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Shakespeare and Continental Philosophy 1st Edition
Jennifer Ann Bates Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Jennifer Ann Bates, Richard Wilson
ISBN(s): 9780748694945, 0748694943
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 2.10 MB
Year: 2014
Language: english
S HA K E S P E A R E
AN D C O NT I N E N TA L
PH I LO S O P HY
E D I TE D BY J E N N I F E R A N N B AT E S
AN D RI CHARD WI LSO N
Shakespeare and Continental Philosophy
Shakespeare and Continental
Philosophy

Edited by Jennifer Ann Bates

and Richard Wilson
© editorial matter and organisation Jennifer Ann Bates and
Richard Wilson, 2014
© the chapters their several authors, 2014

Edinburgh University Press Ltd

The Tun - Holyrood Road, 12(2f) Jackson’s Entry, Edinburgh EH8 8PJ

www.euppublishing.com

Typeset in 10.5/13 Adobe Sabon by

Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire,
and printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 0 7486 9494 5 (hardback)

ISBN 978 0 7486 9495 2 (webready PDF)
ISBN 978 0 7486 9559 1 (paperback)
ISBN 978 0 7486 9497 6 (epub)

The right of Jennifer Ann Bates and Richard Wilson

to be identified as Editor of this work has been
asserted in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the Copyright
and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
 Contents

Foreword by Michael Witmorevii

Acknowledgementsix
Notes on Contributors x

Introduction1
Richard Wilson

Part One: The Play’s the Thing

1 ‘The Charm Dissolves Apace’: Shakespeare and the Self-

dissolution of Drama (The Tempest, Aristotle and Hegel) 17
Paul A. Kottman
2 Hamlet and Kierkegaard on Outwitting Recollection (Hamlet
and Kierkegaard’s Concluding Unscientific Postscript)40
Jennifer Ann Bates
3 Schopenhauer’s Shakespeare: The Genius on the World Stage 56
Tom Stern
4 Nietzsche’s Shakespeare 76
Peter Holbrook
5 Richard II’s Silent, Tortured Soul (Nietzsche, Merleau-
Ponty, Jean-Luc Marion, and Levinas) 94
James A. Knapp

Part Two: That Wide Gap

6 Is Othello Jealous? Coleridge and Russell contra

Wittgenstein and Cavell 121
Andrew Cutrofello
7 Hamlet on the Edge (Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty) 136
Edward S. Casey
­vi    Contents

8 Levinas and Shakespeare 145

Howard Caygill
9 Contra Schmitt: Law, Aesthetics and Absolutism in
Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale (Carl Schmitt) 152
Christopher Pye
10 Arendt in Italy: Or, the Taming of the Shrew (Hannah
Arendt, Giorgio Agamben and Roberto Esposito) 173
Julia Reinhard Lupton

Part Three: Damnable Iteration

11 Ship of Fools: Foucault and the Shakespeareans 195

Richard Wilson
12 Antinomies of Desire: Lacanian Psychoanalysis and the
Sonnets (Jacques Lacan and François Lyotard) 210
Catherine Belsey
13 ‘No’ as Affirmation: A Continental-Philosophical Reading
of Coriolanus236
Bernard Freydberg
14 Provoking Philosophy: Shakespeare, Johnson, Wittgenstein,
Derrida247
Christopher Norris
15 Miracle Play (Jacques Derrida) 271
Nicholas Royle

Index298
 Foreword

The essays collected in this volume testify to the ongoing appeal of

Shakespeare as both dramatist and thinker. While their contents are
varied – the essays here touch on a range of thinkers from Ibn Sı-na- to
Jean-Luc Marion – they explore the ways in which Shakespearean
drama presents thought with powerful and, at times, sensuous objects
for reflection. Shakespeare studies has begun to move towards philoso-
phy again after a period of wariness: poststructuralism offered new ways
of talking about subjectivity, discourse, and the language of these plays,
but it made the sustained study of ideas in the plays problematic. The
essays in this collection do not solve that problem, which grows out
of a sense that the study of concepts in drama is a misnomer. Certain
forms of poststructuralism and historicist criticism, for example, have
questioned the diagrammatic power of concepts to bring persons, events
or things into intelligible kinds of relation. That power is being tested
anew by scholars and thinkers willing to stray back into the hinterland
of ideas.
What is important about this collection of essays, aside from the
insights advanced by the individual authors, is what it represents as
an undertaking: a desire to count the benefits of our engagement with
Shakespearean drama as conceptual ones, a process that deepens
our understanding of basic notions such as art, forgiveness, tragedy,
dreams or desire and asserts the ongoing claim of these concepts on
life and thought. Continental philosophy is a powerful resource in this
enterprise, powerful precisely because it recognises (and perhaps even
demands) imaginative experience of the sort we have in the theatre as a
source of productive thinking and reflection.
If, as the commonplace goes, all great artists are also thinkers, we
might think of this collection as an exploration of the commonplace’s
three key terms: ‘great’, ‘artist’ and ‘thinker’. Take any two of these
names and apply them to an individual; the first two will often explain
­viii    Foreword

why that individual also deserves the third. Exploring this geometry
and these questions is an admirable goal for a collection of essays on
Shakespeare and Continental Philosophy, one that is accomplished in
the pages that follow.

Michael Witmore
Washington DC, February 2012
 Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our contributors, and the Edinburgh University

Press, especially our editor Jackie Jones, for her support of the project.
Thanks are also due to Jackie’s staff, especially Ellie Bush and Dhara
Patel for their help in putting this book into its published shape. We
would also like to thank the Department of Philosophy, Duquesne
University, (especially the Chair, Ronald Polansky) for generously cov-
ering reprint costs for Julia Lupton Reinhard’s and Christopher Pye’s
articles.
‘Levinas and Shakespeare’ by Howard Caygill was first published in
Monokl, 8–9 (2010), pp. 507–11; ‘Contra Schmitt: Law, Aesthetics and
Absolutism in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale’ by Christopher Pye was
first published in South Atlantic Quarterly, 108:1 (2009), pp. 197–217;
‘Arendt in Italy: Or, the Taming of the Shrew’ by Julia Reinhard Lupton
was first published in Law, Culture and the Humanities, 1:16 (2011);
‘Ship of Fools: Foucault and the Shakespeareans’ by Richard Wilson
was first published in English Studies, 94:7 (2013), pp. 773–87; a longer
version of ‘Provoking Philosophy: Shakespeare, Johnson, Wittgenstein,
Derrida’ by Christopher Norris, first appeared in the Journal of Literary
Criticism, 12:1–2 (2012), pp. 51–107 reprinted here with thanks to the
editor Rajnath; ‘Miracle Play’ by Nicholas Royle was first published
in Oxford Literary Review, 34 (2012), pp. 123–53. We are grateful to
the publishers and editors for permission to reprint these essays, which
appear here with minor revisions and corrections.
Notes on Contributors

Notes on Contributors

Jennifer Ann Bates is Associate Professor of Philosophy

at Duquesne University. She is the author of Hegel’s Theory of
Imagination (2004) and Hegel and Shakespeare on Moral Imagination
(2010). She has published in the Wallace Stevens Journal, the Journal
for Environmental Ethics, Criticism, Philosophy Compass, and most
recently in the Special Issue ‘Thinking with Shakespeare’ of Memoria di
Shakespeare.

Catherine Belsey is Research Professor in English at Swansea University.

She is author of Critical Practice (1980, 2002), A Very Short Introduction
to Poststructuralism (2002), Culture and the Real (2005) and A Future
for Criticism (2011). Her other books include Shakespeare and the Loss
of Eden (1999), Why Shakespeare? (2007) and Shakespeare in Theory
and Practice (2008).

Edward S. Casey is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at SUNY,

Stony Brook. The immediate past president of the American Philosophical
Association, Eastern Division, he is the author of a number of books
and many articles. His dissertation was entitled ‘Poetry and Ontology’.
Among his major books are Getting Back into Place (2nd edn, 2009),
The Fate of Place (1997), Remembering (2nd edn, 2000), and Imagining
(2nd edn, 2000). His most recently published book is The World at a
Glance (2007), a companion volume to which he is now completing to
be titled The World on Edge.

