church courts, be sent for punishment in royal courts.” (3)
“Becket initially accepted the Constitution but would not set
his seal to it. Shortly thereafter, however, he suspended himself from
office for the sin of yielding to the royal will in the matter. Although
he failed to obtain full papal support at this stage, Alexander III
ultimately came to his aid over the Constitutions. Later in 1164 Becket was
charged with peculation of royal funds when chancellor. After Becket had
taken flight for France, the king confiscated the revenues of his province,
exiled his friends, and confiscated their revenues. In 1170 Henry had his
eldest son crowned king by the archbishop of York, not Canterbury, as was
traditional. Becket, in exile, appealed to Rome and excommunicated the
clergy who had taken part in the ceremony. A reconciliation between Becket
and Henry at the end of the same year settled none of the points at issue.”
(4) When Becket returned to England, he took further measures against the
clergy who had taken part in the coronation. In Normandy the enraged king,
hearing the news, burst out with the fateful words that incited four of his
knights to take ship for England and murder the archbishop of Canterbury
Cathedral.
Almost overnight the martyred Thomas became a saint in the eyes of
the people. Henry repudiated responsibility for the murder and reconciled
himself with the church. But despite various royal promises to abolish
customs injurious to the church, royal control of the church was little
affected. Henceforth criminous clerks were to be tried in church courts,
save for offenses against the forest laws. Disputes over ecclesiastical
patronage and church lands that were held on the same terms as lay estates
were, however, to come under royal jurisdiction. Finally Henry did penance
at Canterbury, allowing the monks to scourge him. But with Becket out of
the way, it proved possible to negotiate most of the points at issue
between church and state. The martyred archbishop, however, was to prove a
potent example for future prelates.
Rebellion of Henry’s sons and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Henry’s sons, urged on by their mother and by a coalition of Henry’s
enemies, raised a rebellion throughout his domains in 1173. King William I
the Lion of Scotland joined the rebel coalition and invaded the north of
England. Lack of cooperation among the rebels, however, enabled Henry to
defeat them one at a time with a mercenary army. The Scottish king was
taken prisoner at Alnwick. Queen Eleanor was retired to polite imprisonment
for the rest of Henry’s life. The king’s sons and the baronial rebels were
treated with leniency, but many baronial castles were destroyed following
the rising. “A brief period of amity between Henry and Louis of France
followed, and the years between 1175 and 1182 marked the zenith of Henry’s
prestige and power.” (5) In 1183 the younger Henry again tried to organize
opposition to his father, but he died in June of the year. Henry spent the
last years of his life locked in combat with the new French king, Philip II
Augustus, with whom his son Richard had entered into an alliance. Even his
youngest son, John, deserted him in the end. In 1189 Henry died a broken
man, disappointed and defeated by his sons and by the French king.
RICHARD I, COEUR de LION (1189-99 AD)
Henry II was succeeded by his son Richard I, nicknamed the Lion Heart.
Richard was born in 1157, and spent much of his youth in his mother’s court
at Poitiers. “Richard, a renowned and skillful warrior, was manly
interested in the Crusade to recover Jerusalem and in the struggle to
maintain his French holdings against Philip Augustus.” (6) He spent only
about six mouths in England during his reign. “During his frequent absences
he left a committee in charge of the realm. The chancellor William
Longchamp, bishop of Ely, dominated the early part of the reign until
forced into exile by baronial rebellion in 1191. Walter of Coutances,
archbishop of Rouen, succeeded Longchamp, but the most important and abled
of Richard’s ministers was Hubert Walter, archbishop of Canterbury,
justicial from 1193 to 1198, and chancellor from 1199 to 1205. With the
king's mother , Eleanor, he put down a revolt by Richard’s brother John in
1193 with strong and effective measures. But when Richard returned from
abroad, he forgave John and promised him the succession.” (7)
“This reign saw some important innovations in taxation and military
organization. Warfare was expensive, and in addition Richard was captured
on his return from the Crusade by Leopold V of Austria and held for a high
ransom of 150 000 marks. Various methods of raising money were tried: an
aid or scutage; tax on plow lands; a general tax of a fourth of revenues
and chattels (this was a development of the so-called Saladin Tithe raised
earlier for the Crusade); and a seizure of the wool crop of Cistercian and
Gilbertine houses. The ransom, although never paid in full, caused
Richard’s government to become highly unpopular.” (8) Richard also faced
some unwillingness on the part of his English subjects to serve in France.
