Par iceus est hunie Dunt dut aver aie, Je nós dire plus. Li rois ne lápostoile ne pensent altrement, Mès coment au clers tolent lur or e lur argent." I dare not name Who give them shame Than how best to grasp and hold The legate was placed in the King's seat at a royal feast, to the great scandal of the English nobles; even the legate's nephew was knighted and pensioned. In the reckless distribution of Church patronage, a valuable benefice was given, in 1252, to a Poictevin chaplain of Geoffry de Lusignan, a mere half-witted jester, kept to amuse the court. Matthew Paris tells us that he saw this man in the orchard of St Alban's Abbey, pelting the King and his master, Geoffry, with hard apples, and squeezing sour grapes into their eyes: "The skipping King, he ambled up and down HENRY IV., p. 1, 3. 3. The King's chaplain and agent, John Mansel, is another instance of the prodigality by which a favourite becomes enriched. The son of a country priest, he had, when young, exerted himself manfully' at a siege in Gascony, and nearly lost his life by his eager valour, though he escaped with a broken leg; he appears to have been a good man of business, and was constantly employed afterwards by the court, in diplomacy or other matters. He had been chancellor to the Bishop of London, and received the great seal from one king, 1246, till the feast of St Mary, 1249. Although his highest [ecclesiastical] dignity was that of provost of Beverley, yet he accumulated wealth to a degree and by means which astonished his own times, as well as ours, enjoying, it is said, no less than 700 benefices at once, calculated at 40003 1 M. Par. "Inter strenuos non ultimus." * 31 Hen. III., Rot. Pat. m. 2. He introduced the "non obstante" clause into grants and patents. John de Lesington succeeded him. 3 Chr. Mailr. values them higher, at 18,000 marcs (£12,000). Lord marcs a year (£2,666. 13s. 4d.). This Wolsey of the thirteenth century, as he has been termed, gave a sumptuous feast, in 1256, to all the court, on occasion of the King and Queen of Scotland's visit, the most choice, orderly, and plenteous ever given by a priest. His house at Tothill being insufficient to contain the numerous guests, the banquet, the first course of which was supplied by 700 dishes, was served in several large tents. His sister, Clarice, and her husband, Geoffry, a soldier of mean birth, partook of his good fortune, and received from the King grants of lands, the title to which was disputed by the Abbey of St Albans. Matthew Paris remonstrated personally on this injustice, but the King justified it by the similar pretensions of the Pope, adding, indeed, "Bye-and-bye, however, I will consider this matter:" the memory of such promises, the chronicler remarks, passed away with their utterance. Subject to the ignominious slights of the court, the great nobles and clergy scarcely needed additional motives for personal resentment and resistance, but the King's conduct in matters affecting the very principles of government, and his avowed contempt for the restraint of law, afforded still stronger grounds for their distrust. His fear or his fickleness, indeed, caused him again and again to proclaim Magna Charta when in difficulties, but he played this game so often, that the Barons could not but see, that his compliance was only intended to disarm their opposition to his demands for money. He had annulled the charter when he came of age, although he had repeated his oaths to it on many subsequent occasions, and in like manner his vow of a crusade was often used as a convenient form of requiring supplies. So lightly esteemed, indeed, was the King's faith, that even when he publicly fixed' the very Campbell presumes he " presented himself to all that fell vacant and were in the gift of the Crown while he was Chancellor " (Chancellors, 1. p. 136). Even this, however, would not account fully for such a number in three years. 1 This was in 1252, when he named the feast of St John the Baptist, 1256, for his departure on day for commencing his enterprise, "the bystanders were not the more persuaded of his truth," and, in fact, he never went1. On every new perjury the solemnity of the royal pledge seemed to increase: when the oath to the charter was administered in Westminster Hall (May 3, 1258) before all the barons and prelates of the realm, every stringent form which honour or religion could devise to bind the conscience was employed. The awful curse was pronounced aloud, “which excommunicated, anathematized, and cut off from the threshold of holy Church all who should by any art or device, in any manner, secretly or openly, violate, diminish, or change, by word or writing, by deed or advice, either the liberties of the Church, or the liberties and free customs contained in the Great Charter, or the Charter of Forests." The original charter of King John was spread out in sight, and to this solemn confirmation of it, both the King and prelates and barons impressed their seals, "in testimony of the truth to posterity." While others held a lighted taper during the ceremony, it was remarked that the King put his out of his hand, excusing himself as not being a priest, and it is possible that even this frivolous omission may have satisfied his conscience afterwards as to the invalidity of the oath, but he held his hand on his heart all the while, when the torches, amid the ringing of bells, were extinguished; and when the universal cry arose, "So may all transgressors be extinguished and smoke in hell!" he added with a superfluous hypocrisy, "So may God help me as I keep this oath, as a man, as a Christian, as a knight, and as an anointed King!" So few laymen could at this period write their names that the utmost importance was naturally attached to the stamp of the Crusade. Cal. Rot. Pat., 37° H. III. "Nec tamen hoc circumstantes reddidit certiores."