in every quarter. They even assumed the right of coining money, and of exercising, without appeal, every act of jurisdiction; and the inferior gentry, and the people, finding no guardianship from the laws during this total dissolution of sovereign authority, were obliged to pay court to some neighbouring chieftain, and to purchase his protection, not only by yielding to his exactions, but by assisting him in his rapine upon others'. While things continued in this distracted situation, David king of Scotland appeared at the head of a considerable army, in defence of his niece Matilda's title; and, penetrating into Yorkshire, laid the whole country waste. These barbarous outrages enraged the northern nobility, who might otherwise have been inclined to join him, and proved the ruin of Matilda's cause. The earl of Albemarle, and other powerful nobles, assembled an army at North Allerton, where a A. D. 1138. great battle was fought, called the Battle of the Standard, from a high crucifix erected by the English on a waggon, and carried along with the army, as a military ensign. The Scots were routed with great slaughter, and the king narrowly escaped falling into the hands of the English army2. This success over-awed the male contents in England, and might have given stability to Stephen's throne, had he not been so elated by prosperity as to engage in a a contest with the clergy, who were at that time an over-match for any monarch. They acted entirely as barons; fortified castles, employed military power against their sovereign or their neighbours, and thereby increased those disorders which it was their duty to prevent, while they claimed an exemption from all civil jurisdiction, and attracted popularity by the sacredness of their character. The bishop of Salisbury, whose castle had been seized by order of the king, appealed to the pope; and had not Stephen and his partizans employed A. D. 1139. 1. Gul. Malmes. Hist. Novel. lib. i. Standard. 2. R. Hagulst. Ailred. de Bell. menaces menaces, and even shewn a disposition of executing vengeance by the hands of the soldiery, affairs had instantly come to extremity between the crown and the mitre. In the mean time Matilda, encouraged by these discontents, and invited by the rebellious clergy, 'SEPT. 30. landed in England, accompanied by Robert earl of Gloucester, natural son of the late king, and a retinue of an hundred and forty knights. She fixed her residence at Arundel castle, whose gates were opened to her by Adelais, the queen-dowager, now married to William de Albini, earl of Sussex. Her party daily increased; she was soon joined by several barons: war raged in every quarter of the kingdom; and was carried on with so much fury, that the land was left untilled, and the instruments of husbandry destroyed or abandoned. A grievous famine, the natural consequence of such disorders, affected equally both parties, and reduced the spoilers, as well as the defenceless people, to the most extreme want3. A. D. 1140. Things were in this deplorable situation, when an unexpected event seemed to promise some mitigation of the public calamities. The royal army was A. D. 1141. defeated near the castle of Lincoln; and Stephen himself, surrounded by the enemy, and borne down by numbers, was made captive, after displaying uncommon efforts of valour. He was conducted to Gloucester, thrown into prison, and ignominiously loaded with irons. But he was soon after released in exchange for earl Robert, Matilda's brother, who was no less. the soul of one party than Stephen was of the other, and the civil war was again kindled with greater fury than evert. The weakness of both parties, however, at last produced a tacit cessation of arms, and the empress Matilda 3. Chron. Sax. Gest. Reg. Stephani. H. Hunting. lib. viii. retired retired into Normandy. But an event soon after happened, which threatened a revival of hostilities A. D. 1148. in England. Prince Henry, son of Matilda and Geoffrey Plantagenet, had reached his sixteenth year, and was desirous of receiving the honour of knighthood from his grand uncle, David king of Scotland. For this purpose he passed through England with a great retinue, and was visited by the most considerable of his partizans, whose hopes he roused by his dexterity and vigour in all manly exercises, and his prudence in every A. D. 1150. occurrence. He staid some time in Scotland, where he increased in reputation; and on his return to Normandy, he was invested in that duchy with the consent of his mother Matilda. His father died the following year, when Henry took possession of Anjou and A. D. 1151. Maine, and espoused the heiress of Guienne and Poitou, who had been married sixteen years to Lewis VII. king of France, but whom he had divorced, as I have already observed, on account of her gallantries. This marriage, which brought Henry a great accession of power, rendered him extremely formidable to his rival; and the prospect of his rising fortune had such an effect in England, that the archbishop of Canterbury refused to anoint Eustace, Stephen's son, as his successor, and made his escape beyond sea, to avoid the fury of the enraged monarchs. A. D. 1153. As soon as Henry was informed of these dispositions in the people, he invaded England. Stephen advanced with a superior army to meet him: and a decisive action was every day expected, when the great men on both sides, terrified with the prospect of farther bloodshed and confusion, interposed their good offices, and set on foot a negociation between the contending princes. The death of Eustace, which happened during the course of the treaty, facilitated its conclusion; and an accommodation was at last settled, by which it 5. Id. ibid. was was agreed, that Stephen should possess the crown during his life-time; that justice should be administered in his name, even in the provinces which had submitted to his rival; and that Henry, on Stephen's death, should succeed to the kingdom of England, and William, Stephen's son, to Boulogne and his patrimonial estate". The barons all swore to the observance of this treaty, and did homage to Henry as heir of the crown. He immediately after evacuated the A. D. 1154. kingdom; and Stephen's death, which happened next year, prevented those jealousies and feuds, which were likely to have ensued in so delicate a situation. The character of Stephen is differently represented by historians; but all allow, that he possessed industry, activity, and courage, to a great degree; and had he succeeded by a just title, he seems to have been well qualified to promote the happiness and prosperity of his subjects, notwithstanding the miseries that England suffered under his reign'. 6. Hen. Hunt. ubi sup. Annal Waverl. M. Paris. J. Brompton. 7. These miseries are thus described by a cotemporary historian. "All England wore a face of desolation and wretchedness. Multitudes "abandoned their beloved country and went into voluntary exile: others, "forsaking their own houses, built sorry huts in the church-yards, hoping "for protection from the sacredness of the place. Whole families, after sustaining life as long as they could, by eating herbs, roots, and the flesh "of dogs and horses, at last died of hunger ;—and you might see many "pleasant villages without a single inhabitant of either sex." Gest. Reg. Steph. LETTER LETTER XXVIII. ENGLAND, DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY II. WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE AFFAIRS OF FRANCE. I HAVE already observed, my dear Philip, that before the conquest of England by the duke of Normandy, this island was as distinct from the rest of the world in politics as situation. The English had then neither enemies nor allies on the continent. But the foreign dominions of William and his successor connected them with the kings and great vassals of France: and while the opposite pretensions of the popes and the emperors in Italy produced a continual intercouse between Germany and that country, the two great monarchs of France and England formed, in another part of Europe, a separate system, and carried on their wars and negociations, without meeting either with opposition or support from their neighbours; the extensive confederacies by which the European potentates are now united, and made the guardians of each other, being then totally unknown. No wonder, therefore, that Lewis VII. king of France, observed with terror the rising greatness of the house of Anjou or Plantagenet, whose continental dominions composed above a third of the whole French monarchy, and which gave a sovereign to England in the person of Henry II. The jealousy occasioned by this alarming circumstance, however, as we shall have occasion to see, not only saved France from falling a prey to England, but exalted that kingdom to the pitch of grandeur which it has so long enjoyed. The king of England soon became a kind of foreigner in his continental dominions; and the other powerful vassals of the French crown, instead of being roused at the oppression of a co-vassal, were rather pleased at the expulsion of the Anglo-Nor mans. But |