CHAP. V. Prince John takes arms against him. Prince John, aware of the general discontent, and seeing with envy the usurpations of the Chancellor, at last took A. r. 1191. Courage to make head against him; and all those who were smarting under his exactions, or who hoped to better their condition by change, actively engaged in the party formed for his overthrow. An open rupture broke out between those rivals for power, on the occasion of the Chancellor's attempt to deprive Gerard de Camville, a Norman by race, of the office of sheriff of the county of Lincoln, which the King had made over to him for a sum of money. The Chancellor, who wished to bestow this office on one of his friends, summoned Camville to deliver up to him the keys of the castle of Lincoln; but he resisted the demand, saying that he was a liege man to Prince John, and that he would not surrender his fief till tried and condemned in the court of his liege lord. On this refusal the Chancellor came with an army to besiege the castle of Lincoln, and took it. Camville demanded justice from his superior and protector. By way of reprisals, John took possession of the royal castles of Nottingham and Tickhil— there raised his flag, and stationed his men, declaring, according to Hoveden, that if the Chancellor did not do speedy justice to Camville his vassal, he would visit him with a rod of iron. The Chancellor quailed under his threat, and entered into a treaty, by which John remained in possession of the two castles he had taken. the Ex invades England. Geoffrey, The next assault upon the authority of the Chancellor chancellor, proceeded from his predecessor in office, Geoffrey, now Archbishop of York. Regardless of his oath not to enter the realm of England for three years, and of a solemn warning he received when about to embark, he resolved to take possession of his see, and to enjoy the benefit of any chances of farther preferment which might open to him. The Chancellor sent armed men to seize him upon his landing. He escaped their pursuit in disguise, and gained a monastery in the city of Canterbury, where the monks hospitably received him and concealed him. A report, however, getting abroad that he had taken refuge there, the convent was surrounded by soldiers, and the Archbishop being seized in the church, when he was returning from celebrating mass, was shut up Geoffrey defeated and imprisoned. in the castle of the city under the keeping of the Constable CHAP. de Clare. The violent arrest and imprisonment of an Archbishop made a great noise all over England, and John, thinking this a favourable occasion for extending his own power, openly took the part of his captive brother. Although he had hitherto regarded Geoffrey as an enemy, he now pretended to feel for him the most tender affection, and with menaces he insisted on the Chancellor setting the Archbishop at liberty. Longchamp, on account of the sacred character of his prisoner, did not venture to resist. John then wrote to all the Bishops and Barons to assemble at Reading; while the Chancellor, by other letters, forbade them to accept the invitation of a prince whose object it was to disinherit his Sovereign. The assembly, however, was held: John and Geoffrey met, wept, and embraced, and the latter on his knees besought his fellow-peers to avenge the insult which had been offered in his person to the immunities of the Church and the right of sanctuary. John, becoming bolder and bolder, repaired to London, there convoked the great council of the Barons and Bishops, and accused the Chancellor before them of having grossly abused the authority with which the King had intrusted him. The accused had injured and offended so many of those who were to decide his case, that the accuser was sure of a favourable hearing. V. Combinanobles tion of the The Chancellor was cited to appear before the Barons by a certain day. He refused, and assembling a military force, marched from Windsor, where he kept his Court, upon against LongLondon, to anticipate the re-assembling of the body who champ. presumed to act as his judges. But John's men-at-arms came upon him at the gates of the city, attacked and dispersed his followers, and compelled him in great haste to throw himself into the Tower of London, where he shut himself up, while the Barons and Bishops assembled in Parliament and deliberated on his fate. The majority of them had resolved to strike a great blow, and to depose by their authority the man who, holding the royal commission, could not regularly be deprived of office Saxon in habitants of London called in to assist. CHAP. V. Long champ surrenders. Longchamp flies guise of a female without the express order of the Sovereign. In this daring enterprise, they being themselves Normans, were desirous of having the assistance of the Saxon inhabitants of London, constituting the great mass of the population. In the morning of the day appointed for their meeting, they caused the great alarm bell to be rung, and as the citizens issued forth from their houses, persons stationed for the purpose directed them to repair to St. Paul's Cathedral. The merchants and trades-people going thither to see what was the matter, were surprised to find assembled the grandees of the country, the descendants of those who had conquered at Hastings, with whom hitherto they had had no other relation than that of lord and villain. Contrary to custom, the Barons and Prelates gave a gracious reception to the citizens, and a temporary equality was established among all present. The English guessed as well as they could the meaning of the speeches addressed to them in French, and there was read and explained to them a