Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/187

A.D. 1149.] the monks were possessed. These hospitals were frequently of noble, or even of royal foundation, and were often possessed of great wealth. One of the first of these religious lazar-houses of which we have any record, was the hospital of St. Giles, which received during this and the following centuries numerous rich and important endowments. Henry II. granted to it a charter, and gave a sum of £3 yearly to buy its inmates a distinctive habit. It was at the gate of this establishment that, towards the close of the fourteenth century, when the gallows was removed from the Elms to "the north land of the wall belonging to the hospital," the singular custom was observed of presenting to criminals, on their way to execution, a large bowl of ale, called the St. Giles's bowl."

While it is probable that the interdict of the Archbishop of Canterbury did not interfere materially with the offices of charity and mercy which, in addition to those of religion, were performed by the monks, it is, nevertheless, easy to understand why such a proclamation might be attended with serious inconvenience even to that part of the laity who cared nothing for the services of religion. The discontent throughout the country became so loud, that Stephen was compelled to make overtures to the arch-bishop for a reconciliation. After some delay, the primate accepted the terms, and the ban of the church was removed from the royal dominions. The king, who, in the interval, had learnt the expediency of securing the favour and adhesion of the clergy, made large donations to the churches and monasteries, and promised to extend these gifts, and add to them certain important privileges as soon as the kingdom should be placed in a condition of peace and security.

Two years after the reconciliation with the archbishop, Stephen convened at London a general assembly of the higher ecclesiastics, and demanded that his eldest son, Eustace, should, with their authority, be acknowledged as successor to the throne. The bishops, headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, refused positively to comply with this demand. As the legate of Rome, the archbishop had communicated with the Pope on the subject, and had received for answer that Stephen was a usurper, and had not the right possessed by legitimate sovereigns of transmitting the crown to a successor. Exasperated by a refusal which followed his efforts at conciliation, Stephen ordered the bishops to be placed under arrest, and their benefices to be seized. This, however, was only a temporary outburst of anger, and appears to have been to some extent justified by the open defiance given by the prelates to the sovereign to whom they had sworn allegiance.

The king soon found himself menaced by further dangers from Normandy. In the year 1119, Prince Henry, the son of Matilda, had landed in Scotland, attended by a retinue of knights and nobles, for the purpose of receiving the order of knighthood from his relative, the King of Scotland. David, at that time, held his court at Carlisle; and Henry, who had just attained his sixteenth year, received his spurs at that place in the presence of a vast assemblage of barons from various parts of England, as well as from Scotland and Normandy. The gallant bearing and character of the young prince is said to have produced the most favourable effect upon those who witnessed the ceremony, and was afterwards contrasted with that of the son of Stephen, to the disadvantage of the latter. Henry, having returned to Normandy in the year 1150, was placed in possession of the government of that duchy, and on the death of his father, Geoffrey Plantagenet, which took place immediately afterwards, the prince received the earldom of Anjou. The latter province was conferred upon him with the stipulation that he should resign it in favour of his younger brother on the day when he should become king. He swore solemnly to this effect over the dead body of his father; but the oath, as was the case with many other kingly oaths of those days, was violated without compunction when the time came for its fulfilment.

In the year 1152, Henry married Eleanor, Alienor, or Aanor, the divorced wife of Louis VII. of France, and daughter of William, Earl of Poitou and Duke of Aquitaine. According to the laws of those provinces, Eleanor succeeded her father in the exercise of sovereignty, and her husband, though a foreigner, shared the same rights. Eleanor was married, in 1137, to Louis, King of France, who exercised control over her domains so long as he remained united to her, and he garrisoned the towns of Aquitaine with soldiers and officers of his own. The queen had given birth to two daughters, and the union had lasted several years without interruption, when Louis determined to make a pilgrimage to Palestine, and his wife, whose uncle Raymond was Duke of Antioch, accompanied him on the journey. In the account already given of the First Crusade, allusion has been made to the low state of morality which prevailed in the camps, and it would appear that even the Queen of France was not exempt from the evil influences by which she was surrounded. Eleanor, who was possessed of remarkable beauty, displayed great freedom of manners, and she was accused, whether justly or otherwise, of an improper connection with a young Saracen knight named Saladin. On the return of the court from the Holy Land, in the year 1152, Louis called a council of the clergy at Baugency-sur-Loire, and demanded a divorce from his wife. The cause of the king was pleaded by the Bishop of Langres, who offered evidence of the offences committed by the queen. The Archbishop of Bordeaux, however, while assenting to the king's request, proposed that the separation should take place in a manner less fatal to the reputation of Eleanor—namely, on the ground of consanguinity between the parties. It was discovered by the prelates—rather late—that the queen was the cousin of her husband within the prohibited degrees. This, however, was the only ground on which the laws of the Church permitted a divorce, which, under any circumstances, was only granted to princes.

Eleanor, who regarded her husband as "more a monk than a king," assented readily to a separation; and on the marriage being annulled, she set out for her own domains, and remained for a while in the town of Blois. The repudiated wife seems to have had no want of suitors, and rather found a difficulty in protecting herself from their importunities. Theobald, Earl of Blois, the brother of King Stephen, offered her his hand, and having met with a refusal, he detained the duchess a prisoner in his castle, with the determination of marrying her by force. Suspecting his design, Eleanor escaped from the castle by night, and descended the Loire in a boat, reached the city of Tours, which at that time belonged to the duchy of Anjou.

Geoffrey of Anjou, the second son of Matilda, hearing of