CHAP. I. envy, which he was at no pains to soften; and on this occasion he remained but a short time in office, although he A.D. 1214 showed vigour and ability.* His great rival was Hubert de Burgh, who contrived within a year after his elevation to A.D. 1216. supersede him, and to hold the office of Chief Justiciar till the death of King John. Peter de Rupibus in favour III. A.D. 1221. Peter de Rupibus, however, was again in favour at the commencement of the next reign, and was appointed tutor with Henry to the infant Sovereign, who became very much attached to him. He was employed at the coronation to consecrate his royal pupil; and, being restored to his office of Justiciar, he was first minister as well as supreme judge. However, he increased the ill will which prevailed against him by advising the resumption of grants of the domain and revenues of the Crown which the King, with a boyish levity, had lavished upon his courtiers; and he made himself still more unpopular by betraying such a partiality for his countrymen, the Poictevans, that they engrossed almost every place of honour or profit. About this time sprung up in England that jealousy of foreigners, and that disposition to despise them, which have ever since actuated the great mass of our countrymen. The Normans had been highly popular at the Court of the later Anglo-Saxon Kings. Having conquered the country, they long regarded all of Anglo-Saxon blood as helots, while they treated Frenchmen and Italians who came here in quest of preferment as equals. But, after the loss of the Continental possessions which had belonged to the Kings of England, our nobles of Norman extraction began to consider themselves as Englishmen, and there was a rapid fusion of the two races into one nation. The intercourse of the inhabitants of this island with the Continent was very much lessened, and the prejudices as well as the virtues of islanders gathered strength among them from generation to generation. Peter de Rupibus excluded all who were born in England from employment, and treated Ideo vobis mandamus quod ei tanquam Justic. nostro Angliæ intendentes sitis et respondentes. Dat." &c. 340. "Diu non duravit in officio: prudens autem et potens."- Spel. Gloss. them with contumely, after the fashion of the Justiciars of the Conqueror and his sons. By preferring a foreigner to a piece of ecclesiastical preferment which was coveted by the famous Roger Bacon, then one of the King's chaplains, he incurred the enmity of that philosopher, who took every opportunity, both in his sermons and in private conversation, to set the King against him. It is related that on one occasion Roger asked Henry "what things a prudent pilot in steering a ship was most afraid of?" and Henry answering that "Roger himself ought best to know, as he had himself made many voyages to distant parts," Roger replied, "Sir, he who steers a trireme, and he who steers the vessel of the state, should, above all things, beware of stones and rocks, or Petræ et Rupes."" Hubert de Burgh, his old rival, took advantage of the combination against the favourite, and contrived again to turn him out from the place of Chief Justiciar, and to become his successor. Peter de Rupibus, now yielding to the passion of the age, took the cross, and found no difficulty in obtaining a dispensation to bear arms in so pious a cause, although wearing a mitre. He is said to have fought valiantly in Palestine, but we have no particulars of his single combats, or the numbers he killed in the general mêlée.* CHAP. I. A.D. 1227. He takes the cross. After an absence of several years he returned, and all the A.D. 1231. affection of his royal pupil towards him was revived. He again had the patronage of the Court, and again he yielded to the besetting sin of preferring his countrymen. "Naturales," says M. Paris, "curiæ suæ ministros a suis removit officiis, et Pictavenses extraneos in eorum ministeriis surrogavit." He even carried his insolence so far as to declare publicly that "the Barons of England must not pretend to put themselves on the same footing with those of France, or assume the same rights and privileges." The consequence was, that the English Bishops combined against him with the English Barons, and a law was passed, to which the King most un * Spelman, who had examined all the chronicles, is obliged to say in general terms, "Exacto munere Terram Sanctam cruce-signatus proficiscitur. Multa illic ejus auspiciis gesta sunt feliciter." — Gloss. p. 346. † M. Paris, 265. СНАР. I. willingly gave the royal assent, "That all foreigners holding office under the Crown should be banished the realm." They went so far as to declare "that if the King did not immediately dismiss his foreigners they would drive both him and them out of the kingdom, and put the crown on another head more worthy to wear it."