pretended letter of the King, intimating that if the Chancellor should be guilty of malversation in his office, he might be deposed. A vote was then taken of the whole assembly, without distinction of race, and the Norman heralds proclaimed "that it pleased John, the King's brother, and all the Bishops, Earls and Barons of the kingdom and the citizens of London, that the Chancellor should be deposed." It was at first thought that he would have stood a siege in the Tower, but he was without courage at the approach of real danger, and he immediately offered to capitulate. He was freely allowed to depart on condition of delivering up the keys of all the King's castles. He was made to swear that he would not leave England till he had done so, and two of his brothers were detained as hostages for his good faith. He withdrew to Canterbury, under pretence of fulfilling in the dis his oath; but when he had remained there a few days, he formed the resolution to fly, liking better to expose his brothers to death than to deliver up the castles, by the possession of which he hoped to recover what he had lost. He left the city on foot and in disguise, having over his own clothes pedlar. V. a gown with great sleeves and a petticoat,—his face being CHAP. covered by a thick veil,--carrying under his arm a pack of linen, and in his hand an ell measure.* In this attire, which was that of an English female pedlar of the time, the Chancellor made for the sea-shore, and was obliged to wait for the ship in which he was to embark. He seated himself quietly on a stone with his pack on his knees, and some fishermen's wives, who were passing by, accosted him, asking him the price of his wares; but, not knowing a single word of English, the Chancellor made no reply, and shook his head,-to the great surprise of those who wished to become his customers. They walked on; but other women coming up, and examining the quality of the linen, made the same demand as the first. The pretended female pedlar still preserved silence, and the women repeated their questions. At length, at his wit's end, the Chancellor raised a loud laugh, hoping so to escape from his embarrassment. At this laugh without a jest, they believed they saw before them a female out of her mind, and raising her veil to ascertain who she was, discovered the face of a man, of a swarthy complexion, lately shaved. Their cries of surprise attracted the workmen of Is seized the port, who, glad to find an object of sport, seized hold of by the mob. the person in masquerade, drawing him by his garments ‡, causing him to tumble on the ground, and making merry with his vain efforts to escape from them and to make them comprehend who he was. After dragging him a long way over stones and through mud, the sailors and fishermen concluded by shutting him up in a cave.§ Here he remained till he contrived to communicate his misadventure to the agents of the government. He was then forced to deliver up the keys of all the royal castles, according to his engagement, and was permitted freely to leave England. «Tunicâ fœmineâ viridi... cappam habens ejusdem coloris . . . manicatam... peplum in capite . . . pannum lineum in manu sinistrâ. . . virgam venditoris in dextrâ."- Hoveden. "Viderunt faciem hominis nigram et noviter rasam."— Hoveden. "Et facta est statim multitudo virorum ac mulierum extrahentium de capite peplum et trahentium eum prostratum in terram per manicas et capucium." Ibid. § "Pluribusque modis turpiter tractavit per totam villam et . . . in quodam cellario tenebroso . . . inclusit.". Ibid. CHAP. On arriving in France, he immediately wrote to the King that Prince John, having got possession of his fortresses, was Arrives in about to usurp the throne, and pressing him immediately to France. Visits Cœur de Lion in captivity. Geoffrey Planta return from the Holy Land. He seems to have convinced Richard that he himself had acted as a good and loyal subject, and that his struggle with the Barons was only in the support of the royal authority. To his honour it is recorded that, hearing of Richard's captivity in Germany, he repaired thither, and obtained permission to visit, in prison, that generous master, whom the universe seemed to have abandoned. Richard received him as a personal friend persecuted in his service, and employed him in defending him from the unfounded charges brought against him as a pretext for his detention, and in conducting the negotiations for his liberation. * As soon as Longchamp had been subdued and exiled by genet again John and the Barons, the office of Chancellor was restored Chancellor. to Geoffrey Plantagenet, now fully installed in his arch A. D. 1199. Subsequent fate of Geoffrey Plantagenet. bishopric, and he held it till Richard's return to England, when he was finally deprived of it. He experienced clemency to which he was not much entitled, considering his perfidy and breach of oath, and he seems to have employed himself in the discharge of his ecclesiastical duties during the remainder of this reign. It will be convenient that I should here relate what further is known of him as Ex-chancellor. After the death of Richard he was no longer suffered to live in tranquillity. John seized all his goods and the profits of his archbishopric, and Geoffrey raised a strong party against him. A truce was established between them; but this was of short duration. John requiring for his wars, without the consent of the great council of the nation, the tenth shilling of what every body was worth, this tax was resisted as illegal Thus the Chancellor is supposed to have serenaded the King: "O Richard, O mon Roy, L'univers t'abandonne, Mais pour moy je garde ma foy |