IV.

till his father's death. Ranulphus de Glanvil was now Chief CHAP. Justiciary, and he must have thrown into the shade all others connected with the administration of the law. A skilful military commander, he quelled a dangerous rebellion and gained a great victory over the Scots, taking their King prisoner; he presided with distinguished lustre in the Aula Regia; and he wrote a book on the law and constitution of England, which is now read by all who wish to acquire a critical knowledge of them as they stood in the first century after the Conquest, before they were modified by the great charter of King John. *

Whatever might be the qualifications of Geoffrey Plan- His filial tagenet for his office of Chancellor, all authors are loud in his piety. praise for his steady fidelity and attachment to his father, while his brothers were constantly thwarting and annoying him, and were often in arms against him. In 1189, near the close of this reign, the pious Chancellor fought valiantly by his father's side in a hard-contested battle near Frenelles in Normandy, and the English army being obliged to retreat in some disorder, he offered to keep watch at an outpost, fatigued and spent as he was, while his father should enjoy some repose; but Henry would not suffer him to be his guard with so much danger to himself.

Soon after, hearing of his father's dangerous illness at Chinon, he hastened thither, and finding him so much oppressed by fever that he could not sit up in his bed, he gently raised his head and supported it on his own bosom. Henry fetched a deep sigh, and turning his languid eyes upon him, said:"My dearest son, as you have in all changes of fortune behaved yourself most dutifully and affectionately to me, doing all that the best of sons could do, so will I if the

Glanvil not having been Chancellor, I do not feel myself at liberty to give any detailed account of his life; but I may be excused transcribing in a note a character of him to be found in the preface to the eighth part of Lord Coke's reports. "Et nota quod præfatus Ranulph' de Glanvilla fuit vir præclarissimus genere utpote de nobile sanguine, vir insuper strenuissimus corpore, qui provectiori ætate ad Terram Sanctam properavit et ibidem contra inamicos crucis Christi strenuissime usque ad necem dimicavit." Coke seems to envy the glory of the crusader; for though he himself had "written learnedly and profoundly," his own exploits as ex-chief justice when sheriff of Buckinghamshire, could not compare with those of ex-chief justice Glanvil.

CHAP.

IV.

State of

law during Henry II.

reign of

mercy of God shall permit me to recover from this sickness, make such returns to you as the fondest of fathers can make, and place you among the greatest and most powerful subjects in all my dominions. But if death should prevent my fulfilling this intention, may God, to whom the recompence of all goodness belongs, reward you for me.” "I have no solicitude," replied Geoffrey, "but that you may recover and may be happy."

The King with his last breath expressed a wish that this pious son should be provided for by his successor, that was held sacred by the penitent Richard.

a wish

Geoffrey, dutiful to the last, attended the corpse to the nunnery of Fontevrault,-where blood running from its mouth at the approach of Richard, that generous though violent spirit, in a fit of remorse, reproached himself as the murderer of his father.

During the latter part of the reign of Henry II., while his son Geoffrey was Chancellor, all things being reduced to peace, our legal polity is supposed to have made greater advances than it had done from the Conquest downwards. The great regularity in the order of proceeding, and the refinement with which questions respecting property were treated, show that if the age was barbarous, it produced individuals of enlarged minds and well skilled in the principles of jurisprudence.

Very able men followed as Chancellors in the succeeding reigns, but from foreign war and domestic strife little improvement was effected by any of them for near a century afterwards.

Although there be as yet no traces of the Chancellor having a separate court of his own, either for common law or equitable jurisdiction, it is certain that in the time of Henry II. he was looked up to as a high judicial authority, and he occasionally went the circuit as a justice in eyre or of

assize.

Mad. Ex. p. 61. See Lord Lyttelton's Hist. iii. 479. 4 Inst. 159.

CHAPTER V.

CHANCELLORS DURING THE REIGN OF RICHARD I.

CHAP.
V.

Richard.

Geoffrey made Arch

bishop of

RICHARD, as soon as he had attended his father's funeral, was impatient to join the Crusade. From the arrangements he had made for the government of the realm in his absence, it was not convenient that Geoffrey should be continued in A.D. 1189. the office of Chancellor, but an offer was made to him of ecclesiastical preferment which he could not resist. He was appointed Archbishop of York, and being now in France, he suffered himself to be consecrated to the holy office by the Archbishop of Tours, metropolitan of Anjou. He agreed not to take possession of his see for three years, during which time he swore that he would not set foot on English ground, -an oath required of him by Richard, who had some suspicions as to his fidelity. How he observed the oath we shall see as we proceed with the life of his celebrated suc

cessor.

York.

