By this delay, he loft the kingdom of England, which the great fame he had acquired during the crufades, as well as his undoubted title, both by birth, and by the preceding agreement with his deceased brother, would, had he been prefent, have. infallibly secured to him: CHAP. VI. I 100. Henry PRINCE Henry was hunting with Rufus in the new foreft, Acceffion of when intelligence of that prince's death was brought him; and being sensible of the advantage, attending the conjuncture, he hurried to Winchester, in order to fecure the royal treasure, which he knew to be a neceffary implement for facilitating his designs on the crown. He had fcarcely reached the place when William de Breteuil, keeper of the treasure, arrived, and oppofed himself to Henry's pretenfions. This nobleman, who had been engaged in the fame party of hunting, had no fooner heard of his master's death, than he haftened to take care of his charge;. and he told the prince, that this treafure, as well as the crown, belonged to his elder brother, who was now his fovereign; and that he himself, for his part, was determined, in fpite of all other pretenfions, to maintain his allegiance to him. But Henry, drawing his fword, threatened him with instant death, if he dared to disobey him; and as others of the late King's retinue, who came every moment to Winchester, joined the prince's party, Breteuil was obliged to withdraw his opposition, and to acquiefce in this violence .. HENRY, without lofing a moment, haftened with his money to London; and having affembled some noblemen and prelates, whom his address, or abilities, or presents, gained to his fide, he was fuddenly elected, or rather faluted King; and immedi ately proceeded to the excrcife of the royal dignity. In lefs than three days after his brother's death, the ceremonial of his coronation was performed by Maurice, bishop of London, who was perfuaded to officiate on that occasion; and thus, by his courage and celerity, he intruded himself into the vacant throne. No one had fufficient spirit or fenfe of duty to appear in defence of the abfent prince: All men were feduced or intimidated : Present poffeffion fupplied the apparent deficiencies of Henry's title, which was indeed founded on plain ufurpation: And the barons, as well as the people, acquiefced in a claim, which, though it could neither be justified nor comprehended, could now, they found, be oppofed only through the perils of civil war and rebellion. BUT as Henry easily forefaw, that a crown, ufurped against all rules of justice, would fit very unfteady on his head, he resolved, by fair profeffions at least, to gain the affections of all his fubjects. Befides taking the ufual coronation-oath to maintain the laws and execute juftice, he paffed a charter, which was calculated to remedy many of the grievous oppreffions, which had been complained of during the reigns of his father and brother. He there promifed, that, at the death of any bishop or abbot, he never would feize the revenues of the fee or abbey during the vacancy, but would leave the whole to be reaped by the fucceffor; and that he would never let to farm any ecclefiaftical benefice, nor difpofe of it for money. After this conceffion to the church, whofe favour was of so great confequence, he proceeded to enumerate the civil grievances, which he purposed to redrefs. He promised, that upon the death of any earl, baron, or military tenant, his heir should 1 P Chron. Sax. p. 208. Order. Vital. p. 783. 1 Chron. Sax. p. 208. Sim. Dunçlm. p. 225. Brompton, p. 997. be be admitted to the poffeffion of his eftate, on paying a juft and lawful relief; without being expofed to fuch exorbitant exactions as had been required during the late reigns: He remitted the wardship of minors, and allowed guardians to be appointed, who should be anfwerable for the truft: He promised not to difpose of any heiress in marriage, but by the advice of all the barons; and if any baron intended to give his daughter, sister, niece, or kinfwoman, in marriage, it fhould only be neceffary for him to confult the King, who promised to take no money for his consent, nor ever to refuse permiffion, unless the perfon, to whom it was proposed to marry her, fhould happen to be his enemy: He granted his barons and military tenants the power of bequeathing by will their money or perfonal eftates; and if they neglected to make a will, he promised, that their heirs should fucceed to them: He renounced the right of impofing moneyage, and of levying taxes at pleasure on the farms, which the barons retained in their own hands: He made fome general profeffions of moderating fines; he offered a pardon for all offences; and he remitted all debts due to the crown: He required, that the vaffals of the barons should enjoy the fame privileges, which he granted to his own barons; and he promised a general confirmation and obfervance of the laws of King Edward. This is the substance of the chief articles contained in that famous charter . To give greater authenticity to thefe conceffions, Henry lodged a copy of his charter in fome abbey of each county; as if defirous, that it should be exposed to the view of all his fub CHAP. VI. · 1100. VI. 1100. CHAP. jects, and remain as a perpetual rule for the limitation and direction of his government: Yet is it certain, that, after the present turn was ferved, he never once thought, during his reign, of obferving one fingle article of it; and the whole fell fo much into neglect and oblivion, that, in the following century, when the barons, who had heard an obscure tradition of it, defired to make it the model of the great charter, which they exacted from King John, they could only find one copy of it in the kingdom. But as to the grievances here proposed to be redreffed, they were still continued in their full extent; and the royal authority, in all these heads, lay under no manner of reftriction. Reliefs of heirs, fo capital an article, were never effectually fixed till the time of Magna Charta '; and it is evident, that the general promise here given, of accepting a just and lawful relief, ought to have been reduced to more precifion, in order to give fecurity to the fubject. The oppreffion of wardship and marriage was perpetuated even till the age of Charles II. And it appears from Glanville", the famous jufticiary of Henry II. that in his time, where any man died intestate, an accident which must be very frequent, when the art of writing was fo little known, the King, or the lord of the fief, pretended to feize all the moveables, and to exclude every heir, even the children of the deceased: A fure mark of a tyrannical and arbitrary government. THE Normans indeed, fettled in England, were, during this age, fo violent and licentious a people, that they may be pro * Glanv. lib. 2. cap. 36. What is called a relief in the Conqueror's laws, preferved by Ingulf, seems to have been the herriot; fince reliefs, as well as the other burdens of the feudal law, were unknown in the age of the Confeffor, whose laws these originally were. Lib. 7. cap. 16. This practice was contrary to the laws of King Edward, ratified by the Conqueror, as we learn from Ingulf, p. 91. But laws had at that time very little influence: Power and violence governed every thing. nounced VI. nounced incapable of any true or regular liberty; which CHAP. requires such a refinement of laws and inftitutions, such comprehensive views, fuch a fentiment of honour, fuch a spirit of obedience, and such a facrifice of private interest and connexions to public order, as can only be the refult of great reflection and experience, and muft grow to perfection during several ages of fettled and established government. A people, fo infenfible to the rights of their fovereign, as to disjoint, without neceffity, the hereditary fucceffion, and permit a younger brother to intrude himself into the place of the elder, whom they esteemed, and who was guilty of no crime but being abfent, could not expect, that that prince could pay any greater regard to their privileges, or allow his engagements to fetter his power, and debar him from any confiderable interest or convenience. They had indeed arms in their hands, which prevented the establishment of a total defpotism, and left their pofterity fufficient power, whenever they should attain a fufficient degree of reason, to acquire true liberty: But their turbulent disposition prompted them frequently to make such use of their arms, that they were more fitted to obftruct the execution of justice, than to stop the career of violence and oppreffion. The prince, finding, that greater oppofition was often made to him when he enforced the laws, than when he violated them, was apt to render his own will and pleasure the fole rule of government, and on every emergence to consider more the power of the perfons whom he might offend, than the rights of those whom he might injure. The very form of this charter of Henry proves, that the Norman barons (for they, rather than the people of England, are chiefly concerned in it) were totally ignorant of the nature of limited monarchy, and were ill qualified to conduct, in conjunction with their fovereign, the machine of government. Yy 2 It is an act of |