Chapter III Triumph of the Empress
At the time of this sudden and decisive triumph, the Empress had been in England some sixteen months. With the Earl of Gloucester, she had landed at Arundel,161 on September 30, 1139,162 and while her brother, escorted by a few knights, made his way to his stronghold at Bristol, had herself, attended by her Angevin suite, sought shelter with her step-mother, the late queen, in the famous castle of Arundel. Stephen had promptly appeared before its walls, but, either deeming the fortress impregnable or being misled by treacherous counsel,163 had not only raised his blockade of the castle, but had allowed the Empress to set out for Bristol, and had given her for escort his brother the legate, and his trusted supporter the Count of Meulan.164 From the legate her brother had received her at a spot appointed beforehand, and had then returned with her to Bristol. Here she was promptly visited by the constable, Miles of Gloucester, who at once acknowledged her claims as “the rightful heir” of England.165 Escorted by him, she removed to Gloucester, of which he was hereditary castellan, and received the submission of that city, and of all the country round about.166 The statements of the chroniclers can here be checked, and are happily confirmed and amplified by a charter of the Empress, apparently unknown, but of great historical interest. The following abstract is given in a transcript taken from the lost volume of the Great Coucher of the duchy167:—
“Carta Matilde Imperatricis in quâ dicit, quod168 quando in Angliam venit post mortem H. patris sui169 Milo de Gloecestrâ quam citius potuit venit ad se170 apud Bristolliam et recepit me ut dominam et sicut illam quam justum hæredem regni Angliæ recognovit, et inde me secum ad Gloecestram adduxit et ibi homagium suum mihi fecit ligie contra omnes homines. Et volo vos scire quod tunc quando homagium suum apud Gloecestram recepit, dedi ei pro servicio suo in feodo et hereditate sibi et heredibus suis castellum de Sancto Briavel(li) et totam forestam de Dene,”171 etc., etc.
It was at Gloucester that she received the news of her brother’s victory at Lincoln (February 2, 1141), and it was there that he joined her, with his royal captive, on Quinquagesima Sunday (February 9).172 It was at once decided that the king should be despatched to Bristol Castle,173 and that he should be there kept a prisoner for life.174
In the utter paralysis of government consequent on the king’s capture, there was not a day to be lost on the part of the Empress and her friends. The Empress herself was intoxicated with joy, and eager for the fruits of victory.175 Within a fortnight of the battle, she set out from Gloucester, on what may be termed her first progress.176 Her destination was, of course, Winchester, the spot to which her eyes would at once be turned. She halted, however, for a while at Cirencester,177 to allow time for completing the negotiations with the legate.178 It was finally agreed that, advancing to Winchester, she should meet him in an open space, without the walls, for a conference. This spot a charter of the Empress enables us apparently to identify with Wherwell.179 Hither, on Sunday, the 2nd of March, a wet and gloomy day,180 the clergy and people, headed by the legate, with the monks and nuns of the religious houses, and such magnates of the realm as were present, streamed forth from the city to meet her.181
The compact (“pactum”) which followed was strictly on the lines of that by means of which Stephen had secured the throne. The Empress, on her part, swore that if the legate would accept her as “domina,” he should henceforth have his way in all ecclesiastical matters. And her leading followers swore that this oath should be kept. Thereupon the legate agreed to receive her as “Lady of England,” and promised her the allegiance of himself and of his followers so long as she should keep her oath. The whole agreement is most important, and, as such, should be carefully studied.182
On the morrow (March 3) the Empress entered Winchester, and was received in state in the cathedral, the legate supporting her on the right, and Bernard of St. David’s on the left.183
Now, it is most important to have a clear understanding of what really took place upon this occasion.
The main points to keep before us are—(1) that there are two distinct episodes, that of the 2nd and 3rd of March, and that of the 7th and 8th of April, five weeks intervening between them, during which the Empress left Winchester to make her second progress; (2) that the first episode was that of her reception at Winchester, the second (also at Winchester) that of her election.
It is, perhaps, not surprising that our historians are here in woeful confusion. Dr. Stubbs alone is, as usual, right. Writing from the standpoint of a constitutional historian, he is only concerned with the election of the Empress, and to this he assigns its correct date.184 In his useful and excellent English History, Mr. Bright, on the contrary, ignores the interval, and places the second episode “a few days after” the first.185 Professor Pearson, whose work is that which is generally used for this period, omits altogether the earlier episode.186 Mr. Birch, on the other hand, in his historical introduction to his valuable fasciculus of the charters of the Empress, ignores altogether the later episode, though he goes into this question with special care. Indeed, he does more than this; for he transfers the election itself from the later to the earlier occasion, and assigns to the episode of March 2 and 3 the events of April 7 and 8. This cardinal error vitiates his elaborate argument,187 and, indeed, makes confusion worse confounded. Mr. Freeman, though, of course, in a less degree, seems inclined to err in the same direction, when he assigns to the earlier of the two episodes that importance which belongs to the later.188
Rightly to apprehend the bearing of this episode, we must glance back at the preceding reigns. Dr. Stubbs, writing of Stephen’s accession, observes that “the example which Henry had set in his seizure and retention of the crown was followed in every point by his successor.”189 But on at least one main point the precedent was older than this. The Conqueror, in 1066, and his heir, in 1087, had both deemed it their first necessity to obtain possession of Winchester. Winchester first, and then London, was a rule that thus enjoyed the sanction of four successive precedents. To secure Winchester with all that it contained, and with all the prestige that its possession would confer, was now, therefore, the object of the Empress. This object she attained by the pactum of the 2nd of March, and with it, as we have seen, the conditional allegiance of the princely bishop of the see.
