pardon It is only to my purpose to say that Stephen contented himself with the ordinary Oath of Allegiance tho Maud was his Competitor and put no Nobleman or Commoner upon adjuring her or hers by name tho he were sensible that they must prove continual Thorns in his side and upon those Apprehensions as soon as he was settled in his Throne he passed over with an Army into France with purpose only of subduing Geofry of Anjou her Husband prospexerat'enim saith Tho Wikes 1136 quod si Imperatrix prolem de corpore suo generaret bella sibi minime defutura knowing full well that if she had Children he must look for little quiet But Children she had and you know how troublesome this Woman with her Son and Brother Robert were to him for many Years the many Miserie 's this poor Kingdom endured under the time of their Dissensions for in most Wars a Country finds but little difference between Friends and Enemies and the Agreement made at last betwixt them I will not insist on any of these Matters King Stephen took all usual care to secure the Crown to himself and his Posterity but it went no farther than to take the common Oath of Allegiance to himself and in 1152 to cause the same to be taken to Eustace his Son For so Annales Waverleienses 1152 Apud Londoniam Eustachio Filio R. Stephani fide jurejurando Universi Comites Barones Angliae se subdiderunt He would have had him crowned but the Clergy by order of the Pope opposed it strongly and he could not carry his Point as Gervasius tells us in Stephano 1131. p. In the Year 1152 died Stephen's Wife and in 1153 Eustace his Son a stomachful young Prince so that Stephen consum'd almost with Care and Grief and finding himself decay and his Adversary young Henry daily increasing in Riches and the Favour of the People began to incline to Peace which was agreed upon you know on condition that Stephen should continue King during his natural Life and Henry to succeed him and that William Stephen's only remaining Son should be possessed of all his Father's Estate whilst a private Subject but he liv'd not long to enjoy it dying in King Henry's Service at the Siege of Tholouse in the Year 1159 Stephen himself went before him dying in the Year 1154. leaving Peace the greatest and most wanted Blessing to this distracted Kingdom Consider Sir I pray whether an Oath of Abjuration was not full as seasonable in this King Stephen's Case as it can possibly be in any others and then I will go on Henry II being possessed of the Throne took the usual Oath of Fidelity from his Subjects without any manner of Regard had to William Stephen's Son who served him four Years and died at last as I have said in 1159. He reigned thirty five years and endured great Troubles and Afflictions from an untoward Queen and most ungracious Children the Eldest of which called Henry sometimes called Secundus sometimes Tertius sometimes Junior and Minor he caused to be crowned King whilst himself lived and quickly found good reason to repent him of such favour But having no competitor for the Crown his Troubles are nothing to my purpose since he could have no occasion for an Oath of Abjuration and therefore I have done with him when I have observed to you that notwithstanding the Oath the Nation took in general to his Mother Maud her self yet Henry succeeded Stephen without any manner of notice taken of her Polydor Virgil makes her present at the Treaty of Agreement but mentions no Cession or yielding up her Right no Historian I have seen takes any notice of her at all and yet undoubtedly she took all those pains in her Wars with Stephen for her self and upbraided Stephen and all his Followers with Perjury and yet she appears no ways concerned in the Treaty nor makes any manner of Declaration that she absolved them of their Oaths to her or that she was willing they should transfer their Allegiance to her Son Perhaps they took these things for granted because she put in no new Claim at that time all that we know further of her is that she died as some say in the 13th or as others in the 14th Year of her Son Henry's Reign who died hlmself in 1189 and left his Crown and Kingdom uncontested to Richard I who was his Eldest Son then living He was a brave Prince and according to the superstitious humour of those times engaged in the Recovery of the Holy Sepulchre out of the hands of Infidels where he performed Wonders and was accounted one of the Religious Heroes of that Age. But certainly he was very ill paid at home for these his glorious Pains abroad by John his Brother Most of our common Historians are mistaken in representing these matters and confound Actions done at different times I shall take a little pains to set them in better order and that in short from Roger Hoveden Walt. Hemingford and John Brompton c. When Richard went into the East he left the Government of England in the hands of William Longchamp Lord Chancellor and Bishop of Ely who for ought appears managed it with great Fidelity to the King his Master