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gold, as were alfo the other parts of his armour on his left fhoulder a Danish battle-axe, and in his hand a javelin: which circum ftances I here mention, not fo much on account of the richness of the gift, as to thew the number of foldiers that, in thofe days, ferved aboard of fhips of war, and how they were armed. For it may reafonably be fuppofed, that this galley was equipt in much the fame manner as others were at that time, except the peculiar magnificence of the gold in the beak and in the ornaments of the foldiers.

What was the ordinary ftrength of the royal navy, from the times of William the conqueror to thofe of Henry the Second inclufively, or to what number of fhips it was increafed upon extraordinary exigences, we are not well informed. But it appears from a paffage in the Red Book of the Exchequer, that the Cinque Ports, during those times, were obliged by their tenures, to provide fifty-two fhips, and twenty-four men in each fhip, for fifteen days, at their own charges, to defend the coafts, when required. And not only thefe, but other maritime, and even fome inland towns, held by the fame kind of fervice. This feems to have been the conftant fupport of the navy: but upon extraordinary occafions danegeld was levied: and, although at the end of that century the name was loft, a like provifion was often made, in every age, by our parliaments, for the defence of the British feas and fecurity of the kingdom.

It has been mentioned in a former part of this work, that the Eng. Hifh fleet in the channel did Wil

liam Rufus good fervice against his brother; a great number of Normans, who were coming over to fupport the pretenfions of the lat ter, having been destroyed in their paffage by the fhips that guarded the coaft of Suffex; which fo intimidated Robert, that he durft not attempt another embarkation. A fufficient fleet was likewife fent by Henry the First at the beginning of his reign, to oppofe that prince in his paffage between Normandy and England: but a part of it joined him; which enabled him to land without difficulty; and a peace being foon concluded between the two brothers, this ifland remained exempt from the invafions of foreigners, or any alarm of that nature, till the war excited against Henry by the fon of Duke Robert obliged him again to provide for the defence of his realm, by a proper exertion of its maritime power.

During the reign of Stephen the English navy declined much in its ftrength, and we cannot wonder that it did: for the long inteftine war, which defolated the kingdom, ruined its commerce: without which it is impoffible for any prince to maintain a naval power. This was reftored, and, probably, augmented, by Henry the Second: yet it feems, that, till the latter part of his reign, he made no efforts to fit out any powerful fleets: because, being master of almost all the French coaft, and in close alliance with the earls of Flanders and Boulogne, he feared no invafion. For the kings of Denmark had given up all intentions of renewing their claim to England; nor did their fubjects, or any other of the northern nations, continue thofe pira

tical expeditions, which had been fo troublefome to the English in formertimes. It feemed therefore unneceffary for Henry the Second to guard his coafts by great fleets; and, being bufied upon the continent, he chiefly turned his thoughts to the increafing and ftrengthening of his land-forces, which he might better make ufe of, either to defend or enlarge his territories in France. Geoffry de Vinefauf tells us, that after king Richard the First had made himself master of Cyprus, when all his galleys were arrived in one of the ports of that ifland, the number of them, including five which he had taken from the Cypriots and added to his own, amounted to a hundred; whereof fixty were fuperior to the common armed galleys. And in another place he fays, that a fleet fo fine, and fo well provided, had never been feen before. Befides the gal. leys, Richard had with him, when he failed from the harbour of Meffina in Sicily, a hundred and fifty great fhips, which he ufed as tranf. ports. Thefe, we are told, he had felected from all the fhipping in the ports of England. Nor. mandy, Poitou, and his other maritime territories. That most of the galleys were built before the death of his father, I think very probable; for they could not other wife have been ready to put to fea in fo fhort a time after. A manufcript chronicle of the age of Henry the Third, cited by Spelman in his Gloffary, fays, that fifty of thefe were triremes, viz. galleys of three rows of oars; and that, among the other hips, thirteen, diftinguished there by the name of buffes, carried, each of them, three mafts. Upon the whole I prefame, that the more numerous

fleets, mentioned before in the English history, confifted of veffels much fmaller than this of Richard." The following remarks on the feudal fyftem are equally new and curious.

