England under the Angevin Kings, Volumes I and II

Part 2 of 3

The crisis peaked at Clarendon in January 1164. Thomas, misled by three men claiming to be papal envoys, verbally agreed to obey “loyally and in good faith.” When Henry produced the 16 articles—the Constitutions of Clarendon—Thomas realized he had been tricked. The articles restricted ecclesiastical jurisdiction, banned Roman appeals without royal consent, limited sanctuary, allowed lay trials of accused clerks, required royal consent for excommunicating royal tenants-in-chief, and forbade ordaining villeins without their lord’s permission. Thomas refused to seal them: “Never, while there is a breath left in my body!” He fled to Winchester to confess and suspend himself pending papal absolution.

Henry’s younger brother William died shortly after, forbidden by Thomas from marrying the widowed countess of Warren on affinity grounds; Henry blamed Thomas, fed by courtiers’ tales. Thomas twice tried to flee from Romney in summer 1164, but winds and recognizable sailors turned him back. In October 1164, he was summoned to Northampton on trumped-up charges: contempt, chancellorship mismanagement, and unpaid Eye and Berkhampstead revenues.

Henry’s barons treated Thomas with open hostility. He was fined 500 pounds for contempt, paid 300 pounds in Eye/Berkhampstead revenues, and 500 marks for an old chancellorship loan. Finally, Henry demanded 30,000 pounds in full chancellorship accounts—impossible to pay. Thomas prostrated himself; Henry swore “by God’s Eyes” he would have the accounts. The bishops urged submission; Thomas refused, citing the quit-claim. He excommunicated any layman judging him; when the bishops appealed, he left the council. After mass of St Stephen with “Princes have sat and spoken against me,” he entered the hall carrying his archiepiscopal cross in defiance. Henry declared him a traitor; the bishops refused to judge their primate, and Thomas appealed to Rome. That night, in a violent rainstorm, Thomas fled Northampton with two canons and a squire, sailing to France.

Part 3 of 3

Thomas’s flight turned a domestic dispute into a pan-European crisis. Louis VII welcomed him as a tool against Henry II. Henry pressured Alexander III to condemn Thomas, but Alexander, fearing schism that would drive Angevin dominions to the Emperor and anti-pope, equivocated. Thomas settled at Pontigny, secretly taking the Cistercian habit and practicing extreme abstinence that damaged his health. He built a vast Canterbury library, copied manuscripts from across Europe, and gathered every charter supporting Church independence, refusing compromise despite his cause being weaponized by Louis.

Henry struggled to hold his empire: subduing Brittany for Geoffrey, quelling Aquitaine revolts while Eleanor governed alone, countering Louis’s intrigues with Welsh, Scottish and Poitevin rebels, and managing alliances with Germany, Lombardy and Castile. Personal losses mounted: constable Henry of Essex disgraced in 1163, his mother died in 1167, Earl Robert of Leicester in 1168. Attempts were made to annul his marriage to Eleanor on forbidden-degrees grounds. At Montmirail in 1169, Henry submitted to Louis, had his sons do homage, and arranged his daughters’ marriages, but still could not reconcile with Thomas. He even sent two clerks to Würzburg in 1165 who apparently swore rejecting Alexander and recognizing Paschal III, though later denied.

Thomas sent increasingly harsh letters warning of divine vengeance. In 1166, a barefoot monk delivered a final warning: “If not, then know of a surety that you shall feel the severity of Divine vengeance!” Thomas also threatened the Empress Matilda with an interdict and anathema against Henry himself. An interdict would have closed all English churches, halted sacraments, and caused panic threatening Henry’s kingdom. Henry appealed to the Pope to delay, buying time but deepening the rift.

CHAPTER X.

This chapter provides a cartographic and planographic companion to the narrative of England under the Angevin kings from the late twelfth to early thirteenth centuries. Five maps clarify the period’s territorial complexity: Map III shows Ireland in 1172 after the Anglo-Norman invasion; Map IV charts the 1173–1174 baronial rebellion across England, Normandy and Anjou; Map V depicts France and Burgundy c. 1180, showing feudal patchwork and border disputes; Map VI places the Angevin dominions within c. 1180 Europe, situating the papal-imperial schism, the Crusader states, and France, Germany and Spain; Map VII shows the shrunken Angevin dominions in 1194 after losses to Philip Augustus. Two fortification plans accompany the maps: Plan VII details Les Andelys and Château-Gaillard, Richard I’s mighty Seine-valley fortress, and Plan VIII provides the architectural plan of Château-Gaillard itself, showcasing its cutting-edge military engineering. These aids help readers follow the military, political and territorial shifts of the Angevin era.