Henry the Young King, 1155-1183

by Matthew Strickland

  Any open stirrings of revolt, however, were pre-empted by Henry II’s return. When some ships were finally able to reach Ireland in February 1172 they had brought news to the king of the arrival of the two papal legates in his domains. He had made immediate attempts to leave, arriving at Wexford by 1 March, but storms delayed his sailing until 16 April. Henry had been away from contact with his kingdom and other domains, noted Dean Ralph, for twenty whole weeks.144 Landing near St David’s on 17 April, he moved with the greatest haste to Portsmouth where the Young King was awaiting him with ships, and together they immediately sailed for Barfleur.145 ‘Be it known to you’, wrote Henry II to Bishop Bartholomew of Exeter, ‘that by God’s grace I landed in Normandy after a favourable voyage and found all my lands across the sea established by God’s favour in all peace and tranquillity, and my men and faithful subjects, as was fitting, filled with the greatest joy at my coming.’146 Henry’s words, however, betrayed his anxieties. Gerald of Wales believed that, together with news of the legates’ arrival in Normandy, rumours had reached Henry in Ireland that his sons were conspiring against him, ‘and in this had many accomplices among the nobles of England and France. Having heard this, having uncovered malice towards himself so profound and in such an unexpected quarter, the king sweated with anxiety on many counts’.147 It may be doubted, however, if Henry had such a clear idea either of the involvement of his family or of the extent of the growing conspiracy.148 On his return to England, he felt able to exact a scutage, and also went ahead with an investigation into the resources of Normandy.149

  Nevertheless, his awareness of rising political tensions is graphically indicated in the sharp increase in spending on royal castles. Fortresses not only on the borders but in the Midlands and East Anglia were brought to a state of readiness, suggesting fear of insurrection. In 1170–71, the Pipe Rolls record a total of £1,237 spent on the repair and garrisoning of royal castles in England, in part stimulated by Henry’s wish to strengthen the kingdom’s defences while he was absent in Ireland, while in the following fiscal year of 1171–72, a similar sum, £1,223, was disbursed.150 Only the figures for royal castles in England are known, but Henry also fortified and provisioned castles throughout his continental lands, almost certainly involving expenditure of a similar magnitude. A dark note, moreover, had been struck by the fact that Adam de Port, lord of the barony of Kington in Herefordshire, had been charged with plotting Henry II’s death. His guilt seemed to be confirmed by his refusal to attend the curia regis when summoned, and he was outlawed and disseised of his lands, including Neufmarché.151 Nothing more is known of the alleged plot, nor if young Henry, Eleanor or Louis were cognizant of it, but Adam was to reappear as an active partisan in the Young King’s rebellion, fighting in the forces of William the Lion during the Scots’ invasion of northern England in 1174.152 Whatever lay behind the incident, it was indicative of mounting tension between elements of the nobility and Henry II. The Old King sensed danger, but it seems he did not yet suspect some of the nobles who would become the imminent rebellion’s principal leaders.

  On his return from Ireland, however, Henry II’s most pressing concern was the issue of making satisfaction for Becket’s murder. Once back in Normandy, he received the legates, Theodwin, cardinal priest of S. Vitale, and Albert, cardinal priest of S. Lozenzo, at Gorron on 16 May, where they exchanged the kiss of peace.153 Next day, at the great monastery of Savigny, near Avranches, there was a stormy interview, where Henry found the legates ‘hard and apparently unyielding’, and angrily refused to accept the conditions they put forward.154 After mediation by the Norman clergy, however, he agreed to a form of compurgation to demonstrate his innocence in Becket’s murder, which was to take place at Avranches on Sunday 21 May. Around this time, young Henry accompanied his father to the great abbey of Mont Saint-Michel, where in the chapter house both he and Henry II confirmed a grant by Abbot Robert to William de St John.155 Significantly, however, he appears not to have been present at Savigny: it may be that Henry II was intentionally keeping him at a remove, as a representative of Angevin kingship untainted by direct involvement in Becket’s demise, until he knew the legates’ intentions and had agreed on terms. Young Henry’s importance in the proceedings, however, was soon demonstrated in fresh negotiations held on 19 May.156 Now Henry insisted on his son’s presence and consent before a final settlement could be achieved: the terms of peace with the Church went well beyond Henry’s personal penance and touched the dignity and prerogatives of both kings.157 Accordingly, the Young King was quickly summoned to Avranches, where on 21 May, the Sunday before Ascension Day, outside the cathedral of St Andrew, Henry II publicly purged himself of active involvement in Becket’s death. He swore on the Gospels ‘that he had neither ordered nor willed the murder of the archbishop of Canterbury’, but admitted that he had been the cause of Becket’s death because his angry words had caused his men, ‘without his knowledge, to avenge his wrongs’.158

