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.
В
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 150000 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. <В В В В В В В ...