Now, Henry of Blois was a great man. As papal legate, as Bishop of Winchester, and as brother to the captive king, he possessed an influence, in his triple capacity, which, at this eventful crisis, was probably unrivalled in the land. But there was one thing that he could not do—he could not presume, of his own authority, to depose or to nominate an English sovereign. Indeed the very fact of the subsequent election (April 8) and of his claim, audacious as it was, that that election should be the work of the clergy, proves that he had no thought of the even more audacious presumption to nominate the sovereign himself. This, then, is fatal to Mr. Birch’s contention that the Empress was, on this occasion (March 3), elected “domina Angliæ.” Indeed, as I have said, it is based on a confusion of the two episodes. The legate, as Mr. Birch truly says, “consented to recognize (sic) the Empress as Domina Angliæ, or Lady, that is, Supreme Governor of England,” but, obviously, he could only do so on behalf of himself and of his followers. We ought, therefore, to compare his action with that of Miles of Gloucester in 1139, when, as we have seen, in the words of the Empress—
“Recepit me ut dominam et sicut illam quam justum hæredem regni Angliæ recognovit... et ibi homagium suum mihi fecit ligie contra omnes homines.”190
Notice here the identity of expression—the “reception” of the Empress and the “recognition” of her claims. I have termed the earlier episode the “reception,” and the later the “election” of the Empress. In these terms is precisely expressed the distinction between the two events. Take for instances the very passages appealed to by Mr. Birch himself:—
“The exact words employed by William of Malmesbury are ‘Nec dubitavit Episcopus Imperatricem in Dominam Angliæ recipere’ (sic). In another place the same Henry de Blois declares of her, ‘In Angliæ Normanniæque Dominam eligimus’ (sic). This regular election of Mathildis to the dignity and office of Domina Angliæ took place on Sunday, March 2, A.D. 1141” (p. 378).
Now we know, from William of Malmesbury himself, that “the regular election in question” took place on the 8th of April, and that the second of the passages quoted above refers to this later episode,191 while the other refers to the earlier.192 I have drawn attention to the two words (recipere and eligimus) which he respectively applies to the “reception” and the “election.” The description of this “reception” by William of Malmesbury193 completely tallies with that which is given by the Empress herself in a charter.194 It should further be compared with the account by the author of the Gesta Stephani, of the similar reception accorded to Stephen in 1135.195
But though the legate could open to the Empress the cathedral and the cathedral city, he had no power over the royal castle. This we saw in the case of Stephen, when his efforts to secure the constable’s adherence were fruitless till the king himself arrived. Probably the constable, at this crisis, was the same William de Pont de l’Arche, but, whoever he was, he surrendered to the Empress the castle and all that it contained. In one respect, indeed, she was doomed to be bitterly disappointed, for the royal treasury, which her adventurous rival had found filled to overflowing, was by this time all but empty. One treasure, however, she secured; the object of her desires, the royal crown, was placed in her triumphant hands.196
To the one historian who has dealt with this incident it has proved a stumbling-block indeed. Mr. Freeman thus boldly attacks the problem:—
“William of Malmesbury (Hist. Nov., iii. 42) seems distinctly to exclude a coronation; he merely says, ‘Honorifica factâ processione, recepta est in ecclesia episcopatus Wintoniæ.’ We must, therefore, see only rhetoric when the Continuator says, ‘Datur ejus dominio corona Angliæ,’ and when the author of the Gesta (75) speaks of ‘regisque castello, et regni coronâ, quam semper ardentissime affectârat,... in deliberationem suam contraditis,’ and adds that Henry ‘dominam et reginam acclamare præcepit.’ The Waverley Annalist, 1141, ventures to say, ‘Corona regni est ei tradita.’”197
“Only rhetoric.” Ah, how easily could history be written, if one could thus dispose of inconvenient evidence! So far from being “rhetoric,” it is precisely because these statements are so strictly matter-of-fact that the writer failed to grasp their meaning. Had he known, or remembered, that the royal crown was preserved in the royal treasury, the passage by which he is so sorely puzzled would have proved simplicity itself.198
Here again, light is thrown on these events and on the action of the Empress by the precedent in the case of her father (1100), who, on the death of his brother, hastened to Winchester Castle (“ubi regalis thesaurus continebatur”), which was formally handed over to him with all that it contained (“arx cum regalibus gazis filio regis Henrico reddita est”).199
We have yet to consider the passage from the Gesta, to which Mr. Birch so confidently appeals, and which is dismissed by Mr. Freeman as “rhetoric.” The passage runs:—
“In publica se civitatis et fori audientia dominam et reginam acclamare præcepit.”200
By a strange coincidence it has been misconstrued by both writers independently. Mr. Freeman, as we saw, takes “præcepit” as referring to Henry himself, and so does Mr. Birch.201 Though the sentence as a whole may be obscure, yet the passage quoted is quite clear. The words are “præcepit se,” not “præcepit illam.” Thus the proclamation, if made, was the doing of the Empress and not of the legate. Had the legate been indeed responsible, his conduct would have been utterly inconsistent. But as it is, the difficulty vanishes.202
To the double style, “domina et regina,” I have made reference above. My object now is to examine this assumption of the style “regina” by the Empress. It might perhaps be urged that the author of the Gesta cannot here be implicitly relied on. His narrative, however, is vigorous and consistent; it is in perfect harmony with the character of the Empress; and so far as the assumption of this style is concerned, it is strikingly confirmed by that Oxford charter, to which we are now coming. After her election (April 8), the Empress might claim, as queen elect, the royal title, but if that were excusable, which is granting much, its assumption before her election could admit of no defence. Yet, headstrong and impetuous, and thirsting for the throne, she would doubtless urge that her rival’s fall rendered her at once de facto queen. But this was as yet by no means certain. Stephen’s brother, as we know, was talked of, and the great nobles held aloof. The Continuator, indeed, asserts that at Winchester (March) were “præsules pene totius Angliæ, barones multi, principes plurimi” (p. 130), but William, whose authority is here supreme, does not, though writing as a partisan of the Empress, make any allusion to their presence.203 Moreover, the primate was still in doubt, and of the five bishops who were present with the legate, three (St. David’s, Hereford, and Bath) came from districts under the influence of the Empress, while the other two (Lincoln and Ely) were still smarting beneath Stephen’s action of two years before (1139).
