhall alfo delineate a fhort sketch of the customs and manners of the nation, and endeavour to fupply whatfoever is wanting for the information of the reader, in the civil and political ftate of the kingdom.

The perfon of Henry was mafculine and robuft, excelling rather in itrength of limbs and dignity of afpect, than in delicate or exact proportions of beauty. Yet his features were good; and, when his mind was ferene, there was in his eyes a great fweetnefs; but, when he was angry, they feemed to fparkle with fire, and dart out flashes of lightning, fays Peter of Blois, in a defcription he gives of him to the archbishop of Palermo. This paffionate temper, which fhewed itfelf in his countenance by fuch visible marks, was his greatest imperfection: for, upon any fudden provocation, he could not command the first motions of his rage, though at other times he poffefed an extraordinary degree of prudence and judgment. Neverthelefs this infirmity never betrayed him into furious or cruel actions; but only broke out in words or gef tures: nor did his anger long continue; and, when he was cool, his difp ftion and behaviour were gentle and humane. He was tenderly compaffionate to all perfons in diftrefs; and his good economy feemed to be chiefly employed in providing an ample fund for his charity and bounty. Befides what he laid our in acts of munificence occafionally done, fome of which

were the greatest we read of in our hiftory, he affigned the tenth part of the provifions of his houfhold, to be conftantly given in daily alms to the poor. His treasures were ever open to all men of merit; but he was particularly liberal in his prefents to ftrangers, who came to vifit his court; as many did from all the nations in Europe, drawn by his fame, which was every where high and illuftrious. Giraldus Cambrenfis, a writer of confiderable note in thofe days, fpeaks of him with fome degree of cenfure on this account; as if his having been fo lavish to foreigners was a detriment to his fervants and domeftic attendants, who were better entitled to his gifts. But very lit. tle regard is due to that author in what he fays againft Henry, towards whom he was foured, not only by his prejudices as an ecclefiaftic, but by having been difappointed in his hopes of promotion to the fee of St. David's, which I fhall have occafion to say more of hereafter. His malignity appears very strong in this inftance: for furely that prince deferved no blame, but rather much commendation, for this part of his conduct. A generous hofpitality is not the leaft of royal virtues. It does honour to a nation, and is attended with many political benefits: for guets, who have been obliged by favours conferred upon them in a foreign court, return home the partizans and friends of that court, and often ferve it more ufefully than its own minifters. Nor can there be a more fhameful weakness in a king, than the allowing his courtiers to confider his wealth as a part of their property. Henry was too wife to encourage such a

"notion.

« ForrigeFortsett »