CHAPTER III. (Part 3 of 3)
Henry embarked Saturday evening October 16, 1171, landing next day at Croch, eight miles from Waterford. On S. Luke’s day he entered Waterford, met by seneschal William Fitz-Aldhelm, constable Humfrey de Bohun, Hugh de Lacy, and other officers. Irish and Ostmen under Ragnald submitted; Richard surrendered Waterford and did homage for Leinster. Wexford men brought captive Robert Fitz-Stephen; Henry loaded him with reproaches and reimprisoned him, but the anger was assumed and he was soon released. Dermot MacCarthy of Cork was first Irish prince to submit. By November 1 Henry advanced to Lismore; by November 3 at Cashel Donell O’Brien of Limerick offered tribute and obedience. Lesser chiefs followed; in three weeks all Munster submitted. At Martinmas he reached Dublin; before Christmas he had hostages from all princes of Leinster, Meath, Breffny, Oiriel, and Uladh. His vassals built a wattle dwelling outside the walls, where he held Christmas court.
Early November two royal chaplains summoned Irish bishops to a council. They met at Cashel early 1172; Armagh’s archbishop pleaded age, but all others made full submission, pledged conformity to the English Church, promised written support to Henry and his heirs as lawful sovereigns, and joined a report to Rome. Only Roderic O’Conor remained unsubdued. Trusting his inaccessibility, he refused Henry, but later met royal officers at the Shannon and promised tribute and fealty—worthless without personal homage.
Henry planned a spring campaign, but nineteen weeks of total isolation bred unbearable anxiety. On March 1 he removed to Wexford; no ship came until after Mid-Lent, bearing ill news. He took hasty measures: Richard of Striguil was left at Kildare as earl of Leinster; Hugh de Lacy became justiciar of Ireland with Meath, commanding Dublin’s citadel with a garrison including Maurice Fitz-Gerald and Robert Fitz-Stephen. Waterford and Wexford were garrisoned by royal officers; Henry granted Dublin to Bristol burghers to colonize under their own customs.
On Easter night, April 16, 1172, Henry sailed from Wexford, landed at Portfinnan near S. David’s, hurried through South Wales to Newport and Portsmouth, and before Rogation-tide was back in Normandy.
CHAPTER IV. (Part 1 of 3)
For eight years Henry had been supreme in England. From Thomas’s flight, no hand opposed his will; the time seemed ripe for legal reform. But prolonged absence, compelled by French hostility, left him unable to superintend for nearly six years. The most threatening danger, as at his accession, lay in the baronage.
Henry’s attitude toward barons had been inconsistent. From his grandfather he inherited the policy of consolidating royal power against feudal nobles by raising the people. Yet the Becket quarrel had driven him to throw himself on those nobles, alienating the ecclesiastical interest that had been his surest aid. The barons saw that in crushing Thomas they crushed their own enemy; Church, people, and Crown were bound together. With sceptre and crozier parted, barons could strive with the king as never since Lanfranc stood by William or Anselm by Henry I.
As yet no token of strife appeared. In February 1166 Henry issued the Assize of Clarendon for criminal justice reform, directing the king’s justices and sheriffs to inquire in every shire concerning all crimes since his coronation, by inquest of sworn recognitors from each hundred and township. Twelve lawful men of the hundred and four from each township were to present every robber, thief, murderer, or harbourer; the accused to be arrested and kept for itinerant justices, undergoing ordeal of water and receiving legal punishment. No privilege exempted jury service; no franchise sheltered criminals.
The first visitation by Richard de Lucy and Geoffrey de Mandeville, earl of Essex, produced immediate results: Pipe Roll sums for Crown pleas far exceeded before. Jury service was strictly enforced; one evasion cost five marks. Gaols were built or repaired at Canterbury, Rochester, Huntingdon, Cambridge, Sarum, Malmesbury, Aylesbury, and Oxford by summer 1167. Alan de Neville then held forest pleas throughout the country; in 1168 seven barons of the Exchequer made a general visitation for an aid on the marriage of Henry’s eldest daughter.
This aid, at one mark per knight’s fee, was levied by a remarkable process. Domesday being inadequate, a royal writ required all tenants-in-chief to account for knights’ fees held under both old Henry I infeuffment and new since Henry II’s resettlement. Answers were enrolled in the Black Book of the Exchequer; collection ended summer 1169. Commissioners had ample power; the impost pressed feudal tenants heavily. Barons resented the Assize’s stringency, which set aside personal exemptions and special jurisdictions. It was another thrust at feudal privilege, like the resumption of alienated lands and seizure of castles.
Sheriffs, mostly great local landowners, were likely to defeat their own measures. At Easter 1170 Henry deposed all sheriffs and bailiffs of royal demesnes pending inquisition into their conduct since his departure four years before. The inquiry, entrusted to clergy and laity, took pledges of appearance, exacted oaths, and investigated sheriffs’ accounts, disposal of forfeited goods, the marriage aid, forests, royal demesnes, homage, and all special courts. Two months were allowed. The S. Barnabas’s day report is lost; of twenty-seven sheriffs only seven were retained. The rest, mostly local magnates, were replaced by men of inferior rank, all but four being Exchequer officials.
In 1171 Henry ordered a general inquisition into demesne lands and forests held by his grandfather in Normandy and baronial encroachments; restitution nearly doubled his ducal revenue. The barons’ endurance was at an end. The Westminster council that decreed the sheriffs’ inquest had also summoned Young Henry’s coronation. The S. Barnabas’s day assembly that deposed delinquent officers also saw two kings in the land. Six months later, S. Thomas’s murder revealed the first consequences; barons felt their hour at hand. The year spent conquering Ireland was a breathing-space for them as for him; they adapted to their purposes the weapon he had forged, rallying around the son left to cover his retreat.
Young Henry had passed to Normandy just before his father quitted it in July 1171, staying with Eleanor and younger siblings. Early 1172 he and his wife went to England as titular king and queen; real power lay with the justiciars. Surrounded by his father’s foes—Louis, Eleanor, her kindred—he was encouraged by Ralf of Faye and Hugh of Ste.-Maure to claim substance, not shadow. Rumors of his temper and baronial discontent called Henry back from Ireland in spring 1172. After reconciliation with the Church and Young Henry’s second coronation at Winchester August 27, danger seemed to subside; but in November Henry allowed his son to visit Louis. On return Young Henry demanded possession of his heritage as independent sovereign. Henry refused: the crowning had meant only inchoate royalty for collegial representation. His plans were succeeding: Geoffrey was secured in Britanny; on Trinity Sunday, June 10, 1172, Richard was enthroned duke of Aquitaine at Poitiers. Even John, barely five, had a politic marriage in view.
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