"It was a general maxim of the feudal law, that a forfeiture of the property of the lord in the fief, and of all his dominion over his vaffal, was as neceffary an effect of any great breach or neglect of the duty which he owed to his vaffal, as the forfeiture of the fief was of a fimilar crime or neglect in the vaffal. Indeed this principle, which is fo confonant to natural equity and natural liberty, was the corner ftone of the whole policy fettled in England by the Normans. So that our kings, confidered as feudal lords of this kingdom, were bound no lefs to protect their vaffals in all their juft rights and privileges, than their vaffals were to ferve them; and a failure, on either fide, in thefe reciprocal duties, deftroyed the connexion, and diffolved the obligations of the party offended. The inferior vaffals, in all degrees of fubinfeudation, were likewife, by virtue of the abovementioned maxim, entirely freed from the bond of their homage and fealty to their refpective lords, if thefe did not acquit themfelves of what they owed to them, agreeably to the nature and conditions of their original compact. It is therefore very apparent, that the fpirit of this fyftem was most abhorrent from tyranny, and that the plan of it, in all its feveral parts, was defigned as much to refift any oppreffive exertion of power within, as any attacks from foreign enemies."

We fhall now give our readers his Lordship's curious account of

the

the martyrdom of Becket, as it was called.

"While he (Becket) was thus preparing himself for that martyrdom which he faid he expected, the archbishop of York and the bishops of London and Salisbury had gone over to Normandy, and at the feet of the king implored his juftice and clemency, for themfelves, for his whole clergy, and for his kingdom. When he had heard their complaints he was extremely incenfed, and faid, that, if all who confented to his fon's coronation were to be excommunicated; by the eyes of God, he himself should not be excepted. The archbishop, however, entreated him to proceed with difcretion and temper in this bufinefs. But not being able to mafter the violence of his paffion, he broke out into furious expreffions of anger, faying," that a "man whom he had raifed from the "duft trampled upon the whole "kingdom, dishonoured the whole royal family, had driven him and "his children from the throne, and "triumphed there unrefifted; and, "that he was very unfortunate to "have maintained ja many cowardly " and ungrateful men in his court, "none of wham would revenge him of the injuries he fuftained from one "turbulent prieft." Having thus vented his rage, he thought no more of what he had faid; but, unhappily for him, his words were taken notice of, by fome of thofe pefts of a court, who are ready to catch at every occafion of ferving the paffions of a prince to the prejudice of his honour and intereft. Four gentlemen of his bedchamber, knights and barons of the kingdom, Reginald Fitzurfe, William de Tracey, Hugh de More

ville, and Richard Brito, making no dfference between a fally of anger, and a fettled intention to command a wicked action, thought they fhould much oblige the king by murdering Becket. Neverthelefs it appears, that they rather defired to induce that prelate, by threats and pretended orders from the king, to take off the cenfures which he had laid on the bishops or, in cafe of his refufal, to carry him forcibly out of the kingdom: but if, from his refiftance, they could not fucceed in either of thefe purposes, they refolved, and even bound themfelves by an execrable oath, to put him to death. Thus determined, they paffed haftily ver to England, without the king's knowledge, and went to a caftle belonging to Ranulf de Broc, about fix miles from Canterbury, where they ftaid all the night, in confultation with him and Robert his brother, by what methods they fhould execute their flagitious undertaking. Ranulf had under his orders a band of Soldiers, who had been employed for fome time in guarding the coaft. They agreed to take along with them a num ber of thefe, fufficient to hinder the citizens of Canterbury, or any of the knights of Becket's houfehold, from attempting to aid him; and on the following day, being the twenty-ninth of Decenber in the year eleven hundred and feventy, they came to Canterbury, concealing their arms as much as was poffible, and dividing their followers into many fmall parties, that they might give no alarm. Prefently afterwards the four knights entered the caftle uparmed, and a meffage being fent by them to acquaint the archbi

shop,

fhop, that they were come to fpeak with him on the part of the king their mafter, he admitted them into his chamber, where they found him in converfation with fome of his clergy. They fat down before him without returning his falutation; and, after a long fi. lence, Reginald Fitzurfe faid to him, "We bring you orders "from the king. Will you hear "them in public, or in pri"vate?" Becket anfwered, "that fhould be as pleafed them beft." Fitzurfe then defiring him to difmifs all his company, he bid them leave the room; but the porter kept the door open; and after the above-mentioned gentleman had delivered a part of what he called the king's orders, Becket, fearing fome violence from the rough manner in which he spoke, called in again all the clergy who were in the antichamber, and told the four knights, that whatever they had to inform him of might be faid in their prefence. Where upon Fitzurfe commanded him in the name of the king to releafe the excommunicated and fufpended bishops. He faid, the pope, not he, had paffed that fentence opon them, nor was it in his pow. er to take it off. They replied, it was inflicted by his procure. ment. To which he boldly made anfwer, that if the pope had been pleafed thus to revenge the injury done to the church, he confeft, it did not difplease him. These words gave occafion to very bitter reproaches from the rage of Fitzurfe. He charged the bishop with having violated the reconciliation fo lately concluded, and having formed a defign to tear the crown from the