CHAMP,

Chancellor.

Richard's Chancellor was WILLIAM LONGCHAMP, Bishop LONGof Ely *, one of the most eminent men who have ever held the Great Seal. He was a native of Beauvais in France, and of mean extraction, but he gave early proof of extraordinary ability and address. He first came into notice in the service. of the Chancellor Geoffrey, the son of Rosamond. Being afterwards introduced to Prince Richard, he contrived to insinuate himself into his good graces without incurring the suspicion of the old King, and through successive promotions in the Church he was made Bishop of Ely—always displaying great vigour of character and capacity for business, and hitherto concealing his inordinate ambition and rapacity. Although he had now resided many years in England he did not understand one word of the English language; but such

* Or. Jur. Hoved. 375. Spel. Gloss. 109.

CHAP.
V.

sails for the

Holy
Land.

was still the depression of every thing Anglo-Saxon, that neither in parliament, nor in courts of justice, nor in the society of the great, did he experience any inconvenience from Richard I. this deficiency. The King, about to set off upon his memorable expedition to the Holy Land, not only conferred upon him the office of Chancellor, but made him Grand Justiciary and guardian of the realm jointly with Hugh, Bishop of Durham*; and that he might better insure the public tranquillity, procured for him the authority of legate from the Pope. Richard's great object was to deprive his brother John of all power and influence,-being apprehensive that this Prince, who had early displayed his faithless character and turbulent disposition, would, in his absence, according to various prior examples in the Norman line, enter into cabals with discontented Barons, and aim at the Crown. But he fell into a mistake in appointing the Bishop of Durham as a check on the power of Longchamp. The one would bear no equal, and the other no superior.

Long

champ imprisons the Bishop

of Durham.

His ty

ranny.

No sooner had Richard left England on his voyage to the Mediterranean than their animosities burst forth, and threw the kingdom into combustion. Longchamp †, presumptuous in his nature, elated by the favour which he enjoyed with his master, holding the Great Seal, and armed with the legatine commission, refused to share the executive power of the state with his colleague, treated him with contumely, and, upon some show of resistance, went so far as to arrest him, and, as the price of his liberty, extorted from him a resignation of the earldom of Northumberland, and his other dignities. The King, informed of these dissensions, ordered, by letters from Marseilles, that the Bishop should be reinstated in his offices; but the Chancellor had still the boldness to refuse compliance, on pretence that he himself was better acquainted with the King's secret intentions. He proceeded to govern the kingdom by his sole authority, to

Hoved, 378. M. Par. in Ann. 1189.

In the following account of the administration of Longchamp, his flight and his subsequent career, I have chiefly followed "the History of the Norman Conquest" by Thierry, who cites authorities, most of which I have examined and which fully support his statements. See vol. iv. 40-52. 64-75.

treat all the nobility with arrogance, and to display his power and riches with the most invidious ostentation. A numerous guard was stationed at his door. He never travelled without a body of 1500 foreign soldiers, notorious for their rapine and licentiousness. Nobles and knights were proud of being admitted into his train. He sealed public acts with his own seal instead of the Great Seal of England. His retinue wore the aspect of royal magnificence; and when in his progress through the kingdom he lodged in any monastery, his attendants, it is said, were sufficient to devour in one night the revenue of several years. To drown the curses of the natives, he brought over from France, at a great expence, singers and jesters, who sang verses in places of public resort, declaring that the Chancellor never had his equal in the world.

CHAP.

city.

V.

In the meanwhile he abused his power to enrich himself His rapaand his family; he placed his relations and friends of foreign birth in all posts of profit or honour, and gave them the government of castles and cities, of which, under various pretexts, he deprived men of the pure Norman race, spoiling them and the descendants of the Saxon thanes with indiscriminate violence. Contemporary authors say, that "by reason of his rapines a knight could not preserve his silver belt, nor a noble his gold ring, nor a lady her necklace, nor a Jew his merchandise." He showed himself, besides, haughty and insolent, and he enforced submission to his will by the severity and promptitude of his vengeance. The King, who was obliged to winter in Sicily, and was detained in Europe longer than the Chancellor expected, being informed of the arbitrary and tyrannical conduct of his minister, made a fresh attempt to restrain his power, and sent orders appointing Walter, Archbishop of Rouen, William Marshal, Earl of Strigul, Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, William Briewere, and Hugh Bardolf councillors to Longchamp, and commanding him to take no measure of importance without their concurrence and approbation. But such general terror had he created by his violent conduct, that for a long while they did not venture to produce the King's mandate. When it was produced the Chancellor insisted that it was a forgery, and he still exercised an uncontrolled authority over the nation.