would have fallen to the ground, had not his attendants supported him. The conference was suspended, and as Henry II. was too ill to attend a second interview, the articles of peace, drawn up in writing, were taken to his chamber for his formal consent.2 The messengers of the French king found him in bed. They read to him the treaty of peace, article by article. When they came to that which related to the persons, secretly or openly, of Richard's party, the king asked their names, that he might know how many men there were whose fealty he had to renounce.3 The first person named to him was John, his youngest son. On hearing this name pronounced, the king, with an almost convulsive movement, rose on his seat, and, casting fearful glances around with his haggard eyes, exclaimed: "Is it true, indeed, that John, my heart, my favourite son, he whom I cherished more than all the rest; he, my love for whom has brought upon me all my misfortunes, is it indeed true that he has abandoned me?" He was answered that it was so. 'Well, then," he murmured, falling back on his bed, and turning his face to the wall, "let all things go as they will; I care no longer for myself or for the world." A few moments after, Richard approached the bed, and demanded the kiss of peace from his father, in execution of the treaty. The king gave it him with apparent calmness; but, as Richard withdrew, he heard his father mutter to himself: "If God would only spare my life till I were revenged on thee!" On his arrival at the French camp, the earl of Poitiers repeated this to king Philip and his courtiers, who all shouted with laughter, and jested upon the fine peace thus concluded between father and son.4 66 The king of England, feeling his malady increase, had himself removed to Chinon, where, in a few days, he was reduced to the point of death. In his last moments he was heard to utter these broken sentences, in reference to his misfortunes and to the conduct of his sons: "Shame!" he exclaimed; "shame to a conquered king! Cursed be the day on which I was born, and cursed of God be the sons whom I 1 Roger. de Hoved, p. 654. leave behind me." The bishops and clergy around him sought by every effort to induce him to recal this malediction on his children, but he persisted in it to his last breath.2 After his death, his body was treated by his servants as that of William the Conqueror had been; all abandoned him, after having stripped him of his clothes and seized upon every valuable in the room and in the house.3 King Henry had desired to be buried at Fontevrault, a celebrated nunnery, a few leagues south of Chinon; scarcely could men be found to envelop the body in a shroud, or horses to convey it. The corpse was already deposited in the great church of the abbey, awaiting the day of sepulture, when earl Richard learned, from public report, his father's death. He came to the church, and found the king lying in a coffin, his face uncovered, and still exhibiting, by the contraction of his features, the signs of an agonized death. This sight occasioned the earl of Poitiers an involuntary shudder. He knelt and prayed before the altar; but he rose in a few moments, after the interval of a paternoster, say the historians of the period, and quitted the church, never to return to it. The same contemporary writers assure us that, from the moment Richard entered the church until he left it, the blood incessantly flowed in abundance from the nostrils of the deceased. Next day the funeral took place. The officiating priests wished to decorate the corpse with some insignia of royalty; but the keepers of the treasury of Chinon would supply none, and after infinite intreaties only sent an old sceptre and a ring of no value. In default of a crown, the head was encircled with a sort of diadem, made with some gold fringe from a woman's dress; and thus singularly attired did Henry, son of Geoffroy Plantagenest, king of England, duke of Normandy, Aquitaine, and Brittany, earl of Anjou and Maine, lord of Tours and Amboise, descend to his last abode." A contemporary author views in the misfortunes of Henry II. a sign of Divine vengeance upon the Normans, the tyrants of invaded England. He connects this miserable death with 1 Ib.-Roger. de Hoved., p. 654. 3 Ib.-Corpus nudum absque amictu quolibet. ut sup. p. 157.) ▲ Ib. 2 Ib. (Giraldus Cambrensis, 5 Giraldus Cambrensis, loco sup. cit. 6 Ib.-Chron. anonymi Laudunensis, ubi sup. p. 707. those of William Rufus, of the sons of Henry I., of the brothers of Henry II., and of his two eldest sons, who all died a violent death in the flower of their age: "Such," said he, "was the punishment of their unlawful reign." Without adopting this superstitious view, it is certain that the calamities of king Henry were a result of the events which placed the southern provinces of Gaul under his domination. He had rejoiced infinitely in this augmentation of power; he had given his sons the territories of others in appanage, glorying to see his family reign over many nations of different race and of different manners, and to reunite, under the same sceptre, that which nature had divided. But nature did not lose her rights; and at the first movement made by the peoples to regain their independence, division entered the family of the foreign king, who saw his own children serve his own subjects as instruments against him, and who, whirled to and fro, up to his last hour, by domestic feuds, experienced on his death-bed the bitterest feeling a man can carry with him to the tomb, that of dying by a parricide. 