head of the young king. Becket made anfwer, that faving the banour of God, and his own foul, he earnestly defired to place many more crowns upon the head of that prince, inftead of taking this off, and loved him more tenderly than any other man could, except his royal father.

A vehement difpute then arose between Fitzurfe and him, about fome words which he affirmed the king to have spoken, on the day when his peace was made, per mitting him to obtain what repa. ration or juftice he could from the pope, against thofe bishops who had invaded the rights of his fee, and even promifing to affift him therein; for the truth of which he appealed to Fitzurfe himself, as having been prefent. But that gentleman conftantly denied that he had heard it, or any thing like it, and urged the great improba. bility that the king fhould have confented to give up his friends to Becket's revenge for what they did by his orders. And certainly, if it was true, one cannot but wonder, that the archbishop should not have mentioned it in any one of his letters, and particularly in the account which he wrote to the pope of all that paffed on that day! The words he repeated there, as fpoken by Henry, even admitting that they were given without any exaggeration, would not authorife the conftruction he now put upon them. But that he himself did not believe he had fuch a commiffion appears from the appre. henfions he expreft to his Holiness, in a fubfequent letter, of the of fence that he should give to the king by these acts, and from the

extraordinary care he took to conceal his intention till after he had performed it.

words one of them turned to the ecclefiafticks there prefent, and in the name of the king commanded them to fecure the perfon of Bec ket; declaring, they should anfwer for him, if he efcaped. Which being heard by him, he asked the knights, Why any of them "fhould imagine he intended to "fly? Neither for fear of the king,

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nor of any one living, will I "(faid he) be driven to flight. I

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Their converfation concerning this matter being ended, thefour knights declared to him, it was the king's command, that he and all who belonged to him fhould depart out of the kingdom: for that neither he nor his should any longer enjoy the peace he had broken. He replied, that he would never again put the fea be. came not hither to fly, but to ftand tween him and his church: add. "the malice of the impious, and the ing, that it would not have been "rage of affaffins." Upon this for the honour of the king to have they went out, and commanded fent fuch an order. They faid, the knights of his houfhold, at they would prove that they the peril of their lives, to go with brought it from the king, and them, and wait the event in fi. urged, as a reafon for it, Becket's lence and tranquillity. Proclama having opprobriously caft out of tion was likewife made to the fame the church, at the inftigation of effect in the city. After their dehis own furious paflions, the mi- parture John of Salisbury reproved nifters and domeftic fervants of the primate for having fpoken to the king; whereas he ought to them fo fharply, and told him, have left their examination and he would have done better, if he' punishment to the royal juftice. had taken counfel of his friends He answered, with warmth, that what answer to make. But he re if any man whatfoever prefumed plied, "There is no want of more to infringe the laws of the holy Ro-counfel. What I ought to do I man fee, or the rights of the church of Chrift, and did not voluntarily make fatisfaction, he would not fpare fuch an offender, nor delay any longer to pronounce ecclefiaftical cenfures against him. They immediately rofe up, and going nearer to him, faid, "We grve you notice that you bave Spoken to the peril of your head." His answer was, "Are you come me? I have committed my cause to the fupreme judge of all, " and am therefore unmoved at t your "threats. Nor are your words "more ready to strike than my mind

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to kill

is to fuffer martyrdom." At thefe

"well know." Intelligence be ing brought to him that the four knights were arming, he faid, with an air of unconcern, "What mat

ters it? let them arm." Never. thelefs fome of his fervants fhutand barred the abbey-gate: after which the monks who were with him, alarmed at his danger, led him into the church, where the evening fervice was performing, by a private way through the cloyfters.

The knights were now come before the gate of the abbey, and would have broken it open with inftruments shey had brought for

that

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