Howard Caygill is Professor of Modern European Philosophy at

Kingston University, London. He is author of Levinas and the Political
(2002); Walter Benjamin: The Colour of Experience (1998); A Kant
Dictionary (1995); Art of Judgment (1989). He has published many arti-
cles and book chapters on authors ranging from Momigliano to Kafka,
 Notes on Contributors     xi

Benjamin, Levinas and Derrida, and on topics as diverse as history,

political theology, memory, allegory, messianism and art.

Andrew Cutrofello is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University

Chicago. He received his doctorate from Northwestern University
in 1989. He is the author of five books, including All for Nothing:
Hamlet’s Negativity (2014), Continental Philosophy: A Contemporary
Introduction (2005), and The Owl at Dawn: A Sequel to Hegel’s
Phenomenology of Spirit (1995).

Bernard Freydberg is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Slippery

Rock University and Scholar in Residence at Duquesne University.
His latest two books are The Thought of John Sallis: Phenomenology,
Plato, Imagination (Northwestern University Press, 2012) and David
Hume, Platonic Philosopher, Continental Ancestor (2012). He is cur-
rently working on a book tentatively entitled Under the Overwritten
Palimpsest: Uncovering the Genesis of Modern Philosophy.

Peter Holbrook is Professor of Shakespeare and English Renaissance

Literature at the University of Queensland, Australia, and Director of the
UQ Node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions
(Europe 1100–1800). He is the author of Shakespeare’s Individualism
(2010) and Literature and Degree in Renaissance England: Nashe,
Bourgeois Tragedy, Shakespeare (1994), and co-editor, with David
Bevington, of The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque (1998).

James A. Knapp is Associate Professor and Edward L. Surtz, S.J.

Professor of English at Loyola University Chicago. He is the author
of Illustrating the Past in Early Modern England (2003) and Image
Ethics in Shakespeare and Spenser (2011). His work has appeared in
Shakespeare Quarterly, ELH, Criticism and Poetics Today as well as a
variety of essay collections.

Paul A. Kottman is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at the

New School for Social Research. He is the author of A Politics of the
Scene (2008) and Tragic Conditions in Shakespeare (2009), as well as
the editor of Philosophers on Shakespeare (2009). He is also the editor
of a new book series, entitled Square One: First Order Questions in the
Humanities (Stanford University Press). He is currently completing a
book tentatively entitled, Defying the Stars: Romantic Love as Human
Freedom.
­xii    Notes on Contributors

Julia Reinhard Lupton is Professor of English and Comparative Literature

at the University of California, Irvine, where she has taught since 1989.
She is the author or co-author of four books on Shakespeare, most
recently Thinking with Shakespeare: Essays on Politics and Life (2011).
She is co-editor with Graham Hammill of Political Theology in Early
Modernity (2012). Her current book project is entitled Shakespeare
Dwelling: Habitation, Hospitality, and Environments of Action. She is a
2013–14 Guggenheim Fellow.

Christopher Norris is Distinguished Research Professor in Philosophy

at the University of Cardiff, Wales, where he previously taught English
Literature. He has written more than thirty books to date on aspects
of philosophy and literary theory. His most recent publications are
Philosophy Outside-In: A Critique of Academic Reason (2013) and The
Cardinal’s Dog and Other Poems (2013), a collection of verse-essays
on philosophical, musical and literary themes, including one about
Wittgenstein and Shakespeare, the topic of his chapter here.

Christopher Pye is Class of 1924 Professor of English at Williams

College. He is the author of The Regal Phantasm: Shakespeare and the
Politics of Spectacle (1990), The Vanishing: Shakespeare, the Subject
and Early Modern Culture (2000), and The Storm at Sea: Political
Aesthetics in the Time of Shakespeare (forthcoming). He is currently
working on a history of distraction.

Nicholas Royle is Professor of English at the University of Sussex,

England. He is author of numerous books, including Telepathy and
Literature: Essays on the Reading Mind (1991), The Uncanny (2003),
How to Read Shakespeare (2005), and Veering: A Theory of Literature
(2011). He has also published a novel, Quilt (2010). He is an editor of
the Oxford Literary Review and director of the Centre for Creative and
Critical Thought at Sussex.

Tom Stern is a Lecturer in Philosophy and the Academic Director of

European Social and Political Studies at University College London,
where he has worked since getting his PhD from Cambridge University.
His research interests include nineteenth-century German philosophy
(especially Schopenhauer and Nietzsche) and aesthetics. His book,
Philosophy and Theatre (2013), presents a series of philosophical topics,
problems or questions which arise in relation to theatre.
 Notes on Contributors     xiii

Richard Wilson is the Sir Peter Hall Professor of Shakespeare Studies at

Kingston University, London, and the author of Will Power: Studies in
Shakespearean Authority (1993), Secret Shakespeare: Essays on Theatre,
Religion and Resistance (2004), Shakespeare in French Theory: King of
Shadows (2007), and Free Will: Art and Power on Shakespeare’s Stage
(2013). Previously Professor of English Literature at Cardiff University,
he was until 2005 Professor of Renaissance Studies at Lancaster
University. He has been a Visiting Professor of the Sorbonne Nouvelle
(Paris III), and in 2011–12 was Distinguished Visiting Professor at the
Sorbonne (Paris IV). His forthcoming book is a study of Shakespeare
and globalisation: Worldly Shakespeare: The Theatre of Our Good Will.
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 61. That night the King remained peaceably in the castle; and his
newly-sworn vassal flying, retired to another castle, and caused the
whole of the men of that land, who were able to bear arms, to be
summoned to repair to him, and so they did. The King of Jerusalem,
however, that same night, landed in Cyprus, that he might assist the
King and salute him, whose arrival he had desired above that of any
other in the whole world. On the morrow, the lord of Cyprus was
sought for and found to have fled. The King, seeing that he was
abused and having been informed where he was, directed the King
of Jerusalem to follow the traitor by land with the half of the army,
while he conducted the other part by water, intending to be in the
way, that he might not escape by sea. The divisions reassembled
around the city in which he had taken refuge, and he, having sallied
out against the King, fought with the English, and the battle was
carried on sharply by both sides. The English would that day have
been beaten, had they not fought under the command of King
Richard. They at length obtained a dear-bought victory, the Cypriote
flies, and the castle is taken. The Kings pursue him as before, the
one by land, the other by water, and he is besieged in the third
castle. Its walls are cast down by engines hurling huge stones; he,
being overcome, promises to surrender, if only he might not be put
in iron fetters. The King consents to the prayers of the supplicant,
and caused silver shackles to be made for him. The prince of the
pirates being thus taken, the King traversed the whole island, and
took all its castles, and placed his constables in each, and
constituted justiciaries and sheriffs; and the whole land was
subjected to him in everything just like England. The gold, and the
silk, and the jewels from the treasures that were broken open, he
retained for himself; the silver and victuals he gave to the army. To
the King of Jerusalem also he made a handsome present out of his
booty.
And because Lent had already passed, and the lawful time of
contract was come, he caused Berengaria, daughter of the King of
Navarre, whom his mother had brought to him in Lent, to be
affianced to him in the island.
 AT ACRE, (1191).