but to the great dislike of John and his Adherents who made many grievous Complaints of his tyrannick Government and seem resolved to have him laid aside at any rate the thing that offended John at the bottom was this that the Chancellor being a Man of great Abilities and Power abetted and maintained the Right of Arthur of Brettany Son and Heir of Geofry elder Brother to John and sent underhand to the King of Scotland who was his great Uncle for his Protection and Assistance in case King Richard should do otherwise than well in the Holy-Land protesting moreover to him that by Letters directed to him from Sicily King Richard had appointed Arthur his Successor if he should die It is not very certain whether the Chancellor acted thus in favour of young Arthur out of a good Principle as knowing him the rightful Heir or with ambitious purpose of continuing in his great Authority and Regency as he was likely to do if a Child succeeded but whatever the Motive was to his asserting Arthur's Right his doing so must needs be enough to make Earl John his mortal Enemy The Chancellor was a warm and haughty Man and imprudently administred an Occasion of Commotion by commanding Girard de Camvilla to yield up to him the Castle of Lincoln who having had it committed to his care by the King refus'd to do it and immediately took part with John whose ambitious restless Temper took hold of this occasion to put himself in Arms and whilst the Chancellor was besieging Girard he seized on the two Castles of Nottingham and Tickill So that now they came to open Hostilities in which the Chancellor finding himself the weaker and knowing he had many Mens Persons about him whose
Hearts were with John he made his Peace with him upon the vile unworthy Terms of forsaking Arthur But this was not what John wanted which was his Dègradation and Removal to which the following Passage ministred occasion Geofry Archbishop of York was forbid for some cause or other by K. Richard to enter England in three Years space but he unmindful of the King's Command and some say of his own Oath resolved to take the opportunity of the King's Absence and enter on his Bishoprick which attempting to do at Dover he was watched by the Chancellor's Spies and taken from the Altar of a Church whither he fled for refuge and dragged from thence and carried and committed to the Constable of Dover Castle This made a great Noise you may be sure in those days and opened the Mouths of the Clergy with whose Cries Earl John fell in immediately tho no great Friend to Church-men who are even with him in most of their Histories and wrote to the Chancellor to set the Archbishop at Liberty who refusing to do it he raised a considerable Army and drove his Enemy to great Straits and at last suffered him to transport himself out of the Land having first in the Presence and with the Consent of many Bishops Judges and Great-men and the Citizens of London decreed that he was not fit to bear any Rule or live any longer in the Kingdom When this good Company was got together Earl John resolved they should not part without a Tast of his Intentions and therefore the same day both he and the Archbishop of Roan who was put into the Chancellor's place as one of the Administrators of the Kingdom and others of the King's Justices granted to the Citizens of London habere communam suam and again in the same Year John and the Archbishop of Roan with almost all the Bishops Earls and Barons swore they would most firmly and inviolably as long as it should please the King observe and keep communam illam The Glossary to the X. Scriptores interprets Communam by Association and Confederation as if it were that these Lords and great Folks took the Citizens of London into Council with them and made them join with them in passing their Decree and Sentence on the Chancellor They did indeed do so but this is not enough methinks I have the Authority of a most excellent skilled Person both in these and all other Learned Matters whatsoever that Communa signifies in the place Privileges and Immunities and by the Sense I believe we should all of us construe it so For by the Passage with its Circumstances it appears that there was a Combination of Lords and Bishops and the Citizens of London in favour of John against any other Successor And the Citizens of London on their part swore Faithful Service took the Oath of Fidelity to King Richard and his Heirs and engaged that if he died without Issue they would receive John for their Lord and King And thereupon sware Fidelity to him against all Men saving their Oath to Richard Radulph de Diceto and Joh. Bromton make no mention of these Londoners Swearing but Roger Hoveden does in his Annals pag. 702. who lived and wrote in King John's Days and to him I refer you if you please This makes me inclinable to interpret Communam by something that the Citizens of London liked because they seemed to do a very bold and an unjust thing in lieu of it They took an Oath of Fidelity to One