The special interest, therefore, of this bold proclamation at Winchester lies in the touch it gives us of that feminine impatience of the Empress, which led her to grasp so eagerly the crown of England in her hands, and now to anticipate, in this hasty manner, her election and formal coronation.204
Within a few days of her reception at Winchester, she retraced her steps as far as Wilton, where it was arranged that she should meet the primate, with whom were certain bishops and some lay folk.205 Theobald, however, professed himself unable to render her homage until he had received from the king his gracious permission to do so.206 For this purpose he went on to Bristol, while the Empress made her way to Oxford, and there spent Easter (March 30th).207 We must probably assign to this occasion her admission to Oxford by Robert d’Oilli.208 The Continuator, indeed, assigns it to May, and in this he is followed by modern historians. Mr. Freeman, for instance, on his authority, places the incident at that stage,209 and so does Mr. Franck Bright.210
But the movements of the Empress, at this stage, are really difficult to determine. Between her presence at Oxford (March 30)211 and her presence at Reading (May 5-7),212 we know nothing for certain. One would imagine that she must have attended her own election at Winchester (April 7, 8), but the chroniclers are silent on the subject, though they, surely, would have mentioned her presence. On the whole, it seems most probable that the Continuator must be in error, when he places the adhesion of Robert d’Oilli so late as May (at Reading) and takes the Empress subsequently to Oxford, as if for the first time.
It was, doubtless, through her “brother” Robert “fitz Edith” that his step-father, Robert d’Oilli, was thus won over to her cause. It should be noted that his defection from the captive king is pointedly mentioned by the author of the Gesta, even before that of the Bishop of Winchester, thus further confirming the chronology advanced above.213 At Oxford she received the submission of all the adjacent country,214 and also executed an important charter. This charter Mr. Birch has printed, having apparently collated for the purpose no less than five copies.215 Its special interest is derived from the fact that not only is it the earliest charter she is known to have issued after Stephen’s fall (with the probable exception of that to Thurstan de Montfort), but it is also the only one of her charters in which we find the royal phrases “ecclesiarum regni mei” and “pertinentibus coronæ meæ.” Mr. Birch writes of its testing clause (“Apud Oxeneford Anno ab Incarnatione Domini MC. quatragesimo”):
The date of this charter is very interesting, because it is the only example of an actual date calculated by expression of the years of the Incarnation, which occurs among the entire series which I have been able to collect.... Now, as the historical year in these times commenced on the 25th of March, there is no doubt but that this charter was granted to the Abbey of Hulme at some time between the 3rd and the 25th of March, A.D. 1140-41.216
Mr. Eyton has also independently discussed it (though his remarks are still in MS.), and detects, with his usual minute care, a difficulty, in one of the three witnesses, to which Mr. Birch does not allude.
“St. Benet of Hulme.
“The date given (1140) seems to combine with another circumstance to lead to error. Matilda’s style is ‘Matild’ Imp. H. regis filia,’ not, as usual, ‘Anglorum domina.’ One might therefore conclude that the deed passed before the battle of Lincoln, and so in 1140. However, this conclusion would be wrong, for though Matᵃ does not style herself Queen, she asserts in the deed Royal rights and speaks of matters pertaining ‘coronæ meæ.’ But we do not know that Maud was ever in Oxford before Stephen’s captivity, nor can we think it. Again, it is certain that Robᵗ de Sigillo did not become Bishop of London till after Easter, 1141, for at Easter, 1142, he expressly dates his own deed ‘anno primo pontif’ mei.’ He was almost certainly appointed when Maud was in London in July, 1141, for he attests Milo’s patent of earldom on July 25.”217
The omission of the style “Anglorum domina” is, however, strictly correct, and not, as Mr. Eyton thought, singular. For it was not till her election on the 8th of April that she became entitled to use this style. As for her assumption of the royal phrases, it is here simply ultra vires. Then, as to the attesting bishop (“R. episcopo Londoniensi”), his presence is natural, as he was a monk of Reading, and his position would seem to be paralleled by that of his predecessor Maurice, who appears as bishop in the Survey, though, probably, only elect. As her father “gave the bishopric of Winchester” the moment he was elected, and before he was crowned,218 so the Empress “gave,” it would seem, the see of London to Robert “of the Seal,” even before her formal election—an act, it should be noted, thoroughly in keeping with her impetuous assumption of the regal style. Besides the bishop and the Earl of Gloucester, there is a third witness to this charter—“Reginaldo filio Regis.” No one, it seems, has noticed the fact that here alone, among the charters of the Empress, Reginald attests not as an earl, which confirms the early date claimed for this charter. A charter which I assign to the following May is attested by him: “Reginaldo comite filio regis.” This would seem to place his creation between the dates of these charters, i.e. circ. April (1141).219 To sum up, the evidence of this charter is in complete agreement with that of William of Malmesbury, when he states that the Empress spent Easter (March 30) at Oxford; and we further learn from it that she must have arrived there at least as early as the 24th of March.
The fact that Mr. Freeman, in common with others, has overlooked this early visit of the Empress in March, is no doubt the cause of his having been misled, as I have shown, by the Continuator’s statement.
The Assembly at Winchester took place, as has been said, on the 7th and 8th of April. William of Malmesbury was present on the occasion, and states that it was attended by the primate “and all the bishops of England.”220 This latter phrase may, however, be questioned, in the light of subsequent charter evidence.
The proceedings of this council have been well described, and are so familiar that I need not repeat them. On the 7th was the private conclave; on the 8th, the public assembly. I am tempted just to mention the curiously modern incident of the legate (who presided) commencing the proceedings by reading out the letters of apology from those who had been summoned but were unable to be present.221 On the 8th the legate announced to the Assembly the result of the previous day’s conclave:—
“filiam pacifici regis... in Angliæ Normanniæque dominam eligimus, et ei fidem et manutenementum promittimus.”222
On the 9th, the deputation summoned from London arrived and was informed of the decision; on the 10th the assembly was dissolved.
The point I shall here select for discussion is the meaning of the term “domina Angliæ,” and the effect of this election on the position of the Empress.