  He accordingly promised to accept ‘with all humility and devotion’ the penance imposed by the legates.159 He was to pay for 200 knights to serve in the Holy Land against the infidel for a whole year, under the command of the Templars. If the pope should so order, he was to go in person on crusade to Spain ‘to liberate that land from the infidel’.160 He was to make full restitution to the church of Canterbury, restoring its lands and goods to their condition a year before the quarrel with Archbishop Thomas began, and likewise to reinstate any who had suffered through their support for the archbishop. In addition, fasting and almsgiving were imposed on him, though this was done privately, doubtless so as not to injure the king’s majesty.161 These provisions involved Henry’s personal expiation for Becket’s murder. Of equal concern to the Young King, however, was the settlement of the issue that had lain at the heart of the dispute with Becket. The legates insisted that Henry II ‘abrogate in their entirety the perverse statutes of Clarendon and all evil customs which had been introduced into God’s churches during his reign’. Similarly, those evil customs already existing before his accession ‘were to be restricted in accordance with the mandate of the lord pope and the counsel of religious men’.162 Henry II reportedly agreed cheerfully to all these conditions. Finally, ‘in order that nothing might be left undone’, Henry was led out of the church ‘and there on his knees, but without removing his clothes or receiving lashes, he was absolved and led back into the church’.163 At a further meeting at Caen on 30 May, Henry II publicly repeated the oath he had made at Avranches, and this was confirmed by the Young King, save for those stipulations pertaining to Henry II alone.164 Young Henry ‘swore in the hands of the lord cardinal Albert’ to observe these conditions, including the renunciation of the ‘new customs’, and pledged ‘that if the king his father should be prevented by death or any other cause from fulfilling his penance, he would himself perform it for him’.165 Both father and son agreed not to withdraw their support from Alexander, provided he continued to treat both rulers as Catholic and Christian kings.166

  The meeting at Caen had also been an occasion for re-establishing peace with Louis. It was agreed that his daughter Margaret would now be crowned alongside her husband, and the Young King and his wife crossed to Southampton on 24 August.167 For the moment at least, the threat of French aggression aiming to exploit Henry’s profound political embarrassment over Becket’s murder had been dissipated, and with it the external support on which any effective uprising within the Angevin lands depended.168

  The Coronation of Queen Margaret and the Young King’s Pilgrimage to Becket’s Shrine

  On 27 August, in the great cathedral church of St Swithun in Winchester, Archbishop Rotrou of Rouen placed the crown on the Young King’s head, then proceeded to anoint, consecrate and crown Margaret as queen in full accordance with the English royal coronation ordines, to the acclamation of the assembled nobility.169 Rich robes had been procured for the Young King, Margaret and Queen Eleanor, and though Henry II himself had deliberately remained in Normandy
, a number of the king’s swords were refurbished with gold, probably to serve as bearing swords in the ceremony.170 It was an event of dual significance. Margaret at last became regina Angliae, though none doubted that it was Queen Eleanor who retained the authority and perquisites of the pre-eminent queen of England.171 For young Henry, the ceremony was a crown-wearing, not a consecration, for he had already been anointed in July 1170.172 Nevertheless, it was one intended to restore the fullness of majesty and remove any taint that had been caused by the bitter controversy surrounding his coronation and the tragic sequel of Becket’s murder. Though it stemmed from very different circumstances from the magnificent crown-wearings held by King Stephen to wipe away the stain of his defeat at Lincoln and subsequent imprisonment, and by Richard the Lionheart following his release from Germany in 1194 to counter the ignominy of captivity, the ceremony at Winchester in August 1172 was similarly a confirmatory coronation.173 As such, it had been carefully arranged in terms of place and persons involved to avoid the controversial aspects of the coronation of 1170.174 It was deliberately held not at Westminster, inextricably linked to the rights of Canterbury to crown monarchs, but at Winchester, one of the other three traditional sites for royal crown-wearings and a major royal centre, while at the request of King Louis, Roger, archbishop of York, Gilbert Foliot of London and Jocelin of Salisbury were forbidden to attend.175 Becket’s death had left the see of Canterbury vacant, so the service was performed by Rotrou as a distinguished prelate acceptable to all parties, assisted by Giles of Evreux and, among Canterbury’s suffragans, Roger of Worcester, Henry II’s cousin.176