who was neither Heir by God's nor by the Laws of the Land nor yet by Designation and Appointment of the King then living who was very angry at these Proceedings and spoke very hard Words of his Brother John and there is great Reason to believe these strange Doings as well as the Departure of his Enemy King Philip of France hastened his Return the sooner into England But in his Return he was unfortunately taken Prisoner by the Duke of Austria and delivered into the Emperor's Hands and there continued Sixteen or Eighteen Months This Opportunity his Brother John laid hold on and by the instigation of the French King opened his Purposes and sought the Crown sometimes giving out the King was dead and sometimes that the Emperor resolved never to let him go And some Historians tell us that the King of France and John made mighty Offers to the Emperor either to detain him or deliver him up into their Hands which he had much ado to resist But the Nobility opposed him constantly and kept their Faith inviolable to their King to their great Praise and however careless and injurious they had been with respect to Arthur's Right of Succession yet they were very bold and faithful to their present King in Possession insomuch that instead of delivering up the Kingdom and swearing Allegiance to him as he demanded they very vigorously besieged him and his in Windsor-Castle and forc'd him to surrender that and other Holds and fly the Kingdom which he did and betook himself to his old Friend the King of France to whom he became Liege-man and did Homage for Normandy which yet would not submit to John but declared it self for its old Master whom they hoped to see at home again and safe in a short time And so they did for Richard came and landed at Sandwich in Kent and was joyfully receiv'd of all his Subjects throughout the Kingdom excepting some few Places which held out for John which in a little time were reduc'd and taken into Mercy by the King who by the Advice of the Bishops was again Crown'd with great Pomp at Winchester This is a long History you will think tho I have greatly shortened it but whereto does it serve Why some have confounded these Two Attempts of John and made but One of them and some have only mentioned his Attempt during his Brother's Imprisonment which yet you see was a Second Undertaking in pursuance of the First which made way as he imagined for it The Use I make of it is this to shew you that John by this first Treasonable Attempt of causing People to swear Fidelity to him against the King's Will and without his Knowledge and when he was not so much as Presumptive Heir must make him justly liable both to the King's Anger and to the Punishment of the Laws of the Land but that his second Attempt upon the Crown made him undoubtedly a Traitor and not to be endur'd either by King or Subject I know not how a Subject can become more dangerous and to be suspected than by having once been sworn into the Succession without his Prince's Knowledge and Good Will and having afterwards demanded openly the Crown altho his King was then alive And sure his succeeding so well as he did the first time and his attempting it the second time must make him a dangerous Competitor to the King and fit to be excluded by an Oath of Abjuration But nothing of this was thought upon Richard
know of it is from W. Malmesbury who making mention of him adds Lib. 2. pag. 25. Qui post occisionem Haroldi à quibusdam in Regem electus est vario lusu Fortunae rotatus NUNC penè decrepitum diem ignobilis Ruri agit In the same place he says that David his Sister Margaret's Son was King of Scotland which was not before the Year 1124. So that he lived at least to the Age of Seventy if we allow him to be Twelve at the Death of Harold when he was thought unfit to Reign for want of years And yet in all the Reigns of these Three Kings William the First and Second and Henry the First there was no Oath of Abjuration no Renouncing to the Rightful Title of Edgar Atheling Each of these Princes receiv'd the Oath of Fealty and Allegiance from their Subjects and looked no farther after the Exclusion of Edgar than that Oath did naturally carry them which is far enough in all Conscience when honest People take it 1087. When William the Conqueror died he left the Duchy of Normandy to his eldest Son Robert Mezeray is mistaken when he makes the Father yield up the Duchy to the Son 1077 when he was reconciled to him upon his mounting him again upon his Horse when he had ignorantly met and overthrown him and England to his second Son William Rufus and to Henry his third Son a mighty Summ of Money with a Prophetical Presage That he would One Day come to greater Matters Rufus was then with his Father and before his Funeral Exequies were performed to secure himself the better of his appointed Succession slipt over into England and got himself Crowned King by Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury but he was hardly warm in his Seat before a great and deep