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name of Henry, by the grace of God, king of England, duke of Normandy, duke of Aquitaine, and count of Anjou, to cause the archbishops, bishops, abbots, priests, earls, barons, citizens, burgesses, and peasants to execute and observe the ordinances decreed at the great council of Clarendon.

A letter from the bishop of Poitiers, who received like dispatches, carried into his diocese by Simon de Tournebu, and Richard de Lacy, justiciaries, makes known in detail the instructions that they contained. It is curious to compare these instructions with the laws published twenty-four years before, in the name of William I., and his council; for in both cases we find the same threats and the same penalties attached to laws entirely opposed to each other.

"They have forbidden me," says the bishop of Poitiers, "to summon before a court of justice any one whomsoever in my diocese, on the suit of a widow, an orphan, or a priest, unless the king's officers, or the lords of the fief, on whom the litigated cause depended, should have refused to render justice; they have declared that if any one obeys my summons, all his goods shall be immediately confiscated, and himself imprisoned; finally, they have signified to me, that if I excommunicate those that refuse to appear before my episcopal court, the excommunicated might without any displeasure to the king, attach my person, or the persons of my clerks, my own property, or that of my church."

From the moment when these laws, made by the Normans in a village of England, were decreed as obligatory on the inhabitants of nearly all the west of Gaul, Angevins, Manseaux, Bretons, Poitevins, and Acquitainians, and all this varied population was agitated by the quarrel of Henry II. and the archbishop, Thomas à Becket, the court of Rome began to regard with more attention an affair which, in so short a time, had acquired so much importance. This court, profoundly politic, from henceforth applied itself to gather the greatest possible advantage, either from war, or peace. The archbishop of Rouen, Rotron, who was less interested than the Anglo-Normans in the conflict between the English king and primate, came with a mission from the pope, to observe things on the spot, and at all events to propose an accommodation under pontifical mediation. But king Henry, elated by his triumph, replied that he should not accept this mediation unless the pope would previously confirm, by an apostolic bull, the articles of Clarendon, and the pope, who was more likely to gain, than to lose, by delay, refused to give his sanction until he was better informed about the case.

Then Henry II., soliciting for the third time the support of the pontifical court against his antagonist Becket, sent a solemn embassy to Alexander III., asking him to confer upon Roger, archbishop of York, the title of apostolic legate in England, with authority to make and to unmake, to appoint and to discharge. Alexander did not grant this request, but he conferred on the king himself, by a formal commission, the title and the rights of legate, with full powers to act on every point but one, which was the deposition of the primate. The king, seeing that the pope's intention was to determine nothing, received this new kind of commission with marks of vexation, and returned it immediately. "We shall employ our own authority," he said, "and we believe that it will be sufficient to cause those to return to their duty who have evil designs upon our honour." The primate, abandoned by the Anglo-Norman barons and bishops, and having on his side only poor monks, citizens, and serfs, felt that he should be too weak to stand against his antagonist if he remained in England, and resolved to seck support and refuge elsewhere. He went to the port of Romney, and twice went on board a ship ready to start, but both times the crew, fearing the anger of the nobles and the king, refused to set sail.

Some months after the assembly of Clarendon, Henry II. convoked another at

Northampton, and Thomas with the other bishops, received his letter of convocation; he arrived on the day appointed, and took a lodging in the town; but he had scarcely engaged it, when the king ordered it to be occupied by his servants and horses. Enraged at this insult, the archbishop sent word that he should not appear at the parliament, unless his house was evacuated by the king's horses and men. It was consequently given up to him; but the uncertainty which he felt as to the issue of this unequal contest, made him fear to get more deeply involved in it, and, humiliating as it was to him to ask any thing of the man who had just so grossly insulted him, he repaired to the king's hotel and demanded an audience: he waited in vain the whole day, whilst Henry II. was amusing himself with his falcons and dogs. The next day he went again, and stationed himself in the king's chapel during mass, and approaching the king with a respectful air as he went out, he asked his permission to go into France. "Very well," replied the king; “but, first, you must render me satisfaction for several things, and especially for the wrong that you have done in your court to my marshal, John."