First, as to the term “domina Angliæ.” Its territorial character must not be overlooked. In the charters of the Empress, her style “Ang’ domina” becomes occasionally, though very rarely, “Anglor’ domina,” proving that its right extension is “Anglorum Domina,” which differs, as we have seen, from the chroniclers’ phrase. The importance of the distinction is this. “Rex” is royal and national; “dominus” is feudal and territorial. We should expect, then, the first to be followed by the nation (“Anglorum”), the second by the territory (“Angliæ”). But, in addition to its normal feudal character, the term may here bear a special meaning.
It would seem that the clue to its meaning in this special sense was first discovered by the late Sir William (then Mr.) Hardy (“an ingenious and diligent young man,” as he was at the time described) in 1836. He pointed out that “Dominus Anglie” was the style adopted by Richard I. “between the demise of his predecessor and his own coronation.”223 Mr. Albert Way, in a valuable paper on the charters belonging to Reading Abbey, which appeared some twenty-seven years later,224 called attention to the styles “Anglorum Regina” and “Anglorum Domina,” as used by the Empress.225 As to the former, he referred to the charter of the Empress at Reading, granting lands to Reading Abbey.226 As to the latter (“Domina Anglorum”), he quoted Mr. Hardy’s paper on the charter of Richard I., and urged that “the fact that Matilda was never crowned Queen of England may suffice to account for her being thus styled” (p. 283). He further quoted from William of Malmesbury the two passages in which that chronicler applies this style to the Empress,227 and he carefully avoided assigning them both to the episode of the 2nd of March. Lastly, he quoted the third passage, that in the Gesta Stephani.
Mr. Birch subsequently read a paper “On the Great Seals of King Stephen” before the Royal Society of Literature (December 17, 1873), in which he referred to Mr. Way’s paper, as the source of one of the charters of which he gave the text, and in which he embodied Mr. Way’s observations on the styles “Regina” and “Domina.”228 But instead, unfortunately, of merely following in Mr. Way’s footsteps, he added the startling error that Stephen was a prisoner, and Matilda consequently in power, till 1143. He wrote thus:—
“Did the king ever cease to exercise his regal functions? Were these functions performed by any other constitutional sovereign meanwhile? The events of the year 1141 need not to be very lengthily discussed to demonstrate that for a brief period there was a break in Stephen’s sovereignty, and a corresponding assumption of royal power by another ruler unhindered and unimpeached by the lack of any formality necessary for its full enjoyment.... William of Malmesbury, writing with all the opportunity of an eye-witness, and moving in the royal court at the very period, relates at full length in his Historia Novella (ed. Hardy, for Historical Society, vol. ii. p. 774229), the particulars of the conference held at Winchester subsequent to the capture of Stephen after the battle of Lincoln, in the early part of the year, 4 Non. Feb. A.D. 1141.... This election of Matilda as Domina of England in place of Stephen took place on Sunday, March 2, 1141.... Until the liberation of the king from his incarceration at Bristol, as a sequel to the battle at Winchester in A.D. 1143, so disastrous to the hopes of the Empress, she held her position as queen at London. The narrative of the events of this period, as given by William of Malmesbury in the work already quoted, so clearly points to her enjoyment of all temporal power needed to constitute a sovereign, that we must admit her name among the regnant queens of England” (pp. 12-14).
Two years later (June 9, 1875), Mr. Birch read a paper before the British Archæological Association,230 in which, in the same words, he advanced the same thesis.
The following year (June 28, 1876), in an instructive paper read before the Royal Society of Literature,231 Mr. Birch wrote thus:—
“As an example of new lights which the study of early English seals has thus cast upon our history (elucidations, as it were, of facts which have escaped the keen research of every one of our illustrious band of historians and chroniclers for upwards of seven hundred years), an examination into the history of the seal of Mathildis or Maud, the daughter and heiress of King Henry I. (generally known as the Empress Maud, or Mathildis Imperatrix, from the fact of her marriage with the Emperor Henry V. of Germany), has resulted in my being fortunately enabled to demonstrate that royal lady’s undisputed right to a place in all tables or schemes of sovereigns of England; nevertheless it is, I believe, a very remarkable fact that her position with regard to the throne of England should have been so long, so universally, and so persistently ignored, by all those whose fancy has led them to accept facts at second hand, or from perfunctory inquiries into the sources of our national history rather than from careful step-by-step pursuit of truth through historical tracks which, like indistinct paths in the primæval forest, often lead the wanderer into situations which at the outset could not have been foreseen. In a paper on this subject which I prepared last year, and which is now published in the Journal of the British Archæological Association, I have fully explained my views of the propriety of inserting the name of Mathildis or Maud as Queen of England into the History Tables under the date of 1141-1143; and as this position has never as yet been impugned, we may take it that it is right in the main; and I have shown that until the liberation of King Stephen from his imprisonment at Bristol, as a sequel to the battle at Winchester in 1143 (so disastrous to the prospects of Mathildis), she held her position as queen, most probably at London....
“Now, I have introduced this apparent digression in this place to point to the importance of the study of historical seals, for my claim to the restoration of this queen’s name is not due so much to my own researches as it is to the unaccountable oversight of others.”232
I fear that, notwithstanding Mr. Birch’s criticism on all who have gone before him, a careful analysis of the subject will reveal that the only addition he has made to our previous knowledge on this subject, as set forth in Mr. Way’s papers, consists in two original and quite incomprehensible errors: one of them, the assigning of Maud’s election to the episode of the 2nd and 3rd of March, instead of to that of the 7th and 8th of April (1141); the other, the assigning of Stephen’s liberation to 1143 instead of 1141. When we correct these two errors, springing (may we say, in Mr. Birch’s words?) “from perfunctory inquiries into the sources of our national history rather than from careful step-by-step pursuit of the truth,” we return to the status quo ante, as set forth in Mr. Way’s paper, and find that “the unaccountable oversight,” by all writers before Mr. Birch, of the fact that the Empress “held her position as queen,” for more than two years, “most probably at London,” is due to the fact that her said rule lasted only a few months, or rather, indeed, a few weeks, while in London itself it was numbered by days.