Conspiracy was form'd against him in behalf of his elder Brother Robert contriv'd and carried on especially by Odo Bishop of Baieux and Earl of Kent his Uncle Geofrey Bishop of Constance and other great Lords intending to deliver up the King and Kingdom into the Hands of Robert This so startled and amazed Rufus that he thereupon calls all the English Men together and lays before them the Danger he was in promising the Redress of many present Grievances and ample Privileges to them and theirs upon their Assistance which they consented to give and accordingly by their Help he pursued and utterly defeated his Enemies and became thereby enabled to forget his fair Promises Robert in vain attempted to invade England being repulsed with great loss by the King's Ships and Seamen and William in his Turn made over for Normandy to do as much as Robert had design'd but by the Mediation of Great Men on both sides the Brothers came to an Agreement that such and such Places should be delivered to each the other and that whichsoever of the Brothers died first without Children the other should succeed him in all his Estates And to these Covenants twelve of the most considerable Men on each side were very solemnly sworn This was done 1090 and in 1094 the Brothers disagreed again and all the Fault was laid upon the King who again prepar'd for Normandy where each of them did a great deal of Mischief to each other till very luckily the Pope engag'd Duke Robert to take upon him the Croisade who being easily persuaded thereto as one who was always a light and giddy-headed Prince he sent to the King to acquaint him with his Purpose to conclude a Peace and to borrow Money for that Expedition engaging his Dukedom for it to which the King assented readily and carried him the Money himself and took possession of his Pledge the Money came to six thousand six hundred sixty six pound of Silver And Robert behaved himself very honourably abroad where he continued till the death of King William 1100. In all these Quarrels and Conspiracies occasioned by D. Robert and his Partisans Rufus desired nor had no other Security of his Subjects than the Oath of Fealty and Allegiance which obliged them to be true to him without excluding or abjuring Robert and yet I take it Robert was a very formidable Competitor and that such an Oath was as necessary then as it ever was to this day Well this unfortunate Robert was again put by the Crown as well by his Absence as by the cunning Management of his younger Brother Henry who got so well into the good graces of the Lords and Bishops that he was crowned King before Duke Robert could return to make his Claim But see the Inconstancy of English-men Henry had made large Promises of amending all things that were amiss in the former Reigns and confirming the Liberties of the Church and a great many other good things and thereupon was received by all the Nobility and Clergy with gâ—eat Expressions ofJoy and Satisfaction and crowned by Maurice Bishop of London for Anselm had been driven away by W. Rufus But before they could have time to see whether King Henry would be as good as his Word they generally engaged in a Conspiracy to call in Robert and deliver up the Government to him some of the King's Ships went over to Robert and a great Conflux of People there was gathered to him when he landed at Portsmouth but before they came to try their Fortune in the Field of Battel an Accord was made between them by the mediation of some principal Men of both sides by which it was agreed upon that Robert should continue Duke of Normandy and Henry King of England paying his Brother yearly three thousand Marks that all Adherents to Robert should be clear'd and enjoy their Estates and that whichsoever of the two died Childless first the other should succeed in both the Kingdom and the Dutchy with some other Particulars which were all of them sworn to as before by twelve Great Men on each side This Agreement was made in 1101 and in a few years came to nothing for after many Depredations and Reprisals Skirmishes and taking and retaking of Towns in Normandy the fatal Battel was fought in 1106 where Robert was taken Prisoner and never after obtained his Liberty but having his Eyes put out a piece of Cruelty much in use in those days he lived and died at Cardiff a miserable Captive in the Year 1134 and was buried at Gloucester An unhappy Prince from the beginning to the End if we except two or three Years spent to his Honor in the Holy-Land But I have nothing to do with any thing relating to him but to remark that notwithstanding the great and continual Disturbance and Alarms he gave both William II and Henry yet neither of them took an Oath of Abjuration from the Nation and it is the more remarkable in Henry because that Robert had a Son called William a brave and noble Youth and a Prince of great Hopes and like enough to prove a strong Competitor to Henry's Children He was afterwards greatly favoured by the French King and married