Source.—Geoffrey de Vinsauf, Chs. IV., V., VI., VIII., Chronicles of

the Crusades. Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
On the following day of Pentecost, King Richard arrived with an
army, the flower of war, and upon learning that the King of France
had gained the goodwill and favour of all, by giving to each of his
soldiers three "aurei" a month,—not to be outdone or equalled in
generosity, he proclaimed by mouth of herald, that whosoever was
in his service, no matter of what nation, should receive four statute
"aurei" a month for his pay. By these means his generosity was
extolled by all, for he outshone everyone else in merit and favours,
as he outdid them in gifts and magnificence. "When," exclaimed
they, "will the first attack take place, by a man whom we have
expected so long and anxiously? A man, by far the first of kings, and
the most skilled in war throughout Christendom? Now let the will of
God be done, for the hope of all rests on King Richard." But after
some days sojourn, the King was afflicted with a severe illness, to
which the common people gave the name of Arnoldia, which is
produced by change of climate working on the constitution. But for
all that, he caused petrariae and mangonels to be raised, and a fort
in front of the city gates; and spared no pains to expedite the
construction of machines.
Ch. V. The King of France, not liking the delay in commencing the
attack, sent word to King Richard, that a favourable opportunity now
offered itself: and he also warned, by voice of herald, the army to
prepare for an assault. But King Richard had signified his inability
hitherto to attend to his duty, both on account of indisposition, and
because his men were not yet come; though he hoped that they
would arrive in the next fleet of ships, and would bring with them
materials for the construction of machines. The King of France, not
thinking fit to desist, on that account, from his purpose, commanded
an assault to be proclaimed, by voice of herald throughout the army.
Therefore, on the Monday after the Feast of the Nativity of St. John
the Baptist, the King of France, having erected his machines, gave
orders to his men to arm. Then might have been seen a countless
multitude of armed men, worthily equipped; and so many coats of
scale armour, gleaming helmets, and noble chargers with pennons
and banners of various workmanship, and soldiers of tried valour
and courage, as never had been seen before. Having placed men to
defend the trenches against the threatened attack of Saladin from
without, the armies approached the walls of the city and
commenced a most vigorous assault, by casting darts and stones
from arbalests and machines, without ceasing. When the Turks who
were shut up in the city saw this, they raised a tumultuous clamour
and shouted to the skies; so that it resembled the crash in the air
caused by thunder and lightning; for some had this sole duty—to
beat basins and platters; to strike timbrels; and by other means to
make signal to Saladin and the army without; in order that they
might come to their succour, according to agreement. And when the
Turks from without saw and heard this, they gathered in a body; and
collecting every material within their reach to fill up the ditch, they
essayed to cross over, and attack our men, but failed in effecting
their object. For Godfrey of Lusignan, a man of the most approved
valour, opposed them, and drove them back from the barricades,
which they had already seized upon, above our men; and he slew
ten of them with an axe he carried in his hand, in a most glorious
manner; and none he smote escaped; nay, he took some alive; for
such was his courage and activity, that no one since the time of
those famous soldiers, Roland and Oliver, could lay claim to such
distinction, from the mouth of all, as himself. Our men regained the
barricades, but with much labour and difficulty; for the Turks kept
pouring in, and by their obstinate persistence, made the issue a long
time doubtful. So severe and insupportable was the struggle, and so
horrible the clamour of the conflict, that the men who were making
the assault on the city and were intent on filling up the trenches,
were forced to retire and give up the attempt, for they were not able
to carry on the assault, and at the same time defend their camp
from the Turks without. And many of the French perished from the
darts cast by the arbalests, the throwing of stones, and the pouring
on them of Greek fire; and there was great mourning and
lamentation among the people. O! with what earnestness had we
expected the arrival of the Kings! How fallen were our hopes! They
had come, and we profited not; nay, we suffered a severer loss than
usual; and those we expected came to no purpose. Our men of
France having laid aside their arms, the Turks began to revile them
shamefully; and reproached them with not being able to accomplish
what they had begun; moreover, they threw Greek fire on the
machines and other warlike instruments of the King of France, which
had been made with such care, and destroyed them. Whence the
King of France, overcome by fury and anger, sunk into a state of
languid sickness, from sorrow, it was said; and from confusion and
discouragement, mounted not on horseback.
Ch. VIII. The City of Acre, from its strong position, and its being
defended by the choicest men of the Turks, appeared difficult to be
taken by assault. The French had hitherto spent their labour in vain
in constructing machines and engines for breaking down the walls,
with the greatest care; for whatever they erected, at a great
expense, the Turks destroyed with Greek fire or some devouring
conflagration. Amongst other machines and engines which the King
of France had erected for breaking down the walls, he had prepared
one with great labour, to be used for scaling it, which they called a
"cat," because like a cat it crept up and adhered to the wall. He had
also another, made of strong hurdle twigs, put together most
compactly, which they used to call a "cercleia," and under its
covering of hides the King of France used to sit, and employ himself
in throwing darts from a sling; he would thus watch the approach of
the Turks, above on the walls, by the battlements, and then hit them
unawares. But it happened one day that the French were eagerly
pressing forward to apply their cat to the walls, when behold! the
Turks let down upon it a heap of the driest wood, and threw upon it
a quantity of Greek fire, as well as upon the hurdle they had
constructed with such toil, and then aimed a petraria in that
direction, and all having forthwith caught fire, they broke them in
pieces by the blows from their petraria. Upon this the King of France
was enraged beyond measure, and began to curse all those who
were under his command; and rated them shamefully for not
exacting condign vengeance of the Saracens, who had done them
such injuries. In the heat of his passion, and when the day was
drawing in, he published an edict, by voice of herald, that an assault
should be made upon the city on the morrow.
Ch. XV. What can we say of this race of unbelievers who thus
defended their city? They must be admired for their valour in war,
and were the honour of their whole nation. Yet they dreaded our
men, not without reason, for they saw the choicest soldiers from the
ranks of all Christendom come to destroy them; their walls in part
broken down, in part shattered, the greater portion of their army
mutilated, some killed, and others weakened by their wounds. There
were still remaining in the city 6000 Turks, with Mestoc and Caracois
their chiefs, but they despaired of succour. They perceived that the
Christian army was very much dejected at the death of Alberic
Clements, and their sons and kinsmen who had fallen in battle, and
that they were determined either to die bravely, or gain the mastery
over the Turks, and that they thought a middle course
dishonourable. Under these circumstances, by common counsel and
assent, the besieged begged a truce, in order to inform Saladin of
their condition, and to ascertain how far he would afford them
security according to the manner of barbarous nations, by either
sending them speedy help, or giving them leave to depart from the
city with honour. To obtain this object, two of the most noble of the
Saracens and of Paganism, Mestoc and Caracois, came to our Kings
with the promise that if Saladin did not send them speedy
assistance, they would give up the city, on the condition that all the
besieged Turks should be permitted to depart in freedom, with their
arms and property, and go whithersoever they liked. And on the King
of France and nearly all the French giving their assent to this
condition at the conference, King Richard absolutely refused his, and
said, it was not to be consented to, that after so long and laborious
a siege they should enter a deserted city only. On his pleasure being
known, Caracois and Mestoc returned to the city without effecting
their object. And Saladin, when he learnt that ambassadors had
been sent by the besieged, commanded them to persevere and
defend their city with as much courage as that which they had
hitherto shewn, promising that most ample assistance should soon
come to them without a doubt; for he declared to the ambassadors
who waited upon him that he would certainly persevere, and as he
was expecting a large body of soldiers from Babylon, they would
soon come in ships and galleys; for he had given orders to Muleina
to be with him, without fail, in eight days; and if they did not come
according to agreement, he promised with an oath to procure for
them as honourable a peace as he could from the Christians, and
the liberty to depart. On hearing these things, the ambassadors
returned to the city, and, repeating the promises of Saladin,
persuaded the townsmen to resist while they looked forward with
anxiety for the promised assistance.
Ch. XVI. Meanwhile, the petrariae of the Christians never ceased,
day and night, to shake the walls; and when the Turks saw this, they
were smitten with wonder, astonishment, terror, and confusion; and
many, yielding to their fears, threw themselves down from the walls
by night, and without waiting for the promised aid, very many
sought, with supplications, the sacrament of baptism and
Christianity....
Ch. XVII. Saladin, perceiving the dangers of delay, at length
determined to yield to the entreaties of the besieged; he was,
moreover, persuaded by his admirals, and his satraps, and his
influential courtiers, who had many friends and kinsmen among the
besieged. The latter alleged also, that he was bound to them on his
promise made on the Mahometan law, that he would procure for
them an honourable capitulation at the last moment, lest,
perchance, made prisoners at discretion, they should be
exterminated or put to an ignominious death, and thus the law of
Mahomet, which had been strictly observed by their ancestors, be
effaced by its dependence on him; and nevertheless very much
would be derogated from his name and excellence if the worshippers
of Mahomet should fall into the hands of Christians. They also
begged to remind Saladin of the fact that they, a chosen race of
Turks, in obedience to his commands, had been cooped up in the
city, and withstood a siege for so long a time; they reminded him
too, that they had not seen their wives and children for three years,
during which period the siege had lasted; and they said that it would
be better to surrender the city, than that people of such merit should
be destroyed. The princes persuading the Sultan to this effect, that
their latter condition might not be worse than their former one; he
assented to their making peace on the best terms they could, and
they drew up a statement of what appeared to them the most
proper terms of treaty....
Ch. XVIII. Thus, after the Friday after the Translation of St.
Benedict, the principal and noblest of the admirals were given and
received as hostages, and the space of one month fixed for the
delivery of the Cross and the collecting together of the captives. And
when it was rumoured abroad that the city was to be given up, the
common people, in their folly, were inflamed with fury, but the wiser
portion rejoiced, at gaining so profitably and without danger, what
they had been so long a time unable to obtain. Then was it
proclaimed and prohibited by voice of herald, that any one should
molest the Turks by word or deed, or provoke them by abuse, or
that missiles should any longer be cast for the destruction of the
walls or of the Turks who might be seen on the battlements.