But though it has been necessary to speak plainly on Mr. Birch’s unfortunate discovery, one can probably agree with his acceptance of the view set forth by Mr. Hardy, and espoused by Mr. Way, that the style “domina” represents that “dominus” which was used as “a temporary title for the newly made monarch during the interval which was elapsing between the death of the predecessor and the coronation day of the living king.”233 To Mr. Hardy’s instance of Richard’s style, “Dominus Angl[iæ],” August, 1189, we may add, I presume, that of John, “Dominus Angliæ,” April 17th and 29th, (1199).234 Now, if this usage be clearly established, it is certainly a complete explanation of a style of which historians have virtually failed to grasp the relevance.
But a really curious parallel, which no one has pointed out, is that afforded in the reign immediately preceding this, by the case of the king’s second wife. Great importance is rightly attached to “the election of the Empress as ’domina Angliæ’” (as Dr. Stubbs describes it235), and to the words which William of Malmesbury places in the legate’s mouth;236 and yet, though the fact is utterly ignored, the very same formula of election is used in the case of Queen “Adeliza,” twenty years before (1121)!
The expression there used by the Continuator is this: “Puella prædicta, in regni dominam electa,... regi desponsatur” (ii. 75). That is to say that before her marriage (January 29) and formal coronation as queen (January 30) she was elected, it would seem, “Domina Angliæ.” The phrase “in regni dominam electa” precisely describes the status of the Empress after her election at Winchester, and before that formal coronation at Westminster which, as I maintain, was fully intended to follow. We might even go further still, and hold that the description of Adeliza as “futuram regni dominam,”237 when the envoys were despatched to fetch her, implies that she had been so elected at that great Epiphany council, in which the king “decrevit sibi in uxorem Atheleidem.”238 But I do not wish to press the parallel too far. In any case, precisely as with the Empress afterwards, she was clearly “domina Angliæ” before she was crowned queen. And, if “electa” means elected, the fact that these two passages, referring to the two elections (1121 and 1141), come from two independent chronicles proves that the terms employed are no idiosyncracy, but refer to a recognized practice of the highest constitutional interest.
Of course the fact that the same expression is applied to the election of Queen “Adeliza” as to that of the Empress herself, detracts from the importance of the latter event, regarded as an election to the throne.
At the same time, I hold that we should remember, as in the case of Stephen, the feudal bearing of “dominus.” For herein lies its difference from “Rex.” The “dominatus” of the Empress over England is attained step by step.239 At Cirencester, at Winchester, at Oxford, she becomes “domina” in turn.240 Not so with the royal title. She could be “lady” of a city or of a man: she could be “queen” of nothing less than England.
I must, however, with deep regret, differ widely from Mr. Birch in his conclusions on the styles adopted by the Empress. These he classes under three heads.241 The second (“Mathildis Imperatrix Henrici regis filia et Anglorum regina”) is found in only two charters, which I agree with him in assigning “to periods closely consecutive,” not indeed to the episode of March 2 and 3, but to that of April 7 and 8. Of his remaining twenty-seven charters, thirteen belong to his first class and fourteen to his third, a proportion which makes it hard to understand why he should speak of the latter as “by far the most frequent.”
Of the first class (“Mathildis Imperatrix Henrici Regis filia”) Mr. Birch writes:—
“It is most probable that these documents are to be assigned to a period either before the death of her father, King Henry I., or at most to the initial years of Stephen, before any serious attempt had been made to obtain the possession of the kingdom.”
Now, it is absolutely certain that not a single one of them can be assigned to the period suggested, that not one of them is previous to that 2nd of March (1141) which Mr. Birch selects as his turning-point, still less to “the death of her father” (1135). Nay, on Mr. Birch’s own showing, the first and most important of these documents should be dated “between the 3rd of March and the 24th of July, A.D. 1141” (p. 380), and two others (Nos. 21, 28) “must be ascribed to a date between 1149 and 1151” (p. 397 n.). Nor is even this all, for as in two others the son of the Empress is spoken of as “King Henry,” they must be as late as the reign of Henry II.
So, also, with the third class (“Mathildis Imperatrix Henrici regis filia et Anglorum domina”), of which we are told that it—
“was in the first instance adopted—I mean used—in those charters which contain the word and were promulgated between A.D. 1135 and A.D. 1141, by reason of the ceremony of coronation not yet having been performed; and with regard to those charters which are placed subsequent to A.D. 1141, either because the ceremony was still unperformed, although she had the possession of the crown, or because of some stipulation with her opponents in power” (p. 383).
Here, again, it is absolutely certain that not a single one of these charters was “promulgated between A.D. 1135 and A.D. 1141.” We have, therefore, no evidence that the Empress, in her charters, adopted this style until the election of April 7 and 8 (1141) enabled her justly to do so. But the fact is that Mr. Birch’s theory is not only based, as we have seen, on demonstrably erroneous hypotheses, but must be altogether abandoned as opposed to every fact of the case. For the two styles which he thus distinguishes were used at the same time, and even in the same document. For instance, in the very first of Mr. Birch’s documents, that great charter to Geoffrey de Mandeville, to which we shall come, in the next chapter, issued at the height of Matilda’s power, and on the eve, as we shall see, of her intended coronation, “Anglorum domina” is omitted from her style, and the document is therefore, by Mr. Birch, assigned to the first of his classes. Yet I shall show that in a portion of the charter which has perished, and which is therefore unknown to Mr. Birch, her style is immediately repeated with the addition “Anglorum Domina.” It is clear, then, on Mr. Birch’s own showing, that this document should be assigned both to his first and to his third classes, and, consequently, that the distinction he attempts to draw has no foundation in fact.