The fact was this: the Norman John, surnamed the Marshal on account of his military office, had appeared before the episcopal court of justice at Canterbury, to reclaim some land from the bishopric, which he pretended to have a right to as an hereditary possession. The primate's judges had rejected his claim as ill-founded, and the complainant had then falsified the court, that is to say, protested on oath, that it had denied him justice. "I admit," replied Thomas to the king, "that John the marshal presented himself before my court; but far from receiving any injury from me, it is I who have received one from him; for he brought a songbook, and it was on this that he swore that my court was false, and had denied justice; whereas, according to the law of the kingdom, whoever wishes to falsify the court of another, must swear on the holy gospels." The king affected to take no account of this excuse. The accusation of a denial of justice brought against the archbishop was prosecuted before the great Norman council, which condemned him, and, by its sentence, adjudged him to the mercy of the king, that is to say, adjudged to the king all that he pleased to take of the goods of the condemned. Becket was at first tempted to protest against this sentence, and to falsify judgment, as it was then termed; but the consciousness of his weakness determined him to compound with his judges, and he compromised the matter by paying a fine of five hundred pounds.

Becket returned home with a heart saddened by the mortifications which he had met with, and vexation caused him to fall ill. As soon as the king learnt this, he hastened to send him a summons to re-appear without a day's delay before the assembly of Northampton, to render an account of all the sums of money and all the public revenues of which he had had the management during his chancellor ship. "I am weak and suffering," replied Thomas to the royal officers, "and besides, the king knows as well as I do, that on the day that I was consecrated archbishop, the barons of his exchequer and Richard de Lacy, justiciary of England, declared me to be free from all charge and claim." The legal citation was not withdrawn; but Thomas neglected to obey it, alleging his illness as a pretext. Several times agents of justice came to ascertain how far it was impossible for him to perform a journey; and they signified to him the amount of the king's claims, which was forty-four thousand marks. The archbishop offered to pay two thousand marks to free himself from this vexatious action, commenced with such evil intentions; but Henry II. refused every sort of accommodation, for in this affair, it was not the money which tempted him. "Either I will cease to be king," he cried, "or this man shall cease to be archbishop."

The delay accorded by law had expired, it was necessary that Becket should pre

sent himself, and on the other hand he had been warned, that if he appeared at court it would not be without endangering his life. In this extremity, summoning all his strength of soul, he resolved to go there and to be firm. On the morning of the decisive day, he celebrated the mass of St. Stephen, the first martyr, the office of which commences with these words: "The princes have sat in council to deliberate against me." After the mass he clothed himself in his pontifical robes, and, having taken his silver cross from the hands of him who usually bore it, he set out, carrying the cross in his right hand, and with the left holding the reins of his horse. Alone, and still holding his cross, he arrived in the great hall of the assembly, passed through the crowd, and seated himself. Henry II. was then in a more private apartment with his particular friends, engaged in discussing the means of getting rid of the archbishop with the least possible disturbance. The news of the unexpected manner in which he had just made his entrance, disturbed the king and his advisers. One of them, Gilbert Foliet, bishop of London, hastily left the lesser apartment, and approaching the spot where Thomas was seated, said to him, "Why dost thou come thus armed with thy cross!" And he seized the cross to take it from him, but the primate held it firmly. The archbishop of York then joined the bishop of London, and addressed himself to Becket, saying, "It is a defiance to the king, our lord, to come armed to his court; but the king has a sword, the point of which is sharper than that of a pastoral staff." The other bishops, showing less violence, contented themselves with advising Thomas, for the sake of his own interest, to place his archiepiscopal dignity at the mercy of the king; but he did not listen to them.

