The Plantagenets

A New Dynasty

Henry, Count of Anjou and Maine, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, set foot for the first time on English soil as King of England on 8^th December 1154 probably at Wareham. From there, in the company of his queen, Eleanor, he progressed to Winchester where he received the oath of fealty from many of the nobles of England. One source says he was crowned at Winchester but this is wrong; he was crowned alongside Eleanor at Westminster on 19 December.

    Henry began his reign as King of England with three great advantages. The first was that he was the undisputed successor to the throne. It was not necessary for him to make concessions to win friends and buy support. The charter which he issued to his subjects immediately after his coronation was brief and explicit. He confirmed all concessions, grants, liberties and free customs which King Henry, his grandfather, had granted and conceded; and he foreswore in the name of himself and his heirs all those evil customs which his grandfather had abolished. It was a proclamation of respect for good law, something England had had little of in proceeding years. At the same time it implicitly made void all the concessions and grants of King Stephen. It was as if Stephen had never existed.

    His second advantage was weariness. England, in modern terms, was a failed state. Almost twenty years of civil war had destroyed its legal system, its government and its economic life. Every petty baron and lord had his own court, prison and gallows. A man may find judgement but he rarely received justice. This could be bought and paid for to supplement a lord’s income to pay his private army. The vast majority of England was covered in forest and moorland and it was here that ordinary people sort refuge. When villages were burned and livestock slaughtered the peasants fled to the safety of the forest and hills. The country was rife with bands of outlaws and brigands. In the Welsh Marches there were bands of outlaws the size of small armies. These would raid the surrounding countryside and return to their well defended base high in the hills. The so called powers of law and order had little means or inclination to oppose them. The civil war may have come to an end but the country was not disarmed and violence might easily break out again if the reconciliation of rivals and the settlement of conflicting claims were mismanaged. The widespread desire for an end to the disorder enabled Henry to take bold decisions for the restoration of royal authority which at any other time would have been unpalatable and insupportable. People were just desperate for peace.

    The third advantage which Henry enjoyed was the lapse of a year between the treaty of Winchester in 1153 and Stephen’s death in 1154. Had he been called upon to take the throne immediately after Winchester (see The Great Anarchy 5) he would have had to rely too heavily on those who had served him as Duke of Normandy. Henry had little knowledge of England apart from a limited number of military campaigns. The gap gave Henry the time to plan and consider his options. The measure of a great leader is his ability to pick men and seek advice from the right quarter. As a young man of twenty-one years Henry Plantagenet had these skills in abundance. Henry was able to allay anxieties and appoint as chief ministers England men who were neither friends nor partisans, a clear indication that the period when he was heir presumptive had been well spent in stocktaking, consultation and planning. Immediately after his coronation he appointed to high office three men drawn from each of the three elements which were crucial to control of the realm; the baronage, the clergy and the administrative service of the late King Stephen.

    From among Stephen’s servants Henry selected, to be in charge of the royal administration, a man who had recently fought against him at Oxford – Richard de Lucy. His social background was that of the knightly class, middle class, but he had become a man of substance by making himself useful to both the crown and to members of the baronage. His precise status under Stephen is uncertain but he was undoubtedly, in the later years of the reign, sheriff and royal justice in Essex and held custody of the Tower of London and of Windsor Castle. This would imply that he had extensive authority under the king’s name. Whether he was also, as has been suggested, already in charge of the exchequer and supervisor of all the king’s officers, with the title of justiciar, is more doubtful. According to the writings of Robert de Torigny, he was certainly one of the more experienced and trusted of Stephen’s servants.

    It was common sense to use the services of a man who already had intimate knowledge of England’s administration. There was, however, a problem in appointing Robert de Lucy. Henry’s grandfather, old King Henry I, had put Roger, bishop of Salisbury at the head of his exchequer. Roger was a commoner and the nobility resented so much power in the hands of someone other than one of their own. While the first Henry had the power to ignore such murmurings, the second Henry had to tread more lightly. To offset this danger of alienating the baronage Henry gave Richard de Lucy a colleague, a co-justiciar. Henry appointed Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester, who, since the death of Earl Ranulf of Chester, was probably the most powerful baron in England. If the name is familiar, you would be right (see The Great Anarchy 2). The influence of Earl Robert and his twin brother Waleran, Count of Meulan, upon King Stephen in the early year of the reign had been unfortunate and they had slipped from favour as the war progressed. It seems, however, that Robert was always the more sober and practical of the two, and as he matured he began to reveal more statesmanlike qualities than the rest of his class. He quickly came to realise that the barons had as much to lose as the Crown by the continuance of anarchy. He tried to mitigate the effects of the numerous private wars in the midlands by concluding treaties and marriage alliances which cut across political allegiances. He never bartered his allegiance to the highest bidder as others did but, as a search for a lasting solution to the country’s conflict, he gave his support to the then Duke Henry in the spring of 1153. Robert was well educated for a layman and received his schooling at the abbey of Abingdon. He is said to have astonished the College of Cardinals with his precocious learning when in 1119 he accompanied Henry I to a meeting with the Pope at Gisors.

    As co-justiciar he was noted for his prudence and discretion by John of Salisbury. Since, until his death in 1168, he is more frequently mentioned as justiciar than Richard de Lucy, it has been assumed that he overshadowed his colleague. This is not the case. Robert’s social standing ensured him prominence and it was probably deliberate policy that he should appear publicly as the King’s deputy. Richard was a man to work behind the scenes while Robert worked with the delicate egos of the nobility.

    Henry II’s third major appointment was to the office of chancellor. The chancellor was the master of the royal chapel and head of the king’s secretariat. In modern language the post would be terms as the king’s chief of staff. The position not only made the occupant the king’s confidant but also responsible for the translation of the royal will into charters, letters and writs. Although the office was vital to the smooth running of the royal household, it did not bring great prestige. However, it did bring great influence. The king’s chancellor was the closest person to the king beyond his own blood, and frequently closer. For this most important position Henry turned for advice to the wisest man in England, Theobold, Archbishop of Canterbury. Theobold recommended a young member of his own household, an archdeacon of Canterbury. Clerks and administrators within the church usually took lower grade holy order, short of full priesthood, to protect themselves against civil action. If a man was accused of a crime, and he had taken holy orders, he could claim the right to be tried in a church court where the penalties were less severe. Theobold’s candidate was a Norman by birth and his father, Gilbert, had become a prosperous merchant in London, serving a term as one the two sheriffs of the city. The son was born in Cheapside in 1117, had been educated at Merton Priory and Paris and had been for a time clerk and accountant to the sheriffs of London before entering the service of the Archbishop.

    The name of the young man in question was Thomas Becket.