Mr. Birch’s thesis would, if sound, be a discovery of such importance that I need not apologize for establishing, by demonstration, that it is opposed to the whole of the evidence which he himself so carefully collected. And when we read of Stephen’s “incarceration at Bristol, which was not terminated until the battle of Winchester in A.D. 1143, when the hopes of the Empress were shattered” (p. 378), it is again necessary to point out that her flight from Winchester took place not in 1143, but in September, 1141. Mr. Birch’s conclusion is thus expressed:—
“We may, therefore, take it as fairly shown that until the liberation of the king from his imprisonment at Bristol (as a sequel to the battle at Winchester in A.D. 1143, so disastrous to the queen’s hopes) she held her position, as queen, most probably at London,” etc. (p. 380).
Here, as before, it is needful to remember that the date is all wrong, and that the triumph of the Empress, so far from lasting two years or more, lasted but for a few months of the year 1141, in the course of which she was not at London for more than a few days.
And now let us turn to my remaining point, “the effect of this election on the position of the Empress.”
To understand this, we must glance back at the precedents of the four preceding reigns. The Empress, as I have shown, had followed these precedents in making first for Winchester: she had still to follow them in securing her coronation and anointing at Westminster. It is passing strange that all historians should have lost sight of this circumstance. For the case of her own father, in whose shoes she claimed to stand, was the aptest precedent of all. As he had been elected at Winchester, and then crowned at Westminster, so would she, following in his footsteps. The growing importance of London had been recognized in successive coronations from the Conquest, and now that it was rapidly supplanting Winchester as the destined capital of the realm, it would be more essential than ever that the coronation should there take place, and secure not merely the prestige of tradition, but the assent of the citizens of London.242
It has not, however, so far as I know, occurred to any writer that it was the full intention of the Empress and her followers that she should be crowned and anointed queen, and that, like those who had gone before her, she should be so crowned at Westminster. It is because they failed to grasp this that Dr. Stubbs and Mr. Freeman are both at fault. The former writes:—
“Matilda became the Lady of the English; she was not crowned, because perhaps the solemn consecration which she had received as empress sufficed, or perhaps Stephen’s royalty was so far forth indefeasible.”243
“No attempt was made to crown the Empress; the legate simply proposes that she should be elected Lady of England and Normandy. It is just possible that the consecration which she had once received as empress might be regarded as superseding the necessity of a new ceremony of the kind, but it is far more likely that, so long as Stephen was alive and not formally degraded, the right conferred on him by coronation was regarded as so far indefeasible that no one else could be allowed to share it.”244
Dr. Stubbs appears here to imply that we should have expected her coronation to follow her election. And in this he is clearly right. Mr. Freeman, however, oddly enough, seems to have looked for it before her election. This is the more strange in a champion of the elective principle. He writes thus of her reception at Winchester, five weeks before her election:—
“If Matilda was to reign, her reign needed to begin by something which might pass for an election and coronation. But her followers, Bishop Henry at their head, seem to have shrunk from the actual crowning and anointing ceremonies, which—unless Sexburh had, ages before, received the royal consecration—had never, either in England or in Gaul, been applied to a female ruler. Matilda was solemnly received in the cathedral church of Winchester; she was led by two bishops, the legate himself and Bernard of St. David’s, as though to receive the crown and unction, but no crowning and no unction is spoken of.”245
At the same time, he recurs to the subject, after describing the election, thus:—
“Whether any consecration was designed to follow, whether at such consecration she would have been promoted to the specially royal title, we are not told.”246
But all this uncertainty is at once dispelled when we learn what was really intended. Taken in conjunction with the essential fact that “domina” possessed the special sense of the interim royal title, the intention of the Empress to be crowned at Westminster, and so to become queen in name as well as queen in deed, gives us the key to the whole problem. It explains, moreover, the full meaning of John of Hexham’s words, when he writes that “David rex videns multa competere in imperatricis neptis suæ promotionem post Ascensionem Domini (May 8) ad eam in Suth-Anglia profectus est... plurimosque ex principibus sibi acquiescentes habuit ut ipsa promoveretur ad totius regni fastigium.” We shall see how this intention was only foiled by the sudden uprising of the citizens; and in the names of the witnesses to Geoffrey’s charter we shall behold those, “tam episcopi quam cinguli militaris viri, qui ad dominam inthronizandam pomposé Londonias et arroganter convenerant.”247
Notes
161 Will. Malms., p. 724; Gesta Stephani, p. 56.
162 Will. Malms., p. 724. See Appendix E.
163 Such are the alternatives presented by Henry of Huntingdon (p. 266). The treacherous counsel alluded to was that of his brother the legate (Gesta Stephani, p. 57). According to John of Hexham (Sym. Dun. ii. 302), Stephen acted “ex indiscretâ animi simplicitate.”
164 Will. Malms., p. 725.
165 See Appendix F: “The Defection of Miles of Gloucester.”
166 Will. Malms., p. 725; Cont. Flor., p. 118. Here the Continuator’s chronology is irreconcilable with that of our other authorities. He states that the Empress removed to Gloucester on October 15, after a stay of two months at Bristol. This is, of course, consistent, it should be noticed, with the date (August 1) assigned by him for her landing.
167 The text is taken from the transcript in Lansdowne MS. 229, fol. 123, collated with Dugdale’s transcript in his MSS. at the Bodleian Library (L. 21). It will be seen that Dugdale transcribed verbatim, while the other transcript begins in narratio obliqua.
168 “Sciatis quod” (D.).
169 “Mei” (D.).
170 “Me” (D.).
171 These were specially excepted from the grants of royal demesne made by Henry II. to his son, the second earl.
172 Cont. Flor., p. 129; Will. Malms., p. 712; Gesta, p. 72.
173 Ibid.; John Hex., p. 308; Hen. Hunt., p. 275.
174 Gesta, p. 72.
175 “Ob illiusmodi eventum vehementer exhilarata, utpote regnum sibi juratum, sicut sibi videbatur, jam adepta” (Cont. Flor., p. 130).
176 Cont. Flor., 130.
177 “Simul et ejusdem civitatis sumens dominium” (ibid.).