* Peter made a stout resistA.D. 1233. ance, but, owing to the jealousy of his spiritual brethren, he was excommunicated and obliged to fly. He gains a battle for the Pope. He went to Rome to appeal against the injustice which had been done him. Here his military prowess stood him in good stead. Finding Pope Gregory IX. engaged in war, he put himself at the head of his Holiness's army and gained a great battle. In consequence, he was not only absolved from excommunication, but ordered to be reinstated in his bishopric. Accordingly he returned to England, and was received in solemn procession by the monks and clergy of his cathedral. At the last stage of his career he devoted himself wholly to his spiritual duties, and, in the odour of A.D. 1238. sanctity, he died, in his episcopal palace at Farnham, on the 5th of June, 1238. He was buried in the north aisle of Winchester Cathedral, where is still to be seen a mutilated figure representing him in black marble, with a mitre on his head, but without a sword by his side. Although he had gone through so many adventures, founded several religious houses both for monks in his own diocese and for pilgrims at Joppa, and filled such a space in the eyes of his contemporaries, he is now only mentioned in the dry chronicles of the Bishops of Winchester or of the Chief Justiciars of England. His death. Hubert de His rival still makes a conspicuous figure in English history. HUBERT DE BURGH had the advantage of being born in England, although, like all the nobility of the time, he was of foreign extraction. William Fitzadeline, his father's elder brother, had been Steward to Henry II., and, accompanying that monarch into Ireland, established there the powerful and distinguished family now represented by my friend the present Marquess of Clanricarde. Hubert, afterwards the famous Justiciar, was early left an orphan, and was very * M. Paris, 265. CHAP. under slenderly provided for, but he received from nature the highest gifts both of person and understanding, and, through the care of his maternal relations, he was carefully educated not only in all martial exercises but in all the learning of the age. He gained some distinction by serving in the army Hubert de under Richard I., towards the conclusion of the reign of that Burgh monarch*; and, on the accession of King John, he was suffi- Richard I. ciently prominent at court to be one of the pledges that the convention of the new Sovereign with Reginald, Earl of Boulogne, should be faithfully observed.† Soon after, he was made Lord Chamberlain; and now it is that Shakspeare assigns to him the custody of Arthur, the son of Geoffrey. It is not easy to discover the view taken by our immortal dramatist of the character of Hubert de Burgh, whom he represents with a very tender heart, but who is made to say, when solicited to rid the usurper of the "serpent in his way," "He shall not live;" and who deliberately and seriously makes preparations for putting out the poor young Prince's eyes with hot irons.‡ According to true history, the Chamberlain always showed kindness to Arthur, and never on any occasion pandered to the evil inclinations of John. Yet he enjoyed the favour of this capricious tyrant, and was constituted by him Warden of the Marches of Wales, Governor of the Castle of Dover, and Seneschal of Poictou. He was likewise sent by him as ambassador to France, and he negotiated a peace between the two kingdoms. In the midst of these high employments, he condescended to act as Sheriff of several English counties, being responsible for the pre • One of the earliest notices of him in our records is, that he was surety to the Crown for Petrus de Maillai, who agreed to pay 7000 marks, " pro habenda in uxorem Ysabellam filiam Roberti de Turnebam cum jure suo," &c.—. - Mad. Exch. ii. 211. "If I talk to him, with his innocent prate He will awake my mercy, which lies dead: And, after the fit of compassion had conquered him, he thus addresses the "Well, see to live: I will not touch thine eyes King John, act iv. sc. i. His cha- racter by CHAP. I. servation of the peace, and for the due collection of the royal revenues within them. In the controversies which arose between John and the Barons, Hubert remained faithful to his master, but gave him good advice, and tried to instil into him some regard for truth and plighted faith. Being present with him at Runymede, he prevailed upon him to sign the Great Charter, and he afterwards sincerely lamented the violation of its provisions. Though praised warmly by historians for his open and straightforward conduct, I am afraid that he was seduced into duplicity and intrigue by his desire to obtain the office of Chief Justiciar, the darling object of his ambition. He professed much friendship for Peter de Rupibus, but he is suspected of having tripped up his heels in the end of the year 1215, and to have taken an unfair advantage of the unpopularity under which this prelate then laboured. He was A. D. 1215. now appointed Chief Justiciar, but had little enjoyment in his elevation. The kingdom was in a state of distraction from internal discord, and its independence was threatened by the invasion of a French army. He gallantly defended Dover Castle against Prince Louis, and gained a considerable victory over a French fleet in the Channel. administration of justice, however, was long entirely suspended, insomuch that Hubert had never been installed in the AULA REGIS, when his functions were determined by the King's miserable death in the Castle of Newark. 28th Oct. 1216. The For the first three years of the new reign, the office of Chief Justiciar was superseded by the appointment of the Earl of Pembroke, the Earl Marshall, as Protector of the A. D. 1219. realm, with absolute power. On the death of that nobleman, Hubert was restored to the office of Chief Justiciar, and there was an apparent reconciliation between him and Peter de Rupibus, who was intrusted with the education of the young King.* The wily Poictevan, availing himself of his A.D. 1221. influence over the mind of his pupil, by and by had his revenge, and, once more Chief Justiciar, he engrossed all the powers of the Crown. Hubert retired from Court, and pru * M. Paris, 247-251. Waverley, 183. Gul. Armor. 90. |