Whilst this scene was taking place in the great hal, Henry II. experienced great mortification in seeing his adversary under the safe-guard of his pontifical vestments, the bishops, who, at the first moment, had all given their approbation to the projects of violence formed against their colleague, were now silent, and avoided encouraging the courtiers to lay hands on the stole and cross. The king's advisers were uncertain what to resolve, when one of them began to speak, in these words. "Why should we not suspend him from all his rights and privileges by an appeal to St. Peter; that is the means to disarm him." This advice, received like a ray of light, pleased the king exceedingly, and by his orders, the bishop of Chichester advancing towards Thomas à Becket, at the head of all the others, addressed him in the following words :—

"Formerly, thou wert our archbishop, but now we disown thee, for, after having promised fidelity to the king, our common lord, and sworn to maintain his ordinances, thou hast striven to destroy them. We then declare thee a traitor and a perjurer, and profess openly that we are no longer bound to obey one who has perjured himself, placing our cause under the approbation of our lord the pope, before whom we cite thee to appear."

To this declaration, made with all the pomp of legal forms, and all the emphasis of confidence, Becket replied with these few words :-"I hear what you say." The great assembly of the nobles was then opened, and William Foliet appeared before it to accuse the ci devant archbishop of having celebrated a mass in contempt of the king, under the invocation of the evil spirit; then came the demand for the rendering of the accounts of the chancellorship, and the claim of fourty-four thousand marks. Becket refused to plead, attesting the solemn declaration which had formerly discharged him from all ulterior responsibility. Then the king, rising, said to the barons and prelates:-"By the faith that you owe me, do me prompt justice upon him who is my liege-man, and who, after having been duly summoned, refuses to answer in my court." The Normans gave their votes, and pronounced sentence of imprisonment against Thomas à Becket. When Robert, earl of Leicester

charged with the reading of the sentence, pronounced in the French tongue the first words of the prescribed formula, "Cyez-ci le jugement rendu contre vousthe archbishop interrupted him :-"Earl,” he said, "I forbid you, in the name of Almighty God, here to give judgment against me, who am your spiritual father; I appeal to the sovereign pontiff, and cite you before him."

After this sort of counter-appeal to the authority which his adversaries themselves had first invoked, Becket rose, and passed slowly through the crowd. A murmur arose on all sides; the Normans cried :-"The false traitor, the perjurer, where is he going? why is he suffered to go in peace? Remain here, traitor, and hear thy sentence." At the moment of going out Becket turned, and looking coldly around him said, "If my sacred order did not forbid it, I would have replied by arms to those who have called me a traitor and a perjurer." He mounted his horse, went to the house where he lodged, had tables set out for a great repast, and gave orders that all the poor of the town should be assembled. A great number came, and he made them eat and drink. He supped with them, and, the same night, whilst the king and the Norman barons were prolonging their evening repast, he left Northampton, accompanied by two Cistercian friars, the one an Englishman, named Sharman, the other a Frenchman, called Robert de Canne. After three days march he reached the fens of Lincolnshire, and there hid himself in a hermit's hut. From thence, in complete disguise, and under the assumed name of Dearman, the Saxon character of which was a guarantee of obscurity, he reached Canterbury, then the coast near Sandwich. It was the end of November, a season when the passage becomes perilous. The archbishop embarked in a small boat, to avoid suspicion, and after passing through many dangers, arrived at the port of Gravelines. He then repaired on foot, and ill-equipped to the monastery of St. Bertin, near Namur. On the news of his flight, a royal edict was published in all the king of England's provinces on both shores of the Channel. By the terms of this edict, all the relations of Thomas à Becket, in the ascending and descending line, from old men, to women in their pregnancy, and infants in arms, were condemned to banishment. All the possessions of the archbishop and his adherents, or those who were so called, were sequestrated into the hands of the king.

65. THE DEATH OF THOMAS À BECKET.

HOLINSHED.