178 “Ut ipsam tanquam regis Henrici filiam et cui omnis Anglia et Normannia jurata esset, incunctanter in ecclesiam et regnum reciperet” (Will. Malms., p. 743). Compare the writer’s description of the oath (1127) that the magnates “imperatricem incunctanter et sine ullâ retractione dominam susciperent” (p. 690).
179 Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 389. Mr. Howlett asserts that the evidence of William of Malmesbury as to the date (2nd and 3rd of March) “is refuted” by this charter, which places them a fortnight earlier (Introduction to Gesta Stephani, p. xxii.). But I do not think the evidence of the charter is sufficiently strong to overthrow the accepted date.
180 “Pluvioso et nebuloso die” (Will. Malms., p. 743).
181 Cont. Flor., p. 130; Will. Malms., p. 743.
182 “Juravit et affidavit imperatrix episcopo, quod omnia majora negotia in Anglia, precipueque donationes episcopatuum et abbatiarum, ejus nutum spectarent, si eam ipse in sancta ecclesia in dominam reciperet, et perpetuam ei fidelitatem teneret. Idem juraverunt cum ea, et affidaverunt pro ea, Robertus frater ejus comes de Gloecestrâ, et Brianus filius comitis marchio de Walingeford et Milo de Gloecestrâ, postea comes de Hereford, et nonnulli alii. Nec dubitavit episcopus imperatricem in dominam Angliæ recipere et ei cum quibusdam suis affidare, quod, quamdiu ipsa pactum non infringeret, ipse quoque fidem ei custodiret” (Will. Malms., 743, 744). The parallel afforded by the customs of Bigorre, as recorded (it is alleged) in 1097, is so striking as to deserve being quoted here. Speaking of the reception of a new lord, they provide that “antequam habitatorum terræ fidejussores accipiat, fide sua securos eos faciat ne extra consuetudines patrias vel eas in quibus eos invenerit aliquod educat; hoc autem sacramento et fide quatuor nobilium terræ faciat confirmari.”
183 “Crastino, quod fuit quinto nonas Martii, honorifica facta processione recepta est in ecclesia episcopatus Wintoniæ,” etc., etc. (ibid.).
184 Const. Hist., i. 326 (note); Early Plantagenets, 22.
185 English History for the Use of Public Schools, i. 83. The mistake may have arisen from a confusion with the departure of the Empress from Winchester a few days (“paucis post diebus”) after her reception.
186 History of England during the Early and Middle Ages, i. 478.
187 Journ. Brit. Arch. Ass., xxxi. 377-380.
188 Norm. Conq., v. 303. At the same time it is right to add that this is not a question of accuracy, but merely of treatment. In the marginal notes the two episodes are respectively assigned to their correct dates.
189 Const. Hist., i. 318.
190 Compare also, even further back, the action, in Normandy, of Gingan Algasil in December, 1135, who, on the appearance of the Empress, “[eam] ut naturalem dominam suscepit, eique... oppida quibus ut vicecomes, jubente rege præerat, subegit” (Ord. Vit., v. 56).
191 Will. Malms., p. 747.
192 Ibid., p. 743.
193 “Honorifica facta processione recepta est in ecclesia” (p. 744).
194 “Idem prelatus et cives Wintonie honorifice in ecclesia et urbe Wintonie me receperunt” (Journ. Brit. Arch. Ass., xxxi. 378)
195 “Præsul Wintonie... cum dignioribus Wintonie civibus obvius ei advenit, habitoque in communi brevi colloquio, in civitatem, secundam duntaxat regni sedem, honorifice induxit” (p. 5). Note that in each case the “colloquium” preceded the entry.
196 “Regisque castello, et regni coronâ, quam semper ardentissimé affectârat thesaurisque quos licet perpaucos rex ibi reliquerat, in deliberationem suam contraditis” (Gesta, 75).
197 Norm. Conquest, v. 804 (note).
198 As an instance of the crown being kept at Winchester, take the entry in the Pipe-Roll of 4 Hen. II.: “In conducendis coronis Regis ad Wirecestre de Wintoniâ,” the crowns being taken out to be worn at Worcester, Easter, 1158. Oddly enough, Mr. Freeman himself alludes, in its place, to a similar taking out of the crown, from the treasury at Winchester, to be worn at York, Christmas, 1069. The words of Ordericus, as quoted by him, are: “Guillelmus ex civitate Guentâ jubet adferri coronam, aliaque ornamenta regalia et vasa” (cf. Dialogus, I. 14).
199 Ordericus Vitalis.
200 Gesta, 75; Journ. Brit. Arch. Ass., xxxi. 378.
201 “He (sic) ordered that she should be proclaimed lady and queen.”
202 The Gesta itself is, on this point, conclusive, for it distinctly states that the Empress “solito severius, solito et arrogantius procedere et loqui, et cuncta cœpit peragere, adeo ut in ipso mox domini sui capite reginam se totius Angliæ fecerit, et gloriata fuerit appellari.”
203 Will. Malms., 744.
204 To this visit (if the only occasion on which she was at Winchester in the spring) must belong the Empress’s charter to Thurstan de Montfort. As it is not comprised in Mr. Birch’s collection, I subjoin it in extenso (from Dugdale’s MSS.):—
“M. Imperatrix H. Regis filia Rogero Comiti de Warwick et omnibus fidelibus suis Francis et Anglis de Warewicscire salutem. Sciatis me concessisse Thurstino de Monteforti quod habeat mercatum die dominica ad castellum suum de Bellodeserto. Volo igitur et firmiter præcipio quatenus omnes euntes, et stantes, et redeuntes de Mercato prædicto habeant firmam pacem. T. Milone de Glocestria. Apud Wintoniam.”
As Milo attests not as an earl, this charter cannot belong to the subsequent visit to Winchester in the summer. The author of the Gesta mentions the Earl of Warwick among those who joined the Empress at once “sponte nulloque cogente.”
205 Cont. Flor. Wig., p. 130.
206 This he did on the ground that the recognition of Stephen as king by the pope, in 1136, was binding on all ecclesiastics (Historia Pontificalis). Vide infra, p. 69, n. 1.