RETURN OF PHILIP (1191).

Source.—Geoffrey de Vinsauf, Ch. XXI., Chronicles of the Crusades.

Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
Ch. XXI. Affairs being in this position, at the end of the month of
July, within which the Turks had promised to restore the holy cross,
and receive back their hostages, a rumour spread among the army,
that the King of France, on whom the hope of the people rested,
intended to return home, and was making active preparations for his
journey. Oh how wicked and how insulting a proceeding, while as
yet so much work remained on hand, to wish to go away, when his
duty was to rule so large a multitude of people, and when his
presence was so necessary to encourage the Christians to so pious a
work, and to provide for the progress of so arduous an undertaking!
O why did he come so long a way and with so much toil, if he
intended to return almost immediately? O wonderful performance of
his vow, by merely entering the Holy Land, and contending against
the Turks with such small triumph! But why need we say more? The
King of France alleged sickness as the cause of his return; and said
that he had performed his vow as far as he was able; most of all,
because he was well and sound when he took up the cross with King
Henry between Trie and Gisors.... But when the inflexible
determination of the King of France to return became known to all,
and his refusal to yield to the murmurs of his men, or their
supplications to remain, the French would have renounced their
subjection to him, if it could have been done, and would have
loathed his dominion; and they imprecated on him every kind of
adversity and misfortune that could fall to the lot of man in this life.
But for all that the King of France hastened his voyage as much as
possible, and left in his stead the Duke of Burgundy, with a large
number of men. Moreover, he begged King Richard to supply him
with two galleys, and the King readily gave him two of his best; how
ungrateful he was of this service was afterwards seen.

RICHARD'S SICKNESS (1192). A TRUCE.

Source.—Richard of Devizes, §§ 87, 88, 90, 91, 92, 93, Chronicles

of the Crusades. Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
§ 87. The King was extremely sick, and confined to his bed; his
fever continued without intermission; the physicians whispered that
it was an acute semitertian.... No one speaks of the indisposition of
the King, lest the secret of their intense sorrow should be disclosed
to the enemy; for it was thoroughly understood that Saladin feared
the charge of the whole army less than that of the King alone; and if
he should know that he was dead, he would instantly pelt the French
with cow-dung, and intoxicate the best of the English with a dose
that should make them tremble.
§ 88. In the meantime, a certain Gentile, called Saffatin, came
down to see the King as he generally did: he was a brother of
Saladin, an ancient man of war of remarkable politeness and
intelligence, and one whom the King's magnanimity and munificence
had charmed even to the love of his person and favour of his party.
The King's servants greeting him less joyfully than they were
accustomed, and not admitting him to an interview with the King, "I
perceive," said he by his interpreter, "that you are greatly afflicted;
nor am I ignorant of the cause. My friend your King is sick.... O! if
that Richard, whom although I love yet I fear, if he were despatched
out of the way, how little should we then fear, how very little should
we make account of that youngest of the sons, who sleeps at home
in clover. It was not unknown to us, that Richard, who nobly
succeeded his great father in the kingdom, immediately set forward
against us even in the very year of his coronation. The number of his
ships and troops was not unknown to us before his setting forth. We
knew, even at the very time, with what speed he took Messina. The
well-fortified city of Sicily, which he besieged; and although none of
our people believed it, yet our fears increased, and fame added false
terrors to the true.
§ 91. "His valour unable to rest in one place, proceeded through a
boundless region, and everywhere left trophies of his courage. We
questioned among ourselves whether he made ready to subdue, for
his God the Land of Promise only, or at the same time to take the
whole world for himself. Who shall worthily relate the capture of
Cyprus? Verily had the island of Cyprus been close to Egypt, and had
my brother Saladin subdued it in ten years, his name would have
been reckoned by the people among the names of the gods. When,
however, we at last perceived that he overthrew whatever resisted
his purpose, our hearts were melted as the hoar-frost melts at the
appearance of the approaching sun, forasmuch as it was said of him
that he ate his enemies alive. And if he were not presently, on the
very day of his arrival before Acre, received freely into the city with
open gates, fear alone was the cause. It was not from their desire to
preserve the city, but through dread of the torments promised them
and their despair of life that they fought so bravely, or rather,
desperately, fearing this more than death, endeavouring this by all
means, namely, that they should not die unrevenged. And this was
not from sheer obstinacy, but to follow up the doctrine of our faith.
For we believe that the spirits of the unavenged wander for ever,
and that they are deprived of all rest. But what did the rashness and
timidity of the devoted profit them? Being vanquished by force and
constrained by fear to surrender, they were punished with a more
lenient death than they expected. And yet, oh! shame on the
Gentiles, their spirits wandered unavenged! I swear to you by the
Great God, that if, after he had gained Acre, he had immediately led
his army to Jerusalem, he would not have found even one of our
people in the whole circuit of the Christian's land; on the contrary,
we should have offered him inestimable treasure, that he might not
proceed, that he might not prosecute us further.
§ 92. "But thanks be to God, he was burdened with the King of
the French, and hindered by him like a cat with a hammer tied to its
tail. To conclude, we, though his rivals, see nothing in Richard that
we can find fault with but his valour; nothing to hate but his
experience in war. But what glory is there in fighting with a sick
man? And although this very morning I could have wished that both
you and he had all received your final doom, now I compassionate
you on account of your King's illness. I will either obtain for you a
settled peace with my brother, or at the least, a good and durable
truce...."
§ 93. The bishop of Salisbury and such of the most trusty of the
King's household as were present, who had secretly deliberated with
him upon this subject, reluctantly consented to the truce which
before they had determined to purchase at any price, as if it had
been detested and not desired by them. So their right hands being
given and received, Saffatin, when he had washed his face, and
disguised his sorrow, returned to Jerusalem, to Saladin. The council
was assembled before his brother, and after seventeen days of
weighty argument, he with difficulty succeeded in prevailing on the
stubbornness of the Gentiles to grant a truce to the Christians. The
time was appointed and the form approved. If it please King
Richard, for the space of three years, three months, three weeks,
three days and three hours, such a truce shall be observed between
the Christians and the Gentiles, that whatever either one party or
the other in any wise possesses, he shall possess without
molestation to the end; it will be permitted during the interval, that
the Christians at their pleasure may fortify Acre only, and the
Gentiles Jerusalem. All contracts, commerce, every act and every
thing shall be mutually carried on by all in peace. Saffatin himself is
despatched to the English as the bearer of this decree.

CHIVALRY OF SALADIN (1192-3).

