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Monarchy and Church
Monarchy and Church; Part 7

Monarchy and Church; Part 7

At last, in 1170, a truce was made, and Becket returned to the kingdom on the understanding that he was to let bygones be bygones. Unluckily, just before his return, Henry had caused his son to be crowned. To crown a king was a privilege of the Archbishops of Canterbury, but as Becket was in disgrace Henry had made Becket's enemies, Roger of York and the Bishop of London, perform the ceremony. Becket, on his return, excommunicated them both. This threw Henry into one of his violent rages. All the trouble taken to have his son crowned was wasted through Becket's act. On hearing the news, Henry cried out: "Are there none of the dastards eating my bread who will rid me of this turbulent priest?" Immediately four knights started for England, resolved to carry out the king's wish by some means, fair or foul. After a stormy interview with Becket in his palace, they followed him armed into the cathedral. Coarse words passed, and Becket retorted no less coarsely. A scuffle began, and Becket flung one of the knights, De Tracy, to the ground. De Tracy drew his sword; the rest did the same, and the Archbishop was murdered on his own altar steps.

Becket died in a brawl, and straightway became a martyr. If ever a dead man won a fight, it was he. Henry, who had many advantages of reason and justice on his side, lost them all by his own frantic words and the more frantic interpretation which De Tracy and his companions placed on them. Henceforward the one thing to do was to yield. He swore his innocence, and at a later date even submitted to be scourged by the monks of Canterbury at Becket's tomb. But all hope of asserting his rights over the Church courts was gone. Not till the Reformation did the royal power prevail. For more than three centuries criminous clerks continued to be sentenced in their own courts, and appeals went to Rome; and, what was even more serious, the door was opened to fresh inroads by the popes. The humbling of King John, the plundering taxation of Henry III's day, was indirectly due to Becket's martyrdom.

And for the rest of Henry's life, trouble was ever hard at hand. The great barons who had trembled before him lost their respect for a king who had been worsted by the Church. Men like Hugh of Chester, Hugh Bigod, and Robert Mowbray were very ready to rebel against a king whose life's work had been spent in the effort to tame their powers. His children, too, plotted against him. Even his wife deserted him. Rebellion was soon on foot both in England and oversea. The Scots poured over the border. The King of France gave help to the rebels. From this accumulation of dangers Henry seemed scarce likely to escape, yet he had stout friends, and the people of England stood by him. They at least had no wish to see the barons lift their heads again. Thus, by the aid of his militia the rebel Earls of Leicester and Norfolk were beaten in the Battle of Fornham, and the peasantry took care that none of the fugitives escaped alive. The King of Scots, William the Lion, was surprised and made prisoner at Alnwick. He was not allowed to go until he had, by the Treaty of Falaise, paid homage to the King of England as his feudal superior, and put in his hands the castles of Edinburgh, Stirling, Roxburgh, Jedburgh, and Berwick (1174). Abroad, Henry with his army of mercenaries soon forced the French king to sue for peace.

Yet, even so, the old king had little rest. His sons quarrelled like young lions over the division of his inheritance. The eldest, Henry, till his death in 1183, plotted constantly with the kings of France against his father. Geoffrey provoked his barons in Brittany to incessant quarrels till death too removed him. Richard took up his elder brother's game, joined the King of France, actually led an army against his father, and forced him to make a degrading peace. The last blow was the discovery that his youngest, his favourite son, John, had joined the rebellion. Smitten with fever, the old king turned his face to the wall, murmuring "Shame, shame on a conquered king", and so passed away.

Monarchy and Church; Part 7

Chronology