207 Will. Malms., p. 744. Oddly enough, Miss Norgate gives this very reference for her statement that in a few days the Archbishop of Canterbury followed the legate’s example, and swore fealty to the Empress at Wilton.
208 “Convenitur ibi ab eadem de principibus unus, vocabulo Robertus de Oileio, de reddendo Oxenfordensi castello; quo consentiente, venit illa, totiusque civitatis et circumjacentis regionis suscepit dominium atque hominium” (Cont. Flor. Wig., p. 131).
209 “She then made her way to London by a roundabout path. She was received at Oxford by the younger Robert of Oily,” etc. (Norm. Conq., v. 306).
210 English History, I. 83.
211 Will. Malms.
212 Cont. Flor. Wig.
213 “Aliis quoque sponte, nulloque cogente, ad comitissæ imperium conversis (ut Robertus de Oli, civitatis Oxenefordiæ sub rege præceptor, et comes ille de Warwic, viri molles, et deliciis magis quam animi fortitudine affluentes)” (p. 74).
214 Cont. Flor. Wig. (ut supra).
215 Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 388, 389. It will also be found in the Monasticon (iii. 87).
216 Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. p. 379.
217 Addl. MSS., 31,943, fol. 118.
218 Ang. Sax. Chron., A.D. 1100.
219 Relying on the explicit statement of the chronicler (Will. Malms., p. 732), that the Earl of Gloucester “fratrem etiam suum Reinaldum in tanta difficultate temporis comitem Cornubiæ creavit,” historians and antiquaries have assigned this creation to 1140 (see Stubbs’ Const. Hist., i. 362, n.; Courthope’s Historic Peerage; Doyle’s Official Baronage). In the version of Reginald’s success given by the author of the Gesta, there is no mention of this creation, but that may, of course, be rejected as merely negative evidence. The above charter, however, certainly raises the question whether he had indeed been created earl at the time when he thus attested it. The point may be deemed of some importance as involving the question whether the Empress did really create an earl before the triumph of her cause.
220 “Concilium archiepiscopi Cantuariæ Thedbaldi, et omnium episcoporum Angliæ” (p. 744). Strange to say, Professor Pearson (I. 478) states that “Theobald remained faithful” to Stephen, though he had now formally joined the Empress. On the other hand, “Stephen’s queen and William of Ypres” are represented by him as present, though they were far away, preparing for resistance. An important allusion to the primate’s conduct at this time is found (under 1148) in the Historia Pontificalis (Pertz’s Monumenta Historica, vol. xx.), where we read “propter obedienciam sedis apostolicæ proscriptus fuerat, quando urgente mandato domni Henrici Wintoniensis episcopi tunc legationem fungentis in Anglia post alios episcopos omnes receperat Imperatricem... licet inimicissimos habuerit regem et consiliarios suos.”
221 “Si qui defuerunt, legatis et literis causas cur non venissent dederunt.... Egregie quippe memini, ipsâ die, post recitata scripta excusatoria quibus absentiam suam quidem tutati sunt,” etc. (Will. Malms., pp. 744, 745). Is it possible that we have, in “legati,” a hint at attendance by proxy?
222 Ibid., p. 746.
223 Archæologia, xxvii. 110. See the charter in question in the Pipe-Roll Society’s “Ancient Charters,” Part I., p. 92.
224 Arch. Journ. (1863), xx. 281-296.
225 Ibid., p. 283. Mr. Way adopts the extension “Anglorum” throughout.
226 “The only instances in which we have documentary evidence that she styled herself Queen of England occur in two charters of this period” (ibid.).
227 Vide supra, pp. 61, 69.
228 Pp. xi.-xiv. (see footnotes).
229 The volume closes at p. 769.
230 “A Fasciculus of the Charters of Mathildis, Empress of the Germans, and an Account of her Great Seal” (Journ. Brit. Arch. Ass., xxxi. 376-398).
231 “On the Seals of King Henry the Second and of his Son, the so-called Henry the Third” (Transactions, vol. xi. part 2, New Series).
232 Pp. 2, 3.
233 Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 383.
234 Wells Liber Albus, fol. 10 (Hist. MSS. Report on Wells MSS.).
235 Const. Hist., i. 326, 341, 342.
236 “In Angliæ Normanniæque dominam eligimus.”
237 Cont. Flor. Wig., ii. 75. See Addenda.
238 Ibid.
239 “Pleraque tunc pars Angliæ dominatum ejus suscipiebat” (Will. Malms., p. 749).
240 “Ejusdem civitatis sumens dominium... totiusque civitatis suscepit dominium,” etc. (Cont. Flor. Wig.).
241 Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. 382, 383.
242 It is very singular that Mr. Freeman failed to perceive this parallel, since he himself writes of Henry (1100). “The Gemót of election was held at Winchester while the precedents of three reigns made it seem matter of necessity that the unction and coronation should be done at Westminster” (Will. Rufus, ii. 348). Such an admission as this is sufficient to prove my case.
243 Early Plantagenets, 22.
244 Const. Hist., i. 339.
245 Norm. Conq., v. 303, 304. The footnote to this statement (“William of Malmesbury seems distinctly to exclude a coronation,” etc., etc.) has been already given (ante, p. 62). Mr. Birch confusing, as we have seen, the reception of the Empress with her election, naturally looks, like Mr. Freeman, to the former as the time when she ought to have been crowned: “The crown of England’s sovereigns was handed over to her, a kind of seizin representing that the kingdom of England was under the power of her hands (although it does not appear that any further ceremony connected with the rite of coronation was then performed)” (Journ. B. A. A., xxxi. p. 378). This assumes that the crown was “handed over to her” at a “ceremony” in the cathedral, whereas, as I explained, my own view is that she obtained it with the royal castle.
246 Norm. Conq., v. p. 305.
247 Gesta, 79. In the word “inthronizandam,” I contend, is to be found the confirmation of my theory, based on comparison and induction, of an intended coronation at Westminster. So far as I know, attention has never been drawn to it before.