The Archbishop of York, the two bishops London and Salisbury, being offended with his doings, sailed over into Normandy, and there complained to king Henry of injuries done to them by archbishop Thomas, grievously accusing him that he went about to take away their liberty of priesthood, to destroy, corrupt, and finally to abolish both the laws of God and man, together with the ancient decrees and statutes of their elders; insomuch that he took upon him to exclude bishops at his pleasure from the company of christian men, and so being excluded, to banish them for ever to derogate things merely prejudicial to the king's royal prerogative; and finally to take away from all men the equity of laws and civil orders.

The king giving ear to their complaint was so displeased in his mind against archbishop Thomas, that in open audience of his lords, knights, and gentlemen, he said these or the like words: "In what miserable state am I, that cannot be in rest within mine own realm, by reason of one only priest. Neither is there any of my folks that will help to deliver me out of such troubles."

There were some that stood about the king, which guessed by these words, that his mind was to signify how he would have some man to dispatch the archbishop

out of the way. The king's displeasure against the archbishop was known well enough, which caused men to have him in no reverence at all, so that (as it was said), he chanced on a time, that he came to Stroud, in Kent, where the inhabitants meaning to do somewhat to his infamy, being thus out of the king's favour, and despised of the world, cut off his horse's tail.

There were some also of the king's servants, that thought after another manner of sort to revenge the displeasure done to the king's majesty, as Sir Hugh Morville, Sir William Tracy, Sir Richard Brito, and Sir Reginald Fitzurse, knights, who taking advice together, and agreeing in one mind and will, took shipping, and sailed over into England, landed at a place called Dogs-haven, near Dover.

Now the first night they lodged in the castle of Saltwood, which Randolph de Broe had in keeping. The next morning being the 29th of December, and fifth day of Christmas, which as that year came about fell upon a Tuesday, having gotten together certain soldiers in the country thereabouts, came to Canterbury, and first entering into the court of the Abbey of St. Augustine, they talked with Clarenbald the elect abbot of that place; and after conference had with him, they proceeded in their business as followeth,

The first knight Sir Reginald Fitzurse came to him about the eleventh hour of the day, as the archbishop sat in his chamber, and sitting down at his feet upon the ground without any manner of greeting or salutation, at length began with him thus :-" Being sent of our sovereign lord the king from beyond the seas, we do here present unto you his grace's commandments, to wit, that you should go to his son the king, to do unto him that which appertaineth unto you to do unto your sovereign lord, and to do your fealty unto him in taking an oath, and further to amend that wherein you have offended his majesty." Whereunto the archbishop answered :-" For what cause ought I to confirm my fealty unto him by oath; or wherein am I guilty in offending the king's majesty ?" Sir Reginald said:" For your barony, fealty is demanded of you with an oath, and another oath is required of those clerks, which you have brought with you, if they mean to continue within the land." The archbishop answered :-" For my barony I am ready to do to the king whatsoever law or reason shall allow but let him for certain hold, that he shall not get any oath either of me or of my clerks." "We knew that," said the knight, "that you would not do any of these things which we proposed unto you. Moreover the king commandeth you to absolve those bishops that are excommunicated by you without his licence." Whereunto he said:-" The bishops are excommunicated not by me, but by the pope, who hath thereto authority from the Lord. If indeed he hath revenged the injury done to my church, I confess that I am not displeased therewith." "Then," said the knight, "sith that such things in despite of the king do please you, it is to be thought that you would take from him his crown, and be called and taken for king yourself, but you shall miss of your purpose surely therein." The archbishop answered, "I do not aspire to the name of a king, rather would I knit three crowns unto his crown if it lay in my power." At length after these and such words, the knights turning them to the monks, said, "In the behalf of our sovereign lord the king, we command you, that in any wise ye keep this man safe, and present him to the king when it shall please his grace to send for him." The archbishop said, "do ye think that I will run away; I came not to run away, but to look for the outrage and malice of wicked men.' "Truly," said they, "you shall not run away,' " and herewith went out with noise and threatenings. Then master John of Salisbury, his chancellor, said unto him :-" My lord, this is a wonderful matter that you will take no man's counsel; had it not been meet to have given them a more meek and gentle answer." But the archbishop said, "surely I have already taken all the counsel that I will take,

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