performed this act of humiliation he was exempted from any further penalties. The Empress The king having paralysed the administration of the country and alienated the whole body of the clergy, the time had come for his rivals to strike a blow. The Matilda council of Winchester had broken up on September arrives. I, 1139, and on the 30th of that month the Empress Matilda, with her half-brother Robert, Earl of Gloucester, landed at Arundel. Bishop Roger died in December, his illness having been aggravated, and his end hastened, by distress of mind, and with the death of the old justiciar the system of administration which he had built up under his old master Henry, the Lion of Justice, was extinguished. So completely had the king estranged the clergy, that only Bp. Henry of one bishop, and he a foreigner, the Bishop of Seez, Winchester attended his Whitsuntide court, 1140, which was changes sides. held in the Tower of London, instead of at Westminster. On February 2, 1141, Stephen was taken prisoner by the forces of Matilda at Lincoln. Henry of Winchester had thus far supported his brother's side, but now the verdict of heaven seemed to be given decisively against him. The legate summoned a deputation of London citizens to a councilat Winchester, consisting of bishops and nobles. Having justified on various grounds his past action in supporting Stephen,the absence of Matilda when her father died, and the promises made by Stephen to the Church and nation, for the fulfilment of which he himself had stood surety, he proceeded to show how all these promises had been shamefully violated, and that the king was now deposed by the just judgment of heaven. The throne, thus vacated, must be filled: the bishops and clergy, to whom the right of election, he said, mainly belonged, had conferred upon the matter, and their choice had fallen upon Matilda. He called on the assembly to ratify it, and to swear fealty to her as "the lady of the English." No one made any opposition; the next day the deputation from London was admitted, and after some remonstrance and petition for the liberation of the captive king, they aquiesced in the decision of the majority. Matilda had her little day of power, but her arrogance soon disgusted even her own party. Bishop Henry deserted VIII A DISTRACTED COUNTRY 151 Bp. Henry changes again. her cause, and retired to Winchester, where he fortified his strong castle of Wolvesey in the low ground southeast of the cathedral. Matilda occupied the royal castle on the west hill, and Winchester became the scene of a sanguinary struggle between the two parties. For six years the whole country was literally torn to pieces between the opposing forces, which were very evenly matched. In addition to the petty tyranny of the owners of castles, swarms of mercenaries robbed and spoiled in every direction. Even the churches and monasteries were not safe from these marauding bands, fields were uncultivated, villages deserted. Some of the more enterprising spirits sought an escape from wretchedness at home by joining the crusaders, and the rescue of Portugal from the Moors was mainly effected by a body of English volunteers. At last the balance began to incline towards the side of the empress and her son. 1143. The attempt of Stephen and his brother, Bishop Henry, to force their nephew William Fitz-Herbert into the archbishopric of York in opposition to the Abbot of Death of Pope Fountains, Henry Murdac, who had been elected Innocent II., to the see, alienated the great Cistercian order. William was consecrated to York by his uncle Henry in 1143. Archbishop Theobald would not take any part in the rite. Pope Innocent died the same year, and Bishop Henry's legatine commission come to an end. Archbishop Theobald and Bishop Henry both visited Rome, the office of legate was taken away from the Bishop of Winchester by Pope Celestine II., but he does not appear to have bestowed it on the primate. The pope died in 1144, and his successor Lucius II. still withheld the legation from Bishop Henry. Eugenius III., who succeeded Lucius in 1145, threw the weight of his influence into the scale of Matilda and her son. In this policy he was guided by St. Bernard, whose influence in European politics was now paramount, and was supported by Nicholas Brakespeare, afterwards Pope Adrian IV. John of Salisbury was the confidential adviser of Nicholas, and the friend of Thomas Becket, who was secretary to Archbishop Theobald. The archbishop, who had hitherto refrained, except for a short period, from joining the side of Matilda out of quarrels with respect for his oath of allegiance to Stephen, was at last driven into it by the conduct of the king. He asked leave to attend Stephen a council which the Pope Eugenius had summoned at Reims in 1148. It was refused by Stephen, Archbp. Theobald. who suspected a plot on behalf of Matilda and her son. Theobald then went without leave. The pope suspended the English bishops who did not attend the council, including Henry of Winchester, and threatened to excommunicate the king, but the Count of Blois interceded for his brother the bishop, who was pardoned on condition of his visiting Rome in six months, and the Primate Theobald, like another Anselm, pleaded successfully for the king. Nevertheless on the return of the primate to Canterbury the king issued sentence of banishment against him, and when he had withdrawn to France the temporalities of the see were confiscated. About this time the pope conferred the legatine office on Theobald, though the precise date is uncertain, and he wrote to all the bishops directing them to demand the immediate restoration of the primate by the king, and to lay all his