Adams G.B. History of England From the Norman Conquest to the Death of John

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.Then came messen-gers to Henry and proposed a conference to settle terms ofpeace, but at the meeting which was held on September 8 no-thing could be agreed upon because of the absence of Richardwho was in Aquitaine still carrying on the war.The negotia-tions were accordingly adjourned till Michaelmas on the un-derstanding that Henry should subdue his son and compelhim to attend and that the other side should give the youngrebel no aid.Richard at first intended some resistance to hisfather, but after losing some of the places that held for him anda little experience of fleeing from one castle to another, helost heart and threw himself on his father s mercy, to be re-ceived with the easy forgiveness which characterized Henry sattitude toward his children.There was no obstacle now to peace.On Septemberthe kings of England and France and the three young princesmet in the adjourned conference and arranged the terms.Henry granted to his sons substantial revenues, but not whathe had offered them at the beginning of the war, nor did heshow any disposition to push his advantage to extremesagainst any of those who had joined the alliance against him.The treaty in which the agreement between father and sonswas recorded may still be read.It provides that Henry theking, son of the king, and his brothers and all the baronswho have withdrawn from the allegiance of the father shallreturn to it free and quit from all oaths and agreements whichthey may have made in the meantime, and the king shall haveall the rights over them and their lands and castles that hehad two weeks before the beginning of the war.But theyalso shall receive back all their lands as they had them at thesame date, and the king will cherish no ill feeling againstthem.To Henry his father promised to assign two castlesin Normandy suitable for his residence and an income ofAngevin pounds a year to Richard two suitableCONQUEST ANDCHAP.and half the revenue of Poitou, but the interestingstipulation is added that Richard s castles are to be of such athat his father shall take no injury from them to Geof-frey half the marriage portion of Constance of Britanny andthe income of the whole when the marriage is finally madewith the sanction of Rome.Prisoners who had made finewith the king before the peace were expressly excluded fromit, and this the king of Scotland and the Earls ofChester and Leicester.All castles were to be put back intothe condition in which they were before the war.The youngking formally agreed to the provision for his brother John, andthis seems materially larger than that originally proposed.The concluding provisions of the treaty show the stronglegal sense of King Henry.He was ready to pardon therebellion with great magnanimity, but crimes committed andlaws violated either against himself or others must be answeredfor in the courts by guilty persons.Richard and Geoffreydid homage to their father for what was granted them, butthis was excused the young Henry because he was a king.In another treaty drawn up at about the same time atthe king of Scotland recognized in the clearest terms for him-self and his heirs the king of England as his liege lord forScotland and for all his lands, and agreed that his baronsand men, lay and ecclesiastic, should also render liege homageto Henry, according to the Norman principle.On these con-ditions he was released.Of the king of France practicallynothing was demanded.The treaty between the two kings of England establisheda peace which lasted for some years, but it was not longcomplaints of the scantiness of his revenues and ofhis exclusion from all political influence began again from theyounger king and from his court.There was undoubtedlymuch to justify these complaints from the point of view ofHenry the son.Whatever may have been the impellingmotive, by establishing his sons in nominal independence,Henry the father had clearly put himself in an illogical posi-tion from which there was no escape without a division ofhis power which he could not make when brought to thetest.The young king found his refuge in a way thoroughlycharacteristic of himself and of the age, in the great athleticTHE TOURNAMENT AS Asport of that period-the tournament, which differed from CHAP.modern athletics in the important particular that theman, keeping of course the rules of the game, could engagein it as a means of livelihood.The capturing of horses andand the ransoming of prisoners made the tournamenta profitable business to the man who was a better fighterthan other men, and the young king enjoyed that fame.Atthe beginning of his independent career his father hadassigned to his service a man who was to serve the houseof Anjou through long years and in far higherWilliam Marshal, at that time a knight without lands or reve-nues but skilled in arms, and under his tuition and examplehis pupil became a warrior of renown.It was not exactly abusiness which seems to us becoming to a king, but it was atleast better than fighting his father, and the opinion of thetime found no fault with it.CHAPTER XVHENRY AND HIS SONSCHAP.FOR England peace was now established.Thexvtion was suppressed, the castles were in the king s hands,even the leaders of the revolted barons were soon reconciledwith him.The age of Henry I returned, an age not so longin years as his, but yet long for any medieval state, ofinternal peace, of slow but sure upbuilding in public andprivate wealth, and, even more important, of the steadygrowth of law and institutions and of the clearness withwhich they were understood, an indispensable preparationfor the great thirteenth century so soon to begin -the crisisof English constitutional history.For Henry personallythere was no age of peace [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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