  Following this great ceremony, the Young King’s court, together with the bishops, abbots and clergy, moved to Windsor where he presided over an ecclesiastical council intending to elect Thomas’ successor as archbishop.177 The election of the archbishop of Canterbury was always a matter of the greatest political importance and of equal sensitivity. The monks of Christ Church, loudly asserting the canonical right of the chapter to a free election, put forward Prior Odo, who had been an opponent of Thomas, but, as always, the bishops asserted their own rights in the election.178 The anonymous Canterbury monk who recorded the proceedings was impressed by the Young King and by his handling of the delicate situation, calling him ‘kind-hearted, affable and strong in good conduct’. He would do nothing, Henry said, either to harm the rights of Canterbury or to go against the orders and wishes of his father; he would convey with goodwill all that he had heard to the king.179 The Young King was learning the political art of delay. He therefore adjourned the assembly until 6 October, when he presided over a second great assembly of clergy and magnates at Windsor. Here, the Canterbury monks once more asserted the candidacy of Odo, but were asked to make an alternative choice, lest King Henry II disapprove of their first. When they refused to do so unless granted absolute freedom of election, the Young King, recognizing this would be contrary to his father’s wishes, judged that the election should be conducted in the presence of the senior king, and commanded the electors from the Canterbury monks to meet in Normandy at King Henry’s court on 30 November. He too would be present, for his father had commanded him to cross to the duchy.180

  Between the two councils at Windsor, the Young King had undertaken a highly symbolic pilgrimage to Canterbury to the shrine of Thomas.181 Despite initial uncertainties as to Becket’s sanctity, not least among the monks of Canterbury, a cult of the murdered archbishop had sprung up with astonishing speed and vigour, and by the autumn of 1172 there had already been a flood of reported miracles.182 Thomas had been buried in the Trinity chapel at the far eastern end of the cathedral’s crypt, in a marble sarcophagus, around which had been built a stone covering, pierced by four circular openings through which pilgrims could touch the tomb.183 Before this shrine, young Henry prostrated himself in tears. He lamented that with his father, he too had opposed Thomas for some time, and that he himself had by royal decree ordered the archbishop to remain in Canterbury on pain of death. Whatever he believed his father’s role in Becket’s murder to have been, the Young King realized that his own actions in refusing to see Thomas in late December had effectively sealed Becket’s fate. Now at Canterbury, before the tomb of his old tutor, ‘who had brought him up in childhood and who had especially loved him’, he was overcome with feelings of guilt and remorse, and humbly begged pardon for the injuries that both he and his father had caused to the martyr.184 He was then honourably received by the monks in procession, and ‘made many gifts to God and promised many more’.185 Young Henry’s was thus the first royal pilgrimage to Thomas’ shrine, antedating his father’s famous penance at Becket’s tomb in July 1174 by nearly two years. It was a gesture well received by the Canterbury monks: the anonymous recorder of his visit confidently asserted that as a result of his humility and contrition, St Thomas had remitted all his anger and vengefulness (ira et vindicta) towards the new king.186

  CHAPTER 7

  ‘A King Without a Kingdom’

  THE SEEDS OF WAR, 1172–1173

  After this crowning and after this transfer of power you took away from your son some of his authority, you thwarted his wishes so that he could not exercise power. Therein lay the seeds of a war without love. God’s curse be on it!1

  – Jordan Fantosme

  FOLLOWING HIS RETURN to England in late August 1172, the Young King had again resumed his position as regent of the kingdom, and when in early November Henry II ordered his son and Queen Margaret to join him in Normandy, young Henry did so most unwillingly.2 He was at last consolidating his position in the kingdom, and his second coronation must have seemed a good omen for his father’s granting of wider autonomy in the near future. Instead, Richard de Lucy, as chief justiciar, took over effective governance.3 Though he could not know it, the Young King was never again to hold the regency of England.