1 Propter quod pauci eorum.. fine laudabili decesserunt, non dimidiantes dies suos miserabiliter interierunt..nec naturaliter, nec legitime, sed quasi per hysteron proteron, in insula occupata regnaverunt. (Girald. Camb., loc. sup. cit.) BOOK XI. FROM THE ACCESSION OF KING RICHARD I. TO THE EXECUTION OF THE SAXON, WILLIAM LONGBEARD. 1190-1196. State of Ireland under the Anglo-Normans-Three populations in Ireland -Insurrection of the Irish-Political conduct of a papal legate-Conquest of the kingdom of Ulster-Invasion of that of Connaught-Prince John, son of Henry II., sent into Ireland-Insult offered to the Irish chieftains-Fresh insurrection-Inveterate hostility of the two racesPetition of the Irish to the pope-Cruelties of the Anglo-Irish-Unyielding patriotism of the native Irish-Tenacity of the Cambrian race -Popular belief respecting king Arthur-Pretended discovery of the tomb of Arthur-Prediction of a Welshman to Henry II.-Accession of Richard I. His first administrative measures-He departs for the Crusades-His quarrel with the people of Messina-Misunderstanding between him and the king of France-Their reconciliation-Ordinance of the two kings-Taking of Acre-Return of the king of France-State of affairs in England-Quarrel between the chancellor William de Longchamp and earl John, king Richard's brother-Impeachment of the chancellor-Convocation of the citizens of London-Dismissal of the chancellor His flight-His arrest--Accusations brought by the king of France against king Richard-Feigned apprehensions of assassination-Institution of the gardes-du-corps-Fresh complaints of Philip against Richard-Departure of king Richard-He lands on the coast of Istria-His arrest and imprisonment-Intrigues of the king of France and of earl John-King Richard acknowledges himself vassal of the emperor-Alliance between earl John and the king of France-Richard ransomed-His release and return to England-Siege of NottinghamVisit of the king to Sherwood Forest-Robert, or Robin Hood, king of the outlaws-Popularity of the outlaws-Character of Robin HoodPopular ballad on Robin Hood-His long celebrity-Tradition respecting his death-Outlaws of Cumberland-Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly-Freebooting loses its patriotic colouringKing Richard resumes his crown-Ambition of the king of FranceWar between the two kings-Treachery of earl John-Restoration of peace-Policy of the northern populations-Interview of the two kings -State of Auvergne-The king of France attacks that country- Sirventes of king Richard and of the earl of Auvergne-State of EnglandSaxon families-Assemblies of the London citizens-Character of William Longbeard-Conspiracy of the Londoners-Longbeard tried and executed-He popularly passes for a martyr-Observations. THE impossibility of combining every fact in one narrative, now compels the historian to return to the epoch at which Henry II. received from pope Alexander III. the bull invest ing him with the lordship of all Ireland. The king hereupon immediately despatched the Normans, William Fitz-Elme, and Nicholas, dean of Wallingford, who, on their arrival in Ireland, convoked a synod of all the high clergy of the newly conquered provinces. The diploma of Alexander III. and the bull of Adrian IV. were solemnly read in this assembly, and ratified by the Irish bishops, involved by their first submission in fresh acts of weakness. Several, however, soon repented, and took part in the conspiracies which were secretly carried on in the places occupied by the Norman garrisons, or even in the open resistance of the still free provinces on the Shannon and the Boyne. Lawrence, archbishop of Dublin, one of the first who had sworn fealty to the conqueror, engaged in several patriotic insurrections, and from the friend of the foreigners, became the object of their hatred and persecution.2 They replaced him by a Norman, John Comine, who, to accomplish his new mission, conducted himself in such sort towards the natives, that his countrymen gave him, in jest, the surname of Ecorche-villain.3 In a few years, the conquest extended as far as the eastern and southern frontiers of the kingdoms of Connaught and Ulster. A line of fortresses and palisadoed redoubts, stretching along the frontier of the invaded territory, procured it the Norman appellation of Pal or the Pale. Every foreign baron, knight, or squire, quartered within the Pale, had taken care to fortify his domain; each had a castle, great or small, according to his rank and wealth. The lowest class of the conquering army, and in particular the English soldiers, labourers, or merchants, dwelt together in entrenched camps, formed round the castles of their leaders, or in the towns which the natives had partly abandoned. The English language was spoken in the streets and market-places of these towns, and the French in the fortresses newly erected by the lords of the conquest. All the names of these chiefs that history has preserved, are French, as Raymond de Caen, Guillaume Ferrand, Guillaume 1 Giraldus Cambrensis, Hibernia expugnata, p. 787. 2 Campion, History of Ireland, 62-64; Hanmer, Chronicle of Ireland, p. 162: two works of the most exact authority in all that relates to the conquest of Ireland by the Anglo-Normans; faithfully, and, in many cases, literally extracted from the original documents. 3 Girald. Camb., ut sup. p. 799. Campion, p. 66. Hanmer, p. 165. |