--M. Par. On the 20th May, 1270, the King writing from Westminster again alludes to his departure for the Crusade with his son Prince Edward as being fixed for the morrow of the approaching feast of St. John, without further delay (sine ulteriori dilatione), going beyond seas to the help of the Holy Land, the Lord so willing.-Rymer. Rymer. 3 M. Par. D their seals as the readiest substitute of authentication, and hence the satirical verses', written in mixed French and English, on a similar occasion, in Edward II.'s time, humorously suggest that the Charter became invalid because the wax of the seals was held too near the flames and so melted: "L'en puet fere et defere, La Chartre fet de cyre, To do and undo he'll dare, On change too oft the King's bent; 'Tis stamped on wax: none need If the Charter's power decay, A modern historian has praised Henry as having "received strong religious impressions," but certainly he was not ambitious of the Psalmist's eulogy of "him that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not;" and it is revolting to state that immediately after these serious pledges, he reverted to his old course, capriciously quarrelling with some, and oppressing others, promoting aliens, and dealing out his prodigal bounty to his foreign kinsmen as before. A curious instance of his duplicity occurred in 1253, when he ordered the public exhibition of some enormous darts, as a palpable proof of the dangerous weapons he was exposed to in Gascony, demanding fresh supplies to carry on the war, but concealing the fact of his having already concluded a treaty of peace3 1 Polit. Songs from Auchinl. MS. 2 Lingard. 3 Queen Eleanor, as Regent, and Richard, Earl of Cornwall, write to King Henry III. while absent in Gascony at this time (Feb. 14, 1254), that the Earl Marshal and John de Balliol after a contrary wind for twelve days, had arrived in England, Feb. 4; that before and after their arrival the prelates and barons had been consulted about a subsidy, and had promised if the King should be attacked in Gascony to come over with all their power, but offered no money-the clergy too voted no subsidy, but expected the tenth levied for the Crusade which should begin in that year, to be relaxed;"but from the other laymen who do not sail over to you, we do not think we can obtain any help for your use, unless you write to your lieutenants in England firmly to maintain your great charters of liberty, since by this means they would be more and alliance with his enemies. Some mistrust naturally arose among the nobles of the council, when they learnt that the Queen and her eldest son had been summoned to this scene of supposed danger, and the unexpected arrival of Simon de Montfort, who knew the truth', completed the exposure of this dishonest trick. The empty title of King of Sicily, being craftily proffered by the Pope', was soon afterwards accepted for the King's second son, Edmund, a mere boy of ten years old. This likeness of a kingly crown," so far from conferring any national advantage, was only the occasion of draining off more of the wealth of England to Italy. In the words of Dante, speaking of another titular King of Sicily: "Quindi non terra, ma peccato e onta Even when the royal treasury was exhausted, the King was made a responsible debtor for vast additional sums claimed by the Pope for the expenses of asserting this title by force of arms. Edmund, acting of course as the instrument of his father, lost no time in displaying his unsubstantial power3, and The crown was accepted March 14, 1254, for the English Prince; but Conrad, the King de facto, did not die till May 21, 1254, and was then young. The Pope's grant required the payment of 135,541 marcs £90,360. 138. 4d.) in return. By a brief from Viterbo, xiv. Kal. Feb. (Jan. 19), 1258, Pope Alexander allowed the postponement for three months of the payment of money due for the final settlement of his claims on account of Sicily. By a brief from Anagni, xv. Kal. Jan. (Dec. 18), 1259, the Pope threatened to revoke his grant of the crown of Sicily, unless the money was paid. By a brief from Viterbo iii. Kal. June (May 30), 1258, the Pope pressed urgently for the money (rogandum attentius et portandum sublato obstaculo, &c.). 3 Pope Innocent IV. having authorized Prince Edmund (May 25, 1254), to make a seal for Sicily; we find the Prince signing, accordingly, "aureâ bullâ nostrâ," at Windsor, March 20, 1261-Rymer. The impression of this seal in the British Museum, represents him seated on his throne with ball and sceptre, inscribed, “Edmundus natus Regis Henrici illustris;" on the other side are the arms of England only, not Sicily, inscribed "Edmundus Dei gratiâ Siciliæ Rex." |