Source.—Geoffrey de Vinsauf, Ch. 32, Chronicles of the Crusades.

Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
The next day certain of the Turks appeared before Saladin, and
earnestly entreated of him that they might be allowed to take
vengeance on the Christians who were now in their power, for the
death of their friends, fathers, brothers, sons, and relations who had
been slain, first at Acre, and afterwards at other places, and now, as
they said, that they had so good an opportunity. Saladin sent for the
Turkish chiefs to consult about this request, and Mestoc, Saphadin,
Bedridin, and Dorderin, were speedily in attendance. When the
subject was placed before them, it was their unanimous opinion that
the Christians should have leave to come and go, without injury or
hinderance. "For," said they to Saladin, "it would be a deep stain
upon our honour, if the treaty which has been made between you
and the King of England should, by our interference, be broken, and
the faith of the Turks for ever afterwards be called in question." In
consequence of these observations, Saladin gave orders immediately
that the Christians should be taken care of, and escorted to the city
and back again without molestation. To discharge this commission,
Saphadin was at his own request deputed; and under his protection
the pilgrims had free access to the Holy Sepulchre, and were treated
with the greatest liberality, after which they returned joyfully to Acre.

RETURN OF RICHARD (1193).

Source.—Geoffrey de Vinsauf, Ch. 37, Chronicles of the Crusades.

Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
Everything was now settled, and the King was already on the point
of embarking, when determining before he went, to leave nothing
behind him which might detract from his honour, he ordered
proclamation to be made that all who had claims on him should
come forward, and that all his debts should be paid fully, and more
than fully, to avoid all occasion afterwards of detraction or complaint.
What sighs and tears were there when the royal fleet weighed
anchor! A blessing was invoked on the King's many acts of
benevolence, his virtues and his largesses were set forth, and the
numerous excellences combined in one man. How then did the
lamentations of all resound as they exclaimed, O Jerusalem, bereft
now of every succour! How hast thou lost thy defender? Who will
protect thee, should the truce be broken, now that King Richard is
departed? Such were the words of each when the King, whose
health was not yet fully re-established, and who was the subject of
all their anxious wishes, went on board and set sail. All night the
ship ran on her way by the light of the stars, and when morning
dawned, the King looked back with yearning eyes upon the land
which he had left, and after long meditation, he prayed aloud, in the
hearing of several, in these words: "O holy land, I commend thee to
God, and if his heavenly grace shall grant me so long to live, that I
may in his good pleasure, afford thee assistance, I hope, as I
propose to be able to be some day a succour to thee." With these
words he urged the sailors to spread their canvass to the winds, that
they might the sooner cross over the expanse of sea that lay before
them; ignorant indeed of the tribulations and sorrows which awaited
him, and the calamities that he was to suffer from the treachery that
had long before been transmitted to France, by which it was
contrived that he should be wickedly thrown into prison, though he
justly suspected no such evil in the service of God, and in so
laborious a pilgrimage. O how unequally was he recompensed for his
exertions in the common cause! His inheritance was seized by
another, his castles in Normandy were unjustly taken, his rivals made
cruel assaults on his rights without provocation, and he only escaped
from captivity by paying a ransom to the Emperor of Germany. To
gather the money for his ransom, the taxes were raised to the
uttermost; a large collection was levied upon all his land and
everything was distracted; for the chalices and hallowed vessels of
gold and silver were gathered from the churches, and the
monasteries were obliged to do without their utensils; neither was
this unlawful according to the decrees of the holy fathers, nay, it was
even a matter of necessity inasmuch as no saint, many though there
be, ever during life, suffered so much for the Lord as King Richard in
his captivity in Austria and in Germany. He who had gained so many
triumphs over the Turks was nefariously circumvented by the
brethren of his own faith, and seized by those who agreed with him
in name only as members of the Creed of Christ. Alas, how much
more are secret snares to be feared than open discord, according to
the proverb, "It is easier to avoid a hostile than a deceitful man."
Oh, shame be it said, that one whom no adversary could resist, nor
the whole force of Saladin could conquer, was now seized by an
ignoble people, and kept a prisoner in Germany. Oh, how painful is it
for those who have been nurtured in liberty, to be placed at the beck
of another! But out of that captivity, by God's usual mercy, his own
activity, and the care of his faithful servants, he was at length set at
liberty for a large sum of money, because he was known to be a
man of great power. At last restored to his native soil and the
kingdom of his ancestors, in a short time he restored all to
tranquillity. He then crossed over into Normandy, to avenge himself
on the wanton aggressions of the King of France, his rival; and when
he had more than once defeated him, he powerfully recovered with
sword and spear his alienated rights, even with augmentation.

RICHARD'S CAPTURE (1192).

Source.—Roger de Hoveden, Vol. II., pp. 269-70. Bohn's Libraries.

G. Bell & Sons.
After this, the King of England placing everything in the hands of
Henry, Count of Champagne, hastened to return to his kingdom, by
reason of the sinister reports which he had heard, both as to the
King of France and the expulsion of his Chancellor, as also the Earl of
Mortaigne, his brother, who had seized the castles of the kingdom
and would have taken possession of the whole thereof if he could
have found the opportunity. Accordingly, the King of England came
to Caiaphas, where he fell sick, and proceeded thence to Acre. Here,
after the feast of St. Michael, being the eighth day before the Ides of
October, and the fifth day of the week, he embarked on board of a
large buss, and, within a month from that day, arrived at the island
of Cunerfu, where he went on board a boat, and sailed towards
three galleys which he saw on the opposite side off the coast of
Romania, and hired them to take him as far as Ragusa, for two
hundred marks of silver; after which he returned to his buss, and the
said galleys with him; and, having made terms with them, he took
with him Baldwin, the advocate of Bethune, and twenty other
companions, and embarked on board one of the said galleys, and on
landing at Gazera, near Ragusa, declined to tell them that he was
King of England, but said that they were pilgrims. However, although
he had a long beard and long hair and garments, and everything
else to resemble the people of that country, he was unable to remain
unknown, in consequence of his great expenditure, which was quite
foreign to the usage of the people of that country.
Immediately, the people of the province guessing that he was the
King of England, prepared to capture him and deliver him to the
Emperor of the Romans, who hated him, on account of the aid he
had given to King Tancred, and for the death of his kinsman, the
Marquis Conrad. Upon the King of England being informed of this by
one of his followers, he placed his retinue in charge of Baldwin, the
Advocate of Bethune, and ordered him to remain the next four days
at that place, making a more lavish expenditure than he himself had
done; after which, he himself, with a single attendant, having
mounted a swift horse, his attendant doing the same, set out late at
night, and, hastening day and night, arrived in the neighbourhood of
Vienna; at a little village, not far from which place he and his
attendant took up their abode. While the King's attendant was gone
to buy food, the King, being fatigued by the labour of his journey,
immediately threw himself upon a bed and fell asleep. In the
meantime, his attendant, while endeavouring to exchange some
money, was recognized by the servant of the duke of Austria, and
taken prisoner, and brought before the duke; and, when he could
conceal it no longer, disclosed to him the lodging of the King; on
which they came, and, finding him asleep, took him prisoner. As for
the Advocate of Bethune, and those who were with him, on
attempting to leave the town, they were taken prisoners, and not
allowed to depart.

THE RELEASE OF RICHARD (1192).

Source.—Roger de Hoveden, Vol. II., pp. 281-2. Bohn's Libraries. G.

