Heiresses were abducted, manors were sacked, their owners were held for ransom, towns were raided and burned. "If three men came riding into a town, all the inhabitants fled." Is it any wonder that the helpless victims of the rapacity and cruelty of the feudal classes came to believe that (in the words of the chronicler) "Christ and his saints were asleep"? After eighteen years all parties concerned were exhausted; and the church seized the first opportunity to mediate between the contestants. 127. Com promise on This opportunity came upon the death of Stephen's only grown son; and the Treaty of Wallingford (November, 1153) put an end to hostilities. Matilda was ambitious rather for her children than for herself, and Stephen was broken by age and misfortunes, especially since the recent death of his son Eustace, to whom he had hoped to transmit the crown. It was therefore agreed that he should rule until his death, and that the crown should then descend to Matilda's son Henry, now a young man of twenty years. The other terms of the treaty were directed toward undoing the evils wrought during the period of anarchy. Stephen, aged more by care and trouble than by disease, died within a year, leaving the crown and the duty of promoting these reforms to Henry II., the first of the English line of Plantagenets. The sixty-seven years from the death of William I. to the accession of Henry Plantagenet in 1154 cover the reigns of 128. Sum- the Conqueror's sons, William Rufus and Henry I., and of his grandson Stephen. Two of the three reigns were marked by tests of strength between sovereign and vassals mary the tenants in chief aiming to destroy the centralized system created by William I., and thus to secure for themselves irresponsible powers such as were enjoyed by the princes of France and Germany. This state of affairs was due partly to the character of the monarchs, and partly to their deter mination to rule both England and Normandy. The attempt to hold and govern both regions resulted in a feeble hold upon each. Of the three monarchs, only Henry I. showed genuine statesmanship, and because of the weakness of his successor, only two of his acts produced lasting results. His settlement of the question of investiture left the church in a strong position, freed from undue control by the state; and his grant of a charter served as a precedent for similar grants by later monarchs. These charters, first conceived as grants from an individual sovereign to his subjects, and therefore terminating with his life, came in time to be constitutional documents embodying the rights of the people by "immemorial custom" in the eyes of an Englishman the strongest possible authority. TOPICS (1) What modern conditions would make it easier for one man Suggestive to rule Normandy and England now than in the twelfth century topics ? (2) What important obstacles would still exist? (3) Show why the possession of the royal treasury was especially important to Henry and Stephen. (4) Estimate the approximate value of Henry's treasure to-day, and explain the decrease in the purchasing power of money. (5) Define and describe a charter, with reference to its source, its purpose, its operation, its revocability. (6) Compare the status of one of Stephen's "fiscal earls" with that of an earl created by William I. (7) Mention several reasons why Henry's selection of Matilda as his successor was unwise. (8) Show how and why the coinage would become debased during the period of anarchy. (9) Explain the significance of Henry I.'s titles, (a) The Lion of Search topics Justice, (b) Henry Beauclerc. (10) The relations between Anjou and Blois, and their effect upon English history. (11) The forest laws; their purpose and their operation, beneficent and harmful. (12) The extension of the king's feudal rights under William Rufus. (13) The character and career of Anselm. (14) The struggle over investiture on the Continent. (15) The value of a twelfth-century manuscript, and the reasons therefor. (16) The story of the White Ship of Henry I. (17) Life in a mediæval abbey. (18) A brief history of the Temple," in London. Geography Secondary authorities Sources Illustrative works REFERENCES See maps, pp. 77, 94; Poole, Historical Atlas, maps xvii. liii. liv. ; Mackinder, Britain and the British Seas, 208-211; Pearson, Historical Maps of England, 49–53; Reich, New Students' Atlas, map 8. Bright, History of England, I. 56-88; Gardiner, Student's History, chs. viii. ix.; Ransome, Advanced History, 103–134; Green, Short History, 89–104, History of the English People, bk. ii. chs. i. ii.; Powell and Tout, History of England, bk. ii. chs. ii.—iv.; Brewer, Student's Hume, ch. vi.; Lingard, History of England, I. chs. ix.-xi.; Ramsay, Foundations of England, II. chs. xi.-xxviii. ; Freeman, History of William Rufus; Stubbs, The Early Plantagenets, chs. i. ii., Select Charters, 19-21,-Constitutional History, I. ch. x.; Taswell-Langmead, Constitutional History, 63–73; Norgate, England under the Angevin Kings, I. chs. i. v.-viii.; Johnson, The Normans in Europe, chs. xv. xvi.; Edwards, Wales, ch. v. Adams and Stephens, Select Documents, nos. 7-11; Colby, Selections from the Sources, nos. 17-20; Kendall, Source-Book, nos. 17, 18; Hill, Liberty Documents, ch. i.; Henderson, Select Documents, 361–366; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1087-1154; William of Malmesbury, History of English Kings, bks. iv. v. ; Gee and Hardy, Documents of Church History, nos. xviii.-xxii. See New England History Teachers' Association, Syllabus, 239, - Historical Sources, 147-151. Crawford, Via Crucis ; Landor, Acts and Scenes (" Walter Tyrrel and William Rufus "); Macfarlane, The Legend of Reading Abbey ; Bates and Coman, English History told by English Poets, 45–62. acter of reign CHAPTER IX. RESTORATION OF ORDER (1154-1199) HENRY PLANTAGENET (Henry II.) was a constructive statesman of the first rank, and during his long reign of thirty129. Char- five years (1154-1189) he brought about a series of Henry II.'s political, military, judicial, and ecclesiastical reforms, although hampered by the difficulty of ruling over vast and widely separated domains. On his accession to the throne at twenty-one years of age he was ruler over four realms: (1) England, west to the Welsh marches and north to the Cheviots; (2) Normandy, with its dependent province of Brittany (map p. 77), inherited through his mother from William the Conqueror; (3) the provinces of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine, inherited from his father, Geoffrey Plantagenet; (4) Aquitaine, including (besides the original duchy, later called Guienne) also Poitou, Gascony, and some smaller neighboring districts, acquired through his marriage with Eleanor of Aquitaine. Unfortunately his Continental possessions brought him and his English kingdom many troubles, for both Louis VII. of France and his successor Philip Augustus made it a feature of their policy to stir up insurrections in different parts of his domains. 130. Con Nevertheless Henry could not resist the temptation to extend his territories still more widely. During the dozen years following his accession, he forced both the Welsh Wales and princes and the king of the Scots to do him homage. He then turned his attention to Ireland, which he planned to conquer and convert into a kingdom for his youngest sco, quests in Ireland |