Henry II., become duke of Aquitaine, examined the records of these former conventions, and finding among them a sort of pretext for annulling the independence of the county of Toulouse, he advanced troops, and laid siege to the town. Raymond de Saint Gilles, count of Toulouse, raised his banner against him, and the commune of Toulouse, a corporation of free citizens, also raised theirs.1 The common council2 of the city and suburbs (such was the title borne by the municipal government of the Toulousans,) opened, through their chief, negotiations with the king of France to obtain assistance from him. This king marched to Toulouse by Berri, which, for the most part, belonged to him, and through the Limousin, which gave him free passage; he compelled the king of England to raise the siege of the town, and was received in it with great joy by the count and the citizens.3 The latter, collected in a solemn assembly, voted him a letter of acknowledgments, in which they thanked him for having succoured them as a patron and as a father, an expression of affectionate gratitude which implied no acknowledgment of civil or feudal subjection on their part.4 But this habit of imploring the patronage of one king against another became a cause of dependence, and the period when the king of England, as duke of Aquitaine and earl of Poitou, obtained influence over the affairs of the south of Gaul, was, for its inhabitants, the commencement of a new epoch of decay and misfortune. Placed thenceforth between two rival and equally ambitious powers, they attached themselves sometimes to one, sometimes to the other, according to circumstances, by turns supported, abandoned, betrayed, sold by both. From the twelfth century, the Southerns were never well off, except when the kings of France and England were at war: "When will this truce end between the Sterlings and the Tournois?" they cried, in their political songs;5 and their eyes were ever turned towards the north, asking: "What are the two kings about?"6 1 Script. rer. Gallic. et Francic., xiii. 739. 2 Communis consilii Tolosæ ad Ludovicum Epist., ib. xvi. 69. Quod...laboribus nostris et imminentibus periculis more paterno provi detis. (Epist. Communis Consilii Tolosæ, ut sup.) 5 Bertrand de Born; Raynouard, Poesies des Troubadours, iv. 264. They detested all foreigners, yet a restless turbulence, a wild passion for novelty and movement, impelled them to seek their alliance, whilst within they were torn by domestic quarrels and petty rivalries between man and man, town and town, province and province. They were vehemently fond of war, not from the ignoble thirst for gain, nor even from the elevated impulse of patriotic devotion, but for that which war presents of the picturesque and poetical; for the excitement, the noise, the display of the battle field; to see the lances glitter in the sun, and to hear the horses neigh in the wind.1 One word from a woman sufficed to send them to a crusade under the banner of the pope, for whom they had small liking, and risk their lives against the Arabs, of all the nations in the world that with which they had most sympathy and moral affinity.2 With this volatility of character, they combined the graces of imagination, a taste for the arts and for refined enjoyments; they were industrious and rich; nature had given them all, all except political prudence and union, as descendants of the same race, as children of one country: their enemies combined to destroy them, but they would not combine to love each other, to defend each other, to make one common cause. They paid a severe penalty for this, in losing their independence, their wealth, and even their learning. Their language, the second Roman language, almost as polished as the first, has, in their own mouths, given place to a foreign tongue, the accentuation of which is repugnant to them, while their natural idiom, that of their liberty and of their glory, that of the noblest poetry of the middle ages, has become the patois of the peasant. But regret for these changes is futile: there are ruins made by time which time will never repair. 1 Guerra m plai. (Ib. 264.) 2 Ib. passim. BOOK IX. FROM THE ORIGIN OF THE QUARREL BETWEEN KING HENRY II. AND ARCHBISHOP THOMAS BEKET, TO THE MURDER OF THE ARCHBISHOP 1160-1171. Adventures of Gilbert Beket-Birth and education of Thomas BeketThomas, archdeacon and chancellor of England-Political conduct of Thomas Beket-Disputes between the king and the Anglo-Norman clergy-Beket archbishop of Canterbury-Coolness between the king and him-First quarrel between them-Excommunication of an AngloNorman baron-Hatred of the Anglo-Norman barons to the archbishopCouncil of Clarendon New laws of Henry II.-Importance of the quarrel between the king and the archbishop-Policy of the pope in the affair of Beket-The archbishop seeks to withdraw from England-A new assembly at Northampton-Archbishop Thomas accused and condemned-Second citation of the archbishop-His firmness-Appeal of the king and the bishops to the pope-Counter appeal of BeketFlight of Beket-Letter of Henry II. to the king of France-Beket cordially received by the king of France-Conduct of pope Alexander III. Thomas retires to the abbey of Pontigny-Excommunications pronounced by Beket-Intrigues of the court of Rome-Interview between the king and the two legates--Beket driven from Pontigny-Congress of Montmirail-Thomas abandoned by the king of France-Negotiations of Henry II.-Persecution of the Welsh priests-Affection of the Welsh people for Beket-Reconciliation of the king of France with Beket-Two new legates arrive in Normandy-Conference between these legates and Henry II.