Bell & Sons.
Accordingly, upon hearing of the confinement of the King, Walter,
Archbishop of Rouen, and the other justiciaries of our lord the King,
sent the Abbot of Boxley and the Abbot of Pont Robert to Germany,
to seek the King of England. After having passed through the whole
of Germany, and not finding the King, they entered Bavaria, and met
the King at a town, the name of which is Oxefer, where he was
brought before the Emperor, to hold a conference with him, on Palm
Sunday. On hearing that the before-named abbots had come from
England, the King showed himself courteous and affable to them;
making enquiries about the state of his kingdom and the fidelity of
his subjects, and the health and prosperity of the King of Scotland,
in whose fidelity he placed a very strong reliance: on which they
testified to what they had heard and seen. A conference accordingly
taking place between them, the King made complaint of the
treachery of his brother, John, earl of Mortaigne, on whom he had
conferred so many favours and boundless honors, and who had
thrown himself into the hands of the King of France against him,
and, having broken the ties of brotherhood, had made a league with
death and a compact with hell. The King, though greatly afflicted
upon this subject, suddenly broke forth into these words of
consolation, saying, "My brother John is not the man to subjugate a
country, if there is a person able to make the slightest resistance to
his attempts."
During his journey of three days, while on the road to meet the
emperor, it was the admiration of all how boldly, how courteously,
and how becomingly he behaved himself, and they judged him
worthy of the imperial elevation who so thoroughly understood the
arts of command, and how, with uniform self-possession, to rise
superior to the two-faced events of fortune. On a day named, after
he had held a conference by messengers with the emperor, they
were unable on that day to have an interview with him, because the
Emperor had made of him many demands, to which the King had
determined not to yield, even though his life should be perilled
thereby. On the morrow, however, while all were despairing, with
joyous success ensued joyous consolation.
For, on the emperor accusing the King of many things, and
charging him with many misdeeds, both with his betrayal of the land
of Sulia, and with the death of the Marquis of Montferrat, as also
with reference to certain covenants made between them and not
observed by him, the King made answer with such frankness, such
self-possession and such intrepidity, that the emperor thought him
worthy, not only of his favour and pardon, but even of his praise. For
he raised the King when bending before him, and received him with
the kiss of peace, and made a treaty of friendship with him, and,
loading him with honors and succour (the people standing round and
bursting into tears for very joy), made a promise that he would
reconcile the King of England with the King of France. After this,
with the mediation of the duke of Austria, the King of England
promised that he would pay to the Emperor for his liberation, by way
of ransom, one hundred thousand marks. The emperor also
promised that, if by his means the King of England and the King of
France could not be reconciled, he would send the King of England
home without exacting the money.

ENGLAND UNDER THE CHANCELLORS (1191-3).

Source.—Roger de Hoveden, Vol. II., p. 231 seqq. Bohn's Libraries.

G. Bell & Sons.
William, bishop of Ely, the King's Chancellor, was a great man
among all the people of the west, and, as though gifted with a two-
fold right hand, wielded the power of the kingdom, and the authority
of the Apostolic See, and was in possession of the King's seal over
all lands, so as to be enabled to govern according to his own will,
and of his own power to bring all things to completion; even in the
same degree of estimation as both king and priest together was he
held; nor was there any person to be found to dare to offer
resistance to his will. For he said, and the thing was done, he
commanded, and all means were discovered. In his hands were the
royal treasures, the whole of the King's riches, and the entire
exchequer, so much so that all property whatsoever that swam
beneath our skies was no longer said to belong to the King, but to
him. And really if it had been the time of the Cæsars, he would with
Tiberius have had himself styled the living God. But when the King
had given him certain earls as his associates, in order that at least
the more weighty concerns of the realm might be managed by their
counsels in common, he could not at all endure to have any partner
therein, as he thought that the greater part of his glory would be
thrown into the shade, if he should stand in need of the advice of
any mortal being. Therefore he ruled alone, therefore he reigned
alone, and from sea to sea was he dreaded as though a God; and
were I to say still more, I should not be telling a falsehood, because
God is long-suffering and merciful; while he, ruling every thing
according to his own impulses, was neither able to observe justice
when acting, nor to endure delay in waiting the proper time. Hence
it arose that he set at nought all the letters and mandates of his
lord; that he might not seem to have a superior nor be supposed to
be subject to any one, having always made every one act as the
servant of his own will. Therefore, after England had for a
considerable time suffered under so heavy a burden and a yoke so
insupportable, at length, while groaning at his deeds, she cried aloud
with all her might. As, therefore, a man so powerful could not be
overcome by man, the Father of Mercies and the God of all
consolation came to the aid of the people who supplicated God, and
supplanting the hand of mercy in his case, hurled him down from his
power, and brought this accuser, or rather destroyer, to such a pitch
of giddiness of mind, that he was unable to recover or rouse himself
therefrom; but he so hardened his heart, blinded his mind, and
infatuated his counsels, that he first besieged the Archbishop of York
in a church, then seized him, and after seizing him, violently tore
him away; after tearing him away, strongly bound him; after strongly
binding him, dragged him along; and after dragging him along,
threw him into prison. And although there was a concourse of
people who exclaimed, "What has this righteous man and friend of
God been guilty of, that he should be taken to prison? his innocent
blood is condemned without a cause." Still pity could not listen
where pride reigned, and God was not heard where the tyrant held
sway. For the said Archbishop was coming from the country of
Normandy with his pastoral staff and mitre, and ring, and
superhumeral, which in later times has been styled the pall. And
although he was the son of King Henry, of happy memory, and the
brother of King Richard, who now reigns, and the brother of John,
Earl of Mortaigne, still, his royal blood could be of no service to him;
and although he had been recently consecrated, the recent
performance of that sacrament could not avail him.
The associates also of the said Chancellor whom the King had
associated with him in the government of the kingdom, accused him
of many offences, saying that, despising their advice, he had
transacted all the affairs of the kingdom according to impulse and
his own will. The Archbishop of Rouen also, and William Marshal,
Earl of Striguil, then for the first time produced before the people
the sealed letters from our lord the King, in which the King had sent
orders from Messina, that they should be associated with him in the
government of the kingdom, and that, without the advice of them
and the other persons so appointed, he was not to act in the affairs
of the King and the kingdom, and that if he should do anything to
the detriment of the kingdom, or without the consent of the persons
before-named, he should be deposed and the Archbishop of Rouen
substituted in his place.
It seemed good, therefore, to John, the King's brother, and all the
bishops, earls, and barons of the kingdom, and to the citizens of
London, that the Chancellor should be deposed, and they
accordingly deposed him, and substituted in his place the Archbishop
of Rouen, who was willing to do nothing in the government of
kingdom except with the will and consent of the persons assigned to
him as associates therein, and with the sanction of the barons of the
exchequer.

THE CAPTURE OF ARTHUR (1202).

Source.—Roger of Wendover, Vol. II., Annal 1202. Bohn's Libraries.
G. Bell & Sons.
When the French and the people of Poictou learned that the King
was on his way, they went out with a pompous array to meet him,
and give him battle; but when they met each other in battle order,
and had engaged, the King bravely withstood their turbulent attacks,
and at length put them to flight, pursuing them so quickly with his
cavalry, that he entered the castle at the same time as the fugitives.
Then a most severe conflict took place inside the walls of the castle,
but was soon determined by the laudable valour of the English: in
the conflict there two hundred French knights were taken prisoners,
and all the nobles in Poictou and Anjou, together with Arthur
himself, so that not one out of the whole number escaped, who
could return and tell the misfortune to the rest of their countrymen.
Having, therefore, secured his prisoners in fetters and shackles, and
placed them in cars, a new and unusual mode of conveyance, the
King sent some of them to Normandy, and some to England, to be
imprisoned in strong castles, whence there would be no fear of their
escape; but Arthur was kept at Falaise under close custody.

THE LOSS OF NORMANDY (1204).

Source.—Roger of Wendover, Vol. II., Annal 1204. Bohn's Libraries.