  His father required him to undertake a diplomatic visit to King Louis, who was very eager to see his daughter Margaret, and such an embassy would help to repair the damage done to Angevin–Capetian relations in the wake of the Becket affair. Louis, indeed, welcomed the couple with joy, giving them a fine reception.4 Roger of Howden, however, believed Louis’ motive to have been more sinister: ‘from this’, he noted, ‘great harm came to the kingdom of England, and even to that of France’.5 Doubtless the Capetian king was as charmed as were so many of his contemporaries by young Henry’s winning and affable manner, while the Young King may in turn have had genuine affection for his father-in-law, a man of radically different temperament from Henry II.6 Though not a great war leader, Louis was widely admired for his piety and justice, including by several of the Paris-schooled intellectuals at Henry II’s court, while his protection and support of the exiled Thomas Becket had won this rex Christianissimus much kudos and the fulsome praise of Becket’s eruditi.7 Yet the French king was also a shrewd politician, and a veteran at exploiting divisions among the Angevins themselves. He saw – as apparently Henry II as yet did not – that the Young King was a perfect means by which to attack his more powerful rival. It was easy enough for him to play on the young man’s mounting frustrations. Louis counselled him that immediately on his return to Normandy he should ask his father to give him either the whole of Normandy or all of England, so that he might rule his own lands and maintain Margaret in the style appropriate for a king and queen. Louis was deftly using Margaret’s anointing as a means for ratcheting up young Henry’s expectations in order to divide the most powerful bloc within Henry II’s empire – Normandy and England. Should his father not grant either of these territories, then young Henry should return with his wife to France.8 The implication was clear: if the Young King was to receive what was rightfully his, Henry II had to be given an ultimatum, and the French crown was ready to support young Henry, with force if need be, should his father refuse. By now, Henry II was becoming anxious at the way events were developing, and recalled Henry and Margaret from the Capetian court. With Louis’ leave, they obeyed Henry’s summons, and i
n an evident gesture of goodwill, the elder king permitted them to hold held their own Christmas court at the ducal castle of Bonneville-sur-Touques in Normandy, while he and Queen Eleanor held theirs in Anjou at the great palace-fortress of Chinon.9

  The Maurienne Match

  After Christmas, Henry II summoned the Young King from Normandy to join him, and in late January 1173 they journeyed together to Montferrat in the Auvergne to settle important dynastic business.10 Here, on 2 February, Henry held a great regional summit, attended by Raymond V of Toulouse, Gerard of Maçon, count of Vienne, Alfonso II, king of Aragon, and Humbert, count of Maurienne.11 To hold such a great assembly at Monferrat was in itself a major assertion of Angevin claims of lordship in a region long disputed with the Capetians.12 But Henry was about to clinch a remarkable deal with Humbert, which the count himself had first put forward in 1171 in an attempt to gain Henry’s protection both from his hostile neighbour, Count Raymond V, and from Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.13 Its successful conclusion would transform the balance of power in south-east France and beyond. Though he had married three times, Count Humbert had found himself with no male heirs and only two daughters. Now a treaty was drawn up whereby Henry’s youngest son John, whom his father jokingly called ‘Johans senz Terre’ or ‘Lackland’, was to marry Humbert’s eldest daughter and heiress, Alice, in return for the sum of 5,000 marks.14 Should Humbert have no sons by his current wife, John was to inherit all the count’s extensive lands, which included not just the county of Maurienne but a conglomeration of territories and lordships that straddled the Alps – effectively much of the region that would soon be known as Savoy.15 Even if Humbert did succeed in producing a male heir – and all parties seem to have regarded this as very unlikely – then this son would receive only the small and relatively unimportant county of Maurienne itself, while John and Alice were to hold all the other territories.16