-Complaints of Beket against the court of Rome -The pope is compelled to declare his real views-Negotiations between the king and the archbishop-Interview and reconciliation of the king and the archbishop-Departure of archbishop Thomas for England -Attempts of the Normans against him-Two bishops denounce him to the king-Conspiracy of four Norman knights-Murder of the archbishop -Insurrection of the inhabitants of Canterbury-Beket regarded by the native English as a saint-Girauld de Barri elected bishop of St. David's -His banishment-His return and reinstallation-Persecution exercised upon him-He repairs to the court of Rome-He is condemned by the pope-Gratitude of the Welsh towards him-Petition of eight Welsh chieftains to Alexander III.-National motives for appeals to the pope in the middle ages. IN the reign of Henry I., there lived at London a young citizen, of Saxon origin, but sufficiently rich to associate with the Normans of that city, whom the historians call Beket.1 1...Gilbertus, cognomento Beket. (Vita et processus Sancti Thomæ Cantuariensis, seu quadripartita historia, cap. ii. fol. 3.) It is probable that his real name was Bek, and that the Normans among whom he lived, added to this a diminutive familiar to them, and made it Beket, as the English of race and language called it Bekie.1 About the year 1115, Gilbert Bekie or Beket, assumed the cross, either to accomplish a vow of penance, or to seek fortune in the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem. But he was less fortunate in Palestine than the squires and sergeants of Normandy had been in England, and instead of becoming like them, powerful and opulent by conquest, he was taken prisoner and reduced to slavery. Degraded and despised as he was, the English slave inspired the daughter of a Saracen chief with love. He escaped by her assistance, and returned to his own country; and his deliverer, unable to live without him, soon abandoned the paternal roof and went in quest of him. She knew but two words intelligible to the people of the west: London and Gilbert. By aid of the former, she reached England in a ship laden with merchants and pilgrims; and by means of the latter, going from street to street, and repeating Gilbert! Gilbert! to the crowd who surrounded her, she found the man she loved. Gilbert Beket, after obtaining the opinion of several bishops on this wondrous incident, had his mistress baptised, changed her Saracen name into that of Matilda, and married her. This marriage made a great sensation by its singularity, and became the subject of several popular romances, two of which, preserved to our own times, exhibit the most touching details.3 In the year 1119, Gilbert and Matilda had a son, who was called Thomas Beket, according to the mode of double names introduced into England by the Normans. Such, according to the narrative of some ancient chroniclers, was the romantic origin of a man destined to trouble in so violent and unexpected a manner the great grandson of William the Conqueror in the enjoyment of his power.4 1 Young Bekie was as brave a knight... In London was young Beichan born... (Jamieson's Popular Ballads, vol. ii. pp. 117, 127.) 2...Nichil aliud interrogare pro tinere noverat, nisi tantum Londonia, Londonia...quasi bestia erratica per plateas civitatis incedens...derisui habebatur omnibus. (Vita et processus, &c. loc. cit.) Jamieson's Popular Ballads, loc. cit. See Appendix No. IV. Parentum mediocrium proles illustris. (Gervas. Cantuar., Act. Pontif, Cantuar., apud Hist. Angl. Script., Selden, col. 1668.) This man, born to torment the Anglo-Norman race, received an education peculiarly calculated to give him access to the nobles and great men, and to gain their favour. At an early age he was sent to France, to study the laws, sciences, and language of the continent, and to lose the English accent, which was then considered in England altogether vulgar.1 Thomas Beket, on his return from his travels, was in a position to converse and associate with the most refined people of the dominant nation, without shocking their ears or their taste by a word or gesture recalling to mind his Saxon origin. He soon put this talent to use, and, still very young, insinuated himself into the familiar friendship of one of the rich barons resident near London. He became his daily guest, and the companion of his pleasures.2 He rode the horses of his patron, and sported with his birds and his dogs, passing the day in these amusements, forbidden to every Englishman who was not either the servant or associate of a man of foreign origin.3 4 Thomas, full of gaiety and supple address, ingratiating, refined, obsequious, soon acquired a great reputation in high Norman society. The archbishop of Canterbury, Thibaut, who, from the primacy instituted by the Conqueror, was the first person next after the king, hearing the young Englishman spoken of, sent for him, and, liking him, attached him to his person. Having induced him to take orders, he appointed him archdeacon of his metropolitan church, and employed him in several delicate negotiations with the court of Rome.5 Under Stephen, archdeacon Thomas conducted with pope Eugenius an intrigue of the bishops of England, partisans of Matilda, the object of which was to obtain from the pope a formal prohibition to crown the king's son. When, a few years after, the son of Matilda had obtained the crown, Thomas Beket was presented to him as a zealous servant of his cause during the usurpation; for so was the reign of Stephen now designated by most of those who had before elected, crowned, and defended him against the pretensions of Matilda. The archdeacon of Canterbury 1 Willelm. filius Stephani, Vita S. Thomæ, p. 11, apud Hist. Angl. Script., (Sparke) Lond., 1753.-Joh. Bromton, Chron., col. 1056. 4 Ib. 2 Joh. Bromton, ut sup. 3 Ib. 5 Subtilissima providentia et perquisitione cujusdam Thomæ...(Ger. Cantuar., Chron., apud Hist. Angl. Script., Selden, col. 1371.) |