G. Bell & Sons.
Thus the castle of the Rock of Andelys fell into the hands of the
French King on the 6th of March, and Roger de Lacy with all his
followers were taken to France, where, on account of the bravery he
had shown in defence of his castle, he was detained prisoner on
parole. On this all the holders of castles in the transmarine
territories, with the citizens and other subjects of the King of
England, sent messages to England to tell him in what a precarious
situation they were placed, and that the time, according to the terms
of the treaty, was near, when they must either give up the cities and
castles to the King of the French, or consign to destruction the
hostages which they had given him. To which message King John
answered, and intimated by the same messengers to all of them,
that they were to expect no assistance from him, but that they each
were to do what seemed best to him. And thus, all kind of defence
failing in those provinces, the whole of Normandy, Tours, Anjou, and
Poictou, with the cities, castles, and other possessions, except the
Castles of Rochelle, Thouars, and Niorz, fell to the dominion of the
King of the French. When this was told to the English King, he was
enjoying all the pleasures of life with his Queen, in whose company
he believed that he possessed everything he wanted; moreover, he
felt confidence in the immensity of the wealth he had collected, as if
by that he could regain the territory he had lost.

LONDON (Circ. 1204).

Source.—Richard of Devizes, Chronicles of the Crusades, § 80.

Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
Every race of men, out of every nation which is under heaven,
resort thither in great numbers; every nation has introduced into
that city its vices and bad manners. No one lives in it without
offence; there is not a single street in it that does not abound in
miserable, obscene wretches; there, in proportion as any man has
exceeded in wickedness, so much is he the better. I am not ignorant
of the disposition I am exhorting; you have, in addition to your
youth, an ardent disposition, a slowness of memory and a soberness
of reason between extremes. I feel in myself no uneasiness about
you, unless you should abide with men of corrupt lives; for from our
associations our manners are formed. But let that be as it may. You
will come to London. Behold! I warn you, whatever of evil or
perversity there is in any, whatever in all parts of the world, you will
find in that city alone. Go not to the dances of panders, nor mix
yourself up with the herds of the houses of ill fame; avoid the talus
and the dice, the theatre and the tavern. You will find more
braggadocios there than in all France, while the number of flatterers
is infinite. Stage-players, buffoons, those that have no hair on their
bodies, Garamantes, pickthanks, catamites, effeminate evildoers,
lewd musical girls, druggists, lustful persons, fortune-tellers,
extortioners, nightly strollers, magicians, mimics, common beggars,
tatterdemalions—this whole crew has filled every house. So if you do
not wish to live with the shameful, you will not dwell in London.

THE TOWNS OF ENGLAND.

I am not speaking against the learned, whether monks or Jews;

although, still, from their very dwelling together with such evil
persons, I should esteem them less perfect there than elsewhere.
Nor does my advice go so far, as that you should betake yourself
to no city; with my counsel you will take up your residence nowhere
but in a town, though it remains to say in what.
Therefore, if you should land near Canterbury, you will have to
lose your way, if even you should but pass through it. It is an
assemblage of the vilest, entirely devoted to their—I know not
whom, but who has been lately canonized, and had been the
Archbishop of Canterbury, as everywhere they die in the open day in
the streets for want of bread and employment.
Rochester and Chichester are mere villages, and they possess
nothing for which they should be called cities, but the Sees of their
bishops. Oxford scarcely, I will not say satisfies, but sustains its
clerks. Exeter supports men and beasts with the same grain. Bath is
placed, or rather buried, in the lowest parts of the valleys, in a very
dense atmosphere and sulphury vapour, as it were at the gates of
Hell. Nor yet will you select your habitation in the Northern cities nor
in Worcester, Chester, Hereford, on account of the desperate
Welshmen. York abounds in Scots, vile and faithless men, or rather
rascals. The town of Ely is always putrefied by the surrounding
marshes. In Durham, Norwich, or Lincoln, there are very few of your
disposition among the powerful; you will never hear anyone speak
French. At Bristol there is nobody who is not, or has not been, a
soap-maker, and every Frenchman esteems soap-makers as he does
nightmen.
After the cities, every market, village or town, has but rude and
rustic inhabitants. Moreover, at all times, account the Cornish people
for such as you know our Flemish are accounted in France. For the
rest, the kingdom itself is generally most favoured with the dew of
heaven and the fatness of the earth; and in every place there are
some good, but much fewer in them all than in Winchester alone.
This is in those parts the Jerusalem of the Jews, in it alone they
enjoy perpetual peace; it is the school of those who desire to live
well and prosper. Here they become men, here there is bread and
wine enough for nothing. There are therein monks of such
compassion and gentleness, clergy of such understanding and
frankness, citizens of such civility and good faith, ladies of such
beauty and modesty, that little hinders but I should go there and
become a Christian with such Christians. To that city I direct you, the
city of cities, the mother of all, the best above all.
There is but one fault, and that alone in which they customarily
indulge too much. With the exception I should say of the learned
and of the Jews, the Winchester people tell lies like watchmen, but it
is in making up reports. For in no place under heaven so many false
rumours are fabricated so easily as there; otherwise they are true in
everything.

JOHN'S GRANT TO THE ABBEY OF CROYLAND

(1202-1206).

Source.—Ingulph's Chronicles. Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.

 The Charter of our lord the King, John, as to the confirmation of
the boundaries of the abbey, and of which mention is made above,
was to the following effect: "John, by the Grace of God, King of
England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and Earl
of Anjou, to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons,
justiciaries, sheriffs, and all his bailiffs and faithful subjects, greeting.
Know ye, that we have granted and confirmed unto God and the
Church of St. Guthlac at Croyland, and to the abbot and monks there
serving God, all the lands and tenements, and other the possessions
to the said church belonging, and in especial the site of the said
abbey, together with the boundaries thereof herein named, which
extend as follow: a distance of five leagues, from Croyland to the
place where the Asendyk falls into the waters of the Welland,
together with all piscaries to the said boundaries belonging.
Wherefore we do will and strictly command that the before-named
church, and abbot, and monks shall hold and for ever possess all
their lands, tenements, and other their possessions, and all the gifts
which since the death of King Henry, the grandfather of our father,
have been reasonably given to them, fully, peacefully, freely, quietly,
and honourably, to enjoy the same in wood and in plain, in meadows
and in pastures, in waters and in marshes, in preserves and in
fisheries, in mills and in mill-dams, and in all other things and places,
with right of Sach and Soch, and Thol, and Them, and Infangthefe,
and with all other free customs and acquittances, as fully, freely, and
quietly as the said church, and abbot, and monks, held the same in
the time of King Henry, the grandfather of our father, or other our
predecessors Kings of England, and as fully, freely, and quietly as
any churches in our kingdom of England hold the same, in such
manner as is by the Charter of King Henry our father reasonably
testified, etc. Given by the hand of Simon, Archdeacon of Wells."
Not even thus, however, did the venerable abbot Henry gain the
wish for repose, but, like a stone out of the living rock to be placed
in a heavenly house, was he squared, both on the right side and on
the left, by repeated blows and numerous buffetings. For Acharius,
also the Abbot of Burgh St. Peter (not content with his own
boundaries, but desirous, contrary to the prophetic warning "to join
house to house, and lay field to field, till there be no place,") first, by
the royal writ, obtained of the King from beyond sea, impleaded the
said abbot Henry, and without any good reason claimed against him
our southern marsh called Alderland, of which our monastery had
held undisturbed possession from its foundation until the times of
our said father, just as the Assyrians did against the people of God.
Upon this, Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was then chief
justiciary of England, sent letters mandatory to the abbats of
Ramsay and Thorney, directing them to make inquisition in his
behalf upon the oaths of eighteen knights, mutually agreed upon,
what right each of them had to the lands, meadows, pastures, and
marshes, and all other things between the river Rene, and the river
Welland, and which ought to be the boundaries between the Abbey
of Burgh and the Abbey of Croyland, and fully to state the said
inquisition, under their seals, and those of the knights to the before-
named archbishop and justices.
A dissension, however, arising between the inquisitors, they
returned to their homes, leaving the matter unsettled.
At length, however, after many conferences, discussions, delays,
and expenses on both sides the dispute between the two abbats
having been enquired into at great length before the justices of our
lord the King at Lexington, was finally settled to the no small
detriment of the church of Croyland.

THE ELECTION OF LANGTON (1207).

Source.—Roger of Wendover, Vol. II., Annal 1207. Bohn's Libraries.