dominions under an interdict if he refused. The bishops, however, were now on the king's side: the interdict was published by Theobald, but was unheeded except in his own diocese, and even there it was disregarded by the prior and monks of St. Augustine's, Canterbury. Return of At the request of Stephen's queen, and of his confidential adviser William of Ypres, commander of the Flemish mercenaries, Theobald went to St. Omer, where negotiaTheobald to tions were carried on with him, with the result that England. he was induced to return to England. Sailing from Gravelines, he landed at Gosford in the territory of Hugh Bigod, and at the earl's castle of Framlingham in Suffolk, where he was hospitably entertained, he met several lay lords, together with the Bishops of London, Norwich, and Chichester. The king was now reconciled to the primate, who took off the interdict, and the suspended prelates were reinstated with the exception of Henry of Winchester, who had failed to visit Rome within the six months prescribed by the pope. Personally, however, Theobald was reconciled to him also. The return of the primate to Canterbury was welcomed VIII STEPHEN FRIENDLESS 153 with great joy. The prior and monks of St. Augustine's had appealed to the pope against the interdict, but Eugenius decided against them, and they had to make their submission. The services of the Church were suspended for a time, and the prior and sacristan were flogged, after which they were absolved. Gilbert Foliot. The peace however between the king and the primate was but a hollow one. When he was at St. Omer Theobald had consecrated Gilbert Foliot, Abbot of Gloucester, to the see of Hereford. The see had become vacant when the council of Reims was sitting, and the pope had appointed Gilbert as vicar to administer it during the vacancy. Gilbert, who was one of the ablest and most learned scholars of the day, did homage to Stephen for his temporalities, but he heartily supported the cause of Matilda's son Henry, the young Duke of Anjou. Theobald's great men. Theobald and the able men whom he had gathered round him,-Thomas of London, the son of Gilbert Becket; Roger of Pont l'Evêque, afterwards Archbishop of York; John Belmeis, who became Archbishop of Lyons; and John of Salisbury, the primate's secretary, the foremost scholar of the day, were now all committed to the side of Henry. The ability of the young duke marked him out as well fitted for the throne. Stephen, always incapable, was now growing old, and his son Eustace, although a good soldier, had none of his father's redeeming qualities. He was harsh, insolent, and thoroughly unpopular. In the spring of 1152, Stephen held a council in London, at which he made the lay lords swear fealty to his son, and he called upon Theobald to crown him as king. Theobald refused: he had a letter from Pope Eugenius forbidding him to consecrate Eustace. The king was extremely wroth, and tried to frighten the primate and the bishops into yielding by imprisoning them all in one house. Some of the suffragans gave way; Theobald, however, was inflexible. He escaped to Flanders, upon which Stephen confiscated the estates of the see, but being threatened by the pope with excommunication and an interdict, he recalled the archbishop, who returned to Canterbury. Thus all the most powerful representatives of the Church, both in England and on the Continent, the pope, St. Bernard, the Archbishop of Canterbury and his friends, were on the side of Henry. The day of power for Henry of Winchester was over. The efforts of Bishop Henry to obtain Henry of exemption from the jurisdiction of Canterbury or to erect Winchester into an archbishopric were firmly Stephen and Anjou reconciled. repulsed. He returned to England in September 1152, after a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James of Compostella, with a choice collection of antique statues purchased in Rome for the adornment of his palace in Winchester. Henry of Anjou landed in England in January 1153, and Bishop Henry joined with the primate Theobald and some of the nobles in mediating between the duke and the king. The death of Stephen's son Eustace in the same year left Henry of Anjou without a rival to the throne, and negotiations, begun at Wallingford, were concluded by the treaty signed at Winchester, November 1153, by which Stephen recognised Henry as his heir. They entered Winchester together, preceded by a great procession of bishops, clergy, and people, and afterwards visited London in like manner, where they were received with general acclamation and joy. Henry joint For six months Henry shared in the administration of the kingdom, and worked miracles by his astonishing vigour in the suppression of the adulterine castles, and by other ruler with acts of reform. In the words of the English ChronStephen. icler, "he made such good peace as never was here." His reforms were of course resented by the lawless, and a conspiracy was formed to assassinate him, but the plot was discovered just in time to enable him to escape into Normandy. In less than six months after his departure Stephen's restless reign of nineteen years, so full of disappointments and blunders, was ended by his death. Archbishop Death of Theobald and the nobles having laid his body in October 25, Feversham Abbey by the side of his queen, Matilda, Stephen, 1154. and his son Eustace, sent a message to Henry inviting him to come and claim his throne without delay, but owing to bad weather and other causes six weeks elapsed before he could cross the channel. During this interval, however, the archbishop maintained peace and order in England with a firm hand. Moreover, the force of character |