A plan to raise a force of 300 knights who would serve for a whole year met
with opposition led by the bishops of Lincoln and Salisbury. Richard was,
however, remarkably successful in mastering the resources, financial and
human, of his kingdom in support of his wars. It can also be argued that
his demands on England weakened that realm unduly and that Richard left his
successor a very difficult legacy.
John Lackland (1199-1216 AD)
Richard, mortally wounded at a siege in France in 1199, was succeeded
by his brother John, one of the most detested of English kings. John was
born on Christmas Eve 1167, Henry II’s youngest son. John’s reign was
characterized by failure. Yet, while he must bear a heavy responsibility
for his misfortunes, it is only fair to recognize that he inherited the
resentment that had built up against his brother and father. Also while
his reign ended in disaster, some of his financial and military measures
anticipated positive development in Edward I’s reign.
Loss of French possessions.
“John had nothing like the military ability or reputation of his brother.
He could win a battle in a fit of energy, only to lose his advantage in a
spell of indolence. After repudiating his first wife, Isabella of
Gloucestor, John married the fiancйe of Hugh IX the Brown of the Lusignan
family, one of his vassals in Poitou. For this offense he was summoned to
answer to Philip II , his feudal ovelord for his holdings in France. When
John refused to attend , his land in France were declared forfeit.” (9) In
the subsequent war he succeeded in capturing his nephew Arthur of Brittany,
whom many in Anjou and elsewhere regarded as Richard I’s rightful heir.
Arthur died under mysterious and suspicious circumstances. But once the
great castle of Chateau Gaillard, Richard I’s pride and joy, had fallen in
March 1204, the collapse of Normandy followed swiftly. “By 1206 all that
was left of the inheritance of the Norman kings was the Channel Islands.
John, however, was determined to recover his losses.”(10)
Revolt of the barons and Magna Carta.
For 200 years of ruling of Norman kings the country was ruled over on such
principles: King took money from barons, especially for wars. Those who
refused to pay were arrested and kept in prison and they could not defend
themselves. Their children or their relatives had to pay for them. The end
of such situation came at reign of John Lackland. He was very unpopular
with his barons. In 1215 John called on for his barons to fight for him in
the war against Normandy and pay money for it. The barons, no longer
trusting John refused to pay and there began a revolt. Barons gazed much to
London and were joined by London merchants.
“On June 15, 1215 the rebellion barons met John at Rennemede on the
Themes. The King was presented with a document known as the Articles of the
Barons, on the basis of which Magna Carta was drawn up. Magna Carta became
the symbol of political freedom. It promised two main things:
1. All “free man” protection of his officials
2. The right to afair and legal trial
It was the first official document when this principle was written down.
It was very important for England. Magna Carta was always used by barons to
protect themselves from a powerful king.” (11)
But we should say that Magna Carta gave no real freedom to the majority
of people in England (only 1/3 of population were free men). Nobles did not
allow John and his successors to forget this charter. Every king had to
recognize the Magna Carta. This document was the beginning of limiting the
prerogatives of crown and on the other hand by limiting king’s power Magna
Carta restricted arbitrary action of barons towards the knights. Magna
Carta marked a clear stage in the collapse of the English feudalism.
“After king’s signing the document barons established a committee of 24
barons to make sure that John kept his promise. This committee was a
beginning of English Parliament.”(12)
From the very beginning Magna Carta was a failure, for it was no more
than a stage in ineffective negotiations to prevent civil war. John was
released by the pope from his obligations under it. The document was,
however, reissued with some changes under John’s son, with papal approval.
John himself died in October 1216, with the civil war still at an