G. Bell & Sons.
About this time the monks of the church of Canterbury appeared
before our lord the Pope, to plead a disgraceful dispute which had
arisen between themselves; for a certain part of them, by
authenticated letters of the convent, presented Reginald, sub-prior
of Canterbury, as they had often done, to be archbishop-elect, and
earnestly required the confirmation of his election; the other portion
of the same monks had, by letters alike authentic, presented John,
bishop of Norwich, showing by many arguments that the election of
the sub-prior was null, not only because it had been made by night,
and without the usual ceremonies, and without the consent of the
King, but also because it had not been made by the older and wiser
part of the convent; and thus setting forth these reasons, they asked
that that election should be confirmed, which was made before
fitting witnesses in open day and by consent, and in the presence of
the King. At length, after long arguments on both sides, our lord the
Pope, seeing that the parties could not agree in fixing on the same
person, and that both elections had been made irregularly, and not
according to the decrees of the holy canons, by the advice of his
cardinals, annulled both elections, laying the apostolic interdict on
the parties, and by definitive judgment ordering, that neither of
them should again aspire to the honours of the archbishopric. When
at length the letters of our lord the Pope came to the notice of the
English King, he was exceedingly enraged, as much at the promotion
of Stephen Langton, as at the annulling of the election of the bishop
of Norwich, and accused the monks of Canterbury of treachery; for
he said that they had, to the prejudice of his rights, elected their
sub-prior without his permission, and afterwards, to palliate their
fault by giving satisfaction to him, they chose the bishop of Norwich;
that they had also received money from the treasury for their
expenses in obtaining the confirmation of the said bishop's election
from the apostolic see; and to complete their iniquity, they had there
elected Stephen Langton, his open enemy, and had obtained his
consecration to the archbishopric. On this account the said King, in
the fury of his anger and indignation, sent Fulk de Cantelu and
Henry de Cornhill, two most cruel and inhuman knights, with armed
attendants, to expel the monks of Canterbury, as if they were guilty
of a crime against his injured majesty from England, or else to
consign them to capital punishment. These knights were not slow to
obey the commands of their lord, but set out for Canterbury, and,
entering the monastery with drawn swords, in the King's name
fiercely ordered the prior and monks to depart immediately from the
kingdom of England as traitors to the King's Majesty; and they
affirmed with an oath that, if they (the monks) refused to do this,
they would themselves set fire to the monastery, and the other
offices adjoining it, and would burn all the monks themselves with
their buildings. The monks, acting unadvisedly, departed without
violence or laying hands on anyone; all of them, except thirteen sick
men who were lying in the infirmary unable to walk, forthwith
crossed into Flanders, and were honourably received at the Abbey of
St. Bertinus and other monasteries on the Continent. Afterwards, by
the orders of the King, some monks of the order of St. Augustine
were placed in the church of Canterbury in their stead to perform
the duties there; the before-mentioned bulk managing, and even
distributing and confiscating, all the property of the same monks,
whilst their lands and those of the archbishop remained uncultivated.
The aforesaid monks were driven from their monastery into exile on
the fourteenth of July.

THE INTERDICT (1208).

Source.—Roger of Wendover, Vol. II., Annal 1208. Bohn's Libraries.

G. Bell & Sons.
The Bishops of London, Ely, and Winchester, in execution of the
legateship entrusted to them, went to King John, and after duly
setting forth the apostolic commands, entreated of him humbly and
with tears, that he, having God in his sight, would recall the
archbishop and the monks of Canterbury to their Church, and
honour and love them with perfect affection, and they informed him
that thus he would avoid the shame of an interdict, and the Disposer
of rewards, would if he did so, multiply his temporal honours on him,
and after his death would bestow lasting glory on him. When the
said bishops wished, out of regard to the King, to prolong the
discourse, the King became nearly mad with rage, and broke forth in
words of blasphemy against the Pope and his cardinals, swearing by
God's teeth, that, if they or any other priests soever presumptuously
dared to lay his dominions under an interdict, he would immediately
send all the prelates of England, clerks as well as ordained persons,
to the Pope, and confiscate all their property; he added, moreover,
that all the clerks of Rome or of the Pope himself who could be
found in England or in his other territories, he would send to Rome
with their eyes plucked out, and their noses slit, that by these marks
they might be known there from other people; in addition to this, he
plainly ordered the bishops to take themselves quickly from his sight
if they wished to keep their bodies free from harm.

THE BATTLE OF BOUVINES (1214).

Source.—Matthew of Westminster, Vol. II., p. 119. Bohn's Libraries.

G. Bell & Sons.
The Count of Flanders and William, Earl of Salisbury, by making a
prodigal distribution of the King's treasures, collected a numerous
army of hired mercenaries, having formed a design of suddenly
attacking Philip, King of France on a Sunday, as he was not
accustomed to bear arms on that day. They had also great hope
from, and great reliance in, the wisdom and assistance of the
Emperor Otho, who was, as it were, watching for a struggle with a
drawn sword.
Accordingly the battle of Bouvines in Flanders was fought, and
great bravery was shown on both sides. The King of France had
three fine horses stabbed under him, nevertheless by the assistance
of God he that day gained an important triumph over his enemies.
Many nobles both of the Empire and of the kingdom of England were
taken prisoners, but the Emperor escaped with a few of his men who
were at hand. To the greater confusion of King John, he was
repulsed from the castle which is called Monk's Rock, in
consequence of the arrival of Louis, a son of the King of France; so
that hearing the news of the taking of his nobles at Bouvines, he felt
both God and man were offended with, and hostile to him.
Accordingly he fled disgracefully and ignominiously from the siege
before mentioned, and if he had not given eleven thousand marks of
silver for a truce for 3 years and then retreated into England with all
speed, he would no doubt have been taken, to his great disgrace.

EVENTS LEADING TO THE MAGNA CHARTA (1214).

Source.—Roger of Wendover, Vol. II., Annal 1214. Bohn's Libraries.

G. Bell & Sons.
On the 25th of August in the same year, Stephen, Archbishop of
Canterbury, with the bishops, abbots, priors, deacons, and barons of
the kingdom assembled at St. Paul's in the City of London, and there
the archbishop granted permission to the Conventual Churches, as
well as to the secular priests, to chant the services of the church in a
low voice, in the hearing of their parishioners. At this conference, as
report asserts, the said archbishop called some of the nobles aside
to him, and conversed privately with them to the following effect:
"Did you hear," said he, "how, when I absolved the King at
Winchester, I made him swear that he would do away with unjust
laws, and would recall good laws, such as those of King Edward, and
cause them to be observed by all in the kingdom; a Charter of Henry
Ist of England has just now been found, by which you may, if you
wish it, recall your long-lost rights and your former condition."
* * * * * *
*
On the Monday next after the octaves of Easter, the said barons
assembled in the town of Brackley, and when the King learned this,
he sent the archbishop of Canterbury, and William Marshal earl of
Pembroke, with some other prudent men, to them to enquire what
the laws and liberties were which they demanded. The barons then
delivered to the messengers a paper, containing in great measure
the laws and ancient customs of the kingdom, and declared that,
unless the King immediately granted them and confirmed them
under his own seal, they would, by taking possession of his
fortresses, force him to give them sufficient satisfaction as to their
before-named demands. The archbishop with his fellow messengers
then carried the paper to the King, and read to him the heads of the
paper one by one throughout.
The King when he heard the purport of these heads, derisively
said, with the greatest indignation, "Why, amongst these unjust
demands, did not the barons ask for my kingdom also? Their
demands are vain and visionary, and are unsupported by any plea of
reason whatever." And at length he angrily declared with an oath,
that he would never grant them such liberties as would render him
their slave. The principal of these laws and liberties, which the
nobles required to be confirmed to them, are partly described above
in the Charter of King Henry, and partly extracted from the old laws
of King Edward as the following history will show in due time.

KING JOHN AND THE ABBOT OF CANTERBURY.

[Traditional ballad of the 13th century. Probably of Coptic folk-lore and transferred to
John. Thus it illustrates